Gao pragmatic did not end it personally, but quietly listened to them arguing with each other. Until the end, Li Rusong's face was ashen, and the other guerrillas still formed a joint camp as if they were keeping warm. They were still unwilling to give up. Then they said calmly: "After the meal, the repairs will be extended to one hour, and then the pursuit will continue. Who objects?"
He looked around, but no one answered at first. Then Ye Bangrong stood up and clasped his fists and said: "The last general takes orders." As soon as he moved, the other seven guerrillas immediately stood up and said in unison: "The last general takes orders."
Gao Qingshi didn't even raise his eyelids, but the eyes of the eight guerrillas all looked at Li Rusong. Although Li Rusong had an arrogant temperament, he felt on pins and needles at this moment. He looked at Gao Pragmatic, who was looking at the map with his head lowered, and then stood up, clasped his fists and said, "The last general takes orders."
"Yes." Gao Pingshi still didn't raise his head. Instead, he waved his hand and said, "You go down first to check the head again and dispose of all the heads so that I can take credit for you."
"promise!"
"As commanded."
The generals took the order and filed back. When the last person left the handsome tent, the secretaries from Jinghua who had been watching looked at each other and started to comment.
The first person to speak this time was Gao Qi, Gao Qi's nephew and intelligence secretary. He mused: "Fifth uncle, Li Yangcheng is really a bit unruly. Do you need to consider beating him?"
At this time, there was no one else around, and Gao Pragmatic stopped looking at the map. He leaned his head on the back of the Taishi chair, closed his eyes and said nothing.
Gao pragmatically brought several secretaries with him this time: Secretary Cao Ke, Secretary of Commerce and Industry, Ruan Fuyuan, Secretary of Military Affairs, Gao Wuzhong, Secretary of Finance, Gao Qi, Secretary of Intelligence, and Gao Wuzheng and Gao Wuruo, trainee secretaries, a total of six people.
Among them, Cao Ke and Ruan Fuyuan are both Gao Pragmatic's disciples, one is the son of Cao Gan and the other is the son of Ruan Huang; Gao Wuzhong is Gao Pragmatic's younger brother and has studied finance with Gao Guoyan since he became an adult; Gao Qi He is Gao Jingshi's cousin and the second son of his cousin Gao Wuben; Gao Wuzheng and Gao Wuruo are Gao Jingshi's concubines. They have no clear leadership in the Jinghua Secretariat, so they are collectively referred to as trainee secretaries.
As intelligence secretary, Gao Qi usually studied under Gao Mo. As a six-room old slave in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, one of the most important tasks of Gao Mo is to ensure the loyalty and integrity within the Jinghua system. Moreover, due to his background, he has no understanding of hierarchy. Relationships are very important.
Under such circumstances, Gao Qi, as a young man, was naturally deeply affected, so he became quite dissatisfied with Li Rusong's attitude. In fact, there was one thing he didn't pay much attention to here, and that was that the reason why the other eight generals accepted Gao Pragmatic's orders without reservation was because the status gap between the guerrilla generals and the Mongolian and Yuan generals was really too big.
As for the general soldiers, the gap is relatively smaller - of course, Li Rusong may still be the most proud of all the general soldiers in the Ming Dynasty, which is also a key factor affecting his attitude.
However, even if Gao Qi notices this, he may not care much. The commander-in-chief of your town seems to be a great person, but it depends on the situation and the target. It doesn't matter if you are a little domineering in your own territory in Liaodong. Is there anyone who is domineering like you now? Don’t you see, Ma Zongrong and Cao Zongrong are both famous generals with great achievements in battle. Which one of them is not respectful in front of my fifth uncle? Even a commander as famous as Commander Qi would not hesitate at all when hearing my fifth uncle's military orders. You... are you worthy?
However, Gao Pragmatic did not respond at this time, which inevitably left the secretaries to speculate on his intentions.
Gao Wuzhong, Gao Pragmatic's brother and financial secretary, thought for a moment and said, "Brother, Li Rubai and I met outside the account just now and chatted for a few words. Li Rubai mentioned that his brother had promised nearly one hundred thousand taels of silver this time. A heavy reward, plus some additional expenses, the Li family army may have spent nearly 200,000 taels more for this battle so far."
Gao Pingshi had some reaction this time, but still didn't open his eyes. He just said, "Speak directly if you have anything to say."
"Yes, elder brother." Gao Wuzhong said: "My younger brother thinks that although the Li Jiajun has a strong foundation, according to the intelligence of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, at least 60% of his family's property lies in land in various parts of Liaodong, and the proportion of commerce and manufacturing will not exceed 40%. Considering that the Li family army has about 40,000 elite servants alone, although the court will be responsible for most of the expenses, the remaining part is still very expensive...
Therefore, I think that with Li Rusong's lavish spending, Tieling Li's financial pressure may be considerable. This may be one of the reasons why Li Rusong is eager to get more military exploits. After all, with more military exploits, it is possible to earn back the 200,000 reward, or at least earn back part of it, to avoid being unable to pay out rewards in the future. Lost military morale. "
Gao Wuzhong's words did not have an obvious tendency. To a certain extent, they even seemed to be trying to find reasons for Li Rusong's impatience. However, if you think about it carefully, it seems that his intention cannot be so simple to understand. After all, it can also be understood that he is hinting that Li Jiajun is currently in a financial crisis that can be exploited.
As soon as he heard this, Business Secretary Cao Ke spoke up and said, "Teacher, Tieling Li's financial resources have been somewhat tight in recent years, and the student knows this very well."
Gao Pragmatic still had his eyes closed, and just said a simple "Oh" with a rhetorical question in his tone.
Cao Ke immediately said: "It's like this. The Tieling Li family originally quietly controlled several horse markets on the border, mostly in collusion with some of their Li family's generals. The Li family's share of the profits was generally between 40% and 50%. They are also involved in many trades, from grain to farm tools, from cloth to silk, from ginseng to furs, and even...from salt and iron to gunpowder."
Gao pragmatic finally opened his eyes this time, glanced at him, and asked, "What happened next?"
"Later, most of the business was taken away by Jinghua Trading Co., Ltd. or the Maritime Trade Alliance. For example, Yanba, since the Liaonan Salt Farm was built and gradually expanded, it has almost monopolized the Liaodong salt industry in a few years, with neighboring countries such as North Korea and Jianzhou , Haixi, Nenhorqin, and even farther away Yeren (Jurchen), Beishan, etc., all turned to various channels to obtain salt from the Liaonan Salt Fields.
There is no need to talk about farm tools. Ever since Kaiping's ironware entered the Liaodong market, the small blacksmith shops in Liaodong have almost lost their livelihood. The price of good quality was too high, and the quality of low price was too bad. Many stores soon closed down, seriously affecting Tieling Li's purchase channels.
Later, we built new coal mines and ironworks in Liaodong, absorbing most of these bankrupt blacksmiths, which was equivalent to blocking the Li family's purchase channels from the source. The Li family's farm tools and even other iron trade almost had to stop. Now, according to students, the Li family only has two blacksmith shops in Guangning, and they are no longer able to maintain and repair some of their own armor and weapons.
Grain is considered the core industry that the Li family can barely support at present, but even so, the situation is not optimistic. This is mainly because of the impact of corn. Many poor people in Liaodong began to eat corn, and so did the Jurchens - after all, it was cheap.
In addition, although the promotion of drought-tolerant rice is slower than originally expected, this is mainly due to the fact that the cultivated varieties are still not stable enough. We sent people to strictly follow up on this, and many experienced farmers said that it may take more than ten or twenty years for this kind of thing to bear fruit, that is, for the varieties to stabilize.
Our secretariat predicts that when drought-tolerant rice varieties stabilize, Liaodong's grain output may see a major increase - of course, the premise is that more plain areas can be opened up and some places can be replanted. In this regard, we even inspected some places in Yehe, Hada, and even the Ula tribe, and found that their current territories have a lot of land suitable for growing rice.
These situations are all bad news for Li Jiajun. In addition, the area east of the Liao River is now basically an area controlled by Beijing. The Li family's army has lost several important horse markets, which has almost interrupted their trade with North Korea and the Jurchens, and has greatly reduced their family's financial resources... In this way, Li Yangcheng is eager to get more military exploits, which is not only due to his personality, but also most likely forced by the situation. "
Cao Ke said so much at once, but the final conclusion he came to was more inclined to explain to Li Rusong than Gao Wuzhong's speech, which immediately aroused the dissatisfaction of Gao Wuruo, Gao Wuruo's concubine.
Gao Wuruo frowned and said: "The Tieling Li family is blind and unaware of the general trend. So far, they are still working for the group of hypocrites of the Xin School who have done nothing for the country and the people. Shou Xin, are you saying this to express grievances for them?"
These words were a bit harsh, and they were exaggerated. Cao Ke definitely couldn't put on this hat, and quickly waved his hands and said: "Sixth Master, teachers are kind and kind to students, how can students stand for others without distinguishing between ourselves and our enemies?
What the students mean is that Li Yangcheng is in a mess now, but he has no means in these matters, so he will appear aggressive in the military affairs he is familiar with, and as for us... well, the students think that we can actually start from Others tried to force him to surrender. "
When Gao pragmatic heard this, he suddenly remembered some things he had learned when he was studying in the party school, such as the three levels of power: coercion, control, and influence.
Some later Western scholars like to study these things, and the more generally recognized views generally like to divide power into these three levels. Although there are some differences in the expression methods or wording, the general idea is the same, that is, the above three "levels."
The so-called coercion is to require the other party to obey through a violent means. For example, in the government, it is achieved through violent means such as the army and organizations. In organizational systems such as administration, military and even enterprises, the position itself has a kind of compulsion. Therefore, when subordinates and superiors disagree, in order to implement their own guidelines, the superior will use this power to force the subordinates to follow the instructions. Act according to your own ideas.
Control is different from coercion. Violent institutions are only a means of control. In addition, through the establishment of laws and regulations, administrative management, and the use of high-tech technology for supervision, designated people or groups of people can be defined within a certain range. In administration, the military, and even enterprises, the scope of control naturally exceeds simple powers. , but extends to the level of laws, regulations, rules and regulations, and achieves overall performance by monitoring the entire administrative or business process.
Influence is through external factors, causing oneself to generate a driving force to act in accordance with the influencer's behavior. In politics, this often manifests itself in positive beautification through the use of media propaganda, and active demonstration of the leader's personality charm through various actions such as demonstrating authority or being close to the people and working diligently. In specific administration, military or enterprises, influence comes more from the culture of the country, military or enterprise and the personality charm of a certain leader in the position.
To put it simply, the basic level of power is coercive order, which is to force subordinates to obey by force; the higher level is control, which makes subordinates less forced to obey, but the fundamental difference is not big, it is just the violence in coercion. It is not so obvious; the highest level is influence, that is, by changing the understanding and even ideology of subordinates, making subordinates feel that they should obey, so they take the initiative to obey the leadership of their superiors.
From this perspective, when it comes to how to deal with Li Rusong or the Tieling Li family, some of my secretaries are still on the first level, and some have entered the second level.
The first level is typical violent coercion. For example, my Jinghua strength crushes your Li family. If you dare not obey me, I can destroy you in minutes.
Of course, this "annihilation" does not necessarily mean that Jinghua directly uses force to kill everyone in the Li family. That is definitely not possible. Doesn't being an emperor exist? In fact, what this alludes to is that Gao Jingshi has enough influence in front of the emperor, and he has enough power in the court to promote various means to send the Li family into the eighteenth level of hell - anyway, in one sentence, if you don't accept it, I will die. .
Obviously this kind of thinking is very backward. How can politics be so simple? Either/or does exist in politics, but politics is an art of compromise. If you rely on your temporary advantage to "kill" those who disobey you, it will only endanger everyone, and in the end Except for a small group of your direct descendants, everyone else has become your enemy. If this continues, no one will be able to bear it.
The second level is a bit smarter. For example, what Cao Ke alluded to just now is that Li Rusong should not be touched at the political and military levels, but on the economic basis on which the Li Jiajun depends for his existence. The Li Family Army essentially existed as a private army. Although the imperial court paid for most of the basic expenses, these expenses could not truly satisfy such a private army of a servant nature. The Li Family also needed to invest a large amount of funds themselves.
In this case, once the Li family loses their financial resources, they will be unable to maintain this investment, and the Li family's army can only drift away in the wind. But the Li family are not fools. If there are signs of their financial resources drying up, they will definitely change their ways to survive, so they can only ask Jinghua to let them go. In this way, it will naturally complete the control of the Li family, and at least it will definitely force them to leave the Heart School.
However, for Gao Pragmatic, this method still seems too tough, and for an upright man like Li Rusong, it is really not a clever method.
For Li Rusong, the best way is to convince him.
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