Time flew by, and ten days passed quickly. All the battalion leaders gathered in the meeting hall of the Jiedushi Mansion, waiting for Xiao Jingxuan's military order.
Xiao Jingxuan circulated the imperial edict to all the camp leaders, and after letting the generals read the contents of the edict, they began to let everyone speak freely.
Among the generals, Qi Biao was the most angry. After reading the imperial edict, he immediately became furious.
"Commander, the imperial court is so indifferent to right from wrong. We have worked so hard to achieve such great achievements, so forget it without reward. They even want to abolish us. I will not accept it."
As soon as Qi Biao finished speaking, the other generals began to agree. Especially Yang Xiong and Zhou Tong were the most noisy.
Seeing the generals in the audience making a fuss, Xiao Jingxuan just watched quietly without saying a word.
Perhaps sensing Xiao Jingxuan's dissatisfaction, the noisy voices in the entire meeting hall gradually became quieter.
After the meeting hall was completely quiet, Xiao Jingxuan patted the table and said sternly: "Say, why don't you say it, um..."
Seeing that all the generals lowered their heads, Xiao Jingxuan slowed down his tone.
"Everyone, why do we join the army? It is to protect our country and not to rebel. Now I am announcing a military order.
The cavalry battalions will not be replenished for the time being and will be trained with the current manpower.
As for the infantry battalions, except for the officers and the center troops of each battalion, the rest of the soldiers went to the local areas to participate in farming.
As for the defense of each army's garrison, it is temporarily the responsibility of the Chinese army of each battalion. During the period of garrison, the officers of each battalion must not slack off and must be trained strictly."
After Xiao Jingxuan finished speaking, he saw that the generals were silent and said angrily: "Did you hear that?"
When the generals saw Xiao Jingxuan getting angry, they had no choice but to stand out and said in unison: "The last general takes orders."
After seeing these people taking orders one after another, Xiao Jingxuan sighed and began to comfort the generals.
"Everyone, even if there is no imperial edict, I plan to allocate some manpower for farming in the near future.
Fan Yang now has almost 500,000 households and a population of only about 2 million. However, how many troops do we have? 120,000. This does not include the patrol camps in various places, the local government officials, the police officers, and the civil servants.
This year is good. We have robbed a lot of supplies from the barbarians, but the losses to the army are not small. Do you know how much money it costs just to provoke them?
There are also various places to open up wasteland and build city walls. Which one doesn't cost money? Everyone, Fan Yang really doesn't have so much money and food.
Therefore, disarmament is imperative. However, although the soldiers of each battalion have gone to work in the fields, the training of each battalion must not stop. It may even be harder than the previous training.
When the imperial examination is over, I will definitely enter the capital, and you are my talisman in the capital."
After hearing Xiao Jingxuan's heartfelt confession, all the generals were silent. Xiao Jingxuan walked down from the commander's seat, came to the generals, and patted several generals on the shoulders.
"Don't worry, as long as you get through this year, the situation next year will be very different. I promise."
After appeasing the generals, Xiao Jingxuan continued to be busy with government affairs.
However, at this time, the master supervisor, Chen Qinian, the scribe promoted by Xiao Jingxuan, brought good news to Xiao Jingxuan.
That is, the hydraulic lathe was finally completed, and at the same time, the metal proportions of the coins were also found by many blacksmiths.
This is really good news. Xiao Jingxuan looked at the few coins in his hand and was filled with joy.
The styles of these coins are similar. The front is engraved with the four characters "Heaven, Earth, Xuanhuang", and the reverse is engraved with a peony flower. The whole coin looks very exquisite.
Playing with the coins in his hand, Xiao Jingxuan looked at the clerk in front of him.
"Yes, I am very satisfied that you can do this well in such a short period of time. In this way, I will go to the court and ask for a title for you. In addition, from today on, you will be the supervisor.
The young prisoner."
"I will take my orders."
“What is the yield of these coins?”
"Sir, at present, we only have one workshop and can only produce 10,000 copper coins per day. There are currently no dedicated workshops for silver coins and gold coins."
After hearing what Chen Qinian said, Xiao Jingxuan frowned and said: "It's not enough. Let's do this. You select a group of workers from the craftsmen, and then I will select a group of workers from the prisoners for you. The output must be increased.
As for security, for the time being I will dispatch a group of manpower to protect the minting work. I will also arrange manpower to build the new mint."
"Yes, after the official returns, he will make arrangements immediately and strive to complete the tasks assigned by the Lord as soon as possible."
"Well, step back."
Afterwards, Xiao Jingxuan asked Zhao Gang and his personal guard Lei Ben to be called. Zhao Gang asked Zhao Gang to arrange a group of secret guards to go to the mint to take charge of internal defense. As for Lei Ben, Xiao Jingxuan asked him to select a group of people from the personal guard camp.
Responsible for perimeter security.
However, the mint had to re-select a location. Originally, Xiao Jingxuan thought that the development of coins would take a long time, so he did not make arrangements in advance. Now it seems that this is no longer possible.
Xiao Jingxuan plans to arrange the location of the mint near Yulin Academy. It can be said to be the safest place in Yingzhou, and there is a water source not far away, making it convenient to build a waterwheel.
However, for safety, a small acropolis still had to be built. Thinking of this, Xiao Jingxuan asked Wei Ming to be called to make unified arrangements.
The coin minting matter has made progress, which makes Xiao Jingxuan very satisfied.
As the day approached, the imperial examination also began.
Although the imperial examination was limited to Fan Yang, it attracted many children from poor families outside Fan Yang.
Although at present, after the imperial examination, those who succeed can only serve as assistant officers of the eighth or ninth grade, but this is after all, entering the official career.
Because of concerns about insufficient number of students, the exams in each prefecture and county are very simple. Anyone who has a little knowledge of hundreds of schools can basically pass the exam.
Only the Yingzhou Scientific Examination personally hosted by Xiao Jingxuan is the most important level in selecting talents.
In order to ensure fairness, Xiao Jingxuan needs to go through all the test papers in person.
Of course, this is because the test papers are not very relevant. Moreover, Xiao Jingxuan does intend to pass the imperial examination to find some suitable talents.
As the examinations in various prefectures and counties ended, many officials participating in the next competition came to Yingzhou one after another.
In order to ensure that these officials can take the exam with peace of mind, Xiao Jingxuan arranged for people to rent several large inns in Yingzhou to accommodate these students.
At the same time, Xiao Jingxuan also placed the examination venue at Yulin Academy. In order to keep the examination room quiet, Xiao Jingxuan also planned to give the students of Yulin Academy a few days of vacation before and after the examination.
Soon, the day of the exam arrived. In the exam room that was temporarily requisitioned by Yulin Academy, Xiao Jingxuan sat at the top of the table.
Under the steps were big cases one after another. The students leaned on the cases and began to answer the questions.
The exam was not long, it started at 1:00 p.m. and ended at 3:00 p.m. ET.
After all the students had handed in their examination papers, Xiao Jingxuan sat at the head of the class and started grading the examination papers.
More than five hundred examination papers, to be honest, are still quite a lot, but there is no way. Now, the political situation in Fan Yangde is a bit abnormal, and Xiao Jingxuan is not willing to hand over the right to select talents to his subordinates for the time being.
However, when Xiao Jingxuan spent a night and read all the test papers, he was still a little disappointed.
Because the entire test paper did not reveal any outstanding talents. Moreover, among the more than 500 test papers, after Xiao Jingxuan read them, he eliminated almost 300 test papers.
There are less than 200 students left to be admitted. In order to encourage these people, Xiao Jingxuan also plans to publish the imperial list to encourage these admitted students.
Parading on horseback, shouting congratulations, singing songs, being as vain as possible. In short, it is all about making these scholars feel worthwhile.
Among the more than one hundred students admitted, children from poor families accounted for less than half, about thirty people. Although compared to the total number of admitted students, it was not a lot.
However, Xiao Jingxuan knows that only these children from poor families are his strongest supporters in the future.
In fact, the children of wealthy families don't have much expectations for becoming an official through the imperial examination, because they can enter the official career through recommendation.
But the difference is that from a poor family, no matter how talented you are, without the recommendation of a wealthy family, their best way out is to work as a staff member. In order to make a living, some people even have to work as a bookkeeper in a shop.
For these admitted students, Xiao Jingxuan did not rush to appoint these people to official positions. Instead, he first sent these people to various houses to observe government. After these people became familiar with some of the rules of Fanyang officialdom, they were then sent to various prefectures and counties to serve as assistant officials.
.
Now that the imperial examination has ended, Xiao Jingxuan's time to return to Beijing is getting closer and closer.
As for returning to Beijing, Xiao Jingxuan is actually not disgusted. With his current achievements, those wealthy and aristocratic families should not dare to embarrass him too much.
However, it is only limited to government affairs. In private, I don’t know if the spiritual master will take action to kill him.
Now that I am only in the Xiantian realm, I can at most fight against masters of the Divine Realm, but I may not be able to escape from their hands.
I have to make some preparations, and I don't know if Liang Guogong has any backup plans.
However, when you reach the realm of divine connection, all conspiracies and tricks no longer work. No matter how many tricks you devise, the enemy will defeat them.
Moreover, I am afraid that I will not be able to return to Fan Yang in the short term when I return to Beijing. I still need to make more arrangements, otherwise, there may be some variables.
Perhaps the Duke of Guo, who was far away in the capital, knew about his difficulties. Soon, the Duke's office received a letter from the capital and gave Xiao Jingxuan advice.
When I opened the letter, I saw that it said that Xiao Jingxuan was getting married again. With Xiao Jingxuan's achievements, he was naturally highly appreciated by the wealthy family.
Therefore, the Dugu family, which has always had a tradition of marriage, extended an olive branch and wanted to marry Xiao Jingxuan.
Moreover, the Dugu family was very sincere this time. First of all, they betrothed the eldest daughter of the family to Xiao Jingxuan.
At the same time, I am willing to let the ancestor of the Tongshen Realm in my family guide Xiao Jingxuan and help Xiao Jingxuan enter the Tongshen Realm as soon as possible.
In addition, as an exception, the children born to Xiao Jingxuan and the Dugu family are allowed to have the inheritance rights of the head of the Dugu family.
After seeing the conditions of the Dugu family in the letter, I have to say that whether it is true or false, it is very tempting.
In the end, I still need to think more about it. This chapter has been completed!