Crossing over reveals a waste's difficult journey home

If the warehouse is solid, you will know etiquette; if you have enough food and clothing, you will know honor and disgrace.

When social conditions are not met, people have problems with having enough food and clothing, so how can they have the energy to talk about propriety, righteousness, integrity and shame? It is all in vain to say anything.

Therefore, Jiang Tuan believed that if he wanted to help the women of Daxia, he must first improve the living standards of Daxia so that the women could support themselves.

He didn't have any good ideas before, but now that he has wool and there are so many places that need people to work, he thinks it's time to make some suggestions.

Of course, even if there is no intention to improve the status of women, from the perspective of work alone, there is indeed no one in Daxia who is more suitable for this job than women.

Jiang Tuan didn't say anything else next, just talked about the process of turning wool into sweaters, including washing wool, drying wool, spinning yarn, and weaving clothes. In an era without machines, all of these required manpower.

It’s a pity that one of the things Daxia lacks most right now is people, so we have to find a way to squeeze out some manpower.

Don't even think about liberating slaves and domestic servants for now, as farming, military service, and fighting in wars are mostly done by men, so the only ones left who can work are women.

Jiang Qi admitted that what Jiang Tuan said made a lot of sense, and they in Daxia were indeed short of people.

As for Jiang Tuan's worry about not letting women work, Jiang Qi had never thought about it. He was only thinking about how to help Da Xia get through the difficult times. He didn't care about whether it was a man or a woman, as long as they could work.

What concerned him was the school that Jiang Tuan mentioned.

Are there schools in Daxia? Yes, but most of them are private schools opened by respected gentlemen, and some official schools opened by the government.

The main purpose of these schools was to teach people how to read, write and become officials.

There are no schools that specialize in teaching people skills as Jiang Tuan mentioned. Most skills are passed down in family or taught by masters to apprentices.

If we build a school like this, there will definitely be people who will object, saying that it is a waste of time and a disgrace to society.

However, this is not a big problem for Jiang Qi. What he is concerned about is that if the court can build some technical schools for ordinary people, then it will be able to build some schools similar to official schools in the future.

It is said that an emperor is an emperor. Even if Jiang Tuan did not say it explicitly, he grasped the key point that Jiang Tuan wanted to express. First, he wanted women to study and work, and second, he wanted ordinary people to learn.

If it is just about learning some technical knowledge, there is no problem, but what if it involves other knowledge? Will those so-called noble families and aristocrats object?

Now many of Daxia's officials come from aristocratic families and nobles, and they have taken this situation for granted.

If one day, many ordinary people come to compete with them for official positions and status, those aristocratic families and nobles will definitely strongly oppose it.

As an emperor, Jiang Qi knew very well that if he wanted the dynasty to continue smoothly, he had to control the aristocratic families and nobles, but he also knew that such a thing could not be accomplished overnight, otherwise it would shake the foundation of the dynasty.

Thinking of this, he suddenly understood why Jiang Tuan was cautious. If this matter were to get out, many people would probably try to get rid of Jiang Tuan.

Because once the school is established, it will be tantamount to digging up the roots of those aristocratic families.

"Yeah, not bad, you know how to play tricks on me."

Understanding what Jiang Tuan wanted to express and the possible consequences of the matter, Jiang Qi suddenly realized that Jiang Tuan wanted to do those things, but knew that it was very dangerous, so he was evasive when speaking and gave him the choice.

Jiang Tuan firmly denied Jiang Qi's statement. He never thought about it so much. He just felt that there were too few people who could work now, and he was afraid that the other party would not agree to let women go out to work.

Although in his opinion Jiang Qi was a man who was very good to his wife and daughter, he was not sure whether he, as an emperor and an ancient man, would be prejudiced against women.

The idea of ​​letting women do the work was proposed under the pretext that they had more advantages in textile work, and this was also intended to prevent this.

As for the issue of education, Jiang Qi really thought too deeply about it.

Learn literary and martial arts and serve the emperor. From this sentence, we can see that the most direct way for people in ancient times to succeed was to become an official.

However, there are only so many official positions. If there are too many competitors, it will become less easy for people who could easily get official positions before, and mediocre people who had the chance to get official positions before may not be able to do so now, which is bound to cause dissatisfaction among those people.

Jiang Tuan knew that changing Daxia's education problems would not be a matter of a day or two, and that all aspects had to be taken into consideration. With Daxia's current precarious state, another education reform would probably cause chaos within the country, which would be a loss.

The most important thing is that there is no paper. How can we print books without paper? How can we spread knowledge in the most convenient way without books?

So he didn't think that far ahead. Even regarding the issue of the imperial examination, he just talked about it with Jiang Qi for a few words, but didn't explain it clearly.

"Your Majesty, I didn't think too much about it. I just wanted to open a school to learn technology. I didn't say anything else!"

"Yes, I understand."

Your Majesty, what do you know? Don't add drama to my story!

Seeing that he couldn't get Jiang Qi's attention back, Jiang Tuan had to quickly change the subject.

"Sire, what are your plans regarding wool and school?"

Jiang Qi has his own ideas and will not stop caring just because Jiang Tuan changes the subject, but those things do require careful planning, so there is no need to let the other party know.

As for the matter of wool and school, he thought about it for a while and made a decision.

Women can be asked to do the wool work, but because it concerns women, it is best to let the queen take care of it so that women can let down their guard.

As for the school, it will be built, but for the sake of safety it will not be open to the public for the time being.

"Not open to the common people? Where will the students come from? Your Majesty, I don't think those noble families would be willing to let their children learn the craftsman's work, right?"

"Don't worry, there will be students."

The students that Jiang Qi was talking about were not ordinary people or upper-class aristocrats, but orphans adopted by the imperial court.

Years of war have left many orphans in the Central Plains. The Jiang family adopted orphans a long time ago. Later, when Jiang Qi became emperor, the people were all his subjects, so he naturally cared more about those orphans.

He set up shelters for orphans in every county, but because Daxia was so poor, the environment in those places was not very good, and they could only barely prevent those children from starving to death, getting sick, or having other problems. That was their fate.

As for the future of those children, Jiang Qi had previously just wanted to wait for them to grow up, give them some land or marry into a good family. Now it seems like that would be a waste.

He could have gathered those children together, let them learn different things, and when they grew up and graduated, they would not only be able to support themselves but also serve the dynasty.