Opening game, American Tycoon

Chapter 1263 Preparation for war requires education (second update, please subscribe)
"The military means..."

After thinking about it, Sun Hu said directly.

"The meaning of the military is very simple. War is nothing more than a competition of guns and ammunition. This competition is about industrial production. After the war breaks out, the empire will definitely mobilize all factories to produce military products. This plan was formulated as early as the Nanhua period. And it is revised every two years by the National Defense Mobilization Committee."

The National Defense Mobilization Committee is a very special institution. There are both civilian and military officials in the committee. It is the only "mixed institution" in Ming Dynasty. This institution was established in the Nanhua era when Emperor Zhu was forced to survive. The institution established by "pressure" belongs to neither the military nor the civil service, but is an independent institution that directly obeys the orders of the imperial palace.

What is its responsibility?
It is to formulate a national defense mobilization plan, conduct a survey of Ming's population, industry and agriculture every two years, in order to find out the war potential of the empire, and formulate a corresponding mobilization plan.

So Sun Hu is not worried at all about military supplies production and manpower mobilization.

"There has never been a country in the world that is preparing for a 25-year war, and it is a general war. Besides, the weapons in the imperial military reserve are enough to arm 200 divisions, so there shouldn't be any problems in mobilization. The only problem is..."

After a pause, Sun Hu said.

"These are not real war preparations!"

"General, what is real combat readiness?"

"The real combat readiness is not necessarily military production, but the seemingly most inconspicuous education!"

Sun Hu said.

"The original intention of general compulsory education in the Ming Dynasty was to provide a high-quality labor force for industrialization. In the past 28 years, it was through popularization of education that industrial upgrading and manpower preparation were completed. Of course, popularization of education is also preparing for war. The most important part is that in war, it is not only a competition for industrial production machines, but also a competition for manpower, and this manpower is not available at will.”

After a pause, Sun Hu looked at Qian Degong and said,
"If Qian Xiang asks what preparations the military wants the government to make, then please ask the Executive Yuan to change the six-year compulsory education to nine years!"

Looking at the imperial prime minister in front of him, Sun Hu, the general of the imperial army, explained.

"The six-year compulsory education currently implemented in the empire, although the basic physical education class includes some military content, but the real military training still has to wait until junior high school. Half of the physical education content in junior high school is military sports, and military sports will be taught in high school. Lesson. Although two or three months of intensive training is enough for well-trained soldiers based on elementary school culture, once war breaks out, the empire needs millions of non-commissioned officers, and these non-commissioned officers must receive junior high school education, Qualified non-commissioned officers need at least one and a half years, and officers need at least two years. The reserve in this area depends on the popularization of nine-year compulsory education. Now the pre-official regiments in imperial universities and specialist colleges can provide enough officers. People who receive primary education are soldiers, but between soldiers and officers, there is a need for a large number of non-commissioned officers. There is a gap in the current military system of the empire. My suggestion is to popularize junior high school education and establish technical schools. Reservist training, to create a non-commissioned officer reserve..."

In fact, the nine-year compulsory education is the military's most important supplementary opinion to the empire's war readiness plan.

Of course, compared to other solutions, this suggestion can be said to be the most expensive and costly.

"And this matter is not only related to future wars, but also related to the improvement of the overall quality of the people for generations to come... If the finances allow, please expand compulsory education to junior high schools and popularize nine-year compulsory education. Qian Xiang Can this be achieved?"

Faced with this suggestion of benefiting the country and the people, Qian Degong didn't answer immediately, he just calculated silently in his heart.

As the prime minister of the empire, Qian Degong certainly cannot make a decision with a slap on the head. The implementation of the nine-year compulsory education is definitely something that benefits the country and the people, but many things cannot be decided with a single mouth. Quickly calculate the expenditure for implementing the nine-year compulsory education.

Money is the key to everything.

When he was immersed in the calculation, Sun Hu was not in a hurry, he just drank his tea silently. After drinking the tea for several minutes, Qian Degong slowly raised his head.

"Use all proceeds from state-owned land for education!"

Sun Hu was speechless for a while.

As we all know, the largest financial gain of the empire is not taxation, but the rent of state-owned land. The empire does not impose heavy land taxes on private land, but the empire has almost 12 billion mu of state-owned land, and 25% of the output of those lands is in the form of land rent. , collected uniformly by the government.

How much is this money?

There are more than 7 million yuan!
That is more than 1 million pounds. In the past few decades, the empire has relied on the rent of state-owned land to invest in industrialization, and the annual education expenditure of 1.5 million yuan is also spent from there.

After a long silence, Sun Hu put down the teacup in his hand:

"Qianxiang... How much does it cost?"

"According to what you said, nine-year compulsory education will be popularized across the country, including the cost of setting up the reserve group of technical schools. Considering the need to build a large number of schools, and the expansion of junior high schools, high schools must also be expanded. At the same time, universities The same is true, from basic construction, plus personnel salaries, these are all money, and the average annual cost in the first three years is about 4-5 million yuan."

"It actually takes so much..."

Sun Hu was suddenly incredulous, he certainly understood what the numbers reported by Qian Degong meant.

"Didn't we already run a lot of schools before? Have you considered this? We didn't start from scratch. There have been a lot of schools built by the empire over the years..."

"It has been deducted."

Qian Degong replied mercilessly.

Seeing that Sun Hu didn't seem to believe it, Qian Degong picked up the teacup, took a sip of tea, and then explained seriously:
"I calculated according to the imperial standard of ordinary junior high schools. The school is calculated as 30 students per school. The school buildings are simple brick houses, each with a capacity of 40 to 400 people. If conditions permit, two floors can be built in the town. Buildings, in addition to classrooms, also need libraries and laboratories, but each school must be equipped with a standard playground with a 5-meter track, plus a basketball court, plus corresponding sports equipment. Junior high schools can be set up in the market, and allocated according to the primary school and population ratio. Each school is similar in size and needs similar facilities. Although the government can purchase in large quantities to reduce costs, the expenditure in this area is also quite large. Correspondingly, there is the expansion of high schools and universities. After all, the expansion of the foundation requires a corresponding expansion of the upper level. This accounts for [-]% of the total cost. After all, the higher the cost, the greater the expenditure, and national defense education and military education also require a lot of money. The amount of funds is [-] million per year..."

After a pause, Qian Degong said.

"5 million may be considered a small amount. Even after the early construction is completed, the expenditure will not be less than 3 million!"

"This... popularizing a nine-year compulsory education requires so many resources..."

Sun Hu frowned and said.

"3 million... that's a lot! If it's used to build dreadnoughts, it's almost enough to build dozens of ships!"

(End of this chapter)