After receiving the order, the newspaper reader raised the newspaper and read, "Article 5: Formulate specific regulations for national sports competitions and professionalize sports participants."
After reading this article, he stopped and waited out of habit.
This time, not only were the officials confused, but Li Longji was even more puzzled.
Everyone knew that the most typical sports competition was football. Currently, every state had its own football team that represented the local government. There were two best stadiums, one in the capital and the other in Lu Zhou.
Every state had their own stadiums. The wealthier places had better stadiums, while the poorer places only had stadiums for appearances. Some did not even have a lawn.
Apart from the government, there were also private companies that were interested in forming their own football teams. There were even people who liked to play football who formed their own teams and played with others.
Naturally, football was not the only sport competition. There were many other sports such as badminton, billiards, track and field, swimming, and so on.
What puzzled the people in Hanyuan Hall was why it was included in the government's decree when it was usually done for fun. Would it affect the country if it was done well or not?
Hence, those who were confused looked at Zhang Zhong, hoping to get some information from him.
Zhang Zhong was also confused. He looked at the other person and gave him a 'I don't know' expression.
"I'll ask Xiao Bao later. Read it." Li Longji gave up on the idea of figuring it out for now.
"Article 6: Lift the restrictions on the purchase of lottery tickets, further crack down on private gambling houses, and increase the number of sports lottery tickets," the newspaper reader read out.
Everyone understood the meaning of this article. In the past, buying lottery tickets depended on other people's wealth and income. The original plan was to control gambling, but Xiao Bao and Cuckoo realized that they could not control it. Since there were too many private gambling houses, since they could not control it, they might as well reduce it.
Instead of letting the local people earn the money, it would be better for the court to take it. At least, it could be used for public welfare. The pursuit of profit was difficult to eliminate since ancient times.
After a while, they thought that Article 5 might serve the purpose of Article 6. There must be rules to increase the number of lottery tickets. Otherwise, how would they sell the tickets if they stopped after two rounds?
Li Longji gestured to the newspaper reader. The newspaper reader continued reading, "Article 7: Encourage craftsmen to create their own skills, improve the technology protection law, strictly unify weights and measures, and reformulate the craftsmen's skills assessment standards.
"Article 8: Increase food quarantine standards and gradually improve the implementation of food classification."
"Article 9: Implement the minimum income protection plan for migrant workers. There will be no upper limit on migrant workers' income. Formulate a standard for migrant workers' one-day working hours. Overtime will be double the wage. Increase the cycle of migrant workers' work and rest standards. A week of seven days, with one day off in each cycle."
"The tenth rule …"
"Wait, this subject has something to say." Yu Wen Rong stopped the newspaper reader. He turned his head and asked the emperor: "Your Majesty, this subject doesn't understand. The officials have a rest. If the workers also rest, it's like building. If they rest, will the construction stop? Or when the ship is unloading goods at the dock, will it stop when it's time to rest? "
"Should we stop?" Li Longji wasn't sure either. It was mainly because it was too sudden and he didn't have much time to react. After pondering for a while, he said, "You can take turns to rest. Or you can also work overtime like you do on a single day. As for why it's seven days a week and not ten days a week, I guess it's based on the Sunday of a certain place."
Li Longji seemed to be quite knowledgeable. He knew about the Sunday. If he took a day off every ten days, perhaps Xiao Bao and Cuckoo would think that it was too long.
Yu Wen Rong nodded and asked again: "If everyone takes a day off, won't it indirectly reduce the Tang people's work time, and thus reduce the production? What is the classification of the migrant workers? Do the farmers also need to rest? "
"There will be a supplementary explanation. It should be sent here before noon today." Zhang Zhong stood up and explained. Even now, he still didn't understand why his son and daughter-in-law didn't send the detailed explanation first. Instead, they made the others wait.
"That's fine." Yu Wen Rong didn't ask any more questions. Instead, he said, "I've thought about the ninth rule a bit. It means to protect the people who work for them. They're worried that the employers will exploit them. But this way, the employers will be very selective when choosing people to work for them. Only in this way can they guarantee greater benefits.
So many people with professional skills, when faced with this situation, won't they lose the opportunity to find a job? While protecting a portion of the people, they are actually harming a portion of the people. How does this work? "
The officials all frowned. If it was in the past, perhaps some people would think that this matter didn't concern them. But now, they couldn't. The Imperial Court needed efficiency, and it also needed a civil servant to have a sense of responsibility. If they dared to be perfunctory when it came to official matters, they would definitely be taken down.
As development sped up, there were more and more things to do, and the connections with the local authorities were also closer. Every day, every department sent out telegrams nonstop. There were always some matters that needed to be resolved. It was impossible to return to the leisurely days of the past. There were already many officials who couldn't ask for leave to go out with their families.
Li Longji was very satisfied with the attitude of the officials in the Imperial Court, but he also couldn't think of a way to resolve the problems and contradictions that Xiao Bao and Cuckoo had come up with.
Just as everyone was actively thinking, the person reading the newspaper gathered his courage and said: "There is, there is, there is a tenth rule."
"There is? The tenth rule? Read it. "Yu Wen Rong said, overstepping his authority.
Li Longji didn't have the heart to care about such a small matter, so he nodded.
"The tenth rule is that the local authorities will increase the expenditure on vocational skills training. In the past, the local authorities would passively accept the training of people looking for jobs, but they would actively require people to participate in the training.
For example, the people who work at the docks will need to undergo basic training on the use of docks tools, so that they can understand the use of the tools and properly allocate their strength. "
The person reading the newspaper read out.
"That's more like it. At least there's a supplement to the previous rule. Xiao Bao and Cuckoo saw that the national treasury had too much money, so they helped to spend it." Li Longji said with a smile. The others nodded in agreement.
Indeed, the national treasury's money was placed there and couldn't be spent immediately. The income of the past two years had increased too quickly, and it had broken the previous mindset of spending money. Moreover, the local officials didn't blindly ask for money to be spent for corruption, so the money could be used reasonably.
However, new spending projects hadn't been found yet. It couldn't be said that the money couldn't be spent carelessly. The simplest way to spend money was to repair roads and river embankments. If they were to spread out throughout the country, the national treasury wouldn't have enough money.
It might seem like a lot, but if one wanted to build roads, bridges, and river embankments at the same time, even if they threw in a fifth of the money, they wouldn't be able to build them. However, the problem was that there were other policies supporting the construction of roads. It was that the merchants would build them and then charge for them.
The merchants were very active, and some logistics companies even worked with others to build roads. They needed to quickly ship out their goods, and after some calculations, as long as the fees collected from the roads and bridges exceeded the interest of the Great Tang Bank and the depreciation of the currency, it would be a very good profit.
For the time being, it seemed that the recovery period was just a little longer. There were some that took five years, some that took seven years, and some that took ten years. As for those that took more than ten years, because the roads weren't built that well and had to withstand the pressure of hundreds of tons of carts, those that took ten years were already very good.
The farsighted merchants liked to build roads and bridges. They could see how fast the Great Tang was developing, and the more advanced and practical the technology was, the more the people would earn, and the more goods there would be, so they needed more circulation. Currently, they were calculating the recovery period based on the circulation of goods, but they believed that it wouldn't be long before the actual income would be several times or even more than ten times the current calculation.
At that time, they would have to sign a supplementary agreement with the Imperial Court to redistribute the sudden increase in profits. Back then, when they signed the contract, it was agreed upon.
As such, the officials of the Imperial Court couldn't directly spend money to build roads. If they wanted to build a road, after they had just gotten someone to measure it, and before the money was allocated, a merchant came to ask for it, would they give it to him or not?
Now, all the officials knew that Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan intended to spend the money on the training of Great Tang's workers.
"This official thinks that this money should be spent." Wang Bei, who was in charge of the money, stepped forward and said to the crowd.
Many people were surprised. Wang Bei, weren't you always at odds with Zhang Xiaobao and the Wang Clan? Why are you speaking up for them? Could it be that you have reached an agreement with Zhang Zhong just now? But how much can you give away? How much do you get? Is it worth it?
Wang Bei didn't care about the different gazes of others. "As an official of Great Tang, this official sincerely supports this spending. At first glance, after the money is invested, it won't be recovered in a short period of time. However, when the country does things, it can't always look at the short term.
Just like Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan's Chaoyang Operation, now that the merchants are providing the money, our country's national treasury can support it even without the merchants. It's just to let the merchants remember the basic moral requirements of being a person at all times.
I believe that everyone has seen it now. Ten years, ten years, how are the lives of the people of our country? How many of them are educated? It's not like in the past where it was difficult to understand government decrees. As long as the government posted the notice, the people would be able to understand it.
Knowing the affairs of the country and discussing them, knowing the law and abiding by the law, learning the material and applying it, understanding the principles and taking the right path, this is the power of education. The little sapling that Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan planted many years ago has finally grown.
I believe that in another ten years, in another twenty years, the talents cultivated by our country's education alone will be enough to easily suppress the other countries and make them unable to raise their heads.
This is the cultivation of children, but now it's the cultivation of adults. It's the cultivation of people who missed the education period ten years ago. Ten years later, everyone, think about it. When all the craftsmen have their own skills, what will our Great Tang be like then? "
After Wang Bei said this, those who previously had other dirty thoughts began to admire him. At this moment, his back was straightest. He put aside his personal grudges and spoke from the perspective of righteousness. Even if he was an enemy, he would gladly do it.
Then, the officials began to consider according to Wang Bei's ideas. This was especially so for those officials who had seen outsiders. They deeply felt the envy and yearning of the people of other countries for Great Tang's education, as well as the fear and desire for Great Tang's technology.
Li Longji sighed in relief and nodded. "Good, I also feel like I'm in a dream recently. I almost can't believe that this is what our Great Tang is like. Come, bring me the newspaper. I'll read a few articles."
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