I Am Truly Not a Treacherous Minister Your Majesty

Chapter 6: Suggestion

When Qin Ji came to Xia Yuxiao, the people around them finally noticed the two of them.

However, they didn’t dare to directly ask the emperor, and besides, it wasn’t unusual for Qin Ji to talk to the emperor about things others couldn’t hear. So, they just kept an eye out, hoping to catch some noteworthy information, but they didn’t foolishly ask the emperor what he discussed with the Grand Commandant.

“What’s the matter? You still want me to go over?” Xia Yuxiao handed Qin Ji a cup of wine with a smile and said in a low voice.

“How dare I, Your Majesty. It was a misunderstanding by my guard,” Qin Ji hurriedly said. “Your Majesty, I have something to discuss with you.”

“Do we need to avoid others?”

Xia Yuxiao glanced at the people below and asked softly.

“It would be best to avoid others a bit; it’s not good for too many people to hear this.”

“Alright, then follow me.” She said, standing up.

Everyone present noticed the emperor standing up and quickly prepared to stand up as well, but Xia Yuxiao gestured for them to sit down: “My beloved ministers, continue drinking and eating. I have some matters to discuss with the Grand Commandant, and I will join you for the banquet later.”

Since the emperor said so, the ministers naturally couldn’t refuse. They all expressed that the emperor could go without worry, and they would await his return.

Xia Yuxiao and Qin Ji walked along the corridor, followed by Ling Yan and several Dragon Guards to ensure their safety.

“Alright, let’s talk here,” Xia Yuxiao pointed to a pavilion built by the corridor and sat down. “What do you want to say?”

“Nothing much, Your Majesty. I just wanted to chat with you.” Qin Ji sat in the pavilion, smiling.

Not long after they sat down, a Dragon Guard brought over two exquisite small bowls.

In the bowls were soft and bouncy cold cakes, topped with brown sugar, still emitting a cool mist, looking quite refreshing and delicious.

“Chatting with the ruler of a country, you are quite interesting.” Xia Yuxiao said with a smile.

However, Qin Ji didn’t show any happiness because of her smile. He just quietly looked at Xia Yuxiao.

After a long time, he finally spoke:

“Your Majesty, what do you think of Prince Rongsheng’s words?”

Silence.

The air seemed to solidify. Xia Yuxiao looked at Qin Ji, her eyes were very calm, making it hard to see what she was thinking. However, Qin Ji knew that she was probably a bit surprised, or rather, a bit unable to react.

The matter of King Rongsheng had basically come to an end now. Xia Yuxiao had always kept the death of King Rongsheng in her heart. Qin Ji, of course, knew Xia Yuxiao’s thoughts because the feelings between King Rongsheng and her were not fake. The siblings had once supported each other to get to where they were now, but for the stability of the political situation, she had to make a cruel decision.

So when Qin Ji mentioned King Rongsheng, she would inevitably be a little at a loss.

Xia Yuxiao took a bite of the cold cake in front of her and then said lightly, “You should have heard King Rongsheng’s arguments before his death. They were nothing but demagogic words. Our Great Xia’s thousand-year national destiny has never been slack for a moment. How could he understand?”

“Do you really think so?” Qin Ji asked.

He didn’t know Xia Yuxiao’s thoughts, but he knew that Xia Yuxiao could deny anything King Rongsheng said or did, but King Rongsheng’s evaluation of Great Xia was very fair.

Yes, Great Xia’s development was very slow.

A thousand-year national destiny represented that the Xia family had always firmly controlled the imperial power for a thousand years. Successive emperors had been striving to govern Great Xia, but a country that had existed for a thousand years was not much different from other countries, only its size had expanded a lot…

Strangely, in such a situation where domestic productivity needed to be developed, Great Xia had always maintained an extremely large standing army. Its military strength almost made the surrounding countries tremble with fear. This scale of the army also greatly restricted Great Xia’s productivity.

There were no real enemies of equal strength around, and the country was not in such chaos that it needed an army of more than a million. What were these troops for? During the reign of the previous emperor, Qin Ji checked, and Great Xia’s army had been continuously expanded from the initial 300,000. By the time the previous emperor passed away, Great Xia already had a huge army of 1.06 million.

1.06 million, with the military quality of Great Xia’s soldiers, was this not to confront other intelligent races?

“Does it matter what I think?” Xia Yuxiao raised her head and said, then continued, “Great Xia has its own situation, and I have my own thoughts. King Rongsheng’s ideas are not necessarily wrong, but the current Great Xia is not ready.”

“Is it a matter concerning Great Xia?”

“To be precise, it is more important than a single country. We cannot fail to consider our descendants.” Xia Yuxiao said, “At least for now, the way I am taking is a relatively stable one. What do you think of what I am doing now?”

“Very well, Your Majesty. I find it difficult to find a second person who can compare with Your Majesty.”

“Are you flattering me?” Xia Yuxiao smiled, then pointed outside the corridor, pointing outside the palace, “Qin Ji, the people of Great Xia are not consumables, nor are they tools. If possible, I also hope to make everyone happy. But this is not realistic, so I can only minimize the losses as much as possible. And you are one of my arms, the empire needs your help.”

“So, if you also agree with King Rongsheng’s views, then Qin Ji, I might disappoint you. I am not that kind of wise ruler, nor can I spread benevolence everywhere.”

“I understand.” Qin Ji nodded, looking at the sky above, “I know that Great Xia still has many problems to solve.”

“Did you want to chat with me today just to ask what I think of King Rongsheng’s words?”

“Ah, that’s secondary,” Qin Ji remembered his question at this moment, “I want to ask Your Majesty, what do you think about education?”

“Education?” Xia Yuxiao pondered for a moment, then gave her answer, “The education currently implemented in Great Xia cannot be applied to the common people. Achieving education on the scale of the entire Great Xia is a very difficult task.”

Her meaning was very clear.

The education in Great Xia had always focused on literature, politics, and also involved archery and horsemanship. These studies could currently only be enjoyed by those who were well-off and had no worries about food and clothing.

She was not stubborn. In fact, she had seen her brother’s suggestions on education planning. The ideals proposed were beautiful, but for Great Xia, it was still difficult to achieve at present.

“Your Majesty, our country currently has private schools mainly for private tutoring, official schools mainly run by the government, and ‘sect’ education mainly run by various cultivation sects. The first two are mainly to cultivate talents that meet the needs of Great Xia, while the latter is to cultivate practitioners.”

Qin Ji casually picked up three small stones and placed them together.

“I have also considered before, if the domestic situation stabilizes a bit, whether to try to promote more education in Great Xia. At least, Great Xia indeed needs more talents now. From the results of this exchange, we have already fallen behind in many aspects. Although we and the Western Empire are only good at different fields, this is enough to show that Great Xia currently lacks talents in various aspects.”

Qin Ji said this.

Education, if we want to promote the progress of a country, this step is indispensable. Although Da Xia has various education systems, these are only for a very small number of people, and the vast majority of people do not even have the opportunity to receive education.

Qin Ji did not expect to implement compulsory education or universal education in this society.

But at least we need to cultivate talents in various fields. It is fine to study literature and horse riding and archery all day long, but the development of the country cannot rely solely on horse riding, archery, literature, and classical interpretation.

“Continue.”

Xia Yuxiao seemed very interested in this topic when she heard this. She propped her arm and continued to listen to him.

“I have previously understood the talents that Da Xia currently lacks,” Qin Ji took out a piece of paper and wrote some words on it. The nearby guard immediately brought the lamp closer. “What Da Xia currently lacks are talents in theoretical aspects. In other words, talents in fields that can be expanded. I am considering whether to cultivate talents in these areas.”

“But these fields are also rare in Da Xia itself.” She looked at those fields that many officials in Da Xia did not even know about and felt a bit headache. “We need to start from scratch, which will take a lot of time.”

“Currently, there is no rush. What I mean is that at least now, more or less, the people should be literate. This will also be beneficial for the implementation of your future decrees.”

Qin Ji persuaded.

“You also want to do this? When King Rongsheng wanted to do this, it cost the national treasury a lot of money and had no effect. If you do this, the national treasury does not have that much money now.”

Xia Yuxiao quickly gave him a warning.

Don’t start any big projects again. We just fought a war, then we have to build reservoirs, purchase surplus grain, and provide disaster relief and reconstruction… We can’t afford to toss around. Yes, we can scrape some oil from some corrupt officials, but we can’t scrape them clean all at once.

“Ah, it doesn’t need much money, just let them recognize characters,” Qin Ji said confidently. “To make the people literate, we need to let the teachers go among the people.”

“You want to find a group of teachers to teach them literacy? Where can we find so many people in the country?”

“Just recognizing characters, we don’t need to hire any senior teachers. Those failed scholars are just fine.”

Qin Ji already had a plan in mind.

Real teachers are hard to find, and even if we find them, it will cost a lot of money.

But failed scholars are not hard to find, right? There are always a group of scholars who have never passed the exams in various places. Let them contribute to the construction of Da Xia.