Tibet

After the time entered March, the court began to operate fully. Except for the biggest tax reform, there were no other changes in the court. It operated completely according to the system of the Regent era.

However, Wei Jiansu formally requested to retire. He helped Li Ye ascend the throne and decided to retire after his success.

Wei Jiansu is already sixty-five years old, and it is not impossible to serve another term until he is seventy years old. However, according to the agreement between him and Li Dai, he is to succeed Li Dai's right minister. Once Li Ye ascends to the throne, he will be the right minister. The position of prime minister was given to Li Mi, and he could continue to serve as assistant prime minister.

However, it was difficult to overcome the difficulties in the past, and Wei Jiansu no longer wanted to serve as the assistant minister, so he simply retired after his success, so that he could enjoy his old age at home.

More importantly, he is relatively conservative and is no longer adaptable to Li Ye's aggressive style. For example, Wei Jiansu firmly opposed the invasion of Nanzhao this time. Although it is not a taboo to start a war on two fronts at the same time, it is by no means a sound strategy. .

Li Ye ignored his objections and sent troops forcefully, which made Wei Jiansu very frustrated.

In the morning, Li Ye enthusiastically inspected the growth of early rice in an experimental field outside the city. The experimental field was the experimental site of the Agricultural College. In January, shortly after Li Ye ascended the throne, he separated agriculture from engineering and established a separate Agricultural College. , affiliated to Sinong Temple, and then divided engineering into two, establishing the Engineering College and the Ordnance College. The Engineering College was affiliated to Shaofu Temple, and the Ordnance College was affiliated to the Ordnance Supervision.

But this was only the first step in educational reform. According to his ideas, he wanted to establish a three-level education system of county school, state school and Taixue. The county school would last for nine years and study Confucianism and hundreds of schools of thought.

Prefectural studies began to differentiate, divided into literature and arithmetic. Arithmetic included mathematics, astronomy and geography, agriculture, basic engineering, etc.

There are even more colleges in Taixue, such as liberal arts college, engineering college, agricultural college, military college, law school, shipbuilding and navigation college, etc. Li Ye plans to establish nine colleges.

But this will take time to implement step by step. On the one hand, there are not enough teachers, and on the other hand, it needs to be gradually accepted by the entire society.

But the Tang Dynasty was an open dynasty, embracing all rivers and rivers. There was no problem at all in accepting Li Ye's educational reforms. The key was the lack of teachers. Starting next year, Li Ye was preparing to start reforming county schools and prefecture schools.

He planned to let his father Li Dai take charge of this area. Although his father was the Supreme Emperor, he was still a little young and he still wanted to do something. So it would be most suitable for him to be responsible for educational reform and establish an education committee to be directly responsible to himself.

There are 300 acres of rice experimental fields in the Agricultural College, all of which are planted with Jiaozhou early rice. Today, Jiaozhou rice continues to be experimentally planted in various parts of the south, but Li Ye is considering giving it a try in Guanzhong. It is still in a warm period in history, and it will not be till 900 years ago. Then we gradually entered the Little Ice Age, which is still more than a hundred years away.

Today's Guanzhong is much warmer and wetter than later Guanzhong. If the double-cropping rice experiment can be successful, Guanzhong's annual grain output can increase by 30%.

This is of extraordinary significance to the growing Guanzhong population.

The experimental fields are growing well and lush, and you can see old farmers applying fertilizer in the distance.

"Yang Yuanzheng, do you think early rice can be grown?"

The dean of the Agricultural College is named Yang Miao. He was originally the Prime Minister of Sinong Temple. He has been an official of Sinong Temple for thirty years. He has rich experience in various crops and is considered an old master.

He nodded and said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, from the perspective of the growth situation, it is going very well at present. Wei Chen thinks that it can basically be planted. The key is to look at the yield. If the yield is okay, even if it is the same as winter wheat, Wei Chen thinks that there is promotion value, at least it will be freed up in winter, allowing the soil to rest over the winter, which is very beneficial to protecting soil moisture. In addition, the amount of seeds is 30% less than that of wheat, which is very important to farmers.

"But it uses a lot of water!" Li Ye reminded.

"This is true. If we really decide to promote double-cropping rice, the water conservancy construction in Guanzhong will have to be strengthened. In addition, the comprehensive promotion of coal use will be very beneficial to protecting the forests in the upper reaches of the Weishui River and Jingshui River. The flow of the Weishui River and Jingshui River has been obvious in the past two years. The increase will have obvious benefits for Guanzhong agriculture.”

Li Ye nodded and said with a smile: "Let me know when it starts to harvest, and I will come and take a look for myself."

"Wei Chen obeys the order!"

After returning from an inspection outside the city, it was almost noon. Wei Gao, the general secretary, said at the door: "Your Majesty, Prime Minister Wei wants to see you!"

Li Ye looked at the clock time in the distance from the window. It was almost noon. He smiled at Wei Gao and said, "Please come in, Wei Xiangguo, and then inform Danfeng Restaurant that I will go there at noon today, two people."

Wei Gao hurried away, and not long after, Wei Jiansu walked in and put a report on the table.

"Your Majesty, this is the registration status for this year's imperial examination. There are more than 100,000 people. The grand occasion is unprecedented. The Tang Dynasty has been completely unified."

The imperial examination will start on the 20th of this month. There is still half a month left. A total of 120 people have been admitted to the three subjects of Mingjing, Jinshi and arithmetic. In addition, immediately after the results are released, there will be admissions to the three universities of Taixue, Engineering and Agriculture. take an exam.

In the arithmetic exam, you also need to go to the engineering school for further study, but the status is different. After four years of further training, you will be directly taught the eighth grade official of the fortification man. The normal reading of the engineering school is the prefectural teaching assistant. The teaching assistant is a first-class official. After teaching for five years, he will be promoted to a full professor. , that is, from the ninth rank official.

Li Ye nodded, "I want to publicize the benefits of going to an institution of higher learning to everyone, and let everyone know that you can become an official if you are admitted to an institution of higher learning."

"Your Majesty, we all know this! This year, there are thirty thousand people applying for higher education examinations, competing for fifteen hundred places."

Speaking of this, Wei Jiansu took out another resignation letter and said, "Your Majesty, I am begging for your resignation, and I beg for your Majesty's approval!"

Li Ye glanced at the resignation letter and said with a smile: "It's noon, let's go to Danfeng Restaurant for dinner!"

Danfeng Restaurant was built in the imperial city. It was a restaurant specially built for officials. It was no different from restaurants outside. The customers were not only officials, but also imperial guards and officials from various places. Business was good every day. .

Moreover, he can provide some wines and dishes that are not available in other restaurants, such as authentic Kuquan sheep, authentic Songjiang seabass and Suzhou sugar crab, as well as authentic Jiannan shochu and Zhangye wine.

Danfeng Restaurant covers an area of ​​ten acres and consists of three floors and four courtyards, but it is also highly hierarchical. There are no restrictions on Chunyu Tower and Xiafeng Tower. Officials, guards and ordinary diners can go there, but Qiuyue Tower only accepts officials above fifth rank, while Pinxue Fourth Courtyard only accepts officials of third rank and above.

But there are also modifications. For example, if officials of the third rank and above treat guests, officials of the fifth rank and above can also enter the Fourth Rank Snow Courtyard as guests.

In the same way, if officials of the fifth rank of Qiuyue Tower entertain guests, then officials of the seventh rank and above can also enter.

Eighth-grade and ninth-grade officials are not qualified enough to enter Qiuyue Tower.

Therefore, many low-level officials are secretly working hard and must strive to have dinner in Qiuyue Building as soon as possible.

As the emperor, Li Ye had a special courtyard called Wanxue. Only he or his family members had meals here. However, if the emperor was entertaining guests, other ministers could also enter.

For example, Wei Jiansu, this was his first time entering Wanxue Courtyard. Needless to say, it was heavily guarded. Thirty female guards had already laid a dragnet in advance, and not even a fly might be able to get in.

The five maids are all palace maids, not outside clerks or ordinary maids. Although they are exclusively used by the emperor, the various facilities are not expensive, but very elegant.

But when the food was served, Wei Jiansu laughed. He was still the same as before and had not changed because he became the emperor.

The mutton pancakes, spicy soup and roasted mutton are very tasty.

Wei Jiansu didn't have such a good appetite. He ordered a bowl of grain porridge, several plates of side dishes, and a bottle of wine.

He smiled and said: "As I get older, I can only eat lighter food, otherwise my stomach will be very upset at night!"

Li Ye nodded, "Sometimes I want to change my taste, but I still like the third child the same way. I can't help it!"

Wei Jiansu pondered for a moment and said: "Has Your Highness ever considered Pei Zunqing as the Right Prime Minister?"

Li Ye said frankly: "He is more than mature, but he lacks knowledge. He is still a little short of ability to control the overall situation."

Wei Jiansu secretly admired that the emperor really saw people thoroughly. Pei Zunqing was better at details but weaker at the overall situation.

Just as he was about to speak, Li Ye said sincerely: "I still hope that Wei Xiangguo can stay for another term. Li Mi is still slightly lacking in qualifications and experience. I want him to serve as a local observation envoy for a few years. about there."

Wei Jiansu sighed and said: "Your Majesty is determined to forge ahead, but the old minister is too conservative and cannot keep up with His Majesty's speed!"

Li Ye said lightly: "A horse is running wildly on the street. What it needs most is not racers and applauders, but people who can hold the reins at critical moments, and Xiangguo is the one who can hold the reins. I ask Wei again." The Prime Minister can stay in office for one more term!”

Wei Jiansu knew Li Ye very well, and he didn't like hypocritical statements. Wei Jiansu nodded and said with a smile: "To be honest, I feel that my health is not bad. Since His Majesty wants to stay, I would rather obey my orders than to be respectful!"