Save the Bachelor of Heaven

 Fucha Langhua therefore urged Xiang Nan to draft a few more concubines into the palace in order to flourish the royal family.

"Your Majesty, the reproduction of heirs in the harem is a top priority. However, no brother or princess has been born in the palace for four years. Moreover, since Lord Jia entered the palace, the Emperor has never had a new person." Lang Hua advised, "Yes. I think it’s better to hold a talent show. Otherwise, outsiders will say that I am jealous and unwilling to add new people to the harem. They will also say that I am vicious and unwilling to let other concubines in the palace give birth to children..."

"No need, I think it's pretty good now. Yonghuang, Yongzhang, Yongqi, Yongcun, Yongheng, and Yonglian are all healthy and smart." Xiang Nan said, "It's enough for me to have these brothers. .”

Yongzheng served as emperor for thirteen years, and in the end he only had four sons left. He now has six elder brothers, and they are all healthy and smart. They are already much better than Yongzheng.

“Your Majesty, it’s okay for my concubine to be gossiped about. The key point is that Your Majesty, you killed too much, and you have sinned against Heaven, and you can no longer continue to have children...” Lang Hua said again.

“Would anyone say that?” Xiang Nan frowned upon hearing this.

 He has never heard of this news. However, he had to pay attention to this matter.

 Because China values ​​​​"learning from teachers with a reputation", and everything they do must be justified. Even if you want to rebel, you must first find a reason.

The outside world said that he had killed too much, which was why he had no heirs in recent years... Once the people believed this statement, it would have a considerable impact on his reputation, and then threaten his rule.

 In this case, the best way is to choose a show girl once and use facts to prove that you are not guilty of God's crime.

"Well, in that case, let's choose once." Xiang Nan thought for a while and said, "But there is no need to mobilize the troops. Civil servants who are sent out to know the following, and the daughters of military generals and guerrillas below do not need to participate in the draft to avoid the fatigue of travel, so There are so many extravagances.”

 Originally, in the Qing Dynasty's draft, as long as they were women of the right age from the Eight Banners of Manchu, Mongolia, and Han, they had to participate in the draft regardless of whether they were officials in Beijing or overseas.

Those who dare to marry without authorization will be punished by the commander, counselor, and assistant leader of their banner, as well as their parents and clan leader.

However, because there are too many women of the right age, nearly 10,000 show girls participate in each draft. Many of them traveled thousands of miles from other places to the capital to participate in the draft.

You must know that transportation in ancient times was inconvenient and the travel was not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also expensive. It was a big burden for the court and individuals.

The key point is that the woman was weak at the time, so she was likely to get sick from such a bumpy ride, and it was not uncommon for her to even die on the road.

 For this reason, Xiang Nancai restricted the sending of officials to other places. Daughters of Tongzhi and guerrilla level were no longer allowed to participate in the draft. Those from small households had no money to pay for their carriages and horses, so they had no idea how much suffering they would suffer along the way.

And Tongzhi is a fifth-rank official, and Guerrilla is a third-rank official, both of which are considered high-ranking officials. Their daughter will naturally receive good care and suffer less hardship along the way.

“Yes, Your Majesty is wise, I know this.” Lang Hua nodded.

 …

 Subsequently, after Qianlong ascended the throne, the first draft began.

　　The Manchu, Mongolian, and Han people in the Eight Banners were extremely excited when they heard the news. Especially the daughter who is beautiful and talented, she is eager to fly on the branches and become a phoenix.

Among the Manchus, unmarried daughters have the highest status and are called "aunts" because they can participate in the draft. At that time, once you catch the emperor's eye and enter the palace, the whole family will jump over the dragon gate.

Xiang Nan didn’t care much about this matter.

 He is now busy building a steel plant in Fengtian outside the customs. There is China's largest open-pit iron mine with an ore reserve of 24 billion tons, which is enough for smelting.

 The area of ​​Fengtian Steel Plant is five times larger than that of Tiangong Steel Plant, and its annual output can reach more than 600,000 tons.

 At that time, they can be built into powerful weapons, equipment and machinery, which will play a role in many fields such as military, people's livelihood, production and so on.

Xiang Nan was naturally responsible for the design drawings of the Fengtian Iron and Steel Plant, but he could not supervise the work himself and could only send capable officials to supervise.

 And Xiang Nan also asked them to issue a military order. If there is even a slight mistake in the construction, the nine tribes will be killed. Moreover, the report was meritorious, and he was protected and imprisoned. Let them supervise each other, remind each other, and warn each other, so as not to make mistakes.

 …

In addition, after Xiang Nan took charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and trained the new army, he successively secured financial power and military power. Now he began to target the civil service system with reforms.

The civil service system of the Qing Dynasty was actually very good. Throughout the nearly three hundred years of the Qing Dynasty's history, there were no relatives with exclusive power, no eunuchs to disrupt the government, and no powerful ministers to control the government... This is extremely rare in China's thousands of years of history.

 The reason why this is so is because the Qing Dynasty implemented a high degree of centralization.

 In the early years of the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, there was also a meeting of kings and ministers to discuss political affairs, with members of the royal family, heads of the Eight Banners, etc. participating in political affairs. As a result, the imperial power was greatly restrained.

Therefore, in the 16th year of Kangxi's reign, he established the South Study Room, and he personally selected his close associates to handle affairs. Many important state affairs were no longer decided by the meeting of kings and ministers. The status and influence of the Council of Kings and Ministers who discuss government affairs gradually declined.

After Emperor Yongzheng established the Military Aircraft Department, all important military and political affairs were handled by the Military Aircraft Department. Although the meeting of kings and ministers was not abolished, it was only used to discuss flag affairs. Matters such as the emperor's patrol and Mulan Qiu Mi were in name only.

During the Qianlong period, the Military Aircraft Department had more responsibilities, including not only the six ministries and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but also the fifteen provinces in the north and south, outside the customs, southwest, northwest, etc., covering everything and taking care of everything.

However, although the Military Aircraft Department has a very high status, it has no dedicated officials or government offices, so it is just like a secretary. It only has the power to participate in and discuss political affairs, but it does not have the power to make final decisions. All power still comes from the emperor.

 So even a big shot like He Shen, who is the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, the Minister of the Imperial Palace, the Minister of Military Aircraft, the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of the Zhengbai Banner Guards, the Minister of the Council of Government, and many other official titles, has great power in both the government and the public.

Jiaqing wanted to deal with him, but it was his will, so he committed suicide in prison.

 It’s just that the civil service system of the Qing Dynasty was good, but the officials did not adapt to the trend of historical development.

 It is now the eighteenth century, and the first industrial revolution is about to begin. However, the civil servants of the Qing Dynasty still clung to the words of saints from more than 2,000 years ago, and often "The Master said the poems and words of saints", how could they keep up with the times.

 So it is impossible not to reform. Xiang Nan is already preparing to take action in the imperial examination.

 He wants to gradually add "arithmetic", "foreign languages", "physics", "geography" and many other projects, and select better officials. Rather than a group of nerds who only know "what the wise say".

However, we should not be impatient about this matter. After all, some of those scholars have been studying for half their lives. If they suddenly want to change the examination subjects, it is equivalent to ruining their future.

 They have no way to advance, and it will be bad if they start to make trouble. After all, one of the main purposes of the imperial examination is to cage people with lofty ideals and give them something to look forward to so that they will not rise up in rebellion.

 So Xiang Nan could only gradually increase the weight of subjects such as "Arithmetic", "Foreign Languages", "Physics", "Geography", etc., so that scholars can take the initiative to learn.