In March of the 16th year of Zhengtong, the new imperial examination system was announced to the world.

The new imperial examination system is still divided into five levels: college entrance examination, government examination, provincial examination, imperial examination, and palace examination.

However, the exam content has undergone earth-shaking changes.

In addition to the traditional Four Books and Five Classics, the first batch of published reference books have added nine parts: "Zhoufeng Arithmetic", "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic", "Lingxian", "Kaiyuan Zhan Jing", "Qimin Yaoshu", "Gan Shixing Jing", "Huangdi Nei Jing", "Mo Jing", and "Mengxi Bi Tan".

At first, Zhu Qizhen's idea was to directly define the examination content as "Yongle Encyclopedia", but the Yongle Encyclopedia has a total of more than 22,800 volumes, which is too many.

After day and night screening, and considering that the students had limited time, the above nine parts were finally selected, which basically included arithmetic, medicine, astronomy, geography, architecture, engineering, etc.

Even though it has been simplified as much as possible, the students still complained.

I have been studying hard since I was a child, and I have read the Four Books and Five Classics. If I go to see other things, I will be said to be strange skills and incompetent and not doing my job properly.

Now that I’m fine, a large number of books with strange skills and erotic skills have been added, and they are even more important than the Four Books and Five Classics.

The imperial edict has been issued, and it is useless to complain. I can only sharpen my guns in the face of battle and make up for it overnight.

The questions in the college entrance examination are relatively simple. After all, it is too difficult and no one can do it.

When the students came to the examination room, they even had a curious attitude, and the exam questions were very complicated, such as the Nine-Nine Mantra Table, Pythagorean Theorem, the causes of the sun, the lunar eclipse, the relationship between solar terms and farming, etc. All kinds of novel knowledge are dazzling.

However, when answering questions, I feel much happier than eight-legged essays.

Because this method is simple and clear, if you know, you know, if you don’t know, you don’t have to rack your brains to quote the scriptures, and you also have to make words on behalf of the saints.

As the college entrance examination was over, I arrived at the provincial examination in a blink of an eye, and the subject of the child was the subject of the scholar.

This time, the test questions have become significantly more difficult.

It turns out that not everyone can accept these new things.

Especially those old Tongsheng and old scholars who were old and still failed many times in imperial examinations and failed repeatedly, were the first to be unable to hold on and break the defense.

On the streets of Nanjing, an old boy with gray hair rushed out of the examination room.

"The state is based on Confucianism, practices the way of a gentleman, advocates virtue, and governs the country with benevolence and filial piety. Today's imperial examinations promote strange skills and tricks. Students do not cultivate virtue, rather than knowing honor and disgrace, and benevolent. They like the virtue of a gentleman, which is actually a move of forgetting their ancestors! In the long run, if all officials do not cultivate virtue and the people do not know etiquette, they will be out of order, and the internal and external disorder will arise and the country will be overthrown!"

Behind him, several officers who maintained order followed out in a hurry.

"Quick, hurry up, catch it!"

These words are really a bit over. Almost all cursing the new imperial examination can be considered as a rebellion.

"Let me go, there are treacherous slanders in the country, and there are treacherous slanders in the country!"

Several officers hurriedly tied up the person and dragged him away.

…………

Capital, Forbidden City.

Zhu Qiyu and Cao Nai came to the imperial study together.

"Ah, are you all here?"

Zhu Qizhen had just returned from outside, and his hands were covered with dust. Huai'en hurried to fetch water to serve the emperor to wash his face.

Behind him was there, and Belin from the Imperial Heavenly Prison, was also covered in dust.

"Your Majesty, the issue of airtightness must be resolved as soon as possible, otherwise it will be difficult to carry out the follow-up work!"

"I know, didn't I collapsed just now and covered in dust?"

While washing their faces, the two were still discussing the issue of the steam engine. Moreover, they didn't finish talking, as if they forgot that King Hui and the Prime Minister of the Cabinet were still waiting.

Zhu Qiyu couldn't help but take advantage of the time when the two of them were drinking water and hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, all regions have summarized the results of the government test, please check it out!"

"The results of the government test have come out?"

Zhu Qizhen then picked up the memorial and glanced at it, as if quite surprised.

I thought that everyone would definitely need an adaptation process for the new imperial examination. The first year or even the first three years can be regarded as a transition period, so that all students in the world can slowly have a buffer time.

However, unexpectedly, the result of this time's domestic examination was that those who won the fame of scholars were 30% higher than in previous years.

Zhu Qizhen thought for a while and said, "Are the college exam questions too simple? Where is Yu Qian, is Yu Qian here?"

Cao Nai said: "Back to the emperor, Yu Qian is now the leader of the provincial examination question setting group. Before the provincial examination questions are announced, there is no special situation and you cannot leave the tribute school."

"Yes, yes, why did I forget this!"

Zhu Qizhen then remembered that Yu Qian, the team leader, was appointed by him personally to prepare for the provincial examination three months later.

The provincial examination is a scholar exam, which is already a relatively important event.

Under the new imperial examination system, everyone is moving forward through exploration. Zhu Qizhen only trusts Yu Qian, so he asked him to take on this responsibility.

In addition to Yu Qian, Belin is the one who is good at natural science.

"Belly, have you read the college exam questions?"

Belin replied: "Go back to the emperor and have read a few copies."

There are naturally more than one test question for the college entrance examination, but the content is similar. The question set mainly controls the difficulty of the questions, and requires that all test papers be almost the same.

"How do you think it's hard?"

"It's not difficult, it just feels very complicated, astronomy, geography, literature, history, arithmetic, and a wide coverage."

"Then do you think the questions are much simpler than the previous college examinations?"

"If you go back to the emperor, it is not only not simpler than the previous college examination questions, but it is difficult!"

"Oh?" Zhu Qizhen suddenly became interested, "How do you say this?"

Zhu Qiyu and Cao Nai were also puzzled and waited for Belin to continue talking.

Belin said: "Although the questions in the past were also eight-part essays, examiners had to consider the difficulty and depth of the question. They usually look for some simple and easy-to-understand words in the Four Books and Five Classics, which are nothing more than learning, benevolence and politics, etiquette, etc. These questions are already familiar. You only need to prepare a few sample essays before the exam and write them down when the time comes. As long as the theme of the essay does not deviate too much, you can roughly pass it."

Zhu Qizhen understood that because the difficulty of the imperial examination will increase step by step, in order to retain the difficulty of the provincial examination, in order to maintain the difficulty of the imperial examination, in the selection of questions in the college examination and the government examination stage, we can only choose some simple and simple words and sentences.

And these contents have basically been used up.

Therefore, examiners can only use it repeatedly, and as candidates, they can target questions.

In fact, in the 270 years of history of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial examinations were once every four years. Not to mention the previous college examinations, government examinations, and provincial examinations, even the questions were found in the future, they could only be produced in different ways.

For example, one year's exam question was the four words "Tao cannot do the horse".

However, these four words are not just a sentence, but a pit!

This kind of question is typical when you are in the late stage of the imperial examination, you really can't find a suitable question, so you can only dig a hole in the text.

How much is the pitfall?

This sentence comes from "The Long Chapter of the Analects of Confucius", and the full text is: Confucius said, "The Tao does not work, and rides a skeleton to float in the sea. Those who follow me are the reason and what is the reason? Zilu was happy to hear it. Confucius said, "The Tao is more courageous than me and has no material to learn from."

No matter what this sentence means, the four words "Tao does not work, and the four words "Tao does not work, and the horse floats in the sea" are taken from the sentence "Tao does not work, and the horse floats in the sea". They are pieced together into four words, and have no specific meaning at all.

Then let you write me an article on this topic. This article must conform to the norms and the principles of the saints. By the way, in every format, whether it is to solve the question or to follow the question, you must conform to the norms. One word cannot be more, and one word cannot be missing!

From this, it reflects the disadvantage of winning the eight-legged essay.

Not only is the scope of the question set, but the writing format is also strictly stipulated, which will further restrict the vision of scholars.

In the early days, there was nothing to see, but as time went by, this disadvantage would become more and more obvious. Without drastic reforms, the Ming Dynasty would not be able to make progress.

Under the new imperial examination, the encyclopedia topics refresh everyone. Some people like these miscellaneous books on weekdays, but now they become the content of the exam and are suddenly in the water.

Since it was implemented in the first year, the difficulty of the questions was relatively low, so many candidates could also get good results after making up for a period of time.

After all, young people are still very capable of accepting new things.

Only those old boys who are unwilling to accept new things will feel the difficulty.

The reason why Zhu Qizhen improved the imperial examination was to replenish fresh blood to the Ming Dynasty.

As for those who cannot keep up with the times, if you should be eliminated, there is nothing to regret!

"King King Zhao, Cao Qing's family, came back and sent a letter to the students all over the world, saying that I was very pleased to see that the students were smart and eager to learn. The new policy has begun and the court is at the moment of employed people. If I have real talents and real learning, I will have to entrust important tasks! But to make it clear that what I want is the real ability to learn and apply, not the great truths that are boasting!"

Zhu Qiyu bowed and said, "My brother follows the order!"

Cao Nai was not happy and secretly thought, the previous imperial examination was just empty talk, and the new imperial examination was practical. Why do these words seem to be scolding us?

Seeing that he was stunned, Zhu Qizhen asked, "Is there any problem with Cao Qing's family?"

"Oh, no problem!"

Cao Nai hurriedly replied: "It's just that this imperial examination, some of the examination halls still had some chaos."

"What a mess?"

"Some candidates have studied hard for more than ten years, or even decades, and see that the content of the exam changes, it is difficult to accept it for a while and they speak rudely..."

"Don't worry about them!"

Zhu Qizhen waved his hand and said, "I didn't change the test questions for him. All the students have changed. Why do he have complaints? Such candidates can be handed over to the local government office for treatment!"

Cao Nai thought about it and seemed to be the reason, so he politely said: "Old minister obeys the order!"

Zhu Qizhen nodded, then stood up and walked out, and said as he walked, "We must find a skilled carpenter, first make a wooden model, and then wait until the theoretical problem is solved before further experimentation will be conducted."

Belin followed behind and said, "If you talk about carpentry skills, I recommend one."

"who?"

"Cai Xin, the head of the Ministry of Works, the emperor still remembers that when Lord Li was appointed to build the Martyrs' Temple, all the carpenters were led by Director Cai..."

The king and his ministers talked and walked towards the temporary test site.

Zhu Qiyu and Cao Nai looked at each other and thought to themselves, let’s go too!

The two of them first came to Wenhua Hall, and immediately a eunuch made tea and brought it.

Cao Nai took a sip and asked, "Your Highness, what do you think of the new imperial examination?"

Zhu Qizhen thoughtfully and said, "I have been thinking about the words that the emperor said just now. Perhaps the previous imperial examinations really restricted the development of the Ming Dynasty."

"Your Highness, the imperial examination was decided by Emperor Taizu..."

Cao Nai really wanted to remind him to be careful when speaking. Whether it is good or not, it is left by your ancestors, so don't argue it absurdly.

Zhu Qiyu shook his head and said, "When Emperor Taizu formulated the imperial examination system, the Ming Dynasty had just experienced wars and everything was booming. However, over the past century, it has long been different from the past. We are firmly holding on to the ancestral system and not looking forward to progress. Is it our own problem?"

Cao Nai was speechless for a moment, and it seemed that this was really the case.

Zhu Qiyu also said: "Looking at the 5,000-year history of China, which dynasty was not improved? Zhou Li Dynasty, Hu clothing, cavalry, Shang Yang's reforms... Not to mention the distance, just say that when Emperor Taizu conquered the world, he paid special attention to the use of firearms troops. Isn't it a kind of improvement?"

"What Your Highness said is that any system has timeliness, and we should not rely too much on the ancestral system."

"This is not what I said, it is what the emperor said. The Ming Dynasty needs to develop, and this step must be taken!"

Cao Nai nodded and said, "From the results of the new imperial examination, things are developing in a good direction, which means that we are taking the right step."

Zhu Qiyu suddenly said: "For the past few years, I have been following the footsteps of the emperor's brother. I will do whatever he says. Although I didn't understand many of his words at the beginning, now I understand that the world is changing and people are changing. Perhaps, I should change too!"

Cao Nai was puzzled: "Why did your highness say this?"

Zhu Qiyu smiled faintly and said, "I don't want to sit in the Forbidden City all the time. I also want to go out and take a look."

"Your Highness...whether is going to go?"

"The ends of the world!"

“What…what?”

Cao Nai didn't understand, what's the matter? The emperor was already crazy enough and ran away at any time. We still counted on you, why did you start to get crazy?

Can you two brothers save people some time?

Zhu Qiyu said: "Where is the southernmost end of my Ming Dynasty?"

"The southernmost...is roughly in Lianzhou."

"What about south of Lianzhou?"

"South of Lianzhou, you will enter Annan Kingdom."

"I wonder what happened to the war between Annan and Chameng?"

"His Highness of the Prince Jing'an and Princess Chameng went south and are still in the Duke of Qian's Mansion. It is said that the messenger has been sent to negotiate with Annan."

When Chameng Kingdom sent a princess to ask for help, the Ming Dynasty agreed to send troops, and led by Zhang Fu, the prince of Jing'an, headed all the way south.

The Duke of Wei, who was the garrison of Nanjing at that time, sent troops to escort to Yunnan, but did not intend to conquer Annan, and returned with his troops.
Chapter completed!