Li Shimin smiled.
"Then what do you think?"
He asked back, spreading his hands and saying,
"It is difficult for people from poor families to study, let alone ordinary people. How can they study and read when they have to run around just to have enough to eat?"
"Only wealthy families and those from aristocratic families can provide education for their clan members and select good seedlings to cultivate."
"So, among the first batch of scholars who took the imperial examination, 90% came from aristocratic families and prominent families, 10% came from poor families, and the remaining few folk wizards can almost be ignored."
"This is the current situation."
Xu Fenglei held the memorial in his hands and was silent for a while, then sighed softly.
"The examinations are also conducted from the gentry, and the selections are also made from them. Now when it comes to the imperial examinations, they have to be selected."
He couldn't help but said,
"Then what's the point of the imperial examination? It's the same no matter how you choose!"
"This world will still be controlled by them!"
Li Shimin laughed.
"That's not entirely true. Aren't there still 10% of children from poor families and a few scattered folk wizards?"
He was more optimistic, waving his hand and saying,
"It's not bad! In the past, ten percent of them were them! This time, a hole has been opened."
Xu Fenglei shook his head.
"If the proportion of noble officials does not decrease, His Majesty's imperial power will not be so supreme."
He pointedly pointed out,
"This world is not the world of the Li family, but the world of the Li family and the scholar-bureaucrats!"
This saying originally came from the Song Dynasty.
But it is more applicable when applied to the Tang Dynasty!
In the Song Dynasty, the imperial examination system was at least perfected, and among the selected officials, a high proportion of them were children of officials from non-rich families.
The Tang Dynasty was still in the exploratory stage, and the first imperial examination... was in vain!
"Share the world with the scholar-bureaucrats..."
Li Shimin's face sank slightly, and he said with some displeasure,
"What you said sounds very ugly... but it is indeed the truth."
"I have something else here, take a look."
As he said this, he handed another folder to Xu Fenglei.
Wow.
When Xu Fenglei took it apart and took a look, he suddenly couldn't hold himself tight.
"It's amazing. The number one family is actually the Bolingcui family."
He smiled and said,
"Where is the Li family... Let's take a look, oh, it's here!"
"Ranked third! Not bad, hahaha. At least I didn't fall out of the top three."
When Li Er heard this, his face turned dark.
"If you dare to ridicule again, I will slap you!"
he rebuked,
"I asked people to compile the "Chronicles of the Clan", but they were lucky. When the first draft was submitted, the Cui family was ranked first and my royal family was ranked third!"
"What is this? To put it mildly, this is contempt; to put it more seriously, this is bullying!"
"The Cui family is still number one... They are so powerful, why don't they become the royal family? What a joke!"
Xu Fenglei touched his chin.
"To be honest, if you don't belong to the royal family, you must be powerful."
He said seriously,
"From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the present, dynasties have changed, and the life span of the royal family has not been long."
"On the contrary, these noble clans have continued to grow in troubled times. Over the past hundreds of years, capable people have emerged in large numbers and have endured for a long time. They may not be as good as the royal family in terms of height, but in terms of long-term and foundation, they really can beat them."
Li Shimin's eyes twitched.
"Come here!" He waved his hand.
"Oh, okay, okay!"
When Xu Fenglei saw that Li Er was really going to get angry, he didn't dare to talk nonsense anymore and said,
"I haven't finished speaking yet!"
"Looking at the past hundreds of years, the Li family in Longxi has its own heritage and length. At the same time, His Majesty has unified the world and made the Li family a royal family and has reached heights!"
"It's so high and hard! No matter how you rank it, it should be Longxi Li's number one! There is no doubt about it! The person who wrote the first draft should be the one who made the first draft, eighty!"
When Li Shimin heard these words, his expression softened.
"You are also a mistress who needs to be dealt with. You won't shed tears until you see the coffin." He waved his hand to the guards to retreat and snorted coldly.
Xu Fenglei chuckled.
He just peeled it off and was very happy.
"This incident also reminded me."
Li Shimin pointed to the "Clan Chronicle" and said in a deep voice,
"The aristocratic family is so powerful that we must guard against it and attack it!"
"I want to be independent and independent, and I don't want to share the world with the scholar-bureaucrats! Otherwise, if they are dissatisfied with my royal family one day, wouldn't they want to overthrow my royal family?"
"I will never accept this!"
"Do you have any ideas? Give me some advice. I plan to use my hands to suppress their arrogance!"
Xu Fenglei spread his hands.
"The aristocratic families have deep foundations and are deeply intertwined with each other. To suppress and weaken them rashly will definitely arouse their vigilance."
He said,
"Once this group of people unite, their power will definitely be able to fight against the imperial court!"
"Your Majesty, you should know the cause of the demise of the Sui Dynasty, right?"
Li Shimin looked stern.
Of course he knows this.
It was because the aristocratic families were dissatisfied with the excessive conquests and punishments of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. Starting with Yang Xuangan, they directly rebelled. The nobles responded one after another, and the war swept the world, eventually leading to the demise of the Sui Dynasty!
The Li family also comes from a wealthy family, so naturally they know how profound these wealthy families have accumulated over hundreds of years!
The family is fine, but if they join forces... it can definitely be described as terrifying! Even the royal family has a hard time resisting!
"So, all we can do is boil the frog in warm water."
Xu Fenglei said again,
"Slowly and subtly weakening them. By the time they react, they have been cooked. They are no longer able to resist and can only become a dish."
Li Shimin raised his eyebrows.
"Elaborate." He lowered his voice.
The south study room is unattended, which is perfect for 'conspiracy'.
"May I ask Your Majesty, what is the greatest advantage of the noble clan?"
Xu Fenglei asked.
Li Shimin thought for a moment and responded:
"Talent? Money? Assets?"
Xu Fenglei shook his head.
"No, no, none of that."
He said,
"These are indeed advantages and important, but they are not the core."
"The most important thing is knowledge and cultural level!"
"If you want to be an official, you must at least have some culture and be able to read those classic books, right? The most basic thing is that you have to be literate, right?"
"If you don't even know the words, you are definitely not qualified to be an official and govern a country!"
"So, ordinary people have no chance of becoming officials. On the contrary, those children of the gentry have someone to teach them how to read and write since they were born. As long as they are not too stupid, they can have a decent level of education."
"This qualifies you to be an official."
Li Shimin looked serious and listened with concentration.
Xu Fenglei continued:
"In this way, among the vast number of people, there are very few people who can choose officials; but among the families with a smaller number of people, there are very many people who can choose officials."
"This also means that the imperial court can only select officials from the gentry's children and let them help govern the world. This is what Your Majesty finds unpleasant, 'sharing the world with the gentry'."
"It's hard to hear, but it's a fact, and it's a fact that cannot be changed in the short term."
According to the original historical trajectory, the influence of the gentry will gradually disappear until the end of the Tang Dynasty. The key point is naturally that Huang Chao "trampled all the bones of the public ministers" and launched a riot, which wiped out all these guys...
"So, we have to take a long-term view."
Xu Fenglei said,
"First of all, we must improve the literacy rate of the people, especially the literacy rate of children! Because children always learn things the fastest, as long as they get a good education, they can catalyze a large number of educated young people."
"But getting an education is very expensive. Those private schools are not accessible to ordinary peasant children. Therefore, I propose that Datang should open public schools."
Li Shimin's pupils shrank.
"Public school?"
he asked,
"You mean, the imperial court set up schools for ordinary children to go to school?"
Xu Fenglei nodded firmly.
"right."
He said,
"Public schools can use my soon-to-be-opened 'Chang'an School' as a template to set up in various provinces, prefectures and states,"
"The imperial court allocated funds to recruit teachers to improve the cultural level of children. In this way, in just a dozen years, the average cultural level of the people of the Tang Dynasty was raised."
"When knowledge is no longer monopolized, the advantages of aristocratic families will naturally gradually decrease. Maybe they can still stay ahead through high-quality education, but after all, the base is too small, and one day they will be surpassed by the children of ordinary people with a huge base."
Li Shimin touched his chin.
"Appropriation, also see appropriation..."
He said helplessly,
"It's easy for you to think. If you really follow what you said, the imperial court will have to increase its expenditures."
"How about you call?"
When Xu Fenglei heard this, he nodded without hesitation.
"Can."
He said,
"If the court is in trouble, I can lend a helping hand and provide financial support."
"In the next few years, Fenglei Bank's profits should be very considerable. Of course, His Majesty's dividends cannot be paid out. I don't mind using my own dividends to subsidize public schools."
Li Shimin looked slightly embarrassed.
"You're talking...as if I don't have any money."
He said,
"You, as a minister, can provide this amount of money, so naturally I won't be stingy!"
"I think the public school thing is okay, but it can only be a plan, and it has to be taken slowly... If we build it rashly now, the teachers who teach it will have nowhere to raise funds."
Xu Fenglei smiled slightly.
He knew that if he said that, Li Er would not be shameless enough to let him pay the full amount.
"You have to take your time. This is a thirty-year, fifty-year, or even a hundred-year plan!"
Xu Fenglei said seriously,
"First of all, I have to run Chang'an Academy well and cultivate a group of talents first!"
"Among these talents, the weaker ones can be used as a reserve of future public school teachers, while the stronger ones can pass the imperial examination, enter the officialdom, and compete with the children of the gentry."
"Speaking of this, I would like to ask your Majesty's permission. I want the best graduates from Chang'an Academy to directly qualify for the imperial examination. Do you think it is okay?"
Li Shimin nodded slightly.
"There is nothing you can't do."
He said,
"You are in charge of the imperial examination, you just have to do whatever you want. I believe in you."
"However, the name of Chang'an Academy is not very good. It is a bit too petty... Since it is a place to cultivate talents, we might as well imitate the 'Jixia Academy' during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and change its name to 'Datang Academy'! How about that?"
"In this way, it can be regarded as a benchmark."
When Xu Fenglei heard this, he was immediately happy.
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for the name!"
He said,
"Please also ask Your Majesty to write down the words 'Datang Academy' so that I can frame them as a signboard for the academy!"
Since Li Er said this, this wave of wool must be harvested!
Li Shimin: "..."
"You kid, you're pretty good at finding every opportunity."
He rolled his eyes and said,
"Okay! I will write something for you!"
"Bring me pen, ink, paper and inkstone!"
Xu Fenglei chuckled and quickly helped Li Shimin. When he saw him writing the four elegant characters "Datang Academy" with his own hand, he nodded with satisfaction.
"Your Majesty's handwriting is elegant and lively. Even if you cover up your name and sell it in the market, you can still get a lot of money."
He carefully put away the words and said with a smile,
"If it were me, I'd be willing to buy it for ten taels of silver!"
Snap.
"snort!"
Li Shimin put down his pen, wiped his hands with a towel, and hummed softly,
"My Feibai body has such a high artistic quality! Is it only worth ten taels of silver?"
"At least a hundred taels!"
"Uh... Then you may have to sell it for a while and wait for the right person..." Xu Fenglei touched his nose.
"Come on!"
Li Shimin waved his hand and said,
"Stop talking nonsense to me! I am already preparing for the ceremony of enshrining Zen. I plan to set off in half a month. The route has also been decided. It avoids the two routes taken by Qin Shihuang and Han Wu Emperor. If I want to leave, I have to go out on my own. The Imperial Road!"
"When will your funds be available? As soon as this team starts, they will need two hundred thousand taels of silver!"
Xu Fenglei was secretly shocked.
The start-up capital alone requires two hundred thousand taels of silver?
This is more expensive than fighting!
Fortunately, it's still within his tolerance... As long as he can get a name and make his name known, the money won't be considered a loss!
"Don't worry, I'll say hello to Qingquan tomorrow and ask her to get the money."
Xu Fenglei smiled and said,
"Of course, it's the public account."
Li Shimin frowned.
"What? You mean...in this money, there are also dividends that originally belonged to me?"
he shouted,
"You didn't tell me earlier!"
This is like a pleasant trip that was originally funded by the public, but now it suddenly became half-public and half-self-funded. Of course, Li Er felt a little unhappy.
My money!
"Your Majesty, get rid of your miserly behavior."
Xu Fenglei rolled his eyes and said angrily,
"Originally, the bank provided the money for the development of the bank. It is considered an investment."
"You can't refuse to invest just because part of the money invested belongs to you, right? This is too short-sighted!"
"This year's dividend may be less, but it will be more after that! Don't worry about it."
This Li Er is so stingy!
"What nonsense!"
Li Er felt a little embarrassed and scolded,
"I'm not short-sighted, I'm just... I just want to ask clearly!"
"Okay, okay, let's do that! In half a month, go to Mount Tai with me!"
"Back off!"
The corners of Xu Fenglei's mouth raised slightly, but he no longer ridiculed Li Er.
After all, our Majesty is a man of good face and has never bothered to be a miser.
If you continue to be serious with him, he will become angry and humiliated, and you will be punished.
Goodbye, I have to accept it!
"I excuse myself."
