The emperor told him that the land reform in Shunyi County would be stopped, which made Feng Quan finally breathe a sigh of relief. As the largest landowner in Zhuozhou, he was naturally disgusted by this radical approach to land reform.

What's more, the Feng family, as a big family in Shuntian Mansion, is also an official and wealthy family, and has many in-laws with the local gentry, which can be described as the gentry leader in the Beizhili area.

Jinyiwei's action to clean up the land that encroached on the Weisho in Shuntian Mansion naturally harmed the interests of these gentry, and as the leader of the local gentry, Feng Quan originally had the responsibility to raise objections to the imperial court.

It's just that when Feng Quan was attached to Wei Zhongxian and was on the rise, he offended too many people under high spirits, and now there are many enemies who are still officials in the court.

If he lives in seclusion in the countryside and doesn't ask about political affairs, these officials will not be able to shoot at him, which is also an unspoken rule of Ming officialdom.

But if he came forward to discuss the land reform on behalf of the local gentry, then the enemies of the DPRK and China would have found an opportunity to take revenge on him.

Moreover, land reform was the first political idea introduced by the new emperor after he ascended the throne, and Feng Quan dared to risk being disgusted by the new emperor to read this book.

After he feasted Xu Xianchun, he obtained enough information from the Jinyi Guard official. Although he did not find the way to remove the influence of the land reform for his fellow gentry, he seemed to have found a way to regain himself.

With a generous donation of 3,000 acres of land, he finally got this opportunity to meet the emperor.

He just wanted to gently persuade the emperor, hoping that Chongzhen would take his eyes off the land of the gentry and instead focus on the role of the gentry as pillars in the local area. Let the emperor not be too talkative when governing the country, and return to the road of governing the country with respect for etiquette as the core.

However, although Chongzhen partially agreed with him, he agreed that Jinyiwei's land reform in Shunyi was too rough. But Chongzhen didn't have any intention of changing the way he governed the country.

The emperor made no secret of his desire to limit the concentration of land in the hands of a few. The temporary halt to land reform does not mean that it will stop forever.

Feng Quan's heart suddenly became troubled, and he knew that the emperor might not be targeting him. But as the largest landlord in Zhuozhou, if he chooses to side with the emperor now, then he will obviously be prepared to accept the loss of reduced land in the future.

But if he remained silent on the Emperor's question, it was clear that his path to recovery would be extremely difficult.

Whether to keep his family business, or to win the favor of the emperor, and return to the center of power of the Ming Dynasty. For a moment, Feng Quan hesitated in his heart, and it was really difficult to choose between this issue.

Zhu Youzhen looked at Feng Quan, who was entangled with his hands on his chest, and suddenly said: "In fact, I have always felt that there are really more southern officials in this court.

Although these southerners talk about poetry and poetry, they are too shrewd and have no vision for governing the country.

Ye Qi changed the system in China, so that the Huai merchants replaced millet with silver, and the salt tax increased sharply to one million, but the shortage of grain storage began from this. It can be seen that the southerners only seek temporary benefits in governing the government, but have no vision to coordinate the overall situation.

Hebei is the foundation of Gyeonggi and an important place to defend the capital, but most of the officials who are from Hebei in the DPRK and China are the children of officials and eunuchs who are registered in the capital from other places. This is really contrary to Taizu's concept of governing the fundamentals and suppressing branches and leaves. ”

Feng Quan was stunned for a moment, and then he was overjoyed in his heart, and he said to the emperor tentatively: "Although the articles of the Nanren are splendid, they become ignorant when it comes to practice, and the Standing Committee members are too human.

The northerners are simple, although the article is slightly unpolished, but they are strict and serious. Since His Majesty came into power, he will bow down to everything, and always care about the people, and he will be the king of Yao and Shun in the future.

Your Majesty is a holy monarch, so it is natural to simply appoint talents. And the so-called virtuous people are naturally good at writing and acting, and they are called virtuous. ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at Feng Quan with a smile and said: "In addition to doing good things, at least he has to support the policies of the imperial court." Those who work against the policies of the imperial court will not be able to become a sage, do you say? Bachelor Feng. ”

Feng Quan lowered his head and secretly pondered for a while, before he unconsciously whispered: "If Your Majesty can take care of the scholars in the Gyeonggi region a little, there should not be many people who want to come and work against the imperial court's policies. ”

Zhu Youzhen was silent for a while before he spoke: "In fact, I have already given the care of the scholars in the Gyeonggi region by allocating the quota for the examination according to the provinces. If we continue to tilt towards the Gyeonggi region, I am afraid that the scholars in the south will be even more dissatisfied. ”

Feng Quan was speechless about this, of course he knew that Chongzhen was able to get the officials in the imperial court to agree to allocate half of the examination places according to the provinces, which was already a very remarkable achievement.

Because of this incident, many southern scholars felt very dissatisfied, but because of the support of northern officials and scholars, coupled with the strong determination of the emperor, these southern scholars finally compromised.

If the emperor continued to take care of the scholars in the Gyeonggi region, Feng Quan thought that he would also know that those southern scholars would probably not be so resigned.

Seeing that Feng Quan was silent, Zhu Youzhen continued: "But I have another idea, I don't know if Feng Bachelor is clear, according to the reform plan proposed by the cabinet, each county will add a deputy county, a finance director, and a county judge.

There are 1,427 counties in Daming, which means that more than 4,200 officials will be added, so many vacancies, it is obviously impossible to meet the needs of selecting talents by relying on the triennial examination.

Therefore, I plan that, in addition to the position of deputy county, which must be filled by a person from the imperial examination, the two positions of finance bureau chief and county judge will be given priority to professionals, what do you think? ”

Feng Quan asked with some confusion: "What is a professional?" ”

Zhu Youzhen spread his hands and said: "Any student who graduated from Yenching University is a professional. In addition, those who have served as primary school teachers for three years can be selected for university training, and after the completion of the training, they can also serve in these two public offices. ”

Feng Quan suddenly understood the emperor's hint, and in this way, the gentry who couldn't study at the children of the family finally had a safe way to enter the official career. There is no need to worry about falling from the gentry to the class of small landlords after a few generations do not produce the seeds of study, as before.

He thought for a while, and then asked cautiously: "Then Your Majesty, after graduating from Yenching University, can this only stop at the county level as a subordinate official?" ”

"Of course not, if you do a good job, you can naturally be promoted, but I don't think it should be as fast as the promotion of officials who are born in Jinshi."

Listening to the emperor's explanation, Feng Quan breathed a sigh of relief. As a leader of the gentry in the Gyeonggi area, he naturally hoped that the more gentry children in his hometown would enter the official career, the better. The emperor's intention to prop up officials from the Gyeonggi region against southern officials must have been a good thing.

As one of the few northern scholars who entered the official career when he was a teenager, he was often suppressed by southern officials in the Hanlin Academy, which was nothing more than the scarcity of the northern scholars in the Hanlin Academy, and this official career experience made him deeply resentful.

However, as a Hanlin who was born as a formal jinshi in the imperial examination, he naturally rejected miscellaneous officials who were not born in jinshi. After hearing Chongzhen's suggestion, his mood was embarrassed and joyful, and he felt a little at a loss.

Zhu Youzhen didn't care about Feng Quan's thoughts, he continued: "Southern scholars like to collude with each other the most, and if they have a little literary name in the countryside, they like to get relatives and friends to form parties and associations.

If the policies of the imperial court were not as they wanted, they would go around in tandem to set off a huge public opinion criticism. doesn't care about the decency of the court, and really doesn't know who is the master of the Ming Dynasty.

Although there are many gentry in the north, because the northern gentry are more scattered, and they all like to study hard at home, they are unwilling to connect with each other. Therefore, whenever something happens, the people of the world can only hear the voices of the southern scholars, and the northern scholars cannot hear the voices of the northern scholars except after being attached to the southern scholars.

I think that there can be no party among the officials of the DPRK and China, but the public opinion of the scholars or the gentry of the world cannot be unanimous.

Since there is a Donglin Party in the south, why can't the gentry in the north have their own party? In my opinion, the Gyeonggi gentry should first unite and express their own opinions on the policies of the imperial court. ”

Feng Quan's face changed slightly, and he felt a little uneasy in his heart. The emperor wanted him to form a group to compete with the Donglin Party for public opinion in Shilin, which was an extremely risky thing. Not to mention, he also has the label of eunuch on his body.

Seeing Feng Quan's hesitant appearance, Zhu Youzhen said meaningfully to him: "After Master Feng recovers, you can't follow others and make promises, right?" You have to have a group of supporters, so I can entrust you with this responsibility. ”

Feng Quan's hesitation disappeared suddenly, since the emperor was ready to reinstate him, then no matter what, he had to seize this opportunity.

"Your Majesty's entrustment, the minister is willing to encourage you to give it a try. In other places, it's hard to say about the ministers, but the gentry in the Hebei area, the ministers still know a few..."

Listening to Feng Quan's voice that finally became excited, Zhu Youzhen immediately nodded and said, "How to unite these gentry, I don't care." But I will give you a name to convene these gentry in the open.

Let me think about it, in this way, it will be called the Beizhili Squire Democratic Progressive Association. The purpose of the association is to promote the cultivation of cowpox among the people of Beizhili, establish public primary schools in various areas of Beizhili, establish the construction of farmland and water conservancy in Beizhili, and give feedback to the imperial court on the implementation of various new policies. ”

Feng Quan was thinking about what Chongzhen meant when he obtained the name of the association. Zhu Youzhen turned the topic back and said: "Since it is called the Democratic Progressive Association, then those bad gentry who have bad qualities and are traitors and criminals will naturally be excluded. ”

Feng Quan hurriedly replied: "This is natural, the minister will definitely carefully screen these gentry who have joined the association." ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at him, and then said casually: "There are no important vacancies in the court for the time being, after all, Master Feng has also been the first assistant of the cabinet, and I can't wronged you." I want you to temporarily serve as the chief writer of the Daming Times, and escort the public opinion for the policies issued by the imperial court, do you think it's okay? ”