Du Huan, this is an unfamiliar name, almost no one has heard of him, soon, four old figures appeared at the door of the hall, in the broad and tall Hanyuan Palace, these four people seem so small and lonely, the hall is silent, only the rustling footsteps of the four people are heard. uctxt

Under the gaze of thousands of pairs of eyes, Du Huan and the four of them looked a little nervous, and even tripped and almost fell, but gradually their heads began to rise, and their steps became bigger and firmer, and finally they stood on the jade steps.

At this time, Zhang Huan slowly walked down the steps, pointed to these four people and said solemnly to the ministers: "I will introduce you first, the four of them are all captured soldiers in the Battle of Talas, I don't know how many of you can remember the battle of Tianbao in the tenth year that made us lose the west of the Green Ridge. ”

The hall is quiet, the four old men with white hair seem to open the tunnel of time, the tragic battle decades ago began to appear in front of everyone's eyes, the sound of the Jin Ge Iron Horse seems to still echo in everyone's ears, the era of the Tang Dynasty Iron Horse has been quietly submerged by the long river of years, disappearing in everyone's memory.

But the appearance of these four veterans today made everyone immediately realize that the glorious era of the Tang Dynasty was not far away, but the spirit of iron-blooded battlefield and mindful of thousands of miles has shrunk in the body of this nation.

Looking at the white-haired heads of these four people, they remembered that they left their homeland to fight for the country thousands of miles away when they were young and enthusiastic, but unfortunately they were captured in a foreign country, and more than 30 years have passed, but they have never forgotten their hometown, and how should they miss their wives and children and parents when they stood on the high post and looked at the east at night.

Some of the ministers began to sigh for their misfortune, no one spoke, and in the main hall, only the passionate voice of the Tang Emperor echoed: "For more than thirty years. They have never forgotten their homeland, they miss their homeland and relatives all the time, and this time, they have finally returned to their homeland thousands of miles away, and they are lucky. Because there are still thousands of captives who are still enslaved in foreign lands, many of them died in foreign lands, and many of them are on their deathbeds looking at the direction of their homeland for the last time, and they have passed away with great sadness, the reason why I want to invite them to the hall is to let you all remember, now is far from the time for us to enjoy, the shame and suffering of our Tang nation happened yesterday, and we still have thousands of compatriots who are still slaves in the hands of the great cannibals, the Tubo people, and the Hui people, and are bullied. Therefore, I want you to work hard with me to make my Datang strong as soon as possible. Only the strength of the Tang Dynasty can make those aliens who are still bullying my Datang compatriots put down their whips and take the initiative to return our compatriots, if they still refuse to return it at that time, then let us use the sword and iron lance to come to the door to ask them, to settle old accounts with them. ”

The impassioned words set off the blood in everyone's hearts, and countless voices in the hall echoed, "We are willing to share the weal and woe with Your Majesty!" "National shame will snow!"

In the end, countless voices converged into one voice, and the crowd in the hall was passionate. "The ministers are willing to work hard with Your Majesty to strengthen the Tang Dynasty as soon as possible!"

Zhang Huan waved his hand slightly, and the hall immediately quieted down again, he bowed deeply to Du Huan and the other four, and then ordered someone to send them out of the palace.

The atmosphere of the court meeting has been mobilized by Zhang Huan's wonderful opening speech, and at the same time, through the confession to the Talas veterans, everyone understands the emperor's determination to make great efforts.

"Let's go left and right. In the book order, the subordinate servants will no longer be awarded real officials. With six books and seven servants. Discuss in the government hall. Take turns in charge of the political pen. Limited to 10 days per person

"The door has the right to refute. The Holy Pen Reply is no exception

"The emperor has the right to directly appoint and dismiss officials above the fourth rank. However, it is not allowed to issue an edict on confidential government affairs. The Hanlin system is also not allowed to exceed the authority of the six departments. It is limited to the general and the order to conquer

The person who announced the reform of the regulations was Hu Yong, the servant of the ministry. Although he was not able to squeeze into the phase this time. UCTXT, but he can control the appointment and dismissal of middle and lower-level officials. Power is crucial. Everyone knows that he is Zhang Huandi's core confidant. It was only a matter of time before he came to the prime minister. After reading the edict on the separation of power between the prime minister and the monarch. He immediately announced an important appointment and dismissal.

Dismissed Zuo Prime Minister Cui Yu from his post as a servant. Changed to a subordinate squire. And sealed the Golden Purple Guanglu Doctor, with the book of the door under the Ping Zhang. This is clearly in line with the reform of the relative system. Cui Yu himself was not derelict in his duties. Therefore, after demoting Cui Yu from the servant of the third grade of the ground to the servant of the fourth grade. Zhang Huan also named him the doctor of the third grade of the golden purple Guanglu at the same time. to show that his official character is still the same.

Cui Yu immediately walked out of the court. Bow down and thank you. "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Zhang Huan smiled slightly, and said to him: "Cui Aiqing, in the future, the provincial department will review and refute the correction, and the responsibility is heavy, my Emperor Taizong once said that the edict of the Chinese book may be wrong, then of course the subordinates will refute the correction, if you avoid personal grievances, know that it is not righteous and follow the face of one person, it is the deep trouble of the people, this is the government of the country, so I hope you can be strict and upright, and do not relax with human feelings." ”

Cui Yu deeply felt Zhang Huan's trust in him, he gave a deep salute, and said solemnly: "The minister will never live up to His Majesty's grace, be strict with himself and others, judge things by facts, and never show favoritism." ”

Zhang Huan nodded, and ordered Hu Yong to continue to announce, Hu Yong coughed lightly, and then read about the local institutional reform:

"Abolish the county governance established in the year of Tianbao, restore the state governance established before the year of Tianbao, and the state assassins are directly responsible to the imperial court, cancel the ten systems under heaven, cancel the observation envoys of each province, and change them to supervision envoys and Xuanfu envoys, and visit the states from time to time; Removal of the position of a driver in the upper state

Before the Sui Dynasty, the local government was three levels: state, county, and county, but after the Sui and Tang dynasties, the county level was gradually abolished, and the state and county levels were directly established, which was mainly to reduce the number of local officials and strengthen the control of the central court over the locality. There is an intention to restore the three levels of provinces, prefectures, and counties, just like the three levels of provinces, cities, and counties today, so the focus of today's reform of local institutions is to abolish the provincial level, change the county to a prefecture, and restore the two-level system of prefecture and county. In order to strengthen the control of the imperial court over the locality, the observation envoy is nominally a temporary system, but in fact it is the provincial governor, and he will generally serve for a long time, so after the abolition of the provincial first-level local government, the observation envoy will be cancelled accordingly, and it will be changed to a temporary supervision envoy and a propaganda envoy, which is also to strengthen the supervision and control of the local area.

Changing counties into states and abolishing the ten provinces of heaven did not make much sense to the court officials. After all, it does not involve their own vital interests, but the establishment of another institution announced by Hu Yong immediately afterwards is like a hornet's nest. It caused an uproar in the main hall.

Emperor Xuanzong has issued three orders to strictly prohibit land annexation, but with little effect, because of the lack of the system, now from the chaos to rule, the world has more than four million hectares of terra nullius, the trend of land has been completed, in order to strictly control the land annexation. Therefore, the imperial court set up a special land and acres supervisor, with the same position as the salt and iron supervisor, unified management of the world's fields and acres, and each state set up a land and field and mu division, which controlled the fields and acres, and was directly subordinate to the imperial court and the fields and acres of the court. In particular, the three words in the middle: holding the rent will be of far-reaching significance.

This means that the state-level officials will no longer directly manage the rent and tax in kind, but will only summarize and report the land rent data of each county, and the tax in kind will be directly handed over by the counties to the land and land departments of each state, so as to separate the accounts from the facts, supervise each other, and sever the interest ties between the states and counties.

In the midst of the discussion, Hu Yong raised his voice and announced loudly: "There is one supervisor of the land and acres, and Pei Mingyuan, the supervisor of the palace, will serve as the supervisor. It is supplemented by two young eunuchs. Exceptionally promoted the members of the military department, Waiwu Yuanheng and the driving department, Langzhong, Niu monks and children, as young eunuchs. ”

Outside the court.

At the same time when the imperial court held the first New Emperor's court, five strange people also came to Chang'an's Tongji Fang. The so-called strange is just from the eyes of ordinary people, these five people are all burly, walking with their heads held high, their eyes squinting, with a kind of cold arrogance in their bones, the five people marched in a line, and the momentum brought by them made the vendors who set up stalls at the gate of the square dodge to both sides

The person in front of these five people is obviously the leader of their land, he is about thirty years old, with a calm bearing and a serious expression, he is the intelligence head of the Cui family in Chang'an: Cui Lianxing, he was ordered by Cui Yuan to investigate the assassination of Zhangfu, the government has no record of the assassination of Zhangfu, and the information of the supervision room has been destroyed, and some of the case information given to him by Cui Yuan is also the oral account of some Zhangfu's family members afterwards, and the part of the information on the scene is also what Cui Ning said to Cui Xuezhu

But it is this little bit of pitiful information, Cui Lianxing still found a clue with his rigorous reasoning, the assassin can be familiar with the defense in the house and can escape, he must have done a lot of preparation work in advance, and it is certain that there is their internal response in the mansion, according to common sense, the assassin is so carefully arranged, then he will kill the internal response afterwards, so, as long as you look at the person who disappeared in Zhang Mansion afterwards, you can find this internal response, but no one in Zhang Mansion disappeared afterwards, and they have all been investigated one by one, that's all, Cui Lianxing's attention focused on the people who died that night, a total of three people died that night, a pair of sister maids, one is a nurse, the sister maid is said to have been bought by Zhang Huan from the Fengxiang slave market back then, no relatives, has always been loyal to Cui Ning, and judging from the scene, they sacrificed their lives to protect the little master, and they had no money left after death, so there should be no motive to do internal response.

In the end, Cui Lianxing's eyes fell on another dead person, that is, Li's nurse, she died in the outer room, and ran out with Li, the reaction seemed to be too sensitive, with a trace of suspicion, Cui Lianxing found the autopsy of the three deceased last night, and learned from his mouth that the nurse was hit by a total of five swords, one sword in the front chest was fatal, and four swords in the back, and the deceased was face down, that is to say, the assassin was afraid that she would not die, and made up four swords in her back, but at that time, the child had been carried away by the maid, When the opportunity is fleeting, the Assassin does not rush to catch up, but attaches so much importance to an insignificant nurse, for fear that she will not die, why? The answer is almost instantaneous.

Now that this important clue has been discovered, Cui Lianxing decided to get to the bottom of her, and the nurse was the first to serve Cui Ning in Cui's mansion. So her information can be found in Cui's house, the nurse's surname is Chen, her home is in Chang'an Tongjifang, her husband sells meat in the bazaar, and there are a pair of children at home. The daughter was married last year, the son is 14 years old and is studying in the school, there is so much information about Cui's house, and the rest needs to be visited.

"Head! This is it. ”

A subordinate who came early in the morning pointed to a small door and said, "We are very lucky, I heard from the person next door that this man has been gone for more than ten days, but I saw him in the morning, and I haven't gone out since I went in." ”

Cui Lianxing nodded and looked up at Chen Nanniang's home. This is a very ordinary Chang'an family, with two entrances and a small courtyard. The house was already a little old, and he gave his subordinates a mouthful, "Go up and call the door!" ”

Immediately, two people went to knock on the door, but after shooting for a long time, there was no movement inside, and no one came to open the door.

Cui Lianxing's eyes swept around, there were not many passers-by, and he immediately ordered: "Go over the wall and go in!" ”

The courtyard wall is very low, except for two people to let the wind out. The other four jumped in, the yard was quiet, but the ground was not clean, it could be seen that the owner had not cleaned it for a long time, and suddenly, there was a click from the side room! There was a sound on the ground, and the sound was extremely slight, Cui Lianxing immediately strode forward and kicked open the door of the wing, and the light immediately poured into the dark room. I saw that the room was full of miscellaneous items, and there was a middle-aged man curled up in the corner of the room, who was Chen Nanniang's husband, Chen Tuhu, who was looking at them with horror on his face.

"Please don't kill me!" Chen Butcher stammered.

"Don't kill you." Cui Lianxing smiled coldly, "It seems that you have done something bad and talked nonsense in broad daylight." ”

The long sword was unsheathed, and the cold tip of the sword pressed against his chest, "Say!" How much did you charge them? ”

Chen Butcher hesitated, and a stream of blood was already flowing from his chest. He screamed in fright. "Don't kill me, I say! I say! ”

Cui Lianxing's strength was slightly lighter. Another loud shout, "Say it quickly!" Where is the money? ”

Chen Butcher trembled, he pointed to the corner of the wall and said, "It's all there." ”

Immediately stepped forward and cut the wall with a sword, took out a cloth bag from the wall, put it on the table and opened it, all of them were shining gold ingots, at least four or five hundred taels, Cui Lianxing glanced at the gold, and said coldly: "The money is gone, then you should also tell the truth, who gave you the gold, and what did you sell?" ”

Chen Butcher turned over and knelt down and begged: "I really don't know who sent it, these are all taken out by Erniang and let me keep it, I don't know anything else!" ”

"And how do you know someone is going to kill you?" Cui Lianxing slowly lowered his head, stared at his eyes and said fiercely: "I think it's better for you to tell the truth, otherwise even your daughter won't survive." ”

"Erniang died, I knew that there must be something wrong with this gold, I just sent my son away a few days ago, and I only came back last night, and when I heard you knock on the door, I thought they were coming." Chen Butcher had already realized that the person who came was not the one who wanted to kill him, and he was frightened for a while, and his speech became clever.

But Cui Lianxing suddenly heard the loophole in his words, with a wave of his hand, Chen Butcher's left ear was cut off in half, blood gushed out, his left face suddenly became bright red, and only his wailing and crying were heard in the room, Cui Lianxing was not soft-hearted, kicked him over, put his sword against his throat, and said with a cold gaze: "I'll give you one last chance, if you don't tell what you know, I'll chop you into meat sauce and force your son to eat it in one bite." ”

After speaking, he made a look, and immediately a person began to cut half of his ear on the ground with a sword, Chen Butcher finally collapsed, he was paralyzed, and said bitterly: "I only heard Erniang say a little, those people just asked her about the situation in Zhangfu Zhongdi, although their Chinese is very good, but Erniang always feels that they are not like the Central Plains, and they also threaten Erniang, if they say it, they will kill our whole family, we began to be afraid, Erniang discussed with me, first go to Taiyuan to buy a house, If things don't go well, run away immediately. ”

"Not from the Central Plains?" Cui Lianxing pondered for a while, and then asked, "Then do they know where to live here?" ”

Butcher Chen nodded with apprehension, "Erniang never told them, but I just found out this morning that someone had already entered the house when I was not at home. ”

"What if it's a thief?"

"It can't be a thief, there's a lot of money in the box, and they left this." Chen Butcher trembled and took out a dagger from his arms, and there was a piece of paper inserted on it, on which a word was written in blood, Die!

Cui Lianxing carefully looked at this dagger, this is a cheap thing that can be bought everywhere, it has no value, he put it aside casually, and suddenly remembered one more thing: "Do the neighbors around know where your daughter is married?" ”

Chen Butcher was shocked, he suddenly jumped up like crazy, and rushed outside, he had already understood Cui Lianxing's words, his son was hiding in Fengxiang's daughter now, Cui Lianxing pulled him back, Chen Butcher fell to the ground and cried, "It's over!" My son is finished. ”

"Don't cry! Things don't have to come to that point. Cui Lianxing thought about it again, put the paper with blood written on it on his nose and smelled it, and put it in front of Chen Butcher's nose, "You killed pigs, can you tell how long this blood smells?" ”

Butcher Chen's crying gradually stopped, he sniffed it carefully and said, "There is still a little smell, the earliest should be yesterday's blood, and it is sheep blood." ”

There was still time for him, Cui Lianxing immediately ordered two of his subordinates, "You immediately set off to his daughter's house to set it up, and if anyone comes to kill him, he will catch me alive!" ”

If it is said that Hui and Tubo are indifferent to the enthronement of the Tang Emperor and the beginning of the new era, it is incredible, so the assassin case is actually an introduction, which will slowly lead to the plot of the four kingdoms fighting for hegemony later.