However, there didn't seem to be a few words exchanged between the monarch and his ministers, and Xia Yuanji left.
Immediately, an imperial edict was issued, ordering Xia Yuanji to be the Minister of Education, and he took office immediately.
The reason why Zhu Di did not have a detailed discussion with Xia Yuanji.
In fact, this is also due to Zhu Di's control over Xia Yuanji. After all, for so many years, if it had been someone else, Xia Yuanji would have died without a burial place last time.
But in the end, Xia Yuanji just became an official, and soon he accepted the responsibility of supervising the construction of the Shinto.
It's not because Zhu Di is showing favoritism, but for people like Zhu Di, the same thing, different people, with different intentions, will naturally be treated differently.
Although people often say that a gentleman does not care about his heart.
But in reality, it was completely different. Zhu Di at least knew that Xia Yuanji was reliable in his work, and that he didn't have any sinister intentions. The reason for the last incident was just the scholar's thinking in Xia Yuanji's heart.
.
To say that there was any ulterior motive would be an exaggeration.
This time, the ministers publicly recommended Xia Yuanji as the new Minister of the Ministry, which was regarded as a popular vote.
On the one hand, the academicians of Wenyuan Pavilion have a deep relationship with Xia Yuanji, and they have been highly recommended by Liu Guan, the Minister of Rites. The qualifications of other ministries and departments are far inferior to Xia Yuanji, and they respect Xia Yuanji, so naturally they all
Seconded.
As for other ministers, especially those Qingliu, not to mention the Qingliu in the court have become a rare species under repeated blows. Even if there are some, no matter how much they accuse Xia Yuanji of being shameless, they actually act cunning and do both.
Place a bet.
But if you think about it carefully, except for Xia Yuanji, which of the remaining candidates is not a close friend of the New Deal?
Each and every one of them has the words "I want to kill the gentry" engraved on their faces. Rather than letting such a person serve as the new minister, it would be better to have Xia Yuanji.
Although Xia Yuanji has both ends, he is still secretive after all, half-hiding his face with his pipa in his arms. On the surface, he says a few high-sounding words, but if he had done other things, who knows if he is a guy who wants to smash up the Confucius Temple.
Therefore, the public recommendation of the court meeting can be said to be a one-sided situation. Since Zhu Di ascended the throne, the court meeting has never been as unanimous as yesterday.
During the interview process, Xia Yuanji actually had some thoughts about the new ministry. After all, he had a heart-to-heart talk with his son last night, and he probably understood the goals of the new ministry.
Things in this world are generally like this. If you teach someone who has no experience in doing things, he may be at a loss and not know why.
As for anyone who has experience in doing things, especially someone like Xia Yuanji, who has had many ups and downs in his career and has been in charge of a ministry for more than ten years, in fact, no matter what he is doing, he already has a plan in mind before he even starts to do it.
The main responsibilities of the new department are nothing more than curriculum, university halls, and public schools. In addition to managing the construction of countless new classrooms, it also manages tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of teachers in the future.
So, to do things in an orderly manner, it is necessary to formulate the new department's own regulations. Not to mention other things, each chief envoy must set up a corresponding cleaning department!
In addition to this, set up a principal and a doctor who are responsible for money and food, and set up a department of inspectors and a department of literary selection responsible for the curriculum. We have a framework to distinguish responsibilities, and then we can do one thing after another.
.
First, calculate a rough budget, then ask for money and food, and then order the Provincial Civil Service Department to recruit teachers and select some chief officials and deputy officials of the school. In the capital, the Literary and Selection Department liaises with the various universities and is responsible for formulating the curriculum.
The reason why we invite the university to consult on the curriculum is because in essence, in the future, the outstanding students from all the schools in various states and counties in the world will be admitted to each university to continue their studies.
If we fail to meet the requirements of each university for future students, we work behind closed doors and wait until the time comes to train them, but the university is not satisfied, and there will inevitably be disputes.
As a result, famous schools such as medical school, arithmetic school, government school, military school, engineering school, railway school, and maritime administration school all gathered together.
As for other universities, after all, the impact is not enough to take care of them all.
In addition, the third thing Xia Yuanji did on the Ministry of Education was to plan a normal school, and this was also the top priority!
After all...the current method of using scholars for teaching is only a temporary method and cannot last long.
In fact, Xia Yuanji knows this very well. Anything that forces people to do it will definitely have a good effect at first, but once time goes by, people will try their best to find loopholes, and then try their best to eliminate it.
destroy it.
This is just like the Guozi School during the period of Emperor Taizu Gao. Under the high pressure of Emperor Taizu Gao, the supervisors had to study in the Guozi School. However, as time went by, everyone became slack, so that the Guozi School
, now overgrown with weeds.
If you really want to implement something and get long-term support, then... instead of forcing a group of unwilling people, you should have a group that relies on it for survival. They are the ones who support this national policy.
Firm supporters, whoever destroys their jobs is going against hundreds of thousands of water workers.
This normal school is like this. They try their best to recruit students. After graduation, they will join various public schools as teachers. They must apply what they have learned. This is what they will eat in the future. The public schools are their food, clothing and parents, and they will recruit more students.
The enrollment of school children is their performance, which is the basis for them to receive money and food.
In this way, if one day, this group of people with many talents and talents in the world were told that public schools were to be abolished, they would be the first to jump up and refuse to give in.
Therefore, the scale of this Normal University Hall must be large enough, and the Ministry Hall must personally preside over it, and it must not be left to others.
After completing these things, it is actually the negotiation stage.
In addition to the money and food allocated by the court, office education is essentially to solve the problems of school children. School children can be literate and master arithmetic when they go to school, which is of course beneficial.
But these benefits are not enough for people to make progress.
The problem now is that there are indeed many universities here in the capital, but compared to the rest of the world, the number of students these universities can recruit is a drop in the bucket.
In fact, university halls are now profitable to some extent, on the one hand from tuition fees, and on the other hand, from funding.
Therefore, Xia Yuanji's idea is that this university hall must be expanded, or in other words, all the ministers in the world should try their best to have two or three more university halls. In this way, local students can continue to study.
Further study provides convenience, and secondly, it also means that the number of school places for admission each year has also greatly increased.
If you want to enter a university, it is like a civil service examination. After a year, there are only tens of thousands of places. For the vast majority of students, this is an unattainable existence. Naturally, it also cuts off the opportunity to enter a university.
Heart.
But if there are 100,000 or even hundreds of thousands of positions every year, and if you have a promising future after entering a university, then... it will be completely different.
After all, the new ministry's responsibility is not only to build schools, but also to encourage students to study. It is impossible to educate all the children of soldiers and civilians in the world with just a few official documents. This is the same as encouraging people to read the books of sages in the past. Without fame,
, who is willing to study?
With these things basically finalized, the new ministry can finally maintain its operation.
Xia Yuanji also wrote various memorials, reporting on all the above matters, and also asked some officials to be transferred to the new ministry. After all, he was old and could not do everything by himself. He had to have some useful people as his right and left hands.
After Zhu Di read his memorial, he was very happy. He didn't say anything more and just criticized it.
After I was sent to take care of this matter, there has been a rare peace and quiet in the capital recently.
But just because of peace, people always feel as if something is missing.
The daily newspapers are almost full of lackluster news, which makes people feel a little bored.
The only lively place may be Qixia.
There are many buildings here in Qixia, and too many business houses have set up their headquarters here, so it is extremely lively.
Especially on Zouma Street, where merchants often come and go on weekdays, it can be said to be very lively every day.
These days, even Zhang Anshi comes here every once in a while.
He doesn't talk about business ethics.
At first, people couldn't help but be happy when they saw His Highness the King of Song coming here in person. After all, His Highness the King of Song was already very popular among the merchants.
What's more, His Highness the King of Song is willing to condescend to come here, which makes the merchants feel proud.
This Zouma Street is actually a trading place for bulk commodities.
However, the delivery of bulk commodities is time-consuming and laborious after all.
Many merchants did not wait any longer when buying and selling, so they directly placed a business order and traded directly here. As long as the documents were signed and the gold and silver were delivered, the agreement would be effective, and they could just find time to pick up the goods later.
Over time, some people saw the trick. As the transactions became more frequent, some people did not even pick up the goods. Instead, they directly signed the subscription order with others, turned around, and if the market was good, they would resell the order at a high price.
Go out and grab the difference.
Here, a special group of people has begun to appear, those who buy and sell various orders. In addition, the market conditions are good during these times, so many people make money.
Of course, there are many people who lose money, but...they are willing to admit defeat.
Zhang Anshi probably understands the rules.
The reason why Zouma Street is famous is that there is a commercial exchange here, and this exchange was founded by dozens of the largest commercial banks in the Ming Dynasty.
Because these big merchants all have big businesses, especially the leading Qixia Trading Company, with them as guarantees, naturally everyone can trust them.
It is said that the daily trading volume here is astonishing. When the market is good, it can even exceed tens of millions of taels of silver in a day.
Zhang Anshi came almost every now and then.
Soon everyone discovered something fishy.
For example, last time, His Royal Highness the King of Song came down and after walking around, large quantities of white sugar on the market soon began to be purchased.
Within a few days, news came out that this large purchase of sugar was actually due to a fire in the largest sugar factory in Luzon. As soon as this news came, the price of sugar immediately skyrocketed.
Immediately afterwards, I heard that in just a few days, His Highness King Song had earned more than two million taels of silver.
As businessmen, their sense of smell is the most acute. For them, any clue may be priceless information. So everyone's eyes undoubtedly fell on His Highness the King of Song Dynasty.
Early this morning, Zhang Anshi came here as usual. He was still cheering and crowding, and ordinary people were not allowed to approach. However, he just came for a walk and then went back. There seemed to be nothing special about him.
But obviously everyone has seen some clues, so many people have begun to closely follow every move in the market, waiting to see what His Highness King Song has people buy, so that they can follow suit.
Unfortunately, there is no movement at all on the market.
Just when everyone is disappointed.
But someone said: "Today's transaction volume is not high at all. It is much less than yesterday. Speaking of which, yesterday's transaction volume... is very rare. In one day, there were thirteen million taels."
...It’s strange, I didn’t see any major news yesterday.”
At this time, someone seemed to be alert and asked nervously: "Yesterday? What were the transactions yesterday?"
As long as someone investigates this kind of thing, they will immediately realize that yesterday, for some unknown reason, someone was selling wood and purchasing steel on a large scale.
It is strange to hear that timber is being sold off. You must know that now that railways are being built everywhere, the demand for timber must be huge, so these days, the prices of certain types of timber have never dropped.
As for steel, of course the price is not low, but last year, with the mining of iron ore in many parts of the country, more steel workshops began to be built, so the price of steel, driven by the railway, remained high.
Not bad, but...compared to other products, it's much more stable.
But from the current situation, it is obvious that someone is behind the scenes and secretly controlling the market.
But the question is, where is the logic of this market?
Just when everyone was in disbelief, people were arguing, and they were puzzled.
Two days later.
"Master, master..."
In Liu Ji Trading Company, Liu Lu, the big boss, was awakened by an urgent voice early in the morning.
The big boss Liu Lu rubbed his head that was still not quite awake, jumped up from his shoes, and saw the shopkeeper himself coming.
The shopkeeper's face was anxious, and he said to his face: "The latest news, the latest news... Annan's great victory, His Highness the King of Han in Annan, led his army to expand westward, defeated the main force of the local princes, and swept hundreds of miles in one fell swoop.
They captured more than 30 small and large towns and captured more than 400,000 thieves. It is said that they went straight to the thieves' lair and entered the royal city of this country. They gained a huge harvest. I heard... the gold and silver they got were countless.
There are many forests in these places, many of which are most suitable for making sleepers..."
When Liu Lu heard this, he was shocked, and the drowsiness on his body suddenly disappeared.
Then, I heard what the shopkeeper said: "His Royal Highness, the King of Han, has now informed Annan that he will take the lead in building the Annan Railway. Over in Annan, the Annan Railway Department has been established, and a large number of sleeper workshops have been built. Not only for his own use, but also for
There is a steady stream of sales via sea transportation, but... Annan is short of iron ore. Just a dozen days ago, Annan's business group was preparing to go to Beijing to negotiate large-scale purchases of steel needed for railway construction. In addition,
In addition, there are also customized steam locomotives...Now, this Annan business group is on the road."
Liu Lu's expression became solemn. He looked at the shopkeeper seriously and said, "What is the scale of this railway?"
The shopkeeper said: "It's quite a lot. Annan is long and narrow, two thousand miles up and down, but once it is connected, the benefits will be huge. So after this victory, His Highness the King of Han obviously plans to temporarily stop the army and spend all his energy on this railway.
What's more, the profits from this land grab should be considerable. In addition, Annan is rich in natural resources and has a lot of gold and silver. If we borrow some more from our Daming Bank, it will be enough to support the construction of the railway."
"Such a large scale?" Liu Lu was stunned and looked a bit shocked.
Although railways are being built all over the world, many chief ministers are adopting the method of searching for local ore veins and building iron ore and steel workshops on the spot. Although large-scale procurement is required, the amount of procurement is, after all,
limited.
But over in Annan, such a large-scale railway construction was completely outsourced due to the lack of steel. It is almost conceivable how big a steel gap will appear in the future.
Not only that, according to the temperament of the King of Han, there is a high probability that this railway will eventually be connected to the railway of the Ming Dynasty. Then... there may be large-scale construction projects in the next few years or even ten years.
This King of Han indeed had a great success as rumored in the past, but I have to say that this was definitely a big deal.
Liu Lu frowned and said thoughtfully: "So, iron ore and steel will all rise sharply?"
The shopkeeper said: "It has already started to rise. It's a pity that a large amount of steel has been purchased a few days ago. There is not much steel on the market now, and major workshops have said that they will expand production! But so
How can it be so easy to temporarily expand production due to a huge gap? Therefore, the exchanges are now going crazy. Some people say that the people who secretly purchased steel orders a few days ago are afraid that this time, they will definitely
I want to make a lot of money."
"You are talking about His Highness the King of Song..." Liu Lu said subconsciously after hearing this.
The shopkeeper said: "It's hard to tell. Everyone guesses that it is His Highness King Song, but there is no evidence."
"In this way, King Song learned the news in advance." Liu Lu murmured.
The shopkeeper asked: "Is it possible that His Highness the King of Han has communicated with the King of Song in advance?"
"It's possible, but..." Liu Lu thought for a while and said: "Logically speaking, even if the King of Han sent a letter in advance, such a big matter must be discussed and discussed by the entire Han Dynasty. Our firm,
It’s not that there are no friends in Annan. As soon as they discuss it, some of my friends will come quickly to help me repair the book. It is impossible that His Highness the King of Han kept such a big matter secret and did not discuss it with anyone. He only discussed it with the King of Song.
His Highness edits a letter and then suddenly announces it, that’s not how things work.”