A fierce wife enters the house: She helps up a house full of spineless people.

"As for the teacher..." Wang Jinzhu looked at Liang Heng, her eyes gleaming with insight into human nature, "Your Highness, issue a recruitment notice. Recruit those poor scholars to teach in government-run schools across the country. The court will provide them with salaries and calculate their qualifications in the Ministry of Personnel. After three years of teaching, they will receive bonus points in the imperial examinations, and those with outstanding performance may even be directly granted the title of Jinshi."

"Not only that," Wang Jinzhu added, "Master Yan of Luming Academy is the Crown Prince's tutor, with students and former officials all over the country. His Majesty could also invite Master Yan to come out of seclusion, issue invitations to all truly principled scholars who refuse to associate with aristocratic families, and call upon them to lecture at public schools throughout the land!"

Upon hearing this, Liang Song couldn't help but gasp.

They're throwing official hats at people! What are poor students studying so hard for ten years? It's all for the sake of becoming officials! Now, just by teaching, you can get a government salary and pave your way to a higher position. Faced with such an enormous temptation, who cares about the fate of powerful families?

Wang Jinzhu looked at the supreme ruler of the empire before her and unleashed her final, deadly move.

"Compulsory education will be provided to all school-age children in Daliang, who will be enrolled in government-run schools free of charge." Wang Jinzhu's voice was not loud, but it was resounding and thunderous. "In less than ten years, all scholars in the land will be students of the Emperor. Aristocratic families? They can only study for their ancestors in the afterlife."

The main hall of the Prince's Mansion fell completely silent; you could hear a pin drop.

Liang Song stared intently at Wang Jinzhu, his eyes filled with shock, ecstasy, and deep awe. He had been navigating the machinations of emperors for decades, boasting of his infallible strategies, yet he had never heard of such a grand, meticulous, and ruthless plan to wipe out an heir.

Papermaking, ink making, charcoal pencils, public schools, and tutors for the poor... each link in the chain is crucial. This is far more than simply breaking the deadlock; it's like disturbing the ancestral graves of powerful families, completely seizing control of the nation's cultural heritage, education, and talent selection under imperial power!

"Madam Wang." Liang Song took a deep breath, his voice low and solemn, and nodded slightly to the merchant woman before him. "On behalf of all the scholars in the world, I thank you, Madam."

"Your Majesty is too kind. It's just a matter of mutual benefit." Wang Jinzhu smiled calmly. "I only offer suggestions. How to do it and whether it can be done successfully is up to Your Majesty and Your Highness."

Liang Song turned to the Crown Prince and said sternly, "Heng'er! Immediately summon Minister of Works Lu Songnian, Vice Minister Liu Qingfeng, and Chen Tianrun to the palace! Summon Confucian scholar Yan to the palace! I will draft an edict tonight. This empire ultimately belongs to me, not to their aristocratic families!"

After seeing the Emperor and Crown Prince off, Wang Jinzhu returned to the soft couch in the warm pavilion, picked up the slightly cool teacup, and took a sip. Looking at the swirling snowflakes outside the window, a faint, mocking smile played on her lips.

"Strike and supply disruption? If this were modern times, it would be tantamount to handing over market share willingly." Wang Jinzhu shook her head, inwardly complaining. These powerful families have been entrenched for hundreds of years, believing they control the cultural heritage of the world, but they don't realize that this most primitive form of monopoly is incredibly fragile in the face of the state apparatus and the disruptive power of modern business models.

"The locals are just like that, adorably naive," Wang Jinzhu chuckled, putting the matter out of her mind. She knew that as long as Emperor Liang Song, a man of great vision, implemented her idea, the aristocratic families would have virtually no chance of recovery.

On the other side, inside the Imperial Study, the lights were on and the atmosphere was solemn.

Upon returning to the palace, Liang Song, without even having time to take off his cloak, immediately ordered Liu Dequan to summon Lu Songnian, Minister of Works, Liu Qingfeng, Vice Minister of Works, Chen Tianrun, Assistant Minister of Works, and Yan Daru, Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince, to the palace overnight.

"Liu Qingfeng, Chen Tianrun! I order you two to immediately lead men to double the size of the paper mills in the suburbs of the capital, and to immediately build a pen and ink workshop next to them! The Crown Prince will inform you in detail about the production methods of pine soot ink and 'charcoal pencils'. In addition, build the largest government-run paper mills for me in all the prefectures of Daliang!" Liang Song's eyes were like torches, and his voice echoed in the hall.

"Your humble servants obey! We will certainly not fail in our mission!" Liu Qingfeng and Chen Tianrun perked up and immediately knelt down to accept the order.

"Elder Yan," Liang Song looked at the white-haired and bearded scholar Yan, his tone softening, "I'll trouble you to handle the recruitment notice and the widespread invitation to heroes. Tell all the poor scholars in the world that the imperial court is going to establish the 'Great Liang Hope Academy.' As long as they are willing to teach, the court will provide them with salaries and academic honors!"

Yan Daru trembled with excitement, tears streaming down his face as he knelt on the ground: "Your Majesty's action has brought eternal peace to the poor and needy! This old minister will risk his life to bring all the virtuous scholars of the world to Your Majesty!"

In the following days, under Wang Jinzhu's guidance, the massive state apparatus of imperial power unleashed a chilling level of execution.

Crown Prince Liang Heng personally oversaw the project, allocating funds from the Imperial Household Department to fully guarantee the expenses for the establishment of bookstores throughout Daliang and various new policies, thus accelerating the site selection and construction of bookstores in Daliang.

Meanwhile, paper mills in the outskirts of Beijing worked day and night, with huge waterwheels roaring and turning in the icy river water, producing sheets of snow-white paper in an endless stream.

The adjacent printing workshop was also bustling with activity. Accompanied by the skilled movements of the craftsmen and the rich aroma of ink, printed pages were quickly bound, and books were piled up like mountains.

In the newly built pen and ink workshop next door, retired veterans were working enthusiastically, packing large quantities of pine soot ink and sharpened charcoal pencils into boxes.

As night fell, carriages laden with white paper, books, charcoal pencils, and ink blocks, escorted secretly by the Zhenwei Army and the secret guards, sped out of the capital city gates under cover of darkness, like long black dragons, heading towards the various prefectures of Daliang.

In just one month, the situation in various parts of Daliang underwent tremendous changes.

The students, who had been driven to despair by the aristocratic families cutting off their funding, woke up to find, to their astonishment, that the most bustling streets of each prefecture had sprung up one after another with plaques bearing imperial bestowal, all bearing the name "Daliang Bookstore".

The bookstore not only offered affordable copies of the Four Books and Five Classics, but also mountains of snow-white paper, ink sticks exuding pine resin, and charcoal pencils that could be bought in bulk for a penny, allowing one to write anytime, anywhere. The low prices and superior quality drove all the students wild.

At the same time, idle government offices, confiscated residences, and even some large temples in various prefectures and cities were all marked with plaques that read "Daliang Hope Academy".

Yan Daru's call for heroes and the imperial court's recruitment notice had a tremendous effect. Countless impoverished scholars, students who had repeatedly failed the imperial examinations, and even some reclusive scholars who refused to serve in the government, answered the call and entered the gates of the Hope Academy. The teachers for the academy were all in place within just half a month.

"All school-age children are exempt from tuition fees when enrolling in government-run schools."

The announcement caused an uproar among people everywhere.

Countless impoverished families, with their children in tow, formed long queues in front of the Hope Academy. Every morning, the clear voices of students reciting their lessons from schools across the land resounded through the sky, converging into the most beautiful and prosperous sound of the Great Liang Dynasty.

This time, however, the teachers were no longer from aristocratic families, and the books being read were no longer those printed by those families.

In this war without gunfire, the powerful clans thought they had the court by the throat, but they never expected that the court would not only overturn their table but also smash their pots to pieces. The cultural heritage of the nation thus completely changed hands.