Chapter 1551

Hu Zongxian was very curious about the extent to which the current Shuntian Prefecture had developed. He ate and drank in Tongzhou that day, and the next day on the way to the capital, he kept asking about the situation.

Wang Yan patiently explained in detail to Hu Zongxian, which could be considered a handover of work in advance.

As early as when Wang Yan was the Magistrate of Daxing, he had already effectively influenced the development of the entire Shuntian Prefecture. By the time he took overall charge of the entire Shuntian Prefecture, he began to influence the surrounding areas.

So after nearly six years of development, under the circumstances of Wang Yan fully exploiting the potential of the Great Ming Empire, various major projects were launched. It is no exaggeration to say that if it weren't for the burden of the expenses for pacifying the Japanese pirates in the southeast, Wang Yan would have almost renovated the entire Shuntian Prefecture.

It was also because of the great prosperity of the capital that it siphoned off the labor and economy of the surrounding areas. After all, with so many projects, it was impossible to rely solely on the common people of Shuntian Prefecture. People were needed everywhere, and Shuntian Prefecture didn't have enough people.

And because the environment in Shuntian Prefecture was clear and there was no deep exploitation, the common people tried every possible way to stay here. Coupled with the investigation of fields and households, the population of the entire Shuntian Prefecture reached over 2.4 million from 1.2 million in these six years.

At the same time, because of the increase in population, Wang Yan carried out urban expansion and renovation projects. In the east and south of the capital, a large number of new residences appeared outside the city walls.

Inside the city, Wang Yan demolished some old areas and, with the help of cement and bricks, built small two- or three-story buildings, further increasing the land utilization rate in the city and creating a group of ordinary people who became rich because of demolition in the Great Ming era.

It could only be the houses of ordinary people that were demolished. After all, if Wang Yan went to the West City to carry out demolition, those large households would demand money desperately and could gather to stir up trouble, which would be very troublesome. Unless he raided their homes in large areas, it would be impossible to get things done...

With more people, the demand for various basic living materials and other useful or useless commodities naturally increased, which naturally promoted greater prosperity in commerce.

With prosperous commerce, more things needed to be produced, which led to the prosperity of water and land transport and the expansion of small workshops, thus forming large-scale factories, which led to a greater need for labor.

Then these newly added migrant populations had a place to go and could earn money to live.

And in order to guarantee the income of the common people and curb the exploitation by large households, Wang Yan formulated a minimum income standard based on the conditions of the entire Shuntian Prefecture, and at the same time introduced a seven-day holiday with one day off, with pay for those who didn't take it.

According to statistics, most of the common people didn't take the holiday; they wanted to earn more money during the holiday. Only a few people chose the holiday, choosing to go to the market on this day, listen to music, watch plays, walk outside the city, fish by the river, and in short, began to enjoy life...

The common people all earned money and naturally spent it, so the entire Shuntian Prefecture naturally began to operate.

And in the vast rural areas of Shuntian Prefecture, the lives of the common people also improved a lot. The most intuitive thing was that the houses of every household were upgraded to brick and tile houses. Even a considerable number of households replaced their windows with glass windows, the price of which had not yet been suppressed.

This was because their overall tax burden was reduced, coupled with the major construction that had lasted for six years and still hadn't stopped. The common people could go to work and earn money during the slack farming season, and the pay was very prompt, clearly marked, settled in cash monthly, and those who needed money urgently could negotiate with the minor officials to settle in advance.

But if anyone dared not to settle the money or deduct it for no reason, no need to be anxious, no need to be angry, and no need to panic; just report it all the way up. If the minor officials didn't handle it, there were unranked officials supervising the project above them, and if they didn't handle it, there were minor officials in charge of the project above them.

Generally, by the time it reached the officials in charge of the project, all the problems of the common people below could be solved. Otherwise, if they reported it one level higher, a record would have to be made, and it would have to be reported to Shuntian Prefecture. Wang Yan's gaze would then fall upon them, and the true great terror would arrive.

So generally speaking, the problems below could be properly solved. If there was anything excessive, it couldn't be covered up; it was impossible to cover everyone's mouth. As long as there was a little wind, it would eventually reach Wang Yan.

Once Wang Yan heard any wind, as long as he arranged for people to inquire casually, he would know everything...

The common people earned money like this and began to purchase clothing, food, housing, and transportation to improve their living standards. Coupled with people's desire to keep up with the Joneses, if you added a floor to your house, my family would also add one, and it had to be better. In this way, the replacement of houses for the common people in the entire Shuntian Prefecture was realized.

At the same time, because the common people were also becoming wealthy, the originally inconspicuous rural economy also stepped onto the historical stage. The rural peddlers had long existed, on the one hand purchasing and on the other selling. Now that the common people had money, there were more and more things they could buy, and the peddlers undertook this distribution work.

In the past, it was carried on shoulders or donkey backs; now, at the very least, they had to have a donkey to carry goods, and more often they drove large carts. They undertook the heavy responsibility of deeply developing the rural market, building a sales network, and selling more products.

At the same time, the output of the common people was also increasing, which brings us back to the animal husbandry cause of the great corrupt official Wang Yan.

Up to now, Wang Yan had invested at least 2 million taels of silver in animal husbandry. Over the past six years, sows had given birth to piglets, piglets had grown up to be eaten or sold for money, and some were kept for breeding to give birth to more piglets. On the other side, chickens laid eggs, and eggs hatched into chickens... After such a cycle, almost every household in the entire Shuntian Prefecture had some poultry.

With poultry, they could lay eggs and be plucked for feathers. These were all things that could be sold for money. By today, these poultry had long since completely belonged to the common people.

Wang Yan also had even larger farms in Shuntian Prefecture. He had several hills where various grasses and trees were planted to restore the ecology, and he also planted many additional fruit trees as cash crops.

Pigs roaming the mountains and fields, free-range chickens... There were tens of thousands of common people raising and managing them...

Coupled with planting some cash crops, the income of the common people had almost doubled compared to before Wang Yan took office.

This was only within the scope of Shuntian Prefecture. In fact, the lives of the common people in the surrounding areas of Shuntian Prefecture had also been quite good in recent years, and a considerable part of the contribution to the population growth of Shuntian Prefecture came from them.

Some common people even moved the boundary markers of Shuntian Prefecture privately in order to pay less tax, and Wang Yan had many lawsuits because of this...

And the development of Shuntian Prefecture drove the progress of the entire world, both siphoning and leading.

As the absolute political and economic center, the capital was a weather vane. Even if the old bureaucrats hadn't reacted, the merchants had already begun to actively follow suit.

The huge throughput of goods in Shuntian Prefecture attracted merchants from all over the world. The production progress driven by the economic development of Shuntian Prefecture, the series of small innovations and reforms it drove, and the emergence of various differentiated competitive products were all brought to other regions by the merchants who gathered here.

It can be said that the current Great Ming had completely set off a bourgeois movement, and industry and commerce had begun to flourish...

This was Wang Yan's merit; he set an example for the people of the world. With solid reality, he told people that it was not necessary to squeeze the common people; by making the pie bigger and making the common people wealthy, one could earn more money from them.

The point must be to earn more money from the common people, because the powerful and large households, and the high-ranking officials in the court, no matter how much they shouted about reform, never said they wanted the common people to be wealthy, but rather wanted them to be stable, not to stir up trouble, not to be suppressed and prepare to rebel, and to honestly serve the masters as cattle and horses.

They were not givers; they were always takers and harvesters.

Putting the focus on making the common people wealthy, how could that work?

In fact, some people, even if they could earn more, didn't want to earn this money. Because if the common people became wealthy, they would become enlightened, and then how could they be fooled? How could they be enslaved?

But such people were in the minority. More people naturally wanted to earn more money and wanted greater wealth and status. They believed that they could fool and enslave them in the past, and they would definitely be able to in the future. It had been two thousand years, and the common people were harvested crop after crop; who had ever escaped?

They worried about enlightenment, but Wang Yan had long been vigorously engaged in educational construction.

At any time, education was the gold standard for political performance assessment, not to mention that at this time, "all things are inferior, only reading is noble." The educational achievements of one's subordinates, how many scholars, how many provincial graduates, how many tribute students, were all political achievements that could be shown off.

Wang Yan naturally attached great importance to these, and he had long since increased investment. Over the past six years, he had built I don't know how many schools throughout Shuntian Prefecture.

There were schools where several villages studied together, which were for enlightenment, and both men and women could go. The fees were not high, just enough to cover the construction and operating costs of the school.

He further expanded the county schools, and the classrooms, dormitories, and even all used glass windows. The treatment of the teachers was also greatly improved, allowing more old scholars who couldn't become officials to teach steadily.

At the same time, he added martial arts schools, selecting some children who were willing to endure hardship and risk their lives to cultivate, and in the future let them participate in the martial arts examination and develop in the army.

And for those who were successful in their studies and passed the scholar and provincial graduate examinations, he also improved their treatment and directly arranged positions for them, either teaching or becoming school principals, allowing them to work, earn money, and continue preparing for examinations.

For tribute students who passed the metropolitan examination, Wang Yan didn't need to worry about their positions; they could basically become officials. The government office just issued a bonus.

Wang Yan's measures were mainly aimed at the children of commoners, allowing them to study and stand out. Instead of accompanying the children of the masters to study and herding cattle for the masters' families.

It was to rely on the huge number of commoners to let those with talent come to the fore. On the other hand, this was also the faction Wang Yan cultivated.

These scholars would definitely remember Wang Yan's kindness. Even if they forgot their origins and became biased after becoming officials, they were in the minority. Most people were still quite grateful to Wang Yan, and they had descendants passing it down by word of mouth, naturally having a good impression of Wang Yan.

When these people grew up, they would all be help in the future.

Even if they weren't help, they were literate and enlightened, which could be considered enlightened. At the very least, the path to advancement was opened, and in their future lives, they could also read and think for themselves.

Many things in this world cannot withstand scrutiny.

In this way, it naturally formed a confrontation with local large households and a confrontation with emerging capitalists, thereby promoting ideological progress and making society move forward...

It was just that Wang Yan's position was not high enough yet. Even if he already had powerful influence, he didn't have the ability to change education at the root. Otherwise, he would have changed the textbooks long ago.

Of course, he wasn't idle now. He couldn't change it, but it didn't stop him from shouting slogans. Every time he submitted a memorial to discuss politics, he had to mention that educational reform must be carried out at the root...

"You are remarkable."

Hu Zongxian gave Wang Yan the highest evaluation, "Among the emperors and generals throughout history, no one thought of doing it like you. You organized this set of practical learning, not inferior to Cheng-Zhu, and even less inferior to Wang Yangming."

Wang Yan nodded with a smile: "You don't have to say, I really have this idea. It's just that you say my background as a husband, daring to do the work of founding a sect, would inevitably be a laughingstock."

"It is the background of a fellow graduate bestowed by His Majesty; who would dare to gossip about this? Besides, who doesn't know now that you read until you had no family property, and that's why you sold your remaining fields to become an official and earn silver? A twenty-year-old provincial graduate is also a rare talent in our Great Ming. You didn't take the exam; who knows if you wouldn't have passed?"

"Let's talk about these things later. I don't believe that one day when I become the Chief Grand Secretary, my learning won't be pushed out? Speaking of the Chief Grand Secretary, His Majesty joked earlier that he would let me be the Chief Grand Secretary..."

The two chatted all the way, and Hu Zongxian also looked at the new residential areas outside the city, the various shops developed along the roads outside the city gate, and the bustling crowd.

Finally arriving outside Guangqumen, Hu Zongxian got off the carriage, stopped, and looked up at the city gate.

Wang Yan understood the complexity in Hu Zongxian's heart at this moment. If there hadn't been so many accidents, Hu Zongxian should have been sitting in the Cabinet long ago, dominating the development of this empire. But he didn't expect that the collapse of Yan Song would make everything empty. After five years, he finally came to the outside of the capital again.

It seemed like five years ago, and it also seemed like more than thirty years ago. At that time, he was still a scholar going to the capital for the examination, and at that time he was still very young.

Now standing under the city gate of the capital again, his temples were already gray...

"It looks complicated now, but in the future, it won't be easy to leave this capital," Wang Yan pointed toward the inside of the city gate and said with a smile, "Enter the city, Minister!"

Hu Zongxian let out a long sigh, and a smile appeared on his old face: "Enter the city!"

The next day, Hu Zongxian was appointed Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites and concurrently Governor of Shuntian Prefecture.

Wang Yan was appointed Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War and concurrently Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief, Governor of Jizhou, and Viceroy of Jiliao military affairs.

Once this appointment was issued, the whole world was shocked...

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