"Let's go out and have some fun." Wang Tongdeng laughed, he quickly broke free from his depression, and joked to Zhao Xingde, "Zhao Junenvoy can't be a savage." ”

Zhao Xingde didn't feel it. Sergeant Xia spent a lot of time and energy on public life. The most important group action in the army, and it is generally believed that the unsociable are either with ulterior motives or barbarian savages. Not only is it impossible to mix in the army, but it is also difficult to gain a foothold after retirement. Zhao Xingde is a good reader and often thinks quietly, which is a quirk in the eyes of the sergeant. Fortunately, he is easy-going and enthusiastic about business, and after getting used to it, everyone sometimes makes fun of him as a "savage", but they don't care much about it.

The city of Shule Prefecture is small, with only more than 2,000 permanent residents, and nearly 50,000 people poured into the city to celebrate the victory this night. Shule Prefecture was the garrison of the Poplar Army, and many people wearing military robes were also mixed in the middle of the shade households. The sergeant and the local are extremely closely combined. This is also the characteristic of the military government that is rooted in the local area. Brave men are recruited into the army, and after the completion of their military service, they return to their hometowns with knighthoods, and they can participate in various elections and deliberations of the battalion, and they also have the qualifications to recruit shade households. Zhao Xingde and others were not conspicuous in the crowd.

Lanterns hang high in the streets on both sides of the market, and vendors along the street are full of food, barbecued beef and mutton skewers, preserved meat, wine, fruit, and scones. "These are all prepared by the military government and the Chamber of Commerce," Du Chuijiao had already inquired clearly, holding five skewers of meat in his left hand and a horn wine glass in his right hand, and said with a smile, "Everyone eat and drink freely!" ”

"It seems that the Poplar Military Mansion is very rich." Chen Yongqi sighed, "I can actually join the Chamber of Commerce to entertain the people to eat and drink for three days." ”

"The location of Shule Prefecture is good," Wang Tong said, "Besides, these meats, preserved fruits, and scones are all locally produced, and they don't cost much money." The prefectures and counties were supposed to accumulate three years of rations, just to consume the things that were about to expire and vacate the warehouses. He grabbed an apple, stuffed it in his mouth, and took a bite.

The streets suddenly increased by three or four times the usual crowd, and suddenly became narrow, everyone was talking loudly, and the vendors were shouting enthusiastically. The sergeants were all talking about which place was the richest. In this extremely noisy environment, Zhao Xingde fell into contemplation, "The influence of ordinary people on the government is not only far inferior to that of the group of soldiers, but also inferior to the chambers of commerce in various places. Compared with ordinary people, in addition to superb martial arts, how can the sergeant group maintain their dominance," he thought secretly, "Even when there is no war, even retired sergeants will participate in the promotion of each level, meet regularly for drills, and whether it is deliberation or even petition, most of them have detailed suggestions and feasible implementation." On the other hand, ordinary people, although they are far more numerous than sergeants, are scattered and powerless, and even if they petition the Zhuguo, the protectors, and the state and county officials, most of them are only related to their own interests and have nothing to do with national policy. ”

"After disposing of Ross and stabilizing the west, it's Mobei's turn." Wang Tongdeng chewed the preserved fruit and said with great interest, "The civil strife in Liao is a good opportunity for Mobei to sit big. This is a matter of confidants, and the Protector Government will never sit idly by. The Mobei War, I don't know if I can catch up. ”

Du Blowhorn said with a bitter face: "The tribes in Mobei, in addition to war horses, cattle and sheep, are still worth a little money, and there is no oil and water. Wang Tongdeng smiled: "That's worth a lot, and there is land." Du Blowhorn said: "It's too cold and dry over there, you can't grow crops, you can only graze cattle and sheep." Even if there is a good land, it has long been occupied by the people of the Anbei Army. ”

Zhao Xingde looked at the bustling people around him with interest. The celebration in Shule Prefecture lasted until midnight, and the people living outside the city returned home with their wives and children. In the early morning of the next day, the robes of the 7th Battalion of Chengying set off an hour later than usual, one man and two horses, along the Chidao River, from Shule to Qiuzi.

In the signing room of the Dunhuang Zhu State Mansion, three scribes rubbed their red eyes. In the past few months, the paperwork sent to the Zhuguo Mansion has not been broken. "The old men are less sleepy, and if they stay up late, we will be unlucky." Zang Buha opened the tea barrel, carefully took out a piece of ginseng whisker, broke it in two, threw one into the teacup, and handed it to Chen Xian.

The old men in the mouths of these scribes are the highly respected pillars in the Zhuguo Mansion. In the past few months, the Xia State has successively used troops in Annam, Rus, and Mobei three times. But these old men are very excited, many of the fifty or sixty-year-old Zhu Guo himself is a retired general, a state pastor, standing in front of the map and pointing fingers when he has nothing to do, but it is a pity that the Zhu Guofu does not have the right to directly intervene in the deployment of the campaign. Especially after defeating the Rus' state, the Rus' hometown was divided into more than 100 marquis' domains, and eight founding marquis were canonized. Together, a dozen Grand Dukes of Rus' demanded that the Xia army be stationed for at least five years, and that they should help build up their armaments and deter their neighbors to the west. It is necessary for the Zhuguo Mansion to pass a number of decrees, and the long history of the Prime Minister's Mansion and a few scribes almost lived in the Zhuguo Mansion, explaining the laws to the Zhuguo Kingdom one by one.

Chen Xian was not polite, threw half of the ginseng into the teacup, soaked it in boiling water, put his face on the teacup with the big mouth of the bowl, and smoked his face with the thick ginseng steam. The little girl of the Zhu family was arrogant, after the blind date, before the Chen family replied, she returned the Chen family's post gift back, so that he paid attention to this girl. Chen Xian raised his head, wiped off the water droplets, took a self-portrait in the mirror, smiled slightly, and showed his white teeth.

"It's bad for me, the tickets for the Liyuan Elegant Seat in the past three months have been invalidated." Gou Junsheng held a gold-painted incense note between his fingers and complained. Liyuan is the largest theater in Dunhuang, and there are ten seats every month, and it has been invalidated for two months for three consecutive months. Zang Bu and Chen Xian looked at each other and smiled, although they were both nobles, this Du Junsheng was the eldest son of the hereditary Qingyuan Marquis Gou's family, and he could inherit the family business and title in the future, and he was quite generous, but he was often tricked by the partnership of two colleagues who had no title to inherit, Zang Bu and Chen Xian.

Gou Junsheng was about to throw the ticket into the paper bucket, but Chen Xian's eyes lit up and shouted: "Slow! Gou Junsheng was slightly stunned, but the ticket in his hand was snatched away by Chen Xian, Chen Xian took out a silver coin and a half taels from his arms and threw it to him, and said with a smile: "It's a pity to lose it, it's better to give it to me." ”

Gou Junsheng took the silver money, but he didn't care, and threw it back to him, and said: "It's okay to give it to you, the house is so busy, can you still take leave to listen to the play?" He opened the file, and today the representative of the Dongshizi Dongren Society went to the Zhuguo Mansion to complain, but the matter of the complaint was that the Zhuguo Mansion could issue a decree prohibiting the workshop of the Guanzhong Chamber of Commerce from concealing the labor of the Guandong Liu, and those who had been accommodated by the workshop should be properly resettled by the Prime Minister's Mansion.

"This is natural." Chen Xian smiled and put the ticket in his pocket, and the silver coin was not polite.

"Oh? What's going on? Seeing him pretending to be mysterious, Zang Bu couldn't help but be curious, and a strange look flashed in Gou Junsheng's eyes.

"Hey," Chen Xian took a sip of ginseng tea rather proudly, "After the three battles of Annan, Rus, and Mobei, the treasury is almost empty, and the Protectorate Mansion has to toss, so it has to increase taxes, can these lieutenants easily increase taxes?" ”

Zang Bu gasped and exclaimed: "I have always been rich in Great Xia, these three battles, the battle of Rus has been won, and Annan and Mobei are also sure to win, how can the treasury be empty?" Gou Jun was thoughtful at the beginning, and then he pretended to be surprised, so that Chen Xian could explain it clearly.

Chen Xian saw that these two colleagues humbly asked for advice, and he couldn't sell it anymore, so he said in a deep voice: "What fights in a war is food." In addition to the battle of Annam, there was a transfer of grain and salary from Dali, and most of the grain and salary were transported over long distances in the battle of Rus and Mobei. Regardless of whether Guanzhong is transported to Xiaohai, or supports the army to cross the stone mountain, there is not one out of ten grains and grasses, and there is no one in Duhan and Hengzhai, because of the missed autumn harvest, the amount of grain and grass transported is more than enough to supply the soldiers to eat. After these three battles, it cost no less than tens of millions, and a lot of the materials accumulated in the treasury over the years were also consumed. After that, if we really want to run these three places for our dynasty, we must not dry up and fish, and demand excessively, so within a few years, the newly acquired places will maintain garrisons and quell rebellions, all of which must be supplemented by money from the state treasury. ”

Chen Xian was triumphant, took a sip of tea, and finally concluded: "The war in Mobei is over, and the Protectorate Mansion should not toss anymore recently." His mind suddenly rose and he sighed, "In my opinion, these three big victories, the Heavy Division and Lu Cao have at least half of the credit, but unfortunately the limelight was all seized by those people from the military division." It's not fair! At that time, the war between Mobei and Annam was not over, but he thought that the marching division was well-planned, the rear baggage was well transferred, and the victory was like a bag, but he couldn't help but feel a little unhappy that the limelight of the officials of the five prefectures was overwhelmed by the generals in front.

"And what about these bitter Easterners?" Gou Junsheng tapped the file with his fingers and said in a deep voice, "This group of scholars is not at ease anywhere, from Kanto to Chang'an Bachelor's Mansion, they can't stop." Checking the rogue people accommodated in the Chamber of Commerce's workshop involves a lot of work, and if the old men really want to do this, I'm afraid they will be busy for several months. ”

"But those Kanto people in the workshop are really too bitter." Zang Bu's face showed a look of unbearability.

"Could it be that the Protector Mansion, the Pillar Mansion really don't know?" Chen Xian said with emotion, "Most of the Tianfu will stay in the military governments, and the mining tax will be distributed to the prefectures and counties. The financial dependence of the five governments on industry and commerce is far greater than that of the Kanto region. Every time the workshops of these chambers of commerce house a homeless person, it means a real tax for the five governments. Therefore, the Zhuguo Mansion has to pay attention to the complaints of these Kwantung scholars, and I have three words here, difficult, difficult, difficult. After speaking, the old god took a sip of tea on the ground, and buried himself in the case again.