Confiscated and exiled, the down-and-out general became the queen

Chapter 389 Too Expensive

When Tianyi heard this, he dared not to use less than his full strength, but this time, the result was somewhat beyond his expectations.

He didn't expect that he would be the loser in the end.

The moment Tianyi fell to the ground, he was stunned for a few seconds. After he came to his senses, he quickly stood up. Just as he was about to speak, he heard Xiao Lengyue say, "From now on, you will fight with me every day."

Tianyi's mouth twitched, and he bowed and said, "Yes."

Xiao Lengyue felt very comfortable after the fight and was sweating all over, so he went back to wash up.

In the following days, the cabinet cooperated very well with the prime minister, and in the end, only a small number of memorials were presented to Xiao Lengyue.

She only needed to set aside one hour each to deal with those memorials. The rest of the time, apart from fighting with Tianyi, she would go to the Ministry of Works.

There are a lot of cement materials found in the wasteland, but because there are few workers, the output is very low.

Almost all of that cement was used in the construction of the dam. Now that the dam is almost completed, she thought about asking the Ministry of Industry to intervene, and then build the road first and then sell it to the outside world.

The people from the Ministry of Works had come into contact with cement before, so they knew that this was a very hard substance. When they heard Xiao Lengyue say this, they volunteered to go and see how it was built.

Xiao Lengyue asked the Minister of Works to arrange people to go to the desolate land to find Leng Huaiyi, and then went to the Department of Craftsmen. However, before she arrived at the Department of Craftsmen, she heard a palace servant say that old Grand Tutor Murong wanted to see her.

After hearing this, Xiao Lengyue returned to the Yangxin Palace.

When old tutor Murong saw Xiao Lengyue coming back, he quickly bowed.

Xiao Lengyue calmly sat down at the tea table and looked at Old Master Murong, "Master, please sit down first."

Old Grand Tutor Murong was not polite. After he sat down, he said directly, "Your Majesty, I came here to ask you if Your Majesty is going to set the test questions for the Spring Examination himself?"

Xiao Lengyue shook her head and said, "I will only set a few questions during the palace examination. The rest of the exams will still be up to the masters to set the questions."

When Grand Tutor Murong heard this, he nodded and said, "Then I will go down and discuss the issue with the Minister of Personnel."

After hearing this, Xiao Lengyue pondered for a while and said, "Master, this time, let the Minister of Industry add the tricky or difficult questions in the Ministry of Industry to see if these students can solve them."

After saying this, he paused and continued, “In fact, we can add a few of the most difficult or hard-to-solve problems from the six parts. After all, everyone has different ideas.

If these students have better methods or ideas, then the problem will be solved.”

When Old Tutor Murong heard this, his eyes lit up. Yes, they have been in officialdom for a long time, and it is difficult for them to maintain their original intentions.

But those students are not like that. They have not yet entered the court, and their inner thoughts are very pure and passionate. Maybe they really have good ideas.

So, after Old Tutor Murong went out, he went straight to find the Minister of Personnel. No one knew what the two talked about in the room. When they appeared again, they had rushed out of the palace in a hurry.

Xiao Lengyue thought about this and suddenly looked at Tianyi, "Tianyi, have someone check how many people are taking the Autumn Examination this time."

After hearing this, Tianyi went to ask someone. The Ministry of Personnel had a headcount register. When the Minister of Personnel found out that it was Xiao Lengyue who asked, he hurried to the Yangxin Palace with the list.

Xiao Lengyue looked at the list in front of him, frowned slightly, and looked at the Minister of Personnel, "With so many people, the number of applicants for the Autumn Examination is less than 5000?"

When the Minister of Personnel heard this, he quickly bowed and said, "Your Majesty, this time, the barbarians and Chaoyang people did not participate in the exam, and the people from our Yuan Dynasty actually have more people than in previous years."

When Xiao Lengyue heard the Minister of Personnel talking about Chaoyang and Manyi, he frowned slightly and said, "From now on, Manyi will be the east, Chaoyang will be the west, and our Great Yuan Dynasty will be the center.

Now that the world is unified, it is inappropriate to call them barbarians or Chaoyang. "

Upon hearing this, the Minister of Personnel quickly knelt down and bowed, saying, "Yes, Your Majesty."

After he finished speaking, he saw that Xiao Lengyue did not speak, so he said: "This autumn examination, because the people in the east and west do not understand the knowledge in the central region, no one applied for the exam.

But I have already sent people to promote the imperial examination, and I think the number of candidates for next year’s autumn examination should be quite high.”

When Xiao Lengyue heard this, she was not happy, but asked: "How many more people have been added this year compared to last year?"

When the Minister of Personnel heard this, he bowed and said, "Your Majesty, about five hundred people."

Xiao Lengyue was surprised to hear this number. She didn't expect that even if she overturned the recommendation system, there would still be so few people applying for the exam.

The Minister of Personnel looked at Xiao Lengyue's expression, pondered for a while, and said, "Your Majesty, I think that the lack of students is not just because it is difficult to get promoted."

Seeing Xiao Lengyue looking at him, the Minister of Personnel became ruthless and said, "In addition to this reason, there is another reason, that is, books and paper are too expensive, and ordinary people simply cannot afford it."

Hearing this, Xiao Lengyue remembered what the problem was that she had been ignoring. She frowned slightly and asked, "Now, how much are the books and paper priced?"

When the Minister of Personnel heard this, he said in a deep voice: "Expensive, very expensive.

The normal price of a copy of "Three Character Classic" is around one or two taels, and this is just a book for enlightenment, let alone other books.

Some books, except for the children of officials, were not accessible to anyone else. For example, the books of the Imperial College were only accessible to the students of the Imperial College. "

When Xiao Lengyue heard the price of the book, she frowned, "Can't the price of this book be lowered?"

The Minister of Personnel shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, the price of this book is already the lowest.

Not to mention the labor costs for excerpting, even the paper is priced low.

The cheapest paper sold outside costs several hundred coins a piece. A slightly better paper that doesn’t print ink costs about one ounce. If you want to add ink, it costs more than three ounces.”

Xiao Lengyue didn't expect that paper would be so expensive. She frowned and looked at the Minister of Personnel, "Is the Ministry of Works responsible for paper?"

When the Minister of Personnel heard this, he paused for a moment and shook his head, "Your Majesty, you have been away from the palace for many years, so it is normal that you don't know.

The paper used in the palace was tribute from wealthy merchants in central China and the royal family.

But apart from the paper used in the palace, all other paper must be purchased from the Wang family."

When Xiao Lengyue heard this, her brows furrowed even tighter. "So, the papers outside and those bookstores are all owned by the Wang family?"