Mu Ying received the order and sent five soldiers directly to Jurong without even following the formal procedures.
On the Jurong River, more and more boats began to appear.
On the official road outside the city, there was an endless stream of merchants, horse-drawn carriages and donkey teams.
As the reputation of Jurong's craftsmen's courtyard spread, goods carts and new stoves did not require the county government to arrange transportation. Businessmen made a special trip to Jurong to purchase them, and then sold them to other places.
Especially new stoves have become even more in demand due to the cold wave. However, there are some problems with the supply of briquettes, and many places can only burn coal directly. Fortunately, there is a smoke exhaust pipe, so it won't cause too much of a problem.
The weather is sunny today, which is a good day to dry the briquettes, and the people in the coal yard are even more busy.
Some people were busy pounding coal, some grinding the coal, some shoveling the coal and sifting it. There were also a few naughty children who picked up a black and shiny piece of coal and put it into their mouths. They had a black mouth and were about to vomit. It was uncomfortable, and I even received a slap on the sole of my shoe.
The stout man who beat the briquettes shouted a slogan and knocked out the briquettes one by one, moving step by step. Next to him were neat briquettes, with holes like open eyes looking at the warm sunshine.
"Ma Li, I'll leave the briquettes to you here. If you encounter any trouble, just ask Luo Shao, Zhou Mao, Yang Liang and others."
Seeing that everything was operating normally, Gu Zhengchen asked.
Ma Ma agreed honestly.
After all, it is almost the twelfth lunar month, and the county government seals the seals. The chief seal officer often needs to return to his hometown to reunite with his family.
During the seal period, the county government did not refuse to accept cases at all, but these cases and matters were mostly handed over to Dian Shi for handling. After all, Dianshi is mostly a local, and he can't go anywhere during the sealing period.
It's just that Jurong is a bit special. The county magistrate, chief registrar, and dianshi are all from Jurong. Even if Gu Zhengchen is not in Jurong, he can still maintain basic operations.
The construction of school buildings in the county school palace is in full swing.
When Gu Zhengchen arrived, Liu Gui and Sun Tong hurriedly stepped forward to salute.
Gu Zhengchen nodded with a smile and asked, "We will recruit the first batch of disciples after the spring. Can you find them, sir?"
Liu Gui was bitter, stroking his beard and sighed: "I have written more than twenty letters, and so far I have received only three replies. Two of them were polite rejections, and only one person agreed to come to Jurong to have a look. Judging from this, , it’s difficult to find Mr. Zu in Jurong.”
Sun Tong looked sad and tightened his clothes: "Not many people are optimistic about education in Jurong."
"Is it because Jurong didn't give enough money?"
Gu Zhengchen frowned.
Liu Gui waved his hand: "These people we invited are all scholars. They don't attach much importance to money. Their true nature is to be poor and happy."
Gu Zhengchen thought about it for a while. The ancient literati respected the idea of not bending their backs for five buckets of rice. Even if he gave them three shi of rice, he might not be able to bend their waists.
The key is still "Tao". They need to find something that interests them. Only then will they come to Jurong to see it.
Gu Zhengchen ordered people to find paper and pen, and brought a copy of "The Analects of Confucius", and then began to mark the pinyin on the side (the difference between ancient pronunciation and later generations is not taken into account here).
Liu Gui was confused when he saw the strange symbols, and Sun Tong was even more confused, wondering what Gu Zhengchen was doing.
Gu Zhengchen marked carefully, marking more than 20 pages in a row, then tore up the papers and handed them to Liu Gui and Sun Tong: "Write another letter to them and say, Jurong has new knowledge and wants to learn it." Just bring your family.”
Since you don’t need money, you still need knowledge, right?
Don’t you all admire: It’s enough to hear the Tao in the morning and die in the evening?
Now I give you a way. If you want to hear the way, come to Jurong.
Liu Gui stared at the paper in his hand and read several pages before looking at Gu Zhengchen and asked in shock: "What kind of knowledge is this?"
Although these symbols had never been seen before and were very strange, Liu Gui knew very well that these symbols were not made up by Gu Zhengchen on a whim, because there were just the same symbols coming back and forth, but the combinations of the symbols were different.
If you just write randomly, there will never be such a regular combination, and some homophones will have the same symbols next to them.
These symbols seem to be mysterious musical notes that have never been heard before!
Gu Zhengchen chuckled: "You can just write letters. I believe most of them will come to Jurong this time. As for whether they can stay in Jurong and become teachers, it depends on your ability."
When Liu Gui saw that Gu Zhengchen didn't explain or ask any questions, he said confidently: "As long as they come, we will try our best to stay."
Gu Zhengchen nodded slightly and then said: "During the sealing period, the construction of the school building should not stop. The corresponding layout should be arranged early. The craftsman's courtyard has taken on a lot of work. They will assist in the layout when the time comes..."
When Liu Gui heard this, he remembered something and asked: "A few days ago, the craftsman from the craftsman's courtyard came to measure the dimensions of the house and the north wall. Why?"
Gu Zhengchen laughed: "You will know about this in the next year. It is a very good thing for you."
Sun Tong looked at Liu Gui helplessly. The county magistrate always liked to show off.
Just when Gu Zhengchen was talking with Liu Gui and others, Han Qiang, the leader of the team, came over in a hurry and reported: "Your Majesty, there is a person from outside the county government office. He said he is from Jinling and wants to see the County Lord as soon as possible."
Gu Zhengchen frowned slightly: "The other party didn't say his identity?"
Han Qiang shook his head: "No, but Yao Zhen seems to be very familiar with him."
Gu Zhengchen's eyes lit up, he looked at Liu Gui and Sun Tong, cupped his hands and said, "I'll leave it to you and the other students to handle the matter of the junior college."
Liu Gui, Sun Tong and others returned the gift. yes
As soon as I arrived at the county government street, I saw a familiar figure.
"Wu Rong, it's you!"
Gu Zhengchen stepped forward quickly and asked eagerly: "But what happened to Governor Mu, or did Mu Chun and Mu Sheng have an accident?"
Wu Rong turned around, looked at Gu Zhengchen, and saluted with clasped fists: "Mr. Gu, I have found you. Your Majesty has a verbal order, allowing you to seal it in advance and enter Jinling as soon as possible."
Gu Zhengchen was a little stunned.
It's leap November now, and the first ten days of the month haven't passed yet. Why are we in such a hurry to go to Jinling?
"When, where, and how did His Majesty give the oral order?"
Gu Zhengchen became cautious.
Wu Rong grinned: "Yesterday, Your Majesty went to the sugar store. My sister Gu Qingqing seemed to be talking about business taxes. Your Majesty immediately gave an oral order."
Gu Zhengchen breathed a sigh of relief.
It can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang did not understand the issue of commercial tax. At this time, he wanted to know whether commercial tax should be increased.
If some problems are not solved, the Ming Dynasty will only have money among the people, wealthy households, and officials, but the court will have no money...
Lao Zhu was a man who established rules. His descendants have not made many major changes to Lao Zhu's rules, and key issues such as commercial tax and agricultural tax have not even changed much!
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the court had no money, but when a man named Li went to ransack his house, he had a lot of money.
It is nonsense to say that the Ming Dynasty died because of the lack of money, but there is still a little bit of truth in saying that the Ming Dynasty died because the court had no money...
