Youzhou Civil Service Examination

What is Youzhou lacking the most right now?

The first thing that was lacking was "officials"! Not to mention the ordinary officials who could govern a region and keep the people safe, even the officials in the original Youzhou Commander's residence were always just a handful of people!

The people are the foundation of the country! But to govern the people, we must first govern the officials! The current reality of no officials available means that the series of good ideas about civil affairs in Liu Buqi's mind can only remain on paper!

The most urgent matter for Liu Buqi while staying in Tai'an Prefecture is to solve the problem of Youzhou officials!

"Madam, recently, many scholars from the capital have come to Youzhou, including several candidates for the imperial court! I heard that they were inspired by your poems and essays and came to serve the frontier!"

Liu Buqi was very puzzled by Lu Xin's words. He had indeed plagiarized a lot of poems in the capital, but he didn't expect that it could actually attract talented people to join him!

Shouldn't I write a few more poems? Maybe I could even win the hearts of the people through poetry? Maybe I could even go down in history!

But Lu Xin's next words disrupted Liu Buqi's fantasy, "Though these scholars in the capital have some talent, most of them are arrogant and look down on Youzhou, where the literary style is not so strong!"

This was said very subtly. Liu Buqi could imagine that this was just like the era he came from. People who used to make a living in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou suddenly ran to work in small border towns. Compared with the villagers who had little experience and knowledge, they naturally had a natural advantage!

In the final analysis, there are too few elites in Youzhou now. Any scholar here is treated as a treasure, and they can't help but be arrogant!

"You two, Lingxi and I have discussed this and we're planning to hold a small-scale imperial examination in Youzhou!"

Fortunately, Lu Xin and Zhu Caicai were both from business families, otherwise they would have been shocked at this moment!

Why were Jinshi (Jinshi) who passed the imperial examinations called "disciples of the emperor"? It was because these examinations were presided over by the government and bestowed by the emperor.

For a local lord to organize such an official examination is definitely violating the rules!

Fortunately, the prince is busy wrestling with Prince Ning, so he probably won’t pay too much attention to Youzhou right now!

"Of course, I said the imperial examination because I want you to understand. We certainly can't call it the imperial examination, we can call it the civil service examination!" This is another of Liu Buqi's "low tastes"!

"Uncle, when you return to Yanjing, please post a recruitment notice, stating that those who hold official positions can participate and inherit their original ranks! Those with scholar status can be directly appointed as officials!

In addition, anyone from the scholar, farmer, merchant, or artisan background can participate. Anyone who has been engaged in business for three years or farming for three years, as long as they are qualified, can be directly appointed as an official!

This actually gives merchants an opportunity to change their identities. In the past two years, the internal affairs of Youzhou under the leadership of Liu Buqi have always emphasized the promotion of business. Many big businessmen have moved to Tai'an, Taiping and Taixiang prefectures. They have wealthy families and most of their children are educated, but they have no chance to take the imperial examinations!

"Zhu Caicai, when I was in Jinan Prefecture before, I found that many people who had previously served as officials in Guanzhong, Jinzhong, and Yuzhou were temporarily living in Jinan Prefecture to avoid the war in the Yangtze River!"

"Tomorrow you will go to Jinan Prefecture and use storytellers to publicize the contents of the Youzhou Talent Recruitment List in Jinan Prefecture! At the same time, you will be accepting applications at the old residence of the Lu Mansion!"

"Also, immediately inform the lower-level officials brought by the two imperial envoys that all of them must take part in this exam! You two must personally investigate the performance of these officials. If you find any candidates who demonstrate good governance and harmonious governance, and whose territories maintain peace, please recommend them. They will be awarded bonus points during the exam."

After a series of arrangements, Youzhou’s first civil service examination is scheduled to be held in Tai’an Prefecture one month later. Youzhou has set up two registration points in Tai’an and Yanjing, and one registration point in Jinan. Those who want to take the exam must register in person at the nearest location within 20 days!

The exam only covers two subjects: policy essays and criminal law! The exam is anonymous. When registering, you must provide a summary of your work over the past three years. After you pass the exam, a dedicated person will verify this information. Those suspected of forgery will have their scores canceled and will be replaced by candidates who did not make the list.

Liu Buqi used this basically copied exam format without any panic or blushing, but instead left Lu Xin and Zhu Caicai dumbfounded!

This "imperial examination" that has been changed beyond recognition cannot be said to have violated the rules, but it is unknown how many people it can attract to participate!

Not to mention the sensation caused by the Youzhou Civil Service Examination in the next half month! Liu Buqi now has another important matter to deal with, which is also the real reason why she sent Zhu Caicai to Jinan!

The confrontation in the Central Plains lasted for years, with the battlefield stretching for hundreds of miles on both sides of the river, affecting hundreds of thousands of farmers in Yuzhou and Jinzhong!

These people have land but cannot farm it, and have homes but cannot return to. Although the Crown Prince and Guannei Hou are constantly distributing porridge and rice, it will not cause widespread famine!

But when Yue Lingxi and Liu Buqi returned from the Dahe battlefield, they could still see people starving to death from time to time. In Shandong, there were also many farmers from the two states who fled the war!

After Zhu Caicai arrived in Jinan Prefecture, he immediately mobilized all the waiters in the tavern to spread the word among the farmers, attracting them to settle in Youzhou. Youzhou, with its vast land and sparse population, can provide free land, and agricultural tools and seeds can also be temporarily loaned to farmers, and the grain and silver will be returned after the harvest!

Although Youzhou was known for its bitter cold in this era, Liu Buqi knew that even though this land only produced one ripe crop, it was enough to feed millions of people!

Although the arrival of these people will bring certain pressure to Youzhou's current grain reserves, Youzhou has accumulated a lot of wealth in recent years by emphasizing commerce and controlling the throat of trade outside the Great Wall!

Now the area with large military forces in the Taiyue Dynasty is still calm, and the grain trade has not been affected by the war and has not been completely cut off!

These riches, with the help of the Lu family's ever-expanding grain purchasing channels, were converted into mountains of grain!

These reserves are enough for Youzhou to support a larger population. As long as they can survive for a year or two, they can produce a large amount of food on their own! Only then can Youzhou completely break free from the constraints of the empire!

Moreover, Yue Lingxi was ordered to attack this time. Yesterday, he had sent Lu Ren to the capital alone to meet the prince and seek support from the court!

Although Yue Chengqiu is bound to make excuses now, he can't be so stingy. As the saying goes, no matter how small a fly is, it is still meat. Lu Ren, this old fox, is good at crying poor and pretending to be poor. I believe he can bring back a lot of surprises from Beijing!

After arranging these two major events, Liu Buqi picked up the Youzhou topographic map and studied it carefully. The next thing would have to wait until Yue Lingxi, the King of Yan, returned!

The current structure of Youzhou with one city, one capital and three prefectures was formed entirely to cope with the repeated foreign invasions! However, it is very inconvenient for local governance!

Aside from military camps, large tracts of land near the Great Wall were abandoned. Yanjing, aside from the horse farms in the suburbs, was essentially the same as the Great Wall! Yet, the three prefectures were hoarding a large number of Youzhou citizens, and they were all very close to each other!

This is what Liu Buqi is going to change next!