amaotonovel Chapter 1096: Support the bold to death, starve the timid to death
Chapter 1096: Support the bold to death, starve the timid to death
Yang Shaofeng said with a smile, "This method is quite hateful, Your Highness would be best to think twice before acting."
Zhu Biao smiled dismissively and said, "What's the point of being hated? As long as the problem of lacking teachers is solved, that's all that matters."
As the saying goes, "When you have too many lice, you don't feel itchy; when you have too much debt, you don't worry." Anyway, brother-in-law, the things you've done are quite hateful, so it's no big deal if you take on more of the blame for your younger brother.
Ding Yufei, the prefect of Yingtian, is a witness.
Besides, aren't there also the Duke of Han and the Marquis of Chengyi?
If all else fails, there are still South Kong and North Kong who can be used as scapegoats.
Even if I am hated, no one will hate me.
Yang Shaofeng was unaware that Zhu Biao had already chosen a scapegoat. He simply smiled and said, "The teachers at the prefectural school must be well-versed in both ancient and modern knowledge, and the teachers at the county school must also be extremely learned. At the very least, they must have the knowledge of a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations)."
"But what kind of teachers are needed for community schools, especially those at the elementary level?"
"They don't need to be well-versed in ancient and modern knowledge, nor do they need to be extremely learned."
"All they need is to be able to read, understand the textbook, and explain the textbook to the children."
"Let alone whether one is a Jinshi or not, even if one is just a Xiucai, or even born with the ability, one is qualified."
“Your Highness could easily give the students of the prefectural and county schools an additional practical course—before they participate in the imperial examinations, they must teach in the community schools for half a year.”
Zhu Biao finally understood why Yang Shaofeng said this method was quite hateful.
In the past, one could participate in the imperial examinations as long as one's knowledge was sufficient, and if one passed the examination and became a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest level of the imperial examinations), one could become an official.
The current imperial examination system requires students to progress from community schools to county schools, and from county schools to prefectural schools. In between, they must work as clerks in local government offices to accumulate practical learning points. If they do not have enough points, they cannot participate in the imperial examination.
Moreover, even after passing the imperial examination, one could not directly become an official. One had to take turns working in various ministries, supervisory offices, temples, and monasteries, and only after six months, if one met the evaluation criteria, would one be granted an official position.
To be fair, the officials selected through this method are almost all promising talents in the officialdom; none of them are weaklings.
However, this selection method was also very unpopular. Students had almost no rest time during their studies, and if they were not careful, they could easily fail their studies and lose their chance to take the imperial examination.
Now there's another practical course available: teaching in social studies...
Zhu Biao could almost imagine how much criticism this regulation would attract once it was introduced.
Then, Zhu Biao smiled meaningfully and said, "Brother-in-law, you might as well write a letter to Wu Ju, the prefect of Yangzhou—it just so happens that the Southern and Northern branches of the Duke Yansheng's family are all in Yangzhou."
The newly appointed prefect of Yingtian, Ding Yufei, wished he could just cover his ears.
The Crown Prince and the Imperial Son-in-Law of the current dynasty are so openly plotting against the Duke of Yansheng's mansion. Is this something a mere prefect like myself should listen to?
Most importantly, this is not just a matter of whether His Highness the Crown Prince's image has collapsed.
It's fine if this news doesn't leak out, but once it does, I'll be the prime suspect!
Ding Yufei grew increasingly uneasy as he thought about it, while Zhu Biao and Yang Shaofeng discussed how to shift the blame and trick others as they walked forward.
Zhu Biao and Yang Shaofeng stopped when they approached a shop with a sign that read "Ningyang Supply and Marketing Cooperative".
Looking at the bustling crowd in the shop, Zhu Biao couldn't help but glance at Yang Shaofeng with a strange expression before walking into the shop first.
Upon entering the shop, Zhu Biao's expression immediately became even more peculiar.
I just want to ask, which decent family's shop would have a sign that says "No beating customers without cause"?
Ding Yufei's expression also became extremely strange.
What a ridiculous excuse for banning beatings of guests without cause!
So you can beat up customers without any reason?
Ding Yufei was internally ranting, while Zhu Biao walked to a shelf, picked up a blue and white porcelain plate, and then looked at the price tag on the shelf, which clearly read "Five wen".
The price marked at the market was 6,250 cash.
Zhu Biao turned to Yang Shaofeng and asked, "Brother-in-law, this thing sells for five copper coins..."
Yang Shaofeng said "Oh", and said, "The total cost of this thing from production to being put on the shelf should be between two and three coins - in the past, mixing mud relied entirely on manpower, but now it relies entirely on water power, wind power or animal power, which has saved a lot of costs in this aspect alone."
Zhu Biao pointed in the direction of the meeting hall and said, "What I'm worried about are those foreign envoys and merchants. After all, the price difference is too big. They won't let anyone secretly buy from the common people."
Yang Shaofeng looked at Zhu Biao with the kind of care one would give a person with intellectual disabilities, and said, "Your Highness, rest assured, their merchant ships will be inspected before setting sail, and there is a special department to verify the quantity of goods they have purchased."
"If they send people to buy up goods in large quantities among the people, the number of goods leaving the customs will not match up."
"If it's just a small purchase... after all, they're all used to being poor, so making a little profit is fine."
"What we really need to guard against are the maritime merchants of our Great Ming Dynasty."
“These people have the advantage of location and people. They can make a lot of money by quietly purchasing goods and transporting them to the sea. As long as they can avoid the patrolling navy, they can make a fortune.”
“Many people have gotten used to doing this.”
"The Dengzhou Fleet alone has uncovered several cases of maritime merchants engaging in this practice."
At this point, Yang Shaofeng couldn't help but shake his head again.
There's no way to investigate everything.
You might investigate Zhang San one minute and then Li Si the next.
The profits here are absolutely astonishing—they can buy more than three hundred blue and white porcelain plates for one string of cash, and as long as they can avoid maritime inspections, they can resell them to foreign merchants at the same price, making a profit of three hundred times over.
Not to mention that they wouldn't smuggle just three hundred or so blue and white porcelain plates at a time.
As the saying goes, nobody does a business that loses money, but with a profit of over 300 times, even at the risk of being beheaded, there are plenty of people eager to do it.
This perfectly illustrates the saying, "The bold get rich, the timid starve."
Even the vassal merchants discovered a new way to make money—Ming Dynasty merchants would find a way to get them a shipload of "cheap goods," which they would then buy at half the price of the border markets. When they approached the Ming Dynasty's inspection offices and tax collection points, they would have the ships carrying the "cheap goods" go far away.
Even if they were caught by the navy on a temporary patrol at sea, it wouldn't matter. If they could "communicate," they could pay to avoid trouble. If they really couldn't "communicate," they could just accept their bad luck. As long as they dealt in cheap goods a few more times, they could earn back the money fined by the patrol department.
As for completely banning these merchants from the vassal states?
Behind these merchants from vassal states were envoys from those states, and the merchants who appeared were just puppets they had put forward. If one was suppressed, they could simply replace him with another.
Some of these merchants were even backed by the rulers of their respective vassal states.
Simply trying to solve the problem by banning local merchants is like a pipe dream.
Thinking of this, Yang Shaofeng couldn't help but think of Mosiha and Manlahafis again.