The Holy Emperor of Ming

Chapter 98: Abolishing Eight-Legged Essays

Zhu Houzhao slammed the dragon table and said angrily.

Obviously, he completely believed Wang Shouren's inference.

The more I think about it, the more unhappy I feel. They are all my people and sons.

The ministers just listened to this and did not try to persuade him.

His Majesty is in a very unhappy mood, and any dog ​​passing by will probably be kicked.

If they try to persuade him now, won’t they be scolded?
What they were thinking about was how to best benefit the Ming Dynasty regarding the affairs of the Sui Dynasty.
"Your Majesty, the Mongols are now turning their attention to the Sui Dynasty, which is very beneficial to our Ming Dynasty.

It is time to implement new policies and reorganize the army." Liu Jian was the first to speak.

Since he couldn't resist, he just accepted it.

A diligent statement.

"Well, what do you think our Ming Dynasty should do now?" Zhu Houzhao asked with a frown, somewhat confused.

In addition to being angry, he was also thinking about what would be best for the Ming Dynasty?
But after thinking about it, I really can't figure it out.

If you can't figure it out, just ask directly.

"Your Majesty, I think, as Lord Liu said, this is the time for our Ming Dynasty to implement new policies and reorganize the army.

The New Deal cannot achieve great success without several years.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty should not interfere in the affairs of the Sui Dynasty, and should just wait and see what happens."

Wang Shouren spoke first, his eyes lighting up with anticipation.

“But this is also the time when our Ming Dynasty is recruiting talents from the Sui Kingdom.

The Sui Dynasty was centered around aristocratic families, and the vast majority of its talents were among them.

Although our Ming Dynasty has His Majesty and has issued an edict to recruit talents, people from aristocratic families mostly put their family first.

It is difficult for anyone to abandon their family’s interests and roots in the Sui Dynasty and come to my Ming Dynasty.

But it’s different now.”

“The Sui Dynasty is unstable. Once Yang Guang launches a second expedition to Goguryeo, it would be good if it succeeds.

If it fails, the Sui Dynasty will perish.

By then, the country will be in turmoil and the situation will be cleansed.

Any aristocratic family is in danger of collapse.

And given the aristocratic families’ habit of betting separately and maintaining inheritance, there will definitely be many talented people joining our Ming Dynasty.”

“There is no need to wait until then, we can go to Sui to recruit talents now.

You can order the Jinyiwei to secretly contact the major aristocratic families of the Sui Dynasty and establish the connections first.

It doesn’t matter if they don’t agree now, they will definitely agree in the future and bring out real talents.”

After a pause, Wang Shouren's eyes lit up, "Your Majesty, you can immediately send people to poach people from those declining aristocratic families.

Han Qinhu died early.

There was also Wu Jianzhang, who disobeyed Yang Guang in this battle and was killed by Yang Guang.

Maybe there will be a surprise, a real talent will emerge.”

"It doesn't matter if you don't have great talent. This is like a role model. I spent a fortune buying horse bones to show other aristocratic families in Sui."

Zhu Houzhao nodded repeatedly after listening, feeling that it was well said.

Preparing to issue an order.

suddenly--

"Your Majesty, the so-called aristocratic families are actually the cancer of the country.

There are no aristocratic families in our Ming Dynasty, and we are not allowed to have any.

You can recruit talents from Sui, but you must not promise them bad conditions." Xie Qian frowned and pointed to the point.

Other officials also immediately began to advise, with displeasure in their eyes when they looked at Wang Shouren.

Let’s not talk about the aristocratic families for now. By valuing the talents of the Sui Dynasty so much, isn’t it just looking down on the talents of our Ming Dynasty?

Zhu Houzhao blinked, nodded, and said affirmatively: "There must not be any aristocratic families in our Ming Dynasty."

"Your Majesty and everyone else, please rest assured." Wang Shouren said, ignoring the vaguely displeased looks from the civil servants.

Or rather, he did it somewhat on purpose.

Without using talents from other countries to stimulate these old officials who are accustomed to sticking to the old ways, it will be difficult for them to work harder and discover outstanding juniors.

"There is no soil for the existence of aristocratic families in our Ming Dynasty. Recruiting talents from aristocratic families is only to strengthen our Ming Dynasty and prepare for annexing the Sui Dynasty and even unifying the world.

The aristocratic families of the Sui Dynasty had their roots in the Sui Dynasty. Once they left the Sui Dynasty, they were no longer aristocratic families.

Therefore, they will not join our Ming Dynasty as a whole, at most they will send some talents.

We, the Ming Dynasty, don’t need to make big promises to them.”

"As for the future, when the Ming Dynasty invades the Sui Dynasty, they will be the fish and we will be the knife. Naturally, everything will be under the control of the Ming Dynasty."

Liu Jian and others couldn't help but look at Wang Shouren. He had become a military general and he did not hide it at all.

Say anything.

“That is indeed the case, but Your Majesty, when talents from other countries come to our Ming Dynasty, they must not be directly employed.

You have to pass the imperial examination and the military examination, otherwise the scholars of the Ming Dynasty might not accept it." Minister of Rites Zhang Sheng said.

"Why are you so stupid?" Zhu Houzhao said with disdain without hesitation.

"Other countries don't have eight-legged essays, so how can scholars come to take the imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty?

Also, the generals didn’t come together, what if they missed the military examination?
Didn’t I also say that the people of the Ming Dynasty can also enter the Talent Recruitment Hall?

Why are you not convinced? Those who are not convinced are trash. "

Zhang Sheng's face turned red after being scolded.

Zhu Houzhao ignored him and said angrily: "This eight-part essay is really rubbish.

Taizong was really something. During the time of Taizu, both essence and current affairs were emphasized, but from Taizong onwards, only essence and essence of the eight-legged essay were emphasized.

Taizong is also a fool."

"Hmph, in two years, no, after this imperial examination, I will abolish the eight-legged essay.

How can the officials of our Ming Dynasty be a bunch of nerds who only know the essence of things? "

Zhang Sheng didn't care about feeling humiliated. When he heard His Majesty scolding Taizong, he and the others lowered their heads and pretended not to hear.

Your Majesty, please scold me if you want.

His Majesty always scolds anyone he doesn't like, and everyone has long been accustomed to it.

There are people who say that Taizu is not good.

There is nothing wrong in cursing Taizong, since he is not their ancestor anyway.

But when they heard that His Majesty was going to abolish the eight-legged essay, the civil servants' hearts began beating fast and they could not help themselves.

"Your Majesty, no!" Liu Jian had to stand up and said seriously, "Your Majesty, the imperial examination is the foundation of our Ming Dynasty's selection of scholars.

Eight-legged essay is also what every official in Ming Dynasty spends his life studying, and it must not be abolished.

Otherwise, it will inevitably lead to divisions among current and future officials.

Moreover, there are countless scholars in the Ming Dynasty who have devoted their lives to studying eight-legged essays. If it is abolished, it would be like asking for their lives.”

Other civil servants followed suit.

Abolishing the eight-legged essay was something they dared not even think about.

How can it be abolished?
Zhu Houzhao was annoyed by what he heard, he slammed the table and stood up, angrily said: "Why do you want their lives? How ridiculous!
Those who cannot accept even a little change are just trash. Does our Ming Dynasty want trash to be officials?

What kind of division is this? Officials don't want to serve the people, but are still thinking about creating some messy division.

Huh, what do they want to do?"

"I tell you, the officials of the Ming Dynasty must not be a group of nerds who only know the essence of things.

What I want are officials who know how to govern the people's livelihood.

I have decided to abolish the eight-legged essay, and no one can stop it.

If the time was not too short, giving the scholars some time to prepare, I would have abolished the eight-legged essay this year."

After a slight pause, Zhu Houzhao said to the pale-faced civil servants, "I now feel that it will be a little late for the next imperial examination.

This year, Cohen added a test paper on current affairs and told the candidates that they could only take the current affairs paper.

Six hundred Jinshi were also selected from the current affairs papers. "

The ministers were dumbfounded.

We advise you, Your Majesty, how can you be more radical?

They were about to speak again, but Zhu Houzhao was too lazy to listen to them.

He threatened, “Okay, it’s settled, announce the decree, and everyone leave.

Whoever dares not to step down, I will have him dragged out."

Everyone who wanted to persuade him suddenly became numb.

This person was dragged out, and was really dragged out, directly outside the palace gate.

Don't care about their face at all.

The key point is that His Majesty still thinks this is nothing, and still lets them serve as officials, and the next time they meet he will pretend nothing happened.

But Your Majesty does not give them face, so they have to save their own face.

Being dragged out and failing to achieve their goal, they had no choice but to retreat.

As for why they know so much?

Of course, more than one person has experienced this.

The civil officials retreated reluctantly, thinking about how to stop His Majesty.

But there is more despair.

The imperial edict is about to be issued, there is no time to stop it.

The civil officials left and asked the other members of the military cabinet to leave as well, leaving only Wang Shouren.

"Old Wang, what do you think of my abolishing the eight-legged essay? Is it wise or not?" Zhu Houzhao immediately asked complacently.

"Your Majesty, this is a very wise move." Wang Shouren said without hesitation.

"Haha, I knew it." Zhu Houzhao laughed happily.

“Your Majesty, if you want civil officials to change their concepts and ideas and pay more attention to military preparations, the eight-legged essay that restricts the thoughts of literati must be abolished.” Wang Shouren said solemnly.

He had understood this years ago.

Taizu's eight-legged essay can be said to have imprisoned the literati in one fell swoop.

Imprison their thoughts, imprison their potential, imprison extremely intelligent and talented scholars in eight-legged essays, and make them fight against eight-legged essays.

As a result, civil servants no longer had the ability to resist imperial power.

It also led to the literati of the Ming Dynasty being ridiculed by the literati of other countries.

Even the Song Dynasty, a country that valued intellectuals above all else and suppressed military commanders the most, looked down on the intellectuals of the Ming Dynasty.

I have to say that Taizu's move was very powerful.

But this is by no means a good thing for the country, and the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages.

A few years ago, he found it difficult to change.

Only by changing the imperial examination system and ideas together can the literati of the Ming Dynasty be changed.

I never expected that a few years later, Your Majesty would have enough power to make changes.

Should I come up with a new set of ideas?
Wang Shouren was a little hesitant.

After all, he is now the leader of the military generals.

It was the time of separation of military and political affairs, so it was difficult for him to do much else.

My thoughts flashed through my mind, but I quickly gave up because it was not the right time given my identity.

Starting another ideological dispute now would not be beneficial to the Ming Dynasty's implementation of new policies.

take it easy.

Zhu Houzhao did not talk much about the imperial examination, but talked to Wang Shouren about poaching people.

He is very interested in this.

After a while, Zhang Fengfu entered the palace and left with an important mission.

(Please subscribe, read and vote for me. Thank you for your support.)
······
　Thanks to my old book friend Chenshifufuke for adding another 1000 Qidian coins. Thank you.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)