Chapter 47: The Full Set of Textbooks Unleashes Divine Power, Millions Cross the Single-Log Bridge

Kele Novel—Your private pocket library, accessible anytime. tw Easy Read

Great Tang.

Taiji Palace.

The bell for the morning court has ceased.

Silence, almost stagnant, falls upon the court hall.

Li Shimin sits on the dragon throne, holding a Ru kiln tea cup in his hand.

Steam rises from the tea.

Officials from the great aristocratic families line both sides of the court hall.

Courtiers from the Boling Cui clan, Zhaojun Li clan, and Qinghe Cui clan turn pale inch by inch.

The Great Tang's bureaucracy is controlled by these five surnames and seven prominent clans.

Because they monopolize knowledge.

Papermaking is expensive, and printing books is difficult.

Core classics are all locked away in the libraries of the great aristocratic families.

Without books to read, the humble families have no posts to hold.

The descendants of the aristocratic families, relying on their deep family traditions, occupy high positions for generations, even daring to confront imperial authority to their face.

Imperial authority and the aristocratic families co-govern the world.

This is a thorn in Li Shimin's heart that cannot be pulled out.

The textbooks in the hands of ordinary children on the Sky Screen.

No threshold, no screening, the state provides a safety net.

Enabling every commoner's child to learn to read and gain wisdom.

A Vice Minister from the Qinghe Cui clan has weak legs, his back soaked through with cold sweat.

If all the people of the world can read and understand reason.

The mysterious and noble outer layer of the great aristocratic families will be torn apart by these millions of commoners.

Wei Zheng stands at the front of the civil officials.

He came from humble origins and wandered restlessly in his early years.

He knows deeply the difficulty of seeking education.

At this moment, Wei Zheng lifts his head, looking at the bright schoolhouse on the Sky Screen.

His eyes turn a ring of red.

"No blind men in the world, and humble families produce noble sons."

"This is the true eternal prosperous age."

Fang Xuanling also presses his lips tightly together.

He sees the future of the Great Tang's bureaucratic system.

On the dragon throne.

Li Shimin's mind churns with Lin Xuan's words: "The state forcibly sends them into classrooms."

His heart beats like a drum within his chest.

The means he has sought for years to suppress the powerful clans are, at this moment, laid bare before him by the Sky Screen in an extremely domineering manner.

The imperial examination was just established, yet the aristocratic families remain powerful.

Because the humble families have no books.

If the Great Tang emulates this method.

Building schools widely and popularizing woodblock printing.

Driving all those illiterate sons of farmers and sons of craftsmen into the schools.

Within a few decades, hundreds of thousands of literate scholars from humble families will flood the imperial examination halls.

The few hundred or thousand direct descendants of the great aristocratic families will not be able to stir up even a single wave before this massive torrent of commoners.

Using absolute numerical superiority to drown the political base of the powerful clans.

The heat at the bottom of the paper bag dissipates.

Lin Xuan crumples it into a ball and throws it into a trash can on the street corner.

Xiao Sizi swallows the last mouthful of soy milk, and the paper cup is also taken by Lin Xuan and discarded.

"Let's go, I'll take you somewhere."

The two cross the zebra crossing and push open the glass door of a large Xinhua Bookstore at the street corner.

Bookshelves reaching the ceiling fill the view.

Row after row, arranged closely.

The shelves are filled with colorful books.

The Secretariat of the Great Tang holds no more than this quantity of books, and most are scrolls.

All the books here are bound into volumes and placed openly for anyone to read.

Several children sit on the carpet, holding picture books and reading aloud.

"This... are all books?" She lowers her voice and looks around.

"Yes, this is a bookstore; pay money and you can buy." Lin Xuan leads her through the hall, heading straight for the textbook section.

"Hello, please give me the complete set of textbooks from first grade of primary school to the third year of junior high, covering Chinese, Math, English, Politics, History, Geography, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology; pack them as new."

The sales assistant pushes a cart and stacks the books by grade.

More than thirty thick books fill two heavy non-woven fabric shopping bags.

Xiao Sizi watched Lin Xuan scan the code to pay.

The classics, treasured by the great families of the Great Tang, were casually held in his hand as he walked out of the shop.

Returning to the apartment.

Lin Xuan placed two heavy shopping bags on the desk.

He unzipped them, took out the textbooks one by one, and piled them into a half-meter-high mountain of books on the table.

"Pick one and take a look."

Xiao Sizi stood on tiptoe and pulled out a copy of "Primary School Chinese, Grade One, First Semester" from the shortest stack.

She opened the cover; the paper was extremely white, cool and smooth to the touch.

She glanced at the characters on the page and frowned slightly.

"These characters... they are missing strokes."

"And there are symbols like insects printed above the characters."

"This is called Simplified Chinese; it removes the complex to keep the simple, making it easy to recognize and write."

"Those above are called Hanyu Pinyin; learn those few dozen symbols."

"For any Chinese character in the world, if it is marked with Pinyin, you can pronounce it yourself."

Xiao Sizi flipped through two pages.

The book was filled with large, colorful illustrations. Black characters on white paper read: "Heaven and Earth are divided into upper and lower; the sun and moon shine on the present and the past."

No quoting of classics, no preaching of subtle meanings; it was straightforward and clear.

This was truly a reader meant to enlighten young children.

Xiao Sizi held the Chinese textbook and turned the pages.

"Is it good? Students outside have to study these books for nine years."

"After finishing nine years, they study three more years of even harder material."

"Twelve years of cold window study, stuffing all the characters, pictures, and formulas in these books into their brains."

"Then, millions of people walk into the examination halls on the same day."

Xiao Sizi closed the book, hearing a grim aura of military muster in his words.

"The Great Tang also has the Imperial Examination."

"Exams for Xiucai, exams for Jinshi."

"Those who pass ride horses through the streets and enter the court to become officials."

Lin Xuan sneered, "What you call that is just a trivial game."

"Your Great Tang Imperial Examination emphasizes family background."

"Before the exam, you must submit your poems and essays to high officials and nobles; this is called 'submitting a scroll'."

"Only if the chief examiner likes you, or likes your father, can you pass."

"Scholars across the nation take identical exam papers."

"The examination halls are equipped with surveillance cameras, and security checks are conducted upon entry."

"After the exam, papers are submitted; the candidate's name and native place are all sealed with adhesive tape, and then machines grade the papers."

"The grader cannot see whose son you are; he only recognizes the questions you answered correctly. One point is one point."

Hearing this, Xiao Sizi's mind trembled.

"A completely blind evaluation?"

"Yes, blind grading."

"Once the scores are out, a list is drawn, ranked from highest to lowest."

"Regardless of whether your father is a billionaire boss or a street-sweeping sanitation worker."

"If your score is not enough, you cannot enter university."

"If your score is enough, even if your family has nothing but bare walls, the admission letter from a prestigious school will still be delivered to your hands."

Xiao Sizi put down the book in her hand.

She mentally simulated this set of rules.

"If wealthy families hire famous teachers with heavy gold to teach their children individually from a young age."

"Poor children must also tend to farm work, having only half a day each day for bitter study."

"Taking the same exam, wouldn't they still be at a disadvantage?" She grasped the crux of the resource gap.

Admiration shone in Lin Xuan's eyes.

"You are right; some are born at the finish line. There is no absolute equality in this world."

Lin Xuan shifted his tone, his voice hard as steel.

"But the Gaokao guards the bottom line."

"It leaves an extremely sturdy ladder for those children born in the mud."

"The rich have hundreds of ways out; the poor have only this one, with tens of thousands of people crowding a single log bridge."

"As long as this rule of judging solely by scores exists, smart children from the lower classes can carve out a path through sheer rote memorization." "Enter the academy, cross the class barrier."

Lin Xuan leaned down, looking straight at her.

"This is called: Do kings, marquises, generals, and ministers have a special breed?"

"It deprives the powerful and noble of the privilege of passing their positions to mediocre offspring."