Mythical Three Kingdoms

Turning waste into treasure is a fairly good strategy, though using it here seems a bit like cheating, but that’s not too important now.

”Why do you need so many middle-level cadres?” Xun Yu frowned and asked. He was not interested in anything else and directly pointed out the crux of Chen Xi’s previous words.

”Well, it’s to control the aristocratic families. Haven’t you noticed that some aristocratic families always want to cause trouble? Although they can think straight, their actions are not always above board, especially when compared to their intellect,” Chen Xi said with a twitch of his lips, giving a quite sufficient reason.

”That is indeed a reason, but do you have enough middle-level positions to distribute to those people? With your current demands, the scale required is extremely large. Can you arrange such a scale of middle-level positions?” Xun Yu continued to ask with a frown.

”Maybe in the short term, you can indeed suppress the aristocratic families and arrange positions, but over time, if more middle-level cadres are supplemented, how will you arrange them? You’ve given them the ability to get out of poverty, but then blocked that possibility. What will be the result of the discrepancy between reality and ideals?” Chen Qun calmly looked at Chen Xi and said.

”The discrepancy between reality and ideals is too great, and the situations that can arise are limited to a few: yielding to reality, continuing to work hard to supplement oneself to strive toward ideals, or being dissatisfied with reality and blaming everything on society,” Chen Xi shrugged, saying that such situations are commonplace in future generations, even though there are many branches, mainly these three.

”Why do you still do this when you understand the situation better than us?” Xun Yu asked in confusion. Chen Xi was obviously calculating in his mind, ”Or should it be said that you have a solution? If not, I lean toward the second option.”

”You probably know the difficulty of implementing the first one. If you really want to forcefully implement it, you can’t avoid the aspect of teachers no matter what,” Chen Qun shook his head and said, ”In this case, even within ten to twenty years, it will be difficult for you to achieve results.”

Chen Xi nodded, acknowledging the fact that his current limitations are about the number of teachers. The food issue and textbook problems are no longer issues; the cost he can afford, but the problem with teachers is completely different.

”If you’re using this method to select officials, I think it’s better to stop now,” Xun Youi, who had been silent all along, spoke up at this moment.

”I also think so. Although there’s an inherent problem in the current method of selecting officials, as someone at my current level, I also feel that there’s a huge gap between the knowledge in books and practical work. It’s a significant problem to have high standards but low abilities,” Jia Xu, who was previously at a distance, rode over and said.

”Being capable of governing shouldn’t depend heavily on academic achievements but rather on political achievements, and since the organizational structure has been established, even we can’t arbitrarily undermine the rules. I believe you understand better than us,” Guo Jia also spoke at this time. He was interested in Chen Xi’s education methods, but the first scheme proposed by Chen Xi had a huge flaw.

”You two stop messing around; this has nothing to do with you. You both can be think tanks, but fool others with internal affairs, not me,” Chen Xi said irritably.

Guo Jia and Jia Xu rolled their eyes, acknowledging that although Chen Xi’s words made sense, their previous statements were not flawed.

”The disadvantage of your first method is too obvious, and we cannot afford such turmoil at present,” Chen Qun advised, ”As for the second method, you can still maintain the knowledge from books. Regarding survival capabilities, you can extend the time; currently, there’s no lack of money and grain.”

”If necessary, you can even select outstanding students from within, filter them from Mengxue to primary school, secondary school, university for elite education comparable to aristocratic families, and even train them as small officials before graduation,” Chen Qun arranged a path for Chen Xi beforehand to prevent future pitfalls.

”That’s indeed a way,” Chen Xi showed a compromising expression, and both Chen Qun and Xun Yu visibly relaxed. In reality, little did they know that Chen Xi’s current objective was exactly Chen Qun’s plan, and in the future, if a lot of middle-level positions are needed outside the country, military transition to civilian positions would be an option!

Moreover, the second educational approach involves a younger age, destined to become a national type of education later on. Therefore, in the later stages, after soldiers retire, targeted training can be done to send them to the Central Asian Region as civil servants without much pressure.

Anyway, Chen Xi aims for governance and stability. Such officers who have experienced battlefield slaughter are certainly more useful in the unstable areas compared to middle-level civil servants; at least these officers have no qualms about decisive action.

Currently, Chen Xi cannot implement military-civilian transitions because nine out of ten soldiers in this generation are illiterate.

Even though Chen Xi is diligently working on literacy within the army, one aspect is that adults are not very malleable, and on the other, very few scholars are willing to teach knowledge to the big-hearted army people. Just think of the many Yellow Turban Commanders; up to now, Liao Hua is the only one truly successful in studying. Others, like Zhou Cang, can only write their names, and the better ones could recognize over a hundred characters.

If such people were to transition to civil service, Chen Xi feels the Han Dynasty would be racing towards ruin, so currently, retiring soldiers mainly become Tuntian Soldiers or take on roles as government officials in various parts. For Chen Xi, this generation of ordinary people is basically beyond help.

Just thinking about the situation in new territories was enough for Chen Xi to decide not to send those fresh graduates from colleges who know nothing over there; using military transitions to civilian positions would be great. In chaotic places, toughness is essential.

”Alright then, let’s go with the second option. Although the first option is crucial to my grand strategy, I haven’t decided yet, so let’s use the second option for supplementing in the meantime,” Chen Xi frowned slightly, showing some displeasure.

”Have you prepared the civil officials required to govern various places after stepping out of the country so early?” Jia Xu transmitted his voice to Chen Xi.

”Just bluffing a bit and scoring some points from Xun Wenruo and the others. As for preparing civil officials necessary for stepping out of the nation, I have been preparing since the Mount Tai Era,” Chen Xi transmitted with a twitch of his lips, causing Jia Xu to sigh at these words.

Looking back at any matter to the Mount Tai Era, Jia Xu couldn’t help but lament Chen Xi’s incredibly far-reaching foresight, planning policies to be used after a unified empire during a time when things had yet to stabilize.

Handling matters like this, if anything ever causes Chen Xi to panic, Jia Xu could only say one thing: Chen Xi, have you perhaps forgotten something again?