GBP Chapter 128 Yang Shaofeng: I'm still too kind-hearted!
Chapter 128 Yang Shaofeng: I'm still too kind-hearted!
Neither Empress Ma nor Emperor Zhu Chongba considered the possibility that Yang Shaofeng already knew the identity of "Master Ma".
What a joke! Which official would dare to treat the emperor like a beast of burden after knowing his identity?
However, in the back office of Ningyang County, Magistrate Yang was secretly feeling proud.
"Hey, it has to be me, the official, who actually shares the same yoke with Old Zhu."
Yang Shaofeng, the county magistrate, lay on the recliner, his body slightly curled up, constantly praising himself in his mind.
"Anyone who would dare to treat Old Zhu like a beast of burden after guessing his identity, let alone from the founding of his Ming Dynasty to its demise, even if you include all the other time travelers, is probably only me, right?"
In fact, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng originally intended to act swiftly and decisively, hoping to use newspapers and similar publications to deliver a crushing blow to certain cowardly and disgusting elements of the Ming Dynasty.
However, the thought that Old Zhu wanted to treat him like a beast of burden made Magistrate Yang feel somewhat uneasy.
Therefore, Magistrate Yang simply abandoned the idea of a swift and decisive solution, and instead decided to use this incident to give Old Zhu some more amusement. He would treat Emperor Zhu Chongba like a beast of burden, so that he wouldn't be able to spare any time to cause trouble for him.
Then, Magistrate Yang proposed to establish a community school in Ningyang County, which would semi-mandatorily enroll children from Ningyang County families.
To persuade Emperor Zhu Chongba to agree, Magistrate Yang even wrote another memorial, pointing out that these children were different from the existing scholars of the Ming Dynasty because they were born under the Ming Dynasty's patronage and grew up under the care of Emperor Zhu. He argued that they would definitely become the most loyal and capable servants under Emperor Zhu Chongba when they grew up.
Of course, with the community school as a starting point, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng also expressed that the problem of teaching materials also needed Emperor Zhu's help to solve. After all, the paper mill in Ningyang County had not yet started making paper, and the printing plant was still in the stage of preparing the woodblocks. They could not print books for a while and could only ask the court for help. In particular, Emperor Zhu Chongba, the Son of Heaven, was even more eager to help Ningyang County prepare various teaching books, as well as teaching materials such as "Hongwu Zhengyun", "Illustrated Explanation of Characters", "Hongwu Dictionary", and "Hongwu Calculation Symbols".
In order to make Emperor Zhu Chongba obediently serve as a beast of burden, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng, whether in his letters to "Master Ma" or in his memorials written separately to Emperor Zhu Chongba, specifically marked how to obtain teaching materials such as the "Hongwu Zhengyun" and the "Hongwu Dictionary," and even drew simple diagrams for "Illustrated Character Explanation."
The main idea is that Old Zhu can understand it, then Old Zhu will be attracted, and then Old Zhu will obediently become a beast of burden.
As for those cowardly cowards...
It doesn't matter anymore. Since these people don't care about the lives of their entire clan, there's no need for Magistrate Yang Shaofeng to feel sorry for them. At most, he'll just treat them a little easier after they're exiled to Ningyang County and make sure they get four hours of rest every day.
"I am ultimately too kind-hearted."
After Yang Shaofeng, the county magistrate, sighed again, he tugged at the blanket covering him.
There's no way around it; the temperature drops day by day after autumn, and the temperature difference between day and night gets bigger and bigger. Even when lying in the yard sunbathing, you have to wrap yourself in a blanket to keep warm.
Then, Magistrate Yang began to think about how to specifically set up the community school.
Setting up a community school isn't just about having textbooks; after all, there aren't many literate people in the entire Ningyang County, so textbooks alone wouldn't be of much use.
However, it was impossible for Magistrate Yang to personally give lectures—the content that children in the Ming Dynasty had to learn was completely different from what Magistrate Yang had learned when he was a child. Magistrate Yang knew how to fill and drain water in a pool at the same time, but he did not know how to break down the topic and bind the eight-legged essay, yet the imperial examinations of the future Ming Dynasty would inevitably test this kind of thing.
Therefore, the problem facing Magistrate Yang now is where to find two laborers to come to Ningyang County to be teachers.
Looking for Zhu Biao?
Going to Zhu Biao was definitely out of the question, since the two had never met before, and Magistrate Yang was also too embarrassed to directly ask Zhu Biao for people without any real knowledge.
Looking for Zhu Chongba?
It's not that it's impossible to find Zhu Chongba, but the problem is that Zhu Chongba can now even arrest illiterate commoners to make them officials, so he must be extremely short of manpower.
After pondering for a while, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng had to admit that he really couldn't find any scholars to do manual labor for the time being.
Besides the issue of teachers, another problem facing Magistrate Yang was whether the people were willing to send their children to school.
To be fair, given the consistent importance that the people of Zhongyuan have always placed on education, Magistrate Yang should not have needed to worry about this issue.
However, after witnessing firsthand the spring plowing, summer sowing and harvesting, and autumn sowing and harvesting, Magistrate Yang completely changed his mind.
While it's important to send your own children to school, ensuring the survival of your entire family is far more important than education.
If it were two or three years from now, Yang Shaofeng believed that the people of Ningyang County would not care whether they lacked a half-grown child as a source of labor.
However, things are not so good in Ningyang County now. In just over six months, it has experienced a drought, a locust plague, and a torrential rain before the autumn soybean harvest. The people of Ningyang County are now more concerned about the harvest in the fields. The lack of a child as a labor force often means that the grain harvest will be affected.
This is something that ordinary people find difficult to accept no matter what.
After all, there is no hope of studying if you are alive; if you are gone, everything is meaningless.
Unless Yang Shaofeng uses his prestige in Ningyang County to force the people to send their children to school.
However, after pondering it over, Magistrate Yang abandoned the idea.
Prestige is similar to personal connections; it's depleted every time you use it.
If he could think of any other way, Magistrate Yang would not have directly used his prestige to force the people to send their children to school.
"Or, how about offering incentives? If a family's child gets into school, I will exempt their entire family from corvée labor or taxes?"
"Or, I could use the county government's funds to provide school uniforms and books for the children of ordinary people, and even solve their food problems?"
"Anyway, since Old Zhu has singled out Ningyang County as a pilot area, it shouldn't be a problem for me to do something a little out of line, right?"
"Speaking of which, Old Zhu and his team are quite impressive. They actually came up with the idea of separate planning hundreds of years in advance."
"If Zhu Yuanzhang figured out this method, the Ming Dynasty would probably avoid many detours in the future?"
"The most unfortunate one is me, I have to be his slave."
Yang Shaofeng, the magistrate, quickly shifted his thinking from the local school to cattle and horses.
Then, Magistrate Yang suddenly jumped up from his recliner and shouted towards the front yard of the county government office: "Brother Limpy Fifth! Brother Limpy Fifth!"