There must be a school first, and the county will send someone to verify it before giving the teacher a betrothal gift of twenty taels.
Only after the school recruits students can the subsequent 80 taels of tuition subsidy be received.
The 20-tael subsidy from the county government could only be obtained if there were 20 students in the school.
All in all, it would take at least half a year to receive the full amount of 120 taels of silver in subsidy, starting from the time the school is completed.
Moreover, this 120 taels is a one-time subsidy. Whether the school's expenses can be sustained in the long run and how long they can last will require the efforts of the villagers themselves.
But with the current 120 taels, it would not be a problem to hire a teacher, including his food and lodging, to support him for five or six years.
For the villagers, the school is right at their doorstep, and the money saved on travel expenses can be used to buy pens, ink, paper and inkstone. With tuition free for the past two years, they can still afford to study.
As for what will happen after the two-year free period, we'll talk about it later. Qin Yao firmly believed that life would not always be so hard.
The watermelon fields in the village that were not washed away by the heavy rain will always play their due role.
Qin Yao told the elders about the subsidy. After hearing this, the excited smiles on their faces faded and they all sighed.
The clan leader asked: "Then we have to pay for the construction of the school ourselves? Our ancestors have never built a school in all these years. How should we build this school? How much money will it cost?"
Other elders said, "We need two rooms anyway. They are where the children go to school. They can't be too dark. Mud walls won't work. The windows are small and you can't see the light. And you need candles."
If we don’t use earth walls, we can only build wooden or brick walls, which is very expensive and the patriarch is very worried.
Qin Yao reminded: "There are still forty taels of silver in the village."
But for the elderly, having money is one thing, and spending it is another.
It hurts!
Qin Yao was glad that he was now the village chief and had absolute decision-making power. He ignored the annoyed faces of the elders and made the decision:
"Just build it with bricks and tiles, which are strong and durable, windproof and rainproof, saving the trouble of repairing it every year, and it's all done in one go!"
"We can save a lot on labor costs by asking every household in the village to contribute. We can build three rooms with bricks, tiles, beams, tables, chairs and benches, two for students and one for the teacher to live in. I estimate that ten taels of silver will be enough."
Seeing the elders all gasp when they heard the ten taels of silver, Qin Yao stood up and used his ultimate move, saying righteously:
"As the ancients said, no matter how hard life is, we must not let our children suffer, and no matter how poor we are, we must not let our children suffer from poverty!"
The clan leader blinked his old eyes and asked boldly: "Yao Niang, who is this ancient person?"
Qin Yao opened her eyes wide and said nonsense, "The saint Confucius."
A group of illiterate elders immediately stood in awe.
Only the clan leader, who had gone to school for two years as a child, frowned slightly. It was a pity that the old man was already so old, and now he had to try hard to recall whether Confucius had said this sentence in his childhood books.
Since no one raised any objections, Qin Yao assumed that they agreed, yawned, waved her hand, and adjourned the meeting.
Afterwards, the clan leader came to the old village chief's house and told him that Qin Yao had decided to spend ten taels of silver to build a school today.
Seeing that the old village chief was indeed in pain, the clan leader immediately patted him on the shoulder and taught him:
"As the sages said, no matter how hard life is, we must not let our children suffer, and no matter how poor we are, we must not let our children go to school. Children's education is our top priority. Old friend, please broaden your horizons. We must look at the long term."
The old village chief blew his beard and glared, and he finally understood that the man had learned something new and was coming to show off to him.
He snorted, "Don't I know what you have learned? And what the saints said? How many of the saints' words have you remembered?"
But thinking of Qin Yao's decision, the old village chief smiled with relief, "Young people are still courageous. If we old men were to care about that little bit of money, we would delay the children's lifelong event."
Although the patriarch felt pain in his heart, he nodded honestly.
Qin Yao wrote an application for free school subsidy overnight, and the next morning she followed the children's school carriage to Jinshi Town to find the head of the village.
It was both about the subsidy and the transition between the old and new village chiefs of Liujia Village.
When he saw Qin Yao coming with the village chief's bronze seal, the enthusiastic smile on the headman's face froze instantly, and he looked Qin Yao up and down in shock.
He was stunned for five seconds before he smiled in surprise and invited her to come in and sit down.
As he walked, he looked back at the bronze badge on Qin Yao's waist. "When he came to your village to learn how to plant rice, he said he wanted to quit. I thought he was joking, but I didn't expect it to be so soon."
And the new village chief was someone he had never expected.
Qin Yao smiled and said, "Li Zheng, I don't have much experience, and I will need seniors like you to give me more advice in the future."
The head of the village nodded, looking at the jar of wine, a pack of tea, and two packs of snacks that Qin Yao handed over, and raised his lips slightly, "Of course."
"But I have never seen a woman serving as village chief since the previous dynasty. You really surprise me." The head of the village said half seriously and half jokingly.
Qin Yao smiled again and went straight to the point without further explanation. She took out the document she had written and asked the head of the village whether it was qualified and whether it could be sent to the county government.
The head of the village motioned for Qin Yao to sit down, and he pulled a chair to the door and read the document in the sunlight.
In the past, the old village chief didn't know how to write any documents. If there was anything, people would just come and talk to him. Everything that needed to be reported was written by the head of the village himself.
As soon as Qin Yao handed over the post, the head of the village took a closer look at her.
Suddenly I feel that it’s okay for a woman to be the village chief. As long as she has the ability, what difference does it make whether she is a man or a woman?
What's more, the new chief of Liujia Village today is indeed much better than those in other villages who cannot even read.
Looking at this post again, there are not so many flowery sentences, but simple and clear plain language. Although the handwriting is not beautiful, it is neat and tidy and easy to understand at a glance.
She first wrote why she wrote the post, and then talked about the plan to build a school in Liujia Village.
It clearly states where the school will be located, how much land it will occupy, how much it will cost, how it will be put into use in the future, etc.
At the end, it was expressed again that this school was of great significance to the entire Liujia Village, and regarding the powerful future of the entire Sheng Country, which raised the spirit of the entire post to a higher level.
After reading it, the village head was both surprised and delighted.
What surprised me was that Qin Yao was actually such a good writer.
The good thing is that I can copy this post format and use it in the future, and I don’t have to worry about writing posts anymore!
Qin Yao secretly observed the head's micro-expressions. She saw all his reactions. She raised the corners of her mouth and asked tentatively:
"What do you think, Li Zheng?"
The village head replied with only one word: "OK!" (End of this chapter)
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