Early Ming Dynasty: Turning Clouds and Rains into New Learning Saints

Chapter 203 He Is Too Good, Not Because I'm Stupid
Zhang Yifan really has no time to deal with these capital officials, because the second distribution of grain fields to the public in Xiangshan County is about to begin again.

The verification of household registration is mainly to verify the true situation of the registered population. For example, those who have died in the past two years must be removed from the list. The deceased cannot be allocated grain fields.

Under the supervision of the people, you can report directly to the county government.

As long as one does not cover the sky with one hand, the people will be more concerned about things that will harm the interests of others than the government.

The second thing is to naturally verify how many grain fields have been newly opened in the past two years. Even if the grain fields have not yet been returned to the public, they must be registered in the book of newly opened grain fields.

Similarly, this matter is related to how many grain fields will be allocated to all the people. It is also subject to supervision by the people and can be reported directly to the county government.

In Xiangshan County, most people with registered residences know a few words and can understand government announcements about fields, so they are more accepting of supervision.

In addition, it is also necessary to verify whether the grain fields allocated last time have been cultivated by themselves. This is related to the conversion from farming to non-farming after two consecutive times.

There are no exceptions, and supervision and reports from the public are also accepted.

There are regulations to check for these things. It will be much easier to do them on the basis of the first public distribution of grain fields.

At least, Zhang Yifan is much more relaxed here, as he is still an official responsible for specific affairs.

Of course, these things have nothing to do with non-agricultural households registered in Xiangshan County, because they do not participate in the distribution of land.At this time, many people still envy those farmers.

During this whole process, Li Shanchang and others also paid attention.After all, they knew that if there were no accidents, Xiangshan County's method of allocating grain fields to the public would probably be implemented throughout the world.

However, according to Zhu Yuanzhang's will, they only came to Xiangshan County to investigate the matter of national education, so they could only pay more attention to this aspect.

By early November of the 11th year of Hongwu's reign, they had basically reached a conclusion.

First, the literacy rate of people with household registration in Xiangshan County is extremely high, far exceeding that of other places, including the capital.

Second, the Xiangshan County government is rich. On the basis of free social education, it has also established scholarships and penalties for school-age children not to go to school. The official force and guarantee that all children can go to school.

Third, the writing style in Xiangshan County is very good, and the library open to ordinary people played a great role in enhancing the people's willingness to take the initiative to become literate.

Fourth, Xiangshan County Popular Literature Qidian Society also played a significant role in guiding people to read.Storytelling became popular, and people loved listening to stories, especially the books written by The Prince Consort and that Luo Guanzhong, which attracted many people to take the initiative to become literate and buy books to read.

Fifth, one benefit of having more literate people is that when it comes to the public distribution of grain fields in Xiangshan County, the people can understand government policies and respond in a timely manner.One of the representative things is that the government accepted many reports about the distribution of grain fields to the public, which saved the government a lot of energy and prevented them from being fooled by unscrupulous people.

Sixth, another benefit of more literate people can be felt everywhere in Xiangshan life.Shop clerks, pedestrians on the road, etc. are all more sensible, and this is reflected in their words, conversations, and actions.

Li Shanchang, Song Lian and others felt that if the people of Xiangshan County participated in the previous imperial examinations, they would definitely not be able to do so.Because they don't understand Confucian classics, but this kind of cultural life atmosphere is excellent.

Because of the calligraphy samples and most of the simplified calligraphy manuscripts provided by the Prince Consort, Li Shanchang and the others were relieved of a lot of work.

It seems that if I don’t go back, I won’t be able to go back in time for the New Year.At least they can communicate. After returning to the capital, they can complete the dictionary.

Therefore, the group of them finally set off back to Beijing.

Before leaving, at the Xiangshan County Pier, Li Shanchang pulled Zhang Yifan to see him off and said: "The prince-in-law is really a genius, and he is actually my most capable minister in government since the founding of the Ming Dynasty!"

Praise, continue to praise!
Of course, this is also true!
If you don't witness everything in Xiangshan County with your own eyes, you won't believe it.

Based on Li Shanchang's understanding of Zhu Yuanzhang, he felt that many of the policies in Xiangshan County would be implemented by Zhu Yuanzhang throughout the world.

This prince-in-law is truly amazing in terms of governance!
Originally, Li Shanchang also expected to find out the financial problems of the son-in-law. After all, who doesn't love money?

Unexpectedly, after some investigation, he discovered that the reason why Xiangshan County developed rapidly and attracted a large population was not only the policies of Xiangshan County, but also something invented by the prince-in-law, or simply put, it was a cornucopia. Contributed.In this way, the Xiangshan County government has a lot of money and can do so many things.

People have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars, and even more, so why would they be greedy for a small amount of it?
So what if someone actually takes it? Who would care?
However, Li Shanchang's trip was not in vain after all, because he found that although the prince-in-law himself was timid, he was more inclined to shout and kill when dealing with small foreign countries.

In order to confirm this, Li Shanchang even found an opportunity to test the consort to confirm that this was correct.

In military affairs, he is so happy about his achievements, but he obviously does not know that military affairs and governance are completely different things.

With this understanding, Li Shanchang can go back happily.After he was in the court, he started to attack this aspect, and made the son-in-law proud, thinking that he was very powerful, and it was best to let him destroy a foreign country, not to mention that he died on the battlefield, losing a battle would be great!

Just like that, the group set out on their way home, and finally returned to Nanjing before the end of the year.

On the way, Li Shanchang had already mentioned, both openly and secretly, how good Xiangshan County is, meaning to promote Xiangshan County and his son-in-law more.Xiangshan County was originally very good. Under the hint of the grand master, when these officials returned to Nanjing, of course some people would ask about it, and they just kept boasting.

At the same time, many officials were reminded and began to send people to Xiangshan County to do business. Making money to subsidize the lack of salary is better than being skinned and used as grass for corruption, right?
The comment that came out of Li Shanchang's mouth: The son-in-law is really a genius in heaven, and he is actually the most capable minister in governance since the founding of the Ming Dynasty!It also began to spread in the capital.

As a result, one person was annoyed, and that person was Hu Weiyong.

After Deng Yu became the prime minister, he said that he was not good at other things, so he only gave opinions on memorials related to military affairs, and did not ask about anything else.

Wang Guangyang is still the same as before, addicted to wine and sex, and basically does not deal with government affairs.

In other words, most of the work was done by Hu Weiyong. He gave the results and then sent them to the East Palace and then transferred them to the emperor.

Most of those that he handled were accurate, and few were rejected, which gave Hu Weiyong some comfort.

However, there are now rumors in the capital that the consort was the most capable political minister in the founding of the Ming Dynasty, so who does he count?Does his position also need to be filled by the consort?
Hu Weiyong was really angry about this, but when he checked the source, he found that the first person to say this was actually his in-laws. When Mr. Han said this, he became depressed.

As a last resort, he also asked people to spread a message: The prince-in-law's ability to govern a county is indeed good, but he is still too young to govern a larger place!
This kind of statement is still somewhat convincing to people who have never been to Xiangshan County.After all, the age of the consort is displayed there.

Zhu Yuanzhang ignored these.At this time, he and Prince Zhu Biao were talking about Zhang Yifan's memorial!

Zhu Yuanzhang said to Zhu Biao, who had read Zhang Yifan's memorial: "The idea of ​​a post station is not unreasonable. This is something I have never thought about before."

After Zhu Biao heard this, he nodded with emotion and said: "Yifan's ability to see the subtle things is indeed first-rate. The matter of post station fees has been like this since ancient times, and ordinary people will not think there is anything wrong at all. However, Grand Master The group went to Xiangshan County once, and he pointed out the unreasonableness of this method! And based on the expenses in Xiangshan County, the facts are there."

What they were discussing was that Zhang Yifan had mentioned to Li Shanchang and the others before about the cost of the inn. In future generations, it would be a matter of business trip expenses.

In ancient times, business trip expenses were borne by the local government.The more officials entertained, the heavier the local burden.If it is a transportation thoroughfare, the annual payment of hospitality at the inn alone will be a considerable burden for the people.

Especially this time, Li Shanchang brought a large group of people and stayed in Xiangshan County for such a long time. Zhang Yifan shared the expenses incurred with the number of people registered in Xiangshan County when he first arrived, which almost caught up with the land tax.

Zhang Yifan also specifically stated that when local officials, especially those servants, take advantage of the opportunity to make money, the people will definitely pay more in the end.

Therefore, Zhang Yifan suggested in the memorial that officials’ business trip expenses should be controlled from the source, so as not to disrupt local people’s livelihood.

Yuan Zhang was very concerned about the corruption of officials.Zhang Yifan proposed this kind of control measure from the source, which he appreciated very much, but the question came again, where did each government office get the money?

Theoretically speaking, all yamen have no money.Every month, each government office receives salary from the Ministry of Household Affairs.

To this, Zhu Biao tried to give an answer: "Perhaps, as Yifan said, officials on business trips go to the Ministry of Household Reimbursement for reimbursement? However, Yifan also mentioned something, maybe the official's salary, or We don’t have enough financial resources to pay for the business trip in advance? Not to mention, business travel is hard work, so what kind of business trip allowance should be given?”

After Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he said angrily: "This kid, he thought every yamen was as rich as the Xiangshan County yamen! Did you see that it was already the end of the year? According to Jing Jing's estimate, Xiangshan County The yamen will have an income of 250 million guan this year! It is 50 guan more than previously estimated. It is really rich, but the people are also getting rich!"

This kind of thing would never have been believed in the past.If the government wants money, where will the money come from?It must have come from the hands of the common people!
Where does the reason come from, the government has collected more money from the people, and as a result, the money of the people has not decreased, but has also increased!
I can't figure it out!
After Zhu Biao heard this, he smiled and said: "Many people say that there is a certain amount of money and food in the world. Whoever has more will inevitably have less! This kind of idea may not work with Xiangshan County as an example."

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said more seriously: "That's not necessarily the case!"

After speaking, he picked up several memorials from the imperial case, signaled the eunuch on duty to transfer them to the prince, and then said: "Song Qing came back and said something, and there are also memorials in other places. On the whole, Xiangshan County should be All the money in the surrounding areas has been sucked away. You can see that in the past two years, taxes in other places in Guangdong, except Panyu County, have decreased."

Zhu Biao didn't know about this before.Therefore, after he took the memorial, he immediately started reading it.

While he was watching, Zhu Yuanzhang was still talking: "Other places in Guangdong have to assist in matters involving Xiangshan County. Therefore, their populations are flocking to Xiangshan County, which has created the prosperity of Xiangshan County, but the population in other places If it is reduced, the impact will be a bit big!”

"Especially after the recent typhoon, people with fields in many places abandoned their fields and rushed to Xiangshan County with their families. This phenomenon is not a good phenomenon!"

At first, it was those tenants without land, and many of them were originally hermits, and they flocked to Xiangshan County.Therefore, this matter is not outstanding.But after this once-in-a-hundred-year typhoon, things became more prominent.Affected local officials reported complaints.Just because of the purpose of assisting Xiangshan County, they didn't dare not let him go.

Zhu Yuanzhang pointed to the memorials in Zhu Biao's hand and said: "Hu Qing has already pointed out that Xiangshan County has squeezed other places to become so prosperous. This is a special case and does not mean that Xiangshan County must be good. I think, Although this opinion is biased, it actually makes sense!"

Zhu Biao listened and watched.After reading, he was silent for a while, and finally looked up at Zhu Yuanzhang and said with the same serious expression: "Father, I feel that it is wrong to blame Xiangshan County for these problems!"

As he said that, without waiting for Zhu Yuanzhang to ask questions, he took the initiative to explain: "I have been to Xiangshan County, and I can feel the prosperity of Xiangshan County. If it is wrong to say that the prosperity of Xiangshan County is wrong, then I think that there must be something in it. If something is wrong, it should not be a problem in Xiangshan County, but a problem elsewhere!"

After a pause, Zhu Biao thought of an example, and then added: "It's like a school where someone excels in study, and others complain, saying that this person's study is so good that it makes them look stupid. , Can’t learn well? Does that mean that the person who is excellent in learning cannot be so excellent? Or does it mean that others need to work harder?”

After finishing speaking, he looked at Zhu Yuanzhang, waiting for his father's comments.

(End of this chapter)