Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 92 Neither the Provincial Examination nor the Palace Examination Need to Be Taken (Part 2)

The young emperor actually appointed Xu Guangqi and Wang Zheng to preside over the imperial examination!

The Donglin Party and the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party were both very angry.

Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do.

The chief examiner and co-examiners of this imperial examination were appointed by the reigning emperor, and there was no need for any cabinet approval.

They could only secretly plot and try to find fault with Xu Guangqi and Wang Zheng.

Who would have thought that they didn't even need to nitpick; the imperial examination questions prepared by Xu Guangqi and Wang Zhengding were problematic to begin with!
On the ninth day of the second lunar month, around 7:00 AM, the imperial examination had just begun and the questions had just been distributed. Most of the candidates couldn't help but frown.

The exam questions this time were surprisingly focused on the investigation of things and the extension of knowledge!

Who could have imagined?
These days, most scholars take the imperial examinations in order to become officials.

Who would bother to investigate things and acquire knowledge?
That's called indulging in trivial pursuits and neglecting one's duties!

Those who are obsessed with investigating things and acquiring knowledge will find it difficult to pass the imperial examinations with flying colors.

The brothers Song Yingxing and Song Yingsheng are clear evidence of this.

It wasn't because they were bad at studying that they failed the imperial examinations.

During the provincial examination in the 43rd year of the Wanli reign, they were among the top performers in Jiangxi, ranking among the tens of thousands of candidates. Song Yingxing ranked third and Song Yingsheng ranked sixth.

This proves that they were quite good at studying, but they failed the imperial examinations repeatedly because they were so engrossed in investigating things and seeking knowledge.

Wang Zheng was similar. He passed the provincial examination in the 22nd year of the Wanli reign, but failed the metropolitan examination eight times. He finally passed the metropolitan examination on his ninth attempt in the 2nd year of the Tianqi reign!
As for Xu Guangqi, he was exceptionally good at studying. He was the top scholar in the provincial examination of Southern Zhili, which was the region that produced the most Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations) in the entire Ming Dynasty. It was impossible for someone who ranked first in the provincial examination not to pass the Jinshi examination.

Leaving aside Xu Guangqi, the academic prodigy, Wang Zheng and the Song brothers, Song Yingxing and Song Yingsheng, truly failed the imperial examinations repeatedly because they were obsessed with investigating things and acquiring knowledge.

Therefore, few scholars these days are obsessed with investigating things and acquiring knowledge; most of them only want to pass the imperial examinations, stand out from the crowd, become officials, and make money!

The exam questions given by Xu Guangqi and Wang Zheng were so difficult that most candidates found them incredibly challenging.

On the fifteenth day of the second month, the imperial examination had just ended, and the entire capital was filled with complaints. Many candidates were so angry that they were almost cursing.

How were these exam questions designed?

Who would bother to investigate things and acquire knowledge? Who would indulge in frivolous pursuits and lose their ambition?

When the Donglin and Qi-Chu-Zhe factions in the Central Plains received the news, they couldn't help but feel secretly delighted.

Xu Guangqi and Wang Zheng must have lost their minds, setting such unusual questions for the imperial examinations, specifically testing their understanding of things and their ability to acquire knowledge!
Now that's great! We don't need to find a reason to deal with them. Most of the candidates are already burning with rage. All we need to do is pour some fuel on them, and the city will be engulfed in flames. The entire capital will be in an uproar!
As for how to pour the oil, they were incredibly skilled at it.

They also had relatives, friends, or students participating in this imperial examination, and quite a few of them. All they needed to do was have these people go and stir up trouble among the candidates.

After the imperial examination ended, the capital was in turmoil. Countless candidates were secretly stirring up trouble, and countless others were preparing to cause a disturbance.

However, all of this will only unfold after the results of the provincial examination are released.

This was because no one knew whether they had made the list of successful candidates.

If someone causes trouble before being listed on the list of successful candidates, then they are out of their mind.

While the candidates were all waiting for the list of successful candidates to be released, Zhu Jue was waiting for spring to arrive.

By late February, the snow and ice in the capital had begun to melt, and it seemed that it was time to build a new city.

Around 9 a.m. that day, after hastily reviewing the memorials, he ordered someone to summon Wei Zhongxian, Lu Xiangshan, and Tian Hongyu.

The four of them stood there staring at the map on the table.

Wei Zhongxian was now able to read maps.

People are afraid of those who have a will; those who have a will will not be let down by Heaven.

Wei Zhongxian was quite intelligent; he only suffered from poverty in his childhood, which prevented him from studying. If he had started learning to read and write from a young age, he would have easily passed the imperial examinations, if not the imperial examinations.

Sure enough, after studying diligently for a few months, he was able to completely understand maps, and he could even recognize the words on them.

Of course, this is on the premise that the map must be a map of the capital. If it is a map of another place, he still won't understand it very well, nor will he be able to recognize the characters on it. The map on the table is the latest map of the capital, the same one he studied, so he can naturally understand it.

Seeing that this guy could understand the map, Zhu Jue stopped arguing and pointed directly to the north and west of the inner city, asking, "Jian Dou, do you think it's better for us to build the new city in the north first or the new city in the west first?"
This is a difficult decision for me, because we need to dig moats on both the north and west sides. If we consider the difficulty of digging these moats, it would be better to build them on the west side first, since there are no rivers running through the west side. We can simply dig a moat to connect the Yongding River and the Wenyu River.

If we're considering defense, it would be best to build the three new cities to the north first. The problem is, the Wenyu River happens to flow through this area to the north, and we'll need to build two bridges when constructing the city walls. This means it might be difficult to complete the northern city walls this year.

This is a real problem. Building bridges is very slow these days. The bridge connecting Tongzhou City to the East City Wall has been under construction for almost half a year. Right now, they've only just finished building the piers, and the arches haven't even started yet.

Lu Xiang-sheng stared at the map for a while, then cautiously said, "Your Majesty, since we are going to dig a moat anyway, why don't we first dig through the section between the Wenyu River and the Chaobai River?"

This section is only about ten miles long, and it won't take long to dig through. The key is that once we dig through it, we can block the Wenyu River in the northeast corner of the capital and divert it to flow directly into the Chaobai River from this section of the moat. This way, we won't need to build a bridge.

Furthermore, Juyong Pass lies to the west of the capital, making it highly unlikely that the Jurchens would attack from there. Once the three new cities to the north are completed, even if the Jurchens reach the capital, there will be no need to worry.

Hmm, that's a good idea.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Is it easy to dam the river?"

Lu Xiang-sheng pondered, "The Wenyu River should be easy to dam, because the water is not deep. In some places it is not even deep enough to be a person deep. The deepest place is only about ten feet deep. If we can cast some steel pillars about ten feet long and smash them down in advance, and then pile up the stones along the steel pillars, we can block the water in the river."

Well, the steel pillars aren't a problem; they used them when they built the bridge.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue decisively said, "Then we will first build these three new cities in the north. Zhongxian, you will be in charge of acquiring the land."

That would be great.

I'm good at this.

Wei Zhongxian nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, just mark out the land, and I guarantee I will take it all back within three days."

Don't you even look at how long the land they're going to take over is?

This stretches for hundreds of miles horizontally.

However, since rice and wheat haven't been planted yet, ordinary people don't need to harvest them, making the land much easier to cultivate.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and then asked, "Jian Dou, what do you think about us taking over this area in the northeast corner and using it as a military camp and training ground for the newly recruited soldiers of the Beijing Garrison?"

Are you going to recruit soldiers from the Beijing garrison?

Lu Xiang-sheng nodded repeatedly and said, "That's great. We just need to open a gate on the north side of the current military camp, and the two camps will be connected."

Then let's take this land.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then pointed to the map and instructed, "Zhongxian, start by collecting land from the north corner of this eastern city. Collect all the land within a 12-mile radius to the north and 10-mile radius on the west bank of the Chaobai River. Then turn west and collect one mile of land within a 100-mile radius to build the city wall. Then collect one mile of land within a 12-mile radius to the south to build the city wall. Finally, collect one mile of land within a 40-mile radius to the northwest corner of the inner city."

These twelve li, over one hundred li, then another twelve li, then another forty li, add up to more than one hundred and sixty li!
Wei Zhongxian thought for a moment, then gritted his teeth and nodded, saying, "Yes, Your Majesty, this servant will definitely finish taking over the land within three days."

You're the only one who can get this sorted out within three days.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and said, "Yes, hurry up and finish acquiring these lands. I estimate that there will be some trouble among the candidates when the list of successful candidates is released at the end of the month. You will need to take some people to deal with it then."

Uh, should we deal with the troublemaking test takers?

This is another job that will offend people!

Sure, I'm not afraid of being bitten by lice, it doesn't matter.

Wei Zhongxian nodded repeatedly and said, "This servant understands."

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then pointed to the map and said, "Grandfather Tian, ​​start by conscripting farmers and able-bodied men from the surrounding area. Conscript as many as you can and have them dig out this section of the moat as soon as possible."

After Zhongxian finishes taking over the land, you should conscript all able-bodied farmers and garrison soldiers from the surrounding area to build the city wall. As I said before, conscript as many as you can. Don't worry about wages; what I want is speed.

"The construction of the city wall must be expedited. Leaving aside the possibility of the Jurchens attacking, the able-bodied men of the Beijing garrison and the farmers still need to work the land. You should have them complete the main structure of the wall within a month. As for the finer details, I will have Grand Tutor Yuan gather the craftsmen to do that."

How many able-bodied men would we need to recruit?

Upon hearing this, Tian Hongyu nodded solemnly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand. I will do my best as soon as possible."

(End of this chapter)