I

  Chapter 191 189 [Out of the boudoir]

  Fei Chun has been really busy these days. From last winter to the spring plowing season, he didn't even have a good rest during the Chinese New Year.

   Moreover, he didn't know when his parents would come. He was busy with work and forgot that his parents' character would cause trouble.

  On the way home, Ling babbled all the way, complaining that her son had become a high-ranking official, yet he didn't even have a sedan chair.

  Fei Chun sighed helplessly, called his husband on the side of the road, called two sedan chairs, and asked his parents to go home on a sliding pole.

  Many great Confucians in ancient and modern times opposed such things as sedan chairs, thinking that people were treated like cattle and horses.

   Zhao Han, who advocates equality for all, allows the existence of sedan chairs and sliding poles. He even created an industry that allows unemployed vagrants to register with the government, and only need to pay a small fee to carry passengers with sliders to make money.

   can be understood as a rickshaw or a taxi.

  It can not only generate income for the government, but also alleviate urban employment.

   Fei Lin and Ling's couple lived for decades, and this was the first time someone carried them away, and they immediately felt better.

  Ling said: "Chun'er, call for another palanquin, how can you go back as an official? Don't be too shabby and be looked down upon by others."

Fei Chun had no choice but to explain: "Mother, if there is no need, Brother Han can also walk by himself. Brother Han has many rules, no slaves are allowed in the house, and no servants are allowed to be abused. Also, you don't want to make troubles by making publicity in the future. The first time I was only fined, and if I commit another crime, the crime will be increased! If someone comes to the house to ask for a gift, no matter how much the gift is, they cannot accept it, otherwise I will not know when I will be beheaded."

  Behead?

  Ling Shi was suddenly too frightened to speak.

  Fei Lin asked: "You and Brother Han are very good, and you will be beheaded if you take some money?"

  Fei Chun said: "If you are greedy, you will be punished and demoted. If you are greedy, you will go to the mountains to dig mines. If you are greedy, you will be beheaded! It doesn't matter which one you choose."

  Fei Lin muttered: "This is not okay, that is not okay, it is not okay to raise a maid, why are you rebelling?"

   Couldn't explain clearly for a while, Fei Chun could only say: "Father, mother, you just need to remember that if you accept gifts indiscriminately, your son's official position will not be guaranteed, and his head will be easily moved."

  The couple were really frightened, and they didn't even dare to talk nonsense anymore.

  Back home, Fei Chunzi explained the rules in detail, what must be paid attention to and what cannot be violated, and took out five taels of silver to buy clothes for his parents.

  Ling asked: "Chun'er, what is your current salary?"

   "The monthly salary is twelve liang." Fei Chun replied.

  Fei Lin complained: "This brother Han is really stingy. The big shopkeeper of Fei's Trading Company has a monthly salary of ten taels, and he can even share dividends at the end of the year."

  Fei Chun sighed: "The official salary is already very high, I wish it could be lowered."

  Why?

  Because Fei Chun is in charge of money and food, he has been burned to the ground.

   Zhao Han paid high salaries to officials. Fei Chun's monthly salary of 12 taels of silver, if converted according to the grain price of Ji'an Prefecture, was equivalent to that of a fourth-rank official in the Ming Dynasty.

  Of course, grain prices fluctuate. Ji’an Prefecture has had a bumper harvest in the past two years, and grain prices are relatively low.

  If there is a catastrophe, Fei Chun's salary may directly drop from the fourth rank to the sixth rank compared with the Ming officials.

  In addition, there are charcoal fire subsidies in winter, and paper and ink subsidies for officials above the county magistrate.

  No matter what, as long as there is no extravagance and waste, it is no problem for Fei Chun to support the whole family with his salary, and he can also hire a few servants to do housework-if there are a lot of servants, they will definitely not be able to afford it.

  Compared with the Ming Dynasty, not only the salaries of officials have been increased, but the wages of officials have also generally increased.

  This is also the reason why Fei Chun keeps complaining, saying that he can't afford to support so many officials, and keeps asking for the reduction of township yamen.

   To support so many officials, you have to give money!

  When Zhu Yuanzhang started his business, even at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, he could not afford the salaries of officials. So a temporary policy was formulated. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there were many barren fields, and the land was directly given to officials to open up wasteland, and the harvested grains were used as salaries.

  Pang Chunlai, Fei Ruhe, Fei Chun and others all hope to return to Qianshan County as soon as possible.

  Because they know that there are open-pit copper mines in Lead Mountain County!

   During the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, the largest coinage center in the country was called "Yongpingjian", and its address was Yongping Town, Qianshan County, where copper mines had been mined since the Western Han Dynasty.

  In addition, Yongpingjian’s coin casting raw materials come from Qianshanchang (Yongping Town) and Dexingchang (Dexing County).

  The Dexing Copper Mine, after more than a thousand years of mining, is still the largest open-pit copper mine in Asia!

   Zhu Yuanzhang's earliest minting institution was Jiangxi Baoquan Bureau, and the minting address was located in Yongping Town, Qianshan. Due to over-exploitation of the Yongping Copper Mine, and the fact that the Dexing Copper Mine was too far away and located in the mountains, it gradually stopped making coins from the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and it was not mined again until the founding of New China.

  As long as Zhao Han occupies Qianshan County and Dexing County, there will definitely be no shortage of raw materials for casting copper coins.

   There are even large-scale well salt mines in Jiangxi, but unfortunately they are buried too deep and require modern exploration technology to discover them. As a result, Jiangxi was unable to produce salt by itself in ancient times.

  …

  On the fifth day of staying in Ji'an Mansion, Zhao Zhenfang happily went to find Fei Rumei with her schoolbag on her back, and the two girls went to the northern suburbs of the city to go to school together.

  Decades ago, because Bailuzhou Academy was destroyed by floods, the school moved to Renshou Temple in the south of the city. The site of Renshou Temple was changed to Luling County School, and Bailuzhou Academy moved to the northern suburbs of the city. After Bailuzhou Academy was rebuilt, the school in the northern suburbs of the city was changed to a private school, and now it is a girls' school.

  Zhao Han popularized four-year compulsory education, requiring girls to also go to school, which made the gentry quite dissatisfied.

  Although they are only children, men and women cannot give or receive each other.

   Moreover, compulsory education is too nonsense, the teaching content is superficial, and the quality of teachers varies. Especially in many rural schools, the teachers turned out to be children, who were not good enough in the Four Books and Five Classics, and could only teach students to read and learn arithmetic.

   So some gentry requested that they raise their own funds to set up a girls' school without paying a penny from the government.

   This kind of good thing, Zhao Han naturally agreed, there is only one request, to delete part of the "Four Books for Women"!

  For example, the first chapter of "The Commandments of Women" was changed beyond recognition by Zhao Han.

  "Humble Piece" was changed to "Kun De Pian", and the **** sentence "showing that she is humble and weak is also the master's servant" was changed to "the virtue of being a wife, and the right way to manage the family". Give birth to daughters and teach them under the bed, and give birth to sons under the bed to teach them. All such respectable things are deleted! Nongzhang and Nongwa are also all deleted!

  Zhao Han directly wrote a preface to "The Commandments for Women", writing:

  "The prosperity of a country depends on its people, and the prosperity of a family depends on its people. If you want to build a country, you must first establish the people. If you want to build the people, you must promote education. As a mother, the beginning of education must be observed..."

  The gentry had no choice but to let their daughters read the new version of "The Commandments for Women" at school, and then learn the old version of "The Commandments for Women" after returning home.

  Yingchun and Dongfu have regained their freedom, but they still work as maids at Lou's.

  They led the two little girls to Chengbei Girls' School to enroll.

   Along the way, Zhao Zhenfang and Fei Rumei chattered, and found everything new and strange, mainly because they were full of fantasies about going to school.

  Yingchun said to Dongfu in a low voice: "Will you go to get married on March 3rd?"

   "I'm not going, I'm so ashamed." Dong Fu said with a blushing face.

   Yingchun smiled and said: "I'm going to have a look. I'm already twenty-three, one year older than you. If I don't get married again, I won't be able to get married."

  Dong Fu joked: "You just want a man."

"If you want a man, you want a man," Yingchun said with a smile on her face. "Even if you stay in Qianshan, you should be in your husband's house. If you come to Brother Han, you don't have to be a house slave. You can find an officer to marry, and maybe you can have a son." Being able to be an official. Such a good thing, I never dreamed of it before."

  Dong Fu was quite moved, but said firmly: "I don't want to marry, my wife treats me well, and I will serve my wife all my life."

  After walking all the way, Dong Fu suddenly asked: "What is marriage?"

"Haven't you heard?" Yingchun explained, "every March 3rd, soldiers have a holiday, and those who are not married will be organized by the mission officer. Unmarried women can sign up to participate, even widows Let the daughter's family choose the one they like first, and if the man is willing, they can go to the suburbs for a group outing. If you don't regret it when you come back from the outing, the marriage will be considered a success."

  Dong Fu blushed and said, "Ah, that's really embarrassing. Unmarried men and women go out for an outing, don't they care about the suspicion of men and women?"

  Yingchun smiled and said, "It's not that I want you to have a private tryst. There were a lot of people outing together that day."

   "Who did you hear about this?" Dong Fu asked curiously.

Yingchun said: "As told by the maid named Yang Cai in Young Master He's courtyard. She said that she didn't have the nerve to sign up last year, so another maid signed up and married a young officer. That officer has been studying for a few years. Well, I quit my job after I got married, and my in-laws paid me a sum of money for breach of contract, and I heard that I'm about to have a baby now."

   "The soldier must be a high-ranking official, and he can afford to pay even the money for breaking the contract." Dong Fu said.

  Yingchun smiled and said, "I have made great contributions, and I will reward you with silver."

   "It's really a blessing." Dong Fu was a little envious.

   "Are you going?" Yingchun asked.

  Dong Fu bit his lip and said: "It's okay to go and have a look, but I won't quit my job. I can ask my wife to change my contract, come to work early every day, and go home at night to live my own life."

   Yingchun joked: "I also said that I don't want to go, and I have even thought about the life after marriage."

  Dong Fu was too ashamed to speak, but just walked forward.

   In Zhao Han's territory, there is no need to worry about the law and order. Thieves and beggars are prohibited. These are all labor forces, and they cannot be idled and wasted. The three weapons institutes can absorb a lot, and there is a lot of rough work without any technical content.

   Before arriving at school, Zhao Zhenfang met a female classmate on the way. I don't know which family the young lady is, escorted by two servants, one male and one female.

  There is a plaque at the gate of the girls' school. Zhao Zhenfang looked up and saw the four characters "Saomei College".

   "What does eyebrow sweeping mean?" Fei Rumei was a little confused.

  Zhao Zhenfang smiled and said: "Have you forgotten? The girls' school books by the Wanli Bridge, and the loquat flowers live behind closed doors. How much does a man who sweeps eyebrows know, but it is better to lead the spring breeze. We have learned this poem, and a man who sweeps eyebrows is a talented woman."

  Fei Rumei recalled immediately, and exclaimed: "Oh, this allusion comes from Xue Tao, Xue Tao is a happy woman."

   "My second brother abolished his music registration." Zhao Zhenfang pointed to the plaque and said.

  Fei Rumei took a closer look and found that the words "Saomei Academy" were inscribed by Zhao Han himself.

  Both male and female servants were blocked at the school gate. Yingchun and Dongfu came to sign up their children, and they were specially allowed to enter.

  It is quiet and quiet inside, and female students can be seen occasionally.

  Even the teacher is a woman from a wealthy family, and there is no male creature in the whole school.

   "Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr..."

   A string of silver bell-like laughter came, and Zhao Zhenfang walked through the corridor to look, but it was a few female students kicking shuttlecock.

  Fei Rumei said happily: "I like this place, there are many playmates to play with."

  Zhao Zhenfang said with a smile: "It's very lively, much more interesting than staying at home."

  Zhao Han does not shout the slogan of equality between men and women now, but just tries to do something to let women out of the boudoir.

  (end of this chapter)