Even now, it is the same, Zhao Guo can take the entire northern prairie into his arms for grazing because he can really benefit from it, but if he wants to take the roof of the world into his arms, he really can't do it.

The cost of ruling was too great, and the plateau environment was completely unsuitable for the Zhao people to live in.

However, if you can't live on it, you can't live on it, and you can still do it if you subdue the Qiang people, and it must be done.

The Qiang people guarded the south side of the Hexi Corridor and did not subdue them, and in the future, the caravan of the Zhao State would face the threat of the Qiang people at any time when they passed through the Hexi Corridor, and it was impossible for the Zhao State to send heavy troops to guard the entire Hexi Corridor.

"Send an order to Li Mu, and ask him to select some people who are closer to Zhao from among the Qiang captives, and teach them the Zhao script and Zhao dialect, which will be of great use." Zhao Kuo said.

"No." Liu Ping said.

"It's also troublesome Xunzi, pick some students who are good at languages, and learn the language of the Qiang people. Well, there are also the languages of the countries in the Western Regions, including the Mauryan Dynasty and the Tiaozhi countries, which also need to be learned. I'll use it in the future." Zhao Kuo said.

The countries of the Central Plains are okay, although there are dialects in various places, but there are still unified dialects, but the Western Regions and the Central Plains are completely incompatible, except for a very small number of merchants who come and go between the two places, no one can understand what the other party says.

It is impossible for Zhao Guo to wait until he needs to find such a talent, and even if he can find it, he does not dare to trust the other party absolutely, and he can only rest assured if he uses it himself.

"It's easy to find students, but teachers ......," Xunzi frowned and said, translators are rare talents these days, especially translators who are proficient in local languages such as the Qiang and Western Regions, and they are even more talents among talents, not so easy to find.

"There are soldiers in the Qin army who are proficient in the Qiang language and Yayan, as for those who are proficient in the language of the Western Regions, they can only be found in the caravan, there are not many of them, but they can definitely be found." Zhao Kuo said.

"Chen really didn't think of this, so Chen went to the Chamber of Commerce for help." Xunzi bowed and walked outside.

"I've finally been able to relax for a while." Zhao Kuo also got up and left the main hall.

"Handan has been a lot more prosperous recently." When Zhao Kuo came to the street, he saw people coming and going on the street, many children playing on the side of the road, and the sound of small traders selling in the distance.

"Where are we going, King?" Ben pulled the carriage over.

"Army Soul Street." Zhao Kuo said.

Military Soul Street is the street where the disabled veterans of the Three Kingdoms of Han Weiqi are housed, and they were named Military Soul Street by Zhao Kuo, but now they are veterans of Zhao State.

Soon, the carriage stopped outside Army Soul Street.

"Lao Ding, bask in the sun here." As soon as Zhao Kuo got out of the carriage, he saw an old man basking in the sun at the door.

said that he was an old man, but in fact he was in his forties, but he injured his lungs during the battle with the Qin army, and his body fell into problems, and he couldn't do any heavy work, so he completely became a burden on his family, and his whole person also aged rapidly.

If it weren't for his background in Wei Wushu, such a serious injury would have been killed by other people a long time ago.

"The King." When Lao Ding saw Zhao Kuo, he hurriedly got up and greeted him, "Why does the king have time to come over today."

"The soldiers have all gone back after receiving their rewards, and the widow matter has been dealt with, so come and have a look." Zhao Kuo smiled and said, "Is everyone else there?"

"Lao He, his father and son are still in the workshop, and Brother Shan and a few of them have not returned, and everyone else is here." Lao Ding said.

Zhao Guo did not take these disabled veterans and did not take them over, nor did he give them a fixed amount of money every month, but for those who were able to work, Zhao Guo would arrange some simple jobs, such as guarding paper mills and cement factories.

Don't look at these veterans who are disabled, the real life-and-death struggle, ordinary people are really not their opponents.

Including the royal palace of Zhao State, it was also guarded by disabled veterans.

There are also some veterans with special skills, such as Lao He, who is very good at iron, and even his son is good at iron, so he was arranged by Zhao Kuo to the workshop. He doesn't need to work, just supervise and prevent mistakes.

For those who are completely incapacitated, Zhao Guo will pay compensation every month according to domestic standards.

In addition, Zhao Guo also gave these disabled veterans land, although they could no longer farm, they still had families to farm.

In the age of agriculture, only the land could be truly reassuring.

"It's almost time to get off work, and it shouldn't be long before they get back, so the widow won't wait for them." Zhao Kuo said.

"The King...... What's wrong?" Lao Ding looked at Zhao Kuo.

Zhao Kuo nodded: "The rewards of the soldiers have been distributed, and they have gone home in a beautiful manner, and your rewards have not been issued yet."

"What reward we have, don't joke about it." Lao Ding pushed open the door and moved a bench in front of Zhao Kuo.

He knew that there were many rewards for the soldiers of the Zhao State, but he was not a soldier of the Zhao State at all, but a soldier of the Wei State before. Although he coveted Zhao Guo's reward, he never felt that he could get it.

"Are you outnumbered soldiers?" Zhao Kuo asked rhetorically.

"As long as the king does not dislike us, we will always be the king's soldiers." Lao Ding patted his chest and said.

"That's fine, it's only right for the widow to give a reward to his soldiers. If the widow is not mistaken, Lao Ding, when you first fought with the Qin army, you killed four Qin soldiers, right, and one of them was the Black Armor Army. However, the widow can't remember the later battles. But you definitely don't have to go to the credit." Zhao Kuo patted Lao Ding's shoulder.

"Do we really have a reward?" Lao Ding still couldn't believe it.

"Don't you believe what the widow says?" Zhao Kuo said.

"Yes, of course. It's just ......" Lao Ding didn't know what to say, he just felt that he didn't deserve this reward.

"Ben, go and call everybody." Zhao Kuo said.

"No."

In fact, there is no need to shout, when the carriage stopped outside, the veterans heard the sound and had already gathered around.

Every time Zhao Kuo came to visit them, it was their happiest time.

"Is there anyone who can read?" Zhao Kuo asked.

"My lord, I am literate." A veteran who had lost a leg and was on crutches walked out.

"Old money, huh." Zhao Kuo took the list from Liu Ping's hand, quickly found Lao Qian's name, and handed it to the other party, "This is your military exploits and rewards, after confirming that it is correct, sign it at the back or press your fingerprint, and then read it to others, check them one by one."

Lao Qian took it and looked at it, his eyes widened suddenly, and he looked at Zhao Kuo in disbelief: "King, is this a reward for us?"

"Isn't it for you, but for someone else?" Zhao Kuo said with a smile.

"It's too much, we can't ask for it." Lao Qian hurriedly shook his head and said firmly.

"My Zhao Guo is this standard, everyone is the same, you don't have to shirk." Zhao Kuo said to Lao Qian, "Check it quickly, everyone is still waiting for you."

"Alas, the great grace of the king, his subordinates will never forget." Lao Qian sighed deeply, signed his name, and then helped his comrades check their military merits.

After a while, the veteran who was working outside also returned, and he said another word of gratitude.

After most of the hour, all the veterans had checked their military exploits, and several carriages also pulled the rewards.

Zhao Kuo personally handed over the reward to each veteran.

It was not until the evening that he returned to the palace.

……

On the last day of September, a large number of soldiers came from all over the world and gathered in groups towards the barracks.

A special place has been set aside in the barracks for the soldiers to take the examination, and after checking that there is no error, the scholars enter the examination room.

A soldier in armor and armed with a spear surrounded the examination room, and anyone who exchanged heads or made other small movements would be immediately pulled out by the soldier and disqualified from the examination.

In addition to the soldiers who stood still, there were also Zhao Kuo, Lin Xiangru, Xunzi and others patrolling back and forth in the examination room.

"It's really a test of mental endurance." Shizi glanced at the examination room, bowed his head and walked quickly to his seat, waiting for the test papers to come down.

As of now

, not a single one knows what the content of the clerk exam is, and some of them have asked questions, and in the end they all died without a problem.

Soon, the test papers came down.

There are two in total, and the first one is the law of Zhao State.

If you want to be an official in Zhao State, you can't do it if you are not proficient in Zhao State's laws.

This test paper is not difficult for officials who have read the laws of Zhao State, but it is a little difficult for officials from places such as Guanzhong and Longxi.

But fortunately, there is a second paper, as long as the second paper can get a high score, there is still hope.

When the scholar shifted his gaze to the second scroll, his face instantly turned to ashes.

Zhao Kuo saw the expression of the scholar and immediately grinned.

At the beginning, the court quarreled for several days over what to test for the exam, some said to test Confucianism, some said to test the Legalists, and some said to test the Mohists, but no one could convince anyone.

In the end, it was Zhao Kuo who made the decision.

Since we are selecting local officials, we will test the things that local officials often encounter and need to pay attention to.

So, the second exam paper became like this......

Among these topics are how to deal with floods, increase the yield per mu, control pests and diseases, borrow money, deal with famine, encourage farming, compete for water sources, popularize education, criminal cases, deal with neighborhood conflicts, conflicts between clans and the government, local development, militia training, two tribes fighting for pastures, and prevention of plagues, and so on.

Almost all of the things that can happen to the ruling side are listed above.

In Zhao Kuo's view, Zhao Guo wants officials, not literati, and people who can do practical things, not be tricky.

No matter how much you know, no matter how well the article is written, it is useless to do things if you can't do it.

But if these problems can be handled well, even if none of the hundreds of schools of thought don't understand and can't write any articles, it is enough to dominate the ruling side.

Most of these problems are things that can be encountered in Zhao Guo, and the remaining part is added by Zhao Kuo, and there are more than a dozen math problems.

If you can deal with a small part of it, even if the method is not so clever, being a small official is enough. After all, it is impossible to be too demanding.

If you can handle about half of it well, it is more than enough to be a county magistrate.

If you can handle most of the problems well, you definitely have the talent to guard the county.

As for mathematics, it is very simple, equivalent to the primary school level of later generations, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, chickens and rabbits in the same cage, Zhao Guo is not a mathematician, and officials do not need to know particularly esoteric mathematics, as long as they can understand basic mathematical knowledge.

However, this does not mean that the exam is easy, because the exam time is limited, and unless you are very familiar with everything and write it almost without thinking, there is certainly not enough time, so you have to make trade-offs.

This is also a bit of balance that Zhao Kuo has won for officials who are not from Zhao Guo's hometown, although they do not understand Zhao Law, if they can be proficient in the handling of local government affairs, they will also have the opportunity to be among the best.

If you're not good at both, you're embarrassed.

"I'm afraid that no one would have guessed that the content of the exam would be like this before this, so I hope they can adjust their mentality as soon as possible and choose the questions that are beneficial to them." Lin Xiangru said with a wry smile.

He had read all of these questions, and even he couldn't finish them all in the exam time.

"The king has miserably harmed these men." Xunzi said jokingly.

"That gentleman's mentality has adjusted very quickly, and he has already begun to answer the questions." Le Yi pointed to a scholar in the right-hand direction and said.

"Could it be that I didn't read the paper and answered the questions directly?" Xunzi said.

"No, I saw him quickly scan the paper, and then answer the question with ink." Le Yi shook his head.

Xunzi also secretly remembered it, and waited until the end of the exam to see how the other party did in the exam.

While the two were talking, a celebrity quickly stabilized his mind and began to answer questions.

Since they chose to take the exam, they were already prepared in their hearts.

Especially for some confident scholars, they are even more happy, only when the difficulty of the exam is high enough, they can widen the gap with others and stand out from the middle.

Time slipped away from the tip of the pen little by little, and soon, two and a half hours passed.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Drums beat.

"Everyone finishes answering the question, and if there is another answerer, their score will be cancelled." Lin Xiangru said loudly.

"Whew!" All the scholars were shocked, and they breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that no one else had finished answering the question.

"No matter, resign yourself to fate." A gentleman put down his pen as if relieved.

The soldier stepped forward to put away the test papers and put them at the front, and the soldiers began to evacuate the venue in an orderly manner.

The test results will be posted in five days, and they will have to wait a few days in Handan.

"His grandmother's, I didn't expect to test this thing in the exam, but Lao Tzu has been reading a copy of "Pipe" every day these days." A soldier thumped his chest and said.

"You're okay, a lot of Zhao Guo's laws are from Guanzi, I heard that the king likes the Mo family, and I watched "Mozi" during this time." Another gentleman said with a sad face.

"I heard that Xunzi was in charge of the exam, so I read the Analects, and I was deceived so badly."

The crowd poured out bitterness.

"Anyway...... Has anyone done it all?" At this time, a scholar asked curiously.

"How can someone finish it, there is no time at all, unless he knows the answer when he sees the question, and he doesn't need to think about it at all."

"It's too short a time for anyone to finish it." Everyone shook their heads.