Southern Ming: A boy soldier at the beginning, supporting the world

Chapter 214 Discussion on Promoting Education
There were many Red Army camps on the west bank of the Li River. They had just withdrawn from the front line of Quanzhou and were tired, but the morale of the troops was high and the officers and soldiers had a bright look in their eyes, which was completely different from other Southern Ming armies.

The summer heat made it difficult to train. In many camps, the Red Army was holding rallies, watching plays, organizing ideological education, teaching Chinese characters, cleaning weapons, and washing horses...

The women, prostitutes, and gambling that were common in the Southern Ming military camp were completely absent in the Red Army camp.

Du Yinxi saw this and was amazed. No wonder Cen Danchu was able to stand out in just two years, rising from a boy soldier to Dinglu Marquis. Apart from other things, he was indeed very capable in training soldiers.

Looking at the Ming Dynasty, there are only a few who can compare with Cen Danchu in terms of strict military discipline and rapid rise. If we count them, probably only Zhu Chenggong, the general of Weiyuanhou, can be compared.

Zhu Chenggong was the eldest son of Zheng Zhilong, and was highly regarded by Emperor Longwu. He had an extraordinary status. Once he started an uprising against the Qing Dynasty, his former navy members would flock to him.

In comparison, Cen Danchu's start from scratch and growth from a Shaanxi Army orphan to the commander of the Red Army is even more commendable.

"I heard that Marshal Jue vigorously promoted education in the army and spent a lot of effort to teach soldiers to read and write. May I ask if this is true?" Du Yinxi asked.

Yang Weizhi also became interested and said, "Since ancient times, the military has taught soldiers nothing more than martial arts and flag and drum training. But Commander Jue has taken a different approach and taught soldiers to read and write. This is truly unprecedented."

"No, no," Danchu said, "At the beginning of the country, Emperor Taizu ordered the establishment of schools throughout the country, and military garrisons also built schools to teach soldiers to read and write. I am determined to popularize education in the Red Army, just to carry on Emperor Taizu's legacy."

Du Yinxi's expression changed, and he said, "If you can read, you can read. If you can read, you can understand reason. If you understand reason, you can understand justice. If you understand justice, you can be determined to resist the invaders. Therefore, although reading is a small matter, it is related to the fate of the world. Marshal Jue's move is beneficial to the army, the country, and the people. From this, I know that the Red Army will become a great force in the future, and Marshal Jue will become the backbone of the Ming Dynasty."

Danchu smiled, without any humility, and said: "I was originally an orphan in the Shaanxi Army Battalion. Fortunately, Duke Xuan invited a tutor to teach me, so I could learn to read and write, and I have made some achievements. Looking back on the past, I am filled with emotion."

He stopped smiling and said to Du and Yang: "Lord, Mr. Yang, I have made up my mind that if I have the opportunity in the future, I must popularize education and eliminate illiteracy. I must not only establish education in the military, but also in the civilian population, so that everyone in the world can have books to read and education to attend."

This? Are you just bragging?
Du Yinxi was a first-rate strategist in the Southern Ming Dynasty, with a far-sighted vision, courage to take on responsibilities, and good at forming alliances. Yang Weizhi was also broad-minded, open-minded, daring to cooperate with the Dashi Army, and able to remain committed.

The two "strongest brains" heard Danchu's bold words, but they did not dare to agree with him.

Du Yinxi was well-educated and said, "Throughout the ages, there have been many people who have the ambition to promote the development of education. In the Northern Song Dynasty, there were three times of promoting education, led by Fan Zhongyan, Wang Anshi and Cai Jing. Most of them were to establish official schools to assist in the imperial examinations.

"Taizu was born in Huaiyou, a commoner, and had a hard life. After gaining the throne, he vigorously promoted education and ordered villages and communities to build community schools. However, the level of community schools and health schools was not high, and they did not help much in the imperial examinations. The rich would still hire private tutors at home.

"Studying is a noble thing, but it is also a costly thing. Writing brushes, ink, paper, inkstone, food, lodging, and travel all cost money. Chinese characters are complex and difficult to learn, and articles are difficult to understand. It takes at least seven or eight years for ordinary students to recognize and write common characters and read sentences.

"You have great ambitions, which is commendable. However, promoting education is extremely difficult, and now is a time of chaos. May I ask where will you start?"

As expected of Du Yinxi, he speaks to the point and shows no mercy. With such a personality, it must be easy for him to make enemies in the court, right?

Danchu replied without hesitation: "Taizu attached great importance to education and issued many imperial decrees to promote education. At the beginning of the country, the government's orders were smooth and the officials were careful in their duties. Once the imperial decree to promote education was issued, schools were set up in all counties, villages and communities. Soon after, schools failed one after another. Why? Because there was no funding and no system.

"Most of the local county taxes had to be handed over to the court, and only a small portion was left, which was not enough even to pay the salaries of the officials. The local bureaucracy was extremely simple, and the government affairs were extremely complicated. They were busy with criminal law, money and grain, relief, post office, tribute, public security, anti-theft and other matters every day, and had no energy to promote education." Although there were local education officials, they were of low status and had little influence on the seal-holding officials. Local government affairs required a large amount of funds, but there was no regular tax to support them. All of them came from corvée fees and redemption of stolen goods, and there were many problems.

"Since the Zhengtong period, the country's power has been declining. Local officials are tired of government affairs and are not active in the official affairs such as criminal law, finance and grain, let alone promoting education. I am determined to promote education, and the first thing I need to do is to set up school officials and provide funds.

"The school officials are in charge of education and assist the officials in supervising education. Education, like criminal law and taxation, is included in the assessment of officials. If the local enrollment rate is not high and the students' grades are poor, the officials will not be promoted.

"As for the funds, they will be reserved from the regular taxes and used exclusively for the establishment of schools. They cannot be used for other purposes. The Red Army requires tenants to pay taxes, with officials paying four and civilians paying six. The funds for the establishment of schools are sufficient. When the situation stabilizes, I will order the construction of public schools in Nanning, Zhaoping, Yong'an and other flood-stricken areas, and force young children to attend school.

"The government provides free pens, ink, paper, and teaching materials to teach children to read and write. If children do not attend school without reason, they will be subject to additional land tax as a punishment."

Danchu paused and continued, "As for the difficulty of learning Chinese characters, there are solutions. One is to simplify Chinese characters, compile dictionaries, and use simplified characters as the official language. The second is pinyin, which uses Western letters to spell Chinese characters. Fang Mi has a solution. The third is to add punctuation marks to facilitate sentence segmentation."

Having ideals and solutions deeply touched Du Yinxi and Yang Weizhi.

In particular, Yang Weizhi, as Sun Kewang's envoy, knew the Dashi Army very well.

Coincidentally, the Dashi Army also implemented a tax system in Yunnan, with officials paying 40% of the tax and civilians paying 60%. The difference is that Sun Kewang levied heavy taxes and collected them only for the purpose of expanding the army and preparing for war, and never considered establishing schools. It is obvious which one is higher and which one is lower.

Yang Weizhi asked, "I heard that the Red Army has already built the Military Academy and Yong'an University, and they have achieved remarkable results. Marshal Jue is going to build a public school. How many years will it be?"

Since the two were very interested, Danchu simply opened up and said, "Public schools are free and compulsory. There are two types. One is primary school, which is compulsory for seven-year-old children to attend, and the school system is five years. The other is secondary school, which is not compulsory and is selected from primary school graduates for admission, and the school system is three years.

"Above public schools, there are two other types of schools. One is a university, such as the Wubei Academy and Yongan University, which specifically recruits smart students. The other is a technical school, such as agricultural schools, medical schools, and engineering schools, which are dedicated to teaching skills."

This is somewhat similar to the Xining era's promotion of education.

Du Yinxi was very interested and said, "The School of Mind was popular in our dynasty. Lectures among the people became popular and academies sprang up like mushrooms after rain. At its peak, there were more than 2,000 academies. Zhang Taiyue (Zhang Juzheng) was originally a disciple of the School of Mind. In order to implement the decree, he advocated official learning, suppressed private learning, and destroyed academies all over the world. How does the Duke treat private learning?"

The prosperity of private schools provided a hotbed for party disputes. The most typical example was the Donglin Academy in Wuxi. The non-government gentry organized lectures and criticized the rulers, which had a great influence and was able to influence public opinion and thus the court's major policies.

"Under my rule, private schools should be prohibited. If the gentry have the money to spare, they can donate money to schools to facilitate their children's admission, but private schools are not allowed to avoid opposing the government."

In the New Deal of the late Qing Dynasty, the Qing government encouraged the gentry to contribute money to build schools in order to solve the problem of education funding. In return, the children of the gentry could get convenient admission and be equivalent to the imperial examination after graduation. The abolition of the imperial examination and the establishment of schools in the late Qing Dynasty won the support of the gentry in various places and was a very successful reform.

Danchu also had many brilliant ideas, such as abolishing the imperial examination system and recruiting officials from schools; setting up girls' schools and encouraging girls to attend school... Some of them were too advanced, and some were beyond his authority, so there was no need to mention them for the time being.

(End of this chapter)