Xin Qiji is a smart person. After a little tip, he understood what Su Yonglin meant, and Su Yonglin had no doubts about this.

“You mean…”

Su Yonglin sighed.

"I didn't just deny this plan without doing any homework. I found the population growth data given by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and asked the cabinet to make a forecast of population growth and the growth of the number of educated people.

Finally, the cabinet spent a month doing detailed calculations, and based on the popularization plan proposed by the school department and combined with the estimated population growth rate of the Ming Dynasty estimated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, I saw a very valuable calculation.

The plan of the school department was implemented based on the plan I set up before. The court invested a lot of money and spent a lot of effort to set up three levels of school institutions in counties, prefectures and provinces.

School-age children enter school at about five or six years old and after at least three years of study at each level of institution, they are then selected and assessed by the institution at all levels, and finally stand out from provincial institution.

This is the future plan I set and the basis of their plan. If it is implemented completely according to this plan, then about ten years later, an average of more than 200,000 senior talents will graduate from provincial schools every year.

In about fifteen years, this number will rise to 300,000, and twenty years later, this number will reach 500,000. Later, this number will exceed 700,000, 800,000, and finally exceed one million.

You'an, I ask you, every year, one million senior talents with rich knowledge will graduate from the school. What is the court planning to let them do? Become an official? Join the army? Do business? Work?

Together, can these businesses bear the work needs of one million people every year? If not, these people will have to go home to farm. Except for the farming industry, no business can bear the work needs of one million people every year.

We spent so much effort and money, taught so much important specialized knowledge, and finally cultivated people. As a result, we had nothing to do, so we could only let them go home to farm. Can you feel this huge sense of gap a little?"

Faced with Su Yonglin's problem, Xin Qiji was silent.

He had to admit that what Su Yonglin said was very reasonable.

A person starts to study at the age of five or six, and after at least nine years of education, he has mastered a lot of knowledge. His whole thinking is completely different from when he was young. He can open his eyes to the world and know the vastness of the world and his own insignificance.

Then the government told him, OK, you have achieved success in your studies, go home to work farming.

This feeling...

It can only be said that it is not very pleasant.

Put yourself in your shoes and think about it. If Xin Qiji had a rich knowledge like this, he could only go home to farm. Even if he had not had the experience of these years, he would probably have the idea of ​​not being able to fulfill his ambitions and having no way to serve the country?

"So, Zhang Yuanhe..."

Su Yonglin nodded.

"He could not get into the imperial examination in Song State, and had no other way to make a living, and was unwilling to accept his fate. He turned around and defected to Xixia, which brought the defeat of Haoshuichuan to Song State. Song's king and minister were collectively shocked, and finally created a rule that the candidates would not be dismissed in the palace examination to avoid similar things happening again.

What happened? What happened? Then there was a redundant official that the Song court had not solved from beginning to end, which cost Song a lot of money, resulting in the court adding too many meaningless positions and procedures.

The State of Song does not need to train so many reserve officials. It cannot be consumed or used, and can only make them meaninglessly go to the point of dying, so I have considered these situations when I established the Ming Dynasty."

Xin Qiji had already understood what Su Yonglin said and thought what he said was right, so he had nothing to say.

But Su Yonglin seemed to have thought of something and suddenly laughed out loud.

"At present, what can they do if they have cultivated so many students with rich knowledge? What are they willing to do? Take the imperial examinations in Song Dynasty for example. How many students study hard, but the court always needs so many people.

Hundreds of thousands of people compete for hundreds of places every three years. How many people spend their entire lives to study the scriptures for one place? Is it useful? Speaking of this, I really think that the feudal rulers are a bit forward-looking.

They knew that they could not get so many officials and knew that they could not support so many people, so they did not develop education and adopted policies to fool the people, so that they could rule longer.

People have put in such great efforts and hard work to learn knowledge and skills, but in the end they have to do things that can be done by illiterate people. Let’s not talk about the general direction for now. Let’s put ourselves in one’s shoes from a personal perspective. How will this person face this reality? Some people will accept their fate, which is true, but some people will not accept their fate, such as Zhang Yuan.”

Looking at Su Yonglin's eyes, Xin Qiji realized that it was a bit too simple to think about the problem.

"In this way, the old dynasty did not develop education for all, but instead made the right decision?"

“Yes for them.”

Su Yonglin said: "Anyway, they only want to better exploitation and enjoyment, not develop education, have more cattle and horses, and have fewer top-notch people, and the more time they enjoy, but for us, we must look at the problem from a fundamental perspective.

What is the fundamental reason for Zhang Yuan’s incident, the redundant officials of the Song State? It is because the court and even the entire country cannot give so many scholars who have rich knowledge to fully utilize their talents. The court and the country cannot need so many scholars and cannot afford to support them!"

“……………………”

Xin Qiji was silent for a while, nodded helplessly to agree: "What you said is indeed the case. The court cannot ask for so many officials and cannot afford to support them."

"So, is the court really lacking talents? It's not short of them. A fallen scholar who surrendered to the Western Xia and could defeat the Song army like that. This is enough to show that talents were absolutely enough for an old dynasty, or even overflowing. Their development status and the imperial examination system were completely matched.

You let them popularize education and raise so many scholars, but don’t give them a way out and make them blame others. In the end, what will they do? They will send this dynasty away and replace it with a new one. The top-class people are never stupid. They know what they want."

Su Yonglin paused for a while, took a deep breath, and said, "We need to know what we want. I never deny the importance of popularizing education. However, before that, we must prepare enough positions for talents so that they can display their talents. Otherwise, it will be a wedding dress for Li Yuanhao and others, harming others and themselves."

Xin Qiji nodded with a heavy expression.

"I have fully understood your painstaking efforts."

"We cannot fool the people. We must let everyone master knowledge and exert their own value. However, at the current stage, the talents we have cultivated are enough, and the larger-scale popularization and education is maintained at the stage of eliminating illiteracy, which is enough to cope with the current needs of the Ming Dynasty.

If we want to continuously develop education, it is required that the Ming Dynasty can provide positions where enough talents can be used to display their talents. The positions were not born for no reason and needed development to provide them. This is what I often say, development is the hard truth.”

"But this situation is not normal, right? The Ming Dynasty cannot stop here, right?"

Xin Qiji spoke, "It will be a matter of time before popularizing education, right?"

"Of course, just based on the current situation, I am not sure that I can provide enough positions for so many educated talents within ten years."

Su Yonglin smiled bitterly and said, "Development is the hard truth, but it is also a very difficult thing. I try my best to promote it, but at the moment, I am not sure and I cannot bury pits for future generations."

As he said that, Su Yonglin walked forward a few more steps.

"I have a clear plan. I invested so much money to build firearms. After the firearms were developed, many new things came out, such as coke, and steel with better quality.

Making firearms, coking, and practicing high-quality steel all require craftsmen, and many craftsmen are needed, which provides demand. Only with demand can we cultivate talents with confidence.

For example, engineering science students have a place to use their skills. After they graduate, they will not worry about having no things to do and have to go back to their hometown to farm the fields, which will create a huge psychological gap, and eventually resent the Ming Dynasty."

After hearing this, Xin Qiji thought for a while, and understood the whole story, and then sighed.

"It seems that some comrades think too simple..."

Su Yonglin smiled bitterly.

"Their original intention is not bad, and they are even thought of for people. Based on things that have been built for thousands of years, education, like agriculture, is the foundation of the country, but what the country needs to do is not just popularize and develop education.

Developing education is not difficult for the Ming Dynasty. We can do it, but at the same time, we cannot provide them with positions. We cannot let them study hard for so many years and find that what they have learned is useless.

It is not only a disappointment to their lives, but also a disappointment to the current situation of education that has invested a lot of money and resources and spent a lot of time to build, and it is also a disappointment to the farmers who have worked hard to farm and pay taxes to the court."
Chapter completed!