Blindly treating the army generously could easily breed an arrogant and willful army. Deng Zilong had once treated his own army in this way, and then he had been ruthlessly conned. His experience had given Xiao Ruxun many inspirations.
Using both carrot and stick, he had them understand just how blissful it was to join Marshal Xiao's army. At the same time, it was also something that needed to be treated seriously. Even if they had a grudge against anyone, they couldn't have a grudge against such good treatment.
Moreover, Marshal Xiao was about to fight his way to the capital to restore order. His crusade against the heavens was about to succeed, and all of them would be meritorious subjects. All of them would be rewarded even more!
He continued to use the set he had used during his time in the Zhennan Army. For this reason, Xiao Ruxun had chosen more than two hundred scholars from the poor scholars who had pledged their allegiance to him to be his ideological instructors, and he was constantly expanding this group.
He told them how to educate the new soldiers and how to have them assimilate into the Zhennan Army. He then had them go down to the grass-roots level of the army to explain Marshal Xiao's latest instructions and tips on leading soldiers to the veteran officers of the Zhennan Army.
As long as Xiao Ruxun had any new instructions or ideas, he would have these ideological instructors go down to the grass-roots level of the army and gather the lower-level and lower-level officers to repeat and explain.
These lower-level and lower-level officers were all veterans of the Zhennan Army. They had come through Xiao Ruxun's campaign to eliminate illiteracy, so they knew how to read and write. With a basic level of education, they could easily understand what Xiao Ruxun wanted them to do, so the implementation of this policy was extremely effective.
Xiao Ruxun had also gradually changed his current situation of being unable to directly influence every soldier after the expansion of the army. Through ideological instructors, he could influence and direct the lower-level and lower-level officers, eliminating the middle link and having them directly face the lower-level soldiers.
In this way, the middle-level and high-ranking officers, who traditionally had a certain amount of military authority and prestige, were removed from this process, making it impossible for them to leave too deep a mark on the army. This ensured that the army would not only listen to the general's orders but not Xiao Ruxun's.
On the other hand, the Ideological Instructor did not have any military merits or prestige. His authority came from Xiao Ruxun, so he posed no threat to Xiao Ruxun.
Low-ranking officers had little power and influence, so they would not pose a threat to Xiao Ruxun.
How could Xiao Ruxun not worry about the problems that Yuan Huang mentioned?
However, he was already prepared and had already taken action, so it was impossible for him to do as Yuan Huang said.
He knew very well that through this method, he would be able to brand his influence in the hearts of every soldier, so that every soldier would know of his existence and understand his existence. They would not ignore or even be unaware of his existence.
In this way, he could control the army and achieve complete control over the army. Every level of the army would follow his orders and not the orders of their superior officers. This would ensure that the army would not go out of control and that the main generals under him would not do anything that they could not resolve.
At the same time, he would thoroughly carry out his will and make this powerful force that could intimidate the entire country become his most reliable support. No one would be able to shake his position and power.
This was the foundation for the smooth reform after he succeeded in setting things right.
The era was changing, and it was undergoing a very subtle change. The quantitative change was accumulating, and when the quantitative change accumulated enough to trigger a qualitative change, it would be the beginning of the era of great reform. However, the traditional gentry had not noticed the omen of the coming era, nor would they think about it.
It was not that Xiao Ruxun had not thought of confessing to Yuan Huang. The only scholar he could trust was Yuan Huang. The others, such as Mei Guozhen, Chen Longzheng, and Ye Mengxiong, although they were close, could not be trusted.
Only Yuan Huang, who had accompanied him all the way, could be truly trusted.
However, Yuan Huang was also a Jinshi. He had been in the imperial court for decades and had left a deep mark on him. As for whether he could look beyond the system, Xiao Ruxun was not sure.
In order to prevent Yuan Huang from strongly opposing him and causing some unpleasant things, Xiao Ruxun must block the news of him.
Before the new scholars that he had cultivated were strong enough to challenge the traditional gentry, it was best not to let them know this news. When they arrived in Nanjing, they would immediately go north to Yangzhou and take all the people who were in the way to the north.
In this way, Jiangnan could be left to Xie He's working group, Zhang Wu's Black Water, and the army to deal with.
When they were entangled with Shen Yicheng in the north, the south could be developed wretchedly.
When everything in the north was settled, the south, especially the southeast, should be almost cleaned up, and the foundation of the traditional gentry should be almost swept away.
At that time, it was time for the showdown.
Of course, at that time, it would be too late for anyone to stop it. The local government had been firmly controlled by the working group, and the farmers would no longer be controlled by the scholar-bureaucrats. The local government would become the national government, not an autonomous region!
When Xiao Ruxun led the fleet to Nanjing, the capital was in a mess.
That's right, it was literally a mess in the capital.
Since Li Hualong went south, the daily order of the capital could still be maintained, and the grain storage in the capital could still meet the daily expenses for some time. The Datong area of Shanxi, which had the biggest expenditure, no longer needed the support of the central government after the Shanxi merchants stored grain, so the pressure on Shen Yicheng was not too great.
Originally, it was like this.
But after the news of Li Hualong's defeat in the south spread throughout the capital on October 10th, the order of the capital was in chaos.
In fact, Shen Yicheng strictly controlled the news and did not disclose it to the public. Except for the news of the army going south, which was too big to be suppressed, other news was strictly controlled. For example, the situation of the war and so on were all sent to the Imperial Bodyguard.
For example, the intelligence report that Li Hualong had sent had a clear understanding of the scope of Xiao Ruxun's army and its progress, causing Shen Yicheng's core force to tremble in fear. They could never have imagined that Xiao Ruxun had already swept through half of Jiangnan.
Shen Yicheng also sensed the gravity of the situation and hurriedly followed Liu Huangchang's plan, ordering the Gansu border army to move faster and arrive at the capital within a limited time to reorganize. At the same time, he ordered Xiao Daheng to select elite soldiers from the remaining soldiers and strengthen their training, preparing at least fifty thousand soldiers capable of fighting in case of emergency.
Xiao Daheng was so busy that he could not even return home, so he stayed in the barracks outside the city to run errands.
The general situation was under Shen Yicheng's control, and no information was leaked. The common people and scholars of the capital continued to live as they pleased.
But this time, things were different.
A minor oversight on the part of the Imperial Bodyguard allowed seventy to eighty defeated soldiers to flee back to the capital. Upon returning, they began to clamor on the streets that Xiao Ni's army was about to attack the capital, that Li Hualong's army had been completely wiped out, and that Daming was done for …
The commoners were the most curious about these things. They liked to watch the excitement, but when the excitement was too big to the point where they were about to lose their lives, they were only left with fear.
On the tenth day of the tenth month, the capital was in a state of complete chaos, all sorts of rumors flying through the air.
One moment, Xiao Ni's rebel army was about to attack the capital, the next moment, Xiao Ni's rebel army was about to attack Kaifeng, the next moment, Japanese pirates were attacking the capital, and the next moment, Northern Barbarians were attacking the capital. There were even rumors that Japanese pirates and Northern Barbarians were working together to attack the capital.
There were also people who did not know what sort of rebel army Xiao Ni's rebel army was and simply said that Liaodong's rebel army was attacking the capital.
Thus, everyone felt that Daming's capital was besieged on all sides and on the verge of being broken.
Even though they did not hear the sounds of gunfire or fighting.
To sum it all up …
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