At night, more than a dozen black shadows appeared on the wall of the Chongwenfang official post. These shadows were a group of officials. After the exam news was announced, they were not allowed to go out. There were soldiers standing guard outside the gate, so they decided to escape from the post first.
We will try to find a way to escape from Chang'an City tomorrow morning.
They looked around and saw that there was no one around, so they climbed up the wall and jumped down. As soon as they stood up, before they had time to identify the direction, the surroundings were suddenly brightly lit, and countless soldiers holding torches surrounded them. Hundreds of soldiers held crossbows, and the cold
The crossbow was aimed at them.
These officials have all been pampered in the past few years, and they have long lost the bravery and strength they once had. In addition to scolding each other, in fact, they have become soft and cowardly. Otherwise, if Guo Song occupied Guanzhong, they would have rebelled.
, but not one flatters faster than the other.
When they saw the murderous crossbows, they raised their hands in fear and shouted, "Don't fire arrows!"
The leading general shouted sternly: "Arrest them all!"
Not long after, Cao Wannian hurried over after hearing the news. More than 60 officials were escorted out and sat dejectedly in the lobby. An official said to them: "Suzhengtai Cao Lingjun needs to talk to you alone. I will call your name next."
, whoever called out your name, please come out, there is no malice, it’s just a chat.”
The official shouted: "Xinfeng County Prime Minister Zhou Wei!"
Everyone looked back. Zhou Wei was stunned for a moment, why was he the first one?
He stood up slowly, "I am!"
"Please come out. The soldiers will take you to the left hall. Cao Lingjun wants to question you."
Zhou Wei had no choice but to step out, and four soldiers led him to the left hall dozens of steps away.
The lights were brightly lit in the left hall. Cao Wannian was sitting in the main seat, surrounded by dozens of big men standing with arms crossed. There was a table a few steps in front of Cao Wannian, with pen, ink, paper and inkstones on it.
Zhou Wei walked in and bowed, "See Zhou Lingjun!"
Cao Wannian waved his hand and said calmly: "Please sit down, I need you to write something."
Zhou Wei looked at the pen and paper for a long time and said: "I am in a humble position and I am illiterate."
"I see, then you won't be able to take the exam tomorrow."
Zhou Wei nodded, "It's true that I can't participate!"
Cao Wannian said again: "If you are illiterate, you may not be able to be a civil servant. You should understand this truth."
"I am willing to serve as a military commander despite my humble position!"
"I understand your wish, so be it! You go down and have a rest first, and I will see how I can arrange it for you after I visit His Highness Prince Jin."
"Thank you very much, Mr. Cao Ling. Can you leave your humble position?"
"You need to go to the military camp next door, otherwise it will be difficult to arrange the exam tomorrow. Arrangements have been made over there. There are soldiers to take you there, please!"
Zhou Wei felt a little uneasy, but he didn't dare to ask any more questions, so he had to follow a few soldiers full of doubts.
When he walked into the darkness, a soldier hit him hard on the back of the head. He fainted immediately, was tied up by the soldiers, put in a sack and carried away.
It is not the time to kill them now, it will not be too late to kill them after the money they embezzled is extracted.
The soldiers in the lobby shouted again: "Next, Fengxian County Magistrate Ma Hongbiao!"
.........
Overnight, more than 60 officials were arrested. At the same time, at the official post in Jingshanfang, more than 30 officials raised their hands to show that they were too literate to take the exam.
Through various relationships and means, he bribed Prime Minister Yuanxiu and other high-ranking officials, and was officially appointed as county magistrate by the Ministry of Personnel.
They are different from the group of people just now. That group of people were directly appointed by Zhu Si, and they were all his soldiers or fellow villagers. These officials were appointed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the imperial court. Many of them were county officials, and those who could not write were
not much.
More than thirty officials were also eliminated, and in the exam the next day, only about 140 people remained.
The exam was held in the post house. That night, Cao Wannian found Guo Song with a stack of exam papers.
"How did you do in the exam?" Guo Song asked with a smile.
Cao Wannian shook his head, "It's hard to describe in one sentence. The good ones are very good, the bad ones are very bad, but most of them are plain. The humble positions are divided into upper, middle and lower grades. The upper and lower ranks each account for 20%. The other 60% are middle grade. Please take a look at it.
"
Guo Song took the test papers. He picked up a few and flipped through them. He frowned. The calligraphy on the test papers in front of him was very poor. They were barely neat at best and had no calligraphy at all.
"The one your Highness received is relatively poor. As long as the content is better, it can be classified as medium grade regardless of the calligraphy. But if the calligraphy is poor and the content is also poor, it can only be classified as low grade."
Guo Song threw aside the middle-grade and low-grade papers. He flipped through the high-grade papers, took out a paper, read it carefully, raised his eyebrows and asked, "Who is this Yang Tianhua?"
"Your Highness, this person is the chief registrar of Purun County."
Guo Song thought for a while and then remembered Purun County, a small county under Fengxiang Prefecture, located in the northernmost mountainous area.
He looked at the other papers, they were all good, but compared to Yang Tianhua, they couldn't impress Guo Song.
"Tomorrow morning, bring this Yang Tianhua. I want to see him."
Cao Wannian immediately understood that this Yang Tianhua's fortune had changed.
In today's exam, Guo Song wrote a question about the governance of Guanzhong. Yang Tianhua's views were quite insightful. He proposed developing the transportation industry, dredging the Tianbao Canal again, opening up the waterway from the Wei River to the Yellow River, building large cargo ships, and building docks.
, so that bulk cargo can communicate with Guanzhong, Guannei, Hedong, Longyou and other places through the Yellow River waterway.
The second point he made was to multiply the population. The key to multiplying the population was that food was cheap and abundant. If transportation was convenient, wheat and mutton from the Longyou and Hetao areas could be transported to Guanzhong, making Guanzhong more suitable for the population to live and multiply.
His views can be summed up in six words: 'If you want to be rich, build roads first'.
Early the next morning, Guo Song met the Purun County Registrar. Yang Tianhua was about thirty-five or six years old. He was thin and small, with dark skin and unattractive appearance. He seemed a little nervous and a little reserved. He was dreaming
He didn't expect that His Highness Prince Jin would meet him alone. He was so excited that he almost didn't sleep all night.
"Don't be nervous, let's sit down and talk!"
Guo Song spoke in a kind tone and asked Yang Tianhua to sit down. He then ordered the tea boy to serve tea.
He took the test paper again and said, "I read your policy and it's very insightful. Is this your own idea?"
"Exactly!"
"Where is Mr. Yang from? Has he ever won any honors?"
Yang Tianhua hesitated for a moment and said: "Ji Zhi is from Purun County. He has been working in the county government since he was twenty years old and has been working as a household secretary. Three years ago, Li Fuyin came to Purun County for inspection. Thanks to his recommendation, Ji Zhi was promoted to
Master book."
It seemed that Li Shuguang also admired this person very much. Guo Song looked at his test paper and asked: "You strongly advocate the development of road and canal transportation. Why is this?"
"This is my personal experience. Purun is located in a mountainous area with inconvenient transportation. Every year, a large number of high-quality tribute pears here cannot be transported out. In the end, they basically rot. This is the case every year. However, in a fruit and vegetable store in Chang'an, one Purun pear can
It costs ten cents, but ordinary people cannot afford ten cents to buy salt. This is the consequence of inconvenient transportation. In fact, it is the same in Guanzhong. The reason why the Kaiyuan Dynasty was prosperous was not because Emperor Xuanzong was so wise, but because of water transportation and dredging.
Water transport, a large amount of money and grain from the Yangtze River, Huaihe River, and Jiangnan were transported to Guanzhong. This was the prosperous Kaiyuan era built with abundant materials."
Guo Song nodded, "You are right. You mentioned that the grain and meat from Hehuang and Hetao can be transported to Chang'an and can feed many people. But have you ever thought about how various feudal towns can also come to Guanzhong to purchase these materials in large quantities?
This is actually a wedding dress made for someone, so what does Mr. Yang think about it?"
Yang Tianhua was silent for a moment and said: "This is actually a matter of making money. In the past dynasties, without the emperor's approval, all the families who made private money had to be executed, but the feudal towns were not subject to this restriction, so the world must be unified, otherwise these feudal towns
Just like leeches, they slowly suck up all the blood in Chang'an, but in the short term, trade with Hebei can be banned."
"How to prohibit it?"
"There are two ways to ban, one is not to charge the other party's copper coins, and the other is to supervise."
"You mean setting up a municipal shipping supervisor?"
"That's pretty much what it means. Establish commercial supervision, but not only on water and land, but also on land. We must establish rules and lists to clarify which materials are regulated materials. They are never allowed to flow to Hebei. Non-regulated materials must be paid as long as the other party can afford them.
, all flowing smoothly."
Guo Song nodded. This is the establishment of an industrial and commercial department and a negative list. It is a very creative idea.
Yang Tianhua added: "What Beizhi needs to emphasize is that all kinds of supervision are only external, but the opposite is true internally. All barriers must be removed. Ten years ago, Beizhi followed a caravan from Chang'an to Taiyuan. As a result, he went through a total of ten
There are four customs duties and various inspection points. You have to pay money at each checkpoint. Even if you pay the tax, you have to pay it. Otherwise, it is a trivial matter if you can't pass. In the worst case, you will be arrested and beaten. The caravan dare not refuse to pay it. In the end, after all, it is paid.
The various benefits and extortion are more than ten times the tax money. This business is really impossible to do. Why has Chang'an's business declined in recent years? The numerous checkpoints in various places are the main reason. Your Highness will know after counting the number of merchants. Businessmen
There are fewer and fewer of them every year, not because they don’t want to come, but because they can’t come.”