On March 15, 1634, the Jiaxu Palace Examination was held in the square in front of the Huangji Hall of the Forbidden City. Zhu Cijiu sat high on the three-story steps in front of the Huangji Hall, waiting for the tribute students to come forward one by one to pay homage to receive the test questions.

I saw him smiling and nodding to the tribute students who came forward to worship. He seemed to value them very much, but he kept muttering in his heart: "I don't know." "I haven't heard of it." "How can I call the top scorer!"...

His standard for being the top scholar is very simple. He does not read literary talent or calligraphy, but only sees whether you have left your name in history. Of course, this history of leaving your name has limitations. It must be a history he has seen or heard of. If he doesn't know about it, even if he leaves your name in history, it will be left in vain.

The tribute student in this subject seemed to be unlucky. Until the turn was almost over, Zhu Cijiu had not met a little heard of. Just when he was at a loss, a handsome young man with a handsome young man walked to the steps, kowtowed on his knees, "Student Chen Zilong meets the emperor."

Zhu Cijiu was attracted by him at first glance, and his eyes gradually showed excitement. Uh, this is not because he is handsome, nor because his name is a bit close to the historical celebrity Zhao Zilong, mainly because Zhu Cijiu looked familiar with him. He had definitely seen this person!

It’s a good friend, but there are really no celebrities who are ‘famous in history’. It’s a good option to order an acquaintance to be the top scorer.

The students below should know that the emperor’s top scorer is the standard, and they will probably be so angry that they will spit out blood. This is simply a naked nepotism!

There is no way, whoever calls him the emperor? If you want to be the top scorer, you can order whoever wants to be the top scorer. If you don’t accept it, you can’t come to the exam!

Zhu Cijiu looked at it for a long time but didn't remember where he had seen this handsome guy. He had to nod and let him get the test questions first, and then asked in a low voice: "Who is this person? I seem to have seen it somewhere."

As soon as he finished speaking, Cao Huachun, who was beside him, immediately bowed and replied: "When the emperor said, this person is a student of Xu Guangqi and Xu. He has participated in the compilation of the "Complete Book of Agricultural Affairs" in Wenhua Hall. Your last time you went to Wenhua Hall to check the editing progress of the "Complete Book of Agricultural Affairs"."

When Zhu Cijing heard this, he instantly recalled that he had indeed seen Chen Zilong in Wenhua Palace. He was a talented person. He could participate in the editing of the "Complete Book of Agricultural Affairs" at such a young age, and he was the top scholar!

In fact, Chen Zilong is quite famous in history. He was a famous writer in the late Ming Dynasty and one of the three major poets in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty. He was known as the Ming Dynasty Temple Army, a genius, a master of parallel fu, and a famous scholar of strategy and theory... Zhu Cijiu was not very concerned about history and was just ignorant. Otherwise, he would have heard of the famous name for a long time, which was well-known!

However, Chen Zilong was lucky, and Zhu Cijiu accidentally glanced at him, which made him the top scorer. You should know that during the Chongzhen dynasty, he was famous for his fate in the imperial examination. He was already a high school student in the autumn examination in the third year of Chongzhen (1630 AD). However, in the fourth year of Chongzhen, he accidentally changed a word on the test paper and failed the examination; in the seventh year of Chongzhen, the chief examiner Wen Tiren disliked him and failed the examination; until the tenth year of Chongzhen, he was only a senior student and a Jinshi, which was extremely inconsistent with his identity as a great literary master.

Chen Zilong, the Chongzheng Dynasty, is in operation. Not only has he already had the top scorer in high school before the exam was started, Zhu Cijing has even begun to consider how to train him to become the chief assistant of the cabinet!

This is not Zhu Cijiu's nepotism. Chen Zilong is Xu Guangqi's student, of course, gave him a lot of points, but it is mainly because he participated in the compilation of the "Complete Book of Agricultural Affairs". You should know that Xu Guangqi is not the kind of nepotism. If he doesn't have some skills, Xu Guangqi will not be able to put him in the middle of a bunch of Hanlin to edit books. What is Hanlin? They are all high-ranking talents who have passed the first Jinshi. Xu Guangqi recognizes his talents so much. What else can Zhu Cijiu hesitate about?

It was a coincidence that the current affairs policy of this palace examination happened to be about agricultural affairs. Of course, this was not because Zhu Cijiu was intentionally cheating, which opened a convenient door for Chen Zilong. When he asked the question, he didn't know the character Chen Zilong.

The reason why he planned the current affairs as a discussion of agricultural affairs was mainly to develop Liaodong. Now the snow in Liaodong is melting. The civilians carrying excesses in northern Zhili, Shandong and other provinces due to severe drought in the northwest are about to move to Liaodong. The purpose of moving them over is to turn Liaodong into the northern granary of the Ming Dynasty, in order to solve the huge waste caused by the Ming Dynasty's annual transfer of grain from the south to the north.

You should know that the freight fee is more than 10 million taels of food transported from the south. The taxes in the Ming Dynasty were only about 10 million taels per year, and half of them were lost on it!

He also thought that the investment in construction of a railway may be more than 10 million taels at a time, but after completion, the transportation cost can be reduced to negligible. However, as soon as he opened the map, he gave up after a rough glance. Nowadays, it is impossible to build the Yellow River Bridge or even the Yangtze River Bridge!

It’s different in Liaodong. From the capital to Liaodong, there is no big river in the middle. The Liaohe River may not be able to be built, but when it reaches the Liaohe River, it means that it has already reached the grain production area. What does it matter if it can’t be passed?

The transportation cost is easy to solve. As long as the railway is built to Sanchahebao, the freight is basically negligible. However, it is useless to solve the transportation cost. The grain output is the key. If the grain output cannot be increased, then everything is fake.

Therefore, this agricultural issue is naturally the top priority. Zhu Cijing had already thought about demarcating the Liaohe Plain from Liaodong and establishing a Dazhou Prefecture directly under the imperial court. He had thought about the name, namely Fengtian Prefecture. All military garrisons in Liaodong will be moved to places such as the Guangning Jin line and the Guanning Tieling Liaohai line and other areas that border with Mongolia in the south of the desert. The Liaohe Plain in the middle will be combined into a large agricultural special zone, specializing in agriculture and increasing grain output.

To specialize in agriculture, we naturally need to have professionals to manage it. It turns out that local officials in the Ming Dynasty basically don’t have to rely on them. They have to have a way to improve agriculture long ago. Zhu Cijiu gave a question about agricultural affairs, which was to select all the Jinshi who were more familiar with agricultural affairs, and then asked Xu Guangqi to train them well, and then put them in Fengtian Prefecture to be local officials. The second and third grades were magistrates, and the first grades were at least magistrates and magistrates. The most powerful among them were directly promoted to the prefect!

So Chen Zilong was lucky, and this prefect was tailor-made for him. He even exempted him from training at Xu Guangqi. If he was not familiar with the agricultural affairs, would Xu Guangqi ask him to edit the "Complete Book of Agricultural Affairs"?

Chen Zilong is still confused at this moment. He doesn't know that he is the first prize in the new subject and will soon become the prefect. As long as he doesn't make mistakes, he will be promoted to the prime minister of the cabinet in about ten years!

The question of the palace examination was actually about agricultural affairs, which was simply a drop in his bowl. In terms of agricultural affairs, the Ming Dynasty, except for his teacher, Lord Xu Guangqi, he had never seen one who knew better than him, so he easily completed the plan. Of course, he did not think that he was the first top scholar, and the palace examination was not only about the content of the plan, but also about literary talent, calligraphy, parallelism format, etc., all of which must be outstanding. Overall, he believed that he had made a firm decision and had hope for the first league. As for the top scholar, he could only hope for the birth of a miracle.

Unexpectedly, this miracle was really born. When the servant who reported the good news came to him, he was like Fan Jin and was so happy that he was crazy. After wandering around the streets and alleys of the capital with a big red flower for a few days, the imperial edict arrived and he was appointed as a editor of the Hanlin Academy and promoted to a lecturer. This was normal. The top scholar had this position at the beginning.

The main job of the lecturer's bachelor is to accompany the emperor when he was studying and explain the difficulties in the book to the emperor. So after arriving at the Hanlin Academy, he immediately asked the emperor about what books he liked to read. Although he was the top scholar, he dared not say that he knew everything. If the emperor liked to read some rare books, he would stop.

As a result, he was shocked! All his colleagues shook their heads and didn't know because the emperor had never looked for them. He had to bite the bullet and run to find the last top scholar and Tanhua, now Tongzheng Secretary Tongzheng Master Wu Jianye and Zuo Tongzheng Chen Yutai. The two looked strange, just asked him to read the "Beijing News" more!

Well, the emperor may like to read the "Beijing News", so he quickly found a bunch of "Beijing News" to study hard. Before he could read a few of them, the emperor's sage edict came and summoned him to the imperial study in the Qianqing Palace.

Along the way, Chen Zilong felt that his little heart was about to jump into his throat. This was his first time serving as a lecturer. The emperor must not ask any strange questions!

As a result, he was shocked again. The emperor was actually reading the "Complete Book of Agricultural Affairs"! He was naturally very familiar with the "Complete Book of Agricultural Affairs", and now he was relieved.

Zhu Cijing did not ask Chen Zilong what was in the book "Complete Book of Agricultural Affairs". He was really not interested in farming. He just looked through the catalog to see how different the crops in the Ming Dynasty were from later generations.

As he flipped through, he asked casually: "How long have you been studying with your mentor?"

Teacher? Chen Zilong realized this time. Xu Guangqi was not only his teacher but also an imperial teacher. Of course, he did not dare to call the emperor's junior brother. This junior brother could not call him. He replied respectfully: "When you say the emperor, I have been studying with my mentor since the fifth year of Tianqi, and it has been nine years since then."

Zhu Cijing nodded slightly, pointed to the book in his hand and said, "Then when did you start editing this book?"

Chen Zilong thought about it for a moment and replied respectfully: "The emperor's words also started in the fifth year of the Age of Revelation. At that time, his mentor retired at home and focused on correcting the draft of the "Complete Book of Agricultural Affairs". It happened that the Weichen family worked for generations and had some experience. The mentor asked Weichen to correct it with him, and the first draft was not completed until the seventh year of the Age of Revelation."

Zhu Cijing smiled and said, "Machine Zhong doesn't have to be so reserved. I and you are also a member of the same school. You can be casual when there is no one. So, are you and your mentor or your fellow countrymen?"

Chen Zilong was a little flattered. So what kind of random method is this casual method? He thought about it and then hesitated: "Well, I am, my teacher and my mentor are both from Songjiang Prefecture, Nanzhili."

Seeing that he was still a little nervous, Zhu Cijing found a question he might be interested in and asked: "I heard that you have written good poems and songs, and have published many collections of poems. Are there any new works recently?"

Speaking of this, Chen Zilong was indeed much more normal. He said quietly: "I dare not be the emperor to praise this. Those are just minor studies and entertainment in my spare time. I have been studying the knowledge of practical use in the world. I am searching for literature on world affairs and national affairs with several fellow villagers. With the key points of detailing military affairs and focusing on economy, I will edit articles about politics, military, taxes, finance, farmland, water conservancy, school culture, rules and regulations, etc., and named it "Huangming Jingshiwen Edition".

Zhu Cijing originally wanted to examine him this time to see if he was flashy or not. Unexpectedly, he not only understood agriculture, but also studied economy and military. So what else is there to say? Zhu Cijing said directly: "Well, it's right. I'm going to combine Liaodong Haizhou, Gaizhou, Zizaizhou and other places into a Zhili Prefecture, called Fengtian Prefecture. After a while, you can become the prefect. You can show your director and build a granary for me."

Chen Zilong was stunned when he heard this. This is the speed of promotion. It’s only been a top scholar for a few days. The editor of the sixth-rank Hanlin Academy just got a name, and he was just a fifth-rank attendant and lecturer. Before he could even sit down, he immediately became a fourth-rank prefect!
Chapter completed!