Over the past few days, many strangers had appeared in Luoyang.
The number of soldiers within Luoyang had increased accordingly, with armored guards patrolling everywhere.
This was because the Commandery Examination was about to begin.
Previously, most petty clerks in the counties had been recruited directly from the local population by officials, while the rest had bribed their way into their positions.
Great Wei's lowest-ranking petty clerks were actually required to pass an assessment on the law and receive a recommendation from the Three Elders. This system had existed for a very long time, dating back to the Former Han, but by the Wei-Jin era, well, the assessment had been abolished, and only money mattered.
The powerful clans benefited from this, and local government split into two factions: the rotating officials dispatched by the imperial court and the village clerks drawn from local powerful clans.
There was no point expecting these petty clerks from powerful clans to show much care for the common people.
They were often even more vicious than the Great Clans. After all, the Great Clans disdained the fly-sized profits to be squeezed from ordinary people. If they were going to take a bite, they wanted the biggest share. The oppression they inflicted on the people was invisible, passed down through layer after layer, whereas the oppression inflicted by the powerful clans was the most direct, the kind the people felt most keenly.
The reason Cao Mao had divided the examinations into several levels was to replace those petty clerks who had bought and flattered their way into office. He could not claim that everyone taking the examinations now came from an unblemished family rather than a powerful clan, but at least these people had some knowledge and some ability.
Just as Guo Ze had said, a