Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

"Maybe... my sister admires Master and wants to learn skills from him."

Zhu Cilang replied ambiguously.

This was naturally not what he really thought. Although Zhu Cilang was only fourteen years old, he was the crown prince after all and was relatively sensitive to certain things.

To be honest, he didn't think his sister liked the master. In fact, even he didn't know what love felt like.

As for getting married, for Zhu Cilang it was just the right thing to do. It didn't matter who the Crown Princess was, or whether he liked her or not. What was important was that he could share his father's worries and support his father's country.

He actually always knew what his sister was thinking. As long as it could make their father less worried, his sister was willing to do anything. As the crown prince, Zhu Cilang sometimes felt ashamed of this.

"Yeah, that makes sense." Zhang Shikang agreed with this, even though he didn't know what skills he could teach.

The convoy left the outer city and headed west. After about half an hour, they finally arrived at the location of the Four Great Halls.

The Four Great Halls are located in the northeast of the General Manufacturing Bureau, adjacent to many workshops under the General Manufacturing Bureau. This complex of buildings is very close to the Xishan Camp where the Guards are stationed.

After more than two years of development and continuous expansion, the Manufacturing Bureau, various workshops, and the four newly built colleges have gradually become a large community.

Craftsmen are gathering here, and many of them have also settled their families here. The four major colleges have now begun to recruit students, and there will definitely be more people moving in in the future.

To this end, Zhang Shikang ordered the Ministry of Works to build a number of shops and ordinary houses between various workshops and the four major colleges.

In time, this place will inevitably gradually become a new neighborhood with a one-stop service for eating, drinking, living and transportation.

These shops and houses belong to the General Administration of Manufacturing and are only rented and not sold. They are used to supplement the expenses of the General Administration of Manufacturing. Of course, they all have to pay taxes.

The venue for the celebration was chosen to be the Ming Royal Academy of Sciences, but Zhang Shikang still visited the other three academies first.

According to Zhang Shikang's wishes, several universities were set up as boarding schools. In view of the fact that people were still living in poverty, Zhang Shikang discussed with Wang Zheng and others and decided to set up two types of admission agreements for each of the three schools.

The first one is naturally to pay tuition fees normally and enroll in school. For children from poor families, the school will draw up a three-year contract.

As long as the contract is signed, all expenses for the poor children will be waived. After three years of study, they will be assigned to work in the Ming Dynasty Royal Manufacturing Bureau, and half of their monthly salary will be used to repay the three years of tuition and miscellaneous fees.

Yes, that’s right. The Ming Dynasty will guarantee job placement for all students graduating from the three schools.

Of course, if students who graduated from the school wanted to enter officialdom, they could participate in the imperial examinations such as Jinshi, Mingsuan, science and engineering.

This plan was unprecedented in the Ming Dynasty. Fortunately, the three schools only enrolled 500 students in the first session, so this amount of money was still a drop in the bucket.

So much so that when the enrollment notices of the three universities were transmitted to northern Zhili and even Henan and Shandong a month ago, poor children from all over the country flocked there.

After all, although the Royal Manufacturing Bureau was established not long ago, it has already been regarded as a holy place by craftsmen all over the world.

The reasons are simple: status and high welfare benefits, and most importantly, it has the best scientific research conditions in the entire Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Shikang spent a full half hour inspecting the main office space, lecture venues, student dormitories and restaurants of the three universities.

It must be said that since the imperial court, at the suggestion of Zhang Shikang, separated the Ministry of Works' functions of weapons research and development and manufacturing, the Ministry of Works has focused on construction and its efficiency has been much higher than before.

In particular, the East Factory's agents were spread across the two capitals and thirteen provinces. Coupled with the precedent of skinning and stuffing people with straw, the Ministry of Works did not find a single person involved in corruption during the year of intense work.

"The Ministry of Works has done a good job! Your Highness, do you think it deserves a reward?" Zhang Shikang stroked the huge red-painted pillar of the Military Academy and said to Zhu Cilang beside him.

The Minister of Works who was following nearby immediately showed a look of joy on his face. In the past two years, he had lived on the construction site most of the time.

The Minister of Works, Fan Jingwen, was in charge of the court. With so many projects underway, the two Vice Ministers of Works were working around the clock.

He was either supervising at the Tianjin Shipyard, or at the military port, or at Dagukou. He might be in Tianjin for the first half of the month, and at the Land Affairs Academy in the second half.

The deadline was tight, the task was heavy, and the superior, Prince Wuying, was too high to offend. As a result, the officials in charge of their respective projects often wondered:

After ten years of hard study, once I finally got a job, I was still working in civil engineering.

But no matter what, the four universities have been completed, and it seems that His Royal Highness the Prince is quite satisfied.

If they can hold on for another half a year and the construction of Tianjin is completed, they will probably be able to return to the court again, thought the Minister of Works.

He really missed the court.

Zhu Cilang had followed Zhang Shikang for so long and was well aware of the significance of these three schools to the Ming Dynasty. He said without hesitation:

"Of course I deserve a reward. I'll ask Father for his opinion when I get back. But Master, what would be a more appropriate reward?"

Zhang Shikang frowned slightly and looked at the officials from the Ministry of Industry and said:

"What do you think is a suitable reward?"

The official uniforms of several officials are neat today. According to the report of the Jinyiwei, even these officials are often covered in dust during the rush work. The civil engineers are really not lying to us.

After hearing what Zhang Shikang said, several people looked at each other, thinking how could it be so direct? This was so abrupt.

"Oh, I forgot, this isn't a military camp. So, let's be direct. Your Majesty, please reward me according to my rank and the specific projects I'm responsible for."

Zhang Shikang slapped his head and said.

As the Grand Marshal, he would occasionally reward some of his subordinates who had performed outstandingly in the military camp.

Most people in the military camp are illiterate and have simple minds. Zhang Shikang would ask directly what they want, and the soldiers would answer directly.

He forgot that these civil servants were thin-skinned.

However, as a pragmatist, Zhang Shikang once believed that no matter what one's status is, money is important. If you don't know what to give, giving money is definitely the right thing to do.

“When I return, I will ask the Emperor for a reward on behalf of you all.

"But besides the silver, I think that you all should be rewarded with flying fish uniforms for your hard work," Zhu Cilang added to the civil engineering officials, or rather, the Ministry of Works officials.

Naturally, those officials quickly knelt down to express their gratitude to Zhu Cilang.

Silver is indeed valuable, but the value of the gifted clothes is even higher, which means you have both fame and fortune.

Several officials were extremely happy and felt that their hard work over the past year had not been in vain.

But it was too early for them to be happy.

Zhang Shikang looked at the open space outside the school and said:

“This phase of the project is really well done.

However, my Lords, the second phase of the project should be put on the agenda as soon as possible."

Several officials were stunned.

What? There's a second phase?

Is it over yet?

“The current scale of the four major universities can only accommodate 500 teachers and students at most, which is still too small.

According to my estimation, the number of teachers and students in each institution must be at least three thousand.

In the next two years, you will expand the three schools of land affairs, maritime affairs, and science and engineering according to this scale.

And this West Mountain must also be utilized. The firearms workshop also needs a safe arsenal for ammunition storage.

Big, strong, and safe.

Well, let me think, what else?

Huh? Why did this gentleman faint?

Call the doctor quickly!"

……