Chapter 872: What is Public Opinion?

"In order to make it convenient for future generations to understand the splendid history of Chinese culture, the relevant annals adopt a new calendar, and do not use the era name as the text chronology. The new calendar is the result of years of research by the Institute of Astronomy of the Ming Academy of Sciences,......。 "A piece of news in Ming Pao would be a big rebellion if it was placed in the past. It's enough to catch and kill the head a hundred times. But now the cultural circle of the Ming Dynasty has really changed, and the study of astronomy in the past was a forbidden area for ordinary people. The greatest role of the Qin Tianjian department is not to study astronomy, but to prove that the emperor is ordered by heaven.

"In front of the wheel of the development of natural science, the hazy veil of all gods and gods will be lifted one day." The article concludes with a news story about the new calendar, which eventually leads to a tirade. What is the day? What is Destiny? Such a question is on the table, which was unimaginable in the past.

But in Nanjing, the birthplace of Ming Pao, countless young students climbed the Purple Mountain, saw the moon, and saw the vast universe. There is no Chang'e, no Jade Rabbit, and no Wu Gang on the moon. And the sun is just a drop in the ocean in the universe, what about the earth? It's a tiny planet next to the sun.

As a result, Daming once again triggered a national debate because of natural science, which has not subsided, and has erupted into a bigger wave. The root cause is Prime Minister Chen Xie's New Year's State of the Union Address, which will be held in the National Assembly.

The 636 members of the two houses of the country were present, and the mode of putting up a podium in front of the position of Speaker Gu Yanwu is now fully accustomed to it. The Prime Minister is accountable to the country, and who are the representatives of the country? Naturally, it was the congressman who was present. As for the emperor, now it is a symbol. No matter how much the emperor jumped, more and more people accepted this concept. The Emperor. Hehehe. At the mention of this word, many people just laugh. No one expected that Chen Xie had only been in the Ming Dynasty for 47 years, and the country had undergone such tremendous changes.

"At the moment of the rapid development of politics, economy and military in the Ming Dynasty, the current official selection system is no longer enough to meet the needs of national development. At present, Daming needs a variety of professionals to cope with the development at the same time. We also need new-style officials with more comprehensive knowledge and bolder ideas to supplement our ranks. As a result, the Cabinet Special Intelligence Diet passed a bill on the civil service selection system. Chen Xie on the podium, he still doesn't look old, ordinary people can't look at it at the age of sixty, this guy is sixty-seven or eighteen, standing there still like a person who is less than fifty years old. Fortunately, the officials and congressmen of the Ming Dynasty have become accustomed to all this, and Chen Xiang is talented and unusual. If you are not convinced, you can live like this?

In the most popular comment of the Ming Dynasty: "Chen Xiang is in good health, the blessing of the Ming Dynasty, and the cornerstone of the Ming Dynasty's 50 years of national peace and security." This is Chen Xie in the eyes of the Ming people, his every move, in addition to being repeatedly studied, also has a strong mystery. It is not illegal to study Chen Xie in the Ming Dynasty and publish the results in the newspaper, and it is also very popular with readers. Ordinary people love gossip, and it's interesting to have a short family of big people.

The civil service reform system, which has been in the making for a long time, is not something that happens overnight. In the beginning, under the banner of policy research, the Ministry of Education came forward to conduct research. The main direction is to focus on the current situation of the Ming Dynasty and put forward the problem that some officials' knowledge structure is unreasonable. Of course, the work of picking thorns is easy, but this kind of nationwide fault finding activity is not going well, why? Is there any resistance from the officials? This kind of thing is the same in any era. But the Ministry of Education said that this survey and research. It's all published in the internal journal "Current Affairs Summary", so don't worry too much.

Despite this, similar investigations still do not go well, and every possible obstruction is still going on, but it is unstoppable. At this time, the role of the provincial councils came out. If you are an official doing well or not, the provincial council has the power to supervise. Upon learning of such a study, the council took the initiative to come to the door to cooperate. How did the officials do that, what do they do, and so on.

After the publication of these research articles one after another, some conclusions were slowly summarized. After about five years of research, there are mountains of related articles. In the end, it was concluded that the existence of these problems is not the problem of officials, but the inadequacy of our education and selection system. How to make up for it? The civil service system is about to come out, and this kind of work has to be done slowly, and what we want is that it will come naturally. The civil service system is a dual-track system, and on the one hand, the imperial examinations of the past should be retained, which cannot be rushed. The greater role of the civil service system is to play a compensatory role, which is equivalent to opening a small door for those who have no hope of the imperial examination. There is also little resistance from the personnel department of the cabinet, and of course this is all the transition now. It is also the smooth transition, or improvement, that Chen Xie has been pursuing.

Of course, in many historical periods, the improvement will not bear fruit. This is a historical inevitability, and any kind of deep-rooted system that wants to be reformed will cause a strong backlash. This backlash may be a political struggle, but also a war. Japan is such a small country, the people's rule and restoration have been fought, and the Ming Dynasty is so big, how can it be safe?

The truth is this, but didn't Daming have an open Chen Xie? With one hand grasping the military, the other hand grasping the economy, both hands are hard, the combination of carrots and sticks, it is difficult for the internal rebound of the Ming Dynasty to make waves. In recent years, many officials in various places have made some trouble under the banner of the emperor, but they have been ruthlessly suppressed by the local garrison. There have been hundreds of similar incidents throughout the Ming Dynasty. But in the newspapers, you certainly don't see it. Freedom of speech is not unlimited. To put it mildly, it's okay to scold the cabinet in the newspapers, and it's okay to scold Chen Xie himself for being corrupt, but if you design the system he has made, there must be something.

Although no one will stand up and confront Chen Xie's voice in a fierce way, Chen Xie's every political reform will come up with sufficient reasons and evidence. Each time, the foreshadowing is done in the media before it is launched. The result of this is naturally inefficient, but the results of each reform are quite objective.

Policies are designed to solve problems, and they must be accepted by the majority, not imposed.

"The new civil service system may not be perfect, and the social elite is welcome. Urge further improvements. When Chen Xie said this, many people crooked their mouths. Now the people who dare to spray Chen Xie in the newspaper are some old guys. I can't live long, and I dare to say it. These people are all some clear streams from the past, and there are probably no traders in the family.

Chen Xie's reputation among the people is too high, it is worth mentioning. The first year of the full implementation of the compulsory education law has attracted various opposition. As a result, some literati were taken out by readers, and they were pointed at lightly when they walked on the street, and some aunts and aunts were directly served with rotten cabbage and rotten eggs.

The common people are the most realistic, during Chen Xie's administration, there was more time when there was meat in the pot, more time when the stomach could be full, children could go to school, and the landlord's rent was less. These are all very realistic things. The people of the Ming Dynasty now are not what they used to be, and they can fool around casually without saying a certain squire. Even in the poor countryside, every time there is a market, there will be people holding loudspeakers to promote various new imperial court policies.

"The peasants of the Ming Dynasty were very miserable, they did not have to work hard to ensure the food rations of the people of the world, and they also had to bear heavy taxes and forced labor. In the current social changes of the Ming Dynasty, the peasants have not been the direct beneficiaries of the country's political reform. This is not fair. Here, the Prime Minister solemnly appeals to all members of the National Assembly. Through the complete repeal of the forced labor law. In the future, the local government will need to use labor, and the local government will be notified by the local finance department in the form of wages. If it is a national highway trunk line, large-scale water conservancy project, etc., it will be solved by the state and the local government will contribute a part of the funds, rather than as in the past. Conscription. ”

At the beginning of the new year, a bombshell was thrown in the newspapers, Chen Xiang's speech to the National Assembly. There are two key contents, one is the reform of the civil service system, and the specific content is as follows: Anyone, as long as they are legal Ming citizens, over the age of 18, and have received eight years of national education, can register for the exam. This examination will play a role in selecting some minor officials. For example, what should I do if there is a certain yamen clerk in the county? The National Unified Examination will admit those with excellent results. Civil servants will start from the lowest level of the country, and will be promoted according to their performance, with no upper limit. What about the traditional imperial examination system? What to do? It's very simple, Jinshi can still be an official directly, starting from the county order. Lifting people and showing talents also have the qualifications of civil servants, and there is no need to take another examination.

This seems fair, but in fact it has caused a huge backlash from private readers. In Suzhou, where the literary style in the south of the Yangtze River flourished, traditional talents once again held a protest march against the unreasonable policy of the cabinet. As a result, the march sparked a large-scale brawl, and another group of scholars took to the streets to defend their rights. What began as a verbal altercation between the two sides turned into a massive group fight of thousands of people. The result was naturally the defeat of the traditional readers, for the simple reason that the number of people was too much to occupy. When the two sides fight, there are often boxers from the side of the road, all of whom help the new-style readers.

For example, the shopkeeper in a small shop on the side of the road is a graduate of a certain accounting school, or a customer who is drinking in a tavern is a graduate of a technical school. Most of these schools are run by the private sector themselves, but as long as the government recognizes the graduation certificates of these private schools, they are eligible to take the civil service examination. Jiangsu is a special place, compulsory education began at the earliest, from the three-year system to the current five-year system, there are many people who continue to study until they graduate from junior high school, even if they do not go to junior high school, they turn to study in various vocational schools.

In the past, the future of these people was doomed, to work in enterprises, or to study in higher schools (all kinds of military schools, all kinds of Gewu schools), these people either became soldiers or took the road of enterprises, and there was basically no chance to engage in politics. Now that the opportunity has come, how dare you oppose it? Who do you beat if you don't beat you?

On this day, the Suzhou police station and hospital were overcrowded, and more than 1,000 people were arrested, all of whom were scholars who participated in the brawl. What happened next, no one expected. Early the next morning, the common people of Suzhou spontaneously resisted the traditional meritorious people, and the small traders who did small business such as breakfast and car rush did not do their business, and posted a statement at the door of the store that "those with merit will not be accepted", and even the uncles and aunts in the vegetable market said that "even if the vegetables are rotten, they will not sell them to them".

Traditional scholars have always been the envy of the common people, and no one expected that such a drastic thing would happen overnight. All the people who are superior to others are frightened by this phenomenon. At this time, if the media doesn't keep up, it will be in vain to be a media person. For the sake of manuscript fees, many guys who are also from old fame, under the tip of the pen, make all kinds of ridicule of their own kind, and then reflect on them. A pen name named Nanshan Yinqiao wrote more than 3,000 words in a free manner, and finally let out a cry: What is public opinion? Take a look on the street, and you will know it by ranking officials.

A few days later, a newspaper reporter named Wu Zhirong was beaten to death by a group of masked men who put a sack on the road at night and beat him half to death with a stick. The social unrest caused by this incident spread throughout the country. Once again, there was a fierce controversy, because of the strict guard of the local police stations, and the local officials, in accordance with the spirit of the Cabinet directives, and on the basis of the letter of the law, all the organizers arrested any unapproved marches. This averted large-scale nationwide upheaval.

The Ming Dynasty in 1675, from spring to summer, can be said to be very lively, but many things are not subject to human will. The Cabinet sent a telegram to the whole country stating that the first national civil service examination would begin in the autumn of October and that the date was set for October 3. As soon as the news came out, the whole country was boiling, and there were all kinds of voices, but no one dared to stop it with drastic means. In September, in accordance with the spirit of the Cabinet and in line with the principle of governing the country according to law, the local court openly tried the case of illegal procession and assembly in Suzhou, and dealt with it quickly and strictly. Organizers of the march without permission, with serious casualties, eighteen students were exiled to North America, and thirty-seven were stripped of their reputations.

On the day when the court pronounced and executed the verdict, firecrackers rang out in Suzhou City, and the city was full of fireworks. "Su Bao" said: This is the victory of ordinary people, this is the victory of public opinion. "Ming Pao" said: No one can challenge national laws and regulations under any pretext. Otherwise, it will be severely punished. Also known as: The Ming Dynasty has entered the era of rule of law, and traditional scholars often use public opinion as an excuse to gather crowds to make trouble, and the history of blackmailing the local area is gone! (To be continued......)