The iron ore in Shiluling was sent in a steady stream, making Li Tianyang happier these days than the holidays.

The pig iron smelter also worked day and night, and with the end of spring ploughing, the demand for labor in Bengang came to an end for a short time, which also made it possible for the smelter to work in three shifts.

Li Tianyang has never been a cruel person when facing his own members, even if these working natives are just slaves, Li Tianyang still gives these natives the treatment they deserve.

Because they never mistreated the indigenous slaves, gave them the right to share the fire among their families, and ensured them sufficient food and rest, although these indigenous slaves did far harder work than the Bengang people, they were honest when they actually worked, and did not add much trouble to Bengang.

Of course, the work of the pig iron smelter is still kept secret, and even the residents of Bengang do not know that the smelter emits billowing smoke all day long, nor does it know what is going on inside.

Low-key and low-key and low-key are the issues that Li Tianyang needs to pay attention to at this time, and the importance of pig iron resources, needless to say, Li Tianyang is also clear in his heart. It is precisely because he is aware of the importance of this matter to Bengang that Li Tianyang needs to limit this matter to a very small range, so as not to be known by outsiders.

Fortunately, Bengang itself is basically closed to the outside world, and outsiders who want to enter Bengang to visit still need Li Tianyang's approval, plus the vast majority of people working in the foundry today are indigenous slaves, and they are naturally unlikely to pass on this information if they have little freedom.

Not long after the pig iron casting plant was successfully built and put into use, a large-scale firearms foundry was established in a treacherous valley in the remote jungle of Bengang.

A large number of steel ingots produced from the pig iron casting factory were continuously sent here, and more than ten experienced cannon casting masters were dispatched by the craftsmen here, each with more than ten apprentices in the casting factory, while carefully operating the mold, while explaining various skills and details to the apprentices behind them.

The apprentices are all skilled students who graduated from the Bengang School, which is the so-called technical school students in later generations, and they are professional talents who have specialized in learning about smelting, melting and casting, so they learn the knowledge and skills taught by the master quickly.

Zhang Ziyi has been his teacher in Bengang all these years, and he almost has a feeling of being happy, and with Li Tianyang handing over the reading tasks of schoolchildren in Bengang, Jilonggang and other places to Zhang Ziyi, now Zhang Ziyi has even forgotten his dream of being a sergeant in the imperial examination, and he is full of only schoolchildren in this wild island.

Zhang Ziyi, who lacked father's love and grew up alone, showed a sense of responsibility when facing children who were young and well-read, even surpassing Li Tianyang, the actual leader.

In order not to let every school-age child in Bengang learn knowledge, whenever someone has a child who reaches the age of studying, he will personally come to the door to remind the other party, so that they can send the child to Bengang to study as soon as possible.

And as women read more, they are not worse than boys in terms of intelligence, and even in the early middle and early years, because women mature earlier than boys, girls generally have better grades than boys.

In this way, it has gradually changed Zhang Ziyi's attitude that Zhang Ziyi was no longer indifferent to girls' reading because of the influence of Confucianism and patriarchal thinking throughout the ages, but treated everyone equally, which also made basically no school-age school-age students drop out of school in Bengang.

Anyway, the first six years of study in Bengang couldn't cost these parents much money, and Mr.'s bundle was contracted by the Bengang government, without the support of tuition, and the families just bought the necessary textbooks, pens and ink for their children.

Bengang itself has a workshop for the production of pen, ink, paper and inkstone, the price of these things is so low that outsiders imagine, plus Bengang, Jilonggang and other places themselves have an excellent living environment, as long as they are willing to work hard, they can live a rich life in Bengang and other places, and adults are still willing to pay a little for education.

Not to mention that after learning knowledge, in order to find a better job in Bengang, with the increase in the number of graduates from Bengang Junior School, now Bengang workshops, governments and other places have begun to have requirements for the new members of it, one of the consistent points is that it must meet the six-year education of Bengang Junior School as the bottom line!

In this way, the common people, who have never been stupid in small things, are naturally more happy to send their children to Bengang Junior School to study, learn various skills from it, and have a good way out in the future.

The six-year system of the junior school, basically the students who graduate from the junior school, can almost read the vast majority of Chinese characters, which can be regarded as getting rid of the hat of illiteracy.

And in the last two years of these six years, according to the interests and achievements of these students, they either continue to study or acquire preliminary knowledge of the various skills in Bengang, such as casting, carpentry, blacksmithing, medicine, etc.

After six years of study, students with excellent grades and smart minds will naturally be recruited into intermediate schools to continue their studies in ancient literature, military affairs, mathematics and other more advanced knowledge; Those who did not show their talent in terms of grades were assigned to further their studies and studies in departments such as the Salesian Bureau and the Salesian Bureau according to the disciplines that they were interested in and were gifted in, and they actually began to master various skills until they became skilled craftsmen or healers.

Of course, these technicians or healers have not been given up, and even if they are working in actual positions, Li Tianyang has never stopped them from continuing their studies and wanting to learn new knowledge.

At night, students who want to continue their studies can improve themselves outside of work by enrolling in evening classes.

Of course, after all, these people have already worked, and Li Tianyang can no longer teach for free like before, which requires students to pay their own shackles, buy textbooks by themselves, and cherish this hard-won learning opportunity in order to improve their knowledge reserves.

Those students who enter the intermediate academy will study more professionally according to their interests and choices: mathematics, ancient literature, medicine, physics and chemistry, military affairs, etc.

After three years of study, these students will be assigned to practical jobs for further study, such as the Salesian Bureau Huang Youran and other surgical saints, the research and development institute under the talent of the research and development institute, the Hong Tang Aircraft Office, the secretariat, etc., and officially integrated into the Bengang team.

Of course, there are more advanced schools among them, but there are only two disciplines for the time being, that is, martial arts and ancient literature, and the students in these two disciplines can be said to be the top students among the top students in Bengang, and they are the chess pieces prepared by Li Tianyang for the future.

After they finish their studies, Li Tianyang will spend a lot of effort and energy to arrange a suitable identity for them, go to the Ming Dynasty to conduct civil and military examinations, and seek an official background.

One of the benefits brought by Li Tianyang's initiative to surrender to the Ming Dynasty is that Bengang and Jilong Gang were originally from bad backgrounds and were children of pirates, so they became innocent, and many homeless people also regained their identities.

Subsequently, their children can also participate in scientific research and martial arts, and they will finally have the possibility of soaring in the future.

Of course, at this time, because of Li Yongzhen's kindness, the roster of Bengang and Jilong Hong Kong under Li Tianyang is still being sorted out, and it is not possible to benefit it for the time being, but Li Tianyang believes that soon these official registers that prove the innocence of the people will fall into the hands of Li Tianyang.

However, when Nan Juyi heard about the prosperity of Bengang and the prosperity of the people from the confidants of the officials who came to make the list of Bengang, his mind began to move again.

At the beginning, he did not listen to the advice of the old general Shen Yourong and took Li Tianyang Hongtang under his command, but let him contact the eunuch party.

And when the henchmen talked about the prosperity of Bengang, Nan Juyi, without Li Tianyang knowing, Weifu visited and followed a few henchmen to Bengang under the pretext of making a roster.

Only when he really arrived in Bengang, Nan Juyi knew that Bengang had really become a Han territory, and what particularly moved him was that the schools in Bengang absorbed the entire Bengang school-age children to learn Confucian culture, even the girls.

This is probably what most of the literati want to do, although Nan Juyi has all kinds of selfishness, but as a son of Confucianism, he still wants to make a difference in his heart. But even Nan Juyi, who is the governor of Fujian, has no way to let all children learn cultural knowledge like Bengang.

The population and land between Bengang and its surrounding indigenous tribes can already build a new county seat, and even in terms of the population of Bengang, it has already met the requirements of the imperial court as a superior county.

Although there are a lot of indigenous people around Bengang, but from their daily life, it is not difficult to see that they are all headed by Bengang people, which are not at all like the ethnic minorities in Yunnan, Guizhou and other places, although they are nominally attached to the Ming Dynasty, in fact, they are based on the Tusi Tuguan system, and the basic implementation is that the ethnic minorities have autonomy, but there is just one more nominal court.

With so much population and reclaimed land in the Ming Dynasty, Nan Juyi's heart surged, and he really wanted to take Bengang under the rule of the governor of Fujian, so that it could be regarded as opening up the territory for the Ming Dynasty and leaving his own footprints in the history of the Ming Dynasty, so as to make up for the merits of missing Hongtang at the beginning.

(End of chapter)