I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 497 The power of public opinion

Zhu Houzhao's expedition to the Western Regions and the story of the Anxi Army aroused the patriotic enthusiasm and nationalism of the people in the capital.

The Publicity Department of the Royal Group was also constantly adding fuel to the flames. On the second day after the court meeting ended, a lot of promotional leaflets were printed and distributed. The maps on the leaflets highlighted the location of the Western Regions.

Through these promotional pages, many people and even scholars and officials in the capital learned for the first time the location of the Western Regions and knew its size and shape.

This was the second time they began to care about things thousands of miles away. The first time they cared about things thousands of miles away was the gold in the Far East Continent.

However, they could participate more deeply in the affairs of the Western Regions, and they invested huge enthusiasm in this. During this period, the streets and alleys of the capital were full of discussions about the expedition to the Western Regions.

The common people have a different perspective on the issue than the ministers. First of all, the old territories in the Western Regions must be recovered, there is no doubt about that.

Then there was the matter of Zhu Houzhao personally leading the army to fight. The people were more open-minded about this than the ministers in the court.
In their eyes, Zhu Houzhao is the number one general of the Ming Dynasty. After all, in recent years, the Royal Group has spared no effort to publicize Zhu Houzhao's deeds, and more than a dozen comic books about Zhu Houzhao have been published.

Zhu Houzhao's deeds have become a household name. Not only that, the details of each battle Zhu Houzhao commanded have also spread to the people. There are many people in the people and the court who like to talk about military affairs on paper. In their spare time, they would also discuss some of the battles commanded by Zhu Houzhao, especially the most exciting Battle of Yingzhou.

After many discussions, they were surprised to find that Zhu Houzhao was indeed a famous general. Zhu Houzhao's command style was very steady, with many unique tactics, and most importantly, he rarely made mistakes.
That's because they don't quite understand the role of the General Staff. With the General Staff checking for omissions and filling gaps, the commander will rarely have the opportunity to make mistakes.
Coupled with the support of real military achievements, Zhu Houzhao's reputation as the first general of the Ming Dynasty became more and more popular among the people.
In the eyes of the common people, the Western Regions are vast and far away, and even a lion should fight a rabbit with all its might. So the best general of the Ming Dynasty should lead the expedition and try to win the war in one battle, so as to avoid repeated wars and let the wars last for many years, wasting the national strength.
As for the argument that Zhu Houzhao's absence from the capital would affect the country, many people in the capital scoffed at it. As local people in the capital, they knew very well who had stabilized the country in recent years. It was the King of Jing, who had been acting as regent for seven years. During these seven years, the King of Jing had brought great changes to the capital and its surrounding areas, and even to the northern part of the Ming Dynasty.
Many people even privately believed that the Ming Dynasty was now strong, and Zhu Houzhao was not in the capital most of the time.
As the political center, the public opinion in the capital was bound to spread to the surrounding areas, and soon became the mainstream in several northern provinces.
Public opinion first affected young officials at lower levels, and then spread upwards.
The Propaganda Department was very keen to grasp the changes in public opinion in Beijing and added fuel to the flames.
Under such circumstances, Zhu Houzhao stayed indoors, and many officials still went to the imperial palace to petition Zhu Houzhao not to lead the army in person. However, the actions of these officials were undoubtedly contrary to the recent public opinion in the capital, causing dissatisfaction among many people in the capital.
No one knew who took the first step, but the people of the capital suddenly began to throw rotten vegetable leaves and rotten eggs at the officials who had submitted their petitions to the emperor.
The officials were in a state of dismay. They turned to the surrounding Jinyiwei, patrol soldiers, and the police from the Shuntianfu Public Security Bureau, which had only been established for two years, for help, but these people were indifferent and turned a blind eye to their plight.
Now everyone understands what happened
This is naked acquiescence and connivance!!!
The acquiescence and connivance of law enforcement officers made the behavior of Beijing citizens more and more serious in the next few days. Some Beijing citizens even pointed at these officials and cursed them for being people who harmed the country. However, the law enforcement agencies in Beijing still turned a blind eye to his experience.

Of course, if the people go too far, these law enforcement officers will still take care of it.
The behavior of the people of the capital did not cause any physical harm to the officials who submitted petitions to the emperor, but it brought them a huge psychological shock. They did not expect that what awaited them was not a beating in the court, but an attack from the people of the capital.
They were all the chosen ones of heaven and the pride of their families. They had never suffered such humiliation before, but they were helpless.
Many people therefore began to back off. They were not afraid of Zhu Houzhao beating them with the cane. Instead, they were looking forward to it. As long as they were beaten with the cane, they would instantly become famous all over the world.
But now it is different. What can they gain from being attacked and humiliated by the people of the capital? They may become famous all over the world, but being famous all over the world may not mean being upright and daring to speak out. They may end up with a bad reputation.
So the number of officials who went to the imperial court to submit petitions decreased, until no one went to the imperial court to submit petitions anymore.

After achieving complete victory over the officials who submitted petitions to the emperor, the people of the capital began to target other officials in the court.
Many officials were pelted with rotten vegetable leaves and rotten eggs, and even the gates of their mansions were blocked by radical Beijing citizens who cursed them.
Even Yang Tinghe was affected. When he got off the car, a rotten egg was thrown at him. Some people blocked his door and cursed him. However, Yang Tinghe was protected very tightly and the law enforcement officers quickly dispersed those people. However, it still cast a shadow over Yang Tinghe's heart.
Faced with this wave of public opinion, more and more officials gave up their original positions and began to become neutral.
This trend lasted for more than a month, and Zhu Houzhao was also closely following the development of the situation.
The voices in the court opposing Zhu Houzhao's personal expedition became weaker and weaker. By mid-April, although there were still voices of opposition, everyone knew that they could not stop Zhu Houzhao from leading the army in person, and Zhu Houzhao achieved a de facto victory.

This made Zhu Houzhao very happy. He was now burdened by his reputation and could not sneak to the border with his army like he did in the 11th year of Zhengde. He still needed to unify the voices in the court and suppress the voices of opposition.
As for whether such a large-scale discussion about an expedition to the Western Regions in the north of the Ming Dynasty would alert the various forces in the Western Regions and make them prepare and mobilize in advance to deal with the Ming Dynasty's expedition.
Zhu Houzhao's answer was that he hoped that all the forces in the Western Regions could be mobilized and gathered together so that he could defeat them all at once, saving him the trouble of searching for enemies in the vast Western Regions.
One of the reasons why Zhu Houzhao said this was because of the large-scale refitting of the Imperial Guards.
(End of this chapter)