Qing Yao

Chapter 105 Born into the Imperial Harmony, Died into the Imperial Ancestral Temple

With the prefect's approval and the support of numerous officials, there was naturally no problem with the prefectural school arranging for students to study outside the school. Besides, how the prefectural school operated was none of the local officials' business.

As long as it doesn't violate the imperial regulations on school registration and doesn't infringe on the educational interests of local officials, who would bother?

Moreover, although the study abroad and intensive education programs were Zhao An's means of accumulating wealth, they could fundamentally improve the overall educational level of Yangzhou Prefecture.

If in the past a year a hundred scholars were produced, but this year five hundred were produced, do you think this achievement would make the local officials collectively excited and raise their arms to shout "Long live Principal Zhao"?

It's true that the principal makes money while standing up, local officials get promoted while standing up, and students work hard to pass the imperial examinations.

It's not a win-win situation, it's a win-win situation for all participating parties.

Not to mention that after all this, officials, local wealthy people, and gentry all "owed" Principal Zhao a debt of gratitude.

Without Principal Zhao's bold attempts at educational reform, would his group of idle and unambitious children have had the opportunity to enter a top municipal school and become successful?

Dreaming is just a load of rubbish.

Those students who passed the county-level examination and went on to pass the provincial and metropolitan examinations, when recalling how they overcame the hurdle of passing the county-level examination in their youth, would surely think of the intensive years they spent at the Yangzhou Prefectural School.

It was tough, but it really paid off.

Who knows, Zhao An might actually become a revered master praised by everyone across the country in the future.

Although, he didn't care.

He didn't even bother to enter the Wenhua Hall, because his ideal was to be born in Taihe Temple and die in the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

If the Aisin Gioro clan doesn't move around and keep working, they'll just die.

After a pleasant lunch, Zhao An returned to the academy and gathered key personnel such as Ma Xuezheng and Tong Xundao together to give a systematic explanation of the intensive and regular classes and to make detailed distinctions between them.

There's not much difference, except one charges less and the other charges more.

The initial plan is to have three intensive classes and seven regular classes, with 40 students enrolled in each class.

This is the first phase; the second phase will begin recruiting next spring.

After all, new policies need time to be adapted to before they can be widely promoted after the experience is summarized.

If everyone rushes to collect everything at the beginning, it's easy to make mistakes in the rush.

Zhao An provided a rough reference price, with the specific price to be determined by Ma and Tong.

Old Ma had already arranged for people to go to Jiangnan to hire famous teachers. Once the famous teachers are in place, the intensive course can be started.

The Yangzhou Prefectural School has nearly a hundred years' worth of examination papers for children. If that's not enough, they can ask the provincial education commissioner to coordinate with the examination papers from other prefectures in Jiangnan. In short, there are plenty of examination papers for Zhao An to use for his "sea of ​​questions" strategy.

The examination papers from the Ming Dynasty were impossible to obtain, as they were all burned under Emperor Qianlong's policy of banning books.

Since the compilation of the Siku Quanshu (Complete Library of the Four Treasuries), every book included in the collection has been destroyed; that is, for every book included in the library, another book has been banned or destroyed.

The books entered into the database must be reviewed by ten people, just like the compilation of the History of Ming, and each volume must be examined by a hundred people, so that no text that would harm the Qing Dynasty will appear in the books.

Some important classics also need to be modified and altered before they can be included in the database.

The total number of books destroyed was over 1500, and the total number of banned books destroyed was as high as 120 million.

The books are all gone, let alone the exam papers.

Even if there are any omissions, they are hidden somewhere, and you can't get them from there.

There's no need to do it; the existing test papers are sufficient.

However, a new problem arose: should the collected money be deposited into the prefectural school's public account or recorded in a separate account?

The question was raised by Tong Xundao, the director of the teaching affairs office.

That's a very technical question.

The principal, vice-principal, and head of academic affairs all chose to set up a separate slush fund.

The academy's accounts were divided into two: the public accounts were still controlled by the "Accounting Office," but the funds obtained through innovation were entirely at the disposal of the principal himself.

The slush fund was set up in the school office and was managed by Wang Xiaoli, the school office director recently appointed by the principal. The collected money was deposited in a large money exchange so that it could be used as needed.

To reassure his subordinates and faculty, and to fully unleash their initiative, Zhao An decided on a distribution ratio for the pie.

If there are 100 taels in the treasury, then 20 taels will be withdrawn first as working capital, and this amount will remain constant.

Of the remaining 80 taels, 20 taels were allocated to pay the salaries of all faculty and staff (the increased portion), and another 20 taels were allocated for the welfare of all faculty and staff.

What benefits are included?
There are no specifics, but they send out gifts whenever there's a holiday, and even if it's not a holiday, they still send gifts if the principal is in a good mood.

From small items like rice, flour, oil, and charcoal, to larger items like pork, vermicelli, silk, hair ornaments, and toilet paper, the principal distributes everything that faculty and staff members need at home!

Not stingy at all.

Having a baby or getting married can also be celebrated.

That's why they couldn't produce family planning products; otherwise, Principal Zhao would definitely have personally distributed condoms to the wives of the employees.

The idea was that the benefits should be at least three times the salary; only in this way could he, as the principal, show his kindness to the staff and earn their heartfelt and unwavering love and respect. The principal would take half of the remaining 40 taels, the several school officials would take the other half, and the remaining 10 taels would be divided among all the clerks.

A very fair and just distribution scheme.

The plan also shows that the principal did not break his promise; he did not keep all the money for himself, because a total of 20 taels of the 100 taels ended up in the principal's pocket.

To be an official with such integrity is probably a rarity, perhaps even among all the officials in the entire Qing Dynasty.

In addition, considering that faculty and staff also have the need for their relatives and friends' children to study, Zhao An also made a special exception to allow faculty and staff to have the benefit of temporary enrollment.

Students recommended by faculty and staff can have their tuition fees reduced by half.

One position is available for each ordinary faculty and staff member, two for clerks, and three for academic officials.

There are no limits to how much power the principal can have.

Although the matter has not yet been settled, the introduction of various welfare measures has once again propelled Principal Zhao to the top of the Fuxue hot search list.

The principal himself had no intention of accepting the employees' admiration and gratitude, because he had something more important to do.

The matter of giving the salt commissioner, Old Zheng, ten thousand taels of silver.

Money is the courage of heroes.

Zhao An was really reluctant to hand over all his hard-earned money to Lao Zheng, because he planned to use it as start-up capital for his salt business, which required a considerable amount of initial investment.

Even with the involvement of two county magistrates, the profits from their small-scale operations wouldn't be enough to go around.

What if I don't have money?
It was quite natural to think of those two suckers in Ganquan County.

The next day, someone was specially sent to invite the two senior leaders to the academy, and the situation was briefly explained to them.

"What?! Ten thousand taels!"

Both County Magistrate Ding and Instructor Song were stunned by the price. They then unanimously stated that it wasn't that they were unwilling to help, but rather that they were already heavily in debt due to the matter of the fines. Even if they wanted to help Zhao An bribe his superiors so that the money could reach the Emperor's ears, they simply couldn't afford it.

"You two are a county magistrate and an instructor, surely you can scrape together ten thousand taels of silver?"

Zhao An was not very happy. After thinking about it, he felt that he was being a bit unfair to them, so he lowered his offer a bit, meaning that he would be happy if the two old leaders pooled together eight thousand taels for him.

"No, not a single cent!"

County Magistrate Ding flatly refused, leaving no room for negotiation.

It wasn't that he didn't know the benefits of helping Zhao An reach the highest levels of government; it was just that the county had been dealing with a lot of trouble this year, including levies and floods, which had drastically reduced his income as the county magistrate.

Moreover, because of that bastard Zhao An, I put in another 10,000 taels of silver to settle the matter, which has caused me to owe the bank 5,000 taels of interest. I am truly powerless in the face of this situation.

"If a powerful person could put in a good word for Lord Zhao with the Emperor, that would be wonderful. It's just that I really can't raise the money. However..."

Unlike the county magistrate, Song, the instructor, did not dare to refuse directly. So he gave Zhao a suggestion: they could try to borrow it.

Borrowing money from money lenders at exorbitant interest rates.

borrow?
Zhao An was taken aback. He had originally planned to borrow money from the bank after his official appointment to see if he could buy a minor official position. But now that he had been promoted to a seventh-rank official by the old master based on his own abilities, he wasn't in a hurry to buy an official position, so why should he borrow money?

Having too much money is a pain.

Instructor Song, however, was enthusiastically touting the benefits of borrowing money, saying that nowadays, which official doesn't borrow money? There's nothing shameful about it. If this ten thousand taels could really get Zhao An promoted again, it would be an absolute windfall.

"If all else fails, just borrow from them. At worst, I and Lord Song will act as guarantors for you. The money exchange I borrowed from before is run by the Imperial Household Department. Although the interest rate is a bit high, the manager is very good at handling people and will never cause trouble for customers. In fact, he can even help solve any problems customers may encounter."

County Magistrate Ding also felt that it would be better for Zhao An to borrow money, otherwise it would be a waste to keep borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. Out of goodwill, he recommended the money shop he often lent money to Zhao An.

"Sponsored by the Imperial Household Department?"

Zhao An, who had not originally planned to borrow money, changed his mind and decided to borrow it. That afternoon, accompanied by Magistrate Ding, he went to the money shop called Hengli.

The money shop certainly had to give a warm welcome to the guests brought by the county magistrate. Upon hearing that they were Professor Zhao from the prefectural school, the shop became even more enthusiastic. The manager personally handled the business, serving tea to the two distinguished guests before asking the professor how much he intended to borrow.

Magistrate Ding spoke up, smiling, "Manager Shi, Lord Zhao is planning to borrow ten thousand taels. Do you think you can ask for a lower interest rate? I am your local official, so you should at least give me this much face, right?"

"We must give you face, sir, and we'll offer you 20% off the interest. However, ten thousand taels is a bit too much. Although Lord Zhao is a professor at the prefectural school,..."

But what Manager Shi didn't say was simply that the professors at the prefectural school didn't earn as much as the local officials with real power, and who knew when they could repay the 10,000 taels they lent out.

"Don't worry, even if Lord Zhao can't repay the money, there's still the county magistrate. Do you, Manager Shi, not even trust the county magistrate?"

The county magistrate felt somewhat aggrieved when he said this.

I can't quite put my finger on what's wrong with me.

He probably felt that the contrast between his dignified position as county magistrate and his current role as a guarantor for a former subordinate's temporary worker was too great.

Upon hearing this, Manager Shi, being a shrewd man, quickly smiled and said, "Since Lord Ding has spoken, ten thousand taels it is. Please wait a moment, I will send someone over to have Lord Zhao sign the order."

As they were talking, the shopkeeper was about to go out and call the clerk in charge when Zhao An, who hadn't spoken until now, put down his teacup and shook his head, saying, "Ten thousand taels is too little. I would like to borrow one hundred thousand taels. Can you lend it to me? If not, I will go back."

(End of this chapter)