Chapter 404: Reform of the Times! (Thanks to the book friend Giant of the Trauma Earth, 9018 for the reward!)
Gu Sansi spent a whole incense stick of time reading a few pages of paper. When he put the papers down, he asked Ye Mingsheng very seriously:
"My Lord, who gave you this idea?"

Ye Mingsheng frowned slightly upon hearing this, and did not answer Gu Sansi's question, but instead asked:

"Any questions?"

In response to Ye Mingsheng's question, Gu Sansi shook his head and said:
"Sir, this is an unprecedented reform plan. This is the first time I have seen such a plan. My mind is a little confused right now. I need to think carefully before I can give you an answer..."

Listening to Gu Sansi's answer, Ye Mingsheng nodded and said:

"It doesn't matter. Think about it carefully when you go back. It would be best if you can give me an answer within three days!"

"I understand, sir!" Gu Sansi nodded, then with a thoughtful look on his face, he said goodbye to Ye Mingsheng and left.

Looking at Gu Sansi's leaving back, a faint smile appeared on Ye Mingsheng's face. Although Gu Sansi was extremely talented, he was a man of the feudal era after all, and his thinking was still constrained by that era. So when he put forward this reform plan that transcended the limitations of the times, his reaction was not surprising.

The first item of Ye Mingsheng's reform plan was to take over Dadongsheng, one of the largest businesses in Liaoyang, and let the government hold a controlling stake in Dadongsheng, undertake all financial business in Liaoyang including bill exchange and remittance, grant it a special status and exclusive franchise, and then issue ten-year and twenty-year bonds worth one million taels in the name of Dadongsheng.

Ye Mingsheng will try his best to get the Cui family, Gongsun family, Yun family and other gentry to pay for the one million taels of bonds. Ye Mingsheng will use part of the silver to improve Liaoyang's financial situation, prepare for war and other matters before entering the pass, and the bulk of it will be used to buy most of the land from the aristocratic gentry groups headed by these three families.

The purchased land will be used as state-owned land and rented to the vast number of poor peasant tenants for terms of 70 or 50 years. In order to increase the enthusiasm of the peasants for farming, Ye Mingsheng plans to change the original 190% or 280% split given by the landlords to the tenants to a 500% split, so as to strengthen the support of the vast number of peasant brothers for the Fengwu Army regime...

If this move succeeds, Ye Mingsheng will be able to avoid taking action against the three families and the gentry class, maintain social stability, and to a certain extent solve the social problems of the huge gap between the rich and the poor in Liaoyang and serious land annexation, ease the class confrontation in the eyes of the middle and lower classes and the gentry group, and tie the gentry class headed by the three families in Liaoyang to the chariot of his Fengwu Army.

After all, if the Fengwu Army fails, the bonds in their hands that have drained their wealth will naturally become invalid. Even if it is to protect the principal and income of the bonds in their hands, they will help the Fengwu Army to enter the pass and conquer the world!
As for the second item, it is the public-private partnership in people’s livelihood and highly profitable industries.

At first, Ye Mingsheng was only planning to conduct public-private partnerships in important businesses in several key industries such as grain, salt, iron, and cloth, strengthen industry supervision, and severely crack down on those unscrupulous businessmen who ignored the lives of the people and social security and stability and drove up prices and hoarded goods. However, after learning from Gu Sansi about the huge profits of ginseng, deer antlers, and mink fur, Ye Mingsheng was also planning to conduct public-private partnerships in this area, collect these profits into the hands of the government, and benefit the people...
If the first two contents of Ye Mingsheng focus on the present, then Ye Mingsheng's third reform content is more focused on the future.

Ye Mingsheng planned to set up schools in the country to provide free education for children of school age. In Liaoyang today, except for a few children of gentry and landlords who could attend private schools, most children of farmers, workers, and handicraftsmen had no chance to receive education.

Except for a few lucky people who can change their own destiny, 99 percent of people can only do these jobs from generation to generation. There is no doubt that this is a kind of class solidification and is not conducive to the overall forward development of society.

The reason why the aristocratic families are powerful is that they own land and control most of the means of production in society, but Ye Mingsheng believes that the fundamental reason why the aristocratic families are powerful is that they control the best educational resources of this era...
With the nourishment of such high-quality educational resources, the children of aristocratic families may not be very talented, but their abilities and knowledge can still beat 99% of the people in seconds. In order to obtain these high-quality educational resources, the children of poor families must choose to rely on aristocratic families.

Over time, many people in the government have various relationships with aristocratic families, forming various interest communities. Everyone shares weal and woe, and prospers together and suffers together!
If one wants to change this situation and eliminate the social cancer of the aristocratic families, one can either do as the failed scholar who is wearing golden armor all over the city and raise the butcher knife to kill them all.

Either we should start from the root of education, so that most children of school age have the opportunity to receive education, and then through examinations, we can screen and filter through layers to allow truly talented people to have the opportunity to receive higher education, break down class barriers, and ease the social contradictions caused by class solidification.

Among all this, Ye Mingsheng still has another idea, that is, he hopes to change the concept of the times through his own efforts, so that people can gradually abandon the backward idea that everything is inferior except for reading, and accept the concept that science and technology are the primary productive forces. Only in this way, the entire country and the entire nation will be more competitive in the cruel competition in the world in the future...
Although Ye Mingsheng's idea is good, the reality is that Liaoyang's finances are not enough to fully realize his dream. However, Ye Mingsheng has already thought of a countermeasure, which is to do things within the capacity of one's ability, eat one bite at a time, and take one step at a time.

First of all, those places in Liaoyang that have the conditions to build schools should build schools, and those that don’t can just put up a shed to shelter from the wind and rain. It doesn’t matter if the teaching staff is not good, just provide basic education first to ensure that every child can read and write. After a period of study, those with excellent results will be selected for further education.

Ye Mingsheng has a solution for parents' low enthusiasm. He plans to launch a scholarship system and tax reduction benefits. If your children do well in school, you can not only earn money but also pay less tax. This will motivate you, right?

Although these measures will increase fiscal expenditure, they are an investment in the future of the nation-state. Ye Mingsheng is prepared to do it even if he has to tighten his belt!

(End of this chapter)