Chapter 656: The Great Tide of the Era

"Your Highness, this is no small expenditure."

"I am naturally aware, but the current situation does not allow for a slow and steady pace; we must adopt an aggressive approach to popularize education and cultivate sufficient talent for Great Song in a short period," Zhao Xu said.

Scientific theories are ready-made, but there must be people to move the things within those theories from books into reality.

Otherwise, everything is but a flower in a mirror or the moon in the water, ending in nothingness.

Therefore, even if a large sum must be taken from the silver in the national treasury, this matter must be done.

As long as the technology in Yanzhou continues to break through, he can use Yanzhou's goods to acquire wealth from the whole world.

To be stingy with this bit of silver will result in spending countless times more silver in future struggles with the Western Lands.

"Your Highness's boldness is truly the same as it was in the beginning," Liu Fu recalled when Yan Wang had just recovered from his illness and set the tax rate at one-tenth of the land in Yanzhou.

And this policy has continued to this day, winning over the hearts of the people and making Yan Wang's prestige irreplaceable.

He believed that this time, Yan Wang's decision would not be wrong either.

Although he felt pained by the silver, he was also strongly in favor of this matter.

Coming from a humble background, he could naturally understand the sorrow of children from poor families who wanted to study but could not afford it.

Once this policy is implemented, it will not increase any burden on the people of Yanzhou.

By then, they will certainly be happy to send their children to the Public School.

Thinking of this, he became somewhat impatient, so he said, "Your Highness, I will go and prepare this matter now."

"Wait a moment," Zhao Xu stopped Liu Fu, "This is not enough. The most important thing is to let the people see the benefits of letting their children attend school, so it is necessary for the Imperial Court to issue some more policies to promote education in Yanzhou."

"First, the Public School must issue certificates of completion; without a certificate, one cannot participate in the Official Examination. Second, the recruitment of personnel for Yanzhou's Workshop must also have corresponding requirements."

He divided the Public School into seven levels, of which the first four levels are equivalent to contemporary primary education, and the last three levels are equivalent to junior high school education.

He does not intend to implement high school education in the Public School.

Students who complete the Public School can directly enter the Technology Academy, Government Academy, Military Academy, Medical Academy, and the Teacher Academy that is about to be established, through examinations.

The modern grade design is reasonable, but for him, it is only suitable for modern times and not for the current Great Song.

For one, the subjects that need to be mastered in the Public School are few; before the fourth level, one only needs to study language, Mathematics, and one comprehensive subject to popularize enlightenment knowledge such as scientific phenomena, history, and geography.

Chemistry and Physics will only be added from the fifth to the seventh grade.

By this time, the knowledge they have mastered will meet the current technological needs.

In this way, Yanzhou can quickly cultivate more talent suitable for this era.

After all, in ancient times, one could participate in the imperial examinations at the age of fourteen.

Having too many grades will only waste time and resources.

Of course, with the advancement of technology, he will continuously make adjustments to the Public School to adapt to the development of technology.

Therefore,

The Public School will issue a certificate of completion at the fourth grade and another at the seventh grade.

The fourth-grade certificate is only for eradicating illiteracy and entering the Workshop to serve as ordinary craftsmen.

The seventh-grade certificate allows students to enter the Workshop and be further cultivated into technical backbones.

If they still have the desire to study, a special Workshop Academy will be established at that time, allowing students from the Technology Academy to come and be responsible for teaching.

"In addition, there is the comprehensive improvement of the status and treatment of craftsmen in government-run Workshops, which will be promoted to everyone through the Propaganda Department," Zhao Xu thought for a moment and continued.

Upon hearing this, Liu Fu secretly admired him.

It must be said that every one of these policies put forward by Yan Wang has grasped the key points.

It is true that the people of Yanzhou support Yan Wang.

But sometimes, the people are also very realistic; they generally are not very interested in things that have no benefit.

Now, Yan Wang has linked every trade and industry with the Public School's certificate of completion.

If they do not want their own children to face the yellow earth and have their backs to the sky for their whole lives, they have no choice but to change their destiny through Public School education.

"High, it is truly high," Liu Fu gave a thumbs up.

Zhao Xu was basically immune to Liu Fu's flattery, and he said, "Alright, you can go back and prepare now."

Over the next few days, Zhao Xu also inspected other Workshops, especially the Weaving Mill.

This is the final link in the textile industry chain after spinning.

The Weaving Machine currently being used in the Weaving Mill is the Flying Shuttle Loom born around 1790 in contemporary times.

The principle of the Weaving Machine is very simple, just like the Latitude and Longitude on a map.

One only needs to arrange the Latitude and Longitude to cross each other, and the cloth is born.

The characteristic of the Flying Shuttle Loom is the use of the flying shuttle to quickly pass between the warp threads, increasing the efficiency of weaving.

Therefore, its key structure is this flying shuttle.

And the key structure of the flying shuttle is the spring inside, which is naturally not a problem for the current industrial level of Yanzhou.

Coupled with the fact that things like Weaving Machines are the traditional handicrafts of Great Song craftsmen.

Combining the two, the Flying Shuttle Loom was successfully manufactured.

Paired with steam power, Yanzhou's first steam-powered Weaving Mill was born.

"How much cloth can each Weaving Machine produce in a day?" Zhao Xu asked the manager of the Weaving Mill accompanying him.

The manager of the Weaving Mill was an old grandmother.

Ever since Zhao Xu arrived at the Weaving Mill, she had been keeping her nerves tense, and upon hearing this, she stammered, "In twelve hours, it can weave about two hundred pieces of cloth."

Zhao Xu nodded; when the Flying Shuttle Loom was first born, it relied on manual labor to pass the flying shuttle, and at that time, its efficiency was about twice that of an ordinary Weaving Machine.

Later, after transitioning through water power to steam power, its efficiency was greatly improved, and now it has reached about one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty times that of an ordinary Weaving Machine.

In addition, the Weaving Mill adopts a three-shift working method; the people rest, but the machines do not, so the efficiency is even higher, reaching two hundred times.

He roughly calculated that the Weaving Mill has five hundred Weaving Machines.

The output for this day was one hundred thousand bolts, which could only be described as terrifying.

Moreover, the quality of the cloth produced by these machines was excellent, and before long, these machine-woven fabrics would rapidly destroy the traditional small-scale peasant economy of Yanzhou.

And this was also one of his plans.

The small-scale peasant economy firmly anchored the population to the land; this was caused by the feudal system that had taken agriculture as its foundation for thousands of years.

Yanzhou was already lacking in labor, and if this point were not changed, the common people would continue to live lives of men plowing and women weaving, with no one willing to come to the Workshop.

In this way, the development of industry would be restricted.

Although destroying the small-scale peasant economy was equivalent to changing their way of life, which was somewhat cruel.

But this was the tide of the era; he could be merciful, but the Xitu Guo would not be merciful to the Song People.

When that time came, their comfortable lives would be destroyed, and they would suffer disasters they had never experienced before.