Chapter 1169 Connections

Chapter 1169 Connections

Chapter 1169 Connections
On the evening of the third day of May, Bian Xu and more than a dozen followers stayed at Guandu Posthouse in Zhongmou County.

As a water and land hub, Guandu Posthouse has a large scale and is said to have been rebuilt from an abandoned manor.

Before entering the post station, Bian Xu looked at the post station with green bricks and black tiles and sighed.

It can be seen that the original owner cherished this manor very much. Although it was not big enough, he spent a lot of money on it. However, after the war broke out, he had no choice but to give it up.

Perhaps there is an even worse possibility, that the manor owner and his entire family died. After all, Xingyang was once the site of a tug-of-war between the Jin and the Huns.

After expressing his feelings, Bian Xu entered the post station, but found that there were only two rooms left, so he stayed in one, while a dozen other people shared one room.

After everything was cleaned up, we went to the jujube tree in the yard to eat.

The post station had a dining room, but it was occupied by a group of people having a banquet. Perhaps they had drunk too much, so the noise was a little loud and Bian Xu could hear it clearly.

"Daoji was only good at archery, horse riding, spear and club in the past, but I didn't expect that he could master both classics. It's really amazing." Someone said with a thick tongue.

“Zuo Zhuan and Book of Rites are not difficult. I read them when I was a child.” The man called “Dao Ji” laughed.

"I heard that a new method was used to test the scriptures?" someone else asked.

"That's right." Dao Ji said, "Two years ago, the Imperial College held its first scripture test. At that time, I chose the Zuo Zhuan. There were a total of 20 questions, which was said to be the test method designated by the emperor. Ten questions were called 'Tie Jing' and ten were called 'Mo Yi'. If you answered six questions correctly, you could become a 'disciple'."

The so-called "posting scriptures" is actually filling in the blanks, that is, picking out a passage at random and asking you to fill in the missing part.

"Mo Yi" requires you to explain your understanding of a certain passage of the original text.

"However, in this exam, there is no saying that one can be appointed as an official just by answering a certain number of questions correctly." Dao Ji added, "In fact, it depends on how many officials the court wants to select. It starts with the person who answered the most questions correctly and selects the next one by one. This time, the Imperial College selected a total of 16 people, which is not a lot."

"It doesn't matter how many questions these sixteen people answer correctly?"

"How can it be so easy?" Dao Ji said with a smile, "Tie Jing and Mo Yi must answer at least six questions correctly. As far as I know, the sixteenth place answered eight questions correctly, but that's it for him."

"I see."

"Only a few dozen people took the test, and sixteen officials were selected."

"Of the sixteen official positions, the literary masters are okay, but the county doctors and county doctors are not so good."

"Daoji, this guy looks down on the county doctor, you should beat him up."

"Haha. The Jing family's ancestral home is in Xingyang, which is only a few dozen miles away from Zhongmu. It can be said that we can stay at home at ease. Daoji, the doctor of Zhongmu County, is actually quite good. It is much better than going on a long journey."

"You are right." Jing Daoji laughed and said, "As a county doctor teaching students, I have a lot of free time. I have already started reviewing the Mao Shi, and in two years I will be able to master the Three Classics."

Tai students are a relatively special group.

When they first entered school, they were called "disciples". After two years, they passed the test of one classic and became "disciples". After another two years, they passed the test of two classics. At this time, they could be appointed as officials. But even if they became officials, they were still Taixue students. After serving as officials for two years, they could take the in-service examination and pass the test of three classics.

However, those who are not Tai students do not have such a good thing. Even if he has become an official, he cannot take the test of scriptures - to be precise, military students can also take the test of scriptures, but at present, not everyone can do so, and the emperor's approval is required.

A group of people inside were drinking and talking loudly, and Bian Xu was extremely surprised when he heard them outside.

He could see that the people drinking at the post station were not from high-class families. Most of them didn't even have any family background. They were just local tycoons. Only the son of the Jing family might be from a noble family.

But none of this matters. What matters is that students can become officials?
This path theoretically exists, as early as the Cao Wei period, but there are very few people who can actually follow this path and use it as a stepping stone to advance their careers.

The Shaoliang Dynasty seemed to be different. Not only did they grant 16 official positions at once, but it also seemed like they were going to make it a custom? This was very "scary".

Once it becomes a custom and has a tradition, it becomes a legitimate way to go.

The examination is conducted every two years, and officials are granted in batches. After a long time, there is really no going back.

The key is that everything depends on the test results, which reduces the discretion of officials in the Ministry of Personnel. In this way, the power of the Minister of Personnel and the left and right ministers of the Ministry of Personnel has become smaller, because the selection of some officials can no longer be decided by them.

They used to be military students, and now they are Taixue students. The change is so huge that Bian Xu almost didn't recognize the Shaoliang Dynasty that was born out of the Jin Dynasty. In the eyes of Bian Xu, who was born in Jiangnan, the change was extremely huge, but in the eyes of northerners, the issue of Taixue students becoming officials was mentioned many years ago, and the custom was formed step by step. They were in a state of boiling frogs in warm water and did not feel how drastic the change was. Moreover, the practice of Taixue students taking exams and even becoming officials began in Cao Wei, and Sima Jin followed suit. The continued development of Shaoliang was reasonable and not abrupt at all.

That's the difference in perspective.

Bian Xu thought about it for a long time and felt that the fact that Tai students became officials would have an impact on the aristocratic families, but the impact would not be that great.

To be honest, if we really compare the skills, the children of the gentry are not necessarily worse, and may even be better. After all, not everyone is accepted into the Imperial Academy, and one must have some basic knowledge to be able to enter. This is the advantage of the gentry, especially those who have inherited cultural heritage.

Emperor Liang must have expected this outcome, right? But he didn't seem to care much? Or did he only care about forming such a rule and a system?
This person has a very deep mind and many tricks.

******
On the sixth day of May, the boat that Bian Xu was on had passed Yanshi County, and Luoyang was in sight in the distance.

At noon, in order to avoid the grain boats, the trackers pulled the boat loaded with ironware, white porcelain and travelers into a nearby pond.

Bian Xu stood at the bow of the boat, looking at the nearby shore, which seemed to be the military territory.

At the end of the post road in the distance, a team appeared.

As if a bolt of thunder suddenly struck, the villages and fortresses suddenly came alive.

The young man who was sharpening his sickle by the well suddenly jumped out. The woman who was picking vegetables in the field straightened her clothes, hurriedly washed her hands, and then smoothed her hair. A charming blush appeared on her wheat-colored face.

The old man was carrying a bundle of firewood, standing by the roadside and looking into the distance.

The old woman walked out of the chicken coop, put her hands on the awning, and stared with her cloudy eyes, carefully identifying her son who had been away at the war for more than half a year.

"Finally they're back." Someone laughed loudly, "The people from Qianjin Longxiong Mansion came back three days ago."

At the market outside the military fortress, the merchants walked up to the donkey carts with smiles on their faces, took out the more expensive goods, and placed them on the stalls.

They had just moved from Qianjin Mansion to Corpse Town in order to earn money from the soldiers who had returned from the battle.

Of course, it’s not just about selling goods. The soldiers in the palace often have a lot of good things hidden in their hands, and they are eager to sell them for money. This is a good time to bargain down.

Bian Xu's attention was attracted by a school built against the wall of the military government.

The school was not big, with less than twenty children studying. At this moment, there was a slight commotion and they were looking around.

Bian Xu was not interested in anything else but was amazed by this private school.

The wealthy and powerful families have their own private schools, which are usually taught by children of the same family, and the students are also members of the clan, so the cost is actually not small.

School buildings, teaching aids, tuition fees, etc., the most expensive of which are teaching aids.

The hemp paper that seems to be crudely made by people today would have been extremely expensive at that time, and even the children of the gentry might not be able to afford it.

Even until the end of the Jin Dynasty, when the price of paper had dropped a lot, it was still very expensive, as can be seen from the extensive use of bamboo slips and wooden tablets by the government. During the Cao Wei period, jute paper was occasionally used to write imperial edicts, which shows how rare it was.

Bian Xu had seen a historical record in his family's collection, which cost thousands of bamboo slips and could almost be considered a family heirloom.

In such a situation, even merchants and wealthy families in the Han and Wei dynasties could not necessarily afford to read or had the means to read books. The situation improved during the Jin Dynasty because the price of paper dropped compared to the Cao Wei period, but it was still not optimistic.

It is now the sixth year of Kaiping in the Shaoliang Dynasty. The price of hemp paper has been falling again and again. Fewer and fewer people use bamboo slips and wooden slips. Rattan paper with better quality has begun to emerge...

Perhaps, it was changes like these that greatly reduced the cost of studying, to the point that even military governments could run schools.

I just don't know how the Liang people solved the problem of books. They couldn't rely on hand copying, right? That would never allow more people to read books.

A series of "rustling" sounds woke Bian Xu up from his thoughts.

He looked up and saw the twenty children running out of the school, shouting and yelling, heading towards the post road to see their fathers and brothers.

There seemed to be more than a thousand soldiers in a military mansion? But only so many children came to school.

In addition to spending too much money and having one less person to do the housework, the uselessness of studying may also be a reason that cannot be ignored.

Does the world really need so many scholars? Not necessarily.

There are enough sons of scholars who can read and write official documents to fill official positions, and there are even enough surpluses to fill some county clerks, but some people may not be willing to do so.

With manors and fortresses everywhere, there is no need for so many businessmen who can write and do accounting.

People are not stupid. It is useless to study for only a few years. It is useful to study for more than ten years, twenty or thirty years, but it does not necessarily lead to a career. It would be ridiculous if you still farm at home in the end.

The connection is the key.

Simply put, you have to use these people who can read, write and do accounting, and you have to let them taste the sweetness.

It doesn’t matter to the gentry to cultivate a useless scholar. The money is spent and they can afford it. But what about ordinary people?

The government soldiers should be relatively wealthy - Bian Xu turned his head to look at the carriages loaded with all kinds of valuables on the post road - but supporting an "idler" is also a big burden for them, not to mention providing pens, ink, paper and inkstone. If it is of no use in the end, naturally no one will come to study, even if a school has been built.

Perhaps this is the main reason why only twenty children out of more than a thousand households of soldiers go to school.

Bian Xu suddenly seemed to have figured out some problems.

The military schools, county schools, prefecture schools, Imperial College and Imperial Academy are closely linked to each other.

The Imperial Academy and the Imperial College provided opportunities for non-aristocratic scholars, allowing them to see the hope of studying and becoming an official, which naturally led to the rise of official and private schools.

But this is still not enough. You have to find a way for them. Even if they cannot become officials, they can go to the county or township to work as clerks. If they cannot be clerks, they have to provide other means of livelihood, and they have to earn much more than farming.

Otherwise, the money would be wasted.

But no matter what, Bian Xu still saw the positive side.

Shao Xun set up many government troops and after the country gradually settled down, the number of scholars in the world increased year by year.

And he was also observing carefully, slowly adjusting major policies and guiding them in order to achieve his goals.

The scenery in the north is indeed different.

(End of this chapter)