"What about the textbooks? Who's going to write them?" Xu Tianran asked.
Xu Yanli had already made arrangements. He immediately took a stack of manuscript pages from his Storage Soul Tool and handed them over. "I've had them written already. Literacy, arithmetic, history and geography, and Martial Soul basics—four subjects in all. That'll be enough for the children to study for six years."
Xu Tianran took the pages and flipped through them one by one. The farther he read, the more deeply his brow furrowed. Pointing to a page on history and geography, he asked, "Why does this say that our Sun Moon Empire is the rightful successor?"
"Because it is." Xu Yanli answered with complete conviction. "History is written by the victors."
Xu Tianran glanced at him but said nothing more, continuing to read.
When he reached the last page, he closed the manuscript and set it on the table. "Keep a close eye on the textbooks yourself. Don't let the people below you slip in anything of their own."
Xu Yanli nodded.
"And the imperial examinations." Xu Tianran brought it up again. "I had the ministers discuss your proposal. The opposition is fierce."
"I expected that." Xu Yanli picked up his teacup and took a leisurely sip. "Those great clans have controlled the court's channels for selecting officials for over a thousand years. Now we're suddenly telling them that future officials will be chosen based on exam results, not family background. They'd be fools not to leap up in protest."
"Then how do you plan to handle it?"
"Slowly. There's no rush." Xu Yanli set down his teacup and spoke calmly. "We'll start with lower-ranking officials and run a trial. All minor officials below the county magistrate level will be selected through the imperial examinations. Once they've made