C189. Extra 2.

Chapter 189. Extra 2

In the early morning, the people gathered excitedly with their children in front of the government office.

It was now November, and the weather in Luoyang was still chilly. The people were all dressed warmly, hands tucked inside their sleeves, their faces flushed red as they chatted and laughed.

The children, of various ages, were also bundled up in layers, their foreheads covered in a thin layer of sweat.

"I wonder when it will snow this year," a few farmers chatted, "Hopefully, a snowfall will bring a bountiful year."

"Yesterday the official read from the newspaper about something called... weather forecast? It seems to have mentioned that there will be no snow for the next seven days," one remarked.

Mentioning the newspaper drew more people into the conversation, and everyone gathered in small groups, discussing the newspaper with enthusiasm.

This newspaper was the "Da Wen Guo Bao," a publication that the emperor introduced last year, with weekly coverage of events from around the kingdom.

From court decrees to small acts of honesty like returning found money to the authorities, the newspaper covered a wide range of topics.

The "Da Wen Guo Bao" became immensely popular, with the people eagerly discussing it, broadening their horizons. Although the common people couldn't read, it didn't matter.

The emperor commanded officials to read the newspaper's content to the people at fixed times every seven days. Over time, as the people listened to the readings, they unknowingly learned more, understanding laws and morals.

Not only did the common people enjoy reading the "Da Wen Guo Bao," but even the officials and ministers in the court wouldn't miss an issue. The range covered by the newspaper was vast, only the emperor's Grain Department could match.

Liu Jixin once marveled at how this was truly observing the world from home. The reason the common people were waiting in front of the government office early in the morning was because the newspaper had announced that the government would begin counting the population from that day.

Families with registered population details, and children of suitable age, could enroll in the official schools. Initially, the census was to be conducted by officials visiting homes.

However, upon hearing the good news in the newspaper yesterday, the common people couldn't wait for the officials and took the initiative to register at the government office with their families.

When they talked about this, they couldn't help but feel joy, "Who would've thought our children would have the opportunity to go to school and learn to read. I'm already so old, and it was only in the past couple of years that I learned how to write numbers, let alone other characters!"

"Indeed," others agreed, "It's fortunate that these children were born at such a time, where they've never truly gone hungry from childhood to adulthood, and now they can receive an education. It's much better than before!"

A group of people nodded in agreement, feeling deeply moved.

"It's all thanks to the emperor caring for us," someone remarked, "Just five years have passed, and we can now eat and drink our fill. My wife became pregnant a few months ago, and if it was five or six years ago, we wouldn't have had enough food to raise a child, so we wouldn't have dared to have one. Now we can comfortably welcome a new addition. Our neighbors have even added three children in these past five years!"

This revelation sparked more excitement, with everyone eagerly discussing the increase in their grain harvest over the years. They were truly grateful to the emperor, as in just five short years, they had already forgotten about the previous Northern Zhou dynasty, fully embracing themselves as people of "Great Wen."

Except for a few scholars, the traces left by the Northern Zhou dynasty over three hundred years were rapidly fading away. The more they talked, the happier they became, even whispering about the auspicious scene of dragons and phoenixes hovering over Luoyang City in the past.

On the side, a bored child tugged on his father's sleeve and asked, "Dad, what is going to school?"

The father lifted him up, wiped his nose, and replied, "Going to school is a good thing; it's about learning to read and write."

The child, still puzzled, asked, "What can I do after reading a book?"

The father, equally unsure, gave him a stern look and said, "Why ask so many questions? It's a good thing, so make sure you study well!"

Nearby, an old man with missing teeth leaned on a cane as he approached, gently touching the child's face and saying, "Studying well is a good thing, a great thing..."

The child obediently responded. Unnoticed by anyone, a group of people stood across from the government office, watching them.

Yuan Li and Chu Hechao, dressed in plain clothes, observed quietly the commotion among the people, noticing their clothing and rosy faces, prompting a smile from Yuan Li.

Chu Hechao, with his hands behind his back, also looked at the people with a grin, "Ultimately, you haven't let down your efforts in the past five years."

"Indeed," Yuan Li was content, feeling that all the hard work over the past five years had paid off, "It wasn't in vain for me to struggle for so long."

At the beginning of the new dynasty, it was the most vibrant, especially after the turmoil when the various feudal lords were at odds, the entrenched aristocratic families in places like Youzhou, Bingzhou, Xuzhou, and Luoyang were completely uprooted due to the White Rice Rebellion and military disasters.

The scholar-nobles suffered heavy blows and were far from as powerful as during the Northern Zhou era. Following the Prince Chen's catastrophic defeat, the scholar-nobles in Jiangdong who supported him were also severely weakened, losing the ability to contend with Yuan Li.

Since coming into power, Yuan Li had been dealing with these entrenched aristocratic families that had existed for hundreds or thousands of years. The scholar class monopolized learning, and thereby power, with the continuity of an aristocratic family even more stable than the throne and dynasties.

Yuan Li knew well that to give the common people a chance to rise up, he needed to accomplish two things.

Firstly, to establish government schools and educate the people to broaden their minds. Turning the cultural resources controlled by the aristocratic families into resources for all citizens, providing opportunities for the people to learn; and secondly, to implement the imperial examination system to fairly select talents, replacing the previous method of recommendation.

Yuan Li also understood that to truly suppress the aristocratic families, more was needed. Like in later times, revealing the student records and punctuation symbols and then implementing them one by one.

Only students who studied in government schools would have student records; only those with student records could participate in the imperial examinations and become officials, truly putting offspring of scholar officials and those from humble families on an equal footing, forcing the aristocrats to also send their children to government schools for learning and eliminating private tutoring by aristocratic families.

Implementing punctuation marks would correct the interpretation of books and ensure uniform answers, making it easier for less privileged students lacking the ability to afford private teachers to learn knowledge, and breaking the monopoly of various aristocratic families on classical texts and culture.

Both of these points deeply encroached on the interests of the aristocratic families.

Having a student record to participate in the imperial examinations meant that the previous resources accumulated by the aristocrats were all in vain, and they even had to compete with children from humble backgrounds.

Implementing punctuation marks also meant that the aristocratic families could no longer use correct punctuation and interpretations of texts to attract students and no longer create the former situation of "one family, millions of students across the world."

What's more, Yuan Li required them to provide the books they taught their offspring and passed down for generations. - Share those books for everyone to learn from.

How could this be possible?!

The aristocratic families hesitated without starting to resist.

Their resistance was within Yuan Li's expectations, but the Emperor, who held tens of thousands of troops in his hands, was not as weak as the former Emperor of the Northern Zhou. The resistance of the aristocratic families was fierce, but within three years, Yuan Li completely suppressed it with force.

After subduing the aristocratic families, Yuan Li quickly convened prominent scholars and forcefully made them come up with a punctuation system for their schools of thought.

They collectively discussed how to use punctuation marks to add them to all existing books throughout history. Taking advantage of the era's papermaking and printing techniques, these books were quickly printed and distributed to prepare for the establishment of official schools.

Yuan Li distributed all the lands and estates taken from the powerful families among the common people. These measures led to a population boom in the first five years of the Great Wen Dynasty.

Therefore, Yuan Li ordered a re-count of the population. This was the first census in the Great Een Dynasty. As soon as the Emperor's order was issued, various agencies began operations to quickly notify all the counties and prefectures in the thirteen states.

The census had to be conducted because the number of registered citizens represented how much tax revenue the court could collect.

Despite making a fortune from fine salt, white sugar, soap, and livestock, tax revenue remained a major source of the country's economy. Most importantly, registering everyone's information in the census was crucial for maintaining long-term stability.

Furthermore, a significant portion of the common people were considered "blacklisted population" by the authorities. These "blacklisted" individuals were formerly part of the retinues, tenant farmers, or servants of the aristocratic families and powerful landlords.

When Yuan Song was a county magistrate, he had over a thousand retinue members, so one can imagine how many liberated "blacklisted" citizens there now were.

Today was the first day of the population census, and Yuan Li purposely went out of the palace with Chu Hechao to observe discreetly. After the common people began registering for the census, Yuan Li and Chu Hechao quietly left.

They did not rush back to the palace but strolled leisurely along the way, eventually arriving at a weaving workshop.

Outside the workshop, women were coming and going, carrying clothes or wearing aprons. These women ranged from young to old, walking in pairs, chatting and laughing with relaxed expressions.

There were soldiers guarding the workshop to prevent unauthorized entry. Yuan Li and Chu Hechao were fortunate to witness a young girl blushing as she ran over to a soldier and handed him a sachet amidst her friends' teasing.

The soldier, perplexed, hesitated to pick it up due to military protocol, his face turning red with embarrassment.

Yuan Li chuckled at the sight. He was grateful he had transmigrated to an era where the persecution and restrictions on women were not as severe as in later times.

Judging by the timeline, both the Northern Zhou and Great Wen Dynasties were before the Tang Dynasty that Yuan Li knew. Widows in the Northern Zhou period could remarry freely, and there were even officials urging them to do so.

In the Great Wen Dynasty, women's restrictions were presumably even less stringent.

First, it was the female workers, followed by the schools for girls' education. Yuan Li was not in a hurry; he could gradually achieve his goals over ten, twenty, or thirty years.

They walked past the weaving workshop and headed towards the lakeside. Several people were already enjoying the beautiful morning scenery by the lake, but Yuan Li and Chu Hechao quietly made their way to the bridge without disturbing anyone.

The flowing water murmured softly as the cold wind on the bridge enveloped them with a chill. It was quite cold. Apart from them, nobody else came to the bridge to enjoy the cold wind and the view.

With his hands leaning on the bridge, Yuan Li breathed in the brisk morning air as he cast his gaze into the distance. It seemed as if he could overlook the lakeside scholars' leisurely strides, the playful children in the streets, and the smoke rising from the homes in Luoyang city.

The common people who had completed their registration hurried back, some carrying children, while others rushed frantically into the public toilets.

Suddenly, a fierce woman nearby shouted angrily, "Ox surname, the fire in the kitchen is about to go out!"

Time passed slowly; the leafless willow branches swayed in the wind, causing ripples on the river's surface.

Eventually, Yuan Li casually shifted his gaze back from the distance and turned to look at the person beside him. He met Chu Hechao's eyes, which had been fixed on him all this time.

Yuan Li couldn't help but smile and reached out to gently caress Chu Hechao's face — from his arched eyebrows down to the corner of his eyes and nose. Yuan Li's eyes sparkled; he was not young anymore, but his eyes still exuded the warm and determined glow of his youth, lively and captivating.

"Have you been staring at me all this time?" Yuan Li asked playfully, as he extended his hand, lightly brushing Chu Hechao's face.

Chu Hechao held his hand and kissed the palm, saying, "You're handsome."

Yuan Li's smile widened as he teasingly remarked, "Haven't you had enough of looking at me all these years?"

A gust of cold wind blew, prompting Chu Hechao to protect Yuan Li against it, using his back as a shield. "I could never get tired of looking at you for a lifetime..."

As the breeze tousled Yuan Li's temples, his hair flew back with the wind and the words, seemingly cutting through the lake waters, the crowd, and transcending time and coldness, all the way up to the serene daylight above.