In addition to the plague, smallpox is the number one malignant infectious disease in this time and space. It can even affect whether the Manchus enter the country and plunder, so it is the focus of the Senate's prevention. As early as when the Fubo Army conquered the city, the work team opened "vaccination bureaus" in major rural markets, and persuaded villagers to vaccinate against smallpox through local folk arts and social dramas in the countryside. Generally speaking, the vaccination situation is quite optimistic, mainly because Jiujiang is located on a traffic thoroughfare with many merchants coming and going. Smallpox occurs frequently in the local area, and the villagers suffer greatly from it. There are actually three adults with smallpox scars on their faces. 1/2, so as the saying goes, "A baby is only half born, and smallpox is the only one left alive." In the past two years, with the development of vaccination work, the number of infants and young children dying from smallpox infection has been greatly reduced. Many banners have been hung in the vaccination bureau, indicating that the health work of the Senate has been recognized by some villagers.
But education is not so optimistic. Scholars who participated in the imperial examinations of the Ming Dynasty not only entered official schools, but also various clans in various places ran private schools and clan schools. Confucian classics were used as relatively unified teaching materials. There were many teachers for traditional education, forming a large-scale education industry.
The Senate abolished the imperial examinations and implemented new education, but it was seriously hampered by insufficient educational resources. There was a lack of teachers for new education, and there were also serious shortages of new schools. As one of the largest counties in the Pearl River Delta, with a population of hundreds of thousands, Nanhai County has only one national model school built in Dali. There is also no new school in a prosperous cultural and educational area like Jiujiang, which is equivalent to cutting off most of the students. Sooner or later something will happen to your future.
The opinion of the Education Bureau is that in addition to providing teachers and financial support for adapting to junior primary schools, the large number of private schools and social studies that exist in Hainan should be recognized as legitimate and not banned, just like in Hainan. However, to promote the education level examination, as long as one can obtain the second-level education certificate, it is equivalent to the ability of junior primary school students. At the same time, comprehensively sell fiscally subsidized junior primary school textbooks and strive for social studies to use these textbooks. At the same time, free short-term simple teacher training will be provided to private school teachers and students who are willing to become teachers to conduct new education training and issue "simple teacher training certificates" ".
However, these policies are still a bit complicated for local wealthy families. After the abolition of the imperial examination system, they were confused. Without the imperial examination, how can scholars make progress?
Therefore, many wealthy families nearby wanted to invite Zhang Xiao to stay with them for a while, also to plan for the family's future. After being politely rejected by Zhang Xiao, the clan leaders saw that they could not move to invite the county minister, so they all came to Jiujiang Market to prepare their opinions.
In the marching tent, Zhang Xiao sat on a marching chair with his legs crossed, holding the ear of a large glass cup. The brown-yellow tea stains on the wall of the cup indicated that the cup had been used for a long time. On the outer wall of the cup, Printed are the words "For the Senate and the People." He blew on the tea in the cup and took a sip to test the temperature. Then he closed his upper and lower teeth to block the tea leaves in the cup. He drank all the tea. Unexpectedly, two tea leaves stuck to his front teeth. Xiao then picked it up with his hands and threw it back into the teacup.
The squires in the tent saw this, and no one dared to complain, but they all felt that it was really insulting to gentlemen.
The Mingqian Longjing served at Hangzhou Station is Zhang Xiao's favorite, and the natives sitting on both sides also placed a cup in front of them. The squires who came here are all old people. It is really unreasonable to let people talk for a long time without giving them a drink of water.
Guan Boyi also sipped the tea, moistened his throat, and said in slightly hoarse Cantonese Mandarin: "My parents in the county have good taste. This tea is fragrant and sweet, and goes into the throat mellowly. After drinking it, I feel a sense of peace." The Qi is sinking between the teeth and cheeks, it should be the best West Lake Longjing." The other squires also followed up with a few compliments.
Guan Boyi is the current patriarch of Guan Shimeitang, and his younger brother Guan Jiyi was a Jinshi in the same year as Chen Zizhuang. Now he has resigned and returned to his hometown, staying behind closed doors. But for the sake of the future of the clan, Guan Boyi still came to Zhang Xiao's tent with a handful of old bones.
Guan Boyi added: "The students are brave enough to petition the county parents on behalf of the young talents. They also hope that the county parents will write to the court to resume the imperial examination to select talents to serve the country. The efforts of tens of thousands of scholars in Lingnan over ten years will be in vain."
"We, the Senate of the Great Song Dynasty, have returned to China in order to rebuild China and save the people. Don't worry, the door of the Senate is always open. We will not reject any collaborators, but -" Zhang Xiao prolonged his voice and said : "You have to follow our rules."
After the Senate occupied Guangdong and Guangxi, many people still took chances and thought that the imperial examination would be resumed soon. However, more than two years passed in the blink of an eye, and there was no sign of recovery.
Song Guowei, the patriarch of the Song clan, said cautiously: "The county parents have worked tirelessly since they took office and went to the countryside to observe the people's sentiments, which is really a blessing to the place. The government has established new schools and implemented new laws, and the atmosphere has changed. We are all happy and excited. Unfortunately, our hometown is located in a remote area and our children have no chance to attend the Nanhai National Demonstration School and cannot serve the country. I hope the parents in the county will convey my generation’s spirit of boxing to the court.”
"I understand your intentions. I did intend to inspect the location of the new school during this trip," Zhang Xiao put down the glass teacup and said, "But now there is a lot of waste to be done, and everything has to be spent. The training of tens of thousands of troops costs thousands of gold every day. , the plague in Guangzhou closed the city for several months. The Senate sympathized with the people's sufferings and not only confiscated a lot of taxes, but also exempted many small traders from taxes. Last year there was a severe drought in the spring and summer, and there was a heavy snowfall at the end of the year, so the Senate opened warehouses to provide disaster relief. Just say This kind of pox vaccination is now free, and no money is collected. Although the Senate is rich in the world, it cannot make money out of thin air. Whether this school can be built depends on the sincerity of everyone here."
Since ancient times, wealth has not been revealed. When it comes to money, the gentry will naturally cry out for poverty. Zeng Xingxiang, the head of the Zeng family, said tremblingly: "The county parents know it clearly. As far as the students know, the land in our hometown is about 700 hectares, and the land tax is three liters per mu. Two liters, both pond and monk summer were five liters. In the 10th year of Wanli, the county magistrate Zhou Wenqing went to the countryside to clean up the land of his father-in-law. The archer saw that the embroidery on the pond in the village was wrong and it was difficult to analyze. He reported it to Wenqing and implemented the method of "mixing the father-in-law". Later. Tong County has a shortfall of 1,828 hectares, and a virtual tax of one cent, six cents and four millimeters per acre is called Dinggong. Jiujiang asked to be exempted from the increase because of the "Hunzhang", and soon the matter was discussed and competition was inevitable. I don’t want my hometown to suffer the burden of two liters mixed with five liters.”
Wei Bifu had already told Zhang Xiao about the "fixed bow and false tax". He didn't expect that Jiujiang had another story about a "husband-in-law". Zhang Xiao waved to Huang Xiyin and asked in a low voice: "What is the method of "husband-in-law" they talked about? what happened?"
Huang Xiyin leaned over and whispered in Zhang Xiao's ear and explained: "During the Wanli period, Zhou Wenqing felt that it was difficult to distinguish the ponds from the land in Jiujiang, so he simply treated them all as ponds for tax purposes. Those fields that were not originally considered ponds were recorded in the fish scale book. The land is also covered with ponds, and the tax quota for ponds is much higher than that for fields."
"Oh -" Zhang Xiao nodded and said to the squires: "It is indeed unreasonable to set false taxes. This is a long-standing shortcoming of the previous dynasty. You can cooperate with the Senate to clear the land again and pay taxes based on the actual land. But the father-in-law It has been fifty years since this happened. During the Wanli period, the ponds and land here were still beautiful and difficult to distinguish. Now I see that Jiujiang has eight out of ten fish ponds and two out of ten fields, which can be said to be worthy of its name."
This change from the Wanli period to the late Ming Dynasty shows that the fish ponds in Jiujiang expanded very quickly. Of course, this was also stimulated by Zhou Wenqing’s Qingzhang policy. If the fields were not changed into mulberry fish ponds with higher profits, , people who own land will face serious burdens or even losses.
During his inspection, Zhang Xiao also found that there was no trend of replacing fruit-based fish ponds with mulberry-based fish ponds in the Jiujiang area in the late Ming Dynasty. At this time, the core issues faced by pond-based agriculture were the development of low-lying areas and the development of pond fish farming. The cultivation of crops such as , fruit, and rice is in a trend of expansion rather than substitution. When it comes to developing raw land, the efficiency of small farmers is far inferior to that of organized groups such as clans and farming brigades.
Seeing that the squires were silent, Zhang Xiao said again: "Don't worry, our Senate does not like to engage in zero-sum games. Making the cake bigger is our style. As long as you follow the Senate with peace of mind, the Senate will not let you suffer. "
This string of new words made the old men confused. Huang Xiyin happened to have discussed related topics with Zhang Jiayu before, so he stood up and explained: "What Zhang County Zun means is that the Senate of the Song Dynasty has various advanced technologies. As long as you are familiar with the Great Song Dynasty, Song has a sincere heart, and the Senate can ask you to grow more food, raise more fish, and build better cocoons. Your efforts now will be your harvest tomorrow."
Guan Boyi said: "Students are not talented, but I am willing to listen attentively."
"Mr. Guan, most of the fish and flower industry in this town are run by your tribe?" Zhang Xiao opened the folding fan with one hand and fanned it in front of him a few times. There were no ink poems or paintings on the white fan, only a few words written on it. The big words are unremarkable - air conditioning is better.
Guan Boyi didn't know what Zhang Xiao meant, so he replied cautiously: "That's true. After Huang Xiaoyang's rebellion in the previous dynasty, all the Dan households escaped, and there was no where to find fish in the West Sea. Therefore, it fell on the villagers, and all the money and wages came from Fish flowers in the West Sea. Our family has a serious family tradition. In all dynasties, payment of food after classes has been a priority. Even after the revolution of the country, we have never been in arrears."
Zhang Xiao asked again: "In that case, do you know how many fish flowers are caught in Jiujiang every year?"
Guan Boyi said: "It's like the stars in the sky, innumerable."
"Wrong." Zhang Xiao put away his fan and patted it on his hand. He raised the corner of his mouth and said, "The pond in Nanhai County is 150,000 acres. If we put more than 1,200 fish fry per acre, it will cost about 180 million fish flowers." Although not all of these 150,000 acres of ponds are mulberry fish ponds, there are still many Wangtian ponds and wild ponds, and the amount of stocking is less than that of mulberry fish ponds. However, Jiujiang fish flowers are exported to Fujian, Guangdong and even Huguang. As a result, the township should produce no less than 200 million fish flakes every year. Taking into account the loss of fish flakes fishing, transportation, and breeding, the annual catch should be no less than 300 million fish. Is there any fallacy in what the county says? "
