Sitting in the carriage, Fang Yun thought quietly. The first place in the imperial examination was already a sure thing. More than seventy semi-saints and six sub-saints had awakened. This was unprecedented. If he still couldn't get the first place, then the Wenqu Star might as well be shattered.
The Chinese New Year is coming, when the academies will be closed and all places will be on holiday. However, for some newly-appointed Jinshi, it is the busiest period, because the most outstanding newly-appointed Jinshi not only have to participate in the Ten Kingdoms Spring Hunt during the Lantern Festival, but also have to prepare for the upcoming palace examination.
Not all Jinshi are eligible to take part in the palace examination. Even if Jing State tries harder this year, it can only allow the top 50 Jinshi to participate in the palace examination, because the content of the palace examination is to let the Jinshi serve as the current county magistrate of a county. Jing State is a small country with less than 300 counties in the country. In previous years, it could only set aside 20 counties for the Jinshi to manage.
Big countries like Qi could easily offer hundreds of counties.
Being able to participate in the palace examination means having the opportunity to enter the ocean of learning. Big countries have huge advantages, and even form a snowball effect that small countries can never surpass.
As for when to launch a literary war against Qing State, Fang Yun has not decided yet. After all, Qing State's old Jinshi are too strong. If the aristocratic families of Qing State are shameless and send out Jinshi who is crazy about poetry or Jinshi from the ancient land of deserted city, the outcome will be unpredictable.
The strongest Jinshi were comparable to the Hanlin of the Third Hall, and some were even on par with the Hanlin of the Fourth Hall, with extraordinary strength. However, they were only comparable to the Hanlin in terms of fighting, and were far inferior in other aspects. Many Jinshi could not even be promoted to the Hanlin in their lifetime, some because of insufficient qualifications, but nearly 30% because they did not have enough Wenquxing power.
After the Wenquxing descended this time, the human race was overjoyed because it allowed many scholars to make another breakthrough. After becoming a Jinshi, one would no longer receive the talent infusion from the Holy Temple, and would mainly rely on oneself, and secondarily rely on the Holy Academy or aristocratic families.
Just a few months after this blessing from the God of Literature, more than 300 veteran Jinshi were promoted to Hanlin.
However, no one knew that it was Fang Yun who caused the Wenquxing to fall. Even Fang Yun was unaware of it at the time.
"The palace examination will start on the first day of February next year, but we have to prepare now. We must learn about government affairs, agricultural affairs, and fortifications. We must have some knowledge of litigation, money, and other aspects to avoid being completely ignorant. If we serve as an acting county magistrate in a place where monsters and barbarians gather, we need to learn military affairs. If we are at the seaside, we need to learn maritime trade... In short, the palace examination is much more difficult than any previous exam. The previous imperial examinations could only be regarded as tests of theory. The palace examination is a test of practice. Many Jinshi had mediocre results in the joint examinations, but shocked the ten countries in the palace examinations. This was the case with Li Wenying back then. He was never ranked high in the joint examinations, but won the top spot in Jingguo in the palace examinations with his government affairs, education, and military affairs. Especially in military affairs, he got the first grade and shocked the ten countries." Fang Yun thought.
"However, the teachers in the academy will give us Jinshi lessons. They will teach us how to govern a county. I just need to learn it. Next, my main goal is to help Jingguo get a better ranking in the Jinshi Spring Hunt. In last year's Ten Kingdoms Spring Hunt, Jingguo only ranked tenth. It has always been laughed at by other countries."
Fang Yun carefully recalled the rules of the Jinshi Spring Hunt.
Each country will send thirty people to the Spring Hunt for Jinshi, including the top ten Jinshi in last year's examination, ten young Jinshi under the age of thirty, and ten middle-aged Jinshi under the age of fifty.
The thirty scholars from each country work together to hunt monsters. The more monsters they kill and the less damage they suffer, the higher their score will be.
The higher the ranking of the Ten Kingdoms Spring Hunt, the more places the Jinshi of each country will have to study in the Holy Academy, and the more times they will enter the "Hanlin Hall".
Jinshi can no longer receive the grace of the temple as before, but need to rely on their own efforts. However, the Hanlin Hall of the Holy Court can increase the chances of Jinshi becoming a Hanlin, which is extremely important for Jinshi.
The countries often quarreled over the quota of Hanlin Hall. Before the first Battle of Liangjie Mountain, wars often broke out between the ten countries because of the issue of Hanlin Hall.
After Fang Yun finished thinking about the spring hunt, he remembered the 30,000 pieces of sky leaves in his Wen Palace.
After a moment, Fang Yun had an idea.
"Thirty thousand Heavenly Leaves are of little use to me. I will have more and more Heavenly Leaves in the future. Moreover, only the noble families can afford them. If I give them all to the holy noble families, it will help solidify the class structure. After all, I come from a poor family and cannot help the noble families too much. Instead of using Heavenly Leaves to exchange for wealth, it is better to enhance my status among the poor families and increase my real 'influence' and 'strength'."
"Then, we will set up two Tianye funds for poor families, one for Jing country and one for the entire human race. The one for the entire human race is called 'Tianye Tuition', and tuition is basically a grant from each country. The one for Jing country is called 'Jing country Tianye Tuition', and these two types of Tianye Tuition are only provided to disciples who are not from a semi-saint family."
Afterwards, based on the current situation of the ten countries and the number of successful candidates, Fang Yun decided to give 500 pieces of Tianye to Jing Kingdom this year and a total of 2,000 pieces to the other countries. Starting from next year, the amount will be slightly reduced, which can last for at least 30 years.
If too much is given at once, it would be a waste to allow those who are not strong enough to enter the Heavenly Tree. If too little is given, it would slow down the growth of the human race.
Fang Yun knew that giving one hundred and two hundred pieces each year would be the best, but there was not much time left for the human race, so it would be better to use up the Tianye as soon as possible.
These 30,000 pieces of Tianye can gradually win over the most outstanding non-aristocratic family scholars of the human race. Even if these scholars may be recruited by aristocratic families, they will not be enemies of Fang Yun.
Lü Buwei hoarded Qin Shi Huang's father Zichu as a "rare commodity" and made investments in it, gaining the position of Prime Minister of Qin and even a semi-saint. Today, Fang Yun regards all the candidates in the world who are not from aristocratic families as "rare commodities."
This Tianye Gaohuo was set up by Fang Yun himself, which means that any scholar who wants to obtain Tianye must not become an enemy of Fang Yun in the future, otherwise, his literary courage will be damaged at best, and shattered at worst.
Those die-hard members of the Zuo Xiang Party and the Kang Wang Party had already fallen behind their peers because they were unable to learn Fang Yun's poems and essays. Now it is impossible for them to obtain the Tian Ye, which means that the descendants of these two people's followers will be completely surpassed by others.
The reason why the two parties can recruit people is simply because they have strong power and sufficient resources to allow outstanding talents to receive preferential treatment and better promote civil service positions.
However, neither the Left Prime Minister nor King Kang could give everyone more powerful courage-building poems or more powerful war poems. As for the Heavenly Leaf, it was a precious item that even the Semi-Saint families were reluctant to give away, so the Left Prime Minister and King Kang could not get it at all.
Once the Tianye tuition begins to take shape, those who have accepted the Tianye scholarship and their relatives will spontaneously organize new parties or literary societies, not for any other reason but to avoid being attacked by the Zuo Xiang Party and the Kang Wang Party.
Once the New Party or the New Literary Society is formed, it will naturally become the backbone of the "Fang Yun Party"!
Fang Yun reached out to touch the official seal, wanting to contact the people from Dongsheng Pavilion and the Minister of Literature, but found nothing. Then he remembered that the official seal was at home. He participated in the examination with the determination to die, and did not even bring the Yinjiangbei.
When the carriage arrived at the door of his house, Fang Yun quickly got off the carriage.
"The master is back..." Fang Daniu shouted at the top of his voice.
"Benlong misses you so much!"
Then a bright yellow shadow rushed over and hit Fang Yun in the chest with a bang, causing pain in Fang Yun's chest.
Fang Yun rolled his eyes at Ao Huang. Fortunately, he was as strong as the demon commander. If he were an ordinary person, he would have been killed by Ao Huang. (To be continued...)