"The old minister thinks that there are only three major policies of Wu State in the final analysis, and the first is the separation of military and political affairs. This is too much to do for the time being. ”

"But the second point is that the king can follow suit by attaching importance to the imperial examination, vigorously selecting scribes, and gradually governing the place with civil officials."

"Does Seventh Brother mean to open the imperial examination?"

"Not bad! There is no shortage of military generals in my Jin Kingdom, and it can even be said that there are many famous generals, but there is a great lack of civil officials who know how to govern the place. ”

"If the king wants to separate the military and the government in the future, it is necessary to have enough civilian officials to govern the localities. If you don't prepare now, it's too late in the future! Zhang Chengye said solemnly.

It's hard to see the good and the bad without comparison.

In the past, everyone came according to the system of the Tang Dynasty, so the local forces were very strong, and the envoys and assassins were rampant in the places one by one.

And because all countries do this, everyone is used to it and does not think of changing it; Or even if you want to change, you don't know how to do it.

And Li Keyong was originally born in the Hu people, only attaching importance to force, and neglecting governance, coupled with the poor military discipline of the Jin army, and the innate looting habits of the Hu army, so the territory of the Jin State became more and more decaying.

It's not that no one has noticed these problems, like Li Cunmiao, who has gradually changed them after he succeeded to the throne.

But these changes are only superficial, not deep.

However, now that there is an example of Wu Guo in front, Zhang Chengye naturally pays more attention to the defects of the Jin State and knows where to change it.

Of course, the best way is naturally the separation of military and political affairs that he proposed before, but unfortunately it is too involved to be implemented for the time being.

Therefore, he retreated to the next best thing, and planned to first implement the imperial examination to select civilian officials, so as to prepare for the separation of military and government in the future.

"This strategy is naturally feasible, then when the state of Wu was not founded, it dared to open the imperial examination; Since Yang Wu can do this, so can Lone Nature! After returning to Jinyang this time, Lone ordered the opening of the imperial examination! Li Cunmiao agreed very happily.

Zhang Chengye was happy in his heart, he really hoped that the Jin Kingdom would become stronger, and hoped that the King of Jin could finally eliminate Zhu Wen and revive the Tang Dynasty.

In order to be able to realize his ideals, he can give everything for the Jin Kingdom, the so-called dedication and death.

"Great King, the second suggestion of the old minister is to follow the example of the State of Wu, establish a forbidden army, which is specifically responsible for conquest, and only obey the orders of the king alone, and gradually gather up the military power!"

"Establish a forbidden army? Will this cause uneasiness among the generals? Li Cunmiao hesitated.

The establishment of the forbidden army was also a major feature of the state of Wu.

Although there are forbidden armies in all countries, such as the Shenjie Army and the Longxiang Army of the Liang State, these are all forbidden armies.

However, these armies were only a few elites in the Liang army, and they were not the main force of the Liang army.

In foreign conquests, the armies that really serve as the main force are still those that are in the hands of the envoys or assassins.

However, the state of Wu is different, the main force of foreign conquest is the forbidden army, which is completely in the hands of the imperial court; And the Xiang army in the hands of those local assassins is not only old and weak, but also has worrisome combat effectiveness, and generally only serves secondary tasks such as transporting baggage and defending the city.

If it is according to the system of Wu State, it is necessary to drastically reduce the military power in the hands of the generals, what is the difference between this and the previous separation of military and government?

It is just a weakening of the civil rights of the generals, and a weakening of the military power in the hands of the generals.

This kind of policy that is easy to cause the Jin people to deviate from morality, Li Cunqiao will naturally feel hesitant.

Zhang Chengye explained with a smile: "The king is too worried. When Huainan implemented the separation of military and political affairs, these policies were implemented at the same time. ”

"When Huainan implemented the separation of military and political affairs, those local assassins were either turned into leading generals, and they were all responsible for conquest as generals in the future; Either he will continue to serve as the assassin, but he will no longer be in charge of the campaign. ”

"At the same time, Huainan established the prototype of the forbidden army, and began to draw out the elite of the generals to be responsible for the campaign."

"That Huainan was also under pressure from all sides at the beginning, but they insisted on implementing so many reforms at the same time, which led to the current situation; Could it be that the king is only doing part of it, and he still has to worry about turmoil? ”

Yes, it was true that Huainan implemented the policy of establishing a forbidden army and separating the military from the government at the same time, and all assassins had to make a choice.

And once the choice is made, it is very difficult to change it in the future.

Such a big change also relied on Yang Xingmi's prestige at that time, and many of those veterans were the kind of people who did not have much ambition, and with the support of these people, Huainan's change was successfully completed.

Today's Jin State wants to implement the separation of military and government and the establishment of a forbidden army at the same time, and the risks involved are naturally not willing to face by Li Cunmiao.

However, if only part of it is implemented, the benefits involved will be much smaller, and Li Cunqiao is still not worried.

So after a moment of silence, he replied solemnly: "It naturally doesn't hurt to establish a forbidden army dedicated to conquest. However, Seventh Brother thinks that the size of this forbidden army should be appropriate? In addition, how to choose the choice of generals? ”

The national strength of the entire Jin State is only so much, so the number of troops that can be maintained is also determined.

If the scale of the newly established forbidden army is too large, it means that too many troops need to be drawn from the generals of various departments, which obviously offends too many people and is easy to cause dissatisfaction among the generals.

However, if the scale is too small, it doesn't make much sense, so this degree needs to be well grasped.

I only heard Zhang Chengye say solemnly: "King, the scale of this forbidden army, the old minister feels that it is not necessary to have too much at the beginning, but he must choose elite soldiers and ensure their loyalty." Wait until later to scale up gradually. ”

"So Lao Chen thinks that it is most suitable for the forbidden army to only select 30,000 at the beginning! But the key thing is to ensure that at least 10,000 of them are cavalry! ”

"Seventh Brother means to take the cavalry into Gu's hands first?"

"Not bad! The elite of my Jin army is mainly in the cavalry, if the cavalry is controlled, then the king's control of the army does not have to worry! Zhang Chengye explained.

"And what about the leading generals?" Li Cunmiao's interest gradually increased, and his voice became a little excited.

Since he regarded Yang Wu as his opponent, he naturally carefully compared the differences between the systems of the two countries and understood the superiority of some of Wu's policies.

Although it is not possible to completely follow the policy of Wu in the Jin State now, it can be partially implemented first, and then slowly changed in the future.

If the Jin State can really achieve a high degree of power concentration like the Wu State in the end, the strength of the Jin State will definitely be able to reach a higher level at that time, and there will be no need to worry about the generals under his command as in the past.

"The candidates for generals, the old minister thinks it is best to select them from those low-level generals."

Zhang Chengye didn't explain too much, but Li Cunmiao understood what he meant.

Back then, Li Keyong received too many righteous sons, and in the so-called Thirteen Taibao, except for Li Cunqiao himself, the others were all righteous sons.

Although these righteous sons are not real sons, they also have the right to inherit the throne of King Jin in name, such as Li Siyuan, who later in history, successfully ascended the throne.

Therefore, it is obviously not advisable to use these righteous sons as generals of the forbidden army.

As for other veterans like Zhou Dewei, their prestige is obviously too high, if they are used as generals of the forbidden army, then whether this forbidden army belongs to Li Cunqiao or these veterans, this is really unclear.

The best way is to use those young generals who have little prestige, at least to ensure that they will only be loyal to Li Cunqiao alone.

……

After talking for a long time, Li Cunmiao finally made up his mind that after returning to Jinyang, he would start preparing for the opening of the imperial examination and the expansion of the forbidden army.

These two points may not be as highly centralized as the Wu State, but at least they can be improved from the previous Jin State.

In the future, if we follow the example of Wu for reform, the national strength of the Jin State will inevitably be greatly improved.

……

When Li Cunqiao and the two were discussing the reform of following the example of Wu State, in the city of Guangzhou in Lingnan, Liu Yin, the king of Pengcheng, also reached the moment of the final return.

Since he became seriously ill last year, although Liu Yin has sought medical treatment many times, he has never improved.

During this period, Yang Wu, the king of Wu, also sent an envoy to visit the sick and brought a palace doctor.

However, I don't know if it is because the imperial doctor's medical skills are not enough, or because he doesn't want to treat Liu Yin's condition at all, in short, after the imperial doctor sees the doctor, Liu Yin's condition has not improved in the slightest, but is getting worse day by day.

By now, Liu Yin already knew that he was not far from the limit, and the only thing that reassured him was that during this time, his younger brother Liu Yan took charge of the military and government of Lingnan instead of him, and kept Lingnan in an orderly manner without the slightest mistake.

Therefore, Liu Yin can rest assured that he will hand over the Lingnan foundation to his younger brother, without worrying about civil strife in Lingnan after his death.

It's a pity that the biggest crisis in Lingnan today does not come from within, but from the state of Wu, which is sweeping across the south and eyeing the major forces.

Although Liu Yin has nominally surrendered to the state of Wu, and was crowned the king of Pengcheng by Yang Wu, the king of Wu, and concurrently served as the envoy of the Lingnan Festival, the relationship between the two families can be seen by anyone with a discerning eye.

Today's Wu State can be said to be blatantly annexing the major forces in the south, and Qian Biao, Zhong Chuan, Wang Xianzhi, Wei Quanyan, etc., who once divided one side, have all disappeared; Ma Yin, the king of Chu who seized Hunan, can only support it under the attack of the Wu army.

And Qianzhou and Lingnan can still maintain relative independence now. status, but everyone knows that this is just that Wu Guo can't take care of them for the time being.

When Wu Guo frees up his hands in the future, Yang Wu will naturally not let them go.

It's a pity that even if you know the ambitions of Wu Guo, what can you do?

The difference in strength between the two sides is too big, even if Lingnan and now still remain independent. The established State of Chu and the State of Qianzhou joined forces, but the combined strength of the three was still not the opponent of the State of Wu.

rashly making an enemy of Wu will only completely offend Wu Guo, and it will not be good if Wu Guo is liquidated at that time.

Therefore, Liu Yin and the others can only watch Wu Guo attack Hunan on a large scale and dare not make any changes.