"The economy is the foundation of a country, and education is the road to a strong country."

This sentence is Wang Chenhao's speech at the cabinet meeting, and all cabinet ministries responded to Wang Chenhao's speech, and while promoting economic reform, they also launched education reform at the same time.

Cai Yuanpei, Minister of Education, then delivered a speech at the National Assembly, pointing out: "The fundamental purpose of the reform of the education system is to improve the quality of the nation, produce more talents, and produce good talents. ”

Cai Yuanpei's speech to Congress was approved by congressional officials, and his national education reform plan was successfully passed.

Of course, the National Assembly is still just an ornament, and the power is in the hands of the cabinet organized by Wang Chenhao, and the National Assembly has the right to intervene in the name, but in fact has no right to interfere. The current role of the National Assembly is only a place for Wang Chenhao to appease the Manchu elders, just as Louis XIV put provincial officials under house arrest in the Palace of Versailles, Wang Chenhao also "invited" the central and local officials who had been vacated and eliminated into the National Assembly, and let them serve as members of the National Assembly, which was actually a nursing home prepared by Wang Chenhao for them.

Cai Yuanpei's education reform plan is divided into four five-year plans, the first of which is for the central government to establish 10 institutions of higher learning, set up a four-year undergraduate and junior college degree system, and imitate Germany to set up a tutor system to train graduate, master's and doctoral talents. 120 secondary schools were established in densely populated cities with a duration of six years to train intermediate intellectuals. The local government is responsible for setting up 1,200 primary schools in the local populated areas with a six-year school system. The universities are all national, and private secondary and primary schools are allowed. The purpose of the first five-year plan was to lay the foundation for the education system, so that 10% of the people could become literate and be able to sense the political axe and the country's call for education.

The second five-year plan added 20 universities, 1,300 secondary schools, and 6,000 primary schools. Further increase the national literacy rate and strive for 20 per cent national literacy. It has trained 300,000 college students, 1 million middle school students, and 5 million primary school students, basically meeting the needs of the country's economic development.

The third five-year plan adds 30 universities, 6,000 secondary schools and 80,000 primary schools, strives for a 70 percent national literacy rate, universalizes the primary education system throughout the country, and compulsorily educates national literacy.

The Fourth Five-Year Plan completes 40 universities, 30,000 secondary schools, 200,000 primary schools, a 95 per cent national literacy rate, and universal secondary education.

The cabinet set aside a budget of 80 million dragon dollars for the Ministry of Education in the budget, and Wang Chenhao ordered the Ministry of Finance to allocate 30 million dragon dollars for the Ministry of Education as the initial fund for the first phase of the education project. The four five-year plans formulated by Cai Yuanpei will use 20 years to build 350,000 schools in China, popularize the 12-year compulsory education system, and comprehensively improve the quality of the people. In 20 years, the plan is to train 3 million college students, 20 million middle school students, and 50 million primary school students in China.

Of course, Cai Yuanpei also has a fifth five-year plan, that is, to complete the goal of establishing 700,000 schools nationwide and universal university education. However, Cai Yuanpei did not dare to put forward this plan now, he was afraid that it would frighten Wang Chenhao and the congressional officials.

The total investment in the first four five-year plans has exceeded 800 million dragon coins, especially compulsory education alone accounts for 300 million dragon dollars. The National Assembly has to allocate an average of 40 million dragon dollars a year to the Ministry of Education, and the first year of the first five-year plan has the largest investment, which requires large-scale construction of schools and the introduction of educational resources, so the budget reaches 63 million dragon dollars.

Judging from the fact that the financial revenue of Beiyang Political Axe in 1898 was less than 130 million dragon dollars, education alone accounted for half of it. Cabinet officials supported Cai Yuanpei's education reform proposal, but as soon as the question of money was mentioned, the cabinet officials immediately pulled down their black faces and strongly opposed it. Because once the Ministry of Education's appropriation budget is approved, the Ministry of Finance will inevitably cut the budget of other departments, and many projects in other departments will be forced to abort or be abandoned halfway.

The various ministries of the Cabinet quarreled over this and refused to give in to each other. So the ministers of the various ministries had to bother Wang Chenhao about this matter and ask Wang Chenhao to make a decision.

Five provinces and nine ministries, the ministers of various departments are all Wang Chenhao's descendants, the palm of the hand is meat, and the back of the hand is also meat, Wang Chenhao didn't know how to reply to them for a while. In Wang Chenhao's view, the country is in ruins, and every department is important, and the funds of any department should not be cut, but the problem is that the state has so much fiscal revenue, and it must not risk a huge deficit to develop.

Therefore, Wang Chenhao listened to the suggestion of Song Hanzhang of the Ministry of Finance and issued special treasury bonds for education to solve the financial problem.

The support for education is still very positive, and the traditional belief makes them want their children to go to school and get ahead. Under the influence of this good atmosphere, the funds for education in the first five-year plan were quickly raised, and after the issuance of 200 million dragon dollars of special education bonds, the Ministry of Education received abundant funds and began to build schools at all levels on a large scale, recruiting teachers and recruiting students.

The political, military, economic, and educational reforms have been carried out very smoothly, but there are also some projects that have encountered strong resistance.

At present, in addition to the customs of Zhili Province in China, which are controlled by the state, the customs of other regions are also controlled by Britain, France and the United States.

After Wang Chenhao took power, taking back customs became a top priority. For this reason, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly sent notes to Britain, France, and the United States to negotiate with each other on the issue of China's political axe taking back customs, but there has been no great progress.

At the end of 1898, Wang Chenhao appointed Tang Shaoyi, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, as Minister of Customs as a part-time Minister of Customs, to preside over China's customs affairs and work to recover customs rights.

Previously, when Wang Chenhao presided over the customs of Zhili Province, he bypassed the then General Department of Taxation of the Customs, and set up a separate customs office in Zhili Province, which was the original customs department in Zhili Province.

Now, Hurd has resigned, and Tang Shaoyi has become the Minister of Customs Affairs, and it is even more justifiable to rectify the customs and take back the power of the customs.

Although Britain, France, and the United States were very dissatisfied with Wang Chenhao's removal of Hurd's post, and France even made solemn representations, Britain and the United States had an ambiguous attitude, opposing the removal of Hurd and appointing a Chinese as customs minister, and unwilling to quarrel with China's political axe.

Tang Shaoyi, holding the title of vice minister of foreign affairs, repeatedly sent notes to Britain, France, and the United States, on the one hand, to start customs talks, and on the other hand, to take practical actions. In order to create a fait accompli within the customs, Tang Shaoyi placed trained customs personnel in the General Administration of Customs and local customs departments, and set up an intermediate department between foreigners and tariff payers, thus emptying the rights of foreigners in various departments.

Tang Shaoyi did not take violent action, but forced the foreigners to resign voluntarily in a non-violent situation, and when necessary, used a secret organization that "could not see the light" to intimidate and threaten them, and ordered the police station, the people's procuratorate, and the Independent Commission Against Corruption to investigate and detain these foreigners under various names. These foreigners in China were quite honest and honest when they first managed the customs, but as they were immersed in the officialdom of the Qing government for a long time, it was inevitable that they would not make mistakes. By the last years of the nineteenth century, nine out of ten foreigners were corrupt and bribed, and the remaining one was also tainted with bad habits that did not comply with customs regulations.

Tang Shaoyi's plan soon paid off, and a large number of foreigners began to resign voluntarily. They more or less have pigtails pinched in the hands of the police station, so they have to say in front of the domestic and foreign media that the Chinese have learned how to manage the customs in the previous half century, thinking that the Chinese themselves can operate the customs well without foreigners. Some foreigners were even forced to have no choice but to vigorously criticize the British, French, and American political axes for violating China's sovereignty, and demanded that the British, French, and American political axes return the customs rights to the Chinese political axes.

Tang Shaoyi's trick of drawing salary from the bottom of the kettle really made the political axe of Britain, France and the United States lose face. Germany, Russia, and other countries, which have always coveted the control of China's customs by Britain, France, and the United States, have also taken the opportunity to coax, and they cannot interfere in China's customs, but they also do not want Britain, France, and the United States to interfere in China's customs.

As a result, Britain, France, and the United States were constrained everywhere in customs negotiations, and were under pressure from international public opinion, and finally announced that they would return to China Customs conditionally.

Britain, France, and the United States demanded that Wang Chenhao's Beiyang political axe maintain the most-favored-nation treatment of Britain, France, and the United States on the issue of customs taxation, and maintain the trade tariffs on Britain, France, and the United States against China unchanged for 10 years.

With regard to the conditions of Britain, France, and the United States, Wang Chenhao took a rather resolute attitude, and apart from continuing to give Britain, France, and the United States the most-favored-nation treatment, he was not allowed to sign any treaties that were hostile to national sovereignty and dignity.

Tang Shaoyi had no choice but to use his diplomatic skills to continue to negotiate with Britain, France, and the United States. At this time, the contest between Britain and France on the issue of the Dassauer crisis in Africa had already been decided, and the French political axe chose to back down and cede Dasauer.

France's failure in Africa, its international influence is getting worse and worse. Tang Shaoyi seized this opportunity to send a separate note to Britain and the United States, putting aside France for separate negotiations.

This move immediately aroused the strong dissatisfaction of the French political axe, but the repeated protests of the French minister in China did not respond, which made the French political axe very faceless.

Tang Shaoyi put aside the French political axe and negotiated with the British and American political axe representatives alone. At this time, the U.S. political axe was mired in the quagmire of the Philippine War, with more than 100,000 U.S. soldiers fighting hard in the Philippines, and China becoming an important supplier of materials to the U.S. military. In particular, China's political axe sells cheaper weapons and ammunition to the US military, as well as strategic materials such as medicine, food, and coal. Therefore, the US political axe and military urgently need China's help on the Philippine issue. Tang Shaoyi took advantage of this to negotiate with the Americans, and in the end, the US political axe weighed the pros and cons and abolished the second condition for the transfer of customs rights, and only retained the most favored nation treatment.

The British side was very unhappy when it saw that China and the United States had reached an agreement. The British were getting closer to China and the United States, and the British were kept in the dark when China and the United States jointly launched a war against Spain. The paramilitary alliance between the United States and the Philippines, with China providing logistical support behind the scenes, worries the British government. Britain expected Wang Chenhao's Beiyang political axe to be pro-British rather than pro-American, so after the United States announced that it would abandon the second clause, the British political axe also announced that it would abandon the second clause.

After two months of grinding his tongue, Tang Shaoyi finally signed a customs return agreement with the British and American political axes, and three days later, the French political axes were forced by the pressure of Britain and the United States to sign a customs return agreement with the Beiyang political axe.

On January 4, 1899, Wang Chenhao's Beiyang political axe successfully recovered the customs rights, ending the half-century colonial rule of Britain, France and the United States over the Chinese customs.

(To be continued)