Chapter 422: Developing Hexi

Although the imperial examination system at this time had been reformed by the Tang Dynasty, it still had great drawbacks.

For example, the imperial examination system at this time used a method of not covering names, that is, the examinee's native place, name, etc. on the test paper could be seen by all examiners.

In addition, before taking the exam, the examinee needed to submit his/her papers. The so-called submission of papers means that one's articles and poems are sent to the dignitaries through connections. After those dignitaries read them, they will display the articles for you if they are willing to submit your papers.

This submission of papers is officially recognized. It is also one of the methods for those officials to manipulate the imperial examination. It is basically impossible to be on the list without submission of papers.

The imperial examination system of the Zhou Dynasty continued the system of the Tang Dynasty.

This imperial examination system is too easy to be corrupted for personal gain, which is not fair to the examinees at all. Richard wants to reform the system, and the imperial examination system must be strictly revised.

As a national talent selection ceremony, it is related to the future of the court. This imperial examination must be fair! Fair! It's fucking fair!

There are too few opportunities for thousands of ordinary people to improve their social status, and the important way of imperial examination must be fair!

With the support of Guo Rong, Richard's reform of the imperial examination system was rapidly promoted. First, the reform of the imperial examination system was issued to various states and counties, and people were ordered to post a notice, and officials were sent to all villages to inform them in person.

It was not easy to do just this one thing. After all, the emperor was far away, and you didn't know whether those officials had gone or not.

Therefore, Richard also sent a large number of inspection officials to inspect various states and counties. Once there was a place that was not communicated or communicated incorrectly, all officials in the state and county would be punished.

At the same time, all states and counties began to prepare for state and county schools, and Richard also began to distribute books printed by the workshop to all states and counties in the world.

Each state and county school would distribute hundreds of books, and the rest would be sold at low prices in various states and counties.

At the same time, the workshop was still printing these books in large quantities. As long as the number of prints was large enough, the cost would continue to be reduced.

After the reform of the imperial examination, Guo Rong and Richard began to reform the Jiedushi system. The first time the Jiedushi was assigned in large numbers was when Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, Li Longji, began to assign them in large numbers.

At that time, the Tang Dynasty had a vast territory. In order to allow the border towns to have enough autonomy to deal with the enemy's attack, Li Longji decided to confer Jiedushi. Jiedushi was originally just a military commander who commanded troops and controlled dispatch in an unimportant area. Later, he also served as a Yingtianshi for farming, and later he was added to the interview envoy. He combined the three political affairs of military, civilian and finance in one person.

In the later period, Jiedushi became a local lord. Jiedushi could recruit soldiers, collect taxes, manage local areas, and appoint officials on their own. It can be said that there was almost no difference between them and the small court.

Under such a system, Jiedushi naturally became bigger.

Now that the Zhou Kingdom wants to unify the world, the power of Jiedushi naturally needs to be weakened, otherwise it will not be long before the Great Zhou will fall into the chaos of the vassal towns again.

After Richard and Guo Rong discussed it, they began to restrict the power of Jiedushi.

Previously, through the salt-drawn system, Guo Rong took back the logistics and food rights of the army, and the same was true for the Jiedushi. All food and weapons needed to be allocated uniformly by the court.

Next, Guo Rong took advantage of the recovery of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun and his prestige increased dramatically, and began to strip the civil rights of the Jiedushi. The Jiedushi of various places could no longer interfere in civil affairs, and the appointment power of officials in various prefectures and counties was taken back by the court.

The number of Jiedushi in Zhou was already very small, and it was not so sensitive to promote the weakening of the power of the Jiedushi at this time.

Moreover, with the strength of the central imperial army and his current prestige, the Jiedushi did not dare to resist. The first person to be ordered to deprive of the civil and logistics rights was Zhao Kuangyin, the Jiedushi of Songzhou.

Then Zhao Kuangyin was transferred to Yangzhou to guard against the Southern Tang. Guo Rong was not dead, so Zhao Kuangyin naturally did not dare to rebel and could only go to Yangzhou honestly.

After resolving the Jiedushi of Songzhou, Guo Rong revoked the financial power of the Jiedushi, no longer allowing the Jiedushi to levy taxes, and changed to unified taxation by the court.

Other Jiedushi were also stripped of their financial power, and finally the Jiedushi only had the right to mobilize troops. At the same time, because of the internal stability of Zhou, the Jiedushi who were no longer in the border towns began to be abolished and replaced by Duzhishi.

The Duzhishi was responsible for opening up wasteland and cultivating land. Part of the original army was abolished, and land was distributed for them to cultivate, and the other part was transferred to Beijing for training.

In the end, except for a few Jiedushi such as Li Yun who was responsible for the defense of Youzhou against Khitan and Northern Han, all other Jiedushi were abolished.

The Jiedushi system will gradually be completely abolished after this, and the border troops will no longer have the right to recruit soldiers, levy taxes, and appoint officials.

Li Chongjin and Han Tong led 30,000 infantry and cavalry to recapture Hexi. At this time, most of Hexi was occupied by the Ganzhou Huihe tribe, and Liangzhou was controlled by local tyrants. Liangzhou was still nominally the Jiedushi of Hexi at this time.

The Jiedushi of Hexi, which Zhang Yichao dreamed of, was casually thrown to thousands of soldiers in Huizhou by Tang Xuanzong Li Zhen.

Zhang Yichao led the Guiyi Army to recapture Liangzhou and opened up the road from Hexi back to Chang'an. As a result, the Chang'an court directly ordered the Guiyi Army to give up Liangzhou, handed it over to the Huizhou Army, and granted it the title of Hexi Jiedushi.

Then they supported the Ganzhou Huihe people. These Huihe people, who had few weapons and armor, occupied Ganzhou, and they were very considerate to reward them with thousands of sets of armor and bows and arrows, so that these Huihe people could deal with the Guiyi Army.

The Guiyi Army, which originally occupied thousands of miles and had millions of Han people, was directly dismantled into pieces.

Li Chongjin and Han Tong led 30,000 infantry and cavalry to Liangzhou. The local forces in Liangzhou did not dare to resist and immediately surrendered. The situation in Liangzhou was unstable at this time. Because of years of war and the chaos of the former Tang court, the number of Han people in Liangzhou was less than one-third.

The outside of the city was occupied by nomadic peoples such as Dangxiang and Wenmo. There were originally hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land outside Liangzhou, but now there are only tens of thousands of acres left, and the rest has become a pasture for nomadic peoples.

Seeing this scene, Li Chongjin and Han Tong were furious and immediately commanded the army to attack these daring Hu people.

Thirty thousand infantry and cavalry are a significant force even in the Central Plains, let alone in the land of Hexi.

Thirty thousand infantry and cavalry swept across and directly defeated those Wenmo and Dangxiang people. Tens of thousands of heads were beheaded in one battle, and tens of thousands of Wenmo and Dangxiang people were captured. The Wenmo tribes and Dangxiang tribes were forced to come to seek peace.

Then, Han Tong followed Guo Rong's order to register these Wenmo and Dangxiang people, and then recruited their tribesmen to follow the army, and ordered all tribal leaders to send their sons to Tokyo Bianliang.

Those tribal leaders did not dare to resist at all. Faced with the oppression of 30,000 troops, they could only agree. At this time, the Wenmo tribe was not actually a real Hu people. Many Wenmo tribes were gathered here by a large number of Han slaves during the collapse of Tubo.

The ancestors of these people were mainly descendants of the Hexi Jiedushi and his generals, as well as some descendants of the Liangzhou Turks. It was just that because of the operation of the former Tang Dynasty, these people were unwilling to return to the Tang Dynasty, so they called themselves Wenmo.

In the order that Guo Rong gave to Li Chongjin and Han Tong, he clearly asked them to surrender these people. Therefore, after defeating these Wenmo tribes, Han Tong began to restore the Han surnames of these Wenmo people, and at the same time changed them all to Han names. They were required to tie their hair, wear right lapels, and return to Han customs.

Under the pressure of the army, most of the Wenmo people changed back to Han names, tied their hair and wore right lapels, and spoke Chinese again.

Next, Guo Rong will move these Wenmo people to Youzhou, Hebei to fill the local population, and then draw people from Guanzhong to Liangzhou to enrich the local population.

Let the number of Han people exceed the number of local Hu people as soon as possible.

At the same time, after recovering Liangzhou, the Western Expedition Army set out again. This time, the army attacked the Ganzhou Huihe. After the Ganzhou Huihe received support from the former Tang Dynasty, they expanded rapidly and their strength was almost the same as that of the Guiyi Army.

At this time, the Ganzhou Huihe had occupied Ganzhou and Suzhou, forcing the Guiyi Army to retreat to Gua and Shazhou, with a population of more than 300,000. It can be said that in the land of Hexi, the strength is tyrannical.

Of course, these Huihe tribes look strong, but they are nothing compared to the Western Expedition Army. The Western Expedition Army defeated the Wenmo and Dangxiang people and directly eliminated 30,000 cavalry as vassal troops.

Adding up to a total of 60,000 troops, and the Ganzhou Huihe saw the army coming and recruited all the men, so that there were less than 100,000 people.

Facing the Western Expedition Army, although Ganzhou Huihe had 100,000 people, half of them were old and weak, and the remaining people were less than 10,000 people wearing armor. Facing the 60,000 Western Expedition Army, they could not gain any advantage.

Li Chongjin and Han Tong directly ordered the 30,000 Wenmo Dangxiang cavalry on the flank to attack. The Wenmo and Dangxiang cavalry and Ganzhou Huihe cavalry can only be said to be half a catty and eight two.

Han Tong personally led 10,000 cavalry, bypassed the right wing to attack the weak points of Ganzhou Huihe, and defeated Ganzhou Huihe in one fell swoop. Then the army pressed on, and Ganzhou Huihe was defeated with heavy casualties.

Immediately afterwards, Li Chongjin led his army to Ganzhou. The Huihe people were not good at defending the city, and Ganzhou was soon broken. Ganzhou Huihe had to surrender in the end.

After the Ganzhou Huihe was eliminated, the Guiyi Army was reunited with the Central Plains.

After ordering him to rest, Guo Rong decided to continue the Western Expedition and open up the Western Regions.

At the same time, Richard also began to carry out drastic reforms in Zhou State. He taught thousands of disciples. After more than a year of study, these disciples learned a lot of experience in local governance. Then Richard began to appoint these disciples to official positions.

These disciples who were taught by Richard were assigned to various places. The central government's control over the local areas was immediately improved. Richard replaced a large number of local tyrants and took back the control of the county from these people.

After controlling the county, the system that Richard had promoted before could be truly laid out.

After these people arrived at the local area, the first thing they did was to distribute land to the people and encourage them to open up wasteland.