The earliest educational reforms began before Zhu Jinglun rebelled and the Anglo-French forces invaded Beijing. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

The first few years were the most difficult, but they were also the time when the progress was the fastest, almost three years ago, the enrollment rate of Daming Kingdom had reached 30%, but the next three years have almost been stagnant.

The most fundamental reason is that Daming's rural education is too dependent on the previous rural private schools and schools.

These private schools and schools are often in the hands of clan forces, rural landlords and gentry, and the government allows them to recruit school-age students without restrictions through certain subsidies.

But a few years later, a force of opposition emerged, and when they saw that the places for their own children to obtain fame were constantly occupied by some poor children, some squire families and clan forces began to be dissatisfied.

They use various methods to restrict the education of non-children of their own family, such as openly and secretly asking poor families to demand training, saying that this is a due courtesy, and students who do not pay will be excluded, and they are also promoting the public opinion that reading is useless, they tell those poor people that even if they spend ten years, they may not be able to get a half-official position, it is better to let the children earn money early, and they are happy to introduce these children to the workshops and shops in the city as apprentices.

Some parents can't afford to pay for the old master's cultivation and can't enter the school, and some really believe that reading is useless, so let the child go out early to make a living.

Seeing this situation, of course, the government was not satisfied, and the Ministry of Rites relied on the enrollment rate to make political achievements, but at this time, the rural forces used a bizarre argument to fool the government, and they told the officials at all levels in charge of education in the Ministry of Rites that if the children of the poor went to study, and everyone would be scholars in the future, then who else would do such a thing as picking up dung and feeding horses, if they didn't do it, how would they live as decent people, and if they did, they would also have a dull face, because a scholar would do those guys, Wouldn't it be a smear on the faces of all those who read?

This argument has been really popular for a while, because even those who have become petty officials in the Ministry of Rites through the imperial examination are also vested interests in the cultural monopoly, and since they have successfully passed the imperial examination, the smaller the gate, the better.

Speaking of which, there are so many problems, and it is still inseparable from a cultural monopoly in it.

This kind of monopoly thinking is so deep-rooted, and it is so serious that Zhu Jinglun does not dare to interfere with it, because he knows very well that one of the very important reasons for the more than 10 years of fighting between the Turks and Hakka in the Wukeng area is the competition for the number of students, and the two major ethnic groups of Cantonese and Hakka people do not hesitate to fight for this bloody battle in order to compete for the quota of going to school.

As for Confucius's banner of religion and classlessness, hum, they will only fight when it is useful, and when it is useless, how many people are really devout believers in Confucianism?

This situation has been deadlocked for three years, Zhu Jinglun has not found the most suitable solution, he knows that this is the result of his tricks, at first relied on the rural cultural class to promote education, and now these people have a strong voice in education, the government wants to insert it, it is more difficult than in the past.

But Zhu Jinglun was very resolute in the popularization of education, at first he tried to send supervisors to the countryside, but the work of these people could not be carried out at all, or they saw that it was not suitable to stop it, but they were made difficult by all kinds of things, and even stabbed people, when the cultural monopoly group twisted into a rope to hinder the spread of culture, it was impossible to directly send the army to suppress it, how could those big-headed soldiers know how to promote education, not to mention that education is not promoted with bayonets.

Zhu Jinglun chose to promote universal education in the cities where the rural forces were weaker, but this time he achieved a certain amount of tension, and the government came forward to establish a large number of public schools, and this time a large number of students were recruited, and even in the market towns in the rural centers, schools could be successfully established.

But in a country where the urbanization rate is less than 10 percent, building schools in cities alone will make little sense for everyone, even if they reach everyone. In fact, the enrolment rate in Kowloon Port has basically reached 80 per cent, but the overall enrolment rate remains at 30 per cent.

In the past few years, it will cost tens of millions of taels every year to build a school in the city to hire teachers, and on average, it will solve the cost of learning for a city student, and ten rural students can enter the school.

In fact, the reason why rural education is in the hands of rural cultural people is mainly because they have invested a lot of resources in it, and government subsidies only account for a little investment, and they have assumed responsibility, so they enjoy a lot of power, and to a certain extent, this is also the law of rights and obligations at work.

What is gratifying is that the control of public opinion by the rural cultural class has recently begun to decrease, and the biggest force is the development of newspapers, and those who are willing to run newspapers are often more enlightened and more willing to accept new things, and the information they receive is also relatively new, and they know that the education of many Western countries has left the Ming far behind, and the sense of urgency in their hearts makes them make a big appeal in the newspapers.

At the same time, they also fiercely attacked the cultural monopoly of the cultural forces in the countryside.

This kind of change in public opinion is what Zhu Jinglun is happy to see, but this is only the appeal of a small number of people of insight, he wants to see the interest class stand up to protect their own interests, and he doesn't know how many teenagers he will have, maybe he will have to wait until the real generation of cold people rises to see it.

But now the Hanmen is still only in the oppressed class, and it is impossible to confront these powerful and stubborn forces, and the government is mainly because of financial pressure, and these stubborn forces are both angry and cannot leave their support, otherwise Sancheng may not be able to keep them, so they can only hope to slowly change the thinking of these diehards through various means.

But Zhu Jinglun really has no good way to change his mind, and the official method of conducting large-scale public opinion propaganda has been used in the Republic era, and it can receive short-term results, but the long-term side effects are too great.

That's why he casually said that everyone should listen to Zeng Guofan's opinion, and he was also in a hurry to go to the doctor, and he was not very looking forward to it.

Soon after the end of his trip to Kowloon, Chu Jinglun was preparing to visit France, so he had no time to follow up on the matter.

This visit is of great significance, and even Zhu Jinglun has been preparing for a long time. The reason why he tried his best to hand over all government affairs to Chen Zhiting before can be regarded as preparations for this visit, and he must not have problems with the country after he goes abroad. In a modern country, it is very necessary for the head of state to carry out foreign affairs activities, and under normal circumstances, only the leaders of a very few countries do not carry out such activities, such as North Korea.

Although the Ming Dynasty was a newly established state, the regime was not yet impregnable, because a good political order had not yet been formed. It can be said that if Zhu Jinglun dies suddenly, there will inevitably be chaos. But if he lives, no matter where he is, there is not necessarily a problem.

Zhang Qianshan's problem last time was very accidental, first of all, Zhang Qianshan, who is extremely unself-aware but highly idealistic, does not often exist, but the main reason is that Zhu Jinglun was involved in assassination in the United States.

Other than that, Zhu Jinglun did not see any signs of possible chaos. First of all, Daming is a country with a rising national situation, with a new country of the rising sun, which the Chinese call national fortune. Although it was the first to be built, but supplemented by the establishment, it captured the Manchu Qing Dynasty's Jingshi, so rumbling momentum, the common people are very down-to-earth.

In terms of power composition, the civilian-bureaucratic clique headed by Chen Zhiting does not have particularly ambitious people, and the most important thing is that no one in the civilian-bureaucratic clique has the prestige of turmoil. In the military group, after striking Hou Jin, Hei Gou became the most authoritative general, but his prestige was not enough to convince the public, at least the military strength of the Xin'an faction represented by Wen Yuan was still above the Wukeng military group led by Hei Gou.

The officers of the Xin'an faction and the young Zhuang faction, which were more powerful, had even less personal prestige, and Chen Zhiting was able to stabilize this force through his identity as the leader of the Xin'an Wang clan and the squire. As a result, a delicate balance has been developed between the factions.

Of course, the most important thing is that Zhu Jinglun's prestige is enough to convince the public, as long as he doesn't die, no one has any thoughts that he shouldn't have.

In addition, this time to France, the political significance is too great, first of all, France is a power that cannot be ignored, and it has never established relations with France, which is very unfavorable to the Ming Dynasty's foothold in the world. Secondly, this trip to France is not only because of France, during this period of time, the rise of Daming is too fast, and there have been some special conflicts with Britain and Russia, Zhu Jinglun plans to use this trip to France to show off his muscles, so that everyone knows that Daming is not easy to mess with.

Of course, this kind of show of muscles is a kind of performance of lust and inwardness, which is the same as the warning color of some harmless insects, just to dispel the contempt of some countries for Daming, so that they don't provoke Daming if they have nothing to do, and give Daming a few years of development time, so as to really exercise his muscles.

The last important purpose is that Zhu Jinglun intends to lead some domestic elites of different levels and backgrounds to see the world again through this trip to France.

These elites are selected from all walks of life, and one-third are young government officials, which open their eyes and hope to arrange for them to exchange and study with their counterparts in Western countries.

One-third are the children of merchants, the last time they sent a large number of businessmen's children to travel around the world, and finally got Chen Qiyuan's windfall, it was worth it, if this time I was inspired, there was an elite like Chen Qiyuan who could drive the development of an industry again, then everything would be worth it.

The last third is mainly from the most conservative gentry class, a group of old masters, who take them to see the compulsory education in the West, mainly in the countries of Northwest Europe, to see if they can change their minds in the face of the crisis.

All this work has been in progress for a long time, so when the ironclad ship completed the sea trial, Zhu Jinglun immediately decided to sail, at this time it was already more than February, the Chinese New Year has passed, and it is expected that when he arrives in France, it is already April and May, which is the time when the spring flowers bloom. (To be continued.) )