"Bell...... Clang...... Bell ......"

"Bang Bang Bang

On the first day of the first month of March, this was supposed to be the day when silk workers sacrificed their ancestors and rejuvenated silkworms, but due to the opening of the official school in Beizhili, this day became a day worth celebrating.

The morning bell has just sounded, and in the middle of the town of Beizhili, every household has hung firecrackers one after another, and celebrated for their children in the sound of "crackling" firecrackers.

"Mother! I'm hungry ......."

A seven or eight-year-old child dragged a scroll-type bookcase, stood at the door of his yard, and looked aggrieved into the courtyard.

When a woman heard this, she hurriedly walked out of the yard, shoved the white cloth in her hand into the child's chest, and urged eagerly:

"Eat on the way, don't be late today!"

"Oh......" The little kid sniffed, then pulled the tiger head hat on his head, and dragged the empty bookcase towards the official school in Xuanbeifang in Nancheng.

Along the way, there are many children dragging bookcases, which are all bookcases sold by the imperial store, and in general, they are better than the bookcases they carry.

The rollers of the bookcases rattle on the green bricks of Xixie Street in Xuanbeifang, and the streets are full of children dragging bookcases, but you can also see some fourteen or fifteen-year-old teenagers.

Some bored people opened the door and leaned against the door, looking at the "mighty" army of schoolers, while others opened the windows on the second floor and looked at them on the windowsill.

In short, the army of students attracts all the eyes of all the places they pass.

Whether the heirs are over fifteen years old or have no heirs, they are very concerned about how long this official school of the imperial court can be run, and whether it will gradually become impossible to run it like in the Wanli period.

It's just that their worries are unnecessary, because the imperial court has made great efforts to promote official learning.

The population of the capital has been controlled at about 800,000 since the Hongzhi period in the Ming Dynasty, and by the Wanli period, the population of the inner and outer cities soared to 850,000.

Counting the population of the four bazaars outside the city, the total is close to one million.

However, with the construction of the East and West Castles and the relocation of the families of the officers of the local guard posts, the population of the capital soared to 1.2 million.

After that, the governor's office of the five armies was renovated, and the six armies fought separately, and many generals were promoted and transferred to the capital, so they also brought their families here.

At present, the population of the entire capital has reached 1.34 million, while the population of the market towns outside the city is still 220,000.

There are more than 7.82 million people in Beizhili, and the population inside and outside the capital alone accounts for one-fifth of Beizhili.

Of this 1.56 million people, almost only 150,000 are engaged in agriculture, and the rest are short-term laborers, long-term laborers, or slaves of various provinces.

Such a population not only makes it difficult for the capital to ensure food security, but also brings many governance problems.

For example, at present, there are nearly 980,000 students in the entire Beizhili, and the capital alone accounts for a quarter of the number of students.

There are more than 1,600 official schools in Beizhili, and inside and outside the capital, there are 386 official schools in just one city, 90 in the south city alone, and 8 in Xuanbeifang.

Each government school covers an area of more than 60 acres, and the school building can accommodate no more than 1,000 people.

The tiger fur hat child and many students who are also the first official school in Xuanbeifang rushed towards the official school, but unlike other students, the father of the tiger fur hat child is not an ordinary person, but the chief flag officer of the Northern Army Governor's Mansion who retired from injury and illness.

After retiring, he was arranged by the Governor's Office of the Five Armies to serve as the chief flag officer of the Terracotta Division in the capital, with more than 90 people under his command.

Since today is the beginning of school, and the capital is at the foot of the Son of Heaven, everyone in the capital soldiers and horses went to work half an hour early and maintained order in the city early.

After walking a few steps, the tiger fur hat child saw the pillar of his house that went out early, and couldn't help but drag the bookcase and ran to the other party:

"Daddy—"

Seeing his father in cloth armor, the little kid's bookbox didn't care, and he let go of his hand and threw himself directly on the man's lap.

"I'm still grinding here, hurry up and let Lao Tzu enter the official school!"

Compared with the happy appearance of the little boy, the chief flag officer rubbed the little boy's head fiercely, laughed and scolded the little boy, and told him not to be late and hurry up to enter the official school.

"Oh ......" The little kid was scolded early in the morning, and he was also aggrieved in his heart, and his face was also aggrieved.

With his head down and dragging the suitcase, he didn't go far before he hit a man in a round-necked robe.

"Uh-huh......"

Holding his head, it didn't hurt much, but the little kid just felt pain, because he thought it would hurt if he hit something......

"Little protégé, if you cry out for pain again, you'll really be late......"

Zhu Youzhen, who was wearing a round-necked robe, squatted down, helped the little kid put on a tiger head hat, and then helped him stand up.

However, this kid was very bold, and after getting up, not only was he not afraid of the bunch of people who followed Zhu Youzhen, but with aggrieved eyes, he "glared" at him viciously.

Grievance and glaring originally meant two things, but the kid actually showed it vividly, which made Zhu Youzhen smile.

"This is not considered compensation for you, buy a caramel to eat after class, I apologize to you."

Zhu Youzhen took out a copper coin and laughed at the tiger hat child, but the tiger hat child immediately scolded after looking at the copper coin in Zhu Youzhen's hand:

"You're Chaoba's (fool)!"

After scolding, he dragged the bookcase and trotted into the official school, while Zhu Youzhen was holding the coin in his hand and crying and laughing.

In his hand was a copper coin Daping coin, and the child probably thought he was cheating, because one could not be worth ten.

As for the reason why Zhu Youzhen took this big flat coin, it was also because he had just come from the bank in Xuanbeifang.

The bank was not open, he had only visited it, because the workshop for making the family register and passbooks was still under construction.

According to Li Changgeng's words, it will probably be in June when the factory will be put into production, and then the machine will be distributed to the bank, so that the bank can handle the account book and passbook.

Zhu Youzhen is not in a hurry, because the mint is minting coins every day, and the current new coins are still a little insufficient.

He is more concerned about government education than about banks.

Since Zhu Ciran could not study in the official school, Li Dingguo, who was his companion, naturally could not study in the official school.

This point made Zhu Youzhen slightly regretful.

However, thinking of Zhu Ciran's interest in machinery, Zhu Youzhen felt that this matter was not so bad.

At least under his nose, Zhu Ciran still has to honestly study all kinds of Chinese studies, political science, and war studies.

If he entered the official school, Zhu Youzhen was afraid that this kid would be immersed in physics class, and he would not be able to pull it back.

"Your Highness, there is some news you may need to know......"

Cui Yingyuan stepped forward quickly from behind, and presented a piece of stationery with both hands, seeing this letterhead, Zhu Youzhen didn't have to think about it to know what it was about.

In his case, official education is very important, and in the eyes of others, last night's news is probably the most worthy of everyone's attention.

knew that his choice of concubine would bring an uproar, so Zhu Youzhen hurriedly returned to the capital early in the morning, leaving Zhu Youxiao still in bed in Nanyuan Palace.

Things are not what he expected, there is an endless stream of people who want to climb the dragon and the phoenix, and who want to watch from the wall, countless.

Just on the paper in his hand, there were hundreds of names, all of whom were above the fifth grade.

On paper, most of the nobles are ready to climb the dragon and attach the phoenix, and most of the ministers want to watch the play and stand in line.

The reason for this is naturally because of the unwritten rule of the Ming Dynasty, that is, after the marriage of the crown of the domain, most of them will be signaled to be a vassal.

Although all the officials knew that Zhu Youzhen could not become a vassal, they still wanted to see how the emperor would deal with this matter.

Most people take it as a joke, because everyone knows that Zhu Youxiao's power is all tied to Zhu Youzhen.

However, if Zhu Youzhen really leaves the domain, he leaves today, and tomorrow the hundred officials will celebrate with their crowns.

When Zhu Youzhen got on the ship and went to Qi State, the hundred officials were about to start wooing the generals.

In the governor's mansion of the five armies, except for the king of Qi, only the three families of Qin, Qi and Ma were in the emperor's heart, and the three families were divided into two factions, namely the Western Army and the Southern Army.

The western army and the southern army are far away from the capital, the mountains are high and the road is long, and the northern army, the eastern army, and the Shangzhi army are the descendants of the king of Qi, and as soon as the king of Qi leaves, they are very embarrassed.

Therefore, the hundred officials basically guessed what the emperor would do, which was nothing more than an edict saying that the country was unstable and that the king of Qi was still needed to preside over the overall situation, and then found an excuse.

This excuse can be a natural disaster or a foreign enemy, anyway, it is roughly so.

It is impossible to walk, and it is appropriate to be a turtle, this is the attitude of the current official.

Even though they knew that basic education was for them and the gentry, there was nothing they could do.

Zhu Youzhen was very clear, so he hastily handed the letter back to Cui Yingyuan:

"Check everyone clearly, family background, and have a good handover with Wang An."

"Yes!" Cui Yingyuan hurriedly responded, while Zhu Youzhen glanced at the official school in Xuanbeifang, and walked in as if no one was around.

It is the same as Yanshan Academy, and there are playgrounds, runways, horns, swordsmanship, archery and other officials in the official school, as well as libraries and student dormitories.

The dormitory is a two-story civil engineering building, and all of them have heating facilities such as sewage and fire walls and floor heating.

Xuanbeifang No. 1 Official School has 14 rows of dormitory buildings, and there are several acres of vacant land next to it, and 6 rows of buildings can be built in the future.

Each row of dormitory buildings is divided into two floors, each row of 12 rooms, up and down 24 rooms, each room for four people, 40 square meters of space, the unified standard of the national dynasty.

It's not that the government and the academy have a lot of money, but that there are a lot of things that students need to place.

Personal bows and arrows, blunt swords, polo sticks, musical instruments, and everything like clothing, so personal space can't be too small.

The housing prices in the Ming Dynasty have not been high because Zhu Yuanzhang learned the lessons of the Song and Yuan dynasties, so they have not been high under the control of the government.

If the government and the academy purchase more than 60 acres of land, it will only cost 5,000 taels of silver.

If you buy a house as an individual, even at the foot of the imperial city, you can see the courtyard of the Forbidden City, the price is only one hundred and twenty taels, and the area is about half an acre.

According to the wages of the capital, even the lowest level of laborers can afford it for ten years without eating or drinking, while some skilled craftsmen only need three years.

This is still at the foot of the Forbidden City, if it is like the three outer cities of the east, west, and south, a two-story small building with two facades, the cost is not more than thirty taels of silver, and the husband can buy it without eating or drinking for three years, while the craftsman only needs less than a year.

For students, ten square meters per capita is indeed not large.

If the dormitory is like this, the classroom will naturally not be very small.

All the classrooms in the government school are built according to the character "Hui", and the open space in the middle is about one acre, which is a place to relax.

The classrooms have only one floor, using brick and wood structure, each room can accommodate 30 students, and the area is 60 square meters, which is relatively wide.

Before the start of the official school, Zhu Youzhen personally tested the sound insulation of some classrooms.

Since the thickness of the walls and the glass windows, as well as the blackboards are all built, the sound insulation is not bad.

For example, right now, when the students introduced themselves individually on the podium, Zhu Youzhen on the wooden corridor basically couldn't hear the voices in the classroom.

Of course, if the whole classroom reads aloud neatly, then you can hear it very clearly.

"How many of the nobles, the children of the scholars, are enrolled?"

While walking slowly in the corridor to inspect, Zhu You did not reply to the inquiry.

Faced with the inquiry, Cui Yingyuan replied without hesitation: "There are less than 10,000 people, and most of them are the sons of nobles, and there are probably only ...... Less than two thousand. ”

"Heh......" Hearing this number, Zhu Youzhen sneered.

You must know that the number of officials in Beizhili is as high as 40,000, and the 40,000 officials have nearly 10,000 children.

In such a situation, many officials are still reluctant to send their children to government schools, obviously because they feel that the quality of teaching in government schools is not good.

It's noble, they have been beaten a lot, and their memory has increased.

But as long as they listened to Zhu Youzhen's words in the second year of the Apocalypse, they would not be so embarrassed now, and they would not be up or down.

Now it seems that after discovering that the second generation has been abolished, many nobles have put their minds on the third generation of children.

The children who entered the school are basically three generations of children.

It is not surprising that if the three generations of children do not emerge, then the large number of "Bofu" will at most last for decades before falling into class.

Even the "Hou Mansion" and the "Gong Mansion" will not last long, and after a hundred years, I am afraid that there are only a few nobles, and most of them are scattered people who have led the loose rank and have already gone to the title.

"Didn't the nobles in the south send their children north?" Zhu Youzhen asked, and Cui Yingyuan's words did not disappoint him:

"Yes, among the seven thousand noble children, nearly four thousand are from the south."

The official school only opened the North Zhili, which made the Xungui of the South Zhili red-eyed, so as early as last year, when the news of Layue was released, they had already arranged their children to go north.

From this point of view, after Zhu Youzhen's repeated kneading in the past ten years, this group of nobles can be regarded as completely obedient to their fate.

Zhu Youzhen never wanted to completely kill the gentry and nobles, what he wanted was very simple, that is, to be obedient and follow the policy of the Ming Dynasty.

As long as they are obedient, Zhu Youzhen will not clean them up.

Just as Zhu Youzhen wanted to buy land from the gentry who did his duty, if the gentry were willing to sell it, Zhu Youzhen was also willing to sell it, and was willing to support them to go overseas such as Levia and Central Asia to become capital.

It's just that his ideas are too advanced, and no gentry are destined to be willing to go the same way with him.

Since he was unwilling to go, Zhu Youzhen had no choice but to drive them away.

The nobles are obedient, and the Ming Dynasty will not be stingy with the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver every year.

The Ming Dynasty can raise the nobles, but the nobles always have to show some value, even if they can steadily bring hundreds of grassroots officers to the Ming Dynasty every year, this value is enough to satisfy the imperial court.

These 7,000 noble children, but if one percent of them can become talents, it is also a good thing for the Ming Dynasty.

On the other hand, if they have been resting on their laurels, then when the rolling students participate in the imperial examination and drown them, Zhu Youzhen will not have a trace of pity.

"Tell the government department to count the number of students enrolled in Beizhili next year, this rule can be maintained, and the number of students in the next year will be counted in advance according to the household registration every year."

Zhu Youzhen reminded Cui Yingyuan, and at the same time that Cui Yingyuan responded, he looked at the students in the classroom who introduced themselves, and then turned around and left the official school.

He did not return to the Qi Palace, but walked around Xuanbeifang.

Due to the establishment of the Soldiers and Horses Division and the Ministry of Criminal Affairs, on the whole, some of the shortcomings in the capital are being corrected.

These abuses are basically divided into two categories, one is a security problem and the other is a health problem.

Among the public security problems, the largest proportion is none other than the ruffians and hooligans entrenched in the capital.

These ruffians and hooligans either touch porcelain in the outer city every day, or gather people to touch porcelain on the roads outside the capital and extort money.

Zhu Youzhen specially learned that the common people have a special title for these hooligans, called "lamabluff".

The flood of lama bluffs was basically in the orthodox years, after the quality of the Beijing camp declined.

As for why it is related to the Beijing camp, it is because the main force of the hooligan group is basically the military households, craftsmen and guards.

These people relied on their backs to the Beijing camp and ran rampant in Beijing, and on weekdays, in addition to asking the people for daily necessities such as flour and clothing, there were also non-necessities such as wine and sugar.

At the beginning, this group of people also used bitter tactics, saying that their family was buried around the war, and they had no choice but to beg.

Later, after Zhu Qizhen was reinstated, this group of people simply relied on their identities to directly rob them.

Of course, not all the military households in the guards are ruffians and hooligans, they are more part-time engaged in small businesses and small trades, including those who sell noodles, sugar, and steamed cakes.

As for the artisan households in the capital, they also do small business, open a small hotel, etc.

These people are basically a group of people who survived under the strict household registration management system during the socio-economic rise period such as Jingtai and Chenghua.

Therefore, when Zhu Youzhen abolished the system of military households and artisan households, they could use civilian households to do business and trade in a fair and bright manner.

As for some of the ruffians and hooligans among them, they were arrested by the officials of the Terracotta Division, and all of them were sent to the cement field in the Yanshan Mountains to engage in labor reform for more than three years and less than seven years.

Without this group of ruffians and hooligans, the security problems in the capital were implemented in an instant, such as the current Nancheng, which was once the only outer city and the most chaotic area, but now it is very safe and peaceful.

Zhu Youzhen walked on the street, the pedestrians came and went, chatting and laughing, and some vendors in the roadside stalls were also diligent in their business.

When Zhu Youzhen was passing by a long street, he noticed that some officials would come to some shops, and he also asked Cui Yingyuan with a bad premonition in his heart;

"Street vendors, what rules are the household departments managing them right now?"

Zhu Youzhen's inquiry stopped Cui Yingyuan, and he could only turn around and call a Jinyi Wei Qianhu who specialized in monitoring household officials to inquire.

For the management of the household department, this Qianhu is quite familiar, so after hearing the question, he hurriedly explained:

"The household department divides them into itinerant vendors, fixed vendors and fixed shops, and itinerant vendors need to pay a monthly turnover tax of 50 wen to the yamen and receive a business license before they can do business."

"If you are a regular vendor, you need to pay a booth tax of 200 wen per month to receive a business license."

"Fixed shops are according to the type of business, generally speaking, rice and wheat grain shops pay one tael of silver every month, gold and silver jewelry and other shops are two taels of silver, and the rest of the shops are different."

"These miscellaneous taxes are basically summarized as urban commercial taxes, and the two county governments of Wanping and Daxing can collect 123,000 taels of urban commercial taxes in the capital every year, and Beizhili can collect less than 200,000 taels of urban commercial taxes."

Jinyi Wei Qianhu explained honestly, while Zhu Youzhen frowned when he heard this: "What about other provinces? ”

"This ......" Jinyi Wei Qianhu hesitated for a moment, and then said:

"Although the Ministry of Household formulated it in this way, the two capitals and 19 provinces collected a total of less than 1.2 million taels of this tax last year, of which more than 300,000 taels were handed over by the North Zhili and the South Zhili."

"Humph!" Hearing this, Zhu Youzhen snorted coldly, obviously very dissatisfied with the negative attitude of the provinces.

Whether this tax is levied or not is a question, or whether the people below are enriching themselves.

However, in the final analysis, the imperial court did not pay attention to it, and the other is that the speed of the imperial court's control makes the local government fearless.

The population of Beizhili is only a quarter of that of Nanzhili, and the urbanization is far less than that of Nanzhili, but it pays more urban business taxes than Nanzhili.

In Zhu Youzhen's view, Nanzhili alone can collect nearly one million taels, not to mention Zhejiang and Jiangxi, which are provinces with large populations.

If the imperial court can transfer troops from the north to Jiangnan within ten days, then Jiangnan still dares to disobey the yang and the yin like this, and that is looking for death.

In general, the control is still not good, although the governor's office of the five armies is stationed in the local area, but the number of people is too small to play a strategic deterrent role.

However, when the railway is opened, Zhu Youzhen will be able to make the businessmen, gentry and officials in Jiangnan live in depression.

"Is there a phenomenon of bullying the people and extorting money from the officials in Beijing......?"

Zhu Youzhen glanced at the two officials who walked out of the gold shop with a smile, and asked Cui Yingyuan without looking back.

"This ......" Cui Yingyuan had a headache, although he knew that saying this would offend the Soldiers and Horses Division, the Criminal Department, and the local county government, but he also knew that Zhu Youzhen was very dissatisfied with him.

Lu Wenzhao was scolded by Zhu Youzhen four times in ten years, and Cui Yingyuan was scolded by Lu Wenzhao at least four hundred times in ten years, and he knew that Lu Wenzhao's status was a little unsafe at the moment, let alone him.

Therefore, even though he knew that he would offend someone by saying this, he still had to say:

"Naturally, there is a phenomenon of small takes, not only in the capital, but also in various places, and there are very few soldiers and horses, after all, they basically only patrol the main road and the city wall......"

"Take it and take it?" Zhu Youzhen spoke with a questioning tone, and then mocked without waiting for Cui Yingyuan to answer:

"Water drops wear stones, day after day, even if you only take a few dollars a day, you can make up a dozen taels in a year."

"I'm afraid it's twice as fast as their money, right?"

"The head of the family, Mingjian......" Cui Yingyuan lowered his head and responded, while Zhu Youzhen glanced at him and said simply:

"Your people don't eat dry food, the imperial court spends millions of taels every year to raise the Nanzhen Fusi, if you can't come up with valuable news to return to the imperial court, then what will Banzai think?"

"Yes......" Cui Yingyuan sweated profusely and nodded hurriedly:

"From now on, we will increase the investigation of various places and bring this group of black sheep to justice!"

Cui Yingyuan responded with a grovel, and Zhu Youzhen just glanced at him, then turned around and continued to wander around.

didn't bother to wipe his sweat, so Cui Yingyuan hurriedly followed......