Chapter 269 Heading West
Use the opponent's force to counter the opponent's force.
When the male student said this, the medical students present seemed to understand but not quite.
Xu Zhenying couldn't help but look up to the man, but saw that the man was only twenty years old, with a thin face, handsome features, and a pair of extremely clear eyes.
Xu Zhenying looked at the youthful faces below with great satisfaction. "As for the others, anyone interested can tell us. What's the situation at General Zhao's camp? Have you heard any other news?"
Qiu Ju Niang exclaimed "Ah", as if she had not expected that she had another mission.
She is a technician, and her whole mind is on the smallpox vaccine. How could she think of spying on military intelligence at the same time?
The male student who spoke first, encouraged by Xu Zhenying, became even bolder. "Although we are doctors, they want to use us, but they are also wary of us. We are definitely forbidden from entering the military secret area, but we have a very good relationship with the soldiers below, so we have heard some things more or less."
Xu Zhenying immediately became interested and couldn't help but look at the man a few more times.
"From what I've observed, the Emperor and the Retired Emperor don't seem to fully trust General Zhao Yi. Several of Zhao Yi's subordinates are from the capital's faction and don't obey his discipline, leading to serious internal strife. This influences the soldiers, and as a result, brawls are common. We've only been there for a month, and they've already had three or four large-scale brawls."
Qiu Ju Niang nodded repeatedly and agreed, "That's right. We were the ones who treated the patients several times."
"Also, the Great Zhou Dynasty's treasury is more depleted than we anticipated. I've heard the soldiers frequently complain about the serious problem of delayed pay. The worst case scenario is that they've been owed over a year, and it's common for soldiers to go to war hungry. While the soldiers are relatively loyal to General Zhao Yi, they all harbor resentment towards the court."
Xu Zhenying was thoughtful. This was consistent with the information Feng'er had sent back before.
"General Zhao Yi seems quite curious about the situation in Jinzhou Prefecture, constantly asking about our military strength. While treating the soldiers, I've occasionally mentioned life here, and I can tell many are quite interested. If the city lord wishes to attack the north in the future, he could consider a two-pronged approach: a public opinion campaign coupled with internal attacks."
This time, Xu Zhenying couldn't help but look at the male student who was speaking. "What's your name?"
"My name is Jiang Chaoping, and I was admitted to the medical school last year."
"Very good, you have a good sense of the overall situation and are quite perceptive."
Qiu Ju Niang also immediately praised: "City Lord, my student has good grades and is very hardworking."
Xu Zhenying suddenly stared at Qiu Ju Niang and smiled slightly.
Qiu Ju Niang felt a tingling sensation on her scalp, not knowing what she had said wrong. But the next second, Xu Zhenying said to Jiang Chaoping, "I'm currently short of two secretaries. Are you interested?"
These words made everyone in the room's heart skip a beat.
Qiu Ju Niang was the first to react. She nearly spat out a mouthful of blood, filled with righteous indignation. "City Lord, don't try to poach me like this! You said it's not easy to train a medical student! Jiang Chaoping is only in the first year, only a third of the way through. How could he neglect his studies like this?"
Xu Zhenying, however, was dishonest: "Did I say that? Why don't I remember? Oh, Dean Qiu, this talent will be snatched up wherever he goes. Besides, being a secretary here is not bad either. There will be more opportunities in the future."
Everyone had never seen this side of Xu Zhenying, so they were a little surprised.
Xu Zhenying smiled and looked at Jiang Chaoping again: "Jiang Chaoping, think about it and give me an answer tomorrow morning."
Jiang Chaoping was still a little confused and seemed to have no idea what was going on.
Qiu Ju Niang wanted to argue with her, but she didn't know what she thought of and didn't say anything.
A group of people walked out of the government office gate in a daze.
The dozen or so people in this group looked at Jiang Chaoping differently.
The city lord's secretary, the emperor's close minister, now is the only way to enter the official career without taking any examinations, not to mention that he has caught the city lord's eye, so he must have a bright future!
Of course, some people think that Jiang Chaoping relies solely on his face.
He is said to be a secretary, but he might be a male concubine or a mistress!
Of course, I only dared to say this in my heart. I didn't dare to say anything bad about the city lord in front of the teacher and other classmates.
As soon as they walked out of the government office gate, a dozen students started chattering and giving Jiang Chaoping advice.
"Chao Ping, go ahead. This is such a rare opportunity! How many people dream of working for the City Lord?"
"Yes, being the city lord's secretary is basically like entering the officialdom. Look at the previous secretaries: Xu Yinxi, Qian Zhenniang, Feng'er. Which one of them isn't a powerful figure now?"
"Yes, yes. After you join the City Lord, you will be able to further promote the medical development of our Jinzhou Prefecture. You have a medical background and are diligent. We can be like having someone in the court to help us get things done!"
"Don't talk nonsense!"
"What are you afraid of? We are doing official business!"
"Right, right, right. We in the medical industry need someone to enter the government, otherwise we won't have a say! For example, over at the research institute, when they buy something, the money goes out so quickly!"
"But after all, I've already studied for a year, and it's such a shame to give up halfway! As a doctor, at least I have a skill to rely on. No matter what happens in the future, I will have enough to make a living! Besides, as for the affairs of the officialdom, those of us with sharp minds can understand it, right?"
"That's true."
Facing the booing of his classmates, Jiang Chaoping seemed surprisingly calm. He seemed to have just come to his senses at this moment and looked at Qiu Ju Niang with some uncertainty: "Teacher, what do you think?"
Qiu Ju Niang smiled and said, "I'm just a doctor. I don't understand official affairs. I see that you usually do things with your own ideas, so it depends on your own opinion on this matter."
"Becoming an official?" Jiang Chaoping muttered to himself, a look of confusion in his eyes. "I've never considered this path before."
Qiu Ju Niang said, "Then think about it now."
"Dean, do you know what a secretary does? Do they do odd jobs for the city lord, serve him soup, or do they handle government affairs?"
Qiu Ju Niang thought carefully, "I didn't meet the city lord very often, but I vaguely remember that they seemed to have to do everything. Welcoming and seeing off guests, serving tea and water, handling government affairs, and drafting notices. They seemed to have a lot of power. Oh, did you see Instructor Gu just now? She's currently serving as the city lord's temporary secretary."
After hearing this, Jiang Chaoping began to understand a little.
Of course he remembered Gu Guihua.
Even after working until now, he still has a calm smile on his face and is very good at dealing with people when facing countless people who come to see the city lord.
In this case, he really does everything.
Qiu Ju Niang said, "Think it over carefully. The City Lord's side does have more promising prospects. In fact, I think your personality is quite suitable for a career in government. As your classmates said, if you go to the City Lord's side, we will have connections in the court and it will be easier to get things done. But everything depends on your choice. Both paths are good."
Jiang Chaoping was also undecided at this moment, so he had to say, "Teacher, let me think about it."
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The King of Zhoushan owned seven prefectures, and the one closest to Jinzhou Prefecture was Gongzhou.
Zhoushan King's followers worship the White Lotus Mother, but the deities are actually quite diverse, including the Jade Emperor of Heaven, the King of Hell, and mortal saints. However, the most common deity is the Mother of No Birth, with the so-called eight-character mantra: "True Emptiness, Hometown of No Birth, Mother of No Birth."
According to the King of Zhoushan, the Mother of No Birth is an ancient Buddha in heaven, neither born nor destroyed. She seeks to liberate her children from the mortal world and return them to heaven, where they can escape calamity. This heaven is the home of the True Emptiness. He wrote his own sutra, called the Treasure Scroll, which he often preached to his followers.
Most of their followers were ordinary people, and they had a large number of followers. The King of Zhoushan called himself the White Lotus Taoist, and often taught his followers both the light and dark sects. At the same time, he preached that "a great catastrophe is coming, the sky and the earth will be dark, the sun and the moon will have no light", "the yellow sky will die, and the blue sky will be born", etc., and organized peasant uprisings. Therefore, they raised the banner of rebellion early.
Even though farmers near Gongzhou are poor, every household still worships the tablet of "Mother of No Birth" and yearns for a bright and prosperous afterlife.
The governor of Gongzhou was Wang Lun, the leader of the Baiyang Sect, a branch under the King of Zhoushan. He had about 50,000 to 60,000 followers and was very powerful at the time.
An Peilin and a dozen of his brothers were hiding in the camp in Gongzhou.
They were able to sneak in easily because King Zhoushan called on believers to regard the world as their home, to view fellow believers as brothers and sisters with the same biological parents, and to call on fellow believers to exchange money and property, help each other, and to treat men and women as equals.
When An Peilin and others heard his teachings for the first time, they even felt that King Zhoushan’s propaganda philosophy was very similar to that of Jinzhou Prefecture!
But then they saw starving people everywhere, people selling their children to offer sacrifices to the tablets, the so-called equality between men and women, yet Wang Lun still selected so-called "immortal children" from the people to practice dual cultivation together. An Peilin and others immediately came to their senses!
This is not a Buddhist incarnation teaching people, this is clearly banditry under the guise of religion!
The White Lotus Sect must be eradicated!
An Peilin couldn't help but think of Xu Zhenying's remarks on religion.
Religion is nothing more than man's incomplete understanding of nature, his fear of unknown forces, and his psychological sustenance.
Just like the members of the White Lotus Sect, because they were unable to resist in this life and believed that this was their fate, they either sought the next life or started a rebellion.
This gave people like King Zhoushan an opportunity to make a fortune while rebelling and becoming kings.
How despicable.
An Peilin felt that such religious territories were truly difficult to conquer. These ideologies were like a cancer, ingrained in the common people. They would even sell their own children to raise money for incense offerings, hoping for a good rebirth in the next life so they could reunite with their children.
An Peilin felt very powerless.
Only then did he truly understand the weight of the words, "Jinzhou Prefecture is a good place."
It was as if I had walked out of Jinzhou Prefecture, and the outside world was like hell on earth.
Jinzhou Prefecture had already used cement, ate pork, and even children began to read and write, but the people outside Jinzhou Prefecture lived like ants. A large amount of fertile land was abandoned, and a large number of hungry people were displaced. When they were hungry, they picked leaves to eat, when they were tired, they slept on the ground, and when they died, they were dragged away by wild dogs on the roadside.
Everyone looked numb and indifferent, and some even said enviously in the end: "The sins of this life have been redeemed, and he will definitely become a rich man in the next life! There will be a good life for him——"
An Peilin and others tried to tell the believers about the days in Jinzhou Prefecture.
"It's true! The people of Jinzhou Prefecture have been eating meat for a long time! You know, there's a new king over there named Xu Zhenying, who's really good at finding money! Not only does he distribute land and grain, he also lets the children go to school!"
"How can there be such a good thing? I'm afraid you've been cheated."
"You've been stuck in Gongzhou all this time, completely oblivious to the changes happening outside! Take last year, for example, when Jinzhou Prefecture was severely affected by a disaster, there were probably hundreds of thousands of refugees. They lived much like you, eating leaves. In the dead of winter, they didn't even have clothes, wandering around like stray dogs! But ever since Xu Zhenying left, her Lan County has taken in tens of thousands of refugees!"
Perhaps the similar experience aroused everyone's curiosity, and someone finally listened to what An Peilin said at the top of his lungs.
There was a hint of life in the believers' eyes.
"Tens of thousands of people? What about the food? We know that Jinzhou Prefecture suffered a disaster last year. The Wujiang River flooded, submerging many villages and towns. Many of us here fled from Jinzhou Prefecture."
An Peilin waved his arm and spoke as exaggeratedly as possible, "You probably don't know yet, but Xu Zhenying and the others got some seeds called sweet potatoes from nowhere! They just grow when you throw them into the soil, and this year we harvested over 2,000 kilograms of grain per acre! We can be full just by eating sweet potatoes! Oh, and there are also Lan County pigs. I don't know where they read this recipe, but if you feed them according to their method, they'll grow 200 kilograms in half a year! Nowadays, every household in Lan County raises pigs. It's almost the end of the year, but the people in Lan County have already smoked bacon. The bacon oil is dripping on the ground, and you can smell the aroma from ten miles away!"
The people around couldn't help but swallow hard, "Then...the sweet potato is delicious?"
"Delicious! Soft, fragrant, and incredibly filling! Eat one and you won't feel hungry for hours!"
“Is this true?!”
"Of course it's true!"
"Then how did you know that?"
An Peilin was stunned for a moment, then said, "My hometown is right next to Jinzhou Prefecture. I heard it from people over there! And I could really smell the aroma of meat!"
"Since life is so good over there, why don't you go there?"
An Peilin slapped his thigh and said, "Oh, my mom and dad got lost when the leader attacked! Someone said they were coming from the west, so I had to look for them all the way here! But it's been so long, and I still haven't found them!"
"Hey, tell me what your parents look like?"
"My dad..." An Peilin's mind raced. "He's skinny, dark-skinned, and a bit short. My mom is short too, and speaks with a Jinzhou accent!"
"Oh, that's hard to find. It seems like everyone here looks just like your parents!"
"Oh, what can I do? I can only find them! As a child, can I really ignore my parents?" An Peilin kept sighing. He felt that he started lying as soon as he arrived in Gongzhou. It was more comfortable to follow the city lord in the past. He didn't have to think about anything every day and only had to focus on the city lord's personal safety.
An Peilin felt that he had really taken on a very difficult and heavy task!
Not everyone can be a spy!
"Goudan, can you tell us more? Is life really that good in Jinzhou Prefecture?"
An Peilin was still a little stunned when he heard the word "Goudan".
It was all because he forgot to choose a prestigious name when he first joined their team. When others asked him, he blurted out the word "Goudan".
A dozen of his subordinates were trying to suppress their laughter.
"Well, I only saw other people's lives and heard them from others, so I don't know if they're true or not! Anyway, my home is very close to Jinzhou Prefecture, just over a mountain, and there are girls from our village who have married there. In the past, life was similar in both places, but Jinzhou Prefecture was even poorer than ours, so only the older ones or those from poor families would consider marrying there. But this year is different. The girls there are returning to their parents' homes with their backs straight. No one has ever returned empty-handed. They have to fill a basket with pork, cotton cloth, copper coins!"
An Peilin secretly felt fortunate that he had followed the city lord for such a long time. The city lord often met with the village chiefs under him, which was why he was able to compile so much material now.
Seeing that the lifeless crowd finally showed some reaction and the people sitting around them gradually gathered around, An Peilin decided to take another drastic measure.
These are all parents. Anyone who doesn’t have a son or daughter naturally has to plan for the next generation.
"I also heard from my mother that schools have been opened over there, and every village has a teacher who teaches reading and writing for free! Not a single copper coin is charged! Many children in our mountain area can already read! It's a pity that they are the people of Jinzhou Prefecture. We are not from Jinzhou Prefecture, so we don't have that blessing!"
The believers stared at them with doubtful expressions on their faces.
Sun Ping, a soldier under An Peilin, immediately chimed in, "It's true! I have a cousin who married into Xiangshui Village. It's quite far from Jinzhou Prefecture, but they still distributed food last winter! It was tons of white rice, enough for a family of three to eat for a month! My nephew is already in school and can write letters! If it weren't for the crisis at home, we would have planned to go there with our entire family!"
A group of people were gathered together and talking when they suddenly saw people wearing Zhoushan King's military uniforms coming over. There were about a dozen of them. They searched all the way and then came to An Peilin.
One of the soldiers pointed at him and said, "That's him! General Wu, this guy has been spreading news about Jinzhou Prefecture these past few days. He might be a spy sent by Jinzhou Prefecture!"
An Peilin and others were all stunned.
Before he could react, the leader and several others pinned him down and shouted, "Capture him and hand him over to the leader for interrogation!"
An Peilin was taken away just like that.
The remaining dozen or so people all looked at each other, not knowing what had happened.
They are now alone outside and have no news. Even if something happens, Jinzhou Prefecture will not be able to rescue them in time.
Several people looked at each other, all of them as if they were facing a great enemy.
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