The storm is coming.

A naval order suddenly complicated the situation in Champa, which had been gradually stabilizing.

The news spread in the market, and even the leader of the Cao Gang, Long Dongqiang, spread the news that he had received the order.

There was only one day, and he had to do something.

Long Dongqiang, who had faced the threat from the Ming Dynasty, was more aware of the severity of the situation. If the navy wanted to intervene in the current gang situation in Champa, then choice was a very important issue.

Since it involves palace eunuchs, no one knows what the meaning behind this is.

With just his Cao Gang, he was unable to fight against the navy.

He needs help.

…

Zhu Ying could not have imagined that his simple words would cause such a stir in Champa.

This is too high a position.

As the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty and now the actual controller of the entire Ming Dynasty, if he stomps his feet casually, not only will the entire Ming Dynasty shake, but the aftershocks it brings will also be unbearable for the surrounding countries.

However, it is obvious that Zhu Ying does not have these ideas at the moment, or the emperors of all dynasties who have controlled the power of the world basically do not have such cognition.

The key factor here lies in the issue of information dissemination feedback.

Of course, no matter how big the commotion in Champa was, from Zhu Ying's perspective, it was just a ripple on the lake and could not cause much waves.

"How's the little guy doing lately? Are you still holding on?"

In the study, Zhu Ying, who was leisurely looking at the statistical data of each department, asked Ye Yueqing beside him with a smile.

He now rarely interferes with the power of officials, which is equivalent to completely letting go.

However, we still have to keep abreast of the changes in the entire Ming Dynasty, and the overall affairs have been reduced a lot.

Ye Yueqing felt a little distressed when she heard this. "I don't know what kind of magic potion you gave Wen Cheng. He persisted every day. It made me feel uncomfortable."

"I asked the imperial physician from the Imperial Hospital to accompany him all the time, always worried that something might go wrong with him. Can't you think of another way?"

Zhu Ying shook his head slightly: "Only those who endure the most hardships can become the best. He is the future crown prince of the Ming Dynasty, and a good physique is very important to him. I don't want future emperors of the Ming Dynasty to have poor health."

"Not only Wen Cheng, but also Wen Cheng's children and grandchildren will be like him in the future."

Perhaps Zhu Ying was just fooling around at first, but later realized that this was actually a very good training opportunity for the pampered princes and grandchildren of the emperor.

Throughout history, the succession issues caused by short-lived emperors usually cause turmoil in the entire country, mainly the surge in powerful ministers.

Ye Yueqing also knew that she could not interfere with Zhu Ying's decision and could only sigh.

"So many?"

At this time, Zhu Ying happened to turn to the statistics book and couldn't help but speak.

Ye Yueqing took a curious look.

All I saw was written on the top: A list of the examination candidates in various prefectures, counties and cities in the 31st year of Hongwu, with a total of 327,654 scholars.

This is a very exaggerated number.

In the past, scholars were not just poor scholars, but truly privileged ones.

No need to kneel when meeting an official, exemption from corvée labor, exemption from taxes, etc.

The imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty were conducted based on quotas. The total number of candidates in one session was only about four or five hundred across the country, and the candidates were selected based on their rankings.

Since the 25th year of Hongwu, when Zhu Ying was canonized as the crown prince, he has been gradually reducing the privileges of scholars and juren.

At the same time, schools were vigorously opened.

Initially, the Qunying Chamber of Commerce provided funds to set up schools in the capital, and then launched a five-year compulsory education system, which was directly rolled out across the country.

Since the 27th year of Hongwu, basically all prefectures and counties in the country have been completed, and most of the upper and middle counties have also been included. Only some particularly poor lower counties have not yet been completed.

In the 29th year of Hongwu, the privileges of scholar status were completely abolished.

Faced with such a situation, scholars all over the world naturally had a lot of complaints, but unfortunately Zhu Ying didn't care about their opinions at all.

People were talking about it for a while, but there was no news at the court. Even the memorials submitted to the emperor never mentioned this matter.

For a big family, the scholar's resources are not a big deal, and there is no need to offend the crown prince for it.

And people like landlords and wealthy tyrants could not unite to fight against the imperial court.

The more shoes you wear, the more concerns you have.

As for some old scholars, let alone them, at most they just complained a few words.

At the same time, at the end of the 30th year of Hongwu, Zhu Ying promulgated a new regulation, that is, the number of scholars admitted would no longer be restricted.

This news had actually been spread a long time ago, and Zhu Ying had also mentioned this matter at a court meeting, but it was delayed for half a year until the end of the year before it was implemented.

To put it simply, each province will issue a set of test papers, and then the candidates will answer them.

As long as you reach the top score, you will be given the title of scholar.

However, this title is obviously less prestigious than before, and the difficulty of the test paper is not that high.

The sudden appearance of more than 300,000 scholars may seem surprising, but it is actually normal.

However, this is the first time such a thing has happened in all dynasties, from ancient times to the present.

Because of the delay in collecting data, the statistics of last year's work were not completely completed until this year.

"How can we accommodate so many scholars? We can't just leave them there," Ye Yueqing asked with some confusion.

Zhu Ying smiled and said, "So, now is the time to make a major reform to the Ming Dynasty's official system."

In fact, Zhu Ying has always had ideas about reforming the official system.

How many people are there in the Ming Dynasty now?

With the development of Ming Dynasty's economy, the population exceeded 80 million in the last census.

The country has been peaceful and stable in recent years, the imperial court has encouraged people to have more children, and the population has continued to rise.

I'm afraid the number of babies being born has reached an extremely high limit.

Not to mention that people are now generally well-fed and well-clothed, even when they could not get enough food to eat before, people would just give birth as soon as they got pregnant, and continue to have children.

On the other hand, how many officials were there in the Ming Dynasty?

According to current statistics from the Ministry of Households, the total number of people registered as officials is more than 28,000, less than 30,000.

And these 30,000 officials had to govern the Ming Dynasty's population of 80 million.

Even in the case of separation of military and political power.

It is outrageous that a county magistrate, a local official, holds almost all power over people's livelihood.

If there is any lazy governance, the economy of the entire county will be completely stagnant and government affairs will pile up like a mountain.

The demands of the grassroots people are not met at all.

In other words, even now, most people tend to listen to the arrangements of their clan.

Imperial power still has difficulty reaching the countryside.

At this time, an eunuch came forward and reported: "Your Highness, His Majesty has summoned you."

Zhu Ying smiled at Ye Yueqing, having already guessed that it was about the three hundred thousand scholars.

He immediately got up and went to the Huagai Palace.

In the Huagai Palace.

Zhu Yuanzhang was scolding the Minister of Rites Ren Hengtai.

"This is simply nonsense. Why didn't you tell us earlier about such an important matter? How did you become the Minister of Rites?"

"Our eldest grandson doesn't understand these things. Don't you understand the key to the imperial examination after so many years in the Ministry of Rites?"

"Three hundred thousand is really a bold offer for a scholar. Since when did the scholars of our Ming Dynasty become so worthless?"

Zhu Yuanzhang's heart was bleeding.

Every scholar would be rewarded with land, at least ten acres of good farmland.

Three hundred thousand scholars, that's three million acres of fertile land, are you crazy?

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang actually did not know that the privileges of scholars had been cancelled.

Since little Wencheng was born, most of the imperial power has gradually been transferred to Zhu Ying.

These powers are jointly held by Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Ying, which means that they both have decision-making power.

Since he began to delegate power to court ministers, Zhu Yuanzhang gradually reduced the number of times he interfered in the arrangements for his eldest grandson.

One reason was that Zhu Yuanzhang was old and his energy was not up to par.

Secondly, it is also a way to put my trust in my eldest grandson.

Such behavior can be regarded as a smooth transition of imperial power. At least after his death, the entire Ming Dynasty will not be greatly shocked.

For the ministers, there is basically no difference between the Crown Prince's order and the Emperor's decree.

Zhu Yuanzhang did not completely ignore the affairs of the country, but his interests were mostly focused on taxation, military affairs, firearms, and some international affairs.

The Minister of Rites Ren Hengtai was completely confused.

He was doing things according to the Crown Prince's request.

If you haven’t told the Crown Prince yet, how will he tell him?

The Crown Prince directly issued an imperial decree. Did he want him to disobey the decree?

At this moment, Ren Hengtai didn't dare to put the blame on the crown prince, as that would only make him die faster.

He could only lie on the ground and kowtow: "Your Majesty, please forgive me! Your Majesty, please forgive me!"

Serving the emperor is like serving a tiger. He was really afraid that His Majesty would issue an order to have the Imperial Guards drag him out and chop him off.

Not to mention, Zhu Yuanzhang now actually has this idea.

At this time, the eunuch came to report: "Your Majesty, the Crown Prince has arrived."

"Let him in." Zhu Yuanzhang's face looked unhappy.

Zhu Ying outside the door didn't think much and walked in directly.

When he saw his eldest grandson, Zhu Yuanzhang's murderous aura immediately disappeared, but he still felt a little sulky.

"Grandpa, I have great news today. The number of scholars in our Ming Dynasty last year exceeded 300,000."

Zhu Ying said to Zhu Yuanzhang with a smile.

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, his face froze.

I wanted to be angry, but I suppressed it.

All I can say is, "Grandson, three hundred thousand scholars, what a burden this will bring to the Ming treasury."

As soon as these words came out.

The Minister of Rites Ren Hengtai, who was kowtowing below, was stunned for a moment.

The Minister of Revenue Zhao Mian and the Minister of Personnel Zhan Hui, who were standing respectfully beside them, were also stunned.

Only at this moment did they realize that His Majesty was unaware that the scholar's privileges had been revoked.

The Minister of Rites Ren Hengtai felt very aggrieved.

It's an unexpected disaster.

Zhu Ying paused and explained, "Grandpa, at the end of the year before last, I had already sent an order to the Ministry of Rites, asking them to cancel all the privileges of the scholars. Now the scholars only have the title, and the court doesn't care about anything else."

"Last year, I asked the Ministry of Rites to remove the quota for the admission of scholars. The standard answers on the examination papers will be used as the basis. Anyone who can achieve the A-grade score in each prefecture and state will be granted the title of scholar. This is how the 300,000 scholars came into being."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang realized that he seemed to have wronged the Minister of Rites.

But as the emperor, isn't the Minister of Rites completely blameless? Shouldn't he have told us in advance?

"Get up, you useless guy. You can't even explain this clearly." Zhu Yuanzhang scolded again.

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

This also made the Minister of Rites Ren Hengtai finally feel relieved.

My back was soaked with cold sweat.

If the Crown Prince had arrived later, he might have died unjustly.

After thinking for a while, Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand and said, "You guys go out first."

The six ministers bowed and then slowly retreated.

It was obvious that His Majesty wanted to talk to the Crown Prince alone, so Liu He and Jiang Lin naturally walked out.

"My great grandson, why are you giving so many scholars honors all at once? From now on, scholars will be everywhere."

Zhu Yuanzhang originally did not attach much importance to the imperial examination. He even suspended and cancelled it for a few years before resuming it later.

Like emperors of all dynasties, Zhu Yuanzhang also believed that too many officials should not be given.

If people are allowed to become officials too easily, others will not value their position and the imperial power will be weakened.

Therefore, the overall number of officials is greatly limited.

Although we are eager to recruit talented people, it is too exaggerated to recruit 300,000 scholars.

"I should have told you about this earlier, but I forgot. However, it's not too late now," Zhu Ying explained.

Zhu Yuanzhang had no temper with his eldest grandson, so he nodded and asked him to sit down and talk.

Zhu Ying had no reason to be polite, so he took Zhu Yuanzhang's teacup and took a sip, then he began to speak:

"We now have a population of 80 million in the Ming Dynasty. This is the previous number. It is estimated that it will exceed 10 million, but it has only been in the past two years."

"Such a huge number, but looking at the officials of our Ming Dynasty, there are only more than 20,000 people in total."

"For example, in the capital, including high-ranking officials from various places, the number of people who actually handle the affairs of the people is probably less than 20,000."

"Local officials have so many administrative tasks to handle that if they slack off, people's problems won't be dealt with in a timely manner, and there are still only a few officials who truly serve the people."

"Most officials, even if they don't take advantage of the people, don't do much in their positions."

"Besides, local officials have too much power. From a subtle perspective, this has affected the dignity of the court."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded. Such situations were actually very common in every dynasty.

However, blindly increasing the number of officials is not a good thing.

There were too many people in charge, which made the local area more chaotic and increased the salary burden of the court.

But for the Ming Dynasty today, officials' salaries are no longer a big deal.

Zhu Ying continued: "The current official system is fundamentally inherited from the previous dynasty, and even the Song Dynasty. The drawbacks here have never been solved."

"So my grandson has been thinking about how to reform the official system of the Ming Dynasty. Later, I thought that increasing the number of officials and refining their responsibilities might be a good way."

"That's why we want to relax the quota for scholars and increase the number of grassroots officials."