Investment in education has been an important area for the imperial government and the royal family for decades, and it is also the most important sector after military and colonial spending, ranking third in importance.

Today

At the end of 1877, the national literacy rate had reached 56.3 per cent, that is, more than half of the population had been freed from illiteracy.

Looking at the world, the Tang Empire's national literacy rate also ranks third, second only to Germany and Britain, and higher than France.

Dig it down

Eighty percent of the first generation of immigrants from the mainland to North America were illiterate, and eighty ~ ninety percent of the local residents in North America, Mexico, Central America and South America conquered by the Tang Empire were also illiterate.

This has created a large base of illiterate population, and is the real reason why nearly half of the national literacy rate is still illiterate after 32 years of all-out efforts to promote education.

Among them

Some young immigrants enlist in the military or receive literacy classes in society, but this proportion is less than a quarter, which is far from affecting the overall low literacy rate.

It is gratifying that the literacy rate of the second generation of immigrants has made a qualitative leap, reaching more than 87%. Only a few families are limited to prejudice against girls or are located in remote areas of transportation and do not have their children enrolled in a full primary and secondary education.

Nowadays, many immigrants have reached the age of education for three generations, and under the vigorous promotion of the "Five-Year Compulsory Education Law of the Tang Empire", the enrollment rate has basically reached more than 98%.

This ensures that the national literacy rate of the Tang Empire will maintain a slow and steady upward trend for a long time to come, which will help improve the overall quality of the people.

In today's world

The country with the highest post-reunification German literacy rate and the best implementation of basic education is unrivalled in the world.

In 1825, Prussia introduced a system of universal compulsory education. The development of basic education has led to a significant increase in the number of people with basic literacy skills in Germany, and the illiteracy rate has fallen rapidly.

In Prussia, 1.4 million children were enrolled in public primary schools in 1822, and by 1876 it had risen to 4.2 million, covering almost all school-age children and adolescents.

The literacy rate of the Prussian population reached a high level of 60 per cent in 1800, 80 per cent in 1850, 87 per cent in 1860 and 95 per cent in 1876.

It will not take long for Germany to achieve the goal of universal literacy, which is unparalleled in the world.

Compared with Germany, Britain seems to be careless, and the government believes that education is a social matter, a family and individual matter, and it is inconvenient for the government to intervene too much.

Even so

The United Kingdom, which was the first to enter the industrialized country, has increased the literacy rate of men from 25% 100 years ago to 78% at present, and 64% for women, ranking second in the world.

The Tang Empire ranked third in the world with a literacy rate of 56.3%, France ranked fourth with 55%, and in Italy, a second-rate European country, the literacy rate was only 39%, and the Ottoman Empire, the Qing Dynasty and Tsarist Russia were even lower.

Emperor Richard put forward the concept of attaching importance to education in the early years, "the country is strong when the youth is strong, and the country is prosperous when education is prosperous", and now with the development of culture and education, it has become one of the basic policies firmly implemented by the imperial government.

With the rise of education is the great development of the cultural industry, the Tang Empire took the lead in manufacturing the electric printing press in 1864, which greatly improved the disadvantages of the original steam printing press, improved the work efficiency, and greatly reduced the cost of printed matter.

By the end of 1876, there were 1,371 publishing houses in the country, with 260,000 kinds of books published every year, involving humanities, geography, military, history, mechanical chemistry, social sciences, natural sciences and education, forming a prosperous cultural market.

Among them, books and newspapers published in Chinese account for more than 80%, and there are more than 1,000 periodicals for regular circulation alone, forming a pattern of comprehensive flowering.

Among the many publications in the Tang Empire, there is a category called Zhiqi comics that is widely popular among the public. This is a kind of picture book made up of strange legends, rural stories, foxes, ghosts, snakes, gods and other stories.

There are special illustrators who make up and draw according to the content of the story, and the text plot is attached, so even the illiterate can understand it, and it is very popular among the people.

The best "Journey to the West" Zhiqi comic book set has a total of 72 copies, each with a small story. Since its launch, it has been widely loved by the public, and more than 670,000 sets have been distributed in just two years, and will continue to be printed.

Taoyuan Entertainment Publishing House, which publishes the "Journey to the West" comic book, has made a lot of money, and is very confident that it will publish 1 million copies or more of "Journey to the West", breaking the record of leisure and entertainment books in the publishing industry.

The increasingly prosperous publishing and cultural undertakings of the Tang Empire were widespread among the great powers of the world, which was an era from conservatism to ideological change, an era of the germination of nationalism and the workers' movement, and an era of universal knowledge.

From now until the end of the century

The spread of newspapers, periodicals, and radio will lead to a significant increase in the literacy rate of the world's major powers, from 39 percent in Italy to more than 60 percent, as well as in the Ottoman Empire and Tsarist Russia.

"Liang Aiqing, what's going on with the mass strike in Pittsburgh?" Emperor Richard put down the Central American Chronicle in his hand and asked, pointing to a news report on the front page.

Recently, due to the fact that the three new colonies of Cuba, Luzon Islands and Puerto Rico have a lot of affairs, Zheng Yuan, the chief butler of the Royal Secretariat, has been busy with everything, and Deputy Director Liang Bojun and other senior secretaries have more opportunities to serve the Imperial Front.

These are the usual times

No matter how busy and tired he is, Director Zheng Yuan has to be close to His Majesty the Emperor when he is a director, so that His Majesty the Emperor can inquire at any time.

Liang Bojun hurriedly stepped forward and replied respectfully;

"Back to Your Majesty's words;

Wechen consulted with the General Directorate of Security and the Ministry of the Interior on this matter, and it should be a spontaneous workers' movement that has nothing to do with us.

In recent years

The workers' movement, which originated in Britain and France, also spread to the United States of America, and the newspapers often advocated demagogic remarks such as fighting for workers' rights, fighting for legal working hours, and uniting against capitalist oppression, which formed a great temptation for grassroots workers.

In big cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, there are many non-governmental voluntary organizations, and the good and the bad are mixed.

In fact, many organizations run underground casinos, opium dens, erotic establishments, and bars, entrenched in one side to commit crimes.

The Italian and Scottish gangs were the most rampant, and sometimes the workers' movement was instigated for a certain purpose. ”

"Well, keep the relevant parties concerned, the slogan of the Pittsburgh workers' march is quite special." Emperor Richard commanded lightly.

"Wechen obeys the order, and will definitely pay close attention to the trend of the labor movement in Pittsburgh, and report to the Holy Hearing at any time." Liang Bojun immediately replied.

He thought to himself;

It is necessary to gather all the relevant information about the Pittsburgh labor movement and study it carefully to see what has caught His Majesty's attention.

His Majesty the Emperor won't explain, whether he can comprehend it depends on the Huigen of the people around him?

Now

Dignitaries from various countries attending the summit of the Organization of American Cooperation in Panama arrive one after another, and often the first thing they do is to meet His Majesty the Emperor as a sign of respect.

Just today, His Majesty the Emperor has successively received Paraguayan President General Zheng Fengrong and Uruguayan President General Dai Xueli, and warmly encouraged the two Presidents.

Admiral Zheng Fengrong was originally the head of the military delegation of the Tang Empire to Paraguay before the First South American War, with the rank of colonel, and was an immigrant from Zhangzhou who joined the army in 1847.

After the victory in the war

Together with Paraguayan President Stuart, he served as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and was tasked with reorganizing the Paraguayan state until 1872.

In that year, President Stuart was accused of serious corruption, and Paraguay faced a political crisis, so after a military coup, Admiral Zheng Fengrong became the new president of Paraguay and the fourth president of Paraguay after the founding of the country.

Uruguayan President General Benjamin Dai Xueli had much the same experience, but he came to power through a legitimate election and defeated former President Bena Dobero to become the new president.

These two countries are the second generals of the Tang Empire in South America, and their economic reconstruction has been strongly supported by the Tang Empire, and their national income level is ahead of Argentina and Brazil in South America, and they are basically on the same level as the Andean Governor's Palace.

The influx of Chinese immigrants enabled Paraguay, which had a population of just over 230,000 after the war, to recover rapidly and now has a population of more than 720,000, far exceeding its pre-war heyday in terms of economic and military strength.

The economies of these small countries are recovering very quickly, especially in Paraguay, where yerba mate is abundant, and as long as there is enough labor to restore the cultivation of this tea beverage, this tea drink loved by Europeans will not be sold at all.

This alone supports half of Paraguay's economy.

After the First South American War, Uruguay had a total population of only about 200,000, making it a weaker country than Paraguay.

After the influx of Chinese immigrants, along with the arrival of many Chinese capital into the country to build factories, roads and docks, with the advantage of the sea, the development of ocean transportation to Europe.

In just over 10 years

Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, has grown from a small city with a population of less than 30,000 to a regional transport hub with a population of 165,000, with excellent road links to Paraguay, Argentina, the Andean Governorate and Brazil, as well as a transit hub for inland waterways and sea.

River vessels from Paraguay and Argentina arrive in Montevideo laden with cargo, from where they are loaded onto ships and set sail to transport local goods to North America and Europe.

vice versa

It is precisely because of its unique geographical conditions that Uruguay is now developing a thriving country, with a total population of less than 200,000 and now more than 570,000 people and more than 16,000 military personnel.

It also has a pocket navy led by two 1,500-ton ironclad destroyers decommissioned from the Tang Empire, with a total of more than 730 naval officers and men.

This is more than enough for Uruguay, which has a small coastline.

(End of chapter)