Chapter 274 Xuan!
The discussion on primer was going on in the provincial government office. At the Shen family's side, Sang Luo and Shen Ning returned home and talked to Shen Lie and his brothers about the first day of classes. The whole family gathered together to discuss the solution for the primer.
"Forty-seven students, and perhaps some auditors. Do we still need to help them copy the primers?" The person who asked this question was Shen Ning. Obviously, with so many students, helping to copy the textbooks also made her feel a little pressured.
Sang Luo rejected it without even thinking: "It's not appropriate. I only took Zhao Liuya and a few other children with me in the beginning. I just asked them to help copy as practice. Copying books is not easy. Not to mention the slowness and hard work, the most important thing is that we can't let them get used to Daxing Village giving them all kinds of free assistance."
Sang Luo thought of movable type printing, but when she thought about the current price of paper, although it was lower than before, it was still not affordable for ordinary villagers. Then she thought about the imperial examination system promoted by the emperor. The first batch of candidates had not yet arrived in Beijing. She decided not to challenge the nerves of the knowledge monopoly group.
Just as he was thinking about how to solve the problem of students' reading comprehension, Chen Lie at the side came up with an idea.
"We have a wooden wall in our provincial school, similar to your blackboard. Every time we have a ten-day exam, we post the rankings. I think we can build a few large walls in front and behind the classroom based on this, slightly staggered from the small blackboard you use for teaching, and use large sheets of paper to copy the Thousand Character Classic and post them on top."
"This will last longer than chalk writing, and the font is larger, so even students sitting in the back can read it. Doesn't that mean everyone has a book?"
This made Sang Luo's eyes light up. Yes, isn't this the same as the bulletin board wall at the back of her previous classroom? It's just that the bulletin board wall has been changed into a teaching material wall.
It is really not easy to paint the walls of a rammed earth house. She has a recipe for painting the walls given by Concubine Fan, but it takes some time for the painted walls to dry. For now, using board walls is the best!
"That's a good idea. Make a few more sets and put them on the wall. Then the whole textbook will be complete. It will be convenient for reading during class breaks. If you really want to learn something, you can copy the next volume yourself."
Thinking of how he often used charcoal pencils for drawing, he turned to Shen Ning and said, "You can remind them in class later that you can write on wood chips by sharpening some charcoal pencils. If you can't afford pens and ink at home, you can copy them with charcoal pencils and practice with them at home."
Shen Yin just returned home and heard this, and immediately told him about Gan Erlang using wood chip charcoal pencils after class.
Chen Lie laughed when he heard this: "It shows that if you are determined to learn, no difficulty can stop you."
The whole family has high execution ability. Chen Lie and Shen An went to find wood to make a board wall with a frame. Chen Ning and Sang Luo simulated at home how big the font should be so that the students sitting at the back of the classroom can see it clearly. They asked Chen Lie and Shen An to confirm the size of the board wall, and the two sisters-in-law went into the house to choose paper.
The Shen family is not short of paper. It is no exaggeration to say that the Shen family has quietly taken a small step towards free use of paper in the toilet. Of course, no matter how many methods they have tried, the paper cannot be made very soft. They have to crumple it by hand and prepare some clean water. When using it, they wet their hands and then wet the paper before using it.
I'm getting off topic. Suffice it to say that several types of paper sold on the market today are made according to the recipes taught by Sang Luo. Naturally, the Shen family can make the same ones. In order to make them look no different from the papers on the market, they bought large sheets of uncut paper and made paper frames of the same size in the fourth courtyard. While experimenting with different papermaking methods, they also made some for their own use.
Now they chose a large piece of uncut mulberry paper, and divided the "Thousand Character Classic" into the upper and lower chapters, each responsible for half, and began to write.
Because it is a teaching material, to a certain extent it is actually a copybook for the enlightenment of these people who are just beginning to learn calligraphy, so it goes without saying that it takes it very seriously.
Speaking of He Changshi, he was so excited that he couldn't sleep at night because he saw that the work he was responsible for would make great progress. The reason was that Zeng Ziqian would definitely be promoted after his three-year term because his political achievements were too good. And he had a certain possibility of becoming the next governor of Shezhou. If he started to educate people at this time, there might not be much effect during Zeng Ziqian's term, but it might be a great achievement during his term.
After all, not everyone is lucky enough like Zeng Ziqian to be promoted after only three years in office.
Therefore, running the local school well now is not only his duty as the chief historian of Shezhou, but more likely it is paving the way for himself in the future. How can he not be excited?
He was so excited that he fell asleep in the late night. He went to the yamen in high spirits early in the morning. He wanted to start right away, but then he thought of all the advantages of the Daxingzhuang School that Concubine Fan had mentioned, so he suppressed his eagerness. When the sun set and it was noon, he left the city and went to Daxingzhuang.
Once you enter the village, you don't need to ask for directions. You can hear the sound of reading from afar, and you can easily find the school by following the sound.
A light was coming through a rammed earth house. Many people were standing by the two windows and outside the door. There were half-grown children, teenage girls, and young men in their twenties. He Changshi approached and found that they were all reading along.
There was no room left by the window, so he stood behind a few shorter children and leaned his head to look inside.
I originally wanted to see what Concubine Fan had said about the grand scene of forty or fifty students attending class at the Daxingzhuang School, but after just one glance, my eyes were attracted by the three board walls right in front of the classroom.
The middle piece is black with white words written on it. It should be the blackboard and chalk that Concubine Fan mentioned. The two pieces on the left and right are too familiar. They are the walls outside the provincial school, county school, and government office. However, this one is much simpler in comparison. Pasted on it are excerpts from the Thousand Character Essay.
A young lady who looked about ten years old was holding a wooden stick that was narrower and longer than the paper. She led the reading and pointed at the corresponding sentences with the stick. Perhaps to avoid damaging the paper, the end of the stick seemed to be wrapped in cloth.
Textbook, isn’t this a textbook?
Concubine Fan did not mention this, so I guess this is something the Shen family added today.
He Changshi was excited.
This is good! This is good! Donating books is also free!
After standing by the window and listening for another half a quarter of an hour, he stopped staying there and went to the Shen family to visit Shen Lie and his wife.
Fan Fei Niang heard about the textbook solution the next day and was extremely delighted.
During the second half of the first lunar month, Shezhou was bustling with both private and local schools.
Far away in the capital, in the court, the emperor and his ministers had been discussing the issue of food shortage in the army for several days in a row.
At a loss.
It has been five years since the founding of the Great Qi Dynasty, which is actually less than four years. In the beginning, they occupied few prefectures and counties, and they conquered the country later. In the beginning, every time they conquered a place, they would issue an edict to exempt taxes for three years to ensure the safety of the people. Now, there are very few prefectures and counties that can collect taxes.
At first, the victors could seize food and grass from the losers, and local nobles also donated food, and supporters also contributed a lot. But now the old foundation has been used up, but fortunately last year the court mastered the papermaking technology and blocked the salt and iron monopoly, so the treasury at least had money coming in. Since last year's autumn harvest, the states have been ordered to buy food from the people. Until now, the total amount of food reported by the states for the court to buy is not enough to support the army until June.
The three major expenses of the imperial court were maintaining officials, maintaining the army, and building and securing the people.
Officials now rely entirely on official land and money-collecting officials for their support, not to mention building and maintaining peace for the people. The emperor is now most afraid of hearing reports of natural disasters, because the maintenance of the army alone is enough to overwhelm the court, and it is completely unable to provide disaster relief.
However, the civil war had just ended and foreign enemies were surrounding us, so we dared not reduce the number of troops.
The emperor and his ministers all knew that this year's grain could be purchased with real money, and they could also squeeze some money from the wealthy and powerful families, but what about next year?
Are the aristocratic families so easy to exploit? If they were so easy to exploit, the national treasury would not have paid money to make the states and counties buy grain, and they still haven't bought enough grain.
Everyone has his own plans. The imperial court wants to squeeze a stone of grain from the aristocratic families, and the aristocratic families also want to get a piece of meat from the imperial court!
…
"Your Majesty, in my humble opinion, it is still better to collect land tax from the people." This was the Minister of Revenue.
Xue Yan directly retorted: "Since the imperial edict has been issued to exempt land taxes for three years, many counties have only exempted land taxes for one or two years, and now they are collecting land taxes again. Isn't this a breach of trust with the people?"
"Then Lord Xue has a brilliant idea. The army would be in turmoil if it were to be without food for half a month, let alone half a year. If Your Majesty is worried about losing trust with the people, I think it is not difficult to do so. Just change the name of the tax collection."
"We can think of a way! Wouldn't it be a breach of trust if we change the name? Lord Chen has mastered the art of covering one's ears and stealing the bell!"
"How is this like covering one's ears and stealing a bell? Who hasn't done this in every dynasty?"
"The previous dynasty was the best among them, so it only lasted for a few decades before it fell! Do you think you want the Great Qi Dynasty to fall in the second generation as well?"
Then someone proposed the military farming system, which was again countered.
"It's not like no one has done this before, hundreds of years ago, but what happened in the end? The settlement households had to provide military supplies, and their income was far lower than that of civilian households, so in the end, the settlement households became fugitives. Of course, it was useful in the early days, but what we lack now is land? What we lack is people to farm the land! There are only 1.6 million households in the country now. Who would be willing to be a settlement household if they can be a civilian household? If we forcibly demarcate the settlement households, will those fugitives who are now hiding in the mountains and swamps dare to come back?"
…
A group of court officials were arguing with each other, their tongues were about to spark, but no solution could be found.
The emperor listened for more than three quarters of an hour, and a deep frown was already carved between his brows. At this time, the guard of Taiji Hall entered the hall and reported that Zeng Ziqian, the governor of Shezhou, had returned to the capital and was now outside the hall, requesting an audience with the emperor!
The ministers who were about to quarrel suddenly fell silent. They turned to look at the guard for no apparent reason. They were speechless. It was the middle of a court session, and an official from outside the court interrupted and asked for an audience? Was Zeng Ziqian crazy? What a shame.
Then he reacted suddenly.
etc!
who?
Zeng Ziqian???!!!!!!!!!
Zeng Sanlang is back in Beijing again??? !!!!!!
…
Yes, that’s right, Zeng Sanlang, the legend among the governors, has returned to Beijing again! ! ! !
The governors of other states were lucky enough to return to the capital once a year, and they were not even familiar to the emperor. But he was different, he did something big every few months!
All the court officials raised their eyes to look at the throne, and sure enough, the emperor, who had been frowning and with veins bulging on his forehead, became excited when he heard Zeng Ziqian's request for a meeting. He sat up straight and even leaned forward slightly. His irritability disappeared and he even had a smile on his face.
The word "Xuan" came out of his mouth so excitedly, urgently and loudly!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
