"Jingle bell... Jingle ......"

In the cold winter wax moon, as the cowbell rings, a town along the river suddenly appears in the mountains and rivers covered by the snow in the north.

This place is located between Bohai Andong City and Heishui City, with Xiaoxinganling in the north and Songhua River in the south.

Ten years ago, it was just a small water station, but with the continuous development of the Bohai Sea and the continuous migration of immigrants from the south, this once small water post has also developed into an important town on the Songhua River water transportation road.

On the wharf, a memorial arch with "Tonghe Town" represents the name of the market town, and this small Tonghe town is home to more than 1,000 people.

Although the town is small and the population is small, there are still a lot of things that should be there.

An official school that can accommodate more than 100 people to study, a dock market, and nearly 10,000 acres of cultivated land around the market town are all owned by the market town.

In this cold winter, many peasant children have already taken a vacation, and the first thing they do when they wake up is often to go to their stone cattle pen to clean the manure, cut the hay and pour it into the cattle trough.

In the Bohai Sea, almost every household has two ploughing cows, one male and one female.

However, these ploughing cattle did not belong to them, but to the imperial court.

Only after the ploughing ox has given birth to four calves does the two cows belong to them.

Even so, the people of Bohai are very satisfied, after all, the present day is beyond their reach.

The thirteen-year-old boy fed the horses, wiped the sweat on his face casually, and then walked out of the warm and smelly cowpen.

He walked back to the courtyard, and after clearing the snow, he saw a woman wearing a large cotton jacket who was excited to come from the dock.

"Mother, when did you go out?"

The young man asked in surprise, and the woman saw that her child had already gotten up, so she hurriedly quickened her pace.

"Slow down, there's ice on the road!"

The young man shouted anxiously, but fortunately, the woman did not fall, but took a letter and handed it to the young man: "Erlang, help me quickly see what your eldest brother wrote." ”

"When we went inside, we were freezing outside."

The young man helped the woman into the courtyard and closed the door before entering the main house.

Today's Bohai can be said to be one of the most developed areas outside the Guanxi handicraft industry, where coal and ore are mined.

In addition, firewood resources are abundant, so after the government helped build market towns, all market towns and villages, whether they are rammed earth yards or concrete yards, basically have separate fire channels and fire walls for the main house and the two transept houses.

After helping his mother into the main house, the young man came out and opened the fire path, threw out seven or eight pieces of firewood, and then closed them and walked back to the house.

In the room, his mother sat in the main hall, where a spiritual seat was placed, and in front of the spiritual seat there were tables, chairs and benches made by craftsmen.

Judging from the quality and wood of these tables, chairs and benches, the conditions of the young man's family are obviously better than those of ordinary people, and this is also the case.

The young man's name is Zhang Bohai, and the spiritual seat behind the main seat is his father Zhang Jiulang.

Zhang Jiulang, a native of Shandong, enlisted in the army and became an ordinary soldier after the Bohai Navy captured Dengzhou City.

After the martyrdom ended, although he did not make meritorious contributions, he was still promoted to a small flag officer.

His death was not heroic, because he died in the second year of Yongle's maritime grain transportation mission, but even so, Zhang Bohai and his family still got the pension land and pension money and grain they deserved.

Because it was at that time when the people of Shandong collectively moved north to Liaodong and Bohai, and his mother Zhang Wang was also considered a martyr, so he was moved to Bohai.

They were assigned to Andong City, but Andong City was short of land at that time and could not allocate them so much pension land, so they were resettled in Tonghai Town, which had only a few hundred people at the time.

Now seven years have passed, they have settled in Tonghai Town, and his eldest brother also graduated from Yongle in the sixth year and became a county official under Xindu County, Chengdu Prefecture, Sichuan, and writes letters and sends money to his family every year.

As for Zhang Bohai himself, he is also studying in the official school, but he is about to graduate next year, so he guesses that his eldest brother's letter should be talking about his graduation.

"Hurry up, open it and see what your eldest brother has to say."

Zhang Wang, like all mothers, in this era when they can only communicate by letter, a letter from a child thousands of miles away is the gift they most desire to see.

Zhang Bohai opened the letter according to Zhang Wang's request and read the contents of the letter:

"Time is like an arrow, the years are fleeting, since the last letter, it has been more than half a year, and I miss my mother and Erlang very much. Father ......"

Zhang Bohai's eldest brother is called Zhang Chengshan, and the original names of the two brothers are very simple, one is called Zhang Dalang and the other is Zhang Erlang.

However, the names of the two brothers were changed after Zhang Jiulang joined the Bohai Navy in Chengshanwei, the capital of Dengzhou, and studied culture for two years.

Zhang Bohai's memory of his father is very vague, so when he sees his eldest brother mentioning his father's affairs, although he is a little sad, he will not cry.

However, when Zhang Wangshi suddenly heard about his deceased husband, he couldn't help but bow his head and weep.

Zhang Chengshan has been to Sichuan for two years, and now he has married a wife there, so he specially wrote back to tell Zhang Wang.

In addition, Zhang Chengshan also talked to Zhang Wangshi and Zhang Bohai about what happened after Zhang Bohai graduated.

In the letter, Zhang Chengshan asked Zhang Bohai if he had received an enrollment notice from the town's middle school, and if so, he would not hesitate to sign up immediately, and take his mother to Andong Mansion to study in middle school after the beginning of spring.

The family's land has been rented out to other families for cultivation anyway, and now they only need to return the two cows from the yamen to Andong Mansion.

In the letter, Zhang Chengshan also said that studying in middle school is a good opportunity, and now the imperial court has higher and higher requirements for government students, and even if they graduate, they cannot be assigned good errands.

Anyway, the Zhang family still has a lot of savings, and Zhang Chengshan is also going to participate in the imperial examination as a Xu official next year, even if he doesn't become a person, he can get the status of a child.

Therefore, Zhang Bohai should not have too much pressure, he can go to Andong Mansion to study in middle school for five years, and he will definitely have a better future than Zhang Chengshan in the future.

"Secondary ......"

Zhang Bohai was a little reluctant, but Zhang Wang nodded again and again: "Your eldest brother explained well, you can pick a time to plough the cattle and return them to the yamen in a few days, and then we will take a sleigh to rent a house in Andong Mansion after the New Year." ”

"I kind of want to join the army." Faced with Zhang Wang's words, Zhang Bohai reluctantly spoke, but Zhang Wang's face immediately changed when he heard this: "It's not okay to join the army!" ”

"Why not?" Zhang Bohai asked Zhang Wang's rhetorically and said to Zhang Wang's:

"Dad, he is a martyr, we are martyrs, according to the conditions given by the imperial court, our generation can recommend a person to go to Nanjing to study at the National Defense University."

"Mother, this opportunity is useless, so leave it to me."

Zhang Bohai argued on the basis of reason, and in order to appease Zhang Wang's family, he also moved out of the teaching of the official school: "They said that if you go to the National Defense University, you can serve as an official of 100 households once you graduate." ”

"Think about it, that's a hundred household officials, a hundred household officials of the sixth grade."

"If I can become an official of hundreds of households, then the eldest brother and my heirs can enjoy happiness."

In the eyes of Zhang Bohai and them, the hundred household officials of Zhengliupin are very great people.

However, in the face of Zhang Bohai's words, Zhang Wang still slapped the table angrily: "I can't say it, you just go to middle school honestly, it's decided!" ”

After that, Zhang Wang didn't give Zhang Bohai a chance to react, got up and walked into his bedroom.

Zhang Bohai wanted to say something when he saw this, but he could only look at the closed door of the bedroom and sigh alone.

In this era when his parents' destiny is greater than heaven, even if he wants to join the army, as long as his mother does not agree, even the army will not dare to accept him, let alone the National Defense University thousands of miles away.

Hanging his head, Zhang Bohai looked at the letter in his hand, looked at the two words on it, and muttered: "Middle school ......"

He shook his head, put the letter away, and went back to his bedroom to rest.

The life of parents, no matter what era it is placed in, is a difficult difficulty to avoid.

If Zhang Wang's attitude did not change before the start of school, then Zhang Bohai could only obediently go to middle school.

However, compared with thousands of New Deal students, people like Zhang Bohai who still have choices are undoubtedly a minority.

Since the beginning of the year, after the graduates of the government school no longer fully accepted the award, the gold content of the government school began to decline, and even the middle school with it also suffered.

Among the more than 200,000 students who graduated this year, most of the students' parents are not enlightened, and many parents think that it is enough to finish official school, after all, who knows if the imperial court will give them job opportunities after five years of middle school.

If they don't, they will undoubtedly waste another five years of resources.

In the eyes of most parents of government students, if the government school is not mandatory, if it is not a government school graduate, you can get a job opportunity......

Then they will not let all the children go to government schools, but will only pick out the children they like to study.

There is no way to make it compulsory for government schools to attend, but there is no such restriction in middle schools.

Since there is none, there is no need to let the children continue to study, after all, while paying for three or four children to attend government schools, no one knows how much extra money will be paid for another child to attend secondary school.

But everyone will weigh the pros and cons, after all, their lives are still very poor.

So in such an atmosphere, the promotion of middle schools is not successful, and there are not many people who sign up in advance.

Until the firecrackers went off and the ninth year of Yongle came as scheduled, the number of registrations in Zhu Gaoxu's hands was still not much.

"Five thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven ......"

In the Chunhe Palace, listening to the sound of firecrackers in his ears, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but feel that the numbers in his hands were a little ironic.

"It's still too big a step, and the people's living standards can't keep up with the level of supporting a child who doesn't work for ten years."

Zhu Gaoxu was relieved, after all, at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, later generations did not dare to guarantee that all children who graduated from primary school would go to middle school, let alone himself in this era.

"At the moment, I'm afraid that by the end of the registration period, there will not be more than 30,000 middle school students."

Standing in front of the Chunhe Palace, a minister in his fifties dressed in court clothes made a report, and he was Song Li, the official secretary of the Ministry of Rites, who had just taken office.

In contrast, Li Zhigang often uses power for personal gain, focusing only on the south of the Yangtze River and not on the north.

Song Li, who had just taken office, obviously had no regional prejudice, and he was very concerned about the registration of Guanwai Middle School, and found Zhu Gaoxu as soon as the court meeting ended.

Zhu Gaoxu looked at the number of applicants in each province, and comforted Song Li with a slight chin in his head: "This number is already good, after all, this is only outside the gate." ”

"If the new policies in the provinces of Kannai follow suit, the number of middle school students in five or six years will probably not be less than 500,000, and the number of graduates will not be less than 100,000 in the past years."

"For the imperial court, it was a last resort to use official students as officials in the early years."

"Now that the number of government students is saturated, we have to find a way to improve from quantity to quality."

"Your Highness is wise." Song Li didn't make a fool of himself, he really thought that Zhu Gaoxu's method of satisfying the quantity first and then improving the quality was very good.

At least for now, all the regions that have implemented the new policy have improved their administrative efficiency and the amount of tax revenue, and the people's lives are much more nourishing than before.

"This year's quota is 40 million stones, although it seems very difficult, but as long as the new policies of the three places in the north are successfully implemented, the quota of 40 million stones is still easy to meet."

Zhu Gaoxu mentioned the matter of increasing the quota, which seemed to him to be inevitable, and the ministers had long been accustomed to the fact that the imperial court quota would increase every two years.

At this morning's court meeting, Guo Zi, the head of the household department, announced the population, cultivated land, and financial situation of the Ming Dynasty last year.

More than 76 million mouths, more than 580 million mu, the imperial court's financial revenue is 52 million stone for Tianfu and Juntun, and more than 8 million yuan for various taxes.

After the folding, the imperial court's financial revenue was close to 30 million yuan, and each ordinary person contributed an average of 400 wen in taxes.

However, if according to the normal grain yield per mu and the tax of ten taxes and one tax, then with the grain tax on the land alone, the Ming Dynasty should have 70 or 80 million stones, nearly 30 million yuan.

Of course, Zhu Gaoxu did not intend to collect taxes in this way, but thought that he would leave some of them to the people.

Because he knows very well that the officials of the Ming Dynasty are not without corruption, but the corruption has not been reported to him.

In his opinion, it is already very good to be able to harvest one stone of grain per ten acres.

"This year is estimated to be the year of Yin's food, but it will be better after this year."

Zhu Gaoxu glanced at the song sent by the household, and couldn't help but think of Lao Zhu lying in the filial piety tomb.

"Grandpa, look at it, the money and food you have saved, your grandson has not used it up yet......"

Zhu Gaoxu was a little proud, and at the same time, he couldn't help but think of the big-hearted Zhu Yunwen.

Thanks to his quick movements, otherwise Zhu Yunwen would have continued to exempt Jiangnan from taxes for two years, and he would really have to scratch his head and make money.

"How many students have signed up in the three places of Beizhili, and has it been affected?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked Song Li, and Song Li said with a bow: "Naturally, it has been affected, and the number of students who signed up in the past year was only 460,000, less than half of the total population of the three places. ”

"Well......" Zhu Gaoxu thought for a while, and then said: "For the people who do not arrange for their children to go to school, unless they are particularly poor, their fathers and brothers will be punished." ”

"If they are particularly poor, then they will be relocated to Guanwai or to Annam or Guizhou, and they will be given farmland for farming."

Zhu Gaoxu knew very well that there would not be very poor families in the implementation of the new policy, because he only transferred 140,000 ploughing cattle from outside the customs into the customs in the autumn of last year.

According to the time, these ploughing cattle should have reached the hands of the people.

Now the imperial court has transferred another 3 million stones to the three places as grain for land reclamation, and one stone of grain can be obtained for every acre of land cultivated.

In other words, as long as they are willing to work hard to open up the wasteland, they can not only have enough to eat, but also get their own arable land.

This policy will continue for three years, and after three years, these people will have their own arable land, and even if the court does not distribute grain, they will open up the land on their own.

If Henan and Beizhili can return to the amount of cultivated land in the Song and Song dynasties, then the agricultural economy in the north will naturally go up, and as long as the development of coal, cement, minerals and other resources continues to increase, the economy of the north will not be worse than that of the southwest, even if it cannot be compared with the south of the Yangtze River.

In this way, his plan is half the battle.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu also waved his hand to signal Song Li to retreat.

After he left, Zhu Gaoxu leaned back in his chair and rested for a while, and then ordered Yizha to prepare for walking.

Half an hour later, he appeared outside the Qianqing Palace, and heard Zhu Zhanqi's piercing laughter from afar.

After getting off the step, he walked into the palace gate wearing a fox fur, and saw Zhu Zhanji, Zhu Zhanqi, Zhu Zhanqi and others on the palace road.

Zhu Zhanji was only five or six years old when he went to Yunnan, and now he is eleven years old.

This was the first time he had seen snow half a foot thick, so he pulled Zhu Zhanyan and they started a snow rack.

Seeing Zhu Gaoxu who suddenly appeared, Zhu Zhanji didn't know why, and was so frightened that he was stunned in place.

It was Zhu Zhanyan who kept throwing snowballs at him, but he didn't feel it at all.

"Be careful not to catch a cold, big nephew......"

When passing by Zhu Zhanji's side, Zhu Gaoxu stretched out his hand and patted Zhu Zhanji's shoulder, and then walked past him into the Qianqing Palace.

When Zhu Gaoxu walked away, Zhu Zhanji reacted, picked up the snowball on the ground, and chased Zhu Zhanyu and the two of them alone.

Because Zhu Zhanqi's mother is Zhang Fengyi, he rarely sees Zhu Gaoxu, and as soon as he saw Zhu Gaoxu, he came up: "Daddy......"

Five-year-old Zhu Zhanqi hugged Zhu Gaoxu's calf, and Zhu Gaoxu smiled and squatted down when he saw this: "Have fun with your brothers here, Dad still has things to do." ”

Zhu Gaoxu is very busy, not to mention Zhu Zhanqi, even Zhu Zhanqi rarely sees him.

Because he was worried that the children would be noisy to Zhu Gaoxu, Guo Yan forbade the children to go to the Chunhe Hall to disturb Zhu Gaoxu since last year.

However, as Zhu Di became the shopkeeper, Zhu Gaoxu basically dealt with it in the Chunhe Hall many times, and rested after processing, so he went to the harem no more than 20 times last year, and the number of times everyone could see him was very rare.

Seeing that Zhu Gaoxu was about to coax him away, Zhu Zhanqi snorted, shouting that he was unwilling to let go.

Compared with him, Zhu Zhanyan didn't look this way at all, after all, he was Zhu Gaoxu's first child, so he received more education.

Zhu Gaoxu's explanation to him is that men should not be spilled, and they must learn to hide their emotions all the time, especially when facing enemies.

For Zhu Zhanyan, who loves military affairs, this sentence went to the bottom of his heart.

In his opinion, his grandfather and father are heroes who can't cry, and he has to learn from them.

Therefore, although Zhu Zhanyan is only nine years old, he is already very independent.

"Okay, I would like to allow you to go with me to the Spring and Peace Palace."

Seeing Zhu Zhanqi crying, Zhu Gaoxu also sighed helplessly, and after giving a promise, he signaled him to let go.

Zhu Zhanqi got what he wanted, so he let go of his hand, but his footsteps still followed Zhu Gaoxu towards the Qianqing Palace.

"Second child, you're your father's follower!"

Zhu Zhanji laughed at his younger brother, and Zhu Zhanji on the side also laughed.

Zhu Zhanqi glared at the two of them "viciously", and then followed Zhu Gaoxu into the Qianqing Palace.

Not long after, the two children were playing in the square in front of the Qianqing Palace, and there was already dancing and music performing in the warm hall.

Sitting in his place, Zhu Gaochi watched the dance music while eating the meat and vegetables in front of him, so unhappy.

Since he returned to Nanjing from Yunnan, he has been forced by Zhu Di to eat vegetarian dishes for more than half a year, and he must indulge in indulgence by taking advantage of the good opportunity of the Chinese New Year.

"Boss, eat less, don't get fat again."

"Leave me alone......"

Seeing that someone reminded him, Zhu Gaochi replied without even looking at it, and only when he reacted did he see Zhu Gaochu with a smiling face.

"Second child, are you here? Come on, sit down and eat together. ”

Zhu Gaochi motioned for Zhu Gaochu to sit next to him, Zhu Gaochu shook his head when he saw this, glanced around the Qianqing Palace, and then wondered: "What about Daddy?" ”

"I moved to Kunning Palace a few days ago." Zhu Gaochi replied while stuffing meat into his mouth:

"Dad originally wanted to have a plain and bland New Year's Day, not as lively as in previous years, to avoid noisy mothers."

"But my mother said that Zhengdan is not only for the two of them, but also for the children, so it is better to be lively."

"When my father saw my mother say this, I moved back to Kunning Palace with my mother, and I will move back after a few days after the New Year."

"Anyway, he missed his face at the beginning, and let me tell you when he left, let you host a good family dinner."

"What's there to do with this?" Zhu Gaoxu glanced around when he heard this, and found that Zhu Gaochi was busy eating, Zhu Gaosui was busy watching the dancing girls, and Zhang and Guo Yan estimated that they had gone to Kunning Palace to take care of Empress Xu.

As for Princess Zhao, she is happy, and she is expected to give birth in March, and it is estimated that she will recuperate in King Zhao's mansion at this moment.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaochu was about to sit down and eat with Zhu Gaochi, but he didn't want Yishaha outside the hall to walk in quickly.

He held a notebook in his hand, and handed it over when he saw Zhu Gaoxu, obviously in an urgent manner.

Zhu Gaoxu opened it and looked at it, and his originally happy mood immediately became uncomfortable.

"What's wrong?" Zhu Gaochi noticed the change in him and asked while eating meat.

"Last month, King Qi killed three people in a street battle in Guangzhou......"

Zhu Gaoxu's eyes were gloomy, and Zhu Gaochi was also startled when he heard it: "This ...... What are you going to do with this? ”

"Or ...... Let's leave it to Dad. Zhu Gaochi was worried that Zhu Gaochu would be too ruthless and put everyone in danger in the feudal domains.

"No, you don't." Zhu Gaoxu handed the song back to Yishiha, and instructed Yishiha:

"Pass on my decree, seize the palace guards, leave only 500 people, and order the king of Qi to be grounded in the palace for three years and not allowed to come out."

"If you violate it, you will be abolished!"

(End of chapter)