Governing the country, enriching the people, an unparalleled imperial tutor

After Zhang Lin's case was settled, a large number of positions in the imperial court became vacant. The Six Ministries, the Nine Ministers, and all other departments and offices were missing nearly a hundred substantive vacancies.

Zhao Yan sat behind his desk, flipping through the list of vacancies handed to him by Zhou Yan, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper: "Sir, there are too many vacancies. Even if we promote from various departments, we can't fill half of them. Moreover, I'm hesitant to use those old faces now. Zhang Lin's protégés and former subordinates are everywhere, and I can't distinguish which ones are innocent and which ones are just hiding their true intentions."

Lin Yanzhou leaned back in his chair, not answering immediately. He calculated the days and made up his mind: "Your Majesty need not rush. Before I left the capital, I had already arranged something: the imperial examination."

Zhao Yan was taken aback: "The imperial examination?"

"Does Your Majesty still remember the new regulations I proposed in court at that time? Abolishing the privilege of recommendation, adding practical policy essays, and separating civil and military examinations. At that time, I said that the national civil service examinations would be held after three months. During the time I was away from the capital in Jizhou, the civil service examinations should have already been completed."

Zhao Yan's brows slowly relaxed, and a glint appeared in his eyes: "If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have almost forgotten. Zhou Yan submitted a memorial saying that the provincial examination had ended, the list of candidates was being verified, and the final decision was pending. I was busy dealing with Zhang Lin's confiscation of property at the time, and I put that memorial aside."

Lin Yanzhou sat up straight: "Is the list still there?"

"Here." Zhao Yan stood up and pulled a thick booklet from a shelf on the side of his desk. It was labeled "List of New Candidates for the Imperial Examinations." "Zhou Yan sent it to me. He said this batch of candidates is different from previous years. Because the content of the policy essay has been changed, many sons of noble families couldn't answer it, while some candidates from humble backgrounds with practical experience answered it very well. Zhou Yan is unsure how to rank them and said he'll wait for the Imperial Preceptor to return so he can see for himself."

Lin Yanzhou took the booklet and flipped through it. Sure enough, the annotations on the page were consistent with Zhou Yan's statement: many of the prominent families who were ranked at the top in previous years had fallen to the middle and lower ranks this year; and among the names at the top, several were from remote prefectures and counties, with their origins listed as "farmers," "merchants," or "artisans."

He closed the booklet, having made up his mind: "Your Majesty, the vacancy will be filled by selecting from this group of candidates. I will personally conduct the interviews three days from now."

Zhao Yan didn't ask any further questions and simply nodded: "Okay. It's up to you, sir."

I'll take care of filling the vacancies these next few days, then set up my own intelligence agency. Aren't I better than Dai Li? In the future, I'll conquer the surrounding small countries, especially the small ones.

Three days later, the east courtyard of the Imperial Preceptor's residence was temporarily converted into an interview hall.

When the news of the interviews reached the inn where the candidates were staying, most people's first reaction was not nervousness, but bewilderment. In previous years, the imperial examinations ended at this stage—the papers were ranked, the official positions were determined, and all that was left was to wait for the official seals. No one had ever been summoned for a "face-to-face interview" after the results were announced.

A young man in a blue robe sat on the edge of a bed in the inn, clutching a note that read: "Please arrive at the East Courtyard of the Imperial Preceptor's Residence at 5:00 AM tomorrow. Wear casual clothes; no formalities are required, and official robes are unnecessary. You will be asked three practical questions, followed by an interview with the chief examiner."

He read the note twice, then looked up and asked his roommate, "It says here that 'there's no need to wear official robes,' but I don't have any official robes yet."

The person in the room said helplessly, "It probably means you shouldn't be nervous, even ordinary people are fine."

At dawn, candidates arrived one after another at the east gate of the Imperial Preceptor's residence. Some clutched old books as if trying to cram at the last minute, some adjusted their collars repeatedly, and some stood at the bottom of the steps, gazing at the plaque above the gate and taking deep breaths. A young man in a gray cloth jacket squatted in the corner, drawing something on the ground with a twig. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a draft of a water conservancy map, with a few lines of crooked numbers marked beside it.

Lin Yanzhou sat in the middle hall, with the rolled-up roster and a bluish-white jade seal on the table in front of him: the secondary seal that Zhao Yan had given him a few days ago, now placed next to the pen holder, slightly cool to the touch.

The first person to enter was a young man in his early thirties, wearing a clean gray cloth long gown, his hair neatly combed. He instinctively tried to kneel as he entered, but Lin Yanzhou gestured for him to sit down and say, "Sit down and talk."

He hesitated before sitting down in the chair, his back ramrod straight. Lin Yanzhou pushed a piece of paper in front of him: "Three questions, take a look."

Question 1: You have a sloping plot of land in your hometown. In previous years, you grew wheat there. During droughts, you could harvest 30% of the crop, but during floods, you harvested nothing. Now, you have ten people, two months, and no restrictions on tools. How would you turn this land into a stable, productive crop?

Question 2: A canal runs through the fields of three households. The household upstream blocked the water supply to irrigate its own field, leaving the two households downstream without water. As someone sent by the government, how would you handle this situation?

Question 3: If you discover that your boss is embezzling, but he is your benefactor and once saved your whole family, what would you do?

The young man looked down at his pen for a long time, then picked it up and began to write, stroke by stroke. His handwriting wasn't beautiful, and his strokes were somewhat clumsy, but every sentence he wrote was sincere.

After he finished writing, Lin Yanzhou took the paper and looked it over. The answer to the first question didn't use fancy theories, but instead drew a simple water diversion diagram, marking the location of the reservoir and the angle of the water distribution channels. The answer to the second question was: "First, gather the three households together and calculate in person how much water the upstream household needs for irrigation, then calculate how much water each of the two downstream households needs. Then, dig a permanent water diversion channel on the upstream household's field ridge, and one for each of the two downstream households. Anyone who blocks the water without authorization will receive a warning the first time, a fine the second time, and have their land deed revoked the third time." The answer to the third question was: "First, privately persuade him to repay the money. If he doesn't listen, report it to the authorities. Kindness cannot be used to offset national law."

After reading it, Lin Yanzhou neither said it was good nor bad, but simply asked, "What's your name?"

"My surname is Chen, my given name is Shi, I am from Anyang, I am thirty-two years old this year, and I used to work as an instructor in the county school for two years."

Lin Yanzhou folded the paper and put it into a box, then looked up at him and said, "The Agricultural Affairs Department is short of a deputy in charge of water conservancy. If you're willing, come and report for duty tomorrow."

Chen Shi was stunned. After a long while, he stood up. He wanted to kneel but remembered that he had been stopped earlier, so he bowed deeply and said in a tight voice, "This humble subject... is willing."

The second person to enter was a middle-aged man with a round face, who claimed to have worked as an accountant in Jiangnan for more than ten years. Lin Yanzhou looked at his answer sheet for three questions—the questions about calculating grain consumption, estimating profits, and allocating budgets—and he answered them quickly and accurately, even his written calculations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division had a clean and neat quality unique to accountants.

"Would you like to go to the Financial Secretary position?"

"I'm willing!" the middle-aged man blurted out, then realized he had been too hasty and added, "This humble subject is willing."

The third person to enter was a young woman, about twenty-two or twenty-three years old, dressed in a blue cloth dress and carrying a small bundle. She had come to apply for a position in the Medical Administration Department. She had studied medicine with her father for ten years in her hometown, and after her father passed away, she took over his small pharmacy. She had treated injuries, set bones, and dealt with plagues, and was quite well-known in the town.

Lin Yanzhou presented her with three questions related to medical administration. She picked up her pen and wrote them down smoothly and fluently, her handwriting neat and crisp. For the last question, she wrote: "The quality of doctors varies greatly across the land. If we want to establish government-run clinics in every county, the first priority is to standardize medical textbooks, regulate drug dosages, and conduct regular assessments of doctors' skills. Otherwise, government-run clinics will be no different from itinerant quacks."

Lin Yanzhou carefully put the page away and asked one last question: "Are you willing to go on a long business trip? It might be to a remote county or town, and you might be gone for one or two months."

"Yes," she said. "I was prepared before I came."