Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 90: The Foundation of the Nation Has Decayed (Part 2)
With the dull sound of "duoduo", the official ship carrying Zhu Youdong and others docked at the shore of the largest island in the center of Houhu Lake.
When they got off the boat, officials from the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue who had received the news came to greet them. Leading the group were an oriole and two quails. Following the three officials of the eighth and ninth ranks were more than a dozen people wearing ordinary civilian clothes with narrow sleeves, who looked like scholars.
"Your Highness the Crown Prince is here to see us."
"No need to be polite, thank you for your hard work."
After all, Cao Huachun and others had just educated their subordinates on the boat, and they had fully understood the importance of this place to a country. Therefore, after seeing His Royal Highness bow deeply to these low-level officials and even common people, Cao Huachun and others also bowed deeply and saluted the people on the island.
"This..." The fact that a group of high-ranking officials showed such great courtesy to such humble people like them really made these officials and common people feel terrified.
"What is the name of this noble family?"
"I am not worthy of your address as 'Qingjia'. I am Zhang Yong, the humble servant, and I am now the deputy director of the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue. These two are my deputies, the Ministry of Revenue inspectors."
"Well, those behind are the students of Nanjing Imperial College, right?"
"Your Highness will see Wanli clearly."
Old Zhu was a great hero , but he also had the same problems as ordinary old farmers: he was very kind to his family members, but extremely harsh to his subordinates.
Princes and dukes had extremely high salaries, and ordinary officials were treated very poorly. I won't say much about this. Specifically speaking, when it comes to national household registration statistics, review, cleaning, storage, and daily storage, every ten years, all parts of the country clean up and create a new yellow book, and then report it step by step. Finally, the national yellow book is sent to Houhu for centralized collection. In general, every time the newly created yellow book arrives at Houhu, the number is close to 100,000. So much household registration information needs to be reviewed and reviewed one by one...
Such a huge workload is certainly not something that the daily staff of the Ministry of Revenue can complete. However, the stingy old Zhu was unwilling to increase the office expenses to hire people to do it. In the end, there was no other way, so Zhu slapped his head and said: let the students of Nanjing Imperial College do it! Not only did it save office expenses, but it also provided students with practical work experience... So, every year after the new yellow book was stored in the warehouse, it became a routine for the students of the Imperial College to go to the island to review and verify it .
"Please come closer, all students. Although I am the grandson of the crown prince, I am not even seven years old yet. I don't look that scary, do I?"
When the white-collar students behind heard the prince's words, their nervousness suddenly eased a lot. A few brave ones dared to get close.
"Student Yan Xingwen... and others greet His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."
"Okay, okay, ok? Yan Jiansheng, what's wrong with your hand?"
As Zhu Youdong asked the question, everyone behind him focused their eyes on Yan Xingwen's hands. Oh, are these hands? They were covered with chilblains, some of which had festered and oozing pus.
There were eunuchs like Cao Huachun, who had an unusual sense of smell, and they faintly smelled a foul odor: Cao Huachun, who came from a poor family, knew that this was the body odor that could not be suppressed when a person had not taken a bath for a long time.
Looking more closely at Yan Jingsheng's clothes, one can see that his thick cotton coat has become quite stiff. There is no doubt that such clothes are seriously inadequate in keeping out the cold.
This is quite a big contrast. Didn't the Crown Prince just say that this is the foundation of the country? How come the staff who maintain the foundation for the country are treated like this?
Thinking of this, Cao Huachun, who was already 18 years old, could barely keep his composure. Behind him, Wang Chengen, Li Huaizhong, Zhang Shize and others, who were only 8 or 9 years old, all changed their expressions. They turned around and glared at Zhang Shipei, the Minister of Revenue!
"Uh... Your Highness, please allow me to report." Zhang Shipei pulled the corner of his mouth awkwardly and said bitterly: "Here in Huanzhou, the shelf for storing the Yellow Book is made of wood. And the Yellow Book itself is all paper. Therefore, it is forbidden to make fire in the entire Huanzhou. Therefore, even in winter, you cannot use braziers to keep warm here, and therefore..."
Before traveling through time, Zhu Youdong was a history enthusiast. He had read many articles about the Yellow Book of the Ming Dynasty. In these many articles, all the authors pointed out that although there were various problems in the management of the Yellow Book of the Ming Dynasty, they also created a miracle: from the first time the Yellow Book was stored in the warehouse to the demise of the Ming Dynasty, for nearly three hundred years, the Yellow Book warehouse, which was mainly made of wood and paper, had never caught fire!
The founder of the Celestial Empire once said that history is written by the people. Today, Zhu Youdong stood in this place and truly felt the profound connotation of this great man's words.
He was standing in front of living history, facing a group of ordinary people who had created a miracle rarely seen in the world, but who had paid with extreme hardship and even their lives!
"You have all worked hard for the foundation of the country. Thank you for your hard work." After bowing deeply again, Zhu Youdong stood up and said, "Zhang Situ."
"I am here."
"In order to avoid fire, no fire can be lit on Huanzhou Island for heating. I understand and agree with this. But look at what these students are wearing? Can't the Ministry of Revenue change their clothes when they ask people to help with work? Can't they make them a few pairs of gloves? And! Smell their bodies, how long has it been since they took a bath? It's winter now! Well, I know without asking you that they probably don't have hot water to soak their feet at night, right?"
"Your Majesty... Your Majesty is terrified. However, since the founding of the country, we have never included funds for this purpose when recruiting students to go to the island to clean up the yellow books. Your Majesty, Your Majesty dare not violate the ancestral system."
I… Hey, my great Ming Taizu! How stingy are you? But this Zhang Shipei said the ancestral system? Humph, the Ming Dynasty has been established for more than 200 years, and I don’t know how many ancestral systems have been changed, openly and flexibly. Why are you unwilling to change such a small ancestral system?
"Yan Jiansheng, can you eat hot food on the island?"
Yan Xingwen smiled bitterly and said, "Your Highness, you can't light a fire on Huanzhou. The food we eat every day is prepared by the kitchen on other islands and then transported here by boat. By the time we get here, it's already cold."
"Zhang Situ, can't we let these people go to other islands every day to eat some hot food and take a hot bath?"
"Your Highness, the imperial court has long established precedent. The Yellow Book statistics are related to national affairs. Once the statistics are started, people who enter the island are not allowed to leave unless there are extremely special circumstances."
"Hey... Then I'll ask again, how long will they have to suffer like this on the island?"
"This, Your Highness, is indeed not a fixed number."
"What do you mean by unpredictable? Oh, yes, I remember the last time a new Yellow Book was created was in the 30th year of the Wanli reign, which was five years ago. How come there are still students working on the island now? It's been almost five years! In another five years, a new Yellow Book will be put into the warehouse again!"
Seeing that Zhu Youdong was about to go berserk, Zhang Shipei simply knelt down and said, "I have the details of this matter to report."
"Get up and speak!"
"Thank you, Your Highness. Your Highness, when the country was first founded, the capital was Nanjing. At that time, the Nanjing Imperial College had between 1,500 and 2,000 students. Later, when Emperor Chengzu moved the capital to Beijing, the Nanjing Imperial College was retained, but the number of students was less than 800. During the Hongwu period, the country was newly established, and although there were many yellow books, compared to today, it was less than 70%. Now in the Wanli period, the number of newly made yellow books is increasing every year, and the yellow books made over the years need to be regularly turned over and maintained... In short, there are fewer and fewer people doing things, but more and more things need to be done. Therefore, during the Hongwu period, the time for the new yellow books to be stored, reviewed and proofread generally did not exceed three months. But now the time is difficult to determine. I heard that it took a full eight years to complete the proofreading of the new yellow books during the Zhengde period."
After taking a deep breath, Zhang Shipei continued, "I am the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing. One of my duties is to manage the Yellow Book, which is the foundation of the world. How can I not know the hard work of these students. In fact, even during the Hongwu Dynasty, the students only had to work on the island for three months. There were still people who died of exhaustion or illness. I still remember that the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue in the Hongwu Dynasty, Yu Xin, reported to Taizu: 'Seven or eight out of ten Houhu students are sick, and one or two out of a hundred die of illness.' As for me, after I took over this position, I felt that the students were too hard on the island, and I took a great risk to change the rules: the students are divided into two groups. Each group is responsible for the Yellow Book of a provincial government. After the review, this group of students can go off the island for recuperation. Then another group of students will go to the island to do the Yellow Book of another provincial government. In this way, the students are a little hard, but at least there are no deaths from illness or exhaustion. As for the students' warm clothes, this is a precedent in the country, and I have no choice."
After listening to Zhang Shipei's explanation, Zhu Youdong's mouth twitched: This old guy is talking nonsense. I have read too many books on this subject before I traveled through time, and I may know more than you, the current manager!
During the Hongwu reign, the capital of the Ming Dynasty was in Nanjing. And because the imperial examination system was not perfect at that time, the mainstream was to enter the government through the Imperial College. Therefore, the Imperial College at that time gathered the elites of the whole society. In addition, the new dynasty was just established at that time, and the students of the Imperial College were full of enthusiasm and vigor, so the work efficiency was extremely high. 100,000 yellow books, more than 1,000 Imperial College students worked together, and completed the review and storage beautifully within three months.
Nowadays, the mainstream is to enter the government through the imperial examination. The Imperial College in Beijing has become unpopular, let alone the Imperial College in Nanjing.
The students in the Imperial College of Nanjing are roughly divided into three categories: First, the tribute students. These are students recommended by various provinces in the south of the Yangtze River. The common characteristics of this type of students are: good grades, generally poor families. Before passing the imperial examinations, they must rely on the monthly food distribution of the Imperial College to survive. This type of students is the most compliant with the arrangements of the Imperial College. They are also the main force in the yellow book inventory.
Second, students who donate money to study. As the name suggests, they can enter the school by paying money. This kind of students are just here to mess around. When asked to go to the island to check the yellow book, these uncles all said: "I don't want to study anymore, okay?"
The third type is the students who were admitted to the Imperial Academy. These people have already obtained the qualification of Juren, but in order to pass the Jinshi examination, they entered the Imperial Academy to polish their essays. The compliance of these guys is between the first two.
Therefore, the ones who really do things are the poor students. Poor students are already poor, and the country is still so stingy...
As a time traveler, Zhu Youdong firmly believes that the pleasure a worker feels while working largely determines how meticulous his work is. What is the working attitude of these students now? You can tell without asking!
The job of these people is to protect the foundation of the country! If the attitude of the defenders is rotten, how can the foundation of the country not be in trouble?
