The reason why the three senior officials were so surprised that everyone could read newspapers was because literacy was a very big thing in the Ming Dynasty.
It can be said that the Ming Dynasty was ruled by the emperor and the scholar-bureaucrats. At the local level, scholars were actually members of the ruling class. Even if the court officials saw a scholar, they would have to show courtesy. Although the original intention of this system was to use the people who were immersed in it.
The Confucian scholars in the idea of "loyalty and filial piety" stabilized the rule of the Zhu family royal family and formed a stable superstructure. However, after hundreds of years of operation, a local tradition has been formed that reading and literacy equals personal ability and prestige.
If you can read and decipher, you can read clearly, understand the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and know what is allowed and what cannot be done. If you can read and decipher, you can understand government notices and even court reports, and know the major events in the world.
The knowledge and abilities of literate people are vastly different from those of illiterate people.
Not to mention that in places like Tianjin and Shandong, the government publishes newspapers, and literate people can read the newspapers directly. Once you can read the newspapers, you will be able to learn about the important news of the court, the trends of the government of Tianjin, the latest policies, and even domestic and international situations and even the latest business opportunities and
All changes can be understood.
With a little training, a literate person can become a qualified military officer or government official, which can be said to be a talent in this era. The entire Fanjiazhuang is basically literate, so how powerful will Fanjiazhuang be?
What shocked Wang Chengen even more was that Li Zhi's scholars were all different from Confucian scholars.
The royal family of Zhu Ming and the Confucian scholars share the world. After hundreds of years of development, this kind of sharing the world has become the only choice. But in Fanjiazhuang, Li Zhi's literate people do not talk about benevolence and filial piety. From these people who have never been brainwashed by Confucianism
Selecting talents to manage the country is a new option that Li Zhi has.
This is an option that may change the character of a regime.
Wang Chengen knew that what Li Zhi repeatedly preached and instilled in schools and newspapers was "public morality." So, will the government composed of literate people like Fanjiazhuang be a public morality regime?
How terrible power will a regime have if everyone is literate, everyone pays attention to public morality, and everyone is ashamed of internal strife?
Looking at the people holding newspapers and reading leisurely, Wang Chengen's face was uncertain and his color changed several times.
Li Xing heard Wang Chengen's inquiry and said calmly: "Gong Mingjian, after more than ten years of hard work, now all school-age children in our Fanjiazhuang have enrolled in primary school. For adults, we have free literacy classes. Currently, adult men in Fanjiazhuang are literate.
The literacy rate currently exceeds 80%, and even among adult women, the literacy rate is only 40%."
Wang Chengen snorted coldly and asked: "Are public moral thoughts taught in literacy classes?"
Li Xing smiled and secretly thought that Wang Chengen was a smart man, and he immediately saw through the intention of his elder brother Li Zhi. Li Zhi taught civil ethics classes while literacy in Fanjiazhuang and Tianjin, striving to make every literate person have a certain degree of literacy.
Awareness of public ethics.
"My father-in-law is a clear example. One-third of the courses in literacy classes are public ethics courses. Public ethics are promoted every day in newspapers. Even the governments of Tianjin and Shandong reward people who have public ethics and benefit society every day, and punish those who do not harm public ethics.
A traitor to the interests of others.”
"These literate people in Fanjiazhuang can now be said to be the reserve officials of Tianjin, Shandong and the three northeastern provinces. Every month, the elder brother recruits officials in Fanjiazhuang to enrich the government offices of the four provinces and one town."
Wang Chengen took a breath and shook his head, looking a little dazed for a moment.
The Li Zhi of today is no longer the Wuxia Ameng of the past.
With so many educated people, Li Zhi has cultivated a culture that is completely different from the Ming Dynasty, and a completely different interest group from the Ming gentry. If Li Zhi was just a superb craftsman in the past, by relying on
If technology is advanced and powerful, Li Zhi today has created a new society with great power.
Even if Li Zhi does nothing next, this civil society with minimal internal friction will continue to exert its efforts outwards.
Cao Bianjiao and Yang Guozhu looked at each other and were a little touched. Although the two were not as far apart as Wang Chengen thought, the strength of Fanjiazhuang with so many scholars was really shocking.
Everyone sat down with a look of surprise on their faces, and then the shopkeeper came up to greet them. Li Xing was a regular customer of this restaurant. After a few strokes on the menu, he ordered dishes for three tables.
After a while, a steaming seafood dinner was served on the table. The seafood included garlic prawns, steamed seven-banded grouper, fried cod, fried herring, etc., which are rarely seen in the capital.
The high-quality seafood makes everyone’s index fingers tickle.
Yang Guozhu was born in Xuanfu. How many times had he eaten seafood in the inland area of Shanxi? He took a sip of shochu, picked up a piece of cod meat and took a bite. His face was full of enjoyment and he couldn't help but praise: "It really tastes good. This
Such a sumptuous meal will probably cost the governor a lot of money!"
Wang Chengen nodded and said: "I didn't expect that such a private restaurant could serve such a seafood feast. If this feast were in the capital, I'm afraid it wouldn't cost dozens of taels of silver. I'm afraid this meal would eat up a whole building."
The price of residential houses in the capital."
Cao Bianjiao looked at the furnishings in the restaurant and felt that it was not luxurious. He couldn't help but asked curiously: "Sir Governor, are these seafood products very cheap in Fanjiazhuang?"
Li Xing laughed and said, "Master Taibao guessed it right. The fishermen in Tianjin and Shandong use steamships to trawl fish. Seafood here is so cheap that everyone can afford it."
"For example, cod is a fish that swarms on a large scale. In the past, sailboats could not go deep into the deep sea to fish, and occasionally they would catch a few and sell them for as high as seven coins a pound. But with the ship trawl, fishermen can go deep into the deep sea.
Go to the sea and cast a big net to easily catch cod weighing several thousand kilograms. Nowadays, cod is a daily food fish in Tianjin and costs only fifty cents per kilogram."
Hearing Li Xing's words, Yang Guozhu's eyes widened and he was speechless as he looked at the tender white cod meat on his plate.
At fifty cents a pound, this fresh seafood is cheaper than pork.
Li Xing added: "As for these shrimps, the ships trawl the nets to get as many as they want. Now these shrimps have been sold for forty cents per catty, and they are the daily food of the people."
"As for this herring, it is even more affordable. It has been sold for twenty cents per catty, which is the same price as vegetables."
"Even the most expensive grouper, which I heard costs one to two five cents per catty in the capital, only sells for seventy cents per catty in Fanjiazhuang. It's slightly more expensive than pork."
Li Xing smiled and said: "Not to mention that such a restaurant can serve it, even ordinary people will buy some food for their daily meals. The people in Fanjiazhuang can earn at least two or three taels of silver a month. They can afford all these. Three
If you don’t believe it, angel, go and look at the other common people’s tables in the restaurant, there are these types of seafood on every table.”
Wang Cheng'en had never seen a trawler before, so when he heard Li Xing's words, he felt as if he had just heard a fantasy. His face was uncertain, and he looked at Li Xing's face without saying a word.
Are the people of Fanjiazhuang living so well?
This is impossible! The emperor cannot eat these seafood every day.
Wang Chengen stood up suddenly and walked straight to other people's tables, as if to expose Li Xing's lies.
However, after turning around, his face changed color, like a country bumpkin entering the city, his face full of frustration and disbelief. chaptererror;
