Chapter 726 — Solid Gold and Silver
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 5
Being addressed as "Ancestor, Ancestor" over and over had somehow drawn his own state of mind into a subtle elder's mode.
But looked at from another angle... making the ever-calm, ever-elegant Hedy wear such a dazed expression seemed to hold a certain pleasure of its own.
Watching Hedy's expression shift from dumbfounded to flustered, Gao Yang felt his mood inexplicably lift, and the pressure brought on by seeing so many documents dissolved in an instant. Then, before the eldest granddaughter before him could let her expression collapse any further, he waved a hand: "It's nothing—I just said it offhand. What are these documents?"
Hedy had no idea what had just happened, but she felt as though she had somehow dodged a disaster, and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She set the papers on the desk of the Xuanshen Sect: "An advance report on the construction of the Imperial Academy and the new-style schools on the Holy Spirit Plain. There are also documents concerning the Western Region railway project—the Civil Administration Office has processed them according to procedure, but the key sections still require your personal review."
Gao Yang thought for a moment, and suddenly felt a renewed urge to inquire about Hedy's marital prospects...
Two seconds later, he reined in these somewhat scattered thoughts, reached out for the thick stack of documents, and asked casually, "Have the mages and scholars who relocated from Saint Sunil last week been properly settled? What do you make of them?"
"They have all been settled properly," Hedy said with a nod. "As for my assessment... judging by individual learning and ability, those capable of serving the royal household or entering the royal capital's Scholars' Association are all masters of the highest caliber; their competence is beyond question. But if they are to integrate into Cecil's new order, every one of them still has a long road ahead, and not a few will face elimination."
"...An inevitable process," Gao Cen said as he leafed through the pages in his hand. "But we must still reform and win over as many as possible—all who can be converted must be converted, insofar as we are able. We are still short on intellectuals. Mind you, the admission standards for all personnel in the education departments must not be relaxed; the two reviews and two examinations must not change. Those old-school intellectuals who pass the preliminary reformation but fail the two reviews and two examinations can be sent to do research, or work as technicians in the factories, but they must never enter the schools. This must not be forgotten."
Hedy lowered her head. "Yes."
The Empire had been founded, and the land ruled by Cecil had grown from a cramped, barren patch into a vast domain. Unprecedented resources and manpower now flowed across Hedy's desk and those of every department in the Civil Administration Office—but after the first excitement and elation, Hedy had come to realize that beneath this seemingly abundant surface, shortages of every kind remained. What the Ancestor intended to build was a brand-new nation, not to inherit a rotten kingdom and play the comfortable sovereign. The legacy of the fallen nation of Ansu needed conversion and selection before it could serve any use again.
The great influx of intellectuals from the northern regions would resolve the critical talent shortage in the development of arcanomechanical technology, but before that, these intellectuals would have to undergo an ideological transformation in addition to building up the new knowledge system. The so-called two reviews and two examinations were Gao Yang's hard standards for the education departments' absorption of talent: a review of grave stains and misdeeds, a review of personal information, an examination of academic ability, and an examination of ideological conversion. Only after passing all of these trials was one permitted entry into the new-style academies established by the Empire.