Chapter 421: Mountains of Gold and Silver Outside China
Richard did not intend for the Zhou Dynasty to last for five to six hundred years or even thousands of years. That kind of dynasty would be difficult to achieve in a classical feudal society. A dynasty that can be turned upside down by one person's conflicts has turned from prosperity to decline.
What he did was to continue the glorious period of the dynasty as long as possible.
In order to prolong the dynasty as long as possible, Richard produced a detailed information, which contained various solutions he prepared according to the situation.
Richard established the county school, state school, imperial school and Imperial College systems. County schools and state schools are basically tuition-free. County schools have a five-year schooling system, while state schools have a three-year schooling system, which corresponds to primary school and junior high school respectively. After completing the school, you need to pass an exam, and you can be promoted if you pass the exam.
Taixue is equivalent to high school, and Hanlin Academy is equivalent to university, which conducts more academic research. Only those who graduate from Taixue are eligible to participate in the imperial examination system.
As for the Imperial College, it was a preferential treatment given by Richard to those founding heroes and civil servants who had made great contributions. They could let their children study here. Of course, they also needed to pass the imperial examination if they wanted to become officials.
The content of study is no longer limited to the Four Books and Five Classics. Richard will add mathematics, natural science, law and other subjects to it, and the Four Books and Five Classics will be unified into one Chinese subject.
The imperial examinations have also begun to be subdivided. The first class is the Jinshi subject, and the examination content covers all subjects. The second grade at the back is divided according to subjects.
For example, in criminal law, you need to focus on studying law, and other subjects will reduce the difficulty. Of course, the Criminal Name Section can only serve as officials such as the Criminal Department. Richard deliberately divided the imperial examinations into subdivisions and set various restrictive factions for official positions in order to prevent officials from joining forces.
This was the beginning of the country's establishment, and many systems were not perfect enough. Richard's resistance to restructuring was not too great, but if it had been decades since the dynasty was established, it would have been extremely difficult to reform.
Regarding the restructuring of the imperial court, Richard first communicated with Guo Rong.
"Sir, will the country be able to continue after such a restructuring?" Guo Rong asked with some expectation.
Richard rolled his eyes at him and said, "Is there any immortal dynasty in this world?"
"The Han Dynasty was four hundred years old, and the Tang Dynasty was only over two hundred years old. How old do you think the Zhou Dynasty can be?"
"Uh, sir, please give me some advice." Guo Rong said respectfully.
"The dynasty begins and everything is renewed. During this period, the country has experienced war and restored stability. After the war, people have settled down and have a lot of land to settle. As long as they are not too stupid, they can basically enter the stage of rapid growth."
"But after this period, the population flourished and the number of acres was still so large, conflicts began to arise. If the emperor could organize the world at this time, it would be the heyday of the dynasty."
"After the prosperous period, there will be a period of decline, natural disasters and floods, foreign invasions, land annexation, peasant uprisings, wealthy families living in intoxication, and the court's factional strife and corruption."
"How can we avoid it?" Guo Rong asked.
"It can't be avoided!" Richard shook his head and said: "As long as people still have desires, these cannot be avoided, they can only be restricted and postponed."
"Speaking of which, let's first talk about those people who are the foundation of this country and the cornerstone of the country." Richard asked.
Guo Rong thought for a moment and said, "Army?"
Richard smiled slightly. He was not surprised by this result. At this time of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the army was indeed very important. After all, even the phrase "the emperor's feet are under the feet of the emperor, those with strong soldiers and horses", who can say that soldiers unimportant?
Richard continued: "Where did the army come from?"
"Recruited from the common people."
"That means the soldiers come from the common people."
"The people are the cornerstone of the country." Guo Rong is very smart. Although he has not received much education, he has traveled around the world all year round, giving him rich experience. He knew that the people provided taxes, food, and soldiers. Although the people seemed inconspicuous and easy to be ignored, the people were the foundation of the country.
"Now that we understand that the people are the foundation of the country, we can continue to talk about the next things."
"If you want to delay land annexation, the first step is to suppress land annexation. You must allow people to have land and survive, so that society can be stable. To suppress land annexation, you need to restrict officials, gentry, aristocratic families, nobles, and powerful people."
"Our restructuring this time is to restrict officials, gentry, aristocratic families, nobles, and powerful people in terms of rules, and give the people at the bottom room to live."
"Dao Zang has a saying: The way of heaven is to make up for the deficiencies when there are excess losses; the way of man is to make up for the deficiencies when there are losses. As the Son of Heaven and the Emperor, you are the heaven in the dynasty, so you should make up for the deficiencies when there are losses."
"Those officials, nobles, aristocratic families, and powerful people occupy a large amount of resources. They have more than enough, but those at the bottom of the class have insufficient resources."
"Of course, this process is not smooth sailing. Those officials, nobles, aristocratic families, and powerful people will not be willing to put down their resources. At this time, you need to recruit a group of people."
“This part can be called internal optimization. In addition to internal optimization, we also need to obtain it from the outside.”
"External acquisition? Sir, do you mean to attack other countries? But outside the Kyushu, there are all barbarian lands, and the mountains are high and the roads are far away. There is a lot of flatulence in the south and bitter cold in the north."
"That's just an appearance." Richard said calmly: "The two Han Dynasties have opened up the Western Regions and opened up the Silk Road for four hundred years. Do you know how much money the Central Plains gets from the surrounding roads every year?"
"How many?"
"Millions or more." Richard said.
"During the pre-Tang Dynasty, the Silk Road made more profits, which was one of the reasons why the mid-Tang Dynasty was able to support so many armies to open borders."
"Now do you still think that those places are bitter cold and smog-filled places?"
"Are those places so rich?" Guo Rong said with a dry throat.
Richard smiled and said: "This world is very big, and the Central Plains is not the only land that is rich. There is Champa City to the south of Rinan County. The climate is hot and humid, and the rice is harvested three times a year."
"In the land of Japan, there are mountains of silver. There are islands in the South China Sea. There are savages on them. The islands are full of spices and gold. On the coast of the East China Sea, there are large islands with rich gold and silver mines. To the south of the South China Sea, there are huge islands. There are savages on it, there are billions of fertile fields, and the mines of gold, silver, copper and iron are the best in the world!”
"In the land of Tianzhu, the people are cowardly and ignorant, the climate is mild, there are hundreds of millions of fertile fields, and there are countless war horses, spices, essences, and iron."
"Sir, are these true?" Guo Rong asked.
"Of course it's true!" Richard said.
"It turns out these places are so wealthy!" Guo Rong said.
"Although the land of China is rich, the population will increase after a hundred years. By then, many people will have no land and will have to become refugees, or they will be recruited by aristocratic families to become their slaves. So the best way is to send these people overseas, and then Bring this overseas wealth back to the country.”
"Even if these wealth are shared with aristocratic families, nobles, and powerful men, the imperial court can still obtain a large amount of wealth, and ordinary people can also own land."
If it can occupy them all, maybe the Great Zhou Dynasty can really last for a thousand years, or even longer.
"We are implementing restructuring now to allow those aristocratic families, nobles, officials, and powerful people to grow according to our will."
"Restructure! Resolutely transform!" Guo Rong said with red eyes. After hearing Richard's story, he was now very interested in overseas lands that were originally considered barbaric.
"It's good that you know this." Richard said.
If you want the country to maintain long-term peace and stability, you must ensure the livelihood of ordinary people. They are the ones who pay taxes, provide soldiers, and provide food and grass.
"In the future, it will be necessary for the imperial court to encourage people to go out to sea and explore the Western Regions." Guo Rong had already made up his mind.
"By the way, we can now send troops to recover the land in Hexi. Shazhou is still in the hands of the Guiyi Army. As long as we can recover Liangzhou and wipe out those Uighurs, we can recover the land in Hexi. Then we can use Dunhuang, Guazhou, Shazhou, and Khotan as bridgeheads. Go west to the Western Regions and open up the Silk Road again.”
"The Guiyi Army actually still exists?" Guo Rong asked in surprise.
"In the former Tang Dynasty, Xin was just a Guiyi army, but he actually supported the Uighurs and instigated civil strife in the Guiyi army. Zhang Yichao never imagined that he would end up like this after he spent all his efforts to regain thousands of miles of Hexi and millions of Han people returned to the Tang Dynasty."
"The praises Li Zhen, Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, said were given to the Guiyi Army, but what was the result? The Guiyi Army recovered the Hexi Corridor, drove away the Tubo people, and defeated the Uighurs. At that time, Hexi could only rely on the Tang Dynasty. Even if he did not have the strength to support him, he could Give the Guiyi Army a title, Hexi Jiedu Envoy, but what did he give it?”
"Guiyi Army Jiedushi!" Richard sneered: "Guiyi Army sounds like a compliment, but in fact, anyone with a discerning eye can see what it means."
"Only those barbarians who voluntarily surrendered would use this name. As a result, he gave the Yiyi army to Zhang Yichao. Doesn't this clearly tell the powerful people in Longyou, Hexi, that you are barbarians?"
When Richard mentioned Gui Yijun and Li Zhen, he got angry. It was obviously an opportunity to rebuild the Tang Dynasty, but he messed it up. He is someone you would rather believe in the Huihe people than in those Hexi Han people who went through untold hardships to revolt and return to the Tang Dynasty.
"Sir, if that's the case, how about I send a large army to conquer Hexi and regain the land of Longyou in Hexi?" Guo Rong said.
"It's time to dispatch." Richard said: "Now that the Guiyi Army is still there, if the Zhou Dynasty reopens Longyou in Hexi, there will be a large number of Han people to support it. If it is a few years later, it is estimated that there will not be many Han people in Hexi. If they want to regain the Western Region, It would be even more difficult to rebuild the Western Region Protectorate."
"Now that Li Jun is guarding Youzhou, let's send Li Chong in. Now that our country has enough troops, we can recruit 30,000 infantry and cavalry for the western expedition, and let Han Tong be the deputy general."
Guo Rong made a decision immediately. Li Chongjin and Han Tong were both veteran generals, and both had fought against the Khitans. They were familiar with the fighting styles of the grassland peoples, so they were perfect for using them to deal with the Uighurs.
"By the way, we should pay attention to the matter of the party members and the troubleshooting army. It's time to resolve it."
"Let them be organized into households and allocate farmland and pastures to the people. The heads of tribes and chiefs' sons will be sent to Kaifeng to join the Forbidden Army." Richard said again.
At this time, the Dangxiang and Dingnan troops were basically herdsmen, who were settled here by the Tang Dynasty during the pre-Tang Dynasty. Although the Dangxiang and Dingnan Army during this period were much stronger than before, they were no match for the Gu kings killed in Shura fields like the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.
Later, Xixia was able to successfully establish the country because of the failure of the Northern Expedition of Zhao and Song Dynasties, which killed hundreds of thousands of elites. Let the Khitan see the weakness of Zhao and Song, and then Xixia grew rapidly with the support of the Khitan.
The current Dangxiang and Dingnan armies are much weaker than those in the Xixia period. The 30,000-strong army marching westward is simply not something they can resist.
After discussing with Guo Rong, Richard formally carried out drastic reforms to the imperial examination system. The scope of the imperial examination was directly expanded from the Four Books and Five Classics to mathematics, natural science, agriculture, engineering (machinery), law and other subjects.
This restructuring caused an uproar in the imperial court.
When Richard's restructuring was announced, Fan Zhi and Wang Pu who were standing next to him quickly stepped forward to dissuade him.
"Your Majesty, Prime Minister Li's restructuring is too hasty. The imperial examination is the country's most important ceremony for recruiting talents. I am afraid that the world's scholars will not be able to cope with the sudden restructuring. Your Majesty, please think again." Fan Zhi objected loudly.
"Your Majesty, I do not agree with Prime Minister Li's reform. It should be noted that books are expensive and studying is not easy. If the system is reformed according to Prime Minister Li, studying for the imperial examination will become more difficult. How can ordinary people have money to provide for their children's education? By then, The imperial examination has become controlled by powerful people, aristocratic families, officials and nobles. "
Wang Pu also said sadly.
Seeing that both Prime Minister Fan and Prime Minister Wang were opposed, the remaining ministers also began to object one after another. Moreover, many people in the court now had strong opinions on Richard. After all, Richard was a Taoist priest, so no official had ever done this. The Taoist priest directly served as the prime minister. Anyone who looked at him would think he was a treacherous villain.
Therefore, everyone opposed Richard's restructuring.
"Fan Qing, Wang Qing, please get up." Guo Rong stood up from his throne and said, "All ministers, please get up too."
The ministers stood up one after another, and then Guo Rong began to say: "I already know what Prime Minister Fan said. After this restructuring, next year's imperial examination will remain the same. From next year, the next imperial examination will be changed. There are three years in between, which is enough." Scholars all over the world have adapted!”
"Your Majesty is wise!" Fan Zhi immediately stopped objecting.
"As for what Prime Minister Wang said, Prime Minister Li has also considered this. The high cost of studying is a problem that affects the number of scholars. I have been reducing this point."
"The purpose of establishing state schools and county schools is to ease the difficulty of reading. At the same time, Li Xiang has prepared a large number of books. The books will be sold at one-tenth the price of previous books. By then, ordinary people will read The cost will naturally be reduced.”
"Although the scope of the imperial examination has expanded, if you only take one or two subjects, you can still participate in the imperial examination, and the burden on students from poor families will only be reduced."
"Your Majesty is wise, I bow to you." Wang Pu said respectfully.
Guo Rong blocked everyone's mouths, but this did not mean that they would agree to the reform of the imperial examination system. After all, the current imperial examination system is beneficial to them. If they follow Richard's reform, they will have almost no advantage.
It's just that because Guo Rong's prestige was so great, the courtiers did not dare to speak out against him.