Chapter 243: My Teacher, Yan Wang

"How is the recruitment going?" Zhao Xu asked as he sat down on a chair beside the Sand Table.

While the Official Examination was taking place, the recruitment for the Prince's Personal Army had been ongoing.

"Reporting to Your Highness, due to the recent great chaos, many commoners have been displaced. The young and strong among them have actively participated in the recruitment, and the ninety thousand new soldiers were recruited without much time passing," Chang Wei said.

Zhao Xu nodded.

To these commoners, three taels of Silver a month, plus having food and drink in the Prince's Personal Army, was absolutely full of temptation, so it was not hard to understand the enthusiasm of these young men.

With his gaze fixed on the Sand Table, Chang Wei continued, "Now these new soldiers have been assigned capable generals to train them, but Your Highness, there are too many new soldiers; the uniforms, Armor, and Weapon supplies cannot keep up."

Zhao Xu nodded; Chang Wei was indirectly asking him to urge the Armory to provide equipment for the army.

He was also quite troubled by this matter.

The scale of the Armory was too small, and it would inevitably be unable to keep up with the productivity required to support an army of 150,000.

Therefore, the Armory must be expanded.

Besides the Armory, other Workshops also needed to be expanded and regularized.

After all, he had only been tinkering around before.

But as he took charge of the entire Yanzhou, he could no longer develop things in a casual and wild manner; he was, after all, going to lead his fiefdom into the First Industrial Revolution, and even the Second Industrial Revolution.

"I will urge them for you," Zhao Xu said.

Wang Ying was not afraid of Chang Wei at all; if Chang Wei urged him too urgently, he would simply roll his eyes and say two words: "None available."

Hearing Zhao Xu say this, Chang Wei felt a sense of joy.

Without unified uniforms and Armor, these new soldiers looked just like disaster victims, which was truly hard for him to watch.

"By the way, have the first batch of students for the Military Academy been selected?" Zhao Xu remembered something.

"The generals were very enthusiastic when they learned that Your Highness would be teaching personally. In the end, I had no choice but to draw lots to select three hundred people," Chang Wei recalled how the generals almost fought over the spots, and he still found it both funny and frustrating.

Zhao Xu was relieved now.

The Three Great Academies were the foundation for the takeoff of his Yanzhou in terms of administration, military, and technology; he could not afford to neglect them.

Although the knowledge in his mind was as vast as the sea, he could not do everything himself.

And by teaching the things in his mind to them, it was equivalent to having numerous avatars of his own knowledge.

With them, all aspects of Yanzhou would gradually develop and improve.

"Hmm, good. Next, I will also insert five hundred scholars into the army."

"Five hundred scholars? Your Highness, what are so many scholars going to do in the army? Each one of them is weak enough that they couldn't even tie up a chicken," Chang Wei immediately felt a chill.

The opposition between civil and military officials was not a matter of a single day or age.

Generally, military generals did not like civil officials who held pens.

They considered them pedantic and often fond of giving blind commands.

Furthermore, because civil officials often withheld their military pay, this aversion was even stronger.

So, upon hearing Yan Wang say he was going to give the army five hundred scholars, he immediately felt disgusted.

Zhao Xu had long anticipated that Chang Wei would react this way.

But he was unwavering in pushing for the reform of the army.

In the final analysis, the current Prince's Army was still a feudal army.

If it were not for his high prestige in the army, the bad habit of soldiers belonging to their generals would exist in the Prince's Personal Army just the same.

During the Northern Di Autumn Hunt, there were generals who tried to incite their own soldiers to mutiny.

Although most were instead turned over to Chang Wei by the soldiers, some did follow the generals in rebellion.

It was only because Chang Wei discovered it in time that it was suppressed.

This incident had happened only a few months ago, but he had kept it in mind.

Especially after the Prince's Personal Army expanded to 150,000 men.

Some troops were to be stationed in the mountain passes of Yanzhou, quite far from Yan Commandery.

If a figure like Yuan Shikai appeared in these armies, turning new recruits into private soldiers,

the plot of shelling the Prince's mansion was not impossible to happen.

"Regardless of whether you want it or not, these scholars must be arranged in the army. As for their role, it is quite significant," Zhao Xu said. "Once they pass the assessments at the academy, they will enter the army to be responsible for the education of the soldiers. However, tell the generals not to worry; they will not compete for the command of the soldiers."

"..." Hearing this, Chang Wei tried hard to think.

After thinking for a long time, he admitted his failure.

He still could not understand Yan Wang's unique ideas.

However, the Prince's Personal Army was Yan Wang's Personal Guard Army.

He only needed to execute the orders.

"A soldier's duty is to obey orders." This was also a sentence hanging in the North Camp Military Academy, which Yan Wang had ordered to be engraved.

"Yes, Your Highness." With a heavy cupping of his fists, he shouted loudly.

Zhao Xu rubbed his ears and glared at Chang Wei, expressing his dissatisfaction with his loud voice.

After chatting for a few more sentences, he left the North Camp and headed straight for the Government Office.

There, the officials of the Government Office were selecting students for the three academies for him.

"Hahaha, there really are fools choosing the Technology Academy."

At the entrance of the Government Office, every scholar held a piece of paper in their hand, on which were their name, place of origin, family members, and the academy they had chosen to apply for.

Among the more than six thousand scholars who failed the Official Examination,

except for those wealthy scholars who had no worries about food and clothing, many of the impoverished scholars were extremely miserable.

Returning home, they were restless.

Because their parents and siblings would mutter in their ears from time to time about whose Eldest Son had become a County Magistrate, or whose Third Son had become an accountant.

Every time this happened, their hearts felt as if they were being cut by knives.

Therefore, upon learning that the Prince's Mansion was recruiting students, they decided to come to the Government Office to sign up.

The notice at the Government Office stated things very clearly.

After entering the academies, Yan Wang would personally give them lectures, and those who passed the examinations would be given priority for entry into the officialdom, the military, and the Armaments Bureau.

For them, this was undoubtedly a new opportunity.

Most importantly, Yan Wang would lecture in person.

Did this not mean that in the future, when they went out, they could say their respected teacher was Yan Wang?

To have Yan Wang as a respected teacher—what an honor that would be.

Once this news spread, even those scholars who had passed the high-level examinations drooled with envy.

"None of your damn business," the scholar who had chosen the Armaments Bureau retorted.

The Government Academy is recruiting 1,500 people, the Military Academy is recruiting 500, and the Technology Academy is recruiting 100.

Over 5,000 people signed up; among them, over 4,000 applied for the Government Academy, and over 1,000 applied for the Military Academy.

Only fewer than 200 people applied for the Technology Academy.

The requirements for recruiting students for each academy were written very clearly on the notice.

The Government Academy is the most lenient; entering the Government Academy only requires attending lectures within the academy, and one may enter or leave the academy at will.

When the time comes, one only needs to pass the Government Academy's examination, and the Government Office will arrange an official position.

The Military Academy is slightly more restrictive; one must participate in training and may leave the military camp once every ten days, but one must not leave Yan Commandery without authorization.

The Technology Academy, however, was simply a bit too difficult for them.

First, there is a requirement for mathematics, with priority given to those who score high in mathematics.

Secondly, those who enter the Technology Academy are not allowed to go out.

This is practically equivalent to being kept in confinement.