The marriage between the Song family and the Chen family was a foregone conclusion after a blind date on an outing.
Song Erniu was quite satisfied with the eldest daughter of the Chen family. She had what he needed. As for some negative opinions she had about him, Song Erniu didn't care much.
He is not Chu Yuan Jin Coin, he can make everyone like him!
As for the eldest daughter of the Chen family, even though she was a little disgusted and even despised some of Song Erniu's seemingly crude things, through everyone's stories and her own contact and observation during outings and outings, it was basically certain that Song Erniu was a great person. He is a capable person, and his behavior and personality are very good. Except for his lower background, lower education, average appearance, and occasional rudeness, he looks like a rough person, but everything else is pretty good.
Besides, Song Erniu is really rich, very rich!
Moreover, the eldest daughter of the Chen family is also somewhat confident in herself. She feels that Song Erniu's occasional rude behavior is caused by too difficult a period of growing up. As long as she has some time and some suitable people to teach her, she will be able to do it under a subtle influence. It can be changed.
If you put more thought into it in the future, Song Erniu's behavior will definitely change a lot over time.
To sum up, the eldest daughter of the Chen family does not like Song Erniu at all, and even looks down on people like Song Erniu in her heart... But she does not object to marrying Song Erniu...
That was a real millionaire, and a millionaire who was still on the rise. Not all women have the courage to reject a young millionaire.
The eldest daughter of the Chen family is not an ignorant girl who doesn't know anything, can only read scripts, and longs for love... She grew up in a scholarly family, and as the eldest daughter, Chen's mother also learned about love when she was very young. Teach by words and deeds some stewardship methods.
She is very familiar with the many ways in the upper class society...and what is the upper class society? Regardless of whether they are from a family of officials, royal aristocrats, scholarly family, or what their background status is, they are all inseparable from 'money'.
Without money, it doesn't matter how high your status is, you can't even show the dignity that the upper class should have.
The so-called etiquette and lifestyle of the upper class are all supported by money.
The eldest daughter of the Chen family knows very well that money is very important.
In addition to her words and deeds, the daughter of the Chen family is not an illiterate woman who only knows how to be a female celebrity. She graduated from Yingzhou Women's Middle School and knows very well the basic rules of the upper class: money means respectability!
The Great Chu Empire had begun universal sex education a long time ago, and launched girls' school education ten years after Chengshun.
In the 1920s of Chengshun, the Chu Empire had established a large number of girls' schools to provide girls with education from primary school to middle school and even to university. Yingzhou Girls' Middle School was established during this period.
However, because of the protection between men and women, schools in the Dachu Empire are generally divided into boys' schools and girls' schools. Even if they are coeducational schools, they will also be divided into boys' campuses and girls' campuses.
Although this will lead to a waste of resources, many traditional things cannot be changed in a short time and can only be done slowly.
In this process, a large number of middle- and upper-class girls have had the opportunity to receive education. For example, Sun Mengshi, Sun Xu’s wife, is a typical daughter of a middle-class family. She attended a girls’ school since childhood and finally graduated from middle school.
The eldest daughter of the Chen family is no exception. Even the poor Chen family is countless times better than those so-called middle-class families. The eldest daughter of the Chen family received family education when she was a child. After she was a little older, she entered Yingzhou Girls' Middle School. Now she is in middle school. already graduated.
It is worth noting that in addition to the official promoters of female education in the Chu Empire, the business community is also vigorously promoting it... As for why?
A female worker who has graduated from primary school is more useful and can create more value than an illiterate female worker.
Young men can enter factories and earn profits for capitalists, and so can women!
Even some business leaders are imagining: If women all receive basic education, then there will be countless women in the labor market in addition to men... This is equivalent to a direct doubling of the supply in the labor market. According to basic According to the theory of supply and demand, when supply exceeds demand, prices will naturally fall...
This also means that companies can obtain a large amount of cheap labor and earn more profits.
Even the wages of male workers will be reduced due to the presence of a large number of female workers...
Therefore, the largest social group in the Great Chu Empire that promotes female education is the "Great Chu Empire Textile Industry Association". Every year, a large amount of money is used to develop female education, especially the establishment of a large number of girls' primary schools... As for girls' middle schools, etc. , or even women's universities, they stopped doing it... After all, what the textile industry needs is a large number of cheap low-end female workers to replace male textile workers, and there is little need for female management and female technical backbones.
By the way, in the process of promoting women's education in the industrial and commercial circles, they have encountered opposition from many strata... Some of them are really conservative die-hards who say that it is virtue for women not to have talent.
But another group of people believe that it is a very immoral act to allow women to receive basic education before sending them to factories. They strongly recommend banning female workers... Women can just do housework and take care of children at home, and they will be exhausted outside. Making money while living is a matter for men.
There are also some people who believe that women need to receive education, but the education they receive must be different from that of men. For example, men’s studies are more traditional liberal arts and sciences, but women’s studies can be more focused on housekeeping and improving their own qualities, such as studying Manage family assets, etiquette, beauties, chess, calligraphy and painting, and then learn some basic cultural knowledge, such as mathematics, scriptures, astronomy and geography, etc.
In the girls' middle school where the daughter-in-law of the Chen family attends, the courses taught are actually more focused on housekeeping and improving cultural literacy...
In short, girls’ education in the Chu Empire is still in a relatively chaotic state. The scale of government-run girls’ schools is not too large. It’s not that the officials don’t want to build more basic girls’ schools, but that many families don’t care about girls. Send them to school... and the empire's current education system implements universal education, reducing the cost of education as much as possible so that more ordinary families can support their children in school.
It is not compulsory compulsory education... after all, once it is compulsory, there will be an issue of education costs involved.
If you charge fees, you force all children to go to school. What if people can't afford the tuition? What will the public think?
If it were free... the people would definitely be happy. There was no money to go to school, but the empire's finances couldn't support it... The productivity of the country these days was not enough to allow the Chu Empire, with a population of more than 500 million, to implement comprehensive free compulsory education.
So for now, the empire's policy on basic education is to adopt a universal education system and reduce the cost of education as much as possible. After reducing the cost, you can come to school if you want to, and there is nothing you can do if you don't!
This measure is to treat boys and girls equally in schools. Regardless of whether boys or girls come to school, the same policy will be adopted.
At the same time, the content of the courses taught is the same, and there is no issue of gender bias.
However, the current enrollment rate of school-age boys in the Dachu Empire is far from reaching 100%, and the enrollment rate of girls is even lower.
Compared with the problem of low enrollment rate, the more serious problem is actually how to ensure that students continue to study after enrolling until they graduate from primary school.
This problem is actually more serious than simply the enrollment rate of school-age children.
Songjiang Prefecture is the most affluent area in the Chu Empire. The enrollment rate of school-age boys is not 100%, but it can occasionally reach more than 95%... But in fact, among these male students, they can eventually Only about 80% of those who graduate from primary school...
During the six years of primary school, many students will be unable to continue their studies due to various reasons...
Among these many reasons, the reason for the low tuition fee is that the family cannot afford it. The main reason is also ridiculous: parents generally do not let their children continue to go to school, thinking that it is enough to learn common words and basic numbers after attending elementary school for three years. By this time, they are generally eleven or twelve years old and can help with the household chores... As for high school students, they will not go to elementary school.
This is still talking about Songjiang...the richest place in the Chu Empire.
If it were elsewhere, the situation would actually be even worse.
To a certain extent, if you are a child from a lower-class family, you are actually very lucky to be able to successfully complete six years of primary school, and you will be able to surpass at least half of your peers.
This is still talking about boys...if it is a girl, this situation is even more serious.
However, as society continues to progress, living standards continue to improve, the empire's finances continue to improve in the future, and investment in education gradually increases, the above-mentioned situations will gradually improve.
Just like the past thirty years!
When the empire first launched universal education and established a large number of government-run basic schools more than thirty years ago, the enrollment rate of school-age boys was less than 5%... At that time, it was generally only available in a small town. Only when there is a government-run junior primary school, there will be an upper primary school in the county, and only when the junior high school is in the state capital.
As for high schools... those days were called college preparatory schools, and there were often only one or two in each province.
This shows that the education penetration rate at that time was very low.
But now... basically larger villages will have a three-year junior primary school, and smaller villages will jointly run a junior primary school with surrounding villages.
In a town, there will be at least one high school that provides three-year education, and some towns with large populations often have several.
At the same time, the educational circles of the Great Chu Empire began to merge junior primary schools and senior primary schools in some places, mainly in densely populated areas. Although they were still divided into junior primary schools and senior primary schools according to tradition, they actually ran schools together and directly provided Six years of complete primary education.
In counties, three-year junior high schools are generally established. Some counties with large populations and developed economies even provide three-year high school education or technical secondary education.
At the provincial level, there will be a high school education and supporting technical secondary schools.
Each province has a number of four-year universities or three-year colleges.
To put it simply, after these years of development, education in the Da Chu Empire has generally been lowered down an administrative level, achieving a government-run education model of town-run primary schools, county-run junior high schools, government-run high schools/technical secondary schools, and provincial-run universities/junior colleges.
Even though it is just a drop in administrative level, the gap between the two, especially the financial needs, is dozens of times.
Behind this, strong financial support from the Chu Empire was needed, and this support required the increase in tax revenue brought about by the comprehensive development of industry, commerce, agriculture, etc.
This is still universal education. If compulsory education is to be implemented, then the financial funds required will be even greater... With the current national strength of the Dachu Empire, it will not be possible for a while.
After all, compulsory education in a country with a large population is too difficult. China will have to enter the 21st century before it can truly implement nine-year compulsory education... That is the 21st century, an era of explosive productivity.
As for the contemporary Dachu Empire, the productivity is only so much. It would be great if it can provide universal sex education. No more can be forced.
Therefore, for the contemporary Chu Empire, although inclusive sex education is already very large-scale, it still cannot be said to be able to allow everyone to receive a complete six-year primary education, and there are even fewer women, who are usually middle-class Only girls from families have a greater chance of completing elementary school, but not many have the opportunity to go to girls' middle schools.
Of course, these problems naturally do not exist for the upper class.
The eldest daughter of the Chen family received family education at home when she was a child, and then directly applied for admission to a girls' middle school. The girls' middle school she attended was actually a private girls' middle school with an aristocratic model, and the courses taught were different from those of the government-run girls' middle schools. Same.
After receiving education, coupled with the influence of family atmosphere, etc., the legitimate daughter of the Chen family is different from girls from ordinary families. Even because of the gradual decline of the Chen family in recent years, it has made her understand more deeply. It's the upper class.
She is destined to be different from a woman from an ordinary family. In other words, she is more aware of reality and more rational.
At least, she has never asked for so-called love... That thing is too far away from her, and she doesn't even believe in it.
In this way, after fully understanding Song Erniu's situation, she finally made the decision to marry Song Erniu... not just for the sake of the Chen family, but also for the sake of her parents, eldest brother and the whole family.
She also does it for herself!
When Song Erniu and the legitimate daughter of the Chen family expressed their approval of the marriage, the marriage finally entered the formal process.
Just three days later, the Song family invited a well-known local official to represent the Song family to the Chen family to formally propose marriage.
After starting the marriage proposal process, from a traditional perspective, the Chen family's legitimate daughter is actually Song Erniu's fiancée, and her status has been decided. The next step is to go through the step-by-step process and finally get married.
Because Song Erniu couldn't stay in the country for too long. After all, there was still a huge industry in the Americas waiting for him to take care of. If he left for too long, he would be afraid of problems in the company.
Even when he is in his hometown, he has to allocate some time to finalize the time to invest in his hometown. He cannot stay here in his hometown all the time.
Song Erniu is pressed for time, so he wants to speed up the wedding process... Traditional weddings are actually quite troublesome. They need to go through the five steps of accepting, asking for names, accepting, accepting, and requesting dates, and finally can Ushering in the wedding in people's minds is the sixth step of welcoming the bride.
But in fact, the first five steps are also part of the entire marriage process and are equally important.
As a decent family, the marriage between the Song and Chen families could not be messed up simply, and all the traditional steps had to be completed in one step or another.
So Song Erniu's idea is that the necessary steps must be taken, but the time must be compressed... and all steps must be completed as soon as possible.
Naturally, the Chen family had no objections... and even some welcome. Well, on the one hand, the Chen family's textile company was becoming more and more difficult, and in order to marry a daughter, Chen Yuanxiang's wife had to spend a lot of money. Sold a shop in his trousseau.
The blood loss was so severe that he had been waiting for Song Erniu's financial support for a long time.
Therefore, I tend to go through the marriage process quickly, and then get a large betrothal gift from Song Erniu and more importantly, invest money in a textile company for cooperative operations.
Yes, Song Erniu needed to spend a lot of money for this marriage.
Various betrothal gifts are worth more than 10,000 Chu Yuan, and in order to facilitate the realization of the Chen family, Song Erniu also thoughtfully made many betrothal gifts, except for some indispensable things in traditional customs, most other valuable betrothal gifts. It has become a gift that can be easily converted into cash...such as real estate, treasury bonds, gold decorations, etc.!
In fact, Song Erniu planned to give him cash directly at first... so that he wouldn't have to worry about it, but the Chen family couldn't lose face, and they were afraid that others would say that the Chen family was selling their daughter or something like that, and they didn't need cash... but they mentioned it tactfully. It's best if the gifts can be easily cashed out... Song Erniu was in trouble. He had to temporarily acquire some real estate and a large amount of gold jewelry. In the end, it was still difficult to deal with, so he simply got a treasury bond and gave it to him...
There is actually no difference between bonds and cash in this country...
The high betrothal gift is just one of them, and it is not even what the Chen family values. What the Chen family really values is the business cooperation between the two families.
According to the agreed plan between the two parties, the Song family merged and reorganized a small local garment factory, which was the previous investment, with the garment factory run by Brother Song and the Chen's Textile Company to establish the 'Song-Chen United Textile Company'. At the same time, Song Erniu Inject 50,000 Chu yuan into the new United Textile Company.
Song Erniu will obtain a controlling stake in the new company, the Chen family will obtain a minor stake, and Brother Song will also obtain a part of the equity. The specific operation will be run by a team of professional managers established by Song Erniu... As for Chen Yuanxiang and Brother Song , in Song Erniu's opinion, none of them have any business talent, so they can just take the shares and wait for dividends... Don't interfere in the management.
After this reorganization, merger, and even reinvestment, the United Textile Company will become the leading textile company in the local county and even Yingzhou Prefecture. Although it is still limited to the category of small and medium-sized textile companies, it wants to be in the local area. There should be no problem in surviving.
After all, the textile industry is very special, and local protection ideas are everywhere... To be honest, as long as you don't commit suicide, it will be difficult to go bankrupt...
For example, when the local government of Yingzhou learned that Song Erniu, a millionaire, had returned home and planned to invest in the textile industry in his hometown, they expressed great welcome and various support policies were directly passed on to Song Erniu. The Chen family was embarrassed... For example, the bank loan that the Chen family had been begging for before was not available. The branch of Yingzhou Finance Bank said that they dare not say more, but a loan of 100,000 to 80,000 yuan is not a big problem.
As for why the Chen family couldn't get a loan before... it's naturally because banks are not stupid. The Chen family is losing money in business at such a rate that they will go bankrupt in minutes... Who would dare to lend to you!
But Song Erniu is different... This is a self-made millionaire, very rich, and he has proven his ability.
This new United Textile Company was controlled and run by Song Erniu. Local banks thought it was quite reliable. In addition, the local government wanted to support the local industry, so the loan was easily granted.
After Chen Yuanxiang found out about this, he was depressed for several days... The factory was actually still the same factory, but why was it so easy to talk to the bank after changing the controlling owner and changing the management team?
Am I really that bad?
The series of cooperation between these two families can be described as a forced shot for the Chen family. Although they have not been able to make a lot of money for the time being, they do not have to lose a steady stream of blood... In order to maintain the textile company that continued to lose money, the Chen family was They emptied all their savings... Even Chen Yuanxiang's wife's dowry was sold off a lot.
Now, after the joint venture, with Song Erniu's capital injection and bank loans, the new United Textile Company suddenly became rich in funds.
I don’t know how the follow-up operations will be, but at least the Chen family won’t have to pay any more...
Due to the business cooperation needs of both parties, the Chen family also urgently needed a large amount of money to replenish their blood, so the marriage process between the two parties progressed very quickly.
In just over a month, the first five steps were completed.
The sixth day of September in the thirty-eighth year of Chengshun is a good time to get married.
Early this morning, the Song family manor in Shuangshan Village on the outskirts of the county was completely renewed, and there was a lively and festive atmosphere.
People around her had heard one after another that the Song family was getting married today, and the person they were marrying was the daughter of the Chen family, a well-known local family with a century-old scholarly family.
Many people are blessing this, some are envious, but there are more people who are making sarcastic remarks in secret... After all, many people in the same village know that Song Erniu was a poor farmer in the past. When he was a child, he lived in the Chen family farm not far away. Here, the cows are being let loose for the Chen family...
A cowherd boy marries the legitimate daughter of his former employer. This kind of thing sounds magical... I don't know how many people are envious, jealous, and want to replace him.
However, some outsiders' opinions cannot affect the marriage between the Song and Chen families, let alone the mood of the parties involved.
Song Erniu was in a very good mood and went out on time at an auspicious time. He traveled slowly in a luxurious four-wheeled carriage that he specially sent to the city to buy at a high price. Behind him were a large number of carriages or carrying various gifts. or pick-up personnel.
Such a large and luxurious convoy has never appeared in local history...
And today, Song Erniu showed people what it means to be a millionaire!
