April, the eighth year of Xuanping, can be regarded as a relatively important month for the Tang Dynasty, because after the reformed joint examination was held in the first half of the year, the palace examination was also held in April. Although for the Tang Dynasty,
, the importance of the palace examination can only be said to be average, because as long as the candidates are not too out of line, they will basically not fail.
The purpose of the palace examination is actually not to select talents, but to set a future direction for candidates based on the various strategies and other test questions they have answered. Therefore, in the past two years, the palace examination has included more and more questions.
Often there will be more than ten or twenty questions in policy analysis, but candidates only need to choose one of the questions to answer.
This year's palace examination also included an interview. Officials from the Ministry of Personnel, the Imperial Examination Department of the Ministry of Rites, and officials selected from other departments came together to form numerous examiner groups, and then conducted a brief interview with the candidates in batches.
interview.
This kind of interview is mainly to give the department chiefs who are preparing to recruit new officials an opportunity to inspect the new officials face to face. Well, they are their subordinates who are recruited, and everyone hopes that their subordinates will be better.
Of course, the opinions of the chief officers of the department can only be used as reference opinions. After the interview and inspection, they can apply to send a new scholar to their department, but the decision-making power is still with the staff.
The Ministry of Personnel is the official who has the authority to evaluate officials and arrange positions. Although their direct decision-making authority is limited to local officials below the fourth grade and central officials below the fifth grade, for officials above this level, they
They can also recommend to Li Xuan by recommending multiple candidates. As for whether Li Xuan will finally select one from the people they recommend, no one knows.
The appointment of senior officials has always been arbitrary by Li Xuan, and the sources of candidates are also diverse. There are recommendations from local governors and other senior officials, senior officials from various ministries in the capital, and recommendations from the Ministry of Rites. In addition, sometimes Li Xuan
He would also ask the Hanlin Academy to organize a scientific assessment and recommend a list. If it was an important position, sometimes he would simply ask the cabinet to hold a meeting to make recommendations, or he would simply hold a meeting of the imperial cabinet to discuss the candidate list, and finally Li Xuan would decide on the candidate.
Of course, this kind of appointment that requires a meeting to discuss is usually made by senior officials from the second rank or above, mainly governors of provinces, ministers and ministers of various ministries and above. Positions below this level are not qualified for Li Xuan to convene such meetings in person.
Cabinet discussion meeting.
Although the Ministry of Personnel cannot decide on the appointment of senior officials, and it is useless to recommend them, it still has the power of life and death for middle and low-level officials, not to mention the new Jinshi, regardless of what other departments say
Regardless of Xinke Jinshi's own wishes, when the officials decided at that time, it represented the will of the entire empire. Xinke Jinshi must either take office or leave.
Therefore, during the palace examination period in April, the new scholars paid great attention to the short interviews held by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, hoping to leave a good impression on these people who controlled their own destiny.
However, there are exceptions, and that is the first-class Jinshi and Ph.D.s. They don't have to worry about these problems, because if nothing unexpected happens, they will all enter the Hanlin Academy.
The joint examination in February and the palace examination in April have had a great impact on China's imperial examinations for thousands of years. They can also leave a strong mark in the entire history.
From now on, when we talk about the provincial and national examination systems for the imperial examination, and when it comes to the interview system, there is absolutely no way around the joint examination and imperial examination in the eighth year of Xuanping's reign.
April is a very important month for the entire Datang Empire. Not only did this incident happen, but there were also other matters. For example, in this month, after more than a year of deliberation, the Datang Empire
Major reforms have been carried out in response to the current tax system. The reform focuses on the subdivision of tax types, especially the collection of industrial and commercial taxes, which are more clearly subdivided.
At the same time, a tiered taxation system was also introduced for the first time. This tiered system is currently only for agricultural taxes. Individuals owning less than 50 acres will still use the previous taxation amount, but for those with more than 100 acres, the tax rate will be adopted.
There is a slightly higher agricultural tax, and for the agricultural tax on the portion exceeding 300 acres, a higher agricultural tax is adopted.
The purpose of this move is undoubtedly to crack down on large landowners who own large amounts of land.
Of course, the issuance of new policies cannot kill everyone at once. It must leave an obvious loophole for them so that their resistance will not be too motivated. Therefore, this stepped taxation system is based on individuals.
The calculation is not based on households.
If calculated based on a standard family of five, anyone with less than 250 acres of land will not be affected by this policy!
In fact, almost all homesteaders will not exceed this number.
Those who are really affected are those large landowners who own hundreds or even thousands of acres. Even if they are placed nationwide, the total number of these large landowners is not too large.
In fact, they are also the main targets of the empire. These people own too much land, and the empire has always wanted them to sell their land and collect funds to invest in industry and commerce.
If the industrial and commercial industry is so profitable, why are you clinging to the land so hard that you have to fight against the empire?
In addition to agricultural taxes, in terms of the external environment, the Imperial Army has almost completely occupied Liaodong. The famous Liaodong Town was also captured in April. This battle was not fought much because the Puppet Minghui King of Liaodong had already been
He ran away with the main force. When he ran, he even took the local people with him. When the Tang Army captured Liaodong Town, they found that only some young and old were left in the area.
But no matter what, Liaodong Town can be regarded as an iconic strategic location in the Liaodong region. The Imperial Army's victory here also means that it has almost completely recovered Liaodong. The subsequent battle will be along the direction in which the puppet King Hui of Ming Dynasty escaped.
, fight all the way to the Korean Peninsula.
The situation in Liaodong is good, and the situation overseas is also good, and there is also an almost iconic incident of the Tang Navy occupying the Osumi Islands.
If anyone wants to talk about the history of the Tang Dynasty's conquest of Fuso in the future, then April of the eighth year of Xuanping's reign cannot be bypassed, because in this month, the Marine Corps of the Ryukyu Squadron of the Tang Navy landed on the land of Fuso for the first time.
.
Although the current scale of the landing is still very small, with the entire Ryukyu Squadron consisting of only more than 2,000 sailors and marines, and only occupying two small islands, it still brings huge strategic influence.
Feng Qirong, the commander of the Ryukyu Squadron, is even preparing to lead the fleet to station Tanegashima for a long time on this island that has just become the territory of the Tang Dynasty. He has also sent a transport fleet back. He needs more support!
Battleships, marines, guns, ammunition, and even population were what he urgently needed now. Of course, he did not forget to inform the civilian officials represented by the Ryukyu Prefecture's Yamen.
It is said that the navy has opened up an empire and expanded its territory to cover an archipelago, so the cabinet should quickly send local officials to rule it!