Qing Yao

Can I photocopy the exam paper for Chapter 133?
After taking out a 100,000 tael loan, Zhao An only received 90,000 taels. His future mother-in-law gave him 10,000 taels, his friend Manager Shi gave him 10,000 taels, and he gave another 1,000 taels as a "tip" to the bank staff. Zhao An had less than 70,000 taels in his hands.

Spending money really does happen as fast as water.

Just six months ago, he was beaten up by the waiter over a meal costing a few dozen coins.

Comparing the past and present, Zhao An now exudes the air of a nouveau riche.

But it's not that he's really stupid and rich, because the money he spends will eventually come back to him in some way.

If you want to grow bigger and stronger, you can't be stingy. Especially in the banking industry, you not only have to act like a nouveau riche who doesn't care about money, but also like a "big boss" who cares for and takes great care of his employees.

Zhao An plans to invite the bank staff to go on a trip in batches at the end of the year. The scenery in Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou in Jiangnan, as well as Hangzhou and Jiaxing in Zhejiang, are quite nice and they can visit them. If conditions permit, it would also be possible to organize a group to go to Beijing for a few days.

During holidays, cigarettes and alcohol are standard fare; small villas for management, and even "skinny horses" (a euphemism for prostitutes) can be provided.

Zhao An will fulfill any request the bank has.

Because these are actually financial investments.

However, the investment is in people.

Compared to direct investment in any business, the investor's rate of return is the highest.

Zhao An currently has two investment projects: one is an emotional investment in the bank, and the other is an investment in his father-in-law, Lao Ding.

Once the water conservancy project was launched, Zhao An planned to use the power of the education sector to promote Lao Ding, arrange for people to provide him with things like the "Ten Thousand People Umbrella," and hire some extras to portray Lao Ding as an honest official who served the people.

Just like Yu Chenglong back then.

After that, they spent money on the provincial government and the Ministry of Personnel to try to get Lao Ding to become the prefect who would exterminate his entire family.

It's not feasible to go to Yangzhou. The new magistrate, Lord Fang, was personally appointed by the old master. It won't work if it's too far away either, because he can't help Zhao An if he's too far away.

Of the surrounding prefectures, Huai'an is the best.

The prefect is a fourth-rank official. The Ministry of Personnel does not usually sell this position casually. You need someone in the province to recommend you, and it would probably cost a lot of money.

After returning to the academy from the money exchange, he had barely entered his office when Vice Principal Ma Xuezheng came to report. He entered and closed the door behind him like a thief, then placed a thick stack of account books in front of the principal and said in a low voice, "Sir, these are the tuition fees collected by the academy these past few days. Please take a look!"

"Oh? How many students have you recruited? You've all worked hard these past few days. I'm like a professor who doesn't want to do anything, so you have to do everything. You've all worked so hard."

Zhao An smiled and nodded, putting down the official gazette in his hand. He opened the bill and began to look at it, but he wasn't interested in reading the beginning. Instead, he flipped directly to the last "total" and found that the tuition fees for the past few days had already exceeded 80,000 taels. He then gave Vice Principal Ma a slightly surprised look.

Vice Principal Ma was just waiting for this expression from the principal, and he grinned and said, "Students from Taizhou and Dongtai will come to register in the next day or two. I estimate that after registration, we can collect 100,000 taels in tuition fees. In addition, after settling the accommodation fees and the house fees, we can also collect tens of thousands of taels. Furthermore, the uniform clothing and meals that you mentioned will also bring in a lot of money."

Vice Principal Ma could not hide his excitement as he spoke.

How could I not be excited?
When the previous principals were in charge, the academy only had a fixed income of about ten thousand taels of silver per year, and it was always in a deficit of several thousand taels of silver. But as soon as Principal Zhao arrived, the academy suddenly had an income of one hundred thousand taels of silver!

This isn't Professor Zhao, it's clearly the God of Wealth Zhao!

The most amazing thing is that the academy didn't incur any costs at all, and the money just flowed in on its own.

I have no idea what's going on in Lord Zhao's head; how come those professors couldn't come up with this?

Tsk tsk, if Lord Zhao had come two years earlier, everyone would have become rich long ago.

"Parents, as parents, all hope their children will become successful. There is a saying that all other professions are inferior, only studying is noble. Since parents are willing to spend a lot of money to send their children to our school, our school cannot let them down. We must earnestly improve the children's grades. No matter how bad their studies were before, we must transform them. Even if they don't pass the imperial examinations, they should still become successful and well-rounded individuals."

Zhao An was deeply satisfied with the "blind" pursuit of the prestigious name of the key middle school by wealthy people in Yangzhou. Sure enough, no matter what year it is, the money of students' parents is the easiest to earn.

He closed the ledger, but instructed Ma Xuezheng to take 30,000 taels from the tuition fees and exchange them for banknotes at a money exchange. He then instructed, "You shall pay 7,000 taels to the provincial education commissioner in the name of the prefectural school, send 5,000 taels to the prefectural government, send 2,000 taels to each of the counties and prefectures below, and give 1,000 taels to each of the instructors in each county and prefecture for the remaining 6,000 taels."

"Why?"

Ma Xuezheng was somewhat puzzled and felt a pang of regret. Why should the money earned by the prefectural school be given to the province and the prefecture?

“In the future, our prefectural school will have to deal with the province and the local areas for a long time. The issue of temporary enrollment is not something that can be done this year and then stopped next year. If we want the local area to cooperate with the prefectural school, we can’t just take the meat and not let them have the soup.”

Zhao An's explanation can actually be explained by the saying "being rich alone does not make you fat".

This is also a principle of market economy.

Once someone does something and it is indeed very profitable, a second person will quickly appear in the market to do it.

The issue of students studying outside their registered schools caused quite a stir in Yangzhou, and the fees were made transparent. Once the accounts were calculated, it became clear that the prefectural school had made a fortune from it.

If prefectural schools can arrange for students to study outside their registered schools, can county and prefectural schools do the same?

In the end, in order to compete for "financial resources," it's hard to guarantee that county schools in various places won't issue restrictions on school transfers.

Therefore, these problems must be resolved in advance.

The best way to solve this problem is, of course, to have meat that everyone can eat together.

As for why the provincial education commissioner sent seven thousand taels of silver, it was to ensure that the province would not object to the "innovation" of Yangzhou Prefectural School. Otherwise, if the provincial education commissioner issued a document saying that Yangzhou Prefectural School was acting recklessly and demanding that the temporary enrollment be stopped immediately, the matter would be difficult to resolve.

Unless Zhao An invites He Zhongtang to come as an outside help right now, he really can't beat the Provincial Education Commissioner who sits in the fourth position in the province.

As for how the faculty and staff of the academy would divide this pie, Zhao An had already set the proportions beforehand, and he kept his word, never taking more than his share.

However, the money designated as "activity funds" can only be controlled by the principal.

After arranging this matter, Zhao An, accompanied by school leaders such as Ma Xuezheng, met cordially with the teachers who had just been recruited from various places.

The prefectural school recruited twelve "famous teachers" from Jiangnan and more than twenty from various places in northern Jiangsu. They were all good teachers with good reputations in their respective localities. Some were secretly poached from county schools, while others ran their own private schools.

In addition to doubling the salary, Zhao An also considered the teachers' personal circumstances, meaning that any family members who wanted to work at the school would be arranged to do so.

It basically copied the talent recruitment methods of later generations, providing all the benefits available. If someone performed well and produced a high percentage of students who passed the imperial examinations at the county and provincial levels, they might even be offered a government official position.

In short, Zhao An was like an old patriarch; as long as his subordinates achieved results that satisfied him, his "slot machine" would be rolling out like a train, with winning hands like watermelons, double stars, and double sevens. The principal's first meeting with the new teachers was bound to be a success; Zhao An instructed Ma Xuezheng to arrange for each treasurer to prepare a ten-tael red envelope, which he personally distributed to each teacher.

Although this approach was crude and seemed inconsistent with his status as a professor, it created a very harmonious atmosphere for the meeting, and the new teachers praised the young and promising Professor Zhao highly.

Which teacher doesn't like money?
Near the end, Zhao An asked the teachers if they had any difficulties, saying that he, as a professor, would definitely help them with anything that was within his power.

As a result, a teacher from Jiangnan who brought his family said that the assigned "dormitory" was too small, making it very inconvenient for his family of four to live there. Moreover, the public housing toilets were far away and the sanitary conditions were not good.

"Yep,"

Zhao An hurriedly looked at Ma Xuezheng and said, "The public housing in our prefectural school was built decades ago, some even a hundred years ago. How can the teachers live in such old and dilapidated public housing? You guys discuss it and see if we can buy a piece of land nearby and build some new public housing?"

Ma Xuezheng and the other academic officials nodded repeatedly, indicating that they would immediately put this matter on the work agenda and strive to complete the excellent plan proposed by the principal, which concerns the welfare of all faculty and staff, as soon as possible.

Anyway, the academy has plenty of money now, so buying a piece of land and building houses is no problem at all.

"We must treat this matter as the most important task of the prefectural school. We must ensure that the teachers are satisfied with all aspects of education, accommodation, and life at our Yangzhou Prefectural School. Only then can the teachers teach with peace of mind, and the students will benefit greatly."

The principal was very pleased and asked which teachers taught the advanced classes and which teachers taught the regular classes.

The concepts of reinforcement and generality had already been instilled and explained to all faculty and staff by Tong Xundao and his colleagues.

After getting a general understanding, Zhao An proposed the concept of an elite class.

The goal is to gather all the students from the prefectural school who have the potential to pass the provincial examinations, provide them with the best learning environment and the strongest teaching staff, and strive to make Yangzhou prefectural school a resounding success in next year's provincial examinations, outshining all other schools in Jiangnan.

This is not only related to Professor Zhao's personal political achievements, but also to whether Yangzhou Prefectural School can make a name for itself throughout the country.

Once a reputation is established, more students will want to study there.

When Ma Xuezheng and the others mentioned expanding the school last time, Zhao An already had the idea of ​​planning a first, second, and third school.

Building more branch schools is pointless if there are no students.

Therefore, from now on, we can no longer limit our vision to Yangzhou, but must look to the whole country.

No matter how much advertising or discounts you offer, nothing beats winning the provincial examination if you want students from other places to study in Yangzhou.

The reason Zhao An asked Teacher Lou to help invite the Provincial Academy to guide the work at Yangzhou Prefectural School was not only to gain high recognition from his direct superior and receive a top-notch evaluation at the end of the year, but also because he wanted the Provincial Academy to help improve the admission rate of candidates for the imperial examinations at Yangzhou Prefectural School.

To put it bluntly, it was cheating, specifically cheating in the provincial examination.

Cheating in the imperial examinations was never lacking in feudal times, and it has always existed. Many cases have been exposed, but many more have gone unreported.

It all comes down to who does a better job of keeping secrets and who has the worst luck.

The old man is eighty years old now, the kind of senile old man who has lost the spirit and shrewdness of his youth. In addition, the entire Qing Dynasty officialdom is currently in a period of collective chaos, with ninety-nine percent of officials trying to find ways to make money. So it is quite reasonable for him to engage in some underhanded tactics in the provincial examination.

As long as enough money is spent, admitting those "above-average" students who could be admitted or not wouldn't theoretically be considered cheating.

I just don't know what kind of person Master Xuetai is, or whether he would accept money to do things.

Zhao An's act of handing over seven thousand taels of silver to the provincial education commissioner in the name of the prefectural school was a test.

If the province accepts this money, it means that the person from the university is at least not a pedantic person.

If people are not rigid and inflexible, things can hopefully move in a positive direction.

After finishing his meeting with the new teacher, Zhao An suddenly stopped on his way back to his office and said to Ma Xuezheng and the others, "You must hurry up with the construction of public housing. Build more houses, and if anyone wants to buy them, sell them to them at a high price."

Ok?
The officials were all immediately impressed.

After thinking for a moment, Zhao An instructed Ma Xuezheng to submit a report to the prefectural government in the name of the prefectural school, to see if the prefectural government could allocate a piece of land to the prefectural school free of charge.

The Yangzhou Prefectural School is located in the most prosperous area of ​​Yangzhou City. The surrounding land is owned and very valuable, so it is basically impossible to get land for free unless Zhao An suddenly decides to move the school to a suburban area.

Their real purpose was to get the prefect to help negotiate with the landlords and try to acquire the land at a price lower than the market price, so that they could make more profit when selling the houses.

Back in his office, Zhao An continued stamping documents and reading newspapers. After three days of this boring yet enjoyable life, a notice suddenly came from the province, asking him to attend a meeting at the provincial education office.

Zhao An had always thought that the Education Commissioner's Office was in Jiangning, but he was wrong. The Education Commissioner's Office was not in Jiangning but in Jiangyin.

The Jiangsu Provincial Governor's Office and the Provincial Surveillance Office were not located in Jiangning, but in Suzhou.

The only provincial government office located in Jiangning was the Provincial Administration Office.

What meeting?

Unaware of the situation, Zhao An quickly found Teacher Lou, who was planning to return the next day. Looking at Zhao An, who knew nothing about his job, Teacher Lou shook his head and explained, "After the prefectural examination, the province will organize the provincial examination. Which prefectures will be tested first and which will be tested later will be decided by drawing lots. The province is sending you to draw lots."

"Draw lots,"

Zhao An breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't know why, but whenever someone else notified him to hold the meeting instead of him, his eyelids would keep twitching.

It's like a conditioned reflex.

He was probably worried that a group of people would barge in halfway through the drive and handcuff him.

The provincial examination was the final stage of the preliminary examinations for candidates for the imperial examinations. The provincial education commissioner served as the chief examiner. However, instead of gathering the candidates in the province, the examinations were still held in each prefecture. The provincial education commissioner would come in turn to preside over the examinations, a process called "the master's examination".

Since the exam papers were set uniformly by the province, and the students of the provincial examination could not be in multiple places at the same time, the provincial examination adopted a lottery system.

Those who draw the first few lines will take the test in front of them, and those who draw the last few lines will take the test in the back.

After learning about this rule, Zhao An naturally blurted out, "If I'm going to be selected to take the exam later in Yangzhou, can I get a copy of the exam papers from the earlier ones?"

(End of this chapter)