In June of the first year of the Apocalypse, the weather was very hot, and the hotels in the capital were even hotter, and scholars from all over the country gathered in the capital. Waiting for the exam, the people who are qualified to take the Jinshi exam live together, more Xiucai and Tongsheng, these people are young people under the age of twenty-five, basically have never entered Beijing, this time from the county master received ten taels of silver into Beijing, especially those children from poor families, even more excited! For this reason, Zhu Youxiao used more than 300,000 internal funds, but he felt that it should be worth it, and catching the young people was equivalent to seizing the future!

Zhu Youxiao didn't care about the Jinshi exam, all let Sun Ruyou worry about it, more than 3,000 people from Xiucai and Tongsheng, Zhu Youxiao asked Zhou Jiamo, the secretary of the ministry, to gather them all together, divided into a group of 100 people to take the exam, the exam is in front of the gate of the Taihe Palace, the topic is "My Ideal", and declares that there are no taboos in this exam, as long as you can think of it, you can write it down, even if you want to scold the emperor, the more you write the real purpose, the better, poetry writing is prohibited, and the exam time is an hour.

After the examination was completed, Zhou Jiamo arranged for young officials who could understand their own meaning to read, selected more than 200 outstanding ones, and handed them over to his own selection.

Zhu Youxiao spent a night looking at the annoying vertical text, and decided to reform, and in the future, he asked to write from left to right, horizontally, so that it would save more trouble, and the allusion would use the story of Qin Shi Huang that was legendary in later generations. In these exam papers, Zhu Youxiao found the names "Li Xin" and "Niu Jinxing", it seems that gold will shine, these two gravediggers of the Ming Dynasty are now seen by themselves, so they can't miss it, they have to use it, that is, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, who are only in their teens now, have to collect them, so as not to make trouble. These four people need to send them to the military academy for training first, and then send them to Xiong Tingbi for training, and they will definitely become generals who lead the army in the future.

The morning of June was still hot, and the hearts of more than 3,000 Xiucai and Tongsheng were even hotter, and the officials of the Ministry informed them that the emperor would meet everyone in the square in front of Chengtianmen at two o'clock today, and issue an edict to the scholars.

At two o'clock, Zhu Youxiao, accompanied by Sun Chengzong, a scholar of the Cabinet University, Zhou Jiamo, a scholar of the Ministry of Officials, and Xu Guangqi, a scholar of the Cabinet, walked out of the Chengtian Gate, and on the square in front of the Chengtian Gate, the scholars were led by Sun Ruyou, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, to call for a long live and kneel down to meet him, and then sat down on the small horse according to the arrangement, ready to listen to the holy message.

Zhu Youxiao led everyone to slowly climb onto the temporary stage, stood in front of the stage and picked up the earthen megaphone, and began the first speech to the future elites of the Ming Dynasty.

"Scholars of the Ming Dynasty, I am the son of today, Zhu Youxiao, and I invite you here today to talk to the scholars about my ideals. The day before yesterday, the exam question issued by the Ministry of Officials was called "My Ideals", and everyone talked freely about their ideals. I think that whether your ideal is to be an official, or to serve the people, or to practice medicine, or to be a craftsman, as long as you are doing things for the people of the Ming Dynasty, it is for me to do things. The Ming Dynasty couldn't help but speak, and all ordinary people, Confucian scholars, could speak freely. I have one thing to remember, and that is: Although I disagree with you, I defend your right to speak. Whether your views and concepts are in line with my interests or not, as long as they are in line with the interests of the Ming Dynasty, I will support them. If your views and opinions are only in line with my interests and harm the interests of Daming, I will resolutely oppose them. Because the Ming Dynasty represents everyone's interests, and harms everyone's interests for their own personal sake, this is called damaging the public and private, and insulting the image of our scholars. My ideal is to build a warm country where I am for everyone and everyone is for me.

Today, we are the scholars of the Ming Dynasty, and the elites of the Ming Dynasty in the next few decades, gathered here in order to discuss the country. One person is short-minded, when our Ming scholars can speak freely and make suggestions for the future of our Ming Dynasty, we will gather infinite strength. Threesome, there must be my teacher. Not only for us personally, but also for our country, many of us have seen the cannon of the Westerners, and it hit far; I have seen the galleon of the Westerners, it travels fast and goes far. We have seen the Jurchens, who are physically strong, and their horses are fast and arrows are far away; These are examples for us to follow. The ancients said: The ruler is short and the inch is long, we just want to learn all the strengths of others and make up for our own shortcomings. Only when we are good at learning, have the courage to learn, and are not ashamed to ask questions, can we be stronger. We should not only learn from the teachers, but also learn from each other, but also learn from the strengths of Westerners and Jurchens. We will build an open country that is good at learning, belongs to thinking, and is good at absorbing what anyone grows. Only in this way can we always stand in the place of the victors.

Zi said: Reading thousands of books and traveling thousands of miles, that is to say, we can't read dead books, read dead books. Scholars should not only read books well, but more importantly, do things well, and only by putting what they have learned into practice can we truly achieve the purpose of reading. Reading thousands of books and traveling thousands of miles requires us scholars to broaden our horizons, not only limited to a little physical object in front of us, but also the world, which is full of wonders. I should not only be satisfied with reading ancient books and talking about the scriptures, but we should also broaden our horizons and thinking ability, and make more useful tools for the development of the Ming Dynasty, such as how to improve the waterwheel so that the people can grow more food; how to improve the ox plough used for cultivated land to make the people more labor-saving; The study of good medical skills and the manufacture of better medicines to alleviate the suffering of the common people can be summed up as the best thing to do. What our Ming Dynasty needs in the future is not only officials who have read books, but also scholars who can apply what they have learned and use it for the purpose of being useful. Life practice will be an important part of your future learning, remember a sentence, practice brings true knowledge, only practice can verify whether what you have learned is useful and beneficial to society.

"Scholars, in the pre-Qin era, we had Confucianism, Legalism, Moism, Zonghengjia, etc., and Confucius also had seventy-two disciples, they learned differently, but they all gained one thing in common in different places - that is, fame, and made the same contribution to society in different professions. I think that in the future, our Ming Dynasty will no longer respect Confucianism alone, and what we need more is a free and open society based on Confucianism. No matter which profession, agriculture, medicine, industry, or business is in business, there will no longer be a distinction between noble and lowly, only the difference in occupation, and will have equal social status. There are seventy-two lines in the world, and the line is the champion, as long as you have made a beneficial contribution to the Ming Dynasty in your respective industries, which will be recognized by the state and obtain a noble status.

"Scholars, throw away all the shackles that bind you, and strive for a prosperous, rich, strong, civilized, open, innovative, free, and equal Ming Dynasty! I am also willing to wave the flag for the scholars, and the Ming Dynasty will have a brilliant tomorrow and become the greatest country in history. ”

After Zhu Youxiao finished speaking, the scholars were stunned, and they couldn't accept his thinking. However, after only a while, they reacted, the current emperor is about to change the law, and most of the scholars are smart, knowing that this is an opportunity, and only those who can take advantage of the opportunity can become the elite of society. So the mountains began to shout long live, long live the wisdom and the like like a tidal wave of sycophants.