In Han Lin's study in the Guangzhou Cabinet Office, it was already early in the morning, and Han Lin had just finished reading a recital, leaning back in a chair and temporarily enjoying the massage of Liu Ruye behind him.

After a while, Han Lin shook Liu Ruye's hand backwards: "You go and rest first, otherwise you will grow old quickly." ”

"Humph!" Liu Ru snorted coquettishly, and shook off Han Lin's salty pig hand, "Why, you think I'm old and don't want me anymore." ”

Han Lin is a man of action, and he directly embraced the beauty into his arms, and scratched her Qiong's nose: "How can I be reluctant?" ”

Liu Ru did not resist, but changed the topic and mentioned government affairs: "What kind of person do you say Zuo Liangyu is?" When the first emperor was there, he repeatedly refused to obey the dispatch of the imperial court, and later did not enter Beijing to escort the army, but when he learned the news of the first emperor's suicide, he was very sad, and he didn't know whether it was true or not. ”

"What's the difference between true and false," Han Lin said with a smile, "At the beginning of Zhuxian Town, the hundreds of thousands of troops that Zuo Liangyu had raised over the years were defeated by Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, and suffered heavy losses.

Zuo Liangyu is also a poor person, born in the era of war, and lost his father and mother since he was a child. During the Xuzhou Mutiny, even the family of his uncle who raised him was killed, and only himself and his only son Zuo Mengeng were left in the clan. ”

"Then you say, Zuo Liangyu led the army south this time, what will be the result."

"Maybe they won't really fight at all." Han Lin was worried in his heart, the people he sent to contact Zuo Liangyu were unsuccessful, in history, Zuo Liangyu died of illness on the march, Zuo Mengeng directly surrendered to the Qing people with the army, and he was really a sinner of the nation.

In the cabinet meeting the next day, Han Lin and others were discussing the management of Tingzhou Mansion, when a subordinate official suddenly came to report: "Prime Minister, there are two people outside who want to look for you, and one of them calls himself Gu Jiang." ”

"Don't you know the rules?" Han Duan was very displeased, "Who let you break in?" ”

"But the man was holding a letter from the Prime Minister."

"Okay, you go down first and bring those two directly."

Han Lin smiled at Han Duan and the others, "This Gu Jiang was met in Jinling a few years ago, and he is quite talented, and I instructed them to tell me immediately if someone has my handwritten letter." ”

After a while, Gu Jiang and Guizhuang entered the conference room, and Han Lin and Wang Fuzhi greeted them warmly: "Two of you, long time no see, welcome to Guangzhou, I hope you don't see it." ”

"Don't dare, Lord Han really flatters us." Gu Jiang and the others hurriedly bowed.

Then Han Lin introduced the cabinet members present to the two of them one by one, Gu Jiang and the two listened to the somewhat unfamiliar official names, and also understood how high and powerful the person in front of them was, and couldn't help but sigh: In Jinling, such a big official, even a small housekeeper in the family disdains to see himself!

"Brother Gu, Brother Gui, you all know the current situation, right?" Han Lin asked.

The two nodded: "This is natural, we saw many soldiers from time to time along the way, but the soldiers in Zhejiang and Fujian even committed murder and robbery, which is really outrageous!" ”

"Let's take a look at this first." Han Lin handed Gu Jiang the newly printed book on explaining the institutional reform of the Yongli Imperial Court.

The two of them browsed for a while, and their shocked expressions were overflowing: "From the Han and Tang dynasties to the Song and Yuan dynasties, I have never seen such a system, and even the changes of Shang Yang and Wu Qi are far behind!" ”

"It seems that you also think that this is completely feasible," Han Lin Zhengse said, "In that case, I will appoint Brother Gu as the Minister of Public Security." ”

"No, no." Before the others were dissatisfied, Gu Jiang himself was first shocked, and did not dare to accept this appointment, he jumped from a cloth cloth to a high-ranking official in charge of public security in the territory, and it turned out that all the county officials, government officials, jailers, etc., were independent and managed by themselves.

"Why not? We all believe that you are up to the job, don't you? ”

Han Lin looked at the people present, Wang Fuzhi stood up first and said, "I have no opinion, when I was in Jinling, I admired Brother Gu's talent very much. ”

Seeing this, the rest of the people also expressed their support, the imperial court reform was short of manpower, and most of the appointments were made by Han Lin himself, and what they usually did was a recommendation work.

"Brother Gu, don't shirk now."

Gu Jiang smiled bitterly: "I am new to the city, and I hope that my colleagues will take care of me." ”

Han Lin then looked at Guizhuang: "Brother Gui, the Tingzhou Mansion in Fujian occupied by our army, the original Tingzhou Governor Wang Qu is a big corrupt official, and he must be dealt with to reassure the people, I want you to take over his position as the prefect, how about it?" Of course, there may be many difficulties and even dangers there, but our army will give you your back. ”

"Thank you, Lord Han." Gui Zhuang's heart of fame is heavier, and with Gu Jiang in front, he immediately accepted the appointment.

"The matter of Tingzhou Mansion is like this first, Tingzhou Mansion and Liu Xizuo's Yongzhou Mansion are in other provinces, we must be prepared for war, and beware of movements in the north at any time, I will go to Guangxi to see after a while."

"What?" Han Duan was the first to object, "You can't just leave this Guangzhou City now. ”

"yes." Wang Fuzhi and others also think so, Han Lin can be said to be already the head of the imperial court, just like the previous emperor, he can't leave the capital easily.

"Guangxi is superficially subservient to us, but the local forces are deep-rooted, and the situation is very complicated, including Tusi and so on," Han Lin said with a worried face, "Guangxi's armed forces are firmly in the hands of all forces, and we only have one mixed brigade stationed in Guilin Prefecture, so the deterrent power is far from enough, and the integration of the Guangxi army is also imperative." ”

In addition to the three main divisions, the mixed brigade was composed of battalions and soldiers that were later recruited, and the equipment and quality were poor, and such an army added up to tens of thousands of people, but it was not of great use.

Han Lin continued: "Only if I go in person, sometimes it is enough. I will let Zhang Jiayu's Eighth Brigade enter the area of Nanning Mansion and Xunzhou Prefecture, and the Seventh Brigade will press to the border of Wuzhou Mansion, Yilong will go with me, and a guard battalion in civilian clothes will follow, so it is decided! ”

Half a month later, in Lianzhou, northern Guangzhou Prefecture, Han Lin and Yilong arrived at the branch of the Zhao Family Chamber of Commerce here.

The person in charge of the branch is named Zhao Yuan, who is the same generation as Zhao Yu, a few years older than Zhao Yu, but he is a collateral child in the huge Zhao family, so although his business ability is good, he can only be sent to other places to manage a small business. However, since the Zhao family moved south, he has gradually been reused.

Zhao Yuan was arranging a business trip to Guilin, and everything was ready, but before he received a notice that there would be two people from Guangzhou City traveling with him, which made him have to be careful, the identity of the people who came was definitely very high, but he didn't know what they were here to do.

"What do you call them?" Zhao Yuan rubbed his hands, a little nervous.

"In Xia Lin Han, this is my friend Long Yi, he is not good at words. Shopkeeper Zhao, I'm sorry for your trouble. Han Lin looked at Zhao Yuan in front of him, his eyes were very small, and he was very rich.

"No trouble, no trouble." Zhao Yuan said again and again, but he kept praying in his heart that Han Lin and the others would not make trouble for themselves.

"Lin Gongzi, do you want to rest first, or ......?"

"Let's go now, we'll follow up on our own, don't bother with Shopkeeper Zhao." Han Lin and the others were also wearing the clothes of ordinary people, and they did not take the carriage prepared by Zhao Yuan, so they naturally walked among the guards of the caravan.

This group of guards were all trained by the Zhao family themselves, and the chief of the guards was named Du Tianfu, who was tall and big, and he was not far behind Yilong.

Du Tianfu saw Zhao Yuan's respectful attitude towards Han Lin, and warned his subordinates in advance of the rules, which made Han Lin and the two feel a little out of place, but it didn't have much to do with it.

After walking for a few days, I entered Pingle Mansion, and a roadblock suddenly appeared on the road ahead, blocking the entire road.

"Brother Du, what's going on?" Han Lin looked forward, and there were quite a few people next to the antler barricade, who seemed to be some gangsters, who were lazy and unkempt.

"It's some local guys, who don't do their jobs, and specialize in collecting tolls for pedestrians and caravans on the road, and we've met every time before, and there's more than one along the way." Du Tianfu was obviously also very disgusted with these people in front of him.

"Where does this belong, don't the people of the government care?" Han Lin asked.

"This is the territory of He County, and these guys dare to blatantly collect tolls on the main road, of course, there are people from the government who follow them. The leader is called Song San, his sister became the concubine of the magistrate of He County, and most of the money he extorted with people had to be handed over to the magistrate of He County, so it can be said that the magistrate instructed him to do this, so no one could touch him. ”

At this time, Zhao Yuan also got out of the carriage and took over: "The money we have worked hard for this trip is not as good as the tolls they collect here for a few days, which is really eye-catching." ”

"I see." Han Lin silently kept this in his heart.

"I opened this mountain, and I planted this tree. If you want to cross this road, leave the money to buy the road. Dare to say no words, step forward and rub your head. Died in the wilderness, and was buried in a bad place. Sent to Wangxiangtai, never come back. When Han Lin and the others approached, an arrogant voice came from the mouth of a thin man.

"Little Brother Song, we meet again, this is a filial piety to you." Zhao Yuan smiled and stepped forward with a bag of silver.

Song San took the silver and weighed it, and said, "It's you, Shopkeeper Zhao, or do you know the rules, but is this a little less?"

Zhao Yuan was stunned for a moment, and thought: This time is only a lot more than last time, how much more do you want for this product.

Song San was stunned when he saw Zhao Yuan, so he said in embarrassment: "Shopkeeper Zhao, you also know that I have a seventy-year-old mother who needs to be supported, and her old man is not in good health and needs a lot of expensive supplements, so I can't help it." ”

Zhao Yuan nodded and complimented: "Little Brother Song is really filial." Then he handed over another sum of money, and finally passed the customs.