My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 828 Cross the river! Cross the river!
Two flowers bloom, one branch each.

While Cao Zhang was trying to survive in the Western Regions, he also turned his attention back to the battlefield on the Eastern Front.

As early as the beginning of March in the second year of Zhangwu, after a whole winter and spring of preparation, Liu Bei had completed all the work of training his troops and was ready to deal the final blow to Cao Cao.

However, Liu Bei still respected the opinions of his important officials, so before making a decision, he asked for the opinions of the Zhuge brothers:

"Within half a year, Yunchang has built several shipyards and hundreds of warships on both sides of the Fen River and the Min River. These ships are enough to transport tens of thousands of troops across the Yellow River at one time. I want Yunchang to launch a general attack as soon as possible. What do you think?"

The Zhuge brothers also understood His Majesty's urgency, but they still put forward the most prudent suggestions from their own perspectives.

From the perspective of civil affairs, Zhuge Liang hoped that Liu Bei would wait for another month or two, and wait until mid-April before launching the army, which would be the best time:

"Your Majesty, March is the busy season for spring ploughing. Given the current strength of the court and the scale of the troops deployed in this war, although it will not delay the farming season to a large extent, it will be beneficial to the court to allow the people of Guanzhong to plough and sow smoothly.

By the time of this autumn harvest, the land of Guanzhong will be under your majesty's rule, and those people will also be your majesty's subjects. It will be good for the court if their farming is less damaged."

Zhuge Jin also advised, but he focused on another angle.

Encouraging agriculture and organizing production were not Zhuge Jin's concerns. In the past two years, he had been focusing on promoting and implementing the reform of the imperial examination system in domestic affairs.

Because the imperial examination was successfully held just last year, the system Liu Bei created still had many remnants of the original recommendation system, and urgently needed to be further reformed.

For example, the imperial examinations in later generations were mostly held every three years, but the imperial examinations Liu Bei was conducting were still held every year - there was no way around it, because the original Han Dynasty's system of recommendation was held every year.

After the new law is adopted, the vested interests of the original system cannot be excessively harmed immediately. Otherwise, once the pie becomes smaller, those who share the pie may cause trouble.

But Zhuge Jin had so much experience from later generations, he certainly knew what kind of imperial examination system was better, so he had to find ways, take small steps, and iterate quickly in every session.

Moreover, with each iteration, the court had to find ways to find good excuses to avoid being accused by those below it of arbitrarily changing its policies and having no credibility.

This time, he planned to take advantage of the opportunity of the exam in March to let Liu Bei personally take charge of it and push forward a wave of small reforms first. After all this was done, he would go and destroy Cao Cao.

Zhuge Jin suggested, "Your Majesty, March of every year is the day of the Spring Examination. This year's Spring Examination is approaching. I still hope that Your Majesty will personally preside over and promote the relevant work. Once this matter is settled, it will not be too late to make every effort to destroy Cao.

This will, on the one hand, demonstrate your majesty's achievements in both civil and military affairs. On the other hand, it will also show that Cao Cao is still alive and well, just a minor illness, and the court does not need to exert all its strength to destroy him, and strategically it will also show contempt for the opponent. "

Liu Bei still attached great importance to Zhuge Jin's opinions, but he didn't quite understand why he should worry about the imperial examination work. It went quite smoothly last year, so this year he just had to continue to do it step by step.

"I will naturally accept what Ziyu said, but this year is already the second imperial examination. Are there any obvious drawbacks that need to be rectified? Wasn't the response to the imperial examination by the government and the public quite good last year?"

Zhuge Jin hurriedly helped Liu Bei analyze the situation carefully: "The overall response last year was indeed good, but the first imperial examination still exposed some problems. The first is the frequency of the imperial examination, which is still one per year - this is to cater to the original practice of recommending talents every year during the imperial examination system, so as to avoid the local counties feeling that they have fewer opportunities to recommend talents.

However, the original system of recommendation did not require examinations. Those who passed the examination could become officials and learn government affairs. The imperial examination required five times the number of candidates to be admitted, and 80% of those who did not perform well in the examination would be eliminated and sent back to their hometowns. If the examination was held every year, the number of candidates traveling to and from the capital would increase five times compared to the original recommendation system.

With so many people traveling by boat and in carriage, the journey is tiring and difficult, which is also a huge expense. If the court is asked to subsidize it, it will be a huge burden for the court which has not yet ended the war. Even if there is no war in the future, this expenditure should be reduced in every possible way.

Therefore, I think that in the future, at the right time, the number of examinations should be reduced to once every three years. The number of candidates nominated by each county each year was five times the number of candidates finally admitted last year, but in the future it can be changed to "twice the number of candidates nominated each year under the original recommendation system".

In this way, the total number of candidates for three years is equivalent to six times the number of candidates recommended for filial piety and integrity in the previous year. In the final examination, the number of candidates admitted is still based on the original number of candidates recommended in a year, that is, one out of six. This will make the admission ratio lower than before, and in fact, the number of opportunities to become an official every three years will be two-thirds less than the original recommendation system.

For example, previously one filial and honest official was selected for every 200,000 people each year, but now only one person who has passed the imperial examination is selected every three years for every 200,000 people. However, even if a filial and honest official was selected through the imperial examination, he or she could not be directly appointed to a real position, but had to serve as an apprentice to the imperial court to learn government affairs. In the future, those who pass the imperial examination can be directly appointed to a real position, so that local opposition will not be too intense. I intend to push for this reform this year. "

After listening to this, Liu Bei first did a rough calculation in his mind. According to Ziyu's suggestion, the number of new officials added each year would be reduced by two-thirds at once. Previously, so many filial and honest officials were added every year, but now only that many were added every three years.

The number of redundant officials in the imperial court will certainly be greatly reduced, but the upward channels for local talents will also be narrowed by two-thirds, and the opportunities to become an official will become fewer. There will definitely be people who resist this.

Liu Bei then expressed his doubt directly.

Zhuge Jin also hurriedly explained: "After further reforms, the opportunities for selection to become officials are indeed fewer, but as I said just now, the value of those who pass the exam has also increased. They can skip the apprenticeship stage as a palace official. As long as this is explained clearly, the people will most likely accept it."

Liu Bei: "After skipping the Langguan, what will happen to the new officials' training in government affairs? If someone only knows how to take exams, but has just passed the exams and cannot serve as an official, won't that delay government affairs?"

Zhuge Jin: "We can allow those candidates who are recommended to study in the Imperial College during the one to three years they are waiting for the exam. At the same time, the court can also reform the subjects of the Imperial College and add some teaching on government affairs training, official documents, criminal justice, etc.

In this way, they are actually doing internships while waiting for the exam. The final exam papers can also include more content in this area to ensure that as long as they study hard in the Imperial College, it will be reflected in their passing of the exams.”

Liu Bei nodded and finally understood Zhuge Jin's thoughts.

This is equivalent to integrating the several years from the time the candidates are selected to the time they finally pass the examination into an official trainee period.

However, under the imperial examination system, even if you were an apprentice, if you failed the examination, all your previous apprenticeship would be in vain, and you would eventually be sent back to your hometown without an official position.

However, this can also allow the trainees to study hard and become familiar with government affairs. In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, after the Xiaolians were promoted, many of them were completely idle during the years they served as trainees. They neither studied nor became familiar with government affairs, but just drank heavily at home every day, or called friends to eat, drink and have fun.

The Imperial Academy now has a policy of "easy admission and strict graduation". The final imperial examination is equivalent to adding a "graduation exam" to the Imperial Academy. If you fail the exam, you will not be awarded a certificate.

This kind of measure is easy for people in later generations to think of. Who in later generations has not taken an exam to get a diploma? But for the people of the Han Dynasty, they never had a graduation exam, so there were so many people who were just filling in the numbers in the Imperial Academy.

Moreover, Zhuge Jin also pointed out that there were unexpected additional benefits after using this new method:

"Your Majesty, the new law also has another benefit, which is that it will extend the period of each imperial examination to three years, making it much more difficult for local aristocratic families to cheat.

During the first imperial examination last year, in order to minimize local opposition, I had people spread the word secretly so that they could 'figure out' some ways of cheating. For example, if they wanted to nominate five people this year, they would choose four candidates whose academic performance was worse than the one they really wanted to nominate, and let these four people take the exam to set off the candidate from aristocratic family, and ultimately the candidate from aristocratic family would be promoted to an official position.

However, now that the imperial examination period has been extended to three years, the difficulty of such fraud has increased greatly, because these people were not selected in the same year, and the longer the night, the more trouble there is. Those who were originally used as foils are more likely to have other ideas during these three years.

Or maybe after they are promoted and given the opportunity to study at the Imperial Academy, they will work harder than the children of the aristocratic families with connections, and after three years of study, they will surpass the children of the aristocratic families. In this way, the selection of talents by the imperial court will become more fair and just. "

What Zhuge Jin said was nothing more than how to fight against "bid rigging". However, there was no professional term for "bid rigging" yet, so he had to use other wording to organize his language, but Liu Bei would definitely understand it.

During the first imperial examination last year, the fraudulent method of "bid rigging" was leaked deliberately by Zhuge Jin, hoping that everyone would use it, and then he felt that "our interests have not actually been harmed, and the new policy implemented by Situ can be circumvented with countermeasures."

Then the powerful families in the world had to accept the reform of the imperial examination with a wry smile.

But this year, since the imperial examination system has been passed, Zhuge Jin will of course raise his butcher knife again, and then slowly cut off the vested interests one by one. Last year, he was able to teach the world's noble families how to rig bids, and this year he can figure out how to slowly limit the space for rig bids.

Aristocratic families may select people with poor academic performance to "accompany the young master to study", but can you guarantee that after a three-year study cycle, the person who originally accompanied the young master to study will not surpass the designated young master because he is more diligent?
In other words, even if the candidates who rigged the bids did not perform better than the selected candidates, with the presence of such a group of catfish stirring up trouble in the water, the selected candidates who were originally just eating, drinking and having fun would have to study harder.

Even if these designated young men eventually passed the exam, their academic performance and government experience should be better than before. In that case, it would be considered that better candidate officials were selected for the court, and Liu Bei would not lose out.

It is equivalent to saying "Although these young men used backdoor connections to get into the college entrance examination, they passed the graduation examination on their own ability."

That's better than selecting a bunch of trash who can't even pass the graduation exam, and it's more beneficial to the court.

After Liu Bei sorted out the relationships involved, he couldn't help but admire Zhuge Jin's idea, which was indeed a mature and wise way to plan for the country.

"In this case, we will focus on civil governance for the next two months, and let Yunchang make more thorough preparations. I will personally supervise the imperial examinations for the next two months to see who dares to oppose these good policies. After this year's imperial examinations are over, I will personally go to Hedong and lead the army."

……

After setting the pace, Liu Bei focused on domestic affairs and civil governance within three or four months. The second imperial examination was indeed planned smoothly with Liu Bei's strong support and according to Zhuge Jin's ideas.

All the detailed reform measures mentioned above were implemented without exception, and any opposition was suppressed by Liu Bei's authority.

In terms of military affairs, Liu Bei was not completely idle.

Zhuge Liang suggested that although a general offensive could not be launched at the moment, it would be a good idea to make a feint with the attitude of "a general offensive could be launched at any time" to attract Cao Cao's troops, and at the same time, to nibble away at some of Cao Cao's territory in other secondary directions to make some preparations for the decisive battle.

This small action did not cost much money, food or manpower, so Liu Bei naturally approved it immediately.

Therefore, in March and April, Liu Bei's army spread the word that they would cross the Yellow River at Pubanjin in Hedong, but in fact it was just to further attract the main force of Cao's army, and then take the opportunity to attack Hangu Pass, which Cao's army had no intention of defending, and even Hongnong behind Hangu Pass.

Under the design and operation of the Zhuge brothers, Pang Tong and others, everything went as expected without any setbacks.

After hearing that the situation on the Pubanjin and Linjin fronts was tight, Cao's army further withdrew its forces, and only the last few thousand men were left at Hangu Pass.

Then Liu Bei asked Huang Zhong to lead a small force to attack Hangu Pass from Luoyang, mainly for consumption and firepower testing. The momentum had to be sufficient, but it did not need to be too radical. The losses had to be controlled in Zhuyi.

As expected, Cao's army had no will to fight. After being defeated by Huang Zhong, they realized that they could not defend Hangu Pass and retreated decisively.

Huang Zhong fought his way into Hangu Pass and continued to advance along the Xiaohan Road. He captured Hongnong County in early April. By the end of April, he had advanced to the outside of Tongguan.

Thus, Cao Cao's last salient in the Heluo region, the mountainous area of the Xiaohan Road, which was nearly 600 miles long, was also seized by Liu Bei. Although this place was rotten land and had no economic value, Liu Bei did not expect to transport military supplies to Guanzhong via Tongguan in the future, as the cost was too high.

But these strategic places will be taken eventually anyway, so it’s not bad to take them now as an appetizer before the final battle.

At this point, Liu Bei's front line against Cao Cao had fully advanced to Tongguan and Pubanjin.

One day at the end of April, after dealing with all the important internal affairs in Luoyang, Liu Bei decided to lead the army himself. He would go to Anyi in Hedong County to take charge, and then let Guan, Zhang and Zhao lead the troops to cross the river from Pubanjin to deal the final blow to Cao Cao in Guanzhong.

(End of this chapter)