Chapter 472 — Typhon's Advance
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
All along, Daniel had served not only as Gao Yang's eyes among the Sleepers, but also as his eyes within the Typhon Empire.
Though the old mage lived in seclusion, tucked away in a remote corner of Typhon and far from the empire's heart for many years, he was still a Typhon man—and as a mage he surely retained some measure of influence. The intelligence he could provide on the neighboring realm remained invaluable to Gao Yang. On the other hand, Typhon was a nation developing at breakneck speed, changing fast; its backwaters were not like Ansu's backwaters. Even with the lag in information, every inch of Typhon's soil was still subject to Emperor Luoyan's decrees—there could never be a situation like Ansu's, where the entire southern frontier had all but severed itself from the kingdom's heartland.
From Daniel, Gao Yang could learn a great deal about Typhon—not always promptly, but at least more reliably than the tales spun by adventurers and bards.
Daniel, for his part, felt somewhat relieved—relieved that his female apprentice had happened to make a trip to town and brought back no small amount of news. He dared not conceal anything now, and poured out every fresh report he possessed: "...Luoyan Augustus is expanding the army. He previously established a standing-soldier system to replace conscription, and now more than half of the Typhon Empire's forces consist of such standing soldiers, who undergo professional training..."
Gao Cen nodded slightly as he listened, and whenever he came upon something unclear, he would have the old mage stop so he could question him in detail.
He had already inquired of Daniel about many matters concerning Typhon, yet what he knew was still far from enough. The main reason was not that Daniel had concealed things in the past, but that the old mage himself did not understand anything beyond Typhon—to him, every circumstance of Typhon was simply natural common sense. Since Gao Heng had taken the initiative to ask, Daniel had no notion of which direction to report in, and the intelligence he provided was inevitably patchy and incomplete.
"...Recently Emperor Luoyan issued an order to establish additional schools, increasing the number of village teachers, and requiring peasants to learn to read in their spare time..."
Gao Shao frowned and tapped the table lightly, signaling the old mage to stop: "What is the literacy rate among Typhon's commoners now?"
Daniel answered with the utmost deference: "About forty percent of peasants can spell words for common grains and farm tools, and can read grain receipts; twenty percent can read simple notices or write a crude letter. The proportion has been rising all along."
"How long has literacy education been promoted?"
"Six years ago the emperor issued an edict lifting the ban on commoners learning to read, but at the time not many took the initiative to learn. It was only four years ago, when the emperor ordered schools established and teachers dispatched, that the number of literate people began to grow. But what truly made commoners willing to learn was the promulgation of the 'Field Contract Law'—peasants could lease imperial land and apply on their own to receive seed grain. To keep from being cheated, from being swindled of their money by scribes, more and more commoners began to take the initiative to learn to read..."
Gao Song's expression turned somewhat grim. The old mage watched the shifts in his face with great unease, but in the end Gao Yang nodded: "Continue."
"Yes... Right now, brimstone-acidification workshops are being added everywhere. Since last year, such acidification workshops have been multiplying in great numbers. Emperor Luoyan likely intends to establish them in all the grain-producing regions..."
Gao Yang cut Daniel off once again: "Stop—what is a brimstone-acidification workshop? By 'brimstone,' do you mean that white sedimentary rock mined near the coast?"