For many scholars who failed the imperial examination but still wanted to be officials, even if the Luo Chu Dynasty was just a newly established dynasty and its territory was only half a Chu land, it was still a serious dynasty anyway.
It is absolutely possible to serve as an official for the Luo Chu Dynasty.
They just want to be officials. As for whether they are Zhu Ming's officials or Luo Chu's officials, they actually don't care too much.
People who care will never come over to participate in this Dengji Enke.
Speaking of which, these people have great similarities with Zhang Zijin and others. They have both failed the imperial examinations for a long time and have ambitions to become officials.
The only difference is that Zhang Zijin was originally a civil servant, but failed to pass the Jinshi examination.
But these people in front of me are just children, and they can't even pass the exam.
But the essence is still the same.
Similarly, most of the students who came to participate in Dengji Enke this time were in a similar situation.
Not to mention, there are quite a few such people, and a large number of people have been rushing over in the past few days.
After the final summary of the Rites and Education Department of the Dachu Empire, it was found that there were more than 2,000 bachelors who came to participate in the provincial examination.
Among the more than 2,000 people, there are probably several hundred who are children, while the rest are not even children.
Of course, not everyone can take part in this provincial examination. Basically, they are all people who are literate.
Because when registering, they need to fill in the information themselves and write a brief self-introduction of about a hundred words on the spot.
If you don’t have any level of education and can’t even fill out the registration form, how can you sign up for the provincial examination?
On September 27, the first provincial examination started on time. The examination procedures and content were similar to those of the traditional imperial examination, but the time was greatly compressed.
With more than 2,000 people taking the exam, the scene was huge. The Patrol Department specially dispatched more than 100 patrol officers to be on duty in the peripheral areas of the scene to maintain public order.
The maintenance of public security at the venue is directly the responsibility of the soldiers of the Guards Division.
The exam lasted for three consecutive days, and after three days, the candidates left one after another.
The next step is for the examiners to grade the papers overnight.
In fact, the grading work had already begun on the first night. In order to grading the exams, the Dachu Empire transferred many people from various departments to serve as examiners.
Zhang Zijin, the school inspector, also served as a deputy examiner, leading more than a dozen marking officers under him to mark the exams.
The paper was first cross-reviewed by multiple marking officers under him. Those who agreed unanimously passed directly, and those who consistently objected were directly rejected.
Zhang Zijin's main job is actually to review some controversial papers.
For example, in a paper, some marking officers think it can be admitted, and some marking officers think it cannot be admitted, then Zhang Zijin will be here to review it, and Zhang Zijin's opinion will prevail.
Finally, Zhang Zijin collected some of the papers that passed the assessment, and together with the papers selected by the other six deputy examiners, they went through the second round of review. However, this review will no longer let people fail, it will only determine the ranking.
In fact, the proportion of admissions this time is quite large. More than 2,000 people participated in the provincial examination, and it is expected that about 300 people will be admitted.
Three hundred people took part in the examination, and about seventy or eighty people were selected as Jinshi.
After grading the papers for several days, Zhang Zijin was dazzled. Not only was he dazzled, but he also felt a little nauseous.
Because the quality of this batch of candidates is actually very average. At least in the eyes of Zhang Zijin, a genuine Ming court judge, among the more than two thousand candidates, only a few dozen can reach the level of candidates... The rest are unsightly. .
In order to reduce the difficulty of the main examination questions in the general examination, the questions were not even cross-section questions, but just a very common question selected from the Analects of Confucius.
Zhang Zijin could write eight or ten articles on this ordinary topic with his eyes closed.
But among these candidates, most of them failed to solve the questions, but there were still not many people who could answer the questions accurately. They could only write randomly without knowing what they meant.
These people are typically uneducated, because almost every sentence that can be used as a title for this topic from the Analects has been badly written by predecessors. Even if you can’t write, as long as you study hard and are willing to read I can remember some of the time and texts.
However, surprisingly, most people failed to answer.
If the superiors hadn't made it clear that at least 300 people would be admitted this time, then Zhang Zijin would have dared to discard all the papers sent to him.
However, there is no other way. They must select enough people, otherwise what will happen to the trial in a few days?
As a result, they had no choice but to choose generals from among the shorter ones. In the end, anyone who could answer the main examination questions was admitted directly regardless of whether they were good or bad.
So far, we still couldn't gather 300 people, only a mere 260 people.
The number failed to reach three hundred. At this time, the deputy examiner suggested that more than thirty people be selected from the other failed candidates to collect three hundred.
At this time, Zhang Zijin couldn't help it...
It’s okay to just select a bunch of rubbish. Although the articles are a bit rubbish, they can still answer the questions, even if dozens of them have obvious traces of plagiarism, and several of them are plagiarized in full.
However, I was admitted. How should I put it? Being able to copy also proves my ability. After all, I can read and memorize many passages.
This memory is probably good.
But other people are worse than rubbish and can't even memorize by rote. What's the use of such people?
Therefore, Zhang Zijin immediately suggested that since there are only so many eligible examination papers and more than 260 people have been admitted, there is no need to lower the standards even if there is a difference of more than 30.
With the current number of more than 260 people, the list was published and the examination was held.
At the end, he said that time is tight now. According to the plan, the exam will be held the day after tomorrow. We can no longer waste time by continuing to select test papers.
Tonight, they must announce the list of candidates for the pilot test, and then prepare for the final test the day after tomorrow.
Zhang Zijin’s strong suggestion was finally recognized by Song Zhang, the Minister of Ethical Affairs as the examiner.
Therefore, there were only 263 successful candidates in the provincial examination this time, which was more than 30 short of the scheduled 300 candidates.
After the mid-term exam list was announced, some of the candidates outside were naturally happy and some were sad.
The successful candidates were elated and were also preparing for the examination the day after tomorrow.
As for those who were unsuccessful, some returned to their hometowns sadly, while others went directly to the Ministry of Personnel to apply. These people who did not even have any honors went directly to apply as officials. Although they still had to go through the assessment, even if they passed the assessment, they would not be eligible. You can only obtain the position of the ninth rank or even the ninth rank.
But it is still a job after all. If nothing else, it is still the kind of job that is an iron rice bowl.
And there is vast room for advancement.
The Dachu Empire is now in a period of rapid expansion. As long as you have the ability and dare to do it, getting promoted and making a fortune is not a dream.
Even if you are only a ninth grader for the time being, you can quickly rise to the top.
Many middle and low-level officials in the Dachu Empire, and even high-ranking officials, were just ordinary clerks in the past.
After all, the Great Chu Empire adopted a unified official system, and there was no distinction between officials. All officials in the yamen, including the lowest section clerks and patrol officers, had grades of Ninth Grade or Ninth Grade.
Only non-staff personnel such as grooms and cooks who provide services to the government have no rank and are just ordinary employees.
In this case, a ninth-grade clerk could theoretically be promoted all the way to the counselor's office.
Considering that the Chu Empire is now expanding, there will be more and more official titles, and a large number of officials need to be promoted every moment. In this case, it will be easier for low-level officials to be promoted.
At this time, even if you have to pass the qualifications, you can still make it if you are not too stupid.
Many discerning people can see these situations, so many failed scholars turned around and went to the Ministry of Civil Affairs to apply for official positions.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs was also prepared for this in advance. They had long been waiting for this group of failed scholars to apply as officials to fill the low-level job vacancies in various agencies of the Great Chu Empire.
The Great Chu Empire is not only short of mid-level officials above seventh grade, but also short of low-level officials of ninth and eighth grades.
There are a large number of job vacancies, enough to absorb all the failed students. Some of them are arranged by various ministries in the capital and some are transferred to various prefectures and counties. There are only more than 2,000 people, and this is not enough.
Not to mention the fate of the students who failed the exam, let's talk about the first batch of candidates who passed the provincial examination. They also took part in the general examination two days later.
This time the examination was hosted by the Ministry of Rites and Education, and other departments also participated. The examiner was no longer Song Zhang, the minister of the Ministry of Rites and Education, but Guo Quanshu, the minister of staff and the minister of the Ministry of Personnel Affairs.
Guo Quanshu was also a traditional scholar. He had not been able to obtain any honors before passing through him, but he still had basic reading skills.
You can’t write a good article, but you can generally tell whether an article is good or not.
Even if he can't see it, there are still a lot of officials who are pretending to be civil servants or even Jinshi.
The Dachu Empire recruited and surrendered many false scholars and people with Jinshi background. Zhang Zijin was just one of them. There were more than two hundred people like him, and there were even twenty people with Jinshi background. Multiple.
Some of them were defectors, and some were fake officials who had been dismissed or returned to their hometowns for other reasons.
With all these imperial examination masters sitting in charge, it would be a piece of cake to preside over an examination whose standard was not even comparable to ordinary college examinations.
The examination also lasted for three consecutive days. After three days, 58 people were finally selected as Jinshi, of which three were in the first class, seven were in the second class, and the rest were in the third class.
Yijia was awarded the title of Jinshi, and he was elected to serve in the Hanlin Academy and awarded the sixth rank.
Erjia was awarded Jinshi, elected to serve in the Hanlin Academy, and awarded the sixth rank.
The top three are awarded Jinshi, selected to serve in various ministries, and awarded the seventh rank.
Specific positions will need to be arranged by the Ministry of Human Resources later based on personal wishes, shortage of manpower in various departments and other issues.
However, what is certain is that these 58 people will be selected to work in various central agencies to fill the shortage of personnel in various central agencies.
After Dengji Enke was over, preparations for the Chu Empire's cross-river offensive had been completed, and they were just waiting for Luo Zhixue's order to start crossing the river!
