The time is the first year of Changqing, according to the practice of this day, the shogunate and local state and county officials in Youzhou have a day off in order to reunite with their families, Li Mao also stipulated that on this day officials are not allowed to give gifts to each other and move around, so as to avoid many unnecessary troubles.

It is a custom to go out on the Shangsi Festival, but for the palace of Chengwu County, it is not easy to enjoy this custom, there are many places outside the city of Youzhou for walking, but there are crowds of people everywhere, if the king of the county wants to have fun with the people, the result may be that the king of the county is happy and the people are not happy, because the palace guard and the local security bureau will expel the tourists cleanly, so as to ensure the absolute safety of the king and his family.

This was naturally not what Li Mao wanted, so in view of the huge trouble that travel might bring to the place, Li Mao only allowed everyone to go out of the west gate of Youzhou and go to the Songlin Garden in the west of the city. Songlin Yuan was originally a military reclamation grange, because the number of this army was revoked, the team was reorganized, the grange was therefore handed over to Youzhou place, Youzhou place auctioned it, because the water and soil are not good, too close to the barracks, no one is willing to take over, over time it was abandoned, Su Qing to Youzhou after the capital purchase, in the village to divert water to open a pond, raise chickens, ducks and fish, make it very prosperous.

It is sparsely populated, far away from the city, and does not disturb the people. You can reach it through a secluded side gate through a secluded side street and out of the west gate of Youzhou. Li Mao took his wives and concubines and children to play in the village for a day, and returned to the city before the time.

Li Mao returned to the study, the guards came to fetch water, and they were soaking their feet, when Shi Kong came to report that a messenger had arrived in Taiyuan, and there was an urgent delivery, and Qi Hao asked to be handed over to Li Mao in person.

It was Qi Min, the son of Qi Hao's brother Qi Zheng, who was only in his teens, trained with his uncle, was mature and capable, and was full of shrewdness.

Li Mao motioned to bring people in, and said to Qi Min: "It's all your own people, everyone doesn't have to be formal, sit, drink tea." Qi Min didn't dare to be contemptuous, saluted, took out a secret letter from his personal body, and presented it to Shi Kong, but he didn't dare to sit down.

Shi Kong invited him to sit down, served tea with his own hands, and chatted relaxedly: "The Lantern Festival has just been fought, why, do you want to pull the guys to war?" ”

Qi Min said: "When the kid left Taiyuan, the situation was already very tense, and there was a great momentum. After drinking tea, he was obviously unwilling to talk more about Taiyuan in front of Li Mao.

After reading the secret documents, Li Mao asked Qi Min: "The imperial court ordered all towns to sell troops, what is the attitude of all armies in Hedong?" ”

Qi Min said: "The imperial court thinks that the world is peaceful, and wants each town to cut 8 percent of the sergeants every year, and persistently achieve the goal of reducing the number of soldiers and reducing the burden." But there is no word to explain to the dismissed soldiers, the local government is unwilling to lay off troops, and deliberately does not make arrangements, so the sergeants are very resentful, those retrenched sergeants have no place to stand, and there is no way to make a living, and they are used to eating food and refuse to work hard to give to other families, all of them are down, and now many people gather in the mountains and forests, for bandits and thieves, and the government has nothing to do with them. ”

"The policy of selling troops" is a national policy implemented by Li Heng after he ascended the throne by adopting the suggestions of prime ministers Xiao Li and Duan Wenchang. Soldiers and horses are the capital of each feudal town, and the policy of selling troops has undoubtedly touched the foundation of everyone, so except for a few feudal towns in the south, many towns have violated the yang and the yin, and deliberately magnified the policy shortcomings.

Li Mao said with deep feelings: "Yuanhe has been changed to Changqing, the new dynasty must have a new atmosphere, the two new prime ministers are in a hurry to make meritorious contributions, so they offer such a plan to Your Majesty, but it will hurt the world and the towns." Now all parties are in violation of the yang and the yin, and they are actually working hard to dig a pit, but the time is not right, no one is willing to make the first bird, but how to hold it is not a matter, sooner or later it will cause a big mess. ”

Qi Min said: "What the Tai Lieutenant said is very true, I met six bandits on the way here, and when I asked, they were all Hedong sergeants who were laid off, and there was nothing in the world, but they were sprinkled with fire all over the ground, I really don't know what the two ministers in the court and the middle are." ”

Shi Kong smiled: "They are just incompetent and talentless, and they have done bad things with good intentions, what can they do?" ”

Li Mao said: "I won't write the letter, you go back with a message: do what you can, take the preservation of strength as the first priority, I judge that there will be no big chaos in a year or two." ”

Qi Min got up to say goodbye, Shi Kong sent him out, and ordered someone to take him to Ningyuan to meet his aunt Qi Yan.

Li Mao took Qi Hao's secret letter to him again, closed his eyes and pondered for a while, and then lit it on fire, generally the secret documents need to be handed over to Zeng Zhen for archiving, but some special secret documents are not suitable for Zeng Zhen, Li Mao will destroy them with his own hands after reading them, and this secret letter belongs to one of them.

For a while, Su Qing sent Taohong to invite Li Mao to the family banquet, Li Mao had something in his heart, but he couldn't bear to arouse everyone's interest, cheered up and coped with one, the banquet was dispersed, and he went to the middle hall of the military mansion, reviewed a few urgent items, discussed a few major matters with Chang Mucang, and sent Cai Youcai to find Hu Nanxiang.

Hu Nanxiang had just been transferred from Guizhou to the sub-branch, and he was still familiar with the business, and when he heard Li Mao's summons, he was very nervous, afraid that he would be reprimanded for answering the wrong questions, Li Mao has always been strict with the people around him, he can't talk about beating, scolding is commonplace, and he is especially strict with his confidants like Hu Nanxiang, and Hu Nanxiang, who can scold every time, is sweating profusely.

But tonight, Li Mao's temper was exceptionally good, he even left his seat and went to the door to greet him, but Hu Nanxiang was still a little nervous after sitting down, he knew Li Mao's temper too well, in Qin Mo's words, he hid a knife in his smile, and turned his face as he spoke.

After asking a few gossips, Li Mao suddenly changed his words: "Originally, Xiaozhang came back from Ziqing, and I wanted him to return to Liaodong, but now I have to make adjustments." What is your opinion on the candidate for the head of Liaodong District? ”

It turned out to be to ask for his own opinions, to answer such a question, there is no need to figure out his thoughts, let alone follow his will to answer, otherwise he will be scolded by him as brainless, once or twice, and then estranged, at this time only need to say their own opinions, generally speaking, as long as it is not too outrageous, he will not say anything, your opinion is only for his reference, there is no right or wrong.

Hu Nanxiang calmly replied: "Liaodong is the place where the marshal started, the backyard of Youzhou, our base camp, there is no room for mistakes, although Liaodong Tun has heavy troops, Silla, Bohai is temporarily peaceful, and the Yan Ya and Muwei are also honest, but the choice of the chief manager should still be the first to understand the military, originally Jin Daoan was the best candidate, but because of Xue Shangshu, it can no longer be used, I suggest using Ma Hedong as the general manager." ”

Li Mao said: "Tell me your reasons. ”

Hu Nanxiang said: "Liaodong is still unstable, the use of troops abroad is frequent, there are three commanders in the two major theaters of war in Ko, Be, and Pyongyang, and there are strong enemies such as Silla, Bohai, and Jianya, and there will be wars in the future. Ma Hedong has been a subordinate of the marshal since Ziqing, and he is also one of the founding fathers of Liaodong, and his qualifications are naturally enough, this time to pacify the civil strife of the Huang Li and Huang Zhong brothers, it is a great achievement, and it can be regarded as washing away the stains of the past, he is old, and there is not much pursuit, and he is a very pure soldier, and he is the head of Liaodong District, I think it is very suitable. ”

Li Mao said: "He is a good hand at leading troops, but there is still some fire to govern the place." How is Chen Guangdao? ”

Hu Nanxiang shook his head: "In addition to being the logistics chief of the three capitals in the two theaters, the governor of Liaodong also implies the meaning of supervision, Chen Guangdao is not qualified enough, but he is afraid that he will not be able to convince the public." ”

Li Mao still shook his head, asking Hu Nanxiang to think about whether there were other candidates.

Hu Nanxiang proposed a candidate: Wang Jian.

Li Mao said: "As far as I know, this brother of mine is a good hand at fighting, and he is also very average as a parent official. In the past, he was a stabbing historian in Yingzhou, someone accused a neighbor of stealing his cattle, sued the state government, he interrogated left and right, and in a fit of anger, he set up a cauldron at the door, boiled two pots of boiling water, and threatened to throw the liar into it to boil, what was the result, both people immediately changed their words, the defendant said that he stole the cow and quietly sold it, but the plaintiff said that his cattle were not lost. As a result, it turned out to be a mess again. ”

Hu Nanxiang hurriedly said: "If the king is the governor of Liaodong, I am willing to assist him." Don't you often say that it's kind of interesting for me to govern places? ”

Li Mao said: "If you don't do it with a good God of Wealth, you go to deal with the people and the people, and you let the donkey kick your brain?" ”

Hu Nanxiang said: "Although the God of Wealth is majestic, it is not easy to be, all parties want money, but the way to get money is controlled by the gods of all parties, it is really embarrassing." ”

Li Mao sneered: "So you retreated bravely." ”

Hu Nanxiang smiled embarrassedly.

Li Mao said: "Okay, just fulfill your wish and go to Liaodong to help Wang take over, Liaodong is our blessed land, and there is no room for loss." Hu Nanxiang was immediately appointed as the judge of Liaodong Jiedu, the governor of Liaozhou, the envoy of soldiers and horses in Liaodong City, the marching Sima of the Liaozhou Security Army and the observer of the first division, to assist Wang Jian in taking charge of Liaodong and supporting the Quartet.

Because of Su Qing's authorization, Cui Gu, who took care of the Haidong Society, was very face-saving, Zheng Xiaozhang's trip to Ziqing was finally successful, and the relationship between all parties was basically straightened out.

This time, the power in his hands has multiplied several times, and his status has also been improved by a level, but Zheng Xiaozhang only has a wry smile, accompanying the king like a tiger, Li Mao is the king of Youzhou, and it is already difficult to serve him alone, but now there is an extra tigress who needs to be accompanied, how can he live a small life in the future.

However, Li Mao had a heart-to-heart long talk with him, which gave him firm confidence. The core of the entire government affairs system is the degree branch bureau, and the key point is the word "money"; if we want to grasp the government affairs system and make it brilliant, we must open up a wide range of financial resources to support and set revenue.

With the strong support of Li Mao, Zheng Xiaozhang began to carry out his financial reform movement, which was not favored from the beginning, Youzhou now governs the land of 15 prefectures, the place is very large, there are many people, all kinds of relations are complicated, and any financial innovation is doomed to failure.

Only a very small number of people see the ambition and ambition behind this reform, once the reform is successful, Youzhou will be out of the way, like a winged Pegasus, spreading its wings and rushing into the blue sky.