Chapter 606 [First Update]

Liu Tan knew from the beginning that the trip to Yan State would not be so smooth. These people had too many bad habits before, and it was impossible to suddenly turn them into honest and upright officials. He had to make an example of them to scare the monkeys, just like he did to the prefect of Xi'an Yang County.

Because of this, he also gave these county governors a bunch of examination papers.

Come on, take the exam.

There is nothing that exams can't solve. If there is, just take two more.

But this time was different from before. This time he had Liu Che as his backer. Long before he came to Yan State, the information about the various counties of Yan State had been delivered to him. Even though the information was a little delayed and Chang'an did not know that Liaodong County had been taken away by Wuhuan, this was enough for Liu Tan to have a certain understanding of Yan State.

Anyway, the towns in this era are not changing that fast, and may even remain unchanged for many years. Except for the natural law of birth, aging, sickness and death of the population, everything else can remain unchanged for many years.

This information was enough for Liu Tan to understand the current situation of Yan State, at least there would be no problem in giving them test questions.

It just so happened that all the county governors were here, so Liu Tan directly asked Dou Sibo to preside over the examination.

Dou Sibo was stunned for a moment after hearing Liu Tan's order. He asked carefully, "Your Highness, do I...do I not need to take the exam?"

Liu Tan looked up at him and said, "No need. This test is just to give me a rough idea of ​​how incompetent they are. You were chosen by our father himself, so there's no need to get involved."

Dou Sibo thought that he had come. He had known about the King of the North before. His biggest trick was examination. After an examination, no matter whether he was a human or a ghost, he would be exposed.

When the county governors heard the word "examination", they were very confused and even asked what the examination was.

When Liu Tan found out about this, he was almost laughing out of anger. He wished all the scholars in the world knew that the court was going to hold the imperial examination, but these people had no idea about it at all. He had no idea what these people were doing every day.

Even if they had been dismissed from office before, it was only dismissal. The Han Dynasty had been established for many years, and there were many examples of people being reinstated after being dismissed. Anyone with a little bit of common sense would know to pay attention to the court's movements. If there was an opportunity, they might be able to be reinstated.

Unexpectedly, these people had no idea at all. Liu Tan estimated that after the imperial examination was held in Chang'an this year, Yan State might become the only vassal state in the entire Han Dynasty without any students taking the exam.

Liu Tan couldn't help getting angry when he thought of this. If it were in the past, he might have just lamented that the students from Yan State were unlucky, and even thought about whether to lure all the talents here away, but now... this place has been taken over by him.

Even though everyone knew that he took over hastily and was too busy to handle, and that it was understandable that he could not take care of the imperial examination for a while, in the eyes of those who did not know the truth, he was derelict in his duty.

Liu Tan turned to look at Miao Rui and said, "Go select some people and tell them about the imperial examination."

The provincial examination is about to be held. I heard that the examination questions have been issued in Chang'an, and they are just waiting for the examination to be held on the designated day after the questions are distributed.

Liu Tan calculated that there should still be some time, it was just too rushed.

Now he wished that those who had previously gone to the Northern Border Kingdom to take up the quota would come to Yan Kingdom. Anyway, Yan Kingdom had been ruined by Liu Dan, and he no longer expected Yan Kingdom to have many talents.

If we can attract those people here and then trick them into staying... Liu Tan subconsciously touched his chest, feeling that doing so seemed a bit unethical.

But there was no way. Yan State was not short of population, but it lacked high-end talents.

Yes, Liu Tan also deeply felt that Yan State was a magical place. The climate here was not very good, the princes did not take action, and the officials below did not take action either. A lot of people died every year due to various disasters, but the population was surprisingly large, which made Liu Tan feel a little strange.

However, after he carefully looked at the various data of Yan State, he realized that there were certain historical reasons why the population of Yan State had not decreased - there were many ethnic minorities here.

If you are a Han Chinese, even if you say it is hard to leave your homeland, you will have to leave if you really can't survive there.

But these ethnic minorities have always lived in this place, and they would not be familiar with other places. What's more... there is no other place for them to go.

The Han Dynasty must be on guard against them, so no place other than the State of Yan would take them in.

In this situation, the living conditions are harsh and supplies are insufficient. If the tribe wants to survive, it can only keep reproducing.

Both men and women get married at a very young age. A closer investigation reveals that the women in these tribes either have extremely long lifespans or die young due to difficult childbirth or various postpartum diseases.

Liu Tan couldn't help but sigh after reading all the information.

He wasn't so wary of ethnic minorities. Hadn't these people lived such a difficult life and stayed here obediently for so many years? If they were allowed to intermarry with the Han people, perhaps after a few generations their descendants would become Han Chinese.

However, Liu Tan did not mention this idea. He rarely expressed his opinions on matters involving his values, because few people could understand him.

The Han Dynasty could accept other small countries as vassal states of the Han Dynasty, but it would not necessarily accept them entering the Han territory and intermarrying with the Han people.

Of course, this matter should be put aside for now. In any case, he felt relieved that Yan State had no shortage of population, which meant that there were people working.

While the county governors were taking the exam with confused looks on their faces, Liu Tan could only miserably write his plan.

When he was in the Northern Kingdom, he had written a lot of plans, but when he got here... he tore them all up, and the whole order was wrong.

What he needs to do now is to stabilize the situation temporarily, and then... drive the Wuhuan out of Liaodong County.

Even if he felt that he should wait for a while, until he had sorted out the affairs of Yan State, let Yan State take a breath, and then drive out the Wuhuan and take back Liaodong County, so as to minimize the losses.

However, he guessed that Liu Che probably didn't want to see such a scene.

Liaodong County had been occupied silently for three months. When Liu Che found out, he must have been furious. The only way to calm him down was to quickly take Liaodong County back.

Liu Tan was filled with emotion. Fortunately, he had brought his elite troops with him when he arrived, otherwise the current situation would be a bit difficult to deal with.

Not long after, a young eunuch came to report that the exam was over and Prime Minister Dou had brought people to deliver the papers.

Liu Tan was stunned for a moment when he heard the word Dou Xiang, and then he remembered that this was Dou Sibo.

He put his plan aside and let Dou Sibo come in first. As soon as Dou Sibo stepped into his temporary study, Liu Tan was a little surprised: "What's going on?"

At this time, Dou Sibo's face was flushed and he looked angry, which made Liu Tan a little surprised.

Ever since he met Dou Sibo, he knew that this person was actually a rather calm type.

However, his calmness was different from Huo Guang's. Huo Guang was calm because he had a plan in mind, while Dou Sibo was calm because he had no idea and just waited obediently for orders from others.

Therefore, Dou Sibo's face rarely shows very distinct emotions, and no one knows what happened to make him show such an expression.

Dou Sibo couldn't help but say, "These people... these people actually ignored the rules of the examination room, not only making loud noises, but also asking each other for answers."

Liu Tan raised his eyebrows: "Didn't the king ask you to take people to maintain order?"

Dou Sibo lowered his head and said, "Your Majesty...Your Majesty is incompetent and cannot control them."

Seeing his expression, Liu Tan knew that Dou Sibo probably didn't dare to really let the elite group take action. After all, he was the prime minister, and without his order, the people sent by Liu Tan could not act on their own.

In fact, Liu Tan was not worried at all about asking each other for answers, because everyone's test paper was different, and the test was about the basic situation of the counties they were in charge of. Each county had different situations and faced different problems. How could there be the same answers?

However, even if it is impossible to copy the answers, it does not mean that they can disregard the examination room.

Liu Tan said directly: "Let them all come over."

Dou Sibo immediately became energetic and left with his men. Liu Tan looked at his back and sighed deeply, missing Huo Guang very much.

When Huo Guang wanted to go to the Northern Border Kingdom with him, he was just surprised. Now he realized how lucky he was. If there was no Huo Guang, and if he had been surrounded by a fool like Dou Sibo when he first arrived in the Northern Border Kingdom, he would have been either angered to death or exhausted to death.

As for now... after so many years, Liu Tan has become very clear about how some things should be done, and even has enough experience in government affairs.

By this calculation, Dou Sibo is more fortunate.

Just as he was thinking about this, Dou Sibo had already brought all the county governors here.

When the county magistrates arrived, none of them looked very frightened.

Liu Tan didn't hesitate to speak politely with them. "Before the exam began, I had someone read out the exam rules to you and repeatedly asked if you understood them. You all understood them, right?"

When he said this, the county governors knew that he was going to take action.

After exchanging glances, one of the younger men, who looked to be in his early twenties, stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, please calm down. We don't mean to disrupt the examination hall. It's just that... Dou Xiang doesn't know much about exams, and he can't answer any of our questions. We can't come out and ask Your Highness, so we have to find a way to solve the problem."

Liu Tan looked up at Dou Sibo, and then saw Dou Sibo angrily said: "What's going on with you? You can't grind the ink, the ink isn't dark enough, the paper is too thin, and you... deliberately damaged the test paper..."

Dou Sibo glared at the young man angrily, but the young man calmly replied, "These problems are indeed not serious, but this is our first time taking the exam, so it's normal that we don't have experience. Some people's ink doesn't work well. Since Prime Minister Dou can't solve it, then we can only solve it ourselves."

As the young man spoke, he observed the Northern King's expression, trying to analyze Liu Tan's thoughts.

According to his thinking, Dou Sibo was such a fool, he definitely couldn't tolerate it. Just look at the people in the court of the Northern Border Kingdom. Every one of them was either a descendant of aristocracy or the son of a high-ranking official. As for Dou Sibo... he was from the Empress's mother's family, but when Empress Dou was alive, the Dou family hadn't been very successful, let alone now after so many generations.

These county governors even thought that if someone like Huo Guang were to become prime minister, they would be convinced. Now, out of nowhere, this idiot wants to suppress them? Wishful thinking!

However, they also knew that it was impossible for them to do anything to the prime minister with their official positions. No matter how bad Dou Sibo was, he was chosen by the emperor himself. If they wanted to bring him down, they needed an ally - the King of the North.

Given the emperor's fondness for the King of the North, if the King of the North feels that this prime minister is unsuitable, he might be able to replace him.

Liu Tan didn't know what they were thinking, and even if he did, he wouldn't agree with them and replace Dou Sibo.

He could see that these people were targeting Dou Sibo. Not only was he not dissatisfied with Dou Sibo, but he felt that these people were slapping him in the face.

Without waiting for Dou Sibo to speak, Liu Tan said, "I don't care what your reasons are. You can't make noise. Since the day I established the rules of the examination hall, no one can challenge them. You..." He smiled and said, "You are quite courageous."

The young man's expression changed slightly, and he was very flexible. He bowed and said, "I know I am wrong. Your Highness, please forgive me for this first offense."

Liu Tan asked, "So you were the one who took the lead?"

The young man initially flinched, but then he remembered the legendary Liu Tan's temperament and gritted his teeth, saying, "Yes."

He knew that what Liu Tan hated most were people who were irresponsible.

Liu Tan asked, "Is there anyone who hasn't made a mistake?"

When he asked this question, he looked at Dou Sibo. Dou Sibo was slightly stunned, nodded and said, "The Liaoxi County Magistrate and the Shanggu County Magistrate were not involved."

Liu Tan looked at the two men and felt a little surprised. As a county adjacent to the Northern Border Kingdom, it was not surprising that Shanggu County knew something about him. On the contrary, the governor of Liaoxi County seemed to be quite aware of the current affairs.

He then said, "You, come here and write down all their faults."

Dou Sibo was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect Liu Tan to make such a request. However, he had one advantage, which was that he was obedient enough.

He would do whatever Liu Tan asked him to do.

So he just sat down and started writing.

At this time, the county governors all looked pale and looked at each other, feeling a little unsure.

In fact, they knew that there was once a county governor of Xi'anyang County who was stabbed by this prince because he openly disobeyed the King of the Northern Territory in the examination room.

So when they were looking for trouble with Dou Sibo, they deliberately controlled the extent of the disturbance.

Although they made some trouble, they still took the exam obediently.

From this perspective, the things they did shouldn't be serious. They shouldn't be exposed for such a small thing, right?

Among them, the young man was probably the calmest.

Liu Tan was curious as well. The previous introductions were rather hasty and he only knew that this young man was the prefect of Guangyang County.

To be able to become a county magistrate at this age, this person must have a good family background. However, Liu Tan has seen and dealt with many people with good family backgrounds.

Could it be that the prefect of Guangyang County thought that he would be lenient with him because of his background?

In the silence, Dou Sibo quickly wrote down the charges against these people. Liu Tan took a look at it and found that Dou Sibo's handwriting was distorted with anger. It was obvious that he had just suffered a great loss.

He glanced down and found that the most eye-catching person was not the prefect of Guangyang County, but the prefect of Pinggang County.

He was a big and strong-looking man. Liu Tan thought he looked more like a military officer than a civil servant. The most coincidental thing was that this man had killed several people.

In this era, it is not uncommon to have someone take a life. Even Liu Tan has personally taken the lives of two people.

However, Liu Tan had focused on those county magistrates who had killed people. The county magistrate of Pinggang County did not kill foreign enemies but the people under his rule, and he had set fire to the entire village, causing it to be burned to death.

In his words, the villagers of that village were harboring a spy. However, what Liu Che's embroidered envoy found out was that this man often collected beauties to give to Liu Dan. The beauty he found this time happened to be married, but he ignored it and insisted on taking the beauty away.

The family that married the beauty was not a small family, and they just refused to let her go. However, who could have imagined that the county magistrate was such a cruel man that he killed the entire family who lived together as a clan, leaving no one alive, and naturally the beauty was also taken away.

However, when the State of Yan was carrying out a purge, this person somehow managed to escape punishment. Otherwise, even if Liu Tan was short of people, he would not have allowed such a person to return to his post.

But that’s okay, I can clean it up today.

Liu Tan didn't ask him anything, but said directly: "Come here, the prefect of Pinggang County has disobeyed the emperor and shall be punished with forty strokes of the cane."