Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 232 Hai Rui gets promoted and creates a widow!
"Hai Rui was promoted to the position of Minister of Rites, and was in charge of the affairs of the community schools."

"Promote Zhao Zhenji to the post of Governor-General of Southern Zhili, and continue to manage the affairs of officials and gentry paying taxes and serving as officials together."

Zhu Houcong issued two edicts in succession.

A few months.

Hai Rui started as a county teacher in Nanping, Fujian, and was transferred to the magistrate of Chun'an. He then served as the prefect of Hangzhou and the governor-general of Southern Zhili. At the arrival of the new year, he finally entered the imperial court as a minister.

From an official of the eighth rank, he climbed twelve steps and sat on the second rank of the Nine Ministers. Only one step was left before he could enter the cabinet and become a prime minister.

The speed of promotion has never been seen in the 200 years of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhao Zhenji, who was once known as one of the "Two Zhens of the Southeast" together with Hu Zongxian, finally got rid of the negative influence brought about by his mentor Xu Jie after several changes in the court. With the grace of heaven, he became a high-ranking official.

Filled the gap left by Hai Rui.

Shut up Zhang Juzheng's mouth.

Zhao Zhenji was a fellow student of Zhang Juzheng and also his senior brother.

Although Zhang Juzheng and Zhao Zhenji were not on good terms and had many differences in political views, it was impossible for Zhang Juzheng to say something that would interrupt Zhao Zhenji's path to promotion at this time.

There is not that much hatred between fellow disciples.

Zhang Juzheng, who had benefited from it, had to shut up, and Hu Zongxian, who was considered a friend of Zhao Zhenji, also shut up.

This put Gao Gong and Li Chunfang in a difficult position. They felt like the "clowns" on the stage, feeling ashamed and angry to death.

After all their hard work, they got nothing. After embarrassing themselves in the cabinet, they now embarrassed themselves before the emperor.

This is in line with the old saying: "To pull a millstone with bare bottom is to go around in circles and be ashamed."

"High arch."

Zhu Houcong did not really just watch a cabinet minister bump into the imperial steps, he just called out his name.

"I'm here." Gao Gong was still kneeling on the ground, so he saved time and answered quickly.

"How much silver did the Ministry of Revenue have in surplus last year?"

"Your Majesty, it's more than 1.296 billion taels." Gao Gong said in a serious voice.

Since the Lantern Festival, the imperial court has executed tens of thousands of corrupt officials and eliminated two of the three major business groups in the dynasty. This series of purges not only prevented the Ming Dynasty from having a fiscal deficit, but made it the richest dynasty in history.

In other words, the imperial court implemented the national policy of "surveying the land and distributing it equally to the people". Otherwise, the titles of the princes would have been abolished and their fiefdoms would have been taken back. The value of the hundreds of millions of acres of land would have been even greater than the combined wealth of corrupt officials and the merchants of Jin and Hui.

As the Minister of Revenue, he had never fought such a prosperous battle.

"Take out 100 million taels of silver and invest it in the construction of community schools and the education of students."

Zhu Houcong was not going to ask the cabinet or the court to come up with an education plan for the whole country, but was going to formulate it himself.

During the first forty years, he could not even keep the right to educate his own sons, so several of his own sons did not survive and grow up. The only two sons who grew up, Prince Yu and Prince Jing, also grew up disabled.

As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, no one knows better than him the importance of holding the right to education. This time, neither the imperial court nor the civil service group are allowed to interfere!

One hundred million taels of silver!

This is the first batch of education funds invested.

Such a national policy calculated at 100 million taels of silver really shocked everyone in the hall.

The policy of surveying the land and distributing the land equally to the people was not included in the plan. The land was surveyed, the ownership was recovered, and then distributed equally to the people for cultivation. No buying or selling was allowed. The court actually did not spend much money. At most, it was the salaries paid to the Jinyiwei, the Tiqi and the Dongchang guards, which did not make much money.

It can be said that this was a truly 100 million taels of silver-level national policy of the Ming Dynasty.

Facing the confused ministers, Zhu Houcong explained his educational plan and said: "I want to build community schools across the country. Every village in the Ming Dynasty will have a community school to recruit children from the village for education.

The standard for establishing a community school was based on a capital of one thousand taels of silver. The requirements were simple: the building must be sturdy, able to accommodate a thousand students, and clean and bright windows.

If the buildings of the community school collapse within ten years after the school is built, the scholars responsible for its construction will be executed immediately.

If any students are killed or injured as a result, all those who participated in the construction of this community school will be killed!"

During the Ming Dynasty, there were two capitals, thirteen provinces, two hundred and thirty-three prefectures, one thousand four hundred and twenty-seven counties, one thousand and eight townships, and fifty-six thousand villages.

One village had a community school, which cost one thousand taels of silver. So for 56,000 villages, that would be 56 million taels of silver.

Gao Gong, who was in charge of the imperial purse, almost fainted when he heard about the huge scale and cost of such infrastructure.

Zhang Juzheng and others were not much better off. Now, all the land belonged to the court, and the court did not have to pay for the land. But it would cost one thousand and two taels of silver just for construction. This was not building a school, it was clearly building a fortress.

A school built with so much money, unless it encounters a natural disaster like an earthquake, will not collapse within ten years, and may still be standing there a hundred years later.

If a collapse really happens, it is fair to kill everyone who is responsible for or involved in the construction.

"All community schools must be built within five years. In the second five years, I want to see all schools put into use to teach knowledge to the children of the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Houcong set a time for the construction of the community school and continued, "I know that many people are ignorant and do not understand the importance of studying. They only think that their families are short of a laborer. In order to encourage students to enroll, just like the ancestral system of Emperor Taizu Gao, all tuition fees will be waived, and teachers will be invited by the court to teach according to the degree of difficulty, and books, paper and ink will also be distributed by the court.

Students can get two boiled eggs every morning, a full meal at noon, and two boiled eggs after school in the evening, but only if they report to school on time. "

This is where the 100 million taels of silver and the remaining 44 million taels of silver for the second five-year education plan went.

It doesn’t cost much to hire a teacher, but the cost of books, paper and ink will decrease after mass production.

Relatively speaking, the court's real big investment was to provide all enrolled students with four cooked eggs a day and a full meal at noon.

This is equivalent to saying that the children's food after they enter school will be borne by the court.

But this is a necessary means to ensure that students are enrolled in school. In many ordinary families, children have to take on part of the family work when they are seven or eight years old. Between studying and working, children may choose to work and give up studying under pressure from their parents.

With such investment, the imperial court was equivalent to being responsible for the food of one person in a common family, so that the situation of a young boy eating his father out of money would no longer happen. As long as a family with children was not stupid, they would give the right answer.

Ten years, two five-year plans.

The imperial court invested without considering the return in order to let the people of the world learn to read and write. At this moment, Zhang Juzheng and others praised the emperor in unison: "Long live the emperor!"

With a king as virtuous as you, what more could I ask for?
……

Japanese country.

Sanyin Road, Izumo Province, at the foot of Iwami Silver Mine.

The two great families, the Mori clan and the Amago clan, put everything on the line for the ultimate battle.

As the two largest families in western Japan, the Mori clan mobilized nearly 30,000 retainers and soldiers, while the Amago clan mobilized no more than 20,000 retainers, soldiers, and civilians, including the elderly and children.

Mori Motonari, who was over 60 years old, put on armor and took up a sharp weapon, and went to the battlefield in person, ready to send his hundreds of years of enemy on their final journey.

In the past forty years, he led the Mori clan from a small powerful family in Aki Province to become the largest force in Western Japan, ruling over ten countries, with a territory of 1.2 million koku.

The journey was full of obstacles and thorns. He vaguely saw the flowers in clusters and understood the stories of lanterns.

Under the flag of the Mori clan, the three stars with one word emblem, he drew out his Japanese sword and shouted, "Totsugeki".

Tens of thousands of the Mori clan's troops, led by their retainers, showed cruel looks and launched a charge.

In close combat, the Mori clan's army swung their swords at the Amago clan's army without hesitation. Blood spurted out, staining their own bodies red, as well as the robes and eyes of those around them.

The battlefield is a scary place.

It can make a person lose their mind and transform them into a beast that only knows how to kill. It will keep hacking to death the people in front of it, step on the dead bodies, and continue to swing the butcher knife until it is also hacked to death.

In the narrow mountain road, the generals and troops of the Mori clan almost massacred the generals and troops of the Amago clan.

And this scene.

All of this was seen by the current head of the Amago clan, Amago Yoshihisa, who was standing on a high place, and he felt pain in his heart.

Among the dead, many of his retainers had watched him grow up, and many of his family soldiers had followed the Amago family for generations. Those familiar faces fell one by one.

However, the 20-year-old Nizi Yoshihisa completely collapsed. He knelt in front of Shen Yu and cried and begged: "Angel, please save my people."

After Shen Yu cooperated with Hai Rui in Zhejiang Province and made great contributions, he was promoted to the position of deputy commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, responsible for all matters concerning Japan, the seizure of Iwami Silver Mine, and the verification of the power of the Embroidered Uniform Guard's new weapons.

In the face of Nizi Yoshihisa's crying and pleading, Shen Yu remained indifferent. He watched the movement of the battlefield. The Nizi clan's army fought and retreated according to the expected position, and the Mori clan's army followed closely. He estimated in his mind the time it would take to arrive at the first new weapon test site.

"ten."

"Nine."

"..."

"three."

"two."

"one."

"boom!"

"Boom! Boom!"

"..."

Countless new mines were triggered, and smoke and dust immediately rose on the battlefield, blocking a lot of vision.

Shen Yu took out a telescope, not to see through the smoke and dust curtain, but to obtain a first-hand damage assessment after the smoke and dust disappeared and fell.

There were continuous explosions. Yoshihisa Amako had no time to cry or beg for mercy. He looked in the direction of the sound and tried his best to open his eyes wide, trying to see clearly whether his generals and soldiers were dead or alive.

On the battlefield, both the Amago clan and the Mori clan fell into chaos, the military formations began to become disorganized, and deserters began to appear.

But on the mountain trails, there was no escape, and apart from causing damage to their own troops, they would continue to accidentally trigger other new types of mines.

The explosion continued, and the location of the initial explosion on the battlefield gradually became clear.

Shattered flesh and blood, and the two families' generals and soldiers wailing all over the ground.

Apart from those who stepped directly on the new type of landmines and were blown to pieces by the strong explosion, the Japanese people within a ten-foot radius were not directly killed.

But each new type of mine is equipped with about 360 steel balls and short iron rods. After detonation, these steel balls will quickly jump to a height of three to five feet and explode at this height, causing damage without blind spots.

If the Japanese were not short, this new type of landmine would not even be lethal. However, Shen Yu noticed that some of the Japanese who were slightly taller were in even greater pain.

The three-foot height corresponds to the middle and lower part of the Japanese body, so it is not a big deal if the two legs are hit or pierced by the steel balls.

Many steel balls hit the Japanese's fifth limb.

Shen Yu not only suspected that the craftsmen within the Jinyiwei were not making the new type of mines to cause large-scale casualties, but to create widows.

This thing is slightly poisonous.

Niwa Yoshihisa witnessed with his own eyes how his younger brother, Niwa Toshihisa, who led the battle on his behalf and lured the Mori clan's army into a trap, was in great pain after his three legs were pierced by a new type of landmine. When he finally chose to die with his sword, his eyes blurred and he didn't know when he was already in tears.

Seeing this, Shen Yu said nothing.

When he came from the Ming Dynasty, he brought many kinds of new weapons developed by the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Before the decisive battle between the Niwa clan and the Mori clan, he asked Niwa Yoshihisa to personally select the new weapons and put them into the battlefield.

At first glance, Yoshihisa Amago picked out the new type of mine that was described as "the most powerful firearm."

The new type of mines in this mountain road were even placed by the army of Yoshihisa Amago, and the Jinyiwei only provided instructions on how to place them.

The new type of landmine is indeed the most powerful firearm. Not to mention its killing effect on the human body, the damage it causes to the human heart is incomparable to that of traditional explosive firearms.

The battlefield fell into chaos.

Maori Motonari was shouting with all his might, trying to control the chaos of his family army, but he was already chilled and frightened... the Japanese, and there was nothing else in his mind except escaping from this training ground.

The Niwa clan army, which had completely lost its commander, was in an even worse situation, with all of its soldiers on the road to death or injury.

At this time, the first retainer of the Mori clan, Kobayakawa Takakage, knew that both clans had failed and that the situation was irreversible. For the safety of the head of the family, he called on other retainers to escort Mori Motonari away.

How could Mori Motonari, who had lost hope of unifying western Japan, not understand that the overseas Ming Dynasty was behind these new types of mines?

In addition to shouting "Bakayayaru", they were also angry and cursing. When the war was over, even if the Mori family did nothing, they would go to the southeast of the Ming Dynasty to become pirates and cause trouble for the Ming court.

"I'm afraid you can't do it."

At the end of the mountain road, hundreds of Jinyiwei were guarding there. When they saw Mori Motonari, they raised the new muskets in their hands.

At such a close distance, the first general Kobayakawa Takakage and the second general Yoshikawa Motoharu showed fearless bravery and led their troops to charge against the Jinyiwei fearlessly.

They believed that at such a close distance, the knife in their hands would definitely be faster than the musket.

"boom!"

"Bang! Bang!"

"..."

There was a loud sound of gunfire.

Unlike ordinary muskets that need to be reloaded after each shot, the new musket has the ability to fire continuously.

At such a close distance, the power of the musket reached its peak.

Kobayakawa Takakage and Yoshikawa Motoharu were shot to pieces by several new muskets in a short period of time. Blood gushed out of their mouths. They fell down with their eyes wide open, still holding their swords.

"とうこう"

"とうこう"

There is another chapter in the evening!
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(End of this chapter)