Han You looked at You Mingtang, who had put on his official robes and had a look of sorrow on his face, speechless for a long time.
He did not believe that there were many officials like You Mingtang in the Zhou Dynasty. If there were, he could not have seen or heard of them in Beijing.
Such officials are playing with a "very new" thing. This kind of thing should not appear in the Zhou Dynasty. Even hundreds or thousands of years later, it is still a bit too advanced.
This guy wants to make money and thinks there are only three ways to make money in today's environment.
The first type is related to the country, its prosperity, and innovation, and can be applied to the military and people's livelihood.
Weapons reform, agricultural improvement, etc.
The second type is food. Food is hard currency and can be stored for a long time.
If you have land, you can cultivate it and harvest it, you can make money.
The more you plant, the more money you make.
The third type, and the one that should be least thought of, is the service industry!
An official, a fourth-grade prefect, actually understands the "service" industry. If nothing else, just the word "service", which is related to service, is something that ordinary scholars will not mention easily.
If he just thought of these three ways, You Mingtang actually extended a set of theories that were very accurate but should not exist when thinking about making money.
The prosperity of a country depends on industry. Technology and manufacturing are king. Agriculture is the guarantee. No matter how much money the service industry makes, it will only increase GDP.
Based on this set of theories, if this guy dares to shout it out in Beijing, he will definitely be beaten to death by scholars.
From a certain point of view, this guy thinks that just studying, studying hard, and being in charge of Confucian scholars who can only read cannot bring much benefit to the country, because no matter how many books scholars read, the people will not be able to fill their stomachs.
What really stunned Han You was this guy's brain.
Yongcheng cannot support its people because transportation is inconvenient. If it wants to develop, it must build roads and big roads.
Normal people's idea is to get money and build roads quickly.
It turned out that this guy's idea was that I had no road and didn't want to spend money, but I could block other people's roads.
It is no longer possible to define You Mingtang simply by using good officials or bad officials.
Han You waited patiently, and after less than half an hour, he received the answer he expected.
According to the inquiries of Lu Baichuan and others, it was indeed as You Mingtang said, there were reasons for the things he did, and they could even be said to be legitimate reasons.
The national law must not tolerate it, and there must be crimes, but You Mingtang is not doing it for his own selfish interests.
Even if he "killed" the aristocratic family, he did not kill them, but squeezed them to the point of being squeezed out and drove them directly out of Yongcheng, using reasonable and legal "dirty" methods.
A prefect of the Zhou Dynasty thought hard to improve the lives of the people under his rule and put it into action. From any point of view, he was a qualified prefect. You cannot make a conclusion based on good or bad people. In short, he was qualified and treated the people So it is.
"Master You." Han You crossed his legs and asked seriously: "You just said that you grew up in Yongcheng?"
"Yes, he was born a beggar."
Even when Han You felt numb to anything You Mingtang said or did, this guy would still give him some shock from the south.
"Beginning as a beggar?"
Fu Yuxiang next to him grinned: "How the hell did you turn from a beggar to a fourth-grade magistrate?"
You Mingtang laughed happily and said with great satisfaction: "Trick, trick, trick... no, just be diligent and make progress, work hard."
Han You: "Speak humanly!"
"This..." You Mingtang laughed sarcastically: "When Emperor Jingde was in power in the previous dynasty, the poor people in Yongcheng were so poor that they dropped their pants. The city was full of beggars. They were both beggars and thieves. The lower officials were smart and learned since they were young. A good skill."
Rubbing his fingers, You Mingtang said with a smile on his face: "Walking on the road, I bumped into someone. Guess what, the general, hey, the purse in his sleeve will be in the hands of the official. I'm not bragging to the official. Back then, Yongcheng Handsome little guy..."
Han You interrupted impatiently: "I'm warning you one last time. To put it bluntly, even in the previous dynasty, it was impossible for a beggar to reach the position of prefect."
"What the general said is true, he came from the imperial examination."
"Are you telling the truth? Didn't you just say you were a thief?"
"Listen to what Xiaguan has to say. That year, Xianguan was just sixteen years old. He was in his prime and had gained quite a reputation on the road. That day, Xianguan was looking for fat sheep at the Guandao Station. Who knew what happened? I saw bandits robbing a passing scholar and beating the scholar to the point of dying."
"Then what?"
"The scholar was about to die and was thrown into the wild by the bandits. When the bandits left, the official approached him. The scholar was dying soon. The official felt around him to see if there were any valuable items and dealt with them casually. The scholar said that he was going to Beijing to take the exam, but he would die here. The official asked him if he had any last words. He came from a poor family, his parents were in Guancheng, and he had no relatives, so he died."
Han You was a little impatient: "Tell me the important point!"
"The point is that when the official saw the imperial examination records, he assumed his identity and went to Beijing before he could see it."
Han You somewhat understood: "I met a noble man in Beijing, and I have reached the pinnacle of my life since then, right?"
"No, the fat sheep in Beijing hide their money in their arms. The lower officials only know how to steal the pockets in their sleeves. I won't starve to death if I think about it later. Now that I have replaced my identity, let's study, Ke Kao Ke If you take the exam, you might be able to become a Jinshi or something."
"Damn it." Han You was so happy that he said, "Why don't you say you are a top scholar if you are still a Jinshi?"
"The general has a clever plan and Xiaguan is indeed the number one scholar in the fourth year of Xingwu."
Han You: "..."
Fu Yuxiang couldn't help it anymore and pulled out the knife: "Rinen Niang fools my young master again, I will cut you into pieces with a thousand knives!"
You Mingtang shook his head repeatedly: "The general has misunderstood. What the official said is absolutely true and well-documented. He was the number one scholar in the fourth year of Xingwu."
"Didn't you just say that you are a beggar, pretending to be an imperial examination candidate, and a beggar can't read?"
"I don't admit it, but at that time there was still more than half a year before the scientific examination. In the past six months, I pretended to be a scholar and asked people for advice. I learned a few words today and a few tomorrow. In less than half a year, I learned almost the same thing. After that, I borrowed books to read. If I couldn’t borrow them, I would grab them. If I couldn’t grab them, I would steal them. If I could steal them, I would read them. I would read the Four Books and the Five Classics. I worked very hard and won the first prize in the scientific examination.”
Fu Yuxiang looked at Han You with an amused expression: "Master, is this...possible?"
Han You also looked troubled: "Theoretically, it is possible. In the previous dynasty more than 20 years ago, the officialdom was relatively clear at that time, and the monarchs and ministers paid more attention to the matter of scientific examinations and talent recruitment."
"My humble question to you is, can an illiterate beggar become the number one scholar by taking on someone else's identity and studying for more than half a year?"
Han You doesn't know anymore. As I said before, it's theoretically possible, but this kind of theory generally only exists in theory.
"Okay, if what you said is true, then you are really a fucking talent. I will believe you for now. I will definitely check it when I return to Beijing in the future. If you lie to me, you know the consequences."
Han You paused and said seriously: "Yongcheng, why did you choose Yongcheng? If you really have this ability, from a beggar to a prefect, you will definitely be able to get along like a fish in water in Beijing. Why return to Yongcheng? "
"This official has a sibling, a younger brother."
"Go on."
You Mingtang lowered his head: "It's Xiaguan's birthday. My younger brother wanted to buy a roast chicken for Xiaguan. I went to the roast chicken shop every ten days and gave him a few cents every ten days. After two months of going there, I scraped together enough for one. Money for roasting chicken, after that…”
"What happened next?"
"The roast chicken is smelly. The store owner said that the money was given two months ago. The roast chicken has been stored for two months, so of course it smells. In fact, the roast chicken has just been stored for a long time and no one is selling it. It is a fool for the lower official brother. .”
You Mingtang raised his head and smiled again, as if he was telling someone else's story: "When the official found out, he beat the shopkeeper. He was taken to the prison, beaten several times, and locked up for several hours. When he came out, the official threatened The executioner was a dog officer, and the subordinate wanted to go to the prefect to sue him, but the prefect didn't care, so he went to the capital to sue the emperor."
"After that."
"After that, I was beaten again, and my brother's fingers were broken when he was protecting his subordinates. When he returned to the thatched hut where he lived outside the city, the superior officer of the torture official came to visit us, fearing that his subordinates would cause trouble. He arrived with a hundred coins. Behind the thatched hut, I saw the official and the executioner eating the rotten naan cakes given by the neighbors, so they said how could we two young children eat the rotten naan cakes? It would spoil our stomachs."
Having said this, You Mingtang lowered his head again, with tears glistening in his eyes: "Xiaoguan said that we don't eat on weekdays, but we can only eat today, because today is my birthday."
The main hall fell into silence again, You Mingtang murmured.
"At that time, the official had no vision and couldn't see what was outside Yongcheng, so he thought, damn people can't live like this, at least the people in Yongcheng can't live like this. If I become an official, I will let the whole city celebrate my birthday. Children, they can all eat roast chicken, eat until they die, eat until they are full, and eat as much as they want, it will all be counted on my account, and then... After that, Xiaguan became the prefect of Yongcheng."
"That's it."
Han You stretched out and pointed to the seat next to him: "Come here, I will teach you how to run a profitable villa. Come here and listen carefully, holding a pen and paper."
