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With the temporary relief of the financial crisis, Tang Tong's businesses gradually got back on track. With the help of An Xiao, Hu Chuiyang and others, Tang Tong didn't have a lot of things to do. However, Tang Tong didn't live a peaceful life for a few days, as he discovered a very dangerous tendency in his army.
Tang Tong now has 1,200 regular soldiers and about 1,300 non-staff troops composed of gangsters and pirates. Not to mention these non-staff troops, the nature of Tang Tong's regular army is also quietly changing.
These 1,200 soldiers were originally from poor families and had been very hardworking in their training. Tang Tong was very satisfied with this. Tang Tong had been sending people to teach these soldiers to read and write. After a year, many of them were able to recite articles smoothly and could generally do simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Tang Tong should have been very happy to have achieved these results, but Tang Tong found that with the improvement of their material living conditions, the thoughts of these soldiers began to decline.
First, prostitution and gambling began to occur in the army. Then, the generals of the small flags in the army began to form gangs in the team. What made Tang Tong even more intolerable was that there were three deserters. The reason these three people fled was that someone gave them 1,000 taels of silver to buy their guns and bullets.
For this matter, Tang Tong immediately conducted a thorough investigation of the non-staff team. Fortunately, in that non-staff army, since the weapons used for training were under unified management, they were distributed to everyone during training and collected after the training. Therefore, there was no case of guns being lost.
As for these three deserters, Tang Tong used the most severe method to hang them on long poles and sun-dry them to death. The reason why Tang Tong did this was because the people who bought the three guns turned out to be Japanese. Fortunately, this matter was discovered early, and the three guns were recovered. The two Japanese were also killed by Tang Tong and Liu Sanlang.
The master of these two Japanese was the newly emerged Japanese pirate Zheng Zhilong. Although some people in later generations did not think that Zheng Zhilong belonged to the category of Japanese pirates, during the Ming Dynasty, the government did define them as a Japanese pirate organization.
In fact, Zheng Zhilong, who made his fortune by relying on the Japanese, had close ties with Japan. It was not wrong for the Ming Dynasty to define him as a Japanese pirate. It was just that Zheng Zhilong gave birth to a good son, Zheng Yugong. For the glorious image of a national hero, people in later generations would try their best to reverse Zheng Zhilong's case. Since his son is a hero, his father cannot have a clean background.
In view of these problems that appeared in the army under his command, Tang Tong pondered for several days, thinking of the iron army under Mao Zedong in later generations, that iron army that was indomitable and could not be crushed by any difficulties. Tang Tong's heart was moved. Only an army with ideals and a central idea could gradually be forged into an iron army in the flames of war.
Tang Tong himself did not dare to hope that his army could become the kind of iron army that could defeat other countries' foreign guns and cannons with only millet and rifles. He only hoped that after his army had the most advanced weapons in the world, it could become a battle-hardened army that could defeat any other army.
If one wants his subordinates to have ideals and a central idea, in this era, the best means is not military regulations, but propaganda through articles and operas, just like the White Lotus Sect and the Boxer Rebellion, except that they used superstitious ideas to make those people fearless and unafraid of death.
Tang Tong first strictly prohibited his troops from engaging in prostitution and gambling, and then asked the Tang Family Grand Theater to rehearse two plays. One was the traditional vernacular play "Yang Siwen Meets an Old Friend in Yanshan", which was adapted by Tang Tong himself. It highlighted the brutality and bloodiness of the Jin people in the play, as well as the tragic fate of the Han people under the iron hoof of the Jin people. The other play was the adapted drama "White-Haired Girl". Tang Tong set the historical background to the Ming Dynasty and the location to the Jiannu-occupied area outside the Great Wall. The bully was no longer Huang Shiyou, but the traitor Li Yongfang who defected to the Jiannu. The soldiers under Tang Tong were all from poor backgrounds. Tang Tong believed that this "White-Haired Girl" would definitely arouse the empathy of these soldiers.
Since Tang Tong recruited back some opera troupes that were originally used for commercial promotions, the Tang Family Grand Theater had enough manpower, so the two plays were rehearsed at the same time. The first to be performed was "Yang Siwen Meets an Old Friend in Yanshan". In order to avoid the incident of shooting villains as happened in later generations, Tang Tong ordered that all audiences were not allowed to bring any weapons into the venue. Although Tang Tong's order was a bit strange, Tang Tong was a man who had the final say in the place where he was guarding. Naturally, no one would dare to disobey Tang Tong's order.
The Tang Family Grand Theatre was a shed-like place, with a bamboo roof covered with thatch, and a two-meter-high wall surrounding it. Inside, there were rows of connected wooden benches that could seat nearly a hundred people at a time. The stage had been decorated at some expense, and it looked a bit like the stage in a county town in the 1980s.
Tang Tong came to watch with his family. Given his status, he naturally sat in the middle of the front row. Chen Yuxian was on Tang Tong's left, Su Qin was on his right, and he was holding Yuan'er in his arms. He was truly enjoying the blessing of having many wives.
Because of Tang Tong's presence, the soldiers naturally did not dare to make loud noises. After waiting for a while, the play began. The first person to appear was Yang Siwen's sister-in-law Zheng Yiniang. The actress who played Zheng Yiniang was good-looking, and everyone's eyes lit up as soon as she appeared on the stage. If it weren't for Tang Tong's presence, I'm afraid some people would have cheered loudly.
The first part of the plot portrayed the happy life of Zheng Yiniang and her companions, and then it was the miserable life of the people after the country was destroyed. When Zheng Yiniang was captured, Chen Yuxian and Su Qin could not help but shed tears. Then there was the cruel abuse and humiliation of the captured Han people by the Jin chief Saba Taiwei. When the plot reached this point, some soldiers were already very angry and cursed in a low voice. When the plot was performed where Zheng Yiniang could not bear the humiliation and hanged herself, Chen Yuxian, Su Qin, Liu Rushi and even Hong Niang burst into tears. Most of the soldiers were a little excited. Among them was a young and inexperienced soldier who suddenly ran to the stage, cursing and wanting to save the actor who played Zheng Yiniang. Fortunately, Tang Tong was prepared. The people on martial law on both sides of the stage stopped the soldier and did not interrupt the plot.
After the performance, Tang Tong did not give any speech. Instead, he assigned a task to all his soldiers, asking them to answer a question: What would you do if the Jiannu attacked?
Since the soldiers under Tang Tong are now literate, Tang Tong asked each of them to write an answer sheet. Tang Tong will post these people's answers in the barracks so that no one will forget what they said.
Three days later, all the answers of the 1,200 soldiers were handed in. Among them, only a little over 30% expressed their determination to kill the Jiannu, 10% simply denounced the Jiannu, and about 2% directed their criticism at the court, believing that the Jiannu were able to invade the capital because the court was useless.
This result made Tang Tong realize the arduous task of ideological education. The Confucian idea of Lijia was deeply rooted in the people of the Ming Dynasty, and most people had lost their blood. Think about how many volunteers fought against the Jin people after the Jingkang Incident. Just Zong Ze made a call and 800,000 volunteers came to join. The Song Dynasty was able to keep half of the country, and these volunteers made an indelible contribution. However, since the Lijia thought became rampant, the number of volunteers to fight against the Jin army was pitifully small. In history, during the reign of the Ming Dynasty, the number of volunteers to fight against the Jiannu was even smaller. Few of those landlords and powerful people were willing to spend money and effort to organize the anti-Jin army as they did during the Jingkang Incident. Instead, they rushed to surrender to the Jiannu. Among them, the influence of the extremely hypocritical Lijia thought can be said to be great.
Tang Tongzhi said that changing these people's minds would take time, but without change it would not work. It would take time and means. There were still thirteen years left before the Ming Dynasty was established. Tang Tongzhi did not need to be in a hurry. Ten years was enough to train a new generation of people.
Three days after the performance of "Yang Siwen Meets Old Friends in Yanshan", the crew went to the beach to perform for the non-staff team. As for whether it would have any educational significance for these gangsters and pirates, Tang Tong could only do it as he saw fit.
The fourth day was the performance of "White-Haired Girl". The plot of this play was closer to these soldiers who came from poor families. After being adapted by Tang Tong, he tried his best to use sensational techniques to appeal to the audience. When the character Yang Bailao accidentally killed one of his master Li Yongfang's sheep, the bully Li Yongfang forcibly took Xier and destroyed Yang Bailao's family.
This time, it was not just women like Chen Yuxian who were crying. Some soldiers whose families had similar experiences also cried. Each of them thought of the bully and traitor Li Yongfang on the stage as the bully in their hometown and hated Li Yongfang. As the plot progressed, the soldiers watching from the audience became more and more emotional. Although Tang Tong was not present, the noise was getting louder and louder. In the end, a dozen people ran out to beat the actor who played Li Yongfang. Tang Tong was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. He had to stand up and stop the noise, otherwise the play could not go on.
Tang Tong jumped onto the stage and glanced at the people below. When everyone saw Tang Tong standing up, they didn't dare to say anything for a moment. They looked at Tang Tong eagerly, waiting for his speech.
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