Sheng Tong, the loan manager of the Industrial Zone Branch of Royal Bank Shanghai Branch, originally thought that this Yang Cheng was just a collateral member of the Yang family in Jiujiang, but he did not expect that after a simple conversation, he discovered that this man was actually a direct descendant of the Yang family in Jiujiang.
It is relatively rare for the direct descendants of the gentry to engage in business. After all, most of the capable direct descendants of the gentry have gone to study for the imperial examination and become officials. There will be people who come to do business, even those who do not have the talent to study for the imperial examination.
, most of them would rather hang out in brothels, complaining about the injustice of God and the shady secrets of the imperial examination, but they would not easily go into business.
There is no other reason than that the social status of businessmen is too low.
Although the Tang Dynasty did not forcibly divide household registration, such as military households, peasant households, commercial registration and the like like the previous Ming Dynasty, the strong tradition was still continued.
In recent years, Li Xuan has found it very difficult to improve the social status of soldiers. Now he has no intention to improve the social status of merchants. Besides, there are not many pure businessmen in the Tang Dynasty nowadays, let alone ordinary ones.
Whether it's a trading house or a factory, most of their owners are gentry families, okay?
Today, in the process of promoting industry and commerce in the Tang Empire, most gentry families have gradually evolved from controlling a large amount of land to controlling a large number of enterprises.
At the beginning, Li Xuan actually never thought that in the process of directly promoting industry and commerce, the traditional gentry class would be transformed into the new industrial and commercial class of the Tang Dynasty.
Nowadays, I often hear that a certain gentry sold land that had little profit due to high agricultural taxes and continued suppression of land rent. He used the funds obtained from selling the land, plus the money buried in the cellar.
After many years of money, I invested it in the wave of starting companies and investing in factories.
But, in fact, the people are still the same, and even the model has not changed. They used to like to hoard land, now they like to build factories, they used to like to open shops and restaurants, and now they like to start various companies...
They are still a family of gentry, claiming to be from a scholarly family and a family of officials. As for you saying they are businessmen, they will slap you in the face!
How could they do such a stinking thing as doing business? It was all the work of subordinates and servants, and they didn’t care.
Therefore, under this background, it is not so urgent to discuss improving the social status of businessmen, because you don't know who to call a pure businessman.
Rather, it is the promotion of the social status of soldiers that is what Li Xuan has been paying attention to and spending great efforts on.
At first, he tried to improve the status of soldiers by improving their treatment, but later found that this was not effective. Money is good, but it still cannot really change the current state of society that despises and even despises soldiers.
So Li Xuan later came up with a big move: he formulated a system for military officers to become civilian officials.
It is stipulated that when an officer retires after serving for a certain number of years, he can transfer to a local government to serve as a civilian official.
And this is currently the most important measure taken by the Tang Dynasty to improve the social status of soldiers!
This behavior of military officers changing careers to civilian officials blurs the traditional boundaries between military generals and civilian officials, which means that military generals can change careers and become civilian officials at any time.
The effect of this measure is quite good, and it has dispelled the worries of many students when applying for military academies. If they apply for military academies, they will be free from worries.
If they are lucky enough, they will be promoted directly, preferably to become generals, or even win titles to establish their family's prominent position.
Later, in order to further promote the social and political status of soldiers, Li Xuan simply further tightened the conditions for knighthood. In the current imperial knighthood system, there are clan titles and ministerial titles. The clan, that is, Li Xuan's
For my children and grandchildren, the clan titles they received are completely different from the titles of my ministers, and there is no comparison.
As for the title of minister, there are several categories of people who can obtain it. The first category is those who have made great contributions to the country. This is also the main reason why a few civil servants in the court have obtained the title, including Liu Bagou and others.
Knighted for a reason.
What does it mean to be a person who has made great contributions to the country? To put it simply, it means saving the country and saving the country. Specifically, unless you take a bullet for Li Xuan, otherwise you can only use your strength to save the country and crisis.
This is not limited to anyone. It can be awarded if the conditions are met. However, the only civil servants who have been awarded titles in the name of great contributions to the state are Liu Bagou, Wang Wenhua, and Qian Mengjiu. They are all the earliest Conglong
Ministers, if they do not receive knighthoods, the generals in the military will be even less qualified.
The second category is knighthood based on military merit. There is no need to go into detail about this. At present, most of the titles in the empire are awarded based on military merit. Even several civilian titles are awarded based on military merit. What military merit?
?Provide the army with food, wages, weapons and ammunition!
The third category is scientific research knighthood. As long as you are smart enough, awesome enough, and come up with amazing research or inventions, you can get the knighthood.
The fourth category is the knighthood of a foreign relative. This is the least valuable, and it is also clearly stipulated that those who are knighted by a foreign relative can be awarded a viscount at the highest level.
At the same time, it was also stipulated that no one could be granted the title of a marquis except for military merit, and no one could be granted the title of a duke except for the merits of saving the country. As for hereditary ostracism, even if it was just to reduce the hereditary ostracism to a baron, that would be extremely difficult.
Among the above items, items 1, 3, and 4 are actually like the moon in the mirror to ordinary people. It is unlikely that one can obtain a title through these three methods. The only feasible way is to obtain a title through military merit.
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But here comes the question, why do these scholars want to obtain this noble title?
You must know that the current aristocratic system of the Tang Empire adopts a virtual title system.
In the current aristocratic system of the Tang Dynasty, nobility is not given fiefdoms, or even other political privileges, only some ceremonial treatment and salary. Although this salary is not small, it is not comparable to political privileges and the like.
Even so, it's still of no use.
To a certain extent, in fact, the current title of nobility in the Tang Dynasty is just a title!
It is not like the noble title of military commanders in the Ming Dynasty. You can directly go to become a high-ranking general, or even succeed after the death of your father.
In the Tang Dynasty, if you wanted to be an officer, you had to first apply for a martial arts academy or a sea academy. If you wanted to be a senior officer, you had to attend an imperial academy. The imperial academy was a comprehensive training program common to the army, navy, and guards.
The Higher Military Academy has three branches, namely the Army Branch, the Guards Branch, and the Navy Branch. The three branches of the military are clearly distinct. Although they are all located in Jinling City, their campuses are actually not in the same place. Management and so on
They even separated, and they just shared the name of Royal Academy.
This military academy system and examination system actually prevent a large number of mediocre people from entering the military. If aristocratic children have no talent, it is basically impossible to apply for the military academy.
But then again, if the aristocratic children are somewhat capable, considering the high level of education they can receive since childhood, as long as they work hard, it is actually not a big problem to enter the military academy.
This difference generally means that children in cities and children in rural areas are about the same in college entrance exams. If everyone has the same IQ and level of effort, children from cities will definitely get better grades because they can enjoy better educational resources.
In the Tang Dynasty, the position of generals could not be inherited by the father. This can be regarded as the biggest difference between the aristocratic system of the Tang Dynasty and the aristocratic system of the Ming Dynasty.
Nobles do not have fiefdoms or political privileges. Why are a large number of people still trying to get a noble title, and those who already have a title want to get a higher title?
This question can actually be put into why the military generals have always supported Shengtianzi's global strategy. They have been actively preparing for war in the past two years and want to go north and south.
Why?
Because according to internal sources, the Holy Emperor has talked about the fiefdom issue many times in private, saying that the world is so big, and if this is conquered, some places outside the Central Plains can be chosen as fiefdoms for the nobles.
Although this was just a rumor, it was spread in a serious manner. Even when someone went to Li Xuan to inquire about the news, the Holy Emperor did not deny it directly.
Of course, the Holy Emperor also refused to admit that he had said these words!
But does it matter?
This is not important. After the news of granting fiefdoms to nobles spread in private, people started to use their imaginations. They thought that the world is so big. In addition to the Central Plains of China, there are so many people in Nanyang and the north alone.
Land, not to mention West Asia, Africa and even the Americas, there are so many lands. If the empire conquers the whole world, it will be the master of the world. At that time, it will suppress the barbarians and natives and also give small rewards to the ministers.
Great, greater than the sun, unprecedented, unprecedented, the eternal sage king, divine emperor, and holy emperor Li Xuan who owns the entire world, he casually took out a fingernail the size of, no, only one-tenth the size of a fingernail, or even a hundred
A large and insignificant amount of land was granted to the ministers. That is also an incredible number!
After all, this is the Holy Emperor Li Xuan who owns the entire world!
According to an authoritative explanation published in the Tang Dynasty newspaper, the specific meaning of Tianxia is: everything known, unknown, existing, and non-existent! For example: Suppose you had a dream, and in this dream
Everything belongs to the Holy Emperor Li Xuan!
Even if it is just a rumor that fiefdoms may be granted overseas in the future, this is enough to make these people extremely excited. Many people actually think that if their contribution is large enough, when they are judged for their merits in the future, they will be the ones to be granted fiefdoms.
It is not possible to obtain a larger fiefdom, such as millions of square kilometers, and then it will not be issued.
Even if you don't have actual control over the fief, as long as you can get a part of the income from the fief, it will be an unimaginable benefit.
As for directly controlling the fiefdom and then becoming king or emperor, no one thinks so, because no one is stupid, and they don't believe that the Holy Emperor Li Xuan is a fool who would do such a thing that could destroy the foundation of the empire.
Xuan is willing, but those ministers are not willing.
They just think that after they have large tracts of land, they can get huge profits from it!