Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 79: Enlightenment of the People

In addition to the imperial examinations, Fang Yong was more interested in the practical examinations.

Unlike the imperial examinations, there are no examination papers for the practical examinations.

In fact, there was a test paper at the beginning, but when the test really started, we found that... many people could not read at all.

Helplessly, Xue Dacuizi could only temporarily mobilize his shopkeepers and managers to act as examiners and conduct interviews.

After the interview, a total of 652 people took the practical examination, and 45 passed.

The proportion is far lower than normal scientific examinations.

And this is still the case when the requirements are lowered, otherwise it will be even lower.

Take one of them as an example.

This is an old farmer in the countryside. He is very good at farming. When he was a tenant of a landlord in the past, the fields he farmed were the best. Later, the landlord was gone, and the old farmer started farming for Fang Yong, and the crops he farmed were still much better than those of others.

After Fang Yong published the notice, the person in charge of explaining the notice in the old farmer's area had a low level of education and misunderstood its meaning.

Fang Yong wrote, "If you have talent but are not familiar with the classics, you can take the test of practical learning."

However, what the lecturer said was that people with a skill can take the practical examination, and if they pass the examination, they can get a salary.

After hearing this, the old farmer felt that he was the best farmer among the people in the surrounding area and was exactly the person with a skill mentioned here, so he set off for Huaizhou to take part in the practical examination.

Xue Dacuizi led his men to assess the old farmer and found out that the old farmer could do nothing except farming.

At first, the old farmer was eliminated, but as the assessment progressed, more and more good-for-nothings appeared. Only then did Xue Dagui realize that the old farmer was still relatively good.

At least he is very knowledgeable when explaining farming, which is much better than those people who are arrogant but have no ability. It is not a bad idea to let him be a minor official in charge of the fields.

So the old farmer was re-hired.

In the end, only 652 people were admitted out of the 45 people who took the exam.

According to the process, Xue Daguizi will select the best among them and personally hand them over to Fang Yonglai for interview.

But in the end, Xue Dacui only brought one person with him.

Because apart from this person, the others are too terrible to be presented.

"Shen Tu pays respect to the general!"

This was a young man, standing in the hall with his hands clasped, wearing a very ordinary cloth. He was very calm when facing Fang Yongshi, and was not as frightened as ordinary civilians.

Fang Yong checked the other party's information.

Shen Tu, whose given name is unknown, was from Chuzhou.

An apprentice of Wanbao Trading Company, Shen Tu encountered the Feng Tai Uprising when he was doing business in Nanjing last year. The caravan was seized by the rebels. Shen Tu joined the rebels and became an accountant because he was good at accounting.

After Feng Tai's defeat, Shen Tu was noticed by the government army for his abilities and joined the army to take charge of military supplies.

When Gaoyou City was captured, Shen Tu was exempted from liquidation because he took the initiative to help the Huaiyin bandits find the way and occupy the armory.

Afterwards, Shen Tu sold a batch of grain to accumulate funds and established the Shen's Business in Gaoyou City. Xue Dacui made a mark here and speculated that this batch of grain was the military rations of the Duke of Shanguo. It was unknown how Shen Tu hid it, and it became his first pot of gold.

Fang Yong didn't care about it.

Since the other party has now decided to work for him, there is no need to pursue this little bit of food.

Fang Yong is not a narrow-minded person.

"Shen Tu, tell me what you think about business."

Fang Yong asked. Shen Tu thought for a moment, then bowed slightly and said:
"General, I think business is a tool in your hands."

Fang Yong nodded and was waiting for Shen Tu to continue, but found that Shen Tu had stopped.

"Gone?"

Fang Yong asked.

Shen Tu said: "No, business is just your tool, it has no other function. If you want to expand your territory, business will help you expand your territory. If you want to recuperate, business will help you recuperate."

After hearing this, Fang Yong seemed to be thinking about something.

Then he asked, "If I want to expand my territory and let you manage the business, what are you going to do?"

Shen Tu replied:
"General, if you want to expand your territory, I suggest you form a chamber of commerce. Merchants are always looking for profits and have no sense of the overall situation. They are often in internal friction. Forming a chamber of commerce can coordinate the strength of merchants, unify management, prohibit internal friction, and make them unite to face the outside world and reap the wealth of your hostile forces."

Fang Yong's eyes lit up, and he felt that this made some sense, so he asked again: "What if I want to rest and recuperate?"

Shen Tu replied:
"If you want to recuperate, I still suggest you set up a chamber of commerce. Merchants are profit-driven and have no sense of the overall situation. You can use the name of the chamber of commerce to attract big merchants from outside to settle in and let them bring their wealth to your territory."

Or form a chamber of commerce?

interesting.

Fang Yong smiled and asked:

"Why would those big businessmen be willing to come to me? Can we just form a chamber of commerce?"

Shen Tu replied:
"Merchants seek only two things: profit and stable profit. Nowadays, Daxi imposes heavy taxes on merchants, and their status is very low. The hard-earned money of many merchants can easily be seized by the powerful."

"Merchants have long complained about this. I have been wandering around for a long time and I can relate to their feelings."

"I can guarantee that if the general is willing to formulate a policy, joining the general's chamber of commerce can improve the status of merchants, gain the general's protection, and reduce taxes. In this case, those big merchants will definitely rush to join the general's chamber of commerce and bring their assets to the general's territory."

After hearing this, Fang Yong was a little surprised.

There's definitely something about this guy.

It’s amazing that people can think of these things in this day and age.

In fact, Fang Yong has always wanted to improve the status of businessmen, but the time has not yet come.

Shen Tu directly drew up a rough framework in advance, which was definitely a vision ahead of his time.

However, Shen Tu did have his limitations, and he didn't see that.

That is, once such a chamber of commerce is established, it will inevitably become difficult to get rid of!
In the early stage, with Da Xi as a common enemy, the Chamber of Commerce will provide Fang Yong with extremely strong support, and this support is absolute.

As long as Fang Yong agrees to improve the status of merchants, the merchants will support him wholeheartedly and use all their strength to sweep the corrupt Da Xi into the garbage dump of history without leaving anything behind.

But the biggest problem is that after Daxi's death, without external enemies, the Chamber of Commerce will inevitably become a huge behemoth within the country that no one can control.

If Fang Yong promulgates some policies to suppress the Chamber of Commerce one day, then the Chamber of Commerce will use the same methods it used against Da Xi against itself.

This is an inevitable contradiction that cannot be avoided.

The only way to solve this problem is to cultivate a force that is no weaker than the Chamber of Commerce and keep pace with it.

This was one of the two questions that Fang Yong listed on the initial practical examination paper.

“How to teach the people!”

We have found the talents to develop business, but it is still a long way to go to enlighten the people...

(End of this chapter)