Chapter 1400 The Emperor’s Investigation!
Ye Mingsheng was not surprised that the magistrate of Baishou County came to pay a visit. After all, he was on a secret visit in the name of the Inspector of the Ministry of Rites, and the Inspector of Rites came as an envoy of the imperial court, so the magistrate of Baishou County should come to pay a visit and show his hospitality.

Ye Mingsheng also wanted to ask about the situation in Baishou County, and immediately asked Zhang Hu to bring Cui Shan to him.

However, what Ye Mingsheng did not expect was that when Cui Shangang came to Ye Mingsheng and looked at Ye Mingsheng, he was stunned. Then he rubbed his eyes the next second, and after confirming that it was correct, he knelt down and said in fear and trepidation:
"Bai Shou County Magistrate Cui Shan pays respect to His Majesty!"

Seeing that Cui Shan had discovered his identity, Ye Mingsheng was a little surprised and asked:
"How do you know me?"

Facing Ye Mingsheng's question, Cui Shan said without hesitation:
"Your Majesty, I am from the Cui family of Liaoyang. A few years ago, when you and the Queen Mother returned to the Cui family to visit relatives, I had the honor of seeing your face!"

Ye Mingsheng was a little surprised when he heard this. Although he came to Baishou County this time, because he had other purposes, Ye Mingsheng only briefly understood the situation in Baishou County. He did not pay too much attention to who the Baishou County Magistrate was or what his background was.

So Ye Mingsheng really didn’t know that the Baishou County Magistrate was actually a member of the Cui family!

Although a little surprised, Ye Mingsheng did not care too much about it. Instead, he asked Cui Shan to report to him about the situation in Baishou County.

Cui Shan immediately began to explain Ye Mingsheng's request. He told Ye Mingsheng how many people there were in Baishou County, how much farmland there was, how many acres of paddy fields and dry fields there were, and how much tax the entire county could collect every year...

After introducing these basic situations, Cui Shan also began to talk about his achievements in serving as the county magistrate for one year, how he led the people to reclaim wasteland, how many vicious criminals he captured, how he maintained the security and stability of Baishou County, and so on.

Although Cui Shan had never thought that the Emperor would come to Baishou County in disguise one day, since this opportunity was before him, he must seize it as much as possible to show his talents and leave a deep impression on the Emperor.

After Cui Shan had spoken for about a quarter of an hour, Ye Mingsheng interrupted and asked:
"You have been the county magistrate of Baishou County for a whole year. How much has your county invested in education?"

Ye Mingsheng's question surprised Cui Shan a little, but after thinking carefully, Cui Shan replied:

"During the one year that I was the county magistrate, Baishou County spent a total of 170 taels of silver on education!"

"Where did you spend the 170 taels of silver?"

Cui Shan thought for a moment and continued:
"In order to implement the policy of free education for children under thirteen proposed by Your Majesty, my predecessor, Magistrate Hu, established two public schools in the towns under the jurisdiction of Baishou County and hired a total of ten teachers. Their total salary was fifty taels of silver. The two public schools were old buildings and needed maintenance, so ten taels of silver were spent on this!"

"There is also a public school in the county town, with a total of seven teachers. The total salary of these seven teachers is 40 taels of silver. In addition, we also provide free meals and free books to all the children in the three public schools, as well as some daily test rewards. These cost a total of 70 taels of silver..."

Upon hearing this, Ye Mingsheng continued to ask:
"How many students are there in the three public schools?"

"I'm not sure about the exact number of students, but the two public schools outside the city should have about 800 people combined, and the public school inside the city has about 500 people!"

After hearing this, Ye Mingsheng asked back in surprise:

"These 1,300 people only ate 70 taels of silver a year?"

Cui Shan was a little evasive about this question but still explained:
"The three public schools only have classes twenty days a month, and only provide one meal a day. And this meal is also relatively simple, so it is still cost-effective!"

Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly when he heard this, and did not ask any more questions. Instead, he changed the subject and said:
"I'm going to take a walk around the county town in a while, and you'll be responsible for leading the way for me!"

"Yes!"

Listening to Cui Shan's straightforward answer, Ye Mingsheng seemed to have thought of something, and then continued to explain:
"By the way! I'm going on a secret visit this time, so don't let me know!"

"Your Majesty, please rest assured. I will keep it a secret for you!"

Half an hour later, Ye Mingsheng, accompanied by his three children, headed towards Baishou Public School in the county town, which was one of the targets of Ye Mingsheng's incognito visit.

Ye Mingsheng's Daqian Dynasty has been established for nearly a year, and the first imperial examination of the new dynasty is being prepared in full swing. At a cabinet meeting half a month ago, Ye Mingsheng and several cabinet elders discussed and basically determined that the imperial examination will be held in May next year...

Because it was the first special examination of the Xin Dynasty, Ye Mingsheng attached great importance to it. After he handed the matter over to Cui Shao, the Minister of Revenue, and Su Yi, the Minister of Rites, Ye Mingsheng also realized that his understanding of the current educational situation in Daqian was not enough and comprehensive enough.

Ye Mingsheng also conducted self-reflection on this. He believed that although education could not produce immediate results like military and political affairs, its impact was extremely far-reaching. If a nation wanted to develop and have a future, education could be said to play a key role.

Although Ye Mingsheng had previously formulated a policy of free education and asked prefectures and counties to build public schools to impart knowledge, in the past few years, Ye Mingsheng has focused more of his energy on competing for hegemony over the world, rectifying the administration of officials, and reforming land finance.

To be honest, Ye Mingsheng was somewhat neglectful of Daqian's education, so after realizing this, Ye Mingsheng wanted to correct it.

In order to understand the current situation, Ye Mingsheng thought it was not enough to just ask the Minister of Rites Su Yi to give him a report and then approve it in the Imperial Study.

You must go to the front line to understand the real situation, then find the problem and ultimately solve it!
That's why after the screening, Ye Mingsheng chose Baishou County as the target of his research!
Ye Mingsheng had his own considerations for choosing Baishou County as his target among so many prefectures and counties in Daqian!

First of all, the Daqian layoff operation is currently at a critical moment. As the emperor, Ye Mingsheng needs to sit at the center and coordinate the overall situation. He cannot leave Yijing easily. Therefore, even if he wants to leave Yijing for research, he must choose a nearby place so that he can go and come back quickly, so as not to delay military and national affairs...
Secondly, although Baishou County is a small county, the total population of the county and some of its subordinate towns is only 60,000 to 70,000. However, the situation in Baishou County is relatively typical. There are public schools established by the county government, as well as traditional private schools and academies in the county, which are representative to a certain extent.

So Ye Mingsheng came here, ready to conduct a one-day and one-night investigation. Originally, Ye Mingsheng had no plan to take his sons with him, but Jingren and the others kept clamoring for Ye Mingsheng to fulfill his promise to take them out to play, and Ye Mingsheng also felt that this investigation would have some educational significance for these children, so he brought his three sons along.

Baishou Public School is located in a remote location in the west of Baishou County. Before Ye Mingsheng and his party entered the school, they heard the sound of reading coming from the school.

However, the sounds of reading were not uniform, and even seemed a bit chaotic. The accompanying county magistrate Cui Shan looked a little embarrassed when he heard this. Just as he was carefully looking at Ye Mingsheng's face, hesitating whether to say something, Ye Mingsheng ignored him and walked straight into the public school.

The so-called public school is actually two simple brick and tile houses. There is a five-acre playground in the middle of the two brick and tile houses, with stone locks and other tools placed on it. Everything looks very shabby and even a little pitiful.
Wang Hui, the principal of Baishou Public School, came out with a smile on his face after hearing that County Magistrate Cui Shan had arrived. However, before he could say anything, he saw the usually dignified County Magistrate standing respectfully next to a man in plain clothes.

Although the man was in casual clothes, he had an aura of dignity that made him look like a man of high rank. Wang Hui approached him immediately. Upon seeing Wang Hui, Cui Shan immediately introduced him:

"Wang Hui, this is Lord Ye, the inspector sent by the Ministry of Rites!"

Although Wang Hui didn't know what kind of official the inspector was, he didn't have time to think about it and knelt on the ground and saluted Ye Mingsheng:
"Commoner Wang Hui pays his respects to His Excellency..."

"stand up!"

"Thank you, sir!"

"Are you the governor of this school?"

"Yes!"

"Take us to the classroom and have a look!"

Under Ye Mingsheng's order, Wang Hui led everyone to the classroom. However, to everyone's surprise, Ye Mingsheng did not lead everyone into the classroom. Instead, he stood outside the classroom door and quietly observed the situation in the classroom.

At this time, an old man in the classroom was holding a bunch of books and teaching the children in the room. The old man recited a sentence of the Analects, and everyone followed him to recite a sentence of the Analects. The classroom was not big, but there were many children, about two hundred people, all of whom were seven or eight years old.

These children are basically pale and thin, wearing patched clothes, and you can tell at a glance that they are all children from poor families.
Because the classroom is not big, the children are all crowded together and it looks very crowded.

There were no tables, so everyone sat on the floor. Those who were more particular would use a cushion, while some just sat directly on the floor.

At this time, at Cui Shan's request, Wang Hui explained the situation of the public school to Ye Mingsheng.

"Your Excellency, we have 500 students in our public school. According to the requirements above, I have divided them into three grades according to their age and knowledge. The students in the room are first-year students in our public school. They are taking a Chinese class now!"

"Because our public school only has two classrooms, the three grades can only use them in rotation. Today's class is for the first and second grades. The third grade is resting at home, and the second grade is taking an arithmetic class in the classroom to the east..."

Although Ye Mingsheng did not want to disturb the classroom where classes were ongoing, unfortunately, the arrival of so many people inevitably attracted attention.

The children in the classroom were looking at Ye Mingsheng and others outside with some curiosity. Seeing this, the old teacher who was teaching the class directly announced the end of the get out of class.

After the old teacher announced the end of get out of class, the children first saluted the old teacher in groups of three or five, and then ran excitedly to the playground as if they were waiting for something.

Seeing this, Ye Mingsheng was also a little confused, and the school supervisor Wang Hui explained:

"Master Ye, according to the requirements above, our public school usually has two classes in the morning and one class in the afternoon. After the afternoon class, it is time for dinner. However, Master Liu finished class a little early today, so it is not time for dinner yet!"

Before Wang Hui finished speaking, Jing Ren, who was following Ye Mingsheng, spoke with some doubt:
"It's just past 3 p.m., so what are we going to eat?"

Although Wang Hui didn't know who Jingren was, when he saw the way Jingren was dressed, he clearly understood that Jingren was an extraordinary person, and he patiently explained:

"Sir, we only have two meals a day here. The first breakfast is at Mao time, and the second dinner is at Shen time..."

Hearing this answer, Jingren nodded and said nothing more, but Jingcheng took over the conversation and asked naively:

"Then why don't you eat three meals? Won't you get hungry if you only eat two meals?"

As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere immediately became awkward. Supervisor Wang Hui didn't know how to answer this question for a moment, and at this moment Jing Xuan said seriously:

"Third brother! Of course they also want to eat three meals a day, but they don't have that much money to buy food. There are many poor people in this world, and they need to work very hard to survive!"

Ye Mingsheng was a little surprised when he heard this, and immediately asked Jingxuan:

"Who taught you that?"

Jingxuan said without hesitation:
"My mother!"

Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly when he heard this, and then said with some emotion:

"Jingxuan, your mother is right. They need to work very hard to survive!"

After expressing his feelings, Ye Mingsheng began his work. He asked Zhang Hu to distribute the candies that had been prepared long ago to the children on the playground. These children from poor families could not afford to eat candies on a daily basis, so the free distribution of candies immediately attracted them to Ye Mingsheng.

Ye Mingsheng also took the opportunity to ask questions to these children.

"Answer uncle's question and I'll give you candy, okay?"

The children looked at the candy with anticipation, and then answered in unison:

"it is good!"