The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Looking at the battle report handed over by Zeng Xingwu, Wei Guangde smiled and nodded at him, reaching out to take it.

Zeng Shengwu arrived in the capital a few days ago. After completing the formalities at the Ministry of Personnel, he soon took up his post in the Ministry of War.

A few days later, Wei Guangde attended the welcoming banquet held for him by the Ministry of War, which also invited him privately.

This was the first time Zeng Shengwu met him in his official capacity since he arrived in the capital.

However, when Wei Guangde took over the battle report, he noticed that Zeng Shengwu had a relaxed smile on his face, and it was obvious that the news in the battle report was not bad.

Come to think of it, Li Chengliang is also a veteran on the battlefield. Since he chose to send troops, the timing would naturally not be wrong.

Wei Guangde quickly unfolded the battle report and glanced through it. Then his face became even more smiling. He shook the battle report in his hand and said to Zhang Juzheng: "Uncle, the government troops surrounded and annihilated the remaining 170,000 Burmese troops in the areas of Bagan and Mukkoku. They have been completely wiped out."

"Can Myanmar still gather 170,000 troops?"

Zhang Juzheng's focus was obviously not that the government army had won another great victory, but that after losing 300,000 troops, Myanmar was still able to gather 170,000 troops with only half of the country. No, it should be that less than half of the country was able to gather 170,000 troops.

“Haha, Myanmar has a population of several million after all, so it’s still possible to gather 500,000 people.

As for these 170,000 people, the battle report clearly stated that 60,000 enemies were killed and 110,000 were captured.

It seems that the 60,000 might be Burmese official troops, and the 110,000 captured were most likely elite soldiers who were temporarily recruited.

In the remaining places, I’m afraid there isn’t even a young and strong person to be found.”

After this encirclement and annihilation, the opposition forces that could be gathered on Myanmar territory are probably basically eliminated.

What remains is how to stabilize the various tribes in Myanmar and achieve long-term peace and stability.

As he was speaking, Wei Guangde had already handed the battle report to Zhang Juzheng and asked him to read it himself.

Zhang Siwei also stood up, stood beside Zhang Juzheng, and looked at the battle report with him.

After quickly reading the battle report, Zhang Juzheng handed it to Zhang Siwei, then looked at Zeng Shengwu and asked, "The Ministry of War can make plans next."

Eliminating the remaining Burmese forces was only one of the goals. The fundamental purpose of the Ming Dynasty's great efforts was to maintain long-term control over Burma.

Because of the past incident in Annan, Zhang Juzheng was actually very cautious about this matter, for fear of repeating the same mistake.

Zeng Xingwu heard this and looked at Wei Guangde first. Seeing him nod, he spoke up, "The Ministry of War had already discussed this with Wei Ci Fu earlier.

The main force of the Ming army temporarily stayed in Myanmar, mainly stationed in cities in northern Myanmar and coastal cities in southern Myanmar.

Ava, Toungoo and Bagan were the main bases of government troops in central Myanmar. As for other places, only a small number of government troops and surrendered Burmese troops were sent to control them.

As for maintaining public order, let the Burmese army do it. They should be more suitable than the government troops."

Wei Guangde was actually somewhat worried about stationing troops in northern and southern Myanmar, so the army mainly controlled several retreat routes.

The government troops in southern Myanmar can maneuver by sea, while northern Myanmar borders the territory of the Ming Dynasty and can advance and retreat freely.

The three cities of Ava, Toungoo and Bagan were actually occupied in Myanmar. The Ming army was deployed in a V-shape, radiating in all directions and able to take care of each other.

Letting the Burmese rule the Burmese was also a strategy that Wei Guangde had decided on early on, in order to make the various ethnic groups in Burma hostile to each other as much as possible. In fact, Wei Guangde hoped that the Burmese army would rule the local Burmese brutally, as this would be most beneficial to the Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Juzheng nodded slightly and said with a smile: "In this case, the Ministry of War can do whatever it wants and must maintain control over the area.

By the way, does the Ministry of War have any news about Ambassador Yin and Admiral Yu?"

In Zhang Juzheng's eyes, Myanmar was nothing. Having achieved a major military victory, what was there to worry about?

However, it is not known whether the envoys sent by the Ming Dynasty to the West have arrived at Jiugang at this time, or whether they have traveled west to Myanmar.

After Myanmar's north and south were connected, news from Pegu or Dagon in southern Myanmar could be quickly transmitted to the Ming Dynasty by land, and then delivered to the capital by the Ming Dynasty's post. The whole journey took about one month.

Don’t think that one month is a long time. In fact, it is the fastest speed for information to be transmitted in this era.

In fact, the main time spent on this distance is in Myanmar. After all, there is no post system, and documents can only be delivered by fast horses over mountains and hills. It takes at least ten days to ensure safety.

After entering the Ming Dynasty, it only took half a month to send news from the southwestern border to the capital.

“Not yet.”

Zeng Shengwu thought about it and said immediately, "But I heard that according to the time, they should have arrived at Jiugang by now, and maybe they will go out to sea again after resting for ten days.

It is estimated that the fleet will arrive in Myanmar in a month at the latest and then continue its journey westward.

The court should be able to receive the news in two months."

"The Ministry of War is in charge of the post and courier service. Now that most of Burma has been controlled, the establishment of post and courier service stations must be accelerated to shorten the time required for communication between the two places as much as possible.

Didn't Li Chengliang choose Ava as his base? At least a post passage from Pegu to Ava should be established first, and then from Ava to Ming Dynasty."

Wei Guangde then spoke to Zeng Shengwu.

This is the responsibility of the Ministry of War. Wei Guangde only needs to propose it, and the people from the Ministry of War will naturally take care of what to do.

"Yes, I will supervise this matter when I get back."

Zeng Shengwu naturally had no reason to refuse, so he nodded and agreed immediately.

At this time, Zhang Siwei had already finished reading the Burmese war report. Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde had both expressed their opinions before, so he naturally did not want to be left behind.

But what else could he say at this time?

Suddenly, thinking of the reason for coming here today, an idea came to his mind, and he said aloud: "In order to achieve long-term peace and stability in Myanmar, in addition to military achievements, I think education cannot be left behind."

"What do you think, Ziwei?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Juzheng turned to look at Zhang Siwei and asked with a smile.

“Today, the Ministry of Rites reported that it would establish government-run community schools in all prefectures and counties across the country, which naturally includes Myanmar.

Moreover, Myanmar has long been governed by the rebellious chieftain Mang Yinglong and others, and has refused to obey the king's rule, making it a place that the imperial court needs to educate."

Zhang Siwei said immediately.

As soon as these words were spoken, Wei Guangde, Zhang Juzheng and others naturally knew what Zhang Siwei was planning.

However, Wei Guangde did not speak, Zhang Juzheng frowned and said: "The southwestern border is wild and desolate, and most candidates from the inland areas are unwilling to go there, let alone the newly annexed Burma."

What Zhang Juzheng said is really true. Not to mention Myanmar, if officials from the mainland were sent to serve as officials in Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan and other places, most of them would not be willing to do so.

Some people would even rather try their best to ask for leave and return home, even if it means giving up their official positions.

If I go back to my hometown, I can live a good life thanks to my official status.

But if you go to the southwest, not only is there little money in the remote countryside, but you also have to worry about the mountain people causing trouble all the time, which might ruin your future.

Therefore, among the officials in the southwest, apart from the provincial governors and prefects, some people could accept the positions without any difficulty, but even the county magistrates, many Jinshi scholars were unwilling to take the position.

They would rather not be officials than go there. The direct result was that many low-level officials in the southwest could only be appointed by juren.

Well, this is also the reason why most candidates from the southwest are unwilling to go to Beijing for the imperial examination.

As long as you pass the provincial examination, it is not difficult to get an official position in the southwest, but you don't have to travel a long distance to the capital to take the examination.

Not only will the journey be difficult, but you may also fail.

Apart from the slight impact on promotion, there seems to be little difference otherwise.

You know, except for Sichuan, it is basically difficult for candidates from southwestern provinces to stand out in the imperial examination.

Without connections, it would be extremely difficult to make progress in your career.

I have to say that the imperial examination system of the Ming Dynasty was actually very thoughtful and took all aspects into consideration. Although it was unfair, it was indeed a good thing from a national perspective.

The "North-South List Case" during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty had a huge impact. According to records, "In the Dingchou year of the 30th year of Hongwu, examiners Liu Sanwu and Bai Xindao selected 51 people including Song Cong, and no scholar from the Central Plains or the Northwest passed the exam."

This result fully reflects the difference in educational and cultural levels between the north and the south of the country at that time. The southern scholars completely crushed the northern scholars with their strength, which led to the so-called imperial examination fraud case in the Hongwu period.

The northern candidates who failed the imperial examination jointly wrote a letter to the emperor, accusing the examiners Liu Sanwu and Bai Xindao of favoring southerners. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered people to review the failed examination papers and admit more northerners into the officialdom.

However, the result was that after two reviews, the original verdict was upheld.

However, the political wind changed drastically at this time. Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly issued an edict, accusing the chief examiner Liu Sanwu and the deputy examiner Bai Daoxin and others as "Lan Yu's remnants". In particular, he seized on the fact that Liu Sanwu had written a letter to appeal for Hu Weiyong more than 10 years ago, and identified Liu Sanwu as a "traitor". As a result, all the officials involved in the case were severely punished, and Liu Sanwu was exiled to the northwest.

The rest were also exiled, only Dai Yi and Yin Changlong were spared.

The reason these two were exempted was that after reviewing the test papers, they found that there were northern scholars on the list of successful candidates.

In June, Zhu Yuanzhang personally conducted the examination and selected Han Kezhong as the top scorer, Wang Shu as the second place, and Jiao Sheng as the third place. This was called the Summer List. Because all the 61 people on the list were from the north, it was also called the Northern List.

From then on, the Ming Dynasty's imperial examinations began to be divided into northern and southern lists to show fairness.

The reason why the initial list of the 30th year of Hongwu was mainly because the people on the list were too concentrated in three provinces.

A total of 51 people passed the imperial examination. Of these, 18 were from Jiangxi, 17 from Zhejiang, and 9 from Fujian. From the rest of the provinces, either no one passed or only one or two people. Even from Nanzhili, which had the largest population at the time and was known for its flourishing literary style, only one person made the list.

Although no bias was found after multiple reexaminations, there are still some problems.

Therefore, on the basis of the original number, 61 more people were admitted to the Northern List, so that the number of candidates who passed the examination in the 30th year of Hongwu suddenly exceeded 100.

The solution afterwards was that the successful candidates in each subject were basically selected according to the standard of 60% in the south and 40% in the north, until the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty when this was issued in the form of an imperial edict.

During the Xuande and Zhengtong periods, in order to take care of remote areas such as Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou, an intermediate volume was added, divided into southern, middle, and northern volumes, with admission rates of 55%, 35%, and 10%, respectively.

Of course, the candidates for the mid-term test are also concentrated in Sichuan and Guangxi, while most of the candidates in Yunnan and Guizhou scored zero points.

This also led to the fact that candidates from both places were basically unwilling to go north to the capital to take part in the imperial examination after passing the exam, as it would be a waste of time and would only bring trouble to themselves.

These Ming Dynasty candidates are unwilling to take the imperial examinations and become officials. How can you expect the officials who have finally passed the imperial examinations to run to the remote corners of the southwest, even to become officials there?

Looking back at the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the constant threat from the northern grasslands, the local chieftains in the southwest often rebelled, making it even less of a good place to be an official.

Zhang Juzheng knew Zhang Siwei's idea, but if the court wanted to arrange for someone to go, that also required others to be willing.

At least in the past few years, Myanmar will be managed by the Ministry of War first. Once the situation stabilizes, the court will divide the area into prefectures and counties and gradually assign officials there.

“It is indeed difficult to transfer people to the two capitals. Not many people are willing to go there. Even if the rank is upgraded, I am afraid it will be difficult to find people.

However, there are many juren and scholars in the southwest who have not entered officialdom. There are only community schools. Juren are naturally unwilling to go there, but what about scholars?

They are allowed to attend local community schools in Myanmar now, and then be transferred to government schools established in prefectures and counties later."

Zhang Siwei said.

Strictly speaking, being a scholar is not really considered an honor, because only those who have passed the imperial examination have some of the privileges of being an official.

A scholar can only be considered a scholar, which is why only scholars are qualified to enter local official schools.

The vast majority of scholars in the Ming Dynasty failed to pass the imperial examination in their entire lives, and ended up wasting their lives because they had no decent status.

Most of the scholars ended up working in a government office or opening a private school at home to teach and educate people.

Those who choose to teach in community schools are usually those with relatively poor conditions.

Of course, the main reason is that the wages of community schools are not guaranteed, and they rely more on donations to run the schools, which is definitely unstable.

What Zhang Siwei was considering was to use scholars to supplement the teachers needed in Myanmar. Juren could seek official positions, and they absolutely looked down on inferior instructors.

Of course, in the official schools in the mainland, most of the teachers and instructors were juren, but that was because if they did a good job they had the opportunity to be promoted to assistant officials in the county, or even county magistrate, just like Hai Rui's path to promotion.

Hai Rui did that because he had a good reputation as an official and could not be suppressed by the local authorities, and the local gentry were eager to send him away, so although Hai Rui did not run for office, he could not resist the fact that some people took the initiative to help him.

Otherwise, given Hai Rui's bad temper, it is hard to imagine that a stubborn man with no one to rely on in the officialdom could be promoted from a teacher to a county magistrate, and finally enter the court, and successively serve in the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War as a director.

And, under normal circumstances, this is the end.

However, an article entitled "Memorial on Public Security" once again brought him an opportunity for promotion. Although he was imprisoned for this, his career prospered after the reign of Emperor Longqing.

"You mean to allow the scholars from the southwest to enter the government through this, and to be promoted to the official school after graduating from the community school?"

Although still at the bottom of the class, entering an official school was a huge change in status.

"They can enjoy the treatment of local juren."

Wei Guangde also interrupted at this time.

There is a huge difference in treatment between scholars and juren, and this alone is very attractive.

"Then once the memorial is approved, let the Ministry of Rites give priority to handling the matter of the Burmese community school."

Zhang Juzheng nodded and said, "It's just this money."

"Yunnan will provide it first and return it after Myanmar establishes prefectures and counties."

Wei Guangde spoke up.

With Myanmar under military rule, it might be difficult to ask Li Chengliang to pay, so it would be better to just put the account on hold first.

Zhang Juzheng nodded, looked at Zeng Xingwu and said, "Let the Ministry of War inform them about this matter and let them prepare early." (End of this chapter)