Wild North America 1846

Chapter 659 Culture and Thugs

Investment in education has been an important field for the imperial government and the royal family for decades, and it is also an important department second only to military and colonial expenditures, ranking third in terms of importance.

Today
According to the social census at the end of 1877, the national literacy rate had reached 56.3%, that is, more than half of the citizens got rid of illiteracy. This is a gratifying and great achievement.

Looking around the world, the national literacy rate of the Tang Empire also ranked third, second only to Germany and Britain, and higher than France.

scrutinize
Eighty percent of the first-generation immigrants who immigrated from the mainland to North America were illiterate. Eighty to ninety percent of the local residents in North America, Mexico, Central America, and South America conquered by the Tang Empire were also illiterate.

This has formed a large base of illiterate population, which is also the real reason why nearly half of the national literacy rate is still illiterate after 32 years of full-scale education promotion.

some of

Some young immigrants received literacy classes after enlisting in the army or in society, but this proportion is less than a quarter, which is far from affecting the overall low literacy rate.

What is gratifying is that the literacy rate of the second generation of immigrants has made a qualitative leap, reaching over 87%.Only a small number of families are limited by prejudice against girls, or are located in remote areas, and do not allow their children to receive a complete primary and secondary education.

Today, many three generations of immigrants have reached the age of education. Under the vigorous promotion of the "Datang Empire's Five-Year Compulsory Education Law", the enrollment rate has basically reached more than 98%.

This ensures that the national literacy rate of the Tang Empire will maintain a slow and steady upward trend for a long period of time in the future, which will help improve the overall national quality.

in today's world

After reunification, the country with the highest German-style literacy rate is also the country with the best implementation of basic education, unrivaled in the world.

In 1825, Prussia implemented a universal compulsory education system.The development of basic education has greatly increased the number of people with basic reading and writing skills in Germany, and the illiteracy rate has dropped rapidly.

In Prussia, 1822 million children entered public primary schools in 140, and it had risen to 1876 million by 420, basically covering all school-age children and teenagers.

普鲁士人口的识字率在1800年就达到60％的高水平，到1850年达80％，1860年更达87％，在1876年更进一步提升到95%。

Nowhere else in the world will Germany be able to achieve the goal of universal literacy in a short period of time.

Compared with Germany, Britain seems to be careless. The government believes that education is a social matter, a family matter, and the government is inconvenient to intervene too much.

Even so
The United Kingdom, which took the lead in entering an industrialized country, has raised the male literacy rate from 100% 25 years ago to the current 78%, and the female literacy rate is 64%, ranking second in the world.

The Tang Empire ranks third in the world with a literacy rate of 56.3%, and France ranks fourth at 55%. In second-tier European countries such as Italy, the literacy rate is only 39%, and the Ottoman Empire, Qing Dynasty and Tsarist Russia are even lower.

In the early years, Emperor Li Cha put forward the concept of emphasizing education that "a strong youth makes a country strong, and education leads to a prosperous country". Now, with the development of culture and education, it has become one of the basic policies firmly implemented by the imperial government.

With the rise of education and the great development of the cultural industry, the Tang Empire took the lead in manufacturing electric printing machines in 1864, which greatly improved the disadvantages of the original steam printing machines, improved work efficiency, and greatly reduced the cost of printed materials.

The update of printing technology promoted the prosperity of the publishing industry. According to the statistics of the Tang Empire by the end of 1876, there were 1371 publishing houses all over the country, and as many as 26 books were published every year, involving humanities, geography, military affairs, history, mechanochemistry, Social sciences, natural sciences and education have formed a thriving cultural market.

Among them, books and newspapers published in Mandarin account for more than 8%, and there are more than a thousand periodicals and periodicals, forming a pattern of full bloom.

Among the many publications in the Tang Empire, there is a category called Zhiqi comics that is very popular among the people.This is a kind of picture book compiled with strange and strange legends, country talk, fox ghosts and snake gods and other stories.

There are special illustrators who compile and draw according to the content of the story, with text plots attached, even illiterate illiterates can understand it, and it is very popular among the people.

The most outstanding "Journey to the West" Zhiqi comic book has a set of 72 volumes, each with a short story.Once it was released, it was widely loved by the public. In just two years, more than 67 sets have been issued, and more editions will continue to be printed.

Taoyuan Entertainment Publishing House, which publishes the "Journey to the West" comic book, has made a lot of money. It is very confident that it will publish 100 million sets or more of "Journey to the West", breaking the record of leisure and entertainment books in the publishing industry.

The more and more prosperous publishing and cultural undertakings of the Tang Empire are common among the great powers of the world. This is an era from conservative to ideological change, an era of nationalism and labor movements, and an era of popularization of knowledge among the people.

From now until the end of this century
With the popularization of newspapers, periodicals and radio, the national literacy rate of the world's major powers will increase significantly. Italy will increase from 39% to more than 60%. The same is true for the Ottoman Empire and Tsarist Russia.

"Liang Aiqing, what happened to the mass strike in Pittsburgh?" Emperor Richard asked, putting down the "Mesoamerican Chronicle" in his hand, pointing to a news report published on the front page.

Recently, due to the newly acquired Cuba, the Luzon Islands and Puerto Rico, there are more affairs. Zheng Yuan, the chief steward of the Royal Secretariat, is busy. Deputy Director Liang Bojun and other secretaries have more opportunities to serve the imperial court.

Usually these times

No matter how busy and tired he is, Director Zheng Yuan will always serve His Majesty closely when he is in charge, so that His Majesty can make inquiries at any time.

Liang Bojun hurried forward and replied respectfully;
"Return to His Majesty;

This matter has been consulted by the Imperial Security Bureau and the Ministry of the Interior. It should be a spontaneous labor movement and has nothing to do with us.

In recent years
The labor movement originated in Britain, France and other countries also spread to the United States of America. Newspapers often advocated demagogic remarks such as fighting for workers' rights, fighting for legal working hours, and uniting against capitalist oppression, which formed a lot of temptation for grassroots workers.

In big cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, many self-organized non-government organizations have emerged, good and bad among them.

Many organizations pretend to seek welfare for workers under the guise of seeking welfare for workers. In fact, they are evil forces in society, operating underground casinos, opium dens, erotic places and bars, occupying one side and committing crimes.

Among them, Italian gangsters and Scottish gangsters are the most rampant, and sometimes some labor movements are also instigated by them in order to achieve certain goals. "

"Well, keep relevant parties concerned, the slogan of the workers' march in Pittsburgh is quite special." Emperor Richard ordered lightly.

"My minister obeys the order, and will definitely pay close attention to the trend of the labor movement in Pittsburgh, and report to the saint at any time." Liang Bojun replied immediately.

he was thinking;

Looking back, I must quickly collect all relevant information on the Pittsburgh labor movement, study it carefully, and see which aspect has attracted His Majesty's attention.

His Majesty the Emperor doesn't know how to explain, whether you can understand it or not depends on the wisdom of the people around you?
nowadays

The dignitaries from various countries attending the summit of the Organization of American Cooperation in Panama have arrived one after another, and often the first thing they do is to meet His Majesty the Emperor to show their respect.

Just today, His Majesty the Emperor has successively received the President of Paraguay, General Zheng Fengrong, and the President of Uruguay, General Dai Xueli, and gave warm words of encouragement to the two presidents.

Admiral Zheng Fengrong was originally the head of the military delegation of the Tang Empire in Paraguay before the First South American War. He had the rank of colonel. He was an immigrant from Zhangzhou who joined the army in 1. He was a senior official of the imperial court Chen Cailiang and Huang Yuanjia. .

after the war

Together with President Stuart of Paraguay, he served as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and shouldered the important task of reorganizing the Paraguayan country until 1872.

This year, President Stuart was accused of serious corruption, and Paraguay was facing a political crisis. After a military coup, Admiral Zheng Fengrong became the new president of Paraguay and the fourth president after the founding of Paraguay.

General Dai Xueli, President of Uruguay, also had roughly the same experience, but he came to power through legal elections and defeated former President Bena Dobello to become the new president.

These two countries are the second generals of the Datang Empire in South America. The economic reconstruction has received strong support from the Datang Empire. The national income level in South America is ahead of Argentina and Brazil, and it is basically on the same level as the Andean Governor's Palace. .

The influx of a large number of Chinese immigrants quickly restored Paraguay, which had a population of just over 23 after the war, and now has a population of more than 72. Its economic and military strength far exceeds that of its pre-war heyday.

The economies of these small countries recovered very quickly, especially in Paraguay, which is rich in yerba mate. As long as there is enough labor to resume planting, this tea beverage, which is popular among Europeans, will not worry about selling.

This alone supports half of Paraguay's economy.

After the First South American War, Uruguay's total population was only around 1. This is a weaker country than Paraguay.

After the influx of Chinese immigrants, a lot of Chinese capital entered the country to build factories, roads and wharfs, and developed ocean transportation to Europe by virtue of the advantage of the coast.

In just over 10 years
Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, has developed from a small city with a population of less than 3 to a regional transportation hub with a population of 16.5. It has smooth roads leading to Paraguay, Argentina, the Andean Governor's Palace and Brazil, and is transported by inland waterway and sea. Transit hub port.

Inland river ships from Paraguay and Argentina arrived in Montevideo with full loads of goods, where they were loaded onto sea ships and set sail to transport local specialty goods to North America and Europe.

Anti-noisy
It is precisely because of its unique geographical conditions that Uruguay is now thriving. The total population is less than 20, and now it has grown to more than 57, with more than 1.6 military personnel.

It also has a pocket navy headed by two 1500-ton armored destroyers retired from the Tang Empire, with a total of more than 730 naval officers and soldiers.

This is enough for Uruguay, which has a narrow coastline.

(End of this chapter)