Chapter 127 What a terrible scheme!

In the Ming Dynasty, ten people formed a flag, and the so-called small flag was the captain of a team of ten people.

Ou Zanghua originally had 2,100 people, plus the newly recruited 4,000 people, a total of 6,100 people, with 610 small flags.

However, most of the small flags are transferred from veterans, and a small number are new recruits who rely on their social skills to become small flags.

Originally, no one took Xiaoqi, a small official, seriously. After all, he had to manage people, and if he didn't do a good job he would be scolded by his superiors. It was really not worth it just to earn a little extra money every month.

On this day, many small flag officers led their respective teams to complete a day's training as usual. When they were about to go back to rest, they suddenly received orders from their superiors, requiring them to go to the training ground immediately.

Many soldiers looked at Xiaoqi with pity, and they were all guessing in their hearts that the big brother of their team was going to be scolded again.

Even many of the small flags themselves felt that they might be scolded, so they lowered their heads and came to the training ground.

Then, they saw that there was a small podium on one side of the parade ground, and Lord Ou Zanghua, editor of the Hanlin Academy and deputy envoy of Jiangxi Province, was sitting on it.

When the flag bearers saw that it was Ou Zanghua, they immediately knelt down and kowtowed, shouting in unison: "Your humble servants pay their respects to Lord Ou!"

"Please don't be polite, there are not enough seats. We have to ask you to sit on the floor." Ou Zanghua used his strong internal strength to spread his voice.

So in the eyes of the little flags, although Ou Zanghua's voice is not loud, he can accurately deliver the sound to everyone's ears.

It's amazing!

"Thank you, Lord Ou!" The small flags sat down without hesitation.

"I called you all together today to confirm some things." Seeing this, Ou Zanghua asked gently, "Are there any of you who understand the Great Ming Code? Those who do, please raise your hands."

As a result, out of more than 600 people in the audience, only a very small number of management officers raised their hands.

Although Ou Zanghua was mentally prepared, he couldn't help but feel a little emotional when he saw that only 2% of the people understood the "Great Ming Law".

He slowly said, "The Great Ming Code is a set of laws and regulations formulated by our Emperor Taizu based on the experience and lessons learned from the implementation of laws throughout the dynasties. It is divided into thirty volumes."

"There is a volume of famous examples in the chapters, which includes the five punishments: flogging, caning, imprisonment, exile, and death."

"The ten evils are treason, high treason, conspiracy, evil treason, great evil, great disrespect, unfilial piety, discord, injustice, and civil strife."

"Eight discussions: discussion of relatives, discussion of old acquaintances, discussion of merits, discussion of virtues, discussion of abilities, discussion of diligence, discussion of nobility, and discussion of guests."

"There are also two volumes of civil code, seven volumes of household code, two volumes of ritual code, five volumes of military code, eleven volumes of criminal code, and two volumes of labor code, a total of 640 articles."

"I have gathered you all here today so that you can become familiar with the Great Ming Code. If you run into trouble in the future, you will at least know where you went wrong, rather than being sentenced for no apparent reason."

When these words were spoken, many people at the scene showed joy, but some people were a little confused.

Ou Zanghua noticed the expressions of these people and asked, "Please raise your hands if you can read."

The next moment, only one-fifth of the 610 flags raised their hands, less than 200 people.

Ou Zanghua was a little surprised. You know, in the eighth year of Hongwu, the imperial court ordered all places to establish community schools and hire Confucian teachers to teach children from the people.

In the first year of the Zhengtong reign, the imperial court ordered the educational officials and prefecture and county officials to support and supervise community schools. Those with good character and academic performance in community schools could be directly admitted as scholars without taking an examination.

In the 15th year of the Hongzhi reign, the emperor again ordered all prefectures, counties and districts to establish community schools, and stipulated that children under the age of should be sent to community schools.

In the early years of Chenghua, a fierce man emerged, Yang Jizong, who was promoted to the prefect of Jiaxing. He established community schools. If a boy from the folks did not go to school at the age of eight, his fathers and brothers would be punished.

From this we can see that the Ming Dynasty attached great importance to education.

At the same time, due to the rise of community schools, the literacy rate among the people was greatly improved, which enabled Ming novels to become a peak in the history of Chinese culture, thus forming the pattern of Han Fu, Tang poetry, Song Ci, Yuan Qu, and Ming novels.

However, in this situation, there were still so many illiterate people, which was really a slap in the face to the imperial court.

"Since there is a community school, why don't you go there to study during the slack season?" Ou Zanghua had no choice but to ask.

A flag raised his hand, and after being recognized, he stood up and said, "Master Ou, it's not that I don't want to go, but the president has stipulated that a fee should be collected. If there is no money, chicken, rice, wine and food can be used instead. My family is poor and I can't afford it, so I didn't go."

Regardless of whether they had attended community schools or not, the flag bearers all nodded, obviously they had all encountered this kind of thing. But community schools are free and are one of the benefits of the court.

Another flagman stood up and said, "Sir Ou, even though we paid the tuition, the teacher didn't teach seriously and didn't care whether we understood or not. After more than ten days of classes, my mother asked me how many characters I knew. I said I only knew four or five, and then my father hung me up and beat me. I almost lost half my life."

As soon as these words were spoken, there was immediate laughter.

Ou Zanghua also suppressed the corners of his mouth, feeling a little emotional in his heart. It was a good policy, but it was a pity that it was ruined by the people below!

He raised his hand and pressed it, and the six hundred people at the scene slowly quieted down.

Ou Zanghua said, "I remember that the content taught in society is the "Book of Filial Piety", "Elementary Learning", "The Analects of Confucius", the Imperial Edict, classics, history, calendar and so on. What we want to learn is the "Great Ming Code", so if I teach this knowledge again, it will be a waste of everyone's time."

"So, I can only teach you how to read quickly."

"The Three Character Classic is one of the most easy-to-understand books. It was written by Wang Yinglin, an educator in the Southern Song Dynasty. It has a total of 1,145 characters. I will spend one hour every day teaching you 90 characters, and you will be tested after thirteen days."

"One thousand one hundred and forty-five characters. If you make ten mistakes, you will be punished by running ten laps. If you make twenty mistakes, your reward for this month will be cancelled. If you make thirty mistakes, you will be punished by ten strokes of the cane."

At this time, a silly little flag raised his hand and asked, "May I ask Sir Ou, what should I do if I make a mistake in fifty words?"

"Cancel the flag and become a soldier."

After hearing Ou Zanghua's answer, many people breathed a sigh of relief. It didn't matter whether this small flag was held or not.

But Ou Zanghua said, "And it's not right that his descendants are not allowed to go to school. Such a fool probably won't have any descendants. After all, we are all from the same village. If we go back and tell everyone in the town, everyone will know that he is a fool and they will definitely not marry their daughters to him."

As soon as these words came out, everyone immediately became alert, and some of the brave ones even shouted loudly: "Master Ou, please teach us how to read!"

Seeing this, Ou Zanghua didn't care whether it offended people or not. Instead, he smiled and nodded, and began to teach this group of people to read and understand.

A few days later, Wang Chenger from Huangjiadun, Yaoyuan County, was stunned when he heard the news brought back by his subordinates.

He looked at the brothers and asked, "What does that boy mean? Why does he come here to teach people how to read?"

The brothers also looked confused. They had never seen such an operation before.

Yin Yongshi suggested: "Why don't we launch a surprise attack while they are studying? We will definitely beat them to a pulp!"

After hearing this, Hong Ruiqi's eyes lit up and he said excitedly: "Brother, this is a good idea, you can do it!"

"What the hell can you do!"

Wang Chenger glared at the two idiots, then pointed at the flag outside and said, "What am I shouting when I raise the flag? Acting on behalf of heaven, upholding justice! They are teaching people to read and write, and building water conservancy projects. If we attack them, won't that destroy our own reputation?!"

"Brother, what you said makes sense. The main reason why we can gain the support of our fellow villagers now is that we stand up for the weak and the weak." Wang Haoba suddenly had an idea and shouted, "I understand!"

Yin Yongshi and Hong Ruiqi's hearts almost jumped out of their chests at their second brother's shout, and they all looked at him.

Wang Chenger also asked, "What did you understand, brother?"

Wang Haoba stood up and said excitedly, "Ou Zanghua did it on purpose! He knows that the most important thing for us is this signboard of upholding justice and upholding justice. It is because of this signboard that the folks are willing to believe in us and support us!"

"So he didn't beat us, but instead did good things in the county, first building new water conservancy projects, and then teaching people to read and write, all in order to establish the impression of a good official among the people."

"If we can't help but beat him, the villagers will stand on his side. If we don't beat him, he will slowly move towards us and pull the villagers to his side step by step!"

"In this way, won't our rebel army collapse without a fight?!"

"hiss!"

Everyone in the Juyi Hall gasped. What a deep scheme, what a powerful conspiracy!
Even Wang Chenger, who was known for his quick wit, was a little panicked. He had never encountered such an opponent before. He was like a living Bodhisattva.

Beating him would chill the hearts of his fellow villagers.

If we don't attack them, the rebels will gradually erode away until they disappear.
Hong Ruiqi sat on the chair blankly, muttering: "As expected of someone who can pass the exam and get the third place, this scheme is too scary!"

(End of this chapter)