Datang: What's wrong with my fief being a billion points larger?

Chapter 229 Solving the Talent Problem, Kong Yingda's Selfishness

Li Yuanji was stunned when listening to Kong Yingda's long speech. To be more precise, he was shocked. In fact, in his impression, Kong Yingda was an old-fashioned and pedantic person who claimed to be the descendant of Confucius and was devoted to studying Confucianism.

However, it was this person who made the college system that the Ministry of Education should implement so clear, and he found it difficult to adapt to it for a while.

Li Yuanji understood what Kong Yingda said more clearly. An enlightenment college is nothing more than a kindergarten, plus the education before the fourth grade of elementary school. The college set up in each state provides education from the fourth grade of elementary school to junior high school, or even high school.

As for the provincial schools, they are just miniature versions of universities. The later national studies are not only more in-depth studies, but also more like obtaining a license for a career in officialdom. As long as one enters the national studies, it means that one will definitely become an official or even directly enter the imperial court.

Moreover, there are corresponding tests for each level of promotion, which means that those who can continue their studies are the relatively outstanding ones among all the students. They are screened to the end and enter the National Studies University, which means they enter his field of vision.

Chinese studies are more like the most outstanding talent pool in all his fiefdoms. As long as he takes a fancy to someone, he can directly transfer him to the official career.

This kind of gradual rise is not so perfect even in the Tang Dynasty. To be precise, there are no such academies in the Tang Dynasty. All knowledge is in the hands of aristocratic families. Ordinary people can forget about these.

After Li Yuanji came to his senses, he became very interested. Although what Kong Yingda said was not perfect yet and still had some shortcomings, this college system was already very good. He really wanted to know how Kong Yingda came up with this idea.

Logically speaking, such a conservative and pedantic person should not be able to think of these things.

"Chongyuan, you said it very well, but I have a question. How did you come up with all these? Did you come up with them all by yourself?"

Li Yuanji looked at Kong Yingda with interest, as if he wanted to see through Kong Yingda.

Kong Yingda below also laughed after hearing this, and was very happy. What he just said were all compiled by him after spending countless days and nights. Those were all proof of his energy. Now that they were recognized by Li Yuanji, it meant that the results of his day and night labor were affirmed.

After a while, Kong Yingda stroked his beard and said slowly: "Your Majesty, I was able to formulate such a college system not only because of my own efforts, but also because many colleagues from the Ministry of Education participated in it, and I also consulted with General Cen about this matter.

The most important thing is the help given by the king. Before, the king came to the Ministry of Education and talked about the matter of this college. Although the king spoke in a rather general way, it gave me a direction.

These were discussed by me and my colleagues over a period of 27 days and nights, taking all aspects of the academy into consideration.

Now that we have the King's recognition, the efforts of me and my colleagues are worth it."

Looking at Kong Yingda with a smile on his face, Li Yuanji was a little confused. Did he tell Kong Yingda about the academy?
After thinking about it carefully, I remembered that I did say this last year. At that time, the academy established before could only train some minor officials, but it was still unable to train officials who could truly govern a region, so the grading system of academies was proposed.

That is, the Ministry of Education should take the lead in doing a good job in the education of students from childhood to adulthood, so as to send students with certain talents to be able to govern the area.

But he only gave a general idea, because he knew very well that it was too difficult and unrealistic to popularize education perfectly. Where could he find so many teachers?
The manpower, military force, and money needed to build these academies were all relatively easy for him to solve, except for teachers. He was already short of people, so where could he find so many?

This is also the reason why he put it aside and did not perfect it, because he is not mature enough now.

Li Yuanji had not expected that when he heard that Kong Yingda had almost perfected all of these, he felt happy but also worried.

"Chongyuan, the idea of ​​this academy is very good, but to establish these academies, we need many teachers. If there are no teachers, the academy is useless. Do you have any ideas?"

Li Yuanji didn't believe that Kong Yingda didn't see the shortage of manpower. If he didn't see it, he wouldn't have asked him for people as soon as he arrived. But if he asked him for people because of this, it would all depend on whether he would confront Kong Yingda or not.

After hearing this, Kong Yingda stopped smiling and became solemn and serious.

"Your Majesty, I came here for this matter. If all prefectures and states build colleges, there will definitely be a shortage of teachers. Now that Your Majesty is short of talent, it is almost known to everyone. Therefore, I thought that we could start in Guangzhou and Leizhou, which currently have the largest populations.

If only corresponding colleges are established in the two prefectures, the Ministry of Education can arrange it, but the teachers assigned there will have to work harder.

At the same time, we should establish national studies and look for some good talents, even if there are few, and establish them first, because the establishment of these academies cannot quickly solve the king's concerns about talents, but establishing them as soon as possible can solve this problem as soon as possible.

However, the problem now is that in addition to the establishment of the college, the Ministry of Education also has to shoulder the responsibility of the king's new fiefdoms, especially Yunzhou Prefecture, Zhenzhou Prefecture, Taizhou Prefecture, Xizhou Prefecture, Wuzhou Prefecture, as well as the Tubo and Wa Kingdom territories where the king is currently sending troops, including Xifuzhou.

These places need people to go there, so that the people there can use Chinese as soon as possible and stop using their original languages. This also requires manpower.”

Kong Yingda paused for a moment, and seeing that Li Yuanji was listening attentively, he continued speaking.

"As for Yuezhou, Lüzhou and Songzhou, most people in Yuezhou can speak Chinese, so the problem is relatively small. Lüzhou and Songzhou are mostly Han people who migrated there, so the situation is also relatively small.

The only exception is the few prefectures I just mentioned. If they were deployed together, there simply wouldn't be so many people.

Now that the Ministry of Education has established Guangzhou Prefecture and Leizhou Prefecture colleges and assigned teachers there, it is impossible to carry out language unification work in those places at the same time and can only do it in batches.

Therefore, if Your Majesty wants the Ministry of Education to carry out all of the tasks at the same time, please allocate more manpower to the Ministry of Education.

If Your Majesty is unable to dispatch personnel, then I will have to proceed in batches. Although it will take a little longer, Your Majesty will benefit sooner.”

After listening to what Kong Yingda said, Li Yuanji understood Kong Yingda's idea. Kong Yingda wanted to develop the college first, give priority to the college, unify the language second, and proceed in batches at the same time.

Kong Yingda also knew that he was unable to deploy the manpower, and now he came to him and said this to him. It was obvious that this old man was sure that Li Yuanji had to make this choice, otherwise he would probably quit.

Li Yuanji was also in deep thought. Whether it was the establishment of an academy or the unification of the language, they were both things that had to be completed, but the priorities had to be determined.

The establishment of the academy can indeed benefit him as soon as possible. Now the establishment of this academy has indeed provided him with some grassroots officials and solved many of his problems. As for the unification of the language, although it must be done, he firmly believes that his rule over these places will never be short-lived. As long as he is still there, these places will continue to be controlled by him, so it is feasible to postpone the unification of the language appropriately.

Moreover, once the students graduate from the academy, whether they graduate from the Enlightenment Academy or the provincial or prefectural schools, they can be assigned jobs, just for different purposes. But in terms of language, they are all capable.

After thinking this through, Li Yuanji immediately looked at Kong Yingda.

"Chongyuan, if you want to do something in the future, just tell me directly. Don't beat around the bush and even threaten me. Forget it this time, but it won't happen again.

I can agree with what you said. We should first establish academies in Guangzhou Prefecture and Leizhou Prefecture, and change the Enlightenment College into a county school.

Next, you need to connect with Jingren, Guangzhou Prefecture and Leizhou Prefecture. Not to mention every county, but at least two counties must have a county school, and both the state school and the prefecture school must be established at the same time.

As for the national studies, let's put it aside for the time being. Even if the national studies are established, there will be no suitable students. The prefectural and state schools can try to teach in this way first according to the current academies. When students from the counties come, the prefectural and state schools will abandon the current enrollment and start enrolling students according to what you said.

As for the unification of the languages ​​of various prefectures, Xizhou Prefecture, Taizhou Prefecture, Wuzhou Prefecture, and Zhenzhou Prefecture, these four prefectures can be connected with Wei Yunqi. Wei Yunqi is a great talent. After you communicate with him about this matter, you should get a satisfactory answer.

As for the rest, Xifuzhou comes first, and secondly, no matter how you arrange it, you must reserve some for me to go to Japan!"

Qimeng Kindergarten? It sounds like a kindergarten. How can it be as impressive as a county school?

As for asking Kong Yingda to reserve people for Japan, he had already had this idea in mind. Japan must completely complete the unification of language. During this period, if anyone dared to resist, he would not be polite to the Japanese at all.

The sooner it is done, the sooner those dissidents will jump out and the sooner he can deal with them.

Although Kong Yingda didn't know why Li Yuanji attached so much importance to Japan and was so anxious, it did not affect his happiness at all. It can be said that he completely achieved his goal by coming to Li Yuanji this time.

Now that everything has been settled, he doesn't want to stay here any longer. He still has to implement all these things, which will also take a lot of time. He also needs to go and talk to Cen Wenben again.

"Your Majesty, I understand. I will take my leave now and go down to take care of this matter."

"Wait a moment."

Seeing that Kong Yingda wanted to leave, Li Yuanji could not agree. Although the affairs of the academy seemed to have been settled, there were still many things that needed to be improved. How could he let Kong Yingda go on like this?

Kong Yingda turned around in confusion, and Li Yuanji's voice came immediately.

“These things can indeed be decided in this way, but the academy’s system still has loopholes that need to be improved. You should write down everything I say next, and then reorganize it and hand it to me. I will check if there are no problems before we can start.

Don't refute me yet. What I'm going to say next is irrefutable. You can make suggestions, but the direction cannot be changed!"

Li Yuanji was extremely serious. Even when referring to himself, he did not use "I". This was to let Kong Yingda know that he was absolutely serious at the moment and would not tolerate any rebuttal.

Seeing Kong Yingda's hesitant look, Li Yuanji knew very well that Kong Yingda was preparing to find his loophole. Li Yuanji didn't care. On the contrary, he liked Kong Yingda's idea very much. The sooner the loophole was found, the better.

Then he sorted out his thoughts and spoke slowly.

"To establish an academy, the first thing we need is books and paper. Books can be printed. Printing has been improved and is more convenient than before. But even for printing, a lot of paper is still needed. In addition, every academy needs paper. If we continue to use rice paper, the cost will be a bit expensive.

However, I can solve the paper problem. You don't need to worry about it. What you need to do is to select the books that are suitable for the needs of county schools, state schools, and prefectural schools. As long as the paper is in place, the selected books will be printed immediately.

As for the number of copies to be printed, that will depend on the number of students the college is going to enroll. So, there must be a plan for how many students each college is expected to have. You also need to work it out and then hand it over to me.

After the King agrees, you can print more copies based on the number of students.

Otherwise, if these are not prepared, when the time comes to recruit students, how can we teach them when there are deficiencies in all aspects?

Do you have any opinions on these?"

What Li Yuanji said may seem like trivial matters, but they are actually crucial. Now Kong Yingda is concentrating on the entire structure of the academy and establishing it as soon as possible, and has neglected a lot of things, but he cannot ignore them.

Li Yuanji could guess why Kong Yingda was so anxious. As a descendant of Kong Sheng, he would never miss such an opportunity to establish Confucian thought.

Li Yuanji had no choice now. As long as Kong Yingda didn't go too far, he could accept it. Moreover, the industrial college he established was already in operation, and there were other professional colleges in the future. If he wanted Confucianism to dominate again, forget it.

Kong Yingda put aside his prejudices at this moment. He was anxious to establish the academy because he had his own selfish motives. There was no way he would miss such an opportunity to promote Confucianism.

Once the academy is established and then fully popularized, a few decades later, the Kong family will regain its glory in his hands. By then, all the disciples in the world will be Confucian disciples. Such an opportunity is the reason why Kong Yingda is so enthusiastic and anxious.

He had indeed ignored the details raised by Li Yuanji. After he came up with the college education system, he had no intention of taking those into consideration. He just wanted Li Yuanji to finalize and implement it as soon as possible.

Kong Yingda's face straightened and he bowed to Li Yuanji.

"Your Majesty is right. I was impatient. Please go ahead and tell me. I will sort these out and present them to Your Majesty so that the academy system can be fully implemented."

(End of this chapter)