Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 161 Education and Agriculture

After suppressing the restless ambitions of some officials in the Jingzhao Prefecture who were eager for advancement, Zhang Chengdao withdrew and returned to the Baishi Immortal Sect.

From Baishi Immortal Sect to Jingzhao Prefecture, under normal circumstances without pushing oneself too hard, it only takes less than an hour to fly, and the commute time is acceptable. Therefore, Zhang Chengdao specifically ordered that a court meeting be held every seven days.

Contrary to what is portrayed in modern TV dramas, very few ancient emperors actually attended court every day.

Most emperors attended court once every ten days or half a month, and attending court once every five days was considered diligent. Even the famously hardworking Emperor Yongzheng only summoned the Grand Councilors separately and did not attend court every day. Court meetings were also conducted according to etiquette.

In the Zhou state, the practice inherited from the former Zhou dynasty was to hold a court assembly every five days, which was often canceled—this depended entirely on the emperor's mood and was not fixed.

Zhang Chengdao wasn't a model worker, nor did he want to commute two hours every day, so he set a standard of once every seven days—working only one day a week. Even if he had to get up earlier because of the long commute, he could still accept it.

The reforms in governing the country must be implemented gradually. Once his two disciples have mastered the teleportation array, they can set up teleportation arrays in various places. At that time, officials from various places and the capital city can use the teleportation arrays to come to the White Stone Immortal Sect for meetings and work, so he won't have to travel thousands of miles to the capital city.

More importantly, with the teleportation array, information can be transmitted in a timely manner, preventing situations where a civil unrest or disaster occurs in a place and people are almost all dead or the local rebels have declared themselves kings and emperors before the situation is reported to the capital prefecture.

Even the disaster relief grain will no longer be subject to bribery or extortion. If anyone is truly unaware of the situation, Zhang Chengdao can personally oversee it and, like Old Zhu, thoroughly investigate and punish them one by one!

In short, we still need to make great efforts to discover talents in the cultivation of immortality and develop the "technology" of cultivation of immortality so that the people of Jin can gradually live a better life.

Therefore, the first step is...

"The establishment of Baishi Xiandao University should be implemented as soon as possible."

At the first court meeting after handling Li Renshun's funeral, Zhang Chengdao was the first to raise the issue.

In fact, ancient times also had "primary schools" and "universities," but they were slightly different from the modern "primary schools" and "universities." For example, "primary schools" taught literacy and etiquette, and students read classics such as the *Classic of Filial Piety* and the *Analects*. "Universities," on the other hand, taught more profound classics, such as the Five Classics, or delved into moral philosophy.

Of course, the more systematic education system is actually the Six Schools System, which consists of six schools under the Imperial Academy: the Imperial Academy, the Four Gates Academy, the Law Academy, the Calligraphy Academy, and the Mathematics Academy.

Unlike the awkward system of the Imperial Academy and the National Academy that Xiao Guoxue attended, the Zhou Kingdom's education system resembled a bureau of education and schools. It not only categorized students by their official rank but also divided them into different subjects. Subjects like mathematics, calligraphy, and law were like "specialized" fields, never holding a high status.

However, whether it is the Six Learning System or the dual educational system of Xiao State, "university" refers more to a conceptual meaning, just like the book "The Great Learning". There is really no educational institution that is actually called "university".

Back during the extraordinary court assembly where they dealt with the corpse puppets and maintained order in the capital, Zhang Chengdao proposed building a school for cultivating immortality, a proposal that was supported by most of the court officials. Who wouldn't want to cultivate immortality?
Moreover, the incident with the Grand Preceptor Mingjing has indeed made them somewhat wary of others, like someone bitten by a snake once and then afraid of a rope for ten years. Sending their children to schools to study immortality as soon as possible will allow them to seize opportunities sooner. Whether they can become trusted confidants of immortal masters is another matter, but at least they won't be helpless when they encounter evil spirits like the Grand Preceptor Mingjing again.

Just like the dignified Imperial Guard General, a martial artist of the third rank of Innate Venerable, who died just like that, even the second rank Master Li Jing'an died silently!

How could this not frighten everyone?

If it were about cultivating immortality... at least, they wouldn't be so helpless, right?
Some radical officials, led by Wang Yanqing, even believed that the Six Halls should be abolished altogether and replaced with new Six Halls for practicing Taoist immortality!
Believe it or not, Zhang Chengdao did consider this suggestion carefully, but due to the lack of qualified teachers, he gave up the idea.

He himself doesn't know how to teach, and he has a limited number of apprentices who can teach. He can't just give the students books and let them learn on their own, can he?

How many gold cards do you have? Is this how you play?

So Zhang Chengdao shelved the suggestion and instead ordered that after selecting a site, a clearing be prepared, and then Zhang Chengdao personally... cough, no, he personally "conjured" the required buildings.

There's no need for basic education institutions like this to conduct any trials.

With a wave of his hand, Zhang Chengdao proposed that all those who passed the imperial examinations could enter the Baishi Immortal Dao University to study immortality, with tuition fees waived and living expenses subsidized by the imperial court. At the same time, he also ordered the establishment of local "Immortal Dao Middle Schools" in various regions. The eligibility for these middle schools would be expanded to include those who passed the county-level examinations, but these middle schools would have to charge tuition fees to maintain their operation, and there would be no living allowance.

The main problem is that those below the rank of Xiucai are practically illiterate. Even if they are enrolled in schools, they would have to learn to read and write again, which would be too costly and not worthwhile.

After receiving assurances from the Grand Secretary and others that a site would be selected within three days, Zhang Chengdao moved on to the next matter: "This time I also brought two hundred catties of spirit wheat seeds. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Agriculture Promotion will be in charge of this matter. We will first promote it near the capital city and then spread it to all areas as soon as possible. This spirit wheat has a high yield and tastes good. Although it is far inferior to the spirit wheat produced in Baishi Mountain, it is still much better than the wheat seeds we have now. If it is fully promoted, the people will no longer have to worry about food."

If it had been a month earlier, Zhang Chengdao wouldn't have been able to provide this kind of spirit wheat seed.

Because the concentration of spiritual energy in the entire world is too low, the spiritual wheat produced by the system can only be grown in the White Stone Mountain area. It will not survive in other places.

But ever since that strange Seeking Tree sprouted, the concentration of spiritual energy within a radius of thousands of miles around White Stone Mountain has gradually increased. Even the second-generation spiritual wheat seeds that Xiao Kingdom had been trying to grow but could not, sprouted after the Seeking Tree grew and finally became mature plants!
Zhang Chengdao even tried it in the farmland. The second-generation spirit wheat seeds can also be planted in the farmland. The yield is greater and the harvest time is shorter, but the spiritual energy contained is pitifully small, almost non-existent, and it is completely incomparable to the wheat seeds bought in the mall.

Even so, it was enough to surprise Zhang Chengdao. Agriculture, or rather, grain production, has always been a key factor restricting social development and the biggest variable affecting population growth.

(End of this chapter)