When Fang Bingsheng gave Qian Jinyi and the others came out, it was already six:30 in the evening. It was getting dark. He looked at the two rickshaws parked at the door of Afu. Two people stood and talked. Before he could see who it was, he had already shouted.

"Master! The rice is ready, Ah Hui will bring it to you now? Ah, you have a guest." Li Zai's voice.

"Oh, Boss Qian from Qilihe has something to ask me for. " Fang Bingsheng, who was hunching and shaking Qian Jinyi's hand, turned his head and shouting. Even if the dark sky could not see clearly, he could hear the joy in the voice.

As the name suggests, Qilihe is a place 7 miles away from the city wall. It is the core and wealthy area of ​​this rapidly developing area. It is like a spring bamboo shoot. Therefore, Fang Bingsheng specifically mentioned the place name, and it is not his fault. Every poor man in Shiligou has a friend from Qilihe to come and find him.

But Qian Jinyi seemed to be familiar with the place and laughed loudly: "Lizi from the Zhou family, are you two neighbors again? You still care about your master, you are so kind."

"Mr. Qian, the bookstore! Long time no see, come here to have a tea." Li Zai also looked overjoyed.

"I'm going home for dinner. What kind of tutoring materials and stationery are your brother needed? Say it to me." Qian Jinyi waved his hand and took his apprentice away with his follower.

After sending Qian Jinyi away, Fang Bingsheng received the royal fee and was in a good mood. He walked over with his hands behind his back, wanting to chat with Li Zai and the others.

"Isn't this Pastor Wang Yan?" Fang Bingsheng was stunned when he saw the person talking to Zhou Lizai at the door of the Zhou family.

"Yes. Pastor Wang wants me to listen to the sermons tonight." Li Zai rubbed his hands and laughed.

"Mr. Fang, long time no see. Recently, our church has opened up evening sermons. Should we come and listen together?"

Pastor Wang hurried over to say hello to Fang Bingsheng. He was not old and looked a few years older than his son Fang Bowen. He was thin and tall, with a long face, with a separate head, wearing glasses, and a ragged cloth robe. He also had several patches. He looked like a gentle and gentle poor student.

This young man also appeared in Shiligou a few months ago.

He is the new pastor of the local Qiufeng Church. He heard that he is a distant relative of the church administrator Wang Xintai. He graduated from Guilin Theological College and has the official qualification of a preacher. He is a professional theological student. In the eyes of Fang Bingsheng, he is also a cultural person. But he should not come to see Lizai, because Lizai is a good kid who fights and gambling, and he won't be able to do anything to him in Shiligou. But among the little hooligans, he is definitely a title, and I haven't heard that he is interested in Jesus.

Zhou Lizai jumped over, bent her waist in front of Fang Bingsheng, and then said happily: "Master, let's go and have a look together! Besides, didn't you make delicious food for the young master? Anyway, I'm going to ask me to come back to eat and replenish my body. Why don't you call them together? You just go and teach them class and inspect them."

It turned out that the Qiufeng Church also opened an imperial examination cram school called "Feihuang Lingyun Academy", which specifically included candidates preparing for the imperial examination.

Fang Bingsheng's son Fang Bowen and Afu's son Zhou Tianen are both studying there now. Because last year, one of them failed the imperial examination, and the other was considered to give up the lack of official positions and failed the exam.

The competition for the imperial examination has been very fierce from ancient times to the present. The entire Confucian cultural circle, China, Japan, North Korea, and Vietnam, have a tradition of exams. The candidates' life-long research on exam skills can push any exam to the extreme.

Hai Song's imperial examination was originally a new wine in old bottles. Except for the years when the founding of the country, there was no cultural class to defeat him, which made the emperor so dirty that he would take the exam as he took the exam. Later, as the domineering spirit of the empire was revealed, thousands of troops appeared again.

Even if the translation speed is lagging behind the absorption of knowledge, many subjects have to take full foreign language exams, which cannot stop others from getting full marks from self-taught guys.

I don’t even know how to pronounce ABC, but the English written test will give you full marks.

Moreover, the traditional imperial examinations such as the Qing Dynasty were once every three years. Candidates gathered in the capital to compete for the candidate qualifications of state officials, but Haisong was not that big, and it had no provinces. The imperial court directly managed the unit: the government.

If a governor is produced, it would mean that Haisong had a separatist regime.

This is a small scale. Haisong's imperial examination was equivalent to the provincial examination held by the Qing Dynasty in various provinces. The emperor's thoughts were very advanced, so it was held once a year.

What made the whole Chinese region most excited was that the Haisong imperial examination was directly absent from the officialdom.

The Qing Dynasty imperial examinations divided the quotas according to the region, and the population and economy were considered in disguise. For example, perhaps Zhejiang has added a few more places this year because it pays more compensation to foreigners.

Because the Haisong court was too savage, it did not count this at all. It only counted the vacancies reported by various prefectures, and only the vacancies were available.

In the Qing Dynasty, there was a system of diversion of officials. If you pass the imperial examination and become an official, you will be a lowly official even if you fail the imperial examination and have the ability.

This is actually an embodiment of the unity of Confucianism and religion.

Just like the one who has learned the Four Books and Five Classics thoroughly, a priest (juren), a priest has absolute power. Even if he can't eat, drink, and gamble in a church, he is the spokesperson of God (a disciple of Confucius), and his speech is of great importance. No matter how capable you have, you will be a priest (abandoned by the imperial examination), and you will listen to others for the rest of your life.

By using absolute piety (to pass the imperial examination), God (Confucius) will give you endless glory and wealth, and Confucianism firmly controls the cultural position.

If Confucianism is similar to Catholicism, then Haisong is definitely a Protestant: If you can establish a church, it is good for you to shepherd believers, then even if you are illiterate, you are an excellent pastor, and you don’t need to go to the Vatican to conduct pastor certification! It combines officials, regardless of officials, and any candidate is a junior candidate. It is unlikely that you will become a county magistrate just after graduation, but within the system, you can also become an official as a minor official.

Zuo Zongtang failed to pass the qualification of an official, and he failed the exam three times before and after becoming a master. But in Haisong, you have to take the exam as an expert, and officials can also be promoted by the master. In that case, Zuo Zongtang will no longer be ashamed when he met Zeng Guofan who passed the imperial examination, but will say confidently: "What's wrong with me being promoted to a rank of officials? Who is here who is not the one who has failed to pass the exam?"

That is, Haisong became an official in the exam. There was no such bad habit as the Qing Dynasty, because the number of admissions was inconsistent with the number of officials, even if the exam was passed, he had to wait for the vacancies and spend money to buy the vacancies.

One carrot and one pit!

The frequency is high, and it is directly an official (official). Although the officials are in a merger and there are many shortcomings, this still leads to unprecedented competition.

Even if he is the strongest fresh graduate of the Peide system, his middle school degree is equivalent to the bachelor's degree in the future, including the Haidi, Tiandi, Harvard, and Cambridge bachelor's degree, and he cannot guarantee that he can go to high school in the first imperial examination.

Because the opponents of fresh graduates are often their own senior brothers who have thoroughly grasped the imperial examination.

In addition, the Haisong Imperial Examination added a palace examination. After only two years of the palace examination, the rules made the Qing Confucians roll on the ground with laughter, and even laughed to death a few older Confucian scholars. This palace examination was completely in line with the characteristics of Emperor Zhao Kuo of Haisong being a rough man.

The new palace examination that suddenly began to be implemented in 1871: the top 120 people in the imperial examination. The five-kilometer long-distance running around the city (with cross-river swimming). Within a limited time, those who pass the palace examination are counted as passing the palace examination.

The reason for "or" is that it is conceivable that although the time standard is extremely wide and extremely wide, it is not much less than walking five kilometers. However, many candidates still cannot run out. They are likely to foam and become paralyzed in the middle of the way, or die suddenly. They have to endure 100, but 120 candidates are allowed to participate. In order to make up for the vacancies.

Three people died in the first palace examination.

For the emperor: Death three is nothing! Don’t come if you are afraid of death!

But for the candidates and the family behind them: To be an official, it’s a big deal to run to death! If you break your leg, you have to crawl over it!

Therefore, even Hai Song's own literati felt that his gentleness was extremely disgraceful, "All the guys who passed the palace examination run fast and can be Jin Wushu! The real mother of our great empire is the Jin Dynasty!"

However, if my child enters the palace examination, he will be crazy.

The tempting thing about passing the palace examination is that these candidates will choose the missing in the order of running scores: the long-distance running champion is the top scorer, and the top scorer is the first to choose the clerk of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so the second score can only be selected as the administrative assistant of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and so on. Those who arrive at the finish line at the same time will be compared with the scores of the two.

That is, they have the right to gain all the most popular fat.

Of course, the benefits are far more than that. The people in front will be praised as pillars of the empire with both civil and military affairs. The emperor organized some exams he would do as he pleased. For example, in 1870, he asked the top 22 candidates to play football matches. In 1871, he asked the candidates to form a team to debate "Would Tofu Brain Salty or Sweet".

But it doesn't matter. Whether it is a game or a debate, he will be arranged to attend the emperor's banquet, dance party, social salon. No matter how the candidates who are ranked high are played, they are actually directly acquainted with the emperor, and the benefits are self-evident. Even if you please the emperor, he will randomly ask what position you will do, or even ask for marriage for you.

As for the quota of Haiyoushi and the quota of Xinhanlin Academy, you can choose any benefits at will. Basically, the top 30 candidates can do whatever they want and will become the darling of the newspaper industry overnight. If it weren’t for a huge city as big as Haijing, they would become stars in their hometown, and the mayor would come to visit him.

But Zhao Kuo had no choice but to do this palace examination method: he watched helplessly as the country was prosperous and the economy developed, the ghost of Confucius, who had not left the empire, began to revive again, and competed for positions with new ideas, including concubines, mistresses, corruption, human trafficking, and favoring boys over girls. The clan forces made a comeback again, and even began to counterattack in the field of education, such as newspapers, the abolition of sports courses, the number of applicants for military academy was still unable to increase, which led to the decline of the quality of the elites in the military field, and they were tenaciously moving towards the direction he was familiar with when the civilians and the other party was scared away.

The Imperial News also published its own editorial on the topic of plagiarism, "Extraordinary and Saints - Civilization of Spirit, Savage of Physics.", etc., but it is useless. Other subjects worship you, but they just don't listen to you and think you are farting.

In anger, Zhao Kuo yelled again: "I'm shameless! Then put the medicine into the shit and see if you eat it?" Changed the palace examination mode and forced the distance between long-distance running and swimming and sports results to divide the levels of elite candidates.

Candidates need to run long distances, swim for five kilometers, and have no bicycles. Zhao Kuo regrets that he cannot be given the title of triathlon.

He believes that the absolute cultural elites who can be admitted to the top 120 in the country are the same IQ. To put it bluntly: It is not a big deal for anyone who is prime minister of this kind of person, it depends on whether he can join in strengthening his body. This seems light, but it actually belongs to changing culture - the tendency to emphasize culture over military affairs. It is very difficult. I hope to change culture with the imperial examination as the guide.

This matter has been supported by most powerful people, because the imperial examination is also very important to their children, but the mode of raising children by the powerful is better than that of ordinary people lies in physical fitness: if you eat well, all Western schools attach absolutely importance to sports.

If this imperial examination system is implemented, then a poor child who works hard to learn every day under the oil lamp. As a Confucian elite, if you don’t work hard and don’t distinguish between the four bodies, you will never be the top scholar in your life: during the palace examination, don’t say that you can’t run a few meters and dare to follow you. You can fly with one arm.

Of course, the only disadvantage is that it is too embarrassing. The top scholar in everyone's mind, including the powerful, is the kind of white-faced scholar, who is gentle and gentle. Now it seems that he is a black-haired man who runs very fast and swims like a flying black man. Of course, after running to the finish line, he also has to hold up a large plaque with the words "Both of Civil and Military" written on it, look around, and shout "yeah!yeah!yeah!" at that time, the black hair on his chest was wet and sweat.

However, since it is good for us and the emperor does not feel embarrassed, we must support us; even if he dislikes embarrassing, because it is good for our son, we must do it!

It’s just that I am too elegant and not as successful as the emperor and still maintain the spirit of Kinda, so I didn’t expect this good idea.

So some powerful people took the initiative to write to the emperor: Don’t use sports to judge rankings in the palace examinations, so they simply include sports performance in the imperial examination subjects, which will be fair to everyone and the resistance among the people will be small.

Unfortunately, although the emperor was rough, he was a thief.

He saw through all the memorials that all the ministers who had read the "like" excitedly said. He threw the memorial on the table with disdain and sneered: "The palace test triathlon (his own real idea) is a major event that has caused a sensation in the country. In the eyes of the public, the onlookers can illuminate the road. Even if you run at night, the reporter's lighting medicine can illuminate the road. How can you cheat? The whole exam? Sports cannot bring the candidates together for the exam. How high is the cost? And if so, your little boys' sports scores will be full! Next year, "Physical Education Teacher" will become the largest fat in the Song Dynasty! The palace test sports test has achieved the goal! Do you want to play tricks on me? Go and have fun!"

If the powerful and powerful do not object, the promotion will be less helpful. The people never need to consider it, but need to be shepherded. The group of people who oppose sports are all remnants of Confucianism, and they need to be shepherded the most. They will kneel down and whisper in a verbal fear: "Dad, you can't force me."

You have knelt down, and your father is just "strengthening the opportunity"?

Therefore, this paradox is only sarcastic among the people, and there is no much resistance.

Everyone was thinking: "My son ran so fast, maybe he got 120 in the literary exam but 99 in the martial arts exam! Haha, he made 21 in one go!"

The main objection is the top students who have been close to their goals many times in the past few years. They have lost their health in their studies and their original writing scores must be among the top 100, but if they have completely ranked in the martial arts scores in the palace examination, they will undoubtedly die;

As well as the local imperial examination school in Haisong, which did not open a sports school, the elegant teachers could only breathe heavily and staggeredly led a group of candidates to run along the river, shouting: "The gods bless the Song Dynasty, and they were running! 1, 2, 3, 4!"

To this end, the Haihuang Zhao Kuo issued an imperial edict: starting from 1871, the annual imperial examination season will be designated as the Thanksgiving Day of the Song Dynasty.

The national holiday is one week after the imperial examination. One month later, the palace examination is three days off. During the imperial examination, the people pray for their children to be officials. One month later, they come to the capital to watch the 120 most awesome elites of the empire this year, staggering forward like a dog-like cheering and shouting between the people on both sides.

In social occasions, the emperor said to the diplomats of the great powers: "Every country, God gives different graces: God gives food, and America decrees it as Thanksgiving; the people of our country hope that God favors their children and can make them serve their country. Therefore, I set the imperial examination season as Thanksgiving for our country."

Soon, the importance of this festival is comparable to that of the Spring Festival. The people spontaneously... (To be continued...)
Chapter completed!