Tang Dynasty: The beginning of the game is to touch the Princess Changle

The next day.

Li Tai summoned more than 100 guards from the manor and dug more than 30 large pits in an open space near the red brick factory.

Nowadays, there is a shortage of manpower. All villagers have been recruited to build roads, so only a dozen bricklayers can be invited from Chang'an.

The pits were surrounded by red bricks and then covered with cement mortar to prevent water seepage.

These large pits are used to soak papermaking raw materials, which is also the most time-consuming process in papermaking. The raw materials must be cleaned before soaking.

In addition, according to the floor plan drawn by Su Chen, a few more houses will be built.

Seven days later, in the evening.

Li Tai looked at the papermaking workshop that was about to be completed and nodded with satisfaction.

"Consult Su Chen to discuss recruitment and raw material procurement. As long as the manpower is complete, we can start work soon.

Hahaha..."

Li Tai laughed and walked towards the manor.

…

“Te…ang…tang!”

“Chi…ang…chang!”

When Li Tai came to the living room, he saw Princess Changle and Jin’er, each reciting some reading methods that he had never heard of.

“Lizhi, what are you reading?” Li Tai asked in confusion.

Changle picked up the first-grade Chinese textbook for elementary school and gave it to Li Tai, saying, “This is the pinyin that Su Chen asked me to learn.”

“Pinyin? What’s the use?” Li Tai asked after taking the Chinese textbook.

“According to Su Chen, if you learn these 26 pinyin letters, even illiterate people can learn by themselves through pinyin and master the pronunciation of words.”

“This pinyin is suitable for children to learn first.” Changle told Li Tai what Su Chen said.

“Oh? Lizhi, have you learned all of them?” Li Tai asked.

Changle shook her head, "The initial consonants are easy to learn, but the finals and nasal sounds need practice."

Su Chen taught them pinyin the day before yesterday. Some characters are completely different in pronunciation from the Tang Dynasty. Su Chen does not intend to change them, so he will use modern Mandarin as the standard.

Li Tai nodded. He was not very interested in this. This pinyin is mainly to teach people to read.

"Where are my elder brother and Su Chen now?"

Changle glanced at Li Tai and smiled, "They are waiting for you to make paper and print books. They plan to build a school in the manor. They are going to the east side of the manor. Fourth brother, go find them."

"Okay, I'll go now."

Li Tai put down the Chinese textbook and left quickly.

"Jin'er, study hard. Tomorrow, Miss Ben will also find them. You should teach them pinyin well and don't let the two girls be lazy.

This lady guesses that Su Chen intends to let you and me be teachers."

After Li Tai left, Princess Changle analyzed to Jin'er.

"Miss, Jin'er is very attentive, but some of the characters are very strange, with many strokes missing.

Not only that, this book is read from left to right, horizontally."

Jin'er touched her head and said in confusion.

Changle also thought: 'I wonder where Su Chen found this book? '

...

"Brother-in-law, your school is recruiting students to enroll, is it really free? This cost is not small!"

Li Chengqian asked Su Chen again.

Su Chen had said before that after he built the school, all students would not be charged any fees.

"Haha, not only free of charge, but also free food and accommodation!

This school is not a business, but for the purpose of popularizing education. As the prince, you must understand this point."

Su Chen said to Li Chengqian with good intentions.

The latter seemed to understand and nodded, "I understand. Does the school need teachers? I can arrange some learned people to come here to assist in teaching."

Su Chen nodded and smiled, "Teachers are definitely needed, but to be a teacher in my school, you must first be trained before you can take up the job."

"Training? Taking up the job?" Li Chengqian looked at Su Chen in confusion.

"Yes, what my school teaches is a little different from what you learn, and the teaching method is also different. Of course, we also teach the Four Books and Five Classics and Confucian classics."

Su Chen plans to divide the school into junior high school and elementary school. As for high school, he can't do it now.

The school offers courses: elementary school (three years) Chinese, mathematics, junior high school (three years) adds physics, chemistry, Tang law, and history.

The history textbooks plan to ask Li Shimin for help and order the great scholars in the court to compile textbooks. The history they know should be more complete and real than what we learn in modern times.

As for the teachers in the school, Su Chen also has a plan. The imperial examination will be held soon. After the results are announced, those failed scholars will be recruited and the court will give them an assistant teaching position.

Those imperial examination candidates are well-read people. As long as they are trained a little, they will have no problem serving as middle school and primary school teachers.

"By the way, brother-in-law, when you go back, please write a letter for me. I have something to do with His Majesty in the palace tomorrow.

Now the people of Chang'an are all repairing roads, and there is no one to work if we want to build a school!"

Su Chen can't find workers to build a school now. Li Tai still hired guards to build a paper mill..

Thinking that the court supports a large number of people who only eat but do not work every year, it is most appropriate to let them work.

"Okay, tell me the general content." Li Chengqian nodded and agreed.

However, he was careful this time. He still remembered that when Su Chen applied for funding for road construction, Li Shimin kicked him after reading the letter.

Li Chengqian planned to polish the letter.

"Let me ask you, how many prisoners are there in the prison of the Ministry of Justice of the Tang Dynasty, except for death row prisoners." Su Chen looked at Li Chengqian and asked.

Li Chengqian thought about it. He didn't know how many prisoners were held, but it must be a lot.

"Brother-in-law, you want to..." Suddenly Li Chengqian seemed to understand Su Chen's intention.

*There was labor service during the Tang Dynasty, and this article is fictional.

"Hehe, that's right. The court feeds them and they just waste food. They don't have to work every day. How can this be? Those people should be released to do hard labor.

You can also give them wages for their trades, so that when they are released from prison, they will not be penniless.

I call this 'labor reform'. Those who perform well can get a reduction in sentence." Su Chen said to Li Chengqian with a smile.

Not to mention other prisoners, there were 300 Qingyun Mountain bandits last time.

"Hahaha, good, labor reform, good!

Brother-in-law, it's getting late, let's go back, I will write it and you will present it to my father tomorrow."

Su Chen nodded, and the two turned around and saw Li Tai walking towards them.

"Brother, Su Chen, I heard from Li Zhi that you are going to build a school in the manor?" Li Tai asked.

"That's right, Qingque, how is your papermaking workshop going?" Li Chengqian asked with a smile.

"It will be finished tomorrow. Once we have enough manpower, we can start making paper at any time." Li Tai answered excitedly.

Li Tai looked at Su Chen and asked:

"Su Chen, how much is the appropriate wage for workers in the papermaking workshop?"

Su Chen was about to say 40 wen a day, but felt it was not appropriate because he didn't know how much paper was sold for in the Tang Dynasty.

"How much is a piece of paper I usually use?" Su Chen asked.

Li Chengqian and his brothers knew the price of paper in the Tang Dynasty. "You usually use four-foot paper, 600 wen a knife."

One knife? Su Chen said he didn't know how many sheets a knife was.

"One knife is no more and no less than 36 sheets, and each sheet of paper is equivalent to more than 16 copper coins." Li Tai answered again.

Li Chengqian said beside him: "It is often said that paper is 1,000 and silk is 800, so most people often use silk instead of paper to write."

Four feet? Su Chen thought of the paper he usually used and roughly knew it.

It is about 1.4 meters long and 0.6 meters wide.

"The wages of the paper mill are tentatively set at 40 wen per person per day, and the raw materials are purchased at 5 wen per 100 jin, mainly wheat straw, rice straw and bamboo."

Su Chen said after thinking.