Education

The return journey was much smoother than expected. Victor's actions had earned the trust of the herders, who were cooperative with the relocation orders. This was also partly due to the circumstances of the common herders themselves.

Common herders were essentially slaves to the tribal chiefs, possessing no property or freedom. They could only work for the chief to obtain the necessities of life. Only if a relative was chosen by the chief to become a warrior did they have a chance for advancement and the possibility of owning private property.

The families of the Green Grass Tribe's warriors had suffered heavy losses in this upheaval. Most of their property was looted, and some even lost their lives. The warriors who had resisted Victor and the chief's relatives were also wiped out. Essentially, what remained were herders who had lost everything. They were conquered people, and as long as they were fed, they would obey.

Victor looked at the herders, barely clothed, and sighed. He had initially planned to increase the transport capacity of James's fleet, hoping to move more people and supplies. Now, he would have to tell his father to continue increasing the shipment of necessities like food, cloth, and clothing.

Some people had suggested to Victor that the elderly and children could be culled. Among the captives, there weren't many elderly people; only about 300 were over 40, most in their early forties. There were many children, many of them war orphans, with nearly 1,000 under the age of 14. Eliminating these burdens would significantly reduce food and material consumption. The remaining 800 adult males and over 1,000 adult females could provide labor for Victor. However, Victor immediately rejected this proposal.

Victor was not a bleeding heart. He didn't want his warriors to become bargaining chips or expendable numbers because he interacted with them daily and knew many of their names and families.

However, his territory was not lacking in food, nor was it short on supplies for these people. Compared to the labor adults could provide, he saw greater potential in the malleability of children. Thinking of this, another important matter came to mind.

"Number 1, how is the textbook compilation I discussed with you progressing?" Victor knew his goals: to conquer the world, establish rule, and utilize the Beacon Lighthouse's modules, which would gradually unlock functions with the arrival of the magic tide, to change this world, enhance the foundation and technology of the entire civilization, and leverage the great momentum of the magic tide to make civilization stronger and better able to face the various crises it would bring.

But currently, considering the magic tide had not yet arrived, let alone utilizing its power, all knowledge related to magic energy was practically useless. Therefore, Victor wanted Number 1 to compile a textbook. It didn't need advanced knowledge, just a solid foundation. Students should master enough common characters to efficiently learn reading and writing, grasp some basic natural laws and mathematics, and receive loyalty education. This would be useful regardless of their future profession. A basic textbook designed for three years of study.

"Victor, the basic textbook version 1.0 is complete. We are currently organizing version 2.0, which is expected to take over 100 days."

"According to the previous plan, version 1.0, the three-year elementary education textbook, will be used for about 5 years. Let's compress the computational resources allocated for version 2.0 and have it completed within three years."

"Task confirmed, Victor."

Victor, combining his own ideas with the assistance of the Beacon Lighthouse's calculation module, formulated a 30-year education plan. It involved five-year stages. The first five years would pilot a 3-year basic education (not compulsory, with Victor selecting the subjects). The second five years would implement 3-year basic education in the controlled territory (covering all children aged 6 to 14, and adults willing to learn, with some selected to study the 6-year basic education version 2.0 textbook). The third five years would implement 6-year basic education in the controlled territory (with increased textbook content, covering all school-aged children in the territory, along with adult night classes and training sessions, and providing more advanced education and training for outstanding learners to reserve talent for the next stage of educational work). The fourth five-year plan would begin to add advanced educational content, more specialized and complex knowledge, selecting outstanding students from those who completed the six-year education for targeted training (students trained in this phase would no longer solely engage in education but would also enter other industries, increasing technical strength). The fifth and sixth five-year plans were relatively simpler, essentially a ten-year plan. After fully rolling out six years of basic education, talent would be selected based on graduate abilities for more specialized and directed educational training. Some would serve as replacement teachers, while others would participate in various territorial work. At this point, the territory would also see more specialized and professional research institutions emerge.

Of course, this education plan was idealistic, predicated on the territory's continuous rapid development, constant increases in population and fiscal revenue, and the absence of major crises.

If Victor had a sufficiently prosperous territory, relying on his golden finger for planning and orderly construction, and focused on development for 30 years, he could certainly develop the territory well and become a significant noble in the Grand Duchy of Vera.

But this was too idealistic. His current position was one of the future sources of war for the Grand Duchy of Vera. He needed support from the northern nobles and the interior of the duchy, so he had to constantly adjust various plans, deal with various difficulties, and seize various opportunities.

Victor made up his mind. This time, when the fleet returned, he would write to his father, asking him to recruit 20 educated freemen and send them to Victor. Victor would personally train them to become the first batch of basic education teachers. He would select a group of barbarian war orphans and children of serf soldiers as the first students. These children were seeds; they would become new teachers or could participate in other territorial work, such as becoming his personal guards or grassroots civil officials of the territory.

These plans must be executed if conditions permit; one cannot slow down due to difficulties. For Victor, time was always pressing. Even though Number 1 had told him that after the magic tide arrived, his immense soul quality would allow him to become extraordinary and gain a longer lifespan, he didn't know if he could even live another 50 years. He had to feel a greater sense of urgency.

Thus, amidst Victor's constant contemplation, the main force and the prisoners finally arrived at the Great Fish River after three days. All the soldiers cheered upon seeing the fleet by the river, and the tattered herders also looked towards the land on the other side of the river with anticipation. Seeing this, Victor's worries eased. At least the first stage of pioneering had passed smoothly.