Fang Yuan chose to promote basic education, and the pilot place in simplified Chinese characters was Suzhou Prefecture, which he had the strongest control. As long as it can be implemented in Suzhou, the land of books, other state governments can also be implemented smoothly.

In accordance with Fang Yuan's instructions, the Cabinet issued official documents to the prefectures and counties of Suzhou Prefecture in a simplified Chinese template, ordering the officials in charge of teaching and teaching to promote simplified Chinese characters and basic education subjects in the county's government-run schools from the official document to the day.

In the promotion of simplified characters, the government distributed the correspondence between traditional and simplified characters to each prefecture and county, and the government's edict first learned the corresponding tables of traditional and simplified characters, and then handed them over to the masters of government-run schools.

The government issues official documents, and the government provides free traditional and simplified Chinese correspondence tables, and the people, whether they are squires or ordinary people, can go to the Suzhou government to receive them for free.

In order to cooperate with the promotion of simplified characters, Fang Yuan and the cabinet also formulated a series of measures.

First, in the future, all prefecture capitals and prefectures and counties must regard the promotion of simplified Chinese characters as a political task, and personally go to the countryside and villages to publicize and promote it. And the effectiveness of the promotion will be included in the assessment of the government, and those who are not effective in promotion will be expelled from the government and cannot be reused for life.

Second, new school children, whether government-run or private-run schools, will no longer be taught simplified characters, but will be taught simplified characters. If there is a private school that teaches traditional Chinese characters in private, it will be forcibly closed once it is discovered. The mountain chief and master of the school are no longer allowed to engage in the teacher's profession for the rest of their lives.

Third, in the future, any official correspondence between the government can only be written in simplified characters, and those who use traditional Chinese characters to report official documents in the state governments will be regarded as omitted reports, and the relevant responsible persons will be punished according to the crime of government evaluation.

Fourth, three years later, the imperial examination in Jiangnan was changed to be written in simplified characters, but those written in traditional characters were regarded as invalid papers and were not passed; From next year, the entrance and graduation exams of Jiangnan University Hall will all use simplified Chinese.

Fifth, after one year, any newly signed contract for non-governmental trade exchanges must be written in simplified Chinese characters in the government to have legal effect, and the government will not recognize the validity of contracts written in traditional Chinese characters, and the parties shall settle the contract privately on their own.

As for basic subject education, the difficulty is not in Chinese studies, but in modern mathematics.

The official mathematical talents of the Ming Dynasty are almost blank, and the real mathematical talents are in the Chamber of Commerce. Cheng Dawei, a mathematician in the Ming Dynasty, was a businessman and the author of one of the most important mathematical books of the Ming Dynasty, "Algorithm Tongzong".

Fang Yuan simply flipped through the content of "Algorithm Unification", which has involved binary quadratic equations, and has initially reached the mathematical level of primary school students before the crossing. Although the Algorithm Synthesis is not a systematic mathematical training, it is sufficient for mathematical enlightenment.

He called representatives of the chambers of commerce of the business associations and asked each chamber of commerce to send five talents who had studied the "Algorithm Unification"; Then he found Tang Ruowang, the director of the Changshu Arsenal, and asked him to recommend six or seven talents who were proficient in Western mathematics, and hired them with a lot of money.

Because the mathematics textbooks before the crossing were different from the national conditions of the Ming Dynasty, there were also considerable differences between the Ming Dynasty and Western mathematics. In line with the idea of seeking common ground while reserving differences, Fang Yuan ordered these Chinese and foreign mathematical talents to take the essence and remove the dross according to their different learnings, and worked overtime for three months to finally complete the modern mathematics textbook in line with the national conditions of the Ming Dynasty.

Fang Yuan then asked Taobao's printing merchants to print these mathematics textbooks into a book, and printed 3,000 copies at one time.

These talents who participated in the compilation of mathematics textbooks were once again sent to Jiangnan University to train the first batch of 80 teachers to teach modern mathematics and send them to teach in schools in various state capitals.

Fang Yuan's side was in full swing to promote basic education and simplified Chinese characters, and Liu Ru suddenly came to the door and claimed that he had something important to discuss.

Since Qian Qianyi returned to Hongdou Villa, Liu Ru has never taken the initiative to come to Fang Yuan in order to avoid suspicion, and he will never take the initiative to come to Fang Yuan. Now that she suddenly came to the door, something must have happened.

Fang Yuan met Liu Rushi in the lobby and asked straight to the point, "Sister Liu, what happened to the Jiangnan Daily?" ”

Liu Ru replied, "Regent, recently some literati want to publish a small article on Jiangnan's future strategy, whether it is the Northern Expedition or the Western Expedition, in the Jiangnan Daily. I'm here to ask you, does Jiangnan Daily publish it? ”

Jiangnan Daily was originally the official newspaper of the Regent's Palace, and it could only publish some official documents, as well as policy-oriented articles. However, in order to broaden his voice, Fang Yuan made an exception to allow any literati in Jiangnan to publish some articles in Jiangnan Daily. Of course, the content of the article is limited to the disadvantages of the needle, and other gossip news such as who gets the Oiran today, who will become the guest of the Qinglou sister tomorrow, etc., is absolutely forbidden to be published in Jiangnan Daily.

The hottest events in Jiangnan at the moment are nothing more than the promotion of simplified Chinese characters and basic education, but these policy articles are not interested in ordinary literati to dabble in. The most discussed among those literati and students is still the topic of whether to go on the Northern Expedition or the Western Expedition.

In Fang Yuan's opinion, it is very common for some literati to want to publish these articles in Jiangnan Daily, and I don't understand why Liu Ru came to report with such a fuss, "Sister Liu, they can publish it if they want to!" I would also like to see if public opinion supports the use of military forces abroad. ”

Liu Ru said worriedly, "Regent, there are suddenly several groups of people who want to publish it, and the content of the article is still similar, I always feel that something is wrong. ”

Fang Yuan was secretly amused, Jiangnan's future strategy for foreign conquest was nothing more than the Northern Expedition or the Western Expedition, it was common for these literati to have the same views, "Sister Liu, what is their point of view?" Western Expedition, or Northern Expedition? ”

Liu Ru replied truthfully, "Western Expedition, their articles all believe that they should take advantage of the great battle between Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in Sichuan, take the opportunity to copy Li Zicheng's lair, and then rely on the advantage of the sailor to send troops to block the exit of the Three Gorges and block the two thieves in Sichuan." When the time comes, there will be no worries, and you will be able to calmly go on the Northern Expedition and settle the country in one battle. ”

This point of view, Fang Yuan has thought about it more than once these days, and it is indeed a rare opportunity. If Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong can be successfully driven to Sichuan to kill each other, they can break the current strategic stalemate, gather heavy troops for the Northern Expedition, and fight a decisive battle with the imperial court. Otherwise, if Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong decide the winner, the world will become a three-legged trend, and the whole body will be moved if one hair is drawn.

At that time, if you want to unify the world, the difficulty is not ordinary. At least during the Three Kingdoms period, the situation of secession lasted for at least 60 years.

Fang Yuan groaned and said, "Sister Liu, we must have institutional confidence, cultural confidence, don't be suspicious, no one can overthrow the regime in Jiangnan by publishing a few articles, right!" This strategy is very insightful, so write down the names of these writers! ”

Liu Ru was slightly stunned, it seemed that Fang Yuan didn't pay enough attention to her reminder, but she actually couldn't say anything wrong, just relying on an intuition. Military and political affairs must not be decided based on intuition alone, and it is not uncommon for Fang Yuan to be reluctant to accept his own ideas.

Liu Ru bowed and retreated, and Fang Yuan suddenly asked, "Sister Liu, why don't you call me Brother Fang, but Regent?!" ”

Liu Ru lowered his gaze and said, "The regent is the regent, and he is no longer the previous Brother Fang, I don't know if I can call Brother Fang again, or I will not make mistakes according to etiquette." ”

Fang Yuan was slightly stunned, and suddenly laughed and said, "Haha! Sister Liu will always be Sister Liu, Brother Fang will always be Brother Fang, I don't like what Sister Liu is called Regent. ”

Liu Ru looked at him in a daze, smiled lightly and said, "Then I still call Brother Fang, and the regent should not blame." ”

The two looked at each other and smiled, and were about to say more, when Hu Qi hurriedly walked in, and Chong Fangyuan arched his hand and said, "Regent, a messenger from the north has arrived, and he wants to meet the regent." ”

Fang Yuan was stunned and asked, "The envoy of the Imperial Court of the capital?" ”

Hu Qi said, "No, it's the Shandong Governor, the envoy sent by Sun Chuanting!" ”