At two meetings attended by the generals and above in the town, Zhou Shixiang mentioned the new term "general mobilization". Zhou Shixiang attributed the current situation of the Taiping Army to two reasons: one is that the soldiers sacrificed their lives for justice and fought bravely; the other is that the effective mobilization of manpower and material resources.

"The land is not divided into north and south, and people are not divided into old and young, and they all have the responsibility to defend the country! The old saying goes, if you have money, someone will contribute to the people. This mobilization means that our people will contribute to the country. The construction of villages and villages in Guangdong not only allows the people to be the masters of their own country, have their own fields, and have their own business, but more importantly, let the people know our Taiping Army and listen to our Taiping Army.

In the past, the landlords and gentry had the final say in the countryside. When the government asked for food, the magistrate would give a share of it. The magistrate sat in the yamen and waited for the landlords and gentry to hand over the money and gentry. This practice would definitely not work. In the world, but it involves money and things. No matter how you stare at it, there would always be less. Fewer here and less there, the accumulation of less will become more, and it will often end up in less than half of the treasury, or even less.

This situation is definitely not possible, so we need to build villages and townships, and deprive the privileges of landlords and gentry. If we don’t want to, we will destroy them. Village chiefs and township chiefs all have to use our people. Of course, we still have to trust those gentry who are willing to help us. Compared with those stubborn and powerful landlords in the Yuma Township, these gentry are enlightened and know that the country is righteous. These are the objects of cooperation and cannot be beaten to death with one stick. There are also some who insist on resisting the Qing Dynasty before we come.

Gentlemen should also be kind, but before they are kind, we need to settle accounts with them. If they did not owe taxes in the past, it would be the best. If they owe them, they would still have to make up for them. However, after that, we should give them some, and return them by the court's reward. Even some meritorious gentry would have to give more, more than they paid. Those who are willing to serve as officials should be placed on their own, but those who are really unable to manage their affairs will be given honorary care so that they can be respected in the countryside and recognize us."

"As long as we can mobilize all the people, neither the Qing Dynasty nor Wu Sangui can resist us. In war, we fight for not only courage, not only weapons, but also more people who have more money and food!"

The biggest obstacle to the "general mobilization" policy proposed by Zhou Shixiang is undoubtedly to consolidate the landlords and gentry in the countryside. The two thousand years of clan system and imperial power did not go to the countryside, which made these landlords and gentry become spokespersons of the local area. In some specific historical stages, another synonym for landlords and gentry was "powerful". In the Ming Dynasty, gentry and their spokesperson scholars controlled the court, controlled public opinion, and controlled the economic lifeline of the country. During the national crisis, some of them chose to stand up and fight, but under the butcher knife of the Qing Dynasty, more gentry shrank their necks, which were all caused by the idea of ​​losing the country but not losing their families. In order to whitewash themselves, they regarded the Qing Dynasty as following the heavens and responding to people, changing the dynasty, and using various theories to excuse their cowardly behavior.

In order to exterminate the Qing Dynasty, Zhou Shixiang naturally did not allow any internal friction or drag under his rule, so he wanted to clear his debts. Clearing his debts is a purpose and a means. The ultimate goal of clearing his debts is to attack the gentry groups in Jiangnan and weaken their influence. Clearing his debts itself is to promote the construction of villages and townships in Jiangnan. Only by clearing and weakening the gentry groups can the construction of villages and townships be promoted without resistance, so that human, money, food and resources can be mobilized in total.

The gentry was still in progress. In the first few months, it was said that the gentry treated equally. Regardless of whether they were successful in fighting the Qing Dynasty, they were regarded as the target of the gentry. This move was naturally a bit arrogant and domineering, and was most criticized. Many people believe that Zhou Shixiang was so clear about the fact that it was to accumulate wealth among the people. Zhou Shixiang knew very well that the principle of giving a carrot with one stick. Those so-called gentry who had made great contributions in fighting the Qing Dynasty were largely just secretly supporting Qian Qian.

In essence, the anti-Qing cause that Yi and others were engaged in was still hoping to enjoy the benefits of not paying taxes in the Ming Dynasty in the past. This was obviously something that Zhou Shixiang could not give. Like the Qing Dynasty, he would not agree that these landlords and gentry would not pay taxes. After more than 30 years of war and bad weather, the surviving civilians had very little money and food resources. Even in some places occupied by the Taiping Army, the disasters and chaos caused the people to be unable to get dried fruits.

Not long ago, Jiangxi governor Li Yicui submitted a memorial saying that Ji'an Prefecture has been reducing production year by year, and many people in towns and towns fled to famine and beg for food. Some of them were so hungry that they could not bear it and changed their children to eat.

This memorial was naturally not sent to the Tongzhengsi Department of Nandu and submitted to the emperor's imperial case, but was sent directly to Zhenjiang.

After seeing this memorial, Zhou Shixiang was very sad. He raised an army to fight against the Qing Dynasty not only to avenge his parents, wife and children, but also to allow his compatriots to live without worries. But now that Nandu has been liberated, such a tragic incident still occurs in Jiangxi, which really makes him sad and blame himself for his improper political affairs.

He ordered a batch of military rations to Ji'an, Jiangxi Province to quickly allocate a batch of military rations, and asked Li Zhicui to do his best to resettle the victims. After restoring production, Zhou Shi became more and more determined to clear his debts, because he needed a lot of money and food to provide disaster relief and restore local production. Even if the people were unable to make enough food and clothing in the short term, at least they had to ensure that they could not starve to death. Otherwise, if everyone died, what else would they talk about?

However, while his determination was firm, Zhou Shixiang also asked Jiang Guozhu and Zhang Changgen to identify the gentry. If they did make contributions to the Qing Dynasty or had good reputations in the countryside, they could be rewarded to win over and unite some gentry. The advantage of post-discrimination is that the gentry's resistance and gratitude are very different.

If the Qing Dynasty gave these meritorious gentry privileges, exemption or non-exemption, they thought it was a natural thing, and they would not be grateful to the Taiping Army, but would rather be dissatisfied. After all, this was something they had never encountered before, and even the Qing Dynasty had never done this. But once they were copied by the Qing Dynasty and were in tears, the government suddenly returned the money and grain they had been plundered and rewarded them. This mentality changed immediately, and those who had not been waived for being removed from their merits.

How did they not appreciate the Taiping Army's "admiration" for them? With this lesson, they will become more sensible. If the government takes any measures in the future, they will only cooperate and not target. This is like a person suddenly was arrested by the government, beaten hard and sentenced to him to prison. When he was in despair, the government suddenly corrected his previous actions and made up for him. He only had the thoughts of Master Qingtian in his heart, without any hatred and complaints.

As for those stubborn people, Zhou Shixiang gave Jiang and Zhang the power to the two. In other words, they killed them and caught them when they should be caught. Against this background, since the beginning of the year, a large number of "fleds" have begun to appear among the people in Jiangnan.
Chapter completed!