Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 204 Prestige! An unexpected surprise!

The news of the new army's expedition against the Northern Yuan Dynasty was published in the "Da Ming Daily" as early as when the troops were dispatched from Nanjing.

Later, the Ming Daily also reported on this several times.

Almost everyone in the Ming Dynasty knew about it.

This has also sparked heated discussions among the public.

The people are all looking forward to the army's victorious return as soon as possible.

However, in the eyes of generals who truly understand military affairs, the actions of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince were nothing short of a "mysterious" operation.

The way to employ troops is to use the regular forces to unite and the unusual forces to win.

It would be fine if hundreds of thousands of troops were mobilized to go on the expedition.

It's impossible to keep it secret anyway.

But shouldn’t this surprise attack by several thousand soldiers be carried out quietly and catch the Northern Yuan Dynasty off guard?

But His Royal Highness the Crown Prince chose to do the opposite.

can't read.

No one can understand it.

Not only were many Ming generals puzzled, even Zhu Yuanzhang, who was on a secret visit in Suzhou, could not help but fall into deep thought after seeing the relevant news.

I have fought wars all my life, but I have never seen this kind of fighting style.

But when I think about how my grandson always acts in an unpredictable and unexpected way.

Old Zhu put his mind at ease again.

Anyway, there are only 6,000 soldiers and horses going to the expedition. The Ming Dynasty can still afford this loss, so just let the grandson do whatever he wants.

……

Jinling City.

Zhu Yunhuan's attention was not focused on the war in the north.

Don't use people with suspicion, don't use people who are suspicious.

Since the army was handed over to Zhu Neng and Zhang Fu, Zhu Yunhuan believed in their abilities.

Besides, he had already made arrangements on how to fight the war, so all the two of them had to do was to follow his instructions.

In Zhu Yunhuan's view, war is like an exam. The final result has actually been basically determined before entering the examination room.

To put it bluntly, the army's routine construction, weapons and equipment, personnel training, generals' abilities, etc., determine how strong the army's combat effectiveness is.

Going to the battlefield is like going to an examination hall, and the test scores are just a reflection of your usual efforts.

Of course there is a difference between performing well and performing poorly in the exam.

But in reality, most of the time, the impact is not that big.

A student whose regular grades can only get him into a second-tier university will never be admitted to Tsinghua University or Peking University no matter how he performs in the exam.

Similarly, an army that is poorly equipped and poorly trained will not be able to defeat a powerful army no matter how well it performs on the battlefield.

Raise an army for a thousand days, use it for a while.

The outcome of the war is already known when the troops are being raised.

When “deploying troops”, all you have to do is write down the “answers” according to your usual training.

Only when the weapons and equipment of the armies are similar and their training is comparable, will their performance on the battlefield become an important factor affecting the outcome of the war.

Otherwise, if the strong were to crush the weak, the outcome would be a foregone conclusion before the battle even started.

The armies led by Zhang Fu and Zhu Neng were equipped entirely with hot weapons, and the performance of their weapons was quite good.

There was a generation gap between the weapons and equipment of the Northern Yuan army.

This time we send out troops to crush them.

Therefore, Zhu Yunhuan was very relieved about this.

Of course, there is nothing we can do if we are really worried.

With the communication means of that era, Zhu Yunhuan, who was far away in Nanjing, had no way to command the front-line troops how to fight.

The Ming Dynasty's Grain and Material Reserves Department was established, and the first financial war with local gentry and profiteers ended with Zhu Yunhuan's complete victory with the support of the Ming Bank.

With the smooth progress of many matters such as military restructuring, disarmament, and reform of government offices, the Commissioner of Taxation also took the opportunity to gain a firm foothold.

Zhu Yunhuan just took a hands-off approach to these matters.

Xia Yuanji took over the original Daming Bank and was also in charge of the Daming Grain and Material Reserve Department. He gradually revealed his talent in financial management.

In addition to his previous experience working in the Audit Department, he handled everything in an orderly manner.

Yang Shiqi focused his main energy on the reform of clerks in government offices at all levels.

Apart from military reform and disarmament, this is the most far-reaching and complex reform.

If the Tax Commissioner affected a part of the economic interests of the gentry, then the reform of the clerk system was undermining the lifeblood of the local gentry.

Without the cooperation of government officials, how can the gentry control the local government and maintain their power to call the shots and have the final say in the local area?

However, a previous financial war had already severely damaged the vitality of many local tycoons.

The reform of clerks is different from the establishment of the Commissioner of Taxation.

The clerk system reform received broad support from local officials at all levels.

All the officials were transferred from other places.

They had long been extremely dissatisfied with the fact that clerks colluded with local gentry to undermine their power and actually control the power of the yamen.

In the past, I had to endure it because I had no choice.

Now that they have the opportunity, with strong support from the court and newcomers who have transferred from other jobs to "lead the charge", they will of course launch a "power grab".

Of course, since ancient times, the struggle for power has always been bloody and cruel.

The current situation is no exception.

The clerks and local gentry will never hand over power eloquently.

They provoked disputes and conflicts time and time again.

In many places, there were even incidents of crowds attacking government offices.

In the past, if such a thing happened anywhere, the officials in charge would be dismissed and investigated in order to quell contradictions and conflicts.

This has been the case throughout all dynasties.

This is also the key reason why officials are unwilling to offend clerks and local gentry.

If conflicts are exacerbated, it will affect one's official position.

Only when there is mutual compromise, and it is good for you, me and everyone, can your official position be secured.

But the current situation is that no matter how big the conflicts are caused by the clerk system reform, the court will bear the responsibility for you.

Not only are there no accountability, but sometimes rewards are given instead.

Of course, this will lead to some disadvantages.

But compared with eradicating the rule of local clerks and maintaining the authority of the court, it obviously played a huge role.

Zhu Yunhuan absolutely did not want to see a situation where "the emperor and clerks rule the world together".

If local power is returned to officials, it will be much easier to do anything in the future.

Handling these government affairs was Yang Shiqi's forte, and he handled them very well. Of course, many things also depended on the cooperation of Yao Guangxiao's Investigation Department.

Today, the Investigation Department has penetrated into every prefecture, county and government office in the Ming Dynasty.

A lot of information is obtained every day.

Far exceeded Zhu's Jinyiwei spies and inspectors.

There is no way around it, because the funding for the Intelligence Department is much more sufficient than that for the Jinyiwei spies and inspectors.

Money can make the world go round.

Of course, if you have money, you can get more information.

The work of the Intelligence Department is also being carried out in an orderly manner.

After a period of training, the first batch of intelligence personnel sent outside the Ming Dynasty have set off.

However, with today's communication methods, it will take longer for them to take root abroad and send back useful intelligence.

Yao Guangxiao, who was good at conspiracies and intrigues, did a very good job in arranging the work of the Probe and Intelligence Departments.

New intelligence personnel are also being trained.

Zhu Yunhuan asked about it several times and found that his arrangement of intelligence was much more thorough than he had expected, so he stopped asking questions from then on.

Zhu Yunhuan focused his main energy on military reform and disarmament.

The most important thing is to stabilize the morale of the generals.

The current Ming Dynasty is already in chaos because of the comprehensive implementation of various reforms.

The army must not be in chaos.

Although Zhu Yunhuan did not think that the current garrison troops were very strong.

But he also didn't want to conquer the world again with the new army.

To this end, Zhu Yunhuan went to the Ming Military Academy many times to give lectures, exchange combat experiences with generals to build closer relationships, and sent out batches of prestigious and loyal generals to inspect and stabilize military morale.

At the same time, local generals were continuously transferred to military academies for study in order to win over generals.

A series of revolving operations played a significant role.

At least, the restructuring and disarmament of the Ming army were progressing very smoothly, without causing too much waves or triggering any unrest.

Only the armies of local princes have not seen any major changes for the time being.

Before officially reducing the power of the princes, Zhu Yunhuan had no intention of touching them.

The new army is still continuing to expand its recruitment.

According to Zhu Yunhuan's plan, the next step is to expand the new army to 60,000 people.

However, this is not something that can be accomplished overnight and can only be done slowly.

He already had the support of noble generals.

Before this, those noble generals regarded him as an ignorant teenager, but as time went on, Zhu Yunhuan's prestige in the court and the country grew higher and higher.

Especially after he served as the president of the Ming Military Academy and personally led troops into battle and made great military achievements, no one dared to look at him with the same eyes as before.

The title of Ming Dynasty God of War has been unanimously recognized by many generals.

Among these, in addition to Zhu Yunhuan's own brilliant military record and outstanding abilities, the unremitting publicity of the "Da Ming Daily" also played a crucial role.

A lie repeated a thousand times is the truth.

This statement may not be correct.

But what if it is not a lie, but a "truth" that has been slightly exaggerated and embellished?

Many times, when people first hear how great someone is, they don't take it seriously.

When I heard it the second time, I even felt a little disgusted.

When I hear it for the third time, I will just laugh it off.

……

When I heard it for the tenth time, I gradually became numb.

……

When I heard it for the fiftieth time, I gradually began to feel a sense of acceptance.

When you hear it for the hundredth time, the two hundredth time... the thousandth time, you will come to believe that it is the truth and that person is really amazing, and you will firmly believe in it.

Because the human brain will gradually form fixed cognition through repeated impression reinforcement.

Once the cognition is fixed, even if someone comes up with ironclad evidence to prove that everything before was a lie, the brain will instinctively reject it and still believe in the previous "lies."

Because changing people's fixed cognition will cause confusion in thinking and emotional conflict, which will make people very painful and uncomfortable, and they will instinctively resist.

Instead, I will look for reasons to convince myself, and tell myself that my previous "wrong cognition" was correct and I don't need to change my cognition.

This is the greatest significance of publicity.

Through repeated propaganda, people's cognition is solidified.

Whether it is right or wrong, after countless publicity, many people will believe that it is correct!
There are always very few people in the world who can adjust their brains' solidified cognition and are not influenced by repeated propaganda.

It takes a long time to change a person's cognition.

Zhu Yunhuan's image as the "God of War" and "Military God" of the Ming Dynasty has gradually become deeply rooted in people's hearts after countless publicity.

At this moment, even though he still looked like a teenager, he looked somewhat immature, innocent, kind, and harmless to humans and animals. However, in the hearts of everyone, he was intimidating without even being angry.

It is natural to associate him with the god of war who has killed countless people and is invincible and unbeatable.

This also made Zhu Yunhuan's prestige in the court and the country continue to increase, reaching a new height.

The benefit of this prestige is that it itself brings power and stability to the government.

Even though the Ming Dynasty now seems a little chaotic due to the rapid advancement of various reforms, no one thinks that anyone can challenge the authority of the Ming court and the power of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang has been in power over the years and has the final say in the court, in fact, the uprisings of the common people have never stopped.

The Hongwu period was the time when there were the most uprisings by the people in the following two hundred years of the Ming Dynasty.

The main reason is that the country has just begun to be peaceful and the people's hearts are not yet settled.

There are still many people who are ready to make moves and do not believe that the Ming Dynasty is destined to rule China for many years.

This is difficult to avoid for any newly established dynasty.

To unify the world, it is not enough to just achieve formal unification.

It often takes one or two generations to unify people's hearts and make them accept the dynasty's rule from the bottom of their hearts.

Any newly established dynasty will need thirty to fifty years before people’s hearts are truly stable.

Zhu Yunhuan greatly accelerated this process by using repeated propaganda from the Ming Daily.

To this day, basically no one in the Ming Dynasty questions the ruling authority of the Ming Dynasty.

As a result, the scattered civil uprisings also disappeared.

Although the reform involved personal interests and caused many contradictions and conflicts, no one dared to actually rebel because of the in-depth propaganda and the people recognized the orthodox status of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition to going to the Ming Military Academy to stabilize the morale of the generals, Zhu Yunhuan focused his remaining energy on the academic journal "Science".

As time went on, Science was bringing him bigger surprises.

……

(End of this chapter)