To be honest, if Zhao Hao hadn't just had a full stomach and was in a good mood, he would have almost killed Shen Gai who made this suggestion on the spot.
Recruiting a group of thieves who came directly to Lin'an and slapped me in the face?
Is there something wrong with your brain or is there something wrong with my brain?
Is it really the sleeping dragon and phoenix chicks who are in full court?
"They raided Lin'an and put me in a situation where I was about to die. You actually want to recruit them? Then what will the people in the world think of me? How will they think of the Song Dynasty?! Ridiculous! Extremely ridiculous! Why don't you just say let me go? Just give up the throne to them?"
Shen Gai quickly knelt on the ground to apologize to Zhao Hao, but still did not want to give up his proposal.
"The Ming Dynasty's army deployed on the border and threatened the northern defense line. The Song Dynasty's army was insufficient in number and lacked skills. It was impossible to mobilize enough troops to deal with it. Even temporary formation would take a lot of time, money and food. The Song Dynasty's treasury was empty and could no longer bear such a heavy burden. .
If Your Majesty is unwilling to recruit troops, and wants to pacify the rebels on Jiangnan West Road in a short period of time, it is only possible to mobilize the Sichuan-Shu army to move southward. However, the Sichuan-Shu army must also guard against the Ming army in Guanzhong, so it cannot be mobilized.
So the only way at the moment is to allow local governments to recruit troops to fight against the rebels on their own, let them solve the problems of food and weapons on their own, and send out troops to fight the rebels on their own. "
Zhao Hao's pupils shrank, pointed at Shen Gai and said angrily: "Am I stupid or are you stupid? If they are allowed to recruit their own troops, the world will be in chaos? How did you come up with this method? You can also be considered a minister like this Minister?"
"I know it, so this is a helpless solution!"
Shen Gai said anxiously: "I also know that this is not possible, but in order to destroy the rebels, there is no other way. Otherwise, once the Ming Dynasty becomes our enemy and the army goes south, the Song Dynasty will not be able to fight back, and the land of Jinghu will quickly If the Ming army breaks through, then the Song Dynasty will be cut off at both ends by the Ming army. How will it deal with itself? Your Majesty, choose the lesser of two evils."
Zhao Yu was silent for a while, then looked at Ye Yiwen and Zhou Linzhi.
"What do you think?"
Ye Yiwen and Zhou Linzhi looked at each other.
"Your Majesty, I am incompetent, but I also know that allowing localities to recruit their own troops will bring endless disasters. Unless it is absolutely necessary, we cannot allow it."
"Your Majesty, this old minister also thinks so."
Zhao Min held his forehead and sighed deeply.
"I regret that I should have killed Shi Hao... You can't really share my worries at all! If Shi Hao is still here, you can certainly share my worries. If not, Zhang Jun can also say that please leave this matter to him! Instead of like you , do nothing! What use do I need from you!"
The three of them stood at the foot of the steps looking helpless.
On the one hand, my ability is indeed limited and I don’t know what to do.
On the one hand, they really didn’t dare. Who knows what Zhao Xun would do next? What if he tortured them to death?
Zhou Linzhi, in particular, was now scared to death, fearing that he would become the third Privy Councilor to be killed.
That would really be the end of it.
After lamenting for a long time, Zhao Hao had no choice but to send Shen Gai as a representative of the Song Dynasty to Jiangnan West Road to recruit peasant troops to fight for this slim possibility.
If we can successfully recruit troops, it is better than allowing localities to recruit their own troops. We can also get an army with good combat effectiveness, and we will have some confidence to deal with the Ming Dynasty, right?
This incident happened in March of the fourth year of Hongwu. Zhao Yucheng of Jiangnan West Road was promoting spring plowing.
At the same time in the north, Su Yonglin, in addition to promoting the establishment of the firearms force, was also paying attention to another matter.
On the first day of March in the fourth year of Hongwu, following his order, every provincial capital and every state capital in the Ming Dynasty began to officially sell works written by Emperor Su Yonglin.
Volume 1 of "Hongwu Political Theory".
Starting from the second half of the second year of Hongwu, Su Yonglin planned to comprehensively promote the cultural undertakings in the Ming Dynasty.
As the forerunner and leader of this policy, Su Yonglin requested that Ming Dynasty state-owned publishing houses be established in every provincial government office and every prefecture and prefecture government office in the country, even though the finances were not very generous.
Su Yonglin named it "Shuren Book Club" and placed his dream on it to promote the national cultural and educational undertakings of the Ming Dynasty. He would not back down even if he struggled for a hundred years.
He personally inscribed the four characters "Shuren Bookstore" as the signboard of every newly opened bookstore, and added the four characters "Da Ming State-owned" next to it to highlight the basic attributes of the bookstore.
After that, Su Yonglin spent half a year taking time out of his busy schedule to select books that he thought were more meaningful from the palace collection as books that could be sold in Shuren Book Club.
These included history books from past dynasties. Not only official history books, but also some private history books that Su Yonglin considered very valuable were also selected by him.
For example, privately-written history books such as "The Struggle between Heroes" and "Huayang Kingdom" are among the lists to be published and sold.
In addition to history books, there are also agricultural books, geography books, astronomy books, mathematics books, literature books, and some strange stories, such as "Sou Shen Ji".
In addition to these, some legends of the Tang and Song Dynasties were also included in Su Yonglin's list for publication and sale, and even some romance-related romances that were traditionally considered deviant were also included in Su Yonglin's list for public publication and sale.
Because in his opinion, most of these legends have the color of resisting feudal ethics, and their advocacy of free love, confrontation with parents, etc., are very suitable for his needs.
He would not expect all ordinary people to turn to academics on a large scale and their orientations to become elegant in an instant.
In his opinion, even if all the people go to school, read books, and receive sufficient education, most people will still like "vulgar works" in the category of love stories and traditional culture.
When something requires a barrier to entry, no matter how low the barrier is, someone will always be blocked.
But [vulgar works] that are in line with the pursuit of human nature are not required, so this type of works will always be the most popular.
Hiding one's own goals in it, and then pushing it to the public, spreading one's new ideas in a popular way may be more meaningful to the general public.
However, in the final analysis, tradition only has a simple concept of resistance. To completely defeat the feudal ethics that restrain people's hearts and fully oppose the existence of landlords, gentry, etc., it not only needs to be achieved by the official means of education, but also needs to be deeply disseminated in a way that the people like to hear and see.
So Su Yonglin also conceived some content in the past few years.
Then he wrote an outline and asked Zhao Xirui to be the main writer, using simple and easy-to-understand vernacular to present stories such as "The White-Haired Girl" and "The Rooster Crows in the Midnight" in a context suitable for this era.
But when he read the finished product, he didn't feel it was out of place at all. On the contrary, he felt that everything was inexplicably familiar.
After thinking for a while, he remembered that he had actually seen and heard the general contents of these two stories when he lived in the Southern Song Dynasty.
What does it mean that art comes from life?
Su Yonglin couldn't help but smile bitterly.
At his suggestion, Zhao Xirui signed these articles under the pen name "Xi Xin", and Su Yonglin circulated these articles within the Fuxing Association, which received an enthusiastic response.
These articles were spread from the Central Committee of the Renaissance in Zhongdu to some local revival groups, and also to the army, where they became known to the soldiers.
In the end, I don’t know who took the lead. Many letters were sent to Zhongdu from all directions, all praising the author of these works from the Zhongdu Revival Association.
Many people expressed their gratitude to the author, saying that they saw their former selves in these works and felt very sad. They said that he portrayed certain characters particularly well, such as the two characters Zhou Papi and Huang Shiren, who were just right bad.
They hope to see more excellent works by the author to warn the world that the suffering they have suffered should never be forgotten.
Zhao Xirui read the letters from these readers, her face turned red with excitement, she clenched her fists tightly, feeling that she had found something very meaningful.
"Lang Jun is right. Even if you can't go to the battlefield, you can still make revolution. In addition to condolences to the people, I also have many things that I can do. I can write articles so that more people can see these articles and let more people know about Lang. What a great thing you have done!"
