The implementation of this version of the imperial examination system was an epoch-making political action.

Prior to this, whether it was the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Qin Dynasty, the First Empire of the Han Dynasty and the Second Empire, in the issue of selecting and appointing officials, the first was the hereditary bloodline and then the hereditary Jiashi clan monopoly of blood, and in general, the way to elect officials was increasing.

And more importantly, in the era before Liu Bei, there had never been a person or a department that could monopolize the personnel power of the entire country.

Personnel power is related to the core part of the operation of the whole country, which means that who is in the hands of the personnel power often means who has more power.

Emperor Jiajing did not openly handle government affairs in the court for many years, but by controlling personnel power, he successfully controlled the core power of the Ming Imperial court, so as to maintain his position and power.

And what Liu Bei is doing now is to encompass all the power he had seized before through an institutional construction, and build the central ministry of the empire with him as the core.

In the past, the personnel power of the Han Empire was very decentralized, there were assassins in the local area, there were three dukes and generals in the center, and the emperor himself, and the personnel power was mainly a decentralization, and the main was a multi-pattern lineup, and no one could monopolize the personnel power.

Now, through more than ten years of war and political struggle, Liu Bei has defeated all those who have mastered personnel power in the past, and then integrated these powers together to build a powerful dictatorship system with the Jiupin Official Law and the imperial examination system as the table, and Liu Bei's personal prestige and strength as the inside.

He completely controls the power of personnel, even the power of selecting and promoting minor officials, and his power has surpassed that of any emperor in the past, and no one can express any doubt about this fact.

So what happened after that was a matter of course.

In the provisions of the imperial examination system, the local government does not even have the initial selection power, and every link of this system is under the overall supervision and management of the central school department.

The entire system of learning and examination from establishment to perfection to final implementation is under the framework of the school, and the entire system of state and Taixue is directly under the jurisdiction of the school, and the state and county governments have not been able to influence the influence of state and Taixue.

All administrative bureaucrats systematically lost the possibility of selecting, controlling, and attaching themselves to their subordinates, and the Chinese bureaucracy underwent a revolutionary change from this time on.

From now on, the official is no longer the official of a certain individual, and the situation of protégés and former officials all over the world can no longer happen, and protégés and former officials will never exist again.

All of them actively or passively became officials of the state, that is, the so-called public servants, and the personal dependence that existed in the officialdom inherited from the pre-Qin era in ancient times was cut off by Liu Bei.

In fact, its specific performance can be manifested in many places.

For example, although the state school is located at the local level, it is also independent of the local bureaucratic system.

Local officials are completely incapable of interfering in the education affairs of state schools, including examination matters, and state and county officials can only provide assistance in security and logistics as requested by the school department, and nothing else.

So from the system, Liu Bei stripped the local talent election authority, and returned this power to the Luoyang Imperial Court, and all local talents directly faced the assessment of the central government, faced the assessment of the emperor, and fought with real swords and guns, and then decided the winner.

The promotion of this system is a big shock to the current officialdom.

Some people thought that Liu Bei might be able to resume the implementation of the probation system, at most a patch, but they didn't expect Liu Bei to directly strengthen and correct the patch that Zuo Xiong played back then.

At least from their current point of view, Liu Bei cut off the possibility of some families restoring the glory of the Shi clan through various channels.

In the past, things like money, family status, and prestige could be passed on to the next generation through various means, and then based on these things, their power and official positions could be passed on to the next generation.

However, under the imperial examination system, the test scores, which are a matter of fighting for intelligence, cannot be passed on to future generations through the inheritance of parents, and hard work is indispensable.

Maybe in the future, they can find all kinds of loopholes under this system, so as to take advantage of loopholes and use various means to do something that undermines fairness, but at this initial moment, they have not had time to delve into the loopholes of this system.

Liu Bei didn't leave them much time, and directly announced that the first imperial examination would be officially held next year, that is, in March of Yangchun, the sixth year of Zhenguan, and at present, the states were about to start preparing for the initial preliminary examination.

According to the rules, as long as you are a student of the state school and the Taixue school, you can sign up for the imperial examination, as long as you think you can, then you can, and you don't need any other conditions.

And the first exam is the "state examination", that is, the examination within the scope of the state school, the examination questions are decided by the emperor and the central school leaders, the test papers, printed, and then brought by the school officials from Luoyang to the locality, organize the students to take the exam.

The whole process is carried out in a secret state, all participants cannot be leaked in a word, and the whole process of the question is carried out in a closed environment, and the middle is responsible for running errands are the elite soldiers of the army who are temporarily transferred.

After the examination papers were completed, the emperor's personal army was responsible for supervising the printing process.

After the printing was completed, the officials of the school department would also organize examinations from Luoyang to the local state schools under the supervision and protection of the emperor's pro-army, and the examination papers were always kept in the sight of the emperor's pro-army.

And when it comes to the place, the setting of the examination room and the reference process of the candidates are also very meticulously set.

First of all, Liu Bei stipulated that the examination room could use the classrooms in the state school, but before the classroom was used, a special person was required to check all the accompanying utensils of the candidates, etc., and they should be checked clearly from the inside to the outside, and they would not let go at all.

There are many other detailed regulations, not to mention 100%, but also to completely invalidate more than 99% of cheating methods.

Someone once said that the thousand-year-old history of scientific research is the thousand-year-old history of cheating, which cannot be regarded as correct, but there is some truth in it.

Because in ancient times, those people's cheating methods were really endless, and there were even things that used mouse hair to make a pen to copy scriptures on a very small book, and all kinds of cheating appliances even formed an industrial chain in some places, focusing on a "sparrow is small and has all five organs", and he is really not afraid of being blind.

So in the matter of cheating, don't underestimate the ancients, they just didn't meet the productivity standard, but there is no shortage of technology, imagination and execution, and the most lacking thing in the imperial court is reflected in the matter of cheating in exams, which is quite funny.

However, in any case, it cannot be denied that the imperial examination is relatively fair, and what the imperial examination brings to the people of the world cannot be explained in a few words.

As a result, Liu Bei decided to promote the imperial examination, and officially issued an edict with the school department as the main responsible group, saying that it was a temporary agent but currently seems to be doing a very pleasant job Zheng Xuan, the secretary of the school, will be fully responsible for the first imperial examination of the third empire of the Han Dynasty.

Zheng Xuan actually knew about the imperial examination for a long time, and when Liu Bei began to design some rules and patches for the imperial examination, Zheng Xuan put forward a lot of opinions.

Fundamentally speaking, Zheng Xuan, as a scholar-type bureaucrat, has a positive attitude towards the imperial examination, and he is very willing to support the conduct of the imperial examination, and said that he will let his descendants actively participate in the imperial examination, compete with the world's talents, win the battle, and achieve results.

Liu Bei asked him with a smile.

"One day, the descendants of the Zheng family will not be able to pass the imperial examination to obtain official positions, will you feel anything about it then?"

Zheng Xuan just smiled.

"If you can't even pass a selection exam, it can only show that he is really not worthy of being an official, since he is a person who is not worthy of being an official, why should he care if his surname is Zheng?"

Liu Bei nodded in approval.

Then at the specific operational level, Zheng Xuan made some suggestions to Liu Bei from the perspective of some experience in teaching disciples and assessing disciples, and he also put forward a proposal to build a special examination venue, thinking that this can increase the solemnity and solemnity of the examination.

Of course, the final big exam should enter the palace, but other exams should also go to a special examination place for a completely closed examination, to eliminate the possibility of collusion between inside and outside, and if necessary, the invigilation mode can be used in other places, or even the military can be introduced for invigilation.

Zheng Xuan said that when he taught his disciples, he often tested his disciples, and on a few occasions, he encountered cases of cheating by his disciples, which made him very angry, and the imperial examination should pay more attention to this point as a way to select important officials for the country.

Because of his suggestion, Liu Bei broke ground not far from Taixue and specially built the examination venue for the second selection of the imperial examination, the Luoyang Examination Institute.

The first state exam was still designed according to his original design, turning the teaching place into an examination place to save money.

And the selection examination is actually the most important examination for candidates from all over the country to get together and compete on the same stage, and it is a real imperial examination, so it may be of great significance for everyone to let all candidates get together and conduct closed-door examinations in special places.

Zheng Xuan was happy about this.

The day before Liu Bei was ready to push forward the imperial examination, he called Zheng Xuan to discuss some of the final details together, and after the final details were confirmed, Zheng Xuan showed a relieved smile.

"How to let the most suitable person do things in the most suitable position for him, this is a problem for the ages, countless talents have racked their brains for this throughout the ages, and have not been able to come up with a better way, and in the end there is only a nondescript inspection, and the emergence of the imperial examination can finally make me relax."

Drinking the tea that Liu Bei personally made for him, Zheng Xuan smiled and told Liu Bei what he thought in his heart.

Liu Bei shook his head with a smile.

"The imperial examination is not perfect, and there are many problems, although the selected officials do not have the deep ties of the major families, and there is no connection between protégés and former officials, but there will be mutual recognition between each other.

The same state school background, the same exam win, and the experience of learning together and referring to the same will make them huddle together, and when the status is not enough, it may just be a healthy competition between each other, comparing whose credit is greater and who is promoted faster.

But when they become mature and steady, and gradually become the pillars of the court, it is inevitable that there will be large and small groups, there will be party differences, and there may even be a repeat of the struggle between eunuchs, relatives, and scholars, which is all possible. ”

When Zheng Xuan heard this, he put down the teacup and looked at Liu Bei with some surprise.

"Now that you know, why don't you take precautions early? Do you already have a solution? ”

"How can I prevent it?"

Liu Bei smiled bitterly: "We all know a lot of things, but if you really want to do it, how easy is it?" Did you know less about it back then? But how many can really do it? ”

Zheng Xuan's face froze, and he stopped speaking for a moment.

After a long time, Zheng Xuan smiled bitterly: "Even if you are now the supreme and unique son of heaven in the world, do you have things you want to do but can't?" ”

"What do you mean? That's a lot. ”

Liu Bei shook his head and said slowly: "Before becoming a Liangzhou pastor, I thought that if I became a Liangzhou pastor, I would be able to do a lot of things that I couldn't do in the past, and then I found that there were still many things that I couldn't do, so I went one step further and became a ruling general, so I can always do what I want to do, right?"

The result? There are still so many things that can't be done, I think about it and think it's not good, since that's the case, then I'll be the biggest person in the world, be the son of heaven, so that I can always do whatever I want, right? It turned out that it still didn't work, and even more cautiously, and didn't dare to take a single step, for fear that the steps would be too big and pull the crotch. ”

"Hehehehehehe......"

Zheng Xuan smiled bitterly: "When you say this, do you think that there are many, many dirty things in the world that cannot be solved?" How many people did you kill in order to solve the dirty problem? Are these people dying in vain? ”

"Of course they didn't die in vain, they deserve to die."

Liu Bei put down the teacup and sighed: "But the bad people in this world are not born to be bad people, and the total number of bad people is not constant, they are always changing, constantly appearing, the bad people in the past are dead, new bad people appear, and the bad things in the past are restricted by me with the law, and new bad things will appear." ”

Zheng Xuan looked at the cup of tea in front of him and was silent for a while.

"Isn't it possible to get better in this world?"

"Yes."

Zheng Xuan raised his head and looked at Liu Bei.

"Okay?"

"As long as people like you can do a few more right things, the world will be a little better, everyone will do their best to do a little bit right, don't care what other people say, then the world will always be a little better."

Liu Bei picked up the teacup and stretched it out in front of Zheng Xuan: "While we are all alive, do more right things, as long as you do enough right things, the world will definitely get better." ”

(End of chapter)