Chapter 429: Re-Sinicization of the Hexi Corridor

The system established by Richard is very unfriendly to officials, especially the secret memorial system. This is equivalent to encouraging civil and military officials to report each other.

Don't think that those officials are all scholars, and they will unite and compete with the imperial power for power after becoming gentry. The gentry did not form a pan-conscious ethnic group.

On the contrary, the infighting between officials will be very fierce, especially under the group-prime minister system. The secret memorial system will also continue to split the civil service group, and the emperor will eventually act as a referee.

At the same time, the emergence of the Supervisory Office is equivalent to the Jinyiwei of the Zhou Dynasty, but the power is not as great as that of the Jinyiwei.

In short, with these systems of Richard, the Zhou Dynasty will be "unable to make a living". Of course, this kind of unability to make a living means that compared with the former Tang Dynasty, it is many times better than the Hongwu and Yongle periods of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition, Richard reformed the imperial examination system. For example, some highly technical positions can only be held after passing the corresponding assessment.

For example, the Ministry of Works is responsible for presiding over the construction of various projects of the court. It must be presided over by highly professional officials. Officials who have only studied the Four Books and Five Classics can never hold this position.

These official requirements are not unspoken rules, but have been established as a system. If you want to rely on the Four Books and Five Classics to be an official, you can only serve in the Ministry of Rites. And the power of the Ministry of Rites has been restricted by Richard.

The Ministry of Rites only controls some things such as annual sacrifices, the emperor's wedding, death, and tribute from foreign countries. Even the imperial examinations are not decided by them, but prepared by the Political Affairs Hall.

In order to stabilize the court system, in addition to political stability, the emperor's persistence is also required. And it requires the persistence of several consecutive emperors.

So Richard is very concerned about Guo Rong's health and his successor's health.

When Richard and Lu Dongbin discussed Taoism, he got several Taoist guiding techniques from him, and after combining them with his breathing method, he reorganized and perfected several different guiding techniques.

The first is to lower the aptitude, making it easier for people to practice. As long as they persevere, they will eventually master it, but the upper limit of this kind of guidance is lower.

The second is to enhance physical fitness, which is suitable for people with good aptitude to learn. After practicing to the end, they can break the limit of the human body and reach or even surpass the level of fierce men like Xiang Yu and Li Cunxiao.

The third kind of guidance law is mainly to increase life span, immunity, and intelligence. After Richard's systematic calculation, this kind of guidance can make people live to about 120 years old at most, and intelligence is calculated according to the attributes of the Motera world, which can be increased by 1-2 points, and the maximum does not exceed 14 points.

All three kinds of guidance were taught to Guo Rong by Richard. Guo Rong's final choice was not unexpected, and he chose to practice the third kind of guidance. As long as everything is normal and there is no disease or disaster, he can live at least 80 or 90 years old. If he is in good health, he can even live to 100 years old.

As for the remaining two kinds of guidance, Guo Rong did not waste them, but selected orphans and trained them personally.

After decades of war, the world was in decline, leaving many orphans. Guo Rong specially asked people to bring the orphans back and adopted them personally. He taught these orphans to read and write, martial arts, and loyalty from a young age. When they grew up to eleven or twelve years old, he began to teach these children the art of guiding.

Most of these people were taught the first kind of guiding, and only a very few people with extraordinary talents were taught the second kind of guiding. The third kind of guiding was also taught very little.

Guo Rong was already cultivating the foundation of the royal family. Some of these people would serve as guards of the royal family, and the other part would serve as generals. As for those smart people who practiced the third kind of guiding, they would serve as think tanks or internal ministers of the royal family.

Guo Rong even formed a royal caravan. In the future, the royal family no longer needed to offer royal items from all over the country, but would purchase them with royal merchants. At the same time, the royal family also formed a caravan, and its income would also be filled into the Shaofu. Of course, Guo Rong also set an example and let the royal merchants pay taxes on their own initiative.

In addition to making money, the caravan also collects intelligence from all over the country for the royal family and understands the living conditions of the people in various places.

Richard checked Guo Rong's body. After learning the guiding technique, all the hidden injuries left by the war on his body have disappeared. His body has recovered and he has abundant experience.

The Zhou Kingdom will not change for at least the next thirty to fifty years. If the court can be stable for a long time, these systems will stabilize.

"It is known that 500 people transport 5,000 stones of grain and grass. The team walks 60 miles a day and needs 4 stones of grain every day. How far can this team go at most?"

"It is known that a piece of land is a square field, which is 127 feet long and 33 feet wide. How many acres is this square field?"

"It is known that the front line lacks 100,000 grain and grass. Specifically, the nearest granary is 500 miles away. Please calculate how to safely and least wastefully transport these grain and grass to the front line within 30 days of defeat?"

On March 20, the first imperial examination after Richard reformed the imperial examination began in Kaifeng City. This time the exam is divided into ten subjects, including Mingjing (Four Books and Five Classics), Criminal Law, Engineering, Agriculture, Mathematics, and Natural Science.

The exam lasts for five days, and the imperial examination does not require scholars to take all the subjects. However, you must be careful to choose the subject you apply for, because if you apply for the wrong subject, you can only wait for the next time to change it.

And the subject you take has a lot to do with their future. If you insist on studying the Four Books and Five Classics, you can basically only work in the Ministry of Rites until you die.

According to the court system, the imperial examination is held every three years, and the number of people admitted at a time is about 100. After completing the provincial examination, the next step is the palace examination. Only those who have passed the provincial examination can participate in the palace examination.

And the palace examination is usually not dismissed, but it will be divided into the first, second and third class.

Richard and Guo Rong still attach great importance to this first imperial examination. Not only did they personally send people to supervise, but Guo Rong also served as the chief examiner, and the scholars of this session were also called the emperor's disciples.

At the same time, after Richard's reform, the imperial examination became more standardized. Because a large number of natural sciences, mathematics, criminal law, etc. were added, the answers to the imperial examination were also fixed. There will be no so-called eight-part model.

After all, subjects such as mathematics are not like the Four Books and Five Classics, where there is no fixed answer. Here, right is right, and wrong is wrong.

A few days later, with the end of the palace examination, the first imperial examination after the Zhou Dynasty reform finally came to an end. Although this reform was rushed, it still gained a lot of talents.

After passing the examination, these scholars would first go to the Administrative Council to study government affairs for one or two years, and then be transferred to the local areas. The system of the Zhou Dynasty was that officials who came from the imperial examination had to start from the local areas. If they wanted to enter the Administrative Hall, they had to have experience in managing the local areas.

Guo Rong believed that prime ministers started from prefectures and counties, and fierce generals came from the army.

So if you want to enter the Administrative Hall to be a prime minister, you must go to the prefectures and counties.

After the reform of the imperial examination system, a large number of subjects were added, but Richard was not worried that the difficulty of the imperial examination would be increased and the number of candidates would be reduced. Since ancient times, there have been many people willing to participate in the imperial examination.

In history, the imperial examination system started from the Tang Dynasty and lasted for more than a thousand years until the end of the Qing Dynasty. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the imperial examination had completely changed.

After a large number of scholars rolled up their papers, they almost studied the Four Books and Five Classics and the annotations of great Confucian scholars, and almost all kinds of examination questions had been asked.

At this time, in order to make questions for the imperial examination, the examiners even came up with the so-called "collection of sentences" and "intersection questions". It means that the two words "upper, lower, and middle" are not the same as the title, and the candidates are required to answer the true meaning of Confucianism.

For example, the sentence "Learning and practicing it from time to time, isn't it a pleasure!" should be answered with "not" as the title, and the candidates are required to answer the true meaning of Confucianism according to this word.

This kind of imperial examination is no longer selecting talents for the country. It is purely to eliminate more people and to set questions for the sake of setting questions. There is no logic at all.

After seeing the successful implementation of the imperial examination system, Richard began to establish the Royal Academy of Sciences, which was responsible for researching various cutting-edge knowledge, and the scholars in it would also be awarded titles.

Since Richard came to this world, he naturally wanted to leave something for this world.

He knew very well that those extraordinary powers would eventually disappear and hide in the secular world, and technology would be the ultimate future.

Naturally, Guo Rong would pay attention to the development of science and technology.

Hexi Corridor.

Along with the court's westward expedition, news about the Hexi region was also sent over. At this time, Buddhism in the Hexi region had begun to decline, and the Dashi religion on the other side began to rise. In fact, almost all of Central Asia at that time had already believed in the Dashi religion, and the original Buddhism, Nestorianism, and Zoroastrianism had already shown their presence.

The Zhou Dynasty's army appeared in the west and re-entered Hexi, bringing hope to the people here. In particular, the continuous influx of materials and population from the Central Plains began to rebuild Hexi.

Hexi was also a populous area in the Tang Dynasty. For example, Liangzhou was governed by Guzang at that time and had four counties under its jurisdiction, including Shenniao, Tianbao, Changsong, and Jialin. At the beginning, there were 500,000 acres of fertile land in Guzang alone. At the same time, Liangzhou was a half-farming and half-grazing model. In its heyday, there were 300,000 cattle and sheep and tens of thousands of people.

Although the other four counties were not as good as Guzang, they also had 200,000 to 300,000 fertile fields and more than 100,000 herds. Liangzhou could easily support 500,000 people.

During the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, Liangzhou was the station of the Hexi Jiedushi, with more than 70,000 soldiers and 20,000 war horses. It was an important force to defend against the Turks and Khitans. But after Zhou conquered Liangzhou, the population of Liangzhou was only 300,000, and the original fertile land of more than one million mu was only 400,000 mu.

Why did the cultivated land decrease so much? On the one hand, it was because the Huihe people were not good at farming and turned the farmland into grassland. On the other hand, the Huihe people were not good at repairing water conservancy, and the various water conservancy projects left by the former Tang Dynasty were basically damaged.

The irrigation of water conservancy was damaged, so the area of ​​farmland here continued to decrease.

In addition to these problems, there is also a problem of climate change, but Liangzhou is not bad. After occupying Liangzhou, the court of the Great Zhou Dynasty began to repair water conservancy again, and at the same time ordered that the trunks of trees should not be cut down, and only branches could be cut down for firewood.

At the same time, the court began to promote the use of coal briquettes.

After Li Chongjin and Han Tong wiped out the Huihe people, the court sent officials here to re-establish the five counties of Liangzhou and adopt a semi-nomadic and semi-cultivating model.

Because of the importance of the Hexi Corridor, the court planned to set up 16 Zhechongfu and 16,000 soldiers in the Hexi Corridor.

At this time, most of the military supplies for the Western Expedition were transported from the rear. The journey to the West was long, and the court had been preparing for a long time to prepare enough food and grass.

The convoy stopped outside Guzang City. Since it was escorted by the army, the convoy stopped directly at the military station.

At this time, Liangzhou City had regained some prosperity. There was already a horse market in the north of the city, and nearby herdsmen would come to trade.

It's spring now, and there are very few people selling livestock. They mainly sell various dairy products and furs in exchange for some food. Winter has just passed and many herdsmen no longer have much food. In addition to food, tea and salt are very popular here.

Seeing the arrival of an army, these herdsmen were not afraid and came one after another with dairy products, furs, and medicinal materials to sell. These herdsmen have been forcibly organized into households, and even their clothes, hairstyles, and customs have begun to be Chineseized.

Richard did not impose any mandatory requirements on these herdsmen, but he asked local officials to formulate many regulations, such as speaking Chinese, wearing Han clothes, and getting some preferential treatment when they come to trade.

For example, if you can enter in advance, you can pay less tax. Although the discount is not high, it is enough for the impoverished herdsmen to voluntarily integrate into the Han ethnic group.

The officer ordered the soldiers to stop the herdsmen, but instead of driving them away, they allowed them to trade on the periphery. After all, the army would also purchase some supplies as supplements.

Some royal merchants who came with the army came forward to greet them.

"What kind of leather is this?" Guo Jue stopped in front of a herdsman.

The herdsmen couldn't tell which tribe they belonged to, because they wore Han Chinese clothes, had Han Chinese hair styles, and even spoke in Chinese, but with a strong accent. This surprised him. He didn't expect that Chinese culture was implemented so well here.

"Snow wolf, this wolf has just gone through the winter. He must have become evil. He ran into the sheep pen at night and got stuck on the fence. I beat him to death with a stick."

"How much?"

The herdsman's eyes flashed, and he opened his mouth and said: "Two pieces of money!"

As if he was worried about scaring people away, he also said: "There are no wounds on this wolf skin. It is definitely the best leather. Look, this fur is much more comfortable to touch."

Guo Jue was surprised when he heard such a cheap price. He immediately checked the fur carefully, and after confirming that there was no damage to the fur, he immediately said: "Although this fur is good, it is still a bit expensive."

In the end, after some negotiation and bargaining, I bought the leather for a total of nine hundred yuan.

Guo Jue did not forget his mission. He put away the leather and asked casually: "Which tribe are you from?"

The herdsman laughed and said: "What kind of tribes are there now? We belong to Shihezi Township, and the herdsmen are organized into Baojia according to the number of households. All the previous leaders were killed by the government, and the pastures left behind were allotted to us by the government. My family also I got a share, not only two horses but also a dozen sheep and five acres of land.”

"The government also said that the first three years will be tax-free, and the tax will not start until next year. The tax is not high, just two sheep per household."

ps: I’m too tired today, so I’ll just update.