Qing Yao

Chapter 309 Popularizing University Diplomas
In Sizhou, Zhao An, who had just returned to the city from the countryside, hadn't even had a chance to rest when Prefect Dai Zhiyuan and his officials came to welcome the Provincial Governor.

Prefect Dai was not a graduate of the regular imperial examinations, but like Zhao An, he was a graduate who obtained his degree through donation, meaning he only had a junior college diploma, not a bachelor's degree.

Of course, Zhao An successfully passed the postgraduate entrance examination through his own efforts and obtained the title of Tongjinshi, which is equivalent to a master's degree from Tsinghua University. This made his academic qualifications very strong. When he sat down to eat, he didn't care about the top students, except for those in the first and second tiers.

However, given Zhao An's current position, even the top students in the first and second tiers have to consciously bring their bowls to the children's table.

Unless they were highly experienced, they were top students before the 30th year of the Qianlong Emperor's reign.

Because most of the top students from thirty years ago have reached provincial-level positions, and the best of the best have even become ministers or high-ranking officials.

The current Grand Councilor Dong Gao was the third-ranked scholar in the 29th year of the Qianlong Emperor's reign, while the current Governor-General of Liangjiang, Sun Shiyi, was a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) in the 26th year of the Qianlong Emperor's reign.

Thirty years later, there is still no one more outstanding than Zhao An.

Except for flag bearers.

Dai Zhiyuan lacked Zhao An's talent and followed the typical system of purchasing official positions for promotion in this era. After obtaining the title of Imperial Academy student, he spent money to buy an eighth-rank official position. He then worked his way up from the bottom. Because he was very flexible, had a low moral bottom line, and was wealthy, he finally broke through the ceiling of his official career at the age of forty, rising from a sub-prefect to a fifth-rank prefect, governing a region.

The prefecture is equivalent to a county-level city in Zhao An's previous life.

For this reason, Dai Zhiyuan was very pragmatic. He took what he could and did what he was supposed to do. He was not bound by the pedantic dogma of traditional imperial examination students. After realizing that Sizhou alone could not effectively provide disaster relief and that the province's relief was just a drop in the bucket, Dai Zhiyuan came up with a very clever solution: to divert the disaster eastward—to drive the disaster victims to Jiangsu on the other side of the Grand Canal.

Jiangsu was not affected by the disaster. Although northern Jiangsu was poor, it was still a land of plenty and could easily accommodate hundreds of thousands of disaster victims. As for how the local officials in northern Jiangsu criticized him, Dai Zhiyuan did not care.

As long as no one dies in his jurisdiction, it's fine.

In reality, it was an attempt to shirk responsibility and avoid taking it, but Dai Zhiyuan's actions saved countless disaster victims. Therefore, Zhao An had a decent opinion of him and took Qingyao and others to the banquet.

Although Qingyao's guards were all from the Eight Banners and were spoiled brats, they had all undergone a complete transformation after following Zhao An on the disaster relief mission.

Especially after witnessing cannibalism, the guards were deeply moved. No one complained about eating only porridge and vegetables every day with Lord Zhao, and they all carried out Zhao An's orders very well.

Of course, Zhao An couldn't possibly let these henchmen and guards be deployed to the front lines of disaster relief. Besides using their yellow jackets to intimidate people, he also had them secretly investigate the White Lotus Sect.

As Zhao An intended, Qingyao wanted to develop informants within the White Lotus sect. So, he recruited Liu Bao, a White Lotus liaison officer who had been captured in Suzhou, as his subordinate. He also secretly released dozens of White Lotus members and built a secret intelligence network through these "repentant" members.

Recent intelligence reports indicate that the White Lotus sect leader, Liu Zhixie, had no intention of starting an uprising in Suzhou. He only moved to Suzhou because he was severely suppressed by the Qing army in Bozhou. The large number of disaster victims moving eastward was not deliberately coerced by Liu Zhixie, but rather the victims came spontaneously after hearing that there was food available in Suzhou. Currently, there is no evidence pointing to any collusion between Zhu Gui and the White Lotus sect.

This is also why Zhao An left Suzhou to coordinate grain supplies in Sizhou.

The welcoming banquet that Prefect Dai Zhiyuan prepared for the Provincial Governor was held in the best restaurant in Suzhou City. As soon as Zhao An entered, he saw all kinds of exquisite dishes on the table. He said to the smiling Prefect Dai, "In a year of great disaster, this is going too far."

"Not at all, not at all,"

As Prefect Dai invited Zhao An to sit down, he said with a smile, "Since you came to my Sizhou, Your Excellency, you have been traveling around the countryside. I heard that you personally fried locusts and slept with the disaster victims in haystacks, without even having a cup of tea. I feel ashamed. This simple meal is my way of showing my hospitality. I hope Your Excellency will not find it offensive."

Zhao An smiled and, seeing that all the officials of Sizhou were looking at him, raised his hand and said, "Sit down, everyone, sit down."

He turned to the guards, including Qingyao, who were already drooling with envy, and said, “You are all noble people from the capital. As the host of Anhui, I should host a banquet for you. However, the disaster in our province is severe, and I am unable to spare the time to host you. So today, I will take this opportunity to express my gratitude on behalf of the millions of disaster victims in Anhui for your kindness in enduring hardships with me!”

After speaking, Zhao An actually stood up and bowed deeply to the guards.

"Don't dare to take it, don't take it!"

Upon seeing this, the guards quickly rose to return the greeting, saying that Lord Zhao was a rare and honest official who served the people and the court, and that it was an honor for them to be by his side.

After exchanging pleasantries, Zhao An didn't keep everyone waiting any longer. He picked up his chopsticks, took a piece of fatty meat, and swallowed it.

Seeing this, everyone began to eat.

Qingyao and the others hadn't eaten meat for quite some time, and they'd been fed enough by the locusts these past few days. Now that they finally had a sumptuous meal, and Lord Zhao told them to eat as much as they wanted, they didn't hold back at all. They wolfed down their food, making the people from Suzhou want to laugh but dare not.

Dai Zhiyuan was also good at handling things. Halfway through the banquet, he had someone give each of the guards 120 taels of silver.

Zhao An also had one, but it was 400 taels of silver.

This is not bribery, but rather a matter of official conduct.

Zhao An was a temporary provincial governor, and the 400 taels of ice were appropriate for his status.

When Zhao Anding was in the Jiangning Grain Transport Office, he had established rules forbidding his subordinates from sending him any festival gifts or charcoal gifts. However, he accepted these 400 taels of silver but did not publicly announce that he would donate them for disaster relief, because doing so would put Qingyao and the others in a difficult position.

He smiled and gestured to one of the canal gang members beside him to accept the money, then continued to drink with Prefect Dai.

As the main channel for money and grain from northern Jiangsu to enter Anhui, Sizhou could even be considered the general logistics base for disaster relief in northern Jiangsu. It needed the unconditional cooperation of Dai Zhiyuan, the prefect. Moreover, Dai Zhiyuan was a pragmatic person. In addition, Zhao An could not kill the local officials with an Ebilun knife every time he went to a place, so he intended to win him over.

Having eaten until he was about 80% full, he put down his chopsticks and asked how the task he had previously assigned Dai Zhiyuan to organize disaster victims to dredge several rivers leading to Fengyang was progressing.

The money and grain in northern Jiangsu were transported from the Grand Canal to Sizhou, and then continued by waterway to various places in northern Jiangsu. Due to the drought, some waterways had dried up, so it was necessary to organize people to clear the silt and divert water to facilitate the passage of boats.

Otherwise, traveling by land would be too costly and have limited transport capacity.

Dai Zhiyuan hurriedly replied that tens of thousands of disaster victims had been organized to carry out dredging projects, but at present only two major rivers could be guaranteed to pass, and the remaining tributaries might take about half a month to complete.

Zhao An knew that it was impossible to restore water transport in a short period of time with manpower alone, so he nodded and instructed Dai Zhiyuan to ensure that the disaster victims participating in the project had food rations. He said that food should not only be given to the disaster victims themselves, but also to their wives and children, so that the disaster victims would have the motivation to work.

"Rest assured, my lord, I have this in mind."

Dai Zhiyuan stood up and filled Zhao An's wine glass, not daring to be negligent in the slightest because Zhao An was young.

Zhao An picked up his wine cup, looking at the sumptuous feast on the table, but his thoughts were only on the starving disaster victims. He couldn't help but sigh, "I don't know how many people will die in this disaster. Every time I think of the victims struggling on the brink of death, my heart aches..."

Sadly, he drank the wine in his glass in one gulp.

Seeing this, no one dared to eat anymore. They all put down their bowls and chopsticks, each one showing a sense of shared experience.

Realizing he had been somewhat out of line, Zhao An forced a smile and urged everyone to continue eating and drinking. He then told Dai Zhiyuan that in addition to ensuring the delivery of food to the disaster area, they also needed to begin post-disaster reconstruction.

"The situation reported from various places is not optimistic. It will be difficult to recover without several million taels of silver."

As he said this, Zhao An frowned slightly, because the estimate of several million taels of silver for post-disaster reconstruction was probably conservative; it would likely require tens of millions of taels of silver.

The provincial governor's office in Anqing reported that if seeds were to be distributed to the disaster-stricken people free of charge, this alone would cost at least 800,000 taels of silver.

The entire post-disaster reconstruction involves not only seeds, but also agricultural tools, water conservancy projects, daily necessities and many other aspects.

Although a petition was made to the patriarch to exempt the disaster-stricken areas from taxes, the fiscal revenue of Anhui Province alone would be insufficient for post-disaster reconstruction. Moreover, the provincial treasury was still continuously allocating silver to the disaster area to purchase grain.

If it weren't for Jiangning Provincial Governor Fuchang secretly allocating grain to Zhao An behind the court's back, and Zhao An using financial means to settle the grain merchants' debts, the Anhui Provincial Treasury's small amount of money would have been far from sufficient.

The Ministry of Revenue has already allocated over two million taels of silver to Anhui, but given its current situation, obtaining more funds will be extremely difficult. Therefore, besides disaster relief and epidemic prevention, Zhao An faces a severe cash shortage.

He even considered issuing local government bonds.

However, the conditions were not yet ripe; at the very least, Emperor Xianfeng needed to control the treasuries of Anhui, Jiangsu, and Jiangning.

Seeing that the provincial governor was worried about money, Prefect Dai Zhiyuan thought for a moment and then mustered up his courage to say, "Why don't you petition the court to temporarily set up a donation system in Anhui?"

"Donation?"

Zhao An's heart stirred.

In layman's terms, "donating and accepting" means selling official positions and titles.

In Dai Zhiyuan's words, the donation system was a way to raise a large amount of private funds for disaster relief by selling official positions and titles, thereby reducing the financial burden on local governments and the imperial court.

However, the Qing Dynasty had a set system for selling official positions. Regular donations and official appointments were led by the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Revenue, and local governments had no authority to handle them.

The official positions sold were limited to those below the fourth rank.

However, considering practical circumstances, such as sudden disasters or urgent military situations requiring large amounts of money and grain, local officials could report to the imperial court to request the establishment of temporary donations.

Temporary official positions obtained through donation were all reserve positions, limited to county magistrates, prefectural assistants, and sub-prefects, and had no real power. If a position was to be held, it had to be approved by the Ministry of Personnel, which meant that one had to pay a sum of money to the Ministry of Personnel to qualify for the lottery.

This lottery is like a draw; if you're lucky, you'll be selected on the first try and take office.

If you're unlucky, you'll have to keep waiting in line.

Compared to selling official positions, the process of selling the qualifications of Imperial Academy students and tribute students was much simpler. The buyer would pay directly, and the local government would issue a receipt, create a student record, and submit it to the Imperial Academy in the capital for stamping.

The Imperial College then transferred the student records to the Ministry of Rites, where the "printer" was running at full capacity, churning out university diplomas like a "whoosh" assembly line.

After obtaining this university diploma, the buyer can "take the civil service exam".

Of course, you don't need to take the exam for this position; you can just buy it with money.

It's just a lower starting point, at the section chief level.

"The disaster in this province is so severe that local and imperial relief alone is clearly insufficient. There are precedents for temporary donations in various places in the past, and if Your Excellency were to petition, the imperial court would not refuse. To be on the safe side, I suggest that this temporary donation should only sell academic titles and not official positions."

Selling only academic titles and not official positions was clearly intended to avoid opposition from the Ministry of Personnel, since selling official positions had always been a lucrative business for the Ministry of Personnel, and they were reluctant to share the profits unless absolutely necessary.

You can donate to be on the waiting list, pay money for a lottery, and if you don't get selected, you can sign up again.
The Ministry of Personnel has really come up with some interesting ways to sell official positions.

"They only sell titles and not official positions?"

Zhao An was puzzled; how much money could he make doing it this way?

Selling an official position would cost at least several hundred taels of silver, while selling a degree in the Imperial Academy would cost much less. The Prefect of Yangzhou, Eqina, only paid 160 taels of silver to Zhao An for the degree he obtained.

This is because Yangzhou is a wealthy region, so the cost of donating to the Imperial Academy is high.

In Anhui, it's probably only a few dozen taels.

Perhaps sensing Zhao An's suspicion that selling official titles wouldn't bring in much money, Dai Zhiyuan quickly said, "My lord, don't underestimate the income from selling official titles. Back then, Wang Danwang, the provincial governor of Gansu, lied about a severe drought in Gansu and requested the court to establish a temporary donation system, instead of selling reserve official positions, he exclusively sold places for students of the Imperial Academy. Each place only cost 55 taels of silver, but in just a few years, my lord, guess how much money Gansu made?"

"How many?"

Zhao An was very curious.

Dai Zhiyuan said in a deep voice, "Sixteen million taels!"

"Sixteen million taels!"

Zhao An was so shocked his eyes almost popped out. Could selling college diplomas really generate a third of the national treasury's revenue?

Prefect Dai gave an affirmative answer, confirming that Gansu had indeed sold 16 million taels of silver for the number of students admitted to the Imperial Academy.

Zhao An found it hard to believe that this meant that as many as 300,000 college diplomas had been sold in Gansu Province.

How many scholars were admitted to the imperial examination system in the Qing Dynasty each year?

It's estimated to be less than 10,000.

Based on average life expectancy, fewer than 500,000 scholars are still alive each year.

The question is, where do so many people in Gansu come from who want to buy associate's degrees?

Dai Zhiyuan laughed and said, "With this quota of Imperial Academy student, one can buy an official position. Even if one doesn't buy an official position, one can be exempt from taxes. For fifty-five taels of silver, one can be exempt from taxes and corvée labor for life. No matter how you look at it, it's a good deal."

Zhao An suddenly understood. This wasn't a donation to become a tax official; it was simply spending fifty-five taels of silver to remove someone from the tax register.

In other words, as long as you pay fifty-five taels of silver to become a student of the Imperial Academy, you will not only be exempt from paying a single penny of tax to the court, but you will also receive preferential treatment from officials.

The more land you own, the more cost-effective it is.

In other words, the 16 million taels of silver embezzled by Wang Danwang and others was actually the Qing government's tax revenue from Gansu over several decades.

Isn't this just undermining the old man's relationship?

Damn it, might as well dig.

Zhao An quickly whispered to Prefect Dai, "If Anhui were to sell these diplomas and allow donations for Imperial Academy admission, how much do you think would be a good price for each Imperial Academy student?"

Dai Zhiyuan thought for a moment and gave a price of sixty taels.

"If Your Excellency were to petition the court for approval to establish a temporary donation system in this province, I expect at least ten thousand people in Sizhou to come and buy, which would amount to six hundred thousand taels of silver. And in Anqing and Huizhou, there would be even more people wanting to buy. At that time, Your Excellency would no longer need to worry about money."

Dai Zhiyuan's voice sounded very seductive.

It also struck a chord with Zhao An.

Having worked in the education system, he attaches great importance to improving the education level of the people.

He used to expand enrollment in Yangzhou, now Anhui can exempt students from exams.

Paying to have a university diploma mailed to you is an option!
(End of this chapter)