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Chapter 413: 217: I Absolutely Do Not Covet Women

As the eleventh month approached, it was soon the time for the inaugural imperial examination that Lu Yuan had previously set.

Now that the announcements from both Southsea and Ninghai countries were sent one after another, the scholars from both countries had arrived in Changsha Fu in succession after more than a month of travel.

At present, more than 10,000 scholars had gathered in Changsha Fu, all pouring in to participate in the imperial examination on the first day of the eleventh month.

The arrival of such a large number of outsiders suddenly made Changsha city prosperous.

After all, those who could afford the travel expenses and come to the imperial examination from thousands of miles away generally had some money.

The consumption of these people naturally boosted local businesses.

There were even so many scholars from outside that the inns in Changsha city were not enough for them to stay. Many scholars had to spend money to ask the local residents to vacate a room for themselves to live in.

But even so, many people still couldn’t find a place to stay.

This had become a serious problem.

“Your Majesty, although Changsha is a Fu city and even a large Fu city, it originally only had more than 10,000 households and about 50,000 to 60,000 people.

Now that more than 10,000 scholars have flooded into the city, it’s almost equivalent to adding one person to each family, which is difficult to accommodate.”

With a bitter smile, Cui Changqing mentioned this problem, “But fortunately, the barracks previously built by your Majesty outside the city are still there. The camp is quite spacious and can accommodate them.

I have cleaned up some houses and rented them out to those visiting scholars at a price of three cents per room.”

Lu Yuan nodded slightly, quite satisfied with this arrangement, and then asked, “The accommodation issue has been resolved, but are those scholars who are staying in the barracks complaining?”

Cui Changqing immediately replied, “That won’t happen. Not all of the scholars who came here have money. Many of them borrowed money from others and traveled thousands of miles for the imperial examination.

For these people, a room that costs three cents per day is the ideal place to stay.

Otherwise, if they were to stay in the city, they would be dissatisfied with the cost of renting a room, which has increased to 20 or 30 cents per room.

Compared to that, having a room that provides shelter from wind and rain and hot water is already quite good.

Now, it’s just that the rich people stay in inns, the ordinary people live in local residents’ homes, and the poor people live in the army camps outside the city.”

As someone who also came from the imperial examination, Cui Changqing had a firm grasp on the mentality of these scholars.

These literati would not object or care too much about the present difficulties in the examination conditions.

As long as they could pass the examination and become officials, they could endure these hardships for the time being.

On the contrary, if you didn’t let them take the examination or become officials, even if you provided them with the best inns to stay in, they wouldn’t be grateful, but would resent you further.

Everyone has spent ten years studying, traveling thousands of miles for the examination, all for the purpose of becoming officials.

As long as they can become officials, they won’t retreat from living in barracks, even if it means staying on the streets, being exposed to the cold winds and freezing.

Although Lu Yuan couldn’t fully empathize, he could understand their predicament to some extent. However, he still smiled and said, “Regardless of whether these candidates are satisfied, we need to treat them well since they have traveled thousands of miles to come here.

This is not only for the purpose of selecting officials and holding examinations but also for winning over people’s hearts.

The vast world goes beyond Dongting. My ambitions also go beyond Changsha.

Now that Southsea and Ninghai countries cannot win the hearts of domestic scholars, causing a loss of talent and people’s disaffection,

since they have given us this opportunity, we should seize it well.

If we can win over the hearts of the scholars from both countries this time, then in the future, if there are changes in Lingnan, when we raise our flag and march south, those scholars who were bought recently will become our supporters in the future.

This is the key point, Minister Cui should understand this and focus on winning people over.”

Lu Yuan looked thoughtfully at his Prime Minister as he spoke.

Although they had already formed alliances with Southsea and Ninghai countries, there was a saying that there were no permanent allies in the world.

Now, the three nations appeared to be close as a family, and Southsea and Ninghai countries even supported Lu Yuan with so many test-taking scholars and large sums of money and grain.

But all this was only for the present.

Now that the two countries have just been established, they face immense external pressure and need Lu Yuan to stand in the front. Therefore, they can support him in many things.

But what about in three to five years, five to six years, or even ten years?

After such a long time, when the two countries have stabilized, amassed enough soldiers, and integrated domestic interests with sufficient self-protection,

will they still unconditionally support Lu Yuan as they do now?

If these two countries stop helping Lu Yuan, who will support the hundreds of thousands of soldiers under him?

With the current broken state of Changsha, even if it recuperates for three to five years, the population and grain supply can only support 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers at most, which is far from enough to feed Lu Yuan’s 100,000 soldiers and tens of thousands of Miao soldiers.

Therefore, without far-sightedness, there is no lasting success.

It’s always good to make some preparations in advance.

When Cui Changqing heard his Majesty’s plans, he was taken aback at first, but then he became excited and said, “Your Majesty’s intention to conquer Lingnan is an excellent and wise strategy.”