The First Auxiliary Road from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 1212 Reaction
Gyeonggi Namjang Village

The notice wall outside the community school was crowded with people. At the front of the crowd stood a few official students, holding large loudspeakers made of iron sheets in their hands, repeating the imperial edict issued by the court over and over again in plain language.

It was the slack season for farmers, so even though the weather was cold and his eyelashes were covered with ice from talking so much, it did not stop the nearby villagers from coming to watch the fun and listen to the lecture.

That’s right, after ordinary people got used to the existence of this group of student lecture teams, they began to treat their lectures as free storytelling.

Especially, this group of neatly dressed and young-looking students are much more attractive than those storytellers who bang the gavel.

There is no way around it. The love and preference for beauty is a natural attribute of human beings.

There are few people in the world who do not love beauty, only the perception of beauty is different.

"My goodness, so, an old farmer like us can be a teacher to the princess? No way! No way! How can we be qualified?!"

Someone was shaking his cracked hands and head rapidly, and while repeatedly exclaiming in amazement, he sought approval from his neighbors on both sides: "We can't read a word, and even our own names are right in front of us, but it recognizes us and we don't recognize it! How can we still be a teacher to the princess? We must be too shameless!"

When he said this, naturally some people agreed: "That's right, we have grown up, and all we know is how to farm the land. We can barely feed ourselves, and we haven't even made a living. How can we have the nerve to give advice on educating the princess? Just treat this as a curiosity, don't take it seriously!"

Some people agree with this, but naturally some people are dissatisfied: "You are incompetent, does that mean that everyone is incompetent? You say you are illiterate, but since the time of the late emperor, the community school has set up one day every ten days during the slack season to teach villagers the Thousand Character Classic, Hundred Family Names and arithmetic for free. Students of all ages and genders are welcome.

Although this kind act is not mandatory, 90% of the villagers initially sought to learn. Even though it was not easy to persist, at least 30% to 50% of them learned it completely! Even if only 10% or 20% of these people really learned and mastered it, the rest of them would not be completely in the dark! At least they could still recognize their own names and family trees. "

"Brother Tu is right! My daughter who is studying in the county school said to us two days ago, she said, she said... yes, I remember now, it is said that the wise are the teachers, and everyone has his or her own specialty! Even the ancient sages said... said, said, well, that is to say, teachers don't have to be better than students in every way, and students don't have to be inferior to teachers in all aspects! In the areas where we are good at, we can be each other's teacher and student!"

This old farmer was an interesting man. He couldn't remember the original words his daughter had said before, so he put them into simple words. His tone was firm and powerful, and his intonation was light and clear, which made people feel good when they heard it.

"Brother Yu, what you said is not rough, and the logic is not rough either." The old man dressed as the head of the village, who was standing a row away from the old farmer surnamed Yu, echoed repeatedly, "Although we don't know much, we are proficient in farming! When a sage governs a country, farmland is the foundation! The land that our ancestors have relied on for survival has a lot of knowledge! Even the county school sends students to the fields to learn and gain experience from time to time, to learn common sense and broaden their horizons from us! The crown princess is the crown prince, the future head of our Great Chu. Which head of a family doesn't understand the most fundamental industry of their family!"

The father-in-law made such an analogy, and those who were originally planning to just listen to the fun nodded in agreement. Seeing this, the students who were giving the lecture immediately struck while the iron was hot and raised their iron trumpets: "What the original village head said is very right! Fellow villagers, we often watch community operas and listen to storytelling. We often hear that the nobles are ignorant of the suffering of the people... Now we have the opportunity to let the crown prince know that the people have a hard time, why not do it? Only by knowing the suffering of the people can we sympathize with the people's difficulties and reduce our taxes, right?"

If the students who were giving the lecture talked about something else, the crowd might just turn a deaf ear to it, but since they mentioned the interests of the crowd, we cannot just pretend we didn’t hear them.

The common people make a living by farming, and what they hope for is, first, good weather and a good harvest, and second, light taxes so that they have surplus grain.

"It would be great if it could be like this!" Many old farmers murmured in a low voice, with a strong hope faintly revealed in their confused eyes.

Similar scenes soon appeared in all the prefectures of the Great Chu. From the various schools of thought to the literati and the military, from the scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans to the yamen runners and clerks... people from all walks of life and all kinds of people were eager to try and rack their brains, hoping to come up with good ideas that would benefit both themselves and the group and have the court adopt them.

Most people don't have particularly big ambitions, and as long as the future crown prince treats them and their industry fairly, that would be a great thing.

"During the Yan and Chen dynasties, direct descendants of merchants for three generations could not take the imperial examinations. Although things have improved a lot today, the places of origin are still marked differently on the registration forms for the imperial examinations. Unless one is extremely talented, even if one makes it to the palace examination, the examiners will still be biased in their assessments. From Emperor Chengyuan to the present, most of the merchants' children who have passed the examinations have been Jinshi. Only a handful of them can make it into the second place, not even a handful!"

In the Southland Ponzi Chamber of Commerce, the merchants who heard the news were excited.

"The Emperor previously opened a female examination without considering their place of origin. Two girls from my father-in-law's family became candidates. I heard that the family is willing to pay to send them to the Imperial Academy to prepare for the upcoming joint examination. Unfortunately, there are very few girls in each branch of our family, and almost no qualified ones. If the Crown Princess cancels the distinction between candidates' places of origin in the future, then my grandson will still have a promising career in the government!"

After some imagination, everyone started scratching their heads, trying to find a way to win the respect of the Crown Princess.

"In ancient times, there were Guan Zhong and Fan Li, who were good at economics and strengthening the country. The economic measures implemented by Sang Hongyang during the Han Dynasty have had an impact to this day, and many dynasties in later generations have followed them... Let's not talk about the Silk Road. Let's just talk about the prosperous maritime trade of the current court and the economic and trade exchanges with countries around the world. Which of them can be done without us merchants? In my opinion, economic management and trade and commerce should be the learning materials for the Crown Princess!"

"Brother Qi is absolutely right! In this world, from the imperial court to the common people, who can live without money? Where does the money come from? How is it circulated and distributed? Crops, seafood, fruit specialties, silk fabrics, copper, iron, wood, stone handicrafts, etc., big and small, from food to daily necessities... Without our merchants circulating north and south, and inside and outside, how can the economy of all parts of Da Chu be active? Ordinary people only rely on bartering, and still want to get rich?! If this is really possible, silver and money would not have replaced the transaction of goods in the first place!"

The merchants, who were getting more and more excited as they talked, rolled up their sleeves and offered suggestions, hoping that this brainstorming would reap huge rewards.