Farm Girl's Manor
Chapter 1130 - 361: Powerful Nation through Education, Pregnancy_2

Chapter 1130: Chapter 361: Powerful Nation through Education, Pregnancy_2

Last year, Great Chu and Qiuzi Country allied with 150,000 troops to fight against a foreign tribe’s 20,000 elite soldiers. Although Great Chu and Qiuzi Country ultimately triumphed, the cost was too steep: of the 150,000 allied troops, fewer than 30,000 survived, while the enemy’s 20,000 elite managed to have 5,000 escape. Carefully considering the outcome, Great Chu and Qiuzi Country were actually the ones who suffered a disastrous defeat.

Nobody had expected that the foreign tribe’s 20,000 elite would come to battle armed with such deadly weapons, an irony being that these weapons had been developed after the technique of gunpowder had spread from Great Chu.

It wasn’t that nobody in Great Chu had thought of using it to make weapons; Emperor Taizong had once assembled hundreds of skilled craftsmen to study gunpowder. Yet no weapon of significant destructive power was produced; instead, these craftsmen were blown to bits overnight in a catastrophic explosion. Among the deceased was Emperor Taizong’s most beloved son.

Emperor Taizong, after losing his son in his prime years, was greatly devastated. Deeming gunpowder too dangerous for human use and believing it had claimed the life of his beloved child, he decreed that no one should touch gunpowder thereafter.

As of today, while the method of concocting gunpowder still exists, no one dares to research it for weaponization, but that foreign tribe, using the techniques that had spread from us, managed to create gunpowder weapons first. Even though their killing power was limited and they could not be produced in large quantities, in an era dominated by cold weapons, they were now the most advanced weapons; no flesh and blood could withstand them.

Although in Mo Yan’s first life, a muddled monarch and corrupt politics were the main reasons the foreign tribe managed to occupy Great Chu’s beautiful territories in just a few years, without these improved ammunition weapons, Great Chu wouldn’t have fallen so quickly. If Great Chu didn’t develop ammunition weapons, no one knew if it would repeat the same mistakes twenty years later and become slaves under the foreign tribe’s iron hooves.

Fortunately, this war awakened many in the court. Emperor Huian had already secretly ordered a search for skilled craftsmen, hoping that through research on gunpowder, they could develop ammunition weapons. With twenty years’ time, it wasn’t impossible to achieve this. Let’s not talk about using these weapons to attack other countries; at the very least, they could repel the foreign tribes when they return and defend our magnificent territories.

Although possessing memories from her previous life, Mo Yan had never studied gunpowder and was completely ignorant about it, unable to offer any practical suggestions. She brought this up only to validate the importance of strengthening the country through education and to convince Chu Heng to agree to her proposal, namely to support education. After all, having the people read more books could never be wrong.

It had to be said that Mo Yan’s words had struck a chord with Chu Heng. As the next Emperor and not of the sort indulged in luxuries and muddled governance, Chu Heng naturally harbored ambitious aspirations to become an Emperor revered in history.

The educational support plan that Mo Yan presented was a great opportunity. Not only would it benefit the nation and the people, but as its advocate, Chu Heng was destined to be commemorated in bold strokes in the annals of history, esteemed by countless scholars. Since ancient times, no Emperor had undertaken sweeping support for education; Chu Heng wanted to be the first.

However, Xiao Ruiyuan voiced his concerns: "Where would the silver come from?"

Mo Yan knew that silver was the key to whether this plan could be realized. The possibility of drawing from the national treasury was slim; therefore, she had already devised a countermeasure. She said to Xiao Ruiyuan, "Scholars, farmers, workers, and merchants, though merchants are considered of the lowest status, one cannot deny that among the four classes, they are the wealthiest. They do not lack gold and silver; what they lack is recognition from others. If donating silver to support education could improve their standing, I think no one would refuse."

To be strict, the status of Great Chu’s merchants was not low; they enjoyed the same rights as the other three classes, including the right to participate in the imperial examinations. However, among the populace, they were seen as the lowest, still despised by others. No matter how wealthy a merchant was, if his family didn’t include scholars, he couldn’t stand tall in society and would be labeled a "nouveau riche."

And if a merchant lacked powerful backing, he was like a succulent piece of meat, tempting those with even a modicum of power to take a bite. In search of protection, they often sent their beautiful daughters to local officials as concubines, along with a generous amount of gold and silver.

Girls sent to be concubines, originally from good households, became of lowly status upon entering an official’s household, their status even lower than concubines born to peasant families. The children born to them were treated the same.

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