Just when Chen Jingke was worried about how to find all these people, an opportunity appeared.
He inquired that June 23 was the death anniversary of Wang Yu, the husband of Princess Tong'an.
In the 21st century, it no longer matters whether there is a death anniversary or not, but in ancient times this was a very important thing. On this day, the descendants of the deceased would pay homage.
It is not necessary to go to the grave. Some people are inconvenient to go out. They just need to ban entertainment on that day and place incense and candles at home as tribute.
Wang Yu's descendants were few and far between, and Wang Fangyi was the only one, and since he was still young and had not yet served as an official, he lived not far from the capital, so he was bound to come back to pay homage.
Otherwise, it is a great act of unfilial piety, and no one can bear this crime.
It was already early June, and there were only about ten days left before Wang Yu's death anniversary. He decided to find an excuse to go to Princess Tong'an's Mansion that day, and make sure to keep Wang Fangyi.
As for the excuse, it’s not easy to come up with. Isn’t it just natural to take the little Sizi out to play at my aunt’s house?
Even if you don't bring the little Sizi, and you have the shamelessness to visit as a quasi-consort, there will be no problem.
If it really doesn't work, you can have someone stop Wang Fangyi halfway. There are many ways.
Afraid of forgetting this matter, he also told Yi Nu and Yuzhu: "Remember something for me."
"I'm going to visit Princess Tong'an on June 23rd. Please inform me three or four days in advance so that I can prepare."
The two maids did not ask the reason, but solemnly recorded the incident in their notebooks.
While Chen Jingke was busy collecting talents, the outside world became turbulent due to the court's successive actions.
Faced with the imperial court's increasing pressure, the nobles did not sit still and wait for death.
First, they criticized the imperial court verbally and in writing. They did not dare to openly oppose the academic and political system. This was equivalent to offending all scholars in the world.
Instead, they targeted the "Nine Classics" annotated by Hongwenguan, criticized and slandered them from all angles, and deemed these books worthless.
It would be better to simply say that the emperor deliberately misinterpreted the true meaning of the sages and used it to enslave and poison living beings.
At the same time, they also began to attack the clan and the ministers of the DPRK. A certain clan bullied men and dominated women in the fish and meat village, and a certain minister was arrogant and domineering and took care of human life...
In short, in a very short period of time, almost all civil and military officials in the Manchu Dynasty became villains.
Even Zi Xiaoguan and Chen Jingke were no exception. They were branded as lackeys of the royal family, raping, torturing and killing civilian girls.
Fortunately, they were still concerned and did not target Sun Simiao.
Their methods don't stop there. In addition to building public opinion, they also use practical actions to obstruct the establishment of the academic and political system.
First, create difficulties in the census work, and induce uninformed people to evade or even resist the census, hoping to consume the energy of the court.
In addition, they also used the officials they had attracted to find various excuses to oppose and delay the establishment of the school.
It can be said that their action was very successful, and the entire water was muddied for a while.
However, from the perspective of the overall situation of the country, Datang's fundamentals are still as stable as Mount Tai, and there is no chaos as the nobles expected.
Li Shimin said excitedly: "The elders of Chen Jingke were right again. The gentry are just a bunch of paper tigers. They look scary but are actually just three axes. After playing with them, they are useless."
Changsun Wuji shook his head and said: "It would be unfair to say that they are paper tigers. The most powerful thing about the gentry is the network of relationships they have weaved over hundreds of years."
"But His Majesty separated them from Guanlong and the nobles by using feudal states, and separated them from wealthy families by academic administration and imperial examinations, thus breaking their network of relationships."
"If they lose their network of connections, they will become like fish out of water. If they can't jump around, they can only be slaughtered by you. However, you need to be careful of them jumping over the wall in a hurry."
Li Shimin gradually calmed down and said: "That's true. The most worrying thing is that they want to overturn the table and collude with foreign enemies to invade the Tang Dynasty after they can't win at cards."
Changsun Wuji nodded and said: "Liaodong, Xue Yantuo, Western Turks, Southwest Yi and Feng clan are all possible. Your Majesty should warn the border troops to take strict precautions to avoid being taken advantage of by the enemy."
Li Shimin said: "I have expected this a long time ago. The Western Turks have their own Hou Junji to deal with it."
"There is no need to worry too much in Liaodong. Gao Jianwu is a cowardly and conservative man. When he was so powerful, he didn't dare to join the invaders, and he doesn't dare to join the invaders now."
"Xue Yantuo's side..." When he said this, he took out a memorial and said, "You will know after reading it."
Changsun Wuji took it and looked at it, showing a shocked expression. After a while, he said: "I can't believe that Yi Nan, such a wise and powerful man, would make such a stupid mistake."
Why do you think so? It turns out that Yi Nan petitioned to make his eldest son and legitimate son khan.
To put it bluntly, while he was still alive, he divided Xue Yantuo into several parts and distributed them to his favored son, which can be called a typical representative of self-extension of favor.
Li Shimin said sarcastically: "Haha...Xue Yantuo is getting stronger and stronger and has signs of replacing the Eastern Turks. Originally, I was still thinking about whether to send troops to conquer while his power was still weak."
"Who would have thought that he would divide his own family among himself. When he dies, Xue Yantuo will immediately split up, and then it will no longer be a trouble to the Tang Dynasty."
Changsun Wuji said: "Yes, your Majesty should immediately agree to his request and canonize his two sons as Khans to prevent him from going back on his word."
Li Shimin said: "I will issue an edict tomorrow morning."
Changsun Wuji added: "But we have to be careful. This is Yi Nan's plan to deliberately paralyze us."
Li Shimin said with deep approval: "The auxiliary machine still understands me, and this is what worries me. But no matter what Yi Nan plans, we must use his plan to make it come true."
In the face of power, there is no father and son. He can make his own son a khan with just one sentence. But if he regrets and wants to take back the khan position of a certain son in the future, it will inevitably lead to the father and son turning against each other.
Whether he wanted to paralyze the Tang Dynasty or he really wanted to divide the family between his two sons. When he came up with this idea, the outcome was already doomed.
That's why Li Shimin and Changsun Wuji ridiculed him for being stupid.
Li Shimin added: "Yinan is in his prime, and I'm afraid that he will really become the second Jieli in his lifetime. So I plan to place the Eastern Turks' surrender in Baidaochuan. What do the auxiliary forces think?"
Changsun Wuji thought about it and said: "Baidaochuan is right under Xue Yantuo's nose, and there is a feud between the two sides. If Your Majesty places the Eastern Turks here, it may cause Yi Nan to alienate."
Li Shimin said: "Even if he didn't do this, could Xue Yantuo be of the same mind as the Tang Dynasty? After several years of recuperation, the Tang Dynasty has regained its vitality."
"With glass, sugar, and the Indo-China Peninsula as a granary, our Tang Dynasty can be said to have well-equipped troops. It is the time to use troops abroad."
"It's just that sending troops requires a reputation. Xue Yantuo has been pretending to be very respectful to the Tang Dynasty, so I can't use troops against him."
"Yi Nan will definitely not be able to bear the decision to settle the Eastern Turks' surrender in Baidaochuan. Once he sends troops to attack the Turks, we, the Tang Dynasty, will have a reason to send troops."
"Fighting like this several times will not only train our cavalry of the Tang Dynasty, but also weaken Xue Yantuo's power. We will accomplish multiple things with one stone."
"And the Eastern Turks' strength will inevitably be damaged if they are caught in the middle. We can take the opportunity to break them up and relocate them to the south."
"Give them Han names, wear Han clothes, teach them to farm and weave, and within ten years they will become Han... no, Tang people."
Changsun Wuji knew that this must be influenced by Chen Jingke, but he himself quite agreed with this assimilation policy.
In other words, when the Eastern Turks first surrendered, he supported the dispersal, resettlement and civilization.
It was just that Li Shimin himself was conservative at the critical moment and listened to Wen Yanbo's advice to preserve the Turkic tribes.
Later, Chen Jingke came out of the blue, completely changing Li Shimin's understanding in this regard, and made him choose the method of dispersed placement and education.
After struggling for so many years, he finally returned to the starting point, and Changsun Wuji couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
After talking about Xue Yantuo, the two brought the topic back to the beginning.
Li Shimin said: "Feng Ang has always wanted to separate himself and become king, so I will help him. One of the people who visited Zhuzi Island this time is his son Feng Zhidai."
Changsun Wuji said with admiration: "Your Majesty is wise. If no one is willing to be an enemy of Datang and you, I believe he will make the right choice."
"In this way, Liaodong, Xue Yantuo, Western Turks and Lingnan Feng clan are not of concern, leaving only the southwestern Yi."
Li Shimin said: "Although the verdict of the southwestern barbarians is uncertain, they are divided into several large tribes, and there are countless small tribes under the large tribes. Without a unified voice, it will be difficult for the nobles to contact them even if they want to."
"Even if we can persuade some tribes to rebel, it will not have much impact on our country, the Tang Dynasty."
"What's more, I have allocated some artillery to Michio. With his ability and the artillery, the southwestern Yi will not be able to make any waves."
Changsun Wuji was completely relieved and said: "In this way, Your Majesty can relax and solve the problems of the noble clan in one fell swoop."
…
Although the noble clan is powerful, the Guanlong Group is the one who really holds the sword. Most of the key positions are occupied by Guanlong and Xinxing Nobles.
With their support, the gentry's opposition seemed to be high, but it had almost no substantive effect.
What's more, this move also has the support of poor families and local wealthy households.
As Li Shimin said before, those who benefit the most from the official education system are poor families and large grassroots households.
They are the biggest sufferers of the wealthy noble families monopolizing knowledge and the path to officialdom.
Ordinary people don't even have enough to eat, so it doesn't matter whether they want to be an official or not. As long as their families are not short of money and have the capital to study and become officials.
But if you want to study, you will find that knowledge is in the hands of powerful nobles, but if you want to become an official, you will find that your path is blocked.
It can be said that they deeply hate the powerful nobles in their hearts.
It's just that they are weak and usually don't dare to offend the nobles. Now that the imperial court is taking the lead and is related to Long, and the nobles support it, they are naturally not willing to be lonely.
To build a school, you need land and a school building, right? We sponsor it for free. If you are short of money and food, right? We donate.
With the joint efforts of the three parties, academies sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and soon most states and counties had completed hardware preparations.
In some places, even students have been recruited, and they are just waiting for the teachers appointed by the court to be in place.
At this time, the Tang Dynasty had a total of 360 prefectures and 1,557 counties. Excluding Jisu Prefecture, there were almost 1,3400 counties.
There are so many states and counties. If one state has one state school and one county has one county school, there are a total of 2,000 academies.
Even if each academy has ten gentlemen, it would still require 20,000.
Even if Li Shimin has many talents in his pocket, he cannot fill such a huge vacancy.
But this matter couldn't trouble him. He didn't even need to worry about it. The teacher's matter had already been solved.
Yihe found Chen Jingke and said, "Zhenren, Kong Jijiu wants Wang Yuetan to make an announcement on his behalf."
Chen Jingke said curiously: "Oh, what kind of announcement?"
Yihe said: "You will know after reading the announcement about recruiting teachers."
As she spoke, she handed over a few pages of paper.
Chen Jingke took it and read it again. The article was indeed written by Kong Yingda. The content was very simple. The opening paragraph directly stated that as a descendant of Confucius, he wanted to inherit the legacy of his ancestors.
At the same time, he also told everyone that as heirs of Confucianism, he should also inherit this ambition. Now that the country is establishing an official education system, it is the best stage for Confucian disciples to realize their ambitions.
He called on Confucian scholars to take the initiative to apply to become teachers in the academy.
There is no need to be afraid of not being able to teach students well. All teachers recruited will be trained and will not be allowed to teach until they are qualified.
Of course, you can't be a gentleman for nothing, there are benefits.
All gentlemen in the academy can enjoy a salary, and can be admitted without examination. If they teach for five years, take the imperial examination and advance to the first class, they can directly become an official after ten years.
Moreover, this preferential treatment is only limited to the gentlemen recruited this year, and the gentlemen recruited in the future will no longer enjoy any preferential treatment except salary.
After reading this article, Chen Jingke couldn't help but sigh: "Sage and Confucius Jijiu are really smart. Once this announcement is issued, scholars who have no career will not go crazy."
"This move not only solves the problem of teachers, but also trains a large number of reserve officials for the country. It can be said to kill two birds with one stone."
Yihe nodded and said: "Of course Your Majesty is wise... Then we will help distribute this announcement?"
Chen Jingke said affirmatively: "Send it, not only send it, but also publish it in the most conspicuous position."
Yihe had already expected it and was not surprised by this result, saying: "Okay, I'll put it in the first article."
The fact is indeed as Chen Jingke said, when this announcement was sent out, those scholars who had no talent went crazy.
People flocked to the local school inspector’s office to sign up.
Of course not everyone wants it, they still have to go through an exam to select. The exam questions are open to the public and divided into three parts.
The first part is to randomly select one of the Nine Sutras to be memorized.
The second part is to translate the scriptures that I wrote silently.
The third part is to write down your own feelings.
The questions are not difficult, but they are enough to select qualified teachers.
While the outside world was busy, Chen Jingke, who was far away in Beijing, also became busy.
The one-month deadline agreed between him and Baiqisi has arrived, and it's time to invite Li Shimin and others to watch the game.
