Chapter 195: The Special Examination Has a Dark Side! (First Update)

Just as the "Great Qing Duke for Perpetuating Sage" Kong Yinzhi was leaving his old nest of Qufu to visit the Nanjing Minister of War Shi Kefa in Yanzhou, Zhu Cilang was in the Grand Marshal's Office of the Dengzhou Army Command, summoning the juren and xiucai of the two prefectures of Dengzhou and Laizhou.

At this time he did not know about the "confiscation of the Kong family's estates," because he had never issued any decree targeting the Kong family.

He had no time right now to pursue Kong Yinzhi's responsibility as a thrice-serving official; turning the two prefectures of Dengzhou and Laizhou into a base for resisting the Tartars was the urgent task at hand!

And the matter of reorganizing the two prefectures of Dengzhou and Laizhou seemed to others so difficult as to be utterly boundless, as if the only satisfying solution were to kill off all the landlords and rich men. But Li Yan had given him a brilliant idea — to use a special examination to flush out all the great landlords of Dengzhou and Laizhou, and then let them govern the three subprefectures and ten counties of Dengzhou and Laizhou themselves, leaving only Penglai County (where the Dengzhou prefectural seat was located) under the direct jurisdiction of the Dengzhou-Laizhou Governor Su Guansheng.

At the same time, the family members of those leading local tyrants and evil gentry of the three subprefectures and ten counties of Dengzhou and Laizhou were all to be detained within the iron-walled city of Dengzhou, and properly protected.

This was "replacing the regular administration with local rule"!

As for the tens of thousands of mu of land the Kong family had just lost, it was all located within the territory of the seven guards of Dengzhou and Laizhou — this land of the Kong family was not confiscated because they bore the surname Kong, but was equalized away in the process of reorganizing the Dengzhou-Laizhou guard posts.

According to Zhu Cilang's decree, after the thirty thousand new troops recruited from the seven guards of Dengzhou and Laizhou had all arrived in Dengzhou, the Grand Marshal's Office of the Army Command reorganized, trained, and assessed them. The purpose of the reorganization and training was to turn them into soldiers capable of fighting, while the assessment was to select from among them officers fit for command.

The method of assessment was very simple — a martial contest! There were just two parts: first, a rough familiarity with letters; second, the martial contest. The former determined qualification, the latter determined ranking. No questions were asked about one's origins, and regardless of whatever office one had previously held, everyone could sign up to participate — and of course, it was not for nothing: once you passed, you were given an official post!

According to Zhu Cilang's decree, from now on the military officers of the seven guards of Dengzhou and Laizhou would no longer be hereditary, but would be produced through martial contests and military merit. Those previously appointed guard-post officers who could not pass the assessment would all be transferred to the Staff Office of the Grand Marshal's Office; if they could not even run errands for the Staff Office, then they would just have to go home and eat their old rice.

And after this martial contest and examination concluded, the officer corps of the seven guards of Dengzhou and Laizhou would be produced — the new seven-guard officer corps was not as numerous as before. Now one guard was equivalent to one brigade of the Hard-Working New Army, and moreover a brigade short one battalion, with total strength around 1,400. Each guard commanded three posts below it, and a post was equivalent to a battalion of the New Army. The officer allocation at the guard and post levels was the same as the brigade and battalion of the New Army.

After the officer corps was formed, approximately 10,000 new soldiers willing to remain in the two prefectures of Dengzhou and Laizhou were incorporated into the seven guards according to their respective military registrations.

After that, Zhu Cilang issued the Seven Guards Land Equalization Decree!

According to this "Land Equalization Decree," the land of the seven guards of Dengzhou and Laizhou would be equally divided as office land; regardless of rank, each man received 200 mu. This office land could be inherited, provided that the heir could continue to serve in the military.

After receiving their 200 mu of office land, these soldiers of the seven guards were required to report for rotational service during the slack farming season and in wartime, and they also had to bear part of their own provisions while serving (usually having to bring three months' provisions themselves), and they also had to provide their own armor and weapons.

In addition, the guard-post soldiers granted land received no military pay, though in wartime they could still receive rewards.

As for the officers of the seven guards, because they had to serve year-round, they could, like the officers of the Hard-Working New Army, receive military pay and provisions. However, their pay was two grades lower than that of New Army officers of the same rank, and they also had to provide their own horses and equipment.

After the Land Equalization Decree was issued, the newly appointed officer corps of the seven guards led their respective subordinates back to their garrisons, and then, under the supervision and assistance of officers dispatched by the Grand Marshal's Office, began to carry out land equalization themselves — the method of equalization was very simple: redistribute according to the land registers of the seven guards kept in the Coastal Defense Commission, 200 mu per soldier (or officer), with the surplus recorded on the accounts of the seven guards' command offices.

As for anyone other than the officers and soldiers of the seven guards, they were absolutely forbidden from occupying the land of the seven guards! Even sons of the seven guards serving in the Hard-Working New Army were not permitted to hold land in the seven guards. They had their own full military pay; if they achieved military merit or served long enough, they were also eligible for land grants, but no land would be allocated to them in the seven guards of Dengzhou and Laizhou.

Of course, what was being redistributed now was only ownership; the tenant farmers who rented the land could continue to rent it — these tenants had originally mostly been of military registration, but now they were all changed to civilian registration and were no longer military households of the seven guards.

At present, the land equalization of the twenty-one posts of the seven guards of Dengzhou and Laizhou was underway, and large amounts of land held by non-military households had already been confiscated! The victims were not only great crocodiles like the Qufu Kong family, but also many local landlords of Dengzhou and Laizhou.

Some of these people, like the Gaomi talent Zhang Boren, had even passed the civil examination of the Dengzhou-Laizhou special examination and were now waiting to be summoned by the Crown Prince.

Because of the ongoing land redistribution in the twenty-one posts of the seven guards of Dengzhou and Laizhou, this group of Gaomi talents from Laizhou waiting to be summoned were all somewhat uneasy.

Some of them had already lost their land in the Lingshan and Aoshan guards, while others worried that the same thing would happen again in Gaomi.

If all the land in Gaomi were to be distributed to soldiers, then what were scholars like them to do?

"Summon the talents of Gaomi County to audience!"

A deep, resonant voice interrupted the thoughts of the Gaomi talents waiting in the courtyard. Zhang Boren, dressed in a jade-colored government student's gown, wearing a square cap, with a face like polished jade and eyes like bright stars, adjusted his clothing and was the first to stride toward the main hall of the Marshal's Office — he was, after all, the number one talent of Gaomi County!

This civil examination of the Dengzhou-Laizhou special examination was a bit strange: there was only one question, and moreover there were no jinshi or juren degrees, but instead the title of "talent" was conferred.

In addition, when the results were posted, the method of one list per county was adopted.

Each county had twenty or thirty people who passed as talents, among whom there was one top talent, all of them sons of the foremost great households of that county — no one knew how they had been selected.

And Zhang Boren's family was the number one great landlord of Gaomi County, owning tens of thousands of mu of land, with more than a thousand tenant households farming for them.

"Government student Zhang Boren of Gaomi respectfully wishes the Crown Prince, Commander of the Army, golden peace!"

After entering the main hall, the great talent Zhang performed the full ceremony, kneeling and kowtowing toward Zhu Cilang, who sat high above in his ***** everyday robes, and loudly announced his name.

When Zhu Cilang heard his name, he suddenly let out an "Oh," and then said in an approving, appreciative tone: "So you are Zhang Boren! Good, good! Your essay was well written, and the methods you proposed were also good. You are indeed a promising talent!"

Huh? His own essay was well written? The great talent Zhang was taken aback — he did not think his policy essay had been well written at all.

Moreover, after the examination had ended, he had recited his essay from memory to his juren father; the old man shook his head as he listened and said he would certainly fail. And Zhang Boren himself also felt the essay was poor. The examination topic this time was too difficult! No one could do well on it!

Yet the result was that he had placed first in Gaomi, and now the Crown Prince kept saying his essay was well written — could there have been a mistake?

"This student is of meager talent and shallow learning; my essay is mediocre. To have passed is truly undeserved favor from Your Highness."

"There is no need to be so modest," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "Your essay is good, but knowing is easy and doing is hard! Only by uniting knowledge and action can one become a true pillar of the state."

In truth, Zhu Cilang did not remember Zhang Boren's essay at all. The question he had set was one that even Ma Shiying and Lu Zhenfei could not answer well, let alone these country xiucai.

How could they possibly understand the principles of protracted war?

And the results of this Dengzhou-Laizhou special civil examination actually had nothing whatsoever to do with the quality of the essays, but were related to the family assets of the examinees!

After the examinees of the two prefectures of Dengzhou and Laizhou had registered, Zhu Cilang had sent the Embroidered Uniform Guard to investigate the circumstances of each family. Those with much land and many people passed; those from small, humble households failed.

The reason for this was not that Zhu Cilang disdained the poor and favored the rich, but that he had to use this special examination to organize the powerful great households of Dengzhou and Laizhou, and then rely on them to establish local militia on a large scale!

Unlike the situation with the military guards, the land of the three subprefectures and eleven counties of Dengzhou and Laizhou was mostly privately owned civilian land. To carry out land equalization there would be without proper name or justification. Moreover, civilian land involved too many interests; if land equalization were rashly carried out, he would become a second Li Zicheng, and all the propertied classes under heaven would become Zhu Cilang's enemies.

Therefore, the reorganization of the three subprefectures and eleven counties of Dengzhou and Laizhou could only be carried out without touching the system of land ownership.

In the seven guards of Dengzhou and Laizhou it was taking; in the three subprefectures and eleven counties it was giving.

(End of Chapter)