Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

If these actions without becoming an official are just made by one person, they will have little impact on the affairs of the court.

But not to mention the officials in the court, even the emperor Zhu Youjian had to pay attention to the noise they made when they gathered together.

As the promoter of this matter, Zhu Youjian ordered the Beijing News to launch a supplement in order to control the matter within his own control, to promote the sales of the newspaper and increase the influence of the newspaper -

In addition to the original four pages of the newspaper, four more pages were added. Specially discuss the establishment of Enke and the addition of county magistrates, and let the officials in Beijing express their opinions.

This made Jingcheng Juzi's remarks immediately find a gathering place. They enthusiastically published articles expressing their support for Enke and favoring the establishment of additional county magistrates.

There are so many articles that they cannot even be published in the four additional pages. So Zhu Youjian could only order to add four more pages to the supplement to publish these articles.

Thanks to Lu Xiang's improvement in printing technology, the increased cost of doing so was not much, so the selling price of newspapers did not increase and was still sold at the original price to attract more people to buy.

At the same time, in order to reduce expenses, no royalties will be paid to authors for articles published in supplements. Only articles of particularly good quality that are selected for publication in the official journal can receive royalties.

There are very few articles like this, but most people in Beijing don't care about royalties. They are happy that their articles can be printed for free and their opinions can be spread.

Especially after they heard that the supplement was an order from the emperor, they believed that the emperor was supporting them. More enthusiastically published articles in newspapers to express support for the establishment of additional county magistrates.

They have seen the scholars' stance on this matter from the increasing number of supplements.

But in his heart, he was very wary of Qian Qianyi. I think we should pay more attention to this person in the future, lest he come up with any messy new theories and bring disaster to future generations.

The emperor specially asked three generations of his ancestors to participate in Enke, in order to reduce the number of poor scholars and increase the number of well-off families.

Amidst the support for the additional county magistrate, some activists raised some objections to the specific setting of Enke.

"In other words, there is an element of opportunism in his character that has penetrated deep into his bones!"

Zhu Youjian looked at this, but he couldn't laugh or cry. Because although officials can be said to be permanent property owners, their wealth is not created by themselves. Instead, the court collected it from those who created wealth and then distributed it to them.

Do the people think that what Juzi said is correct? The matter that so many people support is still proposed by His Majesty the Emperor. There cannot be anything wrong.

Knowing that Qian Qianyi's article was to support himself and confuse some people, Zhu Youjian did not prevent the publication of the article and arranged for the writers to discuss it based on this point.

This statement was very popular with those poor people, and they published articles one after another to express their support for Qian Qianyi.

No one dared to risk the disapproval of the world and openly oppose it at this time.

The official felt that if he objected, people might gather at the door of his house and prevent him from going out.

After Qian Qianyi made his statement, Donglin Party officials basically would not object. The remaining eunuch officials retained by Zhu Youjian and the newly revived centrist officials are unlikely to firmly oppose this.

The attitudes of these people were quickly reflected in the newspapers. Qian Qianyi published an article expressing his support for the establishment of more enke and more county officials.

The more such people there are, the heavier the burden will be on the people. Therefore, the number of officials cannot increase indefinitely. It is impossible to rely on this method to allow scholars to have permanent wealth. Qian Qianyi’s article is simply fallacious:

His article is based on the theory of permanent property proposed previously. It is believed that allowing scholars to have permanent property can strengthen their perseverance, and the court should strongly support it so that more scholars can have permanent property and careers.

Therefore, the attitude of most officials has turned to support the increase of county officials.

This objection was first raised by those who participated in the Mingfa and Mingshu imperial examinations. They believed that the sub-list of Jinshi subjects allowed participation in Enke, but the sub-lists of Mingfa and Mingshu subjects did not provide for it, which was a bit harsh on them.

Therefore, in Zhu Youjian's view, the outcome of the court discussion is basically certain. What he was focusing on now was the noise in the newspapers.

Being an official and serving the court is a kind of permanent industry. The more scholars the court recruits, the more people will have lasting careers, and there will be more well-off families in the world who will escape poverty.

These remarks were quickly spread through newspapers and were seen by officials and people in the capital, and then affected them.

"This guy is really interesting. He can always draw some specious conclusions."

Therefore, they proposed to allow the deputy directors of Mingfa and Mingshu to participate in Enko, or simply grant Mingfa or Mingshu a background.

Therefore, some people have suggested that Enke’s Mingjing Ke Jinshi and Mingshu Ke Jinshi are no different from Mingfa Ke Jinshi and Mingshu Ke Jinshi. The so-called Ming Jing Ke Jinshi and Ming Shu Ke Jin Shi are actually Ming Jing Ke and Ming Shu Ke. The deputy list of calligraphy.

In this case, why can't the deputy rankings of Mingfa and Mingshuang be given birth status?
The positions of judge and registrar among county officials are suitable for them.

This statement has attracted the approval of many candidates who participated in the Mingfa and Mingshu subjects. Before the results come out, they all have the possibility of being on the secondary list. Since you have the opportunity to be an official, of course you must actively participate.

Their remarks inspired other people. Before the results of the joint examination come out, they all have the possibility of being on the secondary list. Therefore, they proposed that the candidates for the secondary list of Jinshi should be directly awarded the teaching position according to the previous practice, without having to participate in the encore.

Some people agree with this statement, but some feel it is inappropriate. It is believed that the emperor established the Mingjing and Mingshu family backgrounds for the purpose of selecting clerical officials, and also specifically allowed the participation of deputy candidates. Their proposal is really greedy.

This incident began to cause controversy among some people. Whether the deputy list of Jinshi subjects should be directly conferred with a teaching position, and whether the deputy lists of Mingfa and Mingshu subjects should be conferred with family background, are all issues that are of concern to the emperor.

After seeing that many officials agreed with the establishment of additional county magistrates, the attention of many officials began to turn to this point——

They can't wait to compete for the fruits of victory and want to make the court's decision more beneficial to themselves.

These people started a great debate in the free supplement. Although there is no royalties, they still enjoy it.

The people of the capital saw a great show for free. Watching those normally aloof people arguing in newspapers or even debating in reality. They all found it eye-opening and satisfied their curiosity. The circulation number of "Beijing News" has also increased again and again, ranging from the original few thousand copies to tens of thousands, and has stabilized at around 50,000 copies. Most families in the capital have already purchased them. Some families even bought more than one copy, and all literate readers wanted to read it.

Following this situation, Beijing News Group launched a subscription service. Rich people can order it for a year at a time. Beijing News Group will deliver newspapers directly to them based on their house numbers.

This house number is also a credit to the Weiwei Department. After the names of various streets and alleys in the capital were completely determined, they assigned house numbers to each house based on the houses. And register the household registration, reissue the household registration book, and determine the permanent residents and temporary residents.

This matter was mainly to cooperate with the work of Jinyiwei and uncover possible Jianlu spies in the capital. However, it objectively facilitates the postal service. The Beijing News Group's newspapers can be delivered directly to your home based on the house number.

After the emperor suggested that the Inner Palace Supervisor could jointly set up a postal company with Taipu Temple, the Inner Palace Supervisor had already gathered the newspaper deliverers from various newspaper offices to jointly establish the Beijing Postal Service. Currently I am responsible for delivering newspapers and doing some errands.

Within the postal company, plans have been made to set up postboxes in various streets, issue stamps, and carry out letter mailing services in accordance with the emperor's instructions.

However, the integration of post stations in Taipu Temple has not yet been completed, and it is difficult for letters to be sent outside the capital. This planned business has not yet been fully launched.

But Qin Shiwen, the minister of Taipusi, had already seen the prospects of the postal business and Taipusi's advantages in this industry. It has been planned to set up similar companies in various places to be responsible for letter delivery, postal items, etc.

With its nationwide network of post stations and its authority to manage postal affairs, Taipu Temple can hold half of the shares in postal companies in various places. The dividends received every year in the future will make Taipu Temple one of the richest yamen. Not only does the station not lose money, but it can actually make money.

Now, he is urging the officials of Taipu Temple to finalize the regulations of the postal company and attract businessmen from all over the country to open local branches.

It’s hard to say how this will turn out, but after the newspaper subscription service was launched in Beijing, it quickly became popular.

In particular, all yamen in the capital, under the express instructions of Wang Chengen, the eunuch in charge of the inner palace, almost all allocated funds to subscribe to newspapers and provide them to yamen officials.

After all, this is not a matter of spending their money. The Inner Palace Supervisor can also be called a court institution, and the person in charge is a celebrity in front of the emperor. Of course, they have to sell face and spend money to subscribe and support.

Especially some senior officials, in order to read the newspapers early, have also spent money to subscribe and read the news in the newspapers——

Almost all of these people knew that the Beijing News was not only run by the emperor under the supervision of the inner government, but some of the commentators' articles even hid the emperor's intentions. If you want to grasp the direction of the wind in the court, you must read this newspaper.

Driven by them, almost all officials and wealthy families in the capital subscribed to newspapers.

Seeing this, major restaurants, inns, and teahouses have also subscribed in order to attract customers.

These customers alone can make the "Beijing News" sell at least 10,000 copies per issue. Wang Chengen was happy all day long, knowing that the Beijing News Group was stabilized——

As long as the Beijing News exists with stable circulation, other newspapers and periodicals can advertise on it and then gradually launch it. Publish ten-year and monthly magazines based on sales volume and content.

It can be said that Zhu Youjian's plan to use scholars' public opinion to influence court decisions not only made the matter of adding county magistrates a foregone conclusion, but also allowed the influence of newspapers to penetrate into the officialdom and the people.

In order to further show that they attach great importance to public opinion and increase the influence of the newspaper. After Zhu Youjian saw that the debate about the deputy list was getting bigger and bigger, he had a message published and decided to hold a meeting for all candidates who were taking the exam.

This meeting will discuss matters related to the deputy list. Let each party state their views and then let the candidate choose. Officials from Honglu Temple witnessed and the results were determined by counting the votes.

The imperial court will refer to the results of the meeting to formulate relevant policies. Every candidate has a sacred vote, let them choose carefully.

This decision made everyone in the capital cheer and shocked the officials. They never expected that the emperor would hand over decision-making to all the officials.

Although it is only a detail about the secondary list, it represents a possibility:
The imperial court could convene the people to discuss major policies.

This will inevitably have an impact on the court's decision-making. All officials in the Ming Dynasty were not prepared for this.

But there are also people who are happy and excited. Liu Zongzhou, who is responsible for recreating ritual music, is one of them:
"The National People's Congress, this is the National People's Congress of the Ming Dynasty!"

"The Rites of Zhou says: If there is a serious problem in the country, all the people will be sent to the king's gate."

"Your Majesty wants to start by elevating people and let the people gather together again."

During the Zhou Dynasty, Chinese people had the right to participate in political discussions and participate in litigation. During the reign of King Li of Zhou Dynasty, the people of the country were prohibited from slandering his policies. The people of the country did not dare to speak out, and the road followed the eyes.

Then the people of Haojing gathered together and expelled King Zhou Li. The Duke of Zhao and the Duke of Zhou implemented the royal government on their behalf, and changed the reign name to Gonghe, which was known as "Zhou Zhao Gonghe" in history.

This is the famous Chinese riot and republican administration, which is clearly recorded in the history books.

Liu Zongzhou was pondering the system of the Zhou Dynasty and remaking rituals and music for the Ming Dynasty. So when he saw the matter of the people gathering for discussion, he thought of the National People's Congress of the Zhou Dynasty. It was believed that the emperor wanted to return this power to the people.

This made him very happy and thought that the emperor was a holy king.

But other officials don't have this idea. They frowned when they thought that in the future, people such as civil servants and other officials would have the right to participate in and discuss government affairs. He believed that doing so would reverse the order and make it difficult for the people to discipline themselves. Officials say that the power of one person will be seriously violated.

So they went to court one after another to fiercely oppose this matter. And he cited scriptures to show that this matter is unreasonable.

But there was no need for Zhu Youjian to refute their memorials. Liu Zongzhou, the person in charge of remaking rituals and music, suppressed them.

This Confucian master, after being worshiped as the imperial master by Zhu Youjian, was almost certain to become the first Confucian scholar in the world. His point of view is the orthodox interpretation of Confucianism. If others want to refute him, they have to work twice as hard.

Liu Zongzhou used the National People's Congress as an example to illustrate that the emperor's behavior was in line with Zhou etiquette. Now that the Ming Dynasty wants to remake rituals and music, it cannot stick to the previous system. It must refer to Zhou rites and carefully figure out the intentions left by the sages.

With his support, the matters discussed by the people were passed without any doubt. Zhu Youjian chose to convene a meeting in the Gongyuan before releasing the results. (End of chapter)