"Mr. Ambassador, Mr. Deputy Ambassador, you must have a very noble background, right? What is a knighthood? ”

In a maze of banqueting halls in the Great Palace of Hofburg, with more than 1,000 rooms, the Holy Roman Emperor was entertaining his envoys. Just when the guests and hosts were enjoying themselves, the Holy Roman Emperor, who had drunk a few more glasses, suddenly inquired about the titles of Ji Kun and Li Shaoyou, the two envoys of the Ming Dynasty.

The emperor spoke German, and one followed Fan. Koit, a thirty-four-five-year-old Swede who happened to speak German and Chinese, acted as an interpreter for the captain of the East India Company. And the Ottoman Foreign Minister Gurju was a very learned person who could also speak German and did not need to arrange a translator.

After listening to Koyt's translation, Ji Kun, who was born in a military household, didn't feel that this question made him lose face, so he replied with a smile: "Your Majesty, neither this envoy nor Deputy Envoy Li are from noble backgrounds, we are all from civilian backgrounds, and we became officials of the Ming Empire after passing the exam." ”

Li Shaoyou was not born in the imperial examination, he was born in Jinyiwei, but he studied in the Beijing Academy, and he read well, and he became a teacher, so he can be regarded as an official from the examination.

"Civilians pass exams to become officials?" The Holy Roman Emperor was very surprised, "Then what are the nobles of your country doing?" ”

Do? Eat and wait for death......

Of course, you can't say that, Ji Kun thought about it and said with a smile: "Nobles can also pass the exam to become an official or be admitted to the lecture hall to study, and become an officer after graduation." ”

"What? Both nobles and commoners take exams? "Ferdinand III seems to have taken an interest in China's imperial examination system.

"It's going to be examined...... Oh, it's okay to make meritorious service in the army, but if you want to become an officer without military merit, you still need to be admitted to the martial arts hall to study. ”

"Nobles don't have a little discount?" Emperor HRE continued to inquire.

For example, a discount, add points or something?

Ji Kun said: "The aristocracy has no preferential treatment in the official selection examination, but they have the priority to study, and the right to study civil and military, the Ming Emperor has run a martial arts hall, a Beijing school, a Taixue hall, and also opened a state government school in various state capitals (in fact, the new school in the state capital has not yet begun, and the official school is still the original set) ......"

Now Ji Kun said that what he told Emperor Shinra was the latest rules for exams.

Although Zhu Cihong was the big leader of the "Beiren Xungui Group" and the defender of the interests of the nobles, the way he defended the interests of the nobles was not to make them incompetent officials, but to open schools to train their children, and to select young people with outstanding talents among the sons and daughters of the nobles through examinations, so that they could enter the Jiangwutang and Jingxuetang to receive a higher education, and wait until they graduated from the Jiangwutang and Jingxuetang before becoming officials.

And although the Jing Academy, which trained civil officials and trick officials for the Ming Dynasty, is also a university, it is a university of two types. The former focuses on vocational training, and the latter engages in generalist education, both of which can lead to the Ming officialdom.

In addition, Jiangwutang, Jingxuetang, and Taixue, like Taixue, are all open to enrollment. Although the children of the nobility have extra points, there are not many. However, the content of the examination of the martial arts hall and the Beijing school focuses on the elite, and in the words of later generations, it is to engage in quality education, and it is not the quality of singing and dancing, but the quality of military affairs, so most of the people who can be admitted are still the children of military aristocrats.

The reason for this arrangement is, on the one hand, to ensure the interests of the ruling group of the northerners, and on the other hand, it is also to train a group of officials with both civil and military skills to take the lead. In today's troubled times, officials with both civil and military skills are the core competitiveness of the country, and they can't do it if they don't grasp it firmly!

Ji Kun spoke very carefully, and he also "removed the dross and saved the essence", and told Emperor HRE about the most advanced examination methods of the Ming Dynasty.

Emperor HRE still didn't quite understand, "Mr. Ambassador, what good is it for the country to let civilians take the official selection exam?" Could it be that China's aristocracy was not good enough to take on the responsibility of governing the country? ”

"Of course not," Ji Kun pondered for a moment, "The emperor of our country hopes to pass the examination and attract talented people to the officialdom who may pose a threat to the stability of the country." If all the people below who have the ability become officials, there will be fewer people who can organize a rebellion. ”

Let the people below all come to the exam to be officials, so that there will be no rebellion?

That's right! Here's a solution!

Ferdinand III was so excited!

This method of being an official and adding points to the nobles is tantamount to a good medicine for the Holy Roman Empire, which is currently about to fall apart!

Although the empire was divided into more than a thousand pieces, and the Habsburgs had direct territories in Austria and the Czech Republic, the emperor still had the power to appoint and dismiss officials in the imperial government (central government) and the Habsburg fiefdoms.

The power to appoint and dismiss this official is a bargaining chip that the emperor can use!

The empire could have introduced China's advanced experience and opened a "bureaucratic academy" in Vienna, allowing the children of the empire's large and small noble lords to pass the examination to enter the academy. Of course, it can't be completely fair, but it can be added according to the father's title and the candidate's own son, and even if the child is illegitimate child, he can be recommended by the lord to take the exam.

In this way, the connection between the emperor and the noble lords of the various levels of the empire would be greatly strengthened, and at least the Catholic nobility could be rallied around the emperor.

And there is a certain probability that the eldest son will die earlier than his father...... If the other sons of the Catholic lords were students of the bureaucratic colleges, then in the future there would be a large number of "bureaucratic students" who would become lords of the empire!

This will undoubtedly greatly strengthen the authority of the Holy Roman Emperor - the feudal of the HRE is hierarchical, that is, the so-called "vassals of vassals are not my vassals", and there are many minor lords under the Catholic great lords, and the minor lords owe allegiance to the big lord rather than to the emperor.

If the eldest son of the minor lord dies early, the lordship will be inherited by the second son who is loyal to the emperor!

In addition, the bureaucratic college can also admit the children of the Protestant aristocracy and Czechs!

The emperor is the emperor of the whole empire, not the emperor of the Catholics!

The sons of Protestant noble lords could serve as bureaucrats in the empire as long as they were willing to swear allegiance to the emperor and possessed sufficient talent.

The Czechs, of course, are the same......

Thinking of this, Ferdinand III cried - if his dear father knew that there was such a good way, where would there be thirty years of war!

The empire is finally saved!

Ji Kun was stunned when he saw this foreign emperor crying, could it be that he said the wrong thing? It must be that this emperor didn't like to read when he was a child, and he had a headache when he saw the exam, right? Looking at his clumsy appearance, he must hate exams, so let's quickly change the topic.

"Your Majesty the Emperor, the Emperor of our country has written a personal letter to be forwarded to King Louis of France, but now he has encountered a rebellion by the French Throwing Stones, I wonder if His Majesty the Emperor has any way to help the envoy enter the Kingdom of France?"

Ji Kun looked at Little Louis for a short time, and wanted to send Zhu Cihong's letter before he died, and he could be regarded as completing the task.

"Well," said the Holy Roman Emperor, wiping his tears, "this is easy, and I will give it to Friedrich who was fighting for Louis XIV. General Schaumberg wrote...... He was a great military strategist and a German, but it was a pity that there was no Vienna bureaucratic academy that could transform him into a loyal soldier of the Reich. However, I can ask him to send a team of German mercenaries to escort you to the Château de Saint-Germain, just outside Paris, and it would be no harm to Louis XIV.

In addition, I will write to Viscount Tyrrenne, on the side of the Frondes, explaining who you are and what you are here for, and I am sure that he will not embarrass you Chinese envoys from the Far East. ”