Chapter 1464: Training (Part 3)

Zhao Mingming sat among the crowd, opened a blank register, and started chatting with them while waiting for food, recording their family situations.

This village isn’t large, with only over forty households, and at this moment, every household has someone here. They all know each other well, and the village chief is present too. When asked about how many people are in each family and how many mu of land they own, answers come quickly and the information is collected swiftly.

It’s fine to fill in any gaps the next day.

It’s the seventeenth year since the founding of the country, and the first generation of newborns has grown up. Most have started to join the workforce.

Some have married right at the age threshold of sixteen and have become new fathers or mothers, so each household has quite a few people.

After reviewing the compiled register, Zhao Mingming noted one family that settled here in the third year of Jianxing. At that time, it was just a family of three, but in less than twenty years, they have now expanded to a family of eighteen.

The two brothers are not young, yet they still haven’t separated their households.

Zhao Mingming was curious, so he asked about the schooling situation of their children, learning that regardless of gender, all children attend the five-year compulsory education when they come of age, prompting a nod of approval.

Allowing the children to receive compulsory education is a sign of a farsighted family.

Zhao Mingming, with ample grassroots experience, knows that even though the imperial court’s compulsory education doesn’t require tuition or book fees, many people still don’t want their children to spend time studying.

Whether boys or girls, they are seen as wasting time and energy through reading.

Since studying for five years only teaches literacy and numeracy, it doesn’t lead to government positions or provide skills that make it easier to find work.

Everywhere, there are people who have studied for three or five years.

Jobs like farming, labor, errands, and clerk work don’t require literacy or numeracy.

They believe that as soon as the child can walk, they should start working; pulling weeds by three, planting rice by five, are standard practices, and by seven, the child can be used as half an adult, and by twelve, they could prepare for marriage in those days.

Thus, sending a seven-year-old to school was seen as competing with the family for labor.

Not only could the children not be put to work, but they also had to spend five years’ worth of living expenses, and beyond tuition and book fees, they had to buy pens, paper, and ink, which were additional costs.

Calculating this cost, they were unwilling to send their children to school.

Advocacy for compulsory education has always been a priority for the Ritual Room of county governments every year, and they rack their brains trying to persuade parents to send their children to school.

To achieve the goal of "not leaving a single child behind," the Ritual Room uses all possible strategies, using both wisdom and force with the parents.

Just before the recent school season, the county government even jailed five people who stubbornly refused to send their children to school. After the County Magistrate got frustrated, he jailed them for a month, making them do hard labor building bridges and roads before releasing them.

After that, many who were hesitant about sending their children to school succumbed, sending them even if reluctantly.

At this moment, Zhao Mingming both recorded and praised the Liu Family for their foresight, "Sending your children to school is the right thing to do. Nowadays, when finding a job, even for washing dishes, they ask if you can read, count, and if you have a school graduation certificate."

"Even as waiters, those who’ve studied five years might rise to accounting or purchasing roles, but those who’ve never studied will remain waiters."

Villagers nodded in agreement, echoing, "Finding work outside is tough. Those without schooling suffer, though even five years of schooling isn’t enough. One must have a skill."

Fan Lianyin said, "Yes, isn’t the government now opening many technical schools? After five years of compulsory education, even if you can’t get into county or district schools, you can choose to attend technical schools, learn a skill, and find work."

Although many Mo School skills were lost after Qin and Han, their status in society wasn’t squeezed to the bottom like in later generations.

For hundreds of years, craftsmen needed to depend on the court or nobility, but because of the Mo School’s influence from the pre-Qin era, they still held respect among the people.

After Hua Country was established, the Emperor personally welcomed the Mo School leader to the capital, not only appointing them to high positions but also participating in some mechanical designs.

Everyone knows Fu Tinghan is an outstanding Mozi, thus raising the status of craftsmen considerably.

Since Hua Country’s founding, class differences among scholars, farmers, craftsmen, and merchants have lessened, even among soldiers and musicians.

Even slave status disappeared due to the abolition of death bonds, leaving only employment contracts instead of slave hierarchies.

This also led to the disappearance of hidden households among the nobility that began in the Han Dynasty, making it difficult for large numbers of them to hide.

With the implementation of the equal field system, the government has reduced labor and taxation, often exempting taxes, leading once-concealed households to come forward.

Not only Zhao Mingming but all the county magistrates can proudly say there are no purposely hidden households in their counties.

If any hidden households exist, it’s because policies haven’t reached them or they’re mentally and physically living in seclusion, unaware of the changes outside.

Over seventeen years, the burgeoning population has reclaimed 70-80% of the abandoned land from the previous dynasty. For future population growth, new land needs to be cultivated to expand farmland to allocate.

Zhao Mingming not only recorded the population and allocated land in each village but also checked the unused public fields.

This investigation revealed unexpected discoveries.

Some public fields, still growing wild grass, await village children turning sixteen to divide them, while others have already become private land.

Zhao Mingming returned to the government office to investigate, "Before Your Majesty ascended to the throne, there was already a strict order that land was not to be traded. After ascending, this matter was even more strictly enforced, as all the land belongs to the state. The state distributes land to the people, divided into ’mouth allocation fields’ and ’eternal enterprise fields.’

"’Eternal enterprise fields’ can be inherited because when nationwide fields are eventually all divided, no more land will be distributed. Descendants will inherit fields from their ancestors, so eternal enterprise fields cannot be bought or sold," Zhao Mingming explained. "As such, ’mouth allocation fields’ are rental fields and cannot be traded. When someone dies, they revert to state ownership for redistribution."

"But during our rural inspection, many places should have been public fields, but upon inquiry, they had become private properties," she said. "This issue likely isn’t isolated to our county; it must exist elsewhere too."

Fan Lianyin added, "Now, the population is still small, so it isn’t apparent. However, the most children were born from the third to the eighth year of Yuanzhen. Those born in the third year will start land divisions in two years, meaning every year after that, large swaths of public land will be divided. If public land is occupied, these new adults will not get sufficient shares, or even eternal enterprise fields..."

Isn’t that akin to stealing food from the people’s mouths?

Zu Daosheng murmured, "No wonder Your Majesty started this year’s population and land census; within two years..."

After observing the situation with public fields, Zhao Mingming realized the significance of her mother’s initiative to count the population and land. She whispered, "This is not only an opportunity for the court but also ours!"

If done well, there’s a chance for promotion and administrative reform;

If not done well... that’s not an option, it has to be done well!

Zhao Mingming dismissed the latter scenario, understanding her mother’s intent. She couldn’t afford not to do well.