Chapter 532: The Fat Fish Takes the Bait (Part 5) [Requesting Monthly Tickets]
After Shen Tang finished speaking, everyone fell silent.
This is really not a easy thing to do.
First of all, the workload is enormous.
It is known that talent is something that, unless one is born into royalty, even if one's aptitude is worse than that of a rabid person, one can still use the literary and martial fortune from the royal seal to forcibly cultivate a literary mind and martial courage. Otherwise, it is a limited item that is "either you are born with it or you are not born with it."
In other words—
Women of childbearing age in the country may all have talent!
If one possesses exceptional talent and aptitude, even if their body has passed its prime, they may still be able to sense the energy of heaven and earth.
How many households were there in Longwu County?
Everyone turned to look at Chu Yao and his team, who were in charge of the household registration re-registration. Chu Yao's competence was beyond question; after only a moment's thought, he reported the current progress figures: "Currently, there are 23,333 registered households, including 42,114 female relatives… If all are re-registered, this number will likely increase by another 30%..."
Chu Yao had consulted the county annals over the years. According to the records, Longwu County had a registered population of 300,000 at its peak, and countless merchants came from far and wide seeking business opportunities. Driven by this population, Longwu County was one of the most prosperous counties in Xin Kingdom.
The number is now less than 100,000, a sharp decrease of nearly 60%.
Longwu County was in decline due to the frequent invasions of the Shiwu. Young men in the county either left their homes to be slaughtered by the Shiwu or joined the army to guard the border. Even with money to recruit soldiers, it was impossible to assemble a decent elite force.
The loss of able-bodied men is severe, leaving behind mostly the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled who are unable to work, with women making up the majority. These are the people who need to be screened. Although talented individuals are only a tiny minority... the sheer number of them is overwhelming!
Everyone: "..."
We were initially worried about the small population, but now we see—
The task is arduous and the road ahead is long.
However, this matter couldn't be delayed; the talented young women had to be selected as soon as possible. It could be described as protection, or it could be described as surveillance. Xianyu Jian, a typical member of a wandering knight-errant sect, immediately had an idea: "Why not establish a wandering knight-errant sect? That way, we can legitimately send 'disciples' around to recruit students and select qualified young women without alerting the outside world!"
His words were immediately rejected by a majority of the scholars.
They said in unison, "That won't do!"
Xianyu Jian asked, puzzled, "Why?"
Everyone: "..."
Does this need further explanation?
Wandering knights-errant had a very low social status and a bad reputation.
Despite their attempts to embellish their public image, portraying themselves as chivalrous individuals who are generous in making friends, value loyalty above all else, and readily help those in need, what is the reality?
Most of them were idle thugs, ruffians, bandits, and outlaws.
They are merely using the banner of "helping the weak and punishing the strong" to disregard the law and commit evil deeds such as bullying men and women.
Carrying such a banner to "recruit apprentices"...
Which parent would be willing to send their child to "learn a skill"?
What's more, she's a woman. Even Bai Su, who is also a wandering knight, frowned in disapproval. This is a terrible idea!
The crowd murmured amongst themselves again.
Lin Feng had an idea: "How about building a private school?"
Her early education was arranged by a tutor hired by the family and her mother. She was confined to a small world at a young age. Although she had a few peers, they could not be too close due to their social status. Her greatest wish as a child was to enter the Lin family school.
I've heard that there are many people of the same age at the clan school.
Unfortunately, she was just a young woman, and what she learned were mostly arts and crafts like playing the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting to cultivate her character. These were fine for her own enjoyment, and her early education was only for the purpose of managing the household after she got married. Although she wasn't completely illiterate, she wasn't qualified to be "learned beyond measure."
Chu Yao said, "That's not appropriate. We can find a reason to enroll young children in school, but what about the older ones?"
In today's environment, both men and women are considered family laborers. Five- or six-year-old girls are expected to help take care of their younger siblings, gather dry grass and firewood, clear weeds from the fields, and even cook. They work non-stop from morning till night until they are twelve or thirteen.
At this age, it's time to find a matchmaker to help you choose a husband.
She could get married as soon as she reached the age of hairpin.
Although their bodies are not fully developed at this age, they are full of energy and may become pregnant and mothers within a few months, and then have children in succession. The cost of raising a child is extremely low, but the return is high. Having more children is definitely not a loss.
Of course, if she unfortunately suffers a difficult childbirth, she will perish.
Chu Yao: "Furthermore—for ordinary people, if they have the opportunity to send their children to private schools, they would send the boys, not the girls. If the girls go to school, who will take care of the younger children?"
Shen Tang: "This is easy to handle. If the selected girl's family has eligible sons, they can also be sent to study. The family will be given preferential rates for renting farm tools and oxen to compensate for the labor loss caused by the lack of manpower. The sons sent don't necessarily have to learn to read and write; they can also learn some skills to make a living. We'll say it's for studying, but what they actually learn isn't up to us to decide."
Her main purpose in holding this morning meeting was to use the excuse of setting up a school that could accommodate young women of marriageable age—a large fishpond couldn't possibly only raise a few fry. She also had no opportunity to meet young women from good families with a solid foundation.
They have no choice but to rely on themselves and raise the animals themselves.
If they can successfully deceive the family for two or three years, dragging things out until these young women have mastered the basics of cultivation, those families won't dare to cause any more trouble. Wouldn't it be a glorious thing for their family to produce a scholar with refined taste or a martial artist with courageous spirit? If they still want to cause trouble—
Will the ambitious little fish fry be willing to repeat the old path of generations of women? Will they be trapped for a lifetime in endless childbirth, endless farm work, endless despair, and a life where they can see the end from the beginning?
Chu Yao frowned and asked a very practical question.
"That's acceptable, but is the treasury's silver sufficient?"
Shen Tang: "..."
She took a deep breath, ignoring her bleeding heart, and said, "If we grit our teeth, we can always save some money. If that doesn't work, don't we still have our neighbor Shiwu? Anyway, smuggling is rampant, so why don't we take a bite out of this?"
Everyone: "..."
The two generals at Yonggu Pass did not quite agree.
"This won't do! We are ashamed to be associated with ten crows! We certainly can't raise a tiger to cause trouble. We'd rather starve these thieves to death!"
Upon hearing their thoughts, Gu Chi devised a strategy to appease them: "Generals, don't be hasty. This isn't about helping Shi Wu. If we can make money from Shi Wu, aren't we just spending the enemy's money to support our own troops? Then we can use those troops to plunder later..."
He smiled slyly: "...It's a wonderful thing too."
After thinking it over, the two generals felt much better.
Jiang Sheng already had a complete plan in mind, and asked, "If the young ones can be settled in this way, what about the older ones?"
Xun Zhen, playing the supporting role, asked, "Does the leader have a plan?"
Jiang Sheng said, "We're short-staffed right now. We could say the prefecture needs to hire some older, stable women to manage things, and that would be a good way to settle them down. But—what excuse can we use to screen them one by one?" That's not just a few people, it's tens of thousands!
This is a force that can't be reduced in size.
Shen Tang rested her chin on her hand and thought for a while, emptying her mind.
Suddenly, a brilliant idea flashed into my mind.
She slapped her thigh and blurted out, "Let's have mass nucleic acid testing!"
The crowd was puzzled.
What kind of acid?
Shen Tang slapped his forehead and explained, "What I mean is a universal health check-up, open to everyone regardless of age or gender. Under the guise of a free clinic by renowned doctors, we can provide free health check-ups for all the common people in Longwu County, and even give away some medicine for common illnesses. I think few people can refuse such a freebie. Our goal is to select talented young women, but simply targeting young women would be too obvious."
How to hide a leaf?
Throw it into the woods.
Everyone, especially the literary scholars, silently watched their lord, their eyes in unison for the first time—Lord, do you really know what you're saying? Originally, it was just screening women throughout the territory, now it's screening all people.
One hundred thousand people!!!
o((>ω<))o
Shiitake mushrooms participated in an event.
You might find it on the male-oriented channel.
P.S.: That event is basically a selection of best-selling books from the male-oriented homepage. A batch of female-oriented books are sent there to test the waters and see how the data goes. _(:з」∠)_ Although the book review section might be chaotic for a couple of days, it's not a big problem. It's free recommendations, it's just a small amount of money.
(End of this chapter)
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