Chapter 183: Personality Cult (Please Subscribe)

"The Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, has returned to the world! The Great Ming is invincible in battle!"

"The Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, has returned to the world! The Great Ming is invincible in battle!"

"The Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, has returned to the world"

At lunchtime, cheering suddenly erupted from all corners of the temporary parade ground of the Hard-Working New Army! Officers from each battalion led the chanting of slogans, and the soldiers below joined in a unified roar; only after the shouting was done did the meal begin.

In the Hard-Working New Army today, the slogan "The Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, has returned to the world! The Great Ming is invincible in battle!" was roared countless times every day.

Every day upon rising early in the morning, the officers and men of each battalion had to shout it three times before the newly issued portrait of the Army-Pacifying Crown Prince, and only then could they wash up and eat breakfast. After breakfast, some staff officers from the Grand Marshal's Office went down to the units to "tell stories" — stories about how awesome the Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, and His Highness the Army-Pacifying Crown Prince were. They also preached the story that the Army-Pacifying Crown Prince was possessed by the Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, and they told it with vivid, convincing detail. And the officers and men listening to the stories naturally had to shout a few rounds of slogans to show their support.

After the stories came all manner of drills, and during the drills there was again no shortage of slogan-shouting and story-listening — the slogans being "The Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, has returned to the world! The Great Ming is invincible in battle!" and "The Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, has returned to the world — ten thousand victories!" The stories were the battle accounts of killing Tartars with firelocks at Dagukou.

When the morning drills ended, everyone had to keep shouting slogans before lunch; only after shouting could they eat. After eating, staff officers would again come to give the men lessons — on military discipline, on tactics, on how following the Crown Prince meant boundless prospects. After the lessons, they had to shout slogans again!

The afternoon was still training, the same as the morning — formations, battle arrays, marching, tactics, and the like. During the training, there was again no avoiding shouting a pile of slogans.

After training was done, more slogan-shouting, then dinner!

If it happened to be payday or a reward distribution, they had to shout several more rounds!

In short, after the Hard-Working New Army arrived at Dengzhou, besides intensified training and ever-stricter discipline, there appeared a deification movement promoting a personality cult.

The initiator of this deification movement was, of course, the Great Ming Army-Pacifying Crown Prince, Zhu Cilang!

He had already played at deification once before the Battle of Dagukou, and the effect seemed rather good, greatly boosting morale. So after arriving at Dengzhou, he began deifying himself with redoubled intensity!

To this end, he established an organ called the Staff Office under the Army-Pacifying Grand Marshal's Office, recruiting three or four hundred sons of noble houses from the capital. They were all young men on the fringes of the capital's power circles, inevitably afflicted with the vices of overestimating their abilities and loving to boast. Moreover, these men all more or less knew something of Zhu Cilang's "miracles," and had seen with their own eyes the great Crown Prince Zhu give the Tartars a sound thrashing at Dagukou, so they all believed he truly was Zhu Yuanzhang returned to the world.

The imperial physician Zeng Shenxian, who had originally followed Zhu Cilang, was now also assigned to this Staff Office in a concurrent post. This imperial physician was also a master boaster. When it came to tales of gods, immortals, ghosts, and monsters, he spoke with great plausibility, and since he had personally witnessed Zhu Cilang's "rebirth and transformation," his boasting sounded even more like the truth. So Physician Zeng now moonlighted as a storyteller, and was known as "Master Divine Physician."

The work efficiency of this Staff Office, which specialized in "boasting," was truly astonishingly high! In just a dozen or so days of blowing, they had outright turned Zhu Cilang into the reincarnation of Zhu Yuanzhang, into the god of the Hard-Working New Army!

Of course, Zhu Cilang's "divinity" was not entirely blown out of thin air. Although he was not Zhu Yuanzhang reincarnated and possessing him, he had indeed exchanged souls, and had indeed performed a few "miracles."

"This talk of reincarnation and possession is still too fantastical."

Inside the Army-Pacifying Grand Marshal's Office, in an enormous hall, Shi Dewei, who was sitting at a long table eating, shook his head repeatedly, questioning the great Crown Prince Zhu's miracles.

Although he came from a military background, he had also received a proper education and had even passed the xiucai examination. Later he became Shi Kefa's adopted son, so naturally his head was full of the sages' principles — how could he believe such an absurd tale as the Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, being reincarnated?

"How is it fantastical? It's true." A staff officer of the Hard-Working New Army wearing a red battle robe said to Shi Dewei and Tang Yun, who had just entered Dengzhou that morning, in an exceptionally certain tone. "I know this matter best. My cousin's maternal uncle is a guard of the Eastern Palace. On the night of the thirteenth day of the third month, when the Great Ancestor descended to the mortal world and possessed the Crown Prince, he was standing guard outside the Duanben Palace! He heard with his own ears His Highness the Thousand Years speaking with the Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor!

And on the night of the fourteenth day of the third month, after His Highness the Thousand Years woke up, he immediately became like a different person. Before that, he was such an honest child, absolutely proper and well-behaved, never doing the slightest thing he was told not to. But from the night of the fourteenth day of the third month until now, in less than three months, how many great deeds has His Highness the Thousand Years accomplished? He's even killed three thousand Tartars. If not for the Crown Prince being possessed by the Exalted Emperor, would that be possible?"

This staff officer of the Hard-Working New Army was named Li Longrui. He came from a hereditary Guard Commander family of the Upper Imperial Guard. In Beijing he had been a middling dandy, well-informed and quick-tongued, so he had been appointed as a "boasting staff officer."

Besides being responsible for boasting, the staff officers of the Grand Marshal's Office also handled reception and reporting duties. So when Shi Dewei, Tang Yun, and the others arrived at Dengzhou, it was the people of the Staff Office who were responsible for receiving them.

In truth, there was nothing much to entertain them with — just meals and lodging. The meals were shared with the infantry brigade of the Hard-Working New Army that was on rotating guard duty at the Grand Marshal's Office — after arriving at Dengzhou, Zhu Cilang no longer established a dedicated guard brigade. Instead, the various infantry brigades under the Hard-Working New Army took turns serving as the palace guard, responsible for the security of the Grand Marshal's Office and the temporary imperial residence.

Of course, Zhu Cilang himself still retained an extra guard battalion to serve as his personal close-protection force.

Another point worth mentioning is the "shared mess" system practiced by the Hard-Working New Army. Ever since Zhu Cilang first founded the Hard-Working New Army, he had insisted on sharing one meal a day with the soldiers. First, to inspect the food of the grassroots units; second, to win people's hearts.

This fine tradition had not only been maintained to the present, but had also been expanded. Now the Hard-Working New Army's "New Army Regulations" stipulated how officers of all levels and soldiers were to eat together as one.

Officers at the rank of Mobile Corps Commander and below (including brigade commanders), barring special circumstances, had to share both breakfast and lunch with the soldiers every day. Above Mobile Corps Commander, the midday meal each day had to be shared with the rank-and-file soldiers!

As for the food supply of grassroots units, each brigade was an independent accounting unit, with a dedicated cooking banner established. The Grand Marshal's Office, the Hard-Working New Army Command, and each division headquarters did not run separate kitchens, but shared messes with the various brigades.

Therefore, the food of each brigade was very difficult to profit from — basically no grease could be skimmed — and the soldiers' meals were thus guaranteed, at least enough to eat their fill, with meat and fish visible every day.

Now eating together with Shi Dewei, as well as Gao Jie's trusted personal general Tang Yun and the others, were many grassroots officers and men of the Left Brigade of the Right Division of the Hard-Working New Army. Li Longrui seemed quite familiar with the officers and men of the Right Division's Left Brigade sitting around him. After finishing his boasting, he shouted at them: "Brothers, tell me — is our Crown Prince the Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, reincarnated and descended to the mortal world?"

"Yes! His Highness the Thousand Years is the Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, returned to the world! There's no mistake!"

"If His Highness the Thousand Years were not the Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, reincarnated, how could he be so formidable?"

"Right! Even the Tartars fear our Crown Prince!"

"With the Crown Prince here, our Hard-Working New Army is invincible in battle!"

Well, well — every one of them had been brainwashed. When speaking of the Crown Prince, they were all brimming with confidence, as if following the Crown Prince meant fearing neither heaven nor earth.

Shi Dewei and Tang Yun exchanged glances, both finding it incredible, but they no longer said anything inappropriate, and simply buried themselves in their meal.

And one had to admit — the food of this Hard-Working New Army was truly excellent!

At noon today, Shi Dewei and Tang Yun and the others ate white rice, braised tofu, steamed fish chunks, and stir-fried cabbage. The tofu and cabbage both had lard added, making them fragrant and delicious. The fish was sea fish, salted and cured, extremely savory. And the white rice was all-you-could-eat!

Such fare, anywhere else, was something only household retainers could eat! But in the Hard-Working New Army, any ordinary soldier could have it.

Besides eating well, the Hard-Working New Army also paid full wages, with no arrears, no skimming, no payment in devalued goods — again, treatment that elsewhere only household retainers enjoyed.

Furthermore, every officer and man of the Hard-Working New Army carried in his pocket a "land-grant decree" — at least fifty mu of paddy field, to be redeemed upon reaching Jiangnan.

With the men below receiving such treatment, this great Crown Prince Zhu was naturally the Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, returned to the world!

(End of Chapter)