Xin Qiji was a smart man. With a little guidance, he understood what Su Yonglin meant. Su Yonglin had no doubt about it.
"what do you mean……"
Su Yonglin sighed.
“I didn’t directly reject the plan without doing any homework. I found the population growth data provided by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and asked the cabinet to make me a population growth forecast and a growth forecast for the number of educated people.
In the end, the cabinet spent a month doing detailed calculations. Based on the popularization plan proposed by the academic department and the Ming Dynasty's population growth rate 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 before. The imperial court invested a lot of money and spent a lot of effort to establish three levels of schools in counties, states, and provinces.
School-age children enter the elementary school at about five or six years old. After at least three years of study in each level of school, they then undergo selection and assessment by levels of schools, and finally stand out from provincial schools.
This is the future plan I set, and it is also the basis of their plan. If this plan is fully implemented, in about ten years, there will be an average of more than 200,000 senior talents from the provincial level every year. School is over.
In about fifteen years, this number will rise to 300,000. In 20 years, this number will reach 500,000. After that, this number will exceed 700,000, 800,000, and finally exceed 1 million. .
You'an, let me ask you, every year, one million high-level talents with rich knowledge will graduate from school. What does the court plan to let them do? Become an official? join the army? Doing business? work?
Taken together, can these industries support the work needs of one million people every year? If not, these people will have to go home and farm the fields. Apart from the farming industry, no other industry can meet the work needs of one million people every year.
We have spent so much effort and money, imparting so much important and specialized knowledge, and finally trained people, but in the end we have nothing to do and can only let them go home to farm. You can feel this huge gap. For a moment? "
Faced with Su Yonglin's question, Xin Qiji remained silent.
He had to admit that what Su Yonglin said made sense.
A person starts learning at the age of five or six. After at least nine years of education, he has mastered a wealth of knowledge, and his whole thinking is completely different from that of his childhood. He can already see the world with his eyes open, and understand the vastness of the world and his own abilities. Small.
Then the government told him, okay, you have learned a lesson, go home and work in the fields.
This feeling...
Let's just say it wasn't very pleasant.
Put yourself in his shoes, if a person like Xin Qiji with rich knowledge could only go home and farm, even without these years of experience, he would probably have the idea that his ambitions are hard to achieve and he has no way to serve the country, right?
"So, Zhang Yuan..."
Su Yonglin nodded.
"He failed to pass the Song Dynasty's imperial examination, had no other way to make a living, and was unwilling to accept his fate, so he turned around and defected to Xixia, and then brought the Song Dynasty's defeat of Haoshuichuan. The Song monarchs and ministers were collectively shocked, and finally created a palace examination Do not dismiss candidates' rules to avoid similar things from happening again.
And after that? What happened next? After that, the Song Dynasty had to deal with redundant officials from beginning to end, which cost the Song Dynasty a lot of money and caused the court to add too many meaningless positions and processes.
The Song State did not need to cultivate so many reserve officials at all. It could not be consumed or used. It could only let them live in vain until they were old. Therefore, I considered these situations when I established the Ming Dynasty. Inside. "
Xin Qiji had understood what Su Yonglin said and thought what he said was right, so he had nothing to say.
Su Yonglin seemed to have thought of something and suddenly laughed.
"For now, with so many knowledgeable students trained, what can they do? What are they willing to do? Take the imperial examinations of the Song Dynasty as an example. How many students studied hard, but the people the court needed were always there. so many.
Hundreds of thousands of people compete for hundreds of places every three years. How many people are struggling for one place? Is it useful? Having said that, I really feel that the feudal rulers are quite forward-looking.
They know that they can't win so many officials, and they know that they can't support so many people, so they don't develop education and engage in policies that obfuscate the people, so that they can rule longer.
People put in so much effort and effort to learn knowledge and skills, but in the end they have to do things that even illiterate people can do well. Regardless of the general direction, let's put ourselves in a person's shoes from a personal point of view and think about what this person will do. Face this reality? Some people will accept their fate, that's true, but some people will not, such as Zhang Yuan. "
Looking into Su Yonglin's eyes, Xin Qiji realized that his thinking was a bit too simple.
"So, the old dynasty made the right decision by not developing education for all?"
"To them yes."
Su Yonglin said: "Anyway, they only think about better exploitation and enjoyment. Without developing education, they will have more cattle and horses, fewer superior people, and more time to enjoy. But for us, we must start from a fundamental point of view." Look at the problem.
What was the root cause of Zhang Yuan’s affairs and the redundant officials in the Song Dynasty? The reason is that the imperial court, and even the country as a whole, cannot provide so many scholars with rich knowledge with positions where they can fully utilize their talents. The imperial court and the country cannot afford to support so many scholars! "
"………………"
Xin Qiji was silent for a while, then nodded helplessly in approval: "That's indeed what you said. The imperial court cannot afford to support so many officials."
"So, is the imperial court really short of talent? There is no shortage. A fallen scholar who defected to Xixia can defeat the Song army like that, which is enough to show that the talent is absolutely enough for an old dynasty, and even overflows. , their development status and the imperial examination system are completely matched.
You ask them to popularize education and cultivate so many scholars, but you 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 superior people are never stupid. They know what they want. "
Su Yonglin paused for a while, took a deep breath, and said, "And we need to know what we want. I have never denied the importance of universal education, but before that, we must prepare enough positions for talents. You can use your talents, otherwise, you will be making a wedding dress for Li Yuanhao and others, harming others and yourself."
Xin Qiji nodded with a heavy expression.
"I fully understand your painstaking efforts."
"We cannot fool the people. We want everyone to master knowledge and exert their own value. However, at the current stage, the talents we have trained are enough. The larger-scale popularization of education will remain at the stage of eliminating illiteracy. It is enough to meet the current needs of Ming Dynasty.
If education is to be continuously developed, it is required that the Ming Dynasty can provide enough positions for talents to display their talents. And the positions are not created for no reason and need to be provided by development. This is what I often say, development is the last word. "
"But this situation is not normal, right? Ming Dynasty can't stop here, right?"
Xin Qiji said: "Public education is a matter of time, isn't it?"
"Of course it is. Judging based on the current situation, I am not completely sure that we will be able to provide enough positions for so many educated talents within ten years."
Su Yonglin smiled bitterly and said: "Development is a hard truth, but it is also a very difficult thing. I have tried my best to promote it, but at the moment, I am not completely sure. I can't bury the trap for future generations."
With that said, Su Yonglin took a few steps forward.
"I have a clear plan. I invested so much money in developing firearms. Once the firearms were researched, many new things came out, such as coke and better quality steel.
Making firearms, making coke, and making high-quality steel all require craftsmen, and many, many craftsmen are needed. This provides demand. Only with demand can we cultivate talents with confidence.
For example, engineering students will have a place to play. After they graduate, they will not worry about having nothing to do and have to return to their hometowns to cultivate the fields, resulting in a huge psychological gap and eventually resenting the Ming Dynasty. "
Xin Qiji heard this, thought for a while, understood the whole story, and sighed.
"It seems that some comrades think of the problem too simply..."
Su Yonglin smiled bitterly.
“Their intentions are not bad, and they even think about people. Based on what has happened for thousands of years, education, like agriculture, is the foundation of the country, but the country must not only popularize and develop education.
Developing education is not difficult for Ming Dynasty. We can do it, but at the same time, we have to provide them with jobs. We cannot let them find that what they have learned is of no use after studying hard for so many years.
That is not only a betrayal of their lives, but also a betrayal of the current educational situation that the imperial court invested a lot of financial resources and a lot of time in building. It is also a betrayal of the farmers who worked hard to cultivate the fields and pay taxes to the imperial court. Let down. "
