In this era, it was common for officials from neighboring states and counties to move around from time to time. In addition to official business, it is more about visiting and traveling, and meeting friends in literature. Du Zhongxiao has been an official for nearly ten years, and he has never encountered it, because when he was in Yongcheng, his official position was low, and he was poor on Hedong Road. Another reason is that he is not good at communicating, and he has no literary talent, and he will not come to things, and he will not do elegant things such as playing landscapes.

According to the practice of this era, when the four Zhizhou arrived at the Iron Prison, they should be arranged to visit Qingliang Temple, and then go to pay tribute to the ancient Kunyang City, an ancient battlefield that changed history. Du Zhongxiao couldn't do this kind of thing, and because of the limited time, he could only let them visit the iron prison.

On the second day, after breakfast, Du Zhongxiao and Su Song took the four of them out of the yamen and went to the nearby barracks.

If it was in the industrial society of later generations, it would definitely be necessary to visit the factory first, or even mainly to see the factory. In this era, the first thing an official's performance is the people's livelihood, and when an official understands a place, the first thing to look at is the people's life.

At this time, the barracks were already at work, and the barracks seemed a little deserted, and there were not many pedestrians on the streets, all of them were old and young and women.

Looking at the neat streets and houses, Yan Shu said: "The houses here are built like a chessboard, and every family looks the same. If you are an outsider, you are afraid that you will get lost when you get here. It's so convenient, but it's less wild. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "Xianggong, this is a barracks, and the family of the iron supervisor lives in it, and the most densely populated place, there is really no wild interest." ”

The crowd laughed together. The aesthetic tastes of the literati and artists are incompatible with industry. This is the first industrial area of the Great Song Dynasty, not to mention that there is no wild interest, and even the rural atmosphere is not at all. Yan Shu casually discussed, but Du Zhongxiao was too serious.

Du Zhongxiao couldn't help but be serious. The four people who came, the lowest official in the previous one also had a knowledge system, and Yan Shu was the prime minister several times, and he had a great influence in the imperial court. When they come here, their impression is very important, and it will even directly affect the imperial court policy.

The streets of the barracks have been paved with slag, drainage ditches have been dug on both sides, and flowers and trees have been planted on the sides, which are clean and tidy. Walking on the street, the scenery on both sides is single, and before you know it, you have walked a distance.

About 200 paces, suddenly there were no houses in front of them, and a small garden appeared. In the middle is a pond with a rockery, a large lotus flower planted in the water, and a pavilion in the middle. There are many flowering trees planted around it, and it is spring, and many flowers are already in full bloom.

It is very lively here, and in the small garden in the middle, there are many women gathered, doing their work and chatting at the same time. There were many children running around, playing games and laughing. There are many vendors at the intersection, some selling vegetables and meat, as well as selling all kinds of snacks and toys.

There are two rows of shops in the garden, one south and one north. The shops on the north side are tavern groceries, clothes, shoes and hats, and there are a few food stalls outside. The south side sells paper, ink, pens, inkstones, books, calligraphy and paintings. In the middle of a large house, the door was wide open, and there were a few old people sitting inside, drinking tea and chatting. In a few houses on the other side, the sound of reading aloud came out, as if it was a village school.

Song Qi said: "Although there is no wild interest here, there is a lively market. Judgment, what is here? ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "Back to Xianggong, for every 500 households here, there is such a place, which is regarded as a market and convenient for residents." This small garden is a place for them to play and rest, the shops on the north side sell some daily groceries, and the stalls around are for the hawkers to do some small business, so they don't have to go out of the barracks to cross the river to buy. The south side sells pen, ink, pen and inkstone, and the one in the middle is the old man of Lizheng Village to discuss and deal with local affairs. The village elders are elected by the households, and they take turns to be on duty there, and the yamen makes up some money and food every month. On the other side is the school, which teaches children enlightenment. All children over the age of six and under the age of 12 are required to go there for three years of study, with subsidies from the government and no tuition fees. ”

Ouyang Xiu was taken aback: "Could it be that everyone here is enrolled in school and has books to read?" ”

Du Zhongxiao nodded: "Not bad." In fact, I can't teach many things, I can recognize thousands of words, and I can just read a rough book. ”

"This is already remarkable—" Ouyang Xiu nodded repeatedly. Although he was born in a family of eunuchs, his father died early and he was poor at an early age, relying on his uncle's family. When I was a child, I relied on my mother to draw on the ground, and the conditions were very difficult. In fact, when Ouyang Xiu's father was alive, because he divorced and remarried, he did not treat the children born to Ouyang Xiu's ex-wife, and Ouyang Xiu's conditions were not much better if he did not die. On the contrary, her stepmother was born in a scholarly family, and she had no prejudice against Ouyang Xiu and taught carefully.

Sighing at his life experience, Ouyang Xiu was very emotional about the enrollment of everyone here, and felt that it was a great virtue and politics.

Liu Zhi looked at the children laughing and playing in the garden, stroked a handful of white beards and said, "From six to twelve years old, I will enter school for three years, and what will happen after three years?" If there is no one to teach, it will be a pity after all. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "This is just a place of enlightenment, if you learn well, there will be exams after three years, and then you will go to other schools." As long as you have a skill and study for a few years, you will work in the iron prison. If there is an article that is done well, go to the state school and county to learn. Those who are really useless and stubborn will have no choice but to fend for themselves. ”

In this era, there were no conditions for free compulsory education, and the fact that the iron supervisor could provide three years of free education was already a great virtue and politics. In three years, you should learn more than 1,000 words and be able to do simple math. As long as it is over, you can go to the school of the Iron Supervisor and further study according to your personal interests and parents' plans. In general, in the future, workers will be workers, and better will be technicians, but in the future, it will depend on the development of the iron prison. As for those who read the scriptures and make a fuss, they naturally have a state school and county school with a national system, and they will be admitted to the Jinshi in the future, which belongs to another system.

If you can't stand out in this education system, then you can only arrange your life by your family, and it has nothing to do with the iron prison. There is a shortage of people in the iron prison, whether it is a technician or a laborer, he will not recruit from those who have been eliminated by education, and would rather recruit from other places.

The iron supervisor is a factory, and strictly speaking, it does not care about the life, old age, sickness and death of workers. Pay them according to the salary system, how to support their families, is the worker's own business. Even the barracks here are the assets of the iron prison, and no one in the family is working in the iron prison, and the iron prison is to be taken back.

In later generations, all kinds of insurance, employment subsidies, and so on, were not available in the Iron Prison. Strictly speaking, those treatments are social subsidies to participants, and social resources are tilted towards specific groups of people. That kind of system was formed because there were various reasons and it had gone through countless struggles and games, and it did not represent either advanced nor necessary. Compared with this era, the degree of advanced productivity is unparalleled, and it can provide wages that far exceed the average level of society, as long as more money is enough.

Infrastructure, from schools to roads, is no longer part of the Iron Supervision Factory, but is a matter of the local government. Even if it is not in the iron prison, it will slowly spread in other places under its rule. It is only related to local finances, and has nothing to do with whether or not there is an identity of an iron supervisor.

Even if there is an iron superintendent, the local government has abundant financial revenue, and the iron superintendent can only provide three years of free education. At the beginning of the year, everything was negotiable, but after three years of exams, I was still able to sit in on them, and the area around the classroom was not a forbidden area. In fact, there are some people who are willing to study now, because they are over the age of 12 and cannot go to school, so they stand outside the window and listen every day. When everything is perfect, it is not allowed to sit in on the audit. If you can't pass the exam and want to continue studying, you can only hire a teacher from your family and go to a private school.

The education provided by the government is, firstly, universal, and secondly, fair, and the fairest thing is the examination. If you get in, you won't be able to get in, and if you don't go to school, you won't have to eat. The foundation of public education is the examination, because there is an imbalance of resources, some schools are good, and some schools are poor. If you are gifted and willing to work hard, you should naturally receive a good education. If it is not based on this, it must be unfair, and all other fairness is fake.

On a regional basis, there are examination immigrants, the Jinshi exam in this era, and the college entrance examination in later generations, there are never fewer such people. Shrink the area to a smaller size, and you have a school district house. The housing price of school district housing is high, as long as the time is long enough, the good school district housing must be all rich and noble, and the poor people deserve to receive poor education, and the resources of basic education are originally shared by the society.

Adding other content to the exam, just like Taizu let the horns determine the champion, will inevitably reduce the significance of the exam. The same is true for the sports and art points in later generations, and if you have expertise, go to the school where you cultivate your expertise, and don't mix it into general education.

Fairness is determined by examinations, which must be supplemented by other education systems, and test scores do not represent everything. At every stage, there are people who do not perform well in the exam for various reasons, or lack of effort, or other reasons. After time, maybe you will wake up and be reborn. The so-called prodigal son does not change his money, and if he does not pass the test, he is not necessarily a talent. Then you have to go to other education systems to make up the foundation, and then pass the exam to get the next stage of education.

The same is true for employing people, passing a certain level of examination only means that they have reached the level of that level of examination, but not the future.

The core of this is that free education is a social resource, and fairness is the first priority. The disadvantages of the test decision to stay are made up for by other education systems, rather than pouring water into free education.

Whether it is the employment of iron supervisors or these social infrastructures, Du Zhongxiao has always adhered to this principle. Yingtian and Tiejian are both for the purpose of arranging the decommissioned Fiber Stretch Army. The camp field is actually divided into fields, because the Xiang army is raised by the imperial court, and the imperial court provides the means of survival after being decommissioned. But their families and descendants are not under the care of the camp and the field. The same is true of the iron supervisor, who comes here, arranges work after the probation, and goes to the camp to do field work if it is not suitable. The camp recruits the right talents, and the families of the people who work in it will not take care of them. Just like the various side businesses in the camp, the iron supervisor only provides some loans, and the iron supervisor does not interfere with their operation and profits.