The examination was completed in twenty days in September, followed by the intensive review of the examination papers, and the time soon entered October of the first year of Hongwu.

More than 16,000 test papers, carefully considered, the only officials in charge of marking are 27 people personally selected by Lao Zhu, mathematics is faster, there are standard answers, in terms of strategy, according to the rate of twenty or thirty copies per person per day, 27 people will be full, and it will take nearly a month.

Therefore, the entire marking process will last until mid-November.

There can be no rush.

This is the third day of October.

After getting up early for dinner, Zhu Yuan left the lake mansion that was officially renamed Xuanwu Lake from Houhu to Old Zhu Ti, not to Jinling University, but to the palace.

Lao Zhu mentioned that if you are too busy, you don't need to go over.

Zhu Yuan still insisted that he would enter the palace to report to Lao Zhu when he was a little free, with an interval of no more than three days.

Shows his face often.

This is not only a common officialdom knowledge from ancient times to the present, but considering Lao Zhu's character, Zhu Yuan should be even more so.

If you don't see each other for a long time, you will be estranged.

In the east pavilion on the left side of Fengtianmen, Lao Zhu still started his day's work early.

When Zhu Yuan arrived, he briefly talked about yesterday's marking situation, and presented a few copies of the excellent test papers that had been carefully selected and copied, before turning to another thing, and pushed the other stack of materials he brought with him to the opposite side: "Ancestor, this is about the planning, sample chapters and some topic selection of "Daming Monthly", you can take a look."

"Daming Monthly" is the project that was determined after discussing with Lao Zhu about the "right to speak".

If the newspaper can't do it for the time being, it will be a monthly magazine.

Lao Zhu didn't forget about it, he asked a few times before, and he quickly took it and opened it at the moment.

According to the model of later magazines, Zhu Yuan divided the "Daming Monthly" into different columns, covering politics, economy, military, culture and other aspects.

Lao Zhu flipped through here, and Zhu Yuan also explained: "Ancestor, according to my vision, this magazine must not be stingy with cost, and the first thing to be determined is to use the best paper to make it."

"Why is that?" Lao Zhu didn't look up, and his habitual thrift made him still mutter: "It's a waste."

"Since it is a competition for the right to speak, of course, the more attractive the better, and at the same time, it must be kept as long as possible, and it is made with good paper, on the one hand, it gives people the feeling that the magazine is very formal, very stylish, and even unconsciously can generate a kind of authority. On the other hand, if the quality is good enough, it can attract people to treasure it, and the monthly magazines that are issued now, even if they are a hundred or even a thousand years later, will still exist in the collections of some people's books, so it is equivalent to that in a hundred or even a thousand years, even if we are gone, this "right to speak" is still there, and it will continue to exercise its role."

"You...... Well, that's it," Lao Zhu thought that the imperial court was not short of money at the moment, and quickly agreed, and in a blink of an eye, he signaled the plan in front of him: ""Current political news" and "military dynamics", I can understand, this ...... the "Strange Tales from Zhai" column, telling some ghost stories, what is this about, don't you know that "Zi Bu is silent and strange and confused"?"

"Of course Yuan'er knows that 'Zi Bu is silent and strange and chaotic'," Zhu Yuan said with a smile, "But most of the people don't know, and not only do they not know, but they just prefer to watch these strange things compared to current political information."

Lao Zhu knew that his precious twenty-third grandson hadn't finished speaking, so he looked up.

Zhu Yuan also continued: "Ancestor, imagine a strict and old-fashioned old scholar and a witty and lively little gentleman, which one do you think students would prefer to listen to?"

"Witty little gentleman, do you speak of yourself?" Lao Zhu smiled, somewhat understood, and looked at the column planning of "Strange Tales from Zhai", and still said: "That's it...... It's a little too improper."

"If you want to compete for the right to speak, you must first make sure that the people like to read this magazine very much, and not like the Four Books and the Five Classics, which has a wide range of truths, but ordinary people are not willing to read it." Zhu Yuan said, and gestured to Lao Zhu's hand: "The people love to read it, and after reading "Strange Tales from Liaozhai", they will inevitably flip forward and take a look at the current political leaders

smell" and "military dynamics", unconsciously, they were indoctrinated. Ancestors, this is the accumulation of hundreds of years of experience in later generations, in addition to this "Strange Tales from Liaozhai", there is also a column at the back, long serialization, I plan to find someone to write a million-word long story, one paragraph of each issue of serialization, which will ensure a kind of continuity, after reading one issue, people will be eager to wait for the next issue, which can increase the sales of this magazine."

Speaking of this, realizing that he had entered a new knowledge point, Zhu Yuan pondered for a while, and added: "This magazine, in the short term, we will focus on official distribution, but if we want to continue to expand our influence for a long time, we must carry out a certain commercial operation, that is, to put this magazine on the market. In such a situation, if all of it is relatively dry current affairs information, ordinary people will not be willing to buy it."

While listening, Lao Zhu also turned to the long-form serial column, roughly browsed the content, and grinned, "I'm listening...... It's like a fallacy, but it's quite reasonable."

Zhu Yuan also smiled: "Ancestor, anyway, you have to be sure that Yuan'er will only do things that are beneficial to our Zhu family and even our Ming Dynasty."

"I know you're sincere."

Lao Zhu nodded, continued to flip to the next few sample chapters, and smiled after just one glance: "This ...... Horizontal, huh?"

"In the future, if we want to further promote hard pen and punctuation, left-to-right horizontal writing is the most scientific," Zhu said, "However, there must also be some transitions, and when I started the project, there were both horizontal and vertical. In addition, there are simplified Chinese characters, ancestors, when I finish it over there, we should also promote it as soon as possible."

Lao Zhu nodded again.

About simplified Chinese, about punctuation, about hard pens, and so on, the motivation behind it, Zhu Yuan has carefully talked to him.

Fundamentally, it's all about efficiency.

In the end, what is improved is the production efficiency of the entire Ming Dynasty, which is still considered to be the category of economics.

Thinking of this, Lao Zhu couldn't help but ask, "Has there been any progress in your economics in the near future?"

Old Zhu Ke has never forgotten this incident.

The two cores of economics, Zhu Yuan only completed a part of the "production" at the beginning, and the subsequent "distribution" has not been written down, although there are many discussions on a daily basis.

On the other side of the bookcase, Zhu Yuan deliberately lowered his face: "Ancestor, I'm too busy, how can I have time."

"This is a big deal," Lao Zhu understood, but he still couldn't help but say, "Besides, there are some women around you who can write and draw, and they can always help you write."

"But they can't get into my head."

Well.

That's a problem.

Thinking about it again, I really can't let the child on the other side be too tired, so Lao Zhu won't mention it anymore, and he has already turned to the follow-up selection of materials, as expected, the recent imperial examinations, as well as the war in the north, are among them. Lao Zhu couldn't help but look for the "Strange Tales from Liaozhai" and the "long serial" related.

Sure enough, it was mentioned.

This "Strange Tales from Zhai", a story given is called "Examination of the City God", which roughly has an outline of more than 100 words, and Lao Zhu Ben read it with relish. However, notice the classic couplet, "There is a heart for goodness, although good is not rewarded." If you do evil without intention, you will not be punished for it." couldn't help frowning, shook his head and said, "This pair is not good, doing good is doing good, if you deliberately do good and don't reward it, how many people can be willing to do good deeds?"

I deliberately wrote this couplet, and I was expecting a few words from Lao Zhu, but I didn't expect it to be this.

Zhu Yuan had no position, and immediately nodded: "Ancestor, this is written by a girl in the family, it has nothing to do with me, I also think it's inappropriate, I am more in favor of that "Filial piety comes first, no trace of the heart, no filial piety in the world; All evil Yin is the head, and there is no perfect person in the world when it comes to deeds, and there is no perfect person in the world."

"This is a reason," Lao Zhu said, reacting, glaring at the other side: "It's what you wrote, what girl to push."

"Okay, it was written by Pu Songling, ancestor, this is a fallen scholar of the later dynasty, who failed the scientific examination for many years, and began to make up stories, you see, and deliberately instilled incorrect values, and the psychology was distorted...... "Z.br>

Lao Zhu didn't bother to listen to someone's nonsense, so he said directly: "Just change it, or change this pair."

。」

"Just change it to "Filial piety first"?" Zhu Yuan thought for a while and said, "Or, change the story, "Xiao Qian", later also called "A Chinese Ghost Story", this story must be preferred by the people, and there is also a poem: Ten miles of Pinghu is full of frost, every inch of green silk is sad for the Chinese year, and the moon-shaped household is single-faced, and only envy the mandarin ducks and not the immortals."

"Only envy mandarin ducks, not immortals...... This is good," Lao Zhu nodded and asked, "What is the general story?"

Zhu Yuan didn't remember much about the later generations and movies, so he adapted it at will: "It is said that a scholar who was rushing to take the exam passed by a temple entrenched by a tree demon, called Lanruo Temple......

At the end of the story, Ning Caichen was admitted to the top prize and returned with a beauty.

Well.

Among them is also a swordsman, called ...... What's it called?

Zhu Yuan couldn't remember it for a while.

Let's call it Li Yingqiong.

The gender is changed to a male, anyway, this name is suitable for both men and women, by the way, next time I will have a "Legend of the Swordsman of Shushan", and then give Li Yingqiong a junior brother, called Li Xiaoyao, and then extend a tear-jerking love story.

There is also a song.

The years are rarely silent, the autumn wind is tired of wandering, the sunset does not leave, hanging on the wall, reluctant to me.

Well.

Collect it, collect it, this is not "Entertainment 1368".

Compared with the somewhat didactic "Examination of the City God", Lao Zhu is more satisfied with the "Xiao Qian", which has scholars, female ghosts, tree demons, and swordsmen, and is generally quite beautiful, and also said that the name of "A Chinese Ghost Story" is better.

So it was decided.

In the first issue, I wrote this story.

That "although it is good but not rewarded", forget it, it sounds boring.

Then I turned to "Long Serial".

The idea given by Zhu Yuan is also familiar to later generations, of course, it is not "Water Margin", which has been preliminarily written at the moment, but "Dream of Red Mansions".

Of course, it is not the original "Dream of Red Mansions".

Zhu Yuan didn't bring the system over, where did he remember the whole book. Therefore, this time, I plan to make a super magic change, which can be regarded as the kind of magic change of "Piercing the Red Mansion".

Of course, considering Lao Zhu's character, considering that there should also be some entertaining and educational nature, as well as the final ending, all of them should be changed, not too "white and clean", to give people hope. Basically, the story of a founding duke's family, because of a certain descendant named Jia Baoyu, who was not angry, led to the decline of the family.

Among them, "Okay Song" cannot be missing.

Of course, Sister Lin can't be less.

Baochai ...... Be positive.

The hope left behind, one is that Jia Baoyu finally repented, but also became a monk, but, at the same time, Li Kun's son Jia Lan, the title of the gold list, is expected to continue the incense of the Jia family.

On the other hand, Zhu Yuan can't write millions of words in the plan.

I'm going to let the women in the inner house write.

For example, Luoshui.

Coupled with the assistance of a group of other Nizi, as well as the various poems and the like provided by himself, Zhu Yuan also believes that the new version of "Dream of Red Mansions", at least, will not be much worse than it used to be in terms of literature.

After the bookcase, Lao Zhu listened to Zhu Yuan's general introduction and was also very satisfied: "This story is also a wake-up call for those meritorious families, the founding of the country, but it also needs to be guarded at all times, and you can't let your children do anything wrong, that's it."

Then he continued to talk about some details, and the various related aspects of "Daming Monthly" were basically decided.

The first issue was released in November.

The first phase of the plan is to print 10,000 copies at a time, and in addition to distributing them to various states and counties, there will also be some official sales on an experimental basis. Next, there is nearly a month to prepare, and if there is no shortage of resources and manpower, it is more than enough.

Having said this, the topic that followed was also related to "Daming Monthly", and Daming Paper Group was established.

This is also something that has been discussed with Lao Zhu before, these days, Lao Zhu has issued an edict to let all states and counties gather papermakers to send Jinling, and the relevant plan is also set by Lao Zhu Zhu Yuan.

with Daming Paper Group

Together, there are two other groups.

They are all detailed planning plans from personnel structure to equity distribution, one is Daming Iron and Steel Group, and the other is Daming Coal Group.

Just yesterday, Zhang Wen, the general of the expedition, returned from Taiping Mansion and brought back a batch of iron ore samples.

Taiping Iron Mine, in fact, is the later Ma'anshan Iron Mine.

There is no one of the largest open-pit iron mines in southeast China, which is also a reason why Zhu Yuan chose Taiping Iron Mine, which is easy to mine, of course, there will be some problems in the future, for example, the open pit is easy to accumulate water.

We'll talk about that later.

In addition, there are coal mines, the Linhao side mentioned earlier, of course, is the Huainan Coal Mine, 10 billion tons of level, and it is also the coal mining area with the richest reserves in the Central Plains.

Speaking of which, both mines have been used in this era.

Not to mention the open-pit Taiping iron mine, it has been used for hundreds of years by small-scale mining, and Linhao's side, in fact, is even earlier, it is said that at present, there is an official iron smelting workshop of the Ming Dynasty in Linhao Prefecture, which mainly uses Huainan coal mine.

The problem was that no one knew how much there were.

It has now been determined.

The next step is to connect the two points together.

The two coal and iron related groups are long-term to coordinate the coal and iron resources of the entire Ming Dynasty, but in the short term, the main thing is to connect the Taiping Iron Mine and the Linhao Coal Mine, and then initially start the prelude to the industrial era.