The Ming Dynasty: A Modern Return, Building an Overseas Empire

Seeing the anxious Zhu Huan, Zhu Gaoxu appeared much calmer.

Salt deficiency?

If he were inland, far from the ocean, he would also face difficulties.

But here, there's nothing else, just plenty of ocean water, and it's pure and unpolluted, completely natural.

Others may not know the salt-making process of the Ming Dynasty, but he does.

Moreover, they not only know about it, but also have better salt-making techniques.

While modern mechanization may not be possible, it is entirely possible to produce salt by hand and increase production.

In fact, the salt production of the Ming Dynasty was more than enough to feed its people.

It was simply to control production in order to generate income through salt.

Otherwise, without the salt tax, the imperial court's revenue would be far from enough to support the Ming Dynasty in doing so many things.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu's eyes lit up.

Outside of the Ming Dynasty, not only salt production but all other processes lagged far behind the Ming Dynasty.

Now that the Ming Dynasty has imposed a maritime ban, private trade is prohibited except by official merchants, which has led to a huge gap in trade volume.

Now that he is in his own territory, can he fill such a large trade gap?

As long as this place develops and attracts global trade, even if the Ming Dynasty lifts its maritime ban, he won't be left without a sip of soup.

At least during the period before the Ming Dynasty fully lifted the maritime ban, he had enough time to acquire a large amount of resources.

I'll stop thinking about those things; they're still a ways off, not something I should be thinking about right now.

"Don't worry about the salt production; I'll take care of it later."

There will be plenty of salt here from now on; you can have as much as you want.

"You need to arrange the fishing properly, allocate boats to them, let them catch fish first, and then distribute them all. Once there's a stockpile, the salt will naturally follow."

Zhu Huan was startled by this, but still had doubts. Could Zhu Gaoxu really solve the salt problem?

But now, he had no other choice but to trust Zhu Gaoxu.

"Yes, Your Highness."

Seeing that Zhu Huan did not press for a solution, Zhu Gaoxu looked relieved.

This is what a trusted confidant should be like; when there's no other way, you have to trust him.

Stopping his thoughts, Zhu Gaoxu continued, "You must make proper arrangements for these nearly three million slaves, specifying what each of them will do."

City building, house construction, logging, quarrying, post road construction, port construction, land reclamation, etc., should all be distinguished and not mixed together.

Furthermore, after the arrival of the people from the Ming Dynasty, their respective tasks also needed to be uniformly and clearly defined.

Even women were assigned some manual labor, such as cooking, weaving, and raising silkworms.

"For the specifics, you select suitable people to be in charge of these tasks, and then coordinate with the Princess."

Dividing people into different roles is also to help them do their jobs better.

If you do this and that all day long, and the order is all reversed, it's very difficult for a person to adapt.

When you do a job every day, as long as you adapt, you can complete it well even if the workload is increased appropriately later.

Humans are just that powerful.

Before you adapt, you'll experience various feelings of resistance and discomfort.

Once adapted, it thrives.

As for the people who came later, Zhu Gaoxu did so to allow Zhu Huan to prepare in advance.

If there isn't a clear division of labor, problems will definitely arise later.

Humans are inherently lazy, and some people will inevitably try to cheat or shirk their responsibilities.

You can eat even if you don't work, and you won't starve, but it's the same whether you work or not.

If we don't prepare these things in advance, are we supposed to just kill them all when the time comes? Or what?

Although he could have killed them all, doing these things was a responsibility he should have thought about and planned ahead.

If he were really going to commit mass killings, why would he bring so many people with him?

If the people below are in a state of panic, their morale is low, and the army's morale is shattered, how can we expect to develop?

It's already quite good that he can still live peacefully here.

In Zhu Gaoxu's view, blaming subordinates for everything that goes wrong is a form of incompetence.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Huan smiled.

"Your Highness, in fact, I was just about to report these matters to you. This is also my plan. Now that resources are centralized and uniformly allocated, we need to prevent anyone from cheating or shirking their duties."

I have already formulated an implementation plan.

However, regarding the woman, although I have made a plan, I have not yet found a person to be in charge. I will keep an eye on it later.

Another issue is the children.

During the Ming Dynasty, a prince said he would bring out scholars to be responsible for teaching knowledge.

I believe that once everyone has arrived, we can begin. Right now, we need to build the school as soon as possible.

This will make the people more stable, and everyone will be more loyal to the prince and more proactive in doing things.

However, the number of scholars brought in was not enough to cover everyone.

I am thinking, should we, in the future, differentiate people based on their contributions, and allow families that make greater contributions to select at least one son to attend school?

In this way, I believe, competition will be created, and everyone will understand that this is a hard-won opportunity, thus making it more important to them.

Zhu Gaoxu listened quietly, and after he finished listening, he opened the plan formulated by Zhu Huan and read it before slowly speaking.

"Your plan is good. Please provide more details on these areas and highlight the parts that need modification."

As for the schools you mentioned, let's take advantage of the city-building period and start establishing them in each city.

Including rural areas, every village, whether in the countryside or elsewhere, should have a primary school built.

The schools in the city were divided into primary schools, middle schools, and universities.

Children can start primary school after the age of five.

He entered middle school at the age of twelve.

Primary and secondary schools are open to students based on their own voluntary enrollment.

Universities require entrance exams and are only located in cities, specifically large cities; smaller cities will not have universities for the time being.

Universities hold entrance examinations every year, and only those who are 18 years of age or older and have graduated from high school can participate.

From now on, in this area, only university graduates will be eligible to participate in the imperial examinations.

In the future, there will be no distinction between those who passed the imperial examinations and those who passed the county-level examinations. Any vacant official positions will be filled directly by candidates who passed the imperial examinations based on their performance.

The imperial examinations continued and were divided into several categories, but the original provincial examinations were abolished.

From now on, each county, prefecture, and province may recruit officials of a certain rank through the imperial examination, but they must report to the Ministry of Personnel in advance for joint review. After the joint review, the Ministry of Personnel will report to the King and issue a reply document before implementation.

All procedures must be carried out without delay. Any official responsible for any delay will be severely punished!

As for the exact level and fluctuation range, we'll determine that later; for now, we'll present this framework.

Zhu Gaoxu said a lot in one breath, many of which were things he had thought of before, and some of which came to mind on the spot.

Zhu Gaoxu was also afraid that if he didn't say everything, he would forget it later.

There are so many things to do these days, and some things, once put aside, may not be remembered again for who knows how long.

Education cannot be delayed; starting early now will allow us to cultivate talent sooner.

Zhu Gaoxu didn't stop, and continued, "Whether it's primary school, middle school, or university, there are limits on the number of students."

The specific restrictions depend on the number of teachers.

Furthermore, from now on, all teachers will be employed as a profession, with salaries directly paid by the government.

The first group of people who brought in to teach the subject matter were automatically converted into teachers. Their specific salaries and other benefits would be determined later based on the circumstances.

From now on, anyone who wants to become a teacher will need to undergo an assessment, and only those who pass the assessment can enter the profession.

Furthermore, an Education Department will be established, bringing matters related to colleges and teachers under its jurisdiction.

"For those who enter primary school, if there is a member of the family who has joined the army, that is, a soldier who goes directly to the battlefield, one son of the family can be selected to enter the school directly without the family's contribution, and will have priority in entering the school."

Furthermore, if any family of a soldier who died in battle has children attending academies, whether primary, secondary, or university, their tuition fees must be reduced or waived.

The tuition reduction rate should be at least 70% for primary school, 50% for secondary school, and 30% for university.

You must remember this very well, and spread it widely; the military will also disseminate it to everyone.

Zhu Gaoxu was very relieved; he knew he still had to come out.

These policies would never have been implemented in the Ming Dynasty.

Only now that he has emerged, though his foundation is shallow and his scale is small, can his words be absolutely effective and can be implemented.

If these things are not planned and implemented from the beginning, once the scale of his business grows, the difficulty of implementing them will also increase.

New forces have their advantages, and established forces also have their foundation and strength.

These were originally meant to be brought out after the construction had reached a certain scale.

But now that we've come this far, he doesn't care anymore.

Since everything is under construction and starting from scratch, let's just get started.

Although everything is difficult in the early stages, this is the key step.

Once this step is taken and stability is achieved, his vassal states will benefit immensely in the future.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu began to feel a sense of urgency, and he also brought out the other policies that he had already prepared.

While we are building up the infrastructure, we should also rebuild the order and structure. This is the perfect opportunity to implement the project across the board.