Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Battlefield Without Gunsmoke

  The military meeting came to an end and everyone returned to their respective units, the headquarters quickly became quiet.

  "Achoo! Achoo!" Zhao Bei stood by the conference table, sneezing twice in a row. He rubbed his nose with his hand and looked ahead to see that the staff officers were still working on the plan. These things only needed him to give an outline, and the rest would be handled properly by these military officers who graduated from various military academies.

  "Zhang Jiyang!" Zhao Bei glanced at a staff officer who was organizing files, this person was an official member of the Guangfu Society, unlike him, who hadn't even submitted his introduction letter to the Guangfu Society headquarters.

  "Arrived!" Zhang Jiyang walked up to Zhao Bei and stood at attention, saluting.

  "Just now you helped me out of trouble, I must thank you."

  "The Commander-in-Chief was polite. You have taken on infamy for the sake of the revolutionary cause, and I admire that very much."

  "Nowhere, nowhere, just the sense of responsibility of revolutionaries. Let's go, let's take a walk in the garden." Zhao Bei rubbed his nose and walked out of the conference room with the guards.

  Two men strolled with their guards in the garden behind the government office, now in winter, the garden was desolate and barren, with withered branches and rotten leaves, a scene of decay, which ironically reflected the current situation of the Qing dynasty.

  Zhao Bei ordered the guards to withdraw and walked into a pavilion with Zhang Ji, brushing off the dust from the stone bench before sitting down.

  "What's your courtesy name?" Zhao Bei motioned for Zhang Jiyang to sit across from him.

  "Reporting to the commander, my department's motto is 'Diligent and Loyal', my nickname is 'Stone Man'."

  "Sit down, sit down, no need for formalities. We're not speaking as superior and subordinate now, we're speaking as fellow members of the Guangfu Society. Too much courtesy makes things awkward." Zhao Bei waved his hand, gesturing for Zhang Jiyang to return to the stone bench. He smiled and said: "I didn't expect you had a nickname too. Alright, from now on I'll call you 'Stone Man'. You can call me 'Zhenhua'. I'm two years older than you, so you can also call me Big Brother Zhao."

  "I don't dare, I don't dare! It's better for the department to call you Commander." Zhang Jiyang was a bit awkward, and didn't even know where to put his hands.

  "Stone man, I heard you are a Xiucai from a scholarly background and also attended a military academy?" Zhao Bei asked.

  "Zhi graduated from Anqing Military Academy, majoring in surveying. As for the title of Xiucai, it's not worth mentioning. He spent his whole life studying, but his knowledge was useless in bringing peace to the country or stabilizing the nation. That's not learning, that's just being a bookworm." Zhang Jiyang adjusted the round-framed glasses on the bridge of his nose and then placed his hands on his knees.

  "Studying surveying? No wonder Lantianbai assigned all those students from the Jiucheng Surveying Academy to you. Zhao Bei nodded, and then asked: "In your opinion, how is our restoration going in terms of organizational development within the new army?"

  "Anhui's new army is developing quite well, Zhejiang also has some influence, but other places are not doing so great. However, the Ministry of Works is just a small member, and these matters involve confidential information within the organization, I don't know much about it either."

  "It seems like there are no comrades like us in the Hubei New Army and Jiangsu New Army."

  "There shouldn't be, if there were, they should have come to find the organization these few days."

  "It can't go on like this, the combat effectiveness of the revolutionary army comes from its tight organization and discipline. The Qing dynasty's military morale comes from their pay and rewards, but we are a revolutionary army, we can't use that approach. We need to find a new way." Zhao Bei stood up, walked around the pavilion with his hands behind his back, looking at the withered branches in the garden, and said quietly: "Shiren, I plan to establish a 'political lecturer' system in the newly formed Republican Army. Our Restoration Society should take on the historical responsibility of transforming this old army."

  "What's a 'Current Affairs Lecturer System'?" Zhang Jiyang also stood up, pondering over this term.

  Zhao Bei patted Zhang Jiyang's shoulder and said, "We need to develop this system of political lecturers down to the grassroots level. Every newly formed company should have at least one such representative, whose main responsibility is to lecture soldiers on revolutionary principles, current events, and politics, as well as grasp their mindset and report back to me in a timely manner. We not only need to tell our soldiers what we're fighting for, but also use this system to spread our ideology and make more people aware of our stance." Political lecturers do not fall under the jurisdiction of military commanders, but are directly responsible to headquarters.

  "I understand. This is similar to the Ming dynasty's military supervision system." Zhang Jiyang suddenly realized.

  Zhao Bei smiled and shook his head, saying: "It's different. The Ming dynasty's monitoring system for the military was to supervise the officers in charge of the army, to prevent them from rebelling against their superiors. But our 'current affairs lecturer system' is not about supervising military officers, but rather mobilizing soldiers! You must remember this point, it's about mobilizing soldiers!"

  Zhang Jiyang looked puzzled and said: "Isn't that similar to the way the Qunchu Xueshe operates? They also only recruit soldiers, not officers."

  "That's wrong! The Gangzhixue She is pulling people into the gang, that's the way of the party. We are not pulling people into the gang, but transforming soldiers from their ideology! We don't need to pull strings because we are open and honest, as long as the soldiers become aware, they will follow us." Zhao Bei said.

  Zhang Jiyang picked up on the dissatisfaction in Zhao Bei's words and nodded, saying: "In the past few days, the Qunchu Xueshe has indeed been recruiting people everywhere. I also heard that they want to change the name of the society, first saying it would be called 'Literary Society', then changing it to 'Strive Forward Association'. Who knows if they've finished changing it yet? Also, the Tongmenghui people have been quite active recently, whereas our Guangfu Hui seems to have nothing to do."

  "Stone man, I'm worried too." Zhao Bei saw that Zhang Jiyang had already set out and opened the skylight to speak frankly. "If this continues, our troops will probably be ruined by the Group Learning Society. The military is most afraid of forming cliques, why isn't the Qing army's combat effectiveness strong? Of course, there are reasons for the corruption and backwardness of its military system, but it can't be said that there aren't any party factors. The power of the Elder Brothers Society in the Qing army is very strong, which directly affects the unity of military orders. A slight stir can often shake the entire army. Our revolutionary army is different from any previous army, this army will create a brand new era! Stone man, I've been thinking about this political lecturer system for several days and have basically determined the framework. What's left is to find a general representative, and that person is none other than you."

  "What? I'm going to be the general representative? No way, no way! I'm too young and have never done this kind of thing before. No way, no way!" Zhang Jiyang shook his head repeatedly.

  Nonsense! If you had experience with this kind of system before, I wouldn't have trusted you to go in the first place!

  Zhao Bei slightly shook his head. The reason he chose Zhang Jiyang, apart from being an official member of the Guangfu Society, was that this person was overly idealistic and had a relatively gentle personality, obedient to authority, easy to control, and beneficial for himself to quickly grasp this branch of troops. With him as the frontman, he could completely hide behind the scenes to plan everything. If the opponent wanted to attack, they would have to face the "Guangfu Society" shield.

  No way, the revolutionary situation is complex, not only to fight against the enemy, but also to guard against fellow revolutionaries from time to time. It's really not an easy task to command a revolutionary army with mixed members.

  "Stone man! How can you do revolution by being indecisive?" Zhao Bei said seriously. "You've never been a staff officer before, but now you're doing quite well. It's okay if you don't know, just learn! I have a little booklet here, you can take it and look at it, I believe it will inspire you."

  Zhao Bei took out a small booklet he had written himself, which was what he wrote last night, while writing and holding the "Kangxi Dictionary" to check back and forth, only a few thousand words, actually wrote all night, fortunately it was written with a steel pen, and the calligraphy was barely passable.

  Zhang Jiyang took a look, and on the cover of that little booklet were written six characters "Soldier Mobilization Techniques" in bold strokes. In fact, this was written by Zhao Bei based on his own experience as a salesperson, with a small amount of absorption of pyramid scheme concepts.

  "Remember, you just look at this booklet yourself, don't let others see it, and return it to me immediately after you finish reading." Zhao Bei said seriously.

  Zhang Jiyang tried to decline, but Zhao Bei insisted that he be the "General Representative of Current Political Lecturers". Having no choice, Zhang Jiyang had to accept this assignment.

  "Stone man, from now on you will be the chief representative of our Republican Army's current affairs lecturer. Don't disappoint my sincere hopes. Just now a few young people from Jiangxi 'Yizhi Society' came to join the army, I have arranged them in the headquarters, they are highly enthusiastic about revolution and their knowledge is not bad either, they can be your first batch of subordinates." Zhao Bei patted Zhang Jiyang's shoulder and led him out of the pavilion.

  "We must spread this system throughout the entire army, with at least one political lecturer in each grassroots company. Remember to select soldiers from poor backgrounds with a firm revolutionary stance, and they must be literate! This is very important. In the future, we will set up literacy classes in our army, and they will become cultural instructors. We not only need to establish a political lecture team within the army but also spread this system to society, using our revolutionary voices to cleanse this decadent era and awaken the sleeping citizens! Shi Ren, the burden on your shoulders is heavy indeed. This battlefield is one without gunpowder, directly related to the future and prospects of our army, even this country. You must not be negligent!"