In the back house of the prefect's Yamen, Fang Ruolan was checking this month's account books.
Holding a reed pen, Fang Ruolan checked out a few questionable accounts, ordered her personal maid to turn out the detailed account books, and casually gave the boy outside the door some chores in the house.
Mrs. Li, the prefect's wife, was indifferent, and Fang Ruolan took over the housekeeper's duties as soon as she became sensible.
Fang Ruolan treats her servants fairly, but she also knows how to understand Qiu and will not be fooled by her servants. Only then can the magistrate's house be stable, and Mrs. Li can go out to play horse-drawing with peace of mind.
Oh no, the prefect's wife is obsessed with theater these days, and ladies and ladies from the folk arts club often gather in the back house to listen to the opera.
Fang Ruolan became even more angry when she thought about this. Her good poetry club had turned into this folk art club, and she had to manage the family business on her mother's behalf. Fang Ruolan could only think bitterly about what kind of chaos the family would be like after she got married!
After a while, I heard the maid announcing that the magistrate returned to the back house happily.
Fang Ruolan immediately brought the bowl of herbal tea without sugar to Magistrate Fang.
"Lan'er, did you forget to add sugar?"
Fang Ruolan said with a smile: "I asked Huang Tiju yesterday that eating too much sugar can cause toothache, so I removed the sugar from the herbal tea."
Magistrate Fang's face turned pale as he carefully recalled whether he had offended this precious daughter.
Finally, I drank the herbal tea under the watchful eyes of my daughter.
Magistrate Fang said with a grimace: "The matter of the mining thieves has been solved, the Yanping Guards are also bleeding, and my father just sent Su Ze away."
Magistrate Fang was used to discussing official matters with his daughter after going to the Yamen. He sighed and said:
"I didn't expect that Deng Dai really colluded with the real Japanese. I have reported this matter to the Third Division in a private message, but other prefectures and counties may not have such good luck as our Yanping Prefecture."
The good luck that Magistrate Fang mentioned was Changning Guard. Magistrate Fang knew very well that the level of the large and small health clinics in Fujian was basically the same as that of Yanping Guard.
At any rate, the Yanping Guards still dared to send people to fight, but some guards were afraid that they did not even have the courage to go out of the city to fight.
The magistrate Fang added: "Jianyang fell, and the magistrate of Jianyang died in battle and martyred his country."
The atmosphere in the room was silent. Jianyang was not far from Yanping Mansion, which was not good news.
Magistrate Fang sighed again and said: "The good news is that our Yanping Prefecture is too poor and the Japanese pirates don't like it, so they turned to attack Jian'an City in Jianning Prefecture. However, many rebellious people in Yanping Prefecture also followed Deng Dai's example and rebelled. The entire Yanping Prefecture was in chaos. Let’s make a group.”
Magistrate Fang added: "It would be great if every county in the prefecture could have elite soldiers like Chang Ningwei."
The fall of Jianyang County made Magistrate Fang's mood turn bad again. He was unlucky enough to be assigned to be an official in Fujian.
I only blame myself for not getting a high rank in the imperial examination and not being able to stay in the capital as an official. I also blame myself for being short of money when I was in the Literary Selection Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and not being able to get a good starting point in officialdom.
But there is no point in regretting now. Fang Ruolan said: "Dad, if we can keep the peace of Yanping Mansion, that is great good governance."
Magistrate Fang nodded. An official like himself was just an insignificant local official in the court, and it was not his turn to worry about major court matters.
Su Ze came out of the magistrate's office and went to the county office to meet with Bai Zhixian.
Naturally, Baizhi County also praised Su Ze greatly, and Su Ze proposed that Lin Xianyang should serve in the government office.
Of course, Baizhi County did not stop him in any way. He just expressed regret that he had just discovered Lin Xianyang's talent and was about to take a job in the government government. Then he asked Su Ze to recommend another talent to fill Lin Xianyang's vacancy in the county government.
After all this was done, Su Ze came to the county school again.
After handing over the exercises assigned last time to Hai Rui, Hai Rui said to Su Ze:
"I didn't expect that the southeastern border defense has deteriorated to this extent."
Hai Rui was one of the few people in the county who knew about the defeat of the Yanping Guards. He was also frightened. If the Changning Guards had not taken action to wipe out the mining bandits, this group of mining bandits who had colluded with the Japanese pirates might have really been able to invade Nanping City.
Hai Rui added: "Jianyang was captured by Japanese pirates."
Su Ze was startled, and Hai Rui stroked his beard and sighed: "The Japanese pirates are coming fiercely, and there are already refugees from Jianyang in Nanping City. Ru Lin, if you can tell me in both prefectures and counties, if these refugees cannot be properly resettled, it will be a violation of human relations." What a tragedy.”
Hai Rui once saw the plight of the hungry people in the capital, but at that time he was just a minister who was a low-key official. Now he is also a county school teacher who is low-key and low-key.
Su Ze nodded heavily and said, "Students should do their best!"
Hai Rui said blankly: "I am a great Ming Dynasty, why can't I even pacify the Japanese pirates?"
Hai Rui was indeed confused. After reading the books of sages for so many years, he found that the officialdom was completely different from what he read in the books.
To be fair, the two chief officials of the second government office in Nanping City were considered quite good in the Ming Dynasty.
Bai knows that county power is scheming, but he can also do well in county government affairs.
The prefect Fang was a bit lazy in his administration, but he never oppressed the people.
But even so, the situation has deteriorated to this point.
Su Ze said: "The government of the world is corrupted by 'privacy'."
"For the officials in Fujian, if each person has more private interests, the common people will have less public interests. If they are selfish and forget the public spirit, they will suffer a little loss today and a little more tomorrow. If the predecessor suffered a little, future generations will have to learn from his predecessor and lose a little more. This world is going to hell.”
Hai Rui stroked his beard and said, "That's true. If all the officials in Fujian were free from selfish motives, this wouldn't be the case."
Su Ze smiled and said: "Teacher, how can there be any selfless person in this world?"
Hai Rui was stunned for a moment. Even he himself could not be said to be completely selfless, let alone use this standard to demand the entire Fujian officials.
Discussing human nature is naturally not the scope of debate that Hai Rui likes. He thought for a while and said, "It's all because of the traitorous officials in the government who are in power and follow the example. That's why Fujian is so corrupted!"
Su Ze asked again: "Since everyone knows that there are traitors in the government, why can't we eliminate them?"
Hai Rui said: "The Holy One has been deceived by a treacherous minister who is both treacherous and loyal!"
Su Ze thought to himself, as expected, Hai Rui had just entered the officialdom at this time, and he was still thinking in his mind that "the emperor is good, but there are treacherous ministers below".
This set of things has been played for hundreds of years in the Ming Dynasty. Anyway, when the official scolded the chief assistant, the chief assistant would take off his hat and wait to be played.
If you scold the emperor, you will be dragged out to court.
"The teacher said that if the superiors follow the example, the subordinates must follow it."
After saying this, Hai Rui stopped the topic.
He said to Su Ze:
"Prefect Fang just sent someone here, asking you to write a few eight-legged essays. Prefect Fang is familiar with the Fujian Academic Affairs Bureau, so he will give your article to the Academic Affairs Bureau for a look. Someone from the Academic Affairs Bureau can give you some advice, which will be beneficial to you. Passed the provincial examination."
Hai Rui also had high hopes for Su Ze and warned Su Ze:
"The eight-part essays of this dynasty are not allowed to talk about current affairs. You must not write those remarks that are disobedient to the emperor."
Su Ze said: "Thank you, teacher, for teaching me. I will write as soon as I get home."
Hai Rui gave Su Ze some help and answered several questions he had encountered while studying. After his imperial examination skills had increased by 40 points, Su Ze came out of Hai Rui's room.
Then he went to the editorial office of Lin Qingcai and Chen Chaoyuan. To Su Ze's surprise, the situation was tense these days, but "Surprise" sold very well.
Especially after the number of people in Nanping County increased, it became a pastime for many ordinary people to spend three coins to buy a copy of the book and watch it in amazement.
Especially after Su Ze serialized "The Peony Pavilion" in "Surprise", after every issue was sold out, the bookstore had to rush the stock and ask for more prints.
Su Ze also heard that the bookstore purchased by Huang Shixing also started to pirate "The Surprise". However, they only pirated one issue when they encountered the chaos in the southeast. The pirated newspapers that were originally planned to be sold to the next county had to continue to be sold in Nanping County.
After receiving the report, Chen Chaoyuan immediately asked his brother, a lawyer, to file a lawsuit against Cai Yuanwai's bookstore for selling pirated newspapers to the county government.
Yuan Cai was naturally dissatisfied and found a lawyer to respond to the lawsuit. However, Lin Xianyang went directly to Sun Dianshi, who was in charge of the county government's criminal department, and Sun Dianshi immediately sealed up the pirated newspapers in Cai's bookstore.
Huang Shixing stole the chicken but lost the rice. The pirated newspapers were sealed by the county government, and the engraving and printing fees invested were in vain. I heard that Mr. Huang was in a bad mood and even asked for leave from the academy courses.
Su Ze also laughed after hearing this, but rampant piracy is a problem that all publishers in Ming Dynasty cannot escape.
Su Ze asked again: "The city of Jianyang is in ruins. Brother Chen and Brother Lin might as well keep an eye on it and see if there are any printers with good fortune. You might as well recruit a few of them."
"Brother Su is planning to open a printing shop in the city?"
Su Ze nodded and said: "The printing shop is located in Changningwei, and transportation back and forth is really inconvenient. Besides, the editorial department is also in the city. From now on, I will leave the review of the manuscript to the two brothers. You can just decide on the typesetting and printing."
Both Chen and Lin were overjoyed. Now "Surprise" is the most famous publication in Nanping County and even Yanping Prefecture. As editors, their reputation in Nanping County is also growing.
Now that Su Ze has handed over the entire "Surprise" to them, the two of them feel that the burden on their shoulders is even heavier.
Su Ze continued: "In addition, I have some ideas. I can hire some homeless children and give them newspapers to sell on the streets."
Chen Qingchao immediately understood what Su Ze meant and said, "Brother Su, are you going to use newspapers to support these children?"
Su Ze nodded and said: "Jianyang City is in ruins. I see that there are more orphans in the streets and alleys in the city. Letting them sell newspapers can be considered as giving them a livelihood. It is also our merit that we can survive a few people."
Lin Qingcai said: "Brother Su means to give it to the newsboys for free and let them sell them on the street in exchange for money to make a living?"
Su Ze nodded and said, "That's right."
"But how can the newspaper make a living like this?"
Su Ze said: "Then we have to talk about another thing, and that is advertising."
"advertise?"
Su Ze nodded and said: "You hire these newsboys, and also ask them to go to the streets to find out which stores are hiring waiters, which restaurants have new dishes, and which shops have new goods and are eager to sell them. I plan to tell them in "The Case" "Surprise" will set up a convenient and mutually beneficial section to publish these news."
The more Lin Qingcai thought about it, the more he felt that Su Ze's idea was brilliant. It would be a dream for these shops to be featured in "The Surprise", which was watched by everyone in Nanping County.
Not to mention that the functions Su Ze mentioned are indeed needed by many businesses.
Su Ze added: "The newsboys go around the streets, and the two of them can record the strange things that happen in the city, and edit them into gossip and publish them in Page 5 and Page 6."
Lin Qingcai and Chen Chaoyuan nodded repeatedly.
Su Ze then handed the complete set of "The Peony Pavilion" he had written to the two of them and said:
"I'll finish the serialization of "The Peony Pavilion" first, and then I'll send the new plays after I've written them. For the third and fourth editions, I won't have the help of my two brothers to help with the selection."
"Brother Chen, please draft a deed. I will hire two brothers as editors of "The Surprise". They will receive a monthly salary of twenty-five cents for one year. If "The Surprise" can continue to be run, I will pay them back next year. A salary increase!"
Chen and Lin declined at first, but in the end they happily signed the contract with Su Ze.
Su Ze felt most at ease leaving the newspaper matter to the two of them.
Su Ze's Liaozhai and Peony Pavilion were the sources of surprise. Most scholars also came here for Su Ze's articles.
The most important thing about movable type printing is making movable type. Yao Chun's wife and children were in Changningwei and asked him to print newspapers in the county. Su Ze was not afraid that he would run away with his skills.
In fact, once the movable type technology is solved, there are no technical barriers. However, it is more complicated to figure out the lead and tin ratio of movable type, and to separate the characters to count the frequency of radicals. Su Ze started the newspaper for influence, not for the newspaper to make a fortune.
If you think about it more deeply, movable type printing technology is also the "pre-technology" for ideological enlightenment.
It is precisely because of the emergence of movable type printing technology that making publishing accessible to ordinary people, the price of knowledge has become lower, and a large number of citizens with improved literacy have emerged.
It is also because the technology of movable type printing has reduced the cost of publishing, allowing more people to print and promote their views.
In a sense, movable type printing is also an information revolution.
On the contrary, Su Ze is not worried that the spread of technology will delay his ability to make money. In today's southeast region, there are many businesses that are more profitable than buying newspapers.
After finally finishing the county affairs, Su Ze returned to Changning Guard.
Reading and teaching every day, and then asking Captain Alfonso to brush up on some language skills.
Captain Alfonso went from shock at the beginning to numbness now. There really is a language genius in this world!
From simple one-word conversations, Su Ze was now able to communicate with Alfonso on a daily basis, and it only took half a month.
After reaching Level 3 in several language skills, Su Ze could no longer have trouble with daily conversations.
It's early August now, and I should be able to reach Level 5 by mid-August.
However, daily conversations no longer increase experience. Su Ze can only discuss navigation skills with the old captain and speak some complicated and unfamiliar sentences to increase his skills.
In addition to discussing navigation with the old captain, the old priest Pierre accompanying the ship is also a physics and mathematics enthusiast. Suze can also improve his French skills by discussing these issues with him.
In this way, Chang Ningwei was extremely busy, but Su Ze was practicing his skills with peace of mind.
On August 10, a young eunuch hurriedly came to Changning Guard.
(End of chapter)
