Chapter 851
The Rise of an Empire
In addition to military reforms, Chen Jie also carried out political reforms.
The first was to reform the imperial examination system. Chen Jie initiated sweeping reforms to the system, and these reforms were implemented from the top down.
First of all, the foundation of the imperial examination system was education. In the past, the imperial examinations were almost monopolized by children from wealthy families. Even the poorest children from poor families had some wealth. No one's child was truly so poor that they couldn't afford to eat.
In particular, Chen Jie's Han dynasty inherited the regime of the Great Qian, which was a Mulan regime. The Mulan people themselves did not value the imperial examination, which led to a near-discontinuity in the culture of the Central Plains. The literacy rate of the common people was probably less than one percent, and it could be said that the entire population was illiterate.
In such a situation, if the imperial examination were to be used to select talents, it would most likely select those from wealthy and powerful families, which would easily lead to class monopoly. Therefore, Chen Jie directly rejected the special imperial examination proposed by the Ministry of Rites.
Chen Jie approached Liu Bowen, the Minister of Rites, and shared his thoughts. Liu Bowen listened to Chen Jie's ideas and agreed that Chen Jie was right, but there was nothing that could be done, since studying was not something that ordinary farmers' children could accomplish.
There was no other way but to admit these children from wealthy and powerful families; we couldn't leave the country without anyone to rely on.
Chen Jie thought for a moment and said to Liu Bowen, “Mr. Bowen, the consequences of such class monopoly are very serious. There are many capable people among the peasants. If we deprive them of the opportunity to improve themselves just because they have a bad background, then the peasants will be peasants for life.”
"If social mobility is not maintained and farmers lose their channels for advancement, they will inevitably develop other ideas, which would be detrimental to the country."
Liu Bowen listened to Chen Jie's words and said, "Your Majesty is right, but the situation in the country is like this, what can we do?"
Chen Jie looked at Liu Bowen and said, "Look at the education system I set up in Huangzhou Prefecture. I divided the children into four stages: primary school, junior high school, senior high school, and university."
"Primary school is six years, junior high school and senior high school are three years each, and university is three years."
"Primary and junior high school education is called compulsory education. Schools do not charge any fees and even provide lunch, so that children can receive education from an early age."
"In high school, tuition fees will be charged. However, students with excellent grades who come from extremely poor families can apply for the Royal Scholarship."
“I will directly allocate funds from my personal treasury to high schools in all provinces, prefectures and counties across the country to support the poor.”
"Given the current state of governance in the country, high school graduates are already capable of being assigned jobs and are fully competent to serve as village cadres, such as village chiefs or town mayors."
"Those who are even more outstanding can enter the university through examination. The university will hire the best talents from all walks of life to teach. After they graduate, they can be directly assigned to jobs such as minor officials in the county government."
"Those who are even more outstanding can be directly selected to enter the Imperial Academy and serve as Hanlin scholars to serve the country."
Chen, having finished his explanation, asked, "Bowen, what do you think?"
Liu Bowen then said to Chen Jie, "My lord's strategy is a good one that benefits the country and the people. However, my lord, there is another matter I would like to ask you to decide."
Chen Jie said, "Bowen, please speak."
Liu Bowen said, "Just now, my lord mentioned that there was a group of students who could take up positions at the grassroots level after graduating from high school. Among these students, those who were outstanding in ability simply did not achieve ideal results in the fate-determining exam for entering university that you mentioned, which was the high school entrance exam."
"So, does he still have a chance to go further?"
Chen Jie said, "Of course, even after they arrive at their destination, they can continue to take the exam and advance further."
Chen explained, "Moreover, those who have been trained at the grassroots level tend to have more mature thinking."
Chen continued, "So they can take the adult exam after they start working. The exam content has been changed to be all related to government affairs. If they are talented, they can be promoted to the county as clerks."
"If they perform well as clerks, after serving three years, they can be given another opportunity to take an exam. If they pass, they can directly become officials and enter the official system."
After listening to Chen Jie's words, Liu Bowen nodded and said, "That's very good. This way, we won't bury talent."
"But Your Majesty, if we follow your suggestion and implement nine-year compulsory education, the cost of primary and junior high schools will be enormous every year. Not to mention the construction of the schools, just the teachers' salaries alone will require a huge amount of money!"
"Moreover, His Majesty also said he would provide lunch for these students, which is an astronomical sum. Has His Majesty considered this?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Jie looked at Liu Bowen and said, "Bowen, it takes ten years to grow a tree, but a hundred years to cultivate a person. The future of a country is in the hands of these children. If we spend some money on them now, they will repay us tenfold or a hundredfold in the future."
Liu Bowen asked, "Your Majesty, should this money be paid by the local government or directly by the national treasury?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Jie said, "If the national treasury allocates the money directly, I know the style of those local officials. If the local government were to pay for it, they would definitely try every means to withhold the money, and when asked, they would say that the local government has its own difficulties. So I won't leave them any excuses."
"Your Ministry of Rites will dispatch officials to be stationed in counties as the basic unit. The county education offices in the cities will be in charge of managing this money allocated by the imperial court. It must be used for its designated purpose and must not be misappropriated."
Chen explained, "This should ensure that the money is used for the child."
Upon hearing this, Liu Bowen said, "Your Majesty, the country has just been established, and there are far too many places where money needs to be spent. If you use this money for education, won't the other officials have some reservations?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Jie said, "No matter how poor we are, we can't let our children suffer; no matter how hard life is, we can't let education suffer. I've been able to endure not expanding for so many years, so why can't they endure this short-term shortage of funds?"
After Chen Jie finished speaking, he looked at Liu Bowen and said, "You can do it with peace of mind. No matter where you encounter problems, just come to me. I will take full responsibility for everything."
Upon hearing Chen Jie's words, Liu Bowen felt reassured and looked at Chen Jie, saying, "Then Your Majesty, this old minister knows what to do."
Chen Jie and Liu Bowen's educational reforms directly established nine-year compulsory education, along with the two most powerful measures: the middle school entrance examination and the college entrance examination. This also established the basic system for selecting talents for the entire dynasty.
This has already cultivated enough talent for the country. In fact, after completing nine years of compulsory education, a person can be trained to serve as a minor official in the imperial court, while high school and university graduates are perfectly capable of holding official positions.
As for whether they want to continue to rise, they will need to put in even more effort.
However, this makes the empire's talent selection mechanism dynamic, allowing everyone to actively participate in the selection process. This already demonstrates a far-sightedness compared to all emperors throughout history, and the widespread implementation of compulsory education surpasses that of any previous emperor. The future prosperity of the Han Dynasty is now unstoppable.
After completing the economic, military, and educational aspects, the final step is the law.
The laws of the Great Qian Dynasty were simply unreasonable. For example, killing a Han person could result in paying with a donkey. These disgusting laws should all be swept into the dustbin of history.
Chen Jie found Jin Yanzi, the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, and Zhou Chu, the Minister of the Police Department, and also brought in a series of legal experts to carry out judicial reforms.
The first principle established was that princes and commoners should be punished the same as citizens, and any violation of the law by the powerful and wealthy should be dealt with severely once verified. The law must be strict.
After this proposal was put forward, some legal experts said: Would a one-size-fits-all approach lead to serious resistance from the nobility, affect legal reform, and cause the reform to fail? Back then, Wang Anshi's reform encountered resistance from the nobility and ultimately failed completely.
Upon hearing this, Chen Jie chuckled and said, "That was Wang Anshi's reform. Now it's my reform. You can boldly make changes. As long as they are reasonable, they can be pushed forward. I want to see who can stop me from carrying out reforms."
After hearing Chen Jie's words, the ministers fell silent. Indeed, the current emperor's prestige was unmatched; even among the founding emperors, he belonged to the top tier.
Many founding emperors, after establishing their dynasties, would first try to deal with their arrogant and unruly generals and start killing their meritorious officials. But our Emperor has never had such thoughts.
Those so-called arrogant and fierce generals, upon seeing His Majesty, all tucked their tails between their legs; the arrogance of the founding generals was nowhere to be seen.
This is the emperor's unparalleled majesty, because none of the meritorious officials in the entire world have achieved as much as he has.
In this country, besides being the emperor, he was more like a god.
Chen Jie said, "I have a suggestion for you to make improvements based on it."
Chen explained: "First, we need to establish a basic law, which outlines the basic operating principles of the country. Second, based on the basic law, we can expand it into a criminal law for criminal cases, a civil law for civil cases, and a commercial law for commercial cases. Then, we can add, subtract, or modify the provisions of the above laws according to the actual situation."
"As for the amendment of legal provisions, the amendment of the Basic Law must be approved by the entire court, while the amendment of the Criminal Law, Civil Law and Commercial Law must also be approved by the Grand Court Assembly."
"That's what I demand from the legal provisions."
Upon hearing this, a legal expert said, "Your Majesty, should our laws be stricter or slightly more lenient?"
"Apart from matters of principle, we can be more lenient on other issues. We need to give people some room to maneuver and not make them live in constant fear."
Chen Jiedao said: "In addition, after the law is promulgated, the Dali Temple and the police department will conduct internal supervision to prevent anyone from abusing the legal provisions. Furthermore, local officials will only have administrative power and not judicial power. They can manage local administration, but arresting people and conducting trials will be managed separately by the police department and the Dali Temple. Local officials are not allowed to interfere in legal matters."
"Yes!"
Chen Jie did this to prevent the excessive concentration of power, which is very important. In the past, local officials were both players and referees. "Who dares to accuse me?" This was not just a joke.
Chen Jie's reforms aimed to completely eliminate these practices; the laws of a country must be fair and strict.
Therefore, in the first five-year plan of the Great Han Empire, these matters were included in the plan. The emperor issued an order, the cabinet drafted an edict, which was then sent to the prime minister. The prime minister compiled the edicts and sent them to the various ministries, and finally the plan was implemented nationwide.
It can be said that after Chen Jie's actions, the whole country is developing rapidly.
Today, the first five-year term has arrived. Chen Xiaohu's words attracted the attention of the entire audience, and everyone looked at Chen Jie. Chen Jie also put down his wine glass and looked at the heads of various departments who wanted to report their work.
They smiled knowingly.
At this moment, Chen Jie spoke up: "Come on, since we've come this far, let's talk about it."
Where is the Earl of Jiading?
Chen Jie asked the Earl of Jiading, at which point Li Shanchang, the Minister of Revenue, immediately stepped forward and said, "The land survey and household registration are matters that your Ministry of Revenue is in charge of. You should report on them."
Upon hearing this, Li Shanchang said, "Your Majesty, we have basically completed the two tasks of clearing up household registration and measuring land within a year. We have discovered a large number of hidden households and hidden land in the local areas."
"Before the survey, my country's total arable land was 6.5 million mu. After the survey, the land increased by 9 million mu. In recent years, we have reclaimed wasteland for farming, and the scale of arable land should be around 10 billion mu."
Upon hearing this, Chen Jie said, "They really have a lot of nerve, hiding nearly a third of the land. These big families are really bold. By the way, what about the hidden households?"
Li Shanchang said, "When we collected the household registrations of the Qian Dynasty, the population was only 30 million. However, after our first census, the population surged to 50 million, of which 20 million were unregistered households."
Chen Jie nodded slightly upon hearing this. This number was not unexpected for Chen Jie. The Great Qian Dynasty was brutal, and many people ran to the mountains to become wild people in order to pay less tax, so this population surge was quite normal.
Chen Jiedao asked, "After these five years, with the land distribution and encouragement of childbirth, how many people are there in the country?"
Li Shanchang said, "The population has now exceeded 80 million, and the number of newborns is increasing by 6 million per year."
Chen Jie nodded. The Han Dynasty has not yet entered the industrial age and is still mainly agricultural. Moreover, the state distributes land according to the number of people. That is, having a child means having more land and more labor in the family.
Whoever gives birth to the child benefits.
Therefore, people were having children like crazy, after all, the benefits were too generous. For people of this era, the attraction of land was terrifying, and Chen Jie also liked this change very much.
After all, if we want to unify the world, the Han population cannot be too small. Chen Jie's goal is to increase the Han population to at least one billion within thirty years.
Only then could he begin to achieve his goal. Thinking this, Chen Jie looked at Shen Wansan and asked, "Minister Shen, how are things going on your end?" (End of Chapter)