It is not enough to do these things, but in this era, we must consider the national conditions of China in the 17th century, which is that the gentry have the right to public opinion, or the scholars have the right to speak.

Although Xiangshan County's education is second to none in Guangzhou Prefecture, it does not mean that ordinary people have a high literacy rate. In China's thousand-year-old tradition, the power to interpret words and discourse is in the hands of readers, and the successful ones among readers are the mainstay. This successful person refers to those who have made a name for themselves, in other words, the gentry.

Zhou Shixiang had to admit that the gentry, who had privileges in the official face and were absolutely dominant in the countryside, basically represented the common people, and they could catch up with the government and say a hundred words in one sentence. Now that the Taiping Army has become the dominant government in Xiangshan, if you want the common people to accept the propaganda of the Taiping Army, you must enlist the help of the local gentry.

It's a pity that for more than a month, except for Guo Shao, the salt patrol envoy who surrendered all the good characters, no scholar in Xiangshan has taken the initiative to join the Taiping Army, let alone organize villagers to join the Taiping Army.

The main reason for this situation was that the Taiping army's foundation in Xiangshan was too shallow, and it was under the direct threat of the Qing army in Guangzhou, and the local gentry were not optimistic about the prospects of the Taiping army. And the scholars who dared to resist the Qing army rose up as early as when the Qing army entered Guangdong, typical of which were Zhang Jiayu, Chen Zizhuang and others.

As the backbone of Xiangshan's anti-Qing movement, Zhang Jiayu and others' resistance to the Qing Dynasty certainly dealt a certain blow to the Qing army, but it also buried all the scholars in the Xiangshan area who were oriented to the south under the butcher's knife of the Qing army. Those who escaped the capture and killing of the Qing army did not dare to return to Xiangshan, and most of them went to Yungui to follow the Yongli court.

Therefore, the remaining scholars in the Xiangshan area are either soft bones who wag their tails to the Manchus and beg for joy, or they are the so-called mountain neutrals who live in the countryside because they are afraid of the Qing army's butcher's knife but want to preserve the so-called moral bottom line in their hearts and are unwilling to become a Qing official.

This kind of scholar who hid in the countryside and regarded himself as a remnant of the Ming Dynasty had a worse impact on the local people than those who surrendered to the Qing court and became traitors, because their control of local public opinion and dominance in the countryside made the local people as numb as they were. This made it impossible for the Ming army to gain a foothold in the local area, and after the Qing army came, they went against the grain and accepted it. Under this rise, the Ming army in the Xiangshan area naturally could not last long.

In response to the words of the great men of later generations, the wrong line is the more reactionary the more knowledge. Whether they take the initiative to be traitors or when they are blind and cover their ears and steal bells, the gentry in the Xiangshan area essentially only seek to protect their own interests. Opportunists who do not care about the peril of the nation and the state. The teachings of the saints are only in their mouths a tool to whitewash their shameful deeds.

For such a reader, Zhou Shixiang absolutely does not want it. But there were too few intellectuals in the Taiping Army, so he needed someone to stand up and help him. That's a very contradictory thing.

In the top ten fangs in Xiangshan, except for Tie Yi, who purged the local gentry in Yongle, Changning and other places, the Taiping army in other places adopted a relatively mild attitude towards the local gentry, firstly because Zhou Shixiang had instructions, and secondly, because the Taiping army, which was attended by ordinary people, still had a respectful attitude towards scholars. Just like Zhou Shixiang, a talented talent in Xinhui City, he was also respected and envied by his neighbors, throughout the ages. It is still very deeply rooted in the hearts of the people to understand the great truth.

Meng Dayuan and Liu Guodao, the two Jinshi in the Chongzhen period, ran away before the arrival of the Taiping Army, and there were a large group of people who ran with them, and now there are more than a dozen people who are still in Xiangshan and escaped the Taiping Army's purge, and there are dozens of Xiucai.

These old men all have families and property in the local area, and they are basically big landlords, and Xiucai's family background is much worse than theirs, and most of their family backgrounds are not much better than ordinary people's. For these people who have property and have not run, and have not acted as accomplices of the Qing army. Zhou Shixiang's attitude was to temporarily move them, but to deprive them of their right to speak locally. And the showmen. Zhou Shixiang asked Liao Ruixiang, the county magistrate, to contact them, hoping to persuade them to come out and do things for the Taiping Army.

Zhou Shixiang's instructions to Liao Ruixiang mainly have three points, first, we must strive for these shows to come out to do things for the Taiping Army; second, let them do things but not give them the right to take the lead; Third, Xinhui County School must be rebuilt immediately. At the same time, township schools were built in each square to cultivate their own scholars for the Taiping Army.

Liao Ruixiang was puzzled, he understood that he wanted the talents to do things for the Taiping Army, without the help of scholars, he was also quite a clever woman in this new Huizhi County, and it was difficult for him to cook without rice. But what does it mean to let Xiucai do things without giving the lead?

In this regard, Zhou Shixiang used a very inappropriate description, he said, when the cattle plough the land, should the cattle be allowed to cultivate according to the instructions of the owner, instead of pulling the plough according to the wishes of the cattle themselves.

Liao Ruixiang understood this sentence, but felt very awkward, as a member of the scholars, he was a little dissatisfied with Zhou Shixiang's comparison of Xiucai to a cow.

"We have a lot to do, and many things may not be in the interests of those scholars, or they can't be in their eyes, but at the moment we don't have enough manpower to do things, so we must use these talents, but how can we make the talents do things for us with peace of mind, and don't do good things into bad things? The key to this is that we have to put on the trap and pinch them, otherwise the fancy intestines of the scholars are enough for us. ”

As soon as Qianhu said this, the lower officials still understood, and the lower officials immediately went to do the affairs of the talents. There are already county schools and township schools in the county, and the teachers are all ready-made, but how to choose the children of the school? ”

"There are a lot of dolls in the rear camp of our Taiping Army, these dolls have to read, and the children of the common people also have to study, let's engage in an education that does not require money, all the dolls who enter the hall to study are managed by our Taiping Army, and the food, drink, and clothing are all paid from the public treasury. The Four Books and the Five Classics are not taught in schools, so I immediately compiled some textbooks, such as astronomy, geography, and arithmetic. Well, after the textbook is compiled, I have to start teaching those talents and teachers first, and I have to let them understand first, otherwise I will teach blindly and I will not succeed. ”

"Going to school is to make a name for yourself, but thousands of households have to teach some miscellaneous learning, I'm afraid that the children will be unwilling."

"I don't need money in this school, and the children of the common people come to learn, and I welcome them with both hands, but if they refuse to learn, then let them go to the original private school to learn, and I will not cut off their fame. But my Taiping Army doll must be learned according to what I teach, I will reward if I learn well, and I will punish if I learn badly! Don't look at me with such a strange expression, we are now fighting the world, not sitting in the world, we need to be practical talents, not nerds who only know how to know, understand! ”

"Understand, understand, the lower officials understand!"

"It's good to understand, you should do the things of the county school and the township school immediately, you can't delay, if there is anything lacking, you can make up for it yourself from the county government, and if there is any local non-cooperation, let the garrison go and reason with them. In short, this matter is related to the survival of our Taiping Army, and no one can do anything bad! ”

After combining Xiucai's work with running county schools and township schools and handing them over to Liao Ruixiang, Zhou Shixiang had to solve the problem of those masters who raised people's right to speak in the countryside. (To be continued.) )