Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 172 - 167: The North and South Rankings

Chapter 172: Chapter 167: The North and South Rankings

Is it difficult to achieve a reign of 230 years in the Great Sheng Dynasty?

This isn’t easy to answer.

If we look at the dynasty’s longevity, it almost reached 300 years.

A reign of 230 years can only be considered a passing grade.

Moreover, throughout its history, the Great Sheng Dynasty had its fair share of foolish and mediocre emperors and didn’t lack disruptive shenanigans.

So as long as one avoids mistakes, achieving a reign of 230 years doesn’t seem like an exceptionally outrageous task.

But what about a horizontal comparison?

Let’s not mention those special dynasties from Ancient Times. Since the era of feudalism began, no centralized imperial dynasty in history has ever had a lifespan exceeding 300 years.

Even reaching 200 years is a rarity.

Many dynasties only needed a few decades from their establishment to their demise.

From the results, having nearly 300 years of reign, the Great Sheng Dynasty already performed exceptionally well. The founding emperor, Emperor Taizu of Sheng, must have done many things right to earn this outcome.

This instance also presents a difficulty, which is that you cannot simply copy answers.

Many of the administrative strategies used by Emperor Taizu of Sheng can be found in historical records.

But the system’s prompt said that some cases might be ambiguous.

So, one cannot simply copy the standard answers of Emperor Taizu of Sheng from history; instead, one must use their own intellect to analyze and handle them.

If it were those players with only a superficial understanding of history, they probably would have quit the instance by now in preparation to switch their role.

However, for Chu Ge, this type of game content is exactly what he looked forward to the most.

Thinking this, he gathered all the memorials related to the imperial examination scandal and began to examine them carefully.

At the same time, combining the historical knowledge he had researched prior to entering the instance and related memories, he started analyzing.

The imperial examination scandal of the Great Sheng Dynasty can be briefly summarized quite simply.

By then, nearly 30 years had passed since the founding of the dynasty, and the Imperial Examination System had been running smoothly for over 20 years.

In that particular year, Emperor Taizu of Sheng invited Zheng Sansheng, an octogenarian Hanlin Scholar, to be the chief examiner.

As his name suggests—derived from "reflect thrice upon oneself"—he was considered a greatly respected and virtuous scholar at that time. He not only formulated the entire Imperial Examination legislation for the Great Sheng Dynasty but was also associated with its related legal codes.

It can be said that when Emperor Taizu of Sheng selected him as the chief examiner, there was no objection from anyone in the court.

But after days of examination and a very strict marking process, the spring examination results were released, and all the successful candidates turned out to be from the south, hence the nickname "Southern List."

Consequently, the northern scholars obstructed roads in protest and went to the Ministry of Rites to beat the drum and lodge their grievances.

Emperor Taizu of Sheng ordered a thorough investigation, leading to the formation of a special investigation team. The results submitted by the head of the investigation team, Liu Xin, stated that there were no irregularities in the recruitment results, and the northern scholars’ papers were too poor to merit selection.

This enraged Emperor Taizu of Sheng completely.

He condemned the chief examiner and the deputy examiners, among others, as either "remnants of traitorous officials" or outright "rebels," exacting severe punishment on them all. Zheng Sansheng, due to his advanced age and frailty, was exiled to the northwest with a lighter sentence, while the deputy examiner and the head of the investigation team, Liu Xin, were torn apart by chariots.

As for the final outcome, Emperor Taizu of Sheng opened another examination to recruit northern scholars, which came to be known as the "Northern List."

However, Emperor Taizu of Sheng passed away shortly afterward. In subsequent years, there were again instances of total rejection of northern scholars, until a later emperor finally decided to divide the Imperial Examination into a Southern List and a Northern List, with sixty percent from the south and forty percent from the north. This proportion was ultimately settled.

Chu Ge fell into deep thought.

"The South-North List case... Although I haven’t studied it in great detail, from the mainstream perspective, Emperor Taizu of Sheng’s approach didn’t have any major issues.

"In the early years of the Imperial Examination System at the dawn of the Great Sheng Dynasty, scholars from the north used to account for thirty percent, but by the time Emperor Taizu of Sheng was nearing death, none from the north were being admitted at all.

"Many say the examinations back then were strict, with no serious fraud, but such a ratio itself was already quite absurd.

"One couldn’t possibly argue that the north, capable of making up thirty percent at the start of Great Sheng, would be unable to produce a single successful candidate after over twenty years of Emperor Taizu of Sheng’s rule?

"Analyzing based on the demographic scrolls of the time, the population of the northern provinces was about thirty percent, so it would be reasonable for two to three tenths of the admitted scholars to be from the north.

"Even with the wealthier economy and higher education levels in the south, it shouldn’t have monopolized the entire list.

"What’s more, there was an outrageous incidence where candidates from one province occupied the top seven positions.

"Although the Imperial Examination System back then was also relatively well-established, massive fraud was unlikely, but officials could achieve similar effects through other means.

"The capital of the Great Sheng Dynasty was in the south, meaning that southern scholars naturally had easier access to influential scholars and examiners; their answers and thoughts would surely align more closely with those of the influential scholars. These examiners could perhaps easily discern the differences between candidates from the north and south with just a bit of attention.

"Moreover, the key to this case isn’t actually the initial results from the south, but rather what happened after the investigation committee had already been instructed by Emperor Taizu of Sheng to admit northern scholars. The head of the investigation committee, Liu Xin, continued to insist that there was nothing wrong with the admissions, refusing to admit northern candidates.

"So, punishing these individuals was correct. When something so clearly problematic couldn’t be figured out, it indicated that the issue had spread widely and even reached a point where it was difficult to deal with without drastic measures.

"In such a case, the simplest method would probably be to copy the solution of Emperor Taizu of Sheng. First, request the investigation committee to admit northern scholars; if they’re admitted, then the matter can be temporarily closed. If not, strict punishment must follow...

"But there are two problems with this.

"The system prompt indicated that these cases may differ from historical ones, which I need to judge accordingly; and even if I’ve copied the answer correctly this time, the next case might not be so straightforward.

"Therefore, I need to start with the South-North List case and thoroughly analyze the court’s situation at the time. I need to understand why exactly Emperor Taizu of Sheng handled it that way, and how other methods might have affected the dynasty’s longevity.

"After I’ve clarified this point, I’ll be prepared for what comes next."

After some consideration, Chu Ge decided to first take the wrong approach to see what would happen.

The first method, keep Liu Xin and others on the investigation committee to conduct their inquiry, and upon receiving the results, maintain the exclusion of the northern scholars to see how long it would affect the longevity of the dynasty; the second method, upon getting the results, administer a lighter punishment, such as demotion, fines, and admit a small number of northern scholars.

Then, through the outcomes of these two approaches, infer the necessity of Emperor Taizu of Sheng’s actions at the time and gather details about the current court situation and other details to prepare for any potential future cases.

Chu Ge made up his mind and entered a special cinematic perspective, with subsequent scenes flashing rapidly before him.

The first was the initial method, where Emperor Taizu of Sheng chose to accept the investigation committee’s results, no longer pursuing the matter.

[Great Sheng Dynasty enjoys a reign of: ninety-seven years]

Then the second method, where Emperor Taizu of Sheng did not accept the investigation committee’s results, but imposed light punishments. Several key officials were demoted and fined, and more than ten northern scholars were admitted to appease the situation.

[Great Sheng Dynasty enjoys a reign of: one hundred and forty-two years]

Chu Ge fell into silence.

He had already predicted that his decision would substantially reduce the longevity of the Great Sheng Dynasty.

But he had not expected... Such a significant reduction!

What surprised him especially was that the second method had actually settled the incident at the time, yet compared to the first method of giving up, it didn’t extend the dynasty’s longevity by much, less than fifty years only.

Clearly, this contained a vast amount of information.