Teasing the First Dragon at the Start

Page 209

As the saying goes, it takes ten years to build an army, but a hundred years to build a navy.

Shipbuilding isn't something you can just do on a whim. Just researching the sails, keels, and other structures has already used up most of her funds.

However, there have been no results so far.

With this funding, she would feel much more confident.

"I know!"

Just as the two were talking, a pretty figure walked in quickly and threw herself into Bai Su's arms.

"Husband, please help me..."

The girl raised her head, revealing a pretty face full of grievance. Her heterochromatic eyes blinked rapidly. Who else could it be but Hu Yi?

Bai Su touched her hair and couldn't help but ask, "Didn't you go to preside over the imperial examinations? Why did you suddenly come back?"

Hu Yu suddenly paused, raised his head, and said with a wronged expression, "It's all because of the problems with the imperial examinations."

Bai Su and Mo Xun exchanged a glance, both showing surprise on their faces.

After all, after so much development, the imperial examination system had become an important channel for the imperial court to select talent without waging war.

If something goes wrong in such an important imperial examination, it is a very serious matter.

Bai Su asked curiously, "What happened?"

Hu Yi frowned, her delicate eyebrows furrowing, and said helplessly, "I discovered that someone cheated in the imperial examination..."

She took a deep breath and slowly recounted the whole story.

It turns out that, in order to test their abilities, Zhengjie assigned them to supervise certain subjects of the imperial examinations. Based on their performance, she would choose one of them to oversee the government in the future.

The imperial examinations that Hu Xi was in charge of included the laws of the Great Xia Dynasty.

This was originally just a minor matter; under normal circumstances, she would have simply gone through the motions and returned to report.

However, recently a leak of exam questions suddenly occurred. Even though the imperial examinations had not yet started, some questions about law were quietly leaked, and some candidates had prepared their answers in advance.

Such a big thing happened so suddenly that she didn't know what to do.

After all, if Mother found out that such a big problem had occurred in the examination hall under her supervision, then forget about competing with Fu Su for the position of Crown Prince, it would be good enough if he didn't get a good ear-pulling from Mother.

When Mo Xun heard that someone had cheated in the imperial examination, he couldn't help but stare wide-eyed in disbelief.

Bai Su looked taken aback for a moment, but wasn't too surprised.

After all, cheating in the imperial examinations has never stopped throughout history. He just didn't expect that people would start having crooked ideas so early.

However, it is normal to cheat when it comes to the convenience of the law.

This martial arts exam tests horseback riding, archery, and direct combat. With everyone watching, there's no way to cheat even if you wanted to.

It's often easy to tell who can fight and who can't at a glance.

Only the examination under the laws of the Great Xia Dynasty makes it relatively easy to bluff one's way out of trouble.

Unless you question them carefully, who knows if they are truly capable or simply have memorized the answers to one or two questions?

Hu continued, "Although I have already asked Liu Ji and the others to prepare new exam questions, I still haven't caught the person who leaked the questions."

"I'm worried that something unexpected might happen again. After all, if this can leak exam questions once, it can happen a second time."

"My husband, what should I do?"

Bai Su stroked his chin and said, "Since we're worried about the questions being leaked, why don't we just not prepare any questions?"

"I'm so worried, and you're still teasing him."

When did I tease you?

Bai Su smiled when she saw Hu Yi's puzzled expression: "In the past, the questions for the imperial examinations were set well in advance. Several months before the examinations began, it was inevitable that some well-connected wealthy merchants and nobles would meet with each other in private."

"In this situation, even if you prepare ten sets of exam questions, it will be difficult to keep them confidential."

"The best way to prevent leaks of exam questions is not to prepare any questions. A few days before the exam, close your eyes and draw a circle on the law at random. Use that as the test questions."

"What should be done if someone under the age of fourteen commits theft?"

"How should a woman be punished for innocently stabbing a coachman with a knife?"

"You should copy down these exam questions and hang them on a large screen on the day of the imperial examination, so that the candidates present can answer them on the spot."

"Before this, you yourself didn't even know what the question was, so naturally no one else had the question to reveal."

Hu Su stared wide-eyed in disbelief at Bai Su.

This problem had been troubling her for days, and she couldn't come up with a solution. But her husband came up with a solution in the blink of an eye.

Bai Su continued, "This is just the beginning. To prevent anyone from bringing cheat sheets into the examination room beforehand, no one participating in the imperial examination is allowed to bring anything on their person."

"Neither clothes nor food are allowed to be brought in."

"The imperial court provided them with uniform clothing and food, and they were also required to take a bath."

"To prevent people from writing cheat sheets on their clothes, stuffing them into steamed buns, hiding them in shoe insoles, rolling them up and stuffing them into pen holders, or even writing them on their own arms or legs."

"We must assign special personnel to conduct thorough checks and give them absolutely no chance. At the same time, no one is allowed to leave the examination room before the exam ends. This way, we can eliminate cheating."

He spoke at length, detailing every possible possibility of cheating.

Mo Xun and Hu Yi were both stunned. They looked at Bai Su as if she were a monster, never expecting that the seemingly safe imperial examination would have so many ways to cheat.

Fortunately, Bai Su was on their side. Otherwise, if Bai Su had participated in the imperial examination and cheated, she could have easily obtained an official position.

Bai Su smiled as she looked at the two of them, who were in a daze.

After all, cheating on exams is something that evolves with the times, and when it comes to cheating experience, he is quite experienced.

It's no exaggeration to say that the cheating methods these people use are, in his eyes, nothing more than child's play, utterly insignificant.

Chapter 282 The Two Women Questioning Life

Inside the Shaofu (a government office).

Bai Su was stroking her chin when she asked, "How's the heating going these days?"

Mo Xun, dressed in an apricot-yellow dress, sat gracefully to one side, her jade-like hand gently brushing aside the strands of hair between her brows.

She looked down at the registration information in her hand and said, "It has now been gradually rolled out in various parts of the city, and about 30-40% of the city has already installed it."

"As for those high-ranking officials and nobles, they do not want to use the same channels as ordinary people. They want to have one custom-made, just like the Imperial Household Department. Is that possible?"

Bai Su smiled and said, "Of course, not to mention making it individually, even if they want to use water that falls from the sky without roots, it's fine. I can satisfy all their requests."

Mo Xun's delicate eyebrows furrowed: "But...but this would increase the cost by several times."

Bai Su gently tapped her head.

"It hurts so much." The girl covered her head and looked at Bai Su with a wronged expression.

Bai Su chuckled and said, "Sir, when have I ever made a losing deal? As the saying goes, the wool comes from the sheep's back. Since they've come to us willingly, why should we turn them away? Let's just start with a hundred times the cost price and fleece them..."

Mo Xun rubbed his head, his face full of confusion.

After all, being born into the Mohist school, her philosophy over the years has been to explore the laws governing all things and study the essence of things.

In her view, only things that truly benefit people's livelihoods are good things.

This business logic—that things that are utterly useless are worth a fortune—is somewhat difficult to understand at first glance.

Bai Su said with a smile, "Just do as I tell you, and I guarantee that the merchants and nobles will line up to give you money."

“I will allocate half of it as research funding for your inkstone inspection.”

When Mo Xun heard that Bai Su was willing to allocate research funding to her, her almond-shaped eyes lit up immediately, and her originally reluctant expression instantly turned into one of excitement.

You should know that Bai Su recently assigned her a project.

She was tasked with researching ships capable of crossing the ocean to the east, as the imperial court planned to send a fleet to Penglai Island to capture Xu Fu.