Chapter 574 Great Peace in Jingye
There was a sound of drums and drums in the plains, and soon a group of uniformed knights rushed into the village like a whirlwind. The villagers stood on both sides of the road in shock, looking at these majestic knights and not daring to move rashly.
"Where are the neighbors and residents here? Come and greet us quickly!"
The knights dismounted on the open ground in the village, and soon a leader held his knife and looked at the surrounding villagers and shouted loudly.
After hearing this, the tense expressions of the villagers relaxed slightly. As long as they were not looking for them, it would be fine. Then some people trotted over enthusiastically to inform the neighbor and village chief.
Not long after, the neighborhood chiefs and village chiefs, who were always impressive in front of the villagers and villagers, came up with trepidation. From a distance, they crossed their arms and bowed their waists and said, "General, what do you need?"
The soldier commander, who was impatient with waiting, rolled his eyelids and immediately shouted: "A few months ago, the state government sent an order to the counties, counties and townships to order you and other civil officials to inspect the households in the villages and towns. The inspection is completed. No?"
After hearing this, the village chief and others looked embarrassed. They looked at the villagers nearby who were still oblivious and staring at the excitement. Then they lowered their heads and said helplessly: "Reporting to the general, the farming work has been busy since the autumn, and it is still not working now." There are many things that have not been completed, and everyone is away from home, so it’s hard to keep count..."
"Since you can't count, someone can do it for you! Quickly summon the many young people in this household, don't miss anything!"
The soldier commander gave the order again with a straight face, and only then did the onlookers realize that Qing had come to the village to capture the men.
So they all turned around and ran to their homes. Some of them jumped directly into the fence with quick hands and feet, and locked the fence door from the inside. The scene was very lively for a while.
Seeing that they could not evade the matter, the village chiefs and neighborhood chiefs, under the coercion of the soldiers who entered the village, knocked on the door of each house with a grimace and shouted: "Zhang Sanlu, don't hide! Your Erwan is already half a year old, hurry up and get rid of that." Hand it over, kid!"
"My son wants to work in the house, so he doesn't go to the school to run wild!"
The owner of the household held a wooden stick across his hand and stood behind the fence, shouting loudly in reply: "A good farm boy, if you don't learn how to plow the land, why should you go to that school to learn some acrobatics that are useless for production!"
"What nonsense are you talking about! What kind of good boy can you teach in your household? Can you also sing 'chirp, chirp, chirp'?"
The captain knocked on the door and persuaded, and at the same time he became happy. He couldn't help but look back at the soldiers entering the village and asked with a smile: "Generals are practicing in the camp, do you want to chirp again? We, the governor of the state, sing this, What kind of elegance is it to go to the house to remind you?"
Hearing this, the faces of all the knights turned dark, and they said angrily: "The Governor is very wise, how can you ordinary people understand it? If you don't learn how to chirp, how can you chirp!"
As he spoke, the soldier commander looked at the head of the household who was blocking the door and said loudly: "The Grand Governor has issued an order to transfer 10% of the rent of Akita, such as you and other countrymen, to provide food for the school children. Half of your family can't go to school. The materials have been put in, so if you are a big-bellied man, you can still make money after eating!"
The head of the household's eyes suddenly lit up after hearing this, and he quickly considered whether it would be more cost-effective to leave his son at home to help with work or to send him to school to save food rations.
As the saying goes, a young man is a poor man. Thinking about the young man's ambition and his poor workman's hatred for money, the head of the household gradually softened his attitude. After thinking about it, he said: "I am over sixty-five years old." , Yi Lu is also a Ban Ding, can you go with me?"
Similar scenes occurred all over Jingzhou. The reason was that the state government issued an order to encourage students to go to school after the autumn, which ordered all households in the state to have children aged 12 to 14 years old and need to enroll in school to serve as slaves. , a two-month semester each year. If you do not enroll in school, you will be punished as a deserter.
With the issuance of this government order, the young men and women from the average land households scattered throughout the state were transported by the county and county governments to the prefecture's Rangcheng in carloads, and sent to the newly completed state school in Rangcheng.
Li Tai entered the state last year and has been working hard to expand the number of households in the state. From war and plunder to interest exchange and various policy attractions, the results achieved are quite amazing.
Last year, there were only more than 8,000 registered households in Jingzhou, but after verification this autumn, the cumulative number of registered households in various counties and counties has soared to more than 23,000, an increase of nearly twice as much!
Such an achievement can definitely be regarded as outstanding anywhere. It is not the first time that Li Tai has served as a prefecture and county governor. However, the people's livelihood foundation in northern Shaanxi was really poor last year. In addition, he deliberately used Military villages, private villages and other forms of concealment of cultivated land and population have never been outstanding, and the states and counties are ranked in the middle and lower reaches, and occasionally at the bottom.
But seeing the increase in the number of households in Jingzhou this year, he felt that he had hope of achieving the best performance this year. Now that the number of household registrations has surged, other aspects cannot be held back.
Especially since the state school building is so grandly built, it would feel a bit awkward if a group of schoolchildren were not brought over to show off their achievements. Although Jingzhou is mine, it is also yours. In the final analysis, it is still mine. You must also study hard to grow my power!
He dared to popularize compulsory education such as literacy classes in Jingzhou, of course, because various sources of income increased his confidence. The cost of education may seem large, but upon closer inspection, the workload is actually not that large.
There are more than 20,000 registered residents, but not every family has a middle-aged man of the right age. It would be good to have half of them.
There is a literacy class every two months, and there are six classes a year. It may be more concentrated after autumn and before spring due to the restrictions of the agricultural year order, but in the early stage of the implementation of the decree, it is inevitable that all registered households will send their children. It is very good to reach a popularization rate of 30% to 40%.
When it continues to improve in the future, the corresponding experience and scale will also increase, and it can also be diverted to the next level of government such as counties.
As for the cost, it is mainly food. These half-grown boys are really good at eating. The consumption of one person is not inferior to that of an adult soldier who maintains normal camp training.
After a literacy class, the grain consumption of one person can reach nearly two stones. According to the most ideal situation, all eligible half-men in the state participate in literacy education, and less than 30,000 stones of grain are consumed in a year. According to the calculation of three stones of grain per mu, the harvest from one hundred hectares of good land is enough for the schoolchildren in the state to learn literacy throughout the year.
Of course, one hundred hectares of arable land is not a small amount, but in some areas where land resources are highly concentrated, any large manor owner may control dozens of hectares or even more land. Therefore, killing a local tyrant can provide literacy education for thousands or even tens of thousands of schoolchildren in the state.
These two months of literacy education may not change their lives, but they can give them an experience that their ancestors and parents have never had. And if they perform well enough in these two months of literacy education, the state government will of course provide them with opportunities for continuing education.
A literacy class is not a bright future, but it provides a possibility. It consumes only one or a few local tyrants. In short, Li Tai feels that this deal is not a loss.
Of course, in addition to Li Tai not caring about the local tyrants' consumables, it is also because he is really rich.
Not to mention the stable tax sources brought by the expansion of registered households in the country, just the Hanshui trade with Yueyang King Xiao Zhao and others, after the initial few trials, the performance and profits in the next few months have all reached new highs.
Li Qianzhe, a wealthy man in Ankang, didn't even bother to dig the gold mine at home. He sent his servants to build strongholds in Ziwu Valley and transport goods full-time, which greatly increased the delivery rate. It can be seen that the profit return brought by this business is so rapid that even gold mining can't catch up.
The business is running smoothly and getting bigger and bigger. After Li Tai sent Liang Shiyan and others to Caiyang to build a city and station troops, his friendship and tacit understanding with Yueyang King Xiao Zhao reached a new height, so his dividends were also continuously exported from Xiangyang.
Of course, money must be spent after it is earned, especially the profits contain a large amount of Nanliang iron coins. These things still have a certain purchasing power at the moment, and it is a pity to melt them all to cast armor and soldiers. While Nanliang has not yet been in chaos, Li Tai also asked people to buy supplies in the Handong area and then transport them back to Jingzhou via Xiangyang.
It is a pity that due to the continued bad relationship between the Xiaozhao brothers and Jiangling, their business development speed in the Yangtze River region is not fast enough and the efficiency is not high enough. They have to passively wait for the buyers from Jiangling to come here, and they are blocked from actively exploring the market.
However, Jiangling has more choices than Xiangyang. After all, before the Hanshui trade route, the Shuzhong trade route was the mainstream of communication between Southern Liang and the Western Regions. Shuzhong also has a fist industry such as Shujin, so the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River are still accustomed to purchasing goods from Shuzhong.
Even if Xiangyang has a greater price advantage, it is difficult to shake Shuzhong's position in this business ecology in a short period of time. After all, it is not only the buyers and sellers who benefit from this long-standing trade route, but also all those involved in it.
However, Li Tai has a heavy means that has not been taken out, that is, the white sugar whose technology and production capacity are becoming more mature and rising. When this thing is taken out, it will be a high-pressure water pump, and Shuzhong's market competitiveness is not enough to look at.