jdhmnovel Chapter 781 Old Li really hit the jackpot!
Chapter 781 Old Li really hit the jackpot!
Shortage of people.
There was a lack not only of able-bodied young men, but also of officials and various craftsmen.
If it were just a shortage of 100,000 or 200,000 people, it would be easy to handle, but Li Shanchang and his men said they were short of tens of millions of people.
Moreover, these tens of millions of people are an underestimate.
Emperor Zhu's face was gloomy, his brows furrowed. After a long while, he finally turned his gaze to Qian Yongren, the Minister of Rites: "Minister Qian, how many community schools, county schools, and prefectural schools does our Great Ming have now? How many students do they have?"
Qian Yongren cupped his hands and replied, “Reporting to Your Excellency, by the end of the fifth year of Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty had a total of 1,481 prefectures, states, and counties, with more than 130,000 villages, more than 26,700 community schools, 1,331 county schools, and 150 prefectural schools. The Imperial Academy, after being split up, currently has 14 schools, and it is expected that another Liaodong Imperial Academy will be split up this year, for a total of 15 schools.”
"As for the number of students, there are about 200,000 students in the community schools, more than 15,000 students in the county schools, more than 5,000 students in the prefectural schools, and more than 6,000 students in the Imperial Academy."
"Most of the students in the community school entered school in the fourth or fifth year of the Hongwu reign, most of the students in the county school entered school in the third or fourth year of the Hongwu reign, and most of the students in the prefectural school and the Imperial Academy entered school in the first or second year of the Hongwu reign."
The Emperor Zhu's brow immediately relaxed a little.
Although most of the students entered the academy in the fourth or fifth year of the Hongwu reign, they at most knew some characters and could memorize some books, but they had no real knowledge.
However, the number of students in the community school is much larger, nearly twenty times that of the county school students. If we can patiently wait a few years, these 200,000 community school students will graduate, and the Ming Dynasty will have 200,000 students in the county school.
If these students from the community school could diligently complete their studies at the county school, the Ming Dynasty would have as many as 200,000 scholars.
Given that the Ming Dynasty court was filled with scholars, what kind of concept would 200,000 scholars represent?
Old Zhu has never fought such a rich battle in his entire life!
Emperor Zhu felt relieved and then looked at Qian Yongren with a smile, asking, "Minister Qian, what are your Ministry of Rites' thoughts on these 200,000 students?"
Qian Yongren cupped his hands and replied, "Your Majesty, our idea is to first restrict a portion of the students during the stage of upgrading community schools to county schools, admitting approximately 100,000 to county schools, and then admitting half of the remaining 100,000 to engineering schools and conscripting the other half as officials."
"Students who enter engineering either study the manufacture and repair of various machines such as railways, steam engines, water presses, and textile machines, or they study simplified versions of geological exploration, mining, metallurgy, and other disciplines."
"Those conscripted into official positions will be divided in half and assigned to the Ministry of Personnel as clerks, while the rest will be assigned to the Ministry of Rites as literacy clerks, responsible for literacy education for the people in various villages and communities of the Ming Dynasty."
"However, if the earliest time for students to enter the academy is the fourth year of Hongwu, the earliest time for students to graduate from the academy is the seventh year of Hongwu."
"The seventh year of the Hongwu reign?"
As soon as he finished saying the words "the seventh year of Hongwu", Qian Yongren was stunned. Li Xin, the Minister of Personnel standing next to Qian Yongren, had his eyes gleaming.
Qian Yongren was stunned because it was already the sixth year of Hongwu's reign. If they waited patiently until next year, some of these students would graduate.
Even if it's only half of half, that's still at least 20,000 students.
Damn it, the Ming Dynasty suddenly has more than 20,000 students, and these are trees that I personally planted when I was the Minister of Rites. What a great achievement this is!
If another half of the students could pass the county school entrance exam...
Such achievements are enough to make me go down in history!
As for Li Xin, the Minister of Personnel standing next to him, he almost peed his pants from laughing.
In the seventh year of the Hongwu reign, there were tens of thousands more students who had passed the imperial examinations. Even if only 20,000 of them were made into clerks, it would be enough to provide ten clerks for each county.
This wonderful opportunity just happened to come when I was serving as the Minister of Personnel.
Old Li really hit the jackpot!
Yes, thank you Yang Dianfeng for proposing the establishment of a broad community of schools.
Thank you to the superiors and the Korean public for agreeing to Yang's proposal to build a wider society.
I also want to thank Lao Qian next to me; his years of tireless efforts in promoting the construction of community schools have not been in vain.
While Qian Yongren and Li Xin were overjoyed, Yang Siyi, the Minister of Revenue, was anything but happy.
Can Guangjian Society be built with just words?
We need money!
More than a thousand prefectures and counties, and more than 100,000 villages, from the third year of Hongwu to the fifth year of Hongwu, in just over two years, 26,733 community schools were built, 1,331 county schools were repaired or built, 50 prefectural schools were repaired or built, and 13 new Imperial Colleges were built in addition to the Imperial College in the capital. Could this be conjured up with just a few words?
What about the students' textbooks, clothing, meals, and all sorts of other expenses?
Even if we calculate based on one string of cash per student per year, 200,000 students would earn 200,000 strings of cash per year, and 600,000 strings of cash in three years.
And this doesn't even include the expenses for students from the county school, prefectural school, and Imperial Academy.
Oh, and the libraries in the county schools, prefectural schools, and the Imperial Academy—those books were all bought with money from the national treasury!
A bunch of spendthrifts who don't know the value of money when they're not in charge of the household.
Yang Siyi grew angrier the more he thought about it, and couldn't help but snort, "The shortage of officials and clerks has been solved, but what about the shortage of able-bodied men?"
"The South Korean government just said that the shortage of young and middle-aged workers is as high as 500 million or even 100 million."
"Based on the current population growth rate, it would take more than 300 years to reach a population of 500 million."
"Even with light taxes and levies, and more oxen provided to the people, allowing the population to grow exponentially, it would still take more than a hundred years to reach four times the current population growth rate."
"This is only the shortfall of 500 million."
"If it were ten million..."
Yang Siyi said with a dark face, "Unless we lower the age of marriage and childbearing, we can find ways to encourage people to have more children."
As Yang Siyi finished speaking, Emperor Zhu's face immediately darkened.
Lowering the age of marriage and childbearing is impossible.
If it could be reduced, Old Zhu would be holding his grandson by now.
The reason they're still standing here staring blankly is because the age of marriage and childbirth is too young, which makes childbirth dangerous for women.
"There's no need to bring up the issue of lowering the age of marriage and childbearing again."
Emperor Zhu said with a dark face, "You should think of other ways, such as rewarding those who have more children."
"Or give certain preferential treatment."
"Let the people give birth to their children first."
"In addition, anyone who fails to report a case will be severely punished and barred from taking the imperial examinations or becoming an official."
(The term "impotence" refers to killing a newborn female infant.)
……
While Emperor Zhu and Li Shanchang, along with other gang leaders, were discussing the population issue, Yang Shaofeng was also mocking Emperor Zhu and his group: "What kind of result can they possibly come up with?"
"They are either well-versed in classical Chinese literature or have studied the classics."
"Or they haven't even read a book."
"Hoping they can solve the problem of population growth is probably just a matter of reducing taxes and levies and rewarding people who have more children."
"It will take decades or even centuries to solve the problem."
As soon as Yang Shaofeng finished speaking, Zhu Biao's eyes widened, and he asked, "Brother-in-law, do you have any good ideas?"