Chapter 42: If You're Bad, Then Practice More!

Rainwater dripped from the eaves of the palace hall, each drop bursting into tiny splashes of water on the bluestone slabs below.

Inside Qianqing Palace, all was still.

Xu Yingyuan, Gao Shiming, Wang Tiqian, and Tian Ergeng stood in silence below the imperial steps, hands at their sides, their breathing so light it was barely there.

Behind the imperial desk, Zhu Youjian's brow was deeply furrowed as he reviewed the examination papers submitted by the File Leaders.

Before long, Zhu Youjian finally set down the last paper in his hand.

He rubbed his tired, stinging eyes, considered that paper for a moment, then placed it atop the noticeably shorter stack of dossiers on his left.

That done, he let out a long breath and leaned back against the dragon throne, feeling utterly drained in body and mind.

His eyes were about to go blind.

That was Zhu Youjian's most immediate sensation.

Since his transmigration, the memorials and routine memorials he had reviewed — he would not claim they were all masterpieces, but they were at least written in the neat, orderly script of the chancery style.

But this batch of papers before him, written by the File Leaders of the Valiant Guard Camp, gave him his first profound taste of the true popular literacy level of the Great Ming.

It was, to put it mildly… a pandemonium of demons dancing.

First, the handwriting: it could not be called calligraphy in any sense — it was pure chicken-scratch. No, calling it chicken-scratch would be too generous. Some characters were crooked and twisted, varying wildly in size, as if ready to break out of the paper at any moment.

Then there were the wildly unrestrained corrections, blotch after blotch of ink, making the already none-too-clean pages look even more like a wreck.

Next was the heavy use of vernacular variant characters, or what one might call simplified characters.

"禮" written as "礼," "個" written as "个," "體" written as "体"…

And more critically!

The same character might have several different simplified forms, all used with a spirit of utter whimsy.

Though the Great Ming shared a unified script, that unity applied only to the full-form characters.

The vernacular variant characters that evolved spontaneously among the common people, however, bloomed in a hundred different ways, each with its own peculiarities.

As Zhu Youjian reviewed them, he had to rely entirely on the pictographic nature of Chinese characters and the surrounding context to guess and piece together the meaning.

It felt less like grading papers and more like doing a series of cloze exercises.

Finally, there was the extensive use of plain vernacular prose.

This, at least, gave his soul from a later era a faint sense of familiarity.

But setting aside these surface-level "informalities," what these File Leaders demonstrated in the content of their answers genuinely surprised Zhu Youjian — even delighted him.

The answers to the thought question were the most conventional: nearly everyone declared with righteous indignation that if a superior officer acted lawlessly, they would certainly report and expose him.

Of course, there were also a few bold simpletons who wrote things like, "I'd grab the scoundrel on the spot and haul him off for His Majesty to deal with," which made Zhu Youjian chuckle despite himself.

But he merely read such answers and let them pass. Without oversight, these officers of humble origin would bleed the soldiers just as much as any noble-born officer.

The strategy question about Han Xin striking Long Ju, however, was the most unexpected of all.

The answers were wildly diverse — a veritable exhibition of folk wisdom.

The most conventional answer, "dam the river and strike mid-crossing," was actually considered utterly unremarkable.

Some proposed feigning defeat to lure the enemy, setting an ambush in dense woods.

Some suggested hiding elite troops, then sending women's clothing to enrage Long Ju and goad him into crossing the river in fury.

There was even one wildly imaginative answer that proposed imitating Kongming by setting up an Empty Fort Stratagem on the opposite bank to bluff Long Ju's army into retreat.

The more Zhu Youjian read, the more familiar it all seemed, until he was nearly laughing and crying at the same time.

No wonder later generations said the barbarian chieftain of Jianzhou loved reading the Romance of the Three Kingdoms above all else.

It seems novels, for all their fiction, really do teach you something.

Could it be that these low-ranking Ming military officers and the barbarian chieftain Nurhaci had been reading from the same book of war?

As for the final logistics and tactics questions, they were, as he had expected, an utter mess. Those who could produce a clear, workable plan were few and far between.

Even Sun Yingyuan, whom he thought rather highly of, showed no sign of extraordinary brilliance judging from this examination alone.

If one had to point out anything special about him…

Well, he was the clever fellow who proposed sending women's clothing to Long Ju.

At that thought, Zhu Youjian could not help but laugh aloud.

After a moment of reflection, he reined in his smile and turned his gaze toward Xu Yingyuan. His voice was calm but clear as he spoke:

"The Valiant Guard Camp, effective today, shall be divided into three divisions, with three Battalion Commander posts, all currently vacant and pending appointment."

"Each division shall have two companies, for a total of six Company Commanders. Sun Yingyuan is appointed Company Commander of the First Company. The remaining five Company Commander posts are likewise vacant and pending appointment."

"Each company shall have ten platoons, sixty platoons in total. The posts of Platoon Officer shall be filled by these men."

With that, Zhu Youjian raised a finger and pointed from a distance at the stack of papers on his left — the ones that represented "the best of a bad lot."

Xu Yingyuan stepped forward and bowed, taking the papers in both hands. His voice was steady: "This slave obeys the decree."

— Yes, all posts from Company Commander upward were left vacant, with only Sun Yingyuan appointed, and even that was due to the halo of his later historical reputation.

The reasoning was simple.

A single martial contest on the parade ground and one chaotic imperial examination had produced Battalion Commanders and Company Commanders.

What if these men proved unworthy of their positions?

What if they earned greater merit later on?

And what would the Platoon Officers and elite troops who fought and bled on the Nine Frontiers think when they entered the capital?

One must remember that a jinshi who passed the triennial military examination was, upon passing, only appointed as a Provost in a guard station.

Rewards and punishments must be measured.

This was no dark art of imperial statecraft; it was simply the most basic, most ordinary common sense of management.

Zhu Youjian's fingers tapped lightly on the imperial desk as he continued his questioning.

"What is the progress on matters of armor, warhorses, and the encampment for the camp?"

Xu Yingyuan answered at once.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the camp has taken rough shape. Over three thousand men of the Valiant Guard Camp moved in last night."

"The completed barracks will require another ten days to finish."

"Armor and weapons have all been drawn and exchanged from the Armory Bureau for the latest-manufactured batch."

"Only warhorses are somewhat tight. For now, a total of one thousand two hundred and thirteen horses that actually exist have been drawn first from the original Four Guards Camp and the Braves Camp."

"The remaining shortfall will still need further transfers or purchases to make up the full number."

Zhu Youjian was silent for a moment, then issued another order.

"Starting tomorrow, all officers and men of the Valiant Guard Camp are to drill rigorously. Of every five days, two days on formations, three days on martial skills."

"All officers from Platoon Officer upward, after daily drill, are to enter the palace for study."

He paused briefly, and a faint, indescribable smile appeared on his face — a smile tinged with the mischievous glee of one who had been through it all before.

He recalled that slogan from a later age which struck terror into countless students.

Three years of gaokao, five years of mock exams.

All of you, get grinding!

"Going forward, there will be an examination once a month, covering culture, martial arts, and military strategy."

"Those who fail the examination will be sent straight back down to serve as File Leaders, and new Platoon Officers will be selected from among the File Leaders."

Xu Yingyuan, utterly unaware that a revolution was beginning, merely nodded and assented: "This slave obeys the decree."

Zhu Youjian nodded with satisfaction. His gaze moved past Xu Yingyuan and settled on Wang Tiqian and Tian Ergeng.

"How goes the matter of the property confiscations?"