Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 575 Yuan Keli's Student
On February 9, 1628, the imperial examination of the tenth year of the reign of Emperor Tianqi of the Ming Dynasty began.
"Teacher, I have already sent Yunda, Xianzhi and the others to the examination room."
"Well, Ruyu, you've worked hard. You sent them to the examination room. Did you not alarm the people inside?"
"Teacher, rest assured. I will be there in plain clothes. Besides, it is pitch dark in Beijing in winter. Apart from the spot illuminated by the lantern, you can't see anywhere else."
"That's good. This is enough. Although Yundae and Xianzhi are both outstanding talents, the fairness of the exam is one of the foundations of the country and must not be touched."
"Yes, I think so too."
"Well, speaking of which, a letter from the Emperor has recently arrived. Tomorrow, I will submit a proposal for your and Youxuan's new positions to the Ministry of Personnel, and it will probably be approved at the next State Council meeting. Go and call Youxuan over, and I will explain the situation to you first."
"yes."
The so-called "teacher" is naturally Yuan Keli, the chief examiner of the fourth year of Tianqi in this plane. Ruyu and Youxuan are both Jinshi of that year. Although the court clearly stipulates that all Jinshi are disciples of the emperor, after hundreds of years of habit, the Jinshi of that year have always been the disciples of the chief examiner of that year.
It is normal for such a situation to occur: when a newly-appointed scholar first enters the officialdom, he needs the guidance and care of the bigwigs. What about the bigwigs in the court? They also need a group of younger brothers to serve them. This is not subject to the will of the emperor, nor has it anything to do with loyalty or treachery. It is purely the inevitable result of the officialdom ecology.
In the fourth year of the Tianqi reign (1622), the chief examiner was Yuan Keli, and the top scorer of the year was Wen Zhenmeng, who was now one of the teachers of the eldest son of the emperor, Zhu Ciyi. Among the candidates of this year, after years of contact and observation, Yuan Keli liked Ni Yuanlu (Ruyu) and Huang Daozhou (Youxuan) the most.
In terms of history, both of them were great calligraphers, painters, and scholars. Ni Yuanlu was appointed as the Minister of Revenue in Beijing during the reign of Emperor Chongzhen. Faced with a treasury that was so empty that mice could starve to death, he boldly hired a folk expert who was good at arithmetic but had no official title to count the accounts of the Ministry of Revenue and conjured up several million taels of silver out of thin air. Unfortunately, the Ming Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Chongzhen could not be saved. In 1644, Beijing was conquered by Li Zicheng, and he hanged himself to die for his country.
As for Huang Daozhou, in the historical perspective, he was the prime minister of the Longwu regime of the Southern Ming Dynasty. After being captured after the failure of the anti-Qing war, he refused to surrender and finally died a heroic death for his country.
Yuan Keli likes such disciples, and it can only be said that birds of a feather flock together.
In this dimension, the two men passed the imperial examination in 1622 and spent six years in various ministries, serving as low-level officials. After six years, the rank of both men was still only the sixth rank.
"Ruyu, Youxuan, your teacher communicated with the emperor a few days ago and specially recommended you two to the emperor. In the emperor's reply, he also said that he has been paying attention to you in recent years."
"Ah? Thank you, Master."
"Is the Emperor also paying attention to us? This is really frightening."
"Haha, talented people are just in the right place." Stroking his beard, Yuan Keli said with a smile: "You two have been working in the Tongzhengsi and the six ministries in Beijing for the past six years. You were often transferred to another place just when you were familiar with the work. During this period, have you ever complained?"
"Teacher." Huang Daozhou stood up and said, "I did not quite understand it at first, but later on, as more and more departments came to observe the government, I gradually understood it."
"Teacher, I have the same idea as Youxuan."
"So, this is a smart person." After laughing for a while, Yuan Keli's expression became serious: "Ruyu, your master is going to recommend you to the Ministry of Personnel to be the prefect of Huai'an."
"Ah? This..."
"Just say what you want to say."
"Yes." Ni Yuanlu stood up and said, "Teacher, everyone knows that Huai'an is a hell of officialdom. Where did I go?"
"Humph, are you also planning to make a fortune after you take over the local government?"
"I dare not. My family is quite wealthy, and the court has been increasing the salaries of officials in recent years. I have no desire or need to make money. But, Master, I am afraid I cannot serve His Royal Highness Prince Xin with his temper."
"Well... Your Highness Prince Xin did things a little hastily. But as long as you are upright, what can Prince Xin do to you? Which of the officials taken down by Prince Xin was wrongly accused? Moreover, in addition to removing many officials, Your Highness has also recommended many honest and upright officials, clerks and even runners over the years. If you go to Huai'an and can get the approval of Prince Xin, it will be very beneficial to your future career. After all, Prince Xin is now known as Tianqi Hai Rui among the people, and his approval is the highest affirmation of an official's integrity."
"Yes, disciple understands."
"Well, when you go to Huai'an, there are three main things you need to do."
"Please teach me, teacher."
"First, before the flood season arrives, we should speed up the construction of the new levees on both sides of the Yellow River in Huai'an Prefecture. During the flood season this summer, Huai'an Prefecture must not have its levees breached again."
"Teacher, rest assured. When I was observing the government in the Ministry of Works, I discovered that cement solidifies in a very short time and is extremely strong after solidification. The reason why the previous Huai'an prefect did not do a good job was that he accepted money from the contractors below and could not say anything harsh about the contractors cutting corners."
"That's right. Only if you are upright can you be strict with the people below you. Well, for the second thing, the court has agreed to arrange one new middle school for Huai'an Prefecture and three primary schools for Huai'an."
"Ah? Oh, this is really good news. I took this news to Huai'an, and the local people and gentry in Huai'an were comforted. Teacher, you know that the day of the major reform of the imperial examination is getting closer and closer, and the desire for new schools in various places is getting stronger and stronger. When I was observing politics in the Ministry of Revenue, I saw many provincial governors and a group of prefects coming to the Ministry of Revenue to beg for various things, just to arrange the construction of new schools in their places first. At that time, I saw clearly that many third-rank officials almost fell to the ground and rolled on the ground, saying that if they didn't set up a few schools in Beijing, they would be ashamed to see their hometown elders when they returned..."
"Hahaha, I, the Master, also know about this. What you don't know is that during the State Council meetings, the court officials would pass the time by evaluating the various ways that officials from all over the country requested projects."
Well, when Yuan Keli said this, the two disciples were a little stunned: So this is the daily life of the bigwigs in the court?
"Ahem." Realizing that he had said something wrong, Yuan Keli coughed twice: "Ruyu, building new schools is a good thing. Taking these projects with you to work can indeed help you quickly win the hearts of the local people. However, there is a prerequisite, that is, nothing can happen during the flood season! Otherwise, the whole Huai'an will be flooded, so why build a school?"
"Yes, Master, rest assured. I have gone to Huai'an and plan to put on the levee. The levee is intact and the people are alive. If the levee is destroyed, the people will die."
" It's good that you have this awareness. Next, I will tell you the third thing, which is to start a farm."
After taking a deep breath, Yuan Keli stood up and said, "Nowadays, industry and commerce are booming, so much so that the agriculture of our Ming Dynasty has been greatly affected. Although the emperor has implemented the land tax system, which has effectively reduced the burden on farmers, the trend of land abandonment is still somewhat unstoppable. Moreover, in the Nanzhili area, where there are the most factories, in addition to a large amount of land being abandoned, a lot of land has been converted from rice to mulberry."
After Yuan Keli stood up, the two disciples also stood up quickly. After listening to what their teacher said, their faces became solemn.
There is no way, it is human nature to seek profit and avoid harm. Under the premise that the factory's sales are guaranteed by the entire Greater East Asia, the workers' wages are definitely higher than farmers, and it is difficult to stop farmers from running to factories.
However, in order to maintain social stability, the Ming Dynasty had to control the grain market price at 0.5 yuan per stone of grain - this led to the fact that the growth rate of wealth of grain growers and grain merchants was far behind that of the emerging factory owners (the bourgeoisie). As a result, private capital was not only unwilling to enter agriculture, but also tried hard to attract more labor from agriculture.
This made the emperor and the ministers anxious: the arable land area of the Ming Dynasty did not decrease, but the actual amount of land invested in cultivation, especially grain fields, was decreasing.
Historically, Britain could transport grain from its vast colonies, and the current Greater East Asian tribute system of the Ming Dynasty was much more advanced than the colonial system. However, with the largest population in the world, which country could take on the responsibility of growing grain for the more than 100 million people of the Ming Dynasty?
Therefore, although the trend of abandoning land and replacing rice with mulberry trees has only started in the ten prefectures of Southern Zhili, the Ming Dynasty court, from top to bottom, has been looking for ways to deal with the huge impact of the industrial revolution on agriculture.
"Ruyu, Huai'an has a lot of abandoned farmland because of frequent dike breaches. If you go there and build a big dike, you will be able to get at least 500,000 mu of new arable land. The court wants to build a large farm here."
"farm?"
"Yes, the emperor's letter explained it very clearly. He said that the reason why agriculture is less profitable is largely because production is too scattered and lacks intensification, so that much of what is produced is consumed in the production process.
Later, I will give you the collective farm operation specifications written by the emperor himself. When you go there, you must recruit agricultural workers and carry out intensive production according to the emperor's advice."
"We? Teacher, where should I go?"
"Ah, yes, Youxuan, you are also going to be sent out. Well, your new position is to be a councilor of the Hunan Provincial Government and concurrently the prefect of Changsha."
"...I see. But hey, teacher, Ruyu is going to Huai'an to work, and there are school projects. What about me?"
"Hmph, all of them. All of them. A middle school in Changsha Prefecture, and a primary school each in Shanhua, Xiangtan, and Liling."
"Hahaha, thank you teacher!"
"Don't be so quick to thank me. You will have a hard time when you get there."
"Yes, disciple, please give me some instructions, Master."
"First, Hunan is a newly established province. Since its establishment, there have been two imperial examinations, but only one Jinshi has been born. So when you go there, education is the top priority. This is a point that the emperor repeatedly mentioned in his personal letter to me, your teacher."
"Yes, disciple has made note of it."
"Secondly, the Fangshan Institute of Medical Sciences will send someone to go south with you. During his tour of the country, the emperor was deeply concerned about the rampant schistosomiasis in the Yangtze River Basin and has written a guide to schistosomiasis prevention and control, which will be implemented in Hunan by the Fangshan Medical Sciences Laboratory. When you go to Changsha Prefecture, you must work hard to cooperate with their work."
"I've made note of this. I've seen quite a few cases of schistosomiasis in my early years. It's really very harmful. Although I don't know any medical skills, I will do my best to cooperate with the doctors to do a good job in prevention and treatment."
"Well, the third thing is to promote collective farms. The Xiangjiang River in Changsha Prefecture stretches from north to south, and its tributaries are full of water. In addition, Hunan is vast and sparsely populated at the time, with almost no industry, making it the most suitable place to reclaim wasteland and establish collective farms."
"I understand, disciple. My Ming Dynasty has long believed that if Huguang is prosperous, the whole country will be prosperous. Now, the farmland in Hubei has been almost fully cultivated. If we want to increase the grain fields, we have to go to Hunan."
"That's it." Yuan Keli stretched out his hands and placed them on the shoulders of his two beloved disciples: "Two governors, the country has generally been prosperous in recent years, but many problems have also emerged. And you are the pioneers who solve problems and explore new paths for the country! Do your best, your expectations for you are not just to be governors of a county!"
