Sixty thousand civil servants is still a little less for governing such a large country, but it's always enough.

There are not tens of thousands of officials in the Ming Dynasty, but the Ming Dynasty is extensively managed, so naturally there is no need for so many officials, and the precise management adopted by Zhao Yan naturally needs the support of such officials.

Especially now, the territory is much larger than that of the Ming Dynasty, and there are more than a dozen provinces, and they are still rising, and the number of officials required is naturally increasing.

Moreover, the times are changing, and the arrival of Zhao Yan has opened an accelerator for this era, and the economy is getting bigger and bigger, and the need for civil servants in various jobs will naturally increase.

Of the 160,000 graduates this year, in addition to 60,000 by the Ministry of Administration, 50,000 were removed by the Ministry of Education, and the remaining 10,000 were removed by the Ministry of Health. Another 40,000 people went on to higher education.

In the past 12 years, nearly 60,000 teachers have been hired, of which 40,000 are primary school graduates of the previous year. However, with the current scale of teachers, it is still only enough for the education of Shandong, Shanxi, Liaodong, Korea, and the colonies, while the four provinces of Shaanxi, Sichuan, Huguang, and Henan, which are newly included in the administrative system, are obviously not enough.

For this reason, the Ministry of Education had no choice but to suspend the education plan of these four provinces, and next year only planned to forcibly recruit teenagers aged 13~16 into schools. As for the younger ones, wait a year or two for the time being, and educate the part that is urgently needed.

…… Since the beginning of the year, there has been a lot of turmoil in Huguang.

The most important thing was the landlords' rebellion, which was suppressed by the Huguang armed police force for months after month, and 20,000 people were reinforced from Shanxi and Shaanxi.

In one Huguang area, 50,000 armed police forces were assembled.

Almost every county has a tricky existence, not all landlords riot, but every county there are always landlords who refuse to cooperate.

For example, refusal to measure acres of land and refuse to register household registration.

These landlords were able to revolt because they still had a popular base, which was based on the early clans.

The clan has a long history in the Ming Dynasty, although most of the real great families have died out in the war, but the clan is still spreading.

These clans formed many villages, and the people in these villages generally had the same surname, and one or more landlords existed among these people with the same surname.

These landlords have a high appeal among the clans, and although they collect land rent, these landlords generally do not collect too much, after all, they are of the same clan.

Therefore, these clans have a popular base, so it is often these landlords with clan backgrounds who riot, and under their instigation, violently resist the government's household registration and land survey.

The result was naturally much the same, these landlords were approached by the armed police one by one, and most of them saw that the army was pressing, and even the artillery was ready, so they hurriedly bowed their heads and gave in. A small part of them actually had a taste of unyielding, and scolded Zhao Yan for being a traitor, so they were attacked by the armed police and then arrested...... Detention, fines.

The penalties faced by those who are taken away are not too severe, and are mainly warnings.

Most of the landlords in Huguang were somewhat restrained, and after returning home, they obediently registered the people in the clan according to the instructions of the government, and also measured the land.

The reason why the landlords of Huguang have converged is also related to the relatively large momentum of land reform and return.

Among the four provinces, Sichuan and Huguang are the most vast, and southern Sichuan and western Hunan are the main areas for land reform and reversion.

It has also been a place of frequent conflict since the beginning of the twelfth year, a large number of Tusi have been banned by force by the Shandong political axe, and a large number of armed police forces have been transferred to Huguang, so that the landlords of Huguang realize that this is not the time for them to make trouble.

In contrast, the situation in Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Henan is much better, first of all, there are no deep-rooted landlord forces in Shaanxi.

In the nearly ten years of thieves' rebellion, more than seventy percent of Shaanxi's rich households were broken, and other rich households ran away and fled.

Since the year before last, the situation in Shaanxi has been intervened by the Shandong political axe, so it has slowly stabilized, and the landlord power has begun to recover, but it is not as entrenched as before, and the popularity of the Shandong political axe in Shaanxi is also very high, after all, the Shandong political axe has vigorously maintained the law and order in Shaanxi, and at the same time, it has also continuously transported grain into Shaanxi for disaster relief, and the people of Shaanxi have supported this reform of the law.

On the Sichuan side, there are many vassal kings and county kings, and the people of these vassal kings and county kings are small, and they are caught and solved by the thunderous momentum of Shandong's political axe, and they can't make any tricks.

The landlords of Henan, on the other hand, had a better understanding of Shandong's political axe, which was adjacent to Shandong and was one of the most frequent provinces in terms of trade.

The Shandong army fought thieves in Henan, and Zhao Yan provided disaster relief in Henan every year. The landlords of Henan all understood the consequences of the rebellion, and the changes guided by Zhao Yan were unstoppable.

Not for anything else, but because of the people's aspirations.

The main content of this reform is the taxation and exemption of taxes, which are levied on landlords and exempted from taxes on homesteaders.

The same is true in the Huguang area, Zhao Yan's people's hearts in the Huguang area are not weak, and Zhao Yan has taken the lead in disaster relief over the years, and this change is also beneficial to the people, and the people of Huguang are welcome.

The landlord of Huguang made trouble for several months, and he had to die when he saw such a situation.

Starting next year, neither landlords nor yeoman farmers in the four provinces will have to pay taxes, but land prices have begun to fall.

The core of this reform is regulation and control, a major regulation and control of land annexation.

If you keep the land in your hands and wait for the bill to be implemented next year, you will cry when there is a lot of land, and if you delay it until next year and then sell it, the price will definitely be lower.

Shaanxi, Huguang, Sichuan, and Henan provinces are all exempt from tax this year, and they do not even have to pay miscellaneous taxes, and the scale of tax exemption has expanded again.

This is the best year for the poor people in the four provinces.

Under the vigorous propaganda of the government, more and more people support the reform of the law. It even evolved into fanatical support, because after the reform, the agricultural tax borne by yeoman farmers was extremely low.

Although it is said that it is exempt from tax under 10 acres, even if it is tens of acres of land, the agricultural tax is very low, and the government also guarantees tax exemption in disaster years.

The second change is the regulation of land annexation, the price of land has become low, and homesteaders can also take the opportunity to buy some land.

Money is not a problem, just go to work on the construction site, husband and wife can earn three silver dollars a month, and now the land price is about to fall below three silver dollars.

The drop in land prices continues, and it seems that it has fallen into a kind of panic.

Some landlords have the means to transfer their land to others on the surface, but in fact it belongs to them. However, the government was obviously prepared for a long time, and did not recognize the role of the white deed at all, and the transfer of land under official justice was self-defeating, giving away the land for nothing, and once others cheated, then it was useless to report to the official, and the government would not accept such a case at all.

This kind of method of pretending to others will not work at all, unless it is a local tyrant, which can be temporarily maintained by means of threats and other means, but the interest of the government in fighting the local tyrant is very high, and the government has soldiers in its hands, and is not afraid of the local tyrant at all.

Whoever dares to mess around will be destroyed directly.

It is very common for officials to visit the localities, and it is even more common for there are nearly 600 intelligence officers in each province, and these intelligence officers usually conduct different investigations, some of them are latent, and some of them are constantly investigating.

Wherever there are local tyrants, these intelligence officers can easily investigate them, so as to send the information to the local government, and at the same time report a copy to Zhaojiabao. When the officials of Zhaojiabao received the report, they would send someone down to verify, and the local government would also carry out the appropriate conduct before, and if there were indeed local tyrants tyrannizing the township, they would be directly defeated.

There are not many ways to escape this regulation, but it is not absolutely that there are no fish that have slipped through the net, but the purpose of regulation and control is to eliminate a phenomenon.

The bill has not yet been officially implemented, and the landlords are already selling off their land.

An increasing number of agricultural companies are being established in Shandong, all equipped with the latest agricultural breeding technology and farm development models in Shandong.

With the decline of the population in the inland areas through migration, the inland areas have also become ready for agricultural production by means of farm farming.

These agricultural companies have obtained breeding licenses, and the maximum purchase of land can reach 2,000 mu.

The main direction of development of these agricultural companies is the overseas colonies, where there is a lot of land, and the upper limit is also very wide, different in different regions, the maximum can reach 8,000 acres.

But it is also a good development area in the inland area, first of all, in the local area, farm products do not need to go through long-distance transportation, so the cost is not much more than overseas.

These agricultural companies began to invest in land in inland provinces, and at the same time, some individuals from Shandong also went to the inland areas to invest.

They belong to a lower level of self-employed people, and the upper limit of land purchase is 500 acres.

Whether it is a company or a self-employed person, it must be produced according to the model of the farm, the core is breeding, and more meat, eggs and milk are produced.

In addition to breeding accidents, it is also possible to grow cash crops.

If you want to change this model, you must apply, and the above will send someone down to inspect and feel that the farmer's plan is feasible before making changes.

The reason for this is to gradually put an end to intensive farming, increase the value of personal output in agriculture, and avoid poverty.

What makes the people of the four provinces even more happy is that the prefectures and counties have begun to build schools, and next year children between the ages of 13 and 16 will have to attend school.

The common people were naturally happy that their children could go to school, and the reverence for scholars in this era was high, of course, largely because scholars could become the upper class.

The rise and fall of the landlord class was dominated by the imperial examination. Once a child of a family is promoted, then he can be exempted from taxes, become a new landlord, or maintain the status of a landlord, and if no one is promoted, it will gradually decay.

It is naturally a good thing to be able to study, few parents will prevent their sons from going to school at home, but there are many who block their daughters from going to school.

It was a patriarchal era, and some 16-year-olds were already married.

For these married girls, it is not officially mandatory to enroll in school, but if you want to enroll, you can, and it is still a separate class for men and women.

But most people are still willing to let their daughters go to school, first of all, they don't need to spend money, and they can also get pocket money, and the school has all the food.

After he came out of school, he was paid very well, and although it was impossible to become a landlord like before, he couldn't run away with an iron rice bowl of three silver dollars a month. The people are happy that more and more schools will be built in the future, and children will be able to enter school by the age of six, or even lower.

Send your children to school, and your family doesn't have to worry about not being able to raise them, basically the official raises them for them.

…… In the first half of the twelfth year, the number of Japanese slaves in the Ming Dynasty has increased to more than 3 million, of which 2 million are fighting on the construction site of infrastructure construction, sweating under the fierce voice.

The Japanese mainly concentrated on the construction of railway lines, while the inland areas had enough labor force to do not need the Japanese to add bricks.

Shenxi Railway, Beijing-Wheel Railway, the two strategic railways in half a year of hard work, has been laid one-fifth, the speed of construction with the preparation of the ready, has been more and more open, the end of the year can be laid three-fifths of the road section, is expected to open to traffic in the first half of next year.

The Beijing-Hankou Railway, the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway, and the Yuelan Railway have decided to use private capital to build them, and construction began at the beginning of the year, and the funds were first paid by the government.

After the opening of the stock exchange in Zhaojiapu, the fundraising of the two railways has also been completed. The rate of return of these three railways is relatively high, and although the amount of return is specified, it is determined by percentages, and the enthusiasm of private capital is still very high.

The construction of these three railways progressed a little faster, except for the construction of the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway, which was slightly more complicated, and most of the sections were plains.

In anticipation of everyone, after nearly two months of exploration and operation, Zhao Yan announced that the Shandong railway network officially began operation in July.

There are numerous benefits to the operation of the Shandong railway network, and after two months of experimentation, the train has proven to be both useful and convenient.

The railway network operated in July includes not only the main railway lines and branch lines of various prefectures and counties in Shandong, but also the Zhaotai Railway connecting Shanxi.

At the same time, the Beijing-Pu Railway will be operational in mid-July. At the end of August, the Beijing-Shenyang railway can also be operated, the North Korean Bushen-Shenyang railway has also entered operation, and the five branch railways in Liaodong can enter the operation stage in the second half of the year.

The railways, which were planned for construction last year, could be completed by the end of the year.

At that time, Shaanxi's coal can be supplied to Shandong, and Liaodong's grain, timber and other resources can also be quickly supplied to Shandong and Jiangnan.

On the first day of the official opening of the train, a total of five trains came to Shandong from Shanxi, carrying nearly 3,000 tons of coal and 2,000 tons of steel, and Shandong transported a lot of cement, as well as various goods and grains to Shanxi.

The lengthened train, with a total traction weight of more than 1,300 tons, cannot be pulled no matter how heavy it is, and there is a huge gap with the trains of later generations.

But such a load is very considerable, if you use a horse-drawn carriage, it will cost at least five thousand taels of carriages, and the speed is not so fast at all.

Second, the train from Shanxi to Shandong reached seven times, and the coal hoarded at the railway station was continuously transported to Shandong.

Since it is a two-way rail, there is basically no danger of crashing, only the danger of rear-end collision. However, in these years, the speed of the train was slow, and the telegraph was equipped, so rear-end collision was generally impossible, and once it happened, it would be a major management loophole.

The price of coal in Shandong suddenly fell by 50%, not only the price of coal has fallen, but also the coal is sufficient, which has injected fresh vitality into industrial production.

Costs have been reduced and coal supplies have been plentiful.

Since the railway trunk line has been formed in Shandong, all states and counties have laid railways, and after the coal is transported to Shandong, it can be transported to any state and county at will.

The goods from various states and counties in Shandong can also be transported to Shanxi. If the Beijing-Pudong Railway is opened, then Shandong's goods can be transported to the south quickly.

At this time, the freight of Shandong and Shanxi, after using two-way rails, hundreds of trains can be on the road a day, if the train stops due to any failure on the way, someone will get off the train to the back and send a signal to intercept the train coming behind. The nearest telegraph station was also notified, and the telegraph station contacted each station to stop the train at each station.

At the same time, the operation of the railway network has made it easy for salt from Bohai Bay to be transported to the port, eliminating the need for horse-drawn carriages.

The horse-drawn carriages from Shanxi and Handan to Shandong are basically no longer used, and the horse-drawn carriages for transporting salt in Bohai Bay are no longer needed, and they have been transferred by the Ministry of Commerce to transport building materials. Construction sites everywhere require a lot of building materials, and many of them need to be transported from Shandong.

Except for the railway from Shandong to Shanxi, which is a two-way track, the other railways are one-way tracks.

The main reason is that there is coal in Shanxi, and the demand for coal in Shandong will become more and more huge in the future, and not only the demand for coal in Shandong.

This demand will continue to expand, so it is built in both directions. As for other railways, there is no need to build a two-way track at present, and it will be slowly improved later.

The transport capacity of the one-way railway is also not bad, as long as it is tightly managed, the possibility of a collision is very small. All train crashes and rear-end collisions are caused by negligence in management.

Shandong merchants quickly adapted to the novelty of railways and trains, and all those who could be transported by rail were transported by rail, and the freight was quite cheap and faster than horse-drawn carriages and water transportation.

Against the backdrop of a large amount of capital investment in infrastructure construction, the development of industrial tarpaulins, and the expansion of the planting area of cash crops, the grain price in July of this year appears to be 20% higher than last year.

This situation of rising food prices made Zhao Yan very alarmed.

The depreciation of precious metals is one thing, but whether the grain production is insufficient is another aspect, and there may be both, so Zhao Yan ordered a thorough investigation of grain reserves in various places.

The grain reserves are very sufficient, and the Jimin Grain Bank of the Ministry of Commerce is the main reserve institution, and the Jimin Grain Bank has thousands of branches, each of which has sufficient grain reserves.

These reserves of grain are mainly dried sweet potato flour, which is then exchanged for rice and wheat of the same weight with dried sweet potato flour and silver.

There are 30 million stone of grain in the reserves of various places, of which the reported data is 5 million stone of wheat, 10 million stone of rice, and 15 million stone of dried sweet potato flour.

Grain reserves are a very important link, and once we encounter a disaster year, we must have enough reserves, and we must have enough reserves to survive.

At the same time, Zhao Yan asked the following to investigate the reasons for the rise in food prices.

As a result, I was shocked when I checked it, and a large group of merchants in Jiangnan were hoarding grain.

(To be continued)