These new words that are popular in the city of Yangzhou first appeared from a newspaper similar to Di Bao named "Yangzhou Semi-Monthly".

In the past, the newspaper could only be read by officials, but the "Semi-Monthly" was open to everyone, and you could buy it for a few pennies.

Liu Lan has been preparing to start a newspaper for a long time, and she has been dragged down many times because of the tight war, and this time Liu Lan feels that she must get it out anyway.

The Metropolitan Governor's Mansion has recently become the center of the whirlpool of public opinion, and Luo Jian has also become the focus of everyone's discussion, and the reason is the disclosure of officials' assets.

Although she felt that she was in a bit of a hurry, she began to prepare for implementation without sufficient publicity from public opinion, and the resistance can be imagined.

But Liu Lan understands Luo Jian's thoughts, although the resistance is great now, but the Yangzhou army's several consecutive victories have made Luo Jian's prestige in Yangzhou have reached its peak, if it can't be implemented in this case, then it is basically impossible to implement it in the future.

What Luo Jian and Shi Kefa didn't expect was that Yuan Jixian and Lu Zhenfei were extremely in favor of this measure to restrain officials, and Lao Yuan even got up and bowed to Luo Jian in the process of talking, saying that once this law came out, although it would not cut off corruption, it would at least reduce corruption by eighty percent.

Luo Jian felt that this was only one of the measures to prevent corruption among officials, and that there were many ways and means for officials to transfer and conceal their assets under the current situation where various registration and statistical systems were extremely imperfect.

Lu Zhenfei suggested that a metropolitan procuratorate should also be set up in Yangzhou to supervise officials, and if they felt that their daily expenses exceeded their income, they could review them.

Luo Jian felt that the names of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Metropolitan Procuratorate in the capital were duplicated, and the division of functions was not clear, if these officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate became the officials of the Ming Dynasty, it would be a headache.

Liu Lan proposed that it be called the "Independent Commission Against Corruption" and that it would be responsible for the economic problems of picket officials, so that the functions would be very clear.

After several high-level officials in Yangzhou set the tone, the matter of publicizing the official's assets was decided, and how to implement it next gave a few people a headache.

It is still Liu Lan who proposes that we must first basically unify everyone's understanding in terms of ideology and public opinion, and as long as the broad masses of the people support this matter, this matter will be easy to handle.

At this time, there is little other way to publicize a matter than to send officials to post notices, and in such a situation, it is imperative that newspapers be published.

Gu Yanwu and Huang Zongxi, who came back from the investigation, both had less bookish spirit and more heaviness with worry.

These two went to Fengyang and Huai'an respectively to investigate, the current situation in these two prefectures is the worst, both of them are in accordance with Luo Jian's requirements, deep into thousands of households, the poverty of the people's life makes both of them feel heavy.

The inaction of some local officials and even the deception of the people made both of them extremely indignant, but the task of the research team was only to investigate, not the duty of picket officials, so they could only write down the things one by one.

Soon after the two returned and handed in the research report, they were pulled by Liu Lan to the temporary "Yangzhou Semi-Monthly" newspaper office in Mrs. Xing's printing house.

Liu Lan handed over several articles to the two, the first article was written by Luo Jian, the name is "Justice and Conscience", which is the publication words prepared by Luo Jian for "Yangzhou Semi-Monthly".

Luo Jian used a passage from Chen Duxiu's speech in the publication of "New Youth", that is, "The politics of the country, the changes in customs, the important affairs of China's foreign affairs, the pros and cons of business and trade, and all the shocking and gratifying things with the husband are enough for newcomers to hear about it." "Yangzhou Semi-Monthly" is defined.

The article points out that as a media, the core soul must be justice and conscience. Only with justice and conscience can the media convey correct information to the public and guide a good atmosphere in society. Under this premise, Luo Jian advocates that the media is open to the public, and everyone can speak freely and express their views on social affairs through this platform.

The second article was written by Shi Kefa. In this article titled "Hope for the Future", Shi Kefa expressed great appreciation for the intention and original intention of Luo Jian and others to establish the newspaper, and called on Yangzhou people to treat newborn babies and take care of this first newspaper that belongs to Yangzhou people, and also hopes that more newspapers will appear in Yangzhou and even the whole country in the future, so that newspapers can become mentors and friends for everyone.

Gu Yanwu had already made a lot of efforts with Liu Lan on the establishment of the newspaper, and he knew a lot about the role and significance of the newspaper, while Huang Zongxi was in contact for the first time, and asked Liu Lan and Gu Yanwu for a long time, and then he understood what everyone wanted to get.

After understanding, Huang Zongxi, like Gu Yanwu, devoted himself to the distribution of the first newspaper with all his enthusiasm.

With the joint efforts of everyone and the full assistance of Mrs. Xing's printing house, the first "Yangzhou Semi-Monthly" finally fell to the ground.

The first newspaper was published semi-monthly and had a print run of only 5,000 copies, all of which were based on the current state of society.

At this time, the dissemination of information was extremely slow, and the outdated equipment of the printing house was not up to the level of the daily newspaper, and the literacy rate of the general population determined that the number of newspapers in circulation could not be larger.

With the release of the first newspaper, the censorship of newspapers in the Metropolitan Governorate was established.

This makes many people not understand, isn't the newspaper founded by the Metropolitan Governor's Office? Why censor yourself for yourself?

Luo Jian's explanation for this is that the Metropolitan Governor's Office does not interfere with the operation of the newspaper, the newspaper exists independently, and although it is now funded by the Metropolitan Governor's Office, with the increase in the circulation of newspapers in the future, its economic operation will also be separated from the Metropolitan Governor's Office.

The establishment of a censorship system is also a last resort. Luo Jian also hopes that the media can be completely open, but it is simply impossible to do so now.

To take the simplest example, at present, the whole of Yangzhou is in a state of hostility with the Manchu court, if the Qing court also sent some literati to preach in the newspapers that the Manchu Qing Dynasty's entry into the Central Plains was the destiny of heaven, would the "Yangzhou Semi-Monthly" be published or not?

Although Liu Lan thinks that they are not afraid at all, everyone can refute them to the fullest, but Luo Jian believes that the information dissemination and the people's cognitive level in this era, if his newspaper does not occupy the main position from public opinion, it will mess up the public mind, and once it is chaotic, it will take more energy to correct the deviation.

The ultimate purpose of founding a newspaper is to promote democracy and freedom, but Luo Jian and Liu Lan have never mentioned it, it is too early to mention these things, in this era of kneeling down at the sight of officials and strict hierarchies, there may be no market for preaching this system, this needs to be done slowly, and it is not possible to raise these things too early.

Aunt Liu's bun shop is getting bigger and bigger, and the store next door has also been rented by Aunt Liu, and now the bun shop has become a big restaurant, and the restaurant has invited Mr. Tent.

At this time, the bookkeeper was reading the newspaper to the guests in the restaurant.

The newspaper was delivered free of charge by the Metropolitan Governor's Office, and the Metropolitan Governor's Office said that this first newspaper was free, but everyone had to spend their own money to buy the newspaper in the future, and a newspaper cost five cents.

When the guests heard that the Governor himself had written an article in the newspaper, they cheered up and listened to the bookkeeper read it. Everyone understands the articles written by the Metropolitan Governor, because the Metropolitan Governor is written in the vernacular, although some readers are a little unimpressed with the vernacular text, but most people who have not read the book think that only articles that everyone can understand are good articles.

The scholars understood why the newspaper was founded by the Metropolitan Governor's Office, but most of the people did not understand it, but many things in the newspaper were closely related to everyone, which made everyone interested in listening carefully to the explanations of the bookkeeper.

The second page of the newspaper is devoted to the disclosure of officials' assets, which we have heard of before, and everyone has their own knowledge and ideas, and some people think that this matter is really ridiculous, and if this policy comes out, who will want to become an official in the future?

For example, Sun Xiucai, who was eating in Aunt Liu's shop at this time, was saying to the person next to him: "Since ancient times, wealth has not been exposed, and the money owned by individuals is like the matter of male and female boudoirs, how can it be said that it is known to others?" In this way, in the eyes of the people, the officials are as if they have stripped naked, and what prestige will the government have in the future? ”

"Brother Sun studied poetry and books hard in order to become an official in the future, of course he didn't want to do this, but for ordinary people like us, once the official's wealth is made public, if he wants to be corrupt in the future, he will have more scruples, and I think this policy has a great effect on preventing official corruption."

The person next to him seems to be a trader and the like, going south and north, with his own knowledge, and he understands Sun Xiucai's thoughts very well.

Hearing Sun Xiucai's words, Mr. Tent put down the newspaper in his hand and said to Sun Xiucai: "Xiucaigong, this newspaper says that if you have your own ideas and put forward them reasonably, you can also go to the newspaper to submit your article, and the newspaper may be able to publish your article." ”

"What are you going to do? I know that the governor of the capital uses this method, that is, the official cannot be corrupt, as long as he wants to be an official to make benefits, he definitely does not want the governor to do this, haven't you heard what the newspaper said? Don't think about being an official, don't you think about being an official, don't most governors hate the statement of their parents? What did the Metropolitan Governor say about this? Look at my memory, sir, read it to us again? Aunt Liu, who was walking out with a plate, heard everyone's discussion and took over the topic and said.

"The people are our food and clothing, and the place of the officials is set up to serve the people. In the future, if there are still parents who claim to be officials, they can be allowed to go home and become the parents of their children, but the people do not need such parents. The bookkeeper picked up the newspaper, found the passage, and read it to everyone.

"The Metropolitan Governor also said that if you are not willing to disclose your family wealth, you can choose not to be an official, if you want to be an official, it means that you enjoy different rights from ordinary people, you have the right to have no supervision, there is no power to supervise, and corruption is inevitable. The method of making officials' family finances public is only one of the measures to supervise and restrain them, and more systems will be formulated in the future to prevent corruption among officials. Mr. Ledger continued to explain.

"So? Those who are officials are not all picky, there is no benefit, who will be officials? The old tent man in the teahouse opposite was also eating lunch here, and when he heard the tent man's words, he said.

"No one is in charge? Most of the governors said, we are short of talents now, that is, there is no shortage of officials, and if you want to be an official in the future, you must take the exam. In the future, I am afraid that I will not be able to become an official by writing good articles. The bookkeeper said.