Zhu Houxi said goodbye to his parents and officially embarked on the road to Beijing.

However, at this time, Zhu Houxi did not know that in history, he was another Ming Emperor after Zhengde Zhu Houzhao.

Now Zhu Houxi is only seven years old, and for many people, it is still the era of naughty children.

However, Zhu Houxi has already shown great intelligence, familiar with Confucian classics such as the Book of Filial Piety and the University, and has begun to participate in presiding over royal ceremonies and sacrificial activities at the request of his father.

In general, Zhu Houxi's father, Zhu Youji, paid great attention to the education of Zhu Houyi, so that the young Zhu Houyu already had a basic Confucian cultural foundation and knew how to abide by Confucian etiquette, and was quite famous in Huguang.

This is also the reason why after Emperor Zhengde was killed in history, civil officials elected him as emperor.

When the officials in the capital came to announce that he would be allowed to study in Beijing with Zhu Houzhao's will, although Zhu Houxi said goodbye to his parents with tears, he did not cry like a child of the same age, as if he had understood the truth that the emperor's order could not be violated at a young age.

However, at this time, Zhu Houyu was not familiar with the current emperor Zhu Houzhao, he only knew that he was Zhu Houzhao's cousin, but he had also heard a lot of cruel rumors about his cousin.

Therefore, when Zhu Houxi saw Zhu Houzhao for the first time, he was still a little scared and nervous.

However, Zhu Houxi is glad that there are still many royal children who accompany him to Beijing, and he believes that as long as he abides by the rules, his emperor's cousin should not notice him.

But in fact, when Zhu Houzhao met these royal children, the first thing he asked was not whether King Ning's heirs came, but Zhu Houxi.

"Where is the prince of Xingwang?"

Zhu Houxi had to stand up when he heard this: "Brother has seen Your Majesty!" ”

Only then did Zhu Houzhao recognize what the young Jiajing Zhu Houxi looked like, and saw that he was much calmer than other royal children, and he couldn't help but think in his heart, no wonder this person could be selected as the emperor by Yang Tinghe, and no wonder this person could beat the civil officials in the big ceremony, and now his bearing is different from others.

But Zhu Houzhao knew that his cousin's IQ and strategy should be very high, otherwise he would not have been able to turn the civil officials around without relying on eunuchs, although he was later defeated by the hands of the civil official Xu Jie, but most of the time during his reign he controlled the power of the court and government in his own hands, and a series of talents appeared.

Wen Ru Hai Rui, Zhang Xuan, Xia Yan, Yan Song, Xu Jie, Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, Tan Lun, Yang Bo, Wang Chonggu, Hu Zongxian, Tang Shunzhi, Wu Ruoyu Dayou, Qi Jiguang, Chen Luan, etc. all appeared in the Jiajing Dynasty.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao naturally did not despise this Zhu Houxi, who was only seven years old, he only nodded and smiled:

"I heard that you are smart and studious, I will test you, and you can tell me what arithmetic thinking is revealed by the circumcision, and how much pi is after Zu Chong."

Zhu Houzhao's test is not difficult, these arithmetic common sense is an arithmetic achievement that has long appeared in ancient China, circumcision is the achievement of the Wei and Jin mathematician Liu Wei, and Zu Chongzhi is accurate to the seventh decimal place after the pi, as long as Zhu Houxi is really well-read, it is impossible not to know.

But Zhu Houxi blushed at this time, if he was asked to memorize Confucian classics such as the Four Books and Five Classics, or even write Bagu treatises on the spot, he could do it, and even if he was in his hometown of Huguang, he could even get involved in some Taoism, but now let him talk about what circumcision is and what pi is, he really has never heard of it.

"Zhu Zailei, you tell your uncle and tell him what is circumcision and what is pi", Zhu Houzhao called out his own son Zhu Zailei, and Zhu Zailei read it out without thinking:

"Circumcision is the method of calculating the area of a circle, and it is used with the idea of limits...... And pi ...... Since Zu Chong, it is ......".

Zhu Houzhao nodded after hearing this, and only patted Zhu Houxi on the shoulder: "You still need to study more, you are a child of the royal family, and you don't take the top prize, why do you only read Confucian articles." ”

Zhu Houzhao said and asked Zhu Houxi and the others to retreat.

Meeting with the royal family members and children who entered Beijing today is nothing to Zhu Houzhao, but this incident brought a great shock to Zhu Houxi's heart.

Zhu Houxi has always been a proud person, but he can sense that His Majesty the Emperor is not optimistic about his talents, and it seems that he does not know as much as the little prince beside him.

"Did King Ning send his own son to Beijing?"

At this time, Zhu Houzhao suddenly asked Wang Hua, the first assistant of the cabinet, that although the main purpose of calling the sons of the vassal kings to Beijing to study in the palace was to educate the children of the Zhu family according to their own will, they also had the intention of trying the minds of these vassal kings.

After all, now his own reform can be regarded as infringing on the interests of many people, especially the interests of many gentry and officials, and it is naturally impossible for many literati and gentry to instigate the rebellion of the vassal kings, and Zhu Houzhao hopes that by summoning these feudal princes and heirs into the palace to study, these vassal kings will know that the court has been alerted, and then not too much.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao knew that he couldn't stop King Ning by doing this.

After all, King Ning himself has been preparing for so many years now, and there are already many officials who have been bribed and colluded with him, so it is naturally impossible to stop.

"Sent! When I greeted His Majesty just now, the fat one on the right was the second son of King Ning," replied Wang Hua, the first assistant to the cabinet.

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but smile slightly, thinking that this King Ning could really be as forbearant as Zhu Di, the king of Yan, but he forgot that his emperor was not Zhu Yunwen.

Zhu Houxi, Zhu Zailei and other children of the royal family began to study on August 16 after the Mid-Autumn Festival in the ninth year of Zhengde.

Zhu Houxi is no stranger, he has seen some children carrying cloth bags to school every day in Huguang, he is very envious, and wants to go to school with a few playmates like a civilian child, but he did not expect that one day he would go to school with other children of the royal family like the children of Huguang commoners.

But what made Zhu Houxi feel inferior was that his Xingwang Mansion did not give him much silver, so that he could not show off himself in front of other royal children, nor could he buy a new canvas bag on the market, and he was not treated by too many people in the court, and the eunuchs in the inner court were not too affectionate to him.

On the contrary, Zhu Houxi found that the second son of the king of Ning Wangfu was very popular with the eunuchs below, because the second son of Ning Wangfu was very rich and generous, which made Zhu Houzhao feel more and more inferior.

Of course, what he was even more worried about was that the knowledge he was proud of had not attracted the attention of His Majesty the Emperor, and even the eldest son of the emperor, who was only four years old by his side, knew more than himself.

Therefore, Zhu Houxi studied very seriously in the palace school, and it was from this moment that he began to receive arithmetic in addition to Confucianism, as well as education involving physics, chemistry, biology, economics, etc., as well as education about the country.

Zhu Houzhao also took the time to come to the palace school, just like when he inspected the social studies in the Shuntianfu area of the Ming Dynasty, he would give these students who were still in the basic education stage an ideological lesson, talk about the history of the Ming Dynasty, and instill some concepts of countries and nations.

Zhu Houzhao personally shook hands with the members of the Daming Young Pioneers of each school one by one, and together with other accompanying officials, he personally tied red scarves for them.

Because of his cultural foundation and his own diligence, Zhu Houxi's academic performance in Gongxue is also excellent, and he directly became a member of the first Young Pioneers of Gongxue.

When Zhu Houxi saw Zhu Houzhao personally tie a red scarf to himself, he felt extremely proud, he knew the meaning of the red scarf, which means that it is a corner of the blood-stained banner of countless heroes of the Ming Dynasty, and he wearing a red scarf to become a member of the Young Pioneers means that he will become a young hero in the future.

Zhu Houzhao saw Zhu Houxi's excited and excited look, and he was also very happy, he knew that he would put some things in the future into the basic education of the Ming Dynasty, and he believed that this would make more young and simple children want to make their grades better and want to be praised by the teacher.

It has been three years since all basic education has been universalized, and the first batch of schoolchildren receiving compulsory education will begin to graduate in four years from next year.

"Your Majesty, according to the data reported by the school department from the provinces, it is estimated that more than 1.7 million schoolchildren will graduate next year, and according to the previous regulations, these schoolchildren will be admitted to the county school in the form of a 100-point system.

In addition, the number of county schools has always been small, where the county is full of more than 1,000 students in four years, most of which are not allowed to enter the county school, therefore, the minister thinks that when the new school should be built, the county should set up a new school to accept the world's children to teach it, and teach it with more in-depth knowledge, so that it can be used by the imperial court after it becomes a ding!

The so-called ten years of trees, a hundred years of people, four years to cultivate the world's talents is not enough, you need perseverance, in order to accumulate over time, there must be the world's talents from the Ming! ”

Kang Hai, the secretary of the school, said truthfully to Zhu Hou.

"These millions of schoolchildren naturally can't let them go home to farm, at least most of them can't let them go home to farm, and the county school can't be changed for a while, and if the county is asked to solve the problem, it is estimated that there will only be some eight-share articles;

I will approve what you say, set up a new school, and send a message to the officials of each county who are close to the people to set up a new higher primary school, and I will ask the officials to immediately appoint a group of officials who are studying at Beijing Normal University to take up the post of teacher of each county and the principal of the higher primary school, so as to be specifically responsible for the establishment of the higher primary school. ”

Zhu Houzhao knew that in this way, the education expenditure of the imperial court would have to increase, but in order to make the people of the Ming Dynasty stronger, they would no longer be numb and no longer ignorant, and Daxing education was necessary, so what should be spent still had to be spent, but fortunately, the Ming Dynasty had begun to expand its colony, and it would be possible to earn a lot of property from Manraka and other regions in the future, and these properties could only be spent on education in the short term.

However, the establishment of the Gaodi Primary School is not something that Zhu Houzhao can do with his words, and then the cabinet will promulgate the decree according to Zhu Houzhao's intentions, and then there must be personnel and financial arrangements.

"Your Majesty, there are so many counties in the whole world, and each county has to appoint a priest to manage the higher primary school, and the original priest has to be transferred to other places to be promoted to the prefect, which is not an easy task! There are only 100 people studying at Jingshi University, and it is not enough to be an instructor all over the world!

Therefore, the minister suggested that a group of people who were studying at Beijing Normal University could be appointed as teachers in the north and south of the Zhili area, responsible for the formation of the Gaodi Primary School, but in other areas, the county governors and the teachers were still organized, and they were formed according to the requirements of the imperial court, so that the scholars could be supervised, so that the people of the world could understand that they could be directly reused to teach in a good place like the north and south of the university for further study, so as to encourage more people to study at Beijing Normal University. ”

Zhang Cai, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, truthfully explained the difficulties of his Ministry in the implementation of the establishment of a new school in the matter of the Ming Dynasty presided over by the cabinet at the behest of Zhu Houzhao, and he did not object to His Majesty the Emperor's intention to establish a new school and advocate the general policy of a hundred schools, but as a pragmatic official, he needed to make the emperor understand that many things were easy to say and done, but it was difficult to accomplish them overnight.

"What Zhang Qing said is reasonable, what do you think about the cabinet and the school?"

Zhu Houzhao also knows that the implementation of universal education in Daming, and the establishment of an education and training system from childhood to adulthood is not an overnight thing, not only need more financial support, but also need more human support, there is no shortage of scholars in Daming, but what is lacking is normal talents, Beijing Normal University was originally a comprehensive university to carry forward natural sciences and social sciences, but now it has mainly become a training base for new education normal students.

Even though Beijing Normal University has relaxed the enrollment threshold to the level of lifting people, it still can't meet the huge demand of the empire for normal students, not to mention that because of the existence of the imperial examination system, there are still a large number of students who are unwilling to sign up for Beijing Normal University but enjoy the official treatment and privileges given by the empire and continue to participate in the general examination and the palace examination.

Although after the three years of Zhengde, the sixth year of Zhengde, and the ninth year of Zhengde, there have been many Jinshi who are willing to sign up for further study at Beijing Normal University because they saw that Zhang Xuan and Xia Yan were obviously favored by the emperor.

But the first batch of graduates of this batch of Jinshi, namely the second year of Zhengde and the sixth year of Zhengde, add up to only about 100 people, and they have to be appointed to the six ministries and localities to hold important official positions, after all, the empire is now very short of talents with new education in the administration and military, and some of the six ministry officials and local chiefs are unwilling to let go of these talents after experiencing the ability of the Jinshi from Jingshi University, and even hope that the imperial court will appoint more such officials for themselves.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao also understands the difficulties of Zhang Cai, the secretary of the ministry.

At this time, Wang Hua, the first assistant of the cabinet, and others also expressed their approval one after another, and Zhu Houzhao also nodded again when he saw this: "In this case, as Zhang Cai, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, said, the Ministry of Officials first appointed the head of the Beijing Normal University to serve as a teacher in the north and south of the country, and set up a new-style school, but since it is a higher primary school, it is necessary to learn more subjects, and the subject of general knowledge should be subdivided into two subjects, society and nature, and the specific curriculum outline is formulated by the department;

The Ministry of Household Affairs calculates how many students who have graduated from social studies in each county and town should be guaranteed to enter higher primary schools after the implementation of higher education in the country, based on the maximum budget for education from the state treasury and local tax revenues. ”

"Command!" Kang Hai, the secretary of the school, and Wang Qiong, the secretary of the household department, stood up and replied in unison.

"Your Majesty, the minister has something to worry about", at this time, Liu Yu, the deputy assistant of the cabinet, stood up and said.

Zhu Houzhao was busy elaborating.

Liu Yu said: "Last year, at the behest of His Majesty, he inspected Huguang, Sichuan and other places, and found that a large number of social studies still only teach eight articles.

Even, if you listen to the order of the imperial court to teach its arithmetic common sense, you will be complained by the neighbors, and some people even say that if it is not for the government to force their children to go to school, they will not let their children go to school, because this leads to no one to feed the pigs and sheep at home, and no one to eat staple food!

But the people didn't know that the imperial court was reforming social science in order to cultivate all kinds of talents, which was actually a policy for the benefit of the people!

Therefore, the ministers are worried that even if His Majesty intends to set up a new-style school, it is estimated that Li Shu in the world will not respond positively, and now today, the people still know that the imperial examination is the right way to elect officials, and the old minister is worried that even if the new school is established, the rich will only let the children of the family go to work, and the poor will only let the children of the family go home to farm or go to the market town as apprentices, and there are few people who really take the examination for the new-style school. ”

As the second assistant feared, in March, when he was ordered to inspect Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangzhou, and inspect the population loss, he found that since the compulsory social education, the number of children who died early and disappeared in various places had increased considerably, because they were forced to go to school by the government during the day, and were forced to work by their families at night, and were bitten to death by their wild beasts and poisonous snakes, or other reasons; Most of the disappearances are due to the absence of news after school or the disappearance after school;

Although His Majesty intends to be kind to Li Shu and does not hesitate to educate him with a lot of money, there are few people who are blessed and benevolent, or because their parents are cruel or because their parents are unable to make children have no childhood joys;

In addition, there are more government officials who are greedy for ink and people's teeth are rampant, so that many commoners' sons are called to school but are actually forcibly recruited by the government as children, and there are even handsome people who are sold by people's teeth, and the people dare not speak out, in order to avoid compulsory education, there are people who move their families into the mountains;

What was good governance has become evil government;

The minister thought that if the new-style school was set up again, if His Majesty forced the son of the common people to take the examination, he was afraid that it would make the common people more disgusted, and even provoke the people to revolt. ”

Hu Kedu replied to Yuan Zongru in the matter.

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