"'Learn and excel is a master', the sages have said so, and now the words of the sages are useless?" This was disputed.

"You call it misinterpreting the meaning of the sage, what Sage Confucius means is that if you learn well, you can apply what you have learned to politics, not that you can become an official if you are good at learning, and there is also an article in this newspaper that talks about this matter, or Yuan Jixian Yuan Futai wrote it." The bookkeeper said.

"Don't talk about being an official, I think the new policy of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion is good, like our shop, although the annual tax is much higher than in previous years, but all of them are paid in the open place, and there is no more messy apportionment and official exploitation, which is much less than in previous years."

After Aunt Liu put down the plate for the guests, she stood aside and listened to everyone's discussions, after the newspaper was sent, she had already asked the account clerk to tell her, Aunt Liu remembered the newspaper that was most closely related to her.

"The newspaper said that the purpose of this meeting of officials is to determine some new systems, such as the tax system, if the people are to pay it clearly, and where the money for taxation will be spent in the future, it will be made public in the newspaper." The bookkeeper continued to explain.

"In the past, the income of our Ming officials was indeed a little low, I heard that the Metropolitan Governor's Office is studying how to increase the income of officials, after the increase in income, if there are bad habits such as 'fire consumption' and 'kicking and drenching', it will be punished according to corruption. It's a good idea, but it's a bit difficult to do. ”

The first official meeting of the entire Yangzhou region was held amid controversy.

The meeting began with a general discussion, in which the Metropolitan Governor's Office divided the officials into four groups according to their regions, and discussed many topics, including the separation of military and government affairs, the disclosure of officials' assets, the establishment of a tax system, a new accounting system, and how to formulate plans for the development of their own regions.

The Metropolitan Governor's Mansion called on everyone to speak freely, and any ideas could be raised, and the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion specially sent people to each group to record everyone's thoughts, and Luo Jian and Shi Kefa also went to each group to participate in discussions to understand everyone's ideas.

The original plan was to discuss it for three days, but who would have thought that this open discussion would be a bit unstoppable, Luo Jian and Shi Kefa discussed, and simply let everyone say enough, extend the time for another three days, and let everyone put forward their ideas.

After several days of discussion, officials in Yangzhou unconsciously formed several factions.

The support faction is headed by Ren Minyu, Yuan Jixian and Lu Zhenfei, most of whom are officials sent by the Metropolitan Governor's Office, most of these people have a lot of exchanges with Luo Jian and others, and they hate the corruption of the Ming officialdom in the last years of the Ming Dynasty.

Shi Kefa greatly appreciated Luo Jian's invitation to Yuan Jixian and Lu Zhenfei, believing that these two people were not only open-minded, but also full of heart for the country and the people, without a trace of selfishness, and played an excellent role as an example among officials.

Ren Minyu also came out of his gratitude to Luo Jian and the others for saving the soldiers and civilians of Yangzhou, and began to think seriously about the future.

Ren Minyu also has a better understanding of Luo Jian and the four themselves, and with the ability of a few people, the knowledge they have is enough to make them the richest people in this era.

Take the income of the glass factory as an example, Ren Minyu's own investment in silver has quadrupled so far, and as far as Luo Jian's shares are concerned, his shares are only a drop in the bucket, and he has never heard that the Dadu Governor's Mansion has more than a penny of silver, and all the income of several people has been invested in several factories in Guazhou.

At the beginning, Ren Minyu also did not understand some of the new policies, such as the separation of military and political affairs, Ren Minyu felt that if the local officials did not have the jurisdiction of the army, they might be difficult to carry out the order, and there was no civilian constraint, and he was afraid that the rebellion of the feudal towns in the late Tang Dynasty would be repeated.

Luo Jian explained to him that in the future, the trend of the development of the army is firearms, and the production of these weapons and equipment cannot be solved by relying on the army's own capabilities, and the unified supply of logistics implemented in the army can also effectively prevent the army from becoming the king when it arrives at the local level.

Civilian officials and some local officials intervened in the military, and outsiders commanded insiders, and the bitter lessons of the late Ming Dynasty could not be repeated in Yangzhou. On the other hand, the use of force by military generals to interfere in local political affairs is even worse in nature, and a government that relies on force to suppress the people cannot last.

Luo Jian and Shi Kefa have lost count of how many officials have been found to have exchanges like Ren Minyu, these conversations have played some roles, but the effect is not as good as Luo Jian expected, some fixed thinking formed over thousands of years to change is by no means a day's work, some people's ideological stubbornness is far beyond imagination, although Luo Jian wants to unify his thoughts as much as possible, the opposition is still inevitably formed.

The opposition is also very clear, and most of them are middle-level officials, among which the officials who were forcibly installed in Yangzhou by Ma Shiying last time accounted for the majority. On the grounds that "the law of the ancestors is not easy", they strongly opposed Yangzhou not keeping in line with the imperial court and building its own small kingdom. Moreover, as soon as the new policy is introduced, the status of officials will be greatly reduced, and those who are officials will not be able to serve the people without majesty.

Originally, the opposition, which was dominated by middle-level officials, could not become a climate, but the arrival of one person allowed the opposition to find a backer and more confidence.

Mr. Liu Zongzhou, who is old and known as Mr. Qishan, was invited by Shi Kefa by letter.

Liu Zongzhou, who was already 68 years old, was extremely disappointed in the surrender of Ming officials to the Manchus because the Southern Ming court was destroyed by the Manchu Qing Dynasty in history, and finally died of hunger strike in his hometown in Shaoxing.

Now that history has changed, the Southern Ming Dynasty court has won several big victories in the Yangzhou army, and the small court of the Southern Ming Dynasty is at least in a short period of time, and Mr. Liu's hunger strike will not happen.

Although Mr. Liu no longer wanted to be an official in the small imperial court controlled by Ma Shiying, he did not refuse Shi Kefa's invitation, and he also heard that Yangzhou was different from the imperial court and other places, and he also wanted to come and have a look.

Mr. Liu has the greatest opinions on the "Yangzhou New Deal" in particular, one is the policy of encouraging industry and commerce, Mr. Liu believes that if this policy comes out, everyone will pursue profits, and in the long run, the people's hearts will not be ancient, the world will be declining, and the program will no longer be, and its evil consequences will be unimaginable in the future.

The second is a series of restrictive policies for officials, Mr. Liu Lao pointed out when he was in the Chongzhen Dynasty, thinking that the Chongzhen Dynasty was too urgent to seek treatment, the usage was too strict, the promulgation of government decrees was too frequent, and the promotion of officials was too hasty. Ministers were unwilling to fulfill their duties for fear of being convicted, so they could not play a role despite their talents, would not lead troops even though they had generals, and could not kill the enemy even though they had soldiers. Mr. Liu believes that the top priority at the moment is to clean up people's hearts, and to clean up people's hearts, we should first start by treating officials leniently.

Mr. Liu Lao believes that the regulations on the appointment of officials in Yangzhou's new policy are more harsh than those of the Chongzhen Dynasty to treat officials, and those who are officials must not be careful from time to time, otherwise they may be violated at any time.

At an open discussion meeting, Mr. Liu quoted scriptures, and some people also said that Luo Jian was in a fog and was very embarrassed, and Mr. Liu even pointed at Luo Jian and said that he "did not learn and did not know how to do it", which made the opposition very secretly happy.

Mr. Liu was also extremely dissatisfied with the Yangzhou Glass Factory, believing that the things it produced, in addition to guiding the trend of luxury, had little effect on the lives of the people, and his old man did not allow his family to buy one.

In response to this question, Shi Kefa was the first to explain to the old gentleman that in addition to producing glass and mirrors, glass factories can also produce telescopes, transparent containers and other things, which are of great benefit to scientific research.

And the scientific way proposed by Shi Kefa is inconsistent with the old man's concept, and it is a large number of evaluations of quoting scriptures, which makes Shi Kefa very embarrassed.

Treating such a respectable, virtuous but stubborn old gentleman, Luo Jian was also extremely helpless, he couldn't say anything serious, and he couldn't listen to it.

In fact, Liu Zongzhou's concept of "cautious independence" was not very accepted by the people of the time, and Emperor Chongzhen thought that his political concept was illusory and ethereal, and there was no practical strategy available. Now a group of people are gathered around the old gentleman because he is against some of the new deals, which happens to cater to these people's ideas.

Originally, Huang Zongxi highly admired Liu Zongzhou's doctrine, and had previously ranked Liu Zongzhou and Wang Yangming side by side, believing that he had reached the rank of a saint, but after listening to what Liu Zongzhou said at the discussion meeting, he also told Liu Lan and Gu Yanwu that Mr. Liu's retreat was close to the extreme, and it was of no use to the development of Yangzhou.

But Luo Jian is not ready to do this, with the current words of Luo Jian and Shi Kefa in Yangzhou, forcibly implement the new policy, it should be able to be implemented, but Luo Jian does not want to start this bad start.

The discussion was extended to the scholars and the elite strata of society, and some scholars and gentry who had a little prestige in the local area were also invited, and the "Yangzhou Semi-Monthly," which was originally scheduled to be published semi-monthly, was also printed twice a month under the overtime of Liu Lan, Gu Yanwu, and others.

Shi Kefa was extremely worried about the situation that was out of control, and found Luo Jian to express his worries.

"Xinghua, are you sure you won't make a big mess by doing this?"

"Hehe, Brother Xian, you don't have to worry, as long as the army doesn't get involved, there will be chaos. It is beneficial for everyone to argue more, and the truth becomes clearer and clearer the more they debate, only when the thinking of the majority of the people is unified, can the implementation of the new policy be truly implemented, and the result of the forcible implementation can only be the death of the people. ”

"It's just that the officials are gathered in Yangzhou, and after a long time, I'm afraid that there will be problems with local management." Shi Kefa said.

"It's winter now, and there are relatively few things, so if you don't take advantage of this time to unify your thoughts, and when spring starts tomorrow and there are more affairs, there will be no time."

Although Luo Jian also wants to implement the new policy as soon as possible, and everyone works together to grasp development, it is extremely difficult to change the fixed thinking mode formed for thousands of years.

What happened next made Luo Jian very angry, because a group of generals led by Huang Degong and Liu Zhaoji sent people to Yangzhou to openly support Yangzhou's new policy.

The open support of the army generals immediately silenced the voices opposing the new policy, but this was not what Luo Jian wanted.

After Luo Jian became the governor of Huaiyang, the most severe order was issued to all troops, this order has only one meaning, the responsibility of the army is to fight for the country, and must not interfere in political affairs, if such a thing happens again in the future, the politicians will be ordered to withdraw from the army.