Chapter 657

"Chen Qun?"

Liu Bei did recall the Nine-Rank System he had proposed.

Nowadays, holding office in the Great Han relies primarily on the recommendation of filial and incorrupt individuals or those of exceptional talent.

The Great Han has endured for several hundred years, and the great clans are closely intertwined; today I recommend you, tomorrow you recommend my nephews, leading to rampant chaos as these great clans monopolize the channels of promotion.

This has created sharp conflicts with the small-to-medium landlords and scholars from humble backgrounds who wish to participate.

Cao Cao, born into a family of eunuchs, was looked down upon by the great clans, and he himself had poor relations with famous scholars.

Based on this, he proposed "appointing only the talented," winning over a large number of talented individuals from humble backgrounds and small-to-medium clans.

Cao Wei thus gained massive support and possessed the strength to unify the world.

Unfortunately, this "appointing only the talented" policy caused great disaster in the later stages.

"Appointing only the talented" means that as long as one has talent, regardless of their moral character, they are heavily employed.

This led to extreme chaos in the later stages of Cao Wei.

More importantly, this matter thoroughly offended the great clans.

The Military Sima family's successful replacement of Cao Wei involved his own forbearance, but in reality, he was also the representative chosen by the great clans to replace the Cao family.

With Military Military Sima Yi in power, the interests of the clans could finally be guaranteed once again.

Therefore, without the Military Sima family, there might have been the Cui family, the Li family, and so on.

It was just changing the chairman; the shareholders and executives below would still drink their wine and dance as usual!

When Yang Guang pushed for the imperial examination system to strike at the clans, the Guanlong Group simply chose a new chairman, the Li family.

Both Cao Cao and Yang Guang took steps that were too large.

The Nine-Rank System was a product born from Chen Qun and others seeing the drawbacks of "appointing only the talented" and the recommendation system, taking the advantages of both to find a middle balance.

Roughly speaking, it is: examine family background, check moral conduct, and determine the rank!

Liu Bei met with Chen Qun in Xuxian and expressed great interest in the Nine-Rank System he proposed.

Chen Qun was extremely excited; this would be his life's work, and if it could be implemented, it would surely bring him both fame and fortune.

Liu Bei told him to focus on researching the Nine-Rank System.

Afterwards,

Liu Bei began to recruit talent on a massive scale,

including Zhang Ji from Feng Yi, Wang Shuang from Longxi, Wen Qin (father of Wen Yang) from Qiaojun, Gaotang Long from Taishan Commandery, and Du Xi from Yingchuan.

He also promoted Xun Yan and Xun Yue of the Xun family.

Liu Bei issued another order to halve the land tax in the three and a half provinces of the Central Plains, grant a three-year tax exemption to the disaster-stricken areas of Xiapi, and send grain and other supplies.

The entire Central Plains region soon entered a period of calm; it was just a change in management, and the land tax was halved—how wonderful!