Every year, the midsummer of Longyou always arrives in late June, but this year's hot summer is exceptionally early, and the early summer season has not yet come and jumped directly into the hot season.

In the middle of June, the scorching sun shrouded the land of Longyou, the sky has gradually become hot, the trees grow luxuriantly, everywhere is a piece of dark green woods, the wheat in the field is also yellow, the heavy low hanging full ears of wheat, in the Longyou Plain as far as the eye can see.

A few miles north of Jincheng County, near Wuquan Mountain, a team of nearly a dozen people guarded a horse-drawn carriage that was speeding north along the official road, through a forest, and in the rolling fields of wheat to a manor in the distance.

The manor is built on the mountain, you can see hundred-year-old trees everywhere, several small white buildings are completely covered by the dense shade of trees, a small stream passes through the shade, the water is gurgling, crystal clear, the stream is lined with all kinds of colorful small flowers, but the surrounding is heavily guarded, this is a courtyard of Zhang Huan.

After Zhang Huan returned to Jincheng County, he moved to this manor full of flowers far away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and he needed time to consider the situation in Longyou, just as he and Du Mei guessed in Shibao City, the Guanlong region east of the Yellow River only left the three counties of Jincheng, Longxi, Kaiyang and the remote counties such as Didao County and Wenjun in the south, while Pei Jun's army of 200,000 controlled a large area of land north of Guanlong.

At this moment, the manor is very quiet, Zhang Huan is wearing a hat to fish in the back garden, more than a dozen red fish haunt his fishing rod, and from time to time pull the fishing line deep into the water, but Zhang Huan is unconscious.

There was a desk beside him, and on it was a report on the march of Sima Luo Guangzheng, about the bereavement of the families of the fallen soldiers, according to Zhang Huan's opinion, each fallen soldier was bereaved 200 yuan. And give 10 acres of land at one time, but the money saved in the army has to recruit new soldiers, and the army has to pay the army's land salary, which can only squeeze out 200,000 yuan at most, so Luo Guangzheng suggested that the pension money be changed to 100 yuan, and 20 acres of land should be given at one time.

Zhang Huan pondered for a long time, he still wanted to give 200 yuan to the families of the fallen soldiers, especially some elderly people who had lost their only son, this money and 20 acres of land could allow them to spend their old age in peace.

"Come on! Beat Daddy hard, who told him to ignore us. Pei Ying's low laughter came from behind him. Immediately, a soft little fist hit Zhang Huan on the back.

Zhang Huan let go of his thoughts, turned around and smiled and hugged his son on his lap. The little one is almost a year old, in the words of Zhang Huan's mother. He looked like his grandfather, and he could stagger with the support of adults, and it was when he was most playful and active, but when he reached his father's hands, he was scratching around, looking at the fish in the water, but his hands were grasping at the rods. He shouted, 'Yes! asked Pei Ying to pull over a stool. Sitting next to Zhang Huan, she sighed happily. Leaning his head on his shoulder, he was able to come back safely and enjoy the joy of family with their mother and son. What could be more satisfying than that?

Zhang Huan stretched out his hand to wrap his arms around her waist, and suddenly a thought suddenly appeared in his heart, and asked Pei Ying: "Ying'er, how much money do we have at home?" ”

Pei Ying looked at her husband in some surprise, she didn't understand why he asked this question, she hesitated, she still replied: "About more than 300,000 yuan, most of which are stored in Wang Baoji in the capital, why do you ask about it when you are sick?" ”

Zhang Huan was silent for a long time and said: "I want to give more pensions to the fallen soldiers in Hexi, but I don't have enough money in the army, can I take some of it out of my family?" ”

Although her husband never mentioned the matter of Hexi after he came back, or even avoided it, she knew that he had been deeply blaming himself in his heart for the annihilation of the 20,000 soldiers in Hexi, especially the death of his masters Lin Delong and Lin Zhiyu, which made him taste the pain of losing his relatives, and perhaps taking out his family wealth could make him feel a little atonement.

Thinking of this, Pei Ying smiled softly and said, "Then I went to Chang'an and gave you 200,000 yuan, I don't know if it's enough?" ”

Zhang Huan patted her hand, his eyes showed gratitude, and he hurriedly smiled: "200,000 is enough, just let me send someone, I don't need you to run it yourself." ”

"I heard that my grandfather was seriously ill, and I was worried that he wouldn't survive this summer, so I wanted to go and see him." Pei Ying sighed softly, she bit her lip and said, "And father, the contradictions between you are getting more and more acute, and I want to try my best to ease them for you." ”

Since Pei Jun sent troops to Longyou, then their faces have already been torn apart, and the contradiction will only get deeper and deeper, easing it? How easy it is to talk about, although Zhang Huan knew in his heart that this time was in vain, he didn't want to spoil his wife's happiness, he smiled and asked, "Then when are you going to go back?" ”

At this time, the little guy in Zhang Huan's hand finally grabbed the fishing rod, but the fishing rod was not held, and was dragged away by the fish at once, and the little guy suddenly 'Wow! The ground cried loudly, Pei Ying hurriedly hugged him over to comfort, and finally waited for the child to stop crying, and then she said to Zhang Huan: "I am going to leave the day after tomorrow, I will clean up a little, and the child will be entrusted to Cui Ning." ”

Zhang Huan pondered for a while and said: "Cui Ning can't leave her Chunlei Hall, so let's just move back to the city tomorrow, and you go back to Chang'an and bring someone back for me." ”

"Is that Yang Chunshui?" Pei Ying pursed her lips and asked with a smile.

Zhang Huan nodded, "Since I have promised her, how can I break my promise." ”

"I know, you are a dignified envoy and a champion general, so naturally you will not lose your trust in a little woman." Pei Ying said angrily: "Last time I wanted to marry you a concubine when I was a child, but you pushed back, I really didn't think you were close to a woman, and I wanted to find it myself for a long time, and when I go back this time, I will find hundreds of Li Chunshui, Wang Chunshui and the like to come back for you to choose, you are happy now!" ”

Zhang Huan saw that his wife's face was gloomy, and knew that she was a little jealous, so he pulled her over and whispered in her ear: "Don't be angry, I'll compensate you well tonight, okay?"

"Go, there's a soldier watching over there! Don't pull and pull. Pei Ying broke free of Zhang Huan's hand and became angry, but she also had some worries, Zhang Huan was not opposed to finding a woman and marrying a concubine Pei Ying, but she didn't want Zhang Huan to marry a second wife, especially a political marriage with the Guanlong Group, which would threaten her status, and Ma Ling had implicitly proposed to give her second daughter to Zhang Huan as a flat wife, but Zhang Huan happened to go west to Hehuang and put it aside temporarily, and it would take at least a month for him to return to Chang'an this time, so he had to discuss it with Cui Ning.

Then. She saw a personal soldier running towards her from a distance, so she took the child's two little hands and smiled:

"Kiki and her mother will practice boxing, and teach her father a good lesson at night."

Speaking of this, she glanced at Zhang Huan coquettishly and charmingly, and left with her son.

Zhang Huan kept watching their mother and son walk away, and then asked his relatives, "What's the matter?" ”

"Governor, Elder Xin Ge is asking to see you outside the door."

Xin Yunjing came, Zhang Huan stood up and said with a smile: "Please invite him to my study, and I will arrive later." ”

After Zhang Huan came back this time, he made a lot of personnel adjustments. In particular, he reused the Longyou group, and he named Xin Lang, the son of Xin Yunjing, as the general of Zhonglang and the envoy of Lintao. And fully responsible for the government affairs of Lintao County, and named Ma Guorui, the second son of Ma Lanyan, as the general of Zhonglang and the envoy of Ningxiang soldiers. is also fully responsible for the government affairs of Ningxiang County, and appointed Bai Guangyuan's eldest son Bai Sheng as the secretary of Xiping County to join the army, and Lifei Yuanli's son Lifei Ming Erlang as the Hechuan soldier and horse envoy, so that several leaders of the Longyou Group were firmly tied to themselves, and even Li Qiao, the local clan in Hue County, also moved his family to Jincheng County.

After a while, Zhang Huan changed his clothes and walked into the study, which was one into three rooms. The innermost is where Zhang Huan handles official business. The outermost room is where his clerk Meng Jiao pre-processed the files, and the middle room is the place where meetings are held and subordinates are met.

Xin Yunjing was sitting alone drinking tea. Seeing Zhang Huan come in, he stood up and said with a smile: "The governor will really enjoy it, and deal with official affairs in this ordinary place of the Immortal Mansion."

But I was left to wait and go back and forth on the road. ”

Although Xin Yunjing was hired by Zhang Huan as the deputy president of the military academy, nominally Zhang Huan's subordinate, but he was a veteran of the Four Dynasties, and his reputation in the court was extremely high, even Cui Yuan, Pei Jun and others had to call him a pavilion elder, his eldest son Xin was the Shaoqing of Dali Temple in the middle of the court, and some of the other dozen sons were officials in the Tang Dynasty, and some were in charge of various granges, Xin Yunjing was originally in the home for the elderly, for the future of the family, he resolutely pressed the treasure on Zhang Huandi, and he himself also went out of the mountain again to serve Zhang Huan.

Zhang Huan didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly replied: "Let the elder work hard, I will be ready to go back in a few days and sit down for the two of them, without waiting for Zhang Huan to speak, Xin Yunjing first bowed and thanked: "Thank you for reusing Xin Lang." ”

"Elder Xin Ge doesn't have to be polite, Brother Bailing is both civil and military, and it should be of great use." Zhang Huan picked up the teacup, gently sucked a sip of tea and opened the topic and asked: "I have already ordered that all officers above the rank of captain must go to the Longyou Military Academy to study for one year, and the first batch of 300 people should come to report!" ”

"They have arrived the day before yesterday, please come and see it in a few days."

Zhang Huan nodded, he groaned and said, "I've been thinking these days, what is what I lack most in Longyou?" It should be talents, but talents will not fall from the sky, we need to discover, to cultivate, like Wang Siyu, He Lou Wuji, Jiuhan, Li Shuangyu, etc., they are all from the small soldiers step by step by me promoted, so I thought, I should establish a set of methods for selecting talents, such as in the army to open martial arts, so that the soldiers also have a bright day, can be tested in the martial arts, and then enter the military academy to study, so that my reserve talents are inexhaustible, Xin Ge always thinks? ”

"The governor said it well." Xin Yunjing smiled slightly: "I have two things to do today, one of which is similar to the governor. ”

"I want to hear about it!"

"The first thing is actually not my personal meaning, but a few days ago when I chatted with Ma Lan and Bai Guangyuan, I said that I heard that this year's Chang'an Imperial Examination of 100,000 scholars should take the examination, but in the end only 12 people were hired as officials by the Ministry of Officials, and a large number of outstanding scholars from poor families have no way to seek office, but if they are recruited at will according to the previous method, it is inevitable that the good and the bad will be indistinguishable, so I suggest that the governor simply open the government examination, openly recruit outstanding talents from all over the Tang Dynasty, and stay in Hehuang as an official, anyway, Hehuang is taken by the governor, even if the court is dissatisfied, ignore it."

Hearing this, Zhang Huan just smiled faintly, he didn't understand that Xin Yunjing had selfish intentions in it, and now he has been dragging the court with Jiuqu Weiping and Hehuang's unstable situation, but procrastination is not a way, once the imperial court appoints Assassin Shi Lai Hehuang to take office, the first thing to impact is the interests of Xin Yunjing and others, so their best way is to encourage Zhang Huan to appoint officials himself in front of the court, but this is also the effect that Zhang Huan hopes to achieve, tying them to his own chariot.

He had actually discussed this matter with Hu Secret several times, and he already had a preliminary plan, thinking of this, Zhang Huan smiled slightly and said: "Xin Ge Lao rest assured, Hehuang is my Xiliang army soldiers in exchange for blood, and will never give it to the imperial court, what is the second thing?" ”

Xin Yunjing has been watching Zhang Huandi's expression, seeing that he has made it clear that he will not give in, a stone in his heart fell to the ground, so he smiled, took out a letter of fold and handed it to Zhang Huan and said: "The second thing is the actual action we have taken to support the expansion of the army of the governor, yesterday we discussed more than a dozen of the Longyou clans, and decided to take out 500,000 yuan and 1 million stone grain, please ask the governor to smile, and there will be money and grain support every year in the future." ”

Zhang Huanhuo stood up, after the drastic changes in Helong, he learned from the pain, and decided to build an elite army of 200,000 people in three or five years, thinking so, how easy it is to do it, he does not have the accumulation of Cui, Pei and other great families for decades, nor does he have Shuzhong with rich land and a large population like Zhu Jun.

Although he seized the vast land of the eight counties of Hehuang, most of them were alpine lands, which were more suitable for raising horses and not suitable for farming, and the imperial court was only willing to give him 75,000 money and food according to the order of the envoy of Longyoujiedu, and the recruitment and support of the remaining 125,000 people had to rely on himself to raise money and food, and now, with the addition of 80,000 troops raised among the freed slaves in Hehuang, he actually had 180,000 troops in his hands, and the 20,000 troops that were still lacking could be collected from the liberated slave militia in Hehuang, or he could find a way to raise money and food from Guanzhong, Hedong, Shuzhong buys young and strong slaves.

These problems are not big, but how to solve the food and military salaries needed to feed the 120,000 army every year has become his biggest headache. Where does the money come from, at least one million per year?

Even if he takes all the taxes of Jincheng, Kaiyang, and Longxi counties, it is far from enough, of course, he can open mines to make money, and he can also breed animals, encourage mulberry hemp, and develop trade with the eastern counties, but these take time, and it is difficult to work in a short period of time.

He gave Xin Yunjing a deep salute, "The support of the Longyou family, Zhang Huan is engraved in his heart!" ”