Chapter 239: Things Have Changed (VI)
In the Qing Dynasty, a scholar was a person of learning. A juren was considered to have truly entered the system. Take Gao Pang as an example. As a juren, he was already qualified to be an official. Once he became an official, as long as he did not commit a crime, he would be a member of the gentry.
Even if he didn't become an official, Gao Pang could at least work in the Hanlin Academy as long as he passed the imperial examination. No matter how poor his life was, he was still an official.
Once there was a real vacancy, Gao Pang, as a Jinshi, could take up the post and officially become an official.
Of course, local people would not let go of this young man who had such a bright future. Some came to congratulate him, while others gave him money to build relationships. In the end, Gao Pang had to ask his teachers Chen Mingtai and Chen Banshan to allow him to move to their home temporarily.
Chen Mingtai readily agreed. When Gao Pang moved in, he found that there were several other people coming. Their ages varied, ranging from those in their twenties to those in their forties. It turned out that several of the local candidates from Zhenjiang who were going to take the exam had asked Chen Mingtai to provide them with pre-exam guidance.
Among these people, Gao Pang was the youngest and the only one who was not married. When they were not doing their homework, several older brothers in their early forties wanted to marry their daughters or nieces to Gao Pang.
Gao Pang certainly wouldn't say it, but Chen Mingtai seemed to know it, and said with a straight face before the lecture: "Are you here to study and take the exam, or are you here to seek something else? Don't look down on the scholars in the world. Who can take the imperial examination is not from a good family and has excellent knowledge, and they all want to make the leap to the dragon gate. After you finish the exam, you have three years to talk about those trivial things."
Gao Pang was grateful. This group of candidates also annoyed Gao Pang. This time, Gao Pang really wanted to pass the exam. His purpose was not to become an official, but to prove himself.
If he could really pass the exam, Gao Pang felt that he would no longer have any concerns about the Qing Dynasty and could concentrate on joining Huo Chong.
The questions for the Jinshi and the Juren exam are very different. Every question is really tricky, and you have to study hard. The text of the exam comes from the Four Books and Five Classics, but the internal logic comes from Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. There are also some concepts formed in various previous exams.
The more Gao Pang studied, the more he understood why he was not recognized by his teacher before. The reason was that Gao Pang believed that the internal logic required for answering exam questions came from the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, and from the Four Books and Five Classics. This was undoubtedly putting the cart before the horse and taking the wrong path.
After understanding this, Gao Pang was angry and relieved. Since the Qing Dynasty did not follow the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, it was natural for a descendant of Confucius and Mencius like Gao Pang to rebel against the Qing Dynasty.
In the intense preparation, apart from reading, doing exercises and memorizing texts, Gao Pang ate and slept every day. In the blink of an eye, the day of departure came. Gao Pang set out with a group of candidates who participated in the special examination.
Before leaving, Gao Pang went to meet with the intelligence personnel here and told them all his arrangements. The intelligence personnel quickly sent Gao Pang's news back to Linzi along with other information.
When Chief of Staff Lei Hu saw the news, he was inexplicably furious and took the intelligence to see Huo Chong, "Sir, Gao Pang is planning a rebellion!"
Huo Chong was deeply moved after reading it. Being admitted to Tsinghua University or Peking University but not going there is completely different from not being admitted to Tsinghua University or Peking University at all. It seems that Gao Pang considers himself a top student.
"Lei Hu. Are you jealous? Don't worry, I don't think there is anything wrong with it." Huo Chong comforted.
Lei Hu was furious, "Sir, I didn't!"
"Haha." Huo Chong smiled and ignored Lei Hu for the time being.
Lei Hu was sulking for a while, and seeing Huo Chongxing continuing to review documents as if nothing had happened, he felt a little embarrassed and said awkwardly: "Sir, didn't Gao Pang learn from you to get to where he is today?"
"Thunder Tiger. Essence and attributes are two different things. Just like a bird, it has wings, which means that the bird has the nature of flying. But many birds die before they leave the nest. They have never flapped their wings. This does not mean that they cannot fly. But a rabbit, even if it tries to flap its front legs like a bird, its attribute is just that of a rabbit that can flap its front legs. So if Gao Pang passed the imperial examination, it only means that he has the ability to pass the imperial examination. What does it have to do with where he studied? Many people have studied here, can they all pass the imperial examination? Not to mention them, I can't pass either."
Lei Hu wanted to make a few excuses, but he couldn't find the target, so he could only say: "What the gentleman said... is not right."
"That's right. Because I am the one who wants to destroy the content of the imperial examination. Of course I won't pass it. Because I will never agree with the content of the imperial examination. So, Lei Hu, let's go our own way. Recently, at least hundreds of villages have tended to nationalize the land. As the chief of staff, you must also make relevant preparations. This social production model is our essence."
Lei Hu didn't want to think about Gao Pang's imperial examination anymore, and forced his mind to focus on what Huo Chong said. After a few words, Lei Hu suddenly remembered something, "Sir, the fleet that went to Japan has returned twice. Every time, the goods were sold out. They have been requesting to increase the size of the fleet. I wonder what you think."
Huo Chong originally didn't want to care about Japan's affairs, but when Lei Hu insisted on bringing up this matter, he found the situation in Japan very interesting.
Huo Chong didn't know what would sell well in Japan. Weapons certainly wouldn't work, nor would metal products. The Han people didn't even have enough of their own.
However, what Japan cared about most was food, fur and leather. This was beyond Huo Chong's imagination.
Of course, flour and rice cannot be exported, but Japan doesn't care. What Japan wants is food made from starch.
The source of starch is no longer a problem in Dahan. Sweet potatoes and potatoes are excellent sources of starch. With industrialized production, processing efficiency has been greatly improved. The price of starch food sold to Japan is higher than that in Shandong. After arriving in Japan, the price is actually much cheaper than rice in Japan.
Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune even required the Han fleet to transport the goods to the trading point in Edo for sale, and not to transport the food to the port of Nagasaki for sale. This shows how much the shogunate valued these goods.
After chatting with Lei Hu for a while, we finally came to the conclusion that we must expand the export volume of food, especially the export volume of processed starchy foods. At the same time, we should also investigate as much food as possible that the shogunate needs to meet their needs.
After seeing Lei Hu off, Qian Qing came again the next day. When he saw Huo Chong, he mentioned Gao Pang's matter, "Sir, Gao Pang has become an official of the Qing Dynasty. He will definitely betray us."
"Gao Pang is not a fool. What good would it do to betray us? For example, there are more than a million people under our rule. Look at the people, who betrayed us? Those who opposed us were only a few gentry."
"Isn't Gao Pang a gentry?" Qian Qing did not give up attacking Gao Pang.
Huo Chong shook his head. "What else does Gao Pang have except that he is not starving to death? We gave him that little money. How can a guy who doesn't even have land ask to be a gentry?"
"Then why should he take the imperial examination?" Qian Qing was very unhappy.
"When Gao Pang finishes his exam, you can ask him. By the way, those villages are mostly in Qingzhou, have you contacted them?"
Qian Qing managed to calm down, "Sir, those people are very suspicious. They said there is a land deed."
"Give them the land deeds." Huo Chong made a decisive statement. The basis of this land reform was to confiscate a large amount of land from landlords. In the areas where the gentry were uprooted, apart from the huge land held by the Han regime, there was only a small amount of land owned by ordinary people.
Of course, the state as a big landlord did not exist in the system formulated by Huo Chong. In addition to state-owned farms, land was divided into state-owned and collectively owned. In other words, collective land was owned by villages.
Whether state-owned or collective, land cannot be bought or sold, and only the right to cultivate it exists. The so-called new land deed refers to the lease contract for cultivating and operating the land.
It specifically emphasizes that "those who till the land own the land." The so-called "tillage" does not refer to farmers, but people who are willing to cultivate the land.
As long as these people no longer cultivate the land, it is equivalent to automatically terminating the land contract. Apart from their homesteads, these people no longer have the right to cultivate and operate the land.
By doing this, Huo Chong felt that he had been following historical experience and had completely treated land as a means of production from the very beginning, rather than as the property of small capital owners such as farmers.
Qian Qing and other senior executives had already received a lot of training and had memorized this stuff through examinations and other means. With Qian Qing's theoretical thinking ability, it was clear that she still had some doubts.
"If you feel something is wrong, just say it." Huo Chong didn't have time to play guessing games with Qian Qing.
"Sir, if the people knew that the land was no longer their property, they would be unhappy."
"That stage won't last long. Industry is developing so fast now, and you can make more money in industry than in agriculture. There are so many people raising rabbits now, where do you think they really make money from? Farming is just a psychological comfort for them, thinking that no matter how bad the situation is, they will not go hungry."
Qian Qing frowned and told the truth helplessly, "Sir, in fact, the most unhappy ones are our own people."
"Then tell our people, tell everyone under our rule. Make it clear. It's normal for them to think this way. There's nothing wrong with that. But, because we want to move towards the future, we must implement nationalization of land. Also, tell the people that nationalization of land does not mean that the land will belong to the emperor or ministers in the future. We are in power, and no one can own an inch of land. Tell them that!"
Qian Qing wanted to sigh, but didn't. He bit his lips with his white teeth. Qian Qing's eyes were full of determination, "Sir, what you said is right, right?"
"I will never change this! I didn't dare to say it before because I was afraid that too many people would be scared. It's useless to be afraid now. Once the land is privatized in our hands, there is no way to get it back without killing people! Don't be afraid, Qing'er. Explain it clearly, the same thing. We must explain it clearly. Let everyone know what we are thinking and doing. Why we do this. I have always thought so, everyone is not a fool!"
