Chapter 98: Imperial Inspection
Wang Heng pondered for a moment, then stood in the hall and spoke loudly, "Your Majesty, I believe that when Your Majesty governs the country, you should prioritize the people, be open-minded, and listen to their opinions. You should patiently listen to the voices of the people and the advice of officials, seeking true insights. You should be benevolent and sympathetic to the people's feelings."
The invigilating officials all looked sideways.
There is a kind of people in this world who pay attention to a certain feeling. When they enter into their own feelings, all perceptions of the outside world become faded.
Wang Heng added, "Your Majesty has governed properly, listened widely to the people's opinions, and has spread his virtue far and wide. He has been diligent in his work, loved the people, and worked hard to govern the country. Today, the world is at peace and the people are grateful..."
Yan Xuanyu watched Wang Heng become more and more excited as he spoke. He was no longer speaking according to the topic Yan Xuanyu had given him, but had deviated to the topic of "flattering the emperor."
But he spoke sincerely and became more and more excited.
It was not until Wang Heng finished speaking that he suddenly realized that he was in the main hall taking part in the final stage of the imperial examination - the palace examination.
He looked up at Yan Xuanyu who was sitting above him. The latter smiled at him and said, "What you said is indeed pleasing to my heart, but are there still invigilators for the palace examination?"
Yan Xuanyu's playful mood only existed for that moment.
This was the palace examination for selecting officials in the Great Zhou Dynasty, which examined the students' various qualities.
For example, Wang Heng in front of us has talent and knowledge, but his talent and knowledge are far from enough to make him stand out among the students who enter the palace examination. Another shortcoming of this person is that he is easily impulsive, which can also be seen through the investigation of his past deeds.
The officials each wrote a few words on the desk in front of them.
The palace examination continued tensely.
"Let the Jinshi candidates go to various places to gain some experience first." Yan Xuanyu said to everyone after the palace examination.
After all, experience is also an important part.
Recruit talents from all over the country, and add the future talents being cultivated in the schools of the Great Zhou, the more the better.
After Wang Heng, Yan Xuanyu summoned several other students and asked them to discuss the incident. Some gave mediocre answers, some spoke sharply, and some viewed the matter from different perspectives.
In short, each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and the examiners gave scores one by one after communication.
...
The successful completion of the first imperial examination of the Great Zhou Dynasty not only changed the families of the students who had passed the examination, but also gave people the world peace of mind.
The Beijing Daily used a huge page to describe the magnificent scene at Zhaixing Tower that day.
The area outside the Zhaixing Tower where people could watch was crowded with people. They all looked up at the Zhaixing Tower.
The emperor personally conferred titles on the first batch of Jinshi scholars of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and the top scholar was conferred the title on the highest level of the Zhaixing Tower, which has a special meaning.
This means that even children from poor families have the opportunity to enter the officialdom.
The newly established imperial examination system of the Great Zhou Dynasty is still being improved in the process. All the problems that arose in this imperial examination are being solved. After all, this is not the end, and there will be another imperial examination in three years.
It can be said that because of the imperial examination system implemented by Yan Xuanyu in the Great Zhou, a "reading craze" arose in the Great Zhou, and some officials were worried that this would affect the farming work in the Great Zhou.
Yan Xuanyu thought about it and felt that it was not a big problem.
Because he is not only working hard on the imperial examination. The current agricultural policies of the Zhou Dynasty also provide farmers with many conveniences, such as the promotion of potatoes, and the future selection of grains to increase production. Therefore, the officials who raised such questions definitely did not care about farming and should be punished!
...
After the palace examination, the imperial examination came to an end. As for how the successful candidates were allocated, it was no longer Yan Xuanyu's concern.
The mood improved and people had some free time.
Yan Xuanyu organized a temporary inspection of various departments in the court.
Li Zhongxian only told the court that the emperor would visit various departments, but there was no fixed location or time for him to go.
This scared the ministers a lot. Although they had done nothing wrong, it was scary to have their biggest boss come to see them working.
Yan Xuanyu: We gave them a vaccination but not all of them.
The first place Yan Xuanyu went to was the Ministry of Rites, which was responsible for various rituals inside and outside the Great Zhou, so most of the ministers were old ministers. Although the ministers were scared and obedient by Yan Xuanyu's previous methods, this group of old officials was even worse, but with Han Yuan sitting firmly in the court, everyone knew that His Majesty was not going to decide life and death arbitrarily, but to remove all the former officials and promote his own confidants.
This led to the current situation.
On the day Yan Xuanyu inspected the Ministry of Rites, he was stopped by a group of old scholars and forced to talk for most of the day. They talked about everything from court affairs to local rituals, officials, imperial examinations, and the people. They kept talking and refused to let Yan Xuanyu leave.
Yan Xuanyu even suspected that someone else had colluded with them to control him so that he would give up the idea of going somewhere else!
However, Yan Xuanyu was just thinking about it, and the fact was certainly not like that.
Yan Xuanyu often summoned officials, but his time and energy were limited. There were so many officials in the Great Zhou, and the Ministry of Rites was a place that Yan Xuanyu didn't need to worry about. He changed a lot after he came here, but the ritual system... let's forget about it for now. They were all improved bit by bit from the previous dynasties. Yan Xuanyu didn't have the idea of overturning and changing them all. He was afraid that if he followed his wild imagination, the rituals and music would collapse!
Therefore, the officials of the Ministry of Rites met Yan Xuanyu very rarely, and the court was not a place where one could talk casually, as it was a place for discussing important matters.
So when the emperor came to the Ministry of Rites, although the officials were worried, they were more happy. After all, apart from the morning court and palace banquets, they rarely saw the emperor at other times.
This also fully demonstrates how large a group of "empty nest elderly" there are in the Ministry of Rites. Yan Xuanyu was surrounded by old officials and talked to them for a whole day. After returning to the palace with a splitting headache, he shed tears in Chengqian Hall and wrote a few big words: "It is urgent to pay attention to the empty nest elderly."
Yan Xuanyu's day at the Ministry of Rites finally passed. After returning to the palace, he added several regulations overnight, requiring officials to perform their duties and not leave without reason.
If possible, Yan Xuanyu hopes that everyone can ignore him.
In fact, the feeling of going to each place is different, which also gave Yan Xuanyu a deeper understanding and insight into the huge official political system in ancient times.
Yan Xuanyu also understood that even though he had dealt with such a large number of officials before, the entire court was still able to function because so many officials were carrying the burden for him.
The most noteworthy thing is Yan Xuanyu’s trip to the Dali Temple.
The capital city is located under the feet of the emperor, so the public security is naturally stricter than in other places. Moreover, under Yan Xuanyu's governance, there are fewer crimes such as theft in the capital city, and the crime rate has been greatly reduced.
However, due to changes in the situation after Yan Xuanyu ascended the throne, more and more spies were caught and imprisoned by the Dali Temple.
Cen Ji, the Shaoqing of the Dali Temple, was also one of the officials promoted after Yan Xuanyu ascended the throne.
When Yan Xuanyu went to the Dali Temple, he not only visited the officials' offices, but also went into the prison cell in person. Li Zhongxian was so scared that he protected Yan Xuanyu tightly, fearing that a rat would jump out and offend the emperor.
Cen Ji explained that His Majesty had specifically instructed that attention must be paid to the hygiene in the cells, as dirt could easily breed infectious diseases. Therefore, the cells where prisoners were held in the Dali Temple had been changed long ago, with separate toilets set up, and the prisoners were required to clean them every day.
Yan Xuanyu listened and nodded with a serious face, but he was very happy in his heart. He thought that the prisoners must hate Chen Ji to death. It was annoying enough that they didn't know when they would die, and now they have to clean their own cells every day.
The cell only provides one meal a day, which is enough to keep the prisoners alive. Otherwise, if the treatment in prison is better than outside, it would be bad if everyone deliberately committed crimes to get in.
But don't underestimate the temptation of food to people at this time.
It is worth mentioning that Yan Xuanyu also asked some more questions to the spy. Although Cen Ji was not very old, his methods were not inexperienced at all. After catching the spy, he first pried his mouth open to prevent him from biting his teeth.
"Are you afraid of biting your tongue to commit suicide?" Yan Xuanyu asked.
Cen Ji laughed and said, "Your Majesty, where did you hear this? Biting the tongue to commit suicide is indeed possible, but it is a bit difficult."
Yan Xuanyu sighed, the TV series really deceived me!
After finding out all the poison, they would prevent the spies from touching any sharp objects, tie them up and lock them up in a cell to starve them for a few days.
Among these spies, there are people from the Southern Kingdom in addition to the Turks. So although the Southern Kingdom surrendered on the surface, it was not honest at all in private.
The information Cen Ji was able to extract from the spies was limited, as most of them preferred death to speak out. The torture and the spies' determination to die resulted in the loss of many of them. However, the capital city was densely populated, and they could catch some spies every once in a while, which helped fill the vacancies in the prison...
Yan Xuanyu listened to Cen Ji saying these words without any expression, and actually felt a strange sense of humor rising in his heart.
So he showed a rare bit of humor and said, "Next time, try tickling the prisoner's feet."
Yan Xuanyu walked away after he finished speaking, not noticing Cen Ji's thoughtful expression.
It was a few days later that Yan Xuanyu received another memorial from Cen Ji. He opened the memorial and found that Cen Ji reported in it that His Majesty's method was indeed effective.
The Dali Temple has now developed a new set of punishments, one of which is to make the prisoner laugh until he dies during interrogation...
Yan Xuanyu shuddered, then continued reading. Cen Ji said that this method had actually been used to obtain something from a spy not long ago...
After inspecting various departments of the imperial court, Yan Xuanyu fell into a state of emptiness again.
He is the emperor, and it is his job to rest all the time!
While Yan Xuanyu was despising himself, he started to find things to do.
So after he had enough points, he opened the card drawing system again. He felt that everything he had recently obtained from the Tyrant System were useful, so he started gambling without hesitation this time.
This time he drew the A card, called [Ten Tortures].
Yan Xuanyu suspected it was because he had just read the memorial submitted by Cen Ji not long ago...
He took a quick look.
"It's useless." Yan Xuanyu said, "Should we give these things to the Dali Temple? Let them use them to interrogate prisoners?"
But Yan Xuanyu felt that the people in the Dali Temple were quite resourceful, especially the newly added punishments, which made Yan Xuanyu once again experience what it meant to kill without shedding blood.
These things...
Yan Xuanyu pondered for a while and suddenly slapped his head.
These things can be melted down to make weapons!
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