The officials below were secretly relieved, since Guo Zhiyuan did not punish Baidu, it was impossible to punish them, it seems that this new county order is still very easy to speak, don't worry about his new official taking office three fires to cut them.

Wang Demin felt more and more that Guo Zhiyuan was weak and deceitful, and without waiting for Guo Zhiyuan to continue asking, he hurriedly spoke: "This official is in charge of the county's money and grain, and the matter of money and grain has just been said, as for the household registration, Wang Demin took out another account book, slowly flipped a few pages, coughed and said: "Three years ago, our county actually had 2,625 households, with an average population ......of 6 people per household, and now our county has 1,911 households, with an average household population of nearly 4 people......

Guo Zhiyuan's brows furrowed even tighter when he heard this, although the census work in the Ming Dynasty was far less good than in modern times, and there were many black households, and the data Wang Demin said could only be used as a reference, but only from the data provided by Wang Demin, the population loss in Gutian County was too serious, and more than half of the county's total population was lost in three years! As for the reason for the population loss, Guo Zhiyuan doesn't need to ask, he has seen it all the way, ten rooms and nine emptiness, it must be because of the raging bandits!

Sure enough, without waiting for him to ask, Wang Demin continued: "The reason for this population loss, Bai Xiancheng also said it just now, mainly because of the rampant bandits in this county, today Chen Patrol is not here, I will say it on his behalf, it is not that we are not effective in suppressing bandits, it is really these bandits are too treacherous, come and go like the wind, it is really difficult to exterminate the Tuntian army in this county alone, coupled with the lack of ordnance in the Tuntian army in this county, even the military salary is repeatedly in arrears, and the morale is low. There are also people who have been devastated by bandits, and it just so happens that Lord Guo's new official has taken office, so I can only ask Lord Guo for support and relief from the prefect's yamen! ……”

Wang Demin is sure that Guo Zhiyuan will not be able to get money and food from the prefect's yamen, so he has been using this question to challenge Guo Zhiyuan, Guo Zhiyuan of course it is impossible to fall into his trap, and waved his hand expressionlessly: "The matter of money and grain, this official just said that it will try to solve it, and it will not be discussed here, Gu Jiaoyu, what about the cultural and educational aspects of this county?" What can be achieved in the field of culture and education? ……”

Wang Demin is not good at forcing Guo Zhiyuan anymore, so he has to look at Gu Zhiqian, this Gutian County is located in a remote area, this education is naturally backward, not to mention Jinshi and people, even Xiucai is rare to get a few, and to transfer people from other places to teach, those who have a reputation for Gutian County are poor, this teaching is not a fat difference, they are not willing to come, they can only choose the tall one among the short, and Gu Zhiqian was selected from the local Xiucai in Gutian to teach.

This Gu Zhiqian is a talent who is in the same batch of exams as Wang Demin, and it is the same year, and he also wants to use Wang Demin to take the path of informing Huang Yihua to the government, and also find a fat difference for the master book, so he has been looking for an opportunity to get close to Wang Demin, but the teachings have no real power, and Wang Demin usually doesn't pay much attention to him, but now when he saw Wang Demin looking at him, his heart moved, and he quickly stood up and arched his hand: "Back to adults, in the past three years of county school, no student has passed the exam to become a student." In fact, not to mention Xiucai in this county, there are very few qualified children and Mengtong. Nowadays, almost all of the students studying in the county school are 'official students' ......" (Note: There are two sources of channels for the students of the county school in the Ming Dynasty, one is the students who are admitted by the examination, and the other is the children of hereditary officials, who do not need to take the examination, this is the official students, which probably belongs to a special kind of "compulsory education".) ）

It is said that the education situation in the county is so poor, Gu Zhiqian should feel very ashamed of this teaching, but he is not ashamed, and he said with a heart: "The county's culture and education are so bad, it is not that the officials are slack, but this culture and education also need to be invested. ……”

"It is actually very easy to make achievements in culture and education, as long as the county is willing to allocate more money and food, the official can invite outstanding children from his place to come over as attached students, and each child only needs to make up six buckets of rice every month, and the next year's annual examination, the county must have students to take the Xiucai! According to the official's understanding, other counties in Fuzhou Prefecture are operating like this, if the county does not operate like this, I am afraid that the performance appraisal in the coming year will be at the bottom, Lord Guo, this culture and education is the foundation of the country, and it must not be taken lightly! ……”

Guo Zhiyuan was dumbfounded when he heard it, why did the Ming Dynasty still have this kind of operation? But it's right to think about it, in the modern era that I have crossed over, in order to improve the admission rate and compete for high-quality students, various schools have also offered various preferential conditions for excellent students, some not only do not need tuition, but also have high scholarships, it seems that this bad habit of education is also a long history!

Guo Zhiyuan is also very clear about the purpose of Gu Zhiqian's words, one is to cooperate with Wang Demin to force himself on the issue of money and food, and the other is to give him the opportunity to reap the benefits of this teaching, but Gu Zhiqian is not wrong about one thing, education is the foundation of the country, Guo Zhiyuan wants to make contributions in this era, this education issue must be paid attention to.

But this investment in education is a bottomless pit, it is never enough, even in the modern era that I have crossed over, the investment in education has always been in a state of hunger and thirst, not to mention that I have no money and no food now, and there are more places to ask for money, and I can't pay attention to it!

Thinking of this, Guo Zhiyuan also patted his forehead with a little headache, sighed and said: "It seems that the situation in this county is really quite embarrassing, freezing three feet, not a day's cold, you have worked hard, let's discuss it here today, and I will discuss the solution with you tomorrow......"

Everyone finally looked forward to Guo Zhiyuan's announcement of the dismissal of the meeting, and they couldn't wait to stand up and scatter. Soon there were only Guo Zhiyuan, Xu Guangqi, and Zhao Shizhen left in the second hall, Guo Zhiyuan glanced at Xu Guangqi and Zhao Shizhen, who were also frowning, and sighed and said: "Two gentlemen, I have no money, no food and no foundation now, these bureaucrats are all mediocre and incompetent, and they don't have me as a county order in their eyes, and they clearly want to sing against me, and what is even more terrifying is that we are still facing the big problem of rampant banditry, and my county order is really not good!" ……”

Zhao Shizhen also sighed helplessly: "I originally thought that there would be deceit between officials in the capital, and you would fight to the death, but I didn't expect a small county government to be so complicated, it seems that I am really not suitable for being an official, Childe, this power struggle is not my forte, I'm afraid I can't help you, Childe......"