Water Margin: The opening scene involves assassinating Emperor Huizong of Song and forcibly taking L

Zhao Yuan said, "Come and eat with us."

"Thank you for the food, Your Majesty." Hu Anguo stepped forward.

A eunuch brought over a chair and placed it next to the emperor's desk, where the emperor and his ministers ate while facing a pile of memorials and documents.

Zhao Yuan asked, "Is the issue of school lands that serious?"

Hu Anguo said, "Many official schools were abolished at the end of the Song Dynasty, but they were gradually restored after the founding of the Ming Dynasty."

"Especially after the destruction of the Jin dynasty, the number of official schools recovered even more."

"Now that the land survey in Jiangxi is complete, we can finally get a complete count of all the farmland in the country."

"The situation is indeed dire, and the imperial court must issue an edict to unify governance."

“That’s fine. Let’s arrest some typical cases, confiscate their property, and exile them. Anyway, the frontier needs to be populated!” Zhao Yuan nodded.

"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"

Hu Anguo strongly supported this, and he even hoped to kill a group of them.

Because those who encroached on the school lands were all powerful and wealthy families. Those guys didn't lack money or food themselves, yet they came to ruin the livelihoods of scholars.

Damn it!

The school land system in the Song Dynasty was established during the Qingli Reforms.

Official schools in various regions were granted land, typically 500 mu (approximately 33 hectares).

Later, the limit was increased to 1000 mu, but many schools did not have the necessary conditions and remained at the original 500 mu.

In some places that value education, the area of ​​farmland for education can reach 3000 mu!

These school fields are all managed by the school and rented to farmers in exchange for grain or money.

Because farmers were exempt from taxes and corvée labor, renting school land was a very worthwhile investment.

For the sake of their reputation, principals usually dare not act recklessly.

With the income from local school lands as a safety net, the imperial court was less troubled by education expenses.

The last educational statistic of the Northern Song Dynasty was during the Daguan era of Emperor Huizong: there were more than 160,000 official students nationwide, more than 90,000 classrooms and dormitories, and more than 10 million mu of school land.

Chapter 3616 Vigorously Developing Schools

The school collected 300 million strings of cash in tuition fees and 64 shi of grain annually (tuition fees and grain included both tuition fees for self-funded students and income from the school land).

Hu Anguo said, "The last statistical analysis was conducted during the Daguan era, but Cai Jing later vigorously promoted education, which reached its peak during the Zhenghe era."

"There were no exact statistics at the time, but according to my estimate, there were at least 20 students studying under government officials during the Zhenghe era!"

"Many newly built schools simply cannot be allocated school land."

"Some officials, in order to curry favor with Cai Jing, seized land from the people to use as school land."

"With 20 government students nationwide, it's no wonder Cai Jing later abolished a large number of government schools." Zhao Yuan could imagine the financial pressure at the time.

Hu Anguo said, "If there are school lands to support it, plus some students from other schools paying for their own studies, the court actually doesn't need to allocate too much funding."

"But the land for schooling has been severely encroached upon by those who seek to rent it. They use various means to cultivate the land for schooling, but they do not pay rent to the school or land taxes to the imperial court."

"The professors and instructors of the schools were powerless to press for payment, and the local governments were indifferent to the matter, so the official schools in various places could only ask the imperial court for money and grain to run the schools."

"Furthermore, when Cai Jing closed schools, local powerful figures took the opportunity to seize school land on a large scale!"

"He deserves to die!" Zhao Yuan spat.

In fact, very few prominent families that have been scholars for generations have ever encroached on school lands.

Not only did they not embezzle, they also occasionally donated money to the school, and even directly donated farmland.

The main force that seized school lands was those local powerful families.

They had no talented people in their family who could become high-ranking officials, but through business, land grabbing, mining, and collusion with officials, they became local tyrants who dominated the prefectures and counties.

The powerful clans disdained to deal with them, and local officials were unwilling to offend them, so the school could only suffer in silence when its land was seized.

Zhao Yuan said, "The school land system of the former Song Dynasty must be reformed."

"Based on the size of the school, the number of students, and the school's grade, a quota of school land was set for each official school."

"No more, no less, and absolutely no acceptance of donations from schools."

Hu Anguo couldn't understand: "Why can't schools accept donations of farmland? Isn't it a good thing for wealthy families to support education?"

Zhao Yuan said, "The new Ming Dynasty is strictly investigating land ownership. It will be difficult for large households to transfer their land to temples and commoners in the future. Moreover, after the land tax is incorporated into the poll tax, the poll tax will still be collected based on the amount of land owned."

"The more land one owns, the more taxes one has to pay."

"If they can't trick people into sending the money to temples or monasteries, and they can't trick people into sending it to ordinary citizens, then someone must have tricked people into sending it to schools!"

"How could it be like this?" Hu Anguo was greatly shocked.

He had also served as a local official, but he had never encountered such a practice.

Because of the lax management of the government in the Northern Song Dynasty, land could be easily transferred to temples, monasteries, and common people. There was no need to transfer it to schools to evade taxes—schools were full of scholars, and such things would easily become public knowledge.

Zhao Yuan said, "Let's eat first."

Hu Anguo started picking up food, but his mind was already wandering to the shady scheme of giving the school a piece of land.

It's very simple to operate, and nothing needs to be changed. Large households only need to register their land under the school's name to perfectly evade land tax and corvée labor.

If the principal is greedy, he would certainly be happy to cooperate if he were to accept bribes.

The principal could even gain a good reputation and political achievements, since under his management, local gentry enthusiastically donated land to the school.

With more donated school land and more kickbacks given to the principal, wealthy families could even arrange for their children to enroll in schools illegally!

This situation is not just possible, it is inevitable!

After eating a few more bites of food, Zhao Yuan said, "Order all official schools in the country to conduct self-inspections and report the number of school lands they own."

"After the new standards for school land were established, the local government redistributed them."

“Any excess of school land will be sold off cheaply to the original tenant farmers, and any shortfall in school land will be compensated by finding a way to make up for it.”

"If local officials find anyone who has fraudulently obtained or encroached upon school land, they may arrest them and hand them over to the judicial authorities for trial."

"If someone should have their property confiscated, they should be exiled; local officials can gain political achievements from this!"

"One year later, I will send an imperial censor to conduct random inspections."

"Your Majesty is wise."

Hu Anguo, chopsticks in hand, flattered the man.

Zhao Yuan said, "Scholars from various regions who are struggling financially can be exempted from the examination and go to the county school to study."

“Those who have passed the provincial examinations in various places and are in financial difficulty may be exempted from the examinations and study at the official schools in the prefectures and counties.”

"Studying at the official school for a maximum of three years is allowed; those who fail the exam after the allotted period will be automatically expelled."

Official schools offer free accommodation, free meals, and no tuition fees, which is very helpful for students from average-income families.

Of course, there are also students who pay a fixed amount of their own tuition, and the tuition, food, and accommodation fees are quite expensive.

The teaching quality of official schools was often inferior to that of private schools and academies run by powerful families.

To put it bluntly, public schools are not as good as private schools (excluding village schools and community schools).

Therefore, truly wealthy people will not covet the free benefits of official education.

The teaching quality there is not as good as back home, and the food there is too bad to eat. There's no point in going there to compete with poor students for free spots.

Chapter 3617 Official School

The current school system in the Ming Dynasty is as follows:

Official schools (public schools): primary schools (elementary schools), county schools, prefectural schools, and the Imperial Academy. Also included were military academies, medical schools, and other specialized schools.

Private schools: village schools, community schools, private academies, family schools, and academies (large private schools that accept all students).

Students in public schools at all levels could voluntarily participate in the traditional imperial examinations.

They can also advance through the academic stages and participate in specialized programs for recruiting professionals.

Zhao Yuan carefully reviewed the statistics from the Ministry of Rites and discovered that the number of official students in the Ming Dynasty was still far behind that during the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song.

There are approximately 6 primary school students nationwide, with about 4 in county schools, 2 in prefectural schools, and about 3000 in university schools.

The total number was over 12, less than the 16 during the early reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, and far less than the 20 before Cai Jing abolished schools.

In addition, there are more than 6000 students majoring in military science, medicine, shipbuilding, metallurgy and other related fields.

The vast majority of students in the Ming Dynasty actually attend private schools!

According to Zhao Yuan's plan, approximately 1200 million mu of land would be allocated as school land, slightly more than during the peak of the Northern Song Dynasty.

This system of school lands, which may seem difficult for the imperial court to manage directly, is actually more practical than having all funds allocated by the imperial court.

This can effectively reduce corruption in education funds!

The principals of county schools and above were all graduates of the imperial examinations, and the schools owned no property other than the school land.

If the principal embezzles too much, the students will not be able to afford food, and if things get out of hand, it will ruin their future.

The students at this time were not so easy to appease; each one was a true scholar.

In another era, during the Ming Dynasty, there was also a system of school land grants.

However, the total area of ​​school land in the country was only 50 mu, which was only a fraction of the school land in the Northern Song Dynasty. Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, most of the funding came from local government appropriations.

But why would local officials honestly allocate funds for education?

In the end, the official school system of the Ming Dynasty became a mere shell of its former self.

Although county and prefectural schools had a large number of students, they were merely nominal students who did not attend classes regularly. Only the students receiving stipends went to collect their rice on time.

Even the Imperial Academy of the Ming Dynasty was practically defunct, with students rarely attending classes.

Most of the teachers at the Imperial Academy were candidates for the imperial examinations, and they only thought about how to pass the exams.

Although the imperial examination system in the Northern Song Dynasty was imperfect, the education system designed by Fan Zhongyan, Wang Anshi, and Cai Jing was far superior to that of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in another era.

Zhao Yuan naturally inherited and improved upon a good system.

With the previous imperial examination reform and now the school land reform, the education and imperial examination system of the Ming Dynasty has basically taken shape.

Zhao Yuan thought carefully and said, "Issue another decree that those who seize school land will be punished three degrees more severely than those who seize private land."

“Any instructor or professor who colludes with others to fraudulently seize or encroach upon school land shall be dismissed from office and handed over to the relevant authorities for trial.”

"This law will be written into the Great Ming Code in the future."

The imperial attendant took notes and instructed the Court of State Affairs to draft an imperial edict to be submitted to the Ministry of Justice.

After having lunch with the emperor, Hu Anguo happily withdrew.

Zhao Yuan got up to take a walk to digest his food, thinking about increasing the number of specialized schools.

Officers, doctors, scientists, agronomists, engineers... there are still not enough of these; we need to train more.

Of course, the government's finances may not be able to support it, so it's necessary to find a balance.

However, even if vocational colleges do not offer free tuition, they cannot charge excessively high tuition fees.

Because truly wealthy families would definitely go to take the imperial examinations, while families willing to send their children to vocational schools didn't have much money.

Although Zhao Yuan had quotas for Jinshi and Juren graduates from specialized schools every year, these quotas could not be set too high, otherwise it would arouse opposition from traditional scholars.

Alas, governing a large country is like cooking a small fish; the timing and intensity are truly difficult to control.

When Zhao Yuan ordered the nationwide clearing of school lands, Empress Dowager Du from Annam finally arrived in the capital.

……

Du Yingwu was filled with resentment upon setting foot on Ming Dynasty soil once again.

Putting aside the humiliation he suffered during his previous mission, the things Yang Zaixing did were enough for Du Yingwu to hold a grudge against the Ming Dynasty for the rest of his life.

Yang Zaixing transferred Li Herong's Guangxi garrison troops to open up the line from Lang Son to Thang Long.

Then, the local troops from Yongzhou were transferred here. The garrison troops were stationed in the major cities along the line, while the local troops were stationed in the smaller cities along the line.