Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 760 Yiming Cloud Begins From Here On
In the blink of an eye, time came to the late autumn of 1794.

On the morning of September 9, Beihai Town Administration School held the graduation ceremony of the first batch of imperial examination scholars in the newly completed auditorium.To show their importance, Zhao Xin, Chen Qingsong, Wu Siyu, Yu Deli, Wang Zhong, Duan Yucai, Jiao Xun and others were all present.In addition, several Frenchmen followed Jiao Xun to look at the strange things.

There were 215 candidates for the first new imperial examination held in Beihai Town last year. Except for Yuan Mei's female disciple Xi Peilan, the other 214 entered the administrative school for a one-year training after admission.

In the last three months of the training, all the scholars were assigned to various departments in Beihai Town for internships, and some of them even participated in the reception work of the city with the task force of the Eastern Front Command.

At nine o'clock in the morning, the auditorium was full of seats.In addition to this year's graduates, more than 500 scholars and children who just finished the second imperial examination this year also came.

Following the host's announcement, Zhao Xin and others first entered the arena amidst the warm applause of nearly a thousand people, and then the audience stood up, and everyone sang "God Bless China" together with the impassioned music.

".From the tropical coast to the Arctic frontier, there are endless forests and fields everywhere. From the Pamirs to the Rocky Mountains, there are countless treasures. The sun and the moon never set, thousands of miles of mountains and rivers, and the friendship of all ethnic groups build iron walls. The wisdom of Chinese civilization belongs to the people! Glory, China! We are proud of you!"

This song is now a household name in Beihai Town. The radio station plays it every morning, noon and night. Many children can sing along to it before they can even speak clearly.

Although the purpose of the time-traveling crowd is to strengthen the national consciousness of the people through this song, but fortunately, there are no big hairs in the time-traveling crowd in Beihai Town, otherwise the other party will definitely grab Zhao Xin by the neck and scold you for daring to plagiarize.
After a collective chorus, the principal Zhao Xin, Chen Qingsong, the executive vice president Yu Deli, and the vice president Wang Zhong gave speeches.Then it is to commend the scholars who performed well during the training period, and then to receive graduation certificates according to their classes.As for the speeches made by graduate representatives and teachers, there are none.

Yes, the principal of Beihai Town Administrative School was Zhao Xin from the very beginning, but this guy only showed up twice a year at most; one was the entrance ceremony for freshmen, and the other was the graduation ceremony.However, facing a principal who only fishes for two days a year and spends the rest of the 363 days posting on the net, every student who enters the administrative school will consider himself a student of His Royal Highness Zhao Wang.

Lin Qizong from Haizhou, Jiaodong Ning also thinks so.He never dreamed that, as a child, he would be able to take advantage of the new dynasty's east wind to be admitted as a scholar, become the envied "student of the Son of Heaven", and even become an official.

After taking the stage, Lin Tongsheng took the graduation certificate and civil service qualification certificate from Wu Siyu, and returned to his seat, oh no, it was Lin Xiucai, and he started to imagine.

"Hey, from now on I, Mr. Lin, will be a civil servant of the [-]th rank, with a salary of [-] silver dollars per year, as well as a post allowance, so I don't have to look at my father-in-law's ugly face anymore!"

At this moment, Yuan Mei's disciple, Sun Yuanxiang, also came to the stage, took the two certificates from Zhao Xin with a look of excitement, and was about to leave after bowing, when the other party suddenly said softly, "Do you still often write poems?"

Sun Yuanxiang was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly replied: "His Royal Highness, the schoolwork is busy, and Yuan Xiang only does it occasionally."

"En." Zhao Xin patted the other party's shoulder lightly, and said with a smile, "It is said in the "Tong Dian" that calligraphy, painting, poetry, and fu have little talent, and they are not capable of governing the country. Work hard and write a big poem in the future."

"I would like to be taught!" Sun Yuanxiang blushed suddenly and bowed in salute.How could he fail to understand what Zhao Xin said.The other party was advising him to focus less on romantic poems in the future and to do good work for the country.

In another time and space history, Sun Yuanxiang was famous for writing poems. He was famous in the capital when he was young, but he had no achievements in the country and the people.At the age of 46, he was the second in the list. After the imperial examination, he was selected into the Shuchang Hall of the Imperial Academy and became a Shujishi. However, he took leave of illness and returned to his hometown soon after, and he has never been an official since.

When the two spoke on the stage, nearly a thousand pairs of eyes under the stage naturally saw it.For a moment, all kinds of emotions of envy, jealousy and hatred rose in everyone's hearts, thinking that if His Royal Highness Zhao Wang could say the same to himself, it would be too embarrassing.

In fact, Zhao Xin also had a temporary idea. When Yu Deli read Sun Yuanxiang's name, he suddenly remembered that this person was Xi Peilan's husband, and Xi Peilan was the first female scholar in Beihai Town, so he said a few more words.

Xi Peilan participated in the imperial examination to fight for herself and for the "female disciples of Yuanmen", to prove that women are not inferior to men in terms of knowledge.Although she ranked fifth in the examination results among Tongsheng's group, if she really wanted to show her face to participate in government affairs training, not to mention her husband Sun Yuanxiang's disapproval, she would also feel embarrassed.So after receiving the "Student Certificate" personally issued by Shen Xuan, he went to teach at Beihai Town Primary School.

Sun Yuanxiang, who became the focus of everyone's attention, returned to his seat anxiously, took a few deep breaths, and then opened the two certificates with trembling hands and looked down.Needless to say, the graduation certificate, but on the column of the "Civil Service Qualification Certificate", it clearly says "Civil Service Level [-]".

Well, as the Beihai Navy’s entry into the customs is approaching, after the "29-member Committee" meeting in August, the Civil Affairs Department introduced a civil service hierarchy and a series of systems that have been brewing for many years, and plans to try it out in some areas to prepare for a full-scale takeover after entering the customs.

Although the actions of the military control committees in various parts of Jiaodong in recent years have made many people realize that the official selection system of the new dynasty will be very different from that of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but when the new system was introduced, it still aroused the shock of countless people, which can be described as ground-breaking!We must know that this system will completely change the talent selection system and political and cultural traditions for thousands of years, which is really unprecedented.

It is said that the "nine grades and eighteen grades" classification system of ancient Chinese officials is mainly manifested in the rank classification between officials and officials. All administrative personnel are divided into two grades: "officials" and "officials".Since the Tang Dynasty, civil and military officials had to pass the imperial examination, were selected by the officials and soldiers, and then appointed by the emperor.

Officials, on the other hand, are usually selected by officials and are responsible for carrying out specific administrative affairs; not to mention the third class of yamen servants. Although they have a fixed staff and salary, they belong to lowly status in the social class.

Since the mid-Ming Dynasty, due to the stereotyped imperial examinations and the normalization of the donation system, most of the selected officials were not familiar with specific administrative affairs, and even completely handed over the affairs to the masters and subordinate staff for specific implementation.The so-called "official officials are not familiar with official affairs, but regard officials as teachers" refers to this situation.

It is impossible for subordinate staff to be promoted to officials, and they are engaged in many and complicated administrative affairs, which are not commensurate with their social status and salary.An unfair system will inevitably breed corruption, which has also caused local subordinate officials to control county and township affairs for a long time, fill their pockets wantonly, and do their best to do good fortune.

In the civil service system promulgated by Beihai Town, the civil service system consists of "27 grades of ten grades", completely abolishing the distinction between officials and officials formed since the Qin and Han Dynasties, and referring to all officials outside the military system as civil officials.The most obvious is that the "officials" who are in charge of specific administrative affairs will also obtain the status of civil officials and the corresponding status, treatment and legal protection, and they can also be promoted to senior civil officials through examinations and assessments.

According to the newly promulgated "Civil Service Examination Law", the civil service examination will be held every two years after entering the customs.The general test is held in the state capital of each province, the intermediate test is held in the provincial capital, and the advanced test is held in the capital.

In order to prevent fraud such as leakage of test questions in various provinces, all test papers are uniformly prepared by the national examination committee, and the test papers are escorted by the army and unpacked 5 minutes before the test.The two committees were temporarily appointed by the emperor before the examination, the former was the Special Commissioner and the latter was the Jianpai.After the exam, it will be revoked.

Generally speaking, the traditional imperial examinations have formed the basic principles of open assessment, equal competition, and merit-based admissions, and have strict examination procedures, so the transition from the imperial examinations to the civil service examination system is not complicated in procedure.The most critical of these is to provide a way out for more than 1000 million scholars under the old system and ensure social stability after the regime transition.

In view of this, the new imperial examinations, that is, the examination method, adopted a "dual-track system" for the old-style literati and students receiving new-style education.

All those who had obtained the titles of "shengyuan" and "juren" under the Manchu system (excluding donations), and those who had passed the third pass of the Tongsheng test after the age of 20, all took the stereotyped literary policy examination.After being admitted by the exam, they also need to receive one year of class placement training before they can be assigned to various departments.At present, the new imperial examination in Beihai Town is doing this, and it is also for testing the waters in the future.

As for children under the age of 20, don't cling to the Four Books and Five Classics. In the future, county schools around the country will hold professional training courses, and then study for two or three years to take the new professional exam.To participate in professional training, you must first choose your own career aspirations, and then conduct targeted studies and examinations in accordance with administration, education, technology, finance and taxation, justice, and diplomacy.

In terms of the treatment of civil servants, according to the importance, complexity, and difficulty of their affairs, each profession has set up corresponding management regulations on appointment, rank, salary, assessment, and punishment, which are different.For example, the monthly basic salary of the lowest level of administrative civil servants is 72 Beihai yuan, while that of the lowest level of technical officers is 88 yuan, and that of judicial officers is 60 yuan per month.

Regardless of the high salary of a technical officer, it is difficult to recruit, and there are many types of classifications: such as medical care, water conservancy, engineering, geodesy, chemistry, geology, mining, metallurgy, machinery, and so on.

The simplest ones are those students who receive new education, which is similar to another time and space.If you don’t want to continue studying after six years of primary school, you can go to a vocational school for three years, and then either become a worker, or start as a township clerk at the bottom of the civil service; or, go to the juvenile military academy and join the army.

Considering the problems of poor transportation and information, the dual-track civil service examination system will be implemented for 12 years after entering the customs, that is, six sessions. A "one size fits all" approach will not work, it is tantamount to making an enemy of the entire scholar class, or a life-and-death kind.

In addition, in the "Civilian Appointment Method", Zhao Xin was given the power to specially promote civil officials.Specially promoted civil servants do not need to pass the exam and can directly enter the civil service system of Beihai Town.The reason why this article is set up is to leave a hole for the Manchu officials who surrendered and those university scholars who have tried and failed.

For example, Ruan Yuan, who was an informant for the Intelligence Bureau, not only provided Beihai Town with Qing court intelligence for so many years, but he was already a Hanlin in the Manchu Qing Dynasty.In the end, you told people that there was a paper, please write a stereotyped essay, even if it is insulting, it would not do that.

Another example is Wang Zhong, Duan Yucai, Jiao Xun and others, all of whom were the first scholars to defect to Beihai Town.These people's knowledge is nothing to say, the exam questions for the two sessions were all written by them, especially Wang Zhong was half of Zhao Xin's master.Who in Beihai Town is qualified to test them?Who has the ability to give them questions?Anyway, it doesn't matter whether it's Zhao Xin or other traversers, they all think they don't have this ability.

Of course, in order to prevent corruption and nepotism, the special power can only be used by Zhao Xin, and it must be approved by half of the "29-member committee".

Although Beihai Town, in order to win people's hearts, accepts all the candidates for the two new imperial examinations, whether they are children or scholars, but the knowledge gap and experience between the two are there after all.Furthermore, in terms of social reality, scholar-officials belonged to the scholar-bureaucrat class, and no matter how talented a child was, he was just a poor man, so there was a distinction in the level of civil servants initially awarded.

In this way, the only ones who are really unlucky are those who donate students.However, this group of people does not account for the majority, and has always been looked down upon by scholars of righteous background.Beihai Town abolishes the donation of honor, and those who study hard in the poor window must raise their hands and feet in favor, praising Emperor Zhao for his wisdom and greatness.

Furthermore, most of the people who donate money and fame are landlords, wealthy businessmen and the second generation of Manchu officials.The sons of businessmen also have the family's ability to calculate accounts, so it is suitable to take the business exam; as for those guys who are rich and rich, and try to collect the people's fat by donating officials, hey, welcome to make troubles, suppress them in minutes, and then pack them up and send them to Siberia!

Let’s go back and talk about the more than 200 people who graduated from the first training session.On the evening of the graduation ceremony, more than a dozen tables of banquets were set up in the cafeteria of the School of Administration, and more than 200 civil servants who were about to take office drank and drank together.When the banquet was over, many people were so drunk that they could only be carried back to the dormitory.

According to the plan set by Zhao Xin and Chen Qingsong, except for a few graduates in this year who will work in Zhao Xin's secretariat, most of them will be assigned to the military control committees of counties in Liaodong and Shandong, starting as low-level affairs officers.

It is said that Zhao Xin has a group of staff from the General Staff Department to help with the military in recent years, while Zhong Huai and Huang Chengji are responsible for the civil affairs. Sometimes Wang Zhong will also help, but he can handle it.

The problem is that since ancient times, scholars in China have taken the "three immortals" as their life pursuits, in order to save disasters and eliminate difficulties, stand upright and practice the way, and make contributions to the times.In the past few years as Zhao Xin's assistant, Zhong Huai, who is over [-] years old, believes that he has a thorough understanding of Beihai Town's political methods.Seeing that Beihai Town had regained several counties in Liaodong and Shandong, while Hong Liangji, Liu Taigong and Jiang Fan were all in charge of the outside world, either in the army or in politics, he also wanted to try.

Zhao Xinduan has no reason to stop his subordinates from wanting to make progress. Running water does not rot, and household hinges do not rot.So he mentioned to Wang Zhong yesterday that he asked him to find a few hard-working and well-written writers from more than 200 scholars.

The next morning, when Zhao Xin just arrived at the office, Huang Chengji sent over several resumes.Taking advantage of the free time, Zhao Xin looked through each of them one by one, and quickly made a decision.He drew a five-pointed star in the upper right corner of the two resumes with a red pencil, then handed them to Huang Chengji, and said, "Just them, you bring them over at 01:30 in the afternoon, half an hour should be enough."

"Yes."

Huang Chengji took the resume and glanced down.The former person was okay, but when he saw the name of the latter person, the expression on his face instantly became a little weird.

(End of this chapter)