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

The academy's special training has entered its most tedious and demanding phase.

If poetry is like a pretty face and the eight-legged essay is like a good physique, then "policy essays" are the backbone of Song Dynasty officials.

Under the dim light, Jiang Lin pointed to the title on the blackboard (actually a wooden board painted black): "On Enriching the Country and Strengthening the Military".

"How would you have written it before?" Jiang Lin asked, holding a piece of chalk (a block of lime) in his hand, his eyes sweeping over the three of them.

Zeng Gong honestly replied, "I naturally adopted the methods of Guan Zhong and Shang Yang to advise the ruler to be frugal and to encourage the people to work diligently in the fields."

Su Shi nodded in agreement: "In addition, we should 'appoint people based on merit' and broaden channels for expression."

"wrong."

Jiang Lin drew a big X on the blackboard without any hesitation.

"That's all nonsense. The imperial court employs scholars not to listen to your slogans. If frugality could make a country strong, then wouldn't beggars be the strongest overlords in the world?"

The three of them choked on their words and looked at each other in bewilderment.

Jiang Lin threw away the lime block and dusted off his hands:

"True policy advice must be like a scalpel, cutting to the heart of the problem. What I want to teach you is not how to 'advise' the emperor, but how to 'calculate' the accounts."

He turned around and wrote two words on the blackboard that had never appeared in this era:

[Domestic demand], [circulation].

"Money isn't saved, it's spent."

Jiang Lin launched his mini-lecture series on "Macroeconomics of the Song Dynasty".

Instead of explaining complex graphs, he gave a very simple example:

"In years of famine, it is a poor policy for the government to distribute money and grain. What is the best policy? It is to build roads and canals."

Su Zhe asked in bewilderment, "Sir, the disaster victims are starving to death, and you're still making them work? Isn't that tyranny?"

Jiang Lin, fanning himself with a folding fan (despite the cold weather, but for the sake of showing off), said casually:

"The government paid disaster victims to repair roads. With their wages, the victims could buy rice, and the rice merchants could make money to stock up on goods. With the flow of goods, tax revenue increased. Once the roads were repaired, transporting grain would be much more convenient in the future."

"This is called 'work relief'. The money went around in circles and eventually returned to the national treasury, while the people survived and the roads were repaired."

boom!

It was as if a door to a new world had suddenly been opened before the three of them.

This theory of "circular economy" was a game-changer for Song Dynasty scholars who were still stuck in the mindset of "emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce."

Su Shi's eyes lit up, and he quickly jotted down his thoughts: "Wonderful! This is simply... the art of turning stone into gold!"

Zeng Gong was utterly astonished: "With your talent, sir, if you were to become prime minister, you would surely amass the greatest wealth in the land!"

Jiang Lin remained completely unmoved, even wanting to laugh: this was nothing more than the superficial aspects of Keynesianism.

"Remember, when writing policy essays, the scope should be broad, but the focus should be narrow. Don't fill the essays with benevolence and morality; provide solutions."

Jiang Lin tapped the blackboard: "If you stuff these 'dragon-slaying techniques' into your essays, the examiners will be kneeling down to grade your papers."

……

After the theory lessons, the hellish real-world practice began.

In order to help these three hothouse flowers adapt to the cruel imperial examination, Jiang Lin decided to bring the "involution" to the Song Dynasty ahead of schedule.

The academy's backyard has been transformed into a "mock exam room".

The three cramped wooden huts were just big enough for one person to sit or lie down in. Jiang Lin even had someone cook a pot of rotten vegetable leaves next door to simulate the suffocating smell of the examination room.

"The first mock county-level examination is now beginning."

Jiang Lin sat in a comfortable armchair, with a plate of sliced ​​watermelon (actually an autumn melon) beside him, and a pointer in his hand, looking like a ruthless overseer.

"Duration: One day. You are not allowed to leave during this time; you must eat, drink, and relieve yourself inside."

Title: "On the Utmost Importance of Benevolent Punishment and Reward"

The three of them reluctantly entered the small dark room.

At first it was quiet, with only the soft sound of writing. But half an hour later, a problem arose.

Su Shi was a restless person. The smell of rotten vegetables made him irritable. He started scratching his head and even peeked through the crack in the door at Jiang Lin eating melons.

Zeng Gong was calm and composed, but he was too much of a perfectionist. He revised a problem eight times and was still dawdling even though half the time had passed.

Su Zhe was young, and under pressure his hands began to tremble, spilling ink onto the paper and ruining a large part of it.

"stop!"

Before the allotted time was up, Jiang Lin coldly called for a stop.

He walked into the examination room, grabbed Su Shi's half-finished exam paper, and without even glancing at it, tore it to shreds with a "rip".

"Is this your composure?"

Jiang Lin threw the scraps of paper at Su Shi's face, his tone frighteningly stern:

"If you were actually in the exam room and the student next to you was stinking, would you be scratching your head like that? Would the examiner forgive your restlessness just because your handwriting is good?"

Su Shi lowered his head, his face flushed red, and dared not utter a single word.

Next up is Zeng Gong.

"Zeng Gong, are you embroidering?" Jiang Lin pointed at the draft that had been revised beyond recognition. "The examination hall is like a battlefield. If you dawdle on the battlefield, the enemy's knife will already be at your throat!"

Finally, there's Su Zhe.

Looking at the paper stained black with ink, Jiang Lin sighed: "The paper is unclean; it's rejected outright. Su Zhe, what are you afraid of? Are you afraid of losing to the Wang family? Or are you afraid of embarrassing me?"

In the first mock exam, everyone failed.

The three future literary giants stood dejectedly in the courtyard, like three defeated roosters.

Jiang Lin finished eating the last slice of melon and wiped his hands:

"Remember this feeling of shame."

"It's better to lose face in the academy than in front of the entire Runzhou."

"We'll continue tomorrow. If you don't pass, you'll keep taking the test until you do."

……

The next five days were the darkest five days for Jing Shi Academy.

Every day before dawn, the three of them were herded into that smelly little dark room.

Jiang Lin tormented them in various ways:

Sometimes they would bang gongs and drums outside to simulate the noise outside the examination room.

Sometimes they would deliberately give them incomplete writing materials to test their adaptability.

They might even suddenly take away the test paper when they're writing it most smoothly and make them rewrite it.

Under such high pressure, human potential is squeezed to the extreme.

Su Shi learned to close his eyes and rest his mind amidst noise, and no matter how noisy it was outside, he could enter a meditative state as soon as he picked up his pen.

Zeng Gong learned to prioritize, no longer getting bogged down in every single word, but instead pursuing the overall momentum and speed.

Su Zhe overcame his fear, and his writing became more and more steady, and his mind became more and more calm.

Finally, the third mock exam arrived.

This time, Jiang Lin didn't cause any trouble; he simply sat quietly outside drinking tea.

From sunrise to sunset.

In the three small, dark rooms, only the even breathing and the smooth sound of pens falling could be heard.

As the last rays of the setting sun disappeared over the wall, the three of them pushed open the door and stepped out at the same time.

"Sir, I'm handing in my paper."

The three presented the papers with both hands. Although they looked tired and their clothes were disheveled, their eyes shone with an unprecedented light.

That was the cold glint of light a soldier would flash before going into battle.

Jiang Lin took the exam paper and carefully read it under the lamplight.

a long time.

The only sound in the lecture hall was the faint cracking of a lamp wick.

Jiang Lin put down the exam paper, raised his head, and his gaze swept across the three faces.

Su Shi's boldness and incisiveness, Zeng Gong's rigor and profoundness, and Su Zhe's simplicity and steadiness.

If these three exam papers were placed in the Runzhou County government office, they would be enough to crush those candidates who were still memorizing by rote.

"good."

Jiang Lin's lips curled slightly upward, giving him the highest praise he had received since the start of this grueling training:

"If these three papers don't get you into the top three, then it just means the examiners are blind."

The three of them finally relaxed, and Su Shi's legs went weak and he almost sat down on the ground, but he had a silly smile on his face.

"Finally... I passed the level."

Jiang Lin stood up, walked to the courtyard gate, and looked at the indistinct outline of Runzhou City in the distance under the night sky.

There, the lights were on, and the Wang family's Wenchang Academy was probably still celebrating their impending victory with revelry all night long.

Don't get too excited yet.

Jiang Lin had his back to the students, and his voice sounded particularly cold in the night wind:

Having a knife in your hand isn't enough. You also need the heart to dare to wield it.

He turned around and looked at the three students who were already trembling (perhaps from hunger, or perhaps from excitement):

"Starting tomorrow, there will be no more exams. Let's practice one last thing—how to scare everyone to death in the exam room."