Chapter 1297 The middle of Zhou Nong at the head and tail of the hall
In the next few days, as Fang Xiaoru said, many officials in the court were not interested in doing anything. They spent most of the day writing notes and opposing Yunxi's imperial examination reform plan. Therefore, Yunxi received many suggestions every day.
The eunuchs in the palace who were responsible for disposing of the discarded memorials were very busy these days. Every day they were disposing of the discarded memorials while scolding the officials who handed them over.
Of course, the imperial court is not paralyzed. After all, most of the people who care about this matter are middle- and high-level officials. Those officials at the lower levels who were promoted from the lower levels do not care about it. And most of the actual affairs of a government are handled by the lower levels.
Officials did it, not to mention that middle- and upper-level officials were not completely indifferent. They just spent less time on work, so the court could still function.
But the efficiency is naturally much lower. But this is also within Yunxi's plan. If something like this happens that all the officials in the court care about, it is impossible for the efficiency not to be affected. But Yunxi will not modify himself just because the efficiency is reduced.
plan. He believes that compared with achieving the goal, a temporary reduction in efficiency is acceptable.
But some people were worried about this, such as Qi Tai, Fang Xiaoru and others. They didn't know Yunxi's thoughts, but they were very dissatisfied with the fact that many officials in the court were unwilling to do things. However, they had no way to persuade the officials to work seriously, so they could only keep asking for interviews.
Your Majesty, please ask Yunxi to take back your orders. But Yunxi has always refused to meet them.
More than twenty days later, reports from other places had been sent to the capital. Yunxi felt that he had received a lot of memorials on the matter, so he told Lu Yi: "Go to the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ducha."
The court's Yamen has conveyed my oral instructions to receive Qi Shangli and Fang Xizhi this afternoon."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Lu Yi agreed and left Qianqing Palace to deliver the order.
"Your Majesty, do you want to meet Mr. Qi Shangshu and Mr. Xizhi?" Li Ren happened to come over and wanted to ask him for instructions. Hearing a few words Yunxi said, he asked immediately.
"The reform of the imperial examination has been delayed for some time. I thought that the officials would not be so opposed, but I didn't expect that after more than 20 days, they were still giving me notes. I also saw that some yamen had already piled up errands.
Just agree to their request and not set up only a horse riding competition in the palace examination." Yunxi sighed deliberately and said.
"Your Majesty's ability to listen to elegant words and accept the advice of the ministers is a blessing to the Ming Dynasty and a blessing to the country." Li Ren also breathed a sigh of relief and immediately began to praise Yun He.
"Your Majesty, not all officials like weak scholars. I have talked with many officials and learned that they also dislike weak scholars. But after all, the imperial examination is designed to select talents, and whether you are talented or not has nothing to do with whether you can ride a horse.
As for the Jinshi who cannot ride a horse, your Majesty will not send them to the governor's office as officials, nor let them accompany the army." Li Ren knew that the emperor was definitely unwilling to give in, but because there were too many officials who opposed it, he could not
He refused to give in. He was busy trying to explain things to the officials.
"Furthermore, Your Majesty has the power to appoint hundreds of officials. Your Majesty can make it difficult for weak people to be promoted. In this way, scholars all over the world will know what kind of talents Your Majesty likes, and they will pay more attention to their health, and there is no need to change the content of the imperial examination.
To ride a horse." Li Ren said the last words in a very low voice.
"Slow down!" Yunxi said: "Although I agreed to their request, I didn't change the slightest bit about the palace examination."
"I thought of a compromise. There are two contents in the imperial examination. One is the strategy examination, which has not changed; the other is horse riding."
"It's just that riding a horse is no longer like a lap around the palace as I originally thought, but a few laps around the place where I usually walk my horse. There is no score, I just have a look in person as a reference for ranking."
"Ai Qing, what do you think of this change?"
Li Ren thought about it for a long time and felt that in this way, even though those who couldn't ride a horse and were weak would definitely be ranked behind, but they just let the new scholars ride horses around the school grounds without any equestrian competition or assessment of scores, how could they be able to win hundreds of awards?
The official accepted it; and he was also worried that if he did not even agree to this compromise, His Majesty would be angry and drag the matter out, which would be more detrimental to the court, so he bowed and said: "Your Majesty's consideration is very appropriate. I have no objection."
."
"Since Aiqing has no objections, Qitai and the others should also have no objections. This matter can finally be resolved." Yunxi said.
Sure enough, after Qi Tai and others came to listen to Yun Xi's words, they also bowed and expressed that they had no objections. Like Li Ren, they were worried that the matter would continue to drag on and cause worse effects. For the sake of the overall situation, they had no choice but to retreat.
In this way, the reform of the imperial examination was decided. Although there were still local candidates who were going to take the examination next year who were not satisfied with this, they could only criticize the new regulations and buy a horse to practice riding.
After this incident passed, there were no major events until the end of the year. On New Year's Eve, Yunxi held a clan banquet for the clan members who came to the capital as usual. Zhu Youdou, the crown prince of Zhou Dynasty, came to the capital again this year, firstly to meet with
Yunxi exchanged feelings, and the second reason was that he came to farm.
On the twenty-second day of the twelfth lunar month, after Zhu Youdou arrived in the capital, he didn't even go to the Prince of Zhou's Mansion to settle down first. He went straight to the palace to talk to Yunxi about farming. He first talked about the seeds he had planted that were newly imported from the Hanzhou continent.
After looking at the harvest situation, he changed his tone and said very excitedly: "Brother, I followed your method and let farmers farm the land, and the effect is excellent!"
His voice became even more excited. "Although the grain output per acre of land has been reduced by 20 to 30%, farmers can cultivate a lot more fields. Calculated, the total harvest of each farmer is still more."
"I have also reduced or reduced the rent of farmers who are willing to farm according to the method I proposed. The money they get from selling grain this year is nearly twice as much as in previous years."
"It just so happened that cattle and sheep were also transported back from the northwest. Whether they were large animals like cattle and horses, or small animals like sheep and donkeys, the prices were much cheaper. Many farmers bought animals. Those who had savings bought cattle, but those who had no savings bought cattle.
Those who have saved have also bought donkeys, so there will be more fields to cultivate next year, and the Ming Dynasty will have more food."
Of course, Youdun is very happy about the increase in total grain output. Although he likes opera and has no interest in farming, he has the spirit of being a national master. He is indeed one of the national masters. He is very concerned about grain output.
Of course I care about this kind of thing that is related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and I am very happy about the increase in grain production.
"Brother Emperor, the grain in Kaifeng has increased so much. The capital should not be bad, and the farmers nearby have also noticed it. In Kaifeng, when the farmers nearby smiled when they saw the tenants of the palace, they all asked why they could have more food.
If you harvest so much grain, you should follow suit. The farmers in the capital should be similar."
"Officials from the capital should also know this, and it is easy to convince hundreds of officials. So, brother, you can also implement it in other places."
"Brother Wei happened to be thinking about this matter these days and was discussing with Chen Di from the Ministry of Household Affairs." Yunxi said with a smile. He is the biggest owner of the country, and of course he is happy about things like increased grain production.
The brothers discussed the implementation of the new farming method and decided in which cities it would be implemented.
By the time this matter was finished, it was already noon. Of course, Yunxi wanted to keep him in the palace for dinner. Since Yunxi had other arrangements in the afternoon, he didn't go to the harem and didn't prepare a big meal. It was said that the chef in the imperial dining room made two things
The side dishes were delivered.
However, Zhu Youdou showed no dissatisfaction at all. Not only was he not dissatisfied, he even seemed very useful. This was not because he was pretending in front of Yunxi, but because he really thought so. He was preparing a big meal on a day that was neither a year nor a holiday.
Entertaining shows that we are not close to you; making arrangements as usual like Yunxi's means is that we are close to you.
Since the New Year was approaching and he had already discussed the issue of rural areas and farmers, Yunxi didn’t want to talk about anything serious anymore, so he chatted casually with Zhu Youdou. He remembered a funny thing and smiled at Zhu Youdou:
"Last year, my brother returned to Beijing from the northwest and brought back many envoys from the Western Regions. One of them was named Gozelez Clavio, who came from a foreign country called Castile in the far west."
"Brother Wei has never heard of this country, and the civilization of this country is completely different from that of the Ming Dynasty, so he was kept in Beijing and a course was opened at Wucheng School for him to be a teacher."
"However, this man is very loyal to his country. He does not want to stay in the Ming Dynasty and wants to return to his country. He also asked his brother to allow him to let the craftsmen give his followers advanced papermaking and movable type printing."
"To pity his brother, he agreed to his request, but he required that his entourage must be able to talk to the craftsmen without an interpreter."
"After that, Calavio went almost crazy and asked his followers to learn Chinese. Every morning at 9 o'clock, all the followers would get up, stand in the courtyard where he lived, and practice Chinese loudly."
"The official in charge of the Fanguan was woken up many times by these so-called Chinese dialects with a southern accent and a northern accent. He was so angry that he wanted to beat Claviyo, and then he calmed down."
"That's fine, but he required all his followers to speak Chinese when they went out to buy things in the market. But the Chinese accent they spoke was too weird, and many misunderstandings occurred. One time, a follower asked a woman
The husband thought he thought his wife was a prostitute. He was so angry that he picked up a kitchen knife and chased the attendant for two streets. However, he was stopped by the police. After careful questioning, the misunderstanding was solved."
"Then another time, another follower didn't know who pointed the way. He didn't ask for details later. He actually thought that the back door of your Prince Zhou's Mansion was the gate of a medical clinic. When he wanted to go in, he was called to the palace by the gatekeeper.
The guards beat him up."
Zhu Youdou laughed a few times, then suddenly remembered something and said: "Brother Emperor, speaking of the palace in the capital, are there any movements among those people who were arranged to be in the palace and look like the White Lotus Cult? Can you confirm that they are the White Lotus Cult?"
?"
"Is there any movement among those people in Kaifeng?" Yunxi asked. There were seven people in total, three of them went to Kaifeng, and four came to the Prince Zhou's Mansion in the capital.
"No." Zhu Youdou shook his head: "There was no movement. What they did was the same as other guards, no difference."
"The same goes for these people in the capital." Yunxi also said: "My brother has arranged for Jin Yiwei to keep an eye on them all day long. If they leave the house, there will be other people following them, but there has been no abnormality in the past year."
"And once when I was out of the palace for my brother, I stopped by a shop selling jewelry and antiques and saw a few people. At that time, there were only two guards around me, and there were at least three strong men in their group.
There were also three adult women. If they were desperate to assassinate my brother, he might not be able to escape. However, they did not take action. Instead, they knelt down and saluted very respectfully."
"So, they are not from the White Lotus Sect?" Zhu Youdou Noodles looked happy. If that was the case, he wouldn't have to be frightened every time he passed by Youxun's own house. What's more, Youxun was his same father and sister after all.
He is his mother's younger brother, and he still has brotherly love, and has always been worried about his safety. If they are not from the White Lotus Sect, they can relax.
"This may be because they felt that there was little chance of success in assassinating me, so they did not take action. However, in any case, the possibility that they are members of the White Lotus Sect is small. We will continue to send people to monitor me for the Brotherhood, unless we can
Make sure they are not from the White Lotus Sect." Yunxi said.
"I hope it can be confirmed soon." Zhu Youdun couldn't help but say.
"Don't worry, I won't let Youxun get hurt!" Yunxi said quickly.
Zhu Youdou smiled and believed it.
The next day was the last court meeting before the year. Unless there was an emergency, no one would say anything important. In a very harmonious atmosphere, the last morning court meeting in the seventh year of Jianye came to an end.
Naturally, nothing happened in the next few days. Everyone was preparing for the New Year. The time soon came to New Year's Eve, and Yunxi held a clan banquet as usual.
After the New Year was over and the court began on the 18th day of the first lunar month, the imperial court began to operate at high speed again, and various things happened one after another, but the most important among them was the joint examination and palace examination that will be held in February this year.
Needless to say, the importance of the Imperial Examination. More and more senior officials in the Ming Dynasty were Jinshi, and their influence on the Ming Dynasty is self-evident; and last year, Yunxi also reformed the palace examination and added a horse riding test.
Although Yunxi said that horse riding is not an exam and does not have scores, who can underestimate its importance to the ranking of the palace exam?
But this is not an equestrian competition. It is just a matter of riding a horse and turning a few laps on the school field. It is not difficult to learn. This matter was already announced in October last year and spread throughout the Ming Dynasty. Those who prepare for the examination have at least two months.
Practice is enough, so it is hard to say how it will affect the ranking in the palace examination. Officials of the Ming Dynasty, famous scribes and local candidates are all paying close attention to this joint examination and the palace examination.
Under the close attention of so many people, the eighth year of Jianye, and the third session of the General Assembly after Yunxi succeeded to the throne, began. (To be continued)