prosperous age

"Master, this is a memorial from the Ministry of Personnel. I came here to find it."

Wei Guangde was on duty in the room when Lu Bu walked quickly up to him with a memorial in his hand and held it in front of him with both hands.

The memorials submitted by the Ministry of Personnel were either to rectify the administration of officials and enforce strict official discipline, or to transfer officials below the fourth rank.

There is no doubt that the memorial that Wei Guangde wanted was actually a memorial about the adjustment of a group of officials, which was submitted to the palace for filing.

After all, the transfer of officials and the recommended candidates are just drafts before they are voted on by the cabinet and approved by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and cannot be officially issued as official documents for the appointment and dismissal of officials.

Of course, the cabinet and the palace generally delegate power to the Ministry of Personnel for the appointment and removal of low-level officials, and generally would not reject their requests.

Therefore, the Ministry of Personnel can also be considered to control the power of promotion of low-level officials.

Although Wei Guangde did not care much about the Ministry of Personnel in the past, as his position in the court became more and more stable and more and more people followed him, the cost of resources he needed to fight for naturally increased.

In fact, the relationship between Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng, which used to be that each of them was in charge of one or two ministries and had no mutual influence, has become complicated.

Wei Guangde needed to intervene in the affairs of the Ministry of Personnel and even the Ministry of Revenue and place some people in the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War. There were also people recommended by Zhang Juzheng.

However, in the general direction, the officials in charge are still mainly those recommended by them, which means that the power is still under their influence.

The clear distinctions of the past no longer exist.

This memorial actually indicated that the Ministry of Personnel was planning to adjust some official positions in Jiangnan.

Wei Guangde did not go through Zhang Juzheng, but instead asked his people in the Ministry of Personnel to suggest some candidates.

Of course, these are some of the people who are usually close to him.

This is not only about providing resources for promotions for those below him, but also about the advance preparations he needs to make to get things done.

It is like Zhang Juzheng wanted to implement land surveying in Fujian, so he had to take over the administrative and supervisory power of Fujian.

The Censorate was the main government office responsible for surveying land, while the Governorate was in charge of the administrative power within the province and naturally had the greatest influence on the local areas.

With the support of these two yamen, there is no need to worry about the land survey not being carried out.

In the Ming Dynasty, there was only one official position for each person, and if someone wanted to occupy the position, there would inevitably be competition.

In the past, he would pass messages to the bigwigs of the Ministry of Personnel through Zhang Juzheng to determine the position.

This time, Wei Guangde planned to try out the results of his own plan to see if he could influence the appointment and removal of some local officials.

Wei Guangde only glanced at the official changes in other provinces and didn't pay much attention to them, but his eyes were always searching in the memorials.

Soon, a line of words appeared in his eyes.

"Promoted Jiang Yidong, a doctor in the Nanjing Ministry of Personnel, to the position of deputy envoy of Jiangxi Province for education"

Seeing this, Wei Guangde nodded and a smile finally appeared on his face.

Then, he quickly looked at the appointments and dismissals of other officials. There was no issue that required concern, so he simply wrote "yes" on the paper. Then he picked up the paper and blew gently on it, hoping that the ink would dry quickly.

Since Wei Guangde was able to fight for this position through the people he planted, he naturally knew when the memorials would be delivered to the palace.

In fact, just yesterday, the competition for several official positions mentioned in this memorial was still going on in the Ministry of Personnel, and several doctors in the Ministry of Personnel were still arguing over who should be assigned to these positions.

This is also the reason why Wei Guangde wants to get the memorial as soon as possible. The memorial will be brought into the palace today. If he takes the initiative, he will naturally allow the memorial to pass the cabinet's review smoothly.

Otherwise, he would consider whether to ask the Ministry of Personnel to "re-examine" the draft.

After all, next year is the year for the provincial examination.

Although Wei Guangde did not intend to let his son pass the county examination and go directly to the provincial examination, it was good to let the child experience the cruelty of the provincial examination.

Therefore, he only took action against the education officials in Jiangxi.

As for the chief examiner of the Jiangxi Provincial Examination, he no longer cared about him and let the child take the exam on his own. It didn't matter whether he passed or not.

Afterwards, Wei Guangde picked up the memorial and read it again. He wanted to see where the person who was squeezed out by Jiang Yidong went in the end.

Yes, Wei Guangde acted on impulse this time, so he acted very hastily.

In fact, the Jiangxi Education Commissioner had been selected earlier than other candidates, and Wei Guangde arranged for someone to snatch the position from others.

The unlucky guy who was squeezed out was named Zhao Canlu, who was still the magistrate of Raozhou at that time. Because he had excellent scores in two assessments, he was planned to be promoted to the assistant governor of Jiangxi Province, in charge of cultural and educational projects in Jiangxi.

However, Wei Guangde read the memorial twice and did not see the name of Zhao Canlu. It was obvious that he had been squeezed out.

Wei Guangde did not feel any guilt. If Zhao Canlu was really good, then he would still have a chance to be promoted, just in a different place.

The ink on the paper finally dried, and Wei Guangde put the paper into the memorial and placed it next to his desk.

There were all the memorials he had drafted.

"You go down first."

Wei Guangde spoke calmly, and after Lu Bu was returned to the duty room, Wei Guangde continued to read other memorials.

Wei Guangde began to read the memorials again, but before he finished with the two copies, Lu Bu hurried into the room and whispered in his ear, "Master, the Prime Minister sent someone to invite you over for a chat."

Wei Guangde was stunned. He had just dealt with a memorial from the Ministry of Personnel. It couldn't be such a coincidence.

Wei Guangde actually knew that Zhao Canlu was a Jinshi selected in the Longqing period. That examination happened to be presided over by Zhang Juzheng, so he could be considered as Zhang Juzheng's disciple.

But what a coincidence, this Zhao Canlu was arranged by Zhang Juzheng.

But Wei Guangde was not afraid. He was just a fourth-rank educational supervisor and it was not a big deal.

The reforms that Zhang Juzheng is planning now still need Wei Guangde's full support.

As long as Wei Guangde is unhappy, although it may not necessarily be a bad thing, it is possible to delay time or even let the officials in the Ming Dynasty attack Zhang Juzheng.

After all, anyone with a discerning eye doesn't know what measuring land is for.

In fact, most of those who support it are rising stars in the local area and do not have much land at home.

Since there are not many fields, it doesn’t matter whether the land is measured or not. Anyway, the loss will not be too big.

And the old gentry families suffered the greatest losses in this struggle.

However, if Zhang Juzheng had really targeted royal family members and nobles in this land survey campaign, these gentry families might not have been so resistant.

After all, compared with the hereditary powerful, what are they?

Wei Guangde quickly went to Zhang Juzheng's office, and after paying his respects, he took a memorial from Zhang Juzheng. It was drafted by the Ministry of Revenue, and it was about matters that needed to be paid attention to when measuring the land.

The cabinet and the palace have already approved it, and the court will naturally have to formulate corresponding regulations for the specific measurement methods.

This memorial is the Ministry of Revenue's method of measuring land.

Wei Guangde took a look and found that the regulations were similar to those set by Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, but the methods used in the land survey process were different.

Traditional land measurement generally uses two methods: step length estimation method and rope measurement method.

As the name suggests, during the Ming Dynasty, the commonly used land measurement method was to use step length to estimate the area. This method was simple and easy to use, but there were large errors when dealing with irregular fields.

Rope surveying is a common land measurement method that uses ropes for measurement. Although this method is more accurate than the step length estimation method, it still has certain limitations when dealing with complex terrain.

Geometry in ancient China was actually quite developed, perhaps because there were some complex terrains that needed to be calculated.

At this time, Wei Guangde looked at the several new methods reported by the Ministry of Revenue, and couldn't help but think of some evil ideas in his heart.

After all, Chinese people value land, so they naturally hope that the calculated area is as accurate as possible.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

This time, the Ministry of Revenue proposed three innovative surveying technologies, including the technique of pushing steps and gathering the top of the head, the technique of measuring the step cart, and the technique of cutting and patching.

In his spare time, Wei Guangde also read various arithmetic books of the Ming Dynasty, and had some understanding of the geometry of the time.

Therefore, it is easy to see that the Ministry of Revenue has put some thought into this.

The first method of pushing steps and gathering the top is obviously an efficient land measurement method, which can quickly and accurately measure the area of ​​irregular fields, especially for fields with extremely irregular shapes.

This method uses a mathematical principle similar to the later "shoelace formula" by establishing a coordinate system, measuring the coordinates of the vertices of the plot, and then performing specific calculations to obtain the area of ​​the plot.

The measuring cart is similar to the tape measure of later generations, using standard measuring tools. The use of this tool greatly improved the accuracy and efficiency of measurement, representing a technological leap in the history of land measurement in the Ming Dynasty.

As for the art of cutting and patching, in fact, when facing irregular plots of land, the ancients usually used the "art of cutting and patching", that is, patching the plots into rectangles, and then cutting them into triangles, and determining the area of ​​the entire plot by calculating the area of ​​the triangles.

As for manpower, the Ministry of Revenue suggested selecting them from the Imperial College in Nanjing and sending them to Fujian to assist in the land survey.

The Imperial Academy was the highest institution of learning and educational management organization in ancient China.

Sima Yan, Emperor Wu of Jin, first established the Imperial College. During the reign of Emperor Yang of Sui, it was renamed the Imperial Academy. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the Imperial Academy served as a national educational management agency, governing the Imperial College, Imperial University, Four-door Academy, etc. Each school had a doctorate and a chief academic officer in charge of its management.

The Imperial College was established in the early Yuan Dynasty and belonged to the Jixian Academy, which had the Imperial College under its jurisdiction. In addition, there were also Mongolian Imperial College and Huihui Imperial College, also called Imperial College, to distinguish them from the Han and southern people.

By the Ming Dynasty, the Imperial College had become huge in scale, divided into the South and North academies, located in Nanjing and Beijing respectively.

In the Ming Dynasty, the Imperial College studied the "Four Books" and "Five Classics", and also studied the "Complete Book of Ethics and Nature" as well as laws, decrees, books, and mathematics. Arithmetic, as one of the basic subjects, was also one of the contents that students of the Imperial College had to learn.

The content of the examination for students included many subjects such as classics, policy essays, poetry, and arithmetic.

The Imperial College consists of six halls, including the three elementary halls of Justice, Chongzhi and Guangye, the two intermediate halls of Cultivation of Dao and Sincerity, and the advanced hall of Ruxing.

In the three halls of Zhengyi, Chongzhi and Guangye, beginners who are only proficient in the Four Books are admitted; in the two halls of Xiudao and Chengxin, students who have studied for more than one and a half years and passed the examination and have a good understanding of both literature and science are admitted; in the Ruxing Hall, students who have studied in the Intermediate Hall for one and a half years and passed the examination and have a good understanding of both literature and science are admitted.

After being incorporated into the senior hall, the students would use a points system to determine whether they would eventually be assigned to an official position.

The so-called point system is a system inherited from the Song and Yuan dynasties, specifically used for the assessment of senior students.

The specific implementation is: there is an exam once a month, those who pass the exam will get one point, those who pass the exam will get half a point, and those who fail the exam will get no point.

Anyone who accumulates 1 points within one year will pass, be given a promotion, and be assigned to an official position. If the score is less than 8 points, they will continue to study in the hall.

In addition, if you carry out tasks assigned by the court, you will also receive certain points based on your performance.

It can be said that if all the students in the imperial examination hope to obtain official positions, that is, have a "background", then if they are asked to participate in the land survey in Fujian, they will naturally be more active.

Of course, those students who are very good at studying and have already obtained enough points would naturally disdain to do so.

In fact, it is a good thing to recruit them as students of the Imperial Academy. After all, they are familiar with arithmetic and can easily handle the calculations involved in land surveying.

After Wei Guangde carefully read the draft in his hand, he nodded and said, "The charter is quite detailed and should have taken everything into consideration. I think it is feasible.

As for the required materials, just ask the Ministry of Industry to make a batch specially.

It would be best to make more. When the provinces start measuring, they will probably need a lot more of these things."

Wei Guangde said.

"There is no need to go through so much trouble. Just decide on the method and let the provinces prepare the necessary materials on their own."

Zhang Juzheng stroked his beard and smiled.

"Well, no."

However, Wei Guangde did not nod this time. Instead, he thought for a moment and said, "Without rules, there will be no order. The materials used for surveying should be manufactured by the Ministry of Works under the supervision of the emperor and distributed to the prefectures and counties for use.

If I let them prepare on their own, I'm worried that someone might interfere.

Whether it is intentional or small, if it gets out of hand, it will be a storm.”

Wei Guangde seemed to have such a memory. In order to curry favor with Zhang Juzheng, local officials used small bows to measure the fields, so that they could measure more acres of land out of thin air.

At the moment when the performance evaluation system is being implemented, the higher the land tax revenue, the higher the score one will get when being evaluated by officials.

Some officials do such things despite their conscience for their own interests.

Wei Guangde naturally wanted to avoid such unfair things as much as possible, so as to reduce the possibility of various incidents caused by measuring the land in the future, which would lead to people questioning the necessity of his actions.

After all, the imperial court still has the fish scale book in its hands. Some people think that going through so much trouble is a waste of national financial resources and a bad policy.

Of course, this is just a reason for opposition, because this measurement will greatly harm their interests.

Seeing Wei Guangde's insistence, Zhang Juzheng felt that Wei Guangde's worries were not groundless, so he nodded and said, "Okay, then all measuring tools will be manufactured by the Ministry of Industry and then distributed to the provinces."

Afterwards, Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng discussed for a while and made some revisions to the draft charter.

"Brother Uncle, I think it's almost done. We should ask the Ministry of Revenue to report it as soon as possible to avoid any more trouble."

After Wei Guangde finished speaking, he stood up, said goodbye, and left the duty room.

As soon as I went out, I saw a eunuch walking towards me.

Wei Guangde slowed down his pace and heard the eunuch come in and salute Zhang Juzheng and then said to him loudly: "Master Prime Minister, my godfather asked me to tell you something. The Lord is young and should not be played with foreign objects." (End of this chapter)