"The fox is not as big and fierce as the black bear, but he is extremely intelligent, and he is as eloquent as the squirrel, and he can observe the situation, and knows that the tiger is suspicious of the squirrel, so he deliberately pretends to obey in front of the squirrel, and then goes with the squirrel to meet the king of the forest. When he got to the tiger, the fox suddenly grabbed the squirrel, ate the squirrel in front of the tiger, and then said to the tiger, who was not surprised, "My ability is stronger than that of the squirrel, so let me be the minister."

"Indeed, it is terrible for people who are too capable"

Catherine thought of the courtiers who followed several tsars after the death of Peter the Great, and couldn't help complaining.

"Hehe, I'm not referring to those guys, what I want to say is that although the squirrel can be eloquent, it does not have the ability to subdue animals that are stronger than himself, and the fox can deal with these animals that are stronger than himself in some way by relying on cunning and coaxing, but in the final analysis, if the tiger takes action himself, can't he still deal with a black bear? The real significance of this story is that the tiger did not properly delegate power to those who had the corresponding ability, that is, he did not use his power well, and it was self-defeating, losing a minister and gaining a very capable but treacherous courtier. In fact, as long as the tiger goes out and roars twice, and then sends the squirrel forward to appease it a few times, how dare the black bear disagree? ”

"Oh, I didn't expect you to be able to see things from this angle!"

I don't know whether Catherine praised or ridiculed.

"However, most of the people in this world are ordinary people, no matter what their background is, they are mediocre, they have done nothing in their lives, they are just forced to move forward by fate. Take Russia as an example, the aristocracy and the rich account for only 5%, such a small group of people, more than half of them are waste, incompetent, that is to say, the real elite of this country may not even be 1%, with such a small number of capable people to manage the remaining 99% of the people, it is naturally extremely difficult. But in the other 95 percent, are all of these uneducated and untrained people necessarily waste? I don't think so. There are always those who are favored by God, buried deep in the mediocrity, waiting for the wise to discern and discover. So you might say, so all people should be given the same education, the same training, they should be treated equally. But let's not forget that the proportion of waste in these 95 percent is much more than that of the 5 percent of the aristocratic and rich, and how much money and energy will be wasted if all of them are treated equally? So, you can only rely on screening, and even need to try your luck and hit luck. Often in times of war, civilian-born servicemen build more merit and thus get rid of their civilian status to become rich and noble, and what Russia lacks now, this is such a long-term continuous and stable upward channel, resulting in too few capable people. It is very bad that there is such a large population, but it is still occupied by mediocre and incompetent people, and there is no ladder for promotion for capable people at the lower level, and everyone lives in a state of confusion, unable to see the future, and unable to see hope! This state of affairs, as I have said before, is that the country is in middle age, lacking the vigor and drive of young people, while Prussia is a young man who is growing rapidly, and even if it is not strong enough to look down on the whole of Europe, it will grow to be so strong in time. It is true that Russia needs to be reformed, it needs to be rejuvenated, it needs to get rid of all kinds of ills, but by no means it is something that gives everyone something beyond their own capabilities, not even a glimmer of such hope, otherwise these people will demand more, and even ..."

"The population is large, and the proportion of capable people is low, so it should be treated equally!"

Catherine refuted loudly, and then quickly looked at her daughter Sophia as if she had reacted, and continued to refute when she found that there was nothing wrong.

"If, as you say, we just rely on screening, wouldn't it be cheaper to do the entire population screening? Also, how often are you going to be screened? If it were once a year, with the vast territory of Russia, I am afraid it would be too late, right? It is only possible once every three or four years, but the result of this is that it requires a lot of manpower and material resources. First of all, it is necessary to formulate screening criteria, and secondly, it is necessary to organize a group of personnel who specialize in this work to go to all parts of the country to carry it out, and in order to prevent mistakes in the intermediate process, it is necessary to order and organize a group of supervisors. Because of the lack of sufficient experience, the first few times the implementation of the standard may need to be adjusted, so that ten years have passed, but you only get three groups of people at most, and these three groups of people are only potential, nothing more than immediately useful, so you have to build a special school to train, to give these people the opportunity to exercise and grow, and when it can really be used, twenty years have passed. However, if we use these 20 years to build a batch of schools every year, and people of appropriate age can receive education, then it is equivalent to a group of people learning every year, even if some of them are eliminated in the process of education. Although there won't be so many at first, after year after year, the number of people you can educate after twenty years is definitely much more than the six batches of people you screened! What do you think, Your Highness? ”