Chen Qianfu asked them, do you want to go back to the way you were before? Even if the court gives you preferential and exemption privileges, even if you continue to evade taxes, your actual burden will be greater than it is now.
Moreover, like in Henan, the Yellow River, which hangs above the ground, bursts its banks and overflows at every turn, causing major and minor floods, causing even greater losses to the landlords and gentry.
Even in the Central Plains region, in many cities, towns and villages, the former landlords, powerful gentry are now completely extinct. Why?
Natural disasters, famines, and wars.
"If the big river is dissatisfied, the small river will also be dissatisfied. If the country is not stable and prosperous, how can the common people be rich and well-fed?" Chen Qianfu asked everyone.
Prince Zhu Hongjia also stood up at this time to make a summary, saying that the saint was magnanimous and benevolent, and treated the gentry and the common people favorably. Although the policies had been changed somewhat, they were only for the better. Although the gentry and landlords were not directly exempted from exemptions, the court was really protecting them.
For everyone’s benefit, taxes will be reduced, the place will be more stable, and there will be no major turmoil or famine.
Now, whether it is relocating local nobles to populate the capital, or relocating common people to settle in the border areas, the imperial court is also considering the overall situation. At the same time, it has also made a lot of compensations for everyone. The most basic one is to move to the capital.
Replenishing fields, especially those going to border areas, can be done by exchanging several acres per acre. Those who have no land or little land can also be divided into fields and granted land, buy fields and land in installments at low interest rates, etc.
The gentry paid food as one body or worked as errands together, which is not to offend everyone, but to jointly build and maintain their own homes. Working as errands as one body is not to pay money and work as errands, but to pay money from the court to hire everyone to build rivers, and the rivers they build are their own.
, what you are protecting is your home and land, and now the money is given based on market wages.
If even this is not possible, then the scholar must reflect on his own structure.
"We have to have a pattern and open up the pattern!"
When the young prince said the word "pattern", he still made many representatives in their thirties and forties bow their heads and think deeply.
The word "pattern" is quite new, but they also understood Chen Qianfu's subtext, don't toast or eat, and have to drink fine wine. If you don't cherish such a good policy now, when the court returns to the old rules, then everyone should not regret it, or even
If everyone resists and engages in an examination strike, your academic qualifications will be revoked, your qualifications will be banned, and your family will even be moved to the border areas. Or if you do nothing, then the Yellow River will overflow, the river will burst its banks, and you will be destroyed.
It's people like them who suffer the disaster.
And on the second day of the meeting.
The prince then promulgated several new policies at the meeting held at the imperial court.
First, starting from next year's joint examination, the Southern, Northern and Middle Rankings will be cancelled. Jinshi will no longer be admitted based on the Northern and Southern Rankings, but will be admitted based on quotas from each province.
The three capitals and eighteen provinces in the Central Plains each determine their admission amount based on their population. Although they take the same exam, the admissions are divided into provinces, and the total number of admissions this year has also been determined. The total number of admissions in the three capitals and eighteen provinces is
Three hundred and sixty Jinshi will be admitted, and four special provinces plus seventeen provinces outside the customs will be given three places in each province, for a total of sixty-three people.
Next year's Jinshi will only admit a total of 423 Jinshi. Compared with the previous few subjects where more than 1,000 were admitted at every turn, and if Encore is added, the admission rate will be greatly reduced.
Especially for the major imperial examination provinces of Jiangxi, Jiangnan, Fujian, and Zhejiang, these provincial quotas will make them more involved. The candidates in their provinces can only compete for the Jinshi quota in their own provinces. If Jiangxi only has two
Among the ten Jinshi places, even if Jiangxi ranks 21st and has much better grades than those from other provinces, they will not be admitted.
This is obviously for the sake of unification, and is a step further than the North-South List and the North-South Middle List.
In addition, the prince also announced that each province will add a new provincial-level institution, the Academic Envoy Division, in addition to the Administrative Envoys Department and the Provincial Envoys Department. Its chief will be the Admiral Academic Affairs Department, a third-level official, who will preside over academic examinations and supervise academic officials in various places.
Officials responsible for managing schools in the province.
Tixue only cares about examinations and education and does not care about civil affairs. Governors and ministers are no longer allowed to interfere with Tixue's affairs. All affairs involving schools and students are under the management of Tixue.
Students and scholars from all over the country who commit crimes must also report to the Ministry of Etiquette first. They will be expelled from their academic titles and then handed over to the Judicial Department for disposal. They no longer need to report to the Ministry of Etiquette.
This academic governor was the former director of the Department of Academic Affairs. Before Chongzhen, the Ming Dynasty first established the Confucian Education Department under the Chief Envoy.
In Zhili, one of the supervisory censors is appointed as the academic official.
It was abolished in Jingtai and restored in Tianshun.
Generally speaking, the grades and duties of the former academic officials were not as high as those of today.
Now he is directly on the same level as the two divisions, and neither the governor nor the governor can interfere with their duties. Although he is not the imperial envoy, he has a detached status in the local area, a bit like the detachment of an admiral stationed in a defense camp.
The Tixue envoys department is now its own system. Although it is a local official, it is not under the jurisdiction of the governor, which is very special.
From the abolition of the north-south ranking list to provincial quotas, to the trial implementation of civil servant examinations, and then to the establishment of special education departments, the original county official student system was abolished in various places, changed to a primary school system with basic education, and the recruitment of high school students was
A secondary and higher education college with mainly young graduates and scholars.
Because the imperial examinations were held every three years, and the imperial examinations and civil service examinations were related to officials, so academic and administrative affairs were held for three years, and generally they were not re-elected, but changed provinces or posts.
Such a big event was announced in a very low-key manner in the court, and was quickly announced in newspapers.
"The three divisions have been restored in the province. The division of academic affairs has replaced the division of command and envoys. Civil affairs have replaced military affairs. Culture and education have flourished. It's a good thing."
In a teahouse in the school city, a group of candidates who are waiting for the examination are drinking tea and reading newspapers. Yao Yanqi said from Wucheng, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
His elder brother Yao Yan then asked, "This is such a big matter, how come it was enacted quietly?"
Liu Zizhuang from Huanggang, Hubei Province said, "I think this may be the will of the saint. It is impossible for the prince to directly enact such a big event, right?"
He was Liu Yuanzhan's fellow imperial examination taker in the first year of Chongzhen. He was a few years younger than Liu, but he was still in his forties. After passing the imperial examination, he failed to pass the imperial examination in mathematics, and then the examination was suspended several times due to wars.
This time I took the exam together with my cousin Cao Benrong.
I studied at Wenjin Academy for many years, and later studied with my cousin at Hedong Academy in Huangzhou. I studied hard for thirty years. This time I came to Beijing with the intention of passing the exam, but unexpectedly I encountered the most rigorous subject since the founding of the Shao Dynasty.
In the past, more than a thousand Jinshi were admitted at one time. Shao Tianchao has opened two regular subjects and two Encore subjects. Thousands of Jinshi have been admitted to the four subjects.
As a result, this year's third regular examination only admitted more than 400 people, and the admissions were divided into provinces. Although Hubei Province is not as good as the scholars in Jiangnan, Jiangxi, it can be regarded as a hometown of humanities. This year, the number of scholars who participated in the provincial examination reached 8,000
There were many people, but the final acceptance rate was only over 100, and the acceptance rate was 2%, which was shockingly low.
But now, they have finally managed to select one from a hundred to come to Beijing to take the entrance examination. As a result, more than a hundred of them have to compete for more than a dozen Jinshi places, with a ten percent admission rate.
Although it is five times higher than those in the provincial examination, those more than 100 people were killed by thousands of troops.
Obviously, the imperial examination system has undergone great changes. In the past six years, the admissions were open, and the regular subjects were added to the enke. The number of admissions to the regular subjects was equivalent to the previous subjects, but now
The number of admissions has been reduced several times. Although it should be said that the number of admissions has been restored to the previous number, the gap is too big.
Especially the provincial quotas, which basically means greater pressure on those large provinces.
Moreover, the admission rate for the next rural examination will begin to reduce the number of students admitted, and the quota will be strictly divided into provinces. Even in the major provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, no more than 100 students will be admitted to one subject.
Correspondingly, the civil service examination was added by the imperial court, also called the civil service examination. However, it is for high school graduates. Those who have obtained the title of scholar or above can apply for it. In addition, retired imperial camp soldiers, provincial camp soldiers, and martial arts examination scholar candidates can also participate.
take an exam.
This civil service examination even directly recruits people based on their positions, with merit-based admissions based on positions. They will be put on the job as soon as they are hired, and as many people as there are vacancies will be recruited.
Officials have nine grades and eighteen grades, while civil servants also have nine grades and eighteen grades, which are called Liuwai nine grades.
There are still boundaries between officials and local staff, but they are no longer the same as before.
"You said that this big change was caused by the Henan exam boycott?" Liu Zizhuang said.
Liu Yuanzhan thinks this has nothing to do with the boycott of examinations by Henan candidates. "I think it's good to change it now. Previously, more than a thousand people were admitted at one time. This Jinshi was too worthless. In just a few years, thousands of new subjects were admitted.
How can there be so many vacant official positions in the imperial court?"
"Now there is one subject every three years. Even if the quota is divided into provinces, the total enrollment is only 420. In ten years, it is only more than 1,200. It is rare to be precious. If Jinshi is everywhere, then we have studied hard for 20 or 30 years.
It’s meaningless!”
This remark attracted the approval of the Wucheng and Yao brothers.
Their brothers also studied hard for twenty years before passing the imperial examination. It was also a good talk that they were brothers who passed the imperial examination together. If the imperial examination became too easy, then they would have studied in vain for so many years.
"These new arrangements must be the intention of the saints."
"Where is the saint now? Is he really not going back to Beijing this year?"
"I heard it's in Lanzhou."
"I heard that we have arrived in Liangzhou."
"I heard that we have arrived at Dunhuang, where we will receive envoys from various countries in the Western Regions."
Liu Zizhuang suddenly asked Liu Yuanzhan, "You Henan Juzi, don't you have any plans recently?"
"No." Liu Yuanzhan shook his head directly.
"I heard before that some of you Henan scholars planned to write letters on the bus?"
"Someone has mentioned this matter, but no one responded." Liu Yuanzhan said. In fact, someone did propose to come to the bus to write a letter during the examination in Beijing. However, Zheng Sanjun and other thirteen ministers of third grade and above were executed and implicated.
After tens of thousands of people were ransacked and exiled, no one mentioned this matter again.
Especially after the prince and Chen Qianfu discussed with them, everyone is now planning to prepare well for the exam and compete for the sharply reduced number of Jinshi places. No one wants to rub the tiger's beard at this time.
The Yao brothers said on the side, "Everyone should calm down a little lately."
"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is very sincere. We can't agree in person because there will be another story behind him," Liu Zizhuang also said.
The gray-haired fifty-year-old Juren Liu Yuanzhan was a little helpless, "What His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said makes sense. We really can't toast without having to eat and drink as a penalty. There really wasn't much to remember in those past years. Whether it's preferable or not, think about it carefully.
, this policy is quite good now, but now the imperial court is expanding too rapidly, and a large number of immigrants are coming to guard the border. Even if the family has land, they can’t find any people to breed."
"Indeed, not to mention the lack of people for farming, we also lack people for mining and running workshops. Nowadays, we buy slaves from overseas. They are cheap and easy to use. The imperial policy only restricts the ownership of Han slaves, but does not restrict Rong, Di, Hu and Yi slaves." Yao Ting.
He said, they are from Zhejiang, where industry and commerce are booming now. Even in the planting industry, slaves are used in large numbers. Those former tenants and long-term workers have either divided their fields and become self-cultivators, have joined workshops and factories, or have moved to border areas.
The land has been granted, and there is a labor shortage everywhere, so we can only buy it.
"Shaanxi-Gansu revolted and arrested more than two million people. There were also one or two million people from other inland provinces. Why not just sell them all into slavery? Wouldn't this immediately alleviate the huge manpower gap? What's more,
These people were sold into slavery, their property was confiscated, and the court could earn a lot of money. Their fields could also be sold to local scholars and people. Isn't this killing two birds with one stone? Why is Your Majesty not willing?"
"Sages are kind." Liu Zizhuang replied.
Liu Yuanzhan actually believed that if he directly implemented this kind of policy against millions of people, it might cause a full-scale riot. The emperor's policy would be milder and could divide and disintegrate them.
However, I also feel that if we directly sell those millions into slavery, we can indeed greatly alleviate the current serious manpower shortage problem. In the long run, we can also solve some hidden dangers in the northwest once and for all.