The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 91 The Future Elite of Wu

After Zhu Jianxuan announced the suspension of the laboratory, he immediately returned to the Forbidden City to see his father and proposed a similar idea to his father, the emperor:

“Father, I want to select a group of smarter children from the immigrant families who are about to go to North America and Australia to serve as my own craftsman apprentices.

"I have nothing to do on my way to and from North America, so I can take these apprentices with me and teach them..."

Ming Emperor Zhu Zhonglin was obviously stunned after hearing this, but he soon felt relieved.

His beloved son, Zhu Jianxuan, is now a great inventor and the most famous craftsman in the Ming Dynasty.

It is normal for such a master craftsman to have dozens of personal disciples and a thousand or eight hundred nominal apprentices.

It was only unexpected that Zhu Jianxuan had never accepted an apprentice before, after all, the child was still young.

Now it seems that he only wants to accept sons of his own kingdom, rather than ordinary craftsmen, perhaps because he feels that such apprentices are more reliable.

The emperor did not think there was anything wrong with this plan:

“Of course this is no problem, I can order the Governor’s Office to arrange it.

“The immigrants have been gathered together and are now living in military camps outside the city, and are managed according to the garrison system.

“It’s very quick to screen a group of people, but the prerequisite is to have a simple and clear standard.

"We can't have military officers visit every household and ask the people whose children are smart. That's simply not accurate."

Zhu Jianxuan was well prepared for this:
“I am going to hold two exams, one on math knowledge and one on study ability.

“Other knowledge tends to be cumulative, making it difficult to assess true talent levels.

"Only mathematics, if you can't learn it, you really can't learn it, and if you can't learn it, you really can't do it."

After hearing this, the emperor nodded and shook his head:
“There is nothing wrong with the method, mathematics is indeed suitable for testing whether a child is smart.

“But the prerequisite for the test is literacy.

“If a child is really smart but cannot read, he or she will not be able to take the exam.

“You will definitely miss it.

“The bigger problem is that most families that decide to immigrate are not that well-off, and can even be considered at the bottom of the society.

“There are few literate children in such families.

"So if you want to use the test method, you won't be able to screen out many truly talented children."

Zhu Jianxuan also understands this:
"I can only ignore those who can't read. If I teach all the children to read first and then take the test, the time and cost will be hard to control."

The emperor thought for a moment:

“In fact, there is another method, which is to expand the scope of screening and not limit it to already confirmed immigrants.

“You can gather children from merchants and craftsmen’s families in Yingtian Prefecture and surrounding areas to take the exam.

“Most of their children are already literate.

"Just let the children you choose immigrate to Australia with their families.

“No in America, there are too many Europeans there.

"If you place your direct disciples in America, it will be easy for the technology to leak to Europe."

Zhu Jianxuan said somewhat uncertainly:

“I do not intend to leave my disciples in America, I will just bring them along to teach on the way there.

"However, merchants and craftsmen around Yingtian Prefecture may not be willing to immigrate overseas with their entire families."

The experienced old emperor readily arranged a solution for Zhu Jianxuan:
“We can ask the Governor’s Office to recruit and form the King of Wu’s personal guards.

"We are talking about recruiting a group of immigrants from wealthy families for the capital of Wu. We cannot let all the future residents of the capital of Wu be peasants.

“At the same time, the King of Wu will recruit a group of smart children and train them to take on important responsibilities in the State of Wu.

"Such simple immigration conditions are certainly not very attractive to the truly wealthy families in the local area.

“But most ordinary merchants and craftsmen are just well-off families, so for them it’s worth taking a chance.

"Compared to you, their assets are no different from those of landless farmers.

"If their children become your apprentices, it is equivalent to their family relying on you as a vassal king. They will definitely be able to earn it back easily in the future.

“They will definitely take the initiative to attach themselves to you for status and benefits.

“Moreover, you have an excellent reputation among the people. Merchants and craftsmen all say that you are wise and very wealthy.

“Merchants and craftsmen would have loved to follow you.

"As long as we recruit people this way, we won't have trouble finding enough really smart kids."

Zhu Jianxuan said sincerely:
"Father, you are wise. I didn't think so much about it before."

The emperor waved his hand indifferently:

"Okay, go and prepare the test papers. I will arrange for the Governor's Office, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Revenue, and Yingtian Prefecture to select candidates for you."

The emperor sent Zhu Jianxuan away and issued the imperial edict directly.

After receiving the order, the Ministry of Rites sent people directly to Yingtian Prefecture and surrounding schools to search for children with good mathematical talents based on their usual test scores.

Based on the students' family conditions in school files, ten thousand people were selected from more than one hundred thousand primary and secondary school students.

Ask the teacher to give the notice to the students and let the students take it home to show their parents.

If the child's parents are willing to join the King of Wu's personal guard and are willing to immigrate to Australia with their family, they can let the child take the examination at the Jiangnan Imperial Academy on August 21st.

After receiving the notice, most of these craftsmen and businessmen were very excited, feeling that they had encountered a good opportunity to make a fortune.

In the end, more than 80% decided to give it a try, and less than 20% gave up due to various practical reasons. At the same time, the immigration guard corps organized by the Governor's Office also screened out children under the age of twelve who could read.

More than 1,200 literate children were selected from 10,000 families in Central America.

The five new guard corps to be sent to Australia selected more than 3,500 literate children from nearly 50,000 families.

More than 200 craftsmen from King Wu’s laboratory introduced 323 children to Zhu Jianxuan.

Ten days later, on August 21, the 35th year of Xianning in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Jianxuan's examination to recruit disciples was held in the Jiangnan Imperial Academy.

A total of more than twelve thousand children under the age of twelve were sent to this examination hall, which was usually used to take the imperial examinations.

The exam lasts a whole day, with one three-hour session in the morning and another six-hour session in the afternoon and evening.

Zhu Jianxuan personally gave two math test papers.

The first one was an examination of basic mathematics knowledge, which was about the same level of difficulty as Zhu Jianxuan’s first or second year of junior high school in his previous life.

The second part tests mathematical ability and talent from the simplest to the most complex, with the difficulty increasing from the first question onwards.

The easiest level is the transition from primary school to junior high school, and the most difficult level is the advanced mathematics and linear algebra level of ordinary university majors.

For all test questions above the junior high school level, there is a brief introduction to the knowledge required for the questions and even simple example questions.

The examination center also prepared university advanced mathematics textbooks for all candidates.

The second exam lasted six hours, but the total number of questions was not particularly large.

If students have good enough brains, they can learn and do exercises on the spot.

Moreover, the scores for the later questions in the second test paper will be higher. At the same time, as long as you understand the ideas and write them correctly, you can get some points.

After the exam, the marking work continued for five days.

On the morning of August 26, the Ministry of Rites submitted the results of the apprenticeship examination.

The emperor just took a quick look at it and handed it directly to Zhu Jianxuan who was waiting nearby.

Zhu Jianxuan took the test paper he had made and studied the transcript for a whole day. He couldn't help but sigh that his father's decision was correct.

Merchants and craftsmen from around Yingtian Prefecture selected more than 8,000 children to take the exam, and the results showed that almost all of them were ranked within 9,000.

The American center guard and the five new Australian guards selected a total of more than 5,000 children to take the exam, and as a result, most of them were ranked after 8,000.

There was a very obvious cliff between the scores of the two groups of children.

Of the five thousand children in the New Immigrant Guard Corps, less than five hundred were above the cliff, scattered between four thousand and eight thousand.

Most of the others are far behind the children from Yingtian Industrial and Commercial families.

This should be because the children of industrial and commercial families in Yingtian Prefecture were all students and had been screened in school based on their academic performance.

Those who can take the exam have better grades.

Most of the children who come from the Immigration Guard Corps have never attended a proper school.

As for the children introduced by the craftsmen of King Wu’s laboratory, they were scattered from the top few to two thousandth place, with most of them within the first thousand.

The level of these children is higher than that of ordinary industrial and commercial families in Yingtian Prefecture.

They are all children of close relatives of senior craftsmen, and they are also attending school, usually the best schools, and have been screened by senior craftsmen.

Zhu Jianxuan looked at the list and thought for a long time.

Finally, at the top of the report card, a line was drawn below the 32nd place.

I will personally teach these 32 children, and they can be considered my future "direct disciples".

Then another line was drawn below the 1,024th place.

These students will be divided into thirty-two groups, each of which will be managed and guided by one of the master's personal disciples, who can be regarded as his apprentices in a broad sense.

If I have free time, I might take the time to give them lectures in person.

These one thousand and twenty-four children will go to North America with me, and then to Australia with me.

These students are all smart enough and are selected from the best students in Yingtian Prefecture and several surrounding prefectures.

Even if you let them teach and impart knowledge to each other, you don't have to worry about not being able to learn the knowledge you teach.

And Zhu Jianxuan is not ready to give up on the remaining 10,000 or so children below them.

This time, his father personally ordered the Ministry of Rites to select thousands of children. Even those ranked at the bottom were good students among ordinary students.

It would take at least one million relatively wealthy people to screen out a group of children with this level of ability.

It will be difficult for the State of Wu to have the same number of high-quality population in the next twenty years.

It is impossible for my father to always support me like this, and I probably won’t have the opportunity to go through the same form of screening in the future.

The imperial court's purpose of emigrating was to eliminate potential dangers, and it did not want to send the elite group overseas.

Even if these children do not become Wu's students in the future, they are definitely worth keeping and training simply as future reserve officials for Wu, or even just Wu's own merchants and craftsmen.

They can at least become the first batch of social elites of the Wu State in the future.

Therefore, Zhu Jianxuan drew a line in the middle of the score cliff, and all the families of children above that level were incorporated into the King of Wu's personal guards.

If their parents are willing to accept, the whole family will immigrate to Australia within the next two years.

For the time being, I will continue to study basic mathematics and natural history in Australia.

When I return to Australia with a thousand apprentices, I will let these students and apprentices teach them new knowledge.

(End of this chapter)