First Minister of Ming Dynasty

"Revenge? Yes! Revenge!" Shi Boren seemed to have regained his spirits all of a sudden. His wife died too badly. Zhang Shicheng must be blamed for this, and he wanted revenge!

But soon Shi Boren became listless, "Hey, uncle is like this, he is just a useless person, how can he take revenge?"

Jiang Nan was also speechless, and she didn't know how to encourage her uncle... But at this moment, someone suddenly came to the inn where they were temporarily staying.

"Congratulations to Chief Jiangnanjiang, who passed the exam and was promoted to rank!"

Jiang Nan was taken aback, exam?

passed?

Me, I'm going to be an official?

She was stunned, but Shi Boren was even more stunned, what joke?

My niece passed the exam?

If this is the case for a girl, what about a big man like myself?

Is it just complete waste?

Shi Boren was completely speechless, and thought over and over for a long time, he must not just die, he must do something, as long as it is useful, it will not be useless at night!

After this great talent suffered a heavy blow, he finally found a doctoral job in Yingtianfu and was responsible for teaching the Book of Changes.Finally, he can support himself, and he can't expect too much for the time being.

But on the other side, things are a little more complicated.

Jiang Nan's achievements have been recognized, and according to the previous promise, all grain chiefs who pass the exam can at most be given a high position as a servant.

Then it's time to fulfill the promise.

"Jiang Nan, how old are you this year?"

Ma asked curiously.

"If you go back to Madam, you've just turned eighteen!"

Mrs. Ma was startled, this age is really too young... If you want to say that there is no younger one in the Zhu family army?Zhang Ximeng is not as old as her, but Zhang Ximeng is really special, no one can compare with him.

In addition, Zhu Wenzheng became a commander when he was less than 15 years old, and Li Wenzhong was only [-] years old, and he also became a leader of thousands of households... However, military positions are different from civilian positions. They can fight and have made military exploits. It is reasonable, as long as you have done enough meritorious service, it is also reasonable to be a marquis or a knight in your twenties.

Civil servants can't do it, they must pay attention to seniority, and there must be chance and coincidence.

To be honest, Lao Zhu doesn't approve of being a servant just by delivering food and passing the exam.

Because of this, after meeting Jiang Nan, Zhu Yuanzhang did not directly issue orders to appoint officials.

All of a sudden things were different.

Because after Zhang Ximeng talked with Li Shanchang, Lao Li has already made plans to push the boat along the way. As long as Zhu Yuanzhang is willing and Zhang Ximeng agrees, he has nothing to say.

But now that Lao Zhu hesitated, things suddenly became complicated!

In fact, the source of this mess is Li Shanchang... In order to boost the morale of the head of the grain, or to take the opportunity to expand his power, he suggested that the head of the grain without any foundation should be directly appointed as the servant, which was wrong from the beginning.

Of course, if he is a middle-aged man with some knowledge, he can be "competent" after entering the sixth department and obeying Li Xiang's arrangement honestly.

However, among this group of people, Jiang Nan appeared to deliver food on behalf of his brother, and everything changed.

Jiang Nan couldn't be a servant, so naturally others couldn't get promoted either.

What should we do?

Restless Li Shanchang called Yang Xian and others to discuss overnight, but the more they discussed, the more panicked and anxious they became.

"Li Xiang, the superior may not be willing to let Jiang Nan be the servant, but since the words have been said, the superior is not willing to slap himself in the mouth."

Yang Xian said first.

Yang Yuangao murmured: "Since that's the case, then let's propose that Jiang Nan be the servant?"

Li Shanchang rolled his eyes, his fellow countryman was really confused.

"We push a woman up, and if she makes a mistake in the future, and the superior will investigate it, what shall we do?"

Yang Yuangao was stunned, could he know what to do?

For a long time, it was Zhang Ximeng who wanted to release women as officials.If it was Zhang Ximeng's push, they would naturally be able to hold back secretly. It can be said with certainty that the maid is definitely not good.

Then they can persuade Zhu Yuanzhang to do good deeds and strangle the matter of women being officials to death!

Never mention it again.

But now the troublesome food chief was mentioned by Li Shanchang, and there was a female food chief, and Zhu Yuanzhang had that attitude again, and the matter was all on Li Shanchang's head.

"Li Xiang, let me put it bluntly. No matter what, this maid is not good. The people below will not agree, and we can't restrain people's hearts. Once something goes wrong, everyone from top to bottom will blame us of!"

Li Shanchang sighed, "It's still Xiwu who understands it clearly, but how can I persuade the superior to withdraw his order now? You must know that the wife is watching, and the superior is dedicated to giving women a way out and boosting morale. If I say no, I'm afraid..."

Lao Li didn't continue talking, but everyone understood that if you couldn't meet Zhu Yuanzhang's request, then you had to step down from your position!

It stands to reason that Yang Xian didn't want to bring down Lao Li, but at this time Li Shanchang left, he couldn't get any benefits.

"Li Xiang, if you want me to say, the only way now is to ask Zhang Xiang to deal with the aftermath. He has been arguing and not saying anything. He must have an idea!"

I still have to go find Zhang Ximeng!

Li Shanchang sighed helplessly. He had already given away his left cheek, and now he was going to contribute his right cheek. In front of Zhang Ximeng, he couldn't hold his head up at all.

But what can I do?

The next day, Li Shanchang waited early at the gate of the duty room with dark circles under his eyes, waiting for Zhang Ximeng's arrival.

Sure enough, when Zhang Ximeng appeared, Li Shanchang immediately stepped forward to salute.

"Zhang Xiang, I have nothing else to say, I just ask you to find a way to help me get through this, I am so grateful!" Li Shanchang almost begged.

This shit is getting more and more difficult. I thought Jiang Nan was irrelevant, but it turns out that her uncle is Shi Boren and her aunt is Zheng Yunduan!

This talented woman is too unusual. Many famous scholars around Li Shanchang have mentioned this woman. It is absolutely a pity that she died.

If it is not resolved properly, Zhu Yuanzhang will be furious, and Mrs. Ma will be displeased, and there will be a lot of discussions below. It is equivalent to stuffing a hedgehog into Lao Li's crotch, and he is still full of vitality. Only he knows what it feels like.

Now he is Liu Bei who eats peppercorns, so he lost his mind!

Even if he had a way, it didn't work. The only one in Zhu's army who could clean up this mess was Zhang Ximeng.

What is popular expectations!

But Zhang Ximeng didn't dare to be negligent, because this matter is by no means as simple as appointing or not appointing a female officer!

"I think the real key lies in employing people, who should be employed... Looking at the employment habits of the past dynasties, there are ordinary people, there are meritocracy, and there are nine ranks. The scope is getting wider and wider.”

"According to this way of thinking, it is not impossible to appoint food chiefs, or even women... But I think it is not appropriate to let them fill in a certain position, which is not appropriate. If the appointment of women as officials becomes To have one more female servant in the officialdom is putting the cart before the horse, and even has bad intentions!"

Zhang Ximeng spoke very bluntly, tantamount to exposing Lao Li's tricks.

If you want to give women a chance, he will give you a maid.Without any preparations, let her do things, and arrange a lot of obstacles around her. When she makes a lot of mistakes, she can overthrow this policy by denying this person.

This intentional method of digging a hole is naturally unworkable.

"If you want a woman to be an official, you must go through the formal process and pass the exam... And now we stipulate that all the imperial examinations must start from the school... Then can we allow women to enter the official school? It seems that there is no! No! Speaking of government schools, even elementary schools have no place for women... From the very beginning, women were not given opportunities and were not allowed to study... In this way, how can we talk about selecting talents from among women?"

"So let me say, it's not a question of adding a few female officials, but a question of whether women can be given a channel! The road is given, and the opportunity lies there. Nothing to complain about."

Chapter 233 Empress Ma's Brain Tank

In the autumn of the first year of the Wu State of China...a series of new decrees were issued in the name of Wu Guogong Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhongshu Province.These decrees can be called the most intensive and detailed batch of decrees after the Land Equalization Outline.

Zhang Ximeng and Song Lian were the main drafters of the decree. After Zhu Yuanzhang approved it, the six ministries led by Li Shanchang were responsible for its implementation.

And since then, the central structure of the entire Wu Kingdom of China has also taken shape.

Zhang Ximeng led the Academy, Taixue, General Administration and other yamen, and basically assumed the role of the brain of the country.They drafted the decree, Zhu Yuanzhang was in charge of decision-making, and Li Shanchang's six ministries were in charge of implementation.

In comparison, Zhang Ximeng's side is equivalent to Zhongshu Sheng among the three provinces, while Li Shanchang's Zhongshu Sheng is more like the Shang Shu Sheng who is in charge of execution.

But a closer look at the decision-making process reveals that things are far from simple. .

Although the Wu Kingdom of China is in the shape of three provinces and six divisions, its essence is completely different.

Important laws and regulations are not something that Zhang Ximeng can come up with at will.

Usually, an idea must be formed first, then discussed by all parties, and sent to Zhu Yuanzhang for a decision, and then the Sixth Department of Zhongshu will be responsible for implementation.

Li Shanchang will participate in the whole process. Of course, Zhang Ximeng does not end with the proposal of the draft. He is also responsible for supervising the implementation, evaluating the effect of the policy, and making subsequent adjustments.

All in all, the two sides dare not say that they are as close as a family, but they are not in the same situation. Everything must be closely coordinated in order to be successfully completed.

And this new decision-making model, the first decree introduced is an explanation of the outline of the old land equalization law... First of all, the original land equalization law included three parts: ration field, circulation field and mulberry field, but this time it is It is stipulated that only in some areas where the land is barren and the output is very low, the ration fields will be reserved.

In other words, it is basically the land of Huaixi, which is under the highest rule. Due to floods and wars, the land is sparsely populated, and people's livelihood is urgently needed to restore people's livelihood. They can get ration fields free of land tax.

In the Jiangnan area, the population is relatively dense. If everyone is given a ration field and the land tax is exempted, then many lands with plenty of fish and rice will not have to pay the land tax.

This must be something Zhu Jiajun didn't want to see, so the ration field was stopped.

If they hit the north in the future, they will also restore ration fields in North China, which urgently needs to restore people's livelihood and is sparsely populated.

Then there is the mulberry field... This also needs to be adjusted, because the land in Huaixi has suffered from the flood of the Yellow River and needs to restore the ecology. The common people plant fruit trees and mulberry trees to maintain water and soil and improve living conditions.

But when it comes to Jiangnan, the situation changes, because many people regard the mulberry fields in the south of the Yangtze River as sangma fields, and some even regard tea gardens as sangma fields.

It wouldn't make sense if it wasn't taxed.

Therefore, the mulberry fields in the south of the Yangtze River also need to pay taxes, and the tax rate is higher than that of farmland.

To put it bluntly, I still hope that the common people will grow more food.

However, as mentioned earlier, according to the agricultural habits formed over thousands of years, ordinary people will like to grow food out of the pursuit of safety, even if the profit is low. Is there still a need to work hard on tax rates?

This is about another group, the big landlords!

After all, no matter how big the disaster is, the tenants will die of starvation, but the big landlords will not.

Zhu Yuanzhang's family was destroyed, but the landlord Liu De was intact, and even took the opportunity to annex some more land.In the Jiangnan area, large landlords, especially some large silk and cotton cloth households, are willing to change rice into mulberry.

After all, not only will they not go hungry, but they also have a way to buy food in large quantities from outside, and then sell it to the common people at a high price, making a lot of money!

The imperial court didn't understand the stubbornness of the common people, and they could earn more by changing rice into mulberry?Why don't you agree?

They are all a group of troublemakers who want to fight against the imperial court!

But ordinary people also have a debt, they are terrified of being bullied, suffering, and being deceived too much, and their lives are already too difficult. Any change will cause the consequences of their families being destroyed, and they really dare not take risks.

Therefore, the real poor people can't wait to plant every field with food. Only when the whole family is full and not hungry will they think about other things.

There is no doubt that those who can grow mulberry trees and tea trees on a large scale are all wealthy households... It is reasonable to increase taxes for them.

"Zhang Xiang, it's so easy to meet Li Xiang bowing his head, this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, you can't miss it!" Song Lian and the others were full of joy and couldn't help it.

Li Shanchang's loss was not limited to the fact that a woman became an official... Zhang Ximeng wiped his ass, and at the same time took the opportunity to expand the power of the right minister, and also established the entire decision-making pattern.

Absolutely won.

In the new land equalization decree, Zhang Ximeng clearly stated that both men and women should enjoy the right to use the land equally.Moreover, Zhang Ximeng added that if a woman marries out and goes to a new village, the local area needs to allocate land to the woman.

In this way, even if a woman marries to a strange place, she can still have a piece of land and property of her own to follow in this life.

This will have a huge impact in the future, even earth-shaking changes.In normal times, it would be absolutely difficult for Li Shanchang to pass, but now he dares to object, so he can only obediently agree.

Because of the granting of property rights to women, the next item is the right to education!

These two items work closely together.

It is nonsense to let girls go to school and receive education without the guarantee of property rights.Although there are no shortage of parents who love their daughters in the past dynasties, it is not uncommon to see women poets and poetesses.

But in the final analysis, it is only the individual actions of individual people, and it is limited to some wealthy poetry and book families.

In ordinary people's homes, girls are accessories, and sooner or later they will become someone else's family. What is the value of investing in her?

Especially when the family is extremely poor, it is natural to give priority to supporting the son, let the son study, honor the ancestors, and support the parents.

But after giving girls property rights, the logic is different.

A girl, like a boy, will also have a piece of property that belongs to her, even if the girl grows up and marries out, the same is true.And with this property, it shows that she will also have the ability to support her parents in the future, and she can repay the kindness of nurturing.

With this most basic logical premise, parents will take the initiative to send girls to school.

Otherwise, even if you make strict laws and regulations, can you still put thousands of parents in prison?

The law always sets the lower limit. If the lower limit is set too high and most people can't do it, then there is no possibility of implementing this decree.

That's why Zhang Ximeng started from land and property, leading to the issue of women's schooling.

Since women can go to school, then next, they must be allowed to work, do business, and even be officials!