Chapter 450: Seeds

The life of an emperor is nothing new. He is not looking for trouble for himself, managing everything. He only grasps the general direction, driving the ship of the Chinese Empire that has sailed for thousands of years to sail steadily, and while sailing, he lifts up the boards of the ship one by one and replaces them with iron and steel.

Every day he only eats, drinks, and plays, wanders the harem, writes and paints, and builds wonders, nothing is missing, much more faint than Zhao Ji.

However, he was not really idle. Occasionally, he would still manage government affairs. After all, there are so many things, and there are always things that the Cabinet cannot decide and need his approval.

In fact, after more than a year, the framework of the country has been set up, and the national policy has been set.

In all industries, it is to encourage invention and creation, improve work efficiency, grain yield, etc. In education, it is to re-compile textbooks according to his meaning, remove the dross of Confucianism, and change the ideology of loyalty to the monarch. After all, he doesn't care about the throne himself, and he doesn't need anyone to be loyal to the monarch. What he wants is to love the country, the family, and the people, and what he wants is the blood and courage of the whole people.

So what was finally implemented was five-year-old village school, along with martial arts foundation, literacy, and understanding of principles until the age of eleven. Then promoted to county school for three years, to understand the hundred schools of thought. After graduating at fourteen, promoted to prefecture school for another three years, and began to specialize in subjects. After graduating from prefecture school at seventeen, the imperial examination began. The imperial examination upward is to take the national examination, and enter the Imperial Academy, the Imperial Medical Academy, and the military's lecture hall. After three years of study, take the exam again. This time is the real selection of scholars. Select those with excellent grades and fill them into various official agencies.

The rest of the people, of course, can take the exam again, but before that, they also have to work. Regardless of whether they continue to take the exam, they have to be sent to the village schools below to teach. Students in the lecture hall have two paths. One is to be a soldier, and the other is to teach martial arts in village schools.

And those students in the Imperial Medical Academy have no need to take the imperial examination again. It all depends on how those old doctors arrange it, and they are educated according to their ideas. Then they are assigned to the counties below to provide grassroots medical services. With so many people, accumulating little by little, after decades, there can also be a mature medical system.

This forms a cycle, educating talents endlessly. Of course, there will be a day of saturation, but by that time, to what extent will society have developed? Even if there is no arrangement, people will not starve to death.

Wanting to implement compulsory education, the current social wealth does not allow it. On the other hand, there are not so many teachers, so it must be promoted slowly. Now he has allocated a sum of money to give some subsidies to girls who enter school to study, reduce some family burdens, and strive to let girls study for six years.

This is the social atmosphere. He is not afraid that boys will not study, because the tuition for studying before was not cheap, and poor families still smashed pots and sold iron to supply the boys in the family to study. And even if he opens up the upward channel for women now, the habitual thinking of thousands of years is not so easy to change. For boys, it is smashing pots and selling iron; for girls, it is not spending money if they can...

Liberating women and improving the status of women can only rely on the young ladies of those wealthy families. They have money and can afford it. When those young ladies graduate later, some become officials, some go to the local area to teach as teachers, and then the social atmosphere's attitude towards girls will be better.

As for the population, he has looked at the household registration statistics before, and it is indeed over one hundred million. But it is definitely not accurate. This number is the population that pays taxes. But in fact, with so many harsh taxes and levies, many people were forced to have no way and ran into the deep mountains to be wild people. The real population is much higher than what is recorded now.

He is not afraid of many people, but afraid of few people. After all, in such an era, with his current military strength, he can fight as long as he can reach. But what is the use of conquering a vast territory without people to develop it? Now he has abolished all poll taxes, etc. Except for those who farm, the common people basically do not pay taxes. In this way, those common people will definitely want to have children.

In order to be as safe as possible and to ensure the survival rate of infants as much as possible, he still set the law of having children at seventeen. At that time, it is just graduation from prefecture school, and it is just right to get married and have children.

In fact, it is to cultivate talents around innovation, and countless people go deep into all walks of life, beginning to deeply change the entire social environment. With the development of technology, naturally, people's living standards will gradually improve. And after eating and drinking enough, a group of people who have nothing to do will begin to engage in culture, thus starting a new round of spiritual civilization reform.

This time he did not give too much guidance on scientific research. When he was in Wang Family Village before, he wanted to make money and accumulate strength, so he made some super-era creations. Now that he has won the world, and he has also cultivated a batch of usable craftsmen before, he will not continue to follow. He only gave the highest instruction to constantly innovate and research new things.

It is mainly because it is now an era of cold weapons, and it will be an era of cold weapons in the future. National security is guaranteed, and he does not need to pull up seedlings to help them grow. So he only encourages craftsmen, improves the status of craftsmen, and lets them explore on their own. And he had already enlightened the development of science and technology before. As time goes by, the fruits of science and technology will definitely be brilliant.

The external environment is also comfortable. Western Xia is gone. Although Wang Yan shrank the defensive line and did not really border on the Uyghurs, they did not dare to occupy that vast land unscrupulously. And they also trade with the border areas of China, buying things, and even more dare not offend. In Mongolia, Temujin has not yet been born, and Mongolia also does business with China. They are on the road of sheep eating people, and they will never return.

Tubo is not much better than Mongolia; they all exchange their specialties for materials to live. Dali is incapable of pioneering, just relying on the geographical advantage to be safe in one corner, and there is no big climate. In the Liaodong area in the North, Lu Zhishen beat the Liao and Jin countries fiercely, and is nibbling away at the territory of the two sides little by little. He is not in a hurry to destroy them, but is steady and advancing slowly.

The outside is stable, but the inside is not. The North has been cleaned up inside and out, and no one who is unwilling to give up will come out to find death. So after training 150,000 troops, in the second year of Huaxia, 150,000 troops went south in three ways.

It is not just to defeat them, but to slowly level them one by one. Take down a place, reform a place. Settle old accounts, fight local tyrants, raid homes and divide land, appoint new officials, implement new policies, and carry out local construction.

Although with his military strength, he can completely sweep the South in one go. But in fact, compared to it, it is better to advance slowly now. Because it will not spend too many resources at once, and there is time to thoroughly clean up the local area.

At present, although the rule looks lively, in fact, the national treasury is already empty. After all, so many projects are carried out, and the expenses required are too much. Money is needed everywhere, and it cannot stop anywhere. The Cabinet is terrified when dealing with government affairs, because if a big disaster occurs somewhere, it will collapse if it is not handled well.

Wang Yan, as the emperor, is not worried, because that is the national treasury having no money, not that he has no money.

His previous industries were not nationalized, nor were they sold to others; they were all private property of the royal treasury. Those industries act as state-owned enterprises, responsible for bottoming out. Of course, he has exclusive business, and he will still monopolize what should be monopolized. There is no reason to let it go to other merchants for nothing; he should earn what he should earn.

It's just that the business in recent years is indeed not very good, mainly because of his reform policies, and the rich have been cleaned up. And his products, the customer group is mostly rich people, so it is affected.

Of course, that doesn't matter much. After all, he still has businesses in grain, salt, iron, tea, etc. The grain pulled from the South China Sea is his industry. Although he did not raise the price, he just sold it at a flat price, so he did not lose money. Because he bought grain at a very low price, the most expensive part is the transportation link. But he is not an empty ship, and he is not just transporting grain back, so he can always make up for it. As for salt, that goes without saying. The whole circle of Bohai Bay is a salt field. If the production could not keep up, he would have started selling refined salt at a flat price.

So other businesses are affected, which is irrelevant. Not to mention that there are fewer rich people now, but it won't be long before there will be more rich people.

When he rebelled before, the first half year was filled by him. Although the second year had an income of two hundred million, the deficit was not small, and he made up a large part of it. It was also at this time that Zhao Ji knew how rich he was when listening to reports at the grand court meeting on the first day of every month. In the past, offering him one million guan a year was just sending away beggars. So if there is really a natural disaster, he will also provide materials for rescue, which is no problem.

The third year of Huaxia, summer.

The floor tiles of Zhu Que Street are still the original bluestone. Although Zhu Que Street is not a commercial street, and there is not a single shopping mall, and both sides are various government agencies of the imperial court, the pedestrians on the street are still dense.

Because people are not forbidden to walk here, they can stroll at will. And every day at 6:00 in the morning, the flag is raised, and at 6:00 in the evening, the flag is lowered. The 950-meter-long street, 590 fully armed Yulin Guard soldiers, kicked their goosesteps all the way, playing music and singing to raise and lower the national flag in wind and rain, which was extremely majestic. There are also the Altar of Land and Grain and the Imperial Ancestral Temple, which are not forbidden for people to visit and worship, so many people come over to take a look when they have nothing to do, praying for a good harvest and getting rich, praying for ancestors to bless their descendants with more blessings.

The most critical point is that the emperor often goes out for a stroll. No matter which street he goes out from, he must return through Zhu Que Street. Many times he can see the emperor. That is the emperor, who doesn't want to see, who doesn't want to follow and say a few words.

Another point is that although Zhu Que Street does not do business, the streets not far from Zhu Que Street are very prosperous. Many people will come to Zhu Que Street to press the road after eating and drinking well, feel the atmosphere of the empire, sit on the benches provided on the side of the road, and recite poems and lyrics with wine bottles...

"The commoner has seen Your Majesty."

"Our dynasty advocates respecting the old and loving the young, the old man does not need to be polite." Wang Yan smiled and supported the old man who had lost half of his teeth in front of him: "Is life good now?"

The old man nodded repeatedly, grinning with his toothless mouth and laughing happily: "Good, much better than the Great Song before. The commoner has been a craftsman for generations, and has three sons. Now they are either team leaders in the Directorate for Palace Buildings or assisting in repairing bridges and roads outside. The three daughters-in-law are also working in the factory outside the city, and the monthly salary is high. Now the family can eat meat twice every ten days, and the babies are growing up fat and white, reading the books of sages in the school. This is because Your Majesty governs the country well and loves the people like children. Being able to have today's days, children and grandchildren don't have to worry, even if I die now, I am happy..."

"Hey, old man, is this satisfied? The days ahead will definitely be better day by day, so you must pay attention to your health and enjoy the blessings."

After saying a few more words, Wang Yan waved goodbye to the old man with a glorious face, took two guards, smiled and nodded to people all the way, and strolled back along Zhu Que Street. He would go out for a few days every month to wander around the city and outside the city, talk to the people who came here from all over the place, and understand the situation.

He naturally knows the real situation. The reason why he does this is more to narrow the distance between him and the people, to pull the high imperial power into the folk, and to break the people's impression of the supreme imperial power. After all, no matter how high the imperial power is, if the people cannot eat, they will rebel. It doesn't matter whether it is close or not.

And although the Embroidered Uniform Guard monitors the world and secret agents are dense, there are always times when they cannot take care of it. A small negligence in the upper power, to the lower level, is a disaster that ruins the family. He wanders around Luoyangcheng and outside when he has nothing to do, which is also a way for some people to file a complaint to the emperor in person, and it is also a deterrent to the officials below.

It is also like this that he is doing very well in Luoyangcheng. When he was enthroned before, many people had seen him, and later he always wandered around. Over time, the people of Luoyangcheng basically all know him and know that he is the Emperor of China. He is also gentle and easy to get along with, talks a lot with the people, and personally urges the solution of some problems, so the people are not afraid of him. But his prestige has not been weakened. After all, it has only been three years since he started his ruthless reform. Although it is not considered blood flowing like a river, the people who work are there.

Those who work outside the city and get whipped are just those who were big households in Luoyang. Now they have all been cleaned up and are not in human shape, very miserable.

The time he came back was good. He had only walked for a while, and just caught up with the lowering of the national flag. Satisfied, he watched the Yulin Guard soldiers take down the national flag in a standard manner, collect the team and return to the palace, and then he continued to stroll away. The flag-raising ceremony is called spectacular. Every morning there is a large group of people, not worse than a thousand years later, all singing along with the music spontaneously. It has been three years. After vigorous publicity, now the concepts of national flag and national anthem are known even by the fools in the village.

Just entered Zhu Que Gate, and saw Wang Fusheng running over in a hurry: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, great joy, great joy."

Having worked hard for half a lifetime, Wang Yan intended to let Wang Fusheng retire and enjoy his blessings, but Wang Fusheng said that he was used to serving and could not stay idle. After so many years, he was considered trusted, so he arranged for him to be the Grand Supervisor of the Palace Internal Affairs, a third-rank official position, managing things in the imperial palace, which was Yang Jian's original position, the superintendent of the imperial palace, the emperor's housekeeper. Originally, those who held this position were eunuchs. The old housekeeper could hold this position without being castrated, and could enter and exit the palace at will, which was considered a sign of his favor.

"What great joy, so hurried." Wang Yan did not stop his steps, continuing to stroll into the palace.

"Your Majesty, the fleet we sent out to sea years ago has returned; they docked at Dengzhou four days ago."

Hearing this, Wang Yan stopped his steps, turned his head and looked at the old housekeeper: "Which batch is it?"

"The second batch and the fourth batch returned together, both were fleets going east. The letter said that they met over there, just when the fourth batch arrived, they were about to leave. Isn't this a coincidence? The two teams stopped for a while to load goods, and then returned together. The high-yield seeds that were ordered before, they also brought them back, saying that they grow underground, and after they mature, they are a bunch strung together, with a yield of ten shi per mu! Your Majesty, should I summon them to the capital?"

Looking at the excited old housekeeper, Wang Yan shook his head and smiled, waved his hand: "No hurry, first find a place, let them wash thoroughly from inside to outside, and then rest and recuperate. Send a batch of doctors from the Imperial Medical Academy to check their bodies, and also see if there are any epidemics. The things they brought back, also pay attention, and pack them up well. Next month, after they have rested, let them come to the capital with the goods."

Wang Fusheng nodded, said no more, accompanied Wang Yan all the way to the palace, and then said goodbye and left to write official documents and send out Wang Yan's instructions.

After dinner, Wang Yan sat on the top of the newly built high building to enjoy the cool breeze, thinking about the news of the fleet's return that the old housekeeper said before.

This is undoubtedly a good thing, a great good thing.

His task is to let people eat their fill and eat well. With the current level of three or four shi per mu, that is, three or four hundred catties, it is impossible to do it anyway. After all, even at this time, he occupies the largest piece of land, and the grain produced in a year is not enough to eat, and he has to transport it from overseas. So naturally, directly sending people to sail far away to find high-yield grain and other various seeds not available locally in other continents is the top priority. The one the old housekeeper said that grows underground and is a bunch strung together after maturity is, of course, sweet potatoes and potatoes.

The origin of sweet potatoes and potatoes is the American continent, and sailing is a must. As early as when he hooked up with Zhao Ji and developed rapidly, he was already preparing to build ships to go to sea. At first, the team was small and the ships were poor. Later, a massive amount of manpower and materials were thrown in, and the ships were built better and better, and more and more teams were sent out. Even in these few years when he was emperor, the matter of building ships and going to sea never stopped. Some went east, some went north, and some went south.

In this era, he also doesn't know what he will encounter when going to sea, how many people can survive, and how many people have discovered the New World and are willing to come back, so what he can do is to constantly send people out. So far, nine batches of fleets have been sent to sea.

Now the second batch that returned should be in the eighth year of Zhenghe, which is Western calendar 1118. Now it is the third year of Huaxia, Western calendar 1126, a full eight years. Magellan took three years to go around the earth, and now his subordinates took eight years.

Of course, it cannot be calculated like that. Their task is to go out to find seeds, to understand the environment of various places, they have to record in detail, they have to collect various things in many aspects, and there are mistakes in the middle, etc., etc. It is not bad that they can survive and come back.

Now that there is high-yield grain, the next step is large-scale promotion to benefit the world.

Although he has long had enough of flattery, who doesn't like it... ===== CHAPTER 451 =====