The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

From Chen Wang's position, the issues he had to consider went beyond just military matters.

Now, Chen Wang also needs to consider the impact on politics and people's livelihoods.

In the current situation, no military force can rival him.

Within the territory he controls, he can suppress all dissenting voices with his formidable military strength.

However, this is only a suppression; dissenting voices will still exist.

The Guoyu states: “Preventing the people from speaking is more difficult than preventing a river from overflowing. If a river is blocked, it will burst and cause great harm. The same is true for the people. Therefore, those who manage rivers should dredge them to guide their flow; those who govern the people should encourage them to speak.”

This is exactly the situation Chen Wang is facing now.

At this moment, the South is like a kettle being constantly heated over a raging fire.

The water in the kettle had already boiled, and the steam surged and thrashed in the enclosed space, causing the lid to tremble slightly.

What he's doing now is like pressing down on the lid of a boiling kettle, but the steam underneath keeps building up.

Those suppressed voices did not disappear; they merely surged in the shadows, waiting for their moment to be released.

In reality, unlike the steam in a kettle that must burst out through the lid, these steams always find opportunities to subtly influence the local environment.

Among these, the most influential was the control and subtle changes that the civil service group exerted over local areas.

The iron hooves of an army can flatten a city, and swords can conquer land, but they can never truly govern a region for long.

Where warhorses trod, officials are needed to pacify the people; where the smoke of war has cleared, clerks are needed to rebuild order.

One can conquer the world on horseback, but one cannot govern the world on horseback.

Chen Wang was fully aware of this.

After the regulations regarding the resettlement of the troops and their home leave were finalized, the generals also left the main tent.

However, Chen Wang also kept Dai Zhenglin behind.

"What is the current situation in schools across the country?"

Chen Wang tapped on the table in front of him and asked about the matter he was most concerned about.

Dai Zhenglin sat upright to the side, head slightly bowed, and reported.

"In accordance with the previous orders of the military commander, the Department of Internal Affairs took the lead and the Department of Public Works assisted in the construction of a total of 356 primary schools, 80 middle schools, 9 vocational universities and 3 key universities in important towns directly controlled by our army, such as Hanzhong, Yunyang, Xiangyang, Kaifeng, Xuzhou, Wuhan, Nanchang and Jiujiang. All of them have been completed."

In name only, of the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty, except for Shaanxi and Shanxi, the rest of the territory was under Chen Wang's control.

However, in reality, the control over these territories varies significantly, with three levels of control.

The first level is the territory directly controlled by the Jingnan Army. It is entirely under the military control of the Jingnan Army. The officials in charge are basically officials from the Jingnan Army's Internal Affairs Department, rather than officials from the civil service system.

Hanzhong Prefecture and Yunyang Prefecture were Chen Wang's earliest strongholds.

Xiangyang Prefecture and Henan Province were subsequently seized through various means.

Although Gao Mingheng is still the highest-ranking official in Henan Prefecture, he actually has no power whatsoever. The city defense, taxation, and judiciary of the entire Henan province are all under the direct jurisdiction of the Jingnan Army.

Then there's the entire Southern Zhili region.

After defeating the main force of the Wanmin Army in the Battle of Yangzhou, Chen Wang dispatched troops to take over Southern Zhili, which had been ravaged by the Wanmin Army.

Under the attack of the Wanmin Army, the power of landlords and gentry in Southern Zhili was almost devastated. The officials in charge either fled or died, which cleared the way for the implementation of military control.

The entire Southern Zhili region was basically under the control of Pingnan Town, which also included Nanjing, the current capital of the country.

The first level of military-controlled territory comprises one capital city, one province, and three prefectures.

These places are Chen Wang's most important base of operations, as well as a vital source of manpower and the true core region.

The first level of military-controlled territory is known as the core area within the Jingnan Army.

The second level is the territory under the command of the Jingnan Army, which also has military deterrence.

On the maps drawn by the Ministry of the Interior, these areas at this level are marked in bright red as the territory under actual control.

The three provinces of Huguang, Beizhili, Shandong, and Shanxi constituted the entire territory under our actual control.

The highest-ranking officials in these territories were appointed from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Jingnan Army, and soldiers were stationed there. Officers were also stationed in important towns.

Within these territories, the appointment, removal, and promotion of officials did not need to go through the Ministry of Personnel of the Nanjing court. All government orders were managed by the Imperial Household Department and directly stamped with the seal of the Ministry of Personnel. Taxes were also directly deposited into the treasuries of the Jingnan Army in various locations.
However, in many local prefectures and counties, the civil service is still in charge. Although they are subject to some supervision, they still have a lot of autonomy.

These are problems that the Jingnan Army, lacking internal affairs personnel, cannot change in the short term.

Although Shanxi has not yet been fully recovered, Jiang Xiang has already led a large army south, and wherever his banners point, cities and towns surrender.

On the sand table built by the intelligence department, most of Shanxi was already covered with small red flags representing the Jingnan Army, and it was only a matter of time before the entire territory of Shanxi was liberated.

The third level of territory refers to nominal ownership or territories that are temporarily beyond direct jurisdiction.

This territory was referred to as the "territory of influence" within the Jingnan Army.

Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan and Sichuan—eight provinces in total—fall within the scope of this sphere of influence.

Most of these territories were previously under the direct control of the Ming court.

All the local officials in charge were from the Ming Dynasty's civil service system.

Although nominally under Chen Wang's control, he currently has no way to directly control the territory and can only temporarily subdue it through the name of the imperial court.

The Jingnan Army had very weak control over these areas, and the Intelligence Division had few spies or informants in these places.

Of these places, only Sichuan is in a slightly better situation.

Because of their kinship ties, the six Pacification Commissioners stood firmly with them.

The chieftains of all tribes, under the authority of the six Pacification Commissioners, all submitted to the emperor.

The constant flow of military reports along the post road kept this land closely connected with the core area.

The entire eastern Sichuan region was thus under Chen Wangqiang's strong and effective rule, and was a territory under his actual control.

However, the situation in western Sichuan was not optimistic either. After Liu Zongmin, a general under Li Zicheng, captured Chengdu, he continued south. Hou Liangzhu was unable to hold the line alone and could only try his best to maintain the situation.

Of the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty, only Shaanxi remained unrecovered, and Liaodong was still missing half of its territory. The rest of the provinces were under the control of the Jingnan Army.

“The issues of primary and secondary schools can be temporarily put on hold, and priority should be given to the orphans of the military and local communities.”

Chen Wang found the document about the school's construction among the documents on the desktop, and after looking at it for a while, he said.

"The world is too vast, and there are hundreds of millions of people in it. We can only proceed step by step."

Chen Wang sighed. There were many things he wanted to do, but not everything in this world could be done perfectly. Reality always forced people to make choices.

In the capital, he dispatched the intelligence department to extract tens of millions of taels of silver through brutal torture.

This silver is undoubtedly a timely help for the Jingnan Army, allowing them to maintain the situation for a long time.

However, tens of millions of taels of silver was not a large amount for the whole of China.

"Three key universities will be selected for the time being, and the scale will be in accordance with the previous regulations, with 1,000 students per cohort."

Chen Wang divided the universities he designated into two categories: vocational universities and key universities.

Neither university teaches classical Chinese literature; rather, they teach professional skills.

The academic system at key universities is four years, and the main subjects are only Chinese and Mathematics.

The Chinese language teachers still taught the Four Books and Five Classics, while the mathematics teachers used newly compiled textbooks.

In addition, the university recruits teachers to conduct research in disciplines such as medicine, engineering, and manufacturing, with further subdivisions within these disciplines. These three key universities are located in three important towns now under the direct control of the Jingnan Military Command.

Henan Medical University in Kaifeng was headed by the renowned physician Wu Youke.

Tang Shiping was appointed as the dean of the Southern Zhili Administrative University in Xuzhou.

Bo Jue served as the dean of Huguang Engineering University in Xiangyang.

The names of the three schools reveal the main types of talent they cultivate.

"The number of vocational colleges will not increase, but their scale will be expanded."

Chen Wang looked at the contents of the document and nodded slightly.

"A thousand people per session is not enough, so we will expand to two thousand people per session."

Vocational universities are similar to key universities in that they are divided into specialties, but they focus more on basic manual construction and training craftsmen for various industries. The program lasts only two years.

Dai Zhenglin hesitated for a moment, then said hesitantly.

"If we expand enrollment, we'll need to double the current teaching staff, expand the school grounds, and spend even more money..."

"Money stored in a warehouse is useless; money and grain must circulate to be considered living water."

Nowadays, due to the impact of war and natural disasters, all kinds of businesses in various places are not as good as before.

"Expanding the school buildings requires hiring craftsmen, students need to purchase food and clothing supplies, and teachers' salaries will flow into the market, thus reviving the economy of the entire southern country and even the whole world."

It's normal that Dai Zhenglin doesn't understand; this is due to the limitations and constraints of the times, as well as the choices made by most people and the country in this era.

This era differed from later times; the national treasury needed to maintain a certain amount of silver reserves to cope with many unexpected situations.

However, money and grain should not be hoarded too much. Money and grain must circulate in order to make all industries in the market thrive and generate more money.

Chen Wang knew that Dai Zhenglin would have difficulty understanding in the short term, but he didn't need Dai Zhenglin to understand now.

Because time will prove everything.

"The matter of ordinary schools will be settled for now, and all these matters will be handled by the Department of Internal Affairs."

On this crucial decision concerning the future, Chen Wang will never change his original intention.

"The Department of Internal Affairs... also needs to expand its manpower."

Dai Zhenglin flipped through the document in his hand and said.

"The Ministry of Internal Affairs recruited a large number of people ahead of schedule in order to take over the Northern Kingdom, but it still cannot completely fill the gap. More than half of them have not been able to complete their advanced training courses."

The advanced training courses were schools set up within the Department of the Interior to train management personnel. Generally, one term lasted for six months, and two terms made up an academic year.

New recruits to the Department of Internal Affairs are usually at the lowest level, responsible for basic tasks such as managing documents.

If one wants to be promoted, one must attend a training course offered by the Department of Internal Affairs.

Only after completing two phases of advanced training will one be eligible for promotion to a higher position.

However, at present, very few people are able to complete both phases of advanced training.

Even now, most of the officials in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who have taken over the northern country have only received half a term of training.

Chen Wang looked at the document in his hand and subconsciously frowned.

His starting point was too low, resulting in his current foundation being too shallow.
Ten years of trees, a hundred years of trees.

Changing dynasties is not difficult.

However, changing the world is as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Starting everything from scratch and cultivating talent from the beginning undoubtedly requires a lot of time.

But Chen Wang never had that much time, and reality didn't give him much time either.

"There's not much we can do right now, so we'll just have to make do like this for the time being."

Chen Wang sighed softly.

"Wait until next summer,"

Dai Zhenglin took a document from the book in his hand and handed it to Chen Wang.

"The military and political schools that the Duke ordered to be built have been completed in Hanzhong. They are just waiting for the Duke's decree to be issued so that the two schools can start operating."

Dai Zhenglin paused briefly before adding.

"However, before they can be put into operation, we would like to ask the Duke to name the two schools."

Chen Wang accepted the documents handed to him by Dai Zhenglin.

On the document, ink lines outlined the floor plan and aerial view of the two academies, with the eaves, brackets, and training grounds depicted in meticulous detail.

The tiny characters on the side detailed the purpose of each building, including lecture halls, libraries, drill grounds, and student dormitories.

Chen Wang's fingertips unconsciously tapped lightly on the table, his gaze slowly moving across the documents as he carefully reviewed them.

The establishment of military and political academies was already on the agenda when the foundation was first laid.

Military academies are used to train officers, while political academies are used to supply talents for governing the country. This is a long-term plan to consolidate the foundation.

However, the continuous warfare left the generals with little time to spare, and the Jingnan Army also lacked sufficient internal affairs officials.

Even if these two schools had been built at that time, they probably wouldn't have been very effective, so the plan was shelved.

Now that the war has gradually subsided, the seasoned generals are finally able to take a short rest, and the number of available personnel in the Department of Internal Affairs has gradually increased, although it is still not enough to support the overall situation.

However, the school construction plan should still be implemented.

Many of the managers trained by the Ministry of Internal Affairs through advanced training courses lack the management skills to reach the level required to govern a region.

Of course, those who studied the Four Books and Five Classics all day long and became Jinshi and Juren through the Eight-Legged Essay examination could not do so at the beginning.

However, these successful candidates in the imperial examinations and the provincial examinations underwent rigorous selection, and most of them had higher than average intelligence and emotional intelligence.

This can be seen in the long political struggles of the Song and Ming dynasties.

After the initial discomfort, most of the successful candidates in the imperial examinations quickly mastered the essentials of government affairs.

Chen Wang needs more experienced internal affairs personnel to further control the local areas.

However, the development of the military cannot be neglected.

Aside from weaponry, the combat effectiveness of an army largely depends on the will and training of its rank-and-file soldiers, as well as the competence of its rank-and-file officers.

In this respect, the Jingnan Army is not lacking.

The Jingnan Army is not lacking in generals who can stand alone and command a region.

Today, the Jingnan Army has a large number of experienced generals who have crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

However, the Jingnan Army lacks a sufficient number of qualified mid-level officers.

The purpose of military academies is to train battalion-level officers who will serve as the backbone of the military.

"Let's not decide on a name yet."

Chen Wang put down the document in his hand, raised his head, looked at the sunlight streaming in from outside the tent, and smiled meaningfully.

"If we were to decide on a name now, that would be... far too presumptuous..." (End of Chapter)