Chapter 1 Jiang Xujing Stays in the Military Camp

Jiang Xujing stayed in the central military camp for several days in a row, as a gesture of cooperation for the handover. However, observing the Yunzhou army at close range was also part of the plan. Jiang Xujing didn't ask about his specific arrangements, but judging from the Yunzhou soldiers' pure military respect and meticulous care for his daily life, he figured they wouldn't mistreat him. Although Jiang Xujing felt that it would be better to retire and return to his hometown, the old soldier couldn't hide his curiosity about the army. However, neither Jiang Xujing nor Ye Tao were people who would actually participate in too many of the surrender-related affairs. As regional lords with combined military and political power, they only needed to set the tone for things. And because of this, Jiang Xujing had plenty of time to chat and drink with Ye Tao. Although it wasn't convenient to let Jiang Xujing know too many details about the Yunzhou army, there was no need to be too guarded about the general situation, or so Ye Tao said. So, Jiang Xujing strolled around the camp with two personal guards. The Yunzhou side sent a staff officer to follow him, but did nothing else. The differences between the current system of the Yunzhou army and the original armies of this time and space were too great. Even the Blood Kirin Army, the best army in the world, would need special training to fully understand the Yunzhou system, especially the military order system, and that was because the two were relatively similar in the first place. No one in the Yunzhou army believed that Jiang Xujing could learn much just by looking around.

"Lord Ye, I wonder… what are your plans for our soldiers?" After a few days, Jiang Xujing finally asked this question with utmost seriousness. In the past few days, the Xiling army had completed its disarmament and inventory. The two sides had jointly cleared the entire battlefield, buried the bodies of their comrades, and began using lime for necessary disinfection and epidemic prevention work. With the help of Jiang Xujing's documents and envoys, several small teams of around five hundred men from the Yunzhou army advanced rapidly and quickly took control of all the key locations in the entire Zhenbei Military District. They were now beginning to take stock of the official assets in various parts of the Zhenbei Military District, and some advance local officials had begun to govern some areas. They had also begun to gradually suppress the powerful clans who still harbored resentment against Dongping and even resisted with force… As the various tasks progressed and the army began to disperse, there were now less than twenty battalions stationed in Guiyuan, monitoring the disarmed Xiling army. But even in these few days, with the cooperation and coordination between the two sides, and with the Yunzhou army treating the Xiling soldiers relatively peacefully after the victory, the Xiling army was becoming increasingly unwilling to resist. And next, the reorganization and demobilization would begin, which had always been the most troublesome part, so Jiang Xujing couldn't help but care.

"General Jiang," Ye Tao said calmly, "It's mainly divided into several categories. Those non-native soldiers who want to go back have already gone to Taizhou. I really can't deal with those people, they're too dangerous. It's best if they leave on their own. Then the remaining soldiers… General Jiang, remember you said that you gathered a considerable amount of family retainers and clan soldiers, right?"

Jiang Xujing nodded, somewhat awkwardly: "It was a last resort."

"All of these soldiers will be sent back directly, but they must report to the local officials at the specified time every month for a period of one year. We'll have ways to deal with the situation after that. Ordinary soldiers, those over thirty-five years old, those with families, will be settled in farms and pastures established according to Yunzhou's model of Rongjun (honored soldiers) Farms. The cost of building the farms and pastures will be paid from the Zhenbei Military District's official treasury that we received, and the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office will cover any shortfall. Then… we'll ask His Majesty for reimbursement later. Soldiers aged fourteen to sixteen, those with families will be sent back. If there's only one person left in the family, they'll enter the farm and pasture system as well. The rest are basically soldiers of suitable age. Those who are not in good health will be settled by the government. Other soldiers will be broken up, reorganized, and retrained. With this process of reorganization and training, those soldiers who can identify with Dongping will continue to serve in the garrison battalion-level troops for a period of one year. Those who still regard my Dongping as enemies will be sent back to their original places to farm and graze. Of course, they must also report to the local officials every month. Then, those soldiers who serve normally will receive a full set of Yunzhou garrison battalion basic training, including physical training, technical training, and… cultural training. Also, after one year, those soldiers who perform well will have the opportunity to enter the main combat troops, and will also begin to have the opportunity to learn about the various rules of my Yunzhou armies." Ye Tao carefully explained the plan that everyone had discussed, which seemed relatively reliable. Jiang Xujing listened with obvious satisfaction. This complicated arrangement showed that Yunzhou was indeed putting in effort in this area, and would certainly settle these surrendered soldiers well. Then, Ye Tao added: "These arrangements only apply to the Zhenbei Military District troops, except for the Guardians."

"Oh?" Jiang Xujing shrugged, looking completely indifferent, and asked: "Then what are you going to do with the Guardians?"

Ye Tao said: "Persuade, educate… Please rest assured, General Jiang, anyway, there are only a few thousand people. The survivors are mostly the most fanatical Dao Ming Sect members. Although they are not easy to deal with, we will never resort to wanton killing."

Since Ye Tao had said so, Jiang Xujing nodded and didn't have much to say. In the past few days, he had been constantly summoning officers from various departments to understand the situation of the surrender, so that if there was anything wrong, he could react in time. Although surrendering was, in fact, quite humiliating, the Yunzhou armies had obviously been strictly ordered to treat these surrendered soldiers very formally and politely, which quickly made everyone feel good about them. But the Guardians were different. After being tempered by the battlefield, and after being bombarded back and forth by Ye Tao's airship team, which shook their faith in the gods, the Guardians, under the instigation and bewitchment of several Yushi (Daoist priests) in the army, were very eager to refuse to surrender and fight to the end. Although they later completed the disarmament, the atmosphere in the Guardians' camp was heavy and oppressive, with a hint of fanaticism and conspiracy. To this end, Yunzhou specially transferred an auxiliary battalion from a Rongjun Farm to monitor the Guardians, which could be regarded as extremely high treatment… Even when he was originally in the Xiling army, Jiang Xujing regarded the Guardians as a flood and beast, as an unstable factor, let alone now? If Ye Tao really stated: "I will take good care of the surrendered soldiers, but I have to kill all the Guardians," Jiang Xujing probably wouldn't say a word. But now, Ye Tao was essentially promising not to kill people indiscriminately, which made Jiang Xujing even more curious about what tricks Ye Tao was going to play this time.

How avant-garde is psychology? Even in the time and space from which Ye Tao and Tan Weixin came, they didn't quite understand how psychology worked, but that didn't stop them from believing that it was an extremely useful discipline, in which they invested a lot of time and energy. It was precisely because of this that Ye Tao was able to write "Group Studies," which is now regarded as one of the classic must-read works for the Dongping high-level officials. Over the years, "Group Studies" has become a professional discipline in Dongping that everyone doesn't mention, but many people have begun to try to use. There is even a "Group Studies Society" dedicated to studying these contents and expanding them. It was precisely because of such an institution, which was actually funded by the Internal Affairs Department but nominally a self-initiated academic society, that Ye Tao and Tan Weixin released the content of a series of psychological experiments that they found interesting to these junior psychology enthusiasts for research. And you know what? Because the starting point of psychology in this time and space was too low, these enthusiasts really came up with a lot of interesting content.

When studying the Dao Ming Sect in the first place, Ye Tao had fleetingly thought of the research on cults and heresies in psychology. There is a very famous "cognitive dissonance theory," which says that people will rationalize their behavior in their consciousness. Religious fanatics constantly use religious content to explain all their behavior, and they are getting further and further away from general common sense. But cognitive dissonance theory is also a powerful weapon against this phenomenon. Although there were no professional psychologists or counselors, Ye Tao still had a very mysterious small unit in his hands. These people were originally eliminated in the training and assessment of selecting people to enter Xiling to form the Leiyin Demon Sect. Although some people used this knowledge to make a good living in other industries, most of them still served in the Yunzhou system at all levels. When deploying the balanced scorecard and conducting internal job changes, and thereby starting to establish Yunzhou's unique governance atmosphere, Ye Tao reassembled these people and formed a very, very small department directly responsible to Ye Tao himself. They were responsible for converting the various things that the Group Studies Society came up with, as well as Ye Tao's ideas, into steps that could be implemented. These people have become the most suitable group of people in this time and space to provide psychological counseling to the "Guardians."

Their first target was the officers in the Guardians who were quick-witted and didn't seem to have their brains completely burned out by religion. As the saying goes, "One can't hit a smiling face." Most of these Guardians officers originally came from all walks of life, and few were professional officers. Contacting these Yunzhou officers to resolve issues like supplies and food distribution were all things that were closely related to them and they couldn't avoid, and these people in the psychology department would use very small favors to ask these officers to help them with their work, so that their work could be carried out smoothly and everyone would benefit. If these Guardians officers took great benefits, then it would be obvious that they had the intention of being bought, and the feeling would be different. But the smallest of these first batch of benefits might only be a glass of light ale, a meal that was slightly better than the standard during the surrender process, or a few slices of dried meat, some medicines. These benefiting Guardians officers thought that the other party's requests were all perfectly normal, and the biggest thing was only asking them not to gather every morning for the Dharma assembly, because when they held a preaching Dharma assembly, the auxiliary battalion on the opposite side would blow the horn to assemble, and everyone would be nervous. The smallest things included asking them to require the soldiers not to defecate everywhere to prevent the spread of disease… But repeated contact allowed these officers to constantly start rationalizing their behavior. And when several officers began to write "confessions" and other things that they didn't even believe in themselves, just to make the surrender go smoothly, this rationalization became more and more obvious, and began to play a wonderful chemical role in the military camp.