"Master, how do you think the grassland should be treated?" Zhu Youxiao asked.

Zhang Haogu said: "I believe that now that the grassland area is large, with millions of herdsmen and three thousand miles of grassland, the Chahar Grassland can imitate Balian's capital and establish these two grasslands as the Mongolian province of the Ming Dynasty.

garrison."

"In order to maintain the imperial court's deterrence on the grassland, the garrison cannot be less than 30,000."

"Thirty thousand?" Zhu Youxiao frowned.

"Isn't it too much to put 30,000 new troops on the grassland?"

Zhang Haogu said with a smile: "Not many. This grassland is not as good as the Central Plains. We can recruit more herdsmen to join the army and train them as militiamen. They usually herd and farm, and train once every ten months. If there is a war, they can be recruited into the army again."

"Of the 30,000 new troops, only 10,000 were deployed in Balian's capital, and the remaining 20,000 were deployed in the Chahar Grassland to the east of Saihan Mountain to build cities and roads to besiege Liaodong."

"In this way, the imperial court will have 30,000 new troops and tens of thousands of militiamen on the grassland, and can directly mobilize 100,000 troops in wartime."

"Moreover, these 30,000 new troops can be rotated every two years, so that the three battalions of soldiers in Gyeonggi and the new grassland troops can rotate with each other, so that there is always an elite presence in the center of the imperial court."

"After all, if you don't experience war, no matter how much you train, it's useless."

Zhu Youxiao nodded: "This makes sense. It is a good idea to rotate the new grassland army and the new army in the Beijing camp."

Zhang Haogu continued: "Your Majesty, now the imperial court only has 140,000 new troops, 20,000 are in southern Liaoning, 20,000 are on the three sides, and 100,000 are in the northern and southern capitals. However, for the imperial court, 140,000 new troops are

, too little.”

"Jiubian, the towns in the north and south, and the guards in various parts of the Ming Dynasty all need to be replaced. The new army currently in the imperial court is still not enough."

"Otherwise, in the event of a major war, the imperial court would not have dispatched troops from the south of the Yangtze River."

"The imperial court still needs to train new troops."

Colonel Zhu You was convinced: "Yes, the imperial court has too few soldiers, and the current soldiers are simply not enough."

Zhang Haogu said with a smile: "In this case, we might as well set up 30,000 troops in the grassland first, and then the northern and southern capitals will add additional troops and horses. Now the imperial court is not short of this money. The northern and southern capitals can maintain 1,340,000 troops and horses. The imperial court still supports it."

Affordable.”

Zhu Youxiao asked again: "Now that the Mongolian province is so large, do you have any ideas on how to govern Master?"

Zhang Haogu said: "Cao Wenzhao can continue to act as the temporary governor of Mongolia, but he will only be responsible for the Chahar grassland, and the capital of Balian will continue to be governed by Chen Yawan."

"The governor will be changed in the future and Cao Wenzhao will be transferred back from the grassland."

Zhu Youxiao nodded: "Then let's go to Dingyuanhou first and let him stay on the grassland for a while."

Zhang Haogu and Zhu Youxiao thus decided on the grassland policy. The old party and the new party argued for a long time in the court, but in the end nothing was gained, let alone hindered the development of the new party.

Court meeting?

If something goes wrong at the court meeting, why should the cabinet do anything?

While the old and new parties in North Korea and China were arguing endlessly, another debate broke out in Nanjing.

This debate revolved around materialism, and students from Donglin Academy and Datong Academy participated. What worried Huang Zunsu and others from Donglin Academy was that many students from Donglin Academy also began to support the materialism of the New Party.

Students who supported Datong Academy and those who supported Donglin Academy argued endlessly in Nanjing city, attracting passers-by to watch. This also made the debate more and more influential and attracted more people's attention. Many scholars, young people

People were attracted to watch the debate.

Wang Wenyan did not stop the debate. He even very considerately prepared an arena for the students. Students from both sides directly went on stage to debate. Who could defeat the other party naturally attracted applause from the audience. Such a move undoubtedly made Donglin Academy and Datong Academy have to fight against each other.

The debate became more and more important, and the two sides became more and more explosive. Not only students participated, but even some idle scholars also participated. They began to debate for their own schools and academic orthodoxy.

This also allowed the influence of materialism to rapidly expand in the south, which can be said to have had unexpected results. After all, not many students paid attention to the materialism of Datong College at the beginning, and the practical governance of Donglin College seemed to be

It does seem to be the case, but now it seems that the theory of Donglin Academy is very different from that of Datong Academy.

On this day, Huang Zunsu personally took the stage to debate: "Ruling a country requires the use of classics and meanings. Throughout the dynasties, all dynasties have followed the classics and studied the truths of the saints. Only in this way can the world be peaceful and the people's livelihood stable. How can we not talk about the classics and study the truths of our ancestors?" To seize a high position and govern the country?"

"Throughout the ancient and modern times, the words of saints and their subtle righteousness can be applied to the whole world. The way of Confucianism is the way to govern the country. Why don't you read the meaning of the scriptures and study the strange techniques of investigating things?"

Immediately, a student said: "I don't think so! The principles of all things are not just empty talk, but need to study things and gain knowledge. Without practice, how can the truth be said? The sages of the past generations also understood the truth through personal experience. Sir, it is just empty talk and has no self. How can we understand the truth of the scriptures without experiencing it?”

Huang Zunsu said calmly: "Our ancestors have recorded various principles in the books. We have studied the scriptures hard, studied the knowledge, and governed the world according to the principles recorded by the sages. Why waste time visiting the people? How can the people know it? What matters in the world? If the common people can do everything, and we need hundreds of officials, what will the students do?"

Someone else said: "What you said is wrong. Thousands of words are not as good as actual practice. You all talk eloquently about the governance of the country and how difficult people's livelihood is. I dare to ask if you have ever truly understood people's livelihood? If you don't go deep into the people, you have seen it personally. How can we understand the sufferings of the people and what they want and need? If we cannot understand what the people want and need, how can we talk about governing the country and how can we talk about people's livelihood and stability?"

Huang Zunsu said: "Why do we need to go to the people in person? There are scribes who have recorded the people's conditions in various places. We only need to read the records to understand the political affairs of a place. We can adapt to local conditions and implement policies based on what we have read and learned, and we can stabilize people's livelihood. A whole land can be ruled."

Someone laughed and said, "Oh? I dare to ask, sir, how much does rice cost in Nanjing today? How much does it cost per stone? Do you know how much a foot of cloth costs? Do you know how much people spend on food and rice in a month? If you even have this If we don’t even know the basic living standards, how can we understand a place through documents?”

Huang Zunsu's face changed a little, but he forced himself to stay calm: "Huh! This is a fallacy. How can the folk price of rice remain unchanged? How can the price of something that changes every day be determined in detail? Just based on past prices. It’s enough to get a rough idea and maintain stability, so why bother to check and ask questions in person?”

The man chased after him: "How to stabilize the price? People's harvests have varied over the years, so how can we talk about the present based on the previous prices? The sages knew that today is different from the past, so they continued to add scriptures and keep pace with the times. Confucianism, how can you talk about governing a country and grazing all people based on the teachings of the ancient sages?"

Without waiting for Huang Zunsu's answer, he continued to ask: "Can the scriptures of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and the policies of the Qin, Han, Sui and Tang Dynasties still be useful today? There have been reforms and innovations in all dynasties, but the founding national policy and ancestral system are no longer suitable. current."
Chapter completed!