On the day of their departure, it snowed heavily in Dengzhou, and people on the road were hurrying up. Dengzhou is difficult by land, most of the big businessmen rely on water, and most of the people who go to Dengzhou by land are businessmen from Zhaoyuan, Yexian, Pingdu, Qingzhou and other places. Usually after the first heavy snowfall, daily business activities will stop, and then there will be a winter wait.

This time, they will take the part to inspect the border between Pingdu Prefecture and Qingzhou Prefecture to prepare for the operation of Qingzhou Prefecture, because part of the land in the plains of Qingzhou is fertile, and the mountainous areas can effectively shield Denglai, and after obtaining Qingzhou, Denglai's strategic situation will be further improved.

The next morning they arrived in Zhaoyuan, by the way to see Zhaoyuan's Linglong gold mine, Huang Anshou is now the head of the mine, he is very relieved in Zhaoyuan, he also has a little stake in the Sihai Trading Company, the mine has a salary here, there are people and horses of the first battalion and Tunpu nearby on weekdays, there are no bandits and locals to make trouble.

The output of this gold mine this year has reached 12,000 taels, which is the largest one in Zhaoyuan and Ye County, and the total output of the mine this year will reach more than 30,000 taels, excluding the share of Chenghe to the officials in various places, the profit is 20,000 taels, and they do not plan to convert these gold into silver, and they can directly make gold coins in the future, and they can earn a few more percent of the money interest. Liu Min hoped that Zhaoyuan would be mainly used as a place for coinage in the future, and moved the former copper coin workshop here, which was managed by Huang Anshou together.

Chen Xin inspected the first battalion troops stationed in Zhaoyuan in the afternoon, and Lu Chuanzong accompanied Chen Xin, Lu Chuanzong failed to participate in the Lushun Campaign, but part of the battalion participated in the battle. According to the usual practice, Chen Xin randomly inspected some teams according to the training plan of the day, and it was difficult for the lower echelons to deceive him about the situation of the army, because Dengzhou Town was established by him.

Chen Xinji was satisfied with the results of the inspection, and his daily training was not relaxed, and Lu Chuanzong was unable to go to Lushun. Some are unhappy, even Zheng Sanhu, the most junior one, has gone, the third battalion has gone through experience, and there are many meritorious ones, if the army is expanded in the future, of course, those with combat merits will be given priority to promotion, and the officers from the third battalion will increase, and correspondingly, Zheng Sanhu's influence in the army will increase. This is the potential impact of military merit in the military.

"My lord, my subordinates want to ask my lord to send his subordinates to Henan, or Jinzhou." Lu Chuanzong followed behind Chen Xin and said in a low voice, "The first battalion has transferred some people to the fifth battalion. Later, I didn't fight, so I should be transferred to experience. ”

Chen Xin nodded, and said casually, "It will always be arranged, Zhaoyuan is a place with lofty mountains and mountains, and there is a gold mine in the middle of the country, so there must be some people to guard it." Shimen Mountain and Laiyang are also very important, so I arranged for you to guard these places with a thousand headquarters. The number of the first battalion is ranked first in my Dengzhou Town, and the official values it very much, and this time the second battalion and the third battalion are going. However, not all of them went, and they had to be transferred back after the New Year, and the various departments had already said that they would go to Liaodong to fight in turn, and the first battalion would be arranged to go over at that time. ”

Lu Chuanzong was a little happier at this time. Dengzhou Town is highly competitive, compared to the ability to learn. Lu Chuanzong is not as good as Zhu Guobin and Zhu Daichun, and even Dai Zhenggang is better than him, if he does not have the confidence of his military exploits, his status in the army will decline sooner or later in the future.

He pursed his lips and said to Chen Xin: "My subordinates heard that all the musketeers in the third battalion are changing bayonets and guns, and the first battalion will be able to change some at some time." ”

Chen Xin glanced at him and said with a smile: "You are well-informed, you know that the third battalion is changing clothes in Liaodong, and the soldiers will have to change bayonets and flintlock pistols in the future, this is a plan made by the Military Affairs Department, and the officer is not too clear about how they will arrange it, you can ask Li Donghua, but it will not be too fast, because there is still a battalion to be established recently, all of them are bayonets and flintlock guns, and other battalion heads may have to wait." ”

"New battalion?" Lu Chuanzong asked in surprise.

"Let's take a look at your armaments." Chen Xin didn't explain, pointed to the arsenal in front of him, and led over, Lu Chuanzong knew Chen Xin's temper, so he had to keep the doubt in his heart and rush over after him......

They arrived in Ye County the next day, and since Zhu Wannian left, the gentry in Laizhou Mansion had stopped a lot, and the Tun Affairs Department and the Intelligence Bureau jointly cracked down on those recalcitrant resistants. The newly arrived Laizhou prefect is a good man, he is happy every day, and the gentry receives the money, but if he wants to deal with Dengzhou Town, he will be gone.

The Department of Foreign Affairs also dealt with this prefect, and the money was sent, and the report to Chen Xin said that this prefect was an old fritter, and he would not do anything that offended people, and the Laizhou gentry asked him for help several times, but he didn't do anything in the end after receiving the money, and then those gentry stopped looking for him.

Of course, Chen Xin welcomes this kind of prefect the most, and the current magistrates in Pingdu Prefecture, Changyi County and other places dare not offend Dengzhou Town, and the prefect has another good man, and it is no longer a problem for Dengzhou Town to swallow the countryside of Laizhou Mansion. As long as the interests of the county town are not touched, everyone can be safe.

Chen Xin did not inform the Laizhou prefect that he was going to pass by, but inspected a tunpu in Ye County, and by the way, he had lunch in this tunpu, and he ate corn.

The land of Ye County is also relatively barren, there are more mountainous areas, the Agricultural Research Institute promotes corn planting here, the newly reclaimed land on the side of the mountain does not charge grain tax, the tun households can take it to sell it themselves, in order to encourage their enthusiasm for opening up the wasteland, corn is an important supplement to Dengzhou agriculture, although the yield of corn in the Ming Dynasty is not high, there are only more than 100 catties per mu, but it can not occupy fertile land, the land on the side of the mountain and the middle of the mountain can also be used, it is very widely used, it can be eaten by people, it can be used to raise livestock and poultry, and it can also be used to make wine.

The tun chief came to prepare some other meals, but Chen Xin and Liu Minyou were not particular, and Wu Youdao and others who accompanied him had to eat corn together.

The tunpu system is very mature in Denglai, and those tun chiefs are also drawn from the original tun fort in the general A, which is also considered to be a skilled hand, and the total A layer has an income of five dollars a month, although it is not much, but it can be expected to be promoted to the top, the tun chief is the smallest official in Dengzhou Town, and the upper is to be the chief of the various civil affairs departments, and the standard for promotion is to complete the performance appraisal of each division, with a wide variety, including schools, taxes and grain, reserves, water conservancy, road labor, fire prevention and theft prevention, etc.

The outside always pays attention to the reserve soldiers in Dengzhou Town, but no one notices that the general armor and the tun chief have salary income, including Li Yongfang, in fact, this is the administrative foundation of Dengzhou.

Chen Xin's inspection belonged to going through the motions, they took a look at it in a hurry, and continued to hurry in the afternoon. After Ye County, there is Pingdu Prefecture, where there are many forts, and you can spend the night everywhere.

After coming out of Tunpu in Ye County, Chen Xin asked Liu Minyou with a smile: "You said last time that the Supervision Bureau has received a lot of complaints against the tun chief, has it been dealt with?" ”

Liu Minyou shrugged his shoulders, "I haven't finished dealing with it, three have been withdrawn, and a few are still investigating." It all involves greedy ink materials, accepting requests for land and the like, and the treatment will be dealt with. ”

Chen Xin shook his head and said: "The production materials are controlled by the tun chief, and there is room for rent-seeking, and the materials in the tunbao were not rich in the past. Now some tunpu is prosperous, and these things are also very valuable, and there are more opportunities for the tun chief to make money, which is a complaint, and I don't know how many people have not complained. ”

"As a grassroots administration, it is not appropriate to have the right to distribute materials, and Tunpu is just a set that we secretly developed under the health system. With some remnants of the guard system. The power of the tun chief really needs to be reduced, at least the three items of ploughing cattle, seed distribution, and shop pù should be abolished. ”

Chen Xin turned his head to look at him, "Will the civil affairs side continue to adjust?" ”

"Yes, I have a preliminary plan. Tunpu can only continue like this now, otherwise we will have no basis for governance. The main problem now is that the Denglai area is far wider than Denglai, and now there are Liaonan and Qingzhou Mansions. In the past, each department directly ordered to the tunpu, and the tunpu carried it out. The last realignment only defined the functions of the divisions. The method has not changed, and the result of the vast area is that the response speed of the division is very slow. There is even more Mo Huai, the director of the Tun Affairs Department is stationed in Pingdu Prefecture to take charge of civil affairs, and Pingdu is very fast, but Laiyang, Ninghai Prefecture, and Dengzhou are even slower. Therefore, it is also necessary to set up chief civil affairs officials in various localities to oversee civil affairs, and there are some matters within the scope of their authority that can be handled locally. ”

Chen Xin laughed and said: "Then we are going to appoint the magistrate of the county and the governor, let's call it a civil officer." If you want to do this, it's best to try it out, because there are too many things to do in the middle. ”……

In Pingdu Prefecture, the two met with Mo Huai again, and first informed him of Chen Yijing's matter, and asked Mo Huai to appease the officials of the Civil Department of Pingdu, indicating that the matter would not be expanded, so that the personnel of each department could do things with peace of mind.

Mo Huai and Chen Yijing rarely intersected, but they have always been very familiar with Xu Yuanhua, Xu Yuanhua used to be Mo Huai's strongest competitor, this time his subordinates made such a big leak, they were not able to inspect the factory together, and were left in the Intelligence Bureau to assist in the investigation. It's hard to say what the future holds.

Liu Minyou also told Mo Huai about the local civil officer, Mo Huai has always held two positions, and he is the actual civil official of Pingdu Prefecture, and if he wants to divide it now, he can no longer hold it. So he is a little difficult to choose, there is a certain amount of autonomy in the locality, but the level is lower than that of the Tun Affairs Division, and Mo Huai is more inclined to be a civil official.

Wu Youdao has been in the Civil Department, of course he hopes that Yousi will have more power, so the two of them will discuss it, and they will have a dispute over a trivial matter, Liu Minyou, Wu Youdao and Mo Huai have been talking for an hour, and they have not sorted out a clear outline.

Chen Xin listened impatiently, patted the table and said to the three of them: "Mo Huai, you don't have to talk about it, it is a matter of time before there are divisions and localities." Qingzhou and Deng, not to mention, southern Liaoning also has to engage in tun affairs, you have a tun secretary in Pingdu for a long time, and you have to send a tun fort to Pingdu for approval, how many days of exchanges, are you reluctant to the post of director of the tun affairs department. ”

Mo Huai saw that Chen Xin was angry, and hurriedly said: "The subordinates didn't mean that......"

"That's what you mean, Wu Youdao, you don't have to shrink your head, you have been talking for an hour, and you haven't decided anything yet. According to the Tao of the Ming Dynasty, there are some differences between the local and the six departments, the governor of a province is the third grade, and the Shangshu is higher. The local power is greater, and there are many actual affairs under the management, and our territory is not large, so we can divide up to five civil districts. Our civil officer, a level with the director, the civil officer and the division, not inferior, now let you discuss with Lord Liu, just set the authority of the local civil officer, so that they can deal with some ordinary affairs nearby, without reporting to the department, but it is not like those magistrates in the imperial court, one person is in charge of everything. Civil officials can also have deputy positions, each in charge of a piece, who is in charge of the wrong thing, not only the civil officer to ask. ”

Mo Huai hurriedly said: "Since the organization below the civil officer corresponds to the division, should it be assigned by the civil officer, or should it be dispatched by the division?" Who decides the personnel? And their use, in the past, the financial secretary was assigned to each department, and then allocated to the tunpu or workshop below, and in the future, the local institutions will be in charge of the silver, or the civil officer will be in charge of the silver......"

Chen Xin stood up and interrupted: "The subordinate institutions of the local government, civil officials and divisions must be in charge. The most important things are affairs, money, personnel, and assets, and as for who is in charge of how much, it can be divided according to the members. Those specific matters, you discuss slowly, but there is one article, the local must be flexible, there is a division and authority, you will discuss according to this, Wu Youdao you stay here and discuss with Mo Huai, the official and Lord Liu go to inspect the cotton spinning, and when you come back, you will see your plan. ”

Mo Huai and Wu Youdao glanced at each other, bowed helplessly and said, "Subordinates obey orders." ”