The gate-valve aristocracy that had persisted from the late Han until now monopolized political power through the official selection system.

Sima Zhao killed the Emperor in the street and forcefully rose to power. To control the court, he killed quite a few people. The famous Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove—weren’t people like Xi Kang among them beheaded by him?

Yet even so, the Sima family couldn’t escape the gate-valve aristocracy. They could kill individual people but couldn’t eliminate the gate-valve aristocracy entirely.

So to consolidate their rule, the Sima family had no choice but to share governance with the gate-valve aristocracy.

However, after Emperor Hui took the throne, the gate-valve aristocracy began being harvested like chives.

Each princely rebellion harvested a crop. Those killed most severely were when Shi Le and Liu Cong moved south, especially Shi Le’s interception and killing of Sima Yue in that battle—seventy percent of court officials and eighty percent of Luoyang’s gate-valve aristocracy had people die at his hands.

Those who survived were only the old, weak, women and children. In that battle, half the Jin nation’s gate-valve aristocracy fell. In several subsequent major battles, the gate-valve aristocracy again suffered countless deaths. So those remaining now were not many, and those with influence at court even fewer.

Also because they had previously fled south in large numbers, once Zhao Hanzhang recovered territories she worked from the bottom up, opening schools everywhere while also counting the population, leaving the gate-valve aristocracy who had left their ancestral lands and lost their land base without foundation.

Now the most powerful gate-valve family in the Hua nation was just one—the Zhao clan.

Even the Wang clan that had once flourished was now fragmented, powerless to lead the gate-valve aristocracy in contending against imperial authority.

So Zhao Hanzhang’s recruitment examinations were implemented very smoothly.

Recruitment examinations were the greatest weapon for breaking the monopoly of gate-valve aristocracy, and the new educational system was the soil laid beneath the recruitment examinations.

China’s millennia-long knowledge monopoly had originally only a very thin thread connecting it to the outside, relying on some people’s conscience and that saying of Confucius—”teaching without discrimination”—to sustain it. But now it had fully opened up, with thousands upon thousands of thin threads connecting to the outside, transmitting its nutrients through these threads outward, allowing people throughout the realm, regardless of birth, to absorb this portion of nutrients through schools and slowly grow stronger.

Zhao Hanzhang didn’t want to follow Huang Chao’s old path of physically eliminating the gate-valve aristocracy.

All things in this world have two sides. Without gate-valve aristocracy, scholar-gentry and noble meritorious officials would replace them as the other face opposing ordinary commoners.

So what she consistently did was just one thing—guarantee the interests of the vast majority of commoners in this world, upholding the legitimacy of their rights through law.

No need to be overly fixated on eliminating certain people. Since there are two sides, guaranteeing the interests of the other side and strengthening them—wouldn’t that suppress the other side?

This was what education needed to do.

The number of commoners was very large. Among tens of millions of people, as long as one in a thousand walked from elementary school to county school, then to provincial school and the Imperial Academy, finally standing in the court hall to fight for their interests, her goal would be achieved.

She hoped that one day, seated in this great hall and in government offices everywhere would be officials from all classes and all fields. Their advancement path would be relatively fair—then she would be satisfied.

So education was established as one of the most important national policies, before economics, standing alongside agriculture.

As everyone knew, Chinese agriculture had always been viewed as the national foundation. The nation’s basic tax revenue relied entirely on agriculture.

People could live without clothing or housing, but uniquely could not be without food. So protecting agriculture was to preserve life.

Zhao Hanzhang elevated education to a position as important as agriculture, showing how much she valued education.

She couldn’t guarantee every child could attend county school, but could strive to let every child attend the three-year elementary school.

In three years, they could learn common characters, learn the most basic addition and subtraction arithmetic, easily count to one hundred, and also learn many famous sayings about being a good person.

To allow them to learn the most useful things in limited time, things that might even influence their entire lives, Zhao Hanzhang ordered the Ministry of Rites and Imperial Academy to compile textbooks together, personally going to supervise and providing guidance.

The newly compiled teaching materials were repeatedly rejected. Even Zhao Cheng with his good temper couldn’t help feeling somewhat annoyed.

He Xun was nearly bald from frustration. He couldn’t help appealing to Zhao Cheng, “Zitu, why not enter the palace to carefully ask Her Majesty what kind of textbooks she wants?”

Xun Fan silently pushed forward a stack of papers.

He Xun no longer looked at them. “Her Majesty says she wants common characters learned within three years, and also wants principles of how to be a person and conduct oneself taught. We separated the ‘Thousand Character Classic’ and ‘Analects’ into the curriculum, then she said the content was too heavy and children probably couldn’t learn it.”

“We reduced the content, and because vernacular varies by region, to unify refined speech we annotated with standard pronunciation and meaning. Her Majesty again felt we were teaching too slowly, and moreover the knowledge was too scattered, not conducive to memorization. She also said something about too little substantive content.” He Xun pushed that stack of requirements back. “I can already recite Her Majesty’s requirements backwards and forwards. I don’t see which version doesn’t meet requirements, yet our drafts have been rejected five times!”

He wanted to know her more specific requirements—for instance, among these five submitted versions, exactly what was she dissatisfied with?

But Xun Fan wasn’t anxious, and even consoled, “Right now schools still use the old teaching materials. There are still several months until August nineteenth when school starts. We just need to submit the draft two months in advance—we can make it.”

He Xun considered himself calm and steady enough, yet didn’t expect Xun Fan to be even more steady than him. He couldn’t help turning to look at Zhao Cheng.

Zhao Cheng lowered his eyes in thought. After a moment he raised his head, resolute. “I will go see Her Majesty in person.”

They could afford to slack off, but he couldn’t be so negligent. No matter what, he had to write out this set of teaching materials within two months.

Zhao Cheng immediately entered the palace.

Zhao Hanzhang had long been waiting for him. He had barely opened his mouth when Zhao Hanzhang said, “Have you ever taught rural children aged seven to ten?”

Zhao Cheng frowned. “This minister has taught both fifth and sixth year students.”

“Those who can stand out from elementary schools to enter county schools are already somewhat smarter than ordinary children,” Zhao Hanzhang said. “What I want now is for three-year students to not waste their time at school, to be able to understand eighty percent of what teachers teach. This eighty percent includes simple arithmetic, the common characters they’ll use their entire lives, and some most basic principles of being a good person—it’s that simple.”

This was not simple at all!

Zhao Cheng’s face was solemn. “Your Majesty, they only have three years, and moreover, you want us to make learning enjoyable…”

“Happiness is the source of learning,” Zhao Hanzhang said. “I don’t want them to stop at just third grade. After three years, some children will enter county schools to continue studying, but more children will either voluntarily or passively return home to farm.”

“This doesn’t mean they stop there. Now isn’t like before—my gazettes and newspapers are scattered everywhere. In the future there will be more and more paper media. They can come to know the broader world through newspapers, learn more knowledge.”

“Books are also becoming cheaper and cheaper. As long as they have the will, with just a little money they can buy the books they want and continue studying,” Zhao Hanzhang said. “So I also want you to teach them a heart for learning, unyielding to hardship, unyielding to fate.”