April of the eighth year of Xuanping is a relatively important month for the Tang Empire, because after the reform of the examination was held in the first half of the year, the palace examination was also held in April, although for the Tang Dynasty, the importance of the palace examination can only be said to be general, because as long as the candidates are not too out of line, then basically they will not be defeated.

In fact, the purpose of the palace examination is not to select talents, but to formulate a future direction for them according to the various policy questions made by the candidates, so in the past two years, there are more and more questions in the palace examination, and often there will be more than ten or twenty questions in the strategy, but the candidates only need to choose one of the questions to answer.

This year's palace examination also added the interview link, which was combined by the officials of the Ministry of Officials, the officials of the Imperial Examination Department of the Ministry of Rites and the officials selected by other departments to form a large group of examiners, and then conducted a short interview for the candidates in batches.

This kind of interview is mainly to give those department heads who are ready to recruit new officials a chance to inspect the new section officials face-to-face.

Of course, the opinions of the heads of the departments can only be for reference, and after the interview and inspection, they can apply to send a new officer to their department, but it is still the officials who have the right to make decisions.

Although the authority they can directly decide is limited to the local officials below the fourth grade and the central government below the fifth grade, but for officials above this level, they can also recommend Li Xuan by recommending multiple candidates, as for whether Li Xuan will finally choose one of the people they recommend, that is, no one knows.

For the appointment of senior officials, Li Xuan has always been arbitrary, and the sources of candidates are also diverse, there are local governors and other high-ranking officials, there are giant ships of high-ranking officials in various ministries in Gyeonggi, and there are also recommendations from the Ministry of Rites, in addition, sometimes Li Xuan will also let the organization department of the Hanlin Academy evaluate and recommend the list, if it is an important position, sometimes he will simply let the cabinet hold a meeting to recommend, or simply directly hold a cabinet meeting to discuss the list of candidates, and finally Li Xuan decides the candidate.

Of course, this kind of appointment that needs to be discussed at a meeting is often from the second rank and above, mainly the governors of various provinces and officials above the rank of squire in various ministries, and positions below this level are not qualified for Li Xuan to personally convene this kind of cabinet discussion meeting.

Although the Ministry of Officials cannot decide on the appointment of senior officials, it is useless to recommend them, but for middle and low-level officials, they still have the power of life and death, not to mention the new branch jinshi, regardless of what other departments say, regardless of the new science and technology jinshi's own wishes, when the Ministry of Officials decides at that time, it represents the will of the entire empire, and the new branch jinshi either takes office or gets out.

Therefore, in the palace examination stage in April, the new scholars attached great importance to the short interviews held by the officials, and wanted to leave a good impression on these people who controlled their own destiny.

However, there are exceptions, that is, first-class jinshi and doctors, they don't have to worry about these problems, because if nothing else, they will enter the Hanlin Academy.

The February examination and the April palace examination have had a great impact on the imperial examination in China for thousands of years, and this can also leave a strong mark in the entire history.

In the future, when it comes to the provincial examination and national examination system of the imperial examination, and when it comes to the interview system, then it will definitely not be able to bypass the general examination and palace examination in the eighth year of Xuanping.

For example, in this month, after more than a year of brewing, the Tang Empire has carried out a major reform of the current tax system, and the important focus of the reform is on the subdivision of taxes, especially the collection of industrial and commercial taxes.

At the same time, the first step taxation system was introduced, this ladder system, for the time being, only for agricultural tax, individuals with less than 50 mu still use the previous tax amount, but for more than 100 mu of the part, it is a slightly higher agricultural tax, and for more than 300 mu of agricultural tax, it is a higher agricultural tax.

The purpose of this move was undoubtedly to crack down on the large landowners who owned large lands.

Of course, the issuance of the new policy cannot kill everyone at once, and it must always leave an obvious loophole for them, so that their resistance will not be too motivating, so this ladder taxation system is calculated according to the individual, not the family.

According to the standard calculation of a family of five, within 250 acres of land, it will not be affected by this policy!

In reality, almost all yeoman farmers do not exceed this number.

What is really affected are the big landlords who own hundreds or even thousands of acres, and even if these big landlords are placed in the whole country, the total number of these big landlords will not be too large.

They are actually the main targets of the Empire, these people own too much land, and the Empire has always wanted them to sell the land and collect money to invest in the industrial and commercial industry.

The industrial and commercial industry is so profitable, why do you cling to the land, you have to get along with the empire!

In addition to the agricultural tax, in the external environment, the Imperial Army has almost completely occupied Liaodong, and the famous Liaodong Town was also conquered in April, and this battle was not fought much, because the puppet Ming Hui King of Liaodong had already run with the main force before this, and when he ran, he even ran with the local people, and when the Tang Army took Liaodong Town, it was found that there were only some old and young left.

But in any case, Liaodong Town can be regarded as a landmark strategic location in the Liaodong region, and the Imperial Army took this place, which also means that Liaodong has been almost completely recovered, and the subsequent battle is to follow the direction of the escape of the puppet Ming Hui King and kill all the way to the Goryeo Peninsula.

The situation in Liaodong is good, and the situation overseas is also good, and there is also the almost iconic occupation of the Osumi Islands by the Tang Navy.

In the future, if someone wants to talk about the history of the Tang Dynasty's conquest of Fusang, then April of the eighth year of Xuanping will definitely not be able to get around, because in this month, the marines of the Ryukyu Detachment of the Tang Navy landed on the land of Fusang for the first time.

Although the scale of the landing is still very small, and the entire Ryukyu Detachment has only more than 2,000 sailors and marines, and only two small islands have been occupied, it still brings great strategic influence.

Feng Qirong, the commander of the Ryukyu Fleet, is even more prepared to lead the fleet to station Tanegashima on this island that has just become the territory of the Tang Dynasty, and has sent a transport fleet back, he needs more support!

Battleships, marines, guns, ammunition, and even the population were all he needed urgently, and of course, he did not forget to inform the civilian officials represented by the Yamen of the Ryukyu Prefecture.

Saying that the navy has expanded the territory of the empire to a full archipelago, let the cabinet quickly send local officials to rule!