With peace and prosperity throughout the country, Zhu Yuanzhang began to harass the civil officials.

At the beginning of his reign, Zhu Yuanzhang clashed with Confucianism, even removing Mencius from the Confucian Temple at one point. This was because Zhu Yuanzhang did not agree with some of Confucius's views, which caused scholars throughout the country to cry and lament, making the scholarly community quite noisy at that time.

Now, things are better. Liu Sanwu and others have completed the revision of "Selected Excerpts from Mencius." The main change was the deletion of words that were contrary to the emperor's authority. This also shows that historical records or some so-called classics inevitably involve the interpretations and modifications of later generations.

Old Zhu has made some changes now, but he is definitely not the first person in history to do so. Furthermore, misinterpreting the concepts of past sages is even more common.

In Shilin, Old Zhu's reputation was completely ruined. Zhu Xiong Ying wasn't much better off; it was probably because of Old Zhu's overwhelming influence that Zhu Xiong Ying's insignificant contributions seemed unimportant, and no one paid much attention to him.

"Grandpa Emperor, today those people said you changed the classics, and yesterday they said your grandson doesn't care about the people and doesn't practice virtuous governance." Zhu Xiong Ying drank his wine contentedly and joked, "I am indeed worthy of being Grandpa Emperor's grandson. The history books will surely say that we, grandfather and grandson, are tyrants."

Old Zhu laughed and joked, "It's just that you're making a mess of things. Throughout history, most prisoners were either locked up in jail or killed. But you're the opposite; you're always thinking about building roads and cities, just torturing prisoners."

Zhu Xiong Ying was displeased and corrected, "Grandpa, there have always been convicts serving their sentences throughout history. I just changed my name."

This is a fact; throughout history, there have been instances of prisoners being forced into hard labor. Even in so-called modern civilization, there are examples of prisoners being forced to do work, although some are directly called 'reform through labor,' while others are not referred to that way.

Talking about human rights in a feudal society was, in Zhu Xiong Ying's opinion, utterly ridiculous. A pragmatist like him, he didn't care about empty fame. Besides, those who recorded history books mostly had their own stances and ideas, and Zhu Xiong Ying wouldn't pander to them for the sake of a so-called good reputation.

Zhu Yuanzhang wasn't particularly concerned with reputation; he was a complete pragmatist. Empty fame was unimportant to him. As long as the country was secure, that was more important than anything else. Let the writers write whatever they wanted; he couldn't care less after he died.

“Grandfather, I have been preparing for the imperial examinations these days and have noticed some unpleasant signs.” Zhu Xiong Ying also became serious and said to Old Zhu, “The literary atmosphere in the North is not very strong, and the students in the North are indeed not as good as the scholars in the South in terms of writing and knowledge.”

Old Zhu nodded, he knew about this matter. "In the end, it's because the north has been under the rule of foreign tribes for too long, including the Liao, Jin, and Mongol Yuan people. They have no interest in studying. Even if they do study, it's not the classics."

“Those foreign peoples from the Mongol Yuan dynasty are one thing, they were all barbarians,” Zhu Xiong Ying said. “But things are different now. Our Great Ming has unified the world. We are not just a royal family of southerners, but also a royal family of northerners. The Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations) of the Great Ming cannot be just southerners. Otherwise, we will inevitably face the same factional strife as in the Song dynasty.”

In this era, one's place of origin is extremely important; it is an innate political and networking asset, and one will naturally gravitate towards forming cliques.

Old Zhu also became serious, but he was quite troubled. "Ying'er, we're not experts in the study of scholars, and neither are you. If a scholar from the north can't pass the imperial examination, we can't just give him a Jinshi degree without even looking at his paper!"

There was no other way. Zhu Xiong Ying felt that he could only resort to some strategies from later generations, since educational resources were different.

Even though some students and parents complain every year, the reality is that there are indeed differences in educational resources between provinces and municipalities, and university admissions also have some biases. Otherwise, why would "Gaokao migration" be so popular? It's mainly due to the difference in resources.

In fact, the imperial examination system, consisting of five levels—the preliminary examination, the provincial examination, the metropolitan examination, and the palace examination—was often further subdivided, making it a vast and rigorous system with numerous levels, grades, regulations, and categories. Those who could participate in the metropolitan examination were the best of the best from each province and region.

However, Zhu Xiong Ying felt that this was not enough, because the Ming Dynasty really needed some policy support.

This is unfair to the scholars in the south, but as the crown prince, Zhu Xiong Ying needs to consider the entire Ming Dynasty, not just the feelings of the southern scholars. Such unfairness is unavoidable; the only option is to achieve relative fairness while also making some adjustments and trade-offs.

"Let's set up a separate list for the North and South," Zhu Xiong Ying said after thinking for a moment. "Anyway, Beiping will be moving its capital soon, so scholars from the North can go to Beiping to take the exams. Scholars from the South can take the exams in Yingtian Prefecture. This will save those scholars from the trouble of traveling, since it's not easy to go out these days."

Old Zhu paused for a moment, then said, "In this way, scholars in the south will feel resentful."

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it. It's better than the discontent of the scholars in the north." Zhu Xiong Ying sighed and said helplessly, "Our Great Ming has just recovered the north and is still trying to win back the hearts of the people. These scholars in the north are the ones who have benefited."

Ultimately, Zhu Xiong Ying needs to stabilize the hearts and minds of the people in the north, and the scholars in the north are naturally a crucial link in this. The scholars in the south may have to suffer a little, but for now, they have no choice but to do so, since Zhu Xiong Ying is the successor to a unified dynasty.

Old Zhu seemed to remember something and said, "In that case, the court will probably be in chaos. Right now, most of the people in the court are from the south, from the Hubei and Hunan regions and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, where the literary culture is very strong."

"Go ahead and argue, your grandson is still thinking about serving as an official in another place." Zhu Xiong Ying said with a smile, not to flatter him, "Grandfather is a man of great talent and vision. Southerners go to the north to serve as officials, and northerners go to the south. Not serving in their hometowns also reduces connections."

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