At the beginning of the civil castle, the Ming God of War was a little panicked

Chapter 235 The End of the World
In March of the 16th year of Zhengtong, the new imperial examination system was announced to the world.

The new imperial examination system is still divided into five levels: hospital examination, government examination, township examination, general examination, and palace examination.

However, the content of the exam has undergone earth-shaking changes.

The first batch of published reference books, in addition to the traditional Four Books and Five Classics, added "Zhou Bi Suan Jing", "Nine Chapters Suan Shu", "Ling Xian", "Kai Yuan Zhan Jing", "Qi Min Yao Shu", "Gan Shi Xing Jing, "Huangdi Neijing", "Mojing", "Mengxi Bi Tan" a total of nine volumes.

At the beginning, Zhu Qizhen's idea was to directly define the content of the exam as "Yongle Dadian", but the Yongle Dadian has more than 2 volumes, which is too much.

After days and nights of screening by Yu Qian and others, and considering the limited time of the students, the above-mentioned nine volumes were finally selected, which basically covered all aspects of arithmetic, medicine, astronomy, geography, architecture, and engineering.

Although it has been simplified as much as possible, the students are still complaining.

Since I was a child, I studied hard, and I only read the Four Books and Five Classics. If I read other things, I would be said to be a cunning skill and not doing my job properly.

It's all right now, suddenly a large number of books on strange skills and obscenities have been added, and they are more important than the Four Books and Five Classics.

The imperial decree has been promulgated, and it is useless to complain, so I can only sharpen my guns in front of the battle and make up for it all night.

The questions of the courtyard examination were relatively simple. After all, it was the first time for a new imperial examination, and it was too difficult for anyone to take it.

All the students came to the examination room, even with a curiosity-seeking mentality. The examination questions were very messy, such as the nine-nine formula table, the Pythagorean theorem, the causes of solar and lunar eclipses, the relationship between solar terms and farming, etc., all kinds of novelties. The knowledge is dazzling.

However, when answering questions, I feel much more happy than stereotyped essays.

Because this method is simple and clear, if you know it, you will know it, and if you don’t know it, you won’t know it.

With the end of the college examination, it was time to go to the government examination, which was the subject of the Tongsheng Examination for Talents.

This time, the test questions became significantly more difficult.

As it turns out, not everyone is receptive to these novelties.

Especially those old boys and old scholars who were old, failed many imperial examinations, and suffered repeated defeats.

On the streets of Nanjing, an old boy with gray beard and hair rushed out of the examination room.

"Confucianism is the foundation of the country, the way of a gentleman, advocating virtue, and governing the country with benevolence and filial piety. Today's imperial examinations promote strange skills and prostitution. Students don't practice virtue, but don't know honor and disgrace. Being a gentleman is really an act of forgetting one's ancestors If things go on like this, if the officials don’t practice virtue and the common people don’t know etiquette, the internal and external will be out of balance, disasters will arise, and the country will be overthrown!”

Behind him, several order guards hurriedly followed out.

"Quick, quick, catch it!"

These remarks are really a bit exaggerated. Such a scolding of the new imperial examination can almost be regarded as treason.

"Let go of me, the country has a traitor, the country has a traitor!"

Several guards hurriedly tied him up and dragged him away.

…………

The capital, the Forbidden City.

Together with Cao Nai, Zhu Qiyu came to the imperial study.

"Yeah, are they all here?"

Zhu Qizhen just came back from the outside, his hands and face were covered with ashes, Wynn hurried to fetch water for the emperor to wash his face.

Behind him, there was another person, it was Beilin from Qin Tianjian, who was also disheveled.

"Your Majesty, the issue of airtightness must be resolved as soon as possible, otherwise, follow-up work will be very difficult!"

"I know, didn't I just collapse and I was completely ashes?"

While the two were washing their faces, they were still discussing the issue of the steam engine. Moreover, they talked endlessly, as if they forgot that King Tan and the chief minister of the cabinet were still waiting.

Zhu Qiyu couldn't bear it, and took advantage of the gap between the two of them drinking water, and hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, the results of the government examination have been summarized and reported in various places, please have a look!"

"The government test results came out?"

Then Zhu Qizhen picked up the memorial and glanced at it, as if quite surprised.

I thought that with the new imperial examination, everyone would definitely need a process of adaptation. The first year, or even the first three years, could be used as a transition period, allowing students all over the world to slowly have a buffer time.

Unexpectedly, the results of the government examination this time, the number of those who won the title of scholar was [-]% higher than in previous years.

Zhu Qizhen thought for a while and said, "Is it because the exam questions are too easy? What about Yu Qian, is Yu Qian here?"

Cao Nai said: "Returning to the emperor, Yu Qian is now the leader of the rural examination questions group. Before the provincial examination questions are announced, he is not allowed to leave the Gongyuan without special circumstances."

"Yes, yes, how could I forget about this!"

Only then did Zhu Qizhen remember that Yu Qian, the team leader, was appointed by himself to prepare for the township examination three months later.

The township examination is a test for talents, and it is already considered a relatively important one.

Under the new imperial examination system, everyone is moving forward while groping, Zhu Qizhen only trusts Yu Qian, so he asks him to take the lead.

Apart from Yu Qian, Belin is better at natural science.

"Belin, have you read the exam questions?"

Belin replied: "Go back to the emperor and read a few copies."

Naturally, there are more than one exam questions for the college exam, but the content is similar with minor differences. The proposition group mainly controls the difficulty of the questions, requiring that the difficulty of all the exam papers be similar.

"What do you think, is it difficult?"

"It's not difficult, but it feels very complicated. Astronomy, geography, literature, history and arithmetic are everything, and the coverage is very wide."

"Then do you think it's much simpler than the previous exam questions?"

"Returning to the emperor, if compared with the previous exam questions, not only is it not easy, but it is more difficult!"

"Oh?" Zhu Qizhen suddenly became interested, "How do you say that?"

Zhu Qiyu and Cao Nai were also puzzled, waiting for Belin to continue.

Beilen said: "Although the previous college examination questions were also stereotyped, the examiners had to consider the difficulty and depth of the questions, and usually looked for some simple and easy-to-understand words and sentences in the Four Books and Five Classics. , benevolent government, etiquette, etc., these topics are already familiar to the ears, you only need to prepare a few sample essays before the exam, and then write them out silently, as long as the gist of the essays does not deviate too much, you can generally pass."

Zhu Qizhen understands that because the difficulty of the imperial examination will increase step by step, in order to preserve the difficulty of the rural and general examinations, in the selection of topics for the hospital and government examinations, he can only choose some relatively simple and plain words and sentences .

And these contents are basically used badly by people.

Therefore, the examiner can only use it repeatedly, but as an examinee, he can bet on specific questions.

In fact, in the 270-year history of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial examination was held every four years. Not to mention the previous court examinations, government examinations, and rural examinations, even the general examination questions can only be changed later.

For example, the subject of one year's general examination was the four characters "Tao can't be multiplied".

However, these four words are not a sentence at all, but a trap!

This kind of topic is typical in the late stage of the imperial examination, and I really can't find a suitable topic, so I can only dig holes in the text.

To what extent?

This sentence comes from "The Analects of Confucius Gongzhi Long Story", the full text is: The master said, if the way is not good, you can float in the sea by riding a tree.From me, its reason and?Zilu is delighted to hear that.Confucius said, "Yu Ye is more brave than me, and I have nothing to draw from."

Regardless of the meaning of this sentence, the four characters "Tao can't take a ride" are taken from the sentence "Tao can't do it, take a ride to float in the sea", and they are forcibly put together into four words, which have no specific meaning at all.

Then let you use this as the topic to write an article for me. This article must conform to the norms and the principles of the sages. Specifications, one word cannot be more, one word cannot be less!
From here, it reflects the disadvantages of stereotyped selection.

Not only is the scope of the questions limited, but also the writing format is strictly regulated, which restricts the vision of scholars more and more later.

In the early days, there was nothing to see, but as time went by, this disadvantage would become more and more obvious. If there were no drastic reforms, it would be impossible for Ming Dynasty to make progress.

Under the new imperial examination, the topics that include encyclopedias make everyone feel fresh and new. Some people usually like these miscellaneous books, but now they become the content of the exam, and they feel like a fish in water.

Since it was implemented in the first year, the difficulty of the questions is relatively low, so many candidates can answer well after a period of cramming.

After all, young people are still very capable of accepting new things.

Only those old students who are bored in reading and unwilling to accept new things will feel the difficulty.

The reason why Zhu Qizhen improved the imperial examinations was to add fresh blood to Daming.

As for those who can't keep up with the times, they should be eliminated, there is nothing to regret!
"King Yi, Cao Qing's family, turned back and told the students all over the world, saying that I am very pleased to see that all the students are sensitive and eager to learn. The New Deal has begun, and the imperial court is at the time of employing people. Entrusted with a heavy responsibility! But to make it clear, what I want is the real ability to apply what I have learned, not the big truths that I talk about!"

Zhu Qiyu saluted and said: "Your brother obeys the order!"

Cao Nai was unhappy, thinking to himself, the previous imperial examinations were empty talk, and the new imperial examinations are practical, so why do these words seem to be scolding us...

Seeing him in a daze, Zhu Qizhen asked, "Cao Qing's family, is there any problem?"

"Oh, no problem!"

Cao Nai hurriedly replied, "It's just that there were some troubles in some examination rooms this time."

"What mess?"

"Some candidates have studied hard for more than ten years, or even decades, and seeing the changes in the content of the exam, it is difficult to accept it for a while, and they speak rudely..."

"Don't worry about them!"

Zhu Qizhen waved his hand and said, "It's not that I changed the exam questions for him alone. All the students have changed. Why is he the only one who complains? Such candidates should be handed over to the local yamen for disposal!"

Cao Nai thought for a while, and it seemed to make sense, so he saluted and said, "Old minister obeys the order!"

Zhu Qizhen nodded, then got up and walked out, while walking, he said: "We must find a highly skilled carpenter, first make a wooden model, and wait until the theoretical problems are solved before we can conduct further experiments."

Beilen followed behind and said, "If you talk about carpentry skills, I recommend someone."

"Who?"

"Cai Xin, the head of the Ministry of Industry, the emperor still remembers that when Master Li was appointed to build the Martyr's Shrine, all the carpenters were led by the head of Cai..."

The two monarchs and ministers chatted and walked towards the temporary testing ground.

Zhu Qiyu and Cao Nai looked at each other, and said to themselves, let's go too!
The two first came to the Wenhua Palace, and immediately an eunuch made tea and brought it over.

Cao Nai took a sip and asked, "Your Highness, what do you think of the new imperial examination?"

Zhu Qizhen said thoughtfully, "I've been thinking about what Brother Cai said just now. Perhaps, the previous imperial examinations really restricted the development of Ming Dynasty."

"Your Highness, the imperial examination was set by Emperor Taizu..."

Cao Nai really wanted to remind him to be careful when speaking, no matter whether it is good or bad, it was left by your ancestors, so don't talk about it.

However, Zhu Qiyu shook his head and said: "When Emperor Taizu established the imperial examination system, Ming Dynasty had just experienced wars and everything was destroyed. Is it our own problem to think ahead?"

Cao Nai was speechless for a moment, so it seemed that it was really the case.

Zhu Qiyu added: "Looking at the 5000-year history of China, which dynasty did not rise out of improvement? Zhou Li replaced Shang, Hu Fu rode and shot, Shang Yang reformed... Let's not talk about it, let's say that when Emperor Taizu conquered the world, especially Isn't it an improvement to focus on the use of firearms troops?"

"What Your Highness said is very true. Any system is time-sensitive. We should not rely too much on the ancestral system."

"This is not what I said, it was what the emperor said. Daming needs to develop, and this step must be taken!"

Cao Nai nodded and said, "Judging from the results of the new imperial examination, things are moving in a good direction, which shows that we are taking the right step."

Zhu Qiyu suddenly said: "Over the years, I have been following in the footsteps of Brother Huang. I will do whatever he says. Although I didn't understand many of his words at the beginning, but now I understand that the world is Change, people are changing, maybe, I should change too!"

Cao Nai was puzzled: "Why did Your Highness say that?"

Zhu Qiyu smiled lightly and said, "I don't want to sit in the Forbidden City all the time, I also want to go for a walk and have a look."

"Your Highness...where are you going?"

"The ends of the earth!"

"What... what?"

Cao Nai didn't understand, what the hell is this? The emperor is already crazy enough to run away without a trace, we still count on you, why are you also starting to go crazy?
You two brothers, can you save me some trouble?
Zhu Qiyu said: "Where is the southernmost point of my Ming Dynasty?"

"The most southern one... is roughly in Lianzhou."

"What about the south of Lianzhou?"

"South of Lianzhou, you will enter Annan Kingdom."

"I don't know how the war between Annan Kingdom and Champa Kingdom is going?"

"His Royal Highness King Jing'an took Princess Zhancheng and his party to the south, and they are still in Qian State's mansion. It is said that they have sent messengers to negotiate with An Nan State."

Back then, Champa sent a princess to ask for help, and Daming agreed to send troops, led by King Zhang Fu of Jing'an County, all the way south.

Wei Guogong, who was in charge of Nanjing at that time, sent troops to escort people to Yunnan, but he had no intention of conquering Annan, so he turned back with his soldiers and horses.

Next, Zhang Fu temporarily stayed in the Guizhou State Mansion, and sent envoys to Annan State for negotiations.

(End of this chapter)