Chapter 1358: The Tuofu Examination (Please Subscribe)

"On the eastern shore of the vast, boundless Pacific Ocean lie two enormous continents joined together, one to the north and one to the south. One is called the North New Continent, and the other the South New Continent.

Each of these two continents is larger than the home territory of our Great Ming Celestial Dynasty, and together they may be as much as four times the size of the Ming homeland!

The North and South New Continents are not only vast, but rich! The land is fertile, the produce abundant, the plains open and broad, almost without end! Though there are mountain regions, they are neither high nor treacherous, and the mountains abound in gold, silver, and copper...

What is even more enviable is that such a vast continent is actually unclaimed land! By unclaimed, of course, I do not mean uninhabited, but rather that the natives of the New Continent are both weak and foolish. When the Westerners arrived, they found that these natives had not even invented the wheel..."

Inside Chongqing Prefecture, in the "Tuofu Academy" converted from a certain prince's residence, a group of young women dressed in coarse blue cloth were listening to a Military Academy government student lecture on the geography of the New Continent — this was going to be on the Tuofu examination!

The Tuofu examination of today could not, of course, test the English language... nor would it test French. The language used in the examination was Chinese. And the subjects tested numbered six in all. The first was New Continent geography — one had to know where one was going!

The second was New Continent agriculture — once you went to the New Continent, you had to farm! Of course it was just casual farming, but you still had to study it a bit, because most of these people from the Shun military-farm households were not good at farming, and it would not do to learn nothing at all.

The third was mathematics — master mathematics, physics, and chemistry, and you can go anywhere in the world without fear!

The fourth was Confucian studies, mainly the learning in the Confucian Classics. One did not need to be deeply versed, but one had to have a rough understanding.

The fifth was military studies. It did not test the things taught at the Military Academy, but rather the military studies taught in the Shun military-farm academies — mainly some individual soldier tactics, the simplest platoon-level tactics, and methods of organization.

The sixth was martial arts, including firearms, bow and arrow, sword and shield, spear, javelin, and horsemanship — the "Six Arts" in all.

A look at the content of the military studies and martial arts examinations shows just how successful the Shun dynasty's policy of channeling all benefits through a single path and its military-farm system were!

It is no exaggeration to say that Li Guo and his son Li Laiheng spent the blood and sweat of the laboring people of Sichuan and Yunnan entirely on the training of the children of several hundred thousand military-farm households.

One cannot say that every one of them was accomplished in both civil and military arts, but their quality was far superior to that of the military-farm soldiers of the Sui and Tang dynasties!

It is only a pity that no matter how high their quality was, they still could not escape the fate of being defeated by the Great Ming... because no matter how great their abilities, they numbered only a few hundred thousand, and compared with the strength of the thirty or forty million people of Sichuan and Yunnan, they were simply not worth mentioning! Compared with the strength of the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty, they were also clearly at a disadvantage. After being attacked from front and rear by the people of Sichuan and the Ming army, their collapse was of course inevitable.

Du Mulan, born in Shizhu County, was that little beauty who had caught Li Jinxue's eye. Though a woman, she had studied both civil and military arts in the military-farm academy just like the men — not all women of the second and third military-farm generations had received as good an education as she had. Only the women of the military-farm households in the few cohorts around her age received the same education as the men.

The reason for this was that the revival of the Ming dynasty had made Li Guo and his son Li Laiheng feel an immense sense of urgency, forcing them to increase investment and train more second- and third-generation military-farm warriors. Even some of the women received considerable military training, so that after the Ming army invaded Sichuan, they could persist in fighting in their assigned localities!

In addition, the large-scale training of second-generation military-farm soldiers meant that there were more educated people who could serve as teachers in the military-farm academies — that was another reason.

It is only a pity that the efforts of Li Guo and his son Li Laiheng ultimately came to nothing. The second and third generations they had poured their hearts and blood into training did not, for various reasons, play much of a role in the defense of Sichuan. Instead, they became treasures in the eyes of Zhu Hehao...

And what made it even harder for Li Guo — the Shun Taizong who had ruled Sichuan and Yunnan for nearly twenty years — to close his eyes in peace was that the second and third generations he had trained at such great cost, even at the price of accelerating the alienation of the Sichuan people, did not hate the Great Ming as he had expected... nor did they sympathize with the laboring people of Sichuan. Instead, they regarded the Sichuan people as servants, and saw the Ming officers and soldiers they fought against as "nobles" just like themselves.

After the Sichuan peasants rose up one after another in response to the Ming army, these young military-farm soldiers came to regard the Sichuan peasants who had supported them for ten or twenty years as enemies, and their hatred for them was even far greater than their hatred for the Ming army!

At least that was Du Mulan's state of mind! This little wench, though she had a lovely appearance that everyone adored and a good temperament, always smiling at everyone and never scolding or berating the poor and lower-middle peasants, had never regarded the farmers of the Shizhu County countryside as people of the same rank as herself... After being caught between the Shizhu peasants and the Ming army and forced to flee to Dafeng Fort to become a bandit, her hatred for the Shizhu peasants even far exceeded her hatred for the Ming army!

Besides hatred, Du Mulan and the young men and women of her generation of military-farm families also greatly feared losing their status and sinking into the common people. This seemed to be something as terrifying as death itself.

So when the Ming envoys urging surrender brought Zhu Hehao's amnesty letter and his guarantee that they would become military-farm soldiers of the United States, these second and third generations of the Shun were actually all moved!

The Shun was finished anyway... if they wanted to maintain their superior status, it seemed they had no choice but to submit to a new master.

And they also knew that the Shun dynasty could not produce enough land to make all of them military-farm soldiers of superior status... while the New Continent across the ocean seemed to have plenty of land that could be conquered!

These little military landlords, who had lived amid "land shortage" since childhood, truly craved fertile land to the extreme!

So when they listened to the Ming army officers teach New Continent geography, Du Mulan and her classmates' eyes all lit up!

Four times larger than the Great Ming! How many Sichuan Provinces' worth of land would that be? Surely this time everyone could have 40 shi of land, right?

"Everyone, today is the day you take our United States Tuofu examination! Why is it called the Tuofu examination? It is because some of you will be able to rely on the fortune of this examination to rise to the top in one step and become Centurions, probationary Centurions, and vice Centurions of the United States!"

The one speaking was the local-tyrant king, Zhu Hehao. As king of the United States, he naturally had to preside over the examination in person.

And today was the day Du Mulan and the other young people of the Shizhu military-farm households walked into the examination hall — although older people could also take the examination, the older generation generally had not had much schooling. Moreover, they still had feelings for the three old "Ten Thousand Years" of the Shun and did not like the Great Ming, so basically no one would take the examination.

And most of them were also unwilling to cross the ocean in their old age and end up dying in a foreign land. So most would choose to take some money and retire.

Of the fewer than 3,000 members of the Shizhu military-farm households, only about half were willing to go to the New Continent United States to seek their fortune, and eighty percent of those were young men and women or even children.

So those who could walk into the examination hall to compete for an official post numbered fewer than 300.

According to Zhu Hehao's plan, the 1,500 members of the Shizhu military-farm households would be divided into five hundred-household units, each with one Centurion, one probationary Centurion, and one vice Centurion — fifteen people in all. An acceptance rate of about five percent.

The competition was still very fierce!

And the five hundred-household units they led would find their destiny in the Stone Mountains and become the vanguard of the United States' eastward advance — if they could arrive safely!

As Zhu Hehao spoke, he was also sizing up the more than three hundred examinees in the courtyard, half male and half female, among them quite a few girls of fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen, who were rather appetizing to look at!

Zhu Hehao had already noticed Du Mulan! Among all the girls, she was the prettiest. Though not as beautiful as Wu Ahuan, she was still a rare beauty.

After withdrawing his gaze from the beauty, the local-tyrant king smiled and encouraged everyone: "Do well on the examination! Besides the fifteen Centurion posts waiting for you, this king also intends to select fifteen bodyguards from among you. Everyone, work hard!"

(End of Chapter)