One afternoon, Chen Yuan followed Geng Cairuo to visit some orphans. In ancient times, unlike now, when the old had something to rely on and the young to support, the official tax revenue was heavy, natural disasters were common, torrential rains and floods, several months of drought, locusts, and the Yellow River bursting its banks, all of which were common, leaving countless people homeless, and even starving to death or disease.

Even on the streets of Nanjing, you can see people begging with broken bowls not far away, people walking on the street, most of them have clean clothes, but almost all of them have patches, and only some powerful gentlemen can wear complete clothes. In the corners, you can even see people dying of illness and starvation, and the government is cleaning up, which is the reality of ancient society.

Because of the times, there are almost no poor people in today's costume dramas.

Seeing this, he felt very uncomfortable, and he panicked with a sullen breath. Those children, skinny, either have their parents dead or their parents are incapable of raising them.

gave them a little food, and there was a robbery, but it was Geng Cairuo's rebuke that allowed them to restore order.

Poor people, there is also something hateful. Maybe survival at this time is like this, if you don't rob, you can't survive.

This is not the society he wants.

But he is alone, he is not a savior, he can only do his best.

He rarely asked about his second wife, it turned out that over the years, she and some descendants of Jing Yan took in some orphans and taught them martial arts.

"In the future, take out some of my money and build a school for them, they are still children and need to learn."

"Xianggong, but you are not rich."

"We're not rich, eat less good, it's nothing, these children, they need it too much, can you help one of them." I will discuss with Mingyan at that time to reduce unnecessary expenses a little. ”

Chen Yuan sighed, in this backward era, he can only throttle and cannot open source. In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, he was really poor, he still remembered a story, Zhu Yuanzhang went to find a minister Luo Furen, but when he arrived at his house, he couldn't see anyone, only saw a broken tile house, a working stucco painter, so he asked where the stucco Luo Furen was, and the stucco quickly knelt down and said that he was. Zhu Yuanzhang saw that it was really the minister Luo Furen he was looking for, and he was very embarrassed.

Shenhao, those who don't exist, those who can't move hundreds of thousands or millions of silver taels, don't exist at all. The monthly income of a first-class official in the Ming Dynasty was only equivalent to more than 11,000 yuan in modern times.

According to reliable information, the total annual fiscal income of the Ming Dynasty reached about 21 million taels of silver at its peak, and this income was converted into RMB (compared with the purchasing power of that period and the present), and one tael of silver was converted into 818 yuan, so the total financial income of the Ming Dynasty in a year was converted into purchasing power. It is 17.178 billion yuan, this amount is not the total financial income of a developed district and county if it is calculated now, from this point of view, the productivity of ancient times is indeed very low, you must know that during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the population has exceeded 130 million people, such a population, the financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty is so small, although this has a lot to do with the tax system of the Ming Dynasty, but it also shows that the productivity of the Ming Dynasty is really not good to a certain extent!

Therefore, Chen Yuan knew that he had been deceived before, and he could earn tens of millions of taels of silver at every turn, and a project could cost millions of taels of silver, which was simply impossible.

The suffering of the people cannot be changed all at once, and there is nothing he can do now, so he can only slowly and carefully reform.

Geng Cairuo's eyes were red: "Xianggong, don't blame me for being a loser, I will make my own decision and take in those children who have no home." ”

Chen Yuan stroked her hair: "Fool, what do you say, if I were the kind of person who didn't care about the lives of the people, I wouldn't save you, and you wouldn't look down on me." In addition to teaching martial arts, we also need to run schools, and we must also teach them to learn the means of livelihood, and also learn laws and morals, and cultivate more practical talents with moral and disciplined rules. "This is based on the experience of the society of future generations, some people have gone up culturally, but their quality has not improved, and even people who have been cultivated by the motherland and come to deal with the motherland instead.

Geng Cairuo leaned happily in his arms, and under the sunset, the two of them pulled out a long shadow of happiness under the big tree.

Chen Yuan enjoyed the world of the two while thinking about the future.

Reform!

Reform must come slowly, and we cannot rush to achieve results. In the current situation, in three years, we will reform the taxation and wage systems, strengthen transportation and water conservancy in three years, and "clean up corruption" in three years, and in 10 years, a new power bloc will be formed in the government and the opposition, which will be enough to contend with the old-fashioned forces.

The reform of one person's power cannot be completed, and a system must be formed, just like Shang Ying's change of law, although the law is extremely strict, but a system has been formed, so even if Shang Yang is dead, the law is still there, and the Qin State is still strong, so as to unify the six countries. On the contrary, many of the reforms did not form a system, and in the end, as soon as the person who presided over the reform died, the reform became a scrap order.

Because of the weakness of human nature, it is absolutely not feasible to govern with people's feelings, for example, if a person is at the bottom, he will especially hate corrupt officials, point fingers at various policies, and complain of all kinds of dissatisfaction. But he became a high-ranking official, but instead accepted bribes with peace of mind, became a corrupt official, and the decisions he made were even more absurd. It's like Sun Wukong making trouble in the sky, his courage is commendable, but it will only make trouble in the sky, disrupt order, tamper with the book of life and death, resulting in how many years of immortality, the world is in chaos, robbers are rampant, it is impossible to uphold justice, and there is no ability to establish a new order. It is good to dare to break the order, but without the ability to establish a new order, it will inevitably be exchanged for endless slaughter, and the people at the bottom will be even more miserable.

In ancient times, the change of dynasties was the bloodshed of many people.

Society must be constrained by institutions.

Will the reforms you insist on become a joke?

The sky is burning clouds, very beautiful, Chen Yuan looked blankly for a long time, his eyes gradually brightened, flowers bloom and fall have their own laws, even if history does not have its own existence, what should appear will still show its sprouts, he is not the inventor, but he will experiment with some of the later knowledge, improve the grain varieties that are not available in the Ming Dynasty, introduce advanced technology, and he is only a porter, and discover this existing law in advance.

The expectation of reform may not come to his own ideas, but if he does his best to promote its development in his lifetime, it is tantamount to inserting a new direction on the original development pattern of history, giving Zhu Zhanji those reform strategies, allowing this young emperor to open up a new path, and planting a seed with completely different concepts in the old bureaucratic forces. Until it converges into an unstoppable torrent.

What he was worried about was knowing that Zhu Zhanji only had ten years to live, and the later Zhu Qizhen had not yet been born, so he didn't know what the future would be, and whether his hard work would be in vain.

He suddenly smiled again, the times are progressive, no matter how good the teaching is, there will always be a loser, not the second generation, or the third generation, the fourth generation, but no more than three generations of wealth, it is very philosophical. But if you don't work hard if you are worried that your children and grandchildren will lose, that's also a fallacy.

To realize the ambition in his chest, Chen Yuan's personal grievances and gains and losses have been left behind, and he knows that with the strength of one person, making enemies in the world cannot accomplish this goal at all. It is necessary to contact all possible forces to participate, so he even knows that Li Qi wants to harm himself, and he has to save him at all costs.

After all, it was dark, and Chen Yuan and the two went home.

When he got home, he saw Dong Mingyan sitting in the hall, holding his chin with his hands, his eyes drooping, and he looked cute and cute.

It's like a peony.

Chen Yuan reached out to stroke her hair, Dong Mingyan opened her eyes in shock, and stood up reflexively.

"Ah, Xianggong, you are back."

"Madame, you have worked hard."

Dong Mingyan squeezed her hand and said warmly: "Xianggong, Sister Geng, you are coming back late, my mother and they are all hungry, eat first, you are all hungry, I will go to the hot dish immediately." ”

"Let Chunhua do it."

"Let's go, Xiao Nizi has grown up, and it's not good to always treat people as a girl, besides, what about the little girl who has been bored these days?"

"Ah, what's wrong with her?"

"Sichun." Geng Cairuo said with a smile.

Marquis Chen coughed dryly twice, and hurriedly drank water to cover up.

Dong Mingyan smiled at her father-in-law, noncommittal, went to the kitchen, and brought four plates, three dishes and one soup, one meat and two vegetables after a while.

Suddenly, the wind suddenly rose outside, and after a while, there was a lot of noise and heavy rain.

Of course, Chen Yuan doesn't care about these, the morning glow travels thousands of miles, the sunset doesn't go out, the sky was full of light just now, and it will rain sooner or later, but fortunately they came back in time.

It rained heavily, and the sweltering heat swept away. The rain came and went quickly, although the torrential rain was like a note, but it only stopped for half an hour, and after the clouds and rain stopped, the air was very fresh.

After eating, Chen Yuan went to see Jian Yixuan, talked about the conversation, and prepared to lie down and rest.

Jian Yixuan suddenly said: "Xianggong, what are you going to do with the autumn moon and spring flowers?" ”

Chen Yuan hummed and chirped: "Madam, you know, they all say that the girls in my family have a big temper, and I can't say anything about them, seeing that they are old, they will be twenty years old after the New Year, sad!" ”

The third wife nodded at Xianggong's head: "You, I don't know how many good things you did in your previous life, let our sisters revolve around you." ”

"Hehe, madam, for you, in my previous life, I begged in front of the Buddha for five hundred years."

"I've begged for five hundred years, I've begged for a beautiful woman, a pervert."

Chen Yuan grinned and hugged his wife.

"Tap, don't hold the kid down."

Marquis Chen put his face on his wife's stomach and listened: "Let me listen to what my son is doing?" ”

"Phew, I haven't been born yet, how do you know it's a man and a woman."

"Sons and daughters are the same."

Jian Yixuan knew that Xianggong was telling the truth, he had never discriminated against anyone, there was no patriarchy, no arrogance, and he was open-minded, which was the reason why he followed him with all his heart.

"Xianggong, I have discussed it with my mother, next month, you can bring Chunhua and Qiuyue into the door."

"What?" Chen Yuan's eyes widened, and his mouth opened wide enough to stuff an egg. My wife let herself take a concubine, I heard you right.

"Chunhua is relying on it and not leaving, Qiu Yue and I are sisters, and I am reluctant to let her leave, so I have to pay you cheap."

"It's not good-" Chen Yuan was obscene in his heart, but he hesitated on the surface. Men, obscenity can only be in the heart, concubines, this is only in ancient times, the evil old society, ouch, why am I so happy. It's over, it's over, I've been corrupted by the ancients, and Marquis Chen is very "sad".

Jian Yixuan sneered and said angrily: "It's weird, it's cheap for you!" ”