Xiao Ruxun deliberately slowed down the pace of the army's advance, so that the army could maintain more physical strength and buy more time. During the march, he did a lot of things, including building a government team and establishing contacts with the local authorities, as well as determining who he could ally with and who he could not.
Most of the people he could ally with were not officials from the southeast, but officials from the relatively weak places in Jiangxi, Huguang, and Great Southwest. Only these places, which had little connection with traditional commercial centers, could give birth to political anomalies like Yan Song and Zhang Juzheng.
The Great Ming's gentry had the strongest power in several provinces in the southeast. Zhili, Zhejiang, and Fujian were the three provinces that flourished the most. Shanxi had suffered heavy losses due to the previous storm and was no longer a force to be reckoned with. The scholars in the southeast had already occupied the majority of the official positions in the imperial court and were very powerful.
They had taken root in the richest place in Daming, which seriously affected the normal operation of tax collection.
Xiao Ruxun would inevitably fall out with the scholars in the Southeast, uprooting them and firmly grasping the most important financial resources of the Great Ming Dynasty in her hands. The number of scholars in the other regions was small, and the number of gentry families was small, unlike the situation in the Southeast. Therefore, apart from a few who were too powerful and needed to be eliminated, most of them could still be united.
Xiao Ruxun also needed their existence. The main enemy had been eliminated, but there was no need to get rid of the remaining small fish and shrimps. Otherwise, the new interest groups that relied on the land reform and the Northern Expedition would be too powerful and even affect his authority. Setting up a hostile group would help to stabilize his position.
In addition, Xiao Ruxun needed to strengthen his own power. In addition to firmly holding the control of the army, he also needed to strengthen his intelligence force. The ruler lived deep in the capital and could not often travel around. If he wanted to ensure that he would not be deceived by his subjects and ensure the most basic security, it was very important to have a loyal intelligence agency that belonged to him.
Intelligence agencies were the standard of every modern country. The East Faction Guard was the first professional intelligence agency established by the state in China and played a very important role.
From the perspective of a ruler, Xiao Ruxun believed that the most useful thing Zhu Yuanzhang left for his descendants was the Imperial Bodyguard, the most useful thing Zhu Di left for his descendants was the East Faction Guard, and the most useful thing Zhu Zhanji did for his descendants was to teach the eunuchs to read.
The Imperial Bodyguard faced the officials scattered outside, and the East Faction Guard supervised the Imperial Bodyguard in the palace. The emperor himself had the supreme leadership of these two departments and a complete intelligence system.
Now Xiao Ruxun felt that he had built Blackwater, but he still lacked the key power to supervise it. He had no eunuchs around him, so he could only choose trusted officials that he promoted himself.
Xiao Ruxun was very dissatisfied with the previous land reform incident. Blackwater's duty was to tell her all the military and political intelligence they gathered, but Blackwater didn't do this. It seemed that Zhang Wu had become a little arrogant after leaving Xiao Ruxun's position in Nanjing, just like Li Wenyuan.
Now that he had started to get arrogant, what would happen after he got rid of Shen Yiyi?
It was time to teach him a lesson.
In addition to teaching him a lesson, it was time to set up a more specialized department to deal with him, just like the East Faction Guard and the Imperial Bodyguard. The candidate, of course, must be the most loyal to him, and there was no other way out.
Eunuchs were the best choice for the emperor, and for himself, it was barely acceptable to arrange a person with no relatives or connections to be the leader.
Therefore, Xiao Ruxun decided to choose Zhou Yao to lead this newly established organization.
He was very sensitive to crises, so he was very suitable for this position.
Therefore, the Black Dove, which was independent of Blackwater and closer to Xiao Ruxun, was born.
"You should know why I named this organization Black Dove."
Xiao Ruxun wrote these two big words on a piece of paper and gave it to Zhou Yao.
Zhou Yao seemed very excited about it.
"The dove bird is a highly poisonous bird. If its feather is drawn across the wine, the wine will be poisoned, and it is called dove wine. The previous generations used dove wine to execute the traitors in the court. This subordinate is willing to be Marshal's dove wine, to eradicate all traitors for Marshal!"
Zhou Yao knelt on the ground.
Xiao Ruxun bent down and helped Zhou Yao up.
"I originally had Black Water, which could gather intelligence from all over the world, so that I wouldn't become a blind man. However, the incident with Li Wenyuan made me realize that just having Black Water wasn't enough. The reason why His Majesty was deposed, and why I almost lost my life, was because of the betrayal of Luo Sigong, the commander of the Brocade Guards.
I have to worry that Blackwater will have the same trend. They are far away from me, so I can't control them directly. I don't have that much energy. So, I can only rely on you now. You will supervise the generals and civil officials in the army. You will supervise Blackwater. If there is anything wrong, you can report to me directly.
The Black Dove wears black clothes and everything they use is black. Along the way, you can send more people to collect black cloth and black dye in case of emergencies. If you need any help, you can come to me. "
Zhou Yao knelt again.
"Yes, Sir."
Xiao Ruxun smiled and helped him up again.
"There are not many people in this organization at the moment. I will put more than 20 trustworthy people who originally belonged to Black Water into this organization and give them to you to command. You can set up the framework first. After that, I can give you the right to choose the talents you need from the whole army. The people who join this organization must be absolutely reliable and absolutely loyal. I will directly allocate the funds to you. If you need anything, just tell me directly."
Zhou Yao nodded.
"I will not let Marshal down!"
Xiao Ruxun nodded and let Zhou Yao go. After a few steps, Xiao Ruxun suddenly said.
"Zixian, I don't have many talents around me. I can only let you do this. It's hard for you, a scholar, to do this kind of thing."
Hearing this, Zhou Yao turned around and bowed to Xiao Ruxun.
"Marshal, you give me food to eat, clothes to wear, and a salary. I know that I am not talented and do not know how to repay Marshal's kindness. Therefore, I am willing to sacrifice my life for Marshal, even if my reputation is ruined, I will not hesitate."
Xiao Ruxun pursed his lips and said, "Go."
Zhou Yao turned around and left.
After he left, Xiao Ruxun sat on a chair, leaned against the back of the chair, and breathed a sigh of relief.
He didn't know when it started, but Xiao Ruxun found that he became a little angry easily. His views on many things were not as open-minded as before, and he always considered things too deeply. It was obviously a very simple thing, but he always had to think about it carefully before he was willing to give up. Then, he would do something that he didn't dare to think about before.
Now that he calmed down and thought about it, he even wondered why he would think of such a serious thing at that time. Li Wenyuan was a bodyguard and had followed him through fire and water in Korea and Myanmar for many years. He could rest assured that he would put him in the position of a general. Just because he couldn't stand some things, was it worth it for him to react so violently?
In the past, he would probably just laugh it off, then laugh and scold a few times, and still be close to them.
Since when did this kind of feeling become indifferent?
— — — —
PS: What is a miracle four chapters? Even a lousy person like me can occasionally extract power from the bottom of my heart and let out a deafening roar!
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
