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

In the dense fog mountains, as the bells rang, the wind in the mountains blew away the thick fog, revealing a long and narrow plain.

As the clouds cleared, a newly built town could be seen on the plain.

The town is made of stone and wood, with stone walls on the outside and rows of clean courtyards on the inside.

The concrete streets extend in all directions, connecting the east and west two walled markets, and in the center of the square is a square with an area of several acres, except for the yamen.

On the square, a three-zhang high bell tower looks very abrupt, but it can transmit the bell around, bringing vitality and beauty to this mountain forest.

"It seems that you have used all the supplies given to you."

Walking on the square, Xu Shuo glanced at the group of people wearing young people's clothes and coming and going in the square, and couldn't help but praise.

No one would have guessed that this seemingly prosperous town was a small post station just over eight months ago.

"It's also the support of the imperial court and Meng Ming, you are big enough, otherwise it won't develop so fast."

Standing beside Xu Shuo, Wang Zhang, who once faced Tongzi County crying poorly, is now smiling, and seems to be very satisfied with his situation.

"How's the situation in the county?" Xu Shuo sat down on the concrete stone bench under the bell tower, and Wang Zhang also sat down and introduced the situation in Tongzi County at the same time.

"There are 1,272 households and 7,647 people in the entire county, and there are still nearly 1,600 acres of vacant land in the county that have not been used, all waiting for the army to return to the displaced population."

"More than 5,420 acres of cultivated land have been reclaimed outside the county, and the Sichuan political envoy has sent nearly 900 cattle and horses, more than 69,000 stones of grain, more than 200 tons of cement and 20,000 catties of salt."

"In addition to the situation in the county, three market towns and 11 villages have been established in the area under the jurisdiction of some of the small river valleys that used to be Tusi, with a population of more than 32,400 people and more than 95,000 acres of cultivated land."

"The Sichuan political envoy said that there will be 5,000 people who have been convicted of crimes here next month, so I can prepare to receive them as soon as possible."

Wang Zhang said about the situation in Tongzi County, in fact, in addition to the county seat and the province, the situation in other towns and towns in Tongzi County is not bad.

"Well, you're okay here, then I'll be relieved."

Xu Shuo nodded when he heard this, and chuckled: "The entire Zunyi Mansion belongs to your Tongzi County, which is poor and white, and now that even you have been supported, I estimate that in another three years, you will be able to pay taxes and grain." ”

"No problem in three years." Wang Zhang also patted his chest and said: "As far as the current situation is concerned, it is not a problem for the county to reclaim 30,000 mu of cultivated land every year, after all, eating and drinking are guaranteed by the imperial court." ”

"After three years, the cultivated land in the county can at least exceed 200,000 mu, although I dare not say that I want to pay tens of thousands of stone tax and grain, but it is not a problem to pay 10,000 stone."

"By the way, what happened to the other counties?"

Wang Zhang asked curiously, and Xu Shuo also chuckled: "The land reform and return to the south is going smoothly, most of the population has moved to Guangxi to open up wasteland, and a small number have migrated to several other counties. ”

"At present, there are nearly 250,000 people in Zunyi Prefecture, more than 700,000 cultivated land, nearly 30,000 ploughing cattle and horses, and almost the entire Qiannan territory has been concentrated in our hands."

"Relying on these resources, we can still strive to make Zunyi's arable land exceed one million mu before the arrival of officials from other provinces."

The time has come to August, and the counterinsurgency between Mu Chun and Li Jinglong in the southern Qiannan region has gradually come to an end, and the so-called 100,000 Tusi of the mountains have been crushed by artillery, and hundreds of thousands of people have been captured.

Facts have proved that Guizhou's young population is indeed very large, more than 3 million, and most of them have migrated to Guangxi, Sichuan, Huguang and other borders.

In the past year, Sichuan has received nearly 700,000 young people from northern and western Guizhou, Huguang has received more than 400,000 from eastern Qiandong, and Guangxi has received more than 300,000 from southern Qiannan.

These populations have greatly enriched the populations of Huguang, Sichuan, Guangxi, and other places, and the work of establishing counties and clearing land in the three provinces has also begun.

Although Guangxi is a mountainous area in many people's impressions, compared with Yunnan and Guizhou, Guangxi's hilly plains have reached more than 30 percent, and a single Guizhong Plain can reclaim tens of millions of acres of arable land suitable for growing rice.

Due to the lack of population and local fragmentation, the local chief secretary was unable to organize a large-scale land reclamation campaign.

However, with the influx of 300,000 natives in southern Qiannan and the nearly one million stone rations allocated by Jiaozhi, the mighty "Guizhong Wasteland" began to be carried out.

Xu Shuo all saw these news from the "Di Daily".

In addition to Guangxi, there is no need to say much about the restoration work in Sichuan and Huguang.

In the Song and Song dynasties, Huguang and Sichuan had more than 55 million and 24 million mu of cultivated land respectively, but now they have only 25 million and 13 million mu of cultivated land.

This is still the situation after Hongwu and Yongle resumed farming for a total of 41 years.

According to the calculation of the mu unit of the Ming Dynasty, the two provinces can at least reclaim at least 70 million mu of cultivated land, but due to the lack of manpower, it is difficult to meet this standard even if it is extensive reclamation management.

During the Song and Song dynasties, the population of the two provinces and five roads was nearly 15 million, and now the population of Guizhou is only more than 9 million.

After all, Guizhou does not have more than 15 million mu of cultivated land for more than 3 million people to cultivate, and this is also the reason why Zhu Gaoxu wants to move the population of Guizhou to Sichuan and Huguang.

With the migration of Guizhou's population and the use of manpower, the speed of restoration in Sichuan and Huguang will be much faster than before, and the restoration of cultivated land at the peak of the two Song Dynasty is just around the corner.

What a country's policy represents, no one knows better than Xu Shuo's group.

Under the policy tendency of the Ming Dynasty, the land outside the Guanxi became a rich land in the north in only five or six years, and the southwest was the next "Guanwai".

Under the spring breeze of the policy, Zunyi Mansion in Guizhou is undoubtedly the first place to eat grapes.

"By the way, officials from several other prefectures should have arrived one after another, right?"

Wang Zhang asked Xu Shuo, with a little worry in his eyes.

His worries Xu Shuo could understand, after all, the Zunyi Mansion could develop so fast, mainly because they were the only one in the entire Guizhou that had been out of military control, so most of the resources allocated by the Sichuan Political Envoy Department were eaten by them.

Now, with the arrival of officials from various provinces, the military management of each province will also be unraveled, and the resources available to Zunyi Mansion will undoubtedly gradually decrease.

"The affairs of the various prefectures are not busy with our heads, and now the other counties in Zunyi Prefecture are on the right track, even if the political envoy reduces the allocation of materials in the prefecture, you will not be short of materials here, you can rest assured."

Xu Shuo comforted Wang Zhang, and at the same time told the truth.

In the case of Guizhou, it is impossible to count on Yunnan and Guangxi in the south, and only Sichuan and Huguang can be counted on to allocate materials.

In the face of Sichuan and Huguang, only Tongren, Zunyi, and Bijie can transport materials to the post roads they can enter Guizhou.

From Sichuan to Zunyi, Tongzi County is a well-deserved gateway, so the better the construction of Tongzi County, the lower the logistical pressure on Sichuan to Guizhou to transport materials.

If he doesn't even have this bit of vision, Xu Shuo may not be able to do it for a long time in the position of the Zunyi prefect.

"According to the assessment, we still have two and a half years to go."

Xu Shuo looked at Wang Zhang and said, "I know you are under a lot of pressure, but you don't have to worry about it here, I specially asked the officials." ”

"About Tongzi County, your merit assessment is different from the counties, the population and cultivated land of Tongzi County are far from the roots and counties, so what you have to do is to seek truth from facts, as long as you can make the people of Tongzi County self-sufficient in the remaining two and a half years, then your merits are enough to be rated first-class."

After Zhu Gaoxu's reform, the standards for the evaluation of merit in each county are also different, but the scoring level of the results is the same, that is, it is divided according to A, B, C, D, and so on.

The first class means that it is extremely excellent, and it can be promoted to one or two levels depending on the situation, and the second class means that it is qualified, and it can be promoted to one level by repeating the grade or accumulating the second class three times.

"Class C means that they are lacking, and they are placed on probation and placed on probation, while Class D is demoted by one level to set an example."

It can be said that what Zhu Gaoxu formulated was a simple promotion evaluation, but the difference is that the merit examination department is only responsible for the merit evaluation, and if there is a problem with the merit evaluation of a regional merit official, even if only one official has a problem, he will be punished by a demotion of one level.

As for the problem of officials, there are provincial inspectors responsible for recording and supervising, once there is a violation of law and discipline, the inspection of the imperial history will be played to the heavens, and the court will dispatch Dali Temple, Criminal Department, Criminal Division, Jinyiwei and Xichang to deal with it according to the degree.

Zhu Gaoxu did not set up a new supervision yamen alone, after all, the yamen left by Lao Zhu was sufficient, basically covering all aspects.

What he has to do is to strengthen or concentrate the things and power that these yamen should do.

As for the "Jingcha" system, which was gradually changed to an examination every ten years during the Hongwu period, it was also normalized by Zhu Gaoxu as a method of "one inspection a year and one examination every three years".

To put it simply, every year, there will be officials from the Imperial History and Household Department who come to inspect, and only after passing the test for three years can they be evaluated for merit.

In these three years, even if the first two years are first-class, but the last year is only second-class, that cannot meet the standard of first-class, and can only be counted according to second-class.

It can be said that the Jingcha system in the Hongwu period was at most a sword on the heads of Ming officials, but the Jingcha system in the Yongle period was an axe on the necks of officials.

The sword cuts the throat and the axe cuts off the head, this is the evaluation of the officials.

During the Zhengde period, he wanted to change the Jingcha to a three-year inspection, but was strongly opposed by the officials, and finally could not be implemented.

Just like Xu Shuo's discussion, not to mention those officials with unclean hands and feet, even officials like them who are relatively honest are worried that their merits are not up to standard and will be retained or replaced.

This kind of effect is exactly what Zhu Gaoxu wants, because the efficiency of replacing tens of thousands of officials in more than 20 years during the Hongwu period can no longer meet the growing system of new government officials, as is now ......

"There are so many new political students who apply for the next imperial examination?"

Thousands of miles away from Tongzi County, in the Nanjing Chengchun and Palace, Rao is Zhu Gaoxu, and he couldn't help but be shocked by the number reported by the song in his hand.

[Twenty two million six hundred seventy-seven people]

Looking at this string of figures, Zhu Gaoxu was first shocked, and then asked: "How many students will graduate this year?" ”

"About three hundred and thirty thousand." Yisha came forward to answer, and continued: "Since the matter of only 100,000 Xu officials being selected at the beginning of the year began to ferment, many students were suspicious of taking the Xu official route in the future, so they began to turn to the imperial examination. ”

The worse the employment environment, the more people will eat the bowl of rice in the imperial court, Zhu Gaochu knows this truth very well.

Of course, those who participate in the imperial examination still want to ascend to the sky in one step, after all, they can serve as officials when they become a lifter, and they don't have to be a "detour" for several years to become a official and then study and prepare for the exam.

"They're going to hit your head all over the place."

For these people, Zhu Gaoxu gave this evaluation, because the difficulty of the imperial examination is much more difficult than that of getting the second class in the official graduation examination, second only to getting the first class.

"It's too young, this group."

Zhu Gaoxu sighed, and then thought of the middle school he had been preparing for many years.

"How many middle school teachers have graduated?"

He asked Yishiha, and Yishaha also replied: "From the second year of Yongle to the present, if you count the batch that graduated at the end of the year, there are about more than 3,400 people. ”

"If they are to be transferred to the Guanwai preparatory middle school, then about 15 middle schools can be built, enrolling nearly 40,000 students."

"How many will graduate next year?" Zhu Gaoxu continued to ask, and Yizha also replied: "More than 2,600 people." ”

Even if it is Taixue, the number of graduates over the years has also increased in steps, especially the students who will graduate next year correspond to the hundreds of thousands of students in Yongle five years.

Even if it is one in a hundred, nearly 2,600 people have been admitted to Taixue and graduated on schedule.

At present, there are more than 20,000 students in Taixue, and it is increasing at an alarming rate every year.

"Daning, Liaodong, Bohai, Shandong, how many prefectures are there in these places?"

Zhu Gaoxu inquired about Yishiha, and Yishiha said: "Six in Shandong, six in Liaodong, five in Bohai, and two in Daning for the time being, a total of nineteen." ”

"Then make adjustments, send these more than 3,400 graduates to these places after graduation, make adjustments according to the number of local students, and let people build middle schools in advance, and when the provincial political envoys and capital departments make publicity."

"The treatment of middle school teaching is 30 yuan per year, 10 stones of rice, middle school students need to pay textbook fees and tuition and miscellaneous fees, and the school manages lunch."

"Start to publicize from now, enroll students after the Lantern Festival next year, and start school on the first day of March."

After saying everything, Zhu Gaoxu added: "By the way, middle school is not compulsory, it all depends on personal intentions. ”

For middle school, Zhu Gaoxu does not dare to engage in compulsory study, so that at least hundreds of thousands of students attend school every year, and judging from the basic situation of Daming's middle school, it is simply unbearable.

"The slave and maid understand, but I don't know if I don't know that the middle school is under the management of the county teaching, or is it ......"

Yisha asked cautiously, and Zhu Gaoxu also thought about it after hearing it.

In the Ming Dynasty, officials were set up in various localities to specialize in the management of education, among which the officials in charge at the "prefecture" level were called "professors", those at the "prefecture" level were called "xuezheng", and those at the "county" level were called "jiaoyu".

"The middle school is under the management of the county teaching, and the teaching department is set up in the Ministry of Rites, which is under the management of Zuo Shilang, and there are four foreign langs and eight directors under Zuo Shilang."

"The education of the government department is under the management of professors, the students of the state government are under the management of education, and the county middle schools and government schools are under the management of education."

"Since the teachings have been promoted to the ninth grade, then the study is promoted to the eighth grade, and the teaching is the seventh grade."

"In addition, after the establishment of middle schools in Shandong and other places, we will decide whether to add more middle schools based on the results, and I will also issue my fatwa to Jianyi, asking him to build middle schools in Sichuan, and each middle school should be enough to accommodate 3,000 students and 300 teachers."

Calculating the time, next year will be the time when the first batch of students in Sichuan will graduate, that is to say, by March of the tenth year of Yongle, Sichuan students will be able to seamlessly go to middle school.

Of course, how many of the first batch of Sichuan students are willing to continue to study in middle school depends on the local situation.

"Your Highness, what should I do if there are students who have graduated for many years and want to return to secondary school?"

He asked Zhu Gaochu suddenly, Zhu Gaochu didn't think of this question, and after being reminded by Yishuha, he touched his mustache: "If there really is, as long as there is a place, then let them read it well." ”

After Zhu Gaoxu expressed his position, he also returned the salute and continued: "The official schools in the south of the Yangtze River have begun to be established, and for Songjiang Mansion and Suzhou Prefecture, the Ministry of Rites is expected to build 300 official schools. ”

"How much?" Hearing that the Ministry of Rites was going to build 300 official schools in Susong Erfu, Zhu Gaoxu immediately frowned.

"Three hundred." After replying, Yishaha said: "After eight months of measurement and inventory, Suzhou Prefecture has more than 1240,000 mu of cultivated land, and the number of people is 3,175,529. ”

"Songjiang Prefecture has more than 5,457,000 mu of cultivated land and 2,084,75 people."

"After calculation, the total number of people in the two prefectures is more than 5.26 million, which is 1.7 million more than the old records copied in the 26th year of Hongwu."

"In fifteen years, there must not be so many more people, and it is estimated that they are all former hermits."

Listening to Yishuha's words, Zhu Gaoxu's face was calm: "For the sake of children and grandchildren going to school, even the hermit will not dare to continue to hide." ”

Zhu Gaoxu knows too well what a student status represents, not to mention this era, even if it is put into future generations, it is also an excellent killer feature.

However, what they didn't expect was that the population of Susong in the early Ming Dynasty was already close to the population of the Republic of China, and it is no wonder that Zhu Yuanzhang often migrated from Jiangdong.

It is easy to give birth to more than 100,000 or 200,000 people a year in this place, especially after the promotion of the new policy and the start of construction of various local hospitals, the local fertility situation is estimated to go up.

"We should strengthen the management of the abandoned infant policy in these two places, and build more nursing homes."

Zhu Gaoxu thought of the fact that the population of Susong Erfu would not grow significantly in the next few hundred years, as well as the various abandoned baby stories written by Jiangnan literati.

For these things, he will not sit idly by, after all, these babies can move to the southwest and northwest after being raised, and enrich the local Han population of the Ming Dynasty.

"Three hundred government schools, at least 600,000 students can be recruited, can there be so many students in Jiangnan to apply for the exam?"

He turned his attention back to the construction of 300 government schools, and shook his head when he heard this: "At present, there are less than 300,000 students who apply for the examination, and most of them are children of ordinary people. ”

"There are so many reports from the Ministry of Rites, I'm afraid they all have something to do with Li Zhigang."

Li Zhigang is a native of Huating, Songjiang Prefecture, and is now fifty-three years old.

Because of his bad character, although the rich squire of Jiangdong wanted to rely on him, they also guarded against him, so his reputation was not good in his hometown.

Because of this, this guy is probably preparing to change his route and gain fame among the people.

"It's a good idea, take the resources of the imperial court and be your own favor."

Zhu Gaoxu snorted lightly, and then glanced at Yishuha: "There is a contradiction between Li Zhigang and Jiejin, right?" ”

"Yes" Yisha nodded, and explained: "Li Zhigang is good at flattery, and he has been in the position of the secretary of the Ministry of Rites for so many years, which is due to his good at flattering His Majesty. ”

"Xie Jin is a high-minded person, and he can't look down on Li Zhigang's style, so the relationship between the two has long been divided."

"Hmm" Zhu Gaoxu bowed his head, thought for a while, and then ordered: "Let Ji Gang and Chen Ying start with Li Zhigang, and after obtaining the information, find a way to hand it over to Xie Jin, and Xie Jin will do it to Li Zhigang." ”

"As long as Li Zhigang reconciles and resolves the chaos, it will be much easier for us to implement the new policy in Jiangnan."

"The slave takes the command." also lost his response, and at this time Zhu Gaoxu also felt a little tired.

As soon as he wanted to rest, he saw two eunuchs bring two trays of dozens of notes.

"It's all from the Wuying Palace?" Zhu Gaoxu rubbed his eyebrows and asked, and the two eunuchs also nodded cautiously when they heard this.

Because of Empress Xu's affairs, Zhu Di has been unwilling to govern for several months.

In history, Zhu Di would definitely not do this, because Zhu Di did not dare to let go of Zhu Gaochi, and many of Zhu Gaochi's policies were also in opposition to Zhu Di's ideas.

But now, let alone delegating power to Zhu Gaoxu, that is, handing over all the soldiers and horses in the world to Zhu Gaoxu, Zhu Di is also very relieved, after all, the two fathers and sons have the same line, and Zhu Gaochu is even more powerful in making money.

Although he understands his parents, this mountain of music still gives Zhu Gaoxu a headache.

It's not that he didn't want to let Zhu Gaochi help him, but that situation only lasted for one day, and he drove Zhu Gaochi away, because this guy's mouth was too broken, and his political views were almost the opposite of his own.

All of Zhu Gaochi's political views are introverted, and what he advocates is to concentrate on practicing internal skills regardless of external development.

According to his words, as long as the Ming country is rich and the people are strong, there will naturally be no invincible enemy.

But the problem is that, according to his policy, the Mongols are probably going crazy.

Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu's policy is to cultivate both internally and externally, to cultivate internal strength inside, and to strike hard outside.

Because of this, there is no country around Daming that dares to grin with Daming.

Of course, if you have to count it, North Korea in the northeast and Warat in the north are counted as one.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but ask Yishuha: "What happened to Benjamin and Ghost Lichi and Warat Tatar?" ”

"There's no news yet." After Yishaha responded, he seemed to think of something, and said slowly:

"By the way, Your Highness, Chen Chang has already led Shandong soldiers and horses to cross the sea to Jinzhou, and will soon cross the Yalu River and go to Donghai Mansion."

"Recently, there have been many fishing boats on the North Korean side observing the movements of the army in the coastal waters, you see......"

"Leave them alone." Zhu Gaoxu leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes and left an explanation at the same time:

"Pass my fatwa to Chen Chang, after entering the Donghai Mansion, if the fierce brother Timur and Aha refuse to accept the appeasement, they will lead the troops to calm down."

"If the North Korean soldiers and horses are stubborn and unwilling to withdraw from the Shuangcheng area, they will lead their troops to attack them."

(End of chapter)