Chapter 202 (1/2)
Chapter 202 The road to development
Roland took a sip of his tea, then said: “In addition, I intend to set up a primary education system in Longsong Stronghold, which will be the examination project that decides whether you will continue serving as the administrator or not.
Hearing the word “examination”, Petrov’s ears immediately stood up, “Primary education system?”
“Yes,” Roland nodded with a smile. Now, after the church had been destroyed, the High Priest killed, and the Church’s forces weakened by more than half, it was a good time to start the fight over ideological positions. He didn’t expect to transform all believers into potential workers who met with his standards; he only hoped to weaken the Church’s influence even further. In case the Holy City wanted to meddle in Longsong Stronghold again, Roland had thought about many ways to keep them away; they shouldn’t even think about building a new church here.
“The primary education should be attainable for all of Longsong Stronghold’s residents under the age of forty, regardless of whether they are men or women. The training will include reading and writing, simple calculation, the spread of natural knowledge and also ideological education.” Roland waved his hand, holding off the other’s questions, “Rest assured, the cost will be deducted from the tax paid to Border Town. From the beginning of the next month, you only have to pay 20% of the tax; the remaining 10% will be used as special education fee. With it can you recruit a few scholars from King’s City, or hire local nobles, knights or squires, but these people won’t need so much money. 10% of the tax are at least 1000 gold royals, so you have to do much more than just hire people with it.”
After thinking for a moment, Petrov opened his mouth and said: “Your Highness, do you mean to say, that I should use the money to motivate the civilians to attend the education courses?”
This guy’s mind is indeed very sharp, Roland laughed, “That’s right, with the exception of the children, most people have to earn their livelihood during the during the day, so their education courses have to be held in the evening, allowing them to carry out their work during the day. And after being busy the whole day, instead of resting, no one wants to come round only to hear other people’s nagging them, not to mention using their brain to learn how to read and write.
“Because of this you have to lure them with some means to learn, such as providing them a dinner that has meat, or if they are able to speed up the learning process they can also get a monetary reward, etc., and of course, a bright and spacious classroom is also essential.” He paused, “In short, you must try every means to popularize attending the education courses to all the residents of the stronghold. As I said, this is also your examination: After one year, more than 50% of the stronghold’s population needs to have reached literacy.”
“But Your Royal Highness…” Petrov hesitated. “No matter if they are scholars or belong to the nobility, they fundamentally have no experience with teaching civilians how to read and write, even less teaching them natural knowledge and ideological education,” he had to read the hard to pronounce noun of the parchment. “In fact, even I do not quite understand the words myself. By employing these people, I am afraid you cannot achieve your desired result.”
“Do not worry, I have already taken all that into account,” Roland paused. “I’ll send a group of officials from Border Town’s City Hall to help you realize it. Furthermore, all the books you need for the education will be provided by Border Town. They have a wealth of experience in how to teach, so they can show the people you recruit how to teach, and then, your personal will have to start to educate the residents. At that time you and they will have comprehended all the necessary details, the specific arrangements will be done when they arrive.”
This way, as long as Petrov wanted to keep in control of Longsong Stronghold, it was inevitable that he worked together with the Prince’s staff, and by placing his aids at critical positions within the Ministry of Education, news reaching or happening in Longsong Stronghold could also be passed on to Border Town in the first moments.
Seeing that Petrov didn’t show any objections, Roland began to explain his final command: “Thirdly, I plan to build a road between Longsong Stronghold and Border Town to shorten the traveling time between the two locations for pedestrians and caravans.”
“Your Royal Highness, don’t we already have a way between those two?” Petrov asked in surprise.
A mud path created by people walking over it can be counted as a road? With a width less than two meters, filled with mud by the rain, and furthermore, with all its holes, it will never be suitable for high-speed carriages.
Roland shook his head. “I want to build a road that can accommodate at least two carriages side by side. A road that is flat and straight, and won’t be covered with water during rain, exactly like the road in Border Town.”
“You mean a macadam road?” the Acting Duke looked a little surprised, “The costs of such a road isn’t low, it requires the mason to cut the stones and then they have to pick out the stones with the right sizes which can be used together. A gravel road to Border Town would at least cost five thousand gold royals, and with all due respect Your Highness, we will never get so much money without a tax increase.”
“The stronghold only needs to provide the workforce.” The Prince stated bluntly, “You will issue a recruitment notice throughout the whole Western Territory, not just Longsong Stronghold, including all of the other noble’s territories. The monthly salary will be six silver royals, with that sum, I believe there should be plenty of applicants.”