Chapter 525 The problems of business are solved by commercial means

Because of the improvement of the imperial examination, the township examination in Chongzhen's fifteenth year and the general examination that was supposed to be held in February this year were postponed by Zhu Youzhen in the name of improvement. The knowledge of agriculture and arithmetic has been added to the township examination, and the provisions are as follows, five new questions of agriculture have been added, and only those who answer three questions correctly can be selected. Two new arithmetic questions have been added, and only those who answer one question correctly can be selected. The improvement of the examination has been further improved, with the addition of 10 questions in agriculture, which must be answered correctly in 6 questions, 5 new questions in arithmetic, and 3 questions in order to pass the test. The content of the other imperial examinations remains unchanged, and the eight shares still account for the majority. The test questions for the township examination were drawn up by the provinces themselves, and the test questions for the general examination were naturally personally taken by Zhu Youzhen.

The newly added content, the agricultural topics are from the "Four Seasons Compendium", "Summary of Nongsang Clothing and Food", "Jingshi Civil Records", "Qi Min Yaoshu", "Chen Yang Agricultural Book", and the topics of arithmetic are from the newly compiled book "Arithmetic". Considering that students in the world may not be able to find these books, the imperial court specially sent 5,000 copies to each province. It can be said that the imperial court thought very thoughtfully, and the new books began to be shipped to the provinces at the beginning of the year, considering that the township examination was in the autumn, and the provinces were required to choose only one agricultural book as the source of the question, which caused the phenomenon of unfairness due to lack of time. That is to say, the book has been issued, and the provinces have to tell the Xiucai who is taking the exam, which one do you have to read specifically, and you will test the content of this this year, and you will not have such good luck in the next subject.

The addition of agriculture and arithmetic to the imperial examination did not actually cause much backlash. Many people who read agriculture may not be able to do it, but arithmetic is not too bad. Why? Not everyone can pass the examination, many people have no hope of the imperial examination, and they are forced by life, so they often have to do a job as an account clerk or a master.

Ten miles of long pavilion, farewell to this is the end. The team that saw Chen Xie off was miserable, and the Wenchen gave him a face. There were only three of them. Lu Xiangsheng, Yang Tinglin, Shi Kefa. It was very surprising that Shi Kefa, a famous diehard, actually came to see off Chen Xie. What is certain is that it is definitely not because Chen Xie recommended him, this guy is not that kind of person. It can only be said that he was moved by some of Chen Xie's initiatives. The only army that really saved the people from fire and water was the Dengzhou battalion. People who can build such an army will always be respected by people like Shi Kefa.

"Alright, don't send it away, let's stop here." Chen Xie did a bowl of rescue, waved his hand and turned over on the horse, catching up with the team.

The three people who stayed in place had different expressions. Lu Xiangsheng had a very complicated expression on Chen Xie. He can't talk about any confidant, he can't talk about bad feelings, he can't even talk about liking. Lu Xiangsheng, whose traditional thinking is deeply rooted in the bone marrow, is good to be able to appear in the team to see him off. Yang Tinglin was a little regretful, he hoped that Chen Xie could stay in Jingshi, so that many things would be much easier to do. Shi Kefa's expression was expressionless, as if he was bidding farewell to the air.

"Chen Sihua, behave perversely. It is inevitably suspected of deviance. Lu Xiangsheng sighed and gave such a sentence.

Yang Tinglin waved at Chen Xie's back. said lightly: "As long as he doesn't be Cao Mengde, he is Yang's best friend and confidant." ”

Shi Kefa didn't speak, and turned around silently to leave, but was stopped by Yang Tinglin: "Shi Xianzhi, why don't you speak?" ”

Shi Kefa stood still, and said without replying: "You can name two people who are ordinary." Isn't it worthy of the awe of my generation? When the two were stunned, Shi Kefa said again: "My generation of scholars is a scholar, isn't it the great rule of the world?" If the Ming Dynasty realizes the great rule of the world in the hands of Chen Sihua, why not? Moral articles are important, but can they be more important than the people's food? Chen Sihua only needs to make the people of the world have enough food and clothing. Isn't he a living saint? ”

These words brought a huge impact to these two, and Yang Tinglin almost exclaimed: "Shi Xianzhi, don't speak wildly." ”

Shi Kefa turned around and said with a faint smile: "You can go to Henan to have a look, I don't count." When it came to Henan, both of them were stunned, and their minds began to turn over the recent twists and turns in Henan, and the most content last year was the impeachment of Dengzhou Camp by local officials. It is said that the Dengzhou camp is clamoring for the grass people to oppose the government and the like. This can't be connected to Shi Kefa's words.

Fortunately, Shi Kefa continued: "When hundreds of thousands of rogues besieged Kaifeng, where were those officials who impeached the Dengzhou battalion? When Luoyang fell, where were those officials? Where were the thieves when they were rampant in Henan? After Chen Gebu pacified the chaos in Henan, they were alive and kicking, and one could speak and write more than the other. I don't dare to say anything else, the chaos in Henan, the officials and gentry who enjoy privileges, have all made a contribution. ”

After saying this, Shi Kefa strode away without the slightest intention of stopping. The two of them stood in place, feeling that things were very mysterious, who is Shi Kefa? At the beginning, when he was in the Jiangnan Imperial History, he was the pioneer of impeaching Chen Xie. How could he be thrown home by His Majesty, and then he came out to serve and changed someone? In fact, these two can guess the reason, but they always feel that this repetition is too big. What did the Dengzhou camp do in Henan?

Chen Xie, who went south, did not take the sea route this time, and when he arrived in Tongzhou, he got on the boat on the canal and swayed all the way south. Along the way, those officials who should have been full of hatred for Chen Xie actually came to greet them one by one. For this phenomenon, Chen Xie naturally did not go ashore alive or dead. An official came to greet him, stood at the bow of the ship and said a few words, and if the gift he brought was a worthless souvenir, then accept it, and please take the rest back. This rule soon spread along the canal.

The road was very smooth, and the five hundred cavalry escorted the way along the official road along the side of the canal, and there was really no guy who didn't open his eyes. The boat ride was boring, so Chen Xie went ashore and rode a horse for a lap. Traveling in the spring should have been a pleasant thing, but unfortunately Chen Xie's good mood soon disappeared. The reason is that the water level of the canal is very low, and it is barely possible to run boats, and some sections have to be pulled by slender men, and the bottom of the boats is scraped with silt.

In the spring of the sixteenth year, the drought in the northern part of Daming still showed no signs of easing, and the grain price in Beijing was about to rise. This is not a trivial matter, as soon as he arrived in Tianjin, Chen Xie got off the ship and went ashore, took a hundred cavalry, and went to the dock of Tianjin.

There are a few sails in the Baihe, and Chen Xie was relieved when he saw this scene, this kind of hard-sailed five-hundred-material cargo ship is not available anywhere else except Dengzhou. Tell a soldier to go and see what the grain is on the dock. The soldiers dressed in the military uniforms of the Dengzhou battalion quickly brought back the answer to Chen Xie, which was all rice from Nanyang. These grains are all sent to Dengzhou by ghosts, and then directly exchanged for ships on the dock and transported to Beizhili or Liaodong for sale. There were also some grain ships that came from Goryeo and Dongyeong.

It is said that in the two places of Dongying and North Korea, their own people can't mix a full stomach, and there is still grain to be sold by Daming. It can be seen that businessmen are a group of people. With these merchants, they are not afraid that the price of grain in Jingshi is too high, and the only thing that needs to be vigilant is monopoly. Thinking of this, Chen Xie turned around and returned to the canal wharf, and wrote a letter to Zhu Youzhen and asked him to send it back to Beijing.

What nonsense is competing with the people for profit, now Zhu Youzhen does not believe it. Chen Xie directly told Zhu Youzhen that the drought situation in Beizhili was strict, the water level of the canal was low, and the lack of food was inevitable. The price of grain has risen by 10% a year ago, and it has risen by 10% in the first month. In order to avoid the emergence of this phenomenon, Zhu Youzhen directly sent Jinyiwei and Dongchang's men to Tianjin in the name of the royal family to buy these grains and bring them to Beijing to lower grain prices. And it has been repeatedly emphasized that commercial problems should be solved by commercial means. Didn't the grain merchants in Beijing hoard grain and prepare to sell it at a high price? Then use a huge amount of food to break their confidence, and no one will do anything unprofitable.

For a city like Jingshi, the panic caused by food prices is a very serious thing. When Zhu Youzhen received Chen Xie's letter, he immediately attracted attention. The normal procedure must be to bring all the cabinet ministers to discuss, but after reading Chen Xie's letter, Zhu Youzhen sneered. Well, teach those profiteers a lesson.

On February 2, the day Chen Xie arrived in Jinan, a convoy under the banner of Dongchang drove into Beijing. There were 200 four-wheeled carriages, and the carriages were tightly covered with canvas, and no one knew what they were transporting. Wu Zhi, the eunuch of Dongchang, stood at the gate, looking at the carriage parked at the door, revealing an eerie evil smile. This deal, that is, he and Wang Chengen knew that Cao Huachun was already old and was about to retire, and Wu Zhi was eyeing the position of the celebrant supervisor. Since this is the case, then we have to do a good job of the things that the Lord Banzai explained, and do it beautifully.

Truckloads of grain were transported overnight to the newly opened shops in the city. It's so easy to do some royal business in Dongchang and get some shops. After planning this matter for a while, as Chen Xie expected, on the first day of the second month, the price of grain in Jingshi began to rise, and the amount of price increase had reached twice that of the previous year. For a bucket of rice, you dare to buy 400 wen, and a bucket of wheat for 500 wen. It's really black heart, black intestines, and black asshole!

After the price increase, it really caused panic, and some citizens who didn't have much savings were scared when they saw this situation, and they got up early and lined up at the door of the grain store. The gates of the city were not opened, and it was still dark.

In the early morning of the third day of the second lunar month, an atmosphere of grief and indignation began in line to buy food. On this day, Shi Kefa also got up early in the morning, and he also got up with the price of food in Jingshi, and he also put it on the notebook, but His Majesty didn't reply to it.

An old man led a donkey, and when Shi Kefa saw the long queue at the door of the grain store on the way to the court, he couldn't help frowning, and made up his mind to pull the emperor to explain this matter. (To be continued......)