Chapter 27: Years in a hurry

Winter has passed and spring has come. Several years have passed in a blink of an eye. Now it is March of the fifth year of Daye. From August of the third year of Renshou, it has actually been three and a half years since Yang Yong became emperor.

Over the past three years, Yang Yong has done five things: one is to re-divided local administrative areas and merged some repeated prefectures and counties, the second is to revise the laws, the third is to vigorously promote official schools, the fourth is to build Yongji Canal, and the fifth is to build large warships.

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, local administration was chaotic. At the end of the Zhou Dynasty, there were 210 prefectures, 580 counties and 1124 counties. After the Chen Dynasty was pacified, the Sui Dynasty had 30 prefectures, 100 counties and 400 counties. Therefore, in the early Sui Dynasty, there were 241 prefectures, 680 counties and 1524 counties.

Basically, one state has five to six counties, but the county level is useless, and the official institutions are so swollen that the court is so embarrassed that even the salaries of officials cannot be paid at the end of the year.

In the third year of Kaihuang, Yang Jian decisively defeated the whole country and implemented a two-level administrative division system with prefectures and county leadership. After pacifying the Nanchen unification of the whole country in the ninth year of Kaihuang (589), Yang Jian implemented the two-level administrative division system at the prefectures and counties to the whole country. By Renshou, there were still nearly 2,000 local administrative units.

After Yang Yong ascended the throne, the court changed the prefectures to counties and abolished some prefectures and counties. In the fifth year of Daye, the county was 190 and counties were 1255. Compared with the Renshou period, one-fifth of counties was reduced and one-fifth of counties was reduced.

With so many administrative areas being removed, many officials who were dismissed naturally emerged. However, these officials were not without places to go. The Sui Dynasty was booming. The court set up Sili, fifteen governors, and supervisors in the county. The construction and management of the canal required a large number of officials. In addition, the great development of the textile industry added many officials to the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue. Unless they were a few officials who were really incapable, they basically obtained new official positions. After the merger of one-fifth of the local administrative areas, the total number of officials in Daye in the five years increased compared with the first year of Daye.

This is also impossible. For a court, the longer the peace period after the founding of the country, the more officials there will be, and even a large number of redundant officials will be generated in the later period. This is undoubtedly a model for the Song Dynasty, and in the Ming Dynasty, it was overcorrected. There were still a large number of official positions in the Wanli period. The court relied on local gentry all over the control of the local area. The people only had a lot of wealth, but the government's tax revenue was pitifully low. The tax increase could only fall on the poorest people, and was eventually overwhelmed by peasant uprisings and foreign invasions.

It is certainly not good to have too many officials, and too few officials will also cause problems. A balance point must be found. At present, the proportion of officials and citizens of the Sui Dynasty is still at an extremely low level. There is no need to worry about the increase in officials for the time being. The merger of local administrative areas is just to better implement the court's control over the local area. If it were not yet mature, it would be necessary for the county to set up a provincial level. In this way, although it is still back to the original local three-level administrative system, the proportion is much more reasonable than before, greatly reducing the duplication of institutions.

The new Daye Law has been promulgated in Daye for three years. Compared with the Kaihuang Law, it has increased from twelve to sixteen, which is more than before, including contracts, transportation, health and patents.

The first three items are easy to understand. Contracts are a good thing for merchants. Although there were house deeds, land deeds and other items in the past, merchants mostly rely on moral constraints for transactions, which are just verbal agreements. In addition to moral constraints, contracts clearly put the transaction content of both parties on paper. When they first came out, many merchants still did not have much interest in contracts according to their original practices. Later, after tasting the sweetness, the proportion of contracts signed in the transaction became higher and higher.

The effects of transportation and sanitation are also immediate. Since the two laws of transportation and sanitation, the travel and sanitation in the capital have been very good. At least there will be no more people riding horses on the streets, nor will they be full of feces from large livestock.

However, one patent was a bit confusing. Until a female weaving factory worker once again improved the textile construction and doubled the efficiency of weaving again. The Agricultural College spent 10,000 yuan to buy the patent. Other weaving factories had to pay patent fees before they could be used, some people suddenly realized that they also had a wave of patent application. After all, although they didn't know how much patent fees the Agricultural College would get from other weaving factories, the 10,000 yuan that the female worker received was enough to make most people jealous.

Until now, a patent office was set up under the Ministry of Works to receive patent applications. However, most of the patents applied for by people are destined to be granted because they apply for general-purpose things, and only some secret recipes or new and improved technologies will be patented. However, many craftsmen and Taoist priests who practice alchemy have passed the patents. After selling them, they have obtained a fortune.

The largest patent fee was born in March of the fourth year of Daye. A family surnamed Cao in the lower Jing County of Xuanzhou changed their ancestors to improve the white paper made by the Cai Lun of the Han Dynasty, Kong Dan, with a green sandalwood tree, to create rice paper far better than the previous paper. This paper is pure white and fine, with clear texture, not brittle for a long time, and will not fade. Later generations praised its paper for its lifetime and is particularly suitable for writing.

At that time, the national study trend was very strong. If it could be produced on a large scale, it would definitely bring wealth to the Cao family. Unfortunately, although the Cao family had been engaged in paper production for generations, the family's property was almost broken after making rice paper. They were unable to produce on a large scale. They were even more afraid that the secrets of paper would be leaked and they would be in vain. With a try, they took the samples to the patent office in the capital to apply.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the application was submitted, the patent was immediately approved, which alarmed the Agricultural College. The dean of the Agricultural College, Zou Wenteng, the former butler of the Eastern Palace, personally sent out and proposed to buy out the patent for rice paper production of 50,000 yuan. The Cao family was just a middle-class family. Since their ancestors started the paper product business, the property has never exceeded 500 yuan. Now they have been chasing all their property. The cost of going to Beijing is still tossing. When they heard that the Agricultural College wanted to buy the patent for 50,000 yuan, the owner of the Cao family was dizzy and almost agreed.

However, after all, Storekeeper Cao was born in business and had the shrewdness of a businessman in his bones, so he resisted the temptation. In the end, the Agricultural College produced rice paper with a patent fee of 50,000 yuan and an investment of no less than 50,000 yuan. The two families shared the patent, and the Cao family accounted for 20% of it. The Agricultural College won the patent.

After a year, Manager Cao couldn't help but admire that he was not knocked out by 50,000 coins at that time. As soon as the rice paper was launched, it caused a sensation and caused a rush to buy. Scholars were proud of using rice paper. Finally, this trend expanded to the court, and even the court memorials were all changed to rice paper. In that year, they made a profit of 50,000 coins. According to 20% of the members, the Cao family received a dividend of 10,000 coins.

Oh my God, this is only the first year. The more I buy, I will get more and more popular. The annual profit is more than 50,000,000, or 200,000. If calculated in fifty years, I am afraid that the wealth this patent will bring to the Cao family will be as huge as millions of coins.

Sometimes the Cao family has an idea that if they can monopolize, the profits will be more than tens of millions of yuan. However, Manager Cao can only think about it. Not to mention that he does not have startup capital, even if he has funds, if the profits are exclusively owned by the Cao family, it will cause many open and secret struggles. However, the Agricultural College is different. That is the emperor's inner treasury. Who dares to attack the emperor's inner treasury? Instead of being able to cause trouble at any time, it is better to steadily take 20% of the members. Moreover, the Cao family has been linked to the inner treasury since then. As long as they do not intend to rebel, they may be able to walk sideways in the local area.

The period of patents is fifty years like later generations. In fact, fifty years are too long. Many patents in later generations are less than ten years, and twenty years have long been outdated. Too long patents have hindered social progress. However, many developed countries in later generations like to use this to limit the development of underdeveloped countries. In Yang Yong's mind, the patent period of twenty to thirty years should be a suitable period. However, now due to the slow communication of transportation and information, there is nothing wrong with fifty years. Moreover, the Sui Dynasty will almost certainly be ahead of the world in the future, and the patent period is not related to a long patent period.

Over the past three years, the court's investment in government schools has also increased on a large scale every year. Daye's two years of money has been 100,000 guan and 200,000 guan is a big deal compared to before. By the fifth year of Daye, the money has increased rapidly to 800,000 guan and 1.6 million guan, an increase of eight times in three years, and doubled on average every year.

In order to encourage poor children to join the official school, the court not only does not charge any fees, but also provides strong support to the official students. Each student who enters the county school can receive a unified copper coins and four stones of rice every year, while each student who enters the county school can receive a unified 0,500-ciete or six stones of rice every year.

Whether it is a county student or a county student, this income is enough to support yourself. Of course, relying solely on this life will inevitably lead to poverty, and it also provides them with a certain way out. Most teachers come from official students with excellent grades in the past. The teachers' treatment is about 6 to 20 times that of students. In other words, the maximum annual income of teachers has reached twenty stadiums and forty stones of rice. Although it is not as good as the county magistrate, it is far higher than the income of yamen runners and ordinary imperial soldiers. The low income has also reached the level of ordinary yamen runners and can support a family.

Nowadays, the price of grain is getting lower and lower. The capital city only has 11 or 12 jin of rice. When the price of grain in the south is at its lowest, it has fallen to 70 or 8 jin per jin. A strong laborer has worked hard in a year, and he can only earn about fifty or sixty jin of grain in a year. Even if he doesn't eat or drink, his value is only four or five jin of coins. It is far worse than that of teachers, and children can get money and grain when they enter school. How can there be such a good thing?

In this case, it is necessary for those who are enrolled in the official school to have a blowout in the three years of Daya. The court immediately takes measures to restrict the enrollment of the student and adopts examination methods to admit them. Specifically, the local governments have quotas for official schools every year and stipulate the number of officials and students in each county and county before the examination is selected.

At the same time, the content of official teaching has been greatly changed, and arithmetic, physics, chemistry and other contents have been introduced. Most of the textbooks used in these contents were compiled by Yang Yong based on his own memory, among which Yang Yong's previous adoption of students such as Lu Mulin and others have also put a lot of effort into it.

Many things cannot be verified under the conditions at that time, and with memory errors, they naturally cannot avoid mistakes. However, there are also many simple and easy-to-understand things, but people have not summarized them and sorted them out. Many people feel a sudden realization after reading them once. They will not be too repulsive to some things that cannot be verified for the time being, but are just skeptical.

Of course, Yang Yong did not expect everyone to use these contents as truth immediately. If this is the case, even the most advanced knowledge would become stagnant. Yang Yong just opened a door to observe affairs for this era. It turned out that summarizing what he saw in normal times is so useful. As long as someone can follow this path, it will naturally have an increasing boost to society.

Basically, except for Confucian classics, the content taught by the official school is almost equivalent to the knowledge level of junior high schools in later generations, while the county school has some high school content. However, the knowledge system is not complete. After all, no matter how good Yang Yong remembers, he cannot remember everything he has learned before. He can only remember wherever he thinks.

In addition to county schools and county schools, the highest level is the seven colleges of the Imperial College, Imperial College, Four Schools, Calligraphy, Mathematics, Laws, and Medicine established in the capital.

During the Kaihuang period, the three studies were changed to six studies, the Imperial College, the Imperial College, and the four studies taught Confucian classics. As junior colleges, calligraphy, mathematics and law studies cultivated specialized talents. Yang Yong changed the six studies to seven studies, and independent medicine, which originally belonged to the Agricultural College, and established a specialized university. Except for medicine as a junior college, the first six schools were all considered comprehensive universities. Students not only had to learn Confucian classics, but also had selective learning in other disciplines.
Chapter completed!