When Zhu Youzhen got into the carriage, in order to keep it secret, he gave up the riding habit he had always insisted on, and he still turned back to Mao Yuanyi, who came to see him off, with some unease: "Chief of Staff Mao, before Mr. Sun arrives, all the things here will be handed over to you."

Your task is not light, and I hope you will take responsibility. I don't worry about anything else, I only worry about one thing, although I have decided that your side will focus on defensive operations, but I want you to remember that even if it is a defensive operation, it is by no means a trap in a large camp, leaving the enemy army free to choose the direction and scale of the attack.

Once the Tartars judge that you don't have the courage to fight, they have a lot of options to choose from, which will certainly be detrimental to us. And if there is no plan for the army to attack, our army will lose faith in victory, and even if the Tartars show an opportunity to take advantage of it, we will not be able to grasp it. ”

After Mao Yuanyi bowed his hand, he replied to the emperor with a solemn face: "The minister will definitely remember His Majesty's instructions, and he will definitely not let the Tartars do whatever they want in front of our army." ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded at him, then straightened up, waved goodbye to Mao Yuanyi and the staff officers of the staff headquarters behind him, and turned around and boarded the carriage.

Not long after leaving Shimen Village, Zhu Youzhen asked people to call Xia Yunyi into the carriage he was riding. Since Xia Yunyi arrived at the front with the volunteers from Yenching University, Chongzhen arranged for them to interview various combat units, and then collect and react to the soldiers and officers in these units.

Although the emperor's arrangement of these Yanjing students made them feel that the work was different from what they imagined, many people thought that they would take on some clerical work by the emperor's side. However, under the appeasement of Xia Yunyi and others, who had gone to the local area to conduct social investigations, these students finally accepted the task given to them by the emperor.

Zhu Youzhen felt that the performance of the Yenching University students who volunteered to go to the front line was not bad, so when he was about to go to Qian'an, he brought Xia Yunyi and several other Yenching University students.

As the vehicle "squeaked" and "squeaked" forward, Zhu Youzhen chatted with Xia Yunyi about what they had seen and heard in the troops below in the past few days.

At the beginning, Xia Yunyi still wanted to talk to the emperor while sitting upright, but in the rickety carriage, the more he tried to maintain this serious posture, the easier it was to be affected by the shaking of the vehicle, and after almost falling completely in the carriage several times, he finally accepted Chongzhen's suggestion and sat down leaning on the carriage.

After watching Xia Yunyi finally succumb to the power of geophysics, Zhu Youzhen suddenly changed the topic and asked him: "Gong Yu went to the place last year and saw how the people of Shanxi and Shaanxi lived; These days, I got off the army again and listened to the voices of those low-level soldiers.

I would like to ask you, where do you think I should start if I want to revive the Ming Dynasty, and whose support should I rely on? ”

Xia Yunyi was dumbfounded for a while, unable to answer Chongzhen's unexpected question. If it was a year and a half ago, he would definitely think that the key to the Ming Dynasty's revival was that the emperor should be close to the wise man and the gentleman and stay away from the villain.

However, in the past year, whether he went to the local area to investigate the lives of the people in Shanxi and Shaanxi, or watched the news from the Daming Times, he was no longer the angry young literati who knew nothing about the world.

The clearer he understood the reality of the Ming Dynasty, the more he felt that his strength was too low, and he often felt that he was powerless in such a world.

Unlike in the south, where there were some peaceful and prosperous times, the people of the north were in a life without a future, without land or homes, but they had to bear most of the state's taxes and pay heavy rents to the landlords. Under the burden of this kind of life, as long as one more straw is added, it is possible that most families will pawn their wives and children, and the family will be ruined.

The natural disasters in the north over the years, coupled with the rise of the Houjin Tartar forces, drove the Mongolian tribes to continue to migrate to the northwest border of the Ming Dynasty, which were the last straw imposed on the people in the north of the Ming Dynasty.

The existential crisis faced by the people in the north is no longer a problem that the gentry self-government system that existed in the countryside of the Ming Dynasty could deal with. The kindness of a small number of gentry and landlords could not solve the problem of the survival of the common people that spread to the entire northwest region. Not to mention, most of the gentry landlords also wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to seize the last bit of land in the hands of those affected by the disaster and expand their family business.

The fierce contradictions between the disaster-stricken people and the gentry in the north and the still warm rural life that Xia Yunyi saw in the south are completely two worlds. Although he owned a large amount of fertile land in his own house, he was still incomprehensible to the greed and stupidity of some northern gentry and landlords in the year of the Great Famine.

As a young Confucian student, he is not sophisticated enough to use the classics of the sages as a fig leaf to cover himself, and Xia Yunyi at this moment really wants to practice the benevolence that the master said. Therefore, he still has a deep sympathy for these people.

He also despised the bad deeds of the gentry and landlords in the year of famine, but only to the extent that their actions tarnished the reputation of the other gentry. He was deeply sympathetic to the suffering of the common people, but disgusted by the rebels who dared to rise up against the gentry.

The ambivalence in Xia Yunyi's heart made him unable to speak in front of the emperor for a long time, and it took a long time before he said to Chongzhen with difficulty: "Your Majesty, the people of the Ming Dynasty are really bitter. The minister thought that if he wanted to revitalize the Ming Dynasty, he should first let the people see the hope of living.

The person who can make His Majesty rely on the revitalization of the Ming Dynasty, the minister really can't think of it now. However, the ministers thought that the current dynasty relied on the imperial examination to select talents for governing the country, and I am afraid that it would be a bit abandoned. With the situation of today's Ming Dynasty, the minister thinks that His Majesty should not be rigid in form, and only talent can be hired to be beneficial to state affairs. ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at Xia Yunyi, who bowed his head and told him, and couldn't help sighing in his heart, sure enough, the old literati who had not been baptized by the materialist view of history, the young people who could accept new ideas the most, could only reach the level of Xia Yunyi. In their eyes, people are still objects to be saved, not forces to be relied upon.

In other words, after seeing the destructive power of the peasant rebels, they were far more afraid of the power of the people than of exploiting it, and perhaps this is the limitation of history.

Zhu Youzhen shook off some distracting thoughts in his mind, and was about to say something when the carriage suddenly stopped. He couldn't help but lift the curtain of the car and look out, and after a while, Lian Shanxiang hurriedly ran over and said to him: "There is a team in front of them to transport baggage to Shimenzhai, and the minister is ordering them to get out of the way, please wait for a while." ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and said, "Most of us are cavalry, and it should be easier for us to make way." What's more, there are tens of thousands of soldiers stationed in Shimenzhai, and logistics supply is the top priority. Give the order to go down, let the army get out of the way, let this baggage army go first, and don't let them delay time. ”

Lian Shanxiang hurriedly agreed, and then gave an order to several personal soldiers around him, asking them to go to the front and rear of the team to convey the order to give way. The auxiliaries, who were trying to drag the cart to the side of the road in front of the cavalry team, suddenly saw the cavalry in front of them dismount one after another to give way to most of the official road, and they couldn't help but hesitate to stop their movements.

A cavalryman hurriedly ran over and said to the officer who led the team: "Our army has been ordered to get out of the way, you can hurry over, there is no need to continue to give way." ”

The officer froze for a moment, and finally reacted, and he couldn't stop thanking the cavalryman while shouting at his men to hurry up and organize a convoy to pass.

Zhu Youzhen, who was sitting in the carriage, watched this baggage convoy pass by his carriage, and couldn't help but move in his heart, he stretched out his hand and pointed to one or two carriages outside the window and said: "My Daming is like this big car that carries a load forward, just someone in front of him to grasp the direction of the car can't let it move forward, and also needs those people who push the cart forward, and the people who pave the potholes in the road in front of the carriage and so on."

If you want to revitalize the Ming Dynasty today, it is not possible to just expect a few Qing officials to come out of the court, and a few enthusiastic literati to emerge among the people and talk about the big truth. In order for the Ming Dynasty to regain its strength and move in the right direction, it is not only necessary for the officials in the court to make the right decisions, but more importantly, someone needs to implement these policies.

I have heard that the students of Yenching University are interested in uniting the various literary societies in the capital, following the example of the newly established Fushe in the south, and establishing a literary society that accommodates the literati of the capital, in order to study knowledge and discuss the principles of governance. ”

Xia Yunyi suddenly explained with some uneasiness: "This is just a little enthusiasm of the students of Yenching University, and they do not intend to set up a literary society to interfere in the government's affairs, and please ask Your Majesty to investigate." ”

Zhu Youzhen looked out the window and said leisurely: "The reason why Taizu is reluctant to let the students discuss state affairs in vain is mainly because he is worried that the students are young and vigorous, lack of life experience, although they have enthusiasm, they may not be able to do things well, and in the end, they will be used by people with intentions, and eventually become a party struggle in the DPRK and China."

However, I think that the current Ming Dynasty is no longer the Ming Dynasty at the beginning of the country, and this gloomy situation always needs some enthusiastic young people to break it. So I don't think it's a good thing to blindly ban students from talking about politics.

I believe that what should be forbidden by the imperial court is that the students are divorced from reality and empty words, or set up small groups to fight against dissent under the banner of righteousness. Therefore, I want to establish an organization that guides the young people of the Ming Dynasty to participate in political life correctly.

The purpose of this organization is to arm the minds of the young people of the Ming Dynasty with science and culture, and guide them to participate in the practical cause of building the Ming Dynasty, so as to provide qualified reserve talents for the construction of the Ming Dynasty.

Whether it is a village, a workshop or a school, there should be members of the organization, so as to organize the youth of the Ming Dynasty to the greatest extent and strive for the construction of the Ming Dynasty. I thought that this organization could be named the China Youth Society, and that the ordinary members should not be more than 30 years old, except for the leaders. ”

Xia Yunyi looked at the emperor with some trouble, not knowing how to respond to this proposal. Although the emperor's proposal to establish this Chinese Youth Society greatly expanded the power of the literary society that they wanted to establish as a student in Yanjing, the conditions for the recruitment of this Chinese Youth Society exceeded the bottom line that most students could accept, and this condition was too low.

Zhu Youzhen turned his head to look at Xia Yunyi and said, "As the saying goes, a good man still needs three gangs. Since the goal of your establishment of the Literary Society is to one day be able to realize your ideal of governing the country, but now you are excluding most of the young people of the Ming Dynasty, just because their identity is too far away from yours, do you think the purpose of establishing the Literary Society can be achieved?

There is a priority in everything you do, and the purpose of your establishment of the literary club is to entertain yourself? Or do you want to help me govern the country? Don't you figure it out now? ”

Xia Yunyi finally came to his senses, and said with some shame: "Yes, the minister was still a little misguided before. That is, to explore the principles of governing the country, it is natural that the more people the better, and only when more people understand our ideas can we better spread these truths. Behind closed doors, after all, it is still too petty. ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded at him and said, "I once heard someone say something, so let's take it as a gift for you to establish the China Youth Society."

May the young people of the Ming Dynasty get rid of the cold air, just go up, and don't have to listen to the words of the self-defeating people. Those who can do things do things, and those who can speak up can speak up. If there is a point of heat, a point of light, it will make it like a firefly; You can also shine a little light in the dark without having to wait for the torch. ”

Xia Yunyi lowered his head and chewed this text for a long time, before he said to the emperor with some excitement: "Dare to ask Your Majesty, who is talking about this text?" Listening to it makes people feel empowered, and the minister really wants to meet this gentleman. ”

"Is this it? I also saw it from a fragment..."