Chapter 357: Minister of Rites (15)
Li Cunyi and Zhao Lin reported to the Xuzhou Military Academy, but they did not meet at all. A few days later, Li Cunyi found that the division commanders in the military academy were very unhappy.
Most officers who have reached this level are from Shandong and know each other. The two were embarrassed at first, but they were laughed at when they were drinking on a weekend. The person who spoke was also a division commander, "It's useless for you to be sullen, we were all driven here anyway. What's the point of doing this?"
Li Cunyi was very unhappy that his grievances were ignored. He asked the other party, "What do you mean by that?"
The brother laughed and said, "I'm saying that if you do this, just study here, and if you learn enough, the governor will be happy to let you go back."
Li Cunyi was somewhat shocked by the news. How could he not go back? Was he in the military academy or in prison?
Of course, if you have doubts, you have to inquire. This inquiry scared Li Cunyi. Military academies are places for learning, but the military academies in Xuzhou are different. Learning is learning, but if the learning is not up to standard, many people will directly return to the local area from the military academy.
The Huaxia Army had a very complete system since its establishment. From the beginning, everyone heard from Huo Chong that they would not be forced to serve in the army until death. At that time, Li Cunyi thought that Huo Chong was just trying to comfort everyone. In fact, he had already made up his mind to "not be born in the same year and month, but hope to die in the same year and month".
When he was about to retire, Li Cunyi found that he didn't want to retire at all. He found the principal of the military academy, Qian Qing, and asked if he could return to the front line. The answer he got was very clear and straightforward, "If you pass the assessment, you can return to the front line."
Li Cunyi tried his best, "Sister, the battle is still going on at the front line."
Qian Qing looked calm, with no emotion at all. She replied in a voice devoid of emotion: "Don't worry, it won't delay the battle."
Unable to find an opportunity with Qian Qing, Li Cunyi could only seek a way to graduate as soon as possible. However, the courses in the military academy made Li Cunyi secretly complain. These courses were simply difficult!
Start with basic physical training and martial arts training, including walking, running, military boxing, swordsmanship, and bayonet fighting.
Li Cunyi soon felt that his body was a little overwhelmed. He had not received such systematic training for a long time, and his physical strength had been greatly consumed. More importantly, the training content that Li Cunyi had completed was much more detailed than before. In the past, he just did it roughly, but now he really broke it down and taught it to the students.
Students should not only imitate, but also learn and even deconstruct. Li Cunyi found that he could not even learn before, but just imitated others.
Faced with such detailed and rich military content, Li Cunyi was really a little scared. He just happened to meet Zhao Lin.
Originally, he didn't want to talk to Zhao Lin, but when he saw Zhao Lin coming over, Li Cunyi wondered if he could talk to Zhao Lin. If Zhao Lin was willing to admit his fault and take the responsibility for the quarrel between the two, Li Cunyi would be able to find a chance to return to the army.
Zhao Lin asked straight to the point: "Old Li, can we put the past behind us? Do you want to return to the army?"
Hearing this, Li Cunyi immediately lowered his expectations of Zhao Lin. If he could return to the army, he would just pretend that he and Zhao Lin had never had a quarrel.
Since everyone had the same goal and had temporarily put aside their dissatisfaction, the two of them discussed and came up with a result.
When the two of them said in front of Qian Qing that they would never quarrel with each other again and asked to return to the front line, Qian Qing asked them without even thinking, "You are all here, are you going to set a precedent? In the military academy, only those who pass the assessment can leave. Oh, no, you can only return to the army after passing the assessment. Other than that, you can leave the military academy after you recover."
"Sister, please spare us." This time it was Zhao Lin's turn to beg.
"This is not to spare anyone. We are different now than before. If you want to lead the troops well, you have to know more. Don't think that what you are learning now is useless. These are all things that the soldiers need to master. It's just that the soldiers have to complete the imitation stage and enter the learning stage."
"We learned it too." Zhao Lin quickly made an excuse for himself.
"Soldiers cannot be division commanders, but you are all division commanders. You have to learn how to deconstruct."
Hearing this, Li Cunyi felt that he had been tricked. He was furious and shouted, "Why is it called deconstruction?"
Qian Qing laughed, "If you can beat me in a sword fight, then you have learned how to deconstruct."
Li Cunyi was furious and shouted, "Let's compete!"
When Qian Qing heard this, he did not refuse, but asked Li Cunyi to get ready for the competition in two hours.
When the time came, Li Cunyi was taken to the playground. He saw many people waiting there. On one side of the battlefield was Qian Qing, and on the other side stood a dozen people. They all took training swords like Li Cunyi, and Li Cunyi realized that Qian Qing was going to fight against more than a dozen people.
More than a decade ago, Qian Qing relied on violence and wisdom to completely establish his position among the crowd.
However, more than a decade later, Li Cunyi was quite confident in himself. Although he had not practiced for a long time, he knew that everyone was not young anymore. Since they were no longer young, women were no match for men.
Seeing Qian Qing in place, a brother came forward with a training sword. He saluted Qian Qing first and said, "Sister, please teach me."
Qian Qing didn't say anything polite and attacked with his sword. Li Cunyi just looked at him for a few seconds and was a little dumbfounded. This brother's swordsmanship was really amazing. After watching him, Li Cunyi realized that he was no match for him.
However, this skill could not do anything to Qian Qing. Although she was a woman, Qian Qing's movements were extremely smooth. The power of each sword was not inferior at all.
After only four or five moves, the brother wanted to gain an advantage by force. Unexpectedly, Qian Qing seized the opportunity and thrust his sword at the brother's ribs. If this was not a simple contest, this sword would have killed him or caused a fatal injury.
Li Cunyi was dumbfounded, secretly calculating how many moves he could take against this brother. After analyzing for a moment, he felt that he could probably take ten moves. However, this fierce brother was defeated so easily... For a moment, the feeling of being dominated by Qian Qing in his youth had returned to his memory again.
After that, several brothers came up to compete. Some of them were strong, some were agile, or some were both strong and agile. However, they were defeated by Qian Qing one by one.
It was Li Cunyi's turn. Li Cunyi looked at his pot belly, sighed, and threw down the sword in his hand, "Sister, I won't go up and embarrass myself."
Qian Qing was a little out of breath because of this competition . Wiping the sweat off his forehead, Qian Qing said to everyone: "The teacher taught us what science is. If you master science, you can beat those who don't understand science. My swordsmanship is average compared to the teacher. At my age, my strength and speed are not as good as yours. I can beat you only because I know I don't understand science, so I work hard to learn science. If you study hard, you can beat me."
Li Cunyi was confused by these words. Was this considered showing off? Obviously not.
However, if it wasn't to show off, what was Qian Qing trying to say?
Qian Qing certainly knew what he was talking about. Even though he knew what he was talking about, Qian Qing was very disappointed with the group of idiots in front of him who obviously didn't understand. Originally, Qian Qing felt that these guys were a bit pitiful. After fighting for so many years, they had to leave their posts in such a way.
However, after fully recognizing the progress these guys have made over the years, Qian Qing decided to let them recover. The army is really not suitable for them!
In the afternoon, Qian Qing went to see Huo Chong. When they met, Qian Qing asked, "Sir, I am just worried about whether Yu Qian will fail. After all, the people in the Ministry of Rites in the army are still too young."
"This has little to do with being young. The enemies faced by members of the Ministry of Rites all rely on experience, or even on assumptions based on imitation. No matter how weak our members of the Ministry of Rites are, they know how to learn. As long as they know how to deconstruct, they are at most too divergent. The organization of the Ministry of Rites can prevent divergent ideas from affecting work. If Yu Qian fails, it means that the Ministry of Rites branch where Yu Qian is located has failed. Then we will find out the reason!"
Qian Qing sighed slightly, "Sir, I think these people care about winning or losing. As for what winning or losing means, they don't regard it as a verification of their experience and understanding of the world. Instead, they regard winning or losing as their bargaining chip for the next time."
Huo Chong laughed twice. He always thought that the founders of a country should be as powerful as described in history books. So he couldn't understand why the founders of a country often didn't have a good ending.
Although it is said that these people did not have a good end because they had to be involved in the torrent of the emperor's power consolidation. So they died. But Huo Chong now sees that the reason why those people in the founding group rebelled was because they could not survive.
How can the world be a good one if it makes it impossible for everyone to survive?
If one only has the ability to imitate, what he sees is not good. If one has the ability to learn, what he learns is not good either. As for being able to analyze the world, people’s hearts will probably be destroyed by the corrupt world.
Although Qian Qing's evaluation of these people was not polite, at least in Huo Chong's opinion, it has proved that the Huaxia Army is a very good organization. Even if there is no room for improvement, at least they are just using the achievements they have already made to bargain. Even in the prosperous times, they are not bad people. They are just resting on their laurels.
"Qing'er, don't worry. I have high expectations for young people. You are very optimistic about Qian, and I think that for someone you think highly of, he must have that kind of feeling."
Qian Qing also sighed slightly, and finally said nothing.
Yu Qian had already held a meeting with the members of the three groups' ceremonial departments and came up with a plan. However, there were some very procedural details in this plan, that is, any action had to have a node.
The Ministry of Rites’ courses repeatedly emphasize that if you walk in a certain direction enough times, there will probably be a time or several times when you can still reach your destination even if all your choices along the way are wrong.
However, the probability of such a thing happening is too small, and it relies heavily on intuition and requires extremely high capital.
In order to verify, there must be a standard at each node. Nodes must be set for everything.
When the nodes here came out, the young members of the Ministry of Rites were a little confused. For example, the first node was the marching speed.
The three regiments were all transferred here, and no one knew their backgrounds.
Seeing that everyone was at a loss, Yu Qian suggested: "Since the division commander hasn't come back yet, let's do a training exercise first."
The other two group leaders had no reason to refuse, so the Ministry of Rites decided on the content and tested the nodes that needed to be prepared one by one.
After all the data was obtained and the troops completed the preliminary preparations, the division commander Li Cunyi had not returned yet. There was no other way, so Yu Qian and others jointly sent an official document to Xuzhou, asking when Li Cunyi would return.
Soon, Yu Qian received an order, "For this operation, the head of the Ministry of Rites branch will be the commander, and the functions of the division headquarters will be completed by the Ministry of Rites branch."
Perhaps because Yu Qian was Huo Chong's disciple, Yu Qian was chosen as the branch leader. With this order, although Yu Qian's position in the army was still a regiment leader, he had to assume the authority and responsibilities of a division commander.
Yu Qian was always a good and obedient child. When the order was given, Yu Qian informed everyone. The members of the Ministry of Rites branch did not object. Finally, the matter was implemented.
All senior officials with any sense just wait and see what the young people are doing.
Of course, a brainless person can’t get a high position.
When Gao Pang discussed this matter privately with his father-in-law, he could not help but sigh, "This matter has definitely become a common practice in this dynasty."
Gao Pang was a little emotional when he said this. He was even more emotional in his heart. The army is a place that emphasizes discipline and system. Gao Pang knew that his state of mind was not suitable for being a soldier, and he also knew that he could not get into the circle of Shandong officers, so he simply gave up the idea of joining the army.
In such an army, the Ministry of Rites branch, composed of military personnel who were members of the Ministry of Rites, was responsible for exercising the powers and responsibilities of a division commander. This change meant that the actual influence of the Ministry of Rites far exceeded the scope of such a southern expedition to Fujian.
After hearing this, Chen Mingtai also sighed, "This is definitely not a military supervisor. This is definitely not a military supervisor! The military supervisor is the emperor's confidant. It is true that these people are from the Ministry of Rites, but they are all soldiers in the army. If this battle is successful, even if there is no commander-in-chief in the future, the Ministry of Rites branch can make the decision. But I don't know how Your Majesty intends to determine the status between the Ministry of Rites and the chief officials."
Since his father-in-law had pointed out the key point, Gao Pang quickly asked: "Sir, who do you think is higher and who is lower?"
Chen Mingtai did not answer immediately. He first bit his lips slightly, which proved that he really had strong expectations, but he could not make a precise number. Finally, Chen Mingtai loosened his lips and patted the table lightly, "I'll make a guess. I thought that His Majesty would let the Ministry of Rites branch be above the chief officer!"
Gao Pang also thought so. Hearing his father-in-law's assurance, he suddenly remembered a detail. After thinking for a moment, he couldn't help but laugh.
"Gao Pang, what did you remember?" Chen Mingtai asked hurriedly.
Gao Pang thought about the details again and again, and then answered: "Sir, His Majesty said that in the future, the chief officials must also be members of the Ministry of Rites. It seems that the chief officials of the various branches of the Ministry of Rites may not necessarily be the chief officials of the various government offices."
After hearing this, Chen Mingtai frowned and pondered, then suddenly slammed the table and praised loudly: "Great! Great! This way, it won't delay those talented people. It won't allow anyone to monopolize power. Your Majesty's idea is really great."
Gao Pang felt that since his father-in-law became an official, he had become more and more supportive of Huo Chong. Although Gao Pang felt that his father-in-law's praise of Huo Chong was actually correct, in the eyes of outsiders, Chen Mingtai had begun to "fawn on the powerful" after becoming an official.
Just as I was thinking about some disrespectful thoughts towards my father-in-law, I heard my father-in-law Chen Mingtai continue to say: "Gao Pang, you said before that officials nowadays all put the interests of their departments first. So they try their best to divide up various interests and create their own prisons . Your Majesty, once this system is implemented, you will be able to control those people."
Gao Pang was also thinking about how to break the departmental interests, and quickly asked: "Oh? Are you using the branch to control the chief officer?"
Chen Mingtai waved his hand, "No. We should use the higher level general branch meeting to control the branch."
"Ah?" Gao Pang found that he had not thought of this solution. But after thinking about it carefully, his father-in-law was right.
Huo Chong has already said that the members of the Ministry of Rites are the vanguard. The work of the vanguard is naturally to build roads and bridges across mountains and rivers.
Departmental interests are a normal situation in a department. If all kinds of people in this department sell out their interests to other departments, this department should just take it directly.
But every advantage has its disadvantages. Departmental interests will hinder the implementation of cross-departmental policies. At this time, there must be a recognized vanguard to do this work. Starting from the overall perspective, a new path should be paved for each department.
Such a vanguard must come from the Ministry of Rites. And the members of this vanguard cannot be wild boys who came from who knows where, but must have work experience.
From this perspective, the establishment of the Ministry of Rites and the construction of its branches at all levels are indeed very effective and reasonable means.
Gao Pang has already begun thinking about how to find a solution to expand silk production.
Just after thinking for a moment, he heard his father-in-law Chen Mingtai say: "Don't worry. Shouldn't the current priority be to win this expedition? If the Ministry of Rites branch does not do a good job, you will have to bear huge pressure if you want to use the Ministry of Rites to push things forward!"
Gao Pang understood immediately and started to prepare.
Fuzhou is a nice place, but it suffered a lot during the Qing Dynasty.
In the early Qing Dynasty, the Qing army and Zheng Chenggong fought a seesaw battle in Fuzhou. From the 13th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign (1674) to the 15th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign (1676), Geng Jingzhong again took Fuzhou and rebelled against the Qing Dynasty. The turbulent situation led the Qing government to implement a maritime ban and relocation policy, forcing coastal residents of Fuzhou to move inland, which severely damaged the social economy of coastal Fuzhou. It was not until the 23rd year of Emperor Kangxi's reign (1684) that the relocation policy was cancelled. The relatively stable social environment in the Ming and Qing dynasties led to the large-scale development of Fuzhou City. In the early and middle Qing Dynasty, Fuzhou was an important maritime trade center in China. Its main trading partners were Ryukyu and Japan, and many people from Fuzhou Prefecture immigrated to Ryukyu and Japan.
However, the target of this battle was the Qing army in Fuzhou. Gao Pang had not cared about it at first, but now he quickly mobilized his forces, especially the literati and gentry in Jiangnan, asking them to provide intelligence and guides.
I thought the scholars would not be interested. But as soon as Chen Mingtai started, many gentry who had been killed came out and expressed their willingness to serve. Soon, Gao Pang recommended the support he could provide to Yu Qian.
