On the first day of September in the 18th year of Hongwei, the Galaxy University Hall, which had been preparing for more than half a year, was finally listed for enrollment.

On the day of the listing, almost all the sons and grandsons led by Mr. Higashi and Nagakeiko were present, and there were countless famous disciples and grandchildren, and most of them have become university professors.

Under the invitation and inspiration of Mr. Higashi and Nagakeiko, the Star River University Hall has become an academic mecca, and the day of the listing is like a pilgrimage, and even the famous and famous students who are thousands of miles away have set off months in advance, proud to witness this moment with their own eyes.

In the capital, this day is even more lively, under the report of Galaxy Daily for several months, Xinghe University Hall has been shaped as a ladder for ordinary people to change their fate, and a smooth road for the souls of princes and nobles to sublimate.

Coupled with the fact that the Xinghe University Hall actually taught the legendary Ghost Valley Learning, almost everyone had extremely high expectations for this new school, and the crowd that got up early before dawn to see the lively crowd even discharged a long queue of nearly ten miles.

Emperor Hongwei specially ordered that hundreds of officials should be allowed to take a day off, and almost all the officials and nobles who had some fame in the literary world flocked to the newly built school, and the few people who could get the invitation card had enough capital to be proud of, because it meant that their academic achievements were recognized by the Xinghe University Hall, that is, by the entire academic community.

Many more officials were not invited, and were blocked by the surging crowds of people like the people who came to see the excitement, but even this could not dampen their enthusiasm for catching a glimpse of the spectacle.

At three o'clock, Emperor Hongwei, as the director of the school, after giving his earnest teachings to the students, struck the gong representing the beginning of all things with a small hammer in his hand, announcing the official establishment of Xinghe University Hall.

Twenty special salutes fired thirty-six in unison.

On the viewing platform, a group of academic leaders, including Mr. Dong Li and Chang Qingzi, collectively stood up and applauded warmly, and the thousands of people who were invited to watch the ceremony and the 5,000 candidates who were waiting for the examination were in tears.

The applause and cheers were like huge waves, and the moving momentum and excitement could still be felt more than ten miles away.

Only the principal Xu Rui, who was guarding in a dark corner, was pale and sweaty, and was so tired that he almost collapsed.

It took ten months from the preparation of the Galaxy University Hall to the real listing, and there was only one reason, that is, there was no money.

Don't look at Xu Rui as an iron plough who picks up money, but the speed at which he spends money is unparalleled, after the Civil War, with the application of the steam engine, various technical applications ushered in a blowout, and places to spend money abound.

Even if there is a profit of the entire Galaxy Group as a subsidy, it is still a little unable to make ends meet in the face of countless bottomless pits, especially in the first quarter, the financial report has been losing money until the middle of the second quarter.

It took some effort to convince the board of directors to borrow 4 million taels from the newly established Imperial Bank to invest in the project.

After all, Emperor Hongwei was explained by Xu Rui before this, and under extremely difficult financial circumstances, he still squeezed out 7 million taels and established a central bank and commercial bank controlled by the state - Imperial Bank according to Xu Rui's plan.

Galaxy became the first major customer of Imperial Bank and received the first low-interest loan under the pro-business policy, which was the most successful demonstration for both the nascent bank and the cash-strapped Galaxy Group.

After several days of front-page headlines in the Galaxy Daily, the deal basically dispelled the concerns of the merchants about the banks cutting leeks, and the wealthy people took out their money from the bank one after another and deposited it in the Imperial Bank, which is backed by the state's credit.

The silver notes issued by the Imperial Bank began to become widely popular in Changxing and the surrounding areas, becoming the first actual banknotes under the gold and silver standard.

These are all indirect dividends from this transaction, and of course they are all later.

After finalizing the payment for Galaxy University, on the surface, he was selling the master a face, but in fact, Emperor Hongwei also wanted to use this as a pilot for the reform of the education and imperial court talent selection mechanism, so he ordered to sell as much as 2,000 acres of land in the east of Changxing City to Xinghe University at a very low price.

Since then, this squalid slum has been transformed into a sacred place for students from all over the world, and a cradle for countless new ideas, new research, and new technologies.

As a result, the 80,000 poor people who were forcibly evicted were resettled free of charge by the newly established real estate company of Galaxy Group, which was an exchange of interests between Xu Rui and Emperor Hongwei.

Of course, for this kind of transaction with the nature of public welfare, Xu Rui has not moved any crooked thoughts in his heart, and economic development will inevitably be accompanied by drastic changes in social atmosphere.

As an economic leader, Galaxy Group must set an example for the society, avoid the extreme idea of money worship and drag the entire social atmosphere into the dark side, and at the same time avoid the poor people from seeing Galaxy Group as a rich and unkind profiteer.

In the long run, the significance of this move is even more than purely technological development.

Xu Rui's method of handling this matter is also very simple, directly squeeze out a sum of money, outsource the resettlement project to several commercial houses through public bidding, and then send a professional audit and supervision team led by An Ge to supervise.

With the geometric growth of Galaxy Group, countless trading houses have become vassals and suppliers of Galaxy Group, and this business was originally nothing special.

However, after only half a month of construction, five or six shoddy and shoddy commercial banks were found out one after another, Xu Rui did not have the slightest mercy, and directly came to a joint law enforcement with Changxing Mansion.

The boss and shopkeeper of the commercial bank who committed the crime were severely fined by the Changxing Mansion and the Ministry of Industry, and a very small number of unscrupulous merchants were even directly confiscated for 3,000 li because of the "very huge" amount of money involved.

The firms finally had a clear understanding of Xu Rui's determination to "do good things", and no one dared to do anything about the project, and the resettlement project gradually got on track, ending a month ahead of schedule, and no malignant quality problems were found.

At this point, the housing of 80,000 people was finally settled, and the heart that Emperor Hongwei had been carrying was finally relaxed, and at the same time, it also laid the foundation for a new model of cooperation between the government and commercial banks.

After doing this, Xu Rui has not rested for three consecutive months, and the time has come to August.

At this time, he had to face a new problem, that is, the number of applicants for the university was much higher than he imagined.

According to the results of Xu Rui's discussion with Mr. Dongli, Chang Qingzi and other masters, because the teachers are not fully in place, and the school is not fully completed, the first batch of students will be regarded as a high-quality project, in line with the principle of small quantity and high quality, and the total number of departments will only enroll 1,000 people.

In fact, this is also because Xu Rui has no confidence in directly challenging the education system that has lasted for more than 2,000 years, and he is afraid that after preparing a table full of dishes, there will be very few people at the table, which will discourage the confidence and enthusiasm of the school operators.

After all, in another world, the vitality of old scholarship and old ideas is so tenacious that it has even gone through wars, national reconstruction, and the reinvention of national culture (the vigorous May Fourth Movement, etc.) before a completely new system has been established.

But what Xu Rui didn't expect was that the world was still in a state of division after all, just like during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the competition between countries made the acceptance and spread of new ideas, new schools, and new technologies much higher than that of the great unified dynasty.

Coupled with Xu Rui's excessively fierce propaganda offensive launched through the court, Shilin and newspapers, with the absolute support of Emperor Hongwei and the great help of all the princes, Galaxy University has become a pearl in the palm of everyone's eyes from the beginning.

At the beginning of August, after preliminary statistics, Xu Rui found that the number of applicants for Galaxy University was as high as 60,000, almost more than ten times his psychological expectations, and as the registration deadline approached, the number of applicants was still exploding.

It is expected that this number is likely to exceed the 100,000 mark before the start of the exam, and how to satisfy the thirst for knowledge of 100,000 students has become a new problem.

With only one month left, neither hardware nor software supports large-scale enrollment expansion, and in order to win broad support, Xu Rui made great concessions to Xungui Group in terms of student composition.

Thirty-and-a-half of the first batch of 1,000 students were given to the children of powerful people and officials, and only 650 scholars from poor families could be recruited.

Compared with the proportion of up to ninety percent of the number of applicants, such a quota will further squeeze the space of poor scholars, and if it is not handled properly, it may be self-defeating, provoke academic changes, and the gains outweigh the losses.

What's more, even if you don't consider the poor scholars, because the registration is too hot, Emperor Hongwei is very protective of the calf, and with a stroke of the pen, all the princes and grandchildren are included in the university's exempt admission list, which alone occupies more than 100 precious places, and the result is that even the grandchildren of high-ranking officials such as Du Ruo, the head of the household department, must take the exam with real swords.

In order to help his grandson fight for a sure opportunity, Du Ruo walked through the streets and alleys, and finally found the King of Liao to intercede with Xu Rui in person.

But Xu Rui hesitated for a night and refused to open the back door.

As the saying goes, Xu Rui would rather withstand the pressure himself than bring unhealthy tendencies into the campus from the beginning.

As a last resort, Xu Rui only conducted a temporary additional test at the end of August, and selected the best 5,000 candidates from nearly 100,000 candidates to compete for less than 900 admission qualifications.

In addition, Xu Rui also temporarily established a technical school for the purpose of training senior technicians and industry backbones, in order to accept students who failed to meet the university list, divert a large number of poor scholars who urgently need to support their families, and at the same time provide the most needed skilled labor for the factory.

At noon on the first day of September, the opening ceremony of Galaxy University Hall officially ended, and an unprecedented and vigorous entrance examination officially kicked off.

The unmath students followed each other side by side and embarked on a journey of a single-plank bridge that completely changed their fate.