"Since Your Highness has asked me to speak, I am overstepping my bounds." Gu Zheng nodded to He Qing with a smile on his face. Then he turned to the group waiting for questions and said, "You can form pairs and question each other. Those who can't answer will be eliminated. Those who answer correctly will continue to form groups and enter the next round, until the last person is left."
He actually took a shortcut and made the person answering the question also the one setting the question, thus avoiding his own shortcomings.
His quick thinking impressed everyone, except for a few officials who had originally wanted to try their luck and registered. They would definitely not be able to get away with it this way.
Even He Qing had nothing to say and could only say, "Just as Mr. Gu wishes."
So the assessment officially began.
To ensure fairness, He Qing divided the imperial clan and civil officials into two groups for assessment. She and Gu Zheng each led a group of court officials to conduct the assessment. Gu Zheng was responsible for assessing the imperial clan, while she was only responsible for the civil officials.
Because there weren't specific grouping criteria, and there were so many people at the start, everyone was free to group themselves, naturally purposefully selecting those they felt were weaker in certain areas. After all, they were all colleagues, and they knew each other well, so they had a rough idea of each other's abilities.
But in this way, the members of the delegation were isolated and had to team up in pairs to eliminate their opponents first.
Faced with such a situation, some naturally grew suspicious and asked, "Minister Gu, this doesn't seem appropriate, does it? Although it's an assessment, we all know that the people in the delegation clearly have a better understanding of Nanyang. Pairing them up in pairs will increase the probability of elimination. It seems a bit wrong that this strong person was eliminated earlier than the others."
"How could that be?" Gu Zheng's face showed surprise. "It's just that those who answer correctly advance to the next round, and those who answer incorrectly are eliminated. If both parties answer correctly, they can naturally advance together. If both of them answer incorrectly, they will be eliminated together. Of course, if the questions asked have nothing to do with Nanyang, they will also be eliminated."
In this way, even if strong people face each other at the beginning, they don’t have to use their ultimate moves to eliminate their opponents immediately. Instead, they can let each other go, advance together, and eliminate those who are not very strong first.
As for concerns about intense competition and the desire to eliminate some of your strongest opponents first, there's no need to worry. While you know each other, you're still just colleagues. No one knows if the other is hiding something. If you go all out right away, your opponent will naturally be prepared. If neither of you can answer, both will suffer losses and be eliminated, which would give others an opportunity to exploit your weakness.
Anyway, although Gu Zheng's intention was to determine the first person, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the two newly added branches of the Maritime Customs Administration would require a large number of people. If he couldn't get first place, he could at least be among the top candidates and become a backup.
In this case, the right thing to do is to eliminate those who are not strong enough first and then engage in internal competition.
As for those who were hoping for a lucky break, they were filled with disappointment. Gu Zheng was Gu Zheng, so how could he really leave any loopholes for them to exploit?
At first, the selection process went very quickly.
Because many people signed up with the idea of just in case, and they had no knowledge of Nanyang at all. Not to mention answering their opponents' questions, they didn't even know what to ask themselves. So after one round, a small half of the people were eliminated.
But honestly, He Qing thought this result was actually quite good. After all, the Great Chu was just beginning to connect with the world, and most people were still stuck in old ways of thinking. The only ones who truly knew anything about the South Seas were the navy, merchant caravans, and diplomatic envoys who had sailed with the fleet. As for the court officials, most of what they knew was gossip brought back by the fleet's return.
Therefore, the ability to ask and answer questions suggests a private understanding of the subject. Whether it's personal interest or the court's attitude predicting greater attention in the future, they're all dedicated, and there are quite a few of them.
From this we can see that Da Chu is now thriving and developing vigorously, and its vitality is very strong.
It is completely different from the corrupt, decaying, precarious, and full of loopholes waiting to be repaired court of the Great Chu a few years ago.
This was the goal that He Qing had been working towards. Seeing the result with his own eyes today, it was natural that he couldn't be unhappy.
However, by the middle stage, the elimination rate slowed down. This was because the remaining players were all quite capable, and under the guidance of a gradual process, they were often able to ask and answer each other's questions, advancing hand in hand.
Fortunately, there weren't many people, so it didn't take much time. Moreover, their way of asking each other questions could also teach the ministers, who mostly knew nothing about Southeast Asia, a lesson, allowing them to increase their understanding of overseas through this method.
After this stalemate in the middle, the elimination rate increases again in the later stages. This is because most people are only half-baked and don’t actually understand deeply. Once the little knowledge they have is emptied, they are naturally eliminated.
In the end, only Huang Xiu and Ning Shang were left. They were tit-for-tat with each other and refused to give in. The rapid questions and answers between them made the situation intense and attracted everyone's attention.
The royal family had already completed the task, and as expected, Prince De won.
Not to mention that He Qing had previously warned him, his own understanding of Southeast Asia was already unmatched by most. After all, those eligible to run for the Minister of Foreign Affairs were all veterans, often pedantic and unwilling to adapt. They hadn't adapted to the changes in Da Chu over the past few years, let alone adapt to the current and become the leader.
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