1905: Beer Hall Speaker

Page 89

However, at the provincial level, the enrollment rate was cut by more than half, becoming 40%, and the enrollment age was changed from 6-18 years old to 6-14 years old.

The provincial requirement, once it reaches the city level, is a 30% enrollment rate for children aged 6 to 14.

The county level is like a broken record, lacking any independent thought. It simply relays the requirements from the central, provincial, and municipal levels, leaving the specific implementation to be discussed and decided by the towns and villages.

Meihua Town cannot possibly achieve universal compulsory education in the central area, and it cannot even reach the 30-40% enrollment rate of the province and city. Of the 4,000 school-age children, at most only 800 can enter school and enjoy compulsory education.

The town took all 100 spots first, which was reasonable since the town had contributed the most funding, and they had even left room for others to take them.

All four schools were built to accommodate 200 students each. The town has one central school, which theoretically has the largest population and could take up all 200 places.

However, they still gave up 100 slots, since there were 28 other villages outside the town, and the town didn't dare to offend the public.

The remaining 700 slots were fiercely contested by 28 villages. The smaller villages proposed dividing the slots equally among the villages, with the total number of slots for each village simply divided by 28.

However, the villages with large populations objected, demanding that the allocation be based on population size, with the total population divided by the number of enrollment slots, and one slot to be filled from each group of people.

The two sides were deadlocked and neither could convince the other, and at one point they even came to the point of fighting.

The hot-tempered village chiefs started punching each other without warning. The town police officers responsible for maintaining order even tried to fire a warning shot, but found that they only had a wooden stick in their hands. The town chief had sold his rifle to pay his salary!

"Hey, you guys from Daxichong, you've all teamed up, haven't you? You're bullying the weak with your numbers. If you've got the guts, wait until I get my people back from my village!"

"You think we're afraid of your Chen Family Village? Go ahead and call them over with their weapons. Let's have a real fight, just don't try to cheat when we lose!"

"Dare to challenge my Chen Family Village? If you're afraid of death, you might as well die! Let's fight!"

The village chiefs were fighting amongst themselves, and Lin Jishun, without a gun, couldn't control the situation. He had to ask the night watchman for a gong and bang it loudly to finally subdue them.

"Stop arguing! The head of state is the greatest authority in the world. Each village will have twenty fixed enrollment slots, and the rest will be chosen by the head of state! Anyone who dares to object is opposing the head of state!"

At the crucial moment, Lin Jishun brought up Zhao Yan's name, and now no one dared to cause any more trouble. The word "head of state" was now synonymous with "emperor" in the eyes of the common people. To dare to oppose the emperor was to commit blatant rebellion. No matter how many people there were in the village, it was useless because there were even more national defense soldiers.

Moreover, putting aside everything else, just the first two characters of his name alone are a true synonym for a war god. He led an expedition northward and then fought against the foreigners along the north, killing hundreds of thousands of enemies. People had long since made Zhao Yan a god of war in his time.

But everyone was also confused by Lin Jishun's words: "Let the head of state make the selection? Why would the head of state bother with these things?"

"Mayor Lin, don't try to fool me. The head of state is the emperor. He has so much land that he can't even keep up with planting every day. How could he possibly have time to select school places for our children?"

"A bunch of fools! The leader doesn't farm, and he doesn't have time to worry about these trivial matters!" Lin Jishun shouted. "The leader is the emperor, and the leader's will is the will of heaven. Since it's the will of heaven, the best way is to draw lots!"

Everyone suddenly realized: "I see! This is a good method! The leader's intention is the will of Heaven, and the will of Heaven is drawing lots. This is fair!"

Lin Jishun pressed on, saying, "After each village returns, first select twenty fixed slots from each village, and then select one hundred slots by drawing lots. Everything depends on the will of the leader!"

Remember, don't choose the mischievous or troublesome, nor the dim-witted; they must be able to sit still, listen attentively, and study diligently! Age doesn't matter, as long as they are willing to study and have a desire to improve.

"I'll sell everything I own in Plum Blossom Town to support his education! All those civil service exams and imperial examinations are just a bunch of charlatans. Only by truly studying hard, going through primary school, middle school, and university, can one become a real scholar and top scholar!"

Lin Jishun repeatedly emphasized the importance of this popularization of education, and explained the central government's intentions in plain language.

The so-called national civil service examination held by the state is actually just a public spectacle; the actual national civil service examination has not even started yet.

The civil service exam is currently just an emergency measure, essentially a way to recruit laborers to do the work.

The real value lies in the exams of the formal education system. This year, those who slipped through the cracks to enter the civil service system are all assumed to have only a primary school education. The reason their salaries are so low is precisely because they lack the necessary qualifications.

Those genuine scholars who passed the imperial examinations were replaced with junior high school, high school, and university degrees. These people could enter the civil service system without taking any exams and only needed to pass an interview.

They all started as clerks, but the salaries were completely different. Those with a junior high school education started with a monthly salary of five yuan, those with a high school education started with seven yuan, and those with a university degree started with ten yuan. Moreover, they had priority for promotion.

The formal education and academic examinations that follow are the real national examinations, and the differences between each level are huge. If you are one level below others in terms of academic qualifications, it will be very difficult to catch up, no matter how hard you try.

Lin Jishun used his own experience as an example. He followed Zhao Yan on the Northern Expedition and then fought on the grasslands. He was wounded and retired with the rank of lieutenant. His military school experience was converted into junior high school education. With his military service experience, he entered the government system as a staff member with a monthly salary of seven yuan (retirement pay and disability pension were calculated separately).

But as long as I can pass the exam or be recommended to study at Nanjing National Defense University, even if I lose an arm or both hands, I can still rely on my university degree to at least become a section chief or deputy county head.

In conclusion, academic qualifications are extremely important for both political and military careers!

Many people present did not understand the specific meaning of Lin Jishun's words, but they all understood the general idea: in the current government, anyone who has studied can become an official, and the more books one has read, the higher one's rank!

After the meeting, Meihua Town was filled with people trying to pull strings and give gifts. Everyone wanted to get a guaranteed spot in the school. If they couldn't get one, they thought it was a good idea to try their luck by drawing lots.

When it comes to matters of interest and the foundation of future success, even an illiterate farmer becomes enlightened and wants to improve himself. They may be illiterate, but they are very clear about the benefits of being an official.

The day after the meeting, construction began at all the school sites, and on the third day, the enrollment lists and the lottery lists were delivered to the town government.

Lin Jishun glanced around and saw that almost all of them were boys, with only a handful of girls. But this was the norm in rural areas, where limited resources had to be prioritized for those who could maximize their value.

The central government has not mandated gender ratio requirements for school enrollment; it only says that enrollment should be universal, but it does not specify which gender should be prioritized, nor does it emphasize women.

The unspoken implication is that men are given priority. After all, men can do far more things than women once they have knowledge. For one thing, the military now prefers highly educated personnel, especially in branches like the navy and army artillery. Even basic machine gunners are now required to have a certain level of education.

The students' problems are largely resolved. Lin Jishun has already achieved the best possible results under the limited conditions. Even if the central inspection team comes to check, he can say that he has done his best.

But it's not enough to just win over the students; you also have to win over the teachers. Otherwise, having a school and students but no teachers is all nonsense.

The five new recruits sent down from above were all recruited through this year's civil service exam. All five of them have been assigned to village primary schools. The two older ones will serve as principals and teachers, while the younger ones will serve as teachers and vice principals. Each school will be assigned at least three teachers, and there is still a significant shortage.

Lin Jishun made the decision to hire four private tutors from the town, offering them a high price of five yuan per month including room and board, to teach.

The town's central school was unable to pay its staff, so Lin Jishun took on the role of principal himself, sending the clerk and deputy mayor to serve as teachers. Other town government staff acted as substitute teachers, handling official business when the government was busy and teaching classes when they were not.

The teachers in the four schools were all cobbled together, and their teaching abilities were practically nonexistent. They could only read from the textbooks, and how much a student actually learned depended entirely on their own comprehension.

Previously, Section Chief Zhang brought several large wooden crates containing textbooks, which were compiled by the Ministry of Education of China based on international standards and the country's actual conditions.

Fortunately, the primary school curriculum is relatively simple, with only four major subjects: Chinese language, mathematics, science, and labor. Chinese language, needless to say, is taught in Mandarin Chinese, using nationally standardized textbooks, and there is no instruction in any other minority languages.

The math curriculum is simple, teaching only the most basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and area calculations. The slightly more complex curriculum is abacus calculation.

Natural science courses teach basic scientific and natural knowledge, without delving into calculations; students only need to understand these concepts.

The final labor course is all about practical skills. It is a compilation based on Tiangong Kaiwu (The Exploitation of the Works of Nature) and some foreign labor knowledge. It mainly teaches some tips and tricks for working, as well as many methods to improve production efficiency, such as silage, composting, making windmills and waterwheels, and other knowledge that is not technically demanding but is very practical.

These courses are simplified as much as possible. Adult teachers, as long as they are literate, have no logical thinking defects, and are of normal intelligence, can learn on their own and then teach students.

The four large boxes of textbooks and teaching aids seem like a lot, but when distributed to each school, they can only provide one set for each teacher at most, and students can only use one set in each class and keep one set as a backup.

As for those rulers, compasses, maps, globes, and other tools, there was only one set, which had to be kept at the central school. Other village primary schools had to take turns borrowing them for a day.

Of course, the stationery items that are in the highest demand, such as paper, pens, and ink, were not even mentioned by the authorities, which clearly means they are not available and you have to find a way to get them yourself.

According to regulations, these items are supposed to be provided by the school and the government, but the county doesn't have the funds to purchase them. They can't even pay the salaries of grassroots civil servants properly, so expecting them to have money to provide free stationery to students is pure wishful thinking.

A whole host of problems were presented to Lin Jishun, each of which required money to solve. Although Meihua Town provided a great deal of resources and exempted the town government from a large amount of expenses in building the school.

But the remaining miscellaneous expenses would have to be borne by the town government. After deducting the town government's office expenses and salary reserves, Lin Jishun only had about 800 yuan left that he could use.

This money has to cover students' free lunches, purchase free stationery, and also cover the shortfall in textbooks and teaching aids.

Lin Jishun wasn't confident he could survive this year, and as for next year, he could only leave it to fate.

In other places, including across the country, officials at all levels are also having a major headache over this compulsory education system, but the central government is taking a firm stance and insisting that it must be implemented.

How much can be popularized is a matter of capability, but whether it has even begun to be popularized is a matter of attitude. The central government will send inspection teams to check the popularization of compulsory education in various provinces at any time.

Regardless of how well it was handled, if you didn't handle it, that's a really big problem, and the central government will definitely take action against you.

Each province also deducted money from its infrastructure, industry, and people's livelihood funds to promote compulsory education bit by bit. Local officials also used all their ingenuity and methods, like Lin Jishun, to raise money and resources everywhere to promote education.

No one dared to gamble that the inspection team sent by Zhao Yan wouldn't come to their area; it was a gamble they simply couldn't afford, because if they lost, their whole family would be sent to a reformatory.

The central government can tolerate issues of competence, but it has zero tolerance for issues of attitude. As long as you do your job properly and do your best, it doesn't matter if you embezzle a little, or if you fail and make a mess of things. The higher-ups are lenient towards officials with a proper attitude.

But if you do nothing, just eat and collect your salary without doing anything, your superiors will get rid of you. If you not only do nothing but also embezzle, your superiors will get rid of your whole family.

There was no other way; under these difficult circumstances, Zhao Yan still had to promote compulsory education. Time was of the essence, and China needed far too many talented people in the future.

Even if each village can only produce one high school student now, it's still worthwhile. With hundreds of thousands of villages across the country, that's hundreds of thousands of qualified marines, artillerymen, technicians, and even pilots.

The central government is not afraid of being slow, but it is afraid of stopping. As long as you start doing something, you will eventually achieve results by taking it step by step. But if you stop, you will get nothing.

ask for leave

I was temporarily assigned to lead training at a school, and I simply couldn't keep up with the updates. I'll be taking a three-day break. I had no choice; a friend asked me to help, and I couldn't refuse.

Chapter 155 Development of the Weapons Industry

October 12, 1908, Hanyang Arsenal, Hubei.

"Hmm, very good, excellent, a fantastic weapon, but please don't make any more!"

The newly appointed Joint Logistics Department Director, Major General Dai Mingde, was placing a somewhat oddly shaped rifle back on the table, while Liu Qing'en, the director of the Hanyang Arsenal, looked utterly disappointed.

On the table was a semi-automatic rifle, a revolutionary infantry product that Liu Qing'en had poured countless efforts into!

The post-war national defense forces need to upgrade their existing weapons; this is inevitable and a consensus among the military's top brass.

In particular, the main combat weapon of the infantry, the rifle, must be updated.

Currently, the main weapons equipped by the National Defense Force are domestically produced standard weapons, namely the Hanyang Type 88, but the most numerous weapons are various imported ones, such as Mauser, Springfield, and even Infeldt.

At the height of the war, even the British themselves smuggled weapons and ammunition to China. Strangely, on the battlefield, the Wehrmacht was carrying the latest model of the Infeld rifle, while the British army was carrying old models of the old rifles!

After the war, Defense Minister Wang Chongshan decided to popularize domestically produced rifles throughout the army, requiring domestic arms manufacturers to provide a reliable, durable, low-cost rifle with performance comparable to mainstream rifles.

As the leading domestic arms manufacturer, Hanyang Arsenal presented its latest semi-automatic rifle and invited Major General Dai Mingde, who was in charge of the project, to inspect it.

This new semi-automatic rifle is the brainchild of Liu Qing'en, the current director of the Hanyang Arsenal. He began conceiving it at the beginning of his tenure and invested a lot of resources, bringing together the arsenal's top technical personnel and the support of German experts, and finally successfully produced this epoch-making rifle.

Unfortunately, Dai Mingde looked at it carefully, but didn't even mention the target practice test. He just gave a couple of compliments and then rejected it without hesitation.

Liu Qingen, undeterred, said, "Minister, if there's anything you're not satisfied with, please tell us, and we can make improvements."

"Please believe that this rifle will be revolutionary for the military, especially for improving infantry firepower."

Before the other party could finish speaking, Dai Mingde interrupted, "Director Liu, the ex-factory price of a Hanyang-made rifle is around 45 yuan. What was the price of that semi-automatic rifle you just saw?"

Liu Qing'en replied decisively, "Currently, because it is a small-scale trial production, the price will be very high. However, if the military's purchase volume reaches more than 100,000 units, our factory is confident that we can reduce the ex-factory price to 280 yuan per unit!"

After listening, Dai Mingde commented: "This is a firearm that is only suitable for rich people to hunt with. The current military budget of the National Defense Forces cannot afford such an outrageous price. It completely fails to meet the Ministry of National Defense's requirement of low cost!"

Moreover, the reliability of this firearm doesn't even need to be tested, as the main components of the automatic loading mechanism are actually located on the muzzle!

"Director Liu, the battlefield is not a shooting range, and war is not a hunting game. These firearms simply cannot withstand the harsh conditions of the battlefield!"

"Therefore, this rifle's reliability is also substandard!"

"More importantly, the National Defense Forces are currently unable to equip themselves with semi-automatic rifles. In the past, a soldier could participate in a battle with 100 rounds of ammunition, and there was even a possibility that they could not use up all that ammunition."

But if you give them the opportunity to fire continuously simply by pulling the trigger, then in a battle, two hundred rounds of ammunition wouldn't be enough for one soldier.

"To be honest with you, the army currently does not have a high demand for automated individual firepower. It's not that we don't need it, but that we can't afford it."

"The Ministry of National Defense prefers mature, reliable, and lower-cost bolt-action rifles. If we had enough money, I would equip every soldier with a light machine gun so they could just shoot anyone they see. Wouldn't that be even more satisfying?"

Liu Qing'en was still unconvinced. He picked up the rifle on the table and began to argue his case, talking about the trends in army development, from matchlock guns to flintlock guns, from muzzle-loading guns to breech-loading guns, and then to light and heavy machine guns.

The development of army firearms has always pursued a higher rate of fire, which is an irreversible trend.

Dai Mingde simply wouldn't budge, stubbornly sticking to the core issue of cost.

He was also troubled; none of the factory directors at the Hanyang Arsenal were easy to deal with. The previous director was a bookworm who didn't do any real work, spending all his time translating foreign novels. He was later dismissed and, it was said, found a good job at the Wuhan Publishing House.

Liu Qing'en, the successor, was a complete blockhead, single-mindedly pursuing the goal of catching up with the great powers and wanting to create weapons that far surpassed those of foreign countries.

However, Liu Qing'en, being at the bottom, had no idea how dire the central government's financial problems had become. Even with the military and the navy working together and resorting to desperate measures, they only managed to secure 10% of the budgeted military expenditure.

The army received 7 percent and the navy received 3 percent. Not much of this money could be used to upgrade equipment; it was mainly used for troop reductions, resettlement, and expenses for active-duty personnel.

I have no money! No matter how much you plead, it won't make a difference!

Ultimately, Liu Qing'en chose to reserve his opinion. He still did not heed Dai Mingde's advice to cut the semi-automatic rifle project, but instead chose to continue to improve it.

"Come on, take me to see your other products!" Dai Mingde continued his cursory tour.

Liu Qing'en, feeling dejected, led him to look at other firearms. The remaining firearms were more traditional and conservative products, a total of three models, all of which were developed by the Hanyang Arsenal after Liu Qing'en took over.

The research and development was based on mainstream foreign rifle models, which were then modified for local use.

All three rifles share a common visual feature: they feature an additional magazine design compared to traditional bolt-action rifles, and all have a large capacity of ten rounds.

The first two models even copied the rear locking design of the Infeld rifle in order to increase the rate of fire.

Dai Mingde was almost speechless. He wondered why Liu Qing'en was so determined to improve the rate of fire.

It wasn't until he saw the last rifle that Dai Mingde's brow relaxed and he became somewhat satisfied.

The last new rifle prototype looked much better. After Dai Mingde conducted a simple dry-fire test, he nodded repeatedly.

This rifle is an improvement on the German Gew98 rifle. In order to reduce costs and make the rifle lighter to suit the physique of East Asians, the designers shortened the barrel, changed the straight bolt handle to a downward-curved type, and simplified some internal structures to make it easier to maintain.

The designers originally did not intend to include a ten-round high-capacity magazine, but it was added at Liu Qing'en's insistence.

The bullets were also copied directly from the original German 7.92x57 full-power rifle cartridges, and the Germans were willing to grant the related rifle and bullet patent technologies at a low price.

Dai Mingde held the rifle in his hand and tested it repeatedly, carrying it on his back and shoulder, and even aiming it several times.