The exploration team led by Cao Jin, a veteran prospector from Jiangxi, Xu Xiake, a travel expert, and Abel Tasman, an East India Company explorer, has been working for several years.
People often picked up nugget gold in places where two or three surrounding counties were explored. A few gold veins were found, but they were all of low quality. It is estimated that the gold dug out could barely recover the mining costs.
The only result of his work was that Xu Xiake wrote several more travel notes, recording the landscape, terrain, customs and customs of those counties.
It was not until last year that the exploration team finally discovered high-quality gold deposits in Changning County, Hengyang Prefecture.
Historically, this gold mine was discovered in the Qing Dynasty. It was secretly mined by the private sector at the beginning, and was state-owned at the end of the Qing Dynasty. In the 1980s of New China, a second exploration of the old mine was carried out, and the largest gold mine in the country at that time was discovered!
As rewards, Cao Jin and Xu Xiake were both given land and served as chief (seventh rank) and deputy chief (eighth rank) respectively in the Prospecting Institute of the Ministry of Industry.
Abel Tasman also obtained Nanjing household registration. Zhao Han also negotiated with the Governor of Batavia to send Abel's wife and children. As a result, the East India Company sent a letter saying that Abel's wife had remarried... I agree.
When he traded war horses for the first time, he sent Abel's son along with him.
This guy was so sad that he married a village girl in Changning County.
The village girl's family still looked down upon him, thinking that he was too ugly with red hair and green eyes, and that he had no official status and no land.
Abel had no choice but to write a letter to Zhao Han, asking for an official status as an advance on the next reward. Zhao Han couldn't laugh or cry, and felt that this person was still of some use, so he gave it to a low-ranking official from the ninth rank.
"Dang Dang Dang!"
The workers of the prospecting team are digging earth and rocks with shovels.
This time it was Xu Xiake who discovered the relevant plants, and Cao Jin and Abel determined the excavation site.
A piece of gravel was dug out. The old craftsman Cao Jin picked it up and looked at it. He then touched the knife in his hand and said happily: "It's a magnet. There's either copper or gold underneath!"
"Guanzi·Dishu Chapter": "Those with magnets on the top have copper and gold on the bottom."
This is a prospecting method used in China for two thousand years, and is useful for vertical ore bodies. A certain type of ore in the outer layer is called "ore seedling" or "ore guide", which has an indicative effect on the minerals in the inner layer.
In addition, it can also be identified by plants. Some plants will change color or shape after absorbing minerals.
Although the arrogant and experienced explorer Abel Tasman brought a set of European prospecting methods, he learned more skills in China.
The prospectors continue to dig deeper, and the next step is to try their luck.
If you have good luck and have rich ores, everyone will be happy; if you have bad luck and have poor ores, you will work in vain.
The workers were doing manual labor, while the three leaders sat aside to rest and observe.
Abel skillfully took out a Chinese cigarette rod, stuffed the cut tobacco into the pot, and said in Chinese: "Old Cao, lend me a fire."
Cao Jin had already drawn it and handed over the fire fold that had not yet been extinguished.
Xu Xiake was also fuming. He should have died last year. He contracted foot disease while traveling in Yunnan, and the chieftain sent people to carry him all the way back to Jiangsu.
Cao Jin asked: "Lao An, how old is your son?"
Abel Tasman's Chinese name is An Siwen. He replied: "He was nine years old, living in Lao Xu's house, and still learning to speak Chinese."
Cao Jin proudly showed off: "My eldest grandson is fifteen this year. Yesterday I received a letter from home saying that he got more than 300 names in the provincial examination."
Jiangxi was the first to open primary schools and middle schools. It has the largest number of students, the highest quality of students, and the most difficult exams. It is already very impressive to be able to take more than 300 students.
After all, it is the land of Longxing, and there are many candidates, so the top 100 students in Jiangxi this year can go to Nanjing to study as government-sponsored students.
That won't be possible next year. Nanchang University is about to be completed. From now on, government-sponsored students in Jiangxi can only study in Nanchang.
Cao Jin asked Xu Xiake again: "Does Xianggong Xu's family also have children taking exams?"
Xu Xiake plucked the tobacco with a dead branch and replied: "The eldest grandson and two grandnephews are all taking the provincial examination this year. I don't know how many they have passed."
Cao Jin smiled and said: "It happens that the silver reward has not been spent yet, so I will use it all to pay for my grandson's tuition. I heard people say that Jinling University is the Imperial College of the former dynasty. As long as you go there to study, you will be your husband."
Hubei was occupied relatively late, and now there are only primary schools. Middle schools will be established next year - the first batch of primary school students will graduate.
The situation in the areas north of the Yangtze River in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces is similar to that in Hubei. The students taking the provincial unified examination this time are all students from the south of the Yangtze River, and all of them are grade-skipping students. The same is true for Jinling Prefecture and Fujian Province.
Because studying normally is not enough to graduate from middle school.
As for Sichuan, Henan, and Shandong, they have even begun to set up primary schools.
Therefore, for this provincial unified examination, only Jiangxi, Hunan and Guangdong participated in the province-wide unified examination.
Most low-income families cannot afford the annual tuition of thirty taels for self-financed students. Many wealthy families can afford it, but not everyone is willing to do so.
The first class of students at Jinling University is estimated to be only seven or eight hundred people.
Jinling University, like the Imperial College of the Ming Dynasty, adopts a credit system, with midterm and final exams, but the monthly exams are canceled (the Imperial College has monthly exams). You must complete the credits to graduate, and you can stay in school for up to three years, and you will not be able to complete the credits during the stay.
, then you can only get a certificate of graduation.
It's hard to get in and get out, so it's hard to graduate.
Scholars all over the world are very familiar with this system. Except for the different subjects, the rest are all the rules of the Imperial College. Although the Imperial College does not have grades, it uses a promotion system. Once you have completed a certain number of credits, you will be promoted to a more advanced class. Once you have completed all the credits, you will graduate.
distribute.
The Imperial College system of the Ming Dynasty was still very advanced, but unfortunately it was abolished in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang had high hopes for the Imperial College and invited famous teachers and Confucian scholars to teach him, and trained many officials.
But gradually, the imperial examination system kicked out the Imperial College.
Educated people are unwilling to be teachers in the Imperial College, because only management positions belong to officials. Teachers all want to be officials, so where can they be willing to teach in the Imperial College?
By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, all the teachers in the Imperial College were from the Juren family, and they were the type who could not even pass the Jinshi examination themselves.
Not only is the quality of teaching of the teachers worrying, but they also have no intention of teaching. They either study hard to prepare for the Jinshi examination, or participate in literary conferences to make friends with fellow students.
In addition, you can donate money and food to become prison students, but the quality of the school's students is also rubbish. As a result, there were tens of thousands of prison students in the late Ming Dynasty, but they did not go to the Imperial College to study at all.
Xu Xiake leaned on a tree trunk and smoked a cigarette, and said: "This Jinling University is indeed like the Imperial Academy of the Ming Dynasty. What your Majesty did is exactly the same as the Ming Taizu. Well, let's see, as long as the imperial examination is resumed, within a few decades, Jinling will be
The university will be abolished like the Imperial College."
Cao Jin said with a smile: "It's different. Your Majesty doesn't create lowly households. My ancestors have been craftsmen for generations. How can I study and take exams in the Ming Dynasty? Everyone says that Your Majesty is a Bodhisattva who descended to earth and came to rescue people in need. We craftsmen have finally turned around.
Yes, there is hope for this life. I don’t have any hope for my sons, but my grandchildren might be able to become officials.”
Xu Xiake remained silent. Sixty percent of his family's land was taken away, and his life was getting worse day by day.
Well, you can’t say that. At least Jiangsu’s water conservancy facilities are becoming more and more perfect, and they are no longer as afraid of drought as before. In the past, there were severe droughts for many years. No matter how much land the landlords had, they would leave the land far away from the water source uncultivated. Moreover, the current price of food
It's also stable. Even if food prices soared due to the war, they were still countless times lower than during the Chongzhen period.
It's a pity that the farmers are disobedient.
In a big landowner's family, each person can reserve twenty acres of land. How can he cultivate it by himself? The master, his wife, and the young master's daughter are not qualified for farming.
Then we can only rent it out, and the rent cannot be set high. If the land rent is higher, no one will be willing to farm, because the farmers also own land.
The landowners in the south, as the situation stabilized, gradually forgot about the famines and wars, and how cruel the bandits were to them. They only remembered that in the past, their fields were connected to each other, and their servants were countless. The tenants made offerings to their gods and Buddhas, and they met each other.
They all had to kneel down to speak.
Nowadays, there is not much farmland left, domestic slaves have become hired laborers, and the tenant farmers are still proud of themselves.
Landlords are so hateful!
They don't remember the good things about Zhao Han, but only the bad things about Zhao Han. While letting their children study and become officials, they slander him in private. Some people even spread rumors and fabricate dirty information about Zhao Han.
The landlord class wants to fight back, but lacks the strength and cannot unite. Their resentment is concentrated on the down-and-out scholars - the so-called down-and-out scholars here are not poor scholars, but those scholars who are unwilling to start as small officials.
. Their official career was bleak, and combined with the resentment of the landlords, they began to write poems, articles, novels and plays, recalling the various benefits of the Ming Dynasty.
Even Emperor Chongzhen has become a holy king, and all his traitors are ruining the country!
The party strife in the Ming Dynasty continued into the literary world of Datong and the New Dynasty. The Donglin Party and the so-called eunuch Party wrote articles to insult each other, and they did not directly criticize each other, but they were hidden in operas and novels.
For example, in a novel, the villain is based on someone.
Zhao Han also sensed some signs of public opinion, and has now set a policy. After food is slightly sufficient, he will focus on moving the big families to the north, and he must tear the gentry and noble families into pieces!
The Xu family, where the eldest sister married, has been split into nine shares, and it will have to be split at least one more time to feel at ease.
The Fei family also wanted to dismantle some of them and send them to Shandong and Henan.
Two royal families have been demolished, how dare the rest of the wealthy families gossip?
It was getting late, Xu Xiake and others went down the mountain to return to the village, and happened to encounter a group of criminals being escorted by the police.
Xu Xiake was quite surprised and asked: "You are still forced to work as a miner at such an old age?"
The official pointed at the ten people and said: "They are all big traitors. This is Hong Chengchou, this is Zuo Liangyu, this is Sun Dingliao, this is Meng Xiongbi..."
Cao Jin spat: "Bah, shameless!"
Xu Xiake looked over curiously. Hong Chengchou raised his hands to cover his face, but Zuo Liangyu looked in a daze.
"Cough cough cough..."
Zuo Liangyu suddenly coughed, and when he covered his mouth, his palms were full of blood. He did not have the plague, but he was really sick, and he was expected to die in the mine in half a month.
The official pointed at Hong Chengchou's pigtails and said with a smile: "Look at it, everyone, it's a money rat's tail. Your Majesty did not allow them to cut off their pigtails. There were people watching all the way. This pig's tail is so ugly. I don't know what the Tatars think."
of."
Hong Chengchou covered his face, but he couldn't cover his braids because his hands were shackled.
Cao Jin walked over, grabbed the braid and pulled it, and said with a smile: "It's really similar to a pig's tail."
Hong Chengchou's head was pulled back, and he felt a great shame and humiliation in his heart. He was afraid of death, so he surrendered to the Manchus; he was afraid of death, so he was captured by the Datong Army; he was afraid of death, so he was taken all the way to Jiangxi.
But now, he finally wanted to commit suicide and looked for an opportunity to finish it off.
