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The deaths of Ceng Shuiyuan and Li Shouchun completely shocked Vézé's troops. Up until now, the military court in Vézé's troops had also sentenced some people to death. However, these death sentences were all based on military law and facts. In this agricultural era, the people who were killed were often regarded as unlucky and bumped into the muzzle of a gun. However, no one held any grudges against the military court that killed them. At least the people who were killed had a reason to be killed.
However, the head of the Taiping Rebellion government, Prime Minister Tian Guan Zheng, Yang Xiuqing's personal subordinate, the First Minister of the Ministry of Personnel of the King Of The East, was killed because he did not immediately report to the King Of The East, Yang Xiuqing. This undoubtedly made the generals of the General Staff Headquarters feel a strong threat. If Yang Xiuqing's power entered Vézé's troops, everyone in the General Staff Headquarters would be under the threat of death.
Wei Changrong and Hu Chenghe were the first to come to talk to Vézé. Hu Chenghe's slightly chubby round face looked serious, but he pursed his lips and did not say a word. Wei Changrong had a deep frown between his thick eyebrows. He said in a low voice, "Fourth Uncle, can we still follow the King Of The East?"
Vézé was overjoyed, but he did not show it on his face. He replied, "If we don't follow the King Of The East, do we still follow the Heavenly King? Compared to the King Of The East, the Heavenly King is far inferior to the King Of The East! "
Wei Changrong was choked by Vézé's words. He took a few deep breaths and finally said, "If we really can't do it, let's not follow the Taiping Rebellion! With Fourth Uncle leading the way, we also have the General Staff Headquarters. It's not like we can't do it ourselves! "
"Don't talk nonsense!" Vézé said seriously.
Wei Changrong did not understand what Vézé meant. He remained silent for a while. The room fell into a rather depressing atmosphere.
Hu Chenghe was silent for a while before he broke the silence that enveloped the room. "Chief of General Staff, are you saying that Director Wei's suggestion is not feasible? Or is it that Director Wei's idea is temporarily unable to be realized? "
Upon hearing this, Vézé felt his heart beating rapidly. The answer was clear. Vézé did not intend to hide anything from Wei Changrong. However, this was the first time that someone had spoken out Vézé's true thoughts, and the impact it caused was even more intense than Vézé had imagined.
Of course, Wei Changrong could be trusted, but Hu Chenghe was not someone Vézé could trust completely. This was not only because Hu Chenghe might lean towards the King Of The East, but also because Vézé had to consider whether Hu Chenghe was willing to leave the Taiping Rebellion and work alone.
Just as Vézé was in a dilemma, Hu Chenghe said frankly, "Chief of General Staff, I, Hu Chenghe, have always admired you. You led us brothers all the way from Yongan until now. Without you, we definitely wouldn't have made it this far. So, no matter what the Chief of General Staff is planning, I, Hu Chenghe, will definitely follow you everywhere! "
This expression of loyalty was all too familiar to Vézé. He had once sincerely expressed his allegiance to the King Of The East, Yang Xiuqing. However, Vézé knew very well that he was not loyal to the King Of The East, Yang Xiuqing, but to the cause of fighting against the Qing Dynasty. When Yang Xiuqing could no longer be saved, Vézé abandoned Yang Xiuqing without hesitation.
Why was Hu Chenghe, who was in front of Vézé, willing to follow Vézé? Vézé was not very optimistic about this. Because Vézé had at least one big flaw, and that was, he did not have a truly attractive ideology.
"Chief Hu, are you willing to leave Tianping Heavenly State?" Vézé asked directly.
This sharp and fundamental question made Hu Chenghe hesitate, but he only hesitated for a moment. "Chief of General Staff, I feel that you are better than the King Of The East. You lead the brothers to govern the army and pacify the people. Ever since our Heavenly State established Tianjing as its capital, most of the new territories we conquered were led by the Chief of General Staff. Compared to the King Of The East, the Chief of General Staff never bullies others! I will only follow the Chief of General Staff in the future! "
Vézé felt that Hu Chenghe was not so much expressing his loyalty to Vézé, but Hu Chenghe was making a decision for himself. What he said was all about the strength that Vézé had displayed, and not about the political ideology that Vézé had proposed that Hu Chenghe had to follow.
This judgment made Vézé happy and unhappy at the same time. However, at this time, he needed everyone to follow him, and the establishment of Vézé's political program could only be postponed. Therefore, Vézé said frankly, "Chief Hu, since you said so, I will believe you. However, I have something to say first. Chief Hu said that I am different from the King Of The East, and I think this is the truth. Therefore, the King Of The East slaughters those who don't follow him, but I won't. If the brothers have any thoughts, then just say it directly. Even if you don't want to follow me, I only hope that you can tell me in advance, and I will definitely not make things difficult for you. If such a day really comes, although I won't send you off with a flourish, at least the travel expenses will not be reduced! "
Hu Chenghe didn't have any special reaction, but Wei Changrong could tell from Vézé's tone that Vézé wasn't joking, and his expression became uncomfortable.
After Hu Chenghe left, Wei Changrong immediately said, "Fourth Uncle, even if you are different from the King Of The East, you don't have to say this. Isn't this allowing the brothers to leave on their own? "
Vézé waved his hand. "Changrong, I am different from the King Of The East, so I naturally have to let the brothers know how I am different from the King Of The East. As for the brothers who really want to leave, can we stop them? If we want to kill them, aren't we forcing the brothers to rebel? "
While they were talking, Lei Hu and Ke Gongyu came to see him. After seeing Vézé, Lei Hu and Ke Gongyu looked at each other. Lei Hu asked tentatively, "Chief of the General Staff, the King Of The East has already killed Prime Minister Zeng and Minister Li. We have been thinking about it. If the King Of The East becomes the Emperor of the East and finds us an eyesore and wants to kill us, what should we do then? The storyteller told the story. Han Gaozu killed Han Xin, and Zhu Yuanzhang killed Xuda. In our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Chief of the General Staff, your contributions are no less than Han Xin and Xuda's. What if the King Of The East also reaches that day? Chief of the General Staff, what should we do then? "
"Then do you want to reach that day, or what do you want?" Vézé asked bluntly.
It seemed that Ke Gongyu and Lei Hu had already discussed this. Ke Gongyu replied, "That depends on what you think, Chief of the General Staff."
Seeing that the two of them were completely disappointed in the King Of The East, Yang Xiuqing, Vézé said, "This is what I think. No one can stop the King Of The East from becoming the Emperor of The East. If the King Of The East doesn't kill anyone after this, we will continue to follow the King Of The East for the time being. If the King Of The East goes on a killing spree after being bestowed the Emperor of The East, then I have to bring our brothers to protect ourselves! However, I feel that I am different from the King Of The East. If the King Of The East goes on a killing spree, I will not do anything to our brothers in the Heavenly State. At most, we will go our separate ways! "
Lei Hu and Ke Gongyu looked relieved. Lei Hu asked, "If the troops are to be mobilized, do we have to make preparations first?"
Vézé was more at ease with Lei Hu and Ke Gongyu. These two were more straightforward, but they weren't people with their own opinions. Since they asked this, it seemed that they weren't under someone else's orders to test Vézé for the time being. Therefore, Vézé smiled and said, "We have to stick together now. This is the preparation. I will discuss the future preparations with everyone during the General Staff Headquarters meeting. Brothers, don't worry. I, Vézé, will definitely not let my brothers suffer losses by following me! "
"Chief of the General Staff, if you want to make preparations, then hurry up. The more I think about it, the more afraid I am! "Lei Hu very straightforwardly urged Vézé.
After Lei Hu and Ke Gongyu left, Vézé finally felt a little relieved. These four people in the army were Vézé's four pillars. As long as they stood with Vézé, Vézé was completely confident that he could control the other military departments. What made Vézé worried was Lin Asheng, who had become the Logistics Minister again. Lin Asheng was a staunch believer of God. What Vézé was afraid of was not that Lin Asheng would choose King Of The East Yang Xiuqing, but that Lin Asheng would choose Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan.
Up until now, Lin Asheng still hadn't expressed his stance to Vézé, so Vézé was very loyal to him.
After returning to his residence, Vézé didn't even eat. He went back to his room and began to write an analysis report on the recent events. This was Vézé's way of calming down his uneasiness. The more he thought about it, the easier it was to get into a dead end. He wrote it down in black and white and analyzed it. Often, he would come up with the parts that he didn't think of. Some serious problems that he had thought of could be seen clearly after a few diagrams.
In the past, this method always worked, but this time, the more Vézé wrote, the more difficult it became. This time, Vézé found that he had to face a big problem, "ideology."
Before personally confirming that his subordinates and generals believed in the "Kingdom of Heaven," Vézé didn't particularly care about ideology. When he found out that Hong Xiuquan's ultimate idea, "Kingdom of Heaven," which was basically not practical, was quite popular among Vézé's generals, Vézé was deeply shocked. Since then, the importance of ideology in the cause of rebellion became something that Vézé thought over and over again.
After taking ideology into consideration in Vézé's plan to break away from the Taiping Rebellion, Vézé had figured out why Yang Xiuqing was so crazy about suppressing other powerful forces, and even seemed to be very rude. It wasn't because Yang Xiuqing was really unreasonable, but because Yang Xiuqing had made up his mind to kill Hong Xiuquan. And Yang Xiuqing was very clear that if he did so, he would definitely be regarded as a regicide. If Yang Xiuqing couldn't let the powerful forces of the Taiping Rebellion accept this "very excessive" method, then after Yang Xiuqing killed Hong Xiuquan, his position would be unstable. Too many people in the Taiping Rebellion had reasons to suppress Yang Xiuqing.
Ideology was used to judge morality and decide between good and evil. When morality came out, all arguments had to be stopped. Because morality was the basis of all judgments in human society. Although Hong Xiuquan's idea was basically not practical, the idea of "Kingdom of Heaven" was indeed in line with the thinking of the people in the current small-scale peasant economy. For example, after the founding of the new China, no matter what political turmoil, China's firm belief in industrialization couldn't be shaken.
After taking ideology into consideration in Vézé's plan to break away from the Taiping Rebellion, Vézé had figured out why Yang Xiuqing was crazy about suppressing other powerful forces, and even seemed to be very rude. It wasn't because Yang Xiuqing was unreasonable. It was because Yang Xiuqing had made up his mind to kill Hong Xiuquan.
Yang Xiuqing could kill Hong Xiuquan immediately. What he feared was not Hong Xiuquan, but Hong Xiuquan grasped the doctrine, ideology, and the moral authority of the Taiping Rebellion. Yang Xiuqing was very clear that if he did so, he would definitely be regarded as a regicide. If Yang Xiuqing couldn't let the powerful forces of the Taiping Rebellion accept this "very excessive" method, then after Yang Xiuqing killed Hong Xiuquan, his position would be unstable. Too many people in the Taiping Rebellion had reasons to suppress Yang Xiuqing.
As far as Vézé knew, in the large state-owned shipping company where he worked, there was a so-called line struggle between "strengthening production to promote revolution" and "strengthening revolution to promote production" during the Cultural Revolution. No matter revolution or production, the two conflicting forces didn't dare to completely deny either of them. The core was to develop revolution and production together.
Now, of course, Vézé could say that Yang Xiuqing was a bastard and Hong Xiuquan deserved to die. But Vézé couldn't directly deny the "Little Kingdom of Heaven", nor could he openly deny the idea of "Everywhere Is Uneven".
If Vézé thought of sweeping Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing with his troops, it might be possible from a purely military point of view, but it was not feasible from a political point of view. As long as Vézé couldn't come up with a political idea to replace the "Little Kingdom of Heaven" and make this idea accepted by the entire Taiping army, then Vézé's army would only make Vézé a rebel in the eyes of everyone in the Taiping Rebellion. Even Yang Xiuqing didn't dare to do this, let alone Vézé.
But Vézé found that even if he complained, he couldn't find a reason to touch the ideological field. In the Taiping Rebellion, Vézé was just a Prince Of Qi. Touching such a fundamental problem was tantamount to competing with Hong Xiuquan for the leadership of the ideology. Even if Hong Xiuquan didn't know anything after being overthrown by Yang Xiuqing, Yang Xiuqing would never allow Vézé to lead the ideology of the Taiping Rebellion. In any political system, whoever could lead the ideology would be the ultimate leader.
It was not the right time to make up for what he didn't dare to do before. The ideology that Vézé really knew was the ideology under the industrial system. In the agricultural era of 1854, Vézé's empty talk of replacing the agricultural ideology with an industrial ideology was purely asking for trouble.
Then, he gathered up the papers and burned them with a fire. Wei Ze looked at the paper that had turned into black ash in the brazier and made a choice in his heart.
Since there was a huge gap in his system, Vézé could only choose the only feasible method. That was to expose the bloody killing between Yang Xiuqing, the King Of The East, and Hong Xiuquan, the Heavenly King. That would make Vézé's subordinates realize that the Kingdom of Tianping was unreliable. Some of his brothers would be disheartened and choose to leave. But those who wanted to stay and continue the rebellion must be the staunchest. At that time, Vézé could use his accumulated achievements and ability to call a group of people to follow him.
As long as he completely separated from the Taiping Rebellion, Vézé could act according to his ideas. At that time, the ideological problem would naturally not be a problem. The collapse of the ideology of the Taiping Rebellion would, on the contrary, accelerate the speed at which Vézé instilled the new ideology.
But thinking of the risks, Vézé didn't feel happy. The heavy feeling made it hard for him to breathe.
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