The Great Arcanist Who Traveled Through the World of American Variety Shows.

Chapter 421: Mountains of Gold and Silver Outside China

Richard did not expect the Zhou Dynasty to last for five or six hundred years or even a thousand years. That kind of dynasty was difficult to achieve in a classical feudal society. The contradictions of one person could cause a dynasty to decline from prosperity.

He did so much to prolong the glorious period of the dynasty as long as possible.

In order to prolong the dynasty as long as possible, Richard made a detailed document, which included various solutions he prepared according to the situation.

Richard established the system of county schools, state schools, imperial colleges and the Imperial Academy. County schools and state schools were basically free of tuition. County schools lasted five years, and state schools lasted three years, corresponding to elementary school and junior high school respectively. After completing the course, students had to pass an exam, and only those who passed the exam could be promoted.

Imperial College is equivalent to high school, and Hanlin Academy is equivalent to university, which is more for conducting various academic research. Only after graduating from Imperial College is one eligible to participate in the imperial examination system.

As for the Imperial College, it was a preferential treatment given by Richard to those founding heroes and civil officials who had made great contributions. They could send their children here to study. Of course, if they wanted to become officials, they also had to pass the imperial examination.

The content of study is no longer limited to the Four Books and Five Classics. Richard has added several subjects such as mathematics, natural sciences, and law, and the Four Books and Five Classics are unified into one language subject.

The imperial examinations also began to be divided into subdivisions. The first level was the Jinshi level, which covered all subjects. The second level was divided according to subjects.

For example, the criminal law exam requires a focus on studying the law, while the other subjects will be easier to master. Of course, criminal law exams can only be used as officials in the Ministry of Justice. Richard deliberately subdivided the imperial examinations and set various restrictions on official positions in order to prevent officials from colluding.

At this time, the country was just being established and many systems were not perfect. Richard's reforms did not face too much resistance. However, if he waited for several decades after the establishment of the dynasty, it would be extremely difficult to reform.

Regarding the reform of the imperial court, Richard first discussed with Guo Rong.

"Sir, after such a reform, can the country continue to exist?" Guo Rong asked with some anticipation.

Richard rolled his eyes at him and said, "Is there any immortal dynasty in this world?"

"The Han Dynasty lasted for 400 years, and the former Tang Dynasty lasted only 200 years. How many years do you think the Great Zhou Dynasty can last?"

"Um, please give me some advice, sir." Guo Rong said respectfully.

"The country has just begun, and everything is new. During this period, the country has experienced war and has regained stability. After the war, people's minds are settled, and there is a lot of land to settle. As long as you are not too stupid, you can basically enter a stage of rapid growth."

"But after this period, the population flourished, the amount of farmland remained the same, and conflicts began to emerge. If the emperor could manage the country at this time, it would be the heyday of the dynasty."

"After the heyday, the next phase is a period of decline, with natural disasters, floods, foreign invasions, land annexation, peasant uprisings, wealthy families living a life of luxury, and corruption and factionalism in the court."

"Then how can we avoid it?" Guo Rong asked.

"It's unavoidable!" Richard shook his head and said, "As long as people still have desires, these things are unavoidable. We can only limit and delay them."

"Speaking of this, let's first talk about those people who are the foundation of this country and the cornerstone of this country." Richard asked.

Guo Rong thought for a moment and said, "The army?"

Richard smiled slightly. He was not surprised by this result. During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the army was indeed very important. After all, even the saying "The emperor needs strong soldiers and powerful horses to rule the country" was said. Who can say that soldiers are not important?
Richard continued: "Where did the army come from?"

"Recruited from the people."

"That means the soldiers come from the people."

"The people are the foundation of the country." Guo Rong is very smart. Although he has not received much education, he has traveled all year round, which has given him rich experience. He knows that the people provide taxes, food, and soldiers. Although the people seem insignificant and easy to be ignored, they are the foundation of the country.

"Now that we understand that the people are the foundation of the country, we can move on to the next things."

"If we want to delay it, the first thing is to curb land annexation. The people must have land so that they can survive, so that society can be stable. To curb land annexation, we need to restrict officials, noble families, nobles, and powerful people."

"Our reform this time is to restrict officials, noble families, nobles, and powerful people through rules, so as to give the lower-class people room to survive."

"The Daozang says: The way of heaven is to reduce the excess and make up for the deficiency; the way of man is to reduce the deficiency and increase the excess. As the Son of Heaven and the Emperor, you are the Heaven in the dynasty, so you should reduce the excess and make up for the deficiency."

"Those officials, nobles, aristocratic families, and powerful people occupy a large amount of resources. They have more than enough, while the common people at the bottom do not have enough."

"Of course, this process is not smooth sailing. Those officials, nobles, aristocratic families, and powerful people will not be willing to give up their resources. At this time, you need to fight some and pull some back."

“This part can be called internal optimization. In addition to internal optimization, we need to obtain information from the outside.”

"External acquisition? Sir, do you mean attacking other countries? But outside of the Nine Provinces are all barbaric lands, and the mountains are high and the roads are long. The south is full of bloating, and the north is bitterly cold."

"That's just an appearance." Richard said calmly, "During the four hundred years of the Han Dynasty, the Western Regions were opened up to develop the Silk Road. Do you know how much money the Central Plains earned from the surrounding roads every year?"

"How many?"

"Millions of coins or even more." Richard said.

"During the pre-Tang Dynasty, the Silk Road brought in more profits, which is one of the reasons why the mid-Tang Dynasty could support so many troops to expand borders."

"Do you still think those places are bitter, cold, and smoky?"

"Are those places so rich?" Guo Rong said with a dry throat.

Richard smiled and said, "This world is huge, and it's not just the Central Plains that are rich. There is Champa to the south of Rinan County, where the climate is hot and humid, and rice can be harvested three times a year."

"In the land of Japan, there is a silver mountain. There is an island in the South China Sea with wild people on it. The island is full of spices and gold. On the coast of the East China Sea, there is a big island with rich gold and silver mines on it. South of the South China Sea, there is a huge island with wild people on it. There are millions of fertile fields and the world's largest gold, silver, copper and iron mines!"

"In the land of India, the people are cowardly and ignorant, the climate is mild, there are millions of fertile fields, and there are countless war horses, spices, and refined iron."

"Sir, are these all true?" Guo Rong asked.

"Of course it's true!" Richard said. "So these places are so rich!" Guo Rong said.

"Although China is rich, after a hundred years, the population will grow and many people will be left without land and become refugees, or be taken in by aristocratic families and become their slaves. So the best way is to send these people overseas and then transport the wealth back to China."

"Even if these fortunes were shared with aristocratic families, nobles, and powerful people, the imperial court would still be able to gain a great deal of wealth, and ordinary people would also be able to own land."

If they could occupy them all, perhaps the Great Zhou could last for a thousand years, or even longer.

"We are now carrying out reforms to allow those aristocratic families, nobles, officials, gentry, and powerful people to grow according to our will."

"Reform! Reform resolutely!" Guo Rong said with red eyes. After listening to Richard's story, he is now very interested in overseas areas which were originally regarded as wild and desolate places.

"It's good for you to know these." Richard said.

If you want the country to have long-term stability, you must ensure the lives of ordinary people. They are the ones who pay taxes, provide soldiers and food.

"In the future, it will be necessary for the court to encourage going out to sea to explore the Western Regions." Guo Rong has made up his mind.

"By the way, we can now send troops to recapture Hexi. Shazhou is still in the hands of the Guiyi Army. As long as we can recapture Liangzhou and wipe out those Huihe people, we can recapture Hexi. Then, using Dunhuang, Guazhou, Shazhou, and Yutian as bridgeheads, we can advance westward into the Western Regions and open up the Silk Road again."

"The Guiyi Army still exists?" Guo Rong asked in surprise.

"The former Tang Dynasty did not trust the Guiyi Army and actually supported the Huihe people and instigated internal strife among the Guiyi Army. Zhang Yichao could never have imagined that he would end up like this after exhausting all his efforts to recover thousands of miles of Hexi Corridor and attracting millions of Han people to the Tang Dynasty."

"Tang Xuanzong Li Zhen said he would praise the Guiyi Army, but what happened? The Guiyi Army recaptured the Hexi Corridor, drove away the Tibetans, and defeated the Huihe people. At that time, Hexi could only rely on the Tang Dynasty. Even if he had no power to support it, he could still give the Guiyi Army a title, the Jiedushi of Hexi. But what did he give them in the end?"

"Guiyi Army Jiedushi!" Richard sneered, "Guiyi Army sounds like a compliment, but anyone with a discerning eye can tell what it actually means."

"Only those barbarians who voluntarily surrendered would use this name. As a result, he gave the Guiyi Army to Zhang Yichao. Isn't this clearly telling the powerful people in Hexi and Longyou that you are barbarians?"

Richard was furious when he mentioned the Guiyi Army and Li Zhen. It was clearly an opportunity to rebuild the Tang Dynasty, but he ruined it. He said that you would rather believe the Huihe people than the Hexi Han people who had gone through so much hardship to rise up and return to the Tang Dynasty.

"Since that is the case, sir, how about I send a large army to the west to recapture the Hexi and Longyou areas?" Guo Rong said.

"It's time to send them." Richard said, "Now that the Guiyi Army is still here, the Great Zhou will have a lot of Han people to support it when it reopens Hexi and Longyou. If it's a few years later, there won't be many Han people in Hexi anymore, and it will be even more difficult to recover the Western Regions and rebuild the Western Regions Protectorate."

"Li Yun is now guarding Youzhou, so let's send Li Chong in. The country now has a strong army and sufficient food. We will mobilize 30,000 infantry and cavalry to march west, and let Han Tong be the deputy general."

Guo Rong made a decision immediately. Li Chongjin and Han Tong were both veteran generals who had fought against the Khitans and were familiar with the fighting styles of the grassland peoples. They were perfect for dealing with the Uighurs.

"By the way, we should also pay attention to the matter of the Tanguts and the Dingnan Army, which should also be resolved."

"Let them be registered as citizens, and distribute farmland and pastures to them. The sons of tribal leaders and chiefs should be sent to Kaifeng to join the imperial guards." Richard said again.

At this time, the Dangxiang and Dingnan armies were basically herdsmen who were settled here by the Tang Dynasty during the pre-Tang period. Although the Dangxiang and Dingnan armies of this period were much stronger than before, they were no match for the Gu King who emerged from the Shura field of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.

The reason why Xixia was able to successfully establish a nation was that Zhao Song's Northern Expedition failed, killing hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers. This made Khitan see the weakness of Zhao Song, and then Xixia grew rapidly with the support of Khitan.

The current Dangxiang and Dingnan armies are much weaker than those during the Western Xia period. They are simply unable to resist an army of 30,000 strong on the westward expedition.

After discussing with Guo Rong, Richard formally carried out drastic reforms to the imperial examination system. The scope of the imperial examination was directly expanded from the Four Books and Five Classics to mathematics, natural sciences, agronomy, engineering (mechanics), law and other subjects.

This reform caused an uproar throughout the court.

As soon as Richard's reform was announced, Fan Zhi and Wang Pu, who were standing nearby, hurried forward to dissuade him.

"Your Majesty, Prime Minister Li's reforms are too hasty. The imperial examination is the country's grand ceremony for selecting talents. If the system is suddenly changed, I'm afraid that the scholars in the world will not be able to cope with it. Your Majesty, please think twice." Fan Zhi objected loudly.

"Your Majesty, I do not agree with Prime Minister Li's reform. Books are expensive and reading is not easy. If Prime Minister Li's reform is followed, studying for the imperial examination will become even more difficult. How can ordinary people afford to support their children's education? By then, the imperial examination will be controlled by the powerful, aristocratic families, officials, gentry, and nobles."

Wang Pu also said with great sorrow.

Seeing that Prime Minister Fan and Prime Minister Wang both opposed it, the remaining ministers also began to oppose it. Moreover, many people in the court now have opinions about Richard. After all, Richard is a Taoist priest. Letting a Taoist priest who has never been an official for a day directly serve as prime minister would make anyone think that he is a treacherous villain.

Therefore, everyone opposed Richard's reform.

"Lord Fan, Lord Wang, please stand up." Guo Rong stood up from the throne and said, "All the ministers, please stand up as well."

The ministers stood up one after another, and then Guo Rong began to speak: "I already know what Prime Minister Fan said. After this reform, the imperial examination next year will remain the same. From next year onwards, the subsequent imperial examinations will change. There will be three years in between, which is enough time for scholars all over the world to adapt!"

"Your Majesty is wise!" Fan Zhi immediately stopped objecting.

"As for what Prime Minister Wang said, Prime Minister Li has also considered this. The high cost of studying is a problem that affects the number of scholars. I have been working to reduce this."

"The purpose of establishing state and county schools is to reduce the difficulty of studying. At the same time, Li Xiang has prepared a large number of books. These books will be sold at one-tenth of the previous price. At that time, the cost of studying for ordinary people will naturally be reduced."

"Although the scope of the imperial examination has expanded, if you only study one or two subjects, you can still participate in the imperial examination, and the burden on poor students will only be reduced."

"Your Majesty is wise and I bow down to you." Wang Pu said respectfully.

Guo Rong blocked everyone's mouth, but this did not mean that they would agree to the reform of the imperial examination system. After all, the current imperial examination system was in their favor. If they followed Richard's reform, they would have almost no advantage.

It was only because Guo Rong's prestige was too great that the court officials did not dare to speak out against him.

(End of this chapter)