Although Wang Ji traveled all over the world, he certainly didn't know everything. For example, boiling salt in the Baltic Sea was a whimsical idea.
In the whole of Europe, the northernmost salt field is in France. It will not work further north because the salinity of the sea water is too low. Of course, it can also be cooked by hard boiling, but the efficiency of salt production is eye-watering. It is estimated that the kitchen households who cook the salt can
Driven crazy.
Over in the New World, today's main salt-producing area is Oak Bay, the base of the shipbuilding industry.
Not only because of the first-mover advantage, but also because of the high salinity of sea water in San Francisco Bay.
The development of Oak Bay is very fast. When the shipbuilding industry flourished, the sea salt produced was also sold to Zhongyinzhou and Nanyinzhou. The immigration rate doubled every year. With the addition of naturalized indigenous people and mixed-race Han people, the population of Oak Bay was
The population has exceeded 50,000, and it was upgraded to "Que County" by the Ming Emperor, with jurisdiction over the nearby Fushan Town and Shuanghe Town.
Zhang Zhuo, the development leader of Oak Bay, was named "Uncle Fushan" by Zhu Zaiyi, and the title was hereditary.
Zhang Zhuo, the uncle of Fushan, and his whole family, including his indigenous wife, were all recalled to the Ming Dynasty. The emperor granted him a mansion and 3,000 acres of official land, and favored his eldest son as the son of the emperor.
As for Lixian County, it became the first area in Yinzhou to have a county magistrate appointed by the imperial court. It has the three pillar industries of salt industry, shipbuilding, and gold mining. However, some of the Shandong thieves in Shuanghe Town did not obey the imperial decree. Every year
I just barely paid a gold rush tax.
Zhang Zhuo was actually quite happy to be recalled to the Ming Dynasty.
He used to be a tutor in the government, but now he is old and frail and has no ambitions. As a exile, he became an earl, and the emperor granted him a house and acres. He can return to his hometown to rebuild his ancestral tombs, which can be called an honorable return to his hometown.
, Guangzong Yaozu.
It is the post of magistrate of Li County. No Jinshi is willing to take it. It would be too scary to travel thousands of miles.
Moreover, it takes at least six years to go there, because it takes a year to go back and forth.
When Wang Ji dispatched a fleet and issued the mission, a crew member from Zaohu reminded him that it might not be possible to boil salt in the Baltic Sea.
Wang Ji immediately asked him to do an experiment. The salt was boiled, but the salt yield rate made people speechless.
Immediately afterwards, Wang Ji asked the crew member to go with the ship to Daming, stopping along the way to conduct salt boiling experiments.
As a result, as soon as I arrived in West Africa, I discovered several high-quality salt-producing areas, and finally selected Senegal as the salt field. Because it is not only suitable for boiling salt, but also has an estuary delta with very rich water resources, which is suitable for immigration and development. There are also elephants here.
, you can kill them for ivory and sell them to the Ming Dynasty, which is very profitable.
The most important thing is that this is a terra nullius. Although Portugal claims possession, it has never established a colonial settlement.
When Wang Ji's fleet arrived in Ming Dynasty, it was already the eighteenth year of Shaofeng.
The two brothers Wang Che and Wang Qi who stayed in the Ming Dynasty finally passed the Jinshi examination after failing many times. Both of them had very low scores in the general examination, one ranked 180th and the other 256th.
name, but all the imperial examination articles were listed on the first list!
After unwinding the scrolls, Wang Che won the first prize and Wang Qi won the first prize.
Zhu Zaiyi was dumbfounded. He frowned and said to the grading ministers, "What does this mean?"
Yan Song, the second assistant, said: "Your Majesty, there is no fraud in this palace examination. If there is really fraud, how come the two young masters of the King of Tianzhu only passed the Jinshi examination this year?"
"That's true," Zhu Zaiyu's anger subsided and asked again, "But why is it such a coincidence?"
Cabinet minister Xia Yan said: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid it's not a coincidence, but the vision of the two princes is extraordinary."
Zhu Zaijun was silent.
This year's imperial examination question asked the candidates to explain how to increase the imperial tax revenue without competing with the people.
Wang Che started from the perspective of economics and elaborated on the necessity of household registration reform. Wang Qi started from the perspective of developing industry and commerce and suppressing capitalists to elaborate on the major topic of "righteousness and benefit".
The two of them had strong family backgrounds and were well versed in government affairs. Their vision and knowledge far exceeded their peers. Moreover, they studied under Yang Shen and Luo Qinshun, and were among the best in terms of rhetoric and theory. They also inherited Wang Yuan's rigorous style of writing argumentative essays.
The two people's policy articles were therefore written from a high position, with gorgeous rhetoric, thorough reasoning, and rigorous expositions, which impressed the marking officials at first sight.
What’s even more frightening is that two-thirds of the officials responsible for correcting the examination papers are Wang Yuan’s colleagues, old friends or disciples. And the palace examination articles do not need to be copied from the red scroll, and the handwritings of Wang Che and Wang Qi were instantly recognized by the marking officials.
All those who were recognized and did not shy away from suspicion were rated as the best.
Wang Yuan's two sons, one is the number one scholar and the other is third overall. This makes Zhu Zaiyi very confused. Why can't he get rid of his teacher's shadow?
Zhu Zaiyi picked up the answer sheet again and read the two people's articles carefully, and then he fell into a long silence.
Tian Qiu, the first assistant, bowed his head in silence and did not express any opinions. He was jokingly called the "Bodhisattva first assistant" and "the wooden fetal first assistant". The real decision-maker has always been the second assistant Yan Song.
After Zhu Zaiyi thought carefully, he finally said: "Lu Tiaoyang is the top pick, Wang Che is the second place, and Wang Qi is the top pick."
Everyone heaved a sigh of relief, as the two young masters of the Wang family were finally not kicked out of the first list.
As for Lu Tiaoyang, the number one scholar appointed by Zhu Zaiyi, his writings were smooth and steady, with nothing novel and unique. What was better was that he was thorough in reasoning and could not find any loopholes.
Although Wang Che's No. 1 pick is gone, it can be said that he was suppressed, but it can also be said to be a kind of protection.
Wang Yuan has been crowned king overseas. Whether his son is qualified for the imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty has always been a question deliberately avoided. Some officials once suggested that they be deprived of their titles. The Manchu royal party was silent and the cabinet did not accept this omission.
, Zhu Zaijun was so angry that he demoted the Yanguan who was making the basket to the county magistrate.
Now, if the elder brother takes the exam for the top prize and the younger brother takes the exam for the top prize, the news will definitely cause a sensation in the government and the public, and then lead to fierce criticism.
Zhu Zaiyi temporarily replaced the top pick, and Wang Che, who lost his status as top pick, will gain everyone's sympathy instead of being questioned about fraud in the imperial examination.
"Your Majesty is wise!" the ministers shouted.
Zhu Zaiyi's methods became more and more sophisticated. Not only did he suppress Wang Yuan's son, the person who was suppressed had to sincerely thank him.
Zhu Zaiyi changed the subject and asked: "Yinzhou Yue County Magistrate, hasn't he taken up his post yet?"
Song Cang, the Minister of Civil Affairs, replied: "I keep complaining about illness."
Zhu Zaiyi said: "Then let him stop being an official and wait until he recovers to take the imperial examination again."
Song Cang said: "In this examination, there were two candidates who failed, but they took the initiative to apply for appointment in Yue County. One is named Hai Rui and the other is named Li Xiudao."
Zhu Zaiyi praised him and said: "This is the person who can relieve the country's worries, so he asked Hai Rui to go to Yinzhou to be the magistrate of Lixian County, and to choose a superior county for Li Xiudao to be the county magistrate. Yinzhou was too far away, it was not easy to get back and forth, and the term was long.
If Hai Rui wants to go there with his wife, the court will give him one hundred silver dollars as settlement expenses. If he has not married yet, he will be allowed to get married within the jurisdiction. This is a special case."
In principle, local officials of the Ming Dynasty were not allowed to marry or take concubines within their jurisdiction. This was to prevent nepotism between civil servants and local forces.
In this way, Hai Rui no longer had to go back to be a teacher, and became the first overseas county magistrate in the Ming Dynasty.
As for Zhang Juzheng, there is no Zhang Juzheng in this time and space, there is only a Jinshi named Zhang Baigui. He did not meet Li Shiao, so he did not change his name to Zhang Juzheng. He also did not meet Gu Lin, so he passed the exam three years in advance, but still failed several times.
Zhongjinshi.
Today, Zhang Baigui is serving as a magistrate in Fujian, and is sent to other places as a shujishi. After passing the exam, he can be promoted to at least two levels in a row.
The past few years in the Ming Dynasty have been pretty good. Except for Shaanxi's continuous drought, the rest of the country has had good weather.
Even last year's earthquake in Gyeonggi only involved routine sacrifices and prayers, and the monarchs and ministers didn't think there was any problem. This kind of age is so wonderful. Compared with the disasters of the Zhengde Dynasty, Zhu Zaiyi is simply God's favorite.
In the prosperous age, classics were compiled, and in the Taiping period, great works were compiled.
The Ming Dynasty entered an unprecedented prosperous era, with a registered population of more than 130 million, a rich national treasury, and stability all over the world.
After Wang Yuan majored in "Records of Emperor Wu", "Shaofeng Dictionary", and "Guangyu Map" of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zaiyi ordered people to revise the "Complete Collection of Four Books" and "The Complete Collection of Five Classics". His understanding of the Four Books and Five Classics can be traced back to the Han and Tang Dynasties.
To a great extent, it weakened the ideological shackles of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.
In addition, Zhu Zaiyi also asked the generals of the border towns, including Zhu Ying, the imprisoned left commander of the navy, to summarize their military experience, and ordered Zhu Ying, Yu Dayou, and Tang Shunzhi to compile a "Minutes of Shaofeng Wubian".
Tang Shunzhi rose through the ranks very quickly and is now the Left Minister of the Ministry of War, completely unaffected by his status as Wang Yuan's disciple.
This originated from a correspondence between Zhu Zaiyi and Wang Yuan.
Although Wang Yuan was far away in India, he corresponded with Zhu Zaiyi every year, and Zhu Zaiyi would also ask for advice on some doubts about governing the country.
Zhu Zaiyi once asked: "Sir, among your disciples, who is the best?"
Wang Yuan wrote back: "Tang Shunzhi has the talent of a prime minister and an assistant, and also has a noble character. He can be the prince's tutor."
This evaluation is very high, which means that if Zhu Zaiyi has an accident one day, Tang Shunzhi can assist the next emperor. Even if Zhu Zaiyi lives a long life, he can safely leave the prince to Tang Shunzhi for guidance.
Zhu Zaiyi immediately summoned Tang Shunzhi, and after a conversation, the emperor was very satisfied. No matter what questions he asked, Tang Shunzhi could answer them, including astronomy and geography, politics and military, farmland and water conservancy, Confucian classics and historical records... It seemed that there was nothing this man didn't understand.
.
Zhu Zaiyi also sent Jin Yiwei to secretly investigate Tang Shunzhi's behavior.
It turns out that Tang Shunzhi is very self-disciplined. He goes to work, studies, practices martial arts every day, and occasionally attends physics club gatherings. He has no idea what enjoyment is. He has been an official for many years, and his family still rents private houses and has not purchased real estate or land.
As a result, Tang Shunzhi was quickly promoted and became the main lecturer of the East Palace, obviously intending to train him to become the first assistant in the future.
Tang Shunzhi's self-discipline is really rare, because with the advent of the prosperous age, luxury began to permeate the Ming Dynasty from top to bottom.
Even Zhu Zaiyi himself began to spend money lavishly to expand the Haoshan Garden on the outskirts of Beijing into an extremely gorgeous place. However, the Manchu ministers had no objection to this. This was because the emperor paid for it himself and recruited civilian laborers and craftsmen.
Sufficient food rations and wages are provided, which not only does not disturb the people, but also provides employment opportunities for the suburbs of Beijing.
In addition, the salaries of officials and civil servants in the Ming Dynasty were collectively raised by another level based on Wang Yuan's reforms.
The benefits of Wang Yuan's reforms have been fully revealed, and a large number of literati have emerged to praise his virtues. Of course, their focus is on the emperor, and they attribute all the credit for the reforms to the emperor, which seems to be deliberately downplaying Wang Yuan's role.
There is only one industry that has been praising Wang Yuan, and that is football!
The scale of football leagues is getting bigger and bigger, especially after the rise of railways. Today, large-scale leagues are held in these cities from Beijing to Jizhou in the east and Huai'an in the south. Players often take trains to play in different places, and one vote for key matches
It's hard to find, and the transfer fees for top players are as high as thousands of taels of silver.
A North Korean student wrote in an article: "I stayed in Tianjin for half a month. One day, the streets were empty and people were rushing to the suburbs. I asked a vendor carrying a load and he said that there is a Cuju League. Not only men like to play Cuju, but also many female relatives.
As the cars drove by, the carriages and sedans stretched for miles. Outside the arena, vendors gathered, selling preserved fruits, melons and fruit pasta, as well as new products such as fried melon seeds, fried peanuts, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted corn, etc. I asked
A pawn on the side of the road said that he earns a living by working hard, earning more than a thousand yuan from the official position every month, and that the whole family is well fed and worry-free. He can occasionally drink wine and eat meat. The common people are so prosperous, how can they call the gentry and nobles? There has never been such an extreme in the heavens since ancient times.