In the northwest of Xiangguo, there is an official office, the leader's official title is "Sima", responsible for the military affairs of Zhao State, including military personnel, ordnance, logistics materials, military salaries, soldier recruitment and training, but there is no military command, the authority is equivalent to the later military department, usually under the jurisdiction of Xiangguo.

As for the military command, it was previously attributed to the general, but now it is attributed to the king of Zhao.

In the past, in addition to serving as a general and Xiangguo, Chen Yu also served as Sima. Later, Chen Yu handed over the authority of general salaries to Gong Zhi and handed over part of the authority of military personnel to Lu Tian.

After the dispersal of the dynasty yesterday, Zhao Xie immediately issued an edict to let Li Zuoche serve as Sima, directly responsible to King Zhao, and set aside Chen Yu's important authority.

In the eastern part of Xiangguo City, Li Zuoche's mansion is located here, and there is a plaque above the gate of the mansion, engraved with the four big characters of "Guangwu Jun's Mansion".

Zhao Guo had special protection measures for the main civil and military officials, including himself and his mansion.

At the gate of Guangwu Jun's Mansion, there are four guards standing guard.

There is an inn opposite the mansion, and last night, two men stayed in this inn, and the window of the guest room was facing the door of Li Zuoche's mansion.

These two people are the same people who met with Lu Tian last night. Li Zuoche had to come out of the mansion almost every morning and go to other places to handle affairs, and the two of them wanted to take this opportunity to assassinate them.

In the hands of the two of them, they both held the crossbow arrows that had been pulled and waited patiently for Li Zuoche to appear. They are good at archery, and the arrows are coated with poison, and they boast that Li Zuoche will not be able to escape.

Of course, the two of them could not escape from the blatant assassination of high-ranking officials of the imperial court, they were ready to die, and once the assassination was successful, they would immediately commit suicide.

At this time, I saw a group of people running from the north and stopped at the door of the mansion.

What are you here for? The two of them were confused.

In the mansion, Li Zuoche's family of four was eating breakfast.

Li Zhixian was full, and gently pulled his father's clothes and said, "Father, can you come back early today?" Teach children the art of war. ”

Last night, Li Zuoche came back very late, when the children were sleeping.

Li Zuoche gently touched his son's head and said: "The king is determined to forge ahead, there are many military affairs to deal with, and it has just begun, and my father will be very busy for the time being, and it will take some time to teach you." In the future, you should first familiarize yourself with other military books, remember the ununderstandable points, and then take the time to answer them later. ”

Mrs. Li said: "Zhi'er, your father is an important minister of the court, and he is the most important person in the king, and his official affairs are important. ”

Although Li Zhi was unhappy, he couldn't help it.

At this time, I saw two people walking in, one was a guard standing guard at the door, and the other was Yao Long.

Yao Long said: "Guangwujun, last night the king sent an order to General Yang, asking him to send someone to protect your safety, and General Yang sent me to bring two hundred people. ”

Yesterday, after Yao Long and Xiao Ping were released, Li Zuoche and Yang Fu both knew that according to their past merits, they would soon be promoted, and Yang Fu sent two hundred people to Yao Long to take charge of him, and let him be responsible for the safety of Guang Wujun and his family.

Li Zuoche immediately understood that it was the king who was worried that he would be retaliated against, so he deliberately sent someone to protect him.

After eating breakfast, Li Zuoche said goodbye to his family and walked towards the gate.

At the gate of Guangwu Jun's Mansion, two hundred soldiers guarded here, the carriage was ready, and the two assassins in the opposite room quickly understood that they were here to protect Li Zuoche.

The two cursed in their hearts, in this way, it was much more difficult to assassinate Li Zuoche.

But if you don't do it today, there may not be a better chance in the future, and besides, things can't be delayed for too long, so the two of them discussed it a little and still decided to do it now.

Yao Long walked out of the gate of the mansion first, and Li Zuoche then walked out and walked towards the carriage.

At this time, Yao Long looked around and suddenly found that there were two crossbow arrows facing Li Zuoche.

"Whoosh" twice, and arrows shoot out.

"Be careful..."Yao Long pounced on Li Zuoche as fast as he spoke.

At the last moment, Li Zuoche was knocked down, two arrows swept through his back, and one arrow hit the thigh of the soldier behind him.

"There are assassins..."

The soldiers on the scene immediately became vigilant.

Li Zuoche hid behind the carriage.

Yao Long stood up again, pointed in the direction of the assassin and shouted, "The assassin is over there, go and arrest him." ”

Immediately, dozens of people rushed towards the inn, and the rest of them guarded around Li Zuoche.

Li Zuoche secretly shouted that it was dangerous, if Yao Long hadn't fallen in time, or if the king hadn't sent someone to come, he would have to die.

After a while, the soldiers reported that the two Assassins had no way to escape, and they committed suicide with their daggers drawn.

Li Zuoche said to himself: "Suicide is really enough!" ”

"Poison...", the soldier who had been hit by the arrow cried out in horror.

Yao Long took a closer look and saw that the soldier was shot in the thigh, and the wound turned purple, which was a symptom of poisoning, first purple, and then black.

What a vicious method!

Li Zuoche ordered: "Quick, let him take my carriage to the rescue, and quickly go and report to Lord Sikou and the king." ”

After poisoning, we should act as little as possible to prevent the spread of poison to accelerate the spread, ancient people also understood this basic truth, even if they rode a horse, they had to work hard, Li Zuoche usually cherished the soldiers, and did not want the soldiers to be poisoned to death.

On the spot, a soldier tied the wounded soldier above the wound, helped him into the carriage, and then drove away.

——————

Sikou Yamen, after Cao Wan came here, he immediately ordered the people to act.

He had three things to do, the first was to raid Gong Zhi's mansion; the second is to strictly investigate Lu Tian; The third is to send people to the county lieutenants and county lieutenants of various counties and ask them to report Gong Zhi's absconding in fear of crime.

The county lieutenant and the county lieutenant are equivalent to the local police chiefs, and in addition to being under the jurisdiction of the local county guards, they are also subject to the orders of the central court.

Just as he was about to set off for the operation, he received a report that someone had assassinated Li Zuoche.

Cao Wan adjusted the manpower again, and the soldiers acted in several ways.

——————

In the palace, Zhao Xie and Zhao Qian had not finished breakfast when they received a report about the assassination of Li Zuoche.

Zhao Xie was taken aback after hearing this, and secretly exclaimed that it was dangerous, if it wasn't for his wife's reminder last night, maybe the important minister he relied on would have died.

Zhao Qian was also taken aback, and secretly exclaimed that she was lucky, but fortunately, she remembered to remind her husband last night, otherwise her husband would lose his right hand.

Zhao Xie immediately gave Cao Wan an order, strictly ordering him to find out the main messenger behind the scenes.

As the king of a country, as long as the courtiers can handle it, it is naturally impossible to do it personally, the monarch is mainly in charge of people, in the "control of people", and the courtiers are in charge.

Only what even his courtiers could not do, the monarch had to do it himself.

As Zhao Xie, who has traveled through modern times, there are 2,000 people from China who have accumulated human knowledge, and there are many things that only he can do.

After breakfast, he sent people to Quyang to greet Zhao Qian's nurse, and then went out of the palace to the internal history of the official office to learn more about the financial and population situation of Zhao State.

In order to do a good job in comprehensive development planning, Zhao Xie must take a clear understanding of the country's situation as the premise.

In a country, the army, personnel, and finance are the top priorities, and at yesterday's court meeting, Zhao Xie only asked Yang Bing about the total revenue of the government treasury, and did not involve the specific situation.

Came out of the palace, sat on the luan, and marched to the inner Shi Yamen by the soldiers.

In the early period of antiquity, although the sedan chair appeared as early as possible, it was not popular, and it was generally taken in a horse-drawn carriage.

Behind the gate is a courtyard, and the houses around the courtyard are the working places of the yamen, and the officials are working as usual.

"The king has arrived..."

The loud voice of the chamberlain came, and the officials all stopped what they were doing and walked out of the courtyard quickly.

"Meet the King..."

When Zhao Xie stepped in, dozens of officials saluted in unison, but they only bowed for a long time, but did not kneel. Unless it is a court or other important occasion, officials need to bow down when they salute.

"Yang Bingke?"

"Your Majesty, Lord Fake is handling official business in the Xiangguo Yamen!"

There are branches under the Yamen of the Internal History, namely: the Household Department, which is in charge of household registration and land throughout the country; Degree of expenditure, in charge of tax statistics and expenditure; Tabe, who is in charge of the collection of taxes throughout the country; The warehouse department is in charge of the national warehouse cashier.

The official position of the heads of the four major departments is called Lang Cao.

Zhao Xie asked everyone to continue working, leaving Duzhi Lang Cao alone. As for Yang Bing, he didn't plan to send someone to inform him, and directly asked Lang Cao about the cleanup.

According to Lang Cao, the source of the treasury was mainly land endowment, and the taxes on merchants were very low, and there was no other source of income other than that.

Zhao Xie checked the statistical ledger again, including the method of taxation, the tax revenue of each county, etc., during this period, the tax was collected according to the household.

In modern times, he learned about the tax policies of the major dynasties and immediately discovered the imperfections of the system.

For example, there are both local taxes in each county and central taxes.

For example, if the tax is levied according to the number of households, that is, according to the number of people, it may cause the population to be concealed, and some rural households will be taxed according to the original head of the population if their family members die, and they will not have time to close their households, or if they lose their ability to work due to illness.

Another example is salt and iron, which are very important to society, which are privately owned and not taxed at a high rate.

After learning about this aspect, Zhao Xie came to Lang Cao of the household department again to learn about the land and household registration.

According to Lang Cao, in addition to the soldiers, about eighty percent of the total population of Zhao belonged to rural households.

In the census, only family members are counted in large households, and their slaves are not counted.

Zhao Xie understood that from ancient times to the Republic of China, the population can be divided into two categories, one is people with normal household registration.

On the other hand, those who have been sold, or who are not domicile, or who have been used as slaves for some reason.

In ancient times, human trafficking was legal, parents could sell their children, and everyone with a normal household registration could sell themselves. Of course, most of the time it is not allowed to sell other people.

Such people who do not have a normal household registration are not included in the demographic statistics, and the wealth created by their labor belongs to the master. This, in turn, provides room for some people to evade taxes.

As for farmland, most of the territory of Zhao belongs to the plains, which is what is called the North China Plain in modern times, which is suitable for agricultural planting, and the rain is not very abundant, which is suitable for growing drought-tolerant crops such as millet and wheat.

The most lacking is population, population is the most important productive force, if there is not enough labor, no matter how much land you are given, you will not be able to develop and cultivate.

After staying in the Yamen of the Inner History for half a day, Zhao Xie basically grasped the relevant situation, and he wanted to carry out all-round reforms and improve the system for all kinds of malpractices. The hukou and taxation systems are an important part of this.