As the news of the national examination was announced to the world.
Notices were posted in front of the county offices of prefectures, prefectures, and counties across the country.
It quickly caused a nationwide sensation! ! !
Yangzhou Prefecture, Qiantang County.
As the notice was posted in front of the Yamen, countless scholars gathered around.
"Come and see, everyone, the imperial examination has been cancelled, but not completely! We have obtained the qualifications and have five years to take the national examination!"
A student who saw the notice clearly spoke with his own understanding.
A scholar asked doubtfully: "What do you mean? Has the imperial examination been cancelled? I have studied hard for many years in Hanchuang, has my learning been in vain?"
"It's not in vain. This notice says in black and white that we and other scholars can still take the imperial examination. There are still five years left, so hurry up and take the exam."
The student who understood the notice said.
"Five years, five years is so difficult. There is only one examination every three years. Only about a hundred people have been admitted. Isn't this forcing us to death?"
"No, no, no, it's changed now. This national exam is held once a year, scheduled for the end of the year!"
"What??? Once a year???"
Hearing this, everyone was shocked.
After understanding the notice, the scholars were all surprised and immediately became ecstatic.
The so-called scholar is a common name for students who have passed the college examination and obtained admission qualifications.
Obtaining the qualification of a scholar is the lowest threshold for entering the scholar-bureaucrat class.
Being a scholar means having fame, a certain amount of respect in the local area, and also having various privileges.
They are exempted from the corvee, do not have to kneel when they see the magistrate, the magistrate cannot torture him at will, and he can report to the magistrate in case of official business, etc.
Some of the scholars came from poor families.
But being a scholar does not necessarily bring wealth.
Scholars do not have a salary, but they can receive a little money every month to live. The money is only enough to support themselves, not their family.
If you fail to pass the subsequent provincial examination, you will not be qualified to become an official.
Many scholars failed to make further progress in their fame and had no choice but to return to their hometowns to make a living by teaching and other methods.
These scholars who are not financially wealthy but have a slightly higher social status than common people are called poor scholars.
The emergence of the national examination this time will undoubtedly give these poor talents a way out!
"It's great to have it once a year. Although a lot of exam content has been added, there are many more opportunities!"
"It's not just a lot more, it's simply too much. Everyone, look at what's written on this notice. This year's national examination will recruit 2,000 people. After passing the examination, they will be directly divided into officials. There will be no correction!!"
No wonder these talented people are shocked.
In the Ming Dynasty, even if you passed the Jinshi examination, you still had to wait to be assigned to an official position.
There was no talk of retirement in the Ming Dynasty, he worked almost until death.
You will have the opportunity to become an official only when the official position becomes available in Guixi. Therefore, the favorite thing for Jinshis to do is to attend the funeral of officials.
"After passing the exam, you will be assigned to an official position immediately? Seriously, seriously????"
"It's absolutely true, but most of the people recruited this year were awarded official positions in Peking and Nanjing. In these two places, officials have been abolished and new yamen have been added. There are many official positions!"
"That's not bad. I've heard that the treatment in the capital is very good now. Wouldn't it be a great thing if they were assigned to Peking? I will also take my mother to Peking to enjoy the blessings."
"You really think about it. If you want to stay in Peiping and be an official, you must at least be in the top 100. If you are in the 2000th place, you can only be a dormitory member, that is, an official in the village. .”
Countless scholars discussed it and expressed their opinions.
"Village official? Village officials are not bad! At least they have an official position and can eat royal food."
An old scholar in his sixties’ eyes lit up and he said excitedly: “I’m going to take the exam this year too!!”
People who knew this old scholar looked at him in surprise.
This old scholar passed the scholar examination in the Yuan Dynasty.
After taking the exam many times and failing to pass the Jinshi exam, I gave up. Now that the opportunity has arisen again, I plan to take the exam again!
"What are you waiting for? Everyone hurry up and sign up!!"
As one person shouted, countless people rushed into the Yamen.
"I want to sign up!"
"I want to sign up too!"
One by one, they rushed to the registrant very excitedly.
“Everyone has a share, line up one by one!!!”
The people from the yamen shouted, and immediately called people to register.
That's it, registration begins.
Because there are too many people.
The registration was not completed until the afternoon, and almost all the scholars from the whole county came.
Almost all the old scholars who gave up the imperial examination are here now.
Even the county magistrate was alarmed and mobilized to increase manpower and organize registration work.
There were so many talented people who signed up that the Yamen was packed with people.
It is truly a rare event in decades!
"Tomorrow, things will change."
Among the crowd, a fifteen-year-old young man murmured.
He also lined up silently.
He had just passed the Xiucai examination in this year's provincial examination. He originally thought that he would be able to pass the Jinshi examination in three years. Unexpectedly, he had just finished the Xiucai examination, and this examination was no longer available, and became the so-called national examination.
After queuing all day, it was finally his turn.
With a stroke of his pen, he wrote two big characters on the registration form: Yu Qian!
And just like that, word spread.
The news about the national examination was widely known, and gradually almost everyone knew about it.
Many scholars who were unaware of the event also rushed to the Yamen to register.
It took the county ten days to register the names of all the scholars.
The county magistrate did the math and found that more than 500 people in the entire county applied for the exam.
Yangzhou Prefecture is a wealthy place in the south, so there are many scholars who are interested in studying and taking the imperial examination.
But it is indeed surprising that 500 talents accumulated in one county over the past few decades are referred to together.
No coincidence.
Not just here, but everywhere in the country.
In short, the number of people attending this national examination was unimaginable.
Soon, the number of people from various places was reported to the capital.
In the Hall of Nourishing Heart.
Zhu Yuanzhang is here again.
Sitting on the recliner, watching Zhu Di handle government affairs.
He is a restless person. He used to be unable to do what he wanted, but now he is in good spirits and has begun to participate in government affairs again.
But it was mainly just to give opinions and did not interfere with Zhu Di.
Zhu Yuanzhang now looks very kind and does not curse.
At this time, there were Li Xiao and Lu Zhen in the main hall, and Zhu Gaochi was also among them.
"There are so many candidates for this national examination, with more than 100,000 talents across the country applying!!"
Zhu Di looked at the news about the successful candidates in the report, and was dumbfounded in surprise, muttering: "When did our Ming Dynasty have so many talented people??"
As soon as these words came out, everyone in the palace was shocked.
There are students going to Beijing to take the exam, but this time there are too many.
It reached a terrifying figure of one hundred thousand.
Is this number normal?
Zhu Yuanzhang had not managed government affairs for many years. He was slightly surprised when he heard this number and asked: "One hundred thousand scholars, is that correct?"
Lu Zhen, the Minister of Rites, cupped his hands and said: "Back to the Supreme Emperor and Your Majesty, in previous years, there were indeed only 10,000 or 20,000 candidates for the examination, but this year is really special. After the national examination was announced to the world, scholars all over the world learned that there were 2,000 candidates. After the quota positions were opened, people applied for them one after another.
Among them, most of the 200,000 talents are those accumulated over the years, and there are even old talents from the previous dynasty.
Most of them have been taking the imperial examination for decades, and there are also many students who have given up. When the national examination comes out, it is not just about Confucianism. Almost all the scholars have applied for it, wanting to try their luck.
The accumulation of so many factors has caused the number of applicants to reach one hundred thousand. I am worried that the capital cannot accommodate so many candidates. "
The words fell.
Everyone was silent, and no one spoke for a long time.
The number of 100,000 scholars is indeed shocking.
"There were so many talented people in the Ming Dynasty."
Zhu Yuanzhang took the lead to break the silence at the moment and cursed:
"We really didn't consider this. It's only been almost forty years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and there are already 100,000 talented people. I never expected it!"
"Every year, a large amount of money is allocated to support these scholars. If the imperial examination continues in this way, wouldn't there be more and more scholars in a few hundred years, and it is possible that they can reach one million!"
"If we get to that point, there will be more than a million scholars in the Ming Dynasty. These people study Confucianism and cannot go to the battlefield to fight. If they were replaced by soldiers, those soldiers can go to the battlefield to kill the enemy and open up territories for us!"
"What's the use of raising these talented people? We have to pay them every month. Why not raise a million chickens and ducks? One million chickens and ducks can be killed for meat."
Zhu Yuanzhang scolded him directly, and his words were not bad.
At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhu Yuanzhang had good intentions in order to ensure that the students could concentrate on their studies.
He decreed the introduction of measures to reward students in kind. According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty: Food and Huo Zhi VI", the reward specifications are: "One liter of rice per person per day, fish, meat, salt and fermented meat are given by the official."
Anyone who is admitted as a scholar will be given about 2 pounds of rice per liter and fish, meat, oil and salt every day.
It is worth noting that this benefit is lifelong, that is, as long as the scholar's reputation continues and his life does not end, this benefit can be enjoyed forever.
But there were no refrigerators at that time, and it was not conducive to storing fish every day. It was also not good for health for the scholars to eat pickled food all the time.
As a result, this benefit was not implemented from the beginning, and was instead distributed in the form of cash: each scholar could receive one tael of silver per month for food expenses.
Li Xiao nodded slightly, that was indeed the case, it seemed that Zhu Yuanzhang had woken up.
Because of this system in the Ming Dynasty, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the total number of scholars in the country was less than one million, because there were people who were born, old, sick and died, but there were almost more than half a million famous scholars.
Nowadays, the treatment of scholars is indeed good. It is not a problem for one person to have enough to keep the whole family hungry. It is equivalent to a minimum living security household.
The premise is that you can't get married and support your parents. Once you get married and have children, if you don't get admitted to the official position with that little money, the whole family will starve to death.
However, in the more than two hundred years after Zhu Yuanzhang, the system of 1 tael of silver per month has not changed. Later emperors did not take into account rising prices, inflation and other factors at all.
Therefore, by the late Ming Dynasty, it was difficult for the scholar to feed himself with only one tael of silver, so he was called a poor scholar.
Although they are poor scholars, if there are 500,000 poor scholars, and each of them is given money, it is not a small amount. The court will spend a lot of silver, which will drag down the national treasury.
"Imperial Grandfather" Zhu Gaochi stuck out his tongue and said: "It was the rule you set at the beginning to win over the world's literati to serve the imperial court. This..."
"oh?"
Zhu Yuanzhang pretended not to know and looked up at the sky: "Did we say this? No, some official should have suggested it, and I accidentally agreed."
After thinking about it carefully, Zhu Yuanzhang found that these words were really what he said, and he also set the policy.
But now after working with Li Xiao, my mind has opened up.
You can quickly think of the impact of this policy on the Ming Dynasty hundreds of years later, and you suddenly wake up.
Zhu Di laughed and helped him down the steps: "How could your father say this, Gao Chi, you must have remembered it wrong."
Zhu Gaochi chuckled, nodded and said, "My grandson did remember it wrong. Grandpa, don't blame me."
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slightly, that's pretty much it.
At this time, Zhu Di agreed: "Father, you are right. Each of these 100,000 talents will be allocated twelve taels of silver by the court every year. One hundred thousand people is 120,000 taels. This is not a small amount. If this development continues, if there are really one million talents, that will be 1.2 million taels of silver. It would be great if these 1.2 million taels of silver could be used to raise soldiers. It would be good if the imperial examinations were cancelled. The status of these honors would also be They should all be cancelled.”
Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said: "That's right! We have indeed seen the benefits of canceling the imperial examinations and gradually canceling official titles. First of all, this benefit is saving money."
"It's more than just saving money."
Li Xiao smiled and said: "Your Majesty, think about it, these scholars have more than just these benefits, the big head is still behind."
"Big head."
Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a while, suddenly realized again, and said slowly: "Yes. We stipulate that scholars can also be exempted from service and taxes."
"Yes, this is the big head!"
Li Xiao nodded and said: "The first privilege of this scholar is to be exempted from corvee. At the beginning, the Supreme Emperor stipulated that those with scholar's household registration were not required to do corvee. You are indeed kind-hearted. You hope to encourage people to study, introduce eight-legged essays, and let Han culture Come back again. Because after all, when the Ming Dynasty was founded, the Han culture was poisoned by the Yuan Dynasty, and there were not many real scholars. Your Majesty, you are particularly good at this. In fact, the thoughts of the Han people mainly come from Confucianism. With many scholars, we Han people The culture is flourishing again!”
Li Xiao first praised him, but actually he wasn't flattering, but he was serious.
This is indeed one of the more correct things Zhu Yuanzhang did.
The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty were not Han Chinese. Although they followed the Han dynasty system and still held imperial examinations, they did not agree with it from the bottom of their hearts.
This also led to the gradual loss of Han culture, and the Han people lacked cultural confidence.
After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he promoted the imperial examination and introduced the eight-part essay.
The so-called eight-legged essay tests the Four Books and Five Classics. Those things are the origin of Han culture.
Everything has two sides. Although these eight-part essays are not good, when Confucianism was in decline in the early Ming Dynasty and there was no cultural self-confidence, encouraging people all over the world to learn Confucianism actually helped to restore the cultural self-confidence of the Han people.
Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and said: "Li Shengren, you originally criticized our eight-part essay as worthless. Why, now you say that we did the right thing."
Li Xiao hurriedly held up his hands and said: "This time is not the other time, Your Majesty. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there were not many literati and Confucianism declined. You are very right to do this. We must look at everything from two sides. What you did back then That’s right, very correct.”
Zhu Yuanzhang stood up and walked two steps in the palace with his hands behind his hands. He looked at Li Xiao and teased: "I was right at the beginning, so are we wrong now?"
Li Xiao knew that Zhu Yuanzhang was joking with him, and he had given him a life extension. Now even if he goes too far in front of Zhu Yuanzhang, it would not be a big deal. He smiled and said: "Now, I can't be wrong. Times have changed, and this policy has also changed." It’s time to keep pace with the times.”
"Good, what a good word to keep pace with the times."
After Zhu Yuanzhang was praised, he was still very happy and said: "Li Xiao, we are at odds with each other. We are always called the Supreme Emperor."
Li Xiao smiled and said, "What about big brother?"
In the past, we would call each other privately and no one else would know.
This is the first time he has been called Big Brother publicly.
The words fell.
Everyone was shocked!
Zhu Di thought to himself, you kid, you used to call me eldest brother in private, but now you call me eldest brother in public, do I have to call you uncle? Don't I want to lose face? ? ?
Hearing this, Lu Zhen's eyes widened. Li Xiao actually called Zhu Yuanzhang eldest brother?
There was sweat on his forehead, and he secretly looked at Zhu Yuanzhang next to him. Hey, he found that Zhu Yuanzhang didn't seem angry.
Zhu Yuanzhang was just slightly stunned, and then smiled.
He originally thought that Li Xiao didn't dare to scream, but it turned out that this kid was so courageous!
Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and said: "Okay! This big brother call is so affectionate, haha."
He walked up to Li Xiao, patted Li Xiao on the shoulder, and said: "You are a saint now, and we are the Supreme Emperor. We are brothers, who dares to gossip?"
Li Xiao smiled and nodded: "Brother is right."
Lu Zhen took a breath, thinking that this was really the truth.
A Confucian sage and a supreme emperor!
There is nothing wrong with these two identities being brothers!
Good fellow, throughout the ages, there have been many powerful officials.
But a relative like Li Xiao, a powerful minister, could still have such a close relationship with both emperors. This is unprecedented and unprecedented. This is just one example!
Outrageous, so outrageous!
This Li Xiao's thigh, I, Lu Zhen, have to hold it well
On the other hand, Zhu Di stood aside and looked a little embarrassed. Ah, yes, yes, you are all right.
Zhu Yuanzhang chuckled, glanced at Zhu Di, and found that Zhu Di was silent. Looking at Zhu Di's deflated look, he was in a very good mood. He looked at Li Xiao and said, "By the way, what did you just say??"
Li Xiao said: "Brother, just now we talked about the influence of scholars on our court."
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slightly: "By the way, we remembered. You just said that scholars are exempted from corvee. Tell me, what impact will this exemption of scholars have?"
At this time, everyone looked at Li Xiao, feeling that every time the Ming Dynasty Master stayed here, everyone else became the audience and had no part in interrupting.
Li Xiao smiled slightly, and then explained: "If my brother trusts me so much, I will venture to guess that if this continues, there will be more and more scholars, and the total amount of corvee remains unchanged, so the burden on those families without scholars will be As it gets heavier and heavier, people's lives will become more and more miserable and people will be prone to civil unrest."
Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that it made sense: "Your speculation may actually happen."
Li Xiao continued: "In addition, the second privilege of a scholar is tax exemption. Brother, when you decided on this strategy, you also based it on the national conditions. At that time, the poor families of the scholar could apply for exemption from their own taxes.
In fact, this is a good thing in itself. After all, the basic living abilities of scholars are not high, and the ability to make money is basically non-existent.
In this way, these scholars can live a better life.
But as far as I know, many landowners' acres are owned by scholars, who can help others exempt themselves from taxes and make profits.
If there are more and more scholars, won’t the country have less and less land that can be taxed? "
After listening to these words.
Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly realized that Li Xiao had such a far-sighted view of the problem.
This does happen now, but it's not serious.
But if there are more and more scholars, wouldn't future generations still be troubled by these things after inheriting the throne?
After listening to the analysis, Zhu Yuanzhang said happily, "We made the right move by canceling the imperial examination!"
Zhu Di looked at Zhu Yuanzhang with a smile and agreed: "Father, in fact, it is not just about the imperial examination. When Li Xiao took back the land in Beiping and made it state-owned, these problems had already been solved. If we could make all the land in the country If it is state-owned and the land is leased, the rent will be obtained, and the rent will include land tax, so the tax collection will be easily solved!"
Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said: "It is too difficult to nationalize all the land in the country. It is impossible to do it now. Besides, except for Peking, there are no factories in other places. How can farmers make a living without their fields? This matter must be done slowly."
Li Xiao smiled and said: "That's right, we can't eat a fat man in one bite. Canceling the imperial examination is the first step, boiling the frog in warm water. Five years later, after all the honors and honors are cancelled, and after the tax exemption is cancelled, the acres of land in the hands of the landlords that have evaded taxes will naturally float. Get out of the water when the time comes."
Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes lit up, and there was a flash of light in his eyes: "Tax evasion is a serious crime. When the time comes, we will kill some of them, shock some of them, and get back the land of these landlords and gentry first!"
Zhu Di was dumbfounded. He didn't expect that this was a serial plan.
What we are really dealing with is the gentry class
This is the first step in nationalizing land, similar to what Li Xiao did in Peiping.
Lu Zhen stood aside, shocked beyond measure.
High, really high!
Lu Zhen was still in a daze when Zhu Di suddenly spoke.
"Lv Zhen listens." Zhu Di looked at Lu Zhen.
"Wei Chen is here." Lu Zhen came to his senses and hurriedly handed over his hands to listen to the order.
Zhu Di ordered, "There are still three months until the national examination at the end of the year. Within these three months, you and the Ministry of Work will discuss together to build a Gongyuan in the capital that can accommodate 100,000 candidates. You must do this well and make no mistakes!" "
"Within three months, we will build a Gongyuan that can accommodate 100,000 candidates."
Lu Zhen's scalp was numb and he didn't dare to agree casually. He cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, I'm afraid it's a little difficult."
Zhu Di was about to speak.
Li Xiao reminded from the side: "Lv Shangshu, it's not difficult. You only need to discuss it with the Ministry of Industry first, come up with a design drawing, and then issue bids for the project separately, allowing private construction organizations to bid, and countless people will start the work together. It can be completed in March. There are many construction companies in Beiping now, so we need to learn to be flexible."
"Huh?" Lu Zhen was slightly startled, and then he cupped his hands and said, "That seems to be the truth."
"Yumutou, do you still need the guidance of the national teacher on this matter?" Zhu Di said angrily.
"Thank you, Imperial Master, for your advice." Lu Zhen hurriedly bowed to Li Xiao, and then cupped his hands to Zhu Di and said, "I will go and do it now, contact the Ministry of Industry, and I will retire."
Zhu Di waved his hand, and Lu Zhen hurried away.
After the matter was done, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Li Xiao and said, "Li Xiao, are you free?"
Li Xiao smiled and said: "Yes, if the elder brother speaks, he will become free even if he is not available."
Afterwards, Zhu Yuanzhang took Li Xiao's hand and walked out of the palace, "Come on, that table tennis ball you invented last time is very interesting. Let's go and have a chat."
"okay."
Just like that, Zhu Yuanzhang and Li Xiao walked away arm in arm.
Looking at the backs of the two people.
Zhu Di was slightly stunned, feeling confused.
Eh. Why do you feel that I, the emperor, am acting like a puppet? No, I want to go on the Northern Expedition, otherwise my son-in-law will steal the limelight! !
"Dad." After everyone left, Zhu Gaochi took a memorial and asked Zhu Di for instructions, "Dad, please take a look at how to deal with the recent plague in Henan and Shanxi."
Zhu Di waved his hand, "You can figure it out yourself. I'm going to the military camp now to see how the second brother is doing in his training."
After saying that, Zhu Di left.
Zhu Gaochi looked at Zhu Di's back and murmured in his heart:
"Dad, you are too easy to be the emperor. The master has to worry about the big things. I worry about all these bad things. You don't have to worry about anything. You are your puppet."
To the west of Beiping City.
With a dull look on his face, Zhu Yunxi bought twenty kilograms of rice from the street, packed it in a cloth bag and carried it on his shoulder. He was heading home with a bag of meat in his hand.
From the looks of it, he looks like an ordinary citizen, a bit stupid.
But this is all an act.
After all, after ten years in Tianlao, most people come out looking like this.
It had been two months since he came to Peiping. Except for his first visit to the capital, after meeting Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yuanzhang gave him one hundred taels of silver and ignored him.
Li Xiao and others will naturally not pay attention to him.
Zhu Yunxi bought a yard here and lived an ordinary life.
He wandered around the city of Beiping every day, bought some food to take home, and secretly observed the changes in Beiping over the years.
"Beiping is truly earth-shaking. Li Xiao is truly a god."
After closing the courtyard door, Zhu Yunxi's eyes instantly became wiser, no longer as stupid as before.
He walked into the room from the yard, and then found that there was another person in the room, it was Shura.
"Come back?" Zhu Yunxi said, "You haven't been discovered by anyone, right?"
"Your Majesty," Shura said, "I have checked everywhere, and no one is watching you at all. No one is paying attention to you at all."
Zhu Yunxi felt disappointed for a moment, and then smiled and said: "This is better. By the way, how about going to the Han River to investigate this time?"
Speaking of this, Shura's eyes were filled with joy, "Your Majesty, this is great news. Chen Youliang has really given you a big gift!"
Hearing this, Zhu Yunxi's eyes lit up.
(End of chapter)
