I updated ten consecutive times yesterday. Brothers are so happy to watch. Can you give me a few tickets? It’s good to ask for some rewards!

early morning.

Li Chao took the prince and his other students back to Chang'an.

Today is the first primary election for the martial arts hall admissions examination. Li Shimin attached great importance to it and specially designated the martial arts hall admissions examination as the Tang Dynasty martial arts examination.

Li Chao was the chief examiner, and Qin Qiong rushed back. He and Yuchi Gong served as deputy chief examiners. Sun Wuji, Secretary General of the Ministry of War, Assistant Minister of War, and other officials from the Ministry of War and the Twelve Guards were all present.

However, although it is a martial arts examination, the first session is, so the rules are relatively simple. There are no exams from different places. Instead, the officers of each military department and the local young and strong people will be recommended by themselves. Then, after a simple screening of each local department, you can come to Beijing for the exam.

There are still many people coming to take the exam.

After all, once you pass the martial arts exam, you will become a martial arts tribute student. After being sent to the local army for one year, those who pass the tribute can enter the martial arts lecture hall and become a disciple of the emperor. The elimination rate for one year of training in the army will basically not be very high. Therefore, the most important thing is the Wugongju exam.

The content of the exam was planned by Li Chao.

It mainly tests five subjects: riding, shooting, gun, power and wisdom. There are three major items: riding, riding, riding, and riding, and riding, which are divided into flat shooting and cylinder shooting. At the same time, there are fixed targets and mobile targets, as well as step shooting and riding shooting.

Among them, the fixed target, called the long stack, is a giant cloth target with a diameter of three zhang. The target has five circles, one circle in the middle, one circle in diameter, one zhang two zhang, one zhang two zhang, one zhang eight zhang, the fourth circle in diameter two zhang four zhang, and the fifth circle in diameter three zhang.

The shooting distance is one hundred and five steps.

Fixed targets are also divided into flat shooting and cylinder shooting. The flat shooting requirement is that the arrow's trajectory is straight and the parabola should not be too large.

The barrel shooting is quite special and is a common method for the archery examination in this era. All arrows are only one foot long, so such arrows cannot pull the bow, so the barrel must be used.

The barrel is a half-sliced ​​bamboo that is longitudinally split, tied to the wrist of the right hand with a rope, as the orbit of the short arrow when it is launched. This barrel shooting is actually similar to the method of a crossbow.

In addition to the fixed target, there is a mobile target.

In addition to step shooting, there are also riding shooting, which are also divided into fixed targets and mobile targets. Each target is also divided into flat and cylinder shooting. Therefore, in the archery exam, one has eight sub-items.

The reason why there are so many archery exams is that the Tang army's bow and archery equipment rate is extremely high, almost 100%. If crossbows are equipped, the actual crossbow equipment rate will reach more than 12%.

Bows and crossbows are the extremely powerful combat methods of the Tang army. Therefore, the first martial arts examination attached so much importance to bows and shooting.

The riding exam is divided into three categories: riding, riding a rifle, and riding a rifle, among which the riding a rifle and the riding a rifle are overlapped. The other two riding and riding a rifle are naturally the techniques of riding a horse.

For the rifle test, build two earthen walls, and place two wooden dolls on each side, and a piece of wood that is more than two inches long on the top of each doll.

The candidates are required to use a 18-meter-long horse lance to rush through the middle of the two earthen walls, and then they are not allowed to slow down and accurately knock down the wooden pieces above the dolls on both sides. The dolls are also required to not fall down. If more than three pieces are high-quality, two pieces are medium, and one piece or no is inferior.

Strength tests arm strength and weight bearing.

For the arm strength test, you must use a pole that is 1,7 meters long and three inches thick in diameter. Lift it ten times. After lifting it, you must be able to hold it at a position less than one foot from the sole of the pole and lift it up.

This is a very test of arm strength.

Anyone who can do it can be someone with very good arm strength, which is not fake, especially the next step.

Carrying a weight means carrying a weight of 400 kilograms and walking twenty steps.

The last item is to test wisdom. Wisdom means intelligence.

Intelligence is an interview. Candidates must speak clearly and have clear ideas. If they can read, settle accounts and draw pictures, they will certainly be even better.

Finally, there is another one that has not been written out, but it is the most basic requirement, that is, height must be more than five feet and five. Five feet and five is one meter and sixty-five. If you don’t even have this height, you will be knocked down directly in each section and you are not qualified to take the Beijing exam at all.

Those who can come are basically five feet or five in height.

"There are not many people who can pass the five subjects of shooting, riding, guns, power, and intelligence, right?"

Zheng Shanguo, the minister of Dali Temple, sat next to Li Chao, and looked at the assessment requirements one by one, and couldn't help but ask Li Chao.

"It is of course difficult to be excellent in the five subjects. Our assessment criteria this time are strength and intelligence. Each candidate must pass or above these two items. For the three items of riding, shooting and gun, as long as one of the results is excellent, you can pass the primary election."

This martial arts examination actually does not mean that you can be selected if you have good grades, but like the liberal arts examination, there is a final admission quota.

Therefore, the competition adopts an elimination system.

In the preliminary round, leave those who pass the score first.

Then conduct a re-examination, eliminate a group of people, leaving only the expected number of places to be admitted, and select the best ones with a rated number from the qualified ones.

If all five items are excellent, of course you will definitely be given priority. If two of the three specialties are excellent, one of them will definitely be better than one of them.

If the individual items are extremely excellent, more than three items are ordinary.

In short, this is the exam for admission based on merit.

Zheng Shanguo nodded.

"How many places are there?"

"One thousand two hundred."

"Is there any internal decision?"

Li Chao smiled.

Of course, there is no such thing as internally decree, but there are always exceptions. Even the liberal arts examinations today are not entirely based on grades. If we really rely on grades, there will be no awards, no recommendations, and no reputation will be lost.

Therefore, this time the martial arts imperial examination was actually internally determined.

Of course, those who can be determined by the privileged class and nobles. And this time, those who have to be determined by the official will not be ordinary prime ministers and lords. If they are just here to say hello, Li Chao can also refuse.

But this time the person who came to say hello was Emperor Li Shimin.

Li Shimin directly gave Li Chao a list, with a lot of names on it, all of which were the noble children. Most of them already had official positions, and most of them worked in the Three Guards and Five Mansions of Qinxunyi. The fathers of these people wanted their sons to enter the martial arts hall to gilt, but Li Shimin couldn't refuse.

However, Li Chao did not want his first martial arts to make such a shady and smoke-proof atmosphere. Therefore, although he could not refuse directly, Li Chao still thought of a way to have the best of both worlds.

He suggested to Li Shimin that the martial arts examination will be divided into two rankings. One list is the normal ranking, and the other list is called the grace list, which is the children of the princes and marquis who are appointed.

Anyway, they won’t let them take the exam together, so as not to destroy the balance of the exam.

Those people want to gild, just let them come in and open a favor list directly. Then these people are admitted to those who are on the list. After entering the martial arts lecture hall, just run a few classes for them separately, so as not to affect normal candidates.

Li Shimin followed the advice and agreed to this plan.

"There are three hundred places on the list."

"Oh, that's not a lot. The tribute list is 1,22, the tribute list is 300, and the total is 1,55." Zheng Shanguo nodded with a smile.

"Is this tribute list of 1,200 people really relying on their strength?"

"Of course, although I am the main exam, I cannot select the exam at will, but there is a team of candidates. I saw that, a team of candidates composed of 108 generals will score each candidate's score and finally get the total score. Then, add the scores of several of us examiners, which is their final score, and finally eliminates them with the scores."

The scores of the accompanying examination team and the examiner's score are not the same. The examiner's score is higher than the important one, but the scores of the accompanying examiner are also very important. In the end, the scores are comprehensive, so the examiner cannot cheat randomly.

Moreover, Li Chao also invited three yamen from Dali Temple, the Ministry of War and the Censorate to invigilate the examination. If you have any doubts about the candidate's scores, you will need to review them.

The items in the martial arts examination are relatively tough. Unlike the liberal arts examination, the pros and cons of the article are not so easy to judge, but the martial arts students' grades are real. How many rings they hit and how many bamboo pieces they knocked down on their heads are obvious. There are so many people coming to watch the game today.

"Your method is really good." Zheng Shanguo really exclaimed. "If the liberal arts examination can be more fair and win with achievements instead of being admitted by family background and reputation, I believe that the liberal arts examination can definitely admit more outstanding talents."

Li Chao also admires Zheng Shanguo's keen eyes. In fact, there are many people with insight. However, no one is willing to propose reforms. Just like Li Chao, he knew it a long time ago, but he didn't mention it.

Why?

Because the imperial examinations today are mainly just an auxiliary method for selecting talents. Although the imperial court did not use the nine-rank Zhongzheng system, during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the selection of officials and people was mainly based on family background.

Especially under the family system, the children of nobles and bureaucrats directly took office based on their father's official position. Whether they were in the Three Guards and Five Mansions as guards, as prostitutes, or as marriages, or in tents, this was the way to enter the officialdom.

Especially in the early Tang Dynasty officials, civil and military officials, could change from each other, and the children of nobles entered the official position by military positions, and gradually they could change again, with very low restrictions.

Under such circumstances, the officials who occupy the position of the court are all vested interests under the current system. Why do they vigorously promote the imperial examination? The imperial examination is just an auxiliary means, and it can even be said to give the Kanto gentry, the Jiangnan gentry, and the large tribes who are not in the court a chance to get a share of the pie.

Who are the people who really look forward to becoming an official with the imperial examination?

A poor family? No, the ones who really want to enter the official career by relying on the imperial examinations and entering the political stage of the Tang Dynasty were the Guandong gentry and Jiangnan gentry. They wanted to break the monopoly of the Guanlong military aristocrats over politics. They did not have such a great influence in the military like the Guanlong military aristocrats. They held academic power. If the imperial examinations were expanded, then they were of course the biggest beneficiary group.

As for the poor class, even the small landlords and self-cultivated farmers, their resources in this regard are far less than those of the gentry who mastered the classics. Of course, the imperial examinations are far less beneficial than those of the gentry.

Even Li Chao is now a member of the vested interests. With the existing family system, his sons have had titles as soon as they were born. In the future, they naturally have no worries about entering the officialdom.

It is in this situation that even Li Chao did not touch the cultural system, because if he really touched it, it would definitely offend the entire interest group in power, and he would still be unable to get along with him.

Why bother!

Although Zheng Shanguo is now a member of the vested interests, he was born in the Kanto gentry, the Zheng family of Xingyang among the five surnames and seven sects. They are one of the academic oligarchs who truly master the classics and academic power.

If the imperial examination system is deepened and expanded, the Zheng family in Xingyang will definitely be a profitable person.
Chapter completed!