Liu Hong then looked at the civil and military officials in the hall and said, "I think the Grand Commandant's suggestion is feasible. What do you all think?"
"We second that proposal!"
Subsequently, Yuan Feng, Hu Guang, Dou Wu, and others spoke up to second the motion.
Liu Hong smiled and said, "Since no one objects, let's proceed according to the Grand Commandant's suggestion!"
"Minister of the Imperial Secretariat!"
"Your subject is here!"
Yin Xun stepped forward from among the officials and bowed to Liu Hong.
Liu Hong looked at Yin Xun and said, "You shall personally draft the edict and then proclaim it to the world!"
"Your subject obeys!"
Wang Rui and the others behind them dared not raise any further objections, after all, the emperor's words had saved them face.
If they continue to speak out against this, the Emperor might get angry and, as Li Ying suggested, send them to the frontier. Then they'd have nowhere to turn and would be left with nothing but regret.
Meanwhile, Li Mao and the others were secretly delighted. They never expected that they would unknowingly gain so many benefits. Suddenly, they were no longer so resistant to their children entering the three academies.
Liu Hong then looked at the civil and military officials again, "Do you gentlemen have any other good ideas?"
Upon hearing Liu Hong's question, the hall fell silent. All the ideas they could think of had been shared by the three dukes, and there seemed to be nothing more to add.
Just then, Cao Song suddenly stood up and said loudly:
"Your Majesty, I have a plan that may be feasible!"
When they saw Cao Song suddenly stepping forward, everyone's hearts skipped a beat.
"Oh? I wonder what good plan the Grand Minister of Agriculture has?"
Liu Hong looked at Cao Song with a smile. After performing for so long, the real show was finally about to begin.
Cao Song said respectfully, "Your Majesty, the second examination for scholars will be held next July. I believe this will be a very good opportunity!"
Liu Hong asked, "Oh? What do you mean by that?"
"Your Majesty is benevolent. In order to compensate the scholars who suffered from the Party Prohibition, you have specially added an examination to recruit them. However, the number of scholars who were implicated in the Party Prohibition was in the tens of millions."
Therefore, I believe the number of positions is far too small. Perhaps we should increase the number of openings to attract scholars from across the land. Those who pass the examination will naturally become officials; those who fail can be assigned to one of the three academies for further study and training, and will be re-examined the following year. Furthermore, those who are not diligent in their studies or whose grades are unsatisfactory should be disqualified from re-examination!
Then Cao Song took out a memorial and said loudly, "Yesterday, I discussed this with many colleagues. This is our joint memorial. Please take a look, Your Majesty!"
Liu Hong took the memorial and glanced at it briefly. The memorial contained specific operational details, such as: people from the same hometown or family should not gather, all candidates should use the same handwriting, and the names should be sealed after the exam papers were filled out. All of these were written on the memorial. Liu Hong nodded repeatedly as he read it.
"Great! Very well written!"
After reading it, Liu Hong nodded in satisfaction, then handed the memorial to Zhang Rang beside him, saying, "Read it aloud to all of you!"
"promise!!"
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