The Transmigrator among the refugees grew stronger and stronger.
Once he had built up enough strength, he finally began formally attacking county towns, openly raising the banner of rebellion.
He caught the Emperor Transmigrator completely off guard.
After all, this was not a game. No one could see the exact state of other factions on a grand map.
For a time, beacon fires rose everywhere.
The Emperor Transmigrator suddenly discovered that Jiangnan was unstable.
A Private Salt smuggler had seized many of his local county towns.
The man was shrewd and did not directly appoint those County Magistrates.
Many local officials were replaced, and those replacing them were scholars and student candidates who had failed the examinations year after year.
Most were over thirty-five, with some even in their fifties or sixties.
Having failed the examinations for years, many had long been filled with resentment and rage toward the Imperial Examination.
In particular, many believed they had long been qualified, yet failed to become xiucai or juren because they lacked money to grease palms or connections to pull strings.
Throughout history, the scholars most likely to join rebellions had been student candidates and xiucai.
First, their numbers were enormous. Second, the lower the level of examination, the more corruption there was.
For example, in the step from student candidate to xiucai, the local County Magistrate held the first say.
Moreover, the top-ranked candidate chosen by the County Magistrate would inevitably become a xiucai.
Because unless the examiners in the following two examinations bore the County Magistrate a deep grudge, they would not violate the unspoken rules among scholars.
The candidate I ranked first actually failed...
What did that mean? That my judgment was that poor? A legitimate County Magistrate was at least a third-class jinshi.
Juren could also become County