Roland went on to propose a four-year primary education throughout the country, and the mood of the cabinet remained stable.

The "four-year primary school" is considered to be the unified standard of all countries in Vares, and the first to establish this education system was the Yashan Empire, but the empire has not yet realized compulsory primary education, and it cannot support the expensive tuition fees if it is not for the wealthy family; The Grand Duchy of Baoswa, where warlords were constantly fighting, also did not implement compulsory primary education; The three princely states of Hailan, Fizhen and Canaan successively legislated that children over the age of eight were eligible to enter school for four years of publicly-funded education, but this did not fully meet the definition of "compulsory education", because it was not mandatory, and since public schools were mainly funded by church sponsorship, given that the Church of Pero tended to spend limited funds on unlimited church renovations, it is conceivable that there would not normally be schools in the backwoods without ornate churches.

Based on the above reality, when Roland proposed that "the Kingdom of Kolas should achieve four-year compulsory education within five years", "all children over the age of eight are obliged to attend primary school", and "it is recommended that children under the age of 14 be enrolled in tutoring", not to mention the collective emotions of the cabinet ministers who were out of control, even Rudolph couldn't help but suspect that his son was daydreaming.

"You wait first!" Rudolph interrupted Roland's words and asked angrily: "There are more than 5 million people in the Far East, and the total population in the age group of eight to fourteen is 300,000 or 400,000, according to your plan, children under the age of eight are recommended to go to school for compulsory schooling, and it is recommended that children under the age of 14 be enrolled in tutoring, how many primary schools to be built, how many teachers to hire to be enough, how much money will be spent for this, have you calculated these accounts?" ”

"In addition to these concerns raised by Your Majesty, we should also take into account the fact that the Far East is vast and sparsely populated, and it is difficult for children living in remote villages to have access to education, and it is impossible for us to build primary schools for all those villages hidden deep in the mountains." As the Minister of Culture and Education in the Cabinet, it is his duty to promote education, but he also feels that Roland's step is too big and it is really whimsical.

In the face of doubts, Roland seemed very calm, "Your Majesty, Mr. Merlin, I have considered all these difficulties you raised, and the problems are mainly concentrated in remote rural areas, right?" ”

"That's right." Mage Merlin nodded.

"Let's exclude the countryside for the time being, let's consider the towns first, there are a total of 320 large and small towns in the Far East with a population of more than 2,000, and the total urban population is about 2 million, and the capital city of Krasbourg accounts for nearly half of the total urban population.

Master Merlin stroked his long beard and thought for a while, and when he looked up, his eyes were a little more confident: "Give me 10 million gold dugas every year, and within three years, all cities and towns in the Far East will be able to achieve compulsory education." ”

"10 million gold duga a year, no problem, the education work in the town will be entrusted to you, the teacher, as for the rural education, I will try to solve it." Roland did not explain how he was going to solve it, and rural education was only a small part of the huge rural governance plan in his mind, which was too complicated to say and not yet suitable for publication.

"This 10 million education funds, excluding the countryside?" Master Merlin asked a little uneasily.

"This 10 million yuan is only used for urban education investment, and I will solve the funds for rural education myself." Roland smiled confidently.

"Cultivating farmland, developing industry and commerce, transportation construction, and promoting education all require a lot of investment, but our government has not had a stable fiscal revenue so far. Rudolph looked at the Chancellor.

A cold sweat broke out in Mr. Zahar's thinning hair, and he replied in embarrassment: "Your Majesty, it is not yet time to collect the autumn grain, and the commercial tax is only enough to maintain the daily expenses of the army and government agencies, and so many construction plans are implemented at once, is it ...... I'm afraid I can't afford it financially. ”

"So you can't help it?" Rudolph asked bluntly.

Zahar wiped his sweat and shook his head bitterly.

"Roland, is there anything you can do?" Rudolph turned to look at his son.

Roland glanced at Zahar first, thought for a moment, and nodded slightly.

Where does the money come from? This is a big problem.

Whether on Earth or in Varess, when two forms of civilization enter a similar stage of the industrial revolution in different paths, similar social phenomena will occur, such as the rise of the bourgeoisie, such as the rise of the nation-state.

The rise of any nation-state must always be accompanied by the primitive accumulation of capital, at the cost of colonial expansion, war reparations, foreign investment and aid, and by the inside, i.e., by increasing the rate of capital accumulation through the "scissors difference" between industry and agriculture. At present, the Kolas government does not have the ability to expand colonies abroad, and it wants to protect domestic agriculture, and it cannot tax the peasants too harshly.

"Issuance of Treasury bonds." Rolandy replied crisply.

"The key to issuing Treasury bonds is to boost investor confidence, otherwise the issuance will be very difficult." Zahar expressed implicit pessimism. He was a banker by training, and of course understood that the issuance of government bonds was a regular means of solving financial difficulties, but when Rudolph asked him just now, he did not say it, because he knew very well how difficult the road was.

To put it bluntly, the "Five-Year Plan" proposed by Roland is an outline that burns money everywhere, and the construction of infrastructure and compulsory education are all projects with huge investment and no short-term returns, not to mention whether the Kolas regime can maintain it for five years under the pressure of the empire, even if it can really hold on for five years, will the government have the money to pay off its debts after five years? Due to Roland's temperament to burn money and make nonsense, the answer is obviously not optimistic, and the risk of defaulting on national bonds is very high.

With Zahar's knowledge of the Far East's financial sector, few investors would be interested in such a high-risk junk bond, except for a handful of crazed gamblers. Since he was not sure of selling bonds, he did not dare to do this in front of Rudolph, but only commented slightly after Roland proposed the idea of issuing treasury bonds, hoping that His Royal Highness would wake up in time to realize that he was doing a stupid thing with a bleak prospect - if he really wanted to issue bonds, he should quickly cancel the absurd plan such as "compulsory education", so as not to scare away investors.

"Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Zahar, but I'd like to try it anyway." Roland smiled gently, but his words were unusually tough, "If Mr. Zahar doesn't mind, I will be responsible for the specific work of issuing treasury bonds this time, and whoever lacks confidence in our government, I will give him confidence and let him willingly take out the money to buy treasury bonds." ”