Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 2618 Bargaining
In addition to the plague, smallpox is the number one vicious infectious disease in this time and space, and it can even affect whether the Manchus enter the customs and plunder, so it is the focus of the Senate's prevention.As early as when the Fubo army captured the city, the work team set up "vaccination bureaus" in major markets in the countryside, and persuaded the villagers to get vaccinated against smallpox through local folk art and social operas going to the countryside.Generally speaking, the vaccination situation is quite optimistic. The main reason is that Jiujiang is located in an important traffic route and there are many merchants coming and going. Smallpox often occurs locally, and the villagers are deeply affected. Therefore, as the saying goes, "Having a child is only half of the birth, and the whole is only when the smallpox is out."In the past two years, with the development of vaccination work, the phenomenon of infants and young children infected with smallpox has been greatly reduced. Many banners have been hung in the vaccination bureau, indicating that the sanitation work of the Senate has been recognized by some villagers.

But education is not so optimistic.Scholars who participated in the imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty were not only enrolled in official schools, but all clans in various places had private schools and ethnic studies, and Confucian classics were used as relatively unified teaching materials. There were a large number of traditional education teachers, forming a large-scale education industry.

The Senate abolished the imperial examinations and implemented new-style education, but it was severely limited by the lack of educational resources. There was a lack of teachers for new-style education, and there was also a serious shortage of new-style schools.Nanhai County, as one of the largest counties in the Pearl River Delta, has a population of hundreds of thousands. There is only one national model school built in Dali, and there is no new school in a culturally prosperous area like Jiujiang, which is equivalent to cutting off most of the students. Sooner or later, something will happen to the future.

The opinion of the education department is that in addition to providing teachers and financial support for those suitable for reorganization into junior primary schools, the legitimacy of the existence of a large number of private schools and social schools should be recognized and not banned, just like in Hainan.However, to promote the cultural proficiency level examination, as long as one can obtain a second-level cultural certificate, it is equivalent to elementary school ability.At the same time, financially subsidized textbooks for primary and primary schools will be sold in an all-round way, and these textbooks will be used by these social studies. At the same time, short-term simple teacher training will be offered free of charge, and new education training will be given to school teachers and readers who are willing to become teachers, and "simple teacher certificates will be issued. ".

However, these policies are still a bit complicated for the local rich. After the abolition of the imperial examination system, they are at a loss. Without the imperial examination, how can scholars make progress?

Therefore, many big families in the vicinity wanted to invite Zhang Xiao to live in the family for a while, and they were also planning for the future of the family.After being declined by Zhang Xiao, all the patriarchs came to Jiujiang Daxu to speak when they saw that the county magistrate was not being invited.

In the marching tent, Zhang Xiao sat on the marching chair with his legs crossed, holding the ear of a large glass cup. The brownish-yellow tea stains on the cup wall indicated that the cup had been used for a long time. The words "For the Senate and the People" are printed on it.He blew on the tea in the cup, took a small sip to test the temperature, then closed his upper and lower teeth to block the tea in the cup, and drank all the tea with a grunt. Unfortunately, two pieces of tea were stuck to his front teeth. Xiao took it off with his hand and threw it back into the teacup.

The squires in the tent saw it, and no one dared to complain, but they all felt that it was really insulting to the gentleman.

The Mingqian Longjing tea sent by Hangzhou Station is Zhang Xiao's favorite, and the natives sitting on both sides also put a cup in front of them.The squires who came here are all elderly people, and it is really unreasonable to let people talk about it for a long time without enjoying their saliva.

Guan Boyi also took a sip of tea, moistened his throat, and said in slightly hoarse Cantonese-flavored Mandarin: "The parents of the county have a good taste. This tea is fragrant and sweet, and it tastes mellow in the throat. After drinking it, I feel a sense of harmony." The air is in the middle of the cheeks, it should be the best West Lake Longjing." The other gentry also praised a few words.

Guan Boyi is the current patriarch of the Guan Clan's Shimeitang. His younger brother Guan Jiyi was Chen Zizhuang's Jinshi in the same year.But for the future of the clan, Guan Boyi came to Zhang Xiao's tent with his old bones.

Guan Boyi said again: "Students have the courage to plead with the parents of the county on behalf of the young talents, and hope that the parents of the county will write to the court to resume the imperial examination to select talents to serve the country. This is not in vain for tens of thousands of scholars in the South of the Five Ridges for more than ten years."

"My Great Song Senate returned to Shenzhou to rebuild China and save the people. Don't worry, the door of the Senate is always open. We will not reject any collaborators, but—" Zhang Xiao dragged his voice and said : "It has to be done according to our rules."

After the Senate occupied Guangdong and Guangxi, many people still took chances, thinking that the imperial examination would be resumed soon, but more than two years later, there is no sign of recovery at all.

Song Guowei, the patriarch of the Song clan, said cautiously: "The parents of the county have worked tirelessly since they took office. However, the town is located in a remote place, and the younger generations have no chance to study in the Nanhai National Model School, and cannot serve the court, so I hope the parents of the county will pass on the heart of our generation to the court."

"I understand your intentions. I really intend to investigate the location of the new school during my trip," Zhang Xiao put down the glass teacup and said, "But now there is a lot of waste to be done, and everything is going to be spent. The training of tens of thousands of troops costs thousands of dollars every day. The plague in Guangzhou caused the city to be closed for several months. The Senate was sympathetic to the suffering of the people, not only confiscated many taxes, but also exempted many small traders from taxes. Last spring and summer were severely drought, and at the end of the year, the Senate opened warehouses for disaster relief. This kind of pox situation is now being vaccinated for free, and no money is taken. Although the Senate is rich in the world, it can’t make money out of thin air. Whether this school can be built depends on the sincerity of everyone here.”

Wealth has not been revealed since ancient times. When it comes to money, the gentry will naturally cry poorly. Zeng Xingxiang, the patriarch of the Zeng clan, said tremblingly: "The parents of the county have learned from it. As far as the students know, the land in this township is about 820 hectares, and the land tax is three liters per mu. Two liters, Tang and Seng Xia are both five liters. In the tenth year of Wanli, Zhou Wenqing, the county magistrate, went to the countryside to clear up the acres of Zhang Tianmu. There is a shortage of [-] hectares in Tongxian County, and a virtual tax of [-] cent [-] cents per mu is added. Adding six cents and four cents to one cent, I don’t want my hometown to suffer from the burden of mixing two liters with five liters.”

Wei Bifu had already told Zhang Xiao about the "fixed bow and false tax", but he didn't expect that Jiujiang would have a story about "a false husband". what happened?"

Huang Xiyin leaned over to Zhang Xiao's ear and explained in a low voice: "During the Wanli period, Zhou Wenqing felt that the ponds of Jiujiang were indistinguishable from the land, so he decided to use them as ponds for taxation. The upper part also becomes a pond, and the tax rate of the pond is much higher than that of the field."

"Oh——" Zhang Xiao nodded, and said to the squires: "It is indeed unreasonable to set false taxes. It has been 50 years since the beginning of the Wanli period, and it was difficult to distinguish the beautiful ponds here during the Wanli period. Now I see that Jiujiang has [-] out of [-] fish ponds and [-] out of [-] fields, which is worthy of the name.”

This change from the Wanli period to the end of the Ming Dynasty shows that the expansion of Jiujiang fish ponds is extremely fast. Of course, this is also stimulated by Zhou Wenqing’s Qingzhang policy. If the land is not changed to mulberry fish ponds with higher profits , Those who own the land will face serious burdens and even losses.

During his investigation, Zhang Xiao also found that there was no tendency for mulberry-based fishponds to replace fruit-based fishponds in the Jiujiang area at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Planting of crops such as rice, fruit, and rice is in the trend of expansion rather than mutual substitution.When it comes to habitat development, the efficiency of small farmers is far inferior to that of organized groups such as clans and land reclamation brigades.

Seeing that the squires were silent, Zhang Xiao said again: "Don't worry, my Senate doesn't like to engage in zero-sum games. It is our style to make the cake bigger. As long as you follow the Senate with peace of mind, the Senate will not let you suffer. .”

This string of new words confused the old men. Huang Xiyin happened to discuss related topics with Zhang Jiayu before, so he stood up and explained: "What Zhang Xianzun means is that the Song Dynasty Senate has all kinds of advanced technologies. Song has a sincere heart, and the Senate can ask you to grow more food, raise more fish, and make better cocoons, and what you pay now is tomorrow's harvest."

Guan Boyi said: "Students are not talented, I am willing to listen to you."

"Old Mr. Guan, most of the fish and flower industry in this township is run by your people?" After Zhang Xiao finished speaking, he threw away the folding fan and fanned it a few times in front of him. There were no ink poems and paintings on the white fan, only a few Unremarkable big characters - the air conditioner is better.

Guan Boyi didn't know what Zhang Xiao meant, so he replied cautiously: "That's true. After Huang Xiaoyang's rebellion in the previous dynasty, all the Danhus escaped, and there was nothing for the Xihai fish lesson, so it fell on the villagers of the same town. Xihai Yuhua. Our family has a serious family style, and the past dynasties have paid more attention to paying for food after class, and after the revolution of the country, we have never defaulted on our debts."

Zhang Xiao asked again: "Since this is the case, do you know how many fish flowers Jiujiang catches every year?"

Guan Boyi said: "It's like the sky full of stars, which are innumerable."

"Wrong," Zhang Xiao closed his fan and patted his hand, with the corner of his mouth raised, and said, "The ponds in Nanhai County are 15 mu, and if more than 8000 fish fry are put in per mu, it will cost about 15 million fish flowers. Finally, although the [-] mu of ponds are not all mulberry fish ponds, there are still many Wangtian ponds and wild ponds. , the township should produce no less than [-] million fish flowers every year, and considering the loss of fish flowers fishing, transportation, and breeding, the annual catch should not be less than [-] million fish. Is there any fallacy in what this county said?"

(End of this chapter)