Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2294 Three-way Triumph () Smooth Conspiracy

Gao Jingshi's above-mentioned plan was easy to explain to the emperor because it was difficult for the emperor to come into contact with the real folk scene. As long as Gao Jingshi explained the apparent truth to him clearly, he could make a decision after weighing the pros and cons. However, as long as Gao Pragmatic's plans are announced, officials can actually see through the chief minister's intentions at a glance.

Obviously, no matter how devoted Gao Pragmatic is to serving the people, it does not prevent officials from complaining about his measure. It is true that according to Gao's pragmatic plan, the so-called "virtuous gentlemen" will not only not lose their interests in this plan, but may even gain a lot from it, but as long as everyone thinks more deeply...

The families of the officials are obviously known as "virtuous gentry" in the local area. However, once this matter is considered carefully, it will inevitably lead to two kinds of doubts about the profound meaning of Gao Pragmatism:

First, although the qualifications of these "virtuous gentlemen" are determined by how much they donate for the canal renovation plan, Gao Yuanfu did not say that the "responsibility" of these "virtuous gentlemen" will be allocated entirely based on the ranking of donations. Demolition and reconstruction” proportion.

For example, member A in a certain upper county donated a thousand taels, and member B in a lower county donated 800 taels. It stands to reason that if member A donates more, the "demolition and reconstruction" area he can be responsible for should be longer than that of member B.

However, although the county where Yuanwai A is located is Shangxian, it may be the administrative seat of a certain government. As a result, there are four or five rich local Yuanwai masters who have donated thousands of taels, and the administrative county usually has a large population and a prosperous economy. However, the area is not large, so the actual demolition and reconstruction area available to members outside A is not very long.

On the contrary, Yi Yuanwai is just a lower county. The county is quite large but has a relatively sparse population. There are no other large households in the county that can compare with Yi Yuanwai. Therefore, Yi Yuanwai might even be able to monopolize the demolition and reconstruction of this county. any responsibility.

Excuse me, who earns more, Member A or Member B?

The answer is probably...hard to say.

It’s hard to say. Because "difficult to say" means uncertainty, and in the actual use of power, uncertainty means that officials who allocate demolition and reconstruction sites have some discretion.

So, can these officials with discretionary powers ensure "fair" distribution? In fact, it certainly cannot, but one thing can be guaranteed, that is, the allocation power of these officials comes from Gao Pragmatism, so in the final analysis, Gao Pragmatism has the final decision-making power.

In other words, "virtuous gentlemen" can only donate money to buy a qualification to participate in making money, and the person who specifically determines the amount of their income is still highly pragmatic.

This brings about a very real problem: if you want to make money, donate money to the court first; if you want to make more, then you must satisfy Gao Pragmatic.

But, how can we satisfy Gao Yuanfu? have no idea. At least for now, Gao Yuanfu seems to be so rich that he has no interest in corruption or bribery. So normally, if you want to satisfy Gao Yuanfu, you can only start from the political level.

Well, to put it bluntly, you, the "virtuous gentleman", must side with Gao Yuanfu politically. Of course, it’s not just you, but also the family representatives of your family who are currently working hard in the officialdom.

You see, the situation is very clear after analyzing the situation at this point: because of family interests, officials along the canal may have to politically side with Gao Yuanfu, or the real school represented by Gao Yuanfu.

The capital, Beizhili, Shandong, and Henan (this province is not a canal area, but is a water control area because of its connected water system) were originally areas deeply controlled by the Pragmatic School. Politically, it was logical for Gao Yuanfu to side with him. There is nothing to say. The distribution of interests within political groups.

However, from the south of Yanzhou Prefecture, it enters Southern Zhili, and all the way to Nanjing is the scope of Southern Zhili. In addition, the imperial edict only mentioned "along the canal" and did not say that the section from Nanjing to Hangzhou was not included in this governance. In other words, Zhejiang may also enter the scope of this canal management plan.

As a result, South Zhili and Zhejiang, the two strongest bases of the Heart School, will be obviously penetrated by the Real School. The worst part is that these two places, especially the cities along the canal, have been prosperous since ancient times. The economic level determines behavioral patterns, so these areas have always had a strong business climate and are more likely to fall into the excessive pursuit of money.

In short, the current situation is that Gao Pragmatic has clearly put the interests in front of them. Now they only need to weigh one thing: kneel or not?

If you kneel, you will benefit on the spot, and you can also rely on more prosperous commercial real estate to obtain more benefits in the future; if you don't kneel, you will lose this opportunity to make money, and you will even have to watch other people who are willing to kneel make money in the future. Although he is full of money, he is marginalized in this change of wealth redistribution, and his family situation is declining day by day.

Obviously, Gao Pragmatic's plan is to bet that they are unwilling not to kneel, have to kneel, and dare not not kneel!

It's too cruel, this is really too cruel. It’s really like “If you don’t kneel down, there will be people crying and begging to kneel down.”

Why don't they dare not kneel? As I said a long time ago, although the imperial examination system gave students from poor families a clear channel for class advancement and greatly reduced the difficulty of ruling the court, in fact, students from poor families who want to get ahead still have a much harder time than those who already have political resources and economic resources. Resources are more difficult for students—much more!

First of all, the imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty were extremely competitive, which meant that if you wanted to get good results, unless you were really a genius, you almost had to study full-time. I would like to ask you, you are a poor student, are your family's financial conditions really enough to support you studying hard for ten years without working?

What's more, as mentioned before, most of the Ming Dynasty's Jinshi candidates were in their thirties when they took the imperial examination. At that time, children from ordinary families were already doing a lot of work within their capabilities by the time they were a few years old. In other words, you need more than a "ten-year cold window", it is likely to be twenty or even thirty years.

You come from a poor family, can your family really have this financial strength? Well, even if you say "a poor family does not necessarily mean a poor peasant", it is possible that he still has a small fortune. Then there are other problems, such as inequality in educational resources.

Students from disadvantaged backgrounds often come from remote areas or rural areas, and educational resources have naturally been concentrated in cities, especially developed big cities, both in ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad. Therefore, students from disadvantaged backgrounds will not be able to compete with students from wealthy families in terms of starting level in receiving education. Just take the Gao family as an example. The Gao family is a "legacy", and they have elementary education in their own family. The elders in the family can teach their children and can also hire famous teachers for guidance. But even so, Gao Gong only studied in his hometown of Xinzheng in his early years, and later went to Kaifeng until he passed the Jinshi examination.

Gao Pragmatic was special. When he reached the age of enlightenment at home, he met Gao Gong and was forced to resign and return to his hometown. Therefore, he personally enlightened him and taught him how to read. Later, Gao Gong was particularly favored by Gao Gong because of his "genius", and when he returned to the capital, he took him directly to the capital. After continuing to give personal guidance for a period of time, he betrayed his old face and invited Guo Pu to be a pragmatic teacher...

In short, during a highly pragmatic academic career, the educational resources are at full capacity, which is not comparable to that of ordinary students from poor families.

What does the above mean? It shows that although the imperial examination may be relatively fair, if you are from a powerful or plutocratic family, the educational resources you receive must be much higher than those of ordinary people, and your starting point may be higher than the peak of ordinary people.

Let’s talk about the Gao family. When the Gao family reached Gao Jingshi's generation, there were already many people, and among them the least able to read could still become a scholar, and the one who could read a little could be a master of civil education. Why? Of course, it’s because there are enough educational resources. If you listen to a little bit about ethnic studies, you can naturally get the status of a scholar or even a scholar that is difficult for some people to achieve in their lifetime.

Then say "Advanced". Even if you pass the Jinshi exam, it only means that you have obtained the ticket to officialdom, but it does not mean that you will be able to rise to the top in your life.

As I have said many times before, the game in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty often involved high-ranking officials who were teachers fighting against hostile factions. They would first send their disciples to impeach the emperor, and then see how the emperor and the other party reacted.

This is often a kind of "bet on life" behavior for students, because there is no guarantee of how the emperor will react - if the emperor himself wants to deal with the other party, then you, a newcomer to officialdom who has been in trouble for the first time, can take some credit and become a teacher. The reward is a general recommendation and a casual reward from the emperor.

But if the emperor does not have this intention and chooses to protect the person your teacher wants to attack, then there is a high probability that you will be convicted in the name of "attacking the minister" or "disobedience". The results of it? The lighter term is to be "transferred to foreign posts", the bigger term is to be "demoted to three levels and transferred to foreign posts", the bigger term is to be "retired as a civilian", and even bigger... In short, the crime is not capped, and you may even be beaten to death with a cane on the spot. , then it’s not like we don’t have a chance to taste it.

You see, this is the reality of officialdom that poor people with little background have to face.

So, what if there is a backend? Please refer to the pragmatic official resume of the thirty-eight-year-old Shangzhuguo, Taifu, Prince Taishi, Zhongjidian Grand Bachelor, Hubu Shangshu, and Nanning Hou Gao.

Ah, of course, Gao Pragmatic's resume is so amazing. In addition to his strong background, his performance in office is also excellent. But it still must be said that if he did not have such a strong backing, at least his official career would not be so smooth.

Back to the canal project. It is precisely because Gao Pragmatic's move is undoubtedly a conspiracy in the officialdom that many people are angry. However, no matter how unfair it is, everyone still knows very well that they must kneel down when they should. After all, as the old saying goes, if you have money, you won’t be a bastard.

In the speechless silence of both the government and the opposition, the imperial edict concerning arrangements related to the canal project was successfully issued. The only...oh no, the only two surprises came from the Ministry of Industry and the Beijing Production and Construction Corps.

What the Ministry of Works means is that the Ministry of Works has always taken the lead in river engineering, so this time it should not be a surprise. Even if Yuan Fu wants to take charge personally and they dare not say much, at least the Ministry of Works should still be the main management agency.

The Production and Construction Corps is simple. Their appeal is very direct: To stabilize the world, it is not appropriate to use excessive corvee services. The Production and Construction Corps is willing to do hard work for the court - in human terms, this is the job we want to take.

Of course, because of the highly pragmatic reforms, although the price of the work taken over by the Production and Construction Corps from the imperial court was not high, it still required a reasonable profit.

Gao Pragmatic readily agreed to the request of the Ministry of Industry and the Production and Construction Corps, which was within the rules.
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