Since Yan Song took over the position of governor of Nanzhili from Wang Yangming, he has been conducting his own corn cultivation experiment.

In this agricultural experiment, he accumulated a lot of agricultural knowledge and became increasingly aware that there was such profound knowledge behind the seemingly simple corn.

Over the years, although he still followed Xiao Guicao in terms of major policies and policies and followed the instructions of the central court, in his specific schedule and government affairs, he tried his best to benefit the people through his new learning.

Yan Song was very glad that he chose to go to the Beijing University to do business, and therefore learned a lot of new knowledge with His Majesty Emperor Zhu Houzhao, so that he can also benefit the people when he is a chief official in the territory.

Instead of just staying in the Hanlin Academy as an editor in the previous Hanlin Academy to earn their qualifications, the superiors have no chance to approach you to participate in the report, and the subordinates have no chance to seek welfare for the people.

After Yan Song came to Nanzhili, he began to cooperate with Royal Industrial Company to establish a fertilizer factory in Nanzhili.

Even after applying for approval from Emperor Zhu Houzhao, Yan Song personally organized people to open the Institute of Agricultural Sciences of the Peking University in Nanzhili, and used the newly refined converter steel from the Royal Industrial Company to manufacture agricultural machinery and fertilizer production equipment.

It is precisely because of this that during Yan Song's tenure as governor of Nanzhili, chemical fertilizers were promoted in the Nanzhili area, and thus greatly increased the grain output in the Nanzhili area. Moreover, it not only promoted the application of fertilizers, but also made the application of agricultural machinery and equipment and more scientific research and guidance on the physiological characteristics of crops, but also increased the grain output in Nanzhili a lot.

"I tell Your Majesty that the grain income in Nanzhili increased by 30% this year, and the people's faces were full of excitement. The annual tax did not increase, but the grain production increased, so the people's wealth would be surplus. This is a sign of a prosperous era;

In addition, due to fertilizers, many barren lands also have their own products. I hire refugees to plant them. If they get them, they will be exchanged for treasury silver or for disaster relief. There is also a prosperous commerce and trade. Now the people in Jiangnan are rich and the country is rich! This year, the grain grains are expected to be escorted to Beijing by one million..."

Yan Song wrote in detail about his own government gains and losses in his secret memorial to Zhu Houzhao, but what he didn't know was that soon, Zhu Houzhao would give him a more important task, namely, to continue to implement new education reform in Nanzhili.

However, when Yan Song received the pilot program of new education reform in Nanzhili, he did not feel pressured, and even felt that this was an opportunity to prove himself again. He believed that as long as he did well, His Majesty would see it.

Yan Song was not worried about education funding because his agricultural science and technology development in Nanzhili increased his local fiscal revenue a lot, and he was also very good at engaging in commercial investment and other ways to make money.

For example, after he became the governor of Nanzhili and obtained the first additional fiscal revenue by relying on the use of fertilizers, he mainly repaired a cement road from Suzhou to Nanjing.

It cost him a lot of money to build this road, but Yan Song turned it into a road to make money. He set up roadblocks on this cement road, and set up a toll station every other county to charge merchants along the way.

In addition, Yan Song also asked officials and gentry to charge tolls for carriages, and his reason was very simple, just to maintain the road, but there was no charge for walking civilians.

Because it is collected by each county, and the local magistrates and prefectures of each county have share, each county also actively collects liquor and toll fees.

In addition, Yan Song also paid part of this income to the Central Ministry of Revenue, which added additional income to the Central Ministry of Revenue, so that neither the Cabinet nor the Ministry of Revenue had any objections to Yan Song.

Even the censors of the Censorate and the Censors of the Sixth Censors were bribed by Yan Song, so that so far, only some people impeach Yan Song, and the Censors of the Censors returned to protect Yan Song.

This is not enough. Yan Song also used various cultural revitalization to support the great scholars in the Southern Zhili region, which made these great scholars shut up.

Yan Song was an official, and it was precisely because of this that he took the opportunity to accumulate a lot of money for the local treasury of Nanzhili, making all levels of Nanzhili very rich, so Yan Song dared to say in his memorial that the people and the country are rich.

Of course, wealth cannot grow out of thin air. If you gain benefits, you will naturally lose.

Many gentry in Jiangnan were still damaged.

After all, Yan Song could only bribe a few great scholars, and it was impossible to bribe all great scholars. The people who happened to do business in the Jiangnan region were mostly gentry, and Guan liked to ride horse carriages, especially the newly launched four-wheel bearing carriages, were mostly gentry in Jiangnan, which caused the most serious damage to the gentry in Jiangnan, so that the gentry in Jiangnan was very dissatisfied with Yan Song and even secretly scolded Yan Song for being Yan's skin.

However, Yan Song's status is still standing firm.

In the central court, although there were censors who spoke for the gentry in Jiangnan who impeached Yan Song, there were also censors who respected Yan Song and protected Yan Song, and the reasons were very sufficient.

The reason was that Yan Song paid an additional tax of millions of taels of silver to the central court during his tenure as governor of Nanzhili, which increased the central court by a large amount of income.

In addition, Yan Song also successfully helped the people in the Southern Zhili area. He did not get funding from the central court for several local disasters in Southern Zhili. Even in terms of academic and political reform and official administration examinations, the Southern Zhili area has always done the best.

Because of this, neither the Cabinet nor the Ministry of Revenue said anything, and praised Yan Song as a capable minister. Emperor Zhu Houzhao naturally had nothing to say. He did not sympathize with the gentry in Jiangnan. He just issued an order to warn Yan Song that he would spend more energy on national economy and people's livelihood. The implication is that he could make money, but the money he had to be used to benefit the people.

Because of this, although Yan Song's reputation in Jiangnan was even worse than when Wang Yangming was the governor of Nanzhili, his status was very stable. Not only did the people above not touch him, but the officials below also supported him.

Only the gentry in Jiangnan hated Yan Song.

"Master Futai, Ren Li, a student from Jiangpu County, scolded you in the newspaper for being a strict skin and seizing the people's benefits, so the public was extremely resentful, saying that you embezzled millions of silver, thousands of wives and concubines in your family, and even bought the cage rights of the Wujiang Pavilion's courtesan for tens of thousands of taels of gold. This is not a waste of this. The officials thought that such a madman must be punished, otherwise it would be unfavorable to your official voice!"

Zhan Hui, the guard of the Security Department, said with great concern that he had a good impression of a boss like Yan Song, because he could make a fortune with such a boss. Therefore, he was also worried that Yan Song would lose his official position due to the false accusations of the scholars, which would also lose the opportunity to get more benefits from the gentry.

"Don't worry about him. I am not worried about how these people bark wildly. Now the court only uses political achievements as a measure, and its reputation is also as judging by the Censor of the Dongchang. Of course, the superiors will not believe what these people say, but they just need to explain it to their wife. These scholars are really strange. They always like to slander someone and always like to rob him of his romantic debts! I am afraid that they only know or only fantasize about some romantic affairs, no wonder they will achieve nothing!"

Yan Song was just talking, and his wife Ouyang broke in and slapped the newspaper on the table: "My surname is Yan, how could this happen? When did you spend ten thousand taels of gold to buy a brothel woman?"

"Madam, why do you still believe these literati nonsense? Who am I? Don't you know? Besides, you are still very tired to satisfy you. How can you have the energy to sprinkle rain and dew for your husband?" Yan Song hurriedly coaxed Ouyang. After Ouyang left with relief, he turned cold and asked:

"What business does this family, named Ren Li, do?"

“Those who do spice business.”

Zhan Hui replied.

"Your Majesty passed the decree that before the establishment of customs in Nanzhili, Lijin may not be cancelled for the purpose of cultivating customs talents, but shall not hinder the development of commerce;

Therefore, this official decided to reform the likin collection system from next month, and the value of goods below 100 taels will be exempted from likin, grain, cloth, salt and other items needed by the people, in order to curb the price increase;

At the same time, spices, jewelry, etc. are subject to the three-fold extravagance tax on the basis of the existing lijin, in response to the theory of advocating frugality and avoiding extravagance proposed by Zhu En, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of Rites!”

Yan Song is obviously not a person who is really lenient. He also has his own counterattack against the offensive behavior of the student Ren Li.

However, Yan Song's actions also curbed the extravagance in Jiangnan.

But at the same time, the wealth that would have been consumed by these wealthy businessmen in Jiangnan also flowed into the pockets of the Southern Zhili government, which made Yan Song also had enough funds to carry out education reform when the imperial edict issued by the central court on the construction of higher primary schools was passed to Nanjing.

After further study at the Beijing Normal University, more than 100 students were appointed by the Ministry of Personnel to Nanzhili to serve as the teaching officer. Yan Song, as the governor, gave these teaching officers sufficient financial support.

Not only that, Yan Song also relied on his wealth in Nanzhili, and directly invested in providing free school fees for higher primary schools, and directly issued subsidies, so that in order to obtain more income, the common people allowed their children to take the examinations in higher primary schools.

Because of this, the enrollment rate of higher primary schools in Nanzhili is very high. Moreover, because it has a certain commercial and industrial economic foundation, and the newly appointed teacher and Yan Song himself are from the Jingshi University background, the higher primary schools in Nanzhili are also the only new school with a new form of education.

Yan Song did not give up on the students who did not get into new schools. He set up the Nanzhili Agricultural School and Industrial School independently, recruiting these students as apprentices.

In addition, Yan Song also responded to the call of the central court. After receiving the approval of Zhu Houzhao, he established the Central University in Nanjing. He followed the appearance of the Peking University and formed the second modern university in the Ming Dynasty. However, like Peking University, the main task now is to train normal students.

Yan Song spent money like flowing water in Zhili in Nan, so he naturally had to continue to make money. The Lijin system alone was not enough. He knew that His Majesty the Emperor had no feelings for the gentry and loved the people very much, so he figured out this thought and began to impose fines on those merchants and gentry who did not abide by etiquette and law in the name of continuing to advocate the style of civilization and frugality and the style of following the ritual system.

Even those who spit out randomly will be punished by fines or labor.

Because of the increase in the wealth of the people and the increasing development of the commodity economy, the lives of gentry and businessmen are becoming more and more luxurious. Moreover, they have privileges such as exemption from service, and are often treated preferentially in law, so they have to not abide by the etiquette and law levels established by the Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang during the reign of Emperor Taizu, that is, the kind of clothes that people of all levels should wear and what kind of hats should wear.

So many students were fined for wearing big red robes, and many wealthy businessmen were fined for wearing silk.

Anyway, Yan Song was trying hard to make money in the name of following etiquette and law.
Chapter completed!