Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 332 School
Orville was definitely welcomed by the other party. The food was relatively simple, just the home-cooked dishes that often appear on the tables of ordinary small landlords or small businessmen. The chef's skills were also neither good nor bad, and it tasted a bit bland in Orville's food.

But he didn't come here to satisfy his appetite. After a simple meal, Orville quickly got to the point: "I'm curious about one thing. Why would a world-famous scholar like you leave your hometown and the familiar city of Rome and travel across mountains and rivers to Egypt to be my sister's tutor?"

Kun Tiliang is a middle-aged man with some gray hair on his temples. His face is serious as if he is always frowning. His eyes are a little small and slightly narrowed. His body and hair are always kept very clean. With his elegant temperament, he looks like an intellectual with some talent.

He answered seriously and word by word: "I have a request to His Majesty the Emperor. Although His Majesty the Emperor has provided me with a generous salary, this money is still not enough to achieve my goal. After talking to His Majesty the Emperor, he agreed to support my career, but the prerequisite is that I follow Her Royal Highness the Princess to Egypt and teach her academically. His Majesty the Emperor promised me that he would meet my request when I come back."

"More specifically, what are your requests?"

"I want to open a school that can accommodate about 300 to 400 students. I can't support so many people alone, so I need to hire professional scholars to help me. Add the venue and construction costs, and it's not a number I can afford."

Education in this era is closer to one-on-one elite education, so this is an exaggerated number. Of course, it sounds like this in Orville. Not to mention three or four hundred people, Orville has heard of schools with a zero at the end.

He already knew the whole story from Vespa's letter, and now he just wanted to confirm it. He also had a purpose in coming to Quintilian, and a teacher with rich teaching experience was also a huge asset.

After careful consideration, Orville invited the other party: "How about this? You have not taught Domitia for a long time, with only one or two classes a week on average. You should have more free time outside of that. King Cleopatra of Egypt and I agree with your ideas and teaching philosophy, and we also want to open a large school. Can you try teaching here for a while?
You can freely arrange the teaching mode and content. We will provide you with excellent teachers, venues, etc. You don’t need to worry about it. We can solve all the problems ourselves. You just need to preside over the school work. We guarantee that we will not interfere excessively in the rest of the things. "

Quintilian wanted to gain experience, so he was quite interested in this proposal, while Orville also needed to accumulate experience in founding and running a school, and needed Quintilian to serve as a demonstration. It was a win-win situation for both parties, so they almost hit it off, and Quintilian agreed without much hesitation.

"I can't guarantee you a good result, but I can promise to do my best. If you can agree to this, I am willing to take this job."
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The other party was a very efficient person, and so was Orville. When he went to the other party's house to lobby, Orville asked Agricola to prepare everything. The next day, Quintilian learned the address of the venue and met with the relevant teachers to get to know each other a little. After all, they were going to work together in the future.

Although he said he was going to found a school, Quintilian's thinking was not so advanced as to start directly from elementary school. What he wanted to do was to set up something similar to a high school or university, allowing people with a certain level of knowledge to continue their studies. This is understandable.

The teachers and venues were ready, and the next step was to deal with the student problem, which was a little difficult because classroom teaching was not widely accepted. People in this era were more accepting of one-on-one tutoring. Unfortunately, people who could afford to go to school in this era generally had good family conditions and could often afford to hire someone to teach them. This made Orville's school not very attractive. After all, this was an experimental teaching model, and the results were unknown. No one wanted their son to be a test subject for others. After discussing with Cleopatra, Orville also got her support. After all, she was more aware of the importance of education than most people in this era. Orville was trying to improve the level of education in Egypt. Apart from anything else, she was very supportive of this matter itself.

After a little hesitation, she used a crooked trick - recruiting Egyptian students directly from all over the country.

It should be said that the Egyptians or Romans of this era had some awareness of education for all, but the phenomenon of setting up barriers for local Egyptians did exist. Although many Egyptians had the conditions to receive primary education, they were restricted by explicit or implicit conditions and could not receive higher-level education. Faced with this situation, the locals had no good solution, after all, the right to education and cultural rights were mainly in the hands of the rulers.

Cleopatra opened up educational restrictions for these people, allowing them to come to Alexandria's schools to complete their studies at a low price. Although the educational rate of local people was quite worrying, it was not unreasonable to find a few hundred qualified people from millions of people.

Recruiting students takes time, and then basically all you have to do is wait, there's nothing to worry about.
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When summer came, Egypt's harvest started as scheduled. The output dropped significantly due to the war and unrest, but Orville was well prepared and had been slowly purchasing various low-priced grains, so it was not a fatal problem.

After the grain was harvested, the portion as tax was sent to Alexandria and then shipped to Rome to be stored in the emperor's granary. This was Egypt's contribution to the empire and a deposit for peace and existence.

Apart from some minor chaos that did not even need to be reported to the higher authorities, everything went smoothly, and Orville breathed a sigh of relief - at least this year's mission was completed, he would not be impeached by those in the Senate, and Vespa would not be embarrassed.

Due to the special hydrological environment of the Nile River in Egypt, the next farming season will have to wait until the end of the flood season. Except for some lakes and areas around irrigation facilities, most areas in Egypt will be temporarily fallow. It can be said that one of the most difficult tasks in recent years has been completed.

At this time, Jeanne finally arrived in Egypt from Gaul and met Orville.

(End of this chapter)