Although the men on the grassland behaved rudely, they were also quite trustworthy. At the beginning, Liu Xin was able to subdue them, in addition to strong force, agreeing to provide them with tea was also an important reason. Last year, he failed to fulfill his promise, and if he couldn't get tea this year, Liu Xin's status in the eyes of the Huns would probably plummet. This year's batch of tea must not be lost, so Liu Xin especially emphasized that it needs to be escorted by Zhang Zhao personally.

In fact, along the way, there is no need to worry about safety, otherwise Liu Xin will not let Zhang Zhao be in charge of the escort, but will select a military general who can fight habitually. The rainy and humid climate in the south of the Yangtze River is the enemy of transporting tea. As long as it rains, no matter how good the tea is, it will become worthless. Zhang Zhao is quite knowledgeable about astronomy and geography, and he also tried his best to use eighteen kinds of martial arts along the way to ensure that the tea arrived in Xiangyang smoothly.

Liu Xin read the list presented by Zhang Zhao, nodded with satisfaction, and said: "Last year, the output of tea was only 100 catties, and this year it can reach 3,000 catties, which is already a big progress." ”

Zhang Zhao arched his hand and said: "It's a pity, most of this is inferior leaf tea. ”

Liu Xin waved his hand and said: "Those Huns on the grassland buy tea to cook milk tea, leaf tea is already good for them, if you really provide them with bud tea, it will be a tyrannical thing." ”

Tea is still produced at Liu Xin's suggestion, and naturally there are not so many varieties, but it is simply divided into bud tea and leaf tea. As the name suggests, bud tea is a young tea that has been picked from a tea tree, and leaf tea is a large leaf that has already grown. However, whether it is bud tea or leaf tea, the processing process is the same, not to mention the Huns, that is, ordinary Han people, and only wealthy families can drink leaf tea.

Despite a year's worth of efforts, tea production is still low enough to meet the needs of mass consumption. This time, Zhang Zhao came to Xiangyang and brought all the tea produced this year, and even he didn't dare to leave one or two.

Hearing that the Huns bought tea with goat's milk or mare's milk to drink, they couldn't help but cry out and said in a loud voice: "Those Huns are really ruining good things, the lord will not sell them all the leaf tea." ”

Liu Xin said with a smile: "Scarcity is expensive, how can I sell all the leaf tea to them?" In this way, 1,000 catties of bud tea will be sold according to the official grade, 1,000 catties of leaf tea will be sold to various departments of the grassland, and 1,000 catties of leaf tea will be sold to the countries of the Western Regions as a monopoly commodity of the government......"

As he was talking, Liu Xin saw a petite figure flash outside the door of the hall, his eyesight was very good, and he recognized it as a little maid in Cai Jue's room, and couldn't help waving his hand, and said: "Zibu, these tea leaves are you who have worked hard to transport them, and how to distribute them is up to you to watch." Remember to take some from my share and give them to the bridge members in Lujiang County. ”

When Qiao Xuan first arrived in Xiangyang a few days ago, he complained to Liu Xin that he couldn't drink the best tea. In fact, Qiao Xuan not only can't drink the best tea, but he can't even drink ordinary tea, because there is no tea for sale on the market at all, and the tea he drank in the past was given to him by Liu Xin when he was in Lujiang.

Zhang Zhao didn't know about Liu Xin's visit to find the "Second Bridge", but he knew that Liu Xin had appointed a civil supervisor who was responsible for supervising officials at all levels, and this civil supervisor was Qiaoxuan in Lujiang County. To tell the truth, Zhang Zhao still admires Qiao Xuan very much, under his supervision, Lujiang County from the Taishou, down to the officials, all of them are conscientious in performing their duties, and the development of Lujiang City is much faster than other places, which also has a share of Qiao Xuan's contributions.

I heard that Liu Xin was going to send tea to Qiao Xuan, which shows that Liu Xin is still very sure of Qiao Xuan's achievements. Zhang Zhao was naturally full of promises and retired.

After Liu Xin waited for Zhang Zhao to leave, he also walked out of the hall, but the figure of the little maid was missing. The rules in the state pastor's mansion are very strict, and that little maid is a person from Cai Jue's side, so it stands to reason that she shouldn't appear here. Now that this little maid has appeared here, there is only one possibility, that is, Cai Jue has something to say to herself.

Cai Jue spends most of his time in the house taking care of the two children, and then occasionally checks the accounts of those shops, and never takes the initiative to ask about political affairs. But after all, she is a member of the Cai family in Xiangyang, and it seems that she can't say that she doesn't care about the family's affairs at all, and there must be something wrong with her sending a maid here.

Liu Xin suddenly remembered that Cai He was coming. Cai He is Cai Jue's youngest brother, the first student of Xiangyang Academy, and the effect of last year's mission to the Western Regions still made Liu Xin very satisfied. Liu Xin also promised to arrange a suitable official position for Cai He, but there haven't been too many things recently, and Liu Xin is also happy to be leisurely, accompanying his wife and concubines and children at home all day long, and he actually forgot about Cai He's affairs.

Needless to say, Cai Jue sent a maid here, he must have wanted to ask about his arrangements for Cai He. As for why Cai Jue didn't ask a few days ago, and sent someone to ask today, it must be that someone in the Cai family has asked for a message in the past few days.

Liu Xin thought that he had thought of the crux of the problem, so he couldn't help laughing, and ordered repeatedly: "Come on, go and invite Lord Tian Feng to come over." ”

Since Cai He was going to be assigned an official position, Liu Xin was ready to make it more formal. And Tian Feng is the secretary of the ministry, and the official position arranged by him can be regarded as official. This is not only a recognition of Cai He, but also an explanation of Cai Jue.

Tian Feng, like Fu Zhu, are both old people who followed Liu Xin when they were in Jizhou, and their talents may not be as good as Guo Jia, Cheng Yu and others, but their loyalty is beyond doubt, and they are also the most trusted by Liu Xin. However, since Fu Zhi was in charge of the Phantom Spy, he had more opportunities to contact Liu Xin, while Tian Feng rarely had the opportunity to be summoned by Liu Xin alone.

Hearing Liu Xin's invitation, Tian Feng was taken aback, thinking that something big had happened, and he didn't even have time to change his clothes, so he hurriedly ran over in his regular clothes at home.

Liu Xin couldn't help laughing and said: "Yuan Hao, it's not a big deal, don't worry, come, sit down and have a sip of tea first." ”

Tian Feng realized his strange appearance at this time, smiled embarrassedly, sat down opposite Liu Xin, drank two sips of tea, settled down, and then asked, "I don't know what the lord called his subordinates to come, what did he order?" ”

Liu Xin said: "Xiangyang Academy has been established for ten years, and the first batch of 50 students will graduate this year. ”

The original intention of the establishment of Xiangyang Academy was to cultivate talents for the Han Dynasty, and the students of the academy would enter the court as officials after graduation unless they were unwilling. Tian Feng is the secretary of the ministry, in charge of the appointment and dismissal of officials in the world, so he is naturally prepared.

Hearing Liu Xin ask about this, Tian Feng thought about it and said, "Although the students have achieved a little success in the academy, their practice is insufficient. The subordinates thought that when they were ordered to start with small things, they could be assigned to Zhongxian County to serve as county officials or arrest envoys, and they could be entrusted with important tasks after a year of evaluation. ”

Liu Xin nodded and said: "Although this method is safe, have you thought about it, Chang'an City is about to be completed, and then the six departments will be moved to Chang'an, and the institutions of the six departments will also be enriched and improved, and a large number of people are needed. ”

In the past, the Han Dynasty used the township recommendation system to select talents, and most of the people who could be recommended were the children of the scholar clan. At the beginning of Liu Xin's establishment of the academy, he adopted the policy of half of the students of the scholar clan and half of the students from the poor family, in order to inject fresh blood into the court officials and avoid the situation of the monopoly of the scholar family.

In order to prevent a backlash from the world's noble family, these plans are still highly classified. However, these secrets do not need to be concealed from Fu Zhi and Tian Feng. Therefore, after listening to Liu Xin's words, Tian Feng had already roughly understood what Liu Xin meant, and couldn't help but bowed and said: "If this is the case, my subordinates think that these students can be arranged into the yamen of the six departments. ”

In the future Han Dynasty, there will no longer be the position of the Three Princes and Nine Secretaries. Of course, former ministers like Yang Biao and Huang Wan, who chose to firmly defect to Liu Xin, still retain their official positions, but they have no real power. In other words, from now on, the three princes and nine secretaries will only have the qualifications to discuss politics and have no power to govern. The center of the imperial court that will rise in its place will be Liu Xin's cabinet and six ministries re-established in Xiangyang. Therefore, Tian Feng will be cautious about the candidates who enter the sixth department. These officials in the six departments are equivalent to the three princes and nine secretaries in the past, and let the students who have just walked out of the academy take on some important positions, if it wasn't for Liu Xin's special pointing, Tian Feng really wouldn't dare to take this idea.

Who knows, Liu Xin waved his hand and said, "It's not necessary. It's just that at the right time to employ people, if these students are allowed to start from the county, the starting point is too low, and if they want to take on heavy responsibilities, they don't know that they will have to wait until the Year of the Monkey. Liu's meaning is that they can be assigned to the county government with better conditions, serving as a county chief or a long history, and if they are proficient in martial arts and the art of war, they can also go to the local army to serve as a captain. After half a year, if it can be of great use, it will be transferred to the sixth department. ”

Liu Xin's arrangement is also helpless. Whether it is the cabinet or the six ministries, it is still just an empty shelf, and several scholars in the cabinet and the scholars of the six ministries are now only fulfilling the duties of a strategist. However, after the capital is moved to Chang'an, everything should be regularized, and the six ministries must also be enriched as soon as possible.

Now, the six yamen in Chang'an City have been built, and what needs to be supplemented is nothing more than the personnel inside. There are many scribes and miscellaneous servants, but what is most lacking are the servants of the six departments and the officials such as Langzhong, Wailang, and the chief of the subordinate divisions. In peacetime, these people can be drawn from the counties. However, the world has not yet been pacified, and the county is the foundation of the Han Dynasty, and it is very necessary to maintain relative stability, and the officials there Liu Xin will not be easily transferred, at least not for the time being, so this group of students from Xiangyang Academy has become the best candidates.

In fact, Liu Xin's arrangement is not contradictory to Tian Feng, it is to let this group of students go to the grassroots level to exercise for a period of time, and then entrust them with important tasks. However, Liu Xin's starting point is higher, and the cycle of exercise is shorter.

Tian Feng was slightly stunned, and soon understood what Liu Xin meant, and quickly arched his hand and said, "My subordinates will arrange it." ”

Liu Xin nodded, and suddenly asked again: "Yuan Hao, how are you going to arrange Cai He?" ”