Chapter 1510: This Is a Blessing for Our Generation!

Crackling strings of firecrackers exploded across the green lawn outside the White House. Several female soldiers had wound strings of ten-thousand-cracker whips around the maple trees outside the White House, the long strings hanging all the way to the ground, and the young female soldiers knelt half-crouched there, touching incense tips to the fuses to light them.

The ones on that tree had just finished exploding when the ones on this tree went off. Wherever the fuses ran, firecrackers burst in showers, blasting paper scraps into the sky. Outside the White House, everything was smoke and the smell of gunpowder, as if a battlefield had descended. Beyond the iron fence of the White House stood scholars craning their necks to watch the excitement. Along both sides of the broad avenue outside the White House, which had once been empty, many schools had now appeared. Here in the United States of Xinzhou, because survival had once been too easy and gold-panning and fur-hunting brought money in fast, education had not been much valued.

Schools existed, of course, but they were few, and their students came mainly from upper-class families. Children born in the United States of Xinzhou, so long as they were not born into noble, official, or wealthy merchant households, could live carefree as happy illiterates.

But their happy lives came to a complete end with the arrival of the Tyrant King. The Tyrant King himself was a top student who had loved reading since childhood. His wife Wu Ahuan, his secondary consort Ahai (though Ahai had not passed the entrance exam for Jinling Women's University, she was still a top student among the Khoshut tribe), Xu Jingzi, and his concubine Du Mulan were all top students, and most of the household officials who had accompanied the Tyrant King to his fief were top students too. With so many top students gathered together, of course they had to value education.

The children here in the United States of Xinzhou had no schools to attend, playing and frolicking all day and wasting their lives. How pitiful! They simply had to go to school!

And it was not as if the United States of Xinzhou lacked the money to run education! Both the government of Xinzhou and the common people of Xinzhou had wealth enough to bear the cost of education!

If one were to calculate per capita GDP, it was surely several times that of the Great Ming! With such formidable economic strength, failing to run education well would truly be inexcusable.

Therefore, after Zhu Hehao seized control of the United States, a compulsory education network covering all national settlements throughout the country began to be established step by step.

Of course, the compulsory education network in its earliest stages could only provide relatively elementary educational services — every boy and girl registered as a resident of Xinzhou was obliged to receive four years of primary schooling.

In addition, through this compulsory education network, the Education Bureau of the United States' Ministry of Rites could select the outstanding ones by examination and send them to the advanced primary schools located in Huafu City, Harbor City, Bozhou City, and Golden Gate City for further study. After graduating from advanced primary school, even more advanced middle schools awaited the students of the New Continent, and the elite among them had the chance to be admitted to institutions of still higher learning.

The institutions within the United States of Xinzhou that were higher than middle schools were currently all concentrated near the White House in Huafu City. They were: Peanut Village University, the Western Hall Military Academy, Huasheng Institute of Technology, Wotun Business College, America Bay Maritime Academy, and the United States Law Academy — the six great schools of the United States.

The campuses of the six great schools all stood along the long avenue outside the White House. Because of the concentration of the six great schools, shops along the avenue had multiplied — some selling food, some bookstores, some teahouses, and some selling daily necessities. Most served the students of the six great schools.

The once desolate street had now become not only a scholarly sanctuary where learning flourished, but also a bustling and lively place.

At this moment the six great schools had all let out for the day, and the street was thronged with students strolling about after class. Drawn by the sound of firecrackers, they gathered outside the White House, peering through the iron fence. Students who did not know what was going on raised their voices to ask the female soldiers standing guard.

"What's the good occasion today? Why so many firecrackers?"

"Just got word — over at Golden Gate Bay our great fleet has defeated the combined fleet of the three Western nations. We even captured their admiral, and took four or five thousand prisoners, who are being sent here to Huafu to report the victory!"

"That's tremendous! On this side of the Pacific, command of the sea comes first. Once we hold the sea, there's nowhere we can't go!"

"If there's nowhere we can't go, then hasn't the time come for us to win glory and build our careers?"

"Of course it has! Right now the three kings must be consulting with the great officials of the two governments about where to expand next, no?"

"What's there to consult about? Send out the troops at once! We've won at sea — can we possibly lose on land? West is blocked, north is too cold, but east and south — we can sweep through them as we please!"

"Exactly! Our United States of Xinzhou has soldiers and grain, and the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty behind us. Sweeping through Xinzhou — the time is now! This is a blessing for our generation!"

"Right! To be able to lay foundations for ten thousand generations — that is truly a blessing for our generation!"

"To be born in this age of expansion — how fortunate we are!"

"Yes, how fortunate we are! United States, ten thousand victories! Ten thousand victories!"

"Ten thousand victories! Ten thousand victories!"

Some of these students had been born on this rich and primitive continent of Xinzhou, while others had come from the Old Continent with their families (mainly nobles and military household members). Unlike the older people who still longed for the mountains and rivers of their homeland, they had long since come to regard the New Continent as their own home, and had made conquest and expansion their mission — they were the elite raised on the New Continent, and of course they had a sense of mission.

Moreover, the New Continent had nearly limitless room for growth, so the vast majority of people could profit from expansion!

Therefore, here on the New Continent, the entire society was charged with the drive for outward expansion; it was not a traditional involutionary society (in a society with limited growth and no hope of expansion, involution is inevitable). What interested people was laying foundations for ten thousand generations, not scrambling for an extra share from a limited plate.

The sound of firecrackers and the cheers of the crowd mingled and carried over, and the smile on the face of Zhu Hehao, now dressed in a crisp military uniform with a saber at his side, could no longer be hidden.

He was waiting for the ministers and councilors of the two governments to arrive for a grand council — the ministers and councilors of the United States were mostly "island lords," and many of them went off to their private islands to relax whenever there was a holiday. Besides, the Cabinet Office and the Council of Government of the United States were not busy, and holidays were especially plentiful.

But once a great war began, these grand personages accustomed to a leisurely life would have to get busy.

The firecrackers had finally finished exploding. Wu Ahuan, who had already come over from the Great Ming, pressed her palms together: "Heaven be praised — Your Highness can finally do something great."

Zhu Hehao said with emotion: "This is a great fortune for our generation! I had thought that being enfeoffed ten thousand li away would bring no good prospects, but now it seems we are the mighty sovereigns who will carve out a realm. In the future our names will be recorded in history, far above that peace-time Son of Heaven, the third one!"

"Your Highness, if troops are to be dispatched this time, you must not leave me behind." Wu Ahuan had lived apart from her husband for several years, and now that they were at last as close as glue and lacquer, she was naturally unwilling to be separated.

Zhu Hehao glanced at his wife with a slightly apologetic look. "Very well, we shall go together. After all, the United States is not a country ruled by its monarch, but by its councilors."

Although Zhu Hehao had done well these past few years, the foundation of the United States was not something he could change with a bit of effort — everyone was armed! So long as that fundamental condition could not be changed, he was not the master of the United States! And he also had to let the armed rabble share in the spoils.

"Your Highness, where should we go?" Wu Ahuan asked. "Shall we advance east or south next?"

Zhu Hehao smiled with excitement, glanced left and right to make sure no one was near, and said in a low voice to his wife: "East, of course. Going east is conquering a realm for our own family; going south is conquering vassal states for the old man. Do you think the old man sent the great fleet here because he was really cowed, afraid of the Dutch and the French? Even if he were afraid, wouldn't it be better to stay at his own doorstep? Why come all the way here to us? He wants to win territory for my brothers, but he has no army of his own here in Xinzhou, and the cost of sending settler households over is too high. So he wants to borrow the strength of our United States. But we must not go south, because going south means eating the meat already in the bowl, while going east means seizing the meat still in the pot!"

(End of Chapter)