Chang'an in the second year of the Apocalypse was spent in a heavy snowfall, and the heavy snow that began on Chinese New Year's Eve fell for a whole day, and under the leadership of local officials in Chang'an, the local garrison in Chang'an began to assist the local yamen to start snow removal early in the morning, arranging for the nearby lonely and widowed people to avoid the snow disaster, so that they could have a stable New Year.

However, at this time, the people in Chang'an City did not interrupt their pace of celebrating the New Year by the heavy snow, and the lively scene seemed to suppress the heavy snow. The palace is also busy, in addition to arranging for the guards to assist them in cleaning up the dishes in the imperial dining room, preparing for the New Year's banquet in the evening, but also taking time to take Ruyan and dozens of their maids to build a lot of snowmen near the Qianqiu Palace, Qiaoxi took the trouble to bring these snowmen with red fluttering hats, and they were dressed up like Santa Claus in later generations.

With these snowmen "standing guard" on the side of the road with different bodies, the palace is also quite lively. Li Xuanqing sent people to take Zhang Tianhu and Ma Laosan to the palace, these two old men have been running around the country for the past two years, as if they wanted to see enough of the scenery they had never seen back then. Li Xuanqing didn't say much about this, the two old men were in good health, but they didn't take the fatigue of the journey into account.

As soon as he arrived at the palace, Zhang Tianhu took Xiao Tianqi away, these two old people attached great importance to this grandson, and even when they came, they brought a lot of small gifts and toys collected from all over the country to think about this little guy, so Li Xuanqing was stunned and disappeared, thinking that he should take this little guy to Qujiang to play.

"Big brother, Brother Chen, they're here, they're in the side hall." Li Xuanqing originally planned to find some gifts to come out, and he would send them to the courtiers who came to pay New Year's greetings, but he hadn't found it yet, Qiaoxi walked over and said with a smile: "They are still making a fuss in the side hall and saying that you didn't give them gifts last year, and today you are here to rob." ”

"Forget it, these bastards will know to rob us." Li Xuanqing pulled Qiaoxi and said with a smile as he walked: "Don't worry, Chen Yu heard that he had already gone to Xiazhou to propose marriage a year ago, and he would let him marry after the New Year." After a pause, he frowned and said, "It's just that Tiancheng and a few of them haven't moved for a long time, which makes me worried." ”

"Don't worry, they have a lot of thoughts, I think they will definitely chase after them if they see it, don't worry about it." Qiaoxi was not in a hurry about this matter, and said with a smile: "But today, a few of them came with gifts, aren't we going to give some gifts in return?" ”

Li Xuanqing spread his hands and smiled bitterly: "Isn't this just about to find something to come out?" As a result, they came to the door, forget it, if you want to talk about gifts, they have been stationed in various places all year round, and they are afraid that there are more treasures than we have seen, and they are still giving us gifts. What kind of gift do you want to return? Before he finished his words, he only heard Hu Xiaosi's voice coming from the side hall of the Qianqiu Palace, "Listen, everyone, the emperor said that you are too stingy, and you still want him to return the gift when you give gifts in the New Year, which is terrible." ”

Qiaoxi went over and said hello to everyone and left in a hurry, there are too many things in the palace today, she needs to keep an eye on it from time to time, and the annual banquet in the evening will also invite the military and political leaders of Chang'an, sloppy, although Li Xuanqing does not pay attention to these false courtesies, but he can't stand these formal occasions.

"Who said you wanted to return the salute just now? And said I didn't give him a gift last year? Li Xuanqing walked to the main seat and sat down, then looked at Chen Yu and scolded with a smile: "I heard Toyota say that when someone went to Xiazhou to propose marriage, he prepared a carriage of all kinds of gifts, and this alone is probably worth a thousand gold, right?" As soon as Li Xuanqing said this, it immediately caused everyone present to laugh. This Chen Yu himself is also embarrassed, he is because his father-in-law is rich and his family is rich, and because he has followed the pace of Tiance Army to open a business and a factory over the years, and his wealth is huge, so he prepared a lot of valuable gifts in order not to lose his face when he proposed his relatives, and there was enough box of pearls from the south alone, but so many gifts were delivered to people's doorsteps, not only did they not earn back face for themselves, but they made everyone feel that this guy was a nouveau riche. At this time, it was even more embarrassing to be reminded of Li Xuanqing's old affairs, if it weren't for Feng Hou and Chen Yu, they would have known each other for a long time, and Toyota had fought side by side with this guy, so I really wanted to quit this family business.

"Haha, although Chen Yu's cart of gifts is a lot of treasures, but if you really want to go to the south to collect them, I'm afraid it may not be worth much, I still asked Qin Kong to go to Yazhou to help him exchange them with the local natives, and our glass is enough to buy a bag of these pearls." It's just that this guy's vision is not good, so he self-righteously chose colorful pearls and packed them in a box, but haha, I heard that Fenghou's face is not good-looking, and I don't want to think about how long Fenghou was transferred to Nanzhao? Hu Xiaosi looked at everyone and laughed, and then Li Xuanqing's words continued to break the news.

"Okay, okay, don't tease Chen Yu, you see he wants to find a crack in the ground to get into." Yang Tiancheng was still kind, changed the topic and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, in addition to paying New Year's greetings today, we also want to take advantage of this time to discuss with the emperor the plan of the Tiance Mansion next year, after all, there are some things that I am afraid of not being able to explain clearly at the imperial meeting." Yang Tiancheng glanced at Xu Tianxiang and nodded, the latter stood up and said with a smile: "The navy is basically in place now, shouldn't we upgrade the navy department to become the admiralty?" And is the structure of Tiance Mansion going to change? As soon as Xu Tianxiang said this, the faces of the others suddenly became serious, this is something they have been discussing these days.

"Because we have basically been in wartime since the establishment of the army, it is normal for the Tiance Mansion to control the Tiance Army, but once it enters a period of peace, if such a huge army is placed under the control of one organization, I am afraid that there will be problems in the long run." Xu Tianxiang said: "The emperor often said that our generation is to lay a foundation for future generations and set a benchmark, and now we have to move troops except for Anxi, there are not too many wars in other places for the time being, and most of the army's army in the empire can actually gradually transition to peacetime, so our command structure must also change." ”

Xu Tianxiang's words made Li Xuanqing nod in a deep voice, according to the concept of governing the army in later generations, the command and daily management of the army should be separated, which is why the daily management of the army of most countries in later generations was basically handed over to the Ministry of National Defense, and the specific command work was taken care of by the General Staff, which is the reason to prevent individuals from using the power in their hands to turn the country's army into their own private army.

"I've thought about it. The Ministry of National Defense may be added to the Cabinet, which will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the military and civilian areas. The General Staff and Xuan Yingwei belong to the Tiance Mansion and exist as the supreme command organ of the Tiance Army. In this way, the day-to-day management of the army was placed under the management of the cabinet, so as to prevent the future leaders of the Tiance Mansion from having too much power and threatening the security of the empire. At the same time, the Minister of National Defense needs to be selected by the cabinet from among the senior generals of the active military, which also plays a role in containing each other. At that time, the Ministry of National Defense will transfer all the logistics departments to the past, and the Tiance Mansion will only retain the combat systems such as the General Staff, Xuanyingwei, and the Military Judge Advocate General's Office. ”

Xu Tianxiang nodded after listening to Li Xuanqing's explanation, in this way, after the division of the army's management and command power, it can be regarded as being able to play the role of divide and rule, although it is not perfect, there will be many overlapping places in the middle, but the general direction has been set, and as for the loopholes, it will be filled and improved by generations.

"However, this structure and changes should not be announced to the public until Anzay is not taken. In order to avoid the occurrence of a situation of confusion in command due to the restructuring. The fact that the General Staff takes over the command of the entire army in wartime can become a law, but the definition of wartime cannot be left to the military itself. Li Xuanqing compared these ideas with the separation of powers in later generations, and he had a complete set of political power composition system in his heart, but it was not the time to explain to the outside world at this time, so he didn't say much. But for Xu Tianxiang and others, since the definition of wartime is not something that the military can decide, it must be the emperor who decides. They were originally worried that after the death of their own generation, there would be unscrupulous people in their descendants who tried to threaten the interests of the royal family after seizing military power, because according to Li Xuanqing's current political power distribution structure, in fact, the emperor's power was basically dispersed, so they couldn't help but worry about whether the emperors of later generations would be hollowed out or even manipulated.

Originally, Xu Tianxiang and others took this as one of the work plans of Tiance Mansion in the coming year, but after being vetoed by Li Xuanqing, they didn't say more, according to what Li Xuanqing said, it was obvious that he had already considered this issue. So next, Xu Tianxiang, Yang Tiancheng and others glanced at each other and began to change the topic, and the Navy Department was upgraded to the Admiralty.

According to the plan of the General Staff, after the establishment of the Admiralty, in fact, the rest of the troops need to be changed to the War Department. In this way, the Tiance Army was officially divided into two major arms, the navy and the army. Li Xuanqing listened to the report of Xu Tianxiang and others and nodded, he has worked hard for so long, and the navy and army of later generations have finally seen the prototype now. However, judging from the current layout and number of the navy, the actual status of the navy will still be inferior to that of the army for a long time to come. According to the design of the General Staff Headquarters, when it is necessary for the two armed forces to cooperate in operations in the future, the Navy will need to obey the orders of the Army if the General Staff Staff does not have a special appointment. Li Xuanqing didn't say much about this, even in later generations, this is the case, because of the limitations of the navy, unless it fights on the ocean, there is no supreme appointment when it cooperates in operations, and the default commander is the supreme commander of the army.

Because the two major arms of the armed forces have now taken shape, after the upgrading of the Navy Department, the corresponding command and management structures have also begun to change. These are also the key points that the General Staff needs to adjust after the year. According to the plan of the General Staff Headquarters, Guo Chongtao will be appointed Minister of the Navy, responsible for the daily management and command of the Navy. According to his prestige and age, it is reasonable for Wan Yi to be the Minister of the Army, and Li Xuanqing has just mentioned the matter of the Ministry of National Defense, so it is logical for the Minister of War to serve as the future Minister of National Defense.

Li Xuanqing did not say much about the adjustment of the General Staff Headquarters, and it is still in wartime, so many institutions can be adjusted at any time according to the needs of the war, and this is also an experiment in advance for the stability of the institutions in peacetime in the future, and if there is anything unsuitable, it can be revoked at any time, and suitable departments and posts can be added.

When several people said this, Cen Tianshi also came with a group of cabinet officials, compared to the affairs of Tiance Mansion, there are many cabinet affairs, and the new Ministry of Health has made Cen Tianshi and Yang Qiu busy these days, and they also have to arrange disaster relief matters to fight the snow disaster in various places, so these days are busy, and finally today's Chinese New Year's Eve is a rest, this does not bring a large group of people to Li Xuanqing here to fight the autumn wind.

"I said, Prime Minister, why didn't anyone bring gifts with so many people? If this continues, I feel that the palace is going to be eaten poor. Hu Xiaosi laughed, looked back and forth at Yang Qiu and the others and grimaced.

"Little Four, how do you know that I don't have a gift for the emperor? I'm telling you, I'm a great gift this time, and I'm sure you'll be better off with your gifts. Cen Tianshi made a rare joke with Hu Xiaosi, waved his sleeves and sat down with a smile: "Your Majesty, there is a big gift for the emperor here in the cabinet for the New Year." ”

"The Ministry of Land and Resources has discovered a large gold mine in the grassland, and it is estimated that there are nearly 100 tons of gold that can be mined, not counting the attached silver mines." Cen Tianshi said with a smile: "I plan to contact the logistics department after the New Year to arrange for someone to go to mining, which will bring us huge wealth and alleviate the current situation of the shortage of gold and silver in the money bank." ”

"Well, that's a great gift. But with the addition of this gold mine, there should be seven or eight gold mines in the hands of the cabinet now, right? I remember that there are also gold mines in Nanzhao, and the worst is also a gold nest. Hu Xiaosi thought for a while and said: "The gold mined this year is at least hundreds of thousands of taels, right?" Coupled with the gold and silver we have recovered from the people, why are you still so short of money? ”

"You don't know how much new cabinet spending is every year? In addition, in order to develop the economy, the issuance of Tang coins has nearly doubled the reserves, and these revenues are to make up for these shortfalls. Cen Tianshi shook his head and said: "And the gold and silver brought back from Japan's overseas trade, except for the income such as tariffs, the rest is basically the income of the Xu family and others, even if it is exchanged for Tang currency, it can't make up for the difference." ”

"What the prime minister said is that if it continues like this, I'm afraid that Yin Honglin will cry. Because of the rapid economic development, the bank's loans are now increasing every year, and these are net expenses. Qi Hong took over and said.

"Stop, stop, I feel like you're not here to pay New Year's greetings, but to rob the emperor." Hu Xiaosi hurriedly pressed this topic, looked at Qiaoxi who walked in from outside with a pair of maids to make tea for everyone, and said with a smile: "Third sister-in-law, hurry up and tighten the money bag of the industrial group, otherwise I think Mr. Cen will come to rob." ”

"Haha, how do I feel like I'm really short of money this year?" Li Xuanqing laughed.