Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 163: High emotional intelligence
In Huangjue Temple, several monks wanted to join the army and get some land, but no one wanted to work. But that was normal.

Soldiers can get land, but workers do not have such treatment, and they have to start from scratch. Most people are unwilling to go, not to mention that Chinese people have had an obsession with land since ancient times.

Several monks were packing their luggage, preparing to close the temple. Zhu Yuanzhang was lying in front of the main hall writing a letter. Lu Jin was thinking about his work while waiting for Zhang Long, who had gone to deliver the letter, to come back.

From today's recruitment of these monks as soldiers, Lu Jin also discovered a problem, that is, there are not many people willing to work.

Industrialization is a very complicated matter. Self-employed farmers at least have the means of production, that is, land. Land can be passed down from generation to generation and can be used for retirement. But what do the industrial population have?

Lu Jin had previously decided on a welfare model that would allocate housing to iron factory employees based on their job titles. In this way, as long as a worker worked hard, under this model, he could get a house and a stable salary.

Houses are also means of production and can be passed down from generation to generation. If you still have a salary, if it is reasonable and you don't spend lavishly, you can save some money, and it shouldn't be difficult to provide for your retirement.

However, there is still a difference between the industrial population and the rural population. Farmers not only have land and real estate to pass on to their descendants, but they can also pass on their jobs (farming) to their descendants, but the industrial population cannot.

As the urban industrial population grows, there must be a steady stream of new means of production to provide them with jobs. If there is no such supply, there will be problems. For example, if the educated youth go to the countryside, if new factories are constantly built in the city so that these young people have jobs, why do they have to go to the countryside? Isn’t it because there is not enough means of production?
This kind of thing gave Lu Jin a headache just thinking about it. China is not Britain and cannot copy Britain's steps of industrialization. Britain only occupies the territory of one province in China. To maintain an industry of such a small scale, the world market must pay for it and provide raw materials.

If you want China to industrialize, what will be the consequences? In fact, it is already very obvious in the future. Once China completes industrialization, it will be the world's factory. Is there such a large market to sustain China's industrialization? I am afraid not.

If the industry cannot be expanded continuously, what will happen to the unemployed population? Lu Jin thought to himself that he might have to go to the countryside at that time. The population would immigrate overseas to open up more land and export drugs abroad. This would not only expand the market but also reduce the domestic industrial pressure. This matter still needs to be studied slowly.

Just as Lu Jin was thinking about the future, Zhang Long, who had just taken someone back to deliver the letter, finally came back.

"Marshal, the two soldiers have been handed over to Commander Yu, and he has been told about the strict military discipline. After hearing about this, Commander Yu asked about it and said that Captain Tang showed the letter to the training officer before sending it."

Zhu Chongba, who was writing a letter nearby, glanced at Lu Jin and saw Lu Jin nodded, "I see. Please wait a moment and I will send another letter later."

"Yes."

After saying that, Lu Jin turned around and looked at Zhu Chongba, "Have you finished writing your letter?"

"It's done now." Zhu Yuanzhang wrote a few strokes in a row, picked up the letter and blew on it, then handed it to Lu Jin. He didn't understand the rules of the Shengwu Army, but he had just seen with his own eyes that they did not allow people to pass letters casually, so he honestly handed the letter to Lu Jin for inspection.

Lu Jin took a quick look and saw only that he had joined the Luzhou Shengwu Army and was allocated land in Luzhou. He told his relatives that they could come to find him in the future. If they were not doing well, they could also come to Luzhou to find him. He had dozens of acres of land, which could at least support a few people.

There were two letters in total, one was to my eldest sister's family, that is, Li Wenzhong's family, and the other was to my eldest sister-in-law's family.

Lu Jin shook the letter in his hand and asked, "Why are there only two? Didn't you say there was a second brother?"

Zhu Chongba hesitated for a moment, then said, "We don't know where our second brother is now, or whether he is still alive."

Lu Jin nodded, looked at him and said, "Since you have joined the Imperial Guard, you must follow me to Luzhou from now on. Your relatives are all in the north of Haozhou. If they come here, it may not be easy for them to find you here.

"Why don't you give this letter to Tang He? Aren't you and him old acquaintances? Ask him to pass the message on for you. If they find relatives, you can ask them to look for Tang He first and then contact you. What do you think?"

Zhu Chongba nodded repeatedly upon hearing this, "Marshal, your arrangements are very appropriate. I was worried that they would not be able to find me when they came. I would like to thank you in advance. From now on, if you ask me to fight in the battlefield, I will never frown."

Lu Jin nodded with satisfaction and said, "I'll see how you perform in the future. I hope you don't forget what I said today."

After saying that, he took the pen and wrote a few more words on the letter, saying that there was chaos and war now and it was best not to run around. There was about to be a war in Haozhou. If you couldn't get here because of the war, you can also find a way to go to Lai'an, Chuzhou, and Dingyuan, and you can use this letter to contact them.

When Zhu Yuanzhang saw that Lu Jin had added words to the letter, he quickly leaned over to read it. When he saw what Lu Jin had written, he was filled with gratitude. At the same time, he thought to himself that this general was really thoughtful and even thought of this.

So he immediately knelt on one knee, clasped his hands together and said, "Thank you, Marshal, for helping me find my relatives. If I really find my relatives, I will let them work for you in the future."

Lu Jin heard this and said, "It is said that when you are poor, you should take care of yourself, and when you are rich, you should help the world. I am not rich now, but it is not a problem to take in a few people and find them a job to make a living. It is better to save as many people as possible than to die under the tyranny of the Yuan court."

After saying this, he shook the letter and handed it to Zhang Long. "Go again and give it to Tang He. Tell him that Zhu Yuanzhang and I went to the Imperial Guards. This is a letter from him to his relatives. Ask Tang He to help deliver it. If someone comes with the letter, let him stay in Haozhou first, and then send the message to Luzhou."

"Yes."

After arranging all this, Lu Jin asked the monks again. None of them wanted to go too far. They said they wanted to go to Dingyuan to join the army and did not want to go to Luzhou. Lu Jin agreed and wrote a note, asking them to go to Haozhou County Government to get a letter of introduction. Then he took the letter and followed the immigration team to Dingyuan.

As for Zhu Yuanzhang, he was going to Luzhou and would not go with the others.

When Zhang Long came back again, Lu Jin asked Shen Ren to find a horse and let Zhu Yuanzhang ride it first, and then the group went to catch up with Feng Sheng's large army.

Zhu Yuanzhang's luggage was also simple, consisting of two tattered monk's robes and a copy of the Analects of Confucius in his arms. That was all his belongings.

The group hurried and finally caught up with Feng Sheng's army which was camping by the Hao River in the evening of the same day. After catching up with the main force, Zhu Yuanzhang's horse riding privilege was no longer available. Lu Jin temporarily assigned him to Guo Xing's camp as a squad leader. However, this was only a temporary marching organization. Once they arrived in Luzhou, the Imperial Guard would have to carry out another round of selection and reorganization.

During the march, Lu Jin also occasionally paid attention to Zhu Yuanzhang and found that it was no accident that this man could stand out in history. At least his emotional intelligence was very high.

Zhu Chongba was temporarily in charge of eleven people, and half of his class were teenagers under the age of fifteen. As the squad leader, Zhu Chongba tried his best to help these teenagers, and would give them more from his own bowl when eating. Of course, he was also very strict in terms of discipline, but now he didn't learn much about military regulations. Lu Jin nodded secretly, remembering that in history, when Zhu Yuanzhang first joined the army, he was chosen by Guo Zixing to be the captain of his personal soldiers because he knew how to read and write. Then he rushed to the front in every battle, and handed over any captured things to Guo Zixing first. Whatever rewards he received from Guo Zixing, he would distribute them to his brothers first. With such emotional intelligence and bravery in combat, it would be difficult for him not to make a name for himself.

However, if he only relied on his emotional intelligence and military achievements, his future would have stopped there. If he had not become Guo Zixing's son-in-law, he would not have been qualified to inherit Guo Zixing's army.

As for the historical plan of Zhu Yuanzhang recruiting soldiers on his own and then developing independently, Lu Jin would not give him this opportunity. The Shengwu Army did not allow generals to recruit soldiers privately. The number of soldiers in each regiment was fixed. Coupled with the instructors assigned to the company level, they had no chance of escaping from the control of the Shengwu Army.

After walking for another day towards Dingyuan, when they set up camp again in the evening of that day, Zhu Yuanzhang, after having finished his meal with his fellow soldiers, came to the campfire alone, and while warming himself by the fire he flipped through the copy of the Analects that he had brought from Huangjue Temple.

Several teenage brothers in the same class were already fast asleep due to exhaustion. Zhu Chongba flipped through a book and sighed, "They were so tired after just walking a few steps. When I was their age, I was still running around begging for food."

'It just so happens' Lu Jin patrolled the camp and just happened to walk here. Seeing this, Zhu Chongba quickly stood up and clasped his fists, "Marshal."

"Well, how does life in the army compare to life in the temple?" Lu Jin nodded and asked.

Zhu Chongba thought for a moment before saying, "The temple is very idle, but here we have something to do. We have learned a lot about marching and camping these past two days, but we haven't been given weapons and armor yet. I don't know when we can learn how to fight so that we can go into battle and kill the enemy."

"I originally didn't plan to expand the army this year. Your group is a temporary recruit. Those from the 14th Regiment will receive weapons when they arrive in Dingyuan, but your three battalions will have to wait until Luzhou." Lu Jin explained.

When Zhu Chongba heard about the 14th Regiment, he was a little confused. Seeing that Lu Jin was easy to talk to, he just asked.

"Marshal, there is something I don't understand."

"What? Tell me." Lu Jin looked at him curiously.

Zhu Chongba leaned closer and whispered, "The Marshal said that the Imperial Guards are his personal army, so why did they let the Shengwu Army be selected first when they were selecting soldiers that day, while the Imperial Guards are filled with leftover child soldiers? In our class alone, there are six who are under the age of fifteen. These half-grown children are useless on the battlefield."

Before he finished speaking, Lu Jin understood what he meant. Zhu Yuanzhang was thinking that his personal soldiers should have been the most powerful and best soldiers, so that if other generals under his command rebelled, the imperial guards could also go to quell the rebellion. However, Lu Jin's arrangement of strengthening the local areas and weakening the central government was really incomprehensible to him.

Lu Jin smiled and asked, "Can't figure it out?"

Zhu Chongba nodded and then shook his head.

Lu Jin then explained, "You thought those were the ones they left over, but you didn't know that even if I were to choose first, I would pick the ones that were not too old."

Zhu Chongba was stunned when he heard this, and was even more confused, "Why?"

Lu Jin added, "Do you think I value their ability to fight in battle? No, I value their brains."

Lu Jin pointed to his head and said, "Young people are the best at learning and learn things the fastest. I want to take them back to read and learn to read. I don't want them to be 'elite soldiers' who can only stab on the battlefield with a spear. There are many elite soldiers who can use spears, but there are very few who are good at learning."

Zhu Chongba was even more puzzled when he heard this, "Does the Marshal want these kids to study and become civil servants?"

"No, don't you need to study to be a military officer? Do you think a general only needs to know how to ride a horse, shoot arrows, and wield a sword and a stick?"

"Isn't it?" Zhu Chongba scratched his bald head and asked with some confusion.

Lu Jin pointed to a village a little further away and pointed at the houses over there and asked, "Look at the houses over there. How far are they from here? Look here. You are not allowed to measure with a ruler. You have to measure it to the nearest ten feet. Can you tell?"

"This..." Zhu Chongba glanced in the direction of the village and was immediately stumped. He estimated the distance to be about two or three miles, but Lu Jin asked him to be precise to the last meter and not to use a ruler. How could he tell?

Seeing Lu Jin staring at him, waiting for his answer, Zhu Chongba tried again, "If you can't use a ruler, can you use your legs? Why don't we go and walk a little and find out?"

Lu Jin then said, "Now the two armies are lined up, and your squad is in charge of a cannon. I want you to start firing from 400 feet away and defeat the enemy before they rush over.

"Then you said you didn't know how far the enemy was from our position, and you had to walk to the front of the enemy to measure how many steps it took. Do you think the enemy could let you come back alive?"

Zhu Chongba opened his mouth wide, "So that's what you mean. So the Marshal wants to teach these child soldiers how to use artillery?"

"That's about right." Lu Jin nodded, thought for a moment and added, "It's not just about firing cannons, but also about astronomy, geography, arithmetic and geometry. These things are best taught from a young age. It's difficult for someone your age to start from scratch."

Zhu Chongba was a little unconvinced and said, "That's not necessarily true. I also studied in a private school when I was young. If my family wasn't poor, I might have passed the examination and become a scholar. Even now, if I have someone to teach me, I won't learn any slower than them."

Hearing this, Lu Jin smiled and shook his head, "It's easy to pass the exam for a scholar. All you have learned is the Four Books and Five Classics. You have learned these little things since childhood, and you can memorize them by rote. The examiner will give you a question, and even if your essay is irrelevant, at least you can write something.

"But math is different. If you don't know math, you don't know it. If you are given a problem, you can't write a single word if you don't know how to do it. It's much harder to learn than the stuff that Confucian scholars have."

After Lu Jin finished speaking, he left and continued to patrol the camp, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang frowning. Although he had never learned arithmetic, he knew the basics and had seen others use the abacus very well. However, Lu Jin made arithmetic sound so difficult, which immediately aroused his competitive spirit.

This commander-in-chief attaches so much importance to arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and geography that he actually recruits some young people to teach them personally. If these people succeed in their studies, there is no need to worry about not being able to be of important positions in the future.
Now that Zhu Yuanzhang has joined the army, he naturally has to consider his future. If he can also learn these skills, he will definitely be valued, right?
If you try hard, maybe your children will have a better family background in the future? !
(End of this chapter)