. After hearing this, Li Hui waved his hand and said, "It's not that serious, dialects are dialects after all, even if it is Cantonese, which Westerners have designated as a language for the purpose of splitting China, it is no different from Mandarin in terms of grammar, you only need to learn pronunciation and some unique vocabulary, which is much less difficult than learning a foreign language." What's more, just not learning classical Chinese and calligraphy, switching to vernacular and hard pen writing, you can save several years of time, plus the convenience brought by simplified characters and pinyin, even if you are a southerner, it will not take long to complete the basic literacy, not to mention that we are now in the north, this work must start from the side first, then the speed will be faster"

When Yan Fu heard this, he suddenly realized that he had a concept that he had to figure out first, "Dongyang, what kind of requirements do you mean by 'basic literacy'?" ”

"Mastering the writing of the 800 most commonly used Chinese characters and various practical texts, and mastering the most basic mathematical and physical knowledge, with the current situation in China, can be called completely freed from illiteracy. In the actual literacy eradication, our requirements can be lowered, and we can fully master the hard pen writing of the basic strokes of Chinese characters, Hanyu Pinyin, and learn to look up the dictionary and dictionary, and then rely on them to learn on their own. I estimate that it can be completed in a month, and if the students are particularly smart, they may even be able to memorize it in a few days, so as to make the most of the limited number of teachers," Li Hui replied after thinking for a while.

Yan Fu immediately questioned, "Mastering these theories can start self-study, but students still have to be smart, and learning is very hard, how many people are willing to learn spontaneously?" As far as I know, many mud-legged, well, worker-peasant soldiers would rather be tired than use their brains"

Hearing Yan Fu say "mud legs", Li Hui's face suddenly showed displeasure, but he also knew that people's concepts could not be completely changed in a short period of time, and Yan Fu was able to support him in eradicating illiteracy among lower-class workers, which was already a rare enlightened among the intellectuals of this era.

Therefore, Li Hui didn't blame him much, but patiently explained to him, "Brother Dao is right, but you ignore an important fact, our China has a population of 40,000, which is far inferior to any other power in the world. In fact, according to my estimates, China's total population today will never be less than 450 million, assuming that one-tenth of them are adolescent men between the ages of 12 and 25 (in order for Yan Fu to accept it more quickly, Li Hui did not immediately put forward the idea of emancipating women). ), then that's 45 million people. Even if only one in five smart people has the ability to learn on their own, there are 9 million people, and even if only one in five of these 9 million people is willing to learn on their own, then there are nearly 2 million people! With these nearly 2 million young people with primary school education, we can raise at least a million modern troops, and even if the Western powers join forces, they will not be able to prevent China's independence and liberation. And when that time comes, we will take the conventional route to promote formal modern education throughout the country."

Yan Fu's face showed joy after hearing this, but after thinking about it carefully, he found that Li Hui's plan was just a flash in the pan, and he couldn't help frowning and asking, "It sounds really feasible, but how to implement it?" Neither the imperial court nor Li Zhongtang would ever support such a plan."

"Li Zongdai, the envoy of Shandong Salt Transport, was ordered by Zhongtang to develop gold mines in Denglai Erfu for nearly ten years, but he has always made less money and lost more, which made Zhongtang very dissatisfied. After the younger brother accidentally learned about this a few months ago, he tried to understand it and felt that there was a lot to be done, so he asked Zhongtang to take over, and now it has been approved, and the big thing just mentioned can start from this", after listening to Li Hui say this good news, Yan Fu's face immediately showed a look of surprise and envy, and immediately handed over to Li Hui to congratulate, because the Shandong salt transport envoy is a third-grade official, and the real power is quite large, for Li Hui, a young man who was still white last year, it is not an exaggeration to call it a step to the sky.

Who knew that Li Hui shook his head at this time and told Yan Fu, "With my age and qualifications, if I really be a third-grade official, those gossip officials must not smell stinky meat like flies?" I just took over this errand, and as for the official position, it was temporarily held by Zhongtang's nephew Zhang Shiheng, who was a non-caring person, and the actual work was all done by me, and I was also allowed to recruit people from overseas. ”

"I see." , Yan Fu suddenly realized, but he still congratulated Li Hui again, after all, the real power is still in hand, which is far more important than the official position for people who have the heart to do practical things.

Li Hui smiled slightly self-deprecatingly, "I gave a military order in front of Zhongtang, don't want a penny above, raise funds by myself, find my own manpower, turn losses into profits, turn losses into profits, pay a total profit of no less than 500,000 taels of silver in three years, and turn in a profit of no less than 1.2 million taels of silver in five years, if I can't complete it, I will lose my head, such a big wrong, where can I find a second one?" Anyway, the Jiaodong Gold Mine is losing money now, and I won't be worse no matter how I do it."

"Aren't you taking too much of a risk?" , Yan Fu was shocked, but immediately he thought that even if Li Hui couldn't complete it, Li Hongzhang might not really cut this rare talent, he should just want to let Li Hui hit the wall and grind his temperament, of course, if Li Hui can really do this, Li Hongzhang will definitely be even happier, in short, he is a profiteer anyway, that old fox is really scheming

"Hmph, don't take any risks, I haven't started to do this yet, I've already earned 50,000 taels of silver", Li Hui took out a few silver tickets from his arms and shook them in front of Yan Fu, with a sneer on his face.

Yan Fu was indeed extremely smart, and he quickly guessed the origin of the silver ticket, and his face changed, "Is this money given to you by Li Zongdai?" Really? Could it be that the losses of those gold mines are not true at all, and Li Zongdai reported the losses in order to enrich his own pockets? This damn rat! ”

"Yes, but if he hadn't done it, where would I have intervened? From this point of view, I should be grateful to him, not to mention that people have given so much hush money", Li Hui teased a few words, and then said with a solemn face, "But even if the actual operation of these gold mines is not as bad as outsiders think, I am afraid that in order to achieve the benefits I promised to Lord Zhongtang, I am afraid that a major rectification will be necessary." In addition to the purchase of new machines, it is necessary to make a large number of staff technicians and replace all the miners with young people, so that we can eradicate illiteracy among the miners and at the same time organize them through work discipline.