On the campus of the School of Physics, Tang Shunzhi was commanding his forty-eight disciples to line up into four mandarin duck formations and practiced constantly, while Yang Cong led his seven students to practice riding and shooting. The entire campus was rumbling with horse hooves and shouting and killing, just like a battlefield.

These days, colleges usually have a lot of books, but Yang Cong made such a shout of killing shocking the sky, which is really a bit weird.

However, in terms of this aspect, it is actually not Yang Cong, but the current scholars, or the Ming Dynasty court.

The Ming Dynasty court did not know when it started to have a strange rule. Generals were responsible for charging and civil servants were responsible for leading troops to fight. In other words, on the battlefield, the commander was generally civil servants, and military generals could only obey orders!

I won’t talk about how weird this rule is. What’s even more strange is that the Ming Dynasty court never stipulated that civil officials who lead troops to fight must know martial arts, while scholars generally only read books, never caring about whether they are martial arts or not, or what to do if they are going to the battlefield one day and they have to lead troops to fight.

This is a contradictory thing. Since you stipulate that civil servants can only lead troops to fight, you can at least let scholars practice martial arts. Otherwise, what should you do if you go to the battlefield?

Of course, scholars are not completely unscrupulous. Scholars from military families usually practice martial arts, such as Shen Lian, and Qi Jiguang.

The disciples of Tang Shunzhi were even more amazing. They were all military households, all of them were great kung fu, and they were all scholars!

This matter sounds a bit incredible. How come so many scholars appear in the military households?

In fact, it is not surprising at all, because there are too many military households in the Ming Dynasty, with nearly three million households. If calculated based on the average of five households, it would be nearly 15 million. The total population calculated by the Ming Dynasty is generally around 50 to 60 million. In other words, the number of military households accounts for more than 20% of the total population of the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, military generals are far less popular than civil officials these days. The children of military households have also sharpened their heads to study in order to be able to get fame and achieve success. Therefore, the proportion of military children among scholars is quite high. For example, the seven disciples recruited by Yang Cong, Zhong Hai Rui, Shen Lian, Zhang Juzheng and Qi Jiguang are all military households, accounting for more than half.

Of course, these disciples under Tang Shunzhi were not as good as those of Hai Rui and Zhang Juzheng in their studies. The disciples he recruited were basically failed in many exams, and there was no hope of relying on Juren, because only such people would calm down and study military tactics with him honestly. Otherwise, these people would not have to study hard and prepare to take Juren. After all, Juren and scholars are simply a world of difference, and there are a few scholars who do not want to be Juren.

Tang Shunzhi has now resigned from his position as a doctor in the Ministry of War and focused on teaching his disciples with Yang Cong. Anyway, their retirement is only temporary. At this time, Yan Song and Xia Yan's party are in full swing. He has no future in the court. It is better to teach some disciples and take them to achieve success in the future.

The enthusiasm of Tang Shunzhi's training on the side naturally attracted Hai Rui, who was originally a military family, and Shen Lian and Qi Jiguang were very jealous. They all looked eager to try and wanted to go up and command and live up to become generals. Even Tan Lun and Yang Jisheng, who were not from military family, looked a little jealous when they looked at Tang Shunzhi's majestic appearance. Only Zhang Juzheng, a military family, seemed to have something to worry about or something, but he turned a blind eye to the scene of Tang Shunzhi's training on the side, but he secretly glanced at his master Yang Cong from time to time.

Yang Cong was also secretly paying attention to the disciples' every move. Seeing Zhang Juzheng's absent-minded look, he couldn't help but walk up and ask, "Uncle, what's wrong with you? Are you worried?"

When Zhang Juzheng heard this, a hint of panic appeared on his face. However, he quickly suppressed the panic in his heart and plucked up the courage to say to Yang Cong: "Mr., the student wants to participate in the next year's examination. I wonder if he can take a leave to report to the Beijing city."

Oh, it turns out that this kid wants to participate in next year's exam, this is not possible!

Yang Cong shook his head slightly, and then taught: "Uncle, you should be most irritable as an official? You are still young, and entering the officialdom at this time is not a good thing for you. Besides, Yan Song and Xia Yan's party are in full swing now and are about to suppress us. If you all go to the examination, they will probably make excuses to cut a few of them. That would be bad. Therefore, this time, the teacher is only going to let Zishi, Chunfu and Zhongfang go to the examination, and Ruxian and Yuanjing will also have to participate in the examination and the provincial examination. It is better for you and Zili to calm down and try harder before going."

It’s still hard, it’s another three years!

Zhang Juzheng said anxiously: "Mr. Teacher, the student knows that he is still a little young and energetic. If he doesn't restrain himself, he will easily offend people in the officialdom. However, don't worry, since students know this, they will naturally be careful and try not to cause trouble. Teacher, let the student go, the student doesn't want to wait for another three years."

This kid, with your eagerness to achieve success, can you get it into the officialdom?

Yang Cong thought for a while and then asked, "Well, then tell me, what are the problems in the Ming Dynasty now? What are you going to do after entering the officialdom?"

Zhang Juzheng replied without thinking: "Students think that the main problem of the Ming Dynasty is poverty. Of course, this poverty does not mean that everyone is poor, mainly because the court and the people have no money. However, those local tyrants and gentry were in a mess with corrupt officials trained by the officials and families. They used various means to annex the land, evade taxes, and harm the public and private, thus making the court less and less taxes, and the people are getting poorer. In addition, the northern Tartars continue to attack the border, so the court naturally has no income and is poorer. If students enter the officialdom, they naturally have to find ways to take power. Once they take power, the students will implement a whip method created by Duke Gui of Wenxiang, simplify the tax system, so that corrupt officials have nowhere to do it. At the same time, they will clear the land, and the land in the hands of local tyrants and gentry families are found, thereby increasing taxes and making the court more and more surplus. In this way, there will be money to organize a large army to deal with the Tartars."

Damn, this kid really has the appearance of a chief supervisor!

Yang Cong really didn't expect that Zhang Juzheng had such a deep understanding of the problems existing in the Ming Dynasty at a young age and could find a solution.

However, his method was a bit too extreme.

At this moment, he kept saying that he would try not to offend others, but his method offended all the vested interest groups. What a joke, he was trying to kill the local tyrants and gentry and the families of officials!

No wonder in history, the Wanli New Policy was abolished as soon as he died, and even his family was exiled for thousands of miles and starved to death on the frontier.

The root of this lies in the method he used. He was simply against the entire ruling class of the Ming Dynasty!
Chapter completed!