Through these years of experience, Richard found that the quality of people who went to elementary school was far better than that of illiterate.

After five years of military and national education, they not only developed the habit of observing discipline, but also had a little military experience. Being able to read words, being proficient in basic calculations, and cultivating a bit of discipline. Cultivating such people into grassroots officers and skilled workers saves a lot of effort.

Richard knew in his heart that most of the members of various scientific research institutes were consumables, and there were only a few talented people who could really engage in research. The difference in IQ between people may be greater than that between humans and pigs.

However, to become a consumable for a research institute, you also need to have a certain amount of knowledge. When illiterate people reach this kind of department, they are basically blinded and incompetent for any work. If you want to train an illiterate person to become a talent, you need to pay a very high time cost and delay a lot of effort.

Haaland Territory Secondary School has been established for three years, and this year it has begun to graduate secondary school students.

These middle school students not only study more subjects, but also have more knowledge in geography, history, law, biology, and science practice, and the quality of their knowledge is higher than that of primary school graduates, because the selection is strictly IQ higher.

However, there are only about 30 secondary school students graduating this year, which is a handful compared to the hundreds of thousands of people in Haaland's territory. These graduating middle school students are already the most intelligent and knowledgeable people in Haaland.

This year Haaland led the invention of the steam engine, and all kinds of mechanical talents are far from enough. The demand for high-end talents in the territory is very strong, and the dozens of secondary school students who graduate every year are a drop in the bucket for Haaland.

With such a rarity of secondary school graduates, their future is certainly brighter than that of primary school graduates.

This group of people Richard was basically arranged in various research institutes, and a few people were arranged in the Mage Guild and became assistants in the study of magicians. Three others chose to stay in school and became middle school teachers, enriching the power of education.

The middle school teachers in Haaland's territory earn three gold coins a month, which is slightly higher than the mayors of the towns in the territory, and roughly the same as the army squadron leaders. But the mayor of a town must have gray income.

In any case, in the territory of Haaland, with an annual income of more than thirty gold coins, he is already a high-income person. This income is more than that of a freeman family with four laborers.

The price of Haaland's territory is low, and the annual income of thirty gold coins can already be very rich.

In addition, as a middle school teacher, he has a high social status, and he can often meet the high-ranking members of the territory, and he is very respected. There is no need to face danger and fight various enemies yet.

According to the current development, secondary school teaching is undoubtedly an enviable profession within ten years.

Ten years from now, as a large number of secondary school students graduate, their academic qualifications will depreciate, salaries will fall, and their status will fall.

For example, the current primary school teachers' social status has dropped a lot, their salaries have also been reduced a lot, and their treatment is no longer as good as that of the grassroots bureaucrats in Haaland's territory.

Over the years, there have been more than 2,000 primary school graduates. As the saying goes, scarcity is precious, the weight of more people will be reduced, and the value of academic qualifications is seriously depreciated.

Since two years ago, primary school graduates have not been assigned jobs. This policy has dampened the enthusiasm of the middle class to provide for their children to go to school.

But the current situation in Haaland's territory, going to school and studying is still an important channel to change his fate.

Having gone to elementary school means that you can read official documents, not only will you not be deceived by grassroots bureaucrats, but it will also be easier to learn the breathing method after joining the army. Although they cannot directly enter the government as civil servants, the platform for primary school graduates is still much higher than that of the illiterate, and the jobs offered to them are basically based on intellectual work, and the salary and social status are better.

Really smart people are still sparing no effort to make children literate and read.

Human beings are physically gifted and have different IQ talents, and they will naturally divide into classes. The first batch of middle-class freedmen in Haaland's territory, many of whom have very ordinary IQs, talents, and abilities, can earn gold coins and achieve a class jump, mainly relying on coincidence to catch up with the dividends of the rapid development of Haaland's territory. It is not that their own quality surpasses that of ordinary people, as there are more and more free people, the involution of the population in Haaland's territory will become more and more serious, and a considerable number of middle-class families will fall into class and become ordinary people. This is determined by personal quality and ability, just like the wheel of history, no one can stop it.

Allowing children to go to school is a key factor in whether their children can stabilize the class in the future.

As the number of primary school graduates grew and the base grew larger, Richard established a second secondary school this year. This secondary school is located in the swamp basin, between Lightning and Flame Castles. The school was fully completed this winter. Next year, after the goddess's birthday, enrollment will begin.

Unlike primary schools, Haaland Territory Middle School does not charge tuition, and there is a living allowance after enrollment, one silver coin per month, which is enough for students' daily expenses and does not need to burden their families.

Due to the limitation of educational resources, the selection of middle school students is very strict, and the selection of gifted students is very strict.

If you want to be admitted to middle school, you should not only have cultural courses for exam-oriented education assessment, but also test students' memory, logical thinking ability, study habits, self-control, etc.

Only one out of ten primary school graduates can go to secondary school, and this year there are about 800 primary school students graduating from Haaland's territory, and less than 70 can be admitted to middle school, and on average, a middle school can only admit one class of students. One of the important factors why the bar is set so high is the lack of educational resources in Haaland's territory.

Talent who can teach secondary school students is very rare in Haaland's territory.

The development of science in the Dawn plane is at a relatively low level, and according to the standards set by Richard, the curriculum for middle school students is already relatively difficult. Teachers who can teach middle school are considered erudite people in the Dawn plane.

Because of the serious monopoly of knowledge, it is difficult to cultivate talents, and the people who master knowledge are not only nobles but churches.

There are actually only six or seven people in Haaland's territory who can teach middle school students. Even learned magicians such as Richard and Sophia give lessons to middle school students when they have free time.

A school has only seven or eight qualified secondary school teachers, and they need to teach three grades of secondary school students, with an average of close to twenty students per person. If it weren't for the fact that three of the secondary school students graduating this year stayed on campus, the size of secondary school enrollment would not have been expanded.

At present, the top priority in the distribution of talents is the major research institutes. In particular, the Institute of Mechanical Engineering is the top priority of Haaland's development.

Although secondary education is important, Richard will only produce gifted people, and it is enough to establish two secondary schools for the time being. It is estimated that it will take another three or four years to train more secondary school teachers and establish a third secondary school.

A dozen middle school teachers, four or five middle school administrators, are high-paid workers, and their annual salaries add up to nearly eight hundred gold coins.

Now there are about 600 primary school teachers in Haaland's territory, and their salaries are close to 6,000 gold coins a year, in addition to the annual cost of books, chalk and other teaching aids, which also consumes a lot of money.

Even if primary school students can charge a tuition fee, but now Haaland Ling's primary school fees are not high, four silver coins per school year, and the tuition fees of more than 4,000 primary school students add up to 1,300 gold coins, which cannot make up for the shortfall of investment.

This year, the net investment in education in Haaland's territory has exceeded 6,000 gold coins, and the cost of medical care has exceeded 13,000 gold coins.

This kind of investment is close to half of the investment of government bureaucracy. This is a cut above the annual disability pension paid by the government.

Although there is a surplus in the fiscal revenue of Haaland's territory, and there is great progress every year, the pressure on military spending is huge, and Richard still does not dare to increase investment in education.

After the trade fair, it was early November in the blink of an eye.

In early November, the lowest temperature at night in northern Xinjiang was close to minus 20 degrees Celsius.

If there is not enough fuel, there will undoubtedly be a large number of people freezing to death in winter.

In several provinces in northern Xinjiang, there are many elderly people who cannot survive the winter every year, and some poor serfs freeze to death in shacks.

There are coal mines in the Haaland territory, which produced more than 60,000 tons last year. The freedmen basically had the money to buy enough coal to survive the winter.

The conditions of indentured slaves were poorer, more than a dozen people lived in a shack, and the indentured slaves who had a family only had a small wooden house, and on average each person could only get 200 catties of coal.

In the winter of four or five months in northern Xinjiang, an average of 200 catties of coal is not enough at all, and in October and March, which are not too cold, the indentured slaves need to collect fuel for the winter as a supplement to coal.

This year, the coal mine added a number of workers and dug a third pit. The new pit is equipped with a steam pump, which greatly improves efficiency.

On 8 November, Richard came to inspect the coal mine, and the person in charge of the mine, Chavison, waited at the foot of the mountain early and went down the mine with Richard.

The coal mine found in the Haaland Territory is mainly shallow, and the mine is not deep.

There is very little gas gas in the mine, and there is a certain guarantee of safety.

After descending the mine down the slope, Richard spotted a steam engine at first sight, and he turned to Chavison and said, "The minecart has a steam engine installed, is it good?" ”

"The Machinery Research Institute only manufactured the first steam mine truck the day before yesterday, and it has only been installed in the coal mine for half a day, and it has not yet been put into trial operation."

"I happened to be here this year, you guys turn on the minecart, see if it works?"

Hearing Richard say this, Chavison said with some embarrassment: "It is said that this steam minecart is not very safe, otherwise the earl will go up first, and I will let the miners start the steam engine." ”

Fifty years old, Chavison was one of the first freedmen to enter Haaland's domain. Being able to live to the age of fifty has already made Chavison feel that he has won the favor of the goddess of the dawn.

When Chavison first entered Haaland's territory, although he looked a little old, he was actually a man in his thirties, and he was more authoritative among slaves.

After joining Haaland, Chavison first became a junior manager before being transferred to the exploration team due to his experience. After the discovery of the coal mine, he was transferred to the position of mine manager, and it has been eight years now.

Under his leadership, the output of the coal mine has grown from small to large, and this year it has exceeded 80,000 tons.

A town was built from scratch under the mines, and most of the towns were the families of coal miners, plus some of the freedmen living nearby, numbering more than a thousand.

Cha Weisen's position is half a level higher than that of the mayor of Coal Mountain Town, which is equivalent to a deputy county-level official.

His current life has made Chavison very satisfied, and Chavison respects Richard from the bottom of his heart for saving his life. Although he is old and frail, he is still willing to work hard for Richard. His intention was not to put Richard in danger.

Despite Chavison's good intentions, Richard still didn't appreciate it. He needs to see for himself how the minecart works, and see if there is anything he can do to improve it.

"I'm a six-ring magician, I can release a magic shield, I can protect my own safety, what can I do?"

Seeing that Richard was not very happy, Chavison could only order the miners to light the coals, and he himself stood in front of Richard. If he encounters danger, he will lose his life first.

Richard squeezed away from Chavison and watched the steam engine closely.

As the boiler boils, hot steam gushes out, slowly rotating with the main wheel, which drives the winch and tightens the steel cable.

The steel cable tightened and immediately pulled the minecart, the power of the steam engine was very large, and it actually pulled four minecarts at a time, and in just a few minutes, more than sixteen tons of minerals were pulled.

Normally, it takes about a dozen people to carry 16 tons of coal out of the pit every day. Even if it were transported on horse-drawn tracks, it would require six horses and six coachmen.

Now a machine, it only takes a few minutes, can do the job. From today onwards, transporting coal from the mine is already an easy affair, with just one boilerman and one mechanic.

Seeing this scene, Chavison's eyes suddenly widened, and this scene he saw with his own eyes directly changed Chavison's three views, making him unbelievable.

Although the Dawn Plane has extraordinary power, and Chavison has also seen magicians release magic, the power of the machine is so powerful that Chavison is still a little confused.

"If a steam engine is installed in every mine, I am sure that the coal mine output will increase to 150,000 tons next year."

Seeing Chavison muttering to himself, Richard was secretly worried.

"There are about 300 workers in the Harland Territory Coal Mine, and the average annual output per person is 500 tons, and a person can dig a little 3 or 6 tons of coal a day. In fact, the production efficiency is not high, and it will be a serious loss in the future. The coal bosses mined this bit of coal, but it was not enough to pay the wages of the workers. ”

According to Richard's history, the British did not use the steam engine in the seventeenth century, and the efficiency of coal mining surpassed that of Harland, and the annual coal mining volume exceeded 2 million tons.

All kinds of circumstances show that in the seventeenth century, the English had more advanced mining technology and production technology than Haaland's territory.

Of course, the Haaland Territory Coal Mine is a state-run mine, and the miners are not as squeezed as the English.

In the sweatshops of the eighteenth century, the life expectancy of workers was about a little more than six years, and the early capitalists did not treat workers as human beings at all, and they were more ruthless than they used animals.

(End of chapter)