There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 201 Political Commissar

The Qing court is going to negotiate peace, even if it's just a sham, it's no small matter.

At the very least, it should be raised with the Manchu and Han civil and military officials in a formal court session, and it cannot be raised by Emperor Qianlong himself.

Strictly speaking, Jiaqing was the true emperor of the Qing Dynasty, while Qianlong was merely the regent emperor. Furthermore, Qianlong possessed the "Ten Great Campaigns," making it difficult for him to negotiate peace with a rebel. Therefore, he preferred the dutiful Jiaqing to bear the blame for the peace negotiations.
Well, Emperor Qianlong is currently unaware that Nie Yu has already declared himself king. This matter is of such great importance that even Mingliang has only just confirmed it to be true and is currently considering how to write a memorial to the Emperor Emeritus to inform him.

Emperor Qianlong first entrusted the difficult task of negotiating peace to Emperor Jiaqing, and then personally issued an edict to Yi Mian, the Governor-General of Shaanxi and Gansu, urging him to annihilate the White Lotus Rebellion in Sichuan and Hubei within the next year.

The document didn't specify how to handle the delay, but Xuanmian certainly understood what it meant.

Emperor Qianlong also sent the reply to the memorial along with the imperial edict to Chengdu.

The memorial was reviewed and approved: The method of organizing militias in stockades is inappropriate. We should consider more effective methods. The military task of suppressing bandits should not be entrusted to the people.

After appointing Yi Mian as the Governor-General of Shaanxi and Gansu, Emperor Qianlong also issued separate edicts to Le Bao, the Governor-General of Yunnan and Guizhou, and Ji Qing, the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, ordering them to suppress the rebellion within a year without delay.

Suppressing the rebellion within a year, without any delay—isn't that a joke?
Historically, Le Bao first managed Yunnan and Guizhou, quelled the Zhong Miao rebellion, and then managed Sichuan. However, he failed to achieve any significant results and was dismissed by Emperor Jiaqing due to the long delay.

……

Jingzhou, the Prince of Han's Palace.

Nie Yu was in his study, writing to add details to the "Education Reform Plan" and the "Outline of the Military Academy".

First, let's talk about the "Outline of the Military Academy". The military academy of the Han army was established very early. Before the unification of Hunan and Hubei, the military academy was set up in the recruit camp as a special institution for recruits to learn to read and write and for ideological construction.

Now, the clerks in each division of the Han army are "top students" who came from the military academy.

The number of these "high achievers" is currently very limited. Most of them are semi-finished products of education trained in the early days of the military academy. Many can only read and write, and some have relatively shallow arithmetic skills.

This also includes artillerymen, who are considered highly skilled technical personnel. All artillerymen received a few months of simple training in trigonometric parallax ranging at the military academy.

How simple is it?

It basically tells you how to roughly calculate the impact point of a shell using your thumb, with a minimal margin of error.

As for more systematic cognitive learning and its application in other fields, these gunners have never even touched it.

There was no other way; the martial arts academy was too rudimentary in its early days. They didn't even have a full complement of teachers, and they taught whatever materials Nie Yu provided. The teaching was extremely eclectic, and the students learned even more eclectic. How much they could learn depended entirely on their talent and hard work.

Now, the Han army has occupied a territory of one and a half provinces, and has also captured the two important provincial capitals of Wuchang and Changsha. The Han army has become a force to be reckoned with.

Taking advantage of the temporary lull in military operations, Nie Yu began working on a plan for educational and cultural reforms.

From the military to the civilian population, the original educational model was indeed too backward and irregular, and it should not have been the appearance of the Han army, which had already established a royal system.

First is the Military Academy. The previous Military Academy was a makeshift organization, merely a patch by Nie Yu to address loopholes in the military system. The Military Academy was used to train clerks, with Mi serving as a substitute for the civil officials who supervised the army.

It is definitely not advisable to have civil officials supervise the military. This has already been proven by the Ming Dynasty. As long as civil officials are given a chance, they will inevitably corrupt and infiltrate military power.

Unlike civilian officials, clerks were also military personnel. Their main duties were to supervise the army's battle records and to conduct immediate inspections of military discipline. However, this was clearly insufficient. The original Han army was not large, with less than 10,000 men at most, not even enough to fill a full division. Using clerks as a transitional measure was just right, as they could also conduct immediate inspections of military discipline.

However, after several expansions, the Han army has become quite large, with more than six divisions including the navy, as well as artillery, cavalry and other units.

There are not enough clerks. Given the current size of the Han army, clerks can only be assigned up to the level of commander at most. There are no more people available to go down to the next level.

This is definitely not acceptable. We must increase the number of clerks and also supplement and improve their powers.

Nie Yu formulated the "Outline of the Military Academy":
First, the military academy implemented a departmental education system, no longer operating as before, where all soldiers were taught together.

Second, improve the curriculum of the military academy to cultivate loyalty to the emperor and love for the people in the officers who enter the academy. Loyalty to the emperor means loyalty to the King of Han, and love for the people means love and care for all the people under heaven.

Third, compulsory courses were added: land distribution, tax exemption, and slave release. Military officers were systematically taught why the Han army distributed land to the people, exempted them from taxes, and prohibited landlords from keeping slaves.

Fourth, new military regulations were established. Previously, only commanders at the rank of commander were assigned clerks. Now, even platoon leaders are required to be assigned clerks, and the clerks are renamed "civil instructors."

Fifth, compose military songs for the Han army.

Sixth, in addition to their own duties, the instructors should give lectures to the soldiers in their spare time, explaining to them what they are fighting for.

seventh……

……

A series of new rules and regulations were written out one by one, and some were crossed out by Nie Yu after being written out, or were revised several times.

Ultimately, we still have to consider the development of the times. Many things cannot be used at this time. For example, using the military academy to cultivate loyalty to the emperor among officers is a limitation of the times.

The ideal of universal harmony is still too early for China at present. Nie Yu can only secure his own power first. After he leads China through the Industrial Revolution and achieves a breakthrough in productivity, the decision on how to proceed will be left to future generations.

Nie Yu copied bits and pieces from various armies across different eras, and finally finalized the reform plan for the army and the military academy.

Next, he went on to reform education and culture among the common people. Compared to Nie Yu of the Military Academy, who could make decisions with his words, the issue of education and culture among the common people was more complicated.

Because the military academy was limited to the army, all that was needed to train civil instructors who were loyal to the emperor and loved the people was money. No matter how much money was spent, it was still a small amount, and the Ministry of Revenue could easily afford it.

But grassroots education is different; it's not something that can be solved simply by spending a little money.

The population under the Han army's rule has long exceeded ten million. If you remove the elderly and young people, the remaining mainstream group that needs to receive education—children—numbers at least one million.

Educating millions of children is a nearly impossible task.

The rural community schools (primary schools) established with funds from the Ministry of Revenue alone cost money like water, and there was almost no return on investment.

Lin Wenchang, the Minister of Revenue, would complain about being poor in his memorials almost every few days.

(End of this chapter)