There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 123 Compulsory Teaching
Marriage among the common people is difficult, which is a historical problem.

Nie Yu is not a god, he cannot solve it, and even future generations will find it difficult to solve it.

Because for the common people, land is equivalent to property, and when two families have children, they marry each other by exchanging land for marriage.

To put it bluntly, one party gives the betrothal gift and the other party gives the dowry. Both families gain nothing and can deepen their relationship and marry their children to each other.

But if a man who doesn’t have a daughter wants to marry, it means he doesn’t want to pay the betrothal gift but still wants a dowry from her parents’ home. Who would be willing to do that?

Nie Yu could indeed force the legislation, but if he were a commoner, he would also feel resentment and dissatisfaction if the Han army government issued this decree.

It's not just that statement, but what's the basis for it? More seriously, it may even lead to an aggravation of the phenomenon of favoring boys over girls among the people.

Although there was a preference for sons over daughters under the Han army, this situation had improved somewhat. The Han army distributed land according to the number of people, so both men and women received the same amount of land. They also reduced taxes and exempted levies, so families with daughters could raise their children and even receive land.

In this way, the Han army solved the bad habit of farmers drowning their babies in dung buckets when they gave birth to daughters by using just a few acres of land.

Maybe there is still a preference for boys over girls, but at least it is a big step forward.

But once the Han army promulgated the decree, regardless of whether the ancient administrative efficiency could be truly implemented at the local level, it would be useless to say that giving birth to a daughter could give her land. At that time, she would still belong to the husband's family, and would have no relationship with the wife's family at all. She would still have to spend food to support the daughter. It would be better to drown her!

It’s difficult, everything is difficult!
When old bad habits are solved, new ones will emerge.

As for using the Industrial Revolution to solve the problem, don't be ridiculous. The Industrial Revolution is not a panacea. The early stages of the Industrial Revolution were inevitably accompanied by land annexation and the emergence of a large number of landless people.

Some of these landless people will become new laborers in factories, providing continuous blood transfusion for the development of the industrial revolution, but more people will become hooligans without land, housing or property.
The British back then were a lesson learned, which is why Australia is called a convict continent? Because the Industrial Revolution broke out in Britain, too many local farmers lost their land, and the expansion of factories could not keep up with the speed at which farmers lost their land.

In order to solve the problem, the British government adopted harsh laws. For example, if your land was taken over by factory capitalists and you had no land to farm or food to eat, you stole a piece of expired bread from a store and then were sentenced to exile to the Australian continent by the British court.

Great! The problems of the British Industrial Revolution were successfully solved, and the New World was developed simultaneously, making it no longer a wild land.

What? You ask how these people lived in the New World?

That has nothing to do with the capitalists and aristocrats. They are only responsible for solving problems for those who raise them, not for solving them.

Overseas colonization of capital is always accompanied by bloodshed and sacrifice!
The Han army's land distribution policy had actually reached the limit of the times in all aspects, and it was considered good if it could remain stable for several decades.

The real way out was to colonize overseas and fully develop industry, passing the early period of large-scale land annexation and factory expansion.

A conservative estimate is that Nie Yu probably couldn't see it while he was alive.

Let nature take its course and do not interfere; the people can solve the problem themselves.

The reason why marriage is difficult is that some people do not recognize the reality (or are mentally unbalanced). They want their sons to find a wife and also want their sons to get the land of their mother's family, but they don't want to pay any price.

If you want this and that, you will end up with nothing.

……

However, the Han army officers brainstormed and spent a day finally facing the reality.

In normal marriages between common people, if the woman is willing to give a supplementary betrothal gift, she can negotiate to take the woman's land away from her parents' home. But if the woman does not give anything, she cannot blame her parents for taking the land back.

However, the General's Office did intervene to some extent, and the Civil Affairs Department and the Criminal Law Department jointly drafted two new laws:

First, in folk marriages, betrothal gifts and dowries must be fair and voluntary. There must not be sky-high betrothal gifts, or selling daughters with betrothal gifts as money because the family has many daughters.

Violators will have half of their land reclaimed and their tax exemptions cancelled!

Second, ordinary farmers are no longer allowed to drown baby girls in dung buckets or abandon them in the wilderness.

Violators will have half of their land reclaimed and their tax exemptions cancelled!

It goes without saying that after the new law is formulated and issued, it will inevitably arouse resistance and resentment from the people, but local officials can and have reasons to take action.

Don’t underestimate the enthusiasm of officials, these are all obvious political achievements!
At least in the early stage of the new law, officials will definitely conduct strict investigations in accordance with the law. The strict investigations may have to last for several years, and then they will be gradually relaxed. By the time the law is relaxed, the people should have formed a habit and know that drowning baby girls and exorbitant betrothal gifts are both illegal.

This was already the limit. No system was absolutely perfect. The implementation of any system was still based on human beings. Ideas and concepts couldn't be changed simply by increasing productivity. Even in modern society, similar situations might reappear. Nie Yu could only ensure that he was still alive and that the situation remained relatively stable. That would be considered a blessing.

A hundred years later, that is a matter of a hundred years later. He hasn’t even overthrown the Qing Dynasty yet, so why should he think so much?
"General, Lin Zhizhang and I have carefully calculated that compulsory education would be difficult to implement for even three years, let alone six. It is basically impossible to continue it. The finances cannot sustain it."

Gu Jing, the director of the Ministry of Rites, and Lin Wenchang, the director of the Ministry of Finance, came together to ask for an audience with Nie Yu and presented him with a statistical report.

Department of Rites, Ministry of Rites.

Duzhisi, Ministry of Revenue.

The latter basically overlaps with the Ministry of Revenue, and is now in charge of the Han army's purse and local tax revenue.

The former's Rites Department is different. It is called the Ministry of Rites, but currently it can only manage the educational teachers under the rule of the Han army. Those private and official academies, prefectural schools, and county schools are all under the jurisdiction of the Rites Department, and the Imperial Examination Hall is actually also under the jurisdiction of the Rites Department, but unfortunately it cannot be used.

Because the Imperial Examination Hall is dedicated to the imperial examinations, the Han army currently has no way to conduct the imperial examinations. If they force it, it will only be unjustifiable.

More than half a month ago, Nie Yucai returned to Yuezhou Prefecture and arranged an important event for the Ministry of Rites. As the "Minister of Rites" of the Han army, Gu Jing was in a very high position at a young age, but it did not mean that he had no ambitions.

But when he turned around, he found that the task assigned to him by the general was to see whether it was possible to popularize six years of compulsory education among the common people.
Is this possible?
"Let me take a look first." Nie Yu took over the budget expenditure that the two had sorted out for half a month.

Gu Jing said helplessly: "General, it is really impossible to hold on. Not to mention six years of compulsory education, even three years of compulsory education is impossible."

Nie Yu asked, "Two years or one year?"

Lin Wenchang shook his head and said, "It's possible, but it's difficult. If it's just one year of compulsory teaching, with our current annual revenue, it should only be a major blow, but it shouldn't be difficult to sustain."

This was said very tactfully. If the Han army had already overthrown the Qing Dynasty, it would have been fine. But if they had not, this would have been a serious injury and tantamount to seeking death.

"Well, I remember looking at the government's statistical files before. There are quite a few local community schools. Why is that?" Nie Yu asked again.

Gu Jing said, "That's different. Local community schools mostly come from private fundraising. Some wealthy local gentry contribute money, just like the clan schools of large families and clans, so they can afford it. And while there may be a lot of community schools and clan schools, compared to the vast number of farmers and common people, these community schools may not even cover half of the population. Those who can afford community schools are either relatives of large landlords, or small landlords and self-employed farmers with some savings."

Lin Wenchang sighed, "If we just built the Du School, it would be fine. Although the financial expenditure would be huge, it would still be manageable. But if we asked all the people to send their children there, with the government paying for voluntary education, the financial expenditure would be almost unimaginable."

Only those who manage the household know how expensive firewood, rice, oil and salt are. Lin Wenchang had just received the order from the general half a month ago and was feeling full of confidence. But when he did the actual calculations, he felt like his head was about to explode.

Take the territory currently under the rule of the Han army as an example. It seems that there are only five prefectures and two states, and the territory may be less than half of Hunan Province, but the total population has exceeded more than two-thirds of the total population of Hunan Province.

Not only are there refugees pouring in from other provinces, but there are also tenants and serfs hidden by the landlords and wealthy families. If all these people are counted, the total population of the Han army is about to exceed 10 million.

The benefit of such a large population is the continuous growth of tax revenue. The Han army's land policy and taxation laws reduced the burden on the people, increased their productivity and enthusiasm, and were fully sufficient to support the army and a large number of grassroots officials, maintaining a virtuous cycle of internal rule.

The downside is that the population is too large. Among the more than 10 million people, if we remove the elderly, the weak, the young and the strong who do not need to go to school, the remaining children who need education still account for one-fifth to one-sixth.

This means at least one or two million people have to go to school, and the government pays for them to study for free, which is equivalent to supporting two million full-time scholars for nothing. What kind of concept is this?
If we calculate it purely based on food rations, this is an astronomical figure. Even if the rations children eat are not actually as much as those adults, it still means that there are one million people who need to feed, plus the cost of other books and materials.

If you do the math, the Han army's finances definitely won't be able to sustain it.

After reading the budget report over and over again, Nie Yu realized that he had indeed taken things for granted. He just watched the military academy being built and wondered whether he should also enlighten the people. He couldn't just be like other time travelers, come here to become an emperor, establish a new dynasty and then leave it alone.

Then wouldn’t it be a waste of time?
What a pity! Ideals and reality are often so far apart.

Nie Yu looked at the report in his hand, which included the financial budget, and after a moment's contemplation, he asked, "If we simply establish community schools in each village, with the government hiring and dispatching teachers to teach there, and the government paying the salaries, would that be enough?"

Lin Wenchang thought about it carefully and said, "So, the financial expenditure is actually still very large, but the local finances can still support it. However, the problem lies in whether the people are willing to send their children to school. You know, even if it is compulsory education paid for by the government, the people are probably not very willing to send their children to school."

"Although the child is young, he can still be counted as half a laborer. Sending him to school is equivalent to losing half a laborer. For the parents, farm work will become more arduous. Moreover, to put it bluntly, even if a farmer's child goes to school, it may not be of any use. We can't let them take the imperial examinations."

It is a very realistic problem that it is often difficult for children from ordinary families to get any real benefits from their education.

Even if the landlord's children studied, it would be difficult to get enough returns. It was just that the landlord had the capital to spend and to gamble his future on studying.

Nie Yu pondered for a moment, then sighed, "Everything is difficult at the beginning. First, let's build the community school. Then, we can discuss with the Civil Affairs Office to see how we can encourage the people to send their children there. Compulsory education isn't possible, but education is always beneficial. At the very least, it can help the people understand the truth, so they won't be deceived by corrupt officials or fail to understand the government's new policies."

(End of this chapter)