There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 208 Conspiracy
"Cough cough!"

Liu Yong coughed as he slowly sat up from his sickbed.

Outside the cabin, the attendant, who was dozing off, was jolted awake by his master's cough and rushed in: "Master, you're still sick! It's windy on the river, don't get up like this."

Liu Yong waved his hand: "Cough cough... It's alright, it's alright... cough cough cough!"

Seeing this, the servant had no choice but to pour him a cup of hot water, which made him feel a little better after drinking it.

Liu Yong didn't lie down again, but sat on the edge of the bed, slippers on his feet, and asked, "How is Lord Ji?"

The servant replied, "Lord Ji seems to still be ill. The doctor has seen him and said that he was suffering from a sudden attack of anger and will not recover anytime soon."

Liu Yong nodded: "Okay, I understand."

He and Ji Xiaolan both fell ill immediately after being driven out of Wuchang and thrown back into the life of a barge clerk.

This is not surprising. These two gentlemen, one seventy-eight and the other seventy-three, would be considered elderly people even in modern times, let alone in the Qing Dynasty more than two hundred years ago.

I have to say, Ji Xiaolan was truly amazing!

According to historical records, this guy was not only extremely lecherous, but the key point is that even though he was over eighty years old, he could still maintain his virility (envious...), having sex five times a day, excluding impromptu sex.

Liu Yong had his attendant help him to the desk, waved the attendant away, and then picked up his brush to begin writing a memorial: "This humble servant respectfully wishes Your Majesty good health... The Han traitors' strength lies not in the power of their armies, but in the support of the people, and their methods of winning over officials, gentry, and commoners..."

"This humble servant once accompanied the Han traitorous official, the town mayor, to the countryside and discovered that the Han traitor was extremely adept at winning over the hearts of officials and gentry. Wuchang Prefecture was newly occupied by the Han traitor, but many officials, including the town mayor, were able to do things personally and were far more honest than our Great Qing..."

"In conversations with the common people and villagers under the rule of the Han traitors, it was found that all the common people and villagers harbor hatred towards our Great Qing and strongly support the Han traitors. Ultimately, this is because the Han traitors allow the common people and villagers a way to survive. The reason these people and villagers hate our Great Qing is because local corrupt officials are too rampant, and under their exorbitant taxes and levies, the common people have little way to live. They either rebel or starve to death..."

"If the Han traitors are spared, the villagers will naturally support them. Therefore, the Han traitors cannot be suppressed by force. If we want to suppress them, we must first clean up the officialdom. Once the officialdom is cleaned up, the people can live. Once the people can live, the bandits will perish on their own!"

After Liu Yong finished writing this memorial, he felt a mix of emotions.

He could almost imagine what would happen after the memorial was submitted.
The best outcome would be demotion and salary reduction. If he was unlucky, and the retired emperor was in a bad mood, he might even be imprisoned and punished.

It's unlikely he'll be beheaded, after all, his father was Liu Tongxun, he himself was a member of the Han Eight Banners, and he had a good reputation in Beijing. He even took the initiative to avoid Heshen. If he were really to be beheaded, someone would definitely come to his rescue.

However, no matter how much he tries to gain favor, he can't avoid being punished, since his memorial clearly hit the Emperor Emeritus's sore spot.

To quell the bandits, we must first clean up the officialdom. What does this mean?
Isn't this a veiled allusion to the fact that during the reign of the retired emperor, the prosperous era was filled with corrupt officials?
Emperor Jiaqing had only been on the throne for two years and had been regent for a year and a half, so it couldn't possibly be his fault; you can't force the blame onto him.

The retired emperor was concerned about his reputation. Even if he knew the memorial was correct, he would definitely punish him for being wrong.

But Liu Yong had no choice. It wasn't that he wanted to take the risk, but he had to take the risk to remind the retired emperor.

Liu Yong was a member of the Han Eight Banners, and his fate was intertwined with that of the Qing Dynasty. If the Qing Dynasty were to fall, even this "upright official" would not have a good end.

When he accompanied that town mayor on his two-day inspection tour of the countryside, he was truly terrified. He didn't believe that the Han traitor was deliberately putting on an act for him. The villagers in the area genuinely respected and trusted that town mayor; it wasn't something that could be faked in a temporary performance.

An official who can be so frugal with his meals, yet also personally involved in his work, able to connect with the people, and possessing both the necessary authority and an approachable demeanor.

This was almost unimaginable to Liu Yong. If it were just a town mayor, it would be one thing, but listening to the mayor's casual conversation during meals, it seemed that other town mayors under the rule of the Han traitors were the same, or even worse.

This is just the town mayor; I've heard that officials above the town mayor have even more outrageous positions.

The Han dynasty's officialdom was too clean, so clean that it didn't resemble an officialdom at all. Only a founding emperor could achieve such a clean officialdom, and he was a rare and powerful ruler throughout history.

If the traitor to the Han dynasty were a powerful ruler, what would be the point of such a great purge?

Is the dynasty nearing its end?
You know what, it really does resemble the situation: a prosperous era masking starvation, corrupt officials, and an emperor emeritus who refuses to pass on power to the new emperor...

Liu Yong quickly shook his head, trying to forget this disrespectful thought, and then began writing his second memorial: "...Although this attempt to pacify the Han traitors has failed, it has been discovered that they seem to be connected with the White Lotus Sect and the Miao people. The two sides have agreed to launch a joint attack on Sichuan, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, and central Henan next spring. Our Great Qing should take precautions as soon as possible..."

The strategic deception on the Han side succeeded. Liu Yong really dared not gamble, because if he lost, it would mean losing half of the southwest, a responsibility he could not bear.

Of course, Liu Yong was also afraid that Gu Jing was lying to him, so he left a little excuse in his wording, using "it seems" and "perhaps" to emphasize that he was not sure.

Oh, and there's also Xiangyang. The Han traitors mentioned at the negotiating table that they would attack Xiangyang next year. This is in line with the Han traitors' strategic intention to conquer central Henan. If they don't take Xiangyang, the Han traitors will be blocked in the middle and unable to move.

However, Liu Yong had no good solutions. He was merely an imperial envoy sent to appease Xiangyang, and the attempt had already failed, leaving him powerless to help. Moreover, even if he could return to the court in time, Emperor Qianlong was determined to send troops to rescue Xiangyang, making it highly likely that it would be too late.

Because the White Lotus Rebellion had broken out in Ruzhou, Henan, and according to the reports sent back to the capital, the situation seemed to be quite serious, with urgent and secret reports being sent, indicating that the matter had escalated significantly.

The White Lotus Rebellion in Henan had escalated to a great extent, so the main force of the Qing army had to prioritize suppressing the rebels in Henan. Otherwise, if the Central Plains were lost, the Qing dynasty would truly fall apart!

Liu Yong could only pin his hopes on Liang Ming, the governor of Huguang, who was a veteran general of the Qing Dynasty and could stop the Han traitors!
The imperial envoy sailed down the river at a rapid pace. Upon arriving in Huangzhou, he made a brief stop and informed Huiling, the governor of Hubei, to be vigilant against the invasion of Han traitors.

The negotiations for appeasement fell apart!
……

Jingzhou, the Prince of Han's Palace.

Gu Jing, Wang Ruoyu, and Yao Hongyi had just returned by boat.

Following the instructions of the Prince of Han, they first severely humiliated the two false Qing envoys, and then deliberately misled them by saying that next spring, the Han army would join forces with the White Lotus Sect and the Miao people to take over the central Sichuan, Shaanxi, Henan and Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau.

Whether it would succeed depended on the Qing army's troop movements. With a large Qing force concentrated in Sichuan and Shaanxi, the Han army could take advantage of the situation and attack the seven provinces south of the Yangtze River.

If the Qing army doesn't believe it, then even if they are powerful enough to gamble on this, the Han army will still attack Jiangnan.

The next strategic goal of the Han army has always been to march into Jiangnan and seize this important financial town of the puppet Qing dynasty.

During the peace negotiations, Wang Ruoyu was indeed not lying. If the pseudo-Qing could cede seven provinces in Jiangnan and four provinces in Shanhe and retreat to the outside of the pass, then Nie Yu would be too embarrassed to continue destroying the Qing, and might actually be granted the title of Jurchen king.

"Yes, the Ministry of Rites' draft is quite good. It's a great idea to list mathematics, physics, and chemistry as subjects for graduation and college entrance exams."

Nie Yu was holding a memorial proposal in his hand, which was a detailed charter submitted by the Ministry of Rites concerning a brand-new education reform.

The Ministry of Rites proposed a simple and direct solution: since the King of Han wanted students to study mathematics, physics, and chemistry, then they should simply incorporate all three subjects into the graduation and college entrance examinations.

After graduation, students can decide for themselves which schools they want to attend, but if they study at primary, secondary, or university schools under the rule of the Han Dynasty, they must learn all of them.

Elementary, middle, and high school exams all used a scoring system as the basis for judgment, which was modeled after the education model of the Imperial Academy of the Qing Dynasty.

The Imperial Academy used a grading system to determine academic performance, which was adopted by the Han Dynasty and applied to all its examinations.

The Ministry of Rites revised the graduation examinations for primary, secondary, and university students, retaining the eight-legged essay based on Confucian classics, but removing poetry and prose as appropriate, since these were really not very useful (in terms of governance).

Poetry and songs were removed, and mathematics, physics, and chemistry were added as substitutes. There was also an exam on legal documents, which did not test comprehension ability, but only familiarity with the law.

Since you've come here to study and become an official, how can you govern the people if you don't even understand the laws of the country?

After the Ministry of Rites reorganized the eight-legged essay, classical studies accounted for one-third, laws and official documents accounted for one-third, and mathematics, physics and chemistry accounted for one-third.

With such an even distribution of marks, unless you're an expert in writing formulaic essays, you must have a grasp of national laws, mathematics, physics, and chemistry, and you can't be too bad at them.

After all, the eight-legged essay only accounts for one-third of the grade. If you do poorly in the other two subjects, you might not just fail to graduate, you might actually fail to graduate.

This is an open conspiracy.

I won't force you to study, but if you don't study, you won't pass the exams and won't be able to graduate and become officials.

Choose for yourself!

Nie Yu continued scrolling down, and in addition to the reform of the examination system for literature and education, the second half also contained ideas for reforming the imperial examination system.

These Han Dynasty civil and military officials had many ideas. As high-ranking officials who did not rise through the civil service examination, they were deeply wary of opening up the civil service examination itself. However, the civil service examination could not be stopped. Without it, the Han Dynasty would have long suffered from a shortage of people and officials.

Relying solely on schools for training is far too slow, and the Han Dynasty's school system is still in its infancy. Its productivity cannot meet such a large demand, so it can only focus on grassroots civil servants, such as village chiefs, village officials, and peasant associations.

Similar to compulsory education, primary schools under compulsory education do not charge tuition fees, but those who become village chiefs after graduating from primary school also do not receive a salary.

Similar to farmers' associations, they are semi-official and semi-civilian in nature, basically elected by the villagers themselves, and their duties mainly include resolving conflicts and disputes in the village, and helping the township to coordinate land allocation, tax collection, and other tasks.

Therefore, the imperial examination system was inevitable. No matter how it changed, the imperial examination system never truly disappeared from ancient times to the present, but the model of the imperial examination system could be reformed.

(End of this chapter)