The Great Song Dynasty: You were put in charge of teaching, and you produced a whole bunch of prime

The interior of the temporary supervisory shed at the West Lake construction site.

Su Shi carefully placed the rolled-up, bright yellow imperial edict on the simple wooden table, lit three incense sticks, and bowed three times respectfully.

After doing all this, he finally let out a long sigh of relief and slumped into a chair, feeling as if his bones had gone limp.

"Headmaster, I still feel like I'm dreaming." Su Shi wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Being a prefect is one thing, but to be in charge of the imperial examinations in Jiangnan... how could the Emperor suddenly entrust me with such a heavy responsibility?"

Jiang Lin lay sprawled on his personal rattan chair, leisurely swinging his legs, peeling an orange without even looking up.

"It's all because of your well-written article. The officials are terrified of poverty, and seeing that you could accomplish such a great thing without spending a single penny of the national treasury, of course they think you're a talent. Besides..."

Jiang Lin tossed the orange peels onto the table and turned to look at Zhao Lingjun, who was eating sunflower seeds beside him.

"We also have a secret weapon that goes directly to the ears of the heavens."

Zhao Lingjun slapped the sunflower seed shells off his hand and proudly raised his chin: "Senior Brother Su, you'd better thank me properly. In my letter to my father, I sang your praises to the heavens! I said you not only know how to repair the lake, but you're also good at accounting, and most importantly, you listen to advice!"

Su Shi quickly stood up and bowed deeply to Zhao Lingjun: "Thank you, Princess, for your kindness! I, Su, will serve the court with my life!"

"Alright, alright, enough with the formalities." Jiang Lin waved his hand, gesturing for him to sit down. "Now that we've received the imperial decree and been promoted, it's time to get down to business."

Su Shi's expression turned solemn: "Please speak, Headmaster."

Jiang Lin sat up straight, his eyes like knives, staring intently at Su Shi: "Do you really think Cai Jing and Cheng Yi's gang will just let this go?"

Su Shi frowned: "Cheng Yi has lost face today and will probably be too ashamed to come again anytime soon. As for Minister Cai... I'm in Jiangnan as the chief examiner; he can't interfere, can he?"

"Naive," Jiang Lin scoffed. "Who is Cai Jing? He's like a mad dog; once he bites, he won't let go. By becoming the chief examiner, you've effectively cut off his path to placing his cronies in the Jiangnan officialdom. Do you think he'll just stand by and watch you turn all the scholars in Jiangnan into members of our academy?"

Su Shi's heart skipped a beat: "What does the headmaster mean?"

"Take the initiative." Jiang Lin tapped his fingers on the table. "No more playing games with them, no more arguing about some bullshit about natural law and human desires. Let's take the cultural route."

Su Shi was stunned: "A cultural route?"

"That's right." Jiang Lin nodded. "What did the Song Dynasty value most? The imperial examinations! Essays! Whoever controlled the exam questions controlled the minds of all the scholars in the land!"

Jiang Lin stood up and paced back and forth in the narrow inner room, like a beast ready to hunt.

"What did they test us on before? Poetry and classical texts. To put it bluntly, it was about who could memorize the most books and whose writing was the most ornate. The result was a bunch of useless people like Cheng Yi, who could only talk big! When floods or droughts struck, what could they do besides write a couple of sentimental poems lamenting the hardships of the people?"

Su Shi sighed with deep sympathy. He himself had become the top scholar in the imperial examinations based on his literary talent, but when he actually arrived in the countryside, he found that the classics could not fill the stomachs of ordinary people.

"So, with you as the chief examiner this time, we must change the rules!" Jiang Lin said, each word distinct and forceful.

"How should we change it?" Su Shi's spirits lifted.

"Add policy essays! Significantly increase the weight of policy essays!" Jiang Lin's eyes gleamed with a mad light. "Don't test us on 'Confucius's sayings' or 'The Book of Poetry,' test us on practical problems! For example, Hangzhou is suffering from a severe drought, how do we allocate grain from the surrounding three prefectures? Or, the Grand Canal is silted up, how do we dredge the canal with the least amount of money and grain?"

Su Shi felt a chill run down his spine: "Headmaster, isn't this...isn't this too much of a step? Throughout history, the imperial examinations have had established rules. If we suddenly do this, the scholars of Jiangnan will rebel!"

"Rebellion? What will they use to rebel?" Jiang Lin sneered. "With their pens or their mouths? As long as the exam questions are set by you, Su Zizhan, if they want to become officials, they'll have to hold their noses and learn them for me!"

Jiang Lin walked up to Su Shi and patted him heavily on the shoulder.

"Zizhan, remember this! Rules are made by people. Before, they made the rules, and we played the game. Now, it's our turn to make the rules and let them play!"

Su Shi felt a surge of heat rush to his head, and his blood seemed to boil.

Looking at Jiang Lin's calm yet ambitious face, he suddenly realized that his mentor wasn't running an academy at all! He was using the imperial examination system to completely overturn the civil service system of the Song Dynasty!

"Good!" Su Shi slapped his thigh, his eyes reddening. "Let's do it Jiang said! I'll personally set the questions for this provincial examination! It'll be all practical skills!"

Zhao Lingjun listened intently, her eyes gleaming and her heart pounding. She'd seen too many palace ministers arguing over a single word while ignoring the plight of the common people. Jiang Lin's "if you're not happy, fight it out, flip the table" approach was exactly to her liking!

"Headmaster, what about me? What can I do?" Zhao Lingjun asked excitedly as he approached.

"You?" Jiang Lin looked her up and down. "Continue writing to your father. Spread the word that we're going to reform the imperial examination system in Jiangnan. Remember, emphasize this: this reform is to select officials who are truly capable and can make money for the court! What does the emperor lack most right now? Money! And people who can make money for him! If you say it like that, he'll definitely support it!"

Zhao Lingjun snapped her fingers: "All set! With this princess in charge, your satisfaction is guaranteed!"

Jiang Lin turned and shouted towards the door, "Qian Duoduo!"

"Hey! Coming!" Before the words were even finished, the sound of footsteps thumped in, and Qian Duoduo's round body bounced in from outside the door, his face beaming with smiles: "Headmaster, what are your orders!"

"Starting tomorrow, I'll have someone help me compile authentic historical records of floods, droughts, and the allocation of funds and grain from various regions over the years. I'm going to compile a 'Collection of True Essays on Statecraft'!"

Qian Duoduo's eyes instantly lit up like coins: "Headmaster, once this book is printed... shall we sell it?"

"Nonsense!" Jiang Lin glared at him. "Are you expecting to give it away for free? This is a secret manual for passing the imperial examinations! Priced at ten strings of cash per book, no bargaining!"

Qian Duoduo was completely dumbfounded: "Ten...ten strings of cash?! Headmaster, are you trying to turn the printing press into a money-printing factory?! Will those scholars even buy it?"

"They won't buy?" Jiang Lin flashed his signature cold laugh again. "Once word gets out about Zizhan's exam questions, they'll have to sell everything they own to line up and buy them! Get to work!"

"Alright!" Qian Duoduo jumped up excitedly, his fat jiggling, and ran off in a flash.

Su Shi stared at Jiang Lin's fluid and graceful combination of punches, his mouth agape for a long time, unable to utter a single word.

He had originally thought that becoming the chief examiner was the pinnacle of power. Now he realized that in Brother Jiang's hands, the position of chief examiner was not about power at all, but rather a giant money-printing machine and a brainwashing machine!

"Headmaster..." Su Shi swallowed hard, his voice dry. "Your move... is too ruthless. You're going to uproot all those powerful families and Neo-Confucian scholars in Jiangnan."

"What we're digging up is their very roots."

Jiang Lin lay back down in the rattan chair, comfortably closed his eyes, and a playful smile appeared on his lips.

"These literati of the Song Dynasty have enjoyed a good life for too long. It's time to let them know what the harsh realities of society are like."