Continental Warriors Yoo Ma

With his feats and his status at this time, this is a very difficult question.

Fortunately, Prime Minister George had already thought of the answer: "Your Highness, why don't you give Normandy to Ma Youfu?"

"Normandy?" Charles VII looked at Prime Minister George, his eyes suddenly became extremely cold, giving people a biting chill.For the first time, the king who grew up rapidly during the Hundred Years' War showed a frightening side in front of his confidants.

"Mr. La Tremoille, do you want me to canonize Mayouf as Duke of Normandy?"

"No, no, no, Your Highness, you have misunderstood!" George Palace hurriedly shook his head.Because of Charles VII's stare, he was already sweating down his back and his whole body was cold.

In France, the title of Duke of Normandy is often held by the heir to the royal family.Giving such a significant title to a person with a foreign surname, its hidden meaning is almost the same as the eastern emperor adding nine tins and ten crowns to important officials in the court. It is obviously a supreme grace, but secretly it is forcing people to rebel!

What's more, because of the old events in 1066, the title of Duke of Normandy has another special meaning.

To confer another nobleman with a foreign surname as the Duke of Normandy, do you want him to follow the example of William and conquer England?Then, will the Anjou Empire be formed again, occupying half of France?

In the heart of the King of France, the "Duke of Normandy" is really a very sensitive matter, and it is no wonder that Charles VII overreacted.

After calming down a little, Charles VII said: "Mr. La Tremoyer, I believe you will not make such a stupid suggestion. Please continue."

Prime Minister George swallowed his saliva, and then continued: "Your Highness, of course you should not grant Ma Youfu such a sensitive title as Duke of Normandy. It's just that you can give him the position of 'Royal Normandy Chief' and let him take full responsibility governance of the region."

"What's the reason?"

"Of course I have good reasons." George Palace said, "Although Normandy has always been rich and is an important source of royal income. But after so many years of war, especially after the English have ridden countless times, Normandy has been destroyed. Serious damage. If you take Normandy and let the royal family manage it yourself, it will take a long time to restore prosperity there. In the meantime, the royal family must not only guard against the English on the other side of the channel, but also against Burgundy to the east. The Germans and the Bretons to the west are under considerable military pressure and are likely to be unable to make ends meet."

Although the English lost the mainland of Normandy, they still had many small islands in their hands.In case the other party relies on these islands and continuously sends small groups of troops to land and harass them, it will be troublesome.

In addition, even though Burgundy and Brittany are now allies of France, there has always been a lot of border friction.It is not new for the two parties to quarrel or even fight over the ownership of a forest or a river.

Not to mention whether the two countries would remain allies with France after the Hundred Years' War ended and England's threat took a backseat.

Charles VII himself also had ideas about the lands of Brittany and Burgundy.

"By handing over Normandy to Ma Youfu's management, the royal family can save a lot of governance and garrison expenses, and can get a cut of the tax every year. This kind of good thing that can make money without doing anything, why do you refuse, Your Highness? Anyway The 'Royal Steward of Normandy' is not hereditary. After Normandy settles down, you can find a chance to recycle it. And Mayoufu also got the opportunity to manage a duchy. Both power and strength will be further improved. He will definitely agree to this. condition."

After listening to the analysis of Prime Minister George, Charles VII thought for more than ten minutes without saying a word, and finally made a decision: "Yes, let's do it like this!"

He affectionately took Georges' fat hand, and said with a smile, "Mr. La Tremoille, your wisdom is really an indispensable wealth for me!"

Chapter 260 The Second Exam, Let's Exam!

After the Duke of Bedford returned to Paris, the situation seemed to have returned to the time when the war started a few months ago.

The Fabre allied forces led by Joan of Arc, with the assistance of the Earl of Luxembourg and the Marshal of the Knights of Richmond, surrounded Paris.

The coalition forces did not attack the city, but built ditches and barriers every day, continuously strengthened the defense, and built the entire camp to prevent the British army from attacking suddenly.

The British army sat on the walls of Paris every day, watching the enemy become a civil engineer, digging holes and digging soil every day.

It's just that every day, several envoys leave Paris with white flags to let people know that the leadership of the British army has not failed and is still trying to achieve an acceptable result.

Fortunately, the little saint Elizabeth boosted morale every day, and His Royal Highness was in the city, and the British army still maintained a certain fighting spirit.

Ma Youfu did not participate in the battle, and handed over the command to Joan of Arc.

He stayed in Rouen and began the intricate reconstruction work.

Because autumn is approaching, the first task is naturally to ensure the smooth progress of the autumn harvest, so that the Normans will not go hungry.

After the ruling power in England was swept away, officials had to be selected as soon as possible to restore the effective management of the area by France.

Due to the serious shortage of manpower, Ma Youfu could only take an expedient measure, first let those who were recruited during the blitz on Normandy and received royal commissions to serve as officials in various villages and towns.

Anyway, Normandy is a royal territory, not Ma Youfu's own fief, so you don't need to spend too much time, as long as you can maintain the operation of the administrative agency, it will be fine.

After confiscating the assets of the rebels, Mayouf took the Rabat mansion as his temporary place to stay.

In the future, he plans to relocate the governance center of the entire Earldom to Harfleur.

It is about [-] kilometers away from Rouen, and it is an important port city guarding the mouth of the Seine River.Countless goods from England, Iberia, and the Baltic Sea have to enter France through here.

When Henry V attacked France, he chose this place as the first attack target.As a result, due to the excessive wear and tear in the siege of Harfleur, he had to give up his original plan to go south, and instead chose to ride and loot all the way to Calais.

Then, the French army thought that they had seized the pain point of the British army, and assembled a large army to chase them all the way. Finally, the two sides encountered each other in Agincourt.

There is no need to talk about the next thing.

In addition, there is a natural harbor with excellent conditions on the coastline not far to the west of Hafleur. In 1517, King François I of France would build a new port here to replace the silted Hafleur.

This was later developed into the second largest port in France after Marseille, Le Havre.

However, Hafleur Port is functioning well now, and the demand for shipping is not so great that a new port needs to be built. The most important thing is that Ma Youfu does not have the energy and ability to build a new city.

However, it is still necessary to plan ahead and make arrangements in advance.As a traveler with a vision of the future, it is natural to turn his eyes to the sea to welcome the arrival of a new era.

It is an inevitable choice to put the focus of governance on Hafleur and Le Havre and give full play to their geographical advantages.He even planned to put the sugar industry, which will be vigorously developed in the future, there.

But people can't always be immersed in lofty visions, they have to do things down-to-earth.

"My lord, this is the first issue of the population statistics of the Earl of Rouen. Time is limited, and only the part of the Baron of Rouen has just been completed. The rest of the area still needs time." Bishop Juvenier put a stack of documents on the On Ma Youfu's desk.

The diocese of Gisor is also under the earldom of Rouen, but they are only responsible to the king and the church, and the earl of Ma Youfu is out of control, and the two parties are not in a superior-subordinate relationship.

But based on the friendship between the two, when Ma Youfu invited Zhuwenier to be the earl's consultant to help the leader when everything was waiting to be done, the latter readily agreed.

"Thank you, Seven Saints, for your great help." Ma Youfu smiled, "I hope you can complete the population statistics of Baron Harcourt as soon as possible. Only by understanding the basic situation of the territory can I formulate a governance plan."

"However, it also increased my workload several times."

Ma Youfu not only needs to count the population, but also needs to know roughly how many people are engaged in farming, how many people are working, and how many people are engaged in the service industry of serving wine and leading horses.

Bishop Juvenir had never heard of such a request.

Because the "government" in this era—well, if the ruling team of the lord governing the fiefdom can be regarded as a "government", it has only two functions: tax collection and war.Others, such as disaster relief, medical care, education, etc., are the responsibility of the church.The rest is up to the self-government of the people.

So now seeing Ma Youfu conducting such a detailed investigation of the fief and making a serious development plan, Zhu Wennier finds it particularly interesting.

Unknowingly, he also began to go all out, wanting to see what kind of land could be transformed according to the method of this foreigner.

Perhaps, this is the first step towards the real realization of the heaven on earth that he, a devout believer, longed for?

Seeing Ma Youfu buried in many papers, Zhu Wennier asked: "My lord, where is Bernard? I recommend him to serve you, isn't it just to do these tedious things?"

The Bernard mentioned by Zhuwenier is named Bernard de Chamblonde in full. Ma Youfu privately nicknamed him "San Dezi", which can be regarded as satisfying his own bad taste.

This "three virtues" is a top student at the University of Bologna.

Because the Italian city-states had developed commerce, there were a lot of disputes caused by it.At the beginning of its establishment, the University of Bologna was based on law and developed for hundreds of years. The law major of this university has long been famous in Europe.

Bernard is proficient in commercial law and church law, and he can be Ma Youfu's right-hand man, handling various daily affairs and formulating laws and regulations for him.

"I sent Bernard to prepare for the exam."

"take an exam?"

"Yes, the first Civil Service Examination for the Earl of Rouen." Ma Youfu said.

In this era, officials serving feudal lords generally came from two sources.One is to recommend talented and famous talents to the court from all over the country. If the lord is right, he will be awarded a position.The second is to select the heirs of vassals to enter the court, cultivate them from an early age, and release them as officials when they grow up.

It sounds a little bit like the Han Dynasty's system of promoting filial piety and honesty and adding officials to officials.

However, as a Chinese who has passed the high school entrance examination, college entrance examination, postgraduate entrance examination and public examination all the way, how can he tolerate such a "backward" talent selection mechanism?

Exams, take the exams!

Of course, to use examinations to select talents, we must also adapt measures to local conditions and consider the actual situation in Europe.

Ma Youfu held the civil service examination for the first time, and only set four subjects: mathematics, law, Latin, and professional display.

Chapter 260 Three Under the King No.1

Needless to say, mathematics and law, without these two skills, it is impossible to effectively govern the local area.

Law and Latin are actually closely related.

Because the laws of various places in this era are not perfect, in many cases it is necessary to refer to the Roman law of the church, or to handle disputes according to the teachings of the seven saints.The official language of the church is Latin, and the teachings of the Seven Saints are all written in Latin, so law students must learn Latin.

In addition, all Western European countries regard Rome as orthodox, and Latin is also used in important occasions such as ceremonies, ceremonies, and festival celebrations.

Officials can't speak a few words of Latin, they will just think of you as a vulgar country bumpkin.

Each of these three basic subjects is [-] points.The professional display takes up fifty points in the exam.

Bonus points are awarded for candidates who specialize in fields such as agriculture, manufacturing, construction, medicine, or even the arts.

After regaining Rouen and driving away the rulers of England, this land is like a blank sheet of paper, which can be written by Ma Youfu.He has many vacant official positions and titles, which are enough to attract enough talents to come and serve.Through this exam, Ma Youfu will truly establish his own power.

Although the selection of talents through examinations was a very advanced system in Europe at this time, but to implement this system, Ma Youfu also made up his mind after careful inspection.

It is also the Middle Ages, if he travels to four or five hundred years ago, this method will not work.

At that time, religion still firmly controlled people's spiritual life and the way of knowledge transmission.Even a noble family with a relatively good material foundation can hardly cultivate high-quality intellectuals.

The eldest son can inherit the family business, while the younger sons either become monks and become priests, or they can only take a horse, a sword, a set of armor, and a small portion of the family property to go out to fend for themselves after they reach adulthood.

These adventurer knights who have high martial arts but no industry and are eager to get ahead are also the main force of the Crusades.

But now, the era when one could only rely on the sword to gain meritorious wealth on the battlefield has passed.

In the East, the material basis for the implementation of the imperial examination system lies in the fact that papermaking and printing have reduced the cost of books, so that knowledge is no longer monopolized by aristocratic families.

In the West, the Black Death severely affected the authority of the church, and economic development liberated the mind, allowing more and more people to learn knowledge.

Nowadays, children of middle and low-level aristocratic families such as knights and barons, in addition to letting the eldest son inherit the family business, the second sons who have learned cultural knowledge since childhood can go into business, become lawyers, and even become artists when they grow up. There are many ways out.

It is precisely because today's society can provide Ma Youfu with enough talents that he can pass the examination for further screening.

The prerequisite for governing Rouen well is to build a loyal and efficient bureaucratic team.Just like playing "Victoria 2", the first thing to do is the focus officer.

Although many people don't understand Earl Mayouf's move to invest a lot of resources in holding the so-called "examination" before he is firmly seated, but he believes that Juvenir will definitely be able to see the deep meaning.

"My lord, how your exam will be conducted and what is the specific process, I would like to know more about it." Sure enough, Zhu Wennier soon realized that the system implemented by Ma Youfu seemed to be unusual.

"I just put forward a brief outline, and the specific content is being perfected by Bernard. He is currently stationed in Rouen Cathedral, which will be used as an examination venue. You can go to him when you rest at night."

After talking again, Juvenil said goodbye and left.

Not long after the bishop left, a servant came to report: "My lord, the convoy of Lord Georges La Tremoille has entered Rouen, and he will arrive here soon."

Hearing this news, Ma Youfu could only put down his quill and prepare for the visit of the fat uterus.

Of course, with the friendship between the two, there is no need for any superficial welcome ceremony.Invite him to a meal, and let Didi serve a few newly developed dishes.

……

Nine o'clock in the evening, in the main dining room.

Satisfied, Prime Minister George burped loudly, threw down the greasy napkin that had wiped his mouth, and said to Ma Youfu, "Your Majesty the Marquis, you should have known the purpose of my visit to Rouen this time. .So on this beautiful night of wine and food, how about we settle this matter?"