On the makeshift platform, loudly preaching the state decree of Jiedu Prefecture, Zhou Mao was a fool.

The five state decrees also took a lot of time to preach. Han Wei made it clear at last night's meeting that the reason why these landed scholars who knew how to read but were not thoughtful in literature and science were invited to come here was really a last resort. Although the troubled times are chaotic, there are many clerical talents who are good at writing in the state capital, but these people are also called poetry with one mouth, and the allusions used are difficult and profound. The order of the state government was preached so that the lowest peddlers and pawns could understand it, so those masters who talked to themselves could not use it this time.

That night, more than a dozen scholars made a proposition essay in the state capital, and wrote the five state orders according to their own understanding with the style they are good at, and among the more than a dozen answer sheets, Zhou Maosheng did the most simple and easy to understand, so it was set as a model by Han Wei, and more than a dozen people were ordered to recite this template, and they went to various counties early this morning to preach Buda. Zhou Maosheng received preferential treatment as a writer, and obtained the beauty of preaching the five state orders of Buda in Yan'an County, the state of governance.

Just standing on a platform and preaching repeatedly, speaking dryly, Zhou Maosheng felt more and more like a pioneer who told the story of the text.

It is said that during the Tang Dynasty, there were artists who made a living from this in the eastern and western capitals, and now there are such people in the hook column of Bianliang, the capital teacher, but Zhou Maosheng, who has been honest and practical farming all his life, never thought that one day he would also operate such a "cheap industry".

Originally, these scholars would never agree. Although their knowledge is shallow, they still have a minimum bottom line of dignity, and let them do such embarrassing things in public, even if it is the life of the handsome, it is inevitably excessive.

However, the conditions set out by Han Wei on behalf of the Eighth Route Army Festival Dufu really moved the scholars.

Five state orders, each preached from beginning to end, and the state government paid a penny for it. Preaching the five proclamations once is the income of five yuan, preaching twenty times a day is one hundred yuan, ten days is one yuan, and a month is three yuan. The Jiedu Mansion paid for their room and board. These three copper coins are the net income that really falls into the pocket, and no matter how you convert it, this livelihood is much better than farming.

What moved Zhou Maosheng and others the most was not this, Han Wei promised that during the preaching, these propagandists could freely access the state capital and the county's collection of scriptures and histories. For these impoverished scholars, this opportunity to learn is too rare, which means that they have the opportunity to come into contact with the imperial examination textbooks such as the subset of scriptures and histories that they had dreamed of but could only quench their thirst, not to mention Han Wei's promise that as long as they dutifully complete their preaching tasks. He himself, as well as all the scholars of the Jiedu Mansion, will not hesitate to serve as their counselors.

Zhou Maosheng had already heard that the old prime minister Li Bin of the Observation Mansion and the general Li Wenge of the Jiedu Mansion had jointly agreed to abolish the poems and texts in August this year. Instead, he was taught by strategy and arithmetic.

In fact, this matter has been brewing since the end of the test last year, Li Wenge and Li Bin have been brewing. The last provincial examination coincided with the Qianyou Rebellion, and the students and scholars in various states and counties have been waiting for six years, and this year it is said that the Ministry of Rites is preparing to officially open the provincial examination, and there is even internal information that the examiner has just visited the king of the land at the beginning of this year.

The imperial court rotated frequently, and it was not as attractive to the scholars who took the provincial examination and then went to the central government to become an official. However, due to the division of feudal towns. The shogunate of the powerful factions in each region really needed to be filled with talents, so in fact, in the eyes of the scholars, the prefecture and the prefecture were more important than the central provincial test in the eyes of the scholars. After all, once the solution is successful, these scholars who were originally unknown will have the opportunity to enter the eyes of those big people who hold the power of the state capital, and the subsequent assignment and conferral of officials is to clean up the matter.

Even if you are a Jiupin county lieutenant, you have suddenly changed from a citizen to an official, which is a big difference!

Abolish poetry and change judgment and policy, Li Bin, Qin Gu and Li Wenge have the same opinion on this matter, which is the development direction of the imperial examination system since the Tang Dynasty. Five dynasties and ten kingdoms were an era of war. The kind of old rules that adopt poetry and literature are obviously not suitable for the times, and what the court or the feudal town needs is a doer who knows the general trend and can manage things with a gap in his mind. And there is no need for those sour scholars who write poems in seven steps but are at a loss in the face of cumbersome government affairs.

However, it is important to separate arithmetic from the six subjects as an important part of the solution. Li Bin and Qin Gu disagreed, and it was a consensus that the original six subjects were simplified to today's two subjects. But arithmetic ...... Li Xianggong really felt that this tricky knowledge did not have much practical value, although Qin Gu knew more about arithmetic, but he also thought that this should be the knowledge of the official officials, and for the scholars who wanted to become officials in the future, this knowledge was of little use.

Li Wenge's insistence surprised the two men, and finally Li Bin agreed with a wry smile - because Li Wenge said that he would personally serve as the chief examiner of arithmetic for this year's exam.

Zhou Maosheng and others' understanding of arithmetic at the moment is still limited to fiddling with chips, after all, the children of peasant families deal more with firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea on weekdays, not to mention that arithmetic is also a necessary homework for solving the six exams every year.

Li Wenge has already explained to Han Wei that these fallen scholars will have the opportunity to go to Fenglin Academy to listen to lectures, where they will be exposed to a new subject that they have never been exposed to in their lives, and it doesn't matter how much of this new knowledge these adults can accept, but in a few months later, they will deeply understand it

The competitive advantage that the measures to be taken gives them.

The effect of the preaching was not good at first, and the audience under the stage was always sparse, and the people of the state city were not very enthusiastic about the orders and new measures of the state capital. After all, these years have been too chaotic, and the common people have become numb to the endless new tricks of the local government, and the purpose of these new policies is mostly to collect more taxes from them in disguise, and as the lowest level of society, their distrust of the government makes it difficult for them to accept the so-called new policy of Li Wenge in a short time.

The wealthy families who were about to lose their interests in the New Deal turned a blind eye to this clown-style preaching.

In their opinion, this is just another whimsical new trick of the eccentric and perverse General Li, who works hard to govern people, and those who work hard govern people, this is the unswerving law of governing the world, and the common people never have to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the policies of the superiors, and they will not pay attention to them until they really feel the advantages and disadvantages of the policies; After actually feeling this, they will only understand this simply as the virtuous and foolish ruler of the people - General Li and Prime Minister Li Cheng are both good officials who love the people like sons......

In the morning, Zhou Maosheng preached the five new state orders twelve times in one breath, and there were always few people in the audience, and sometimes there was not even a single person. In addition to the soldiers of the Jiedu Mansion who were ordered to guard the podium, Zhou Maosheng was the only one who preached on the stage like a monkey. It's no wonder that all he preaches are extremely boring policies and decrees, even if they are spoken in the most popular colloquial vernacular, they really don't sound interesting in the text, where do the ordinary people who are busy all day long for their livelihood have the leisure time to listen to Taluo?

At noon, the soldiers brought lunch and tea, and Zhou Maosheng secretly calculated in his heart while eating that this morning, he had earned sixty yuan, which was the amount that he might not be able to earn even if he worked for more than ten days in the past, although this job was unbearable. Fortunately, the treatment is quite generous.

Sitting alone on the stage and munching on the desk was a bit of a novelty, so no one listened carefully to the formal preaching in the morning. At this moment, there were some people gathered in the audience, and these people were pointing and whispering to each other on the stage, and everyone was guessing what this person on the stage was doing.

After lunch, Zhou Maosheng's physical strength recovered a little, and when he saw dozens of people gathered in the audience, he shook his spirits and began the thirteenth preaching.

Because I talked to myself all morning. Zhou Maosheng's voice was a little hoarse, his words were a little inaccurate, and some of his words were a little vague, and even he felt that the preaching place was not in a good state. But the people who were watching the excitement in the audience did not disperse much, but looked at Zhou Maosheng on the stage with wide eyes one by one, with doubts and puzzles flashing in their eyes, and as time went by, the number of people gathered under the stage gradually increased.

Zhou Maosheng preached two more times, and he was really tired. Seeing that the audience in the audience gradually increased, they turned their heads one by one and didn't know what they were saying. He arched his hand. With a smile he asked, "Fathers, Xiaosheng has a bad voice. There are some places that are not clear and clear, and I ask you to forgive me......"

Everyone looked at each other, no one answered for a long time, and when Zhou Maosheng was about to start the fifteenth preaching, a shout suddenly came from the audience and asked: "Are you telling the truth?" ”

Zhou Maosheng's eyes swept over, but he saw a middle-aged man in a servant's costume standing in the crowd and looking at himself with his hands crossed.

He smiled: "What Xiaosheng preached was the order of Jiedu Mansion, and he was ordered by General Li to preach here. Is it true, this big brother might as well stay for a few days to see, the government is about to start measuring acres of land, the two counties of Yan'an and Fushi are governed in the state, when they are the first to measure, the public land and the exemption decree have been signed by the general and sent to the counties, and you don't have to pay the poll tax again this year......"

There was another whisper, and someone in the audience asked, "Is there such a good thing?" I only heard the old people in the family say that we haven't reduced taxes in Yanzhou for more than 100 years......"

The voice of this person's questioning was a little lacking, and he was obviously a little timid about openly questioning the government's decrees, Zhou Maosheng arched his hand: "This eldest brother said yes, the younger brother has also been farming in Benzhou for generations, and the imperial court has indeed not been exempted from taxes for more than a hundred years; But it seems that the government has not had a state mandate to reduce taxes for a long time, right? Is it true, the younger brother doesn't dare to say anything, but since General Li personally signed the prefecture order, there must still be some benefits......

After that, he arched his hand again: "If you fathers don't have anything else to ask, Xiaosheng will continue to preach......"

Zhou Maosheng was not very interested in whether the decree was effective, but if he continued to answer questions and answers, it took up his own preaching time, and if he spoke less once, the five cents flew away, which was really a bit painful.

……

At the beginning of March of the third year of Guangshun, a news began to spread in the ten counties of Yanzhou, and the new General Li of Yanzhou Jiedu was going to implement a new policy within the state governance.

As for what exactly this new deal was, there were various theories circulating in the countryside, and some people said that General Li wanted to equalize the land. Some people say that General Li Da's change of the tax law is actually a more ruthless collection of taxes, and the so-called public land is nothing but the original payment of grain rent to the master's family into the payment of grain rent to the government, and many ordinary people are worried that in the past, they could still carry the rent when they could not pay the rent in a famine year, but at most the main family forced the whole family to go out to escape the famine, and now the main family has become an official government, and they are afraid that if they cannot pay the rent at that time, they will be arrested and imprisoned.

It is also said that the re-measurement of land is actually for the purpose of usurping the land, and those who are responsible

The officials were all fresh faces they had never seen before, and they were holding some strange shapes in their hands

After they measured and calculated, the original ten acres of land suddenly became six acres, and more than forty percent of them were cut down.

Since the beginning of March, the government and the military have begun to set up checkpoints in the counties of Yanzhou, and ordinary people can't help it, but the bulk of caravans must have a passage issued by the state government and Cao Jing's business department, otherwise goods cannot enter and leave Yanzhou. This was a headache for merchants, but there was good news, the traditional market system was abolished, and merchants could open businesses anywhere in the ten counties of Yanzhou. Moreover, it is exempt from paying taxes, but the settlement must be carried out through the branches opened by the Fengyu Cabinet in Yanzhou in each county, and after obtaining the settlement voucher, you can obtain trade routes from the counties and counties. And according to the different amounts, the issuing authority of the road guide is also different, the transaction below 100 can be settled in the county cabinet from the county to issue the road guide, and the transaction of more than 100 must be settled to the general number of the state city cabinet to the business department to issue the road guide.

This new mode of trading has brought some inconvenience to the circulation of bulk goods, but it is not completely intolerable compared to the loose policy that allows for local trading.

After all, the goods had to be transported to the state cities and then distributed to the counties, and the loss on the road alone was painful for the merchants.

Only a few large merchants have seen the huge business opportunities brought about by this change in transaction model. For a time, the Chen Mansion in Yan'an County came to the court in Ruo City, and anyone who has a heart can figure out the key position of Chen Zhe, the proprietor of Fengyu Cabinet Workshop, in the future Yanzhou commercial trade, not to mention that according to the gossip that circulated, fifty percent of the land in Fengyu Cabinet Workshop is held by the state government, which is actually a government-run cabinet workshop, as long as the current military and political authorities in Yanzhou can firmly control the state governance situation, the settlement voucher of the cabinet workshop will have a strong legal efficiency in the ten counties of Yanzhou.

Compared with the land reform decree of Yanzhou, this city change law decree is less conspicuous, but it has changed from a closed city policy to an open free trade policy. Almost all businesses understand that this is a fundamental change.

The exemption from commercial tax is the fundamental reason why the vast majority of businesses have quickly accepted this decree, after all, the vast majority of small and medium-sized businesses have long been slandered about the equal taxation of the city. They are the direct beneficiaries of this provision.

But the big, long-term businesses don't pay attention to this. For them, the little tax exemption is just a drizzle, and what they value is the market. Since last year, the population of Yanzhou has increased exponentially. The total amount of goods purchased by the government is also climbing in geometric progression, both of which are salivating fat meat for large businessmen, and now after the change, the open free trade model has made the original monopoly of the entire market in the retail business, and the advantages of several other commercial giants are not there, giving more commercial buyers and sellers the opportunity to enter the site of Yanzhou City, in addition to the government procurement is still controlled in the hands of the Chen family, the entire Yanzhou has become a commercial area with huge consumption potential, here, As long as you have a flexible mind, you can make money.

For these merchants, Chen Zhe's business reputation has always been good, and it is quite reassuring to deal with this young official comprador, the largest business giant who communicates between the north and the south has a strong background, and there has been an unknown news within the business, last year, the grain ship of the Fengyu firm was forced to go to dozens of road money by the local power guild on the Luohe River, and the Fengyu firm and the Yanzhou official did not say anything at the time, but two months ago, General Li was ordered to enter Beijing, passing through Luoyang, The local underworld forces have been washed with blood, and now the abundant grain ships are unimpeded all the way from the Bianhe River to the Luohe River, and no underworld dares to eat abundant black money.

With the Eighth Route Army, a strong town in Guanzhong, as the backstage, the payment ability and credibility of Fengyu Cabinet can be guaranteed sufficiently.

Of course, there are also people who are worried that once General Li eats black, the hacked businessmen are afraid that they will have nowhere to complain.

Fortunately, although Li Wenge was notorious among the large landowners in Yanzhou, he had always had a good reputation among the merchants, and since his appointment, the new marshal had dealt with merchants more than with local tycoons, and this lord seemed to have an inexplicably friendly attitude towards merchants. He did not feel intolerant of merchants making their own money, as other towns did, but on the contrary, he would only bargain with the merchants on how much he would make and how little he would earn, but he would never let the merchants be unprofitable—the merchants were surprised by this, and this General Li was in a certain way very merchant-like.

Of course, what is more important is the covetousness of the market, and the private statistics of the merchants who have made it clear that the total population of the ten counties in Yanzhou has more than doubled in the past year, and with the change of Yanzhou's land tax policy, this growth trend is becoming stronger, at this rate, the population of Yanzhou, a border county, will grow to more than 200,000 in two or three years.

It's a treasure trove of money, at least for a few years.

As for how to feed the rapidly increasing population of Yanzhou's limited arable land, the merchants did not consider it, and that was a matter for General Li and the military and political authorities under his command to consider.

Unbeknownst to these merchants, while they were running around between the state capital and the Chenjia Cabinet Factory, General Li, who was soon facing a financial deficit, was leading a thousand-foot horse along the Luoshui Road to the west, rushing towards the small private treasury that someone had done everything he could to loot and accumulate over the past three years...