At the court meeting, Zhou Jun, as usual, planned to ask about the war first.
Looking at the row of generals, Zhou Jun was stunned for a moment, then frowned and asked, "Where is Guo Ziyi?"
The chamberlain in charge of the imperial meeting came over quickly and whispered: "General Guo suddenly fell ill yesterday. The doctor also saw him and said he would need to rest for a few days."
Zhou Jun glanced at the chamberlain: "You were fine a few days ago, why did you suddenly contract a serious disease?"
The chamberlain shrank his head and did not dare to answer.
Zhou Jun turned his attention to several generals in Shuofang's army. They all lowered their heads and said nothing.
Zhou Jun snorted coldly and cursed in his heart, "Old treacherous man."
Putting Guo Ziyi's matter aside for the time being, Zhou Jun told the officials that today's court meeting will mainly discuss three matters.
First, the Beitang Navy needed to be reorganized. First, the warships in the inland rivers must be converted into sea-going ships. Second, the shipbuilding workshops in various places must be reactivated. Third, the sailors must be trained and equipped.
Second, a new prison was established in the middle of the court, called the Xuanwen Hall, which mainly combined some of the functions of the Jiaofang and the Cangzang into one, and then took charge of the printing of books and the writing of the imperial newspaper.
Third, when the imperial examination was reopened in the Northern Tang Dynasty, no matter the examiners, the system of patronage, the venue, the training, etc., all had to be planned in advance. In addition, since this was the first time that the imperial examination, the home of business and miscellaneous studies, was allowed to participate, so for
The selection of students from miscellaneous households requires special screening.
The first is the naval issue.
After the Northern Tang Dynasty captured most of Hebei, there were not even a few decent warships along the hundreds of miles of coastline.
A hundred years ago, General Liu Rengui of the Tang Army set out from the Shandong Peninsula, commanding 170 warships of various types, and fought a great battle with the navies of Baekje and Japan at the Baijiang Estuary of Baekje (now Geumjiang Estuary, South Korea), and the Tang army won a great victory.
Regarding the battle situation, it is recorded in the history books that "Rengui met the Japanese soldiers at the mouth of Baijiang River. He won four battles and burned four hundred of his boats. The smoke and flames rose to the sky, the sea water was all red, and the bandits were defeated."
After the Anshi Rebellion broke out, the warships near Cangzhou and Youzhou were ordered to be dismantled by An Lushan, and the shipyards were ordered to close. It can be said that the entire Hebei's naval strength plummeted.
If the Yan army and the Southern Tang Dynasty attacked Cangzhou by sea at this time, the Northern Tang Dynasty would have almost no chance of winning in a naval battle.
Therefore, Zhou Jun appointed Du Huan as the captain of the Cangzhou Navy, and organized the soldiers who had returned to Tang Dynasty from Dashi into a brigade.
Next, came the establishment of the Xuanwen Hall.
Zhou Jun appointed Fan Jinian, the chamberlain's eunuch, as the chief official of the Xuanwen Hall, in charge of all affairs in the hall.
There was little interest in this newly established department from both the civil and military departments of the DPRK and China. Everyone thought it was just a place for arranging singing, dancing and writing collections, so no one objected to this matter.
Finally, it was the third topic's turn to discuss how to reopen the imperial examination in the Northern Tang Dynasty.
On this matter, all the officials in the court became quarrelsome.
Zhou Jun heard that the focus of the argument was nothing more than three.
The first is the selection of imperial examination examiners; the second is the limit of imperial examination quotas; and the third is the rules for judging papers and judging scores.
These three points, in the final analysis, are political games played by various factions in the DPRK and China in order to compete for talents and cultivate party members.
Seeing everyone arguing, Zhou Jun frowned and slowly raised his hand.
Seeing this, the eunuch Chaoli shouted loudly: "Quiet!"
Seeing that the officials slowly became quiet, Zhou Jun cleared his throat and announced in front of the audience: "This imperial examination is the first time that the Tang Dynasty has reopened in several years. It is very important for the students in the world who are studying hard...
Let me ask you, what is the most critical thing in this imperial examination?"
All the officials looked at each other, but no one answered.
Zhou Jun: "It's justice! If the country cannot select talents fairly and impartially, how can we convince the public?!"
Officials from both the DPRK and China nodded.
Zhou Jun: "Compared with the past, the imperial examination system this time has "four changes and three abolitions". Please listen carefully. Let's talk about the "four changes" first. They are the lock-up, special examination, sealing and transcription.
"
When everyone heard these terms, they were all confused.
Zhou Jun explained: "The so-called lock-up means that once an official is appointed as an imperial examination examiner, he must immediately be locked up in the official residence. During the lock-up period of about fifty days, he is not allowed to go home or go home.
You are allowed to meet relatives and friends or interact with officials outside the court."
"The so-called special examination means that the examiner avoids it. When the children of Shilu family take the imperial examination, they must take an additional examination. When the examiner's children and relatives take the examination, they should set up another examination room and assign another examiner. This is
Don’t try.”
"The so-called sealing refers to the name-blinding system. That is, after the candidates answer the test paper, the name, place of birth, etc. on the test paper will all be sealed with a booklet, so that no one can see the identity of the author of the paper."
"The so-called transcription is to organize clerks to copy the candidates' test papers, and then submit the copies to the examiners for their reading and evaluation. With this method, the examiners can completely prevent the examiners from using the candidates' handwriting or concealing it as agreed in advance.
mark to achieve the purpose of fraud."
Zhou Jun paused for a moment, ignoring the shocked expressions of the civil and military officials in the court, and continued: "Let's talk about the 'three wastes'. From now on, there will be no travel documents, public recommendations, and townships. If there are any offenders, they will be dealt with as fraud!"
(Executive examination means that candidates take their own articles before the examination, and in order to gain favor, go to the examiner to obtain the predetermined qualifications; public recommendation refers to the important officials in the court, who directly recommend talents recognized by the Gongyuan and the Ministry of Rites, and seek for them.
Official position; Lianxiang refers to officials from the same township and county who, in the name of the township party, recommend external officials to the Imperial Academy and the Hanlin Academy.)
After Zhou Jun said these "four changes and three wastes", the whole court was silent.
If Zhou Jun enacted the decree of God's Blessing on the Promotion of Talents, which allowed industrial and commercial households to pass the imperial examination, it was a thunder for the officialdom of the Tang Dynasty; then the current "four reforms and three abolitions" are like a thunderstorm and lightning, directly
The entire imperial examination system brought about earth-shaking changes.
However, Zhou Jun himself knew that the "four reforms and three abolitions" were imperial examination reforms that actually occurred in history.
For example, the Suoyuan system was first established in the third year of Chunhua (AD 992) of Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty. Su Yi Jian learned about Gongju and "after receiving the imperial edict, he went directly to Gongyuan to avoid requests." After that, the Suoyuan system was established.
For example, Mi Feng first emerged in the Wu Zhou Dynasty, but was not widely promoted due to resistance in the court. Also in the palace examination in the third year of Chunhua (AD 992), the Ministry of Rites announced that he had qualified as a Jinshi, and Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty accepted the general as the eunuch.
It was Chen Jing's suggestion that the "name-unknown examination" method was truly implemented.
Another example is the Bietou Examination, which first appeared in the 13th year of Yuanhe (818 AD). It is recorded in "New Tang Book·Election Chronicles": "In the early days, the relative of the Minister of Rites moved the examination to examine merit, which was called Bietou...(
In the 13th year of Yuanhe Dynasty (Yuanhe Dynasty), Yu Cheng, the minister of the Ministry of Rites, Quanzhi, announced the re-examination of the Gongbietou Examination."
As for the final transcription system, it was truly established in the eighth year of Dazhong Xiangfu in the Northern Song Dynasty (1015). The Song Dynasty set up a special transcription institute, and later set up a "duplicate official" to be responsible for the proofreading of transcripts.
These reforms have completely improved the imperial examination system in history, making the selection mechanism of officials more fair and reducing the risk of aristocratic families monopolizing power.
Now, Zhou Jun holds the power of the three princes and uses the power of the emperor to carry out drastic reforms of the Tang Dynasty's imperial examination system, blocking the power channels of the powerful families to the maximum extent, creating a path for students from poor families to rise, and thus achieving the goal of attracting the world's talents.
For own purposes.
In addition, the civil service team in the DPRK has undergone several purges, and now most of them are officials from Anxi, which is even more beneficial to Zhou Jun.
After listening to "Four Reforms and Three Abolitions", Gao Shi thought for a moment, stood up and asked Zhou Jun: "Prime Minister, there are many changes in the imperial examination. I'm afraid it will take a lot of effort to implement them."
Zhou Jun looked at Gao Shi and said: "The mountains and rivers are broken, and the bandits are surrounding the palace. This is the critical moment for the survival of the country. If we don't change, the Tang Dynasty will only end up in decline."
Zhou Jun looked at the officials in the court and said loudly: "A certain person has a poem that I would like to give to everyone here."
"It is pitiful that Jiuzhou is angry and relies on wind and thunder, and thousands of horses are silent. I urge God to cheer up and send talents of any kind!"
After speaking, Zhou Jun ignored the surprised expressions of the officials, waved his hand, and strode out of the palace with the eunuch's "Retreat".