pdf-ebookys Chapter 131 If you can't lead a team, you'll only work yourself to death!
Chapter 131 If you can't lead a team, you'll only work yourself to death!
Someone once said on a TV show: "If you can't lead a team, you'll just work yourself to death."
No matter what, Magistrate Yang was still just one person. Faced with a whole host of messy affairs inside and outside Ningyang County, even with the help of the bailiffs like Li Wu and the heads of the eight communities and sixteen neighborhoods, Magistrate Yang was still extremely busy.
If Magistrate Yang were to personally lecture Liu Sanshier and the other village heads and children from various villages, he would likely die at the young age of twenty without even Emperor Zhu Chongba lifting a finger.
To prevent premature death and, more importantly, premature baldness, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng had already decided on a replacement teacher long before convening a meeting with Liu Sanshier and others.
Among Liu Hongchang, Master Geng, and the families of the gentry they implicated, there must have been some who had received an education.
These people are now either working on road construction sites or in quarries; either job can be exhausting.
Now that they have the opportunity to teach in schools, wouldn't these people fight tooth and nail to get it?
As for whether these people would cause trouble while teaching, or deliberately teach some nonsense, Magistrate Yang said there was no need to worry, because the county government was not short of yamen runners, and he could just arrange a few to watch them teach in the Confucian temple.
In addition, he thoughtfully prepared ten-day exams, monthly exams, mid-term exams, and final exams for the future students of Ningyang County, so that he could judge whether anyone was peddling personal biases while teaching by looking at their exam papers.
In truth, the copyright of this practice should actually belong to Emperor Zhu Chongba, since he was the first to set an example of making officials wear shackles while working, and then executing the offending officials once replacements were available.
The reason why Magistrate Yang was able to come up with such a plan was entirely because he learned it from Emperor Zhu Chongba.
Of course, simply solving the problem of teaching staff is not enough; the most important thing is to find a way to solve the problem of teaching materials.
It's definitely not feasible to rely on Ningyang County to print on its own, since the paper mills won't be able to produce paper until next summer, and the printing department can only do woodblock printing right now. The movable type printing that Magistrate Yang wants can't be relied on for the time being.
The only one who could possibly resolve the textbook issue within a month was Emperor Zhu Chongba, who was far away in the capital.
Because there was no shortage of paper in the capital, and Emperor Zhu Chongba had no shortage of craftsmen, as long as Emperor Zhu Chongba recognized the importance of books such as "Hongwu Zhengyun", "Kantu Jiezi", and "Hongwu Dictionary", he would definitely print and promote them vigorously.
However, Magistrate Yang ultimately overestimated the efficiency of the Ming Dynasty court, or rather, underestimated the resistance of the officials and gentry. Ever since Emperor Zhu Chongba decided to compile books such as "Hongwu Zhengyun" and "Illustrated Explanation of Characters," the officials throughout the Ming Dynasty court had entered a semi-dormant mode.
The so-called "half-lazy mode" means that while they are very proactive and efficient in handling other official duties, they switch to a "half-lazy mode" when compiling books such as "Hongwu Zhengyun" and "Kantu Jiezi". They basically procrastinate as much as possible. Sometimes they might argue for two or three days over an illustration, or how to pronounce a Zhengyun and what to use to represent different pronunciations.
If things continue in their way, let alone mass-producing for teaching a month later, even getting a preliminary draft would be a miracle!
Then, thinking that Yang Shaofeng had already provided a solution for officials and gentry to control the discourse, while he himself had been unable to complete the plan due to various messy reasons, Emperor Zhu Chongba couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.
Then, feeling extremely troubled, Emperor Zhu Chongba decided to make everyone else suffer too.
"All those who support marrying their sister-in-law will be dismissed from their posts but retained in their positions, and will be held accountable for working while wearing shackles."
"Chen Er of Yanzhou Prefecture attempted to forcibly marry his sister-in-law, which is a violation of human ethics. Even if he dies, he should not be allowed to die in peace."
Emperor Zhu Chongba bluntly instructed Li Shanchang: "Order all counties in the country to erect a 'Declaration Pavilion' in every town and village. We will only look at the results, regardless of their difficulties."
"At the latest, within a month and a half, we need to have a Minglun Pavilion in every village and community of the entire Ming Dynasty."
"First, spread the word about Chen Er's matter."
"Besides the mess with Shen Mingting and Chen Er, we also need to hurry up and finish the matter of 'Hongwu Zhengyun'."
Emperor Zhu Chongba had a stool brought over, sat down next to Li Shanchang, grasped Li Shanchang's hand, and said earnestly, "Brother Shanchang, tell me, what were we risking our lives for back then? I'm just a rough man, all I wanted was for the people of the world to live a good life. But what about you, Brother Shanchang? Didn't you want to spread the teachings of the sages?"
"Look at those books like 'Hongwu Zhengyun' and 'Kan Tu Jie Zi' now, which one isn't a powerful tool for promoting the teachings of the sages?"
"Let me speak frankly with you, Brother Shanchang, today—we'll be in-laws in the future. Do you think you need to worry about too many people becoming officials like those gentry and scholars do?"
Li Shanchang was immediately alarmed and hurriedly stood up to bow to Emperor Zhu Chongba, saying, "Your Majesty, I... I'm not worried about that, it's just... it's just..."
Seeing that Li Shanchang had been stammering for a long time without being able to give a clear answer, Emperor Zhu Chongba simply pressed Li Shanchang back into his seat and asked with a smile, "What is it? Brother Shanchang, just tell us the whole story. Are you going to keep quiet with us?"
Li Shanchang suddenly sighed deeply and said, “Your Majesty, it’s not that I don’t want to get this done quickly, but I simply can’t. Take Chinese characters for example. If there were only a few dozen or a few hundred characters, even at the slowest pace, it would take more than half a month to finish. But there are more than 30,000 Chinese characters!”
The mere mention of the number of Chinese characters makes Li Shanchang want to cry, and he even wants to point his finger at Yang Shaofeng and curse him.
Is this something a human being could do?
You, surnamed Yang, throw out a simple idea and example, then pat your butt and run back to being the magistrate of Ningyang County. But I'm already in my fifties, and now I have to argue with people every day about how to determine the pronunciation of these Chinese characters, how to determine the rhyme scheme, how to define them, and how to give examples like you, you bastard!
The worst part is that it even has multiple pronunciations, you bastard!
The worst part is that it has to match the picture, you bastard!
Li Shanchang sometimes wanted to curse Zhu Yuanzhang—it would take at least ten or twenty years to get all these things done, and now you want me to finish them in a month?
You surnamed Zhu, do you still think I, Li Shanchang, am a human being?
You're treating me like an animal!