Zhao Mingming sat among the crowd, opened a blank register, and while waiting for the meal, chatted with them and recorded their family situations.

This village wasn’t large, with only about forty households. At this moment, every household had someone present. Everyone knew each other well, and the village head was also there. How many people were in each family, how many acres of land they had—with one question and one answer, the information could be collected quickly.

They could fill in any gaps the next day.

Seventeen years had passed since the founding of the nation. The first generation of newborns had grown up, and most had begun working.

Some had just reached the age of sixteen and gotten married, already becoming new fathers or mothers, so each household had quite a few people.

Zhao Mingming looked at the completed census register. One household had settled here in the third year of Jianxing with only three people in the family, but in less than twenty years, they had multiplied into a household of eighteen people.

The two brother households were both getting on in years, yet they still hadn’t divided the household.

Zhao Mingming was very puzzled. While asking about their children’s schooling situation and learning that both boys and girls, once they reached the appropriate age, could complete five years of compulsory education, she nodded approvingly.

Being able to not restrict children in the family from attending compulsory education showed this was a family with considerable foresight.

Zhao Mingming, who already had extensive grassroots experience, knew that even though the court’s compulsory education didn’t require tuition fees or book fees, many people still didn’t want their children to spend time going to school.

Whether boys or girls, they all believed that studying was a waste of time and energy.

Because studying for five years only meant learning to read and count. It couldn’t make them officials, nor could it help them learn any skills that would make it easier to find work than others.

Because everywhere outside, there were people who had studied for three or five years.

Farming, manual labor, running errands, shop work—these jobs that sold physical labor didn’t require people to read or count.

In their view, as long as a child could walk, they could start working. Pulling weeds at three, transplanting rice seedlings at five was basic. By seven, they could be used as half an adult. By twelve, in their generation, they could already be discussing marriage and preparing to become parents.

So asking them to send their seven-year-old children to school was competing with the family for labor.

Not only could they not make their children work, they also had to provide five years of food expenses for nothing. Moreover, besides tuition and book fees, studying also required buying brushes, paper, and ink—all additional expenses.

Calculating this money, they were unwilling to let their children go to school.

Publicizing compulsory education had always been the top priority for the rites departments of county yamens everywhere. Every year, to get those parents to send their children to school, the rites department and county yamen personnel racked their brains.

To achieve the goal of “not leaving a single child behind,” every year the rites department used all thirty-six stratagems, battling wits and courage with parents, using both kindness and威(威 should be translated as “authority” or “威 intimidation”).

Just recently during the school enrollment season, the county yamen had put five people in the pillory. After repeated persuasion failed to get them to send their children to school, the county magistrate became angry and directly pilloried them for public display, then dragged them off to repair bridges and pave roads. They served a full month of corvée labor before being released.

After that, many stubborn people who refused to send their children to school finally relented. Even if they were unhappy, they would send their children to school.

Zhao Mingming was praising the Liu family’s foresight while recording. “Sending children to school is right. Now when looking for work outside, even washing dishes requires asking if you can read, if you can count, if you have a school graduation certificate.”

“Both work as waiters, but those who studied for five years have the possibility of being promoted to accountant or purchaser. Those who didn’t study and can’t read enter as waiters and leave still as waiters.”

The nearby villagers nodded repeatedly and echoed, “Finding work outside is harder now. Those who didn’t attend school suffer losses. But those who only attended five years of school also suffer losses. You still need to have a skill.”

Fan Lianyin said, “Yes, now the court has opened many vocational schools. After completing five years of compulsory education, even if you can’t pass into county school or commandery school, you can choose to attend vocational school, learn a skill, and find work more easily.”

The Mohist school, after the Qin and Han dynasties, although many techniques were lost, did not have its status in the common people compressed to the bottom as in later generations.

Although craftsmen had needed to depend on the court or nobility for hundreds of years, they had some reputation among the people due to the doctrines left by the pre-Qin Mohist school.

After the founding of the nation of Hua, the emperor personally welcomed the Mohist leader to the capital. Not only did she ennoble the Mohist leader with high office, she also personally participated in designing some Mohist mechanisms.

Everyone throughout the realm knew that Fu Tinghan was an exceptionally outstanding Mohist, so the status of craftsmen improved considerably.

Moreover, after the founding of the nation of Hua, lowly status gradually disappeared. Whether scholar-farmer-artisan-merchant or military-entertainer-slave, there was no longer obvious distinction between these statuses.

Even slave status disappeared with the abolition of permanent contracts. From then on, there were only employment contracts among the people, no more slave status.

Also because of this, the large number of hidden households among the nobility that began in the Han dynasty disappeared. It became difficult to have large numbers of hidden households concealed among the people.

Combined with the implementation of the equal-field system, in recent years the court had light corvée and low taxes, often reducing and exempting taxes. Those who had hidden as black households to avoid taxes came out to surrender one after another.

Not only Zhao Mingming, but county magistrates everywhere could proudly say: there are no deliberately hidden households in our county.

If there were black households, they must be in isolated places where policies couldn’t reach, where minds and bodies still lived in the previous dynasty, unaware of the changes in the outside world.

The population that had multiplied greatly over seventeen years had reopened seventy to eighty percent of the land that had been abandoned in the previous dynasty. If the population continued to multiply, they would need to open up wasteland and expand the cultivated land area to have enough land to distribute.

Zhao Mingming not only recorded the population of each village and the land already distributed, but also made a special trip to look at the public land not yet allocated.

This investigation revealed some unusual things.

Some public land was still honestly growing wild grass, waiting for children in the village to divide it up when they turned sixteen. But some had already become someone else’s private land.

Zhao Mingming returned to the yamen and investigated. “Before Her Majesty ascended the throne, there was already a strict order that land could not be bought or sold. After ascending the throne, she cracked down even more severely on this matter. All land under heaven belongs to the state. The state divides land among the common people, divided into personal share land and permanent estate land.”

“Permanent estate land can be inherited. This is because in the future, when all the land under heaven has been distributed, there will be no more land distribution. Descendants can only inherit land from their ancestors, so permanent estate land cannot be bought or sold.” Zhao Mingming said, “If permanent estate land is like this, personal share land belongs to rented land and even more cannot be bought or sold. When a person dies, it’s returned to state ownership and redistributed.”

“But during our countryside inspection this time, many places that should have been public land according to the records were growing things. When we asked, we found out they had already become private land.” She said, “This situation definitely doesn’t only exist in our county. Other places certainly have it too.”

Fan Lianyin said, “Now the population is still small, so it’s not obvious. The most children were born from the third year of Yuanzhen to the eighth year of Yuanzhen. Those born in the third year of Yuanzhen will start receiving land distribution in two years. That means starting two years from now, large amounts of public land will be distributed every year. If public land is encroached upon, these newly adult citizens won’t receive full allocations, or even won’t receive permanent estate land…”

Wasn’t this competing with the common people for food?

Zu Daozhong murmured, “No wonder Her Majesty started counting population and land this year. Two years’ time…”

Zhao Mingming also only realized her mother’s intention in counting population and land this year after seeing the public land situation. She said in a low voice, “This is not only the court’s opportunity, but also our opportunity!”

If they did well, they’d be promoted and rectify official administration.

If they didn’t do well… that wouldn’t do. They had to do well!

Zhao Mingming dismissed the second scenario. She had already figured out what her mother wanted to do. She couldn’t fail to do this well.

—