Far stronger than other grain merchants, this is the only reason why the Zhili Grain Company can stabilize the price of grain and push the price of grain in the direction that the empire wants to see!

People have more food than you have in stock, and more cash than you have, what can you do?

Even if the Zhili Grain Company uses commercial means in a dignified manner, other grain merchants can't play it.

The success of the Zhili Grain Company also directly contributed to the establishment of the Datang Grain Corporation, as well as the establishment of the provincial grain companies under its jurisdiction, and the Tang Dynasty was about to usher in an era of direct official control of grain prices, and it was operated by a relatively mild commercial method, rather than a simple and crude administrative order.

For this situation, Li Xuan is also relieved, when he promoted the establishment of a grain company, to be honest, he was still a little worried, the way he adopted was actually to follow some measures, of course, the specific details are different, but in essence it is still the same, that is, to directly use the strong strength of the country, under the premise of maintaining market freedom as much as possible, to maintain price stability, especially to maintain the vital grain price.

In spite of various economic crises and the fact that housing prices have risen to the sky, the prices of basic living materials are still stable, even if there is an inevitable rise, but the level of growth is the same as the overall economic development.

And more importantly, while maintaining food price stability, the authorities did not take some coercive and excessive measures, but adopted market measures.

Originally, Li Xuan thought that it would be difficult to replicate such a policy in the Tang Dynasty, after all, the economic system of the Tang Dynasty was far less perfect than that of the modern countries of later generations, and it would be very difficult to rely solely on commercial means to maintain price stability.

But the performance of Datang Grain Corporation still made him very satisfied.

The Datang Grain Corporation performed well and played its intended role, so Li Xuan would not need to take some compulsory administrative measures to stabilize prices.

Although the effect of coercive administrative measures is also outstanding, it is a double-edged sword for the empire itself, and it has a certain negative impact on the industrial and commercial development promoted by the Tang Empire.

Li Xuan, who was in a very good mood, after the Lantern Festival, promoted several officials in charge of this aspect of affairs, and the director of the Department of Agriculture and Production of the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, who was specifically responsible for affairs, would be released to the ground after a period of time to serve as the political envoy of a certain province.

After putting aside the food problem, Li Xuan once again shifted the focus of his work from domestic affairs to military affairs.

In recent months, although Li Xuan has also maintained his attention to military issues, he has only listened to briefings and basically has not interfered too much in the work of army and navy generals.

However, now that the Liaodong Campaign has reached a critical moment, and the Nanyang Raiders have also begun preliminary work, it is necessary for Li Xuan to pay attention to it personally.

To this end, in the second half of the first month, he convened an enlarged military meeting in front of the emperor, and the senior generals of the army, navy, guards, and the three armies of the Tang Dynasty gathered together.

Many high-ranking generals wore a general's dress, and successively entered the largest and most important conference room in the royal courtyard, this huge conference room is different from the ordinary hall, this is a conference room with an area of more than 200 square meters, and there is a huge rectangular table in the middle, around the rectangular table, there are more than 30 chairs.

In front of the rectangular table, there is no chair, because in front of it, there is an independent office chair, which is Li Xuan's special seat.

On either side, a dozen or so chairs sit against the wall and large floor-to-ceiling glass windows, which seat those who are observing the meeting.

The windows in the conference room are not small windows, nor are they traditional Chinese sliding doors, but large large glass windows, and almost two-thirds of the entire wall is glass windows.

These glasses are architectural glasses produced by a glass company invested by the Imperial Family Assets Division, and although each piece of glass is not large due to technical limitations, it is still possible to create the effect of a large-area glass window by putting it together with a frame.

The large glass windows make it a little noisy today, but the room still doesn't need to be lit with a lot of candles, it can be extremely bright.

These high-ranking generals entered the conference room one after another, and then they began to talk in twos and threes, and many of them looked serious, and when they talked to each other, they did not forget to cast hostile glances at the generals of other branches of the military.

When everyone was talking, there were also clear circles, there were many generals in the army, there were more than 20 of them, occupying a large space, and more than a dozen individuals in the navy chose to be by the window, while the generals of the Guards had the least, only four people, they were standing on the side muttering that they didn't know anything, and the auditors of the Hanlin Academy, the War Department, and the Navy Department were scattered.

The people of each organization are clearly divided, and no one tries to talk to people from other institutions, because everyone present knows the importance of today's meeting, and the various factions present are enemies of each other, if not enemies, but there are also conflicts of interest.

And today, they represent their own institutions, factions, personal relationships, and are worthless in an occasion like today.

For example, Vice Admiral Lei Wan, he actually had a good personal relationship with Vice Admiral Song Binglin, the chief of the Navy Staff and the former commander of the Second Fleet, and he also agreed to be his sons and daughters.

But today, as if the two of them didn't know each other, after entering this conference room, they didn't talk anymore, and they didn't even nod to each other.

Personal relations are personal relations, but wait a minute, I am afraid that the two sides will have to fight for tat and compete for interests on behalf of the navy and the army, and the losing side is not expected to be in a good situation, at least within its military branches will definitely be dissatisfied.

Why are these people so serious, with a wary look on their faces!

That is because the military budget for the eighth year of Xuanping has not yet been finalized, and although a meeting was already held at the end of last year when the budget for the eighth year of Xuanping was formulated, at that time, the Son of Heaven only allocated part of the military expenditure, and about one-third of the military expenditure was withheld and not allocated.

Today, a very important topic is to discuss the distribution of the remaining one-third of military spending.

How to distribute it, this is a big problem.

It is not even just a question of military spending, but also a question of the future direction of the military strategic development of the Tang Empire.

With the progress of the Liaodong Campaign, even if the Liaodong Campaign is still being fought now, everyone knows that it is only a matter of time to take Liaodong, and it is estimated that it will not take long, at least two or three months, and at most a year and a half, and it is estimated that Liaodong will be able to take it.

And next, why did the huge military power of the Tang Empire go?

Horses put Nanshan, nothing to do?

Impossible, this is an army that spends more than 20 million taels of silver every year, and if you don't fight, you will lose!

Moreover, many high-ranking generals know that the Holy Son of Heaven, the Eternal Saint Monarch, is a person with huge ambitions, and this ambition can even be said to be unprecedented and unprecedented.

The Son of Heaven is to conquer the world!

But how to conquer and where to fight first? How to fight?

This will not only affect the strategy of the future empire, but also affect the distribution of benefits between the services.

Attacking the South Seas first, well, the navy is happy, and fighting the South Seas means expanding the fleet, expanding the marines, and the military spending will be more, but the army is not happy.

If you fight the Tatar-dominated north first, the army will definitely clap your hands and celebrate, and if you fight the north, the army will definitely expand its army and prepare for more cavalry, but the navy will be very disappointed.

Because military spending is limited, if the army takes more, the navy will take less!

In addition to military spending, there is also a very important point that war means military merits, and military merit means promotion and knighthood, even if it is not for themselves to seek promotion and knighthood, but a large number of soldiers are waiting for promotion and fortune.

As a military boss, you don't fight for the opportunity to be promoted to a knighthood for your subordinates, become a hairy boss, hurry up and retire and go home to hug the baby!

The generals of the army and navy are-for-tat, but the Guards are as stable as Mount Tai, and the funds for the Guards are not from the military expenses, but directly from the royal funds, which was already determined at the end of last year.

Besides, the great, the Great Eternal Saint Monarch, who is greater than the sun, even if he dismantles the army and navy, he will not lose a copper plate to the Guards!

Not for anything else, just because their name is 'The Guards'.

And several officials in the Hanlin Academy, such as Li Daobing, the head of the Hantong Command, the chief of the Army Section, and the Chief of the Navy Section, as well as the Cabinet of the Army, the Navy Department, and others, all sat separately and did not speak, anyway, they were here to observe today, well, no, by the way, to watch the play.

What kind of drama to watch, it is natural to watch the army and navy carry out strategic tearing!

This kind of scene can generally only be seen at the end of the year or the beginning of the year, because the end of the year or the beginning of the year is the time for the allocation of military spending, and the army and navy have to stage a big drama every year.

So today, all the generals who came to the meeting, regardless of whether they were the army, navy or the Guards, were not allowed to carry swords, well, crutches, canes, and the like.

Well, there is a new rule this year, there can be no metal belt buckle on the belt before entering the market!

Because in the middle of last year, when the army and navy were holding a joint meeting, a colonel and senior operational staff officer of the operations department of the army privy council were so angry that the navy generals could not do it, and then untied their belts on the spot and pumped people, as a result, those who were beaten were slightly injured, and those who beat people were fined for one year.

It can be seen from this that in official affairs, the army and navy are actually in that incompatible state!

After the scheduled time arrived, none of the people who should have come were left, all of them arrived, and it didn't take long for an official of the secretariat to walk into the conference room with brisk steps, and then whispered to the many bigwigs in the conference room: "Ladies and gentlemen, the holy car is almost here!" ”

At this time, the many generals in the conference room stood in a predetermined order.

As soon as they stood up, they heard someone at the door singing: "Your Majesty has arrived!" ”