A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television.

Chapter 411 Cultivate oneself, manage one’s family, govern the country and bring peace to the world

In the blink of an eye, it is already the cold winter and the New Year is approaching.

Just recently, Lu Cheng had obtained the admission qualification to Jeju Prefecture College and became a student of the provincial school, and also had achieved fame.

The imperial examination system of the Song Dynasty was inherited from that of the Tang Dynasty, and was more complete and formal than that of the Tang Dynasty. However, the imperial examination system was abolished at this time, and the school promotion system was implemented, which was somewhat similar to the junior high school promotion to high school and the high school promotion to university in later generations.

Students first entered the county school, then the state school, and became state school students. From the state school, they were admitted to the Imperial College under the central government of the Song Dynasty.

After becoming a student of the Imperial College, one is qualified to become an official and can start from a low-level official in the Song Dynasty and embark on a career in officialdom.

The current enrollment system has also led to overcrowding in schools everywhere. Many people have fought tooth and nail to get a place in a county or state school, and there have even been fights and murders as a result.

In fact, it is normal for such a thing to happen. Even in later times, if a school has a quota for admission to Peking University or Tsinghua University, the competition for the quota is also very fierce.

After becoming a student of the provincial school, Lu Cheng also enjoyed some privileges of scholars, including exemption from personal corvée and taxes.

Of course, if it was during the Ming and Qing dynasties, when there were clear ranks of scholar, juren, and jinshi, the juren would have even greater power, and all the land under their names would not have to pay taxes. Many landlords would register their land under the names of juren to evade taxes from the court, and the juren would also benefit from this.

There was no specific title of Juren in the Song Dynasty. In the Sui, Tang and Song dynasties, all students recommended by local areas to go to the capital for examinations could be called Juzi or Juren.

Of course, the powerful landlords in the Song Dynasty also had their own means to evade taxes from the imperial court.

After Lu Cheng became friends with the county magistrate, the academician and others, he also gained another additional benefit: he could falsely report the number of acres of land and evade some of the court's taxes.

In fact, when the Song Dynasty was founded, the tax rate was not high. It was 30% for 2, or 20% for 1, which means that the output of one acre of land was collected for every acres of land, equivalent to %.

But as time went on, the court's taxes became heavier and heavier, and taxes of various names were imposed one after another, making life miserable for the people.

Moreover, the Song Dynasty had a serious problem of land annexation. After the powerful landlords in those places annexed most of the land, they would naturally not pay taxes to the court honestly, and would try every means to evade taxes.

The imperial court was unable to collect taxes from those powerful landlords, so these taxes were naturally transferred to other ordinary people, making their lives even more difficult.

Some people could not survive and had to flee to the mountains and forests, becoming bandits. The tax gap left by them fell on the rest of the people.

This creates a vicious cycle.

The imperial court also tried many times to remeasure the land and sort out the taxation through reforms, but such a policy was impossible to implement at the local level. The local powerful landlords had already formed a large network. Unless the imperial court could send a large army to carry out a massacre, it would be impossible to re-calculate the land.

However, if the imperial court were to use force to implement its policies, it would inevitably spark civil unrest.

It can be said that the rise and fall of each dynasty is basically a process in which land is constantly annexed, and after reaching a certain level, it is rebuilt and rebuilt.

Of course, such a major dynastic event has nothing to do with Lu Cheng for the time being.

No matter what happens outside, Lu Cheng now has to take care of only the people who follow him, the tenants and servants in Lujia Village.

The Confucianism of self-cultivation, family management, state governance, and peace in the world may have another explanation in Lu Cheng's words, which is to strengthen oneself, expand the family, participate in national affairs, and then take over the world.

"Master, the gifts for the county magistrate, the education commissioner and other county officials have been sent, and the monthly allowance for all the people in the village has also been increased. Do you have any other instructions?"

"Use the money in the account to buy a few more big fat pigs and some fish. I will give each tenant in Lujia Village a pound of pork and two fish to each tenant so that they can have a good New Year."

"Yes, Master. The tenants of our Lujiazhuang are so lucky to have met a living Bodhisattva like you."

"Alright, alright, get it done. Don't cut corners."

"Yes."

Capitalists in later generations all know to give benefits to employees at the end of the year, and Lu Cheng naturally would not miss this good opportunity to win people's hearts.

If you want your subordinates to be loyal to you, you must ensure that they are well fed and clothed, and even have meat to eat occasionally.

Lu Cheng also plans to visit every household during the Chinese New Year to help tenants solve some practical problems, give children some New Year's money, send blessings to the elderly, and so on.

Anyway, Lu Cheng didn't expect to get rich by farming. His main goal was to support a group of useful people.

During the Chinese New Year, Lu Cheng specially asked the housekeeper Sun to find two famous matchmakers in Yuncheng County to come to the Wu Song brothers' family to act as matchmakers and arrange blind dates.

Wu Song's conditions were okay. Although his body size was far beyond that of an ordinary person, he had a dignified appearance and an awe-inspiring demeanor. He was truly a good man, and it was not difficult for him to marry a good wife.

In comparison, Wu Dalang's height is a fatal flaw.

However, since Wu Dalang came to Yuncheng County, he reopened his pancake shop with his savings and hired two people to help him. With the support of Lu Jiazhuang, his business was getting better and better, and he had a lot of income every month.

Moreover, now that Wu Song follows Lu Cheng, he doesn't cause trouble like before, so naturally he doesn't need Wu Dalang to clean up the mess behind him every day and spend money to settle things.

In this way, Wu Dalang could save all the money he earned, and his life became better and better.

Moreover, Wu Song would give part of the monthly salary from Lu Cheng to his brother. Of course, Wu Dalang also saved his brother's money for him, preparing to use it to help him get married.

No matter what era, as long as a man has money, he can find a beautiful wife no matter how ugly he is.

The matchmaker selected more than twenty women of appropriate age for Wu Dalang to go on blind dates. Except for some who voluntarily withdrew because of Wu Dalang's appearance, there were still quite a few left. Among them, two were quite good-looking, with good looks and good figures.

But Wu Dalang finally chose a hardworking and simple farm girl with average looks as his wife, and did not choose the two beautiful ones.

After the blind date, they got married before the end of the year, and Wu Dalang finally started a family.

After that, Wu Song looked at many good girls and chose a girl with a plump figure, almond eyes and a round face, and decided to marry her.

After the two get married, they will make arrangements for their children and grandchildren in the future. These two brothers will be Lu Cheng's die-hard fans.

In fact, the treatment of soldiers kept as death in ancient times was quite generous, with good wine and meat, large sums of money and interest, luxury cars and beautiful women, and arrangements for offspring, so that people had no worries. Those people would stand up at the critical moment and sacrifice their lives for their masters.

In later generations, many company bosses are always thinking about developing corporate culture, organizing team building, brainwashing employees, and making them loyal to the company, but in fact, it's all a mess.

Employees earn a thousand yuan a month and endure tens of thousands of yuan of hard work every day. How can they eat the big pie from the boss?