At dusk, the first day's competition between the two martial arts examinations was over. Yang Ji entered the palace with the riding and archery results of today's B-list candidates. When they arrived at the Zhuque Gate, the examiners of the A-list Sun Sheng and Tu Wanxu ordered them again. A group of soldiers handed Yang Ji the results of a thousand candidates on the first list and asked him to take them with him to Yang Guang for review.
Yang Guang met Yang Ji at the Ganlu Hall. When he saw the results of the A and B rankings, he couldn't help but be shocked. Although there were a few poor people in the B rankings, except for the top 100 in the B rankings, they were on par with the A rankings. In addition, the next 900 were in a situation of being crushed by the top rankings. If he were ranked 101st on the B list, he wouldn't even be able to get into the 800th place if he were ranked on the A list.
He couldn't help but ask: "Vajra slave, why is the gap so huge?"
"This is the difference in heritage and wealth between aristocratic families and humble families." Yang Ji said with a wry smile: "The candidates for the first list are almost the second son, third son, concubine, and side branch of each family. Although these people have no hope of succeeding in the title, they But they have no worries about food and clothing, and don’t have to run around for a living. Although they only know how to play wildly, do nothing, and indulge in sensuality, fighting, hunting, riding, archery and other subjects are exactly the subjects that dandies like to use for gambling. And most of them Playboys all have the characteristic of saving face. After they lose once, they almost always go home and practice hard for a while, and then compete with others. If they lose, they continue to practice. If they beat the opponent, they will sarcastically criticize the opponent. I lost money and lost face, so I went home to practice and then compete again. With such a cycle of gambling and fighting for many years, it is difficult not to improve my riding and archery skills. So don't look at the dudes as if they are a bunch of useless people. They are trash, but when it comes to knowledge related to violence and gambling, they are definitely better than those honest children."
"And the candidates for the second list are mainly from poor families. Among them, except for those who are from wealthy families and have no worries about food and clothing, most of them have never even ridden a horse a few times. How can the level of riding and archery be any better? "
It’s not that the children of the martial arts family are incompetent in martial arts. On the contrary, most of the people with high martial arts skills in the Sui Dynasty came from the martial arts family. The problem is that the outstanding children of the military family have already gone to the military through other channels, such as brothers Xue Wanjun and Xue Wanche, Shi Huaiyi, Liu Tongren, Mai Meng Cai, Qian Jie, Hou Mo, Chen Yi, Feng Xiaoci, etc., after they achieved some success, they became the soldiers of their elders. When encountering war, their elders often arranged some difficult tasks for them that did not affect the situation of the battle. Tasks allow them to be tempered by actual combat; as long as the children of such aristocratic families are successful in their studies and establish themselves in the military, they will shine brightly. There are many ways to become officials, so there is no need for such outstanding people to take exams.
The children of aristocratic families who come to participate in the martial arts examinations are either real dudes with low martial arts skills, or they are concubines from side households who are not valued by their families. However, compared with the children from poor families, they have more connections in the family, so those who participate in the martial arts examinations Most of the children of aristocratic families fall into this category.
But even this group of people is better than Han Shi.
Although the poor families are also a group of people who are not short of money, they have not been able to join the officialdom before. Therefore, except for true martial arts enthusiasts, most people will not seriously learn the hard and expensive martial arts.
Yang Guang nodded suddenly. In fact, the problem Yang Ji mentioned was also the most troublesome issue for emperors of all dynasties.
The children of aristocratic families can study without worrying about food and clothing, and can ask the best famous teachers in the world to teach them martial arts, and can use the books at home to increase their knowledge; while the poor people cannot afford books or paper, nor can they ask famous teachers to teach them martial arts, and at the same time they can also They have to work hard for a living, and the positions in the past generations have been monopolized by aristocratic families, so there are very few talents.
Faced with this situation, what choice can the court make? Although the emperors of the past dynasties wanted to promote poor men, they were not good enough and were restricted by the aristocratic families, so they could only compromise and choose the children of stronger aristocratic families.
Of course, if the conditions are good, you may not be able to become a talent; but if a poor person doesn't even have the conditions to study, what are the chances of becoming a talent? Even if there are a few monster-level geniuses from poor families, it is difficult for such people to emerge without a backing, and those who finally enter the emperor's sight are almost always people promoted by some force. How is this different from the children of aristocratic families? different?
Besides, the foundation of a dynasty is not a few monsters, but a large group of second- and third-rate talents. This group of people is the foundation of a dynasty.
The family clan is like an educational institution, a production base for second- and third-rate talents. Faced with these talents who put family interests first, emperors of the past dynasties did not want to use them. They were worried that after they became officials, they would increase the power of major forces and bring huge security risks to their dynasties. However, in the end, for the sake of local peace and a strong army, they We must use these practical talents.
From then on, it fell into a vicious cycle.
Yang Guang was silent for a long time and asked Yang Ji: "According to what you said, if the two lists were combined into one, and the candidates from the two lists were taken together, and the imperial court would select the best in a fair and just way, the children from a poor family would not be able to compare with the children from aristocratic families. Already?"
"Definitely not comparable!" Yang Ji said: "If we take the exam together and the court recruits fairly, at least 700 will fall into the hands of the aristocratic family. This is an innate gap that cannot be changed in a short time. However, the martial arts examination only requires If it is successfully held, ordinary people from poor families in the world will see the hope of becoming officials, and they will definitely work hard to learn martial arts."
After Yang Guang heard this, he couldn't help but sigh and said: "I originally wanted to learn from the successful experience of the martial arts examination and promote the meritocratic imperial examination, but from what you said, even if it is done, it will be the family that succeeds in the end. It's just that Because literary education requires more time to settle and more foundation to support, if a Hanshi doesn't even know which book the exam content comes from, how can he answer it fluently?"
"That's right!" Yang Ji nodded and said: "I think the top priority is not to take the imperial examination, but to work hard to reduce the cost of learning. When books are overrun and no longer valuable, more people will have books to read. And the people at the bottom With a large population, even if there is only one slightly powerful person among a thousand people, the number of these powerful people together is equivalent to that of the children of the aristocratic family. When they compete together, it should be okay for each to get half. In the long run, it will be There are more outstanding figures emerging from the vast underclass population.”
Yang Guang nodded and said: "The cost of learning can be solved through business, but the learning conditions need to be created by the imperial court. Next, I am going to restart the three schools across the country. You can improve the three schools in Liangzhou as soon as possible, and at the same time Draw up the cost of establishing three schools for the government and the one-year study expenses for students for my reference. If there are difficulties, solve them, and if there are no difficulties, find out the difficulties. If you can't solve it, you can report it to me directly. "
Having said this, he encouraged Yang Ji and said, "I'm not afraid of you making trouble, but I'm afraid that you will be lost to everyone."
"Here!" Yang Guang cupped his hands, smiled and hit the snake with the stick: "Brother, I really have a big problem."
"Oh?" Yang Guang asked with a smile, "What's the difficulty?"
"Food, Liangzhou is short of food." Yang Ji chuckled, showing his fox tail: "Liangzhou has a large influx of people and wars every year, and the government must not only train the army, actively prepare for war, but also open up wasteland and Road construction, so Liangzhou's food will basically be in a dilemma of being unable to make ends meet in the next two or three years. If the support of the court is lost, it will not only affect Liangzhou's various policies, but also may cause the collapse of the military and civilians. And the official warehouse in Guanzhong It’s time to renovate the old grain, do you think you can transport all the old grain to Liangzhou?”
"You've moved several times, how can you find any old grain?" Yang Guang asked with a smile, "How much do you want?"
When Yang Ji heard that there was a way, he quickly said: "The bottom limit is five million stones, but I believe that Han Xin here has more troops, the better. Brother, I don't think it's too much if you give ten million stones. In a word, as much as you give, I want as much as I want, and I will never have too much.”
"Isn't that too much? You really opened your mouth like a lion!" Yang Guang smiled angrily, although he also knew that there were many people in Liangzhou who were not engaged in production and many people who had not yet produced anything, but ten million stone The exaggeration was outrageous. He thought for a while and said: "Let's do this. Considering your heavy workload, I will give you three million stones of 'old grain' first. When the spring grain is harvested, I will give you additional supplies." It’s interesting enough to pay two million stones!”
"Thank you very much, brother. If we have these five million stones as a foundation, Liangzhou will be enough to cope with it until next year. Even if it is needed later, it won't be much more." Before Yang Ji returned to Beijing, Yu Shinan said that Liangzhou was short of More than two million stones. If his uncle Yang Jian was not seriously ill, he would have led his troops to extort the Turks. Now the five million stones that Yang Guang promised him, although it was paid in installments, was far more than what he had in mind. .
After thinking about it, I felt a little sorry, and then said, "How about I bring you some money?"
"The money you got from selling weapons has almost filled up my treasure house. I don't want this thing!" Yang Guang said with a look of disgust: "Although silver is precious, it cannot be used as money. It's not as good as an animal with a solid coat, I really don't know what you're doing here."
Yang Ji smiled and said: "Save it first! Save it first. Maybe it will be needed one day."
The only currency currently recognized by the government is copper coins. However, because copper coins are rare and heavy, transactions in many places are mainly barter. For example, the taxes collected by the court directly stated the number of bushels of corn and bolts of silk. In some places, all exchangeable goods were even used to pay taxes.
If the country is in financial difficulty and the economy is in a downturn, this method is not a big deal. However, as commerce becomes more and more developed, a trade craze has set off across the country, especially silk, porcelain and other workshops, which have flourished in various places. The workshops often employ hundreds of workers, and the annual trade volume can reach tens or hundreds of thousands. It would obviously be very inconvenient to continue bartering and trading with copper coins at this time. What's more important is that the method of barter conversion is uncertain. Sometimes a piece of silk can be exchanged for a cow, but sometimes it can only be exchanged for a sheep. This huge gap creates opportunities for tax officials to be greedy.
In view of this, Yang Ji felt that the currency reform of the Sui Dynasty was urgently needed, otherwise it would not only affect the newly emerging business, but also shake the foundation of the country. Compared with bulky copper coins and scarce gold, silver, which is in between, is undoubtedly suitable to be used as a 'large banknote auxiliary currency'.
It's just that with Yang Guang's temperament, if he mentioned the benefits of currency reform, he would definitely launch it in a hurry. However, people these days are not proficient in finance. If he does it rashly, it will only cause more trouble. Therefore, he could only hide this matter in his heart and work hard to get the foreign gold and silver first.
"Forget the money." Yang Guang said with a smile: "As for the arms trade, I don't care about you. As long as you sell weapons to alien races to kill each other and weaken the alien races, I support it."
"This is natural!" Yang Ji agreed without even thinking about it. After thinking about it, he said: "Brother, as long as the martial arts competitions are selected according to my method, there will be no mistakes. I can do it." It’s no longer of much use. Do you think you can replace an upright official as the examiner and chief inspector?”
Yang Guang understood and said: "Do you want to go back to Liangzhou?"
"Exactly!" Yang Ji nodded: "The stalls in Liangzhou are too big, and I'm a little worried. The important thing is some weird ideas, which can only be understood but not expressed in words. I'm worried that they won't be able to do it well."
Yang Guang quite agreed with Yang Ji's words. He said with a smile: "You brat don't know what is in your mind. You can come up with all kinds of weird ideas casually, but if you think about it carefully, everything is different." It's quite useful, I can't wait to break you into six pieces, and each one can be used as a minister."
He paused and said: "After the riding and archery test is over, you will step down from your duties as examiner and chief inspector. I will ask Shi Wansui and Changsun Sheng to take over the matter. Just go to Liangzhou and do your work."
"Here!" Yang Ji responded.
"The five provinces and six ministries, the Yushitai, and the Eleven Temples are not yet complete, and there are many overlapping responsibilities. Even the responsibilities of each province, each ministry, and each temple office are not clear. In the end, a large amount of official work was piled on me, and Other officials are watching. This is not a good thing. So I plan to improve the civil and military official system, clarify responsibilities, and improve the efficiency of various departments in the court. But it has reached the extreme now, and I have no idea how to change it." Yang Guang Having said this, he said to Yang Ji: "The various departments and positions under the Zhou Mu are actually not much different from the various ministries of the imperial court. And you, the Zhou Mu, have been away from Liangzhou for a few months, and everything in Liangzhou has been in order. You are busy but not chaotic. It can be seen that you are not only good at employing people, but you also have a relatively complete and clear employment standard. Please try to write this set out for me so that I can refer to it."
Yang Ji said with a grimace: "Then don't I have a lot to do?"
"I can't help it!" Yang Guang smiled: "Any change in the past dynasties will have objections. Especially changes in the official system, there will be more opposition. This is mainly because the changes have reduced the power of some positions. The interests of many people have been harmed, so they are opposed to change, so they don't tell anyone about good solutions. If I rashly ask them for advice, it will definitely lead me to a path that is beneficial to them. Therefore, only we are reliable. Except for You and the other three brothers must also draw up a detailed and reasonable official system for me based on the actual conditions of Yanzhou, Yangzhou, and Qingzhou."
"I'll try my best." Yang Guang's words made Yang Ji smile bitterly. From these words, it can be seen that he did not believe in the civil and military affairs of the DPRK. However, Yang Ji also understood better: just because the Sui Dynasty was the same as the Qin Dynasty, not only It was a dynasty undergoing great changes, and there were countless demons and monsters. Behind every minister in the court, there was a huge backer that made Yang Guang feel threatened, so there were really very few people he could trust.
"The matter is settled for now. If there is anything unexpected in the future, we will talk about it later. I still have a lot of official business to deal with, so I won't let you have dinner tonight."
During the Sui Dynasty, Yang Guang did have many government affairs, large and small, to be handled personally. The key is that he is very strong and tries hard to prove that his father did not choose the wrong person. Therefore, ever since he was named the prince, he has been proving himself with practical actions.
Yang Ji also had a big night rush problem to deal with, so he got up and left.
