After beating and scolding and threatening, the "guest and host" reached an agreement on borrowing grain, and the final amount was set at 120 stones.

Zhou Shixiang made it clear to them that they would all be sent over within three days, and one day later, he would take someone to pick it up in person, which scared Qi Yuantai and them to wipe the sweat on their foreheads with their sleeves.

After Lu Changchang took the people away, Song Xianggong asked Zhou Shixiang a little angrily why he was so unkind to these gentry, you must know that they all have status and status in Luoding, and their influence on the people is also very great, and sometimes what they say is more useful than what the government says. If Zhou Shixiang really planned to make a big deal in Luoding, then he should win over these gentry and say good things to them, instead of intimidating and coercing, which is tantamount to pushing these people to his opposite. I can't see any consequences at the moment, but after a long time, this disadvantage will definitely appear, and it will be too late to regret it.

Song Xianggong repeatedly emphasized that the so-called popular will is actually the idea of these gentry and big families, and if they grasp them, they will control the popular will, otherwise, they will lose the popular support. Without the support of the people, it would be impossible for the people of Daqiao Mountain to gain a foothold in Luoding, let alone strengthen their strength to do great things.

Song Xianggong is a ruler, but after all, he is an ancient, and his thinking must be contrary to Zhou Shi, who was a man in two lifetimes.

Zhou Shixiang felt that it was necessary to talk to Song Xianggong about his ideas, so that the other party could accept his ideas, so that he could help him do great things in the future.

"Sir, do you think it's better to let the people obey us directly, or to ignore the people, as long as the gentry obey us?"

"Since ancient times, the people will obey the orders because of the gentry!"

This question made Song Xianggong stunned for a moment, in his opinion, the government has always relied on the local gentry to govern the people, otherwise why only know the county and ignore the town and village.

The city is upright, and the country is not a big family!

The gentry are even more scholars, and the scholars learn Confucianism, understand things, and know the righteousness, if they don't rely on them, do they still have to rely on those mud legs who don't know big words?

What do mud legs know!

The government governs the people under its jurisdiction through the gentry and large households, which is the practice of dynasties for thousands of years, and this method is effective, that is, today's Ming and Qing dynasties, the Manchu Qing Dynasty still used this method to control the people, and did not listen to them kill the gentry like Li Chuang to please the people.

Song Xianggong was a little unable to understand Zhou Shixiang's approach, according to his original intention, he only needed to make a slight gesture to intimidate Qi Yuantai and them, but Zhou Shixiang asked Ge Liu to carry a string of heads, which was too much. In front of the six families before, he was not good at attacking, but now that there is no one in the hall, he can't help but talk to Zhou Shixiang.

never thought about it, but Zhou Shixiang shook his head and said: "If we follow Mr.'s approach, then we will not be able to win the hearts of the people in Luoding, and we will not be able to gain a foothold!" ”

Song Xianggong was surprised: "What kind of words are this, the gentry are all on our side, how can this people's will not be on our side?" ”

"Sir, you must understand that these gentry are not on our side, they are forced to obey us temporarily because they have no power to resist, and once they have the power to resist, they will inevitably turn against us! Moreover, we occupy Luoding in order to do big things against the Qing Dynasty, and we naturally need a lot of money and food to do big things, and Luoding has a sparse population and limited income from money and grain, so how many days can we support those ordinary people? Therefore, it is inevitable to attack these big households, let me ask you, sir, in this case, will the gentry still face us? If they don't face us, where can we get the people's hearts? What's more, in their eyes, our identity is doubtful! ”

Zhou Shixiang tried his best to explain, almost pointing out that Song Xianggong was not a Luo Ding Zhizhou appointed by the Yongli Imperial Court of the Southern Ming Dynasty, but a bandit who fell into the grass! It is true that the gentry obey the orders of the government, but how can they obey the orders of the bandits!

In his opinion, Song Xianggong's attempt to win the hearts and minds of the people by winning over the gentry was wishful thinking, and it could even be said to be extremely stupid, not realizing that they had not completely controlled Luo Dingcheng! Putting hope on a group of gentry who may bite back at any moment, wouldn't it be to wash their necks clean and wait for someone to cut them off!

Song Xianggong was speechless when he heard this, and realized that his thoughts were a little confused, sighed, and said: "But I am confused, but we are just borrowing some food from them, they may not dare to turn their faces with us, most of them still have to listen to us, as long as they listen to us now, this people's will is on our side, and they can still use it." ”

"The dog is in a hurry and bites, in other words, Mr., the food at home is borrowed by us in the name of beauty, but it is actually robbed, and Mr. is happy? Don't have an idea? ”

Zhou Shixiang never believed that landlords and businessmen could be a good class, a class that would not resist if they were oppressed.

Song Xianggong said: "Without external force, they don't dare to move." ”

"I admit this, as long as the Qing army does not fight, these people will not dare to act rashly. But has Mr. thought about it, once we have soldiers and horses, we must first deal with the attack of the Qing army, and we must first settle the inside, if we take the troops out, but these gentry are in chaos behind, then this battle is still necessary? ”

Song Xianggong was silent, the soldiers and horses were outside, and he naturally knew what the consequences would be of the chaos in the rear.

"In order to avoid chaos in the future, I thought that not only did I not need to be polite to these people, but I should be cruel to them!" Zhou Shixiang's eyes showed a fierce light, "According to me, only dead people will not cause chaos for us!" ”

"This can't be done, it can't be done!"

Song Xianggong was taken aback, but he didn't expect Zhou Shixiang to have the idea of killing the gentry in the city, and he couldn't accept it for a while.

"If I don't kill them all, my heart will be disturbed! But at the moment, we don't have the strength to kill them, and we are in a hurry, and it is difficult to solve these people when they hold up the group, so the top priority is to recruit troops immediately! "Zhou Shixiang knows what is important at the moment.

"The matter of recruitment, the brothers from all over the world have already done it, and with the silver hair, the young and strong people in the city must be enthusiastic."

Zhou Shixiang asked a question, "Those young people follow us, what will happen to their families?" Do we care? If so, where will the money and food come from to feed them? If you don't care, how can these young people still be willing to follow us? If we want to do big things, we can't stay in Luoding all the time, what if we want to leave, these young people refuse to go with us? ”

"That's a problem." Song Xianggong frowned, looked at Zhou Shixiang and said, "What do you have in mind?" ”

"I've just figured out the idea, if we want to solve these problems, we have to do extraordinary things!"

"What is an extraordinary measure?"

Zhou Shixiang spit out four words: "All the people are soldiers!" ”

"All soldiers?" Song Xianggong looked puzzled.

"Yes, all the people are soldiers, I want to make the more than 3,000 men, women and children in Luoding City all soldiers, the old have old battalions, the few have young battalions, and women have female battalions, so that everyone is a soldier, and everyone is a citizen. Wherever we go, these people will follow, and they will not be reluctant to leave their homeland because of their loved ones. ”

Song Xianggong only reacted after hearing the second half of the sound, and lost his voice: "Isn't this just coercing the people!" ”