A century-old family that runs through the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 367 Steam Locomotive

With the steam engine, many other things became easier.

For example, the steam locomotive has solved the crucial problem of power source, and with a soul from later generations describing its general appearance, the difficulty has been greatly reduced.

This is the advantage of Yan Lingzai. Although he is not a science and engineering major, he at least knows the appearance of many things, and these alone can save the Jiangsu and Zhejiang military governments from making many detours and avoid climbing the wrong technology tree.

After less than half a year, the steam locomotive was successfully launched. Now the rails have been laid and everything is ready.

After the simple ceremony, the steam locomotive went straight from Ningbo to Shaoxing along a long iron dragon. This will be the Jiangsu and Zhejiang military governments, no, the first railway in the world.

Yan Ling stood on the high platform and watched with his own eyes the steam engine spraying thick smoke and running towards the distance with his long body. The speed was much faster than traditional horse-drawn carriages and donkey carts, and he couldn't help but swell slightly. Palm.

The steam engine is an invention that spans the ages, and steam locomotives will also cause huge changes in the field of transportation.

With it, transporting troops and food will be extremely fast.

The participating workers below let out bursts of cheers, and the engineers’ slaps turned red. They were now very excited to witness this historic scene.

"Everyone involved in this project will be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver. Each engineer will be rewarded with a thousand taels. Their position will be promoted by one level. The chief engineer will be rewarded with a reward of ten thousand taels of silver!" He turned around and enjoined. He has never been stingy with rewards for those who have made meritorious deeds. It's also an incentive.

He handed all this to Huang Zhipeng, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, and asked him to coordinate and act together with the Ministry of Education, the Military Ministry, and the Propaganda Department.

He is a craftsman educated in his family's school, and then he has come step by step to where he is today. He is very solid in both theory and practice. Yan Ling can rest assured if he leaves it to him.

At the same time, he ordered all ministries to coordinate and prepare for the full rollout of the railway.

Although steam engines have been introduced in some places, they are usually placed in workshops and are no longer loud. If you want to let a steel monster roar through the wilderness, it will almost certainly cause panic among the people. At that time, some people may say that King Yan Quan of Yue knows sorcery, and that in the later Qing Dynasty, he disturbed the ancestral graves. Good things will come out too.

These require a lot of publicity and the spread of education.

Huang Zhipeng responded confidently.

Later, Yan Ling called the Minister of Education. Like the Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Education was a newly established department.

After occupying various prefectures and counties, in addition to immediately arranging for the presence of government agencies at all levels and troops stationed in the local areas, his most important thing was to set up schools. Some renovated existing private schools and academies in the local area, while others directly built new ones and dispatched teachers of various subjects.

Moreover, there is no guarantee that some greedy people will dig up the rails and sleepers for their own use, so security and other things must be done well.

It is estimated that it will take several years to be fully rolled out in the areas currently ruled by the Jiangsu and Zhejiang military governments.

"Don't worry, Lord Chief Assistant, I will definitely live up to your trust."

This will be a big project, and it will inevitably cause people discomfort, since the movement is so big.

After all, education is the key to a strong country, and the popularization of education is a top priority.

The Jiangsu and Zhejiang military governments mandated that all students must enter school at the age of seven, undergo six years of first-stage private school education, and then three years of second-stage school education before they can be formally employed.

Of course, under the circumstances at that time, many people were faced with the difficulty of affording family life and the lack of a labor force. For this reason, the government would also provide subsidies to these families. At this time, most people were illiterate and regarded scholars as "literary stars descending to the earth." They were actually very happy if their children could read and they would not go hungry. Even if some families are unwilling, the government forces them and provides subsidies, and in the end the children are sent to private schools.

However, scholar-bureaucrats generally do not want to see this. If the sons of the Kuhaha people can take the imperial examination and become officials like them, then who will serve the masters?

However, Yan Ling doesn't care about this. In his government, as long as he is capable, there is a ladder for advancement.

At this time, there were not only male children in the school, but also female children.

Can women hold up half the sky? In some open areas such as Jiangnan, the handicraft industry has long been wiped out due to the impact of factories. In fact, there are already many women working in factories, and they are not very resistant to these.

However, some areas were very opposed to it, and Yan Ling did not dare to force him. For fear of causing some extreme situations, he also took a step back and temporarily set up boys' and girls' schools in some areas. In this way, he reluctantly ordered Some old pedants accept it.

Generally speaking, the situation is improving. It is conceivable what kind of prosperous civilization will emerge under the rule of the military government in the future.

Looking at the whole world, the only one who had the courage and ability to do this was the Jiangsu and Zhejiang military governments. After all, these alone are a huge expense, and even the empire in its most powerful period would not dare to play like this.

"The main problem now is that there are not so many teachers."

The Minister of Education said:

"Others are going well. There are sufficient funds and everyone is highly motivated. Private schools have been established in various places. Most people have also expressed that they will enroll their children in school. The problem now is that there are not so many teachers."

There are only so many students taught in the university. First half went to Tiangongyuan, and the rest served as officials in various places. Some of them had to be taken out to serve as teachers. How could there be so many people.

Yan Ling was also helpless:

"In this way, you can go find Confucian students from all over the country, find some who are unsuccessful and don't have such strong Confucian ideals, build a crash course, transform it for a few months, and teach Chinese. It should be no problem, and then learn from the Luzon Governor's Mansion. When selecting volunteers, those who say they are willing to come here will be well paid.”

Such an action should be able to alleviate some of the shortage.

In fact, the knowledge reserve of Confucian scholars teaching Chinese is absolutely sufficient. The main reason is that they are worried that they will mix some old concepts in their lectures, so they cannot use them directly without worry, otherwise there will not be too many people.

The minister nodded and took notes.

"In addition, the university uses the prefecture as the standard, and each prefecture establishes one."

Yan Ling also urged that there are still too few universities at present and cannot stably provide enough talents for the government.

In a few years, when more people are educated, his army will change its previous strategy of recruiting mainly young people and instead select from literate people.

Manpower is still too scarce now.

(End of this chapter)