Daming: I, Yang Xian, really govern Yang!

Chapter 300: A humble subordinate with the same status as a superior official (4k)

In Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, the Jiangnan plutocrats were just stupid fat pigs that could be killed at any time.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't take the initiative to cause trouble for them, so they should be thankful.

Unexpectedly, these stupid pig-like things would actually extend their necks.

The attitude of actively seeking death is a bit like that of Tokyo City's rogue Niu Er.

In the end, he ended up being confiscated and exiled. This can only be regarded as seeking kindness and getting mercy.

Zhu Yuanzhang listened to Mao Xiang's report and circled a few names on the big list in front of him.

These people were all plutocrats who listened to Song Lian's words. After returning home, they dispersed most of their property and invested in post-disaster construction in Huguang.

Jinyiwei has long included all these Jiangnan plutocrats on the key monitoring list, and their every move is within Zhu Yuanzhang's sight.

For these patriotic businessmen, Lao Zhu is still willing to give them a chance.

These scholars who have spent half their lives studying the Thirteen Classics of Confucianism in Haoshouqiongjing have almost directly declared that they have no chance of an official career in this life.

Most of them are funded by the Jiangnan chaebol. After all, the gentry and the gentry all wear the same pair of pants.

But for those who are obsessed with reading, just studying Confucianism is already very difficult.

When I think about the consequences if I had not listened to Song Lian's advice and donated half of my family property for disaster relief, I was filled with fear.

But at this time, they at least had one thought.

I dreamed that one day I would be able to pass the exam.

But even without financial support, many of these frustrated scholars would still choose to do this out of revenge against Yang Xian and the court.

It would hurt even if he stretched out his hand and was hit, not to mention that this time Lao Zhu chopped directly with a knife.

When they donated half of their family property, they were scolded as traitors and wimps.

As for those who didn't want to be dignified, Zhu Yuanzhang helped them look decent.

They called it a fluke in their hearts.

Since they don't want to donate half of their family property, there's no need to bother. Wouldn't it be better to just confiscate all the property and let the court use the money for disaster relief?

For real talents, the new imperial examination is naturally better. The stereotyped selection of scholars is stifling the talent and creativity of these people.

In fact, it started from the day when the imperial court began to reform the imperial examination.

You must know that when they did this, they were under a lot of pressure, both within the family and from other wealthy and wealthy gentlemen from the south of the Yangtze River like them.

Because the proportion of Confucianism in the imperial examinations has dropped significantly nowadays, the new imperial examinations select people based on their talents and select various professional talents.

During the floods in Huguang and Huguang, in addition to the Jiangnan Chaebol, there was another group that also played a key role.

Where do I have the energy to learn other things?

In the aftermath, the surviving Jiangnan gentry quickly saw the court's intentions.

That is a scholar.

After this painful lesson, the Jiangnan plutocratic gentry did not dare to make any big moves again, at least during the Hongwu Dynasty.

And most importantly, the identity of a scholar is still there.

Until Yang Xian launched a campaign to overthrow Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, he tore down the Confucian scholars from their high dais and tore off their Confucian robes that were full of cannibalistic and corrupt Confucian knowledge.

The last dignity of a scholar is gone.

Yang Xian successively took away the scholar's dignity and face.

As a result, these people were completely ruined, and a large number of Ming-hating parties emerged.

Since the nationwide movement to overthrow Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism was launched, a large number of idle scholars began to appear in every state capital except Yangzhou.

They spend their days getting drunk on the streets.

And it's getting worse.

Naturally, the court also noticed this.

You must know that scholars are not like ordinary tenants.

Although people in the world often use this sentence to ridicule intellectuals for being weak, wavering, and unable to accomplish great things.

But in fact, when these frustrated "scholars" rebelled, the destructive power they caused cannot be ignored.

Isn't Huang Chao, who wrote after drinking, "When autumn comes on September 8th, all my flowers will be in full bloom and white. Chang'an will be filled with incense, and the city will be filled with golden armor." Isn't that the frustrated scholar who failed to win the imperial examination?

He walked out of Chang'an City with a smile, rose up, and launched the longest-lasting, most widespread, and most far-reaching peasant uprising among the civil uprisings in the late Tang Dynasty. The Huangchao Rebellion spread to nearly half of the Tang Dynasty, leading to a great decline in national power at the end of the Tang Dynasty.

In the end, he did fail, but the harm to the country and people was immeasurable.

According to statistics, tens of millions of people died during the Huangchao Uprising.

In history, there was another famous "scholar" who rebelled, and that was Hong Xiuquan.

During the Taiping Rebellion, about 100 million people died in China.

These frustrated scholars may indeed be unable to achieve success as leaders because they have the limitations of their class.

But in history, how many dynasties were brought down without the help of these "frustrated literati"?

Not to mention, the Korean Duke Li Shanchang and Zhu Yuanzhang of this dynasty, who were the greatest contributors in the world, were not the same people who failed the imperial examination in the former Yuan Dynasty.

Looking at the secret reports that Jin Yiwei kept sending over the past few days, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but become vigilant.

Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty had made it very clear about the real purpose of opening up courses to obtain scholars in all dynasties.

Cage the lofty ideals, let all the smart people in the world enter the cage of the imperial examination, and let them study the chapters and sentences until they are exhausted. In this case, these people will not have any whims and will not be easily fooled by crooked ways. In the eyes of those emperors, these scholars were settled. Even if there were still people in the world who wanted to rebel, they would be just grass bandits and could not achieve anything great. Even hundreds of years later, the Jurchen who fought his way into the Great Wall from Liaodong only had the capital to compete with the Ming Dynasty in the Central Plains because of Fan Wencheng and his gang of inhuman things!

But after the Ming Dynasty began to implement the imperial examination reform, this function was lost.

To be honest, after Zhu Yuanzhang took a broad view of the world, Lao Zhu no longer pointed to this thing to make the Ming Dynasty permanent.

What he wants to establish is a great cause that has never been seen before.

Therefore it is absolutely impossible to abolish the reform.

But the problems of these scholars today do need to be solved.

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned more and more. In the end, he had no choice but to ask Yang Xian to come to the capital.

Imperial Palace, Hall of Supreme Harmony.

Zhu Yuanzhang did not hide anything and directly talked to Yang Xian about the current situation of scholars across the Ming Dynasty and his worries.

Zhu Yuanzhang said while observing Yang Xian's face.

Seeing that Yang Xian's expression did not change much, he asked, "Has Duke Yang already expected this?"

Yang Xian nodded slightly and said: "It is not difficult to draw this inference. For these scholars, what they have learned for half a lifetime suddenly becomes useless one day. Can they stop being idle and making trouble everywhere? "

In Yang Xian's view, this is inevitable.

"Your Majesty wants to know how to arrange these scholars?" Yang Xian asked.

Zhu Biao on the side said at this time: "How about just leaving it alone? After they have been making trouble for a while, they will know that it is useless and they will not make trouble again."

Before Zhu Biao could finish speaking.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Yang Xian said categorically "No!" almost at the same time.

It was obvious that they all saw how great the danger hidden by scholars was.

The two looked at each other, and at Zhu Yuanzhang's signal, Yang Xian first explained the dangers of leaving these scholars alone, and then continued: "Actually, it is not difficult to solve this problem. There are two ways."

"Now that the new learning has begun to be promoted across the country, immediate results will be seen in as little as three to five years and as long as ten years. The scholars at that time were able to perfectly comply with the imperial court's policy of recruiting scholars. Naturally, these people would not Trouble will occur. In other words, for the imperial court, it only needs to deal with the current batch of traditional Confucian scholars. The most direct way is to send them all to the front line. If the people are gone, the problem will naturally disappear. "

Zhu Biao interrupted directly: "This is absolutely unacceptable."

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang recognized the method Yang Xian proposed.

Although Yang Xian said something cryptic, the three people present knew what he meant.

But since Yang Xian had another way, Zhu Yuanzhang was not in a hurry to express his attitude and said: "Mr. Yang Guogong, is there another way?"

Yang Xian said: "It's very simple, as long as we don't let them idle like this."

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and said, "Did Yang Guogong plan to find jobs for them? But in this world, is there any job that can accommodate so many scholars at the same time?"

In Zhu Yuanzhang's understanding, studying the Four Books and Five Classics is to enter the officialdom. Besides being an official, what else will they do?

If they could really do something else, why would anyone say that they are useless scholars?

But in this case, wouldn’t the reform be in vain?

Yang Xian saw the expression on Zhu Yuanzhang's face and knew that he had gone astray, so he said: "Let them find jobs, of course we do not let them follow the old path of imperial examination and becoming scholars. Your Majesty, please don't underestimate this group of people." After all, even if these Confucian scholars are useless, they are still literate people, so they can be of great use."

In fact, Yang Xian himself did not agree with the first method.

Because for him, it would be too wasteful.

People make the best use of their talents and everything is put to good use.

You must know that in this era, being able to read and write is definitely a scarce resource.

Regarding Zhu Yuanzhang's question, Yang Xian said two words.

Subordinate official.

"If you want to place so many scholars at once, the subordinate staff is the best place to go, and it can also solve the harm of subordinate staff that has been unavoidable in all dynasties." Yang Xian said.

Zhu Yuanzhang was the most sympathetic to the harm caused by subordinate officials.

Because it was the subordinate officials who went to their house to collect taxes and forced his parents to death.

Take the former Yuan Dynasty as an example. Sometimes, the Yuan Dynasty originally wanted to collect five taels of tax silver from each farmer, but when the subordinates below went to implement it, the money turned into five taels or even ten taels. silver.

Although officials at all levels have been increased a little, the most severe increase is actually those subordinate officials below who actually go to people's homes to collect taxes.

It was precisely because he knew the harm caused by subordinate officials that after the founding of the country, Zhu Yuanzhang directly demoted the status of subordinate officials to low status.

In ancient times, lowly status generally refers to those who do not belong to the four professions of scholars, farmers, workers, and merchants. They have the lowest social status and cannot participate in the imperial examinations. They cannot even marry commoners. Under normal circumstances, they are slaves for a while and slaves for life. , it is as difficult as going to heaven to quit your country and become a civilian.

By the Ming Dynasty, the lowly status was divided into the following categories. The first was slaves. Those who were responsible for taking care of the master's daily life in some official families or wealthy landlords' families, and were driven and enslaved by them. Men were slaves and women were maids. For slaves, they can regain their good status when they are old or disabled. This has to be the servants of the government, but not private servants. All servants of the government who are over sixty years old and who are disabled or disabled are exempted from becoming a household; those who are seventy years old are allowed to be exempted from becoming a good person. But when you reach the age of seventy or become disabled, what is the point of restoring your good status?

The second is prostitutes. In the Ming Dynasty, there were several categories of prostitutes. They were generally divided into geishas and sex prostitutes. To put it simply, the former were prostitutes but not their bodies, while the latter were engaged in the skin and flesh business. If broken down, they can be divided into palace prostitutes, camp prostitutes, official prostitutes, domestic prostitutes and civilian prostitutes. The first three belong to positions within the system. Although their status is not high, they live a prosperous life. The latter two are responsible for their own profits and losses. If you want to marry someone in this type of industry, you can only redeem them through benefactors, unless of course it is true love, because the redemption fee is not low.

The third is the subordinate staff. The public servants who worked in the yamen also belonged to the low status category in the Ming Dynasty. In modern times, the police officers were civil servants, but in ancient times their status was included in the low status category. Such occupations also include jailers, executioners, etc. The two types of work are the same, but their status is so different, which is touching. However, although he has a lowly status, he works as an errand in the yamen and has power in his hands, so his status is not low.

In order to prevent the harm of subordinate officials, Zhu Yuanzhang can be said to have taken a heavy blow and directly demoted subordinate officials to low status. This is simply unimaginable in future generations.

And you need to know that once you have become a lowly citizen for three generations, you can apply for denaturalization, that is, you can only take the scientific examination after three generations.

We must know that in the pre-Qin period, "li" was "official", and it could refer to anyone regardless of official rank.

In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, as the bureaucratic system matured, the government paid more attention to the role of subordinate officials in administrative management. In the Song Dynasty, the power of local officials was restrained out of the need to strengthen centralization, which invisibly expanded the power of subordinate officials.

Due to the particular nature of the political power in the Yuan Dynasty, the arrangement of subordinate officials in the Yuan Dynasty was not much different from that in the Tang and Song Dynasties. However, the difference was that the Yuan Dynasty relied more heavily on subordinate officials than the Tang and Song Dynasties because the Yuan Dynasty was dominated by foreign ethnic groups. In the Central Plains, most of the local officials are Mongolians and Semu people. These people lack administrative experience in governing the Central Plains area than the officials of the previous dynasty, so they rely more on subordinate officials and "use officials as teachers", which makes the status of subordinate officials There has been a huge improvement. It is precisely because the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty attached such importance to subordinate staff that a large number of subordinate staff were promoted to officials, which expanded the group of bureaucrats.

In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang used thunderous means to completely distinguish officials and officials.

But in Yang Xian's view, Zhu Yuanzhang's approach can only cure the symptoms of subordinate officials at most, but it cannot cure the root cause at all.

(End of this chapter)