Emperor Zhengde
Chapter 282: Industrial Development and National Expansion of the Ming Dynasty
Chapter 282: Ming Dynasty's Industrial Development and National Expansion (Two in One)
With the arrival of a new batch of grain from the Grain Bureau, the capital's food shortage problem was completely solved.
The Minister of Agriculture Yan Song began to promote sweet potatoes in Baoding and Zhending prefectures.
In addition, the central government and local governments at all levels also began to open fertilizer factories, selling the fertilizers they produced to farmers at the most reasonable prices to promote grain production.
Zhu Houzhao believed that with the promotion of sweet potatoes, the people of the empire would no longer suffer from famine, and the population would usher in a huge explosion.
What's more, Zhu Houzhao now exempted corvee labor, which undoubtedly increased the ability of self-cultivating farmers to raise more children.
For example, Zhang Yousan is like most Ming Dynasty people of that era. His current income is no longer the same as it was ten years ago. Even if he works in a newly opened coal mine in the city, he can still earn four or five silver dollars a month.
In addition, the three acres of land that was originally only used to grow vegetables can now be used to grow sweet potatoes once a year, and they can also rely on sweet potatoes to raise one or two fat pigs at the end of the year.
Now that every family's income is increasing, the demand for meat is getting higher and higher, and the price of pork is also getting higher and higher. Zhang Yousan also made a lot of money from selling pigs. It was also because of this money that he finally got married after being single for 30 years.
Although he married a widow, fortunately she was pretty, so Zhang Yousan didn't think it was a bad thing.
Of course, he had also learned some words from the study classes held in the county, and knew that some gentlemen in the city had begun to advocate widows to remarry, saying that making young women remain widows was tantamount to cutting off the population.
He himself didn't care whether she was a widow or not. He only thought about having a son in the future who could go to school and pass the imperial examination like his cousin, and be admitted to the Imperial University, or be sent to the local area to become a county magistrate.
Zhang Yousan's cousin Gao Jian never thought that he was just an apprentice who followed a Feng Shui master to learn divination. He had to return home to attend a community school because he had no money to continue studying. He knew nothing about classics, but because of his good knowledge of mathematics and physics, he managed to study all the way to university and now he has become a county magistrate and an official.
Of course, Gao Jian’s ability to become an official was also related to Zhu Houzhao’s reform of the imperial examination system.
As more and more scholars received new education, especially those graduating from higher schools, more and more scholars from poor families, most of whom did not perform well in the imperial examinations and who received subsidies from the court for new-style education, began to study there.
The court had to make changes in the social advancement system.
These scholars from poor families now number in large numbers, and because the imperial court still recruits officials through the imperial examination, they have to continue to take the imperial examination, or stay in school to become teachers in new-style schools, or pass the civil service examination to enter the ranks of low-level officials in the Ming Dynasty.
However, if these poor students who received new-style education wanted to become high-ranking officials, they still had to take the imperial examination and become Jinshi.
In order to reduce the number of scholars who received new-style education having to relearn the eight-legged essay in order to become Jinshi, the chief minister of the cabinet, with the instruction of Zhu Houzhao, announced that starting from the 16th year of Zhengde, the imperial examination system of the Ming Dynasty would be divided into two ways of selecting scholars. One method would still use the original model, that is, to go through the joint examination and the palace examination, and test the eight-legged essay, so as to facilitate students who received old-style Confucian education to take the exam.
This type of candidates are mainly children of bureaucrats.
The other type changed the content of the examination. It was no longer based on the eight-legged essay. Instead, it was divided into two categories: liberal arts and science. The liberal arts exam included five subjects: Chinese studies, arithmetic, currency policy, history, and geography, while the science exam included five subjects: Chinese studies, arithmetic, physics, chemistry, and biology.
This type of candidates are mainly from poor families.
Zhu Houzhao felt happy for these scholars because the Ming Dynasty was still the center of world civilization in that era and still represented the most advanced productivity and ideas. Therefore, they did not need to learn foreign languages. Unlike later generations, even if they studied their own country's history and literature, they had to learn foreign languages, both undergraduate and graduate.
Because two methods of selecting officials through the imperial examination system were carried out in parallel, this reform did not cause much opposition from conservatives. After all, it did not block their way.
For poor students who are eager to realize their dreams, being able to obtain a more convenient way to advance is undoubtedly like a timely rain after a long drought.
Zhu Houzhao preferred to call the latter type of imperial examination the Ming Dynasty version of the college entrance examination, because the latter type of imperial examination was entirely based on the scores of each province to decide whether one could become a Jinshi, and it was also divided into three classes, but there were no longer only three Jinshi in the first class, but the first class was composed of a certain proportion of the population of each province, and the top scorers were admitted. Of course, there were still top three winners, but they were only provincial top three winners.
However, starting from the 16th year of Zhengde, all Jinshi admitted through the old-style education and the new-style education had to go to university to study. Those admitted through the old-style education were uniformly assigned to study liberal arts in various universities.
The Jinshi scholars admitted through the new-style education were allowed to apply to various universities from the central to provincial levels of their choice and were admitted based on their scores and the number of places in each school. It was not until they graduated in four years that they could officially receive the Jinshi dress and documents of the Ministry of Personnel. In other words, they could become true Jinshi scholars only after graduating from university.
These are all the responsibility of the department.
Zhang Cong, the Minister of Personnel, was responsible for assigning jobs to these graduates of the traditional and new-style education.
The Ming Dynasty is still in the early stages of educational reform, and the number of people receiving higher education is still small, so it is still uniformly allocated by the court.
Most Jinshi would still be appointed as officials.
Today, the officials of the Ming Dynasty not only cover the military and administration, but also managers of state-owned enterprises.
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty still had a large shortage of officials in terms of the utilization of talent resources.
Basically, because the Jinshi admitted by the old-style education were mainly Confucian officials of Neo-Confucianism, they were mostly sent to colonies, places outside the Great Wall, or places in the southwest where there were many chieftains.
Most of the Jinshi admitted through the new-style education stayed in the interior to serve as officials, especially those from the two mature schools, Imperial University of Peking and Central University of Nanjing, most of whom were retained in Beijing to serve as officials.
Of course, this educational reform was presided over by Kang Hai, and Emperor Zhu Houzhao has basically retreated behind the scenes.
Because of this.
Many Confucian officials were extremely dissatisfied with Kang Hai's reforms. After all, although the court did not completely abandon Confucianism to cut off their path to advancement, it also greatly reduced the chances of these Confucian officials being promoted to high-ranking officials.
As a result, many people called Kang Hai a traitor to the country, and he was even attacked by angry Confucian scholars.
But as long as Emperor Zhu Houzhao did not want to touch Kang Hai, no matter how harshly the Confucian scholars in the folk scolded Kang Hai, it would be of no avail.
The reason why Kang Hai is willing to make this change.
The main reason is that after Zhu Houzhao popularized universal education and capitalism developed, the desire of the common people and the merchant class to participate in politics became increasingly strong, making educational reform inevitable.
Besides.
Although Kang Hai was a Neo-Confucian official who was a top scholar in the imperial examination, he was not a conservative who was complacent. He studied at the Imperial University of Peking for a period of time and, like other officials such as Xia Yan, advocated that Neo-Confucianism should be the essence and sacred learning should be the application.
In other words, we must make Confucianism the mainstream ideology of the country, and at the same time, we must improve production based on the theory of sacred learning.
Coincidentally, Zhang Cong, the Minister of Personnel, was also such an official and supported Kang Hai's behavior. He basically granted powerful official positions that required actual administrative ability to Jinshi who were good at using sacred learning and had received new-style education, while Confucian scholars were sent to engage in relatively less powerful positions such as education and cultural management, and diplomacy.
Zhu Houzhao did not expect that after he established the first natural science development base in the Ming Dynasty, namely the Royal Industrial Experimental Base and later the Imperial University of Peking, the elites of the Ming Dynasty would sum up a set of governing philosophy of "Neo-Confucianism as the body and sacred learning as the application".
"If we use a different type of steel, we can use a boring machine to directly bore out a cylinder. This may ensure the airtightness of the cylinder. If possible, we may be able to use the power of the steam to drive the linkage rod, and then use it in water pumps and spinning machines!"
Zhu Houzhao was at the Ming Academy of Engineering, telling several high-tech talents from the Ming Dynasty who were wearing bullfighting suits about his suggestions on the steam engine development project.
Now, Zhu Houzhao had basically handed over domestic affairs to the cabinet and was only responsible for the judiciary and the military. Therefore, he focused much of his energy on the scientific and technological revolution.
Zhu Houzhao therefore specially set up the Ministry of Science and Technology, with Wang Wensu as the Minister of Science and Technology, who was specifically responsible for the management of the Ming Dynasty's scientific undertakings.
The industrialization of the Ming Dynasty has basically begun to get on the right track, and a basic industrial system has been established.
There are corresponding factories from steel smelting to the preparation of two acids and two alkalis as chemical raw materials and related mechanical and chemical products.
And they are basically large government-run factories.
The reason why most of the factories were government-run was mainly because Zhu Houzhao was the emperor. He could directly use the power of the state to establish government-run factories before the businessmen and inventors of that era realized new things.
Then, the state-owned factories used their political advantages to directly control the entire industrial economy.
Of course, this is also related to the fact that the Ming Dynasty itself was a centralized state. In this period when agricultural civilization was still very developed, it was impossible to build such a huge industrial system relying on the empire's merchants.
This also determined that the Ming Dynasty had inadvertently become an empire with public ownership as its main body. Invisibly, the main wealth and industrial manufacturing of the Ming Dynasty were actually controlled by the state!
This is very different from the economic structure of the capitalist empires that rose in the West in later history, and perhaps this is also the characteristic of the Ming Dynasty itself.
of course.
This also meant that Zhu Houzhao was still an emperor with unlimited power and the imperial power was still guaranteed.
Because no Ming Dynasty capitalist dared to confront him as an emperor in terms of financial resources and manufacturing capabilities. Even the army now had to rely on the Royal Industrial Company controlled by him to provide the most advanced rifled firearms and cylindrical bullets that only the Royal Industrial Company could produce.
If any princes or warlords wanted to rebel, Zhu Houzhao could paralyze their army by cutting off their supply of guns and bullets.
Rubber began to become an important raw material in the Ming Dynasty's industry. Under the guidance of Zhu Houzhao, the empire's scientists discovered that if this material was made into tires, it could indeed reduce the vibration caused by the movement of horse-drawn carriages, and could also serve as an industrial conveyor belt.
This led to an increasing demand for rubber in the Ming Dynasty, which in turn accelerated the pace of Ming Dynasty's colonization.
Now merchants in the Ming Dynasty can only engage in foreign trade.
Because the production technology and political advantages they possessed could not compete with the state-owned factories in the country, and the huge demand for raw materials from the state-owned factories provided them with a lot of living space, merchants in the Ming Dynasty rushed to join in foreign trade, which could also be called foreign plunder.
They transported large amounts of foreign minerals, rubber, coal, and oil (historically, oil had indeed begun to be used during the Zhengde period, and an oil shaft was even drilled in Leshan, Sichuan in the 16th year of Zhengde) back to China, and shipped domestic high-tech products abroad, making huge profits through import and export trade.
It can be said that these Ming Dynasty merchants have become the coachmen of Ming Dynasty's foreign trade. Their merchant ships have begun to spread all over the world, and some have even established colonies abroad.
If they did not want to be citizens of the Ming Dynasty and continue to benefit from the Ming Dynasty's foreign trade surplus, they would have established their own country long ago. However, many of them requested to be appointed governors of some overseas place, under the pretext of discovering the New World for the court.
Naturally, the Ming Dynasty court was too lazy to pursue the matter. After all, this was a good thing for the court. Appointing a governor could bring in long-term tax revenue from a place.
Zhu Houzhao knew that the Ming Dynasty had now entered an era of national expansion.
Neither he, the emperor, nor the officials of the entire court could stop this trend. The only thing he could do as an emperor was to maintain the continuous development momentum within the empire.
At this time, the Ming Empire was like a huge black hole, madly sucking the world's wealth into the empire.
In this process, more and more businessmen made money, and almost every day the Ming Dynasty created a millionaire with an annual income of one million silver dollars.
At the same time, this also led to many court officials voluntarily resigning from their posts and going into business.
After all, the main industrial economy of the Ming Dynasty is now in the hands of the court. As an official, even if he manages a royal industrial company with advanced production technology, he is just a worker, and most of the value he creates is still just national income. If he wants to have more wealth instead of through corruption and bribery, he can only resign and do business.
What's more, the laws of the Ming Dynasty had become very strict, especially the punishment for corruption, so those officials who wanted to pursue wealth could only resign and go into business.
Moreover, if these officials go into business, they can use their connections in official circles to become super-rich overnight.
"Do you really want to resign?"
Zhu Houzhao asked Yuwen Zhong, who was demoted to the post of Supervisor of Fujian Maritime Customs for failing to guard the grain transport.
Yuwen Zhong nodded and said, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. Although I want to serve the country, I know my ability is limited. The Maritime Customs Office is an important local tax office. I am afraid that I will still cause trouble to the court. It is better for me to resign and start another business."
"In this case, I will not force you to stay. I will ask the Ministry of Personnel to approve Yuwen Zhong's resignation!"
Zhu Houzhao has now received more than ten letters of resignation, many of which are from third and fourth rank officials such as governors and vice ministers. There are naturally more officials of the fifth rank and below, but Zhu Houzhao knows that this is the general trend of the country, and it is difficult for him to stop it.
After all, the idea of valuing agriculture over commerce had long been abandoned in the Ming Dynasty. Seeing their fellow countrymen and friends becoming wealthy one by one, these officials who came from imperial examinations could not help but feel envious and began to compete to go into business.
Zhu Houzhao now had to admit that the development of history was indeed inevitable, and the phenomena of the times he experienced in later generations did not seem to be historical accidents.
The Ming Dynasty today makes Zhu Houzhao feel both strange and familiar. What is strange is that he finds that after opening its doors, the Ming Dynasty today has begun to become less and less like the feudal society he knew, where the emperor, the people and the ministers are virtuous, and everything else is inferior except for the highest level of education. What is familiar is that he seems not to have traveled through time, but just changed his identity. In his previous life, he was not the helmsman, he was just an ordinary citizen of this country, but in this life, he became the helmsman.
Zhu Houzhao also didn't know whether the Ming Dynasty would encounter some of the problems that later generations encountered, such as the corruption of the national quality by the money-first view, the blindness and selfishness brought about by the pursuit of interests, and even mutual harm and betrayal without regard for conscience.
Sometimes, Zhu Houzhao felt that even though he was the emperor, he still seemed powerless to control the country. Various forces were developing, various ideas were developing, and all kinds of people were emerging.
In March of the 17th year of Zhengde, Zhu Houzhao convened a meeting in the Royal West Garden with royal relatives, cabinet ministers, officials of the Imperial Guards, officials of the three judicial departments, and ministers of various ministries.
Although it was just an ordinary gathering, only Zhu Houzhao himself knew that the appearance of the 17th year of Zhengde meant that the history of the Ming Dynasty had really changed.
Historically, Emperor Zhengde died in March of the 16th year of Zhengde's reign, and the Ming Dynasty entered the Jiajing period.
And now, the seventeenth year of the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty has arrived, and the historical Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houzhao is still a young prince who stays in the capital to study.
It seemed that many people ignored him, and there was not even an official who advised Emperor Zhu Houzhao to let Zhu Houcong return to his hometown to establish his fiefdom.
Only Zhu Houzhao glanced at Zhu Houcong, called him over, picked up a glass of wine that he had recently become fond of and took a sip: "I heard that you like Taoism?"
Zhu Houcong did not expect that the emperor would suddenly ask him this, so he answered truthfully: "Your Majesty, Taoism is flourishing in my hometown, and my father believes in it, so I also believe in it!"
"There is nothing wrong with believing in the truth! Just don't miss your main job!"
Zhu Houzhao felt that this arrangement might be the best one for Zhu Houcong. This man, whose wisdom was almost demonic in history, might be able to make greater contributions to the Ming Dynasty if he did not focus on power struggles in this life.
"I will remember your Majesty's teachings!"
Zhu Houcong didn't know why the emperor suddenly said this to him, and he was thinking about it alone in his heart.
The other officials present also looked at Zhu Houcong meaningfully, not understanding why the emperor would suddenly have such a conversation with a vassal king.
Zhu Houzhao himself couldn't help but smile. He knew that starting from the 17th year of Zhengde, he would no longer be able to control history by being familiar with the history of the Ming Dynasty and to cover up his disadvantages in strategy.
But he knew that according to the original historical trajectory, after this, all kinds of wise and almost diabolical characters would appear in the Ming Dynasty, and there would be more and more of them, such as Xu Jie, Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, and even now, such characters have begun to appear in the court, such as Wang Qiong, Wang Shouren, Yan Song, as well as Xia Yan who was far away in Southeast Asia and Yang Yiqing in Hetao.
Zhu Houzhao didn't know how to rule these so-called heroes, nor did he know whether he could control these people. Now he had to admit that it was not him who was controlling these people, but these people who were operating the world. He, the emperor, seemed to be becoming more and more an inspirer of history rather than a leader.
For example, the idea of "the sacred application of Neo-Confucianism" which has now become the mainstream thought from the central level to the top was not what Zhu Houzhao had thought of in advance, nor did he want it to happen.
Even the Loyalty Society he founded had changed its philosophy of governing the country and even became the base camp of this mainstream ideology.
The only thing that made Zhu Houzhao feel fortunate was that the current mainstream social thought was still beneficial to him as the emperor. Otherwise, Zhu Houzhao believed that he would have been pushed to the guillotine!
Zhu Houzhao admitted that this was because this era still needed him as an emperor.
But what about the future? Will there still be a need for me as an emperor? Will I be pushed to the guillotine?
As more and more chaebols form alliances and begin to monopolize all the resources of the country, will the power of the emperor be restricted and he have to sit back and watch them force the people at the bottom to rebel? But then he will be the one to take the blame, be sent to the guillotine, or be forced to make some changes.
"It's all gone!"
Zhu Houzhao glanced at the ministers and nobles in the hall, and he seemed to see many evil wolves who might force him to amend the constitution in the future.
For a moment, Zhu Houzhao had a very strong sense of crisis.
"Lord, why did His Majesty look at us with such vigilance just now?" Minister of Works Ye Heng couldn't help but ask the Minister of War Wang Shouren.
Wang Shouren smiled faintly: "Because I see things with my heart, I see things that I cannot see if I don't see with my heart!"
Ye Heng didn't understand what Wang Shouren said.
Yan Song understood, and sighed in his heart: "Your Majesty doesn't look like a king, but is more suitable to be the king of today. It's not that Your Majesty can't deal with the current situation, but I don't know if the new king can properly handle the ever-changing situation a hundred years later!"
Zhu Houzhao was now in his thirties, which gave him abundant energy to do more things, but he also brought chaos and complexity to this era, as if he had planted the seeds of life, but also as if he had deepened the sin.
Zhu Houzhao looked at his new concubine, Zhang Xianshi, as if he was looking at a flower blooming in spring. He couldn't help but smile for a moment. Then he turned around and lay flat on the couch, looking at the portrait of him painted by Raphael. He didn't know what new things would happen tomorrow, but Zhu Houzhao believed that tomorrow would be very exciting.
Thanks to the book friend 150831102442857 for the 1000 Qidian coins reward
(End of this chapter)
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