Lu Xiangsheng, who was sitting in the audience, was not disgusted by Chongzhen's speech. Although Lu Xiangsheng was a jinshi in the second year of the Apocalypse, he was very incompatible with the style of most of his civil colleagues.

At the beginning of the country, scholars could not be granted official positions immediately after being promoted, and they also needed to go to the six ministries to observe the government, and first learn how to handle government affairs before they were given official positions.

However, when the status of the civil bureaucracy continued to rise, this period of internship before the official took office was omitted, and as long as he was admitted to the jinshi, he could directly go to the local government to become an official. For the children of those big families, with the words and deeds of their elders, they finally have a clue about how to manage the place.

But for Jinshi who was born in a poor family, he buried his head in the study for the first half of his life, ignoring the affairs outside the window, and suddenly let them manage the government affairs of a county, and most people were black-eyed.

So the staff who specializes in taking care of the affairs of officials, that is, the so-called master, was born. They were not appointed officials by the imperial court, but they helped the officials to handle all kinds of affairs, and actually held real power, so that those court officials could enjoy the pleasure of being officials without having to bear the responsibilities of officials.

Those who can serve as staff members are also scholars, and there are not a few talented people, such as the famous Xu Wenchang, who used to be Hu Zongxian's staff. However, more of the staff are just frustrated people, who hold the power of officials and do not have to bear the responsibilities of officials, so they often collude with officials to deceive their superiors and subordinates, and take over and control the lawsuits and money, grain and taxes of a place, thus greatly corrupting the governance of officials at the grassroots level.

Although the officials of the Ming Dynasty are not unaware of the disadvantages of the staff system, it is difficult for them to get rid of these staff members and undertake government affairs independently, so they can only loudly denounce those staff who collude with the officials to erect officials, but they still entrust the general affairs to the hired staff, which is the so-called integrity of the mouth.

However, Lu Xiangsheng is very different from these colleagues, after he lives in the official, he is diligent and subordinates, carving candles at night, roosters crowing, getting a secret, putting on clothes, and standing up. Doing everything by himself did not allow the staff to completely control their own power. Therefore, in the eyes of other officials, it is almost an outlier.

The emperor's respect for the soldiers who died on the battlefield was very appropriate in Lu Xiangsheng's view, but he did not think that the emperor's remarks had a tendency to exalt the warriors and belittle the literati. The only thing that made Lu Xiangsheng feel a little discordant was the cadets of the military academy in the audience, and now about 70% of them have removed their scarves and cut their short hair, which is really against the filial piety advocated by the master, although the cadets with short hair do look more vigorous.

However, Lu Xiangsheng also knew that it was a trend in the army to cut his hair short, which was to emulate the emperor's behavior of cutting his hair to commemorate the martyrs, and even many people in the General Staff had a positive attitude of support.

The Emperor's lecture to the cadets eventually turned into a speech, which had the greatest effect of drawing a line for the army, so that these future officers could understand what position they should stand in the face of the conflict between friend and foe. For those students with deep family backgrounds or quite ambitious backgrounds, this line may not be in their eyes, but for the vast number of middle and lower-ranking officers in the army, the emperor's words have drawn the shadow of this line in their minds.

After the speech, Chongzhen, who was about to return to the capital, looked for Lu Xiangsheng, and Zhu Youzhen commended the official who was personally picked up by him: "You have done a very good job in the Fengtai camp these days, and the officers and men in the battalion have not appeared in rumors, but also maintain enough vigilance..."

Lu Xiangsheng immediately clarified: "This is not the credit of the minister, the Fengtai battalion itself has a very good system, and the minister just ensures that the soldiers in the battalion can abide by this system." ”

Zhu Youzhen smiled and said: "If you can lead by example and drive the soldiers to abide by the system, only you can do it." But I'm not here to praise you today, and there's one last thing I want you to do before I go back. ”

Lu Xiangsheng said calmly: "Please show your majesty." ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a moment before he spoke: "Since its establishment, the Army Military Academy has cultivated many middle- and lower-level officers for the army, but it has always been exploring new theories in tactics.

It can be seen from the Battle of Songshan that the middle- and lower-level officers trained by the military academy showed enough tenacity and courage on the battlefield, which was also the key to the Mangui Division's final support until the withdrawal of the Houjin army.

However, we can also see from this battle that the organization of the army has gone up, but in terms of tactics we have never been able to gain any advantage over Houjin. The tactics adopted by the Later Jin are all commonly used tactics of our Ming army, but the tacit understanding of their cooperation exceeds the proficiency of our army in these tactics.

As far as the current reform of our army's weaponry is concerned, the army is on the road of moving from cold and coordinated operations to all-firearms army operations, and it is undoubtedly a step backwards to go back and pick up the old tactics now. Therefore, we urgently need a new tactical theory to guide our military in conducting operations, and if we want to verify whether a tactical theory is useful or not, practice on the battlefield is the most important.

Therefore, I ask you to select two battalions of infantry, two battalions of artillery, and two battalions of cavalry to form an experimental all-firearms unit, ready to test the new combat tactics on the battlefield, and the Four Seas Battalion will also send some troops with overseas combat experience to cooperate with you when the time comes. ”

Lu Xiangsheng's face suddenly froze, and he subconsciously said: "Your Majesty, we have just ceased war with Houjin, does Your Majesty want to go to war again so soon?" ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and said: "It's not to fight with Houjin, how can we find the strongest enemy to test new tactics, of course, we will test tactics from weak enemies, so that even if there are some loopholes, our losses will not be so big that it is irreparable." What's more, the confidence of the soldiers also needs to be accumulated one victory after another, and I do not intend to use it on the battlefield against Houjin until they have gained enough confidence in the new combat and tactical concepts. ”

Lu Xiangsheng's heart finally let go, it is nothing to form a force to test firearms combat, but if this army is put on the battlefield against Houjin to test, it is estimated that not many people are willing to join such a force.

However, he soon said with some doubts: "If it is not to fight against Houjin, then after this army is formed, where does Your Majesty plan to test new tactics?" Could it be Vietnam? ”

Zhu Youzhen did not rush to deny, "The opponent of this army in the first battle may not be Vietnam, but it may not be Vietnam, but it will definitely not be Houjin." I don't think Staff Officer Lu needs to think so much about it for the time being, but will finish the preparation of this army first. As for the enemies you are preparing to fight, when the time comes, I will naturally announce it to you. ”

Lu Xiangsheng hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Your Majesty's idea is certainly good, and it is indeed necessary to test tactics in actual combat. But the minister still has a sentence to say to His Majesty, the current Ming is in the autumn of three emptiness and four purities, and what Daming needs is not a new enemy, but to recuperate and recuperate, so as to enrich the people's strength. ”

Zhu Youzhen glanced at Lu Xiangsheng, and then looked at the sergeant who was practicing on the school field in the distance, and couldn't help but say meaningfully: "It is correct to have a good people's power, but today's Ming Dynasty is not just a recuperation to be able to relax the people's power, the times are different, and we can't continue to look at the war with the old concept." In short, your task is to build this force up as quickly as possible, is there a problem? ”

Lu Xiangsheng was silent for a while, and finally spoke: "The minister has orders..."

When Chongzhen was inspecting the Fengtai camp, Chen Zilong and Shen Tingyang were arriving in Tianjin on a sea boat; since the Nanjing scientific research case was restored and the society split last year, Chen Zilong returned to his hometown in Songjiang to study, and at this moment he was heading north to prepare to participate in the examination to be held on 15 April this year.

Chen Zilong and Shen Tingyang were followed by several young scholars of sixteen or seventeen years old, but they did not come to participate in the examination, but specially came to the capital to study. The court's favoritism towards the students of Jinling University in the Nanjing scientific expedition made many Jiangnan gentry begin to realize the difference between universities and academies.

Some gentry families thought of sending some of their children to study at the university and join the emperor. Compared with Jinling University, Yenching University, which is in the same city as the emperor, is obviously closer to the emperor's side, so this year's Jiangnan scholars who applied to Yenching University have become a new high in two years.

Xu Du, Xu Jiaying, and Ding Ruzhang are all children of squires in Dongyang, Yiwu, and Yongkang, and have had dealings with Fushe before. Xu Du admired Chen Zilong's talent and learning very much, so after the split of the Restoration Society, he chose to support Chen Zilong. This time, in the name of going to Yenching University to study, he took his friends Xu Jiaying and Ding Ruzhang to follow Chen Zilong to the north.

Shen Tingyang became the presiding officer of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and the Longjiang Shipyard as a Guozi supervisor, and managed the sea transportation from Shanghai to Tianjin, and was also regarded as a celebrity among Shanghai taxis. He and Chen Zilong already knew each other, so when they went north to escort the grain, they brought Chen Zilong and others up by the way.

When the boat traveled in the Haihe River, looking at the spring light on both sides of the Haihe River, Chen Zilong's mind finally relaxed a lot, and this sea voyage really eliminated a lot of depression in his heart.

"The grass in the green garden is clothed, and the catkins do not fly with the waves. The green field is blowing in the wind, and the rain in the red mansion is crying roses. When Chen Zilong was admiring the spring on both sides of the strait, he couldn't help but complete a remnant poem he made in early summer last year.

Shen Tingyang, who was standing beside him, couldn't help clapping his hands and said: "It's a pity that there is no wine and no fun here, otherwise the poem of Wozi would be enough to drink." ”

Chen Zilong shook his hand and said: "Brother Shen is making fun of the little brother again, the poetry is just a way to entertain himself, compared to the pain of white grain that Brother Shen has saved for the people of Jiangnan in the past two years, that is the time to drink a big one, and to reward the brother for his hard work for the country." ”

Shen Tingyang smiled and said, "How can I have any credit, if it weren't for Your Majesty personally withstanding the pressure of the officials of Caoyun, how could I have done this." In order to silence the mouths of those officials, His Majesty personally took the lead in cutting off the amount of white grain in the palace to show that he shared weal and woe, and as for me, I was just running around for His Majesty. ”

Chen Zilong had mixed feelings for a while, and was silent for a long time before he sighed and said: "Your Majesty has such a heart of hard work, why do you still tolerate Huang Liji, Cui Chengxiu, Wu Chunfu, Wen Tiren and other eunuch villains flooding the court?" It's incomprehensible..."

Shen Tingyang opened his mouth to refute the other party, but what he finally said was: "What kind of person is Your Majesty, Wozi must first see and get along with himself, and then say, you must not make such a rash assertion." I think that although Your Majesty is young, he has a long-term view of things, and it is very human..."