Chapter 238 The Queen Wants to Recruit Female Officials
This "painting" is naturally taking pictures. Jin Sui was afraid of scaring Baozhu, so he told her in advance: "I use a special prop for this painting. It came from overseas. There is only one in the world. Don't be afraid. Hold the child tightly and listen to my accusations."
Baozhu was confused, but the queen attached so much importance to it that she even wanted to personally draw a portrait of her and her son and send it to Heihu, how could she not listen! She immediately sat up straight holding her son, and Jinsui took out her mobile phone to take a few pictures.
Baozhu and her son were left in the palace to have lunch. Baozhu was so nervous and trembling with fear that she kept apologizing when the child cried and peed.
Jinsui felt very uncomfortable, so he told her that Twelve Niang would come to the border town soon, and told her about Heihu's battle record, which made Baozhu feel a little relieved.
After asking the palace maid to send the mother and son back home, Jinsui immediately went to the space to develop the photos, and picked out one to give to Baozhu and one to give to Gu Changxiao to give to Heihu.
He smiled and said, “I guess by the time Hei Hu receives this photo, his son will be gone.”
Gu Changxiao didn't think so: "Black Tiger left traces all the way in the Western Regions. There are hot air balloons transmitting messages from the sky, and with Western Region merchants leading the way, he will definitely be caught up within a year."
Jin Sui smiled and said, "But within a year the little black tiger will be able to walk!"
Gu Changxiao thought so too and burst into laughter. He looked at the photo of Baozhu and the child, and his expression became weirder and weirder. Jinsui couldn't help asking, "What's wrong?"
"Sui Sui has never painted a picture for me."
Jin Sui was speechless for a long while before he said, "If you have time, I will draw for you right now."
Gu Changxiao hurriedly asked, "Can we change back into our wedding clothes and enter the painting together?"
"Hasn't the court painter painted it?"
"It's different! Their paintings are not as lifelike as Sui Sui's."
You are going to take wedding photos! Jin Sui thought for a moment and said, "Okay, but you have to promise not to ask too many questions! Because my painting tools are from overseas, they are quite special, and there is only one of their kind in the world."
Gu Changxiao said hurriedly: "Well, I won't ask any more questions."
Jinsui immediately went into the space to prepare, but he couldn't ask anyone else to take the photo for him. He thought that no matter who he asked, he would scare the other person, so he could only use a selfie stand.
What she didn't expect was that Gu Changxiao brought Liuyun with him. Liuyun is now the chief of the palace guards and the leader of the imperial guards. Other outsiders are not allowed to enter or leave the harem without permission, but Liuyun is not subject to this restriction.
Gu Changxiao did what he said and was not curious about the tools Jinsui had set up. He listened to Jinsui's instructions and asked them to sit side by side. Jinsui pressed the remote button in his hand to take a picture.
Thinking that since it was out, I might as well take a few more photos, and took a few standing group photos. She didn't notice, but she didn't know that Liuyun had good eyesight and better hearing.
Although he was standing aside, his eagle eyes saw the screen on the phone clearly.
At that moment he only felt a numbness on his back. This kid's brain circuit was different from that of ordinary people. His first reaction was, Senior Sister really has a magic weapon!
However, Senior Sister has such a magic weapon, but she actually used it to paint with Your Majesty! What a waste of talent!
If this magic weapon is passed on to me, I will definitely use it to do many great things! The way Liuyun looks at the phone is no different from the way a puppy looks at a meat bone or a kitten looks at a small fish.
Being misunderstood by Gu Changxiao: "Does Liuyun want to be in the painting too?"
Jin Sui waved his hand: "Come, Junior Brother Liuyun, let's enter the painting together."
"Ka" took a photo of the three of them, not giving them a chance to look at the phone closely. Jinsui hid the phone in his space, saying that the painting would take some time to finish.
Liuyun felt that she had to find a chance to have a good chat with her senior sister. Even if you become a queen, you can't fall behind in your cultivation! Being a queen is not as good as being a god!
Before he found his opportunity, Jinsui and Gu Changxiao started a new round of prosperity. Spring plowing was approaching, and there were already many things to do in the court. As a result, another big event happened on February 2.
Yan Jiu has already led a group of officials from the Ministry of Works to build a seaport. The court is also drafting a new document to fully open the maritime ban, but there is endless quarreling over this matter in the court.
Some officials believed that there were too many uncontrollable factors at sea, and building a navy and warships would take too much manpower and financial resources. Now that the treasury was empty due to the relocation of the capital, the court should develop steadily.
Instead of announcing too many reforms, simply trading with the northern border has already made our commerce prosperous, so there is no need to open up to maritime trade.
It is better to postpone the construction of the seaport and wait until the treasury is full. Gu Changxiao knew very well that this was the view of the conservatives in Chang'an. What is a full treasury? In their eyes, the treasury of Daxia has never been full since its founding!
It was all for profit, because their interests were centered in Chang'an, and the coastal nobles, especially the Yan nobles, would benefit from the lifting of the maritime ban. As a result, a large number of new nobles would inevitably emerge in the coastal areas due to maritime merchants, and these old nobles in Chang'an would be so old that they should be buried.
It is impossible to stand at the peak of the past, so they want to stop it, and they have a legitimate reason, that the treasury is empty, the cavalry and infantry alone have already consumed too much silver, and there is no financial resources to build a navy! The conservatives blocked it, and naturally there were also reformists who supported it. From the first day of the wedding, when he formally proposed to lift the sea ban, every morning court was noisy like a vegetable market.
Jin Sui heard that there were officials fighting during the morning court session in Chang'an. She asked Gu Changxiao worriedly, "What if officials fight in groups? If those old officials are injured or killed, will Your Majesty be scolded?"
Gu Changxiao couldn't help laughing: "Don't worry Sui Sui, they won't dare to act recklessly with me here! I'm not as good-tempered as the late emperor."
The turning point came on the third day after the "painting". On this day of February 2, an urgent message with an express delivery of 800 miles was delivered to the border town. It was said that three horses died of exhaustion on the way, and the meteor horse that delivered the letter fainted from exhaustion outside the city gate. The urgent message was delivered to the palace by the soldiers guarding the city.
"Urgent report from Minzhou! Japanese pirates have landed, burned, killed and looted. They have killed 130 civilians and looted three villages. Your Majesty, please take charge and pacify the Japanese pirates and protect the people along the coast!"
The soldiers shouted this news all the way from the city gate to the palace, scaring the entire city's residents, who thought it was an attack from the northern border army. Later they heard it was Japan.
They asked each other if they had heard of this country. They hadn't heard of it. It should be a small country in the south. They actually fought from the sea to Minzhou! Regarding the death of 130 civilians, the people from Chang'an were very confused. When did they report to His Majesty when more than 100 people died?
In the past few years, no matter if it was the Fan people, the Hu people, or the northern border Tartars, if they killed less than a thousand people at the border, the news would not be passed into the border! So the robbery of three villages can be regarded as an emergency report? The people in the border town can understand: "Our Majesty said that even if one of our people died in vain, the court will make a decision for him!"
"Every one of our people from Great Xia who died at the hands of foreigners is a Xia envoy! The Black Feather Camp army must seek justice for their dead comrades! The Japanese deserve to die!"
There is no doubt that Gu Changxiao did it on purpose. He just wanted to expand the impact of the Japanese pirates' invasion of the people and pave the way for building a navy.
He sent a secret letter to the governor of Minzhou, saying that if any Japanese pirates came ashore, even if they only killed one of our people, they should report it to the court immediately at an expedited speed of 800 miles! Gu Changxiao was furious. How dare the small Japanese country invade our Celestial Empire!
I must build a navy to let Japan know that the power of Daxia cannot be challenged.
All the officials looked at the furious young emperor and kept silent. They felt that if they raised any objections at this time, they would be no different from traitors.
But after the court session, when the officials discussed privately, naturally many people were still dissatisfied. If the Japanese pirates landed, they could just send the army to guard them. There was no need to waste people's money and build a navy to attack Japan!
Is your Majesty too warlike? When the previous emperor was alive, the small countries in all directions were unstable. Our Celestial Empire focused on appeasement and never took the initiative to provoke war...
When Jin Sui heard the news, she found it ridiculous that these pedantic civil servants could only talk about the Celestial Empire.
Others have already attacked your backyard, and you still want to appease them! Appease you big head ghost! You should be beaten into submission! However, this anti-war atmosphere currently occupies half of the court. If Gu Changxiao insists on building a navy to fight Japan, half of the people will oppose it, which will inevitably cause delays.
Not to mention unity from top to bottom, at least 70% of the people must support it. Jin Sui soon thought of a way. The emperor put pressure on him for one reason, and the second reason for the officials to support him was their interests.
She released a message, and with just five words, she immediately silenced those officials who opposed her. That is:
"Japan has silver mines!"
"Really, Suisui? Japan has silver mines?" Gu Changxiao was surprised and happy when he looked at the map of Japan given to him by Jinsui.
Jinsui pointed to a mountain range on the map and said, "It's absolutely true! Although Japan is not big, it has gold and silver mines, especially silver mines, with a very high amount of silver. It can be said that as long as we obtain this silver mine, Your Majesty can realize the ambition of no tax on farmers in the world!"
Gu Changxiao's breathing paused. Jinsui was not bragging. In his previous life, during the Ming Dynasty, the annual silver output of Iwami Silver Mine was one-third of the world's at that time.
In this way, in order to maintain national prestige and driven by huge profits, the new policy of building a navy and promoting maritime trade was formally issued through official documents from three provinces and six ministries, and all officials in the court became active in this matter.
In February, this incident caused a lot of discussion among people all over the world, but for the common people, maritime trade and the navy were too far away from them and had little to do with them.
But another important event was even more important: His Majesty opened a special examination, and the Spring Examination was held in mid-February. Even more unexpected was that the Empress also opened a special examination, recruiting talented women from all over the country to serve as court ladies.
Every emperor had a special imperial examination, but recruiting female officials was the first time in history! In the past, the empress also had female officials, but most of them were selected from the palace maids or the daughters of officials. There were also unsuccessful beautiful women who became female officials.
It was unprecedented for the Queen to recruit talented women from all over the world as court ladies! As expected, as soon as Jin Sui issued the imperial decree, it was immediately opposed by all officials. Even if His Majesty supported it, all officials strongly opposed it.
The harem is not allowed to interfere in government affairs, so how can the queen be allowed to recruit female officials? It's simply absurd!
Jin Sui said directly that the female officials did not receive their salaries from the national treasury and had no connection with the three provinces and six ministries. They were helpers recruited by her, the queen, alone. Why would the court oppose it?
She immediately informed the court of what she was going to do: she was going to build a public hospital, which would require a large number of medical staff, and she was going to build a public school, which would also require a large number of educators.
How could she, as a queen, deal with officials or students with honors? That's called politics! She only promoted some female officials and told them to do things, how could it be called politics? She mocked again, "Even a small noble family has thousands of servants who are not registered. And I am the queen of the central palace, but I have no manpower to use. I only recruited some talented women, and you are blocking me like this. What is your intention?"
What the civil officials did not expect was that when they used the old rules to oppose the queen, the military generals supported them and started arguing with the civil officials.
Frankly speaking, the Queen is the mother of the country and has the right to do this. You are undermining the Queen's power!
Especially the officials from the Black Feather Camp, they protected the queen as if she were their closest relative. The quarrel did not last long, because of the navy affairs before and after, and the opening of the imperial examination, the queen's recruitment of female officials seemed less important.
The emperor made the final decision and agreed to the female official system. But they both took a step back and the queen only recruited women from Yan for the first round of female official examinations. After all, it would be inconvenient for women from far away to come to the capital.
After the first examination for female officials was over and the news spread throughout the country, women from all states in the country were well prepared for the examination three years later and were able to come to the capital early to take the exam.
Jin Sui agreed. She couldn't recruit so many people in the first term anyway. The women from the sixteen states of Yan were enough.
Because there is no identity restriction, the age limit is 35 years old, and anyone with a household registration can take the exam. Jinsui was worried that there would not be many girls taking the exam, after all, many parents don't want their daughters to be in the spotlight.
The result was unexpected to her. There were as many people who came to the capital to take the exam for female officials as there were in the Spring Examination! After all, the Spring Examination had a limit on the number of honors. On the day when the registration was closed, there were 1,200 women who came to apply for the exam, which was far beyond Jin Sui's expectation.
The capital was bustling with activity for a while. Chen Yunniang was the chief examiner of the female official examination. She used the academy as the examination venue and borrowed Grandpa Ling's Taoist temple as temporary accommodation.
Because the inns in the city were full, some women had no relatives or friends in the country, so they stayed in Taoist temples.
Grandpa Ling certainly supported his granddaughter's career, and immediately moved the young Taoist priests in the Taoist temple to live in the Zhongyuan Stew Restaurant. Except for him and Jin'an, the Taoist temple was full of female candidates who were renting the house.
The examination for female officials was different from the special examination, except that the written test paper for the first test was the same. This was to eliminate women who were illiterate and did not know basic arithmetic.
Of course, students with special talents, such as those who are good at embroidery, weaving, and medicine, although they cannot become female officials, are very happy to be able to stay in the academy.
Especially some middle-aged women who cannot read a single word but are skilled embroiderers. They have worked as embroiderers for wealthy families for half their lives, but they can actually enter the Queen's academy to become female teachers in their lifetime!
Most of the candidates were eliminated in the written test, and only 300 women passed. Jin Sui sighed in his heart, many of these women who came to apply for the exam came from well-off families, and Yan was more open than Chang'an, and paid more attention to women's education.
There were only a few literate women, and education was monopolized by the aristocratic families, so literacy became an extremely luxurious thing.
You have to know that for the written test, as long as you know basic arithmetic and know a few hundred common characters, you can pass it. Only so few people can pass it.
Education is a long and arduous task! She personally set the questions for the second round of the test.
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