Ming Dynasty: Teaching The Prince Dragon-Slaying Skills At The Beginning

Chapter 862: The Essential Significance Of Daming Bookstore, Jinyiwei And Dongxi Factory [Please Sub

However, even 500,000 copies of this million [Da Ming Daily] can be sold to the outside world.

But the profit earned from these 500,000 copies of [Da Ming Daily] just covered the cost of the other 500,000 copies of [Da Ming Daily] distributed for free.

If we also include the cost of manpower, transportation and other costs for printing one million copies of [Da Ming Daily], then the combined costs and benefits of this one million copies of [Da Ming Daily] are actually beyond our means.

Although this cost of manpower, transportation, printing, etc. is just a drop in the bucket compared to today's Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue.

Even if it has been unable to make ends meet, the Ming court can still afford the cost of these one million copies of [Da Ming Daily].

But Yan Changqing understands one truth very well, that is, there is no problem with Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue now, but it does not mean that there will be no problem with Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue in the future.

Once Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue was affected and had to cut fiscal expenditures.

Then something like [Da Ming Daily], which cannot make ends meet, and seems to be of little use to the civil and military officials, and even makes their past resumes public so that they can be scrutinized by the people all over the world, will most likely be the first to be abolished. Lose.

Therefore, in order to prevent [Da Ming Daily] from being the first to be abolished in the future, Yan Changqing also established another [Da Ming Bookstore] under the Palace Printing Bureau to which [Da Ming Daily] was affiliated.

This [Daming Bookstore] mainly sells two types of things. The first type is teaching aids and study reference books.

For example, ordinary officials cannot obtain the provincial and imperial examination questions in the past years, as well as the answer sheets of those with outstanding scores in the relevant provincial and imperial examinations.

However, the Palace Printing Bureau can get it!

Because the Palace Printing Bureau is directly under the emperor's name, the profits created by the Palace Printing Bureau also directly belong to the emperor.

So if the Palace Printing Bureau can create profits, it will be a good thing for the emperor.

After all, no matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat. Especially for a stingy and money-grubbing person like Zhu Yuanzhang, he will not let go of a penny he can make.

In addition, the past provincial and imperial examinations have already been completed, so even if it is printed, it will not cause any leakage or other impact.

The only problem is that after the answer sheets of those who have achieved outstanding results in the past provincial examinations and palace examinations are printed, they may be criticized and criticized by some people.

After all, no matter what the achievements of the candidates and Jinshi who took the provincial examinations and palace examinations later, when they took the provincial examinations and the 17th palace examination, the vast majority of them were basically stupid young people.

Therefore, the strategies they wrote during the provincial and imperial examinations would inevitably have minor problems such as being too ideal or unrealistic.

Therefore, if you print it out, you may encounter criticism and criticism from some pretentious writers.

In addition, for the author himself, it actually means exposing the dark history of his youth.

So these authors actually don’t want their policies and opinions from their youth to be published. Wouldn’t it be better to keep them archived in the official department and collect dust?!

In response to this, Zhu Yuanzhang responded in just three sentences:

"We just want to tell the world clearly."

"The Ming Dynasty recruits talents fairly, justly and openly!"

"Or do you feel that your reputation is not worthy of the name and that your achievements cannot stand the test of the world?!!"

Zhu Yuanzhang has reached this point. What else can the authors of those policies and current civil servants do except agree?!!

You can't really say that your name is not worthy of your name, and you think your achievements cannot stand the test of the world!

If he really said it, then his official position would probably come to an end.

Therefore, the Palace Printing Bureau also successfully obtained the test questions of the past provincial and palace examinations each year, as well as the answer sheets of those with outstanding results in the relevant provincial and palace examinations, and even the comments of the examiners at that time on those answer sheets.

Then all these were bound into a volume, and finally bound into a teaching aid for the imperial examination named by Yan Changqing [Three-Year County Examination, Five-Year Provincial Examination].

Moreover, this book [Three-Year County Examination, Five-Year Provincial Examination] has been updated in real time every year since then, and it has become an imperial examination teaching aid book that countless Ming Dynasty imperial examination scholars love and hate but have to buy. .

In addition to this undergraduate examination teaching aid, there are other imperial examination teaching aids such as "Complete Interpretation of the New Imperial Examination", "Required Questions for the Imperial Examination", "Recommended Question Bank for Huanggang Great Scholars", "Complete Interpretation of the Imperial Examination Textbooks", etc.

Even his teaching materials books from Wanmin Agricultural College, Wanmin Medical College, Wanmin Academy of Sciences and other colleges are sold in [Daming Bookstore].

Of course, he took the initiative to throw this into the [Da Ming Bookstore] to sell it.

After all, if the knowledge, thought and culture represented by Wanmin Agricultural College, Wanmin Medical College, Wanmin Academy of Sciences and other colleges want to firmly occupy a place in the mainstream thought of the Ming Dynasty and not be obliterated and destroyed by the counterattack of Confucianism in the future.

So it is absolutely not advisable to be arrogant. We must be down-to-earth and lower the threshold for ordinary people to contact and learn these knowledge, thoughts and culture as much as possible.

Only in this way can the scope of communication influence of Wanmin Agricultural College, Wanmin Medical College, Wanmin Academy of Sciences and other colleges be further expanded, thereby seizing more living soil for Confucianism.

And only if more people learn these knowledge, thoughts and culture, the probability of geniuses appearing in the Agricultural Sciences, Medicine, Science, etc. will further increase in the future.

Similarly, the speed at which Ming Dynasty will enter the industrialization era will further accelerate in the future.

Therefore, if it is not given away for free, it will easily lead to others not cherishing it, and Ming Dynasty's finances will not be able to support it for a long time.

For example, the teaching materials books of Wanmin Agricultural College, Wanmin Medical College, Wanmin Academy of Sciences and other colleges, let alone selling them in the [Daming Bookstore], Yan Changqing wished that all the people in the world would give a copy.

It can be said that just by selling these imperial examination and college teaching reference books, [Da Ming Bookstore] will not lose money in the future, the Palace Printing Bureau will not lose money, and [Da Ming Daily] will not make ends meet.

After all, as long as the Ming Dynasty does not collapse, students all over the world will have to take the imperial examination or take the exams of major colleges.

Therefore, those teaching reference and supplementary books in [Da Ming Bookstore] that are updated in real time every year will never lack buyers.

In addition to selling reference and teaching aids related to imperial examinations and colleges, [Daming Bookstore] also sells another type of books, namely novels!

As the saying goes, Tang poetry, Song lyrics, Yuan ditties, and Ming and Qing novels, in this era, storybooks are also very popular among the people.

When it comes to novels, Yan Changqing is not bragging, no one can beat them in this era!

Fantasy fairy tale novels may be a bit too radical in this era.

But martial arts novels are very suitable. Who hasn’t dreamed of a young hero flying around and being chivalrous?

Standing on the shoulders of Jin Gu Huang Liang Yu "Yan Changqing dictated ten wonderful martial arts novels very simply.

Then let the workers of the Printing Bureau record it, then compile it into a volume, print it into a book, and finally sell it to the outside world, and the sales volume is huge.

After laying a foundation, Yan Changqing asked the steward of the Printing Bureau to recruit some storytellers, or down-and-out scholars, and asked them to imitate his novels and write more novels to sell.

After all, not every scholar in the world can pass the imperial examination and have enough to eat. If a certain basic salary and share are provided, there are many down-and-out scholars who are willing to write storybooks for them.

And with these two ways to make a fortune, as long as [Da Ming Bookstore] does not commit suicide, it can continue to operate steadily.

Then in the future, the Palace Printing Bureau and the [Da Ming Daily] will have two long-term financial paths, and there will be no need to worry about making ends meet.

Yan Changqing does so many things with one fundamental purpose, which is to keep [Da Ming Daily] alive as much as possible!

In other words, as much as possible, let the people at the bottom have the most direct way to contact the top and supervise the middle and lower officials!

And further improve the openness and transparency of government affairs in the Ming Dynasty, and reduce the possibility of middle- and lower-level officials tampering with imperial edicts and policies at will!

Because generally speaking, the interpretation of the country's upper-level systems and policies and the transmission of information to the lower-level people require explanation and communication by officials at the middle and lower levels.

In addition, the views of the upper class on certain issues are actually different from those of the lower class. For the upper class, a speck of dust may be an insurmountable mountain for the lower class.

Therefore, as long as the middle- and lower-level officials who are responsible for explaining policies to the lower levels and conveying public opinion to the upper levels slightly misinterpret it, or block the information channels between the upper and lower levels, it can easily lead to problems such as information asymmetry and missing items at the upper and lower levels.

And these middle- and lower-level officials can use this to deceive their superiors and deceive their subordinates, form cliques, and seek personal gains!

For example, consider Wang Anshi’s reform in the past.

The "Green Miao Law" proposed by Wang Anshi, who was at the top of the Song Dynasty court, was good and correct in terms of theory, policy, and method.

However, during its actual implementation, officials at the middle and lower levels deliberately misinterpreted Wang Anshi's "Green Crops Law" in order to seek personal gain.

For example, it was originally up to the people to decide whether to borrow money from the court based on their own needs. However, in order to claim credit, local officials forced the people to borrow money from the government!

Another example is that for the sake of their own political achievements, local officials suppress allocations and collect payments, as well as the unreasonable timing of lending and collecting loans for Qingmiaoqian!

Another example is that local officials also raise interest rates at will, taking the opportunity to increase interest rates to make money, and even engage in various blackmails and so on!

In the end, Wang Anshi's reform failed, and the people at the bottom were miserable. Only the middle- and lower-level officials took the opportunity to gain weight!

This is the result of officials at the middle and lower levels misinterpreting and blocking the information channels between the upper and lower levels.

For another example, in recent years, the Ming Dynasty has issued one policy after another that is beneficial to the people.

For example: "The Law of Borrowing Pigs and Borrowing Cows", "The Law of Compulsory Education to Promote Reading and Literacy in the Ming Dynasty", "The Law of Using Work as a Service and Buying Sea Salt and Salted Fish Meat at Half Price", "Building County and Township Roads for Free", "Building Reservoirs, Improve the risk of flood and drought prevention" and other policies.

These policies can be said to be benefits that the national court proactively distributes to the people.

However, as long as the local middle- and lower-level officials expressed it in a slightly distorted way when facing the people, they said that after their perseverance and hard work, the imperial court finally decided to send a Japanese slave engineering team to their county to build reservoirs and roads for free.

In this way, these middle- and lower-level local officials can easily turn the benefits that the courts of these countries proactively distribute to the common people into benefits that they strive for for the common people under their rule!

In this way, these middle and lower-level officials will become good officials who ask for orders for the people in the eyes of the people!

At that time, the gratitude that the common people should have towards the emperor and the court will be transformed into gratitude towards these middle- and lower-level officials!

What is control of information channels?

This is called control of the information channel!

In a sense, this kind of behavior is more terrible than corruption and bribery.

Because of corruption and bribery, the emperor and the imperial court will suffer the most losses.

Just some money.

However, this kind of misinterpretation and blockage of information from the upper and lower levels tramples on the system of a country and seizes the fundamental political power of the emperor and the court!

If the information channels between the upper and lower layers are seriously misinterpreted and blocked, then a very absurd situation is likely to occur.

For example, the emperor received reports from the middle and lower classes that the people below were living and working in peace and contentment, the world was at peace, and the country was in peace and prosperity.

Therefore, the emperor felt relieved, and either continued not to do his job, or continued to indulge in beauty, or continued to enjoy himself.

But in fact, the people at the bottom are suffering from hunger, cold, and death, and turmoil is imminent all over the world.

This is also the reason why the wise and promising emperors in the past dynasties paid so much attention to censors and officials.

Because one of the responsibilities that censors and officials actually bear is to ensure that the upper-lower information channels between the emperor and the lowest level of the people are not blocked by middle- and lower-level officials.

But most emperors forgot one thing, that is, even the censors and officials were essentially members of the civil service group.

Once the censors, officials, and other officials collude, the upper-lower information channel between the emperor and the people at the lowest level will still be blocked.

So for this reason, Zhu Yuanzhang specially set up 300 Jinyiwei who were affiliated with the emperor's personal army. They were also used to monitor the officials and prevent communication between the emperor and the lowest level people.

The information channels are misinterpreted and blocked.

It even included the East and West factories established by other emperors later, although the original intention of their establishment may have been for the emperor to better supervise civil and military officials and people.

But in essence, these Jinyiwei and the East and West factories also played a role in ensuring that the upper-lower information channels between the emperor and the lowest common people were not misinterpreted or blocked.

Once the Jinyiwei and the East and West factories are abolished, the imperial censor and Yanguan will collude with other ministers.

Then the emperor would become completely deaf and blind, and he would have no choice but to allow his officials to deceive them, form cliques, and seek personal gain.

It is no longer possible to see the real living conditions of the people at the bottom, and it is even less possible to convey one's voice and will to the people at the bottom.

Well, what I'm talking about here is Chongzhen, who captured Wei Zhongxian as soon as he came to power. Since then, although the factory guard system still exists, it can no longer become the emperor's right-hand man.

As for the Jinyiwei, they had already become a vassal of Dongchang in the late Ming Dynasty. They took Dongchang as the leader in everything and always waited and watched Dongchang's attitude in everything.

Therefore, after Wei Zhongxian was captured and Dongchang was abolished in disguise, Jinyiwei could be said to exist in name only.

Although the structure of Jinyiwei is still there, it can no longer be the emperor's right-hand man.

If Chongzhen listened to his brother's words and continued to reuse Wei Zhongxian, Ming would not die so quickly.

Because Wei Zhongxian is a sensible person, he knows that as long as the country and the emperor are there, his wealth will be there.

If the country perishes and the emperor is gone, then he will become a bereaved dog, terrified all day long, and all wealth and power will disappear.

Therefore, compared to those civil servants, he hoped more than anyone else that his master could secure the throne and that the Ming Dynasty would be in peace.

Therefore, when he saw that the Ministry of Revenue could not collect taxes, he organized factory guards to go directly to Jiangnan and other wealthy areas to carry out "armed tax collection."

Although a lot of the taxes received were pocketed by the factory owner who led the team and Wei Zhong himself.

However, most of the taxes collected by Dongchang were used in the national defense construction of the Ming Dynasty.

For example, Wei Zhongxian took charge of the government from the fourth year of Tianqi until Zhu Youxiao died of illness.

The military pay of border officers and soldiers is paid in full, and there is no arrears of pay.

Guan Ning's cavalry formed an army.

The Guanningjin Defense Line was completed.

A great victory was achieved in Ningjin, and Nurhaci was injured by artillery.

The border guard general Yuan Chonghuan was reused and defeated the Jin army many times.

When a drought occurred in Henan, the imperial court distributed relief grain and money and exempted the victims from taxes. There was no unrest in Henan, and there was no large-scale peasant uprising in the country.

When Nurhachi sent troops to attack North Korea, Wei Zhongxian ordered Yuan Chonghuan to send troops to attack Houjin. Yuan Chonghuan failed to carry out the order, which made Wei Zhongxian furious and dismissed him from office for investigation.

Judging from the subsequent development of the situation, it was strategically correct to order the dispatch of troops to rescue North Korea.

This is enough to prove that Wei Zhongxian is loyal to the emperor and has a certain ability to see the overall situation.

It is a pity that such a useful Wei Zhongxian was abolished as soon as Chongzhen came to power. .