The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 186 Privately Opening the Imperial Examination
Liberal arts imperial examination!

When these words were spoken, the officials present did not react much, as they were officials anyway.

But the gentry were ecstatic, especially the Ma family of Ma Banzhou. In the last "Agricultural Science Examination", they could only send the children of the branch families with poorer family conditions to participate, because the children of the main family did not know how to farm.

But this time, the "Literary Imperial Examination" is the master's forte.

Moreover, it was obvious that this kind of imperial examination, held only in two prefectures and one county, was much simpler than the real imperial examination. The real imperial examination was a competition for students from all over the country, while this one was only held by people from two prefectures and eight counties.

Even if you pass the imperial examination and become a Jinshi, you may not necessarily be able to become an official. You still have to wait for the position. Many Jinshi can only become a teacher (the principal of a county school) in the end and will never become an official in their entire life.

But in this imperial examination, as long as you pass it, you will definitely be able to become an official. After all, more than half of the officials in the two states and eight counties have left, and now there are a large number of vacant positions in the officialdom, waiting for people to fill them.

Yue Wenxuan's words excited the gentry, and they were all ready to fight.

Yue Wenxuan followed up by saying, "Young people who pass the imperial examinations don't have any work experience yet, so they can't immediately assume high positions. They have to start from the bottom, gain experience, and then move up. Therefore, the positions vacated by officials who fled are filled by selecting talented individuals from among those who didn't flee."

He pointed at the Jiaoshui County Magistrate and said, "You go to Dengzhou and become the prefect."

The Jiaoshui County Magistrate was overjoyed: "Thank you, Your Highness."

"County Lieutenant Wu, you are promoted to the Inspector of Laizhou, responsible for training soldiers and patrolling the prefecture."

Wu Jialiang was overjoyed: "Thank you, Your Highness."

Now he was in charge of public security at the state level instead of the county level.

Next, all the officials who did not escape were promoted to some extent, but the promotion was not very big. After all, Yue Wenxuan only had two states and eight counties in his control, and the highest official position he could give him was prefect, and there was no position for him to be promoted higher than that.

But even if it was just a small promotion, the officials were extremely satisfied.

At this moment, Yue Wenxuan continued, "Since everyone has been promoted, then the noble Gong has made great contributions in defending the territory and should naturally be rewarded accordingly. This king immediately appoints Madam Gong Er as the Grand Marshal of the Army of Deng and Lai Provinces."

The officials all thought, "The naming convention of 'Generalissimo of the Army' sounds rather like a mountain king. Those mountain kings who raise a bandit army in the mountains like to call themselves 'Grand Marshal of Heaven' or 'Grand General of Heaven'... well, they're completely out of the same league as us civil servants, so let your Majesty do whatever he wants."

Yue Wenxuan: "In the past, everyone separated the officials and the bandits, and each did their own thing. I don't blame you. But this time, a large number of officials fled south, and you should have seen that my brother has abandoned me, and the court has also abandoned you. If you still regard Gong Yishi as a bandit, an outsider, and want to separate and do your own thing, then when the Jin bandits come, everyone will die."

At this point, his tone turned serious: "Since you all stayed and didn't run away, it shows that you still have some backbone and the determination to resist the Jin. I don't ask you to treat Gong Yishi as your own brother or sister, but at least treat her as a minister in the same palace, and not treat her as a bandit anymore."

The civil servants were cheered up: "As you command!"

The meeting is over...

The civil officials were dispersed, now to take up their new positions. Cui Weihua was to be transferred to Laizhou City to take charge of the prefectural office, the Jiaoshui County Magistrate was to be transferred to Dengzhou as prefect, and Wu Jialiang was to be promoted to command the entire prefecture's military. This meant that, unlike a county lieutenant, he was no longer limited to mobilizing archers, but could now call upon the imperial guards and the garrison troops.

Although Laizhou has no soldiers at all, he can recruit them later.

As long as you have the plan in hand, it will be very flexible to operate.

As for the gentry, there is only one thing on their minds now, and that is the "imperial examination".

People of Shandong are about to start a new round of civil service examination battles.

This battle, however, was even more significant than the previous agricultural examination, and it was a battle of blood and sweat. Yue Wenxuan, completely ignorant of the ancient imperial examinations, assigned Cui Weihua to set the questions, supervise the examinations, and grade the papers for the Laizhou examinations. The Jiaoshui County Magistrate, newly promoted to Dengzhou Prefecture Governor, was in charge of setting the questions, supervising the examinations, and grading the papers for Dengzhou.

Now there is a shortage of officials in the two states and eight counties, and one official has to do the work of three.

Officials can only be replenished after the imperial examination is over.

Speaking of which...

Yue Wenxuan suddenly remembered something. Many history enthusiasts in later generations are still very interested in the imperial examinations for ancient students. Not long ago, his old fan Wu Jianxia asked him to make a video about the ancient imperial examinations in the comment area.

Now that I think about it, this seems really worth doing.

Okay, during the imperial examination period, have Madam Gong Er move to the city where the examination hall is located so he can film the entire process...

Thinking of this, he thought of a new question.

It is the problem of the "backwardness" of the imperial examination.

To put it bluntly, the imperial examination in the Song Dynasty consisted of two subjects: "Chinese" and "Politics", perhaps with some "History" and "Social Science", but no "Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry" at all.

If he just wanted to save the Song Dynasty, then he wouldn't have to intervene, but if he wanted to build a new China, then he had to reform the imperial examination system.

However, directly adding mathematics, physics and chemistry to the current imperial examination will only cause all candidates to fail, which is useless.

We must start with education!

So how do we carry out this education?
Hey!
Of course, education must start from childhood. The thinking of adults has been completely assimilated by the old society, but children are still a blank slate. We must fill their heads with advanced knowledge before they are invaded by feudal ideas.

Then, when these children grow up, they can fundamentally change that era.

Yue Wenxuan took out his camera. Next to his residential complex was the Shuangqing Wangjiang Primary School. He attached the telephoto lens and started shooting...

Click, click, click, and I got a lot of photos of a group of primary school teachers.

In order to conform to the social background of ancient times, photos of female teachers are no longer needed, and all photos are of male teachers.

So, five days later.

Several primary school teachers followed Yue Wenxuan and stood in front of Madam Gong Er.

When Madam Gong Er saw that Zhenjun was followed by a group of strange men in strange costumes, she couldn't help but think: They must be gods sent down from heaven.

Yue Wenxuan said, "These people are all immortals from heaven. They possess a wealth of knowledge and are ready to pass it on to children on earth. Arrange some people to build a school, recruit a group of students for free, and learn from them to see if mortals can truly learn the knowledge of heaven."

Madam Gong Er: "Ah? Doesn't the county already have a county school?"

Yue Wenxuan: "The immortal school and the county school are separate. Children can go to whichever school they want."

(End of this chapter)