Jinling City, Royal Courtyard.

A large number of important ministers of the empire gathered together, and these important ministers of the Chu Empire turned towards Luo Zhixue, sitting on the dragon chair and quietly listening to the ministers discussing matters.

This is an imperial internal affairs meeting with the five-year development plan as the core content. In addition to the military generals, all the ministers and co-organizers of the imperial study in the civil service system participated.

After the meeting started, just like most of the imperial meetings in the past year, Luo Zhixue sat upright. Most of the time, he listened to the ministers discussing or even arguing with each other, but he himself basically did not express any opinions.

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Luo Zhixue knew very well that he was an emperor, the helmsman of the entire empire, and his influence was too great. A single word could determine the direction of the empire's major policies.

The more this happens, the more cautious Luo Zhixue becomes.

After all, he is just an ordinary person. Even though he has some basic common sense of future generations, he only understands the surface of many things.

There are many things that he thinks are good and can be done, but when times are different and the actual situation is also different, if they are implemented rashly, problems will arise.

Some policies he thought were bad and unnecessary were found to be quite good after analysis and debate by many ministers, and the implementation effects were very good.

Just like when he formulated a series of education development plans last year, Luo Zhixue originally wanted to open various public schools on a large scale, convert many private schools into government-run schools, and upgrade schools for enlightenment and primary education as much as possible

Quantity. And unified teaching materials, unified recruitment of teachers, unified treatment, etc.

Basically, he tried to transplant the public education system of later generations.

However, after pilot trials in some areas, it was found that it is not that simple. On the one hand, there has not been the expected large number of children signing up for school... Even though the tuition fees are already very low, even those from poor families or those with excellent academic performance can still do it.

After applying for tuition exemption, most families, especially poor families, still do not send their children to school!

Because this will result in the lack of an old driving force in their family... and this labor force will continue to eat and drink...

Although the school's tuition is very low, it still requires tuition, and you have to pay for food and drink yourself.

As a result, most poor families will not send their children to starve, even if it is free...

In rural families, children of a few years old can already do the work they can, while children of seven or eight years old are half an adult.

Going down to the fields to dig the soil, weed, harvest, lift...nothing is missing.

Not to mention the 17th century, even in the 1990s, it was the so-called modern society, but most children from rural families still had to go to school and help their families with farm work.

Carrying a weight on their shoulders that should not be theirs to bear.

Such an embarrassing problem arose when the new education policy of the Da Chu Empire was being piloted. A large amount of money was invested to build the school, recruit teachers, and invest a lot of money. In the end, it was found that there were not many

Students came to sign up for school... Those who came were also students who were attending private schools!

On the one hand, there are no students to sign up. Another problem is that government-run education is too expensive.

Because it is a universal education, although it is not completely free, it only charges a nominal amount of tuition and miscellaneous fees. This amount of money is not enough to maintain the operation of the school.

After all, various school buildings and office facilities cost money, and if an ordinary private school teacher becomes a staffed ninth-grade education official, his salary will also become higher.

This entry and exit means that these government-run schools need continuous blood transfusions from official finances, and they are massive blood transfusions!

As a pilot, a high-level government is fine, and it can barely sustain itself because of its financial resources, but the other two pilots, a middle-class government and a lower-class government, cannot sustain it.

Without strong financial support from their superiors, they would not even be able to launch the government-run school plan...

Nowadays, the Great Chu Empire is in a stage where everything is waiting to be revitalized. A large amount of financial funds are mainly used for industrial development, agricultural development, water conservancy, roads, bridges and other infrastructure construction. In many places, due to local financial difficulties, even the salaries of regular officials have been reduced.

It is impossible to distribute it, let alone squeeze out a large amount of money for the establishment of government-run schools.

Another very important issue in terms of funding is that in the past, a large number of private schools existed among the private sector. In fact, quite a few of them were funded and established by the local gentry.

These gentry set up these private schools out of fame or other motives. They did not think about making money or anything, but instead poured money into them.

When the government took over these private schools, it was equivalent to providing money on behalf of the gentry...

When the gentry sees that your government has taken over, they will naturally not continue to throw money into it. After all, they are not losing their reputation. Why are they still spending money on education? My money does not fall from the sky!

The pilot projects of new government-run education in three prefectures have been going on, and a lot of money has been spent, but the number of students has not increased much... In any case, it is all a loss to grandma's family.

Through this incident, Luo Zhixue finally understood that many policies that seemed to be good in later generations were not necessarily suitable for contemporary times!

This was the seventeenth century, and both productivity and people's concepts were hugely different from those of later generations.

As for the current Chu Empire, there is simply no condition for universal government-run compulsory education...

After this incident, Luo Zhixue seldom directly copied the policies of later generations. Instead, he chose another method, which was to make demands, give the ministers some ideas, and then let the ministers figure it out for themselves!

His ministers are the natives of this era, and they understand various contemporary situations better than Luo Zhixue.

After many people discussed and analyzed the pros and cons, Luo Zhixue was able to get some of what he wanted, and then choose a certain result he wanted.

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To put it simply, Luo Zhixue used to ask himself to propose and do things by himself...

But now, Luo Zhixue only makes demands... As for how to do it, that is the matter of the ministers!

After such a transformation, Luo Zhixue found that his efficiency in handling various government affairs was greatly improved, and the policies he formulated were also more complete and more effective.

After the failure of the pilot government-run compulsory education, after collective discussion among many officials in the court, an improvement plan was finally put forward for implementation to meet the requirements put forward by Luo Zhixue.

Luo Zhixue’s request is simple: “Improve the literacy rate as much as possible, especially the literacy rate of the younger generation!”

He didn't set any specific values, because setting the values ​​involves statistics... and it's also a nationwide statistics project. The amount of work is larger than universal education...

Because of the difficulties in statistical work, Luo Zhixue actually still doesn’t know how many people his empire has until now... He can only have a rough figure, about 70 million!

And among these 70 million miles, how many are literate, how many are proficient in writing, how many are landless peasants, how many are self-cultivated farmers, how many are gentry and wealthy households, how many are urban residents, how many are rural residents, etc.

There is no exact number.

Some of the inferred data are also extremely biased.

For example, data submitted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry show that 95% of the country's population is rural, and only 5% is urban. And of these 5%, more than half still live in market towns.

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However, the data submitted by the Patrol Department deviate greatly from the data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. They believe that the country's urban population should reach about 10%.

The figures submitted by these two departments are completely different...

In order to find out how many people there are in his empire, the literacy level of the people, and their living places and other basic population information for subsequent policy formulation and implementation, Luo Zhixue ordered the Patrol Department to take the lead last year, and other

Various departments have vigorously cooperated, and local yamen at all levels have guided and publicized, established national population household registration files, and relied on household registration files to compile population data.

But this is a big project that cannot be completed within a few years.

The Great Chu Empire does not even know basic national population information, let alone the literacy rate. It can only rely on sampling inference, such as selecting a certain place to conduct a survey and then using it as representative data.

It's just that these data are unreliable...

For example, the literacy rate in the Jiangnan region cannot represent the literacy rate in other regions...

The reading culture is prevalent in Jiangnan, and the literacy rate is relatively high, while the literacy rate in other places is much worse, and the gap between these places with much difference is also relatively large.

Because of the lack of detailed statistics, Luo Zhixue now looks at various situations in the empire as if he is walking with a pair of eyes that do not match the degree. He can only see an outline of everything. It is impossible to take a closer look.

……

When formulating policies, we can only make the scale as loose as possible and not set the values ​​too rigidly, leaving some space for the officials below and some space for the people.
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To avoid looking at the flowers in the smoke, the goals are set too far ahead, and the officials below are blindly trying to achieve the goals regardless of people's livelihood.

It was like this when we were working on education policy last year, and it’s almost the same now when we’re working on agricultural policy.

Luo Zhixue didn't say how much grain production must be increased or how much land should be opened up... because he doesn't even know the country's total grain output, nor does he know the total amount of cultivated land, let alone the cultivated land that can be developed.

……

Without detailed data to support him, he casually set a death goal, which was too low. The officials below saw that he could do it without having to work, so he just lay down and looked at the flowers and walked the birds every day...

The goal was set high. The officials below looked at it and said, Oh my god, this goal is too high. It can't be achieved no matter what, so what should I do? Concealing the report and making a false report... I can't tell the superiors that I didn't complete the task, and others can't.

They are all talking nonsense and have achieved their goals, but you honestly say that you have not achieved your goals. This is not asking for death!

False reporting and concealment are fine, but I am afraid that some people will do all kinds of extreme operations regardless of people's livelihood in order to achieve their goals. For example, in order to increase food production, they force farmers to open up a large amount of land beyond their farming capacity, and finally create a land full of chicken feathers!<

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Therefore, when formulating the agricultural development plan this time, Luo Zhixue did not give his ministers any detailed goals.

Even the focus is on how much land should be reclaimed and how much food should be produced, but the focus should be on restoring agricultural production and building irrigation facilities.

In fact, there is some land, especially in the provinces north of the Yangtze River. Due to natural and man-made disasters, many places have ten rooms and nine empty rooms...

But the people are gone, but the land is still there...

This has resulted in many places, especially in the north, which are now vast and sparsely populated, and a large amount of land has been forced to be abandoned due to lack of population.

However, the reason why many places in the north have become vast and sparsely populated is that in addition to man-made disasters, natural disasters are also an important factor.

For example, in the three provinces of Henan, Anlu, and Jiangbei, due to the convergence of the Yellow River and the Huaihe River, it can be said that there is a small flood every year and a major flood every three years. Some dangerous river sections almost burst their banks every year!

Don't talk about extreme weather that only happens once in fifty years or once in a hundred years. Floods will occur even if it rains normally.

In these places affected by floods, agricultural production is very difficult.

In addition, it is not just the Huaihe River and the Yellow River Basin that are affected by floods... The reason why I mention them is just because they are relatively representative. In fact, in many places, regardless of the south or the north, floods are very common.To be continued...