Han’s Son is Not a Slave

It is far from enough to simply do these tasks. Since we have come to this era, we must consider the national conditions of China in the 17th century. This national condition is that the gentry has the power of public opinion, or the scholar has the right to speak.

Although the education of Xiangshan County is second to none in Guangzhou Prefecture, it does not mean that ordinary people have a high literacy rate. In the tradition of thousands of years in China, the right to interpret words and discourses is in the hands of the scholars, and the most successful ones are the scholars. This successful person refers to those scholars who have achieved fame, in other words, gentry.

Zhou Shixiang had to admit that the gentry, who had privileges in the official face and were absolutely dominant in the countryside, basically represented the common people. Now that the Taiping Army has become the official government that dominates Xiangshan, it is necessary to obtain the help of the local gentry in order to make ordinary people accept the truth of the Taiping Army's propaganda.

Unfortunately, for more than a month, except for Guo Shao, the salt patrol envoy who surrendered all his good characters, no scholar in Xiangshan has come to take refuge in the Taiping Army, let alone organize villagers to join the Taiping Army.

The main reason for this situation was that the Taiping army had a shallow foundation in Xiangshan and was under the direct threat of the Qing army in Guangzhou. The local gentry were not optimistic about the prospects of the Taiping army. And scholars who dared to resist the Qing army rose up as early as when the Qing army entered Guangdong. The typical ones were Zhang Jiayu, Chen Zizhuang and others.

As the backbone of Xiangshan's anti-Qing Dynasty, Zhang Jiayu and others' resistance to the Qing Dynasty certainly dealt a certain blow to the Qing army, but it also buried all the scholars in the Xiangshan area who were interested in Nanming under the Qing army's slaughter. Those who escaped the Qing army did not dare to return to Xiangshan, and most of them went to Yungui to follow the Yongli court.

Therefore, the remaining scholars in the Xiangshan area are either the softheads who are begging for the Qing Dynasty, or they are the so-called mountain neutrals who are afraid of the Qing army butchers but want to preserve the so-called moral bottom line in their hearts and do not want to serve as officials.

This kind of scholar who hides in the countryside and identifies himself as a Ming Dynasty remnant has a worse impact on the local people than those who surrender to the Qing court and become traitors. Because of their control over local public opinion and dominance in the countryside, the local people become As numb as them, the Ming army could not gain a foothold in the local area, and after the Qing army came, they resigned. Under the disappearance of each other, the Ming army in the Xiangshan area will not be able to last for a long time.

In response to the words of the great men of later generations, the line was wrong. The more knowledge, the more reactionary. No matter whether they are taking the initiative to be a traitor or being a blind man, the gentry in the Xiangshan area are essentially speculators who only seek to protect their own interests and ignore the danger of the nation and the country. The teachings of the sages are in their mouths only a tool to whitewash their shameful behavior.

For such a scholar, Zhou Shixiang absolutely does not want it. But there were too few intellectuals in the Taiping Army. There are very few people, so he needs a scholar to stand up and help him. This is a very contradictory thing.

Among the top ten capitals in Xiangshan, except for Tie Yi who cleaned the local gentry in Yongle, Changning and other places, the Taiping army in other places took a moderate attitude towards the local gentry, because Zhou Shixiang had given instructions. Second, it was also because the Taiping Army, which was joined by ordinary people, still respected scholars. Just like Zhou Shixiang, a scholar who is also respected and envied by his neighbors in Xinhui City, throughout the ages, scholars who understand the big truth are still deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Meng Dayuan and Liu Guodao, the two jinshi from the Chongzhen period, ran away before the Taiping army arrived, and there were a large group of Juren masters who ran with them. There are still more than a dozen Juren masters who are still in Xiangshan and escaped the Taiping army's purge. There are dozens of scholars.

These Juren masters all have families and properties in the local area, and they are basically big landlords, and the wealth of the scholars is much worse than that of them, and most of the families are not much better than ordinary people. For these Juren masters who have family property but have not run away, and have not acted as an accomplice of the Qing army. Zhou Shixiang's attitude was to move them temporarily, but to deprive them of their right to speak locally. As for those scholars, Zhou Shixiang asked Liao Ruixiang, the magistrate of the county, to contact them, hoping to persuade them to come out and work for the Taiping Army.

Zhou Shixiang's instructions to Liao Ruixiang mainly include three points. First, we must win these talents to work for the Taiping Army; second, let them do things but not give them leadership; third, we must immediately rebuild the Xinhui County School, and at the same time All the squares have established rural schools to cultivate their own scholars for the Taiping Army.

Liao Ruixiang was puzzled. He understands letting the scholars do things for the Taiping Army. Without the help of scholars, he is also quite a clever woman who can't do anything without the help of scholars. But what does it mean to let the scholars do things without giving them leadership?

to this. Zhou Shixiang used a very inappropriate description, he said, when the cattle are ploughing the land, should the cattle be ploughed according to the owner's instructions, instead of pulling the plow according to the cattle's own will.

Liao Ruixiang understood this sentence, but felt very awkward, as one of the scholars. He was somewhat dissatisfied with Zhou Shixiang's comparison of Xiucai to cattle.

"We have a lot of things to do, and many things may not be in the interests of those scholars, or not in their eyes, but at the moment we don't have enough people to do things, so we must rely on these talented people, but how can we make it happen? Scholars are uneasy when they do things for us, and don’t make good things into bad things? The key is that we have to get hold of them and pinch them, or else the savage bowels of scholars will be enough for us.”

"Thousand households said that, the officials still understand, and the scholars will immediately go to the officials. The county school and the township school already exist in the county, and the teachers are ready-made, but how should the students of the school choose? "

"We have a lot of dolls in the rear camp of the Taiping Army. These dolls have to study, and the children of the common people also have to study. Let's educate them at no cost. All dolls who go to school are taken care of by our Taiping Army. All the drinking and clothing are paid from the public library, and the village school is three years old. Those who are good in their studies will go to the county school, and those who are not good will be accepted by each square. The four books and five classics are not taught in the school, so I will compile them here immediately. Some textbooks, astronomy, geography, arithmetic, and handymen have to learn. Well, after the textbooks are compiled, I have to start a class to teach those scholars and teachers, and let them understand first~www.NovelMTL.com~ Otherwise, it will be a foolish teaching. Incompetent."

"Going to school is to gain fame, but Qianhu has to teach some miscellaneous studies, for fear that the children will not be willing."

"My school doesn't need money. Children from common families come to study. I welcome them with both hands, but if they refuse to study, then let them go to the original private school to study. I will not break their fame. It's the way. But the dolls of my Taiping Army must learn according to what I teach. If they learn well, I will reward them, and if they learn badly, I will punish them!  …don't look at it with such a strange expression. Follow me, we are now fighting the world, not sitting in the world, we need people who can do practical work, not nerds who only know the knowledge, understand!"

"Understood, understood, subordinate understands!"

"It's good to understand. You should do the county school and the township school immediately without delay. If you have any shortages, you can make up for it from the county government. If you don't cooperate in the local area, let the garrison go to reason with them. In a word, This matter affects the survival of our Taiping Army, and no one can do anything wrong!"

After combining the work of scholars with running county schools and township schools and handing them over to Liao Ruixiang, Zhou Shixiang will start to solve the right to speak in the countryside. (To be continued.)

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