In August of the seventh year of Chengshun, Songjiang Prefecture in the south of the Yangtze River.
Several young scholars were drinking tea and discussing poetry in a teahouse. They were getting excited when they heard someone shouting outside: "Jinzhou is a great victory. Master Wang defeated the Eastern Capture in Jinzhou. Huang Taiji was burned to death by my Master Wang!"
When these young people saw this, they immediately stood up and walked to the window to look outside. They saw a teenage child waving a newspaper in his hand and continuing to shout loudly that Jinzhou was victorious and Huang Taiji was dead. , Dorgon died, and more than 100,000 troops were captured and lost in one day.
Immediately, many people came forward to sell newspapers.
Several young scholars in the teahouse on the second floor also hurried downstairs. One of them stepped forward. In front of him, the newsboy was already busy collecting money and handing newspapers to those people, most of whom were wearing robes.
But although he was very busy, the little newsboy had a smile on his face.
Today's newspapers are selling so well. This is the fifth time he has sold newspapers today. The first four times, the full bags of newspapers were all sold out in a short time, and now the fifth bag of newspapers is also selling at an extremely high speed. Empty quickly.
It didn't take long before the big bag slung around the newspaper boy's waist was empty of paper. He didn't stop reporting with joy on his face, and just ran away on his tattered straw sandals.
He was going to the newspaper station again to get newspapers. According to today's situation, the newspapers he sold on this day were more than half a month ago.
While running, he was still thinking in his little head, this Huang Taiji is really a good person!
As soon as I shouted the news that this person was dead, many people immediately came to buy newspapers!
Today he has to work harder and speed up. While it is still early, there are still some newspapers in the newspaper station that sell more. In this case, he may be able to save enough money for his mother's medicine this month in just one day.
In this case, the money he makes from selling newspapers later can be used to buy more food. If he has a little more money, he can sell a white flour candy bag to his sister.
Thinking of sweet bread, he couldn't help but swallow his saliva!
Last year, an uncle who worked in the Shanghai Naval Shipyard came to their home as a guest and brought some large breads. These white breads had brown sugar fillings. When you bite into them, your whole heart is filled with sweetness. At that time, He also split half of it, and after just one bite he was 100% sure that it was definitely the best thing he had ever eaten.
Much more delicious than the hairy crabs he caught.
Hairy crabs are not delicious, and eating too much will cause vomiting and diarrhea. Only a child from a poor family like him would catch hairy crabs and eat them.
No sweet bread is delicious, but he only ate one bite at that time and gave the rest to his sister.
His sister is still young and needs to grow taller, so naturally he, the older brother, has to give her the delicious food!
Thinking of white flour sweet bread, the newsboy couldn't help but swallowed his saliva, and walked faster. He wanted to rush to the newspaper station as soon as possible to get a batch of newspapers to continue selling. Today's newspapers were particularly easy to sell, although the adults at the newspaper station It is said that there are more newspapers than usual today, but if I get there late, I'm afraid there will be none.
If I can buy a few more newspapers today, maybe I can buy two buns, one for him and his sister.
No, if my sister eats one and a half, he will be fine if he eats half.
Thinking this way, his steps couldn't help but become brisk, with a smile on his face.
On the other side, a four-wheeled carriage carrying goods came quickly on the street. The two horses pulling the carriage went crazy for some reason, pulling the mid-empty carriage and running. The driver on the carriage looked anxious and kept trying to pull the horses. Stop and shout at the same time: "Get out of the way, get out of the way..."
The next second, the little newsboy rushed out from the corner...and then his little body was hit by the high-speed carriage and flew out.
The carriage that hit the person continued to run wildly for a while, and then stopped. At this time, the young coachman driving the car turned pale in panic.
After the young coachman was stunned for a long time, he got off the car and walked back, wanting to check on the little newsboy. At this time, he heard what the nearby onlookers said: dead!
"Killed someone..."
After taking two steps, the young driver's legs weakened and he collapsed to the ground...
It's over... it's over. He just found this driving job, and he found it only after getting rid of the relationship with relatives. He also thought about taking the salary and sending it home to his brother for tuition.
I didn’t expect that I would encounter such an accident after only working for half a month!
All of a sudden, he felt that life had become gloomy!
————
On the other side of the street, several young scholars were reading the newspapers they had just bought.
This is a Da Chu Di newspaper. The first six pages are the national version, and the seventh to sixteenth pages are the provincial edition. According to the relevant rules of the Di Newspaper Department, the Da Chu Di Newspaper is uniformly collected and edited by the Di Newspaper Department of the Ministry of Ethnic Education. Printing and distribution, while the Post Office is responsible for the transportation of sample newspapers.
The national edition is directly compiled and written by the Di Press Department of the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs. Its main content is various major matters announced to the public, especially various policies. It also selectively reports news about some emperors and important ministers, such as His Majesty the Emperor's inspection of a certain country. Land, convene a meeting, meet someone, etc., every article in it is of great importance.
After the sample of each issue of the national edition is reviewed by the Minister of Ethnic Affairs, it is submitted to the emperor for approval. After the emperor's approval, the sample will be printed and sent to the postal office of each province together with official documents from various places through the Postal Service, and will be communicated with the provincial government. The contents of the edition are printed together and finally distributed and sold through the post office.
The Provincial Edition is edited by the Di Newspaper Office dispatched to each province. Generally, the first few pages contain current political news and policy trends in each province, while the following pages contain some local business information and literary and artistic supplements.
All contents of the provincial edition also need to be collected and compiled by the offices of the provincial newspapers and newspapers departments. They will be initially reviewed by the director, and then reviewed by the director of the etiquette and education department of each province before they can be printed and released.
At the same time, provincial newspapers, including articles rejected by the directors of the respective provincial departments of etiquette, will also be sent to Jinling City for follow-up review by the department of etiquette and education.
If there are any problems with the article, not only the editorial staff, but also the director of the provincial etiquette and education department who is responsible for reviewing the article will be responsible.
This means that reviewers need to be extremely politically aware.
If you don’t understand, actually...it doesn’t matter. You can just refer to the content of the national version. There is nothing wrong with conducting public opinion work according to the above argument.
If you insist on going against the Gyeonggi side, you will basically end up with no good end. Many of the provincial rites and religious officials who came to power in the early days were such idiots. They had to write a few articles to go against the Gyeonggi side... ...Once such a person is discovered, he will basically be beaten to the end. Later, investigators from the Taxation Bureau, Patrol Bureau, and Supervisory Office Anti-Corruption Bureau will investigate you like a mad dog... If there is really any problem, you can work in the mine for free. No more running.
Da Chu Di Newspaper involves the issue of public opinion guidance. Luo Zhixue attaches great importance to this. Otherwise, he would not require the content of the national edition to be personally reviewed before it can be published, and then laboriously send sample issues to various places for printing and distribution. ...If you do it this way, there is actually no timeliness.
For this reason, Da Chu Di Daily is not a daily or weekly magazine that people are familiar with, but a ten-day publication, published on the fifth, fifteenth, and twenty-fifth of each month.
And this is only the publication time in Jinling and nearby areas. In fact, because the sample publications are sent to other provinces and printing takes time, the actual time when the newspapers are seen in various places is many days or even later than the printing time in the newspapers. Half a month and a month...
For example, in Gansu, the distance is so far that the Dibao published on January 5th often cannot be seen until February.
There is no timeliness at all!
But Luo Zhixue would rather not be timely and ensure the correct guidance of public opinion.
For this reason, a lot of seemingly complicated and troublesome systems have been created.
There are very detailed regulations for the editing, review, printing and distribution of the Da Chu Di Newspaper. Multiple reviews are adopted, and the various departments are not subordinate to each other.
The offices of the Di Press Department of each province are directly under the responsibility of the Di Press Department. They can decide what content to publish, and the Provincial Department of Etiquette and Education can decide what not to publish...
To put it simply, the editors of the Di Newspaper Division write their own articles. The Department of Etiquette and Education can approve or refuse publication, but they cannot directly ask the editors to write any articles. The editors and editors of the Di Newspaper Division can write whatever they like... Whatever the problem is, you have to bear the responsibility on your own, and it has nothing to do with you, the Provincial Etiquette and Education Department.
There is no subordinate relationship between the two. The provincial departments of etiquette and education have no jurisdiction over the provincial offices of the Dibao Department. Even the personnel in the provincial offices of the Dibao Department do not receive their salaries from the provincial finances. They receive salaries directly from the Gyeonggi Department of Ethnic Affairs. , the staff belongs to the staff of the Ministry of Ethical Education.
However, considering that some local business information, especially in some important port cities, needs to be timely, special approval has been given for some port cities to issue an additional business supplement.
It is used to publish various business information, such as the signboard of a certain factory, the purchase of large quantities of wood from a certain place, the arrival of a batch of hydropower equipment from a certain place, a batch of machine-made cotton cloth from a certain factory waiting for negotiation, etc.
Then there are the price changes of various goods, especially bulk goods, which are mainly seen in some large commercial port cities.
There are staff from the Di Newspaper Office stationed in Songjiang Prefecture, and they have specially compiled a "Songjiang Prefecture Business Supplement" for independent daily publication.
In addition, there are several major cities such as Guangzhou, Tianjin, Jinling, Hantian, etc., which are all responsible for the staff of the Di News Office.
Generally speaking, it took the Chu Empire several years to initially develop an official newspaper system, which was used to promote policies, guide public opinion, and also produced some business supplements.
This kind of Di Bao is not the same as the newspaper system of later generations. Da Chu Di Bao is actually the public version of the traditional Dynasty Di Bao...
In the future, Luo Zhixue will naturally slowly reform the newspaper system and gradually evolve into the newspaper system of later generations, but now... it is not necessary and difficult to control, so I might as well not do it...
Nowadays, in the national edition of the Da Chu Di newspaper that these young people read, half of the content is about the situation in Northeast China. The core report is naturally the news about the Jinzhou victory.
These core articles, as usual, were still written by the editors with profound writing skills in the Di newspaper department, focusing on the relevant situations of the Jinzhou Campaign.
The article said that in this battle, the king's army of the Dachu Empire annihilated more than 100,000 troops of the Eastern captives, and killed the puppet emperor Huang Taiji, and also killed the puppet princes Qilhalang, Dorgon and the puppet princes of the Eastern captives. Many Beilebeizi assisted the country's generals and other clans.
The results can be described as extremely brilliant!
It was also said that after this battle, the Chu Empire had fully recovered the Western Liaoning Corridor and the surrounding areas of Jinzhou.
At the same time, it also reported on the war in the Liaodong Peninsula, saying that Fuzhou, Gaizhou and other places had been recovered.
All in all, the game was a good one, with several short stories about specific battles interspersed in between, highlighting the bravery of King's soldiers, etc. The young scholars who watched it were exclaimed.
Then it was said that several frontline soldiers who had made meritorious service had been awarded knighthoods. Among them, Zuo Yingzhe, the commander of the Third Army, had received an imperial edict to return to Beijing to receive the award. It would not be long before the fifth Duke of the empire was about to appear.
I wish I was the general who led the army on the front line to kill the Eastern captives, made great achievements, and gained glory and wealth.
After reading the Di newspaper repeatedly, one of the young people said: "Fighting on the battlefield and killing thieves for the country is the pursuit of scholars of our generation!"
Another person also echoed: "Yes, once you achieve military exploits on the front line, you will get a title at your fingertips!"
"In the battle in the Northeast, Uncle Gonghou will not say anything, but I'm afraid there will be hundreds more sons!"
"And I've also heard that those who perform meritorious service on the front line will be given priority for promotion, and the higher the military rank, the higher the grade will be when you change jobs in the future!"
"My wife's cousin has a distant cousin who applied for the Officers' Academy a few years ago and joined the army. After several years of service in the army, he was promoted to brigadier general. He just retired in the middle of the year and changed his career. Where do you think he was assigned?"
Without waiting for others to ask, he asked and answered himself: "He was directly assigned to Jinling and Gyeonggi. Once he passed, he would be a full fifth grade, and he would still be in a position of real power!"
"This is much faster than taking the imperial examination!"
At this time, someone said: "It is indeed very good to take the military professional route, but this road is not easy to take now. Whether it is the Army Officer Academy or the Naval Officer Academy, it is not easy to take the exam, and it is much more difficult than the imperial examination. !”
"And the contents of their exams are all new. In the past two months, I made a set of test questions for the Army Officer Academy's entrance exam last year. I'm not afraid of your jokes. I couldn't even understand half of the questions. …”
"Well, after all, we are still a few years late. If we had applied for the exam a few years earlier, it would have been easy for you and me to pass the exam based on our talents. But now, it is difficult!"
"Last year's Army Officer Academy entrance examination, several sub-examination centers combined, more than 40,000 people signed up to take part, but in the end only more than 800 people were admitted, which is much more difficult than the Jinshi Department."
"The recruitment for the Military Academy this fall will be even more difficult."
"Yeah, don't count on it at the Military Academy. It's difficult to pass the entrance examination, and it's not easy to pass the general examination. This year I plan to try the math subject. The admission rate is higher, so I might be able to pass the exam."
"That's a way. Mathematics classes were only opened last year. The main exams are mathematics and accounting. Brother Kong, your family has a good background in education and you know a lot about accounting. It would be good to take the arithmetic and economics exam. And I heard that you passed the exam. After completing the economics department, you will be assigned to the tax and property offices first, which is a great place to go!"
"Speaking of tax collectors, don't look down upon that one!"
————
At the same time, in the next seat separated by a curtain, four young people were sitting together. One of them, who was slightly older, said: "Brother Fang, didn't you pass the preliminaries of the Officer Academy some time ago? How confident are you in taking the official exam this time?"
The young man surnamed Fang said with a wry smile: "How can I be sure? I didn't pass the exam last year. I'm afraid it will be more difficult this year. You all know that our Jiangnan exam center is more difficult than other exam centers. This is true whether it is the Jinshi Department, the Doctoral Department, or the Military Academy. It is difficult to pass the exam!"
The slightly older young man said: "It's difficult but you have to take the exam. Entering the Officer Academy is like a leap of faith. It will be great whether you will advance all the way in the military or switch to politics midway."
"Not to mention anything else, if you pass the exam, even if you have to pass the qualifications later, you can still get the rank of captain before changing jobs. After you change jobs, you will be at least an eighth grade!"
"It's not like us who can directly enter the official position from the college examination. This one is assigned to the lowest rank of ninth grade. After more than a year, you can't even touch the shadow of a full ninth grade officer!"
"Brother Fang, you have to seize the opportunity and work hard to pass the exam. In the past few months, you are the only one who has had this opportunity. We...oh, we are so far behind!"
Saying this, the older young man raised his glass and drank alone as if drinking to relieve his sorrow!
Fang Beitong beside him was silent at this time, but he had already made up his mind that he must pass the Army Officer Academy this year.
In order to prepare for this year's Army Officer Academy entrance exam, he has studied hard day and night over the past year, studying many new subjects, especially physics. It will definitely not be like last year. He did well in other subjects, but he excelled in physics. , and eventually lost his reputation.
This year, he will never allow himself to fail again!
Otherwise, how could he face his parents, wife and children who had been supporting him in studying for the imperial examinations for the past few years!
A few days later, Fang Beitong said goodbye to his family and went to Suzhou with a few friends to prepare for the Jiangnan District Entrance Examination of the Army Officer Academy.
The entrance examinations for the two military academies, the Army Academy and the Naval Academy, are different from the imperial examinations.
The imperial examination system of the Chu Empire was actually similar to the traditional imperial examination system. In order to avoid excessive stimulation, Luo Zhixue created a mess. The imperial examination system was still the same as before, divided into counties, prefectures, courtyards, provinces, as well as joint examinations and palace examinations.
The important difference is that the so-called scholars who have passed the college examination are already qualified to be officials, but the positions they are assigned are generally not very good. They are often assigned to work in county or town yamen, and their ranks are only the lowest, from ninth to ninth grade. Taste.
Of course, you can also refuse the job assignment and continue to take the higher-level provincial examination, but if you refuse, the assigned quota will be gone. If you want, you can only apply for the college examination next year.
After passing the provincial examination, the treatment will be better, you will be awarded the ninth rank, and you will have the opportunity to be assigned to work in the yamen directly under the provinces and governments.
As for the general examination and the palace examination, these are naturally more difficult. After passing the palace examination, even the lowest rank of the third-level Jinshi can be awarded the seventh rank, the second-level can be awarded the seventh rank, the first-level can be awarded the sixth rank, and will basically stay in the capital. Work directly under the yamen or provincial yamen.
The starting point is extremely high and the future is promising.
At present, Luo Zhixue only changed the content of the imperial examination in the traditional imperial examination system, and added new studies to the Four Books and Five Classics. The so-called new studies are the science subjects of physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy and geography.
At the same time, in addition to Jinshi subjects, science, engineering, mathematics, and legal subjects were added.
The Jinshi subject examines various policies and theories. It is considered a liberal arts direction and focuses on the level of articles.
For science and engineering subjects, various science and engineering content, such as physics and chemistry, etc. are tested. The articles only need to meet the standards.
Mathematics mainly relies on mathematics and financial knowledge. The empire needs a large number of related financial personnel. After all, the largest department in the empire is the tax department, and it is not possible to deal with taxation without knowing mathematics.
"First Evolution"
The legal affairs department naturally covers all kinds of laws and the like, and its main destinations are inspection, patrol, legal and other departments.
It doesn’t matter what you study or what you take the exam for, what’s important is to be an official... So the impact of changes in disciplines is actually not as big as Luo Zhixue expected. When students find that the Jinshi subject is too competitive, other subjects are not competitive, and they pass the exam. Later, when I was not bad at becoming an official, I naturally learned these subjects and applied for the exam.
After passing the college examination, you can be assigned jobs as officials. Naturally, this is because the empire's officials are unified, which requires a large number of low-level officials, and there are a lot of positions that require manpower.
Therefore, the core of the imperial examination system of the Chu Empire has not changed much, and it is almost the same as the traditional imperial examination.
However, the two military academies, the Imperial College and the Royal Institute of Technology are completely different from the traditional imperial examination system.
The things they learn are different, the exam content is also very different, and even the academic system and exam system are completely different.
These four schools are all institutions of higher learning established by Luo Zhixue according to the academic system of later generations. One trains army officers, one trains naval officers, one trains science and engineering talents, and one trains civil servants.
Luo Zhixue has high hopes for this. From the enrollment to the learning system to the learning content, Luo Zhixue personally arranged everything.
Luo Zhixue wants to use these four schools as the foundation and then promote the entire new academic system.
And this timetable will not be too slow. When the Northeast War is almost over and the first five-year plan is almost completed, Luo Zhixue plans to reform the entire education system and establish a complete primary school-middle school-preparatory school-university system. education system and implement a degree system.
As for the original imperial examination... cancel the so-called scholar and Jinshi title, let it return to the essence of selecting people for the country, and completely reform the official selection examination. There is no need to go through one level after another, as long as the academic qualifications meet the standards. , if you want to take the provincial exam, take the provincial exam, and if you want to take the national exam, take the national exam.
But those are all things that need to be done in the next few years. For now, we are just trying it first and conducting pilot projects.
As for the admissions work of the Army Officer Academy, the Naval Academy, the Royal Institute of Technology and the Imperial College, it is also a pilot attempt, especially since the entrance examinations of these schools are all centralized. In fact, this is Luo Zhixue's attempt. version of the college entrance examination!
Although there are only four schools enrolling students... this is also a serious college entrance examination!
