What Chen Jingke wanted to do was to give eye drops to the gentry and provoke conflicts between the gentry and Guan Long. The purpose was to popularize learning through the struggle between the two families.
As long as knowledge becomes popular, the middle and lower classes who have mastered the knowledge will naturally find ways to fight for power for themselves, thus breaking the existing world order.
Fishing in troubled waters, only then can he take the opportunity to implement reforms and ultimately gain more vitality for the people.
"The greatest advantage of the gentry is that they control the right to interpret knowledge and thus have the right to speak."
"Your Majesty wants to attack them simply by fighting for the right to speak. If you want to fight for the right to speak, you must take back the right to interpret knowledge from them."
"In the past, it was limited by the difficulty of copying books, and the court had no solution. But now with printing, the biggest problem has been solved."
"In the past, paper could only be made from rattan, but now it can be made from bamboo, wood and even weeds. With the advent of shredders, the price of paper has dropped several times."
"In this way, the imperial court can print more books and sell the books at low prices to those who are just outsiders."
"Although the grassroots are unstable, they can distinguish who is strong and who is weak, and who can benefit them. As long as they are interested in the court, the nobles will slowly lose their right to speak."
"In fact, the best way is for the court to cultivate its own talents and establish a top-down academic and political system."
"Set up schools in townships and villages to teach good people with no basic background to read. Then set up county schools in each county, and select the best from the township schools to enter the county schools."
"Establish a state school in the state, and select the best from the county school to study in the state school. These students have no background. They have received education from the imperial court since childhood, and the only one they can rely on is the imperial court."
"The imperial court could bypass the influence of the gentry and select officials directly from among them. This would be the most fatal blow to the gentry."
Li Shimin frowned slightly and said: "Although the method is good, it is expensive and the court does not have so much money and food to support this strategy."
Chen Jingke was also helpless. He was very clear about the tax policy in the early Tang Dynasty. There was no commercial tax, no salt and iron franchise, and head tax exemptions from time to time.
The only tax that can be stably collected is the local tax, and the annual income is only more than 3 million yuan in grain.
That is to say, in the early Tang Dynasty, the government army system was adopted, which did not require military pay. Local officials did not pay wages directly, but adopted the job field system.
Zhitian means dividing a certain amount of land in each place as the property of the government, from which the salaries of officials and the consumption of the government are derived.
Otherwise, these two items alone could bring down Datang's finances.
But this cannot be the case when establishing an academic and administrative system. Building a school to support so many teachers and students is too costly, and it is difficult to establish a complete academic and administrative system just by dividing job fields.
Unless productivity is improved, the country's fiscal revenue is increased, and the cost of training students is reduced.
However, Chen Jingke had already thought of this. It was impossible to popularize education by relying on the productivity of agricultural civilization, and he was not naive enough to do this in the Tang Dynasty at this time.
But local education can still be achieved: "It is indeed difficult to realize township schools and village schools in the short term, but county schools and state schools can still be established."
"It mainly recruits children from wealthy families. If you want to study, you can pay. I believe that good families in the Tang Dynasty will enthusiastically send their children to the school. There is no shortage of people in the Tang Dynasty who can afford to study. What they lack is the opportunity to study."
In ancient times, there was a lack of opportunities to study. Not only the common people could not afford to study, but also many wealthy families. The landlords could not find anyone who could read, so whoever knew how to count could take charge of the family business.
It's just that the poor cannot afford to study, and the wealthy families have no channels to study, because the opportunity to study is monopolized by the cultural group headed by the gentry.
We often see in film and television works that wealthy landlords invite academics to come to their homes to teach their children to study. This became a common phenomenon after the Song Dynasty.
At this time, it was still the Tang Dynasty, and the right to education was still monopolized by the gentry.
If compulsory education is not feasible, then commercial education should be established. Build schools and ask wealthy landlords to collect money so that they can send their children to the schools.
Any wealthy landowner with some foresight would not miss such an opportunity, so that he could crack open a crack in the knowledge monopoly of the gentry.
The next step is to find ways to increase productivity and promote social progress materially.
After thinking about it, Li Shimin finally nodded and said: "That's feasible, is there anything else?"
Chen Jingke pondered for a while before saying: "The other is the imperial examination system, combined with the academic and political system, which is the real trump card and can completely end the gentry era."
"But the imperial examination system is a double-edged sword and will have very serious consequences."
"Oh?" Li Shimin suddenly became interested and said, "Tell me in detail."
Now that he had opened his mouth, Chen Jingke did not hide anything. He explained the three-level imperial examination system of county examination, state examination and Beijing examination.
"In the past, the gentry controlled the channels for studying, and ordinary people did not have the opportunity to study. In fact, the most recruited students in the imperial examination were the disciples of the gentry."
"If the imperial court establishes an academic and political system to cultivate a large number of talents, then these people can directly participate in competition with the children of the gentry..."
"With such a two-pronged approach, the nobles will be pulled down from the altar and become ordinary wealthy families. This method can even have an impact on Guanlong."
Li Shimin's eyes were frighteningly bright, but he did not express his position. Instead, he said: "You said that the imperial examination is a double-edged sword. What are its disadvantages?"
Chen Jingke said: "The disadvantage is that it will give rise to a huge imperial examination bureaucracy, which will form a huge interest group in the countryside. By then, the imperial court will lose control of the countryside."
"The county level and above were under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, while the county level and below were controlled by a huge group of local gentry. This is the evil consequence of the imperial examination."
This matter is not difficult to understand, at least it is not difficult for Li Shimin to understand. Therefore, his excitement slowly calmed down. Each matter has its own advantages and disadvantages, and it is difficult for him to make a decision.
But...he took a deep look at Chen Jingke.
The family behind him is too terrifying, and their understanding of the world is too clear. Not only can they think of countermeasures to break the situation, but they can also see through the consequences of these countermeasures.
Their eyes seem to be able to see through the future.
But at the same time, he was also curious about another thing: how did those people manage to teach mediocre people like Chen Jingke to be so outstanding.
I think it must have cost a lot of money.
It can be seen from this that Chen Jingke's identity in their family must not be simple, and he is probably a direct descendant.
In this way, in terms of status, she is worthy of her own girl.
"I still need to carefully consider this matter. You must not say anything about what I said today to outsiders."
Chen Jingke naturally would not make himself uncomfortable and said: "Don't worry, I will tell you and my aunt these words, not even the master."
He knew that Li Shimin was already moved, but the matter was so important that he had to consider it carefully, and even consulted relevant confidants before he could decide what to do.
He is not worried that Li Shimin will abandon it. If he does, Li Shimin will no longer be Li Shimin.
In fact, Li Shimin didn't know at all that the era of gentry was not the only one that would end with the popularization of knowledge. The entire world would be divided into two different eras.
One bad move might end the Tang Dynasty.
The power of knowledge is so great that it can change the world.
Seeing that the matter had been discussed, Changsun Wuguo on the side also breathed a sigh of relief and changed the subject:
"I have collected a lot of cotton seeds. According to the flower farmer, it is time to plant them. Jing Ke, do you know how to grow cotton? You can come over and take a look."