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

Chapter 236: Enlightenment
According to Danchu's estimate, the Qing army would invade the Red Army's territory by the end of the year at the earliest. The Red Army still had half a year, which was neither long nor short.

For the Red Army, there was still plenty of time to expand the army and train soldiers at their leisure. There were still some difficulties in manufacturing equipment, but that was no longer a big deal.

The navy has no major problems, and they can equip all their warships by the end of the year. The land forces are more difficult, especially the rifles, which are seriously under-staffed.

Yongning Company worked overtime and could produce up to 10,000 Dinglu rifles this year. Together with the rifles already in service and the rifles converted from new matchlock rifles, the entire army could be equipped with up to 15,000 rifles by the end of the year. This should be more than enough to deal with Kong Youde's Tartars.

For the military government, time was very tight, and many projects were progressing slowly, making it difficult to meet Danchu's expectations. After all, the government is not the army, and there is always a process of digestion, understanding and implementation of a decree. Xunzhou Prefecture and Yulin Prefecture were both newly conquered territories, and it would take a long time to transform the old regime, establish new departments, and add new functions.

However, there are a few things that Danchu is concerned about and must be accelerated.

First, he wanted to promote education. He made a big promise in front of Du Yinxi and Yang Weizhi that he would popularize public schools, establish technical schools, simplify Chinese characters, and implement pinyin teaching.

It is difficult to know without experience, but when it comes to pushing forward, there are obstacles of one kind or another. Cen Danchu, who has always been decisive on the battlefield, also feels powerless.

However, education is a long-term plan. If you want to develop a great cause, you must provide education. No matter how difficult it is, Danchu will push this matter forward.

"In order to promote education, we have specially set up a new school in the military government to be responsible for education. Now, have the charter for promoting education been brought out?" Danchu asked with some reproach in his tone.

Yu Houji was the left councillor, in charge of government affairs and responsible for promoting education. He replied: "The regulations are still being refined and will be available in ten days."

"Ten days?" Dan Chu frowned and asked without thinking.

Yu Houji sighed softly and said, "Yes, it will take another ten days. The Household Department needs to calculate the funds, the Personnel Department needs to count the teachers, and the Works Department needs to count the buildings. The School Department needs to formulate the regulations, so that we can have a basis."

Think about it, these days, calculations rely on abacus, and information is transmitted from place to place by post horses. Just for the statistics of teachers, the exchange of official documents from place to place would take up a lot of time. If you are impatient, you won't get the hot tofu, let alone such a big thing as promoting education?
"How about the funding?" Danchu asked.

"The coach is very observant and has made great efforts to promote education. The two most difficult aspects are insufficient funding and insufficient teachers. There are many other problems, such as textbooks, which need to be compiled uniformly, simplified Chinese characters, and pinyin teaching, which require the formulation of standards, and the organization of teacher training. These are complicated and cannot be accomplished overnight."

Yu Houji was good at handling complicated matters, but he still felt a headache. It would be even more difficult for others to handle it. He was able to draft the regulations so quickly, which was amazing.

The Red Army had more than 60,000 people, plus officials at all levels, school teachers and students, and employees of the Yongning Company and the Salt Company, totaling nearly 100,000. Under the rule of the Red Army, almost ten people had to support one "public official", which was already a heavy burden. To promote education, we had to increase expenses and support more teachers.

"This time when I send troops to aid Guangdong, I will find a way to discipline the troops and save military expenses. The promotion of education cannot be delayed. If you have any ideas or any decisions you cannot make, please tell me first."

Danchu gave full support, and Yu Houji was greatly encouraged, saying: "It is currently unrealistic to popularize public schools, simplified Chinese characters, and pinyin. Constrained by the shortage of funds and teachers, the military government can only focus on a few tasks.

"The first is to expand the university. Yong'an University and Wubei Academy are the only two universities, and both need to be expanded. In order to popularize education, it is planned to build a new normal school to train teachers." The second is to build new technical schools. Several skills are in short supply and special technical schools need to be established. Seven new technical schools are planned, namely the Ordnance School, Agriculture and Sericulture School, Medical School, Metallurgy School, Water Conservancy School, Civil Engineering School, and Law School.

"The third is to pilot public schools. We plan to pilot public schools, first providing free primary education for children of Red Army soldiers, officials, teachers, workers and other public servants. Once funds are sufficient, we will roll it out across the board.

"Fourth, unify the textbooks. Formulate pinyin, simplify Chinese characters, and compile unified textbooks..."

"The idea is clear and feasible. Please draft the charter as soon as possible and submit it to me as soon as possible. The plan for establishing a school must be finalized before I lead the army to march." Danchu praised, feeling generally satisfied, and proposed:

"The Navy Association is based in Bashizhai, which is far away from the Military Academy, making travel difficult. If we want to fight for Guangdong in the future, we will have to build a large navy. Now, we don't have the strength and no need to build large ships. Let's first build a new navy academy in Bashizhai to train navy backbones."

Ten years for the army, a hundred years for the navy. Although the Red Army has a navy, it is only a small inner river navy. There are many pirates in Guangdong, and most of the warships are Guangdong ships, which are sturdy and tall. They travel to Southeast Asia and should not be underestimated. The Red Army must prepare for the rainy day and train naval talents first.

Fang Yizhi suggested: "This time to reinforce eastern Guangdong, our army does not have to fight to the death. Marshal Jue has worked hard for many years, why not stay in Nanning and appoint a general to lead the troops to the battle?"

Danchu smiled bitterly and said, "For this battle, we can only send our personal soldiers to assist. I am the assistant commander, and I have to deal with the court and Dongxun. If I don't go, who else can take on this task?"

Come to think of it, it was true. Even if Fang Yizhi was the left assistant general, nominally the second-in-command of the Red Army, he could not bear such an important task. He could only sigh, "I am so ashamed that I cannot share the worries of the commander."

The next topic is to strengthen publicity.

Danchu said: "To enlighten the people, education is needed, and propaganda is also needed. Education is indeed difficult, but propaganda is much easier. The military government set up a propaganda office, and the first thing it did was to publish a newspaper. I personally named the Zhongxing Newspaper and wrote the inscription myself. After it was published in January, I was still not satisfied.

"First, there is too little content. There is one issue each on the first and fifteenth day of each month, which means two issues a month. Each issue has more than 10,000 words, which doesn't cover much. Starting from next month, there will be three issues a month, one on the first, eleventh and twenty-first day of each month.

"Second, the quality is not good. The target audience of Zhongxing Daily is the Red Army, officials at all levels, gentry, scholars, and all civilians. Each issue of the newspaper has relatively fixed columns, including political commentary, current affairs, news, literature, knowledge, and interesting things.

"Preaching cannot be boring, lest it offends the readers. The language should be easy to understand, lively and vivid, so that literate people can understand it and illiterate people can understand it. You can ask specific departments and specific people to submit articles, or allow readers to submit articles. If they are selected, their names can be used. Any major industrial and commercial events can be published in the newspapers, and commodity prices can be published in the newspapers. Merchants who want to make a profit in the newspapers can also advertise in the newspapers..."

At present, information is blocked, and the Chinese people have narrow vision and short-sightedness. Therefore, the "Zhongxing Daily" was very popular as soon as it came out, and because of its low price, it was often sold out immediately after it was issued.

Yu Houji asked, "Several gentry in Nanning and Xunzhou also want to contribute money to start a newspaper. Marshal, I am worried that they may confuse the public, so I have not approved it for the time being."

Only when the mind is open can the society be vibrant and the country progress. Danchu replied: "Let Xuanfang set up a charter to allow private newspapers to be published, but they must be approved, and the content must conform to public order and morality, and must not contradict the military government. Otherwise, Xuanfang can ban it at any time."

(End of this chapter)