Chapter 309 Solving the Problem (XIV)
The play was over. The audience of the Chinese court gave applause as a courtesy, but the participants were not particularly enthusiastic. Gao Pang was even more absent-minded. After all, this was a play given by the emperor, and it involved political struggles. It was definitely not for everyone to just watch for fun.
Sure enough, after the show, the people here delivered something written by Huo Chong to Gao Pang and other officials. Gao Pang looked at the cover, which was titled "Suggestions on Activities for Cadre Team Building". When he opened it, it was about regular training for the cadre team, and the training content included but was not limited to group building, expansion exercises, watching programs, experience reports and other projects.
It seems that this play is also a part of the cadre team building. Gao Pang thought as he continued to turn the pages, and saw a "play review" written by Huo Chong below. He opened it and read it.
The Chinese court did not have private staff, but it was equipped with secretaries. Seeing Gao Pang reading seriously, the secretary quickly asked, "Governor, should we have a meeting first?"
"Meeting? What meeting?" Gao Pang asked unhappily. After saying that, he suddenly remembered and quickly flipped through the previous pages. Huo Chong wanted to talk about this play immediately after watching it.
Huo Chong gave an explanation after the order. I still remember it when I just read it, but I would forget it after a few days.
Thinking about it , Gao Pang quickly ordered a meeting. When the meeting participants gathered, Gao Pang said, "The governor ordered a meeting. The content of the meeting is the play about replacing rice with mulberry."
Everyone immediately showed a look of resistance, Gao Pang gently tapped the table, "Don't be afraid, I won't say my opinion first. The governor wrote his comments, I will read it to everyone."
Even so, Songjiang prefect Wang Weichang still asked, "Does it have to be so urgent?"
Gao Pang immediately circulated Huo Chong's order to everyone. Seeing the familiar handwriting of Huo Chong, everyone knew that Gao Pang was not joking. Although many people had opinions about Gao Pang, they dared not refuse. If Gao Pang complained based on this and Huo Chong got angry, no one could afford it.
Seeing that these guys, who were mainly military generals, had to behave themselves, Gao Pang picked up Huo Chong's film review and read, "Who is our friend and who is our enemy? This is the primary issue of the revolution. If we cannot make a correct judgment, it will certainly have a very bad impact on the revolutionary cause. Before discussing this issue, let's first determine a basic concept. Contradictions are everywhere, including the fact that everyone dislikes each other, which is a manifestation of contradictions. However, the inherent attributes of contradictions determine the nature of contradictions. Just like the gunpowder filled in the explosive package determines that its triggering must be an explosion. As for when to ignite the explosive package, it is an external factor. The inherent attributes determine the nature of the contradiction, and the external factors determine when the contradiction is triggered. Under the influence of internal and external factors, the contradiction will only appear. Comrades, I heard that the incident in Songjiang County caused everyone's unhappiness before, so I wrote this play. Although this play describes the events of the Ming Dynasty, history always has reference significance. Moreover, it is not clear to talk about it in the air. If you talk about the current events, you will fall into a situation where everyone has their own reasons because of their different cognitions and positions. Therefore, take this play as a case to carry out cadre team building activities..."
It was dark, and Chen Mingtai was sitting in his study, feeling upset. The play he watched during the day must have been a new play written by the Chinese court, telling the story of what happened in Zhejiang during the Ming Dynasty.
Chen Mingtai somewhat appreciates this novel performance mode. The storyteller tells the contents that cannot be directly expressed in the drama, and the intense conflicts within it are interpreted by the drama.
As the storyteller said, the moment the Yan Party headed by Yan Song proposed the policy of replacing rice with mulberry, it was doomed to fail. Because there were already forces within the Ming court that opposed Yan Song, no matter what Yan Song said or did, whether it was right or wrong, he would be opposed.
Chen Mingtai recalled the storyteller's comments. The more correct Yan Song's methods were, the more opponents he would have. He had to admit that it was quite pertinent. Allowing Yan Song to make achievements would only increase Yan Song's voice in the court. Wrong decisions should be opposed, and correct decisions should be opposed even more.
With such a contradiction at the top, everything that followed became bizarre. The local governor who was in charge of changing rice to mulberry was doomed to die.
Chen Mingtai was a little confused. The cruel political struggle was chilling. In his inner uneasiness, an idea suddenly popped up. What did Huo Chong mean by making such a thing into a drama for his subordinates to watch?
After thinking for a while and failing to come up with an answer, Chen Mingtai prepared to go back to his room to sleep, but he saw that there was still a light in his daughter's room.
When he knocked on the door, he heard some noises in the room, the noise of someone quickly packing up something. Chen Mingtai guessed that his daughter probably had not given up on applying for the Chinese government civil service. Although he was annoyed, he didn't know why he couldn't express it. In the end, he could only let his daughter go to bed early and stop messing around.
The next morning, several people came to visit Chen Mingtai, all of them were from the academy. Gao Pang sent invitations to all the teachers in the academy, and when these teachers met Chen Mingtai, the topic they talked about was without exception the play from yesterday.
Chen Mingtai felt a little tired. Just when he was about to ask the others to go where they should go, one of them sighed and said, "Brother Chen, is Huo Chong planning to rule the world right away using this method?"
This was quite insightful. Chen Mingtai had not thought of it this way before, so he asked, "How do you mean?"
"Although Huo Chong has top scholars like Gao Pang under his command, most of them have never been to school. It is too late for them to read the Four Books and Five Classics, so they use this kind of acting method to tell the story. Look at what military song Gao Pang ordered people to learn from Huo Chong. I think Huo Chong also uses the same method."
The others' eyes lit up, thinking that this idea was quite correct. However, another gentleman was puzzled, "If we teach like this, won't those people learn these methods?"
Chen Mingtai shook his head. "I think Huo Chong just wants to let his men understand through these tricks. Huo Chong himself is very familiar with these methods. Don't try to fool him with this method."
"What Brother Chen said makes sense. But how capable do you think Huo Chong is? Er... I'm not talking about his ability to kill the emperor or to bring the Yellow River back to the north. I'm referring to Huo Chong's ability to rule the country. I never realized before that Huo Chong is actually quite good at political tactics."
Before Chen Mingtai could answer, someone had already mocked him, "If you really understand political tactics, why would you treat this as a play for others to watch? Do you really think others are stupid? This is the way to teach people bad things. Sooner or later, Huo Chong's subordinates will be full of treacherous people."
Chen Mingtai saw these people arguing first, and he didn't want to get involved in such a tasteless debate. However, these gentlemen from the academy talked about it, and in the end, they all talked about whether it was right to make the court's scandal public.
Chen Mingtai was so disgusted by the content that he rudely ordered them to leave.
After asking the group to leave, Chen Mingtai called the servant and asked him to buy some wine. Drinking two glasses at this time would make you feel better. However, the servant looked different from usual, so Chen Mingtai asked the old servant what he had hidden from him.
The old servant denied it at first, but how could Chen Mingtai not see the reaction of his old servant? The old servant couldn't resist and quickly explained the reason. It turned out that Chen Mingtai's daughter privately asked the old servant to meet Gao Pang and ask for the question bank for the civil service examination .
Chen Mingtai was so angry that he wanted to curse, but he didn't curse in the end. He told the old servant not to ask for the question bank, but to go see Gao Pang.
I thought I could meet Gao Pang in one day, but the old servant came back to report that Gao Pang wanted to meet in three days. This made Chen Mingtai very unhappy.
They are so arrogant that they won't listen to others! Gao Pang was so stubborn back then. Facing the warning of being expelled from the family, he went to Shandong to seek advice from Huo Chong, the leader of the rebels who was not yet a big deal at that time. Now his daughter wants to be an official under Huo Chong. Gao Pang delayed meeting Chen Mingtai again.
Chen Mingtai suddenly felt a little sad. Was he old enough to be looked down upon by young people ?
Gao Pang certainly did not mean to look down on his teacher. The current situation gave Gao Pang an opportunity. Through the cadre team building activities, Gao Pang found that he could have an open and frank discussion with these generals.
The analysis provided by Huo Chong is very interesting and useful. The first thing is to distinguish between the enemy and ourselves.
Although the conflict within the court was the main conflict in the play, the external factor that triggered the conflict was a local mulberry and silkworm farmer. This farmer did not know about the court affairs, and had no intention of provoking the conflict. The reason why the mulberry and silkworm farmer jumped up and instigated the local people to make trouble was probably because he felt that if everyone planted mulberry and raised silkworms, the mulberry leaves of the farmer would not be sold, and the decline in raw silk prices would also affect the interests of the farmer.
Even soldiers can understand this kind of interest relationship. Or perhaps it is precisely because they are soldiers that their intuition about interests, offense and defense, and occupying an advantageous position is stronger.
After watching this play and analyzing the internal contradictions, these guys think that it was right to use ruthless means to suppress the local people.
After Gao Pang understood the feelings of this group of people, he explained to them Huo Chong's theory of the ten major relationships.
Huo Chong believed that the relationship between the Chinese court and the people was a cooperative and symbiotic one. In the face of the people who were bewitched and incited, they should be tolerant.
If no one jumped out to incite, these people would never jump out to oppose the Chinese court which has armed forces.
Having said this, everyone was able to reach a consensus through frank communication.
However, Gao Pang followed what Huo Chong said and proposed that the instigators themselves should be treated differently, which made the generals strongly opposed.
Since no matter how they discussed it, they could not reach a conclusion, Gao Pang simply asked everyone to write an official document, write down the issues they discussed, and send it to Huo Chong, so that Huo Chong, who was convinced by everyone, would make the decision.
So it was three days, but in fact there was only two days. Gao Pang went to see the teacher at the secretary's reminder.
Originally, Gao Pang had not wanted to ask his teacher to come out of retirement to serve as an official, but now that he had fought with the generals to such an extent, Gao Pang felt that he was alone and hoped that someone would support him, especially the support of scholars.
When he saw the teacher, Chen Mingtai asked what the drama was all about. Gao Pang did not hide anything and told Chen Mingtai about Huo Chong's purpose.
Chen Mingtai's brows were furrowed as he listened. After listening, he asked, "What was the final conclusion?"
"First, eliminate the main enemy, those officials and gentry. Confiscate their land and build state-owned farms and forests."
Seeing his students talking about such cruel things, their expressions were full of determination. They probably really wanted to carry it out to the end. They even seemed to be proud of taking the lead in such a brutal act instead of being ashamed. Chen Mingtai felt his scalp tingling. How could he have taught such a student?
However, Chen Mingtai knew that this was not necessarily wrong for the Chinese court. Jiangsu and Zhejiang had been in Huo Chong's hands for some time, and he had not seen officials from Jiangsu and Zhejiang come back to surrender for their families. According to the law, this was treason, and the nine clans would be killed.
Finally, Chen Mingtai asked, "Isn't Huo Chong afraid of teaching you these? After you learn them, will you use them to deal with him?"
Gao Pang was stunned, "Why do you use this method to deal with the governor?"
After answering instinctively, Gao Pang understood what the teacher was referring to. "Sir, this drama is just a minor detail, it's all just a trick. What the governor really insisted on was developing productivity. I didn't understand it at first, but slowly I worked with the people and suddenly understood it."
After saying that, Gao Pang raised his hand and pointed upwards.
Chen Mingtai didn't understand what his student was talking about, so he asked, "Are you talking about spirits in heaven?"
"No. Farming depends on the weather, and no one can escape this. Improving productivity means that it can be completed in eight days instead of ten days. The harvest that was supposed to be a total failure due to God's disapproval can now be a poor harvest. The poor harvest can be a normal year. The harvest in a normal year can be the same as a bumper year. If we can do this, the only thing left is how to distribute the grain. How much the court takes, the people get. Those soldiers are all from the people, and they don't want to listen when you talk about the Four Books and Five Classics with them. But when you talk about this, everyone is willing to listen."
"… a commoner." Chen Mingtai sighed. This was the most elegant evaluation Chen Mingtai could give. Generally speaking, such people were commonly known as mud-legged peasants or poor ghosts.
Gao Pang smiled bitterly, "Haha, teacher, I want to build an empire together with the common people."
Chen Mingtai had said such an impolite comment before, and he felt it was not appropriate. After listening to Gao Pang's words, Chen Mingtai also felt very desperate. It was indeed such a group of people who killed people everywhere, and these people were Han people after all. Before the current noble Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty conquered the world, weren't they also a group of savages?
After calming down, Chen Mingtai asked, "Gao Pang, there is no restriction on gender when taking the civil service exam. Is this true or false?"
The documents Gao Pang and others sent to Huo Chong were sent out at the fastest speed. Since the Yellow River had already returned to the north, Jiangsu was obviously much drier. The actions along the way were even faster.
So Huo Chong's instructions came back ten days later. Gao Pang, the governor of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, led a group of officials to study Huo Chong's instructions. After reading a few paragraphs, Gao Pang understood it first.
Huo Chong gave a more detailed explanation of the ten major relationships in his instructions. The core is class division.
The so-called classes are such large groups which occupy different positions in a certain historical social production system, have different relations to the means of production (most of which are clearly defined by law), play different roles in the social organization of labor, and therefore receive different ways and amounts of social wealth at their disposal.
Class division is the process of dividing human society into several classes according to these four criteria.
The class standard is a purely impure "economic" standard. The most important standard for class division is the ownership of the means of production, followed by the role and status in the production process, and then the distribution method. The former is the cause, and the latter two are the results.
In terms of the possession of means of production, people can be divided into owners and non-owners; in terms of their role in the production process, people can be divided into commanders (managers) and the commanded; in terms of the distribution results, people can be divided into exploiters and the exploited.
With the class division, the internal relationships among the original ten major relationships have clear definition standards.
Gao Pang was also able to calmly explain his previous judgment. They were the so-called instigators, some of whom were pure exploiters . Everything they got was from exploiting the fruits of others' labor through the system. Such opponents must be defeated.
"The governor has made it clear. After we defeat these people, we will nationalize the land they own. Then we will have land for the people to farm. What do the people want? Isn't it to have land to farm so they can suffer less from hunger, or even not starve at all?" Gao Pang explained loudly.
"Governor, what about the other part you mentioned before?" Wang Weichang was still upset about this matter. After all, Gao Pang had said that Wang Weichang was a bit cruel.
Gao Pangxian made his position clear, "I am in the same camp with everyone else, we are all comrades. We are angry with each other just because we have to deal with various things. I say again, we can be angry with each other, but we can't end up becoming mortal enemies. If we do that, wouldn't it be us ourselves who are splitting up first?"
After hearing this, Wang Weichang felt that he could not refute it and could only reluctantly suppress his unhappy expression.
Gao Pang took Wang Weichang's words into consideration and continued, "Some of the troublemakers are also producers themselves, and they may even be experts in writing. What are they afraid of? They are afraid of losing their land. We have to appease these people. That's why I think we can't just beat everyone to death."
When Wang Weichang heard this, he frowned and asked, "Is this what the governor meant?"
Gao Pang put the documents on the table and said, "If you don't believe it, let the clerk read it first. We will listen carefully and discuss it after listening."
Hearing the discussion, many people expressed regret that they shouldn't have caused trouble. Gao Pang didn't care how uncomfortable these people were. He had Huo Chong's authority to use, and he would be a fool not to use it!
However, the generals' resistance was more persistent than Gao Pang had imagined. After at least two more days of study, the group said, "We don't quite understand it either. The governor has to explain it to us."
Gao Pang knew that they actually understood, but they didn't want to accept it. Since the generals did this, Gao Pang directly reported the matter to Huo Chong.
Another ten days passed, and Huo Chong replied, "Build the branch to the company!"
