"Economy is the foundation of a country, and education is the road to a strong country...

This sentence is Wang Chenhao's speech at the cabinet meeting. The cabinet departments responded to Wang Chenhao's speech, and while promoting economic reform, they also carried out reforms to education simultaneously.

Minister of Education Cai Yuanpei then delivered a speech in parliament, pointing out: "The fundamental purpose of education system reform is to improve national quality, produce more talents, and produce good talents."

Cai Yuanpei's congressional speech was recognized by congressional officials, and the national education reform plan he submitted was also successfully approved.

Of course, Congress is still just a decoration at present, and the power is in the hands of the cabinet organized by Wang Chenhao. Congress has the right to interfere in name but actually has no right to interfere. The current role of Congress is only a place for Wang Chenhao to appease the Qing senators. Just as Louis XIV placed officials in various provinces under house arrest in Versailles, Wang Chenhao also "invites" officials who were undermined and eliminated by the Central and local governments.

The Congress and the appointment of members of Congress was actually the nursing home prepared by Wang Chenhao for them.

Cai Yuanpei's education reform plan is divided into four five-year plans. The first five-year plan is to establish 10 higher education institutions, establish a four-year undergraduate and junior college degree system, and establish a mentor system in analogy to Germany to cultivate graduate, master and doctoral talents. 120 are established in densely populated cities.

The middle school has a six-year academic system and cultivates intermediate intellectuals. The local government is responsible for establishing 1,200 primary schools in local densely populated areas with a six-year academic system. All universities are national, and middle schools and primary schools are allowed to establish si. The first five-year plan... The purpose is to lay the foundation for the education system, strive to make 10% of the citizens literate, and can sense the government and the country's educational call.

The second five-year plan... add 20 universities, 1,300 middle schools, and 6,000 primary schools. Further increase the national literacy rate and strive for 20% of national literacy. Cultivate 300,000 college students, one million middle school students and five million primary school students to basically meet the needs of national economic development.

The third five-year plan... add 30 universities, 6,000 middle schools and 80,000 primary schools, and strive for 70%

National literacy rate, popularization of primary education system across the country, and compulsory education national literacy.

The fourth five-year diagnosis and inspection plan has been completed... 40 universities, 30,000 middle schools, 200,000 primary schools, and popularize the middle school education system.

The cabinet left a fiscal budget of 80 million dragon coins for the Ministry of Education in the budget. Wang Chenhao ordered the Ministry of Finance to allocate 30 million dragon coins to the Ministry of Education as the starting fund for the first phase of the education project. The government set up 20 universities across the country. Cai Yuanpei's four five-year plans will take twenty years to build Wuwan Schools for China, popularize the 12-year compulsory education system, and comprehensively improve the quality of the people. In the past twenty years, the plan...

We train three million college students, twenty million middle school students, and fifty million elementary school students for China.

Of course, Cai Yuanpei has a fifth five-year plan, which is to complete the goal of establishing 700,000 schools nationwide and popularize university education. However, Cai Yuanpei did not dare to propose this plan now, because he was afraid that he would scare Wang Chenhao and Congress officials.

The total investment of the first four five-year plans has exceeded 800 million dragon coins, especially compulsory education accounts for 300 million dragon coins. Congress has to allocate 40 million dragon coins to the Ministry of Education on average every year, while the first five-year plan has the largest investment in the first year, requiring large-scale construction of schools and introduction of educational funds, so the budget reaches 63 million dragon coins.

Judging from the fact that the Beiyang government's fiscal revenue in one year is less than 1 Yilong currency, education funds alone account for half of the funds. Officials from various cabinet departments supported Cai Yuanpei's proposal for education reform, but when the money was raised, officials from various cabinet departments immediately fell down and strongly opposed it. Because once the Ministry of Education's appropriation budget was approved, the Ministry of Finance would inevitably cut the budget of other departments, and many projects in other departments would be forced to abort or give up halfway.

The cabinet departments quarreled about this and refused to give in to each other. So the ministers of each department had to bother Wang Chenhao about this matter and asked Wang Chenhao to make a decision.

The ministers of the five provinces and nine ministries, all departments are Wang Chenhao's direct subordinates, and the palms are fleshy and the backs are fleshy. Wang Chenhao didn't know how to reply to them for a while. In Wang Chenhao's view, the country is in a mess, and any department is important, and the funding of any department should not be reduced. But the problem is that the country's fiscal revenue is so much, so we can't risk a huge deficit to develop.

Therefore, Wang Chenhao listened to the advice of the Ministry of Finance Shu Hanzhang and issued special education bonds to solve the funding problem.

The people are still very positive in supporting education, and traditional concepts make them all hope that their children can go to school and make a name for themselves.

Under the influence of this good atmosphere, the education funds used for the first five-year plan were quickly raised. After the issuance of 200 million dragon coins for special education bonds, the Ministry of Education received abundant funds and began to build schools at all levels on a large scale, recruit teachers and students.

Reforms in political systems, military, economics, education and other aspects are going very smoothly, but some projects have encountered strong resistance.

The first to be affected is the customs. In addition to the Zhili Provincial Customs in the hands of the country, customs in other regions are also controlled by Britain, France and the United States.

After Wang Chenhao took power, the revocation of customs became the first mistake. For this reason, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs repeatedly notified the governments of Britain, France and the United States, and negotiated with the three governments on the issue of the revocation of customs by the Chinese government. However, there has not been much progress.

At the end of 1898, Wang Chenhao appointed Tang Shaoyi, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, as the Customs Minister, to preside over the customs affairs of China, and to regain customs rights.

Previously, when Wang Chenhao presided over the customs of Zhili Province, he bypassed the then Haibi General Taxation Department, Hede, and started a new job. He set up a separate customs in Zhili Province, which undermined the customs department that was originally in Zhili Province.

Now that Hurd has resigned, Tang Shaoyi has become the Minister of Customs Affairs, and it is even more legitimate to take action to rectify the customs and reclaim the customs power.

Although Britain, France and the United States were very dissatisfied with Wang Chenhao's removal of Hurd's position and France even made solemn negotiations, Britain and the United States had ambiguous attitudes. They opposed the replacement of Hurd's appointment as customs ministers, and were unwilling to have a stalemate with the Chinese government. As a result, they protested without any pain, but they acquiesced to the fact that Hurd was dismissed.

Tang Shaoyi, with the title of Deputy Foreign Minister, repeatedly notified the governments of Britain, France and the United States. On the one hand, he launched customs negotiations, and on the other hand, he took practical actions. Customs negotiations were naturally a long battle. In order to create a fait accompli within the customs, Tang Shaoyi placed the trained customs personnel into the General Administration of Customs and local customs departments, and established an intermediate department between foreign personnel and tariff payers, which emptied the rights of foreign personnel in various departments.

Tang Shaoyi did not take violent actions, but instead forced foreigners to resign voluntarily in a non-violent situation. When necessary, he used a secret organization that was "shameless" to intimidate and threaten them, and ordered the police station, the People's Procuratorate and the Independent Commission Against Corruption to investigate and detain these foreigners in various names. These foreigners in China were still honest and dedicated when they were just managing customs, but as they were immersed in the officialdom of the Qing government for a long time, they were inevitably not allowed to make mistakes. In the last few years of the 19th century, nine out of the ten foreigners had embezzled and bribed, and the remaining one was also infected with various bad habits and did not comply with customs regulations.

Tang Shaoyi's plan... soon saw the results, and a large number of foreign personnel began to resign voluntarily. They had to hold their braids in the hands of the police station, so they had to say in front of domestic and foreign media that the Chinese had learned how to manage customs in the past half century, believing that without foreign personnel, the Chinese could also operate the customs themselves well. Some foreign personnel were even forced to criticize the British, French and American governments for infringing on China's sovereignty and demanded that the British, French and American governments return the customs rights to the Chinese government.

Tang Shaoyi's trick to remove the fire from the cauldron really made the governments of Britain, France and the United States lose face. He has always been slandering the United Kingdom, France and the United States against China's customs control Germany and Russia, and other countries, also took the opportunity to make a fuss. They could not interfere in China's customs, but they did not want Britain, France and the United States to interfere in China's customs.

As a result, Britain, France and the United States were restrained everywhere in customs negotiations and were under pressure from international public opinion. They finally announced the conditional return of the Chinese customs.

The British, French and American governments require Wang Chenhao's Beiyang government to maintain the most-favored-nation treatment for Britain, France and the United States on customs tax issues, and maintain the trade tariffs on Britain, France and the United States against China for ten years.

Regarding the conditions of Britain, France and the United States, Wang Chenhao was more firm in his attitude. In addition to continuing to give the most-favored-nation treatment of Britain, France and the United States, he was not allowed to sign any magnificent treaties that undermine national sovereignty and dignity.

Tang Shaoyi had no choice but to use his diplomatic skills to continue negotiating with the governments of Britain, France and the United States. At this time, the competition between Britain and France on the Dassaurus crisis in Africa had already been decided, and the French government chose to give up and give up Dassaurus.

France's failure on the African issue has become increasingly poorer and worse international influence. Tang Shaoyi seized this opportunity and followed the British and American governments alone, leaving France alone in negotiations.

This move immediately aroused strong dissatisfaction from the French government, but the French ambassador to China did not respond to even protests, which made the French government very embarrassed.

Tang Shaoyi put aside the French government and negotiated with the representatives of the United Kingdom and the United States alone. The United States's Yangfu was in a quagmire on the issue of the Philippines' war at this time. More than 100,000 American soldiers fought hard in the Philippines, and China became an important supplier of materials for the US military.

In particular, the Chinese government sold cheaper weapons and ammunition to the US military, as well as strategic materials such as medicines, food, and coal. Therefore, the US government and the military urgently needed China's help on the Philippines issue. Tang Shaoyi used this to negotiate with the Americans, and eventually the US government weighed the pros and cons and canceled the second condition for the transfer of customs rights, and only retained the most-favored-nation treatment.

The British side was very unhappy when they saw that China and the United States reached an agreement. The British government issued the issue between China and the United States was approaching. China and the United States jointly launched a war against Spain, and the British were méng in the dark. The United States launched the US-Philippines war, and China vigorously provided logistical support behind the scenes. This paramilitary alliance relationship worried the British government. Britain hoped that Wang Chenhao's Beiyang government would be pro-British rather than pro-American, so after the United States announced that it would give up the second clause, the British government also announced that it would give up the second clause.

After two months of grinding, Tang Shaoyi finally signed a customs return agreement with the British and American governments. Three days later, under pressure from Britain and the United States, the French government had to sign a customs return agreement without the Beiyang government.

On January 4, 1899, Wang Chenhao's Beiyang government successfully regained customs rights and ended the half-century colonial governance of the Chinese customs by Britain, France and the United States...
Chapter completed!