Southern Ming Rebel Army

Gu Yanwu took the newspaper and said goodbye to Meng Jun, then hurriedly left the hall to prepare for revising it. Wu Tai stood up and said to Meng Jun: "Governor, this is the compilation of the Propaganda Department, please take a look."

Meng Jun took it and looked at it. "Director, you will manage the overall work of the Propaganda Department and formulate propaganda strategies and plans. There will be two people in the chief clerk position to assist the director in handling daily paperwork and administrative affairs.

There were three Sheren who were responsible for drafting and writing propaganda documents, such as announcements of the Governor's Office's decrees, etc.

Two painters are responsible for drawing promotional images, such as New Year pictures, murals, etc., to enhance the propaganda effect.

There were ten lecturers who were responsible for propaganda and explanation in public places to convey the court's policies and laws.

Ten people were sent to collect public opinion and sentiments to provide reference for propaganda work.

Thirty runners were assigned to carry out propaganda tasks, such as posting notices, distributing leaflets, selling newspapers, etc.

Meng Jun looked at the staffing and nodded. There were sixty people in the Propaganda Department of one city, but let's try it first. If there is a shortage of manpower, we can add more.

Then Meng Jun looked at Wu Tai and said softly, "Then let's execute this plan and start implementing it city by city."

Wu Tai nodded slightly to show that he understood, then he stood up straight, saluted to Meng Jun and turned to leave. Meng Jun looked at Wu Tai's departing back, his eyes gradually becoming deep. Propaganda and education have been inseparable since ancient times, and teenagers are at a passionate age. Even Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong had set up children's camps.

When Meng Jun was at Qiantang River, he had a chat with the soldiers and promised them that all the orphans of the fallen soldiers would be able to go to school free of charge. After returning to Suzhou, Meng Jun had changed his mind and no longer simply let the children of these soldiers learn to read and study the books of Confucius and Mencius.

Meng Jun thought that a new type of education should be started. In his idea, it should be divided into two levels: primary school and higher education. Primary school should be five years and higher education should be three years. In addition to traditional Chinese, the teaching should also include mathematics, history, nature, physical education, etc. In addition to abacus, mathematics should also introduce Arabic numerals, and nature should be based on Xu Guangqi's "Elements of Geometry", "Heavenly Exploitations", and Fang Yizhi's "Physical Light".

This new-style education had only one purpose, which was to be practical and gradually abolish the eight-legged essay that restricted people's thoughts. Meng Jun hoped to slowly guide and cultivate great scientists. In the new-style school, Meng Jun planned to use vernacular Chinese for education and promote punctuation with modern standards. To be honest, classical Chinese was too easy to be ambiguous due to sentence breaks.

Meng Jun also planned to establish a martial arts school in the college to train officers. These military descendants would undoubtedly be the purest seeds of the future anti-Qing forces. Not only the orphans, but also the generals and soldiers, and children of appropriate age were selected by Meng Jun. A total of 520 children aged from eight to twelve o'clock would be the first batch of students.

Since most of the students came from Suzhou, Meng Jun set up the school in the west of Suzhou and named it Zhenxing School.

Regarding the construction of the school, Meng Jun followed the layout of later generations and added the characteristics of this era to create teaching areas, dormitories, canteens, and playgrounds. However, it would take a long time to start a new type of education. Writing textbooks alone was not something that could be done overnight. It was also necessary to recruit teachers and build a school. So after Meng Jun set a general teaching plan, he scheduled the school to start on March 1 of the following year.

Meng Jun's efforts made Yang En and other scholars in the Governor's Office numb. It was troublesome to just enclose land in the West City to build a school. Yang En said to Meng Jun with a bitter face: "Governor, each student needs a set of books, lunch, and a monthly salary for the instructor. The governor said it is compulsory education and free of charge. Grand Governor, this office will cost money."

Meng Jun smiled and said: "Ten years later, the value of these students will definitely not be comparable to a small amount of expenditure."

Yang En sighed and said, "Commander-in-chief, if this continues, we won't be able to last for ten months, if not ten years. We need pension silver, to build our own muskets, artillery, and to organize cavalry. Commander-in-chief, the treasury silver is already insufficient. At this rate of consumption, it will only be enough to last for three months."

Yang En was young and in the prime of his life, but he became much more haggard under the pressure of spending money everywhere. This was because the Governor's Office occupied the richest southeastern area in the world. If he were to move to another place, such as Shaanxi or Henan, not to mention the seven-town army, he would have to build guns and cannons and run schools. Even if he cut the army in half, he would have to scrape the land to see if he could afford it.

After listening to Yang En's complaints, Meng Jun shook his head and said, "Education is a long-term plan. We can find other ways to get money, but we must do this matter of enlightening the people, no matter how difficult it is."

Yang En nodded upon hearing this, and could only comfort himself that as he held the rich land of Jiangnan, he could still find ways to make money, and setting up a school was also to reserve future talents.

At this time, Yu An hurried in and said to Meng Jun: "Governor, someone wants to see you, saying that he is the Minister of War, the Left Censor-in-Chief, and also controls the grain transport affairs of seven provinces."

Meng Jun was a little confused, but nodded and said, "Then please come in, Lord Shangshu." Yang En said to Meng Jun, "Commander-in-chief, I will take my leave first."

"Well, Mude, you go ahead and do your work first."

Chen Zilong, courtesy name Renzhong, was from Nanzhili. His talent was highly praised by Xia Yunyi, who said that his talent was soaring. In the early years of Chongzhen, Chen Zilong joined the Fushe Society, and later formed Jishe with Xia Yunyi, Xu Fuyuan and others, becoming one of the six sons of Jishe. In the tenth year of Chongzhen, he passed the imperial examination and was reinstated as a military official in the Hongguang year. The Prince of Lu was appointed Minister of War and Left Censor-in-Chief, and was in charge of the grain transport affairs of seven provinces. After the defeat of the Prince of Lu, Chen Zilong moved to Suzhou.

"Left Censor-in-Chief Chen Zilong, I pay my respects to the Duke." Chen Zilong bowed to Meng Jun. He was about 40 years old and had an elegant temperament. His eyes were wise and calm, and he was wearing a dark robe, which made him look more solemn and rigorous.

"Master Chen, please stand up." Meng Jun hurried forward to help him up, and then asked, "Master Chen, why do you want to see me?"

Chen Zilong felt a little embarrassed when he heard this. After a moment, he slowly said, "Governor Meng has recovered the whole of Zhejiang and his name has spread all over the world. Although I am not talented, I am willing to serve the governor and I only hope that we can recover the old capital as soon as possible."

Chen Zilong is full of enthusiasm and hopes to realize his ambition to recover the lost territory. In his mind, Meng Jun is the only one in the world who has the potential to lead the country to recovery.

After the fall of Longwu, the fight between Emperor Shaowu and Emperor Yongli made him extremely disappointed. He looked around and was fortunate that God had mercy on him and sent down a good general like Meng Jun. He looked at Meng Jun, his eyes revealing his expectations for the future.

Meng Jun was also somewhat delighted when he heard this, and laughed loudly at Chen Zilong, "Now there are so many things to be done, and Mr. Chen is willing to help me, which is exactly what I want."