Shouts

Soon the opening day of the "Pakistan Trade Fair" arrived, and Qing Dynasty, the area in front of the Champ de Mars station was packed with people—the world's first passenger train was about to depart from here.

Little Franz and his classmates arrived at the station. The first passenger train had three third-class carriages, which were allocated by lottery to several schools built in poor areas. Little Franz's school was lucky enough to be among them.

Next came the allocation within the school. To prevent the wealthy from taking advantage of any undeserved spots—although there were practically no wealthy students left in the school Little Franz attended—the school had to maintain a serious facade so that students would know how fair and benevolent France was—the allocation of places within the school was entirely based on exam scores.

Franz wasn't a particularly diligent student, but he could usually manage the elementary school curriculum with a bit of cleverness. Furthermore, the academic level of the students at his school was generally quite low, so Franz managed to stand out and secure a spot.

Yes, the academic level in schools in poor areas is quite low. Generally speaking, in France today, although compulsory primary education is in place, the amount of educational funding that schools in different regions receive varies greatly.

Of course, the state is very fair to all children, whether they are from poor families or rich families, and the cost of education is shared equally among all children. But the problem is that state funding is quite limited, and can only maintain the most basic operations.

Generally speaking, the funding sources for a primary school in the compulsory education stage are mainly three: national funding, neighborhood funding, and donations.

National funding is calculated based on the number of students. Neighborhood funding, on the other hand, comes from the neighborhood's public service expenditures. These expenditures are decided by a vote of all citizens and levied on all residents. Therefore, many people refer to it as a "neighborhood tax." Generally, neighborhoods with a high concentration of wealthy residents tend to have higher "neighborhood taxes." This serves two purposes: firstly, it keeps the poor out of their neighborhoods (since they cannot afford the taxes, they cannot live in such neighborhoods); secondly, it ensures the quality of public services, including education, within the neighborhood.

As for the poorer neighborhoods, there is almost no public service expenditure, so neighborhood funding is naturally nonexistent. Donations are out of the question. Consequently, schools in the poorer neighborhoods rely almost entirely on government funding to operate. This results in a huge disparity in funding between schools in the poorer and wealthier areas of Paris.

For example, in the original Saint-Antoine District (which was subdivided into many smaller neighborhoods after Napoleon became First Consul), state funding consistently accounted for over 98% of primary school expenses. In wealthier areas like the Panthéon, however, state funding might not even reach 5%. Considering that state funding is the same for every student, we can immediately conclude that at the primary school level, a poor child's educational expenses are likely only about 5% of what a wealthy child receives.

Therefore, in elementary schools in affluent neighborhoods, a class typically has only about twenty students, and each class has a dedicated teacher for each subject; and each teacher even has a teaching assistant. In addition, the various other facilities are far beyond what schools in poorer neighborhoods can imagine.

In impoverished areas, a primary school might have fewer than the number of teachers and staff, including the principal, combined. A single teacher often teaches multiple subjects, such as French, math, science, and art, and instructs students across multiple grade levels. Furthermore, due to insufficient funding, they cannot afford a sufficient number of qualified teachers, resulting in exceptionally large class sizes. Often, there is only one class per grade, with potentially hundreds of students. And their teachers might simply be recent graduates from that school who have achieved relatively good grades.

Therefore, in terms of academic level, the academic level of students from schools in poor areas is almost on a completely different level from that of students in wealthy areas. In fact, the academic level of many upper elementary school students in wealthy areas may even be higher than that of their teachers in poor areas.

In a sense, after the abolition of the aristocracy, this difference became one of the means by which those in high positions ensured that their descendants would always occupy high positions. Inequality in education perpetuated social inequality.

However, this cannot be blamed on the country. After all, who told you not to be able to afford a house in an affluent area and not to pay the "neighborhood tax" in that area? So, you can't blame the government for your misfortune, and you can't blame society for your bad luck. At least the government under Napoleon did pay attention to the plight of poor children. For example, today's "historic opportunity" was given entirely to poor children, although, to be honest, such a "historic opportunity" is actually of no real use.

Given the historic occasion, a ceremony was naturally indispensable, and someone had to deliver a speech. After being reviewed by Joseph and Lucien, and with Lucien's personal guidance, the First Consul delivered a speech at the train station entitled "Entering the Spring of Science." In his speech, Napoleon pointed out that "the progress of science and technology is the primary driving force for the progress of human society, France calls upon its children to strengthen their efforts in this regard and continuously forge ahead in the sea of science." He further stated that France has a great responsibility to the world: to lead the whole of Europe, and indeed the whole world, into the spring of science, just as France Roman Empire led the world from ignorance into civilization, like a steam locomotive carrying other carriages, accelerating along the railway. Finally, the First Consul also pointed out that the first three carriages of this train were given to the children free of charge, to encourage them to explore boldly and to continue leading the world to sail through the sea of science in the future.

Napoleon's speech was repeatedly interrupted by enthusiastic applause and shouts. At first, people shouted, "Long live the First Consul!" Then, someone suddenly shouted "Imperial!" and everyone joined in chanting "Imperial!"

"Imperado" is Rome, literally meaning an invincible commander. The famous Caesar was once called "Imperado" by his soldiers. Later, after Octavian established the Rome Empire, the title "Imperado" was limited to the reigning emperor and occasionally bestowed upon his immediate family members. Rome always used "Imperado" as their personal name upon their coronation; however, after Tiberius's reign, the act of being hailed as "Imperado" became a symbol of imperial accession. At this time, when these people shouted "Imperado" at Napoleon, it was not merely a praise of Napoleon's military achievements, but also carried the implication of "urging the First Consul to go further."

However, Napoleon did not respond much to these shouts. After finishing his speech and announcing the opening of the passenger train, he left the podium.

Next came ticket inspection and boarding. Naturally, the first to board were the passengers in the luxury compartments. For example, Nathan Rothschild, who had paid a high price for carriage number six, boarded the train early.

A luxury cabin is, after all, a luxury cabin; its comfort and luxury far surpass that of a luxury carriage. In fact, it might be comparable to the luxury cabins on some ocean-going ships. In fact, the luxury cabins of trains were largely inspired by ocean-going ships.

Instead of settling down on the plush sofa to admire the expensive cabin, Rothschild walked straight ahead to the junction of the sixth and fifth carriages, where a waiter stood.

"I am Nathan Rothschild from Rothschild Bank. May I visit you in carriage five?" Nathan Rothschild asked, handing over a business card.

The waiter took the business card and noticed something underneath it, which appeared to be a promissory note. He silently put both items away and replied:

"Mr. Rothschild, I need to ask the passengers about this."

Then the waiter went inside, and after a while, he returned and said, "The gentlemen inside welcome visitors."

Rothschild was then led into carriage number five by the waiter.

The reason why carriage number six was so expensive was simply because the person who bought carriage number five was named Bonaparte. Therefore, many people speculated that Napoleon's family members would travel on this train.

Napoleon's whereabouts were public knowledge; he would be traveling to the Free Palace on the second train. However, it was speculated that his brothers would likely be in the same carriage. Any opportunity to establish connections with them would be worth any price. (Conversely, if Napoleon were on board, given the inevitable security measures, those people would certainly have no chance of getting close to him.)

In reality, however, Napoleon and his family weren't in this carriage. Joseph wasn't particularly enthusiastic about train travel—he'd even ridden the Rejuvenation in his past life. As for Lucien, he wasn't going to the Free Palace today; he was stationed at the Ministry of Truth, overseeing today's propaganda. Louis and Pauline were with Napoleon, so there wasn't a single person with the surname Bonaparte in this carriage. Everyone here was Joseph's friend and student.