I'm really not doing business

Chapter 540: Ming court officials used movable type printing on the emperor

The reason why Li Kaifang survived the imperial cane was because he was the best at calculus. His brother-friendship, brother-in-law respect, and his benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom, and filial piety were all based on this premise, so that he could be encouraged by the Ming Emperor. As for whether he would Some people went to the Meridian Gate to perform Fu Que all day long, and Zhu Yijun was full of expectations!

Not only Zhu Yijun, but also the eunuchs in the palace and the Tiqi from Zhenfusi were all waiting.

Zhao Mengyou asked the Tiqi to use the royal staff. The Tiqi were not even proficient in the old skills and had to use a mat because their hands were raw. After all, they had not had a royal staff for more than ten years.

The Confucian scholars during the Wanli period always lacked some courage. At the beginning, Yang Tinghe and his son directly gathered more than 260 stubborn people and shouted that the country has been supporting scholars for years. Today is the day of death for righteousness. The Wuyang Wuyang Fukue in front of Huangji Gate is so lively.

No one was killed by the imperial staff this time. Zhu Yijun sincerely hopes that Confucian scholars can take courage after seeing this scene!
Come to Fuque! Come and challenge! Let’s add some fun to Zhu Yijun’s boring life with so many things to do.

"Are you willing to join the Academy of Science and Technology? If not, you can continue to serve as an official in the court." Zhu Yijun asked about Li Kaifang's whereabouts. Li Kaifang is a double-listed Jinshi, which means that he can make a two-way choice. If he insists on becoming an official, then Zhu Yijun would not stop him, but it was a pity for his mathematical genius.

The bureaucrats and scholars of the Ming Dynasty were integrated. This was an inevitable result of low productivity. The intellectuals who had mastered a large amount of knowledge were both bureaucrats and scholars, which also made science and engineering in the Ming Dynasty very difficult. There was only technology, no science, and there was no It is a pity that a systematic and formulaic knowledge system can be formed.

The purpose of admitting Jinshi in Mathematics to the Royal Academy of Sciences is to break this dilemma. Studying by subject is not only about teaching and cultivating talents, but also reflected in the division of labor in society.

"The students are willing to go to the Royal Academy of Geosciences." Li Kaifang has nothing to hesitate. He likes to look up at the stars. He is full of curiosity about the infinite truth of all things in the world, and is full of yearning for the unknown world.

The biggest evil in the Dingjian project is the procrastination and subcontracting, which is the biggest evil in the Dingjian project.

When an official can skillfully use these four skills of card, eating and taking, it is the time to mature.

Counting the section of Jingxi Chidao alone, the Chaoguan Branch has actually fully recovered the cost of Jingxi Chidao. Starting this year, this Chidao has begun to make a profit.

Cards set artificial limits. People are selfish, but anyone who holds a small amount of power in their hands wants to realize it. This phenomenon is common. Cards set limits, or invisible limits, which are inside. The doorways and rules are not for outsiders. Anyone who understands can get in, but those who don't understand can only linger outside.

The layers of buying and selling means that with each additional layer, there is another layer of corruption, and the layers of subcontracting mean that the rights and responsibilities are unclear and constant subcontracting. While accountability is difficult, too many aspects are involved, making investigation difficult. Playing football has become the norm. I don’t care who you go to. Eventually, as time goes by, no one cares.

"Dad, Mr. Hai is here." Wang Qian poured his father a cup of tea.

Li Kaifang is the horse bone who bought the horse bone for thousands of gold. Even if he has achieved nothing in his life, it is enough. He ranked first in the examination and entered the Gewu Academy, which serves as a role model for the Ming Dynasty students. The other path, the highest palace of knowledge, is not only the Hanlin Academy, but also the Gewu Academy.

If Li Kaifang, a double-list nominee, can choose the Imperial Academy of Sciences, then the top fifty on the Arithmetic Gold List will also choose to enter the Academy under the influence of their role models.

Hai Rui nodded and said, "Yes."

However, the overall Chidao project still suffers serious losses. This is the state of the country. Some Chidao must be repaired even if it loses money. If it is profit-oriented, then don't repair the Chidao that loses money. Some places will never have Chidao. will always be in poverty.

The main purpose of the struggle is to increase the number of fifty officers.

At the beginning, it was just to facilitate the construction of Dingjian.

Hai Rui rarely violated the curfew. Although the curfew policy of the Ming Dynasty capital was already in name only, especially for the court ministers, how could the captains dare to control the activities of the ministers after dark? But Hai Rui rarely violated this rule. He obviously had something important to do.

If you want to kill or cut into pieces, give me the right answer.

Hai Rui and Wang Chonggu greeted each other, sat down in the study, and began to chat.

Wang Chonggu has always been like this. In the large-scale construction projects he presides over, he always focuses on the big ones and lets go of the small ones. The quality of the projects must be guaranteed, and the poor coolies must be given daily rations and labor remuneration. As for other things, no matter how capable he is, there is nothing he can do. Wang Chonggu's limit was to ensure the quality of the project and ensure that the poor coolies could get their wages. He rarely cared about how much the people in the middle got.

The logic of getting stuck and taking things is very strict, but now there is actually a more serious problem.

Wang Chonggu concluded: "Once the level of purchasing exceeds three levels, the future of the project will become uncertain. Once it exceeds five levels, the project will inevitably be unable to be completed. Instead of fighting corruption, it is better to grasp this layer of subcontracting. As long as the rights and responsibilities are clear, I don’t think it’s a problem if you can’t do anything you want.”

"Roughly divided into four aspects, card, eat, take, need. These four aspects are not used alone, but cycled and used flexibly."

Wang Chonggu didn't even bother drinking tea, he stood up directly and said, "Please come quickly."

Hai Rui was stunned for a moment. He could actually do this!

Li Kaifang's favorite collection of miscellaneous newspapers is the "Gewu Bao" of the Gewuyuan, which always records various interesting truths and explores the boundaries of human cognition. This is such a romantic thing.

And taking, in addition to taking bribes, is to take advantage of others. This great project is a mountain of gold and silver. If you don’t take it, others will take it, so everyone takes it together. Bribery is an art. Taking money is not just taking it directly, so there are many benefits. Insulting Siwen! Most of the money is obtained through economic comprador brokers. The brokers and compradors communicate with each other. After the transaction is completed, the money will not go directly to the person's hands, but the non-existent distant cousin will come to take the money.

The reason for asking for this link is to conceal it, to play hard to get, to be secretive, that is, to not explain clearly, and it is back to the aspect of cards. The vague rules give you the right to interpret, and the advantage is to maximize benefits.

Wang Chonggu used the example of the thirty-sixth year of Jiajing's reign when fifteen doors on two floors of the three halls of the Ming Dynasty suffered a disaster. That is, the central axis building was burned down and then rebuilt as an example. He explained the doorways inside in detail to Hai Rui.

What made Wang Chonggu gnash his teeth during the construction of Ding was the layers of purchasing and subcontracting, which meant that the quality of the project could not be guaranteed. At the same time, the payment of labor remuneration went through too many hands, which ultimately led to the failure to complete the work. Coolie, no money.

And eating means eating and drinking, not for the sake of eating and drinking, but for the exchange of favors. For example, this drink, without the national cellar, you can't even invite people. The exchange of favors and socializing at the dinner table are more common in Dingjian Dagong. If you drink well, it's yours even if you don't have the qualifications. If you don't drink well, it's not yours even if you are qualified in all aspects. You can gain emotional value here, and you can also gain a network of contacts that you can continue to use in the future.

"So Hai Zongxian came to me to ask about anti-corruption?" Wang Chonggu asked with a solemn expression after understanding Hai Rui's purpose.

This forms a cycle. The blurring of rules is conducive to setting limits, and setting limits is conducive to gathering tool people who can make profits. Taking advantage of this link is a gain, and the main point is that the rules are blurred.

After Hai Rui left the Imperial Academy, he went to look for Wang Chonggu, but failed to find him. Wang Chonggu went to the Xishan Coal Bureau and was not in the capital. Wang Chonggu rarely worked in Wenyuan Pavilion or the Ministry of Punishment. Most of the time, Wang Chonggu would be in the court. After the meeting, he went to work at Xishan Coal Bureau and Yongding Woolen Factory.

"There are so many doorways here." Wang Chonggu was silent for a moment, not knowing where to start.

Wang Chonggu said with a smile: "Generally speaking, as for these four aspects, specifically, there are many ways to do it. In fact, it's okay to eat, drink, and get some essentials. It's all normal for engineering matters. The biggest The problem is to buy at every level, this is the most important thing.”

And asking means asking for bribes. No one will ask for it blatantly. But once resistance suddenly arises during the project promotion process, sensible people should know that if someone wants something, they have to weigh it themselves, just like what they want and how much they want. Like Wang Jiaping in Guangdong and Guangxi, the gentry and luxury households in Guangdong and Guangxi who were used to Yin Zhengmao and Ling Yunyi directly asking for pledges really couldn't stand Wang Jiaping who had to guess everything.

Zhu Yijun was in a good mood and strolled back to the Wenhua Palace to continue studying the Youlong in his hand. According to the sea test of the Youlong, Daming will carry out in-depth optimization on the mass production version. Twelve years a year The production capacity of the ship will allow Daming to completely establish its dominant position in maritime trade.

Under the leadership of Li Kaifang, the top fifty on the arithmetic gold list eventually chose to be candidates for admission to the Institute of Physics. At this point, the emperor added fifty more arithmetic scholars, which was implemented and became the custom of the Ming Dynasty imperial examination.

It was not until night that Wang Chonggu entered the city before the city gate closed. Because of the Chidao, Wang Chonggu was able to travel so quickly. The Chidao from Xishan Coal Bureau to Daming Jingtang was also the busiest in the Ming Dynasty. Chidao, wool enters the factory, alkaline flour from Datong, Xuanfu enters the factory, iron materials from various places enter the factory, woolen cloth, briquettes, coke, ironware come out, and the iron pots produced in Jingxi are sold overseas, and demand exceeds supply.

"To focus on buying at all levels is also to fight against corruption. In fact, most of the money and money are achieved through buying at all levels."

The emergence of the engineering regiment camp was, in a sense, because Wang Chonggu was fed up with the uncontrollable subcontracting at different levels, so he pulled up a construction team himself and planned it after the construction system of the Beijing camp, adding some official factory and regiment construction. production method, as the project became larger and larger, it finally became what it is now.

"Okay! A very smart choice." Zhu Yijun smiled.

"Isn't the biggest problem the biggest problem?" Hai Rui was stunned. He somewhat underestimated the difficulty of fighting corruption in this huge undertaking.

For experience in this area, we can only ask corrupt officials. Hai Rui has insufficient experience in this area. Anti-corruption at Dingjian Dagong is a new topic for Hai Rui, and it is also a new performance growth point. Corrupt officials are Hai Rui's indicators.

"Your Majesty, it's a matter of priority. Buying at all levels is the most urgent matter."

Wang Chonggu was trying his best to convince Hai Rui, but what he actually said was that if the water is clear, there will be no fish.

In fact, he didn't like Hai Rui because he didn't belong to the same group at all. In Wang Chonggu's view, Hai Rui was the kind of honest minister who couldn't get rid of the sand in his eyes. He and he, the sycophant who overstepped his bounds and gathered sycophants, couldn't get along with each other at all. Hai Rui came to When asked, Wang Chonggu gave an explanation based on his own understanding. As for how effective it was, it is unknown.

"I would like to learn from you." Hai Rui gained a lot after listening to the experience shared by Wang Chonggu.

"Um, Hai Zongxian thinks what Wang said is reasonable?" Wang Chonggu asked in great surprise. Hai Rui actually agreed with his statement, which surprised Wang Chonggu.

"Anti-corruption and tax audits also require costs." Hai Rui shook his head and said, "We can only put more energy into things that have a worse impact."

Practice has taught Hai Rui that it is unrealistic to want everything in the world to be clean. He can only ask himself to be clean, and he can only make himself clean. From the perspective of contradictions, he must focus on the main contradiction. When the main contradiction is alleviated, the secondary contradictions will be resolved incidentally.

There are too many people involved in the Dingjian project. It is better to catch big fish and then pull out the carrots to bring out the mud, which will be more efficient in anti-corruption. Hai Rui could still distinguish between priorities, primary contradictions and secondary contradictions.

"It turns out that Hai Zongxian is also an official." Wang Chonggu said with a smile: "They are all doing things for His Majesty."

"Of course." Hai Rui did not correct Wang Chonggu. He was indeed working for His Majesty, but he was also working for the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, Your Majesty can't make much money from the construction of Chidao. If you really make money, you can get more money faster by going overseas to build more plantations. In the final analysis, His Majesty has the people of the world at heart, so in terms of government orders, he still focuses on building the Ming Dynasty. .

The Chidao in Jingka was really built by His Majesty himself. If His Majesty did not spend the money, no one would blame Him.

But what Wang Chonggu said is correct. Your Majesty has the world in mind, and His Majesty = Ming Dynasty. It is true for Your Majesty, but it is not true for Master Dao and Emperor Longqing.

Since the first year of Wanli, the emperor has not asked for an extra penny from the national funds, and even helped the national funds to tide over the difficulties without even asking for interest.

When His Majesty lent money to Taixi, all the loan sharks gave thumbs up when he saw the interest rate. Even the Ming Dynasty chief Hao You said "Zhi Pei" about the extension, it still depends on Your Majesty.

"I have a memorial here. Hai Zongxian is wondering if we can jointly submit a memorial." Wang Chonggu shook his sleeves and took out a memorial. After reading it, Hai Rui's eyes darkened and he felt a little nervous.

The content of this memorial was extremely explosive. It was created by Wan Shihe and sent to Wang Chonggu, asking Wang Chonggu if he wanted to jointly submit a letter.

Hai Rui thought for a while, then wrote his name on the three memorials, which had roughly the same content, and chose to leave.

This memorial circulated around in the hands of the ministers, and was finally sent to Wenyuan Pavilion, and then to the imperial study room of Tonghe Palace.

After Zhu Yijun finished reading the memorial, he asked with a dull look on his face: "Why are there names like Hai Rui and Shen Li in it?"

"Hai Zongxian went to Wang Cifu to ask about the anti-corruption of this great project. Wang Cifu told him everything he knew. After talking about his experience, he took out this memorial. Hai Zongxian had to sign it even if he didn't sign it, otherwise he would have to sign it in the future. , How can Hai Zongxian ask Wang Cifu? "

"Uncle Shao Zong is the official of the Ministry of Rites. This memorial comes from the Ministry of Rites. If it is approved by the ministry, it is natural that Uncle Shao Zong will sign it." Feng Bao explained the details.

Hai Rui was forcibly tied together, but most of the time Hai Rui didn't take part in such things. This time they encountered each other and couldn't escape, so they had to sign. Shen Li was the party involved. If he couldn't escape, he might as well be more generous. Write your name.

The content of the memorial can be roughly summed up in one sentence, that is, the court officials of the Ming Dynasty jointly used movable type printing against the emperor.

The Wulong Chi Road will be turned into the Six Dragon Chi Road. The Chi Road to Kaifeng is itself part of the Beijing-Guangzhou Chi Road. The preliminary mapping and planning have been done by the Ministry of Engineering long ago. Once the money is in place, the work will begin. Civilians were recruited, and even the location of the official factory was determined. At this time, a problem arose. Chidao needed signage.

For example, Beijing West Railway Station, Xizhimen, Meishikou, Caishikou, Deshengmen, and Beidaying all need to have plaques. It would be a waste of the emperor's time to have each plaque inscribed by His Majesty himself.

Then all the signboards should use Zhu Yijun's large characters. Select the written characters to form the signboard, which became the answer given by the Ministry of Rites. Your Majesty's large characters have always been fond of vulgar characters, and after more than ten years of reading, the fonts are extremely standardized. , while being extremely easy to identify, it can also fill every corner of Chidao with the word loyalty.

loyalty!

By collecting all the words written by His Majesty over the years and printing them with movable type, it is very possible to create a font similar to official script, regular script, and Guange style.

The reason why the Ministry of Rites came up with this idea was not just to flatter him, but mainly because His Majesty's handwriting was calm and sharp, which was good-looking and easy to read.

People like Hai Rui and Shen Li had always stayed away from the content of this memorial. After all, it was an act of flattery. But this time they caught up with it, tit for tat. This officialdom is also about relationships. Wang Chonggu helped, and Hai If Rui doesn't help, then no one will help Hai Rui in the future.

This would have been a completely embarrassing approach that would have been criticized by others, but with the addition of Hai Rui and Shen Li, things have changed.

After all, Hai Rui is the official minister of Gukun, and Shen Li is the second Gukun. The two of them used their personal reputations to protect the reputation of the courtiers, and standardized writing for easy identification. How could this be an act of flattery? This is obviously to make Ming Dynasty better!

"These scholars are so shameless in flattering themselves! They spend all their time thinking about this instead of doing business." Feng Bao said with a look of disgust and anger. The minister of the Ming Dynasty's foreign court robbed the inner It's strange that Feng Bao isn't angry about the prison's work!
The eunuch actually lost to the outer court in the matter of flattery, which really made Feng Bao angry. This kind of backwardness in flattery was not the first time. The last time was a newly opened land, and various places faced All the gates in the capital are called Tonghe Gate.

When a scholar really tries to flatter someone, the eunuch is no match for him.

"Let the Ministry of Rites use the official script for the next chapter, so there is no need to use my calligraphy." Zhu Yijun thought for a while and still rejected the memorial. He was mainly afraid of the death of the society. Wherever he went, he saw his handwriting hanging everywhere. Yes, it's somewhat embarrassing.

Don’t worry about someone imitating the emperor’s handwriting and forging documents to do bad things. The most important thing in official documents is the seal, not the words. Most people don’t know that the emperor’s seal is three inches, and the first and second grades are two inches and five cents. The following One point is deducted for each level. The smaller the official, the smaller the seal. Forging a seal is a technical job, and of course it is very punishing.

Zhu Yijun is also growing up, and his fonts are also changing, becoming more majestic and sharper.

And this kind of thing has to be declined twice, and then when the ministers invite each other, Zhu Yijun, as the emperor, agrees with a look of "it's all you who have harmed me", which is considered to be in line with etiquette and the golden mean. , what he didn’t want was for the courtiers to ask for orders repeatedly.

Zhu Yijun chose to refuse, and the Ministry of Rites quickly sent the second memorial, which had been prepared long ago, to Tonghe Palace. After being rejected again, the Ministry of Rites sent the third memorial signed by the ministers to the palace on the same day. Here, Zhu Yijun reluctantly kept the memorial for one day and returned it to Wenyuan Pavilion the next day. He reluctantly agreed to the request of the Ministry of Rites.

All signage along Chidao will be in Huangge style, which was the font used when the emperor was still studying.

Once again, Wan Shihe was scolded so badly. He had never seen a flatterer before, but he had never seen a flatterer like this. He might as well stop calling him Wan Zhizhi and call him Wan Wugu. He would also implicate Hai Rui and Shen Li. Our reputations are damaged together! Dazongbo Wanshihe didn't respond at all. He was busy, how could he have time to respond to this? Anyway, His Majesty finally agreed.

The Ministry of Rites is flattering, it’s not a day or two, and it’s not unusual to do something like this. The key is that the memorial has the signatures of such unreliable ministers as Hai Rui and Shen Li, which makes the criticism embarrassing. The reputations of these two people were excellent, so Shilin could only hold his nose and admit it, and just pretend that this incident never happened.

The imperial examination was an episode, while the imperial examination was still the top concern among the public.

After the general examination came the palace examination. The palace examination was divided into two sessions, one for Confucian classics and one for arithmetic. However, the arithmetic session lasted longer and the emperor paid more attention. In the end, out of fifty arithmetic scholars, there were only twenty-one. The individual passed the selection of the Royal Institute of Technology, and the remaining twenty-nine people will go to the Royal Institute of Technology to teach. When they can teach, they will continue to prepare for the Royal Institute of Technology.

Some of them are not limited in talent, but have not received systematic arithmetic education, so they do not know the solutions to some problems, and have never even seen them. After systematic study, these people have a high chance of being admitted to the Royal Academy of Geosciences.

Zhu Zaiyu and Xing Yunlu were extremely satisfied with Li Kaifang. They were both geniuses in arithmetic, so naturally they had many topics in common.

The capital was extremely lively. Those who were nominated for the gold medal were naturally proud of the spring breeze and had horse hoofs and saw all the flowers in Chang'an in one day. Those who were not listed were those who said that the setting sun is the end of the world.

Five thousand people gathered in the capital, but in the end only 350 people became Jinshi, and the rest were losers.

And Zhu Yijun got a memorial written by the Ministry of Household Affairs. This memorial is an extension of the first volume of Class Theory. It clearly distinguishes the poor coolies from the rural gentry. What kind of family can be called a rural gentry? ?

Poor tenants, a household with less than five acres of land, and a family with less than one acre of land, are destitute tenants; farmers, a household with less than twenty acres of land, each with five acres of land, are called peasant households; upper peasant households, one household A household with less than 50 acres of land and less than 10 acres per family is considered a farmer; a household with less than 100 acres of land and less than 20 acres per family is a middle-class household.

This range is full of poor laborers, even middle-class families are like this. Middle-class families can barely be considered poor families, but once there are natural disasters or man-made calamities, and the land is lost, middle-class families will still slide down rapidly. For example, Li Kaifang's father was a middle-class family before he died of illness. He suffered from long-term illness and became extremely poor with no guarantee of livelihood.

Only a well-to-do household with more than 300 acres of land and more than 50 acres per household is qualified to be called a rural sage. A household with more than 1,000 acres of land and more than 100 acres per household can be called a wealthy household. Jin gentry.

This is a very clear division. According to this division, the Ming Dynasty has completed the census of Dingkou and Qingzhang in Shandong, South Zhili Shishifu, North Zhili and other places. The proportion of poor tenants, farmers, and farmers is 86.64%. The proportion of middle-class households is 3.08%, and that of rural gentry and above is 10.28%. This is in line with the previous estimate of the Ministry of Household Affairs on the overall situation of the Ming Dynasty, that is, % of the country's households are in extreme poverty, and % of rural households are bankrupt. edge.

Some peasant and middle-class families can afford to support a retired scholar even if they work hard.

This memorial in the Ministry of Household Affairs only states the current situation, neither the existing problems nor the solutions. The meaning is also very clear. The Ming Dynasty is indeed changing with each passing day, but the situation is still not optimistic. With the Wanli Reform, As it continued to advance, fundamental contradictions appeared in front of the court. The road to Ming Ming's greatness again was long and difficult.

Ming Dynasty is good enough. Can Ming Dynasty’s New Deal be stopped? The answer is of course no, because stopping at this time means that everything in the New Deal will be destroyed. The New Deal cannot be retreated or stopped, because there is a cliff behind it, and there are wolves, tigers and leopards behind it.

As the New Deal continued to be implemented, a piece of good news reached the capital. The Feiyun in the dock was finally ready to be launched.

The Feiyun is a sailing warship based on the design of a fast sailing ship. The entire ship was born for war. It can be said to be armed to the teeth. The Ming Dynasty has the manufacturing capacity of sailing warships, which means that the Ming Dynasty can conduct ocean warfare. This is very important for the Ming Dynasty to open the sea. Very very important.

Sail warships are more complex than commercial ships, and due to the large amount of gunpowder, it will take some time to store and manage them and form combat effectiveness.

But it was also the world's first sail warship. Its launch marked the opening of the seas in the Ming Dynasty and officially opened its eyes to the world.

Merchants selling goods all over the world needed force to protect them, otherwise the numerous plantations would be nothing more than meat on the chopping board.

(End of this chapter)