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Chapter 552 A century-old plan and stubborn diseases

So how to change the traditional education method? In fact, it is very simple, and it is still a successful experience for future generations. Both at home and abroad, there has been a dual-track education system. To put it bluntly, primary education is regarded as a screening period. After years of screening, each student's talents, strengths and weaknesses are clearly seen, and then students are taught in accordance with their aptitude.

Those who are talented in research, meet the conditions and like to study should continue their studies. It doesn't matter whether they are admitted to the imperial examination or changed their name to graduate students or doctoral students. In short, there is a high probability that they will engage in various research jobs in the future.

If you don’t have the talent for research or don’t have the qualifications and don’t like this kind of work, then don’t waste your education resources and life. Find someone who is generally good at a technology that’s not too annoying, and do whatever you need to do after receiving short-term training at a technical school or vocational school. Go ahead. For example, be a doctor, a craftsman, a businessman, or an official.

That's right, in Hong Tao's value system, most officials really don't need a high degree of education, let alone being too smart. Ordinary officials are only the executors of policies, and they can just follow the steps, without the need for inspiration or strategizing.

Those who really need great wisdom are top officials, that is, policymakers. They are like designers. Whatever the drawings and data are made of, it is enough for ordinary officials to execute them according to the drawings. At most, they should add the attribute of seriousness and responsibility, and never give free rein.

"Your Majesty wants to promote Kaihusi throughout the country?"

Regardless of whether he was a loyal royalist or not, Yuan Yingtai was, after all, a member of the scholar class and a beneficiary of the imperial examination system. Hearing that the emperor did not plan to abolish the imperial examination system, I finally breathed a sigh of relief, and my thinking began to become clearer, and I got to the point in one sentence.

"That's what I mean, but even if I have a lot of heads and six arms, I can't teach that many students, so this matter has to be done by knowledgeable people among the people. The court only provides policy support. You can take time to visit Xiama Jinglun in Tongzhou, He has built an academy, and the teaching methods and most of the teaching materials are similar to those of Kaitoji."

Chatting with smart people is a worry-free experience. You can understand and draw inferences without having to break down the detailed explanations. Speaking of which, Kaitoji is really just a Ming Dynasty technical school, not even a secondary technical school.

But it turns out that after such talents are cultivated, they are enough to be used in all walks of life, and they are even a bit overqualified. Therefore, we cannot 100% copy Katoji’s model, and we need to further refine the curriculum.

For example, if you plan to join the army or be a craftsman in the future, you don't need to take too many cultural courses, and you don't need to be proficient in Latin. If you plan to be a doctor, you should study less geometry, geography and physics. If you want to pursue an official career, you need to learn all the subjects, but you don't have to be an expert at it. You can pass the exam just by scratching the surface.

Such a pilot cannot be carried out in the Kaihu Division. Those orphans will mostly be used in intelligence and supervision work in the future, and the standards must be higher. Therefore, we can only let Ma Jinglun's "Wen Dao Academy" test the waters first, and then promote it on a small scale after making some achievements.

"I understand. I will implement it immediately after discussing with Editor Ma. I think this should be tried out in Guangdong, Fujian and Shandong first. What do you think, Your Majesty?"

At this point, Yuan Yingtai felt that he understood most of the emperor's meaning. It was not complicated. It was just another promotion of the New Deal. I am very familiar with how to operate it, and the current environment is much better than ten years ago, so it is not difficult.

"This is exactly what I mean. In addition, the number of officials in Nanjing should also be controlled. I have been looking through historical materials recently and found an appalling number. The Han Dynasty had a population of 6000 million, and the number of officials at most was only 8000. Counting 7000 If multiple people support one official, then if subordinates are included, almost 500 people support one official.

The total population of the Tang Dynasty did not change much, but the number of officials nearly doubled, which was equivalent to 4000 people supporting one official. The number of subordinate officials has also increased, and all together, there is one official for every more than 200 people.

In our dynasty, the population almost doubled, but the number of officials increased several times. More than 1000 people had to support one official. If you add subordinate staff, it has reached the point where one official is needed for less than a hundred people.

The Ministry of Household Affairs always said that Taicang was dissatisfied, and the various prefectures complained year after year that there was a shortage of warehouses. Apart from the consumption of military pay, redundant officials were probably the culprit. But I also know that the situation is hard to come back from. I will not move the capital side for the time being, and the officials in Nanjing will not be dismissed for the time being. But from now on, we should try to arrange as few people as possible to take up posts in Nanjing, and just let them fend for themselves. "

No matter how much education is improved, it will always be far away. To solve the problem of insufficient tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty, it is not enough to rely on the New Deal to promote economic development and increase income, but also to reduce expenditures.

Hong Tao had considered this issue as a key issue since he was a prince. When he became the prince, he had the opportunity to have access to all aspects of the court's files. After obtaining the exact data, he basically had a way to deal with it.

The stubborn problems of the Ming Dynasty were actually no different from those of the Song Dynasty. They were mainly redundant soldiers and officials. However, the external environments faced by the two dynasties were different, so the solutions and sequences cannot be copied.

The Liao Kingdom, Jin Kingdom, Xixia and Mongolia faced by the Song Dynasty were all existences with extremely high force value at that time. They are all nomads. If you want to fight against them without timeless weapons, the only way is to increase your troops and rely on quantity to make up for quality.

The enemies faced by the Ming Dynasty were much weaker. Be it the Northern Yuan Dynasty or Northern Mongolia, they were all in a period of decline. They were not on the same level as the original Mongol Empire. Although the Jianzhou Jurchens were on the rise, their size was still in decline. It is small and matures relatively late.

Moreover, the Ming Dynasty did not lack horse farms, and relied on the geographical advantages of the Great Wall defense line. If it maintained a large number of troops and did not implement an offensive strategy, it could only explain one problem: the military organization ability was too weak.

Why is it weak? In one word, money! The Ming Dynasty was too poor. Whether it was filled by bureaucratic capital or rampant smuggling that emptied taxes, the result was the same: the central government could not collect money. With no money to raise troops, we can only watch the garrison system collapse and demolish the east wall to repair the west wall, which ultimately does not help.

Therefore, if you want to solve the problem of redundant troops, you must first make money. This is what Hong Tao is doing, and it is working. But as the saying goes, a money rake cannot hold up to a bottomless box. No matter how much money you make, if there is a hole in the bottom of the box containing the money, you will end up with nothing.

The holes in the box represent the large number of officials in the Ming Dynasty. Officials are supported by the central government's finances, while subordinate staff are supported by the local government's finances. They basically have the same idea, they all rely on tax revenue.

(By the way, the Ming Dynasty did not have the highest population and official ratio. The Qing Dynasty was even more powerful, with dozens of people supporting one official. According to figures released by the state, as of 2019, there were 719 million civil servants and 3100 public servants. There are 900 million retired people, which is almost 30 people to support one official. This is still a conservative estimate. Whether the public data includes all financial personnel, such as auxiliary police in various places, is still a question.)
(End of this chapter)