Chapter 551: Sweeping Reforms (1)

Another spring has arrived. Huaxia has successfully passed through the winter, and their stored grain is enough to sustain them through the next winter. Baifeng seemed to have forgotten the resilience of human vitality and the generosity of the Earth; in reality, as long as you work hard enough, you will never lack for a bite to eat on this fertile land.

Likewise, this year also has a beautiful beginning. After an entire winter of uninterrupted efforts to clear the way, the road to Xiao Town has been completely opened. Once the ground has fully thawed and the weather warms, the tenant farmers and Artisans will head to that brand-new land to begin development.

The Ministry of Revenue has also calculated the new population born across all of Huaxia last year; the number of newborns in just the last year alone exceeded thirty thousand! With no shortage of food, the survival rate of newborns has greatly increased, and coupled with safe shelters and basic medical care, the human desire to propagate offspring is constantly strengthening.

Baifeng once racked his brains trying to increase the population, but now the population is growing explosively. The entire population of Huaxia has exceeded one hundred and fifty thousand, but Huaxia only has two cities, which sounds very crowded.

However, at least one-third of these one hundred and fifty thousand people are children and toddlers with no strength to truss a chicken; in this current era, they could be called a burden. But Baifeng is very happy; Huaxia can afford to raise them, and these children are also the foundation for Yulong to compete for the Kingdom in the future. In any case, Yulong's path will be much easier to walk than his own.

What Baifeng needs to do now is to keep expanding. If there is no place left for farmland, then clear the mountains and burn the wasteland. In any case, before these children grow up, there must be enough food to guarantee their lives.

Where there is birth, there is death. Some of the old people who followed Baifeng earliest had long since hollowed out their bodies due to their early years of rushing about and various other influences. Yet, Baifeng also extended their lifespans by more than a decade. In this current era, anyone who can die a natural death at nearly fifty years of age can be considered to have reached a ripe old age; it is extremely rare.

Xiong and the others are also aging at a speed visible to the naked eye. Baifeng feels that Wu has aged a bit more after not seeing him for a few days. Now, his hearing is gradually declining, but Baifeng has no way to stop it. The decay of organs is an inevitable thing. The kidney is the foundation of the innate; the first organ in a person to begin failing is also the kidney, and the kidney opens into the ears, so the ears will gradually go deaf, followed by the spleen failing and teeth falling out, the liver failing and eyes going blind...

In one year, many small grave mounds have been erected on the land of Huaxia, including those of infants and toddlers who died prematurely. Although there is a food supply and people to help with childbirth, Huaxia is too large and there are too few doctors, so it is ultimately impossible to look after everyone. Coupled with some more serious cases, the premature death of newborns is unavoidable.

However, the population growth of Huaxia is a nail-on-the-head, unquestionable fact. Some people in their thirties and forties are still giving birth, and young people over fifteen have also begun to produce offspring. Only Baifeng has had no movement all these years, but Baifeng has no functional obstacles; at least three children have already proven himself. Perhaps, it is just that Heaven does not want him to have too many children.

In view of Huaxia's crazily growing population, there will inevitably be a huge gap in medical care and education in the future. Baifeng believes that the current education can undergo appropriate reforms.

Baifeng directly copied the model of later generations: children enter school at four years old to learn some simple communication with others and build a most basic worldview, similar to a Kindergarten institution. However, because of the shortage of teachers, Baifeng decided to use some young women who are slightly literate but lack the ability to continue their studies. This can also free the children's parents from the shackles of their children, allowing them to enter into production and labor, and can also avoid the dangers caused by leaving a group of children alone at home.

Because a case of child arson already occurred in Huaxia during the winter: the parents went out to play cards and have fun with friends, leaving the children at home. The children had nothing to play with, but fire had a very strong attraction for them. One took a spark out of the stove and burned it against the table. It was quite effective; it caught fire, but the fire grew so large that the child became afraid. By the time the thick smoke was discovered, the surrounding neighbors rushed to put out the fire.

The child was fine, but two rooms were burned down. Fortunately, a heavy Snow had just fallen, and the piles of snow inside and outside the courtyard became the perfect medicine for fighting the fire.

Besides Primary education, intermediate and Advanced education also need reform. The Ministry of War has also reached the time for reform, and it could even be said that the entire government structure needs further optimization.

Now, based on geographical phenomena, Baifeng infers that it should be the period of the "fifth nine." The willow is a very common tree species in Huaxia and one of the first to sprout. Here, there are almost all deciduous broad-leaved trees, with only a small portion of evergreen coniferous forests.

The willow twigs are gradually gaining color and have buds. On the ground, beneath the withered grass leaves, one can see green shoots that have just revealed their heads. It is probably still a bit early to call it the "sixth nine," but it should be the "fifth nine." Baifeng is now incomparably looking forward to Xuanyuan being able to formulate a calendar and festivals, but that should only be something done after the victory of the Battle of Zhuolu and Xuanyuan establishing his capital in the Central Plains.

Baifeng sometimes wonders if his appearance could push this process forward. Xuanyuan already understands the principles of farming and will naturally understand the importance of time to agriculture, so will he ponder this matter? Or, should he tell him the little bit of the answer he knows and let him reverse-engineer the theorem?

Baifeng himself truly does not have that ability. He understands the logic: the Earth revolves around the sun, rotating and revolving; time is not exactly three hundred and sixty-five days. How should that small difference be calculated? The Agricultural Calendar uses a Leap Month to balance it, and the Western calendar, although it uses its own method to balance it, looking at history as a whole, a few days have inexplicably disappeared.

There is about a month left until spring plowing, and now counts as the slack season. Last year's work has already been summarized, and the weather is not too harsh; it is a good time to carry out a sweeping reform.

Baifeng convened a national assembly of all Citizens. Representatives from all walks of life and every city and Village gathered at the Assembly Hall. But even after expansion, the Assembly Hall still could not accommodate so many people. Fortunately, Baifeng had long ago ordered people to set up large tents outside, just like at a rural banquet, set up stoves, and arrange tables and chairs.

Then, on each table, a simple meeting agenda was placed, with tea and water. The Ministry of Rites was responsible for the arrangement and hosting process of the entire assembly. Wu was smiling and very happy, without a hint of twilight.