Li Er wanted to personally finance the papermaking industry. He had had the idea for this a long time ago.
After all, more than a month has passed since the imperial examination edict was issued.
In the past month, many scholars have indeed taken part in the imperial examinations, and the imperial court has also attracted many talents.
But the problem is also obvious.
First of all, in addition to the scholars who are lucky enough to pass the exam, there are also those who have not passed the exam.
For those who failed the exam, it is certainly impossible to tell them directly that you are not good, go back to farming and don’t waste your efforts.
Of course I will take part in next year's imperial examination. You can't study in vain for so many years.
There is a concept that Li Sheng knows but Li Er and others do not, and that is sunk cost.
But Li Er and others still understood the meaning, as did Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, Wei Zheng and others.
and……
The problem lies here.
Because before, there was no imperial examination.
When it comes to reading, there isn’t much direction. Basically, except for the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, I just read whatever comes to my mind.
Because of the troubled times, there are many people who read military books, read strategists like Zhang Liang, and the Yin and Yang family.
Generally speaking, some people are particularly proficient in certain aspects, but the imperial examination is for recruiting officials, so they must know more or less about other aspects.
For example, regarding etiquette, you must have known how to handle the procedures in the last court.
There are also some etiquette and so on. If you make a suit and go shopping, you definitely can't wear a dragon robe to go shopping - what do you want to do?
I also read a lot of military books, but...
If you ask him to shoot an arrow, he won't even know how to draw the bow or hold it...
This is also one of the Six Arts of Confucianism.
Although reading military books is very important, if you don't even know the basic knowledge of drawing a bow and carrying weight, the court will definitely not accept you.
Therefore, a large number of scholars are faced with an urgent need——
Make up a lesson!
This supplementary class is not like the later generations who feel that they have not improved enough after going to school. They need to further consolidate their knowledge and participate in extracurricular tutoring.
But many courses are completely blank and need to be learned from scratch.
so,
For this reason, a large number of scholars need to buy books and enter academies...
And recently, Li Er naturally heard about it too.
In many academies, admission fees and the size of academic gifts have skyrocketed.
Li Er was very angry about this.
He naturally knew that most of these academies were controlled by prominent local families.
How can ordinary people get into it?
Only once in a while, a particularly outstanding person will be considered to be taken in. In the future, someone will be given a surname and given a house, and they will be cut off from the family as soon as possible. They will be given to our Taiyuan Wang family/Xingyang Zheng family/Qinghe Cui family... as a servant.
.
But in this situation, Li Er really had nothing to do.
He can't just close these academies because they raise tuition fees randomly, right?
Then students from poor families would have no place to study.
But... that's all. Anyway, even if the price doesn't increase, how can ordinary children from poor families go to these lofty academies? These are places where children from rich families who grew up with fine clothes and fine food, and gilded carriages go.
Therefore, although the impact was bad, the damage to the great cause of the imperial examination was not that great.
What is truly devastating is the skyrocketing price of paper and books.
This matter really cost the lives of these poor students.
A book usually only needs to be frugal for a period of time to save money.
Now, the few acres of thin farmland and several dilapidated houses at home may not be enough even if they are all sold.
For countless scholars, if they fail in the imperial examination once, it almost means that they will never take the imperial examination again in this life.
Some people go home and hang themselves, some people take poison...
After all, the imperial court clearly promised to select the best candidates for official positions, but there is a huge mountain at the door of this official career. Even if you want to work hard, you don’t know where to use it...
How can all the scholars in the world not hate this?
Public dissatisfaction boiled.
But the sad thing is that most scholars don’t even know who they should hate...
Li Er won the battle of Xuanwumen by relying on the support of the people, and he has always been on the side of the mud-legged people.
How could he look past something like this?
So as soon as the production matters of the Divine Arm Bow were settled, Li Er immediately approached Du Ruhui and wanted to start a papermaking industry in Chang'an immediately!
That’s right, not a workshop, but an industry!
Li Er was so impressed by Li Sheng's words.
Just because of the different production methods, the production capacity directly increased tenfold and hundreds of times.
This is the difference between industry and workshop!
Therefore, even if Li Er had very little money left on hand to build the God Arm Bow and could not build a large-scale enterprise, which was what Li Sheng called "big industry," he still called it industry.
He had a vague feeling that this "industry" led to another completely unfamiliar but colorful world.
And Li Sheng gave him the feeling of holding such a whole world in his hands!
…
"Oh, isn't this a little Taibao? Why is he free today?"
Outside Youzhou City, on the roadside in the countryside.
An old farmer who had just finished working in a field was wiping his sweat when he suddenly saw a handsome young man passing by.
This young man was dressed in coarse shorts and shorts, but his features were very delicate and noble. Although he didn't have any luxurious clothes, he gave people a sense of natural heroism.
Needless to say, this guy is definitely Li Sheng.
"Haha, Lao Liutou, you still ask me, when will your kid go to take the exam?"
"Current for the exam? Are you kidding? My child has just finished reading the Four Books and Five Classics. He is going to Chang'an to rush for the exam. At the very least, he has to finish reading again..."
Li Sheng was secretly amused and found that parents seemed to be like this no matter what era.
But as he spoke, the old farmer suddenly sighed.
"Oh, it's a pity that the price of books has increased so fast recently. My child is also studying hard, but... I can't afford it. Little Taibao, do you think I should sell the ten acres of farmland at home?"
"What?"
Li Sheng was a little confused when he heard this. What book did wdnmd read to sell more than ten acres of land?
Old Liu Tou worked hard to cultivate this field from wasteland. He fled here a few years ago and helped a lot.
Now it is fertile land, and it would cost dozens of taels to sell it.
Does it cost so much to read Burn Jue?
But then he remembered that it seemed that recently...
Li Sheng paused and said seriously,
"Here, Old Liu Tou, don't sell it yet. If you have time, go to Chang'an. There are cheap books for sale there!"