Zhou Baihu's words made Qian Qianyi seem to see something, but he didn't really feel like he was passing by in a flash, but he felt that it was wrong to say that there was nothing at all. It's like a person walking on an unfamiliar road in the long dark night, and he sees a light in the distance flickering for a while, and when he opens his eyes carefully, he can't see anything but darkness, but he knows in his heart that the bright light at the beginning is real.

Zhou Baihu means that there can be no election in the army, and the first thing required in the army is loyalty and obedience, and this loyalty and obedience must be loyalty to the country and obedience to superiors. If the officers in the army are all elected, the officers will obey everyone's opinion in many cases, and to obey everyone's opinion is to have no opinion, who has ever seen hundreds or thousands of people naturally agree on their opinions? Conversely, if officers are elected by soldiers, will officers still have such a high level of loyalty to the country? If that's the case, there will definitely be a lot of small collectives and small hills in the army, and in the end, it will be a scattered battle and a complete defeat.

It didn't take long for it to be time to start the meal, and after Zhou Baihu asked people to bring the food, he went to Zhang Luo's carriage and horses, and only ordered people to greet Lord Qincha and his party. Qian Qianyi was thinking about starting Zhou Baihu's words while eating, and he still looked thoughtful until he got into the carriage after eating, Zhou Yanru and Qian Qianyi sat in a car, and the guards rode horses to escort left and right.

Seeing that Qian Qianyi thought for a while and nodded slowly, Zhou Yanru asked, "What did Brother Qian think of?" ”

Qian Qianyi said: "I'm thinking about what Baihu said this week, he said that there can be no election in the army, otherwise it will be chaotic, and I agree with what he said and think it makes sense." According to the emperor and several ministers in the Supervisory Yuan, the purpose of this election is to find a person who is satisfied with the top and bottom, and there will be no problem if only the top or the bottom are satisfied. For thousands of years, all officials have been appointed from above, and occasionally there is an election from above, and this part of the people is a very small number of people who cannot represent everyone, and what we are doing now is probably unprecedented. ”

Zhou Yanru nodded and said: "I also think that the reason why we want to be elected is because everyone has strengths and weaknesses, or everyone's strengths and weaknesses are not obvious compared to each other, so an official is elected to convince everyone." ”

Qian Qianyi had been looking out of the car window when he started to speak, and then he turned his head to look at Zhou Yanru and asked, "Brother Zhou, have you ever thought that ordinary officials demand unanimous trust or recognition from top to bottom, why can't officers in the army?" What is the difference between officers in the army and ordinary officers? ”

Qian Qianyi asked this because he had been thinking about this question for a long time, and he still hadn't figured it out, and there was essentially no difference between officers in the army and local officials, all of whom were in charge of people. Since all officials need to be unanimously agreed, why should local officials be elected while military officials cannot be elected? In the morning, Zhou Baihu said that they also pay food and taxes like ordinary people in peacetime, and since this is the case, they still regard themselves as soldiers, which shows that the people in the army themselves feel different from ordinary people, not that they feel inferior, but that they have a certain sense of superiority.

Zhou Yanru saw Qian Qianyi asking, thought for a while and said: "Although the officials in the army and ordinary local officials are in charge of people, the biggest difference between them should be that the people who manage them have different feelings. The officers in the army are in charge of the soldiers, and the soldiers' food, drink, and clothing are all covered by the imperial court, and there is no need for exceptions in peacetime, so there is no great dissatisfaction. On the other hand, it is different for ordinary people, who have to earn their own food, clothing, housing and transportation expenses, and their dissatisfaction will accumulate and generate resentment. ”

Qian Qianyi nodded and said: "Brother Zhou is right, even if the soldiers are dissatisfied, it will be during the war at most, and the collision of the forces of the two sides during the war belongs to explosive force and impact force. This way of exerting force does not change depending on whether it is required above, but completely involuntarily exerts force, because everyone knows that it is a matter of life and death on the battlefield, and you are joking with your own life without using all your strength. Ordinary people bear the affairs of farming and paying taxes, relying on strength and staying power, and if they are dissatisfied, they will be passive and slack, which is also the reason why the officials considered by the emperor need the approval of the people. ”

Seeing that Zhou Yanru also agreed with his words, Qian Qianyi said: "According to our analysis, can we say that the people's dissatisfaction will slowly accumulate, and this kind of dissatisfaction that slowly accumulates is not conducive to social stability, and too many dissatisfied people will cause harm to the country, so the imperial court will consider eliminating the people's emotions, and the best way is to let the people approve of the appointment of officials." And the military also has dissatisfaction, but their dissatisfaction comes and goes quickly, and in special circumstances they can't help but think too much, so the military sentiment is ignored. ”

Zhou Yanru said: "It is impossible to be ignored, compared with the popular uprising, the destructive power of the mutiny is greater, but it is not as long-lasting as the popular uprising. For example, Wu Qi can personally use his mouth to suck the wounds of the soldiers, Huo Qubing in order to make the soldiers feel fair, poured the wine given to him by the emperor into the spring water for everyone to drink, and now the emperor has set up a prison army in each thousand households in order to appease the soldiers, mainly caring about the rights and interests of the soldiers, which is also the reason why the combat effectiveness of the soldiers of the Ming army has been greatly improved in the past two years. ”

Qian Qianyi said: "So can it be said that everyone from top to bottom knows that the soldiers' emotions need to be appeased, but everyone also knows that there is no need to be so detailed, and there is no requirement like that for local officials, that is, the selection of officials must be unanimously recognized by the top and bottom." The selection of officers in the armed forces does not need to be unanimously approved by the top and bottom, and the process of selecting local officials must be recognized by the people. I wonder if we can find a solution that satisfies both the military and the localities, and there will be no issues related to the elections. ”

Zhou Yanru thought for a while and said: "Brother Qian's statement seems to be to amplify the governance law, I seem to have heard of this method somewhere, that is, when you don't handle the problem of a small place well, expand the scope to deal with the problem in a large area, so it is all dealt with." ”

Qian Qianyi said: "I also saw a local official handle the case and got inspiration, it is said that there is a family head whose father died and several brothers divided the family property, and two of the brothers fought for the family property, and always felt that they had less and the other party had more." The official was very strange and asked the other brothers why you didn't argue, just the two of them, and the others said that there was no need to hurt the peace between the brothers for some money. The magistrate ordered the two brothers to be left alone and to divide the money equally among all the brothers, and the two brothers who were fighting were divided less, and then they realized that the other brothers were letting them go at first. ”

Zhou Yanru nodded and said, "Then so be it, I hope we can find a way to satisfy both the soldiers and the people like that magistrate, so that the matter of the elected officials will not be a problem." ”

Not long after the two talked, Zhou Baihu came over and said that he would catch up with the Qincha fleet after chasing ten more miles, and asked whether to speed up or take a break, Qian Qianyi asked Zhou Baihu and his guard captain to stop the Qincha fleet first, and just go over slowly. More than ten miles of road is really going to run fast and bumpy people, after all, it is a good thing to be calm, in case of the wind in the winter, it is not good.

Qian Qianyi and Zhou Yanru caught up with the fleet and sat on the boat for a few more days, and finally arrived in Nanjing on this day, the governor and governor were outside the city to greet the Qincha, and the accompanying officials also followed in style. After reading the holy decree, Governor Liu of Nanzhili said to Qian Qianyi and Zhou Yanru with a smile on his face: "The two envoys were ordered to visit the Jiangnan area, and I heard about you several times before they arrived. It is really admirable to say that you don't disturb the place, don't invite food, don't accept gifts, and at most buy food, vegetables, fruits and other supplies on the dock, and you give money as usual and never eat cards and ask for them! ”

The governor next to Governor Liu also said: "The deeds of the two Qincha have made me deeply insightful, Lord Liu has told me about this several times, saying that you are a model for Jiangnan officials to learn, and Lord Liu has praised the virtues of the two Qincha to the imperial court, and it is estimated that the two will be commended when they return to Beijing, which is really gratifying!" ”

After Qian Qianyi and Zhou Yanru disembarked, they ordered others not to expose their tracks, and not to accept money or goods in the name of Qincha along the way. It is not surprising that the governor and governor of Nanzhili have this attitude, because they found that Qian and Zhou did not accept things, did not even eat a bite of food, and according to other people's rumors, Qian Qianyi was not a character like Hai Rui, so they wondered if it was not a good person.

For those who can't figure out the bottom are generally to show favor and wait and see, now Governor Liu and the governor have said to commend you to the imperial court, it depends on what kind of attitude you have. Qian Qianyi understood the reason as soon as he heard it, so he explained: "The two seniors praised me and made me ashamed, not because the two of us want to be different, but the emperor wants to be frugal and dare not cause more trouble." ”

Seeing that Qian Qianyi was not called an adult but a senior, Governor Liu knew that Qian Qianyi was talking about personal friendship, and his heart finally let go, he thought that it was not good to snub Zhou Yanru, nodded to Qian Qianyi, and then turned to Zhou Yanru and said: "I have prepared a thin wine to wash the dust for the two Qincha, I don't know what kind of taste Lord Zhou likes?" ”

Zhou Yanru said: "Don't hide it from the governor, the two of us are hungry, and we can eat any flavor of food, and Nanjing is one of the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty, so the food must not be much worse." ”