Chapter 35: The Hearts of the People

With blows, curses, and threats, the "host and guests" reached an agreement on the matter of borrowing grain, and the final figure was set at 120 shi.

Zhou Shixiang made it clear to them that it all had to be delivered within three days; one day late, and he would personally bring men to collect it. This so frightened Qi Yuantai and the others that they kept wiping the sweat from their foreheads with their sleeves.

After Lu Changyuan led the men away, Song Xianggong asked Zhou Shixiang with some anger why he had been so rude to these gentry.

He should know that in Luoding they all had status and standing, and their influence over the common people was enormous; often their words carried more weight than those of the authorities.

If Zhou Shixiang truly intended to make a big move in Luoding, then he ought to win over these gentry and great households, speak to them kindly, rather than intimidate and coerce them. The latter was tantamount to pushing these people to the opposing side.

No consequences could be seen at present, but as time went on, the drawbacks would surely show, and by then it would be too late for regret.

Song Xianggong repeatedly stressed that the so-called hearts of the people were in fact the thinking of these gentry and great households. To grasp them was to grasp the people's hearts; conversely, to lose them was to lose the people's hearts.

Without the support of the people's hearts, the men of Dachao Mountain could not possibly gain a foothold in Luoding, let alone grow their strength and accomplish great things.

Song Xianggong was a man of talent in governance, but after all he was an ancient, and his thinking was bound to run counter to that of Zhou Shixiang, who had lived two lives.

Zhou Shixiang felt it necessary to explain his own thinking to Song Xianggong properly, so that the other man might accept his ideas and thereby be able to assist him in accomplishing great things in the future.

"Does the teacher think it better for the common people to obey us directly, or to ignore the common people and have only the gentry obey us?"

"From ancient times it has been through the gentry and magnates that the people are made to obey!"

This question made Song Xianggong pause briefly in surprise. In his view, the authorities had always governed the common people by relying on the local gentry and great households; otherwise why would there be only a county magistrate and no town magistrate or village magistrate?

The ward heads in the city and the baojia heads in the countryside — which of them was not appointed from the great households?

The gentry were moreover men of learning; men of learning studied the Confucian teachings, understood reason, and knew the great cause. If one did not rely on them, was one to rely on those mud-legged folk who could not read a single character?

What do mud-legged folk understand?

The authorities governing the people under their jurisdiction through the gentry and great households was the practice of every dynasty for a thousand years. This method was effective.

Even now, with the Ming and Qing exchanging the throne, did the Manchu Qing not still employ this method to control the people? Never had one heard of them slaughtering the gentry to please the common people, as Li Zicheng had done.

Song Xianggong found it somewhat hard to understand Zhou Shixiang's approach. By his own intention, it would have been enough to put on a show of intimidation toward Qi Yuantai and the others.

Who would have thought that Zhou Shixiang would have Ge Liu bring in a string of heads? That was going too far.

Earlier, in front of those six families, he could not vent his displeasure; now that there was no one else in the hall, he could not refrain from having a proper talk with Zhou Shixiang.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Shixiang shook his head and said, "If we follow the teacher's approach, then we will be even less able to win the people's hearts here in Luoding, and even less able to gain a foothold!"

Song Xianggong said in astonishment, "What kind of talk is that? If the gentry all stand on our side, how can the people's hearts not be on our side?"

"The teacher must understand that these gentry and great households are not standing on our side at all.

They obey us only temporarily because they lack the strength to resist. Once they have the strength to resist, they will certainly turn against us!

Moreover, we occupy Luoding in order to resist the Qing and accomplish great things. To accomplish great things, we naturally need a great deal of money and grain, but Luoding is sparsely populated, and its income in money and grain is limited.

How many days could we sustain ourselves by squeezing the ordinary common people? Therefore we must inevitably move against these great households.

I ask the teacher, under such circumstances, will the gentry and great households still side with us? If they do not side with us, then where will we find the people's hearts to make use of?

What is more, in their eyes, our identity is questionable!"

Zhou Shixiang explained with all his might, and nearly pointed out that Song Xianggong was no prefect of Luoding appointed by the Southern Ming Yongli court, but a bandit who had taken to the hills! It was true that the gentry obeyed the authorities, but how could they obey bandits?

In his view, Song Xianggong's attempt to win the people's hearts by drawing the gentry and great households to his side was wishful thinking, and could even be called utterly foolish. He had not realized at all that they had not yet completely controlled the city of Luoding!

To place one's hopes in a group of gentry who might turn and bite at any moment — was that not washing one's neck clean and waiting for others to chop it?

Song Xianggong was speechless at this, and realized that his own thinking had been somewhat muddled. He sighed and said, "It is I who was muddled.

But we are only borrowing some grain from them; they may not necessarily dare to turn against us, and will most likely still obey us. As long as they obey us for now, the people's hearts are on our side, and can still be made use of."

"Even a cornered dog will bite. If it were the teacher, and the grain in your house were 'borrowed' by us under a fine name but in fact seized, would the teacher be happy in his heart? Would he have no thoughts about it?"

Zhou Shixiang had never believed that landlords and merchants were a benevolent class, a class that was oppressed and would not resist.

Song Xianggong, however, said, "Without outside force, they would not dare to stir."

"That I admit.

As long as the Qing army does not attack, these people will not dare to act rashly. But has the teacher considered this: once we have troops, the first thing we must do is deal with the Qing army's attacks.

To resist external enemies, one must first pacify the interior. If we lead our troops out, and these gentry and great households stir up trouble in the rear, then is there any point in fighting the battle at all?"

Song Xianggong fell silent. He naturally understood well what the consequences would be if the troops were away and disorder broke out in the rear.

"To prevent future disorder, I think not only is there no need to be polite to these people, we should be even harsher with them!" Zhou Shixiang's eyes gleamed fiercely. "In my opinion, only dead men cause us no trouble!"

"This... no, absolutely not!"

Song Xianggong was startled. He had not expected that Zhou Shixiang was entertaining the idea of slaughtering all the gentry and great households in the city, and for a moment he could not accept it.

"If I do not kill them all, my heart will not be at ease!

But for now we do not yet have the strength to kill them. If we push them too hard, these people will band together, and that will be hard to resolve.

So the urgent task is to recruit troops at once!" Zhou Shixiang knew what mattered most at the moment.

"The matter of recruiting troops has already been set in motion by Brother Sihai. With silver to hand out, the able-bodied men of the city should surely come forward eagerly."

Zhou Shixiang, however, raised a question.

"Once those able-bodied men join us, what about their families?

Do we take care of them or not? If we do, where will the money and grain to support them come from?

If we do not, then how will these able-bodied men still be willing to follow us? We want to accomplish great things, so we cannot stay in Luoding forever.

If the time comes when we must leave, and these able-bodied men are unwilling to go with us, what then?"

"That is indeed a problem." Song Xianggong frowned, looked at Zhou Shixiang, and said, "What is your idea?"

"I have just now thought of an idea. To solve these problems, we must employ extraordinary measures!"

"What extraordinary measures?"

Zhou Shixiang spat out four words: "Every citizen a soldier!"

"Every citizen a soldier?" Song Xianggong looked utterly baffled.

"Yes, every citizen a soldier.

I intend to make all three thousand and more men, women, old and young of Luoding city into soldiers. The old shall have an old camp, the young a young camp, the women a women's camp.

In this way, everyone is a soldier, and everyone is also a civilian. Wherever we go, these people will follow, and will not be unwilling to leave their native soil because of their kin."

It took Song Xianggong a long while to react, and he cried out, "Is this not simply coercing the common people!"