The contradiction between Xiao Ruxun and the emperor and Shen Zhengyi's group actually progressed to such a point in this way.

This was something Mei Guozhen had never expected.

Similarly, he didn't expect Xiao Ruxun to have such courage and was willing to help the emperor regain power.

He thought at a deeper level that if Xiao Ruxun raised troops for the Northern Expedition, what he would have to face would be the entire gentry and wealthy families in the south of the Yangtze River, which was an extremely powerful force, could he really succeed?

But after thinking about it, Mei Guozhen knew that his political future and even his life had died in the entire Ming Dynasty and was deprived by those despicable squires.

He also attacked the gentry and wealthy families in order to defend the city.

The two are actually the same.

The big deal is that it is better to die than to live.

Mei Guozhen also nodded and agreed.

Ma Gui's family has moved to Myanmar and lives under the protection of Xiao Ruxun, but Mei Guozhen's family does not, so in order to protect Mei Guozhen's family, Xiao Ruxun decided to let Mei Guozhen change his name to join the Northern Expedition of the Zhennan Army.

Ma Gui thought about it and felt that he had changed his name, so as not to let Xiao Ruxun be caught, and there would be extraneous branches at that time.

Xiao Ruxun thought about it, and it was right, so he let the two decide for themselves, Ma Gui directly chose to have the same surname as Xiao Ruxun and changed it to Xiao Gui, and Mei Guozhen also changed his surname to Xiao, and took his name as his name and changed it to Xiao Kesheng.

Ma Gui was directly incorporated into the army, and Mei Guozhen served as Xiao Ruxun's staff officer to give advice to Xiao Ruxun.

The meeting lasted from morning to afternoon, and Xiao Ruxun roughly finished assigning things, and when it finally came to an end, Xiao Ruxun took a breath, sat on the chair and closed his eyes, relaxing the nerves that had been tense.

Yuan Huang looked at Xiao Ruxun, who showed a tired look, pursed his lips, and decided to say what he wanted to say.

He has been an official, and he knows what Xiao Ruxun is doing now.

"Ji Xin, have you really decided to crusade against Shen Yiyi?"

Xiao Ruxun opened his eyes and looked at Yuan Huang.

"Is there any other way for me to go? Yuan Gong, I won't sit still. ”

Yuan Huang sighed and nodded.

"The old man knows, but Ji Xin, if you go on a northern expedition, you will face the gentry and wealthy families in the entire south of the Yangtze River, they are deeply rooted in the local area, and the relationship is intertwined, although the old man knows that they do many illegal things, but they are also the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, if you eradicate them, who will be the official?

These mayors and the like that you have recruited in Burma Town, although they are capable, are only a county talent, and how can these hundreds of people play a big role? Even if King Qin succeeds, in the end, he still has to open the imperial examination, or recruit scholars! ”

"There will be no shortage of officials in this world."

Xiao Ruxun said coldly: "I don't believe that every one of the 300,000 scholars is my mortal enemy, and I don't believe that the integrity of those scholars is really so high, if they have integrity, it will not be only Song Butang and Lao Shoufu who are martyred for Your Majesty."

Yuan Gong, don't you know those people yet? When the steel knife is on the neck, can they still hold on to the integrity? Do they have integrity? This time, I'm not reasoning with them, I'm going to flip the table. ”

Yuan Huang opened his mouth, and there was nothing to say for a while, Mei Guozhen frowned, and said: "You can't stabilize the world by killing alone, Ji Xin, if you want to crusade against Shen Yiyi, you must get their support, you always need scholars to do things for you."

To put it mildly, if you conquer a city and kill all the officials, who will govern the place for you? You kill those families of scholars, they are intertwined one by one, and no one can distinguish between them, you will make enemies everywhere, and without the support of scholars, you will not be able to govern the world. ”

In this regard, Xiao Ruxun does not fully agree.

There are three components of the world, the upper level, the middle level, and the lower level.

The upper echelons were the imperial power, and the army that obeyed the imperial power was the most important vassal and ally of the imperial power.

The middle class was the elite of society, that is, the scholars and landlords, and the lower class was the people.

Throughout history, when a country is strong, it is always when the upper echelons are strong and the middle echelons are relatively weak.

In order to maintain the stability and strength of the country, it is necessary to appropriately weaken the middle layer to make up for the upper and lower levels, because once the middle layer is too strong and gets rid of the restrictions of the upper layer, the country will have problems.

There is a key point in the Legalist power technique, that is, the dynamic combination of cutting the middle to make up for the two ends and cutting the two ends to make up for the middle, and the magistrate is more important than the people.

The cornerstone of the country's stability and health is to control the landlords, the powerful and the doctors, not to let him elevate the monarchy upwards to win the central government, not to let him annex the land downwards, to bully men and women and humiliate the people, and not to let it be too weak and make the army too inflated.

The triangle pattern is as stable as Mount Tai, but what about the diamond pattern?

The middle level of the Ming Dynasty is too strong, if it is not weakened, how can the country be stable?

If there is no crackdown, how can the country return to normal?

The Manchu massacre of scholars in the south and the later literary prison objectively weakened the strength of the scholars and doctors since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and the apportionment of the land and the integrated payment of grain by the gentry after Yongzheng came to power were the victorious results of the Manchu government's victory over the scholars and landlords.

And these, Yuan Huang and Mei Guozhen may not understand, understand, and may not agree.

Xiao Ruxun took a deep breath.

"When the Great Song Dynasty died and Meng Yuan went south, those who kept saying that they were incompatible with the barbarians, didn't they still serve Meng Yuan later? They don't have the courage to die, and they don't have such high integrity, don't worry, Yuan Gong, I have my own ideas. ”

"Ji Xin, do you want to let your own subordinate officials in Burma Town help you temporarily govern the place after the Northern Expedition?"

Mei Guozhen asked.

"They are the ones I have watched develop Myanmar from a barren land to the point where it is now, and they have no merit or fame, but when it comes to governing the region, can a scholar who has just participated in the imperial examination compare with them?

On farming, on construction, on water conservancy, on road construction, they have all passed my test, and can completely alleviate my urgent needs. I have soldiers! What I need to think about is how to win the battle! ”

Mei Guozhen and Yuan Huang were silent.

They will indeed think more, but they also have to admit that behind any major event in human history, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, there is the participation of the military, and military strength is the basis of power, and mastering the army is the foundation of everything.

It is clear that the army is more worth fighting for than the hearts of those who read.

It is true that force is the strongest force.

If Xiao Ruxun is really unreasonable, and really throws away the burden and tears his face, the fragility of the scholar will be seen at a glance, and once the mask they use to coerce the army and civilians in peacetime is broken, once their true colors are revealed, what will happen?

This is the reason why Shen has always wanted to kill Xiao Ruxun no matter what.

He has mastered the military power, he knows the terrible power of the army, and he knows what terrible consequences a famous general in a hundred battles will bring about when he ascends to the heights.

Yuan Huang knows this very well.

Therefore, he was worried that Xiao Ruxun's Northern Expedition might bring Daming a more different ending than expected, and neither he nor Xiao Ruxun might be able to predict the ending.

Just now, just now, Yuan Huang saw the eyes of those generals flashing with anger and excitement.

Excited, why should they be excited?

This kind of terrible thing, in addition to their anger, they are actually excited, they are actually very excited!

Because they can finally break through the shackles.

They can break through this shackle in a bright and bright way, without any constraints or accusations.

Once this shackle that has suppressed them for more than a hundred years is broken, it will release quite terrifying energy, which may even exceed Xiao Ruxun's own expectations.

But Yuan Huang knew that he couldn't stop all this, Xiao Ruxun was the master of this army, from top to bottom in this army, from generals to soldiers, no one would disobey Xiao Ruxun's orders, this was Xiao Ruxun's private soldier through and through.

When Xiao Ruxun is not there, Yuan Huang can manage it on his behalf, and if Xiao Ruxun is there, no one can oppose his will.

Xiao Ruxun's will cannot be shaken, and now, the war machine that has begun to run wildly in Myanmar Town cannot be stopped.