My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 309 Excellent Upward Management Skills

Sun Mazi was excited. He looked at Su Ze and asked cautiously:
"Master, is it really possible to do anything?"

Su Ze smiled and said:

"This major abduction case was personally ordered to be investigated by His Majesty. Your merits will naturally reach the ears of the Emperor. If there is anything you want, just say it, and your teacher will try to get it for you."

Upon hearing this, Sun Mazi immediately said:

"I...I want to study! I want to study hard!"

"Studying? Didn't you already study at the almshouse?"

Sun Mazi said, "The almshouse teaches literacy and counting. I want to... I want to go to school like a proper scholar!"

Su Ze immediately understood Sun Mazi's idea.

The night school at the orphanage was similar to a literacy class, at most teaching some basic phonetics and rhyme, and was not the kind of elementary education that scholars attended.

Even in the Ming Dynasty, the imperial examination system was not something that poor people like Sun Mazi had the opportunity to participate in.

The hurdle of just getting started has stopped countless ordinary people.

Historically, many scholars from impoverished backgrounds were actually self-employed farmers with their own land, which was enough to support one person to study full-time.

Some people come from poor families, but their clans are prominent local clans, and these prominent clans all have clan schools where students can attend.

Although Su Ze's parents died, he managed to complete his studies by relying on the land left by his family.

Zhang Chun, a scholar who passed the imperial examination, was considered poor, but the Zhang family was a powerful clan in Shandong, with many members.

In the economically developed southeastern region, private schools flourished, with wealthy families sponsoring private academies. From elementary education to taking the imperial examinations, there were corresponding academies for all.

Education is the most important part of the cultural hegemony in Southeast Asia.

Although Su Ze had already persuaded the Ministry of Rites to send supervisors to the academies to review their teaching materials and discourses.

However, simply managing it is not enough.

Su Ze thought for a moment and said:
"Master gives you two choices."

"The Military Academy is going to set up a preparatory course this year. I can recommend you to study the preparatory course at the Military Academy, and then study at the Military Academy after you come of age."

"Furthermore, I would like to petition the court to establish a preparatory course at the Imperial Academy, which would recruit good-looking and virtuous young men from respectable families to study there."

"I can arrange the first one for you now, but the second one will have to wait for the imperial court's approval."

The preparatory course for the Military Academy was mentioned in Su Ze's memorial on the education of the Military Academy. It was a course where Military Academy students under the age of fourteen would first receive a year of literacy and moral education before being promoted to the Military Academy.

The first batch of preparatory students for the Military Academy consisted of only ten people, and they were also stationed within the Military Academy.

Sun Mazi's breathing also became rapid.

He never expected that Su Ze would actually acknowledge him as a disciple and give him such a great gift!
Military Training Preparatory Course!

He had carefully read all of Su Ze's memorials published in the newspaper, so he naturally knew what the Military Academy Preparatory Course was.

Those who could study at the Military Academy were all sons of nobles and hereditary officials; the Military Academy was training future military officers for the Ming Dynasty.

As long as one can graduate from the military academy, one will definitely obtain a military rank, which is like a meteoric rise for an orphan like Sun Mazi.

In contrast, the second option given by Su Ze was somewhat uncertain.

Su Ze did not explain what the Imperial Academy Preparatory Course was, but it seemed to be the elementary and preschool education set up by the Imperial Academy.

The Imperial Academy itself has declined, and many successful candidates no longer go to study there. What use is the Imperial Academy's preparatory course?

Ultimately, the path to becoming a civil servant always requires passing the imperial examinations.

County examination, provincial examination, tribute examination, palace examination—each one was like leaping over the dragon gate. Countless intelligent and talented scholars spent their lives studying, only to remain poor scholars.

Having sold newspapers in the capital for so long, Sun Mazi had seen many scholars like him.

However, Sun Mazi still said, "Master, I want to choose... the preparatory course at the Imperial Academy."

Su Ze looked at Sun Mazi with a puzzled expression; he hadn't expected Sun Mazi to choose this path.

Sun Mazi said:
“I have read your articles and know that you served the people and eliminated harm for them. The only way to become a good official like you is to study and take the imperial examination.”

He seemed to realize he had spoken too boldly, and lowered his voice, "It's difficult, but I want to try."

Su Ze was taken aback, but he had to agree with Sun Mazi's statement.

Although Su Ze reformed the military administration, it was impossible for military men to govern during peacetime.

Which major power in the original timeline was a military government?
In this Ming Dynasty, which has been drastically altered by itself, the only opportunity for military men to achieve great deeds is overseas.

Since Sun Mazi had this ambition, he could only take the path of the imperial examination.

Having understood this, Su Ze said:
"In that case, let's wait for the preparatory course at the Imperial Academy."

Su Ze asked again:
Do you have a name?

Sun Mazi shook his head and said:
“When I was a child, I fled to the capital with my parents during a famine. After my parents died, I wandered the streets and had no name.”

Su Ze thought for a moment and said:
"To enter the preparatory course of the Imperial Academy, one must have a prominent name."

"Since you call me your mentor, I will give you a name."

Su Ze picked up the newspaper and wrote down the words "Wen Qi".

Then he wrote "ji zhi".

Su Ze said:

"Literature enlightens the mind and inspires the pursuit of knowledge. The name 'Literature Enlightenment' is my way of encouraging you."

"You were born in an almshouse and have the ambition to govern the world and help the people. How about taking 'Ji Zhi' as your courtesy name?"

Sun Wenqi immediately took the two sheets of paper and said excitedly:

"Thank you so much, my esteemed teacher, for bestowing upon me my name and courtesy name!"
-
In fact, Su Ze had already had the idea of ​​establishing a preparatory school for the Imperial Academy before talking to Sun Wenqi.

Practical learning has developed to the point where it needs a base camp.

Su Ze's original idea was to turn the Imperial Academy into a base for practical learning.

But he soon discovered that the plan had failed.

The Imperial College seems to have a higher academic requirement; it's just right for beginners.

At the very least, a student of the Imperial Academy had to be a Xiucai (a scholar who had passed the lowest level of the imperial examinations). These were scholars who had studied diligently for more than ten years.

Changing their minds is a very difficult thing.

When Su Ze was lecturing at the Imperial Academy, five of the students who attended his lectures passed the provincial examination and became Juren (a successful candidate in the provincial examination).

Apart from Zhang Chun, who was worried that the civil service examination would devalue his status as a Juren (a successful candidate in the provincial civil service examination), he volunteered to go to Penghu to serve as the provincial education commissioner.

The remaining four were preparing for the imperial examination.

Those who failed the exam are all preparing for the next provincial examination. It's impossible for them to devote themselves entirely to practical learning.

Therefore, Su Ze came up with the idea of ​​establishing the Imperial Academy's elementary school.

The Imperial College's elementary school was a new-style school for practical learning.

Su Ze planned to start from scratch and teach these people using the curriculum of a modern school.

By the time they finish their studies, Su Ze will be ready to implement the imperial examination reforms.

Therefore, Su Ze did not lie to Sun Wenqi. Once the imperial examination reform began, the first batch of students in the Imperial Academy preparatory course would inevitably have an advantage in the new imperial examination.

Moreover, even if one fails the imperial examinations, the Ming Dynasty now has a demand for talents with new learning abilities.

For example, the Academy of Chinese Architecture is currently facing a severe shortage of engineering auditing talent in the imperial court, but the qualified eunuchs from the Ministry of Works and the inner court have already been trained to a considerable extent.

The imperial court even had grievances against Zhou Xiang, the official in charge of the Academy of Architecture and Research, believing that he was too strict with the students and prevented them from graduating, which led to the shortage of talent.

However, Zhou Xiang directly published the exam papers of those unqualified students. Many of them couldn't even answer three out of ten questions correctly. How could they be allowed to be in charge of the construction work?
Zhou Xiang silenced the court, but the problem of talent shortage remained unresolved.

It's not just the government that lacks this kind of talent; the general public also suffers from a shortage of such individuals.

The Fan family of Datong offered ten silver dollars a month to hire accountants who used the Longmen accounting method, but they were still recruiting every month.

Government-run factories need to improve the treatment of artisans in order to retain them from leaving for private factories.

After Su Ze successively established alkali plants and dye houses, people in the capital also began to study the "science of change".

These people studied the variations of various materials; some were even alchemists, trying to find the next dye formula and become rich overnight.

In Su Ze's view, the research of these people had a touch of mysticism, and some even went so far as to search for ancient alchemical formulas.

However, the earliest forms of chemistry were similar to alchemy, and their efforts actually yielded some results.

This discovery was made in a soy sauce workshop under the Crown Prince's command.

To prepare hydrochloric acid from soy sauce, alum oil and salt must first be mixed.

Alum oil is sulfuric acid, but it is also needed in the manufacture of gunpowder. Soy sauce workshops often suffer from shortages of alum oil, resulting in reduced production or even shutdowns.

The manager of this soy sauce workshop, probably in an effort to improve the business, offered a reward to the public for a stable method of obtaining alum oil.

A Taoist priest named Tao Guan accepted the challenge and provided a method for making alum oil.

The method given by Tao Guan is the method for making alum oil found in ancient alchemical formulas.

In fact, ancient alchemists already knew how to make alum oil (sulfuric acid). They could obtain alum oil by mixing sulfur and saltpeter, burning them, and filtering them with water.

Essentially, an oxidant is added during the combustion of sulfur to generate more sulfur trioxide. Water then combines with the sulfur trioxide to form sulfuric acid.

Su Ze had known about this method for a long time, but the Crown Prince had not mentioned the shortage of alum oil, so Su Ze had not set up a sulfuric acid plant.

Tao Guan, this alchemist, did not completely follow the alchemical formulas to manufacture sulfuric acid.

He first discovered that using a metal alchemy furnace would cause it to be corroded by sulfuric acid, so he switched to a stone alchemy furnace for calcination.

However, he soon discovered that this method of collection was inconvenient, and the alchemy furnace was not a good reaction vessel.

Tao Guan then improved the method by burning saltpeter and sulfur in a porcelain bottle and adding water to obtain sulfuric acid, which was more convenient than using an alchemy furnace.

Tao Guan then discovered that using glass containers was more convenient because glass containers could be blown into the required shape during manufacturing, thus allowing more sulfuric acid to dissolve in the water.

This method solved the problem of alum oil shortage, and Tao Guan received a reward from the Crown Prince.

Tao Guan, having received the reward, actually settled down in an abandoned Taoist temple on the outskirts of the capital, where he recruited apprentices to research more elixir formulas.

This traditional method of cultivation is not only inefficient, but also particularly unbalanced.

Therefore, Su Zecai prepared to establish a preparatory course at the Imperial College to specifically cultivate talents for the new school of learning.

Upon returning to the newspaper office, Su Ze took out a blank memorial and began drafting it.

Memorial Requesting the Establishment of the Preparatory Course at the Imperial Academy

The memorial naturally begins by emphasizing the importance of education:
"I humbly acknowledge that our nation relies on education to revitalize the country, yet our current system for cultivating talent still has limitations."

“Official schools and elementary education programs mostly focus on preparing students for the imperial examinations, while children from poor families spend their entire lives studying the classics, but rarely have the opportunity to succeed and end up wasting their time.”

“In times of great strife, the grievances of the poor cannot be expressed, and the court lacks talent but has no one to use it.”

Su Ze explained the current talent shortage and the contradiction between the talent training system.

Su Ze then proposed his own solution:
“Referring to the preparatory school system in my memorial on the education of the Imperial Academy, the preparatory school of the Imperial Academy should combine moral education and intellectual education to cultivate talents who develop both morally and intellectually.”

"The Imperial College's preparatory course recruits children under the age of fourteen. It builds upon the foundation of traditional elementary education, teaching classics, history, phonetics, and calligraphy; and adds mathematics, geography, and general knowledge of agriculture and industry."

"After turning eighteen, those who aspire to take the imperial examinations can enter the Imperial Academy to study the subjects required for the examinations."

"They can also participate in the civil service examination to learn the skills of document processing, finance, and investigation, thus opening up new paths outside of the civil service examination."

"They could also take the entrance exams for the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture, the Military Academy, or the Naval Academy (formerly the Maritime Training Institute) to find another path."

"In this way, we can recruit talented people from humble backgrounds, breaking down barriers based on social status; cultivate practical and capable officials, and alleviate the shortage of local officials."

Su Ze envisioned the Imperial College Preparatory Course as not merely a school for students to enter the Imperial College, but a path where students could choose different development directions based on their individual circumstances.

Of course, there is nothing we can do about it.

Practical learning was not part of the imperial examinations. Without these "fallback options," many people might not have chosen the Imperial Academy's preparatory course.

After Su Ze finished writing the memorial and put it down, he roughly knew where the resistance to this memorial came from.

First, there's the Ministry of Rites. The current Minister of Rites, Yin Shidan, although cooperating with Su Ze on some issues, is a great Confucian scholar of the School of Mind, and naturally would not agree to Su Ze establishing practical schools at the Imperial Academy.

Furthermore, like Eun Sa-dam, the fourth Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, Cho Jeong-gil, was also unwilling to show any consideration for personal feelings when it came to fundamental issues such as academic integrity.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Revenue would probably not be willing either.

The Imperial College added a preparatory course. Although the existing schools could be used, it would still cost a sum of silver dollars.

These expenses are manageable, but what will be the treatment of these Imperial College preparatory students in the future?
If, like students of the Imperial Academy, the court were to provide them with stipends, this would constitute an additional fixed budget.

If the imperial court does not provide funds, then Su Ze's plan to select talented individuals from humble backgrounds through the Imperial Academy's preparatory courses will fail.

The Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works would probably also object.

Being promoted to the Military Supervisory Commission and the Academy of Architecture and Research meant that the power to select talent was snatched away from the two ministries.

In this way, if one relies solely on oneself, it will inevitably require a massive amount of prestige points to advance the Imperial Academy's preparatory course.

Su Ze picked up the memorial. Since it was a matter of practical learning, he couldn't put in the effort alone, and naturally, he couldn't spend the "prestige" all by himself.

The person most enthusiastic about promoting practical learning in the court right now is Grand Secretary Gao. He has already submitted such a good plan, so the next step of implementation should be handled by Gao Gong.

Su Ze, carrying the draft of the memorial, arrived at Gao Gong's residence after dark.

(End of this chapter)