Chapter 40: The Military Procurement Officer

  "The requirements for military officers are quite strict, and currently, it's possible to select a few nationwide. However, as the two gentlemen said, if we were to promote this nationwide in the military, it's clear that there wouldn't be so many readily available. So, since there aren't that many readily available, why don't we cultivate our own?"

  A few people heard that, why not cultivate themselves? Previously, the emperor and including experienced Wen Tiren and Sun Chengzong did not think of the reason: they subconsciously classified military officials as a type of military officer. In the Ming Dynasty, it was all hereditary, whether it was soldiers or generals, who would actively cultivate military officers? Now there are still many generals at the level of commander-in-chief who are illiterate and don't recognize a single character, let alone military officials who are much lower than the commander-in-chief.

  "But the court cultivating martial officials is unprecedented in our dynasty. I fear it does not conform to the ancestral system." Sun Chongzong spoke up first.

  Wen Tianren on the side also nodded in agreement.

  It's not easy to break through traditional things, and you will encounter a lot of opposition from conservative personnel. Sun Chengzong was afraid that Emperor Chongzhen would not know the pros and cons, so he pointed out this point first.

  Zhong Jingwei also didn't speak, and looked up at Emperor Chongzhen with his eyes.

  Chongzhen Emperor knew that Zhong Xing looked at his own meaning, which was to express his attitude. Before, Zhong Xing had told him that he would help himself revive the great Ming dynasty and there would be many ancestral systems to break. Now it's just one of them.

  Think again about the corruption of the military, and the unopened Huaiyang in the midst of many loyalist armies' siege, as if entering a land without people, resulting in the living beings inside the pass being burned to ashes, and the cries of orioles filling the fields. This also forced me to issue an edict calling for the suppression of bandits. If we don't reform the military system again, Huaiyang will come several more times, and it's hard to say how long I can still sit in this position.

  The Chongzhen Emperor deeply felt the urgency and necessity of military system reform, so he nodded firmly: "Master Sun, don't worry, after we perfect this reform strategy, I have the determination to implement it."

  Sun Chengzong and Wen Tiren are not conservatives, but they worry that the military reform will harm many people's interests. They speak for the sake of tradition. Without the emperor's firm support, even the best strategic reforms would be difficult to implement. The person who proposed the strategy would become the target of criticism.

  The Chongzhen Emperor turned to Zhong Xing and asked, "Mr. Zhong, do you have any good strategies for cultivating military officials?"

  "Your Majesty, regarding the various requirements for military officers, the two gentlemen have already mentioned them earlier. Since the requirements have been raised, we can now conduct targeted training."

  Sun Chengzong and Wen Tiren both nodded slightly.

  "First of all, one must have a certain physical foundation to keep up with the army's marching and fighting. Then, military supply officers need to be brave and also need to exercise, but not for the purpose of killing enemies, but rather to strengthen their bodies."

  Zhong Jinwei stood up excitedly, ignoring his body's incomplete recovery, and stretched out one finger on his left hand.

  "Secondly, the military officer's position is to distribute military supplies, so they should be good at arithmetic and accounting. These prerequisites first require literacy." Zhong Jinwei stretched out his left hand's second finger.

  "Thirdly, military procurement officers also need to do ideological education work, so they must be able to speak and explain clearly, with some eloquence in order to do the job well." Zhong Jinwei stretched out his left hand's third finger.

  "Fourth, the ideological work of a military supply officer is mainly aimed at soldiers, so they must be able to get along with soldiers and cannot be superior or look down on them as inferior people. Therefore, military supply officers should also have the spirit of sharing joys and hardships with soldiers, who will then listen to and admire them, and the ideological education effect will be better." Zhong Jinwei stretched out his left hand's fourth finger.

  "Fifthly, the military officer must be loyal to Your Majesty, loyal to the imperial court, abide by the law and be fair and honest." Zhong Jinwei stretched out his left hand with a big thumb wrapped around it.

  Zhong Jinwei further elaborated on the specific requirements for military officers based on the two gentlemen's foundation. Then he shook his left hand with five fingers extended, then clenched it into a fist and stretched out three fingers again.

  "In summary, there are actually three points: physical quality, required skills and ideological education. I don't know if everyone agrees."

  Chongzhen Emperor and Sun Chenzong, Wen Tiren all nodded, even Wang Chengen standing beside them couldn't help but nod.

  "So, we can set up a school, which is an academy, to recruit students of all kinds, whether they are soldiers from the army or scholars from the civilian world, or ordinary people, even those with humble backgrounds, as long as they can pass the entrance exam, we will not discriminate and use talent without restriction. Let everyone compete for positions, every certain period of time hold an examination, if passed, then meet our requirements, can be used; if the examination is not passed, continue to study, three failures, no longer have the qualification to learn, the cost is too high."

  The entire main hall was filled with only Zhong Jinwei's voice, speaking fluently and confidently.

  "Those who can't read are afraid they won't be able to keep up?" Wen Ti-ren spoke up.

  Zhong Jinwei turned to Wen Ti-ren and said, "Lord Wen, I think that as long as one has a loyal heart and is good at communicating, learning arithmetic and keeping accounts will not be difficult."

  People's hearts are the most difficult to measure. Anyone can verbally say loyalty and patriotism, but who can really know what kind of person he is?

  Everyone actually knows this point, but it still needs to be mentioned on the surface.

  "Moreover, since the current soldiers are basically illiterate, writing some popular and easy-to-understand songs and letting the military officers teach them to sing along will have a very good effect. The songs mainly reflect loyalty to the monarch, love for the country, protecting the family and defending the nation. Or we can also include military discipline in the lyrics."

  "Qi Dashi had composed a melody back then, quite good. Mr. Zhong's knowledge is vast and profound." Sun Chengzong praised at this point.

  "Hmph, I have four hundred years more experience than you guys." Zhong Jinwei said quietly in his heart.

  When it comes to soldiers, Zhong Jingwei thought of something and continued: "Your Majesty, in fact, not only do military officials need to recognize characters, but also generals. It's best if even soldiers can recognize characters."

  As soon as this was said, several people looked at each other in dismay. The soldiers were all literate, and such a thing had never happened before in any dynasty or generation.

  Chongzhen Emperor asked with curiosity: "Mr. Zhong, what does this mean?"

  "Read books, recognize words, and understand the principles of things. If all soldiers understand the principles of things, they will not blindly follow. Even if there are people with ulterior motives who incite and instigate, the lowest-ranking soldiers can still distinguish between good and evil."

  Zhong Jingwei saw that a few people seemed to be somewhat dissatisfied, so he continued: "For example, now when soldiers are eating food, if there is milk, it's like having a mother. If there is no temporary grain and grass, they will make trouble. This is the performance of being illiterate and rough. If one understands reason, they will consider the consequences of making trouble and also know more about the principle of loyalty to the monarch and love for the country."

  "Also, scouts, oh, now it's not just about collecting information at night, when gathering intelligence on the enemy, if you've read books before, it's easier to calculate and analyze the situation, then transmit effective intelligence back more accurately."

  Chongzhen Emperor, Sun Chengzong and Wen Tiren all fell into deep thought. Zhong Xing didn't care about them, he said to himself: "If soldiers can read, they will read more books, gain more knowledge, and when encountering urgent situations, such as chaos on the battlefield, unable to receive orders from superiors, they won't panic easily, with an extra chance of winning."

  Finally, Zhong Jinwei concluded: "If soldiers can read and write, they will be able to do things that cannot be done by illiterate soldiers, and make correct choices in different situations."

  Chongzhen Emperor thought of what Zhong Jiwei said, and his mind was thinking: If even the soldiers can recognize characters, Tang Zu and Song Zu will be surprised.

  "This is too absurd. Reading books is the privilege of scholars, if soldiers are allowed to read books, I'm afraid scholars won't agree." Wen Ti-ren reminded.

  "Wen, this is not something to be surprised about. This is just a trend. Since ancient times, scholars also didn't start out reading books. Soldiers are human too, why can't they read?" Zhong Jinwei retorted.

  Sun Chengzong didn't care about these things. Although he was a civil official, he spent more time in the military camp. He asked: "With so many soldiers, how can they be taught to read and write?"

  Zhong Jinwei turned his head to Sun Chengzong: "It's possible to let the military officer teach soldiers to read and write during training and battles, without requiring them to recite poems or compose couplets, as long as they can recognize characters."

  Chongzhen Emperor was not opposed to soldiers and civilians being literate, they are all my children. Now these scholars have become Confucius' brothers, with greed in their hearts. I will deal with them sooner or later. But if we let soldiers read and write, how much extra paper and brushes would be needed? How much money?! So he said: "I temporarily don't have the spare money to buy pens and paper for soldiers to read and write!"

  Zhong Jingwei smiled and said to Emperor Chongzhen, "Your Majesty doesn't have to worry, it won't cost much. In the legend of Yue Fei's Yue Wu Mu, he was also from a poor family and practiced writing with twigs on a sandboard."

  He stopped for a moment and then asked Chongzhen Emperor with a pleased expression: "Your Majesty, do you remember that blackboard I made before?"

  The Chongzhen Emperor recalled that Zhong Xian had previously painted a piece of wood black for writing, and nodded in approval.

  Wēn Tǐ Rén suddenly had an epiphany and realized that this thing could be used.

  "With this blackboard, there is no need for paper. You can write on it and then erase it to write again, repeatedly utilizing it. Soldiers can practice writing on the ground, repeatedly writing and erasing, saving paper. Moreover, with this blackboard, a military officer can teach many soldiers to read and recognize characters at the same time without any problem."

  Chongzhen Emperor listened to Zhong Jinwei's words and only then realized that the blackboard had such a great use, it could save a lot of money, and he couldn't help but nod repeatedly, what a good thing.

  Moreover, if large blackboards are difficult to carry, soldiers can carry a small square blackboard. In normal times, when not encountering sandy or muddy places, they can write and draw on the small blackboard. When resting and camping together to read books and recognize characters, the small blackboards can be combined into a large one for the quartermaster to teach.

  Several people nodded, and Zhong Jinwei suddenly remembered the scene on Shi Zu's small blackboard, as if there was another effect, and he couldn't help but joke: "The small blackboard can also be used as a small shield to block arrows when facing the enemy."

  Everyone present laughed at this remark, which was also too exaggerated.

  Since it's this kind of learning method, those who have benefited from reading are probably also unable to refute it, and that's okay.

  After talking for so long, Sun Chengzong suddenly remembered that Zhong Jinwei had not yet spoken about how the military officer could advance, and what to do if there were two people in one army, and how to command the whole army. He only answered the first question. So Sun Chengzong brought the topic back and asked for a solution to this problem.

  Zhong Jinwei then thought of it and said, "How did I end up talking so much? Alright, let's talk about this issue."

  I rushed through a chapter over the weekend. I'll update another chapter this afternoon after work. Thanks to all book friends who silently voted with red tickets, thank you!