Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 398: No more descendants

It is imperative to run a school. Without the emperor's support and official endorsement, Jia Lian's plan to take shortcuts will not work.

On the way back, Jia Lian was thinking hard about how to run the school.

Running a school requires funds and a venue, which is easy to do. Making money is not difficult for Jia Lian. With money, both funds and venues can be easily solved. The second is the teachers, which is more troublesome. They can only be recruited from the society. Another thing is the way to run the school. Which way to run the school? This is more troublesome. If the school is run in the name of the R&D Department, it is not impossible. The problem is that the style is too low, the social status of craftsmen is not high, and it is not attractive enough to talents. So, the imperial examination system is really damned. Talents all go to learn to write eight-legged essays.

Now it seems that everything can be put aside for the time being and we can create influence first.

After returning to the office, Jia Lian began to make plans. Everything must be planned and prepared, and one cannot just act on impulse.

The first step is to change Jia's Engineering, no, the name of Engineering is too lame, what should we change it to? Practical Learning! This name is good, practical learning, learning to apply.

Thinking of this, Jia Lian struck a pose and said, "Get out of the way, I'm going to pretend... No, I'm going to establish my own school."

Jia Lian picked up his pen and began to write. To be clear, Jia's practical learning is practical learning, and mathematics is the first of the practical learning, followed by physics and then chemistry.

Everyone who studies mathematics knows this, so I won’t go into details here.

Physics, as the name suggests, is a science. We should spend our whole life learning and applying it. Therefore, Jia said: learn to apply. Take water as an example. When heated, it becomes gas, and when cooled, it becomes ice. These are the three forms of water.

Water vapor rises to form clouds and condenses into rain, snow and hail when it gets cold. Those who study it in depth can predict the weather.

Chemistry is the study of the changes of things. Take gunpowder as an example. It is made of one part nitrate, two parts sulfur and three parts charcoal. When it is dyed with fire, it can explode.

As Jia said: If you learn math, physics and chemistry well, you will not be afraid to travel around the world.

At this point, Jia Lian couldn't help but lament that molecular formulas were useless because even if they were used, others wouldn't understand them, let alone recognize them. It would be better to do something practical first.

Now he was just writing a popular science article, so Jia Lian was not in a hurry and decided to use one article after another to popularize physics and chemistry in the newspaper.

The first part is the general outline, and the rest is teaching through real-life examples, striving to make it vivid and interesting.

Fun is very important, so Jia Lian first conducts two experiments related to water.

First, fill a cup with water, cover it with paper, stick it tightly together, and quickly flip it over so that the water won’t spill. Question: What’s the principle?
Second, the kettle is boiling water, and the lid is pushed open after it boils. Question: What is the principle?
The above two questions, those who answer correctly will receive a prize within three days. The answerer can send the answer to Minsheng Daily. The correct answer will be announced on the fourth day, and the list of winners will be published. Those who answer correctly will be rewarded with one tael of silver and participate in the lottery. The lottery has three levels, the first prize is one person, the prize is 20 silver dollars, the second prize is 10 people, the prize is 10 yuan, and the third prize is 50 people, the prize is 5 yuan.

The tactic of holding a quiz with prizes was a very painstaking one. For the sake of influence, Jia Lian used a rare trick in this era.

After finishing the short article, Jia Lian went directly to Minsheng Daily. Surprisingly, Li Heng was there too and came out to greet him politely.

This fellow asked very unkindly: "Brother Jia, I heard that you wanted to start a school, but your father rejected it?"

Jia Lian, who was teased, entered Kong Yiji's state: "Why was I rejected for my ability to speak? Your Majesty also knows that my knowledge is good, but it is inconvenient to teach in the Imperial College."

Seeing that his face turned red, Li Heng knew that he could not tease him anymore. He wanted to make an enemy. This guy was not very kind-hearted, so it was better not to offend him.

"Brother Jia, what advice do you have for me?" Li Heng quickly changed the subject. Jia Lian handed him the popular science essay in his hand and said, "This will be published in the newspaper tomorrow. There will be a prize for answering. I will tell you in detail."

Li Heng was quite surprised. He took it and read the short article carefully. Although the content was not much, as an outsider, he couldn't help but exclaimed after reading it: "What is the principle behind these two questions? And this quiz with prizes requires you to cut out the questions on the newspaper to be considered a valid answer. It can be said to be a powerful tool to increase newspaper sales. Why not use it earlier?"

Jia Lian regained some confidence and sneered, "I just thought of it on the spur of the moment, so what? This kind of method has no threshold, others will be able to do it at a glance, but they just don't have the thinking skills."

Li Heng said, "Okay, since this is a contest with prizes, I'll pay for the prize money and I'll also do the lucky draw."

Jia Lian was only concerned with expanding the influence of Jia's practical learning, but unexpectedly Li Heng became interested in participating in the contest because of the prizes.

"By the way, how often is a newspaper published now? What's the circulation?" Jia Lian really didn't care about the distribution of newspapers, so he asked whenever he remembered.

Li Heng said, "It's published every five days, and each issue has 5,000 copies. They're sold out for sure. Don't worry, I'll do a great job for you. By the way, you can prepare the articles for the next issue now. With this prize-winning contest, Minsheng Newspaper will soon dominate the newspaper and magazine industry in Beijing." Jia Lian shook his head in disdain, "It's been so long, and Minsheng Newspaper is still the same. Your Highness's management style is shameful."

This time it was Li Heng's turn to be like Kong Yiji. He blushed and explained, "What do you know? The purpose of Minsheng Daily is to guide public opinion and guide people to be good. It is not a business strategy. I don't want to make money."

Jia Lian asked a soul-searching question: "If you are not doing this for the sake of making money, why don't you increase the number of copies from 10,000 to 5,000 per issue?"

Li Heng started to be confused, saying that the current serials were not interesting anymore, subscriptions were naturally declining, and it was already very difficult to maintain it! There was also someone who only cared about killing but not burying, and it had been a long time since he had provided articles to the newspaper!
Jia Lian did not argue with him, and did not go back to work after leaving the newspaper. After all, he was the boss of the unit, and no one dared to catch him for absenteeism.

After returning home, Jia Lian began to concentrate on compiling teaching materials, which must be easy to understand and have more experiments. Textbooks from modern society must not be used, and an abridged version must be produced.

I'm afraid no one will win the prize. If no one answers, it will be embarrassing. I have to find a few pseudonyms to answer, and then let the Black Tiger Gang brothers go to receive the prize. It can't be all gang members, I have to find a few scholars to receive the prize. This way it will have an impact. Well, let's talk about it after the newspaper comes out, and find a few children to teach.

Jia Lian did what he said. He called Zhuzi over and took him to do the first experiment, then told him the correct answer: air has pressure. The second experiment was simple. He went straight to the kettle and told him the answer: air has pressure, and it rushes out by pushing the lid open along the spout. The principle of the Western steam engine comes from here.

After teaching Zhuzi, I asked him to go back to Rongning Street to find some children, do experiments with them, and remember to buy newspapers to participate in the lottery.

While doing the experiment, Zhuzi was very excited. Now he was asked to leave Jia Lian and become the leader among the children. He did not resist but went to teach happily.

When he left, he said with a happy face: "I can be a teacher too!"

Speaking of Rongning Street, many people living here are members of the Jia family, as well as family servants and so on. Should we promote this in the Jia family clan school? Well, Jia Lian felt that there was no need to be polite, and when the prize was won, the silver dollars should be actually distributed.

So Jia Lian went out again, this time heading for the clan school. Unexpectedly, when he arrived at the clan school, he found that most of the students inside had run away, Jia Dairu was nowhere to be seen, and only a few kittens were left, all playing.

It would not do to have the clan school in such a state, so Jia Lian did not stay any longer and went straight to find Jia Rong.

Recently, Jia Rong has handed over a bunch of things outside to Jia Yun to manage, and asked him to take care of Jia Qiang, Jia Rui and others. Regarding the question of whether clan members can be used, Jia Rong is more open-minded, and it is better than using people like Lai Er.

When Jia Rong learned that Jia Lian was coming, he quickly called Qin to greet him. Jia Lian looked at Qin, who was dressed in plain clothes, and couldn't help but look at her a few more times. Jia Rong didn't care about it, but secretly felt sad in his heart. When he kidnapped someone and gave him to his second uncle Lian, he didn't accept it. What's wrong with looking at her a few more times now?
Jia Rong knew that Qin Keqing was very beautiful, but he just didn't feel anything. His own wife was not as exciting as his father's woman. As for Youshi, Jia Rong didn't dare to think about her, because one of them had a legitimate status, and the other had an ambiguous relationship with his second uncle Lian. Well, they were having an affair. Jia Rong didn't hate Jia Lian for a simple reason. He could stand up straight and be a man, all thanks to Jia Lian's support.

Without Jia Lian standing behind him to support him and help him make money, how could he have the courage to face Jia Zhen?

Qin Keqing felt Jia Lian's gaze and felt a little unhappy. How could he be so arrogant in front of my man? At the same time, she was also a little excited. Jia Lian was not short of women and was attracted to him.

Jia Lian still had some sense of propriety and got straight to the point: "I just came back from the clan school. There were only three or five children in the school, all playing, no one reading. This is not acceptable for clan schools!"

Jia Rong had never thought of this, and could not help asking, "Hasn't clan schools always been like this? People go to clan schools just to learn to read, and it seems that no one wants to study to become an official."

Jia Lian was furious when he heard the indifferent tone, "Don't you want to? You can't! The clan school must be changed. How can Jia Dairu, an old man who slacks off every day, teach the children of the clan well? The first thing you should do as the clan leader is to rectify the clan school. The money should come from the public purse, I said."

Jia Rong was even more distressed: "Uncle Lian, my nephew doesn't know how to run a school. It's hard to ask me to run a clan school."

Jia Lian ignored this and thought that everyone was like him and had rich experience in doing things.

"First, set the rules, then recruit teachers with high salaries. Finally, regarding the clan members, children are not allowed to drop out of school. Starting at the age of six, they must study for five years for free. Parents who do not allow their children to study will be severely punished according to clan rules. I didn't care about the clan school before, but now I think it was a big mistake. Only when the clan members are promising can the Jia family produce talents and prosper."

Now Jia Lian has the final say in the affairs of the Jia family, so he wrote the rules of the clan school directly to Jia Rong.

Ignore the common rules and write the reward rules directly.

In the imperial examination, the reward for passing the scholar exam was 100 taels, the reward for the juren exam was 500 acres of fertile land or the corresponding amount of silver dollars. I won’t mention the jinshi exam because there is nothing to say if you have passed the jinshi exam. Just concentrate all your resources to promote you.

The details of daily rewards are more important. There is a small test every month in the clan school, and a big test in March. The top ten will receive cash rewards, one silver dollar each. The top three will receive five silver dollars for the first place, three for the second place, and two for the third place. Well, the first place must have a big gap. Without competition, there is no way to motivate children to study hard.

The tribal school provides breakfast and lunch for the children. Breakfast must have at least one egg, and lunch must have fish or meat.

The ethnic school provides children with textbooks, as well as the necessary writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone.

Jia Lian also emphasized that everything provided by the clan school must be cherished, and anyone found destroying or wasting it will be severely punished!

There are a lot of rules and regulations written densely, and all the valuable ones are included.

Qin Keqing watched for a long time and after reading carefully, she did not find the clause about abiding by laws and regulations.

I was wondering if Uncle Lian had forgotten.

Did Jia Lian forget? Of course not, but he deliberately did not write it down.

In this world of cannibalism, aren't those who obey the law honest people? Aren't honest people destined to be pointed at with a knife?
Jia Lian didn't want the clan school to teach only honest children. When it comes to values, at most it's some secular morality.

It was unknown when Jia Rong left. The ink had dried up. When Jia Lian reached out to grind it, Qin Keqing also reached out her hand. When their hands touched, Qin Keqing quickly retracted her hand.

Jia Lian was stunned for a moment, then saw that Jia Rong was not there, but he did not act too presumptuously. He smiled and said, "Bring a piece of big paper. I want to write the rules of the clan school and post them on the wall! Every child must memorize them!"

Qin Keqing felt relieved when she saw that it was indeed an accident. She suggested, "Why doesn't Second Uncle Lian write the rules on the wall of the clan school?"

Jia Lian thought it made sense. Paper would fall off after a long time. Well, let's do it.

As a man of action, Jia Lian naturally did what he thought. He got up and went out. He saw Jia Rong standing at the door like a door god. Jia Lian looked at him with a strange look. Jia Rong smiled as if nothing had happened and said, "Has Second Uncle Lian finished writing?" Jia Lian said, "It's done. Let's go to the clan school together tomorrow morning. Go talk to Jia Dairu tonight. They are elders, so you need to consider his face."

Jia Rong heard this and whispered, "The old man is just a waste, why should we give him face?"

Jia Lian looked at him and said, "It would be embarrassing if something happened. It's just a matter of spending some money. It's not that I need it. It's just a matter of eating two less dishes every day."

Jia Rong did not insist and nodded his agreement. After seeing Jia Lian off, he turned around and saw Qin Keqing standing in front of the desk in a daze. Jia Rong stepped forward and asked, "What are you looking at?"

Qin Keqing was startled, turned around to look at Jia Rong, and bowed slightly: "Second Uncle Lian is gone?"

Jia Rong looked at Qin Keqing with a complicated expression, and suddenly leaned close to whisper something in her ear. Qin Keqing turned pale and trembled slightly. Jia Rong continued to speak.

Qin Keqing trembled and said, "How can I do this?"

Jia Rong said indifferently, "Doctor, you have been exposed to women too early, which has damaged your vitality. It will be difficult for you to have children in the future. Anyway, let me say this. You can do whatever you want. The worst that can happen to me is that I will have no children or grandchildren."

(End of this chapter)