Chapter 348: Trusted Minions and Spies
"There are quite a few."
Wang Anshi knew that Zhao Xing wanted to get a preliminary understanding and pay attention to it during the palace examination.
Scholars who passed the imperial examination were also called the emperor's disciples, and the origin of this name came from the palace examination.
The palace examination was set by the emperor on the spot, and the candidates did not have as much time to think about their answers as they did in the metropolitan examination.
Even the scholars who were able to take part in the palace examination were selected through the joint examination, and their number was only a few hundred.
But the emperor did not have the time to review all the students' answer sheets.
The examination papers were reviewed by the same ministers as in normal palace examinations, except that the reviewers were changed to ministers in the court.
After the ministers in the court reviewed the candidates, they would decide on the top two and three lists and submit them to the emperor for review.
After the emperor gets the list, he will look at the test papers of the first-class candidates, and will only randomly select some of the second-class candidates to take a look.
But this is not absolute. Sometimes the emperor won’t even look at it.
In addition, there are people recommended by the chief examiner of the imperial examination, and the emperor may take a look at their answer sheets.
Whether the emperor reads it or not may seem to have little impact, but in fact it has a huge impact on the scholars.
If you can leave a deep impression on the emperor, you will not only be awarded a better official position, but it will also be a great advantage in future promotion.
After all, there are so many officials in the world, and the emperor cannot even recognize all the officials attending the morning court. The benefits of being able to leave an impression can be imagined.
Wang Anshi told Zhao Xing about the scholar he had an impression of, and Zhao Xing asked him to leave.
"Sanshui, bring over the answer sheets of the people that Master Wang just mentioned." Zhao Xing ordered.
Most of the officials in the court are old hands and belong to the vested interests.
Except for a few who remain untainted by the mud, most people are opposed to decisions that affect their interests.
The reason why Zhao Xing did not start any wars after he ascended the throne was, firstly, because Liao and Xia were both at war, and if the Song Dynasty wanted to gain an advantage, it needed internal stability.
Secondly, I have just ascended the throne and I also need stability.
But there is another factor, which is that there are not enough people available.
Even if he replaced some of the people, he didn't have any trusted people to take over these positions.
For a person in power, confidants, minions, and eyes and ears are very important.
Yin Hanzhang was his eyes and ears, and Yan Kuan was his trained minion.
Only confidants are difficult to deal with.
Zhao Xing did have some confidants, such as Sheng Changbai and Qi Heng, and later the Su Shi brothers and Wang Shao.
But these people are too young, have only been in the officialdom for a short time, and lack experience.
Now Sheng Changbai and Qi Heng are still studying with Master Hai and Mr. Yu, and the Su brothers have also been arranged by him to take up positions in local areas.
By the time they are in the court, even if he promotes them out of turn, it will take several years for them to be able to hold important positions in the court.
Moreover, the number of people was too small, and he also wanted to discover a few available talents from this imperial examination and train them slowly.
If Wang Shao makes rapid progress and achieves merit, he may be able to serve as an official in the court.
There is no way around it. This is also the difference in the promotion speed between civil servants and military officers.
It is normal for a military general to be promoted several levels as long as he has made contributions, but this is not the case for civil officials.
Even if you have political achievements, promotion should be achieved step by step, and it is not advisable to take too big a leap.
Although Wang Shao was a civil official, he had made military achievements. Moreover, his occupation of Hehuang was considered as expanding the territory and was a great achievement.
Although Hehuang is barren, the Song Dynasty has been losing cities since its unification and has never expanded its territory.
The contribution of occupying Hehuang is even more outstanding.
When the time comes, no one will object if I let Wang Shao enter the court and serve as a fourth-rank official.
Sanshui and Kuai quickly retrieved the answer sheets of the people mentioned by Wang Anshi and gave them to Zhao Xing.
Zhao Xing did not read the classics, poems, or essays, but went straight to reading their respective articles.
It must be said that the people recommended by Wang Anshi were indeed outstanding. Among them, the ones that Zhao Xing valued most were Wen Yanjing and an article by Wei Ye.
What can I say about Wen Yanjing? Judging from the fact that he hooked up with Rulan in the drama, his intentions are definitely not pure.
From the perspective of future generations, many people will think that the two were in love with each other.
However, according to ancient ethics, Wen Yanjing was a scholar, but he had private contact with a girl and developed feelings for her, which was obviously immoral.
Don’t say that ancient thoughts were feudal. The general environment was like that, and feudalism had to follow feudal thoughts.
This is like in later generations when people have free love and suddenly hear about a blind marriage, most people’s first thought would be that it is incredible.
In ancient times, marriage was arranged by parents and matchmakers, but that doesn't mean that love at first sight is impossible.
But if you like someone, you should ask someone to propose marriage to them instead of contacting them privately.
Even though Wen Yanjing felt that he was of low status and not worthy of Rulan, and wanted to propose marriage to the Sheng family after passing the imperial examination, he should not have had too much contact with Rulan.
After all, if the Sheng family does not agree, his behavior will ruin Rulan's reputation.
However, for Zhao Xing, he does not particularly value moral character.
If we look closely at those capable ministers in history, we will find that many of them actually had some issues with their personal morals.
In fact, Zhao Xing has always believed that heroes are made by the times.
There are treacherous ministers during the reign of a wise ruler, but there is no soil for them to survive.
A loyal minister may not be smart, but one who can become a treacherous minister is definitely not stupid.
They know when and how to behave in the best interests of themselves.
The emperor was wise, and they could only gain greater power and status if they made political achievements.
However, if they encounter a tyrant, they will also cater to the emperor's wishes.
Some people may become capable ministers if they meet a wise ruler and go down in history, but if they meet a foolish ruler, they may not necessarily become a foolish ruler themselves.
This sentence is somewhat similar to the one that described Cao Cao in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms: a capable minister in peaceful times and a treacherous hero in troubled times.
If there had been no chaos in the world and the monarch was wise, Cao Cao would surely have become a wise minister.
It doesn't matter what kind of character Wen Yanjing has, as long as he is smart.
He knew what kind of minister Zhao Xing needed, and he would be that kind of minister.
Zhao Xing remembered that Wen Yanjing seemed to have become a husband in the end. Considering Wen Yanjing's background, the fact that he was able to achieve this proved his ability.
"Let someone check the identity of this Wei Ye." Zhao Xing said.
Perhaps because of his background, Wen Yanjing's article focuses on some local legal deficiencies.
The starting point of Wei Ye's article is to strengthen supervision and inspection of local officials.
Throughout the dynasties, the imperial court has established institutions to supervise local areas.
In the Song Dynasty, officials who supervised local areas were permanently stationed by the imperial court, while the inspecting officials were officials from the Chayuan under the Censorate.
The Chayuan was also the department with the largest number of officials under the Censorate, and was specifically responsible for irregular local inspections.
This will lead to a big drawback. Local supervisory agencies are stationed in local areas and it is easy for them to become corrupt and collude with local officials over time.
Although the Censorate would send out inspecting officials from time to time, anyone with some connections would be able to get the news in advance.
In addition, the emperor would also send inspectors, commonly known as imperial envoys, to inspect local areas from time to time.
However, this system was not a rule; whether the emperor sent people to inspect or not depended entirely on his mood.
Wei Ye's article suggested that the emperor should make the inspection system a regular practice.
And listed the benefits of doing so.
In addition, the article also proposed many measures to supervise officials, which made Zhao Xing feel very beneficial.
Wen Yanjing was a known talent, while Wei Ye was an unknown one, so Zhao Xing naturally valued him more.
(End of this chapter)