Unlike previous expeditions, almost no one would doubt the outcome of the war... The Great Zhou was already powerful enough.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Revenue, the population of Dazhou exceeded 40 million, which is almost half of the peak population of the Song Dynasty. It doesn’t seem to be much, but if you study the population structure carefully, you may be dumbfounded!

Among them, the population under the age of fifteen reached an astonishing 35%!

Under the age of fifteen, they were born after Guo Wei ascended the throne... After the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty, they strictly practiced equalizing land, recuperating, releasing slaves, and encouraging childbirth... After a set of measures, the results were achieved remarkable. Many rural families were basically a pair of parents with five or six children.

Among them, the older ones are over ten years old and get married early in the countryside. In a few years, more people will join the fertility army... Ye Hua predicts that in the next twenty or thirty years, the Great Zhou will enjoy an unprecedented demographic dividend, but if there is no sufficient preparation, it will turn into a crisis!

All dynasties have been like this. In the first years of the founding of the country, the population increased retaliatedly, and the contradiction between people and land was prominent. It quickly entered the stage of land annexation, and then the struggle to merge and curb annexation, until the dynasty changes...

For Dazhou, there is hope to break out of this vicious circle, because industry can bring more employment opportunities, and the powerful force brought by industry can allow Dazhou to have a wider territory, have more land, and resettle more people... This will form a virtuous cycle.

But what industry needs is a quality labor force, at least the Indians are not suitable.

educate!

Enough education is necessary to send tens of millions of young people into factories and give full play to the talent dividend.

"So, promoting education is the most important thing at the moment, even above the Northern Expedition to the Khitan."

Ye Hua did not go north with Chai Rong. The emperor liked to enjoy glory and established a prosperous era beyond the Han and Tang dynasties. Ye Hua even enjoyed improving the level of civilization.

In the name of the cabinet, he asked all workshops and factories to connect with the school.

Li Si, who is in charge of education, cooperated vigorously. Some people are willing to invest money, but he has no reason to refuse.

Li Si asked all cooperatives to build schools. Even if the school cannot be established for the time being, they should set up literacy classes. Without teachers, magistrates, county magistrates, and clerks, they all have to act as part-time teachers.

Literacy rate must become the most important performance assessment project in various local government offices. If education does not meet the standards, it cannot be rated as high-quality.

After students learn to read, they have a certain degree of discipline and know how to obey commands... At this time, each factory will send some craftsman masters to select apprentices and enter the factory for internship.

If you perform well, you can get your wages while studying. After graduation, you can enter the factory and become a worker directly!

This set of methods is absolutely effective, and even has amazing results.

First, the army headed north, and the orders flew like snowflakes. The factory was working at full capacity, and what was needed most was enough workers.

Originally, they also wanted to train workers themselves, but now they can cooperate with the court and the government helps with the preliminary training, so their burden is much lighter. Moreover, students enter factories and work half-time and have very little wages. They can also train them as needed. After graduation, they can be seamlessly connected and started directly, which is definitely a pie that falls from the sky.

Everyone knows that many parents in the countryside do not allow their children to go to school because they are short-sighted and think that spending money on studying is a waste of time, so it is better to do farm work at home.

This kind of thing can be reasonable, but Ye Hua thinks that what is more effective is to talk about interests!

Who says that studying is not profitable? As long as you are smart and smart enough and willing to endure hardships, it is not difficult to make money. You can live better than your parents and have a richer income...

Ye Hua believes that with role models, it will not be difficult to change people's concepts.

Of course, there is another problem here, that is, students!

It is still a bit cruel for children who are too young to enter the factory to become apprenticeships. Therefore, Ye Hua demanded that he must receive more than three years of education and be over ten years old before he can become an apprentice.

Moreover, the age of a formal worker cannot be lower than twelve years old.

This is also the result of Ye Hua's careful consideration. He really wants to raise the age limit a little, but the problem is that there are many people getting married at the age of 14 or 15 in the countryside. They can't be all fathers anymore and are not qualified to enter the factory yet!

In fact, in the early stages of industrialization, the use of child labor was a very common phenomenon. Even children aged seven or eight years old entered the factory and worked for more than ten hours a day, with an average lifespan even less than fifteen years old, which was extremely miserable... That was the cannibalism that Teacher Ma strongly criticized!

"In view of the child labor issue, Ye Xi has made a very important decision for his father."

Ye Xi suddenly felt like a dark cloud covering the roof. Things were not good!

"Dad, I'm going to go and beat the ancestor's legs and say goodbye!"

He turned his head and wanted to run away, but Ye Hua reached out and grabbed his neck and directly mentioned it in front of him.

"You are ten years old now and have been to school for five years... You just go to the factory for an internship, work and study half-time. How about it?" Ye Hua smiled. Although he was inquiring tone, he could not object.

The little guy's face collapsed, and his big black eyes were covered with tears.

"Dad, I am your own son. You are willing to throw me into a dark-hearted factory that is not full every day. You can't eat enough or sleep every day, and eat black cakes and cry. They will beat me, scold me, torture me... Dad!" The little guy let out a heart-wrenching scream, "If you want to kill me, just put a knife on it! But before killing me, please allow me to see my mother. I want to kowtow to her. Unfilial son can't serve her anymore!"

The little guy grinned and cried, heartbreaking and earth-shaking!

"I don't need you to serve you, just don't get angry with me!" Fu San walked in from outside with a dark face. When Ye Xi saw his mother, he opened his mouth wide, ran over, hugged her mother's thighs, and rubbed her hard... like a poor husky.

"Okay, get out!" Fu Sancai was not as easy to talk to as Ye Hua. "Listen to me, as the eldest son of the Ye family, you can't hilarious cats and dogs all day long and do nothing! Letting you go to the factory is to increase your ability and know how poor people live. Also, you have to suffer a little. His Highness Shang King went to the Western Regions when he was a teenager. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince also experienced in Hebei. As my son, he cannot fall behind others!"

Fu San grabbed his son's ear and said, "Let me listen. If I say no, I will drive you out of the house!"

"Get out! Get out of the factory now!"

Ye Xi was frightened by my mother. He had never seen such a fierce mother before. Tears kept rolling in his eyes. The little guy gritted his teeth hard, and he refused to shed. He turned his head and walked out of the door step by step.

Ye Xi didn't see it. As soon as he left, Fu San's tears rolled down... Ye Hua sighed, "If you can't bear to leave, just wait for another two years, it doesn't matter."

"nonsense!"

Fu San said angrily: "You can pretend to be good people, and that kid will make a decision for life. If you don't give him a dose of strong medicine, I'm afraid that in two years I will become a playboy and cannot teach you!"

Ye Hua walked to his wife and silently hugged Fu San's shoulder, "It's not true, I still know what kind of virtue our son is... I'm not worried about him now. I'm worried that this kid will continue to make trouble after entering the factory!"

"Ah!" Fu San sneered: "What else can he do to make trouble? I don't believe that he has such great ability!"

...

"Mother, look at it. It's your mistake to ask me to go to the factory!"

Ye Xi gritted her teeth and changed into canvas clothes, making her look similar to an apprentice... Ye turned around him several times, clapping her with a smile, "Brother, don't say it, it's a bit handsome! Do you want to invite your sister-in-law to come over and let her take a look!"

Ye Xi glared at her sister and said disdainfully: "Now it's a little handsome, and in a while, it's a big handsome!"

The boy really strided up and ran to the factory.

For ten days, Ye Xi was so tired that she was like a dog. She went home and didn't even have time to take a bath. The white doll turned into a mud monkey... Every night Fu San came to see her, and she couldn't help crying.

But from the eleventh day, Ye Xi changed. The little guy still went out early and came back late, but he could not see the dark mud on his body. On the contrary, there were several small notebooks and a pack of charcoal pens on him.

Almost at the same time, there is an "tofu block" in the newspaper, and several coherent comics will appear in each issue... For example, drawing a fat boss, holding a whip, and beating a skinny worker; for example, the boss eating roast chicken and roast duck, but only giving the workers vegetable soup; for example, the boss counting money, the worker only takes one or two pitiful copper coins...

In the past, newspapers were all written and comics appeared for the first time. In addition, they were full of irony, and the market quickly opened up, and the sales of newspapers increased by 30%.

Ye Xi got the first royalty fee... But obviously, he would not be satisfied. Ye Xi negotiated with the newspaper and fought for the third page, and began to publish articles regularly in the name of "Friends of Workers".

His first article mentioned that farmers plant spring, summer, autumn harvest and winter storage, work three seasons a year, and rest for one season... Workers should also compare with farmers, do three days off and one day, and give enough time to regulate their body and mind, otherwise the workers will be exhausted to death!

In terms of rhetoric, this article has no advantage, and can only be described as immature, but it has become popular! The newspaper has been printed five times, but it has not been used for three days, and people are talking about it almost everywhere on Kaifeng streets.

"Reverse, reverse!"

Lu Duosun, who was in charge of military supplies, came to the cabinet door. He took the matter seriously and placed the newspaper in front of Ye Hua.

"Mr. Marquis, please see, someone actually wants to rest the workers. It's simply outrageous!"

Ye Hua raised the newspaper and covered his face. He had read the article long ago, and now he was just pretending. After a long time, Ye Hua slowly put down and said calmly: "Shu Lu, what are you going to deal with?"

"Investigate! Investigate strictly!"

Lu Duosun said: "There is a tight start, military supplies and weapons manufacturing, and it cannot stop for a while. Someone spreading such articles is just a bad intention... I think this person should be found and severely punished!"

What else can Ye Hua say, "Shu Lu just goes to arrest him. If you don't have to ask me about some trivial matters."

Lu Duoxun frowned, "Marty, in my opinion, these should be those literati who are fanning the flames behind their backs. Martyrs should use thunderous means!"—
Chapter completed!