According to Su Yonglin’s administrative order, Shaoxing’s 31st Spring Plowing Ceremony can be held by the public according to their own customs, but the government is not allowed to hold it in any name.
The government must invest all financial expenditures in building water conservancy projects. Anyone who dares to disobey orders and hold official sacrificial activities will be dismissed immediately without discussion.
In this regard, Su Yonglin claimed that "the laws of heaven are constant, neither for Yao to survive nor for Jie to perish". He did not work hard to cultivate fields and build water conservancy projects, but only prayed to gods and worshiped Buddha, which would not be of any help to agricultural production.
The war had just ended, and the Central Plains had been severely damaged by gold thieves, and everything was in dire straits. This was the time when all officials needed to work hard to restore production and ensure people's livelihood.
At this time, if we don’t devote ourselves wholeheartedly to agricultural production and construction of water conservancy projects, but instead waste money, food, materials and precious farming time on holding meaningless sacrificial activities, isn’t it putting the cart before the horse?
No!
Su Yonglin issued a clear order in the name of the General Affairs Bureau requiring all officials to participate in agricultural production activities. The better and more water conservancy projects were built, it proved that this official was doing a good job.
The quantity and quality of water conservancy projects will become an important criterion for the Merit Examination Department of the General Affairs Bureau to judge the merits and promotions of local administrative officials.
Su Yonglin made an important criterion for official promotion public, which caused a wave of waves in the areas occupied by the Liberation Army.
Of course, it's not because of the promotion standards. There are various standards for official promotions, and they always change according to the ruler's preferences. This is not important at all. What is important is Su Yonglin's thoughts on state governance reflected behind this promotion standard.
Many people did not expect that Su Yonglin was actually a follower of Xunzi and believed in the laws of nature.
Although Xunzi was also a great Confucian during the Warring States Period and was a member of Confucianism, he was also a member of the Confucian movement. However, with the development of the times, Xunzi's thoughts are incompatible with the mainstream thoughts of Confucianism today.
Today's Confucianism advocates the unity of heaven and man, the interaction between heaven and man, and combines it with local superstitions to combine imperial power and divine power into one, making the emperor the emperor. In fact, it has a Confucian style and has an impact on society in all aspects. .
After the low ebb of the Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Confucian school finally regained the status of official guiding ideology and even the national constitution in the Northern Song Dynasty. It relied on this set of rhetoric that combined theocratic and imperial power to meet the needs of the rulers of the Northern Song Dynasty.
However, Xunzi's thoughts are exactly opposed to the interaction between heaven and man and the unity of heaven and man. He believes that heaven and man should be viewed separately. Heaven is heaven and man is man. There is no connection between the two.
This simple materialist concept is unacceptable to today's mainstream Confucianism. It is an idea that shakes the foundation of Confucian hegemony since Dong Zhongshu, and is not in the interest of feudal rulers.
However, as the supreme ruler, Su Yonglin agreed with this idea.
What's happening here?
Many people were puzzled and thought there was something wrong with Su Yonglin's head.
Without the title of emperor to take the blame for you, and without the righteous blessing of the divine right of kings, the legitimacy of your power can be guaranteed by force, but what about your successors?
Don't you think about this?
Some academic bureaucrats realized that Su Yonglin's ideological tendency would bring unpredictable risks to the future political situation, and even reflected in their anxiety in the imperial examination that was about to be held after he became emperor.
After Su Yonglin became emperor, he wanted to hold an imperial examination to select scholars. If he insisted on using Xunzi's ideas to select scholars, there would definitely be opposition, and there would also be speculators who would go along with it and go against the mainstream of Confucianism.
When the time comes, these speculators will exist in large numbers in the court, squeezing the living space of mainstream Confucianism, which will greatly harm the interests of believers in mainstream Confucianism.
That will bring unpredictable risks to the future world situation.
But Su Yonglin's power is here, his martial virtue is overwhelming, the army supports him, and his own subordinates also support him. No one can force Su Yonglin to change his opinion.
When Su Yonglin was about to overthrow the Jin Kingdom and spread the power of China, the old bureaucrats and old gentry did not dare to debate Su Yonglin on this issue, and even forced him to change his ideological concepts and return to the mainstream thinking.
Therefore, although this issue is very serious in the eyes of many people, the controversy can only be temporarily shelved and cannot be discussed. Otherwise, if Su Yonglin gets angry and uses his invincible army to defeat the opponents, then the opponents will be the laughing stock.
To seek for the country, one must also seek for one’s life.
Officials from various places did not dare to disobey Su Yonglin's order and hold sacrificial activities in the official name, so they had to give up.
In this atmosphere, this year's spring plowing was basically completed in mid-April.
After spring plowing is completed, the most important production activity of the year is over. Next, as long as the weather is not abnormal and there are no large-scale locust plagues, droughts or floods, generally speaking, we can successfully survive until the autumn harvest.
In response to locust plagues, droughts and floods, human beings have very limited subjective initiative, but they are not without solutions.
The construction of water conservancy projects is a way for human beings to maximize their subjective initiative in dealing with natural hazards.
Floods, droughts, and locust plagues occur in many places. The reason why they are out of control is often because local corruption and official inaction have caused water conservancy projects to be in disrepair and unable to function.
Where water conservancy is successfully built according to local conditions, even if natural disasters occur, losses can be minimized.
Therefore, Su Yonglin included the quantity and quality of water conservancy construction into the official evaluation standards and clearly announced them to the outside world to encourage local administrative officials to build water conservancy projects.
During the period after the spring plowing, Su Yonglin could take a break from the government affairs of agricultural production and start making arrangements for the attack on Guanzhong.
In this attack on Guanzhong, Su Yonglin planned to attack in two directions, handing one to Zhang Yuejing and the other to Su Haisheng.
The two of them attacked from Tongguan one by one, striving to capture Tongguan and open the door to attack.
The other attack from Hedong, aiming at Daqing Pass, an important pass at the Yellow River ferry, trying to break through Daqing Pass in the shortest time, cross the Yellow River, and enter the Guanzhong area.
Having said that, the two tasks of these two troops are not simple. They can even be said to be difficult. They are not easily achieved at all.
From the current occupied area of the Liberation Army to Guanzhong, a big bend of the Yellow River lies in front of us, naturally forming a strong line of defense.
Tongguan is connected to cliffs on one side and close to rivers on the other. It is surrounded by high mountains and dangerous waterways. There is very little space for the attacking troops. Even if a hundred thousand troops attack together, as long as the defenders insist on not retreating, it will be difficult to conquer Tongguan. More difficult.
Daqing Pass guards the ancient and important ferry of the Yellow River, guarding the entire river section that is rarely conducive to crossing the river. As long as troops are deployed to defend here, it will be extremely difficult and dangerous for the enemy to break through.
In other places, either the waterway is too wide or the current is too fast to cross.
According to the reconnaissance of the Liberation Army, Tongguan and Daqing Pass were heavily guarded by the Jin Army. The Jin Army was well prepared for defense in these two places and was waiting for the Liberation Army's frontal attack, intending to severely defeat the Liberation Army and let the Liberation Army defeat them. Jun knew that Guanzhong was not so easy to get in.
After Su Yonglin received the Jin Army's defense information, he held a military meeting in the Staff Department. All the staff and officers looked at the two great passes heavily defended by the Jin Army, and their expressions were not very good.
Everyone knows that these two roads are not easy to take, and if there are other options, they will not choose these two roads.
But the only choices given to them were these two.
The other roads are either too far away or too difficult and dangerous. A small group of troops can break through and make a sneak attack. However, the logistics requirements for a large group of troops are too high and it is not feasible without wide roads.
It is precisely because of this military advantage that the ancients set up checkpoints at these two places to strengthen defense.
"There are not many paths left for us to choose, and whatever we can think of, the enemy can also think of. Under such circumstances, we have only one way, which is to fight with absolute strength and make the Jin people despair!"
Su Yonglin clenched his fists and said loudly: "The Liberation Army is no longer the original Liberation Army. The original Liberation Army had to use all kinds of tricks to survive. But today, the Liberation Army has 400,000 troops. It is no longer the original Liberation Army. That weak army!
Use crossbows, stones, firearms, and all kinds of siege equipment, and do your best, even if there are no conditions to create conditions! No one will help us for no reason. Using external force arbitrarily will only make outsiders look down upon us! so! We have to rely on ourselves! "
