Frost for a Thousand Years

Chapter 144 The Terrifying Strategy Topic
After the poetry and prose examination, some were happy while others were sad.

After all, not everyone is like Sun Qian, who has so much eloquence when writing essays.

However, this is an open-ended question, with the theme of a river. As long as the river is in the core theme, there will be no problem.

Aesthetic appreciation is subjective, and there is more than one person grading papers.

Of course, now that the exams are over, there's no point in thinking about it anymore.

The next strategic discussion is of utmost importance.

Wang Shuishan, who had served as a household registration official in Kyoto for a year, had made considerable progress in his writing skills. He considered himself to have passed the imperial examination in the category of prose and poetry, but he was also very clear-headed—if his policy essays remained at this level, he would never be able to pass the imperial examination.

One must at least reach the top 30 in quality to be able to barely qualify for the Jinshi degree with a mediocre or above-average literary talent.

He's now thinking of consulting a strategist.

Song Shi'an.

Many people feared that Shuofeng would gain power, and Wang Shuishan worried about his life and death almost every night.

It wasn't an ordinary, impoverished county; it wasn't Cangxia; it was Shuofeng.

He was putting his beliefs into practice with his life.

Moreover, he physically defended the kingdom of Da Yu.

Even without this achievement, he would certainly have passed the imperial examination. But now, with such merit and the status of a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination), Song Shi'an is about to soar to great heights.

I can't let myself fall too far behind.

Otherwise, how can I fulfill my promise and become a member of the Shian Party?
I am capable of this.

My previous policy proposal was very similar to Song Shi'an's, with the basic idea being the same: to compete for population. However, I went too far and wrote that I was seizing all the population, which made me completely different from him.

Remember Song Shi'an's advice—understand politics.

Sitting in the exam cubicle, he ate a steamed bun. Afterward, he made the most of any breaks to close his eyes, rest, and recover his strength and energy.

The imperial examinations were extremely rigorous.

I spent the entire day using my brain at a high intensity.

It is said that every year, hundreds of people, unable to cope with the pressure and overly nervous, completely lose their composure in the second half, resulting in essays of far lower quality than usual.

More than a dozen people fainted during the exam.

The examination room is just like a battlefield.

The pen is a weapon!
After a break, the second exam finally began.

Same process, same format.

Everyone held a pen, ready to transcribe the upcoming exam questions from speech to text:
"Zhang County, Qiuping Commandery, Sizhou, has a population of over 56,000. Although it is free from the scourge of war and banditry, the terrain is mostly hilly, and each household owns only about three mu of land. It is not a major thoroughfare, and its market economy is mediocre. In the past three years, the taxes collected were 680,000, 810,000, and 750,000 respectively. When Sun Qian, an eighth-rank county magistrate, took office, he implemented three policies: economizing on public funds, encouraging agriculture and commerce, and mobilizing local gentry to donate. This year, the taxes collected reached 2.2 million! This is three times the usual amount. I request that this example be used to develop a policy to increase the tax revenue of Dayu."

When this question was presented, everyone in the exam room was taken aback.

This is so interesting.

The exam in the morning was about Song Shi'an, who returned with the north wind.

The afternoon exam topic was Sun Qian, who returned from Zhang County.

Isn't this the official version of Twin Heroes?

But can the two of them be arrogant?
Anyone with eyes can see that the difference is huge.

The Battle of Shuofeng was a decisive victory, a feat that saved the day and earned him unparalleled merit. For this achievement alone, he was worthy of being enfeoffed as a Marquis of Ten Thousand Households (a county marquis).

As for Zhang County collecting three times the amount, that was because Sun Situ used his influence to pave the way for his son and buy him an official position.

Are those two people on the same level?
No.

But their statuses were actually quite similar.

This represents the future direction of power struggles in the Great Yu Dynasty.

This question is also a bit difficult for the test takers, because not everyone knows Sun Qian.

Of course, if you don't know him, you deserve to fail the exam. If you don't even know the son of Sun Situ, the most powerful family in Jiangnan, then you've really wasted your education.

As a scholar, one must know these things.

You can't wait until you become an official to find out what the highest-ranking official in your prefecture or state is called.

This is not the way to be an official.

To become an official, one must not only know the name of the presiding official in advance, but also all the information about his mother, father, and son, including their health, personality, and shortcomings.

Under normal circumstances, they lack nothing.

Whether you lack something or not is one thing; whether you give it or not is another.

Scholars throughout the land consider it an honor to be able to study under Situ, and naturally, they would know his family background in great detail.

Therefore, this question assumes that everyone knows Sun Qian, which is not wrong.

However, Wang Shuishan was more concerned about the question itself.

Pay attention to the core of what Song Shi'an said to himself—it was about politics.

So, where is politics?
Politics is about understanding each other's subtleties and dilemmas.

The question stem states that Sun Qian doubled the tax revenue because he used public funds sparingly, encouraged agriculture and commerce, and mobilized local gentry to donate.

is that true?

It's bullshit.

Ask Sun Qian himself, would he dare to admit it like that?

The emperor couldn't very well say outright that Sun Qian relied on his father's influence and that now that he needed to step forward, the powerful families were supporting him and thus maximizing tax revenue, could he?
Last year, the emperor demanded grain.

This year, the emperor wants money.

The Great Yu is currently facing both a shortage of money and food.

The key question today is how to make money.

Analyzing each of the three points above, at least two are absolutely impossible.

Frugal use of public funds?

Where exactly does the bulk of the money come from?
We need to intensify efforts to regulate the spending on food and drink by officials at the grassroots level. Is there any money to be spent on trade?
If you want to write this point, you can't just go on and on about the grassroots. The third point is to mobilize local gentry to donate money.

Which policy of governing a country has the core argument of asking others for money, or begging for favors?

Article .

Encouraging farmers and merchants to start businesses is the only way to truly address the topic.

But we absolutely cannot just shout slogans and fill the whole thing with empty hype.

So that's nonsense.

Because money simply comes from agriculture and commerce.

After pondering it for a while, Wang Shuishan understood.

I made a mistake last time because I wrote something too boldly.

Writing boldly again this time was not a mistake.

why?
Because the emperor wanted to do it, he wanted to let it be discussed, see the reaction, and hear the voices of opposition.

This time, we've tested the waters; we've listened to the opposing voices and decided to go for it.

At this point, would you still be willing to object?
At this point, you need to come up with a concrete strategy to let the emperor know that you have a way to make money!
Absolutely right.

Wang Shuishan believed in his judgment.

Sun Qian quickly came up with this judgment after hearing the question.

What's disgusting is that, as an opposition party member, he had to write an article that helped the emperor strengthen his imperial power.

The question itself wasn't wrong; you could have just said you needed money. Why did you have to specifically mention yourself?

It was probably the emperor's idea.

The former, seemingly favoring Song Shi'an who returned from the north wind, led most people who didn't understand to think that it was beneficial to Song Shi'an.

Now another one has come along, seemingly using his own example, so he should be able to write on a topic that is more suitable for him, creating the illusion that it is advantageous to him.

Both sides should be punished equally, with no one taking sides.

This really does make one's imagination run wild.

But it doesn't matter. Writing policy essays is not like submitting a memorial to the emperor. You can't just do whatever you say.

It's just an exam.

Who would secretly include their own biases in an exam?
Why don't I just write a strategy that will make you money?
.........

Inside the Hengjian Hall, several Grand Secretaries were working as usual, discussing the criteria for grading examination papers.

At the same time, everyone harbors suspicions, just like playing Werewolf.

If they had first proposed the topic for the rhapsody, and the emperor had decided to make minor modifications and set the topic for the policy essay himself, the final result would have been that Song Shi'an and Sun Qian were the 'topic stems' respectively, which would have been perfectly fine.

However, after returning from the emperor, the Prince of Jin made a tactful remark: after submitting the proposal for the imperial examination questions, the emperor was quite satisfied and then directly issued a booklet to change the policy essay questions.

What do you mean?
The Prince of Jin meant that the topic that the seven Grand Secretaries had discussed together in an absolutely safe and secure environment was known to the Emperor before he even sent it over.

So when they arrived, they immediately presented the emperor's own proposal.

Note that this was not written on the spur of the moment.

Who is the mole?

No one dared to ask, no one dared to guess, and no one dared to test the waters.

The title change is flawless. The imperial examination is a very small matter, but the message it conveys is very important—"I, the Emperor, can see everything."

Fortunately, even without Prince Jin's subtle reminder that there was a traitor among you, none of these people spoke inappropriately.

Even with full monitoring, as long as they don't take things out of context, they are fulfilling their responsibilities as question setters and reviewers.

Since the establishment of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, everyone's freedom of speech has been subject to limits, which is understandable to everyone.

I understand, but I'm still very curious about who it is.

It could be Zhang Zhao? Because he's the only one from a poor family here.

But he also had a reason not to—after Zhang Zhao gained power, he acquired land more aggressively than anyone else.

It might not be Sun Kang, because although he is not the same Sun as Sun Situ, he is overly fond of Sun Qian and is also a staunch member of the aristocratic faction, genuinely disliking the imperial examinations.

But it could also be him, because he is more timid than anyone else and quite wary. If the emperor were to frighten him even slightly, he might back down.

As for the others, it's hard to say.

Guessing is pointless.

Knowing a little is enough.

Wei Ye: I'm watching you.
"The method of increasing taxes must be practical and feasible," Zhang Zhao analyzed. "It cannot be just empty talk."

"Yes, there need to be specific measures. Moreover, it's not about whether it's feasible or not, or whether it can be done; that's not something the candidates and examiners should consider. It's a process of discussion, discussing how to do it."

Those two people are absolutely right.

Gu Yixin nodded slowly, then set the tone: "Just like the 'Tuntian Strategy' in last year's provincial examination, we should welcome such articles, even if some of them are relatively radical."

.........

When Song Shi'an heard the question, he felt it was a bit laughable.

This little brat, does he even dare to try and scam me, Song Ker?

If you keep trying to get the GOAT ranking, does that make you the underdog?

But it doesn’t matter.

Song Shi'an liked this topic.

We can start discussing politics now!

Before that, regardless of the specific content, he had already chosen a good topic—

The Wealth of Nations

(End of this chapter)