On New Year's Eve, most places in Songjiang City are already relatively deserted, and many shops have even begun to close their doors a few days ago.
During the Spring Festival holiday, people who do business all year round also want to take a few days off during the New Year to spend time with their families. Some people even go back to their hometown alone or with their wives and children. Like Sun Dawei, he packs his things a few days early. I took the train back to my hometown in Shaanxi.
However, some shops that deal with New Year goods and catering did not close during the Chinese New Year, but continued to open and were busy.
Many shops on Ximen Street fall into this category. The first few days of the new year and the Chinese New Year are their busiest time of the year and the most profitable time.
So even though it’s already the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, many places have already had New Year’s Eve dinner in advance…
The Chu Empire was vast and rich in resources, and some specific customs during the New Year differed from place to place. In some places, the New Year's Eve dinner was eaten in the evening, but in some places it was earlier in the evening, in some places it was at noon, and in some places the New Year's Eve dinner was simply held at noon. Eat until night...
How to celebrate the so-called traditional festivals? Different places in the Chu Empire have different customs and customs. For example, in later generations, it was celebrated on the half of July. After a long evolution, especially after the mid-20th century, this festival was directly regarded as a ghost superstition. The Ghost Festival finally turned into a ghost festival... After being exaggerated by Hong Kong ghost movies... Well, everyone thought it was a ghost festival, so much so that on July 14th, there were street burnings. Things like paper money filled the air with an eerie atmosphere.
But in some places that still maintain ancient traditions, the half of July is still a festive day to hope for a good harvest, worship ancestors, and visit relatives and friends.
So, when you see someone telling you Happy Ghost Festival... don't be surprised. They are just using local ancient traditional etiquette to convey joy to you... They are not treating you as a ghost!
For an empire with a large area and a large population, the customs of different places and different groups are actually very different, even during the Spring Festival.
However, here in Songjiang City, after people from all over the world gathered together, some of their festival habits were gradually simplified and then tended to be unified.
For example, the Spring Festival. In the past, the concept of the Spring Festival was actually relatively unified and monotonous. It was mainly used as the beginning of the year, to welcome the new year and say goodbye to the old, and to worship ancestors... but it did not include the concept of reunion!
Why? Because people in ancient times rarely left their hometown... a family was basically trapped within a small radius of dozens of miles from birth to death.
There is no such concept as going home to celebrate the New Year... In ancient times, the Mid-Autumn Festival, which was developed from worshiping the moon, had the meaning of family reunion. When a woman went back to her parents' home to visit relatives, she would return to her husband's house that day to show the meaning of reunion... Origin Well, I guess the moon will be round on August 15th, which is very suitable for reunions, for example.
Raise your head to look at the bright moon, lower your head to miss your hometown!
The concept of going home to celebrate the New Year during the Spring Festival has spread widely, and even now many people will go home to celebrate the New Year during the Spring Festival. In fact, it gradually evolved after the establishment of the Chu Empire.
And behind this... is actually that with the continued development of industry and commerce, a large number of people have left their hometowns to do business, work, serve as officials, and join the army, thus creating a large number of foreign groups.
It is easy to understand that doing business and working in other places creates groups of people living in other places, but joining the army and serving as officials are due to the appointment and service system in other places.
In the civil official appointment system of the Great Chu Empire, it is a basic principle to serve as an official in a different place. Even low-level officials from the ninth rank can take the position of official in a different place. Currently, the ninth rank and the ninth rank are not allowed to serve as officials in the town. , from the eighth grade. Those of the eighth rank are not allowed to serve as officials in this county, and those of the seventh rank or above must serve as officials in other prefectures.
In short... don't expect to be an official in your hometown. This is to avoid the situation where local clans and local officials are too big to lose.
This is still talking about civil servants, and civil servants actually have easier management.
If it's the army, it's even more serious. Even an ordinary soldier has to serve in a different province.
And the origins of the officers and soldiers cannot be the same... To put it simply, the generals of Province A cannot lead the soldiers of Province A.
To put it simply, soldiers recruited from Province A serve in garrison in Province B, and are led by army officers from Province C.
At the same time, the officer group will not concentrate a large number of officers in the same place.
This was due to the underdeveloped transportation in the early days. At the same time, because the Chu Empire was so large, soldiers in many places had different dialects, living habits, and even adaptability to the climate. Therefore, the Chu army had always treated soldiers from the same place. , grouped into one place as much as possible.
To this end, a relatively fixed relationship between recruiting and replenishing troops has been formed.
For example, the Eighth Division, which participated in the Nanyang Peninsula War and is currently stationed and suppressing Burma, had been stationed in Yunnan for a long time. In fact, all the soldiers of the Eighth Division were recruited from Guangxi.
And specifically for a certain regiment, a certain battalion has a corresponding prefecture and county recruitment place. For example, the 31st Infantry Regiment, all its soldiers are recruited from the Guilin Prefecture.
These troops usually send people to set up corresponding offices in the corresponding sign areas all year round to coordinate with local recruitment, pensions, training and other matters.
Therefore, among the people, some people say that the Eighth Division is the Guangxi Division; the 31st Infantry Regiment to which the Eighth Division belongs is the Guilin Regiment.
This is a kind of compromise that had to be made in the early years when the official language was not popular enough and the soldiers' education level was too low. However, habits are difficult to change. Until today... Although many actual regulations are no longer available, the tradition On the battlefield, soldiers from the same place of origin will still be assigned together.
It's just that I'm not as particular as before.
Therefore, among the local Chu army, the Eighth Division still strictly abides by tradition and adheres to the fixed recruitment model, but there are also many troops who have begun to mix soldiers from different origins to serve... In recent years, with the vigorous development of government-run primary school education , the corresponding Mandarin is also very popular among young people. After there are no communication barriers between soldiers in different provinces, it is naturally easier to mix. They only need to consider the living habits.
However, living habits also have a great influence. For example, it is not convenient for northern soldiers and southern soldiers to be mixed together... because southern soldiers are accustomed to eating rice, and soldiers in the north and northwest are accustomed to eating pasta.
For example, during the Chinese New Year, some people in the north are used to eating dumplings during the Chinese New Year... But when people in the south heard this, they would probably ask in a very cautious tone: It's not a big deal to eat dumplings during the Chinese New Year... I'd better get two green vegetables!
Northerners will look at you with great disdain: In the deep winter in the north, show me some green vegetables (in ancient times).
In some places, people are accustomed to eating sweet tofu curd, while in other places people are accustomed to eating salty tofu curd. Such differences in eating habits make it troublesome to mix them together.
If you are confused about this, let me ask you: Today the canteen prepared salted tofu curd. Do you like to eat it?
The great differences in geographical environment and climate will lead to huge differences in the living habits of people in different regions. Let alone ancient times, even in the 21st century, the economic level has become so developed, but they are still unavoidable.
This is not a question of who is good or bad, but the difference in living habits caused by the living environment. There is no distinction between good and bad!
The Chu army also preferred to organize troops according to the same place of origin because soldiers from different regions had different dialects and living habits.
As for the restrictions on officers, it is purely to prevent officers from forming regional cliques and becoming warlords after being stationed in a certain area for a long time.
As of now, as transportation becomes more developed, and the top management of the empire becomes more confident, the empire becomes more developed, and the people have a higher degree of recognition of the empire, there are slightly fewer restrictions on officers, but it is just less, and it is not completely disappear.
According to the current imperial army's principle of different provinces, in addition to the restrictions on officers who have to serve in other provinces (except for generals who are native to Tianfu and serve in the military establishment of Gyeonggi where Jinling City is located), generals of the same province are not allowed to lead soldiers of the same province, and are currently limited to regiments and brigades. Enter the commander of the third-level division.
However, there are no restrictions on deputy positions, chief of staff, and middle and low-level positions, such as battalion commander, company commander, and platoon leader.
At the same time, there are no restrictions on higher-level military-level officers, that is, army commanders, or even higher-level group army commanders.
The principle of appointment and service in other places led to the emergence of millions of soldiers and officials who were away from home all year round in the early days of the Chu Empire.
And this number has not decreased but increased as time goes by... After all, the population has been growing, and at the same time government agencies are constantly being optimized and improved... Well, sometimes it is simply to increase the employment rate of college students!
After graduation, some college students fail to pass the imperial examination, and companies may not be able to provide enough high-level jobs. When their employment is not ideal, these college students complain, and the government also has a headache.
Well, this is also the reason why higher education in the Dachu Empire has not liberalized enrollment on a large scale for decades... With the current productivity, the entire society can only provide so many high-end jobs. You can create so many college students. It’s hard to digest, so do you still expect these college students to go to the assembly line?
Once these college students who were highly educated and capable in the Chu Empire were unsatisfactory in their employment and became dissatisfied... it would be more troublesome than the scholars in ancient times...
Especially those college students with liberal arts majors, if they are not absorbed into the ruling class in time, it will be a disaster!
In order to avoid trouble, the university degrees in the Dachu Empire are strictly controlled. The enrollment scale of universities is determined based on the overall socio-economic development and population growth rate. Moreover, more than 80% of the degrees in universities are science degrees. Liberal arts degrees are rare.
Especially some special majors, such as history... History in the Great Chu Empire is not something like archeology and digging tombs, but studying the rise and fall of historical dynasties, summarizing and drawing lessons from history.
The history departments in the universities of the Great Chu Empire should be more accurately termed as the 'History and Politics Department'... which corresponds to the historical theory in the imperial examination... The typical topic is: On the strength of Qin Shang Yang's reforms, Song Wang An The stone transformation method is weak.
Therefore, strictly speaking, the history students in the Chu Empire did not study history, but politics. People who studied this stuff were all aiming to become officials.
The Da Chu Empire also knows this, so for a subject with a strong political nature, such as the History Department, the enrollment quota is very strictly controlled... in order to ensure that every graduate can eventually enter Da Chu smoothly. In the official ranks of the empire, these people will not be allowed to wander outside and become a disaster!
Because every one of these people is rushing to be an official, and they have learned how to govern the world and assist the emperor. If you don't let them become officials... they might rebel and show you.
It is said that Han Chuang studied hard for more than ten years just to get the goods for the emperor's family... If the emperor's family doesn't want it, they can support another emperor, or even become the emperor himself.
Fortunately, the Dachu Empire knew the role and potential harm of these talents, so the control was relatively strict. Occasionally, in some years, graduates of these majors were not easy to find jobs. Therefore, they took advantage of the trend to increase the number of officials admitted, but the total amount was not high. That's too much.
On the whole, the official team of the Da Chu Empire gradually increased with the population size.
Today, officials and soldiers enjoy hierarchical treatment, but teachers in government schools, doctors in hospitals, and nurses in government institutions who do not have corresponding political treatment, plus some people who do not have official status but provide services to official institutions. Ordinary contract employees, such as coachmen, cooks and some ordinary clerical staff.
To put it simply, the total number of people directly supported by finance is about 7 million.
Well, with this number, you cannot simply think that they are all officials or civil servants...officials are just one part of it...it also includes other groups.
For example, soldiers account for two million, and teachers and doctors also account for a considerable part.
Of course, even so, the Chu Empire has reached the point where seventy or eighty people can support one financial officer, and the overall support ratio is relatively high.
Why is this happening?
The main reason is that the army of the Da Chu Empire is large... Let’s not talk about the field troops, only the garrison troops. Any county in the Da Chu Empire will have a squadron of C-class garrison divisions, ranging from dozens to more than a hundred people. wait.
Then there will be larger C-level garrison troops in the government and provincial capitals, and more troops will be stationed in some transportation, dangerous places, and border areas.
The size of the Chu army's standing army has never been small.
Furthermore, teachers in government-run schools and doctors and nurses in government-run medical institutions all rely on the financial system, which adds up to a large number...
Providing universal basic education and universal medical care has always been very expensive, and it costs money every year, just like a bottomless pit!
Then the Chu Empire implemented strong rule measures to send imperial power to the countryside... There are also towns under the county, and villages are under the jurisdiction of the towns. There are two more levels of grassroots administrative agencies. Although there are no formal officials stationed in the villages, local villagers are only allowed to serve as village heads. , village tax officer, and village patrol police, but they must also be given certain subsidies, so they can’t be left to work in vain.
In order to send imperial power to the countryside and strengthen governance, a large number of officials were added, which increased the cost of governance a lot.
So don’t think that ancient dynasties were unwilling to send imperial power to the countryside. In fact, most of them were not unwilling, but couldn’t afford it... The productivity in ancient times was too low to support so many people who were fed by the emperor.
And without enough officials, why are you trying to bring imperial power to the countryside?
The second and most important point is that the Great Chu Empire adopted a unified system of officials and officials. It did not separate officials and staff like the traditional dynasty... This led to a substantial increase in the number of officials on the surface.
In the traditional dynasty, a county with tens of thousands of people seemed to have only a few officials, but in fact there were a large number of 'officers' who relied on the financial system, and there were many more who apparently did not receive money, but in fact still relied on the people. Supporting helpers...
There is no essential difference between taxing and extorting people to support them. They are both burdens to the people.
This means that the total number of ruling groups that rely on the people to support a county can range from dozens to hundreds... which is also an exaggeration.
Therefore, don’t say that there were few officials in ancient times and the burden on the people was low!
Similar to the ancient agricultural tax, which is only a few percent, I think ancient farmers were very smart and the burden was very low... Most people probably don't know that in addition to taxes, ancient farmers also had to bear a large amount of taxes and taxes. Among all kinds of messy things, the latter two are the absolute boss.
In fact, the burden on the people in the Chu Empire was the lowest in China for thousands of years!
The 'Unified Agricultural Tax' completely abolished corvées, dingyin, and various apportionments, and levied agricultural taxes uniformly based on the number of acres. This was unprecedented... In addition, the gentry paid taxes as one, and they did not follow the Ming Dynasty to build an imperial estate. This was later implemented. A tiered agricultural tax to crack down on big landowners.
Only after these measures were implemented did the farmers of the Chu Empire survive and live better.
Coupled with the rapid development of industry and commerce, good transportation and internal business conditions, agriculture, industry, and service industries walked together on three legs, eventually allowing the Great Chu Empire to rise to the top of the world.
And Songjiang City is the most dazzling pearl in this huge empire!
(End of chapter)
