Chapter 1443 The imperial examination system is born
Chapter 1441: The imperial examination system is born
After Li Zicheng''s death, the Ming army in Yanzhou had no leader, and the main force suffered heavy losses, so it was naturally difficult to resist Cao Cao''s attack.
Cao Cao won consecutive battles and took only one month to unify the 78 counties of the five counties and three kingdoms of Yanzhou, captured 400,000 soldiers and civilians in Mount Tai, and completely ended the three-year melee in Yanzhou.
Li Zicheng''s military advisor Li Yan and his nephew Li Guo led the remaining Ming army in Mount Tai to surrender to Zhu Yuanzhang eastward.
Li Yan and Li Guo originally wanted to cross the Yellow River and go to seek refuge with Mingting, but because Yanjin Du was occupied by the Cao army''s general, the road to Hebei was completely blocked, so he had to retreat second and go to Xuzhou to seek refuge with Zhu Yuanzhang.
Li Zicheng died in battle, Li Yan and Li Guo fled, and Cao Cao chose the 100,000 strong soldiers and civilians from Mount Tai, and organized them into an army, and called the "Taishan Soldier". The momentum rose sharply for a while.
The unification of Yanzhou shocked Zhu Yuanzhang of Xuzhou, Zhao Kuangyin of Yuzhou, and even Qin Hao of Luoyang.
Whether it is Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhao Kuangyin, or even Qin Hao, Yanzhou is too close to them, and no one wants Yanzhou to be unified. A chaotic Yanzhou is more in line with their interests.
But Cao Cao''s actions were too fast, and he directly cut the mess and solved Li Zicheng with a quick knife, and quickly unified Yanzhou within a month, without giving any surrounding forces the opportunity to interfere.
Now that Yanzhou has been unified, Cao Cao reorganized 100,000 Taishan soldiers, and the total force under his command was nearly 200,000, and he is no longer the Cao Cao who needs to rest.
Although the major princes were dissatisfied with this, they were helpless. Instead, they needed to win over Cao Cao to prevent him from pushing him to his opposite side.
After unifying the five counties and three kingdoms of Yanzhou, and adding Yingchuan County, where he started his family, Cao Cao already owned nine counties.
In terms of the number of counties, Cao Cao is the second only to Qin Hao.
But when it comes to overall strength, Cao Cao, who has 200,000 troops, looks very strong on the surface, but in fact he is just a strong outside and a strong inside.
The internal friction in Yanzhou was too serious. Cao Cao first fought against the four princes of Yanzhou, and then fought against the elite soldiers of Taishan Li Zicheng, and fought for three years. Not only did he destroy the entire Yanzhou, but he also consumed all the foundation of Yanzhou.
Yanzhou was originally the hardest hit area of ??the Yellow Turban Uprising. Before the Yellow Turban Uprising, it had a population of 6 million. After the failure of the Yellow Turban Uprising, it fell to three million. It is the most traumatized state among the thirteen states.
Cao Cao defeated Yanzhou unified by Li Zicheng, and there was only a population of more than 1.5 million, which was only one-quarter of the peak period.
In just ten years, Yanzhou lost three-quarters of its total population, which is nearly 4.5 million people. This shows how harmful it is in the chaotic times on the battlefield.
Although Cao Cao defeated Li Zicheng, he only got a broken Yanzhou. Fortunately, he acquired 400,000 Mount Tai, which restored Yanzhou''s vitality.
Yanzhou has a total population of 1.5 million, and it has a total population of 400,000 Mount Tai. In addition, Yingchuan County, which has a population of more than 400,000, Cao Cao also has a total population of 2.4 million.
The total population of 2.4 million has raised a total army of 200,000?
If Cao Cao had a fertile land under his rule, he could barely support it. But obviously, except for the Yingchuan county, Cao Cao''s territory was extremely broken, so it was naturally impossible to afford the 200,000 army. Cao Cao knew that Yanzhou could not afford so many troops, but insisted on maintaining so many units. This was actually a helpless move.
The foundation of Yanzhou was too thin, but it was in the four battles. As long as there was a slightest weakness, the surrounding jackals would divide him up. Therefore, Cao Cao had to have at least 200,000 troops to shock the princes who coveted him.
The 2.4 million people in Yanzhou alone cannot afford to support a 200,000 army, so Cao Cao could only implement a military farming policy to reduce the consumption caused by excessive army.
While implementing the military farming policy, Cao Cao also fully imitated Qin Hao and thoroughly promoted the "Big Han Field Acre System" to restore Yanzhou''s vitality as soon as possible.
There are few aristocratic families in Yanzhou now, and the power of aristocratic families is unprecedentedly weak, so it is naturally impossible to stop Cao Cao.
In addition to comprehensively promoting the land acre system, Cao Cao also imitated the Sui Wang Yang Guang of Liangzhou, abandoned the original system of recommendation and implemented the imperial examination system in Yanzhou to recruit talents.
Long before the Qiang King sent troops to attack Yang Guang, Yang Guang took the lead in Liangzhou to propose the imperial examination system in order to attract talents from poor families.
As soon as the imperial examination system was released, it immediately caused a sensation all over the world. However, not many scholars participated in the call of Yang Guang, but more of them criticized Yang Guang. Only local poor disciples in Liangzhou responded to the imperial examination.
The selection of officials in both Han dynasties was the system of filial and honest people, which continued from the reign of Emperor Wu of Han to this day, but Yang Guang took the lead in breaking the old system, which would naturally cause criticism from the people of the world.
Yang Guang didn''t care about this at all. His reputation was not good, and the disciples of the big clan could not join him. Only by gaining the support of poor disciples can he be qualified to continue to participate in the battle for hegemony.
In addition, the Qiang tribe Yelu Abaoji is about to attack. If even Liangzhou cannot be defended, it will be useless for Yang Guang to make these reputations. Therefore, even though he knows the consequences of the imperial examination, Yang Guang resolutely chose to implement the imperial examination.
After the implementation of the imperial examination system in Liangzhou, although it only attracted poor disciples from Liangzhou and some poor disciples from Guanxi, it greatly alleviated the dilemma of insufficient talents under Yang Guang, and also attracted a Liangzhou talent to surrender, and he was Cheng Gongying.
Cheng Gongying was originally Han Sui''s military advisor. After Han Sui died, he surrendered to Cao Cao and was appointed as a military advisor and granted the title of Marquis. He is one of the few wise and wise men in Liangzhou.
Cheng Gongying, who was from a poor family, has been watching this life and has not defected to Han Sui. Seeing that Yang Guang proposed the imperial examination system, such a system that was considered by the poor families in the world, he felt that Yang Guang was just waiting for him, so he immediately took the initiative to seek refuge with Yang Guang.
Yang Guang also heard of Cheng Gongying''s name, and was naturally overjoyed when he learned that he had come to join the country. After a long talk, he appointed him as a military advisor and gave advice for himself.
Later, when Qiang King Yelu Abaoji came, Cheng Gongying went to lobby Ma Teng and Han Sui, asking them and Yang Guang to abandon their past grudges and form a coalition to fight against the Qiang army. However, he did not expect that by chance, the Qiang people were destroyed and completely solved the century-old troubles of the Han Dynasty.
Although Yang Guang''s implementation of the imperial examination in Liangzhou attracted continuous criticism, it had no effect on Yang Guang, who was far away in Xiliang. Instead, he became the overlord of Liangzhou due to the significant effect of the imperial examination system.
The other princes were full of concerns and did not dare to try the imperial examination system easily, but Cao Cao had to try it because he had no other choice.
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(This chapter ends)