Nanjing Forbidden City, Qianqing Palace.

Zhu Cihong summoned Wen Anzhi, the left attendant of the Ministry of Rites, alone.

Since Liu Zongzhou has now taken over as the first assistant of the cabinet, although he still has the title of the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, he no longer presides over the affairs of the ministry. Now the real leader of the Ministry of Rites is Wen Anzhi, who was specially recruited from Yiling by Zhu Cihong.

Wen Anzhi's loyalty is not problematic, and his ability is also surprisingly high, and he has been in charge of the ministry affairs in an orderly manner just a few months after serving as the left attendant of the Ministry of Rites.

Of course, the Ministry of Rites is a quiet yamen to some extent, and there are limited places for Wen Anzhi to show his strength.

Therefore, this time, Zhu Cihong specially prepared to hand over one thing to Wen Anzhi to do.

What Zhu Cihong wants to do is to run a newspaper.

Although the Ming Dynasty already has a Di Bao, the content of this official Di Bao is too simple, basically what decrees are issued by the king, and then some personnel appointments and dismissals.

What Zhu Cihong wanted to run was a newspaper similar to that of later generations.

There are not only major events in the world, but also entertainment sections.

Zhu Cihong's purpose in running the newspaper was to carry out public opinion propaganda, and the spearhead was naturally directed at the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

In fact, the repertoire of the art team is also propaganda to a certain extent. It's just that the degree of diffusion of such propaganda is limited, after all, repertoire performances are not films, and they cannot be reproduced and expanded without restrictions, and can only be performed in specific regions for a certain period of time.

Newspapers are different. Nowadays, movable type printing is very popular, and it can be typeset at any time as long as the content is set. Printed newspapers could be sold in every prefecture and county under the control of the imperial court, so that the common people could realize the brutality of the Qing army and the hatred of the traitors.

There is nothing wrong with technically running a newspaper.

The only thing to consider is literacy.

The Ming Dynasty is not as good as later generations, the literacy rate is very low, and basically a village except for a few people who have read, the rest are illiterate.

The situation in the prefecture and county is relatively much better, even if ordinary people have not read books, they still know a few words.

But at this time, the Ming Dynasty was a very thorough agrarian society. The population of villages below the county level is much larger than that in county seats, prefecture towns, and prefecture cities.

If Zhu Cihong wants to run a newspaper, he has to consider this practical problem.

Zhu Cihong's idea was to teach the villagers to read and write by running a night school.

There are always literate people in a village, and there may even be a showman.

These people can be used as lecturers to teach the villagers to read.

In fact, this is somewhat similar to the social studies of the Ming Dynasty. It's just that social studies are taught to children, while night schools are taught to adults.

Zhu Cihong doesn't need these villagers to be familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics, he only needs them to be literate, which is not very difficult.

Of course, in order to do this, it is necessary to restore the Lijia system.

The Rijia system is a system used to manage household registration.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it was stipulated that one hundred and ten households were one mile, of which ten households were drawn out for the length of the li, and the remaining 100 households were divided into ten households, and one person was drawn from each of them as the first person.

Whether it is the lieutenant chief or the first capital, it is held in turn, and theoretically it should be rotated once in ten years.

The main duties of the lieutenant chief and the first head are to be responsible for the statistics of the households, land and property and their changes, as well as the collection of taxes and the apportionment of forced labor.

On the basis of the Lijia system, the Yellow Book and the Fish Scale Atlas were compiled.

In the Ming Dynasty, the imperial power was not under the county.

The government's rule over the grassroots depends on these chiefs.

It's a pity that after Wanli's whip law, the armor protection system replaced the Lijia system, and the government's control over the grassroots was further weakened and almost out of control. This is the real reason for the escape of citizenship in the late Ming Dynasty and even the repeated rebellions.

A very simple example, the yellow book and fish scale atlas used in the last years of Chongzhen have long been distorted when a whip was implemented in the Wanli period. However, the government at all levels basically turned a blind eye and just changed the year to use it.

In this way, the imperial court became blind and deaf, with no mobilization ability at all.

Zhu Cihong wanted to restore the Lijia system, not only to let the head of Lijia help run a night school, but also for the long-term consideration of the country's mobilization force.

After all, the final competition between countries is mobilization power, and a country without mobilization power cannot win by relying only on the strategy of elite troops.

After Zhu Cihong briefly explained his thoughts to Wen Anzhi, Wen Anzhi pondered for a moment and said respectfully: "Your Majesty, the Lijia system is really the national policy of the Ming Dynasty. However, since the Wanli period, it has tended to be sluggish, and it is not easy to recover, but it must be done. ”

Wen Anzhi is not directly responsible for this work, so he can only give some personal advice. It was also necessary for Zhu Cihong to make an arbitrary decision, assign specific work, coordinate with the household department, the ministry of industry, and other departments, and restore the Lijia system.

Any system has its pros and cons. Take the Lijia system as an example, it was still able to complete the mission well in the early Ming Dynasty. The collapse and slack in its later period was caused by many factors, and cannot be blamed solely on the system itself. That's not objective.

At least in Zhu Cihong's view, the Lijia system is more suitable for the rule of the imperial court than the Baojia system. Because of the long-term success experience, it is easier to recover.

And if we want to re-establish a new grassroots management system, it will take more than ten times more time to explore than to restore the Lijia system.

The problem now is that there is no time.

Not to mention more than ten years, even two or three years, Zhu Cihong can't afford to wait.

The military strength of the Manchu Qing is still very strong, if Li Zicheng is not able to resist it, then the Manchu Qing will turn around and deal with the Ming Dynasty in three months at the earliest.

Zhu Cihong needs to get the most out of it in the shortest possible time.

"I will consider the specific matters, and what Wen Aiqing needs to do is to consider what to do with this newspaper."

Pulling it out so far is that it still has to return to the topic at hand.

Zhu Cihong's decision to put the matter of running the newspaper in the Ministry of Rites was also carefully considered.

First, the Ministry of Rites is the most suitable for doing this, and secondly, he wants to take this opportunity to take a good look at Wen'an's ability to improvise.

After all, in this time and space, except for Zhu Cihong, no one has seen the newspapers of later generations.

If you can run a beautiful newspaper without any experience, it is enough to prove that you are very capable.

"The minister must do his best to live up to His Majesty's expectations."

Wen Anzhi hurriedly arched his hand.

"Wen Aiqing will draw up a charter according to what I just said, and if there is no problem, I will make a first draft according to this charter."

Zhu Cihong is still looking forward to the newspaper.

Any time you master the pen, you have the right to speak.

History is a little girl who dresses up at will, and the current affairs of the world are not the same.

If we want to fight against the Manchus, it is not enough to rely on the military alone, but we must also make more efforts in public opinion propaganda and economic blockade.

There are so many things and a lot of clues, of course, Zhu Cihong alone can't do it well. Fortunately, now that there is a capable minister like Wen Anzhi, Zhu Cihong can give him some specific matters to do with peace of mind.

...

...