After coming to this era, except in Sichuan where the social system was completely disintegrated, Deng Ming could feel the power of the gentry. These people controlled the public opinion and laws of the people. In places outside Sichuan, Deng Ming wanted to collect food and grass, promote and purchase supplies almost all of them were inseparable from this class. The opinions of the gentry could even influence the decisions of local officials.

However, in the Ming and Qing Wars, the gentry class had almost no role to help the Ming army, or the gentry forces supporting the Ming court were offset by the gentry forces supporting the Qing court. Once, Deng Ming attached great importance to them because he realized the resources mastered by the gentry class, but now Deng Ming also understood the Qing court's contempt for them, because in Deng Ming's view, this was really a too loose class, where each individual was running for his own interests, and was far from forming a class consciousness, or had been erased in front of the powerful monarchy.

As long as Deng Ming did not openly become enemies with the entire gentry class and did not rob them, whether along the Yangtze River or in Shandong, he would not have to worry that the people of this class would completely surrender to the Qing court, just as the Qing court did not have to worry that this class would vow to defend the Ming Dynasty to the death. Deng Ming once felt that the gentry class had a large number of peasants who were dependent on themselves and had local judicial power, which should be similar to the aristocratic class in Europe, but now he found that the two were completely different. The gentry had no natural political rights, and now Deng Ming was given the imperial examination and was similar to a means of checks and balances, allowing the gentry class to flatter the imperial power to fight for the piece of flesh and bone thrown out by the king, thus turning this powerful class into a mess.

Considering the words of the inventor who was admitted to the scholars, "All the heroes of the world have entered my throne" and the improvement of the modern imperial examination system was completed by the Song Dynasty, which was most proficient in the methods of strong and weak branches. Deng Ming felt that his guess was more reasonable. Deng Ming had no doubt that as long as he continued to throw out this bait, he would not worry about the collaborators in the gentry class, and he did not have to worry about their loyalty to the Qing court or the restoration of the previous Ming Dynasty - just give such pitiful little power, and also expect that the gentry class generally had patriotism and determination to die for the country? Their loyalty to the emperor was probably not as good as the feelings of the disciples and former officials to the benefactors during the Han Dynasty.

Although allowing the rebel army to plunder Shandong would damage the Shandong gentry's perception of Deng Ming and bring some difficulties to him in the future, when Deng Ming weighed the evil feelings of the gentry and the loyalty of the heroes, Deng Ming regarded the former as the lighter of the two harms: the gentry class was obviously more than a hundred times stronger than the heroes, and the group surrounding Deng Ming is even more dispersed, but in Deng Ming's mind, the value of Xia Jie and other gentry is not as great as that of the bandits!

"The gentry only cares about his little property, whether his descendants have the chance to pass the imperial examination, and continue the safety of the family. As for whom the imperial examination is, they don't care much. Anyway, as long as they don't fall into the ordinary people who are mermaid meat, it's really pitiful. It controls more than 90% of the population of this country, and in the eyes of the elders, they are the inheritor of knowledge and the embodiment of justice, and their wish is just to avoid being bullied by the government." Deng Ming and the officers of the Guards talked privately.

As for his impression of the gentry in Shandong, Deng Ming never intended to hide his impression of these fellow scholars from Sichuan: "It is me who killed all the gentry in Laizhou. As long as I am better to the gentry in Dengzhou and Qingzhou, they will deceive themselves into thinking that the gentry in Laizhou is committed to death. The so-called gentry in his heart will not die. Perhaps they will support the Qing court in their hearts and hope that the Qing court will win, but as long as our army has the upper hand, they will still send us food, that is, the difference between ten or eight cars."

"The Duke of the State can consider abolishing the imperial examination." Song Weishen, among the officers, suggested: "See if they will send another truck of food."

"Then they will fight with me, taking away their last hope of getting rid of the common people and throwing them into hell." Deng Ming smiled slightly. Sichuan was almost completely immigrated. With the power of the government to the lower level, the envy of the scholars of Sichuan for the gentry is rapidly disappearing. Their current citizenship is even more complete than that of the normal gentry: "But I will not let Fujian gentry be enemies with me if I cancel Shandong's imperial examination, but I will cancel Shandong. As long as I promise to recover in a few years, they will most likely be patient."

"So is the Duke of the State going to ignore Xia Jie's request?" another officer asked.

"Of course not, but I am not for them, but for the empire. We need to support the war in Jiangnan, and we need to make the Shandong rebel army stronger. It is not enough to rely on these heroes in the martial arts world alone. If the gentry in Shandong can work together with the heroes, the Qing court will need to invest more troops here, and we will have the spare time to deal with Li Lutai and the Three Feudal Kings of Fujian. Don't forget that the Qing court can conquer nine-tenths of the world, Wu, Geng, Shang, and Kong all make great contributions." When dealing with the Shandong issue, Deng Ming was even unwilling to mobilize the Fujian army in the coastal areas, because the military discipline of the Fujian army also had problems. When Zheng Chenggong besieged Nanjing last time, Zhang Huangyan fiercely accused the Fujian army of the abductor, and Shandong and the Fujian army had no friendship at all. Deng Ming did not expect the Fujian Ming army to be particularly kind to the strange northern people for no reason.

...

Soon Deng Ming summoned the gentry from Laizhou to his army for a meeting. Because he had already released his kindness to the local gentry through Xia Jie, these gentry came very happily, especially the fame and honorary people around Weixian, who were most concerned about the safety of the county town.

"You all know what I'm asking you to do, just for the military discipline after Weixian breaks the city." Deng Ming made his right to the point: "I have told Xia Juren that I have no control over the rebels around Weixian, and what I need is to quickly sweep Jiaodong. As for the people's livelihood in Jiaodong, to be honest, it's just a thought of kindness."

Seeing that the gentry was about to start sing praises, Deng Ming immediately raised his hand to stop them: "But a thought of kindness cannot last. If Weixian cannot break the city for a long time, it will have a great impact on my overall plan. I will not be able to take care of it much. After all, if I am defeated in the battle, I will die without a burial place. I cannot sit in the world by relying on kindness alone."

Everyone present was scholars and had a wide range of knowledge. Everyone knew that Deng Ming was telling the truth. Although Duke Bao Guo was young, he did not take the praising style, but was a complete pragmatist. This was not surprising. If Deng Ming was really an innocent and ignorant young man, these gentry would wonder how he could have brought out a large army that could compete with the arrogant Qing court in a few years.

"I don't know what the villains can do for the Duke?" Xia Jie took the lead and asked. Deng Ming would definitely not be bored just to summon them to show his coldness. Therefore, Xia Jie speculated that Deng Ming might need military pay or military rations, and might even need some strong men to join the army. Today, those who came to attend the Deng Ming meeting were all well-known figures, and even many businesses in Weixian surrounded by them were their industries or under their names. If Deng Ming's request could not be met, then no one would be able to satisfy Deng Ming's reputation for keeping trust. Even if he was hostile to the Qing governor, he had never denied this issue. Therefore, Xia Jie and others still planned to trust the guarantee of the Duke Bao.

"Do you know why I have no control over the rebels around Weixian?" Deng Ming did not answer immediately, but asked back.

Who dares to guess at this issue? They all shook their heads and said they didn't know.

"First, I am not responsible for their military pay; second, I do not provide them with food and grass. The so-called short-handedness of people and short-handedness, I give them weapons too early, which leads to no need to get me now. If I send military pay and military rations a month, I can definitely win over most of them. If the leader intends to fight against me, his subordinates may not follow him if they are greedy for food and food." Deng Ming admitted his mistake frankly: "But I don't want to let me spend money to raise soldiers in Shandong. Everyone knows that I want to fight a life-and-death battle with the Qing court along the Yangtze River. I have no spare money and surplus food. Finally, there is a third point, that is, I don't have enough manpower, and the officers of the rebel army were not appointed by me. It is difficult to dismiss them if I don't send money and food to them, so no one is afraid of me. I say whether to wash the city or not does not count."

"The villain is willing to contribute money and food to the Duke of the State." After finally waiting for Deng Ming to stop, the gentry shouted together. Since Deng Ming said he was tight, he wanted money and food. Deng Ming just now said that he wanted to choose an officer, so he didn't know what Deng Ming meant. If Deng Ming said that there was no soldiers, he wanted to strengthen the gentry. Everyone can work together to get together, but no one dared to send officials. Besides, Deng Ming would not be able to use someone else to be his confidant officer.

"I don't want money and food, why do I want your money and food?" Unexpectedly, Deng Ming was not quarreling. He rejected the benefits of the cautious people's active contribution: "If you give me money and food, I must be responsible for the safety of Weixian. In addition to managing wages and food, I also need to pursuing military discipline. I may have to kill people to establish authority. This is all about spending my energy and making enemies with others. If things are not done well in the future, your shop will be damaged and your relatives are plundered, you will feel the desire to spend money and think that I have breached the contract. Even if I do it properly, you will probably suspect that I took your money to Jiangnan, and that they are not all spent to protect the safety of Weixian. Because I have taken the money, I will not be grateful to me..."

Deng Ming shook his head repeatedly: "No, this is a thankless thing. It is worth it if you do it well. If you don't do it well, you will be full of complaints and damage my reputation. Even if you want to make money, how many dollars can you make from you? No, I won't do such a loss-making business."
Chapter completed!