?
Vézé wasn't particularly optimistic about the recruitment of civil servants. Those who wanted to become officials of the Taiping army not only wanted to sever ties with Manchu Qing, but they also wanted to openly become enemies with Manchu Qing. As long as they weren't hysterical, there was no need to consider the possibility of a large number of intellectuals rushing to Vézé to become officials. Therefore, Vézé divided the civil servant system into three categories to minimize the worries of scholars who wanted to become officials.
Vézé didn't want to force scholars to become officials. Although it was more efficient to force scholars to become officials, they had to be given some benefits. Vézé had a low opinion of scholars who only knew how to read the Four Books and Five Classics. Even if they could write some parallel prose and a few lines of sour poetry, Vézé wouldn't care. Therefore, any compromise to scholars would make Vézé feel that it wasn't worth it.
However, the situation was much better than Vézé had imagined when the exam was held on the 18th of June. Not a single official civil servant had applied, but more than 400 temporary workers had come to apply. As for temporary civil servants, there were also 20 to 30 people who applied.
After two days of exams in the morning and one in the afternoon, the written exam of the four courses was over. The written exam was divided into culture (language + history), arithmetic, geography, and general knowledge. The culture course was not too difficult for scholars. The basic knowledge of language and history was not too difficult for scholars. Vézé, who led the marking team, couldn't help but laugh after looking at the arithmetic, geography, and general knowledge papers. Even junior high school students in the 21st century wouldn't be so confused when answering these papers.
It was fine if they couldn't solve a binary linear equation. It was fine if they didn't know how to multiply and divide. Many people who applied could also do addition and subtraction wrong. As for mathematics questions that required them to list out formulas, they basically couldn't answer them correctly.
As for geography, Vézé didn't pay much attention to it. It turned out that these scholars were also confused about geography. However, Vézé was very interested in a candidate named Shen Xin. Shen Xin had scored full marks on the solar system. Moreover, there were more than 30 other people. It seemed like they had studied the content related to the Solar System in the Anqing News. Therefore, even though their answers were all over the place, they didn't look like they were in the dark.
The comprehensive knowledge test was a test of one's worldview. Vézé listed a bunch of relatively contradictory problems. The interviewees were required to write a self-justifying argument.
For example, Shun's father tried to kill Shun several times, asking the two to deal with this problem from the perspective of filial piety and from the perspective of the law.
There was only one reason why Vézé chose these candidates, and that was to see if they had their own legal concepts. If you want to be a dog of the government, then at the very least, you have to show respect and obedience to the regime. The best way to control the government was to follow the law, and those who couldn't implement the law couldn't mix in the new regime that Vézé wanted to establish. "Rule the world with filial piety" was the philosophy of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. This philosophy of agricultural production was incompatible with the concept of the industrial era that Vézé wanted to establish. It was very important for Vézé to filter out suitable candidates.
The results were released on June 21st. In theory, Vézé should have selected all the applicants. Even though Vézé knew that he should do this, he spent a lot of effort to make this "correct" choice. Some people's ideas and knowledge were far from Vézé's needs. Forcing them to enter Vézé's system was really a test.
However, the test was not over yet. Soon, a general who was unhappy with Vézé's choice asked to see Vézé. Wei Changrong was obviously pushed to be the spokesperson by the generals. Although he still lacked some confidence in the face of Vézé, Wei Changrong bravely stood up to express his dissatisfaction. Of course, not being able to refute his pride was one of the reasons. Wei Changrong was really unhappy with Vézé's choice. He said, "Prime Minister, I've seen the exam papers. Many of our brothers can do better than these scholars. Some scholars have studied so much that they couldn't answer the questions at all. I'm not convinced that you let them pass! "
Vézé sighed and asked the generals to sit down. He was a little tired. "I want to tell you a true story. When Manchu Qing first came to China, Kangxi wanted to buy the hearts of the scholars. Enke was held once, and the people recruited were all famous people who refused to come out and become officials for the Manchurian Qing. These people refused to work for Manchu Qing, so they scribbled nonsense on the papers. Some of them with a bit of backbone even wrote poems to scold Manchu Qing. Guess what happened? "
When the General Staff Headquarters heard this, they knew that Vézé was talking about the imperial examination. Wei Changrong replied with a gloomy face, "Of course, kill those who deserve to be killed and beat those who deserve to be beaten!"
All the generals had the same opinion. As soldiers, they were brave and fierce. How could they have a good attitude towards the enemy who openly provoked them?
Vézé shook his head. "Wrong! Kangxi ordered that all those who participated in the examination would be given official positions if they passed. "
"What?" Wei Changrong was stunned. He looked at Vézé carefully to see if Vézé was joking. However, no matter how he looked, Vézé did not look like he was joking. Wei Changrong asked, "Prime Minister, why did Kangxi do this? Is he so thick-skinned? "
"It's definitely not because Kangxi is thick-skinned. He just needs someone to be an official for him." Vézé sighed tiredly. When he read history books, he was quite impressed with Kangxi's choice. Moreover, when making such a decision, Vézé could understand Kangxi's difficulties.
However, this did not mean that Vézé could face this matter easily. Vézé also answered in a low mood, "Changrong and the Zhu brothers. Not letting others be officials and not having people come here to be officials are two different things. If we can't get some local officials, how can we get the landlords of Anhui to come to us? "
"We didn't rely on these people when we conquered Anhui! Besides, they did so poorly in the examination. We might as well let our brothers from the army become local officials, "Wei Changrong said.
Vézé smiled. There were some things that he felt he couldn't say clearly. Letting his brothers who were born poor directly become officials would cause trouble most of the time. This was because these people's pursuit was to become officials and then use the power in their hands to do whatever they wanted. In this regard, Wei Ze had never thought highly of any poor people.
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