Chang'an's shape is very good, which is very beneficial to Xue Chongxun's innovation and luck. After completing the preliminary preparations for the enactment of the decree, he began to work on the concrete steps.

To do things, we must take advantage of the "momentum". There is power, just like the wind in the boat, and there is much smoothness. Many magistrates along the river were almost convicted and escorted to Jingshi, such as Ruzhou Lu Jianshi, who was full of gratitude to Xue Chongxun, so they cooperated; The public opinion of the literati was also forced to turn around, praising the "Three Rivers Law" for benefiting the country and the people, and even Prime Minister Zhang Shuo admitted this. All kinds of factors made Xue Chongxun's progress fast and abnormal.

Xue Chongxun recruited a group of well-known talents from his hometown in Hedong (now Shanxi) and began to build a team. The Xue family is a Hedong family, and their reputation and status in the local area have been accumulated for a hundred years, and the use of Hedong people as the team makes Xue Chongxun feel much more reliable.

First of all, he set up two major yamen in the household department, one is the "Caoyun Branch of the Household Department" and the other is the "Caoyun Military Guard".

Xue Chongxun envisaged that this yamen would be made into a "fund" institution, not only to collect taxes and dispatch money and grain along the canal, but also to infiltrate commerce and trade and money and make money with public funds...... Of course, this is only an assumption now, and the current function of this yamen is to account for the expenses of warehouses and transportation, and to withdraw rice.

There are four recruiting battalions under the "Caoyun Military Guard", which are set up to defend the granary and escort the grain ship. The scale budget is not very large, otherwise it will be feared by the center, and it is enough to complete the purpose of protection and transshipment, and it cannot be a threat to the important town of the imperial court.

But in Xue Chongxun's heart, this military force may also be able to be used in extraordinary times, so he attaches great importance to the candidates for the generals of the Caoyun Military Guard.

The chief manager of Caoyun's recruitment was a native of Hedong named Tang Chaoren. His father's generation participated in the Tang Army's Kaibian War several times during the Zhenguan period, and it was also regarded as a family of military ministers, but in the later political turmoil, the Tang family was implicated many times, and the guide was not as good as before. Tang Chaoren used to be a group training envoy on the territory of the Xue family in Hedong for a period of time, because he often had contacts with the Xue family, speaking of which, Xue Chongxun's fist and foot foundation was taught by Tang Chaoren, and the friendship was not shallow.

After Tang Chaoren received Xue Chongxun's letter, he rushed to Luoyang non-stop, and Xue Chongxun also attached great importance to it and personally went outside the city to greet him.

There was a light rain in the sky, and Xue Chongxun and his party waited for more than half an hour before they saw three horses walking towards this side. The light rain was like fog, and although it was not far away, he still couldn't see the faces of the three horses clearly, but Xue Chongxun still recognized Tang Chaoren at a glance.

Tang Chaoren's burly figure is distinctive, with particularly broad shoulders. At a glance, although he only saw an outline, coupled with his horseback riding movements, Xue Chongxun could almost conclude that the person riding the horse in the middle was the Tang Tuan Lian who taught him martial arts when he was young.

Xue Chongxun rode his horse and rushed out from under the umbrella, and the left and right guards hurriedly shouted "drive" one after another and chased after him.

"Tangtuan practice!" Xue Chongxun shouted.

The person on the other side shouted in surprise and shouted, "Xue Lang! How did you get out of town? ”

Xue Chongxun said with a smile: "You haven't been to Luoyang, I'm afraid you won't be able to find your way into the city." I haven't seen you for a few years, and the soup dumplings have not diminished their heroic spirit. ”

At this time, Tang Chaoren's horse had already walked in front of him, and he saw that he was not tall, but his arms were round and his waist was thick, and his broad shoulders made him look burly. He is in his thirties, with a white face and a neat beard on his mouth and chin.

Tang Chaoren didn't say much, and jumped down directly from the horse, "Huh! There was a thud on the ground, and the mud was splashed. He beckoned and said, "Xue Lang come down, let me see if your fists and feet have grown in the past few years." ”

As soon as they met, they were about to fight, and the faces of the guards around Xue Chongxun became a little strange. Xue Chongxun glanced down at the ground, there was no need for the stone road outside the city, the road was full of mud, and he was stunned for a moment, but immediately he laughed and said: "I haven't practiced much kung fu in the past few years, but I often practice weapons." However, the soup dumplings are getting older, and they are definitely not as good as they were a few years ago, so I'll try it......" and immediately turned over from the horse.

Tang Chaoren was only in his thirties, and when he heard that Xue Chongxun meant that he was old, he was immediately unconvinced: "Okay, try it to know if I'm old!" "With that, he put on a stance.

Xue Chongxun smiled heartily, lifted his robe, and stretched out his palm to stand opposite Tang Chaoren. I only heard Tang Chaoren say: "Let you do it first, come on." ”

"Hmph, if you want to hold up the soup dumpling practice, I'm welcome!" Xue Chongxun immediately ran over and kicked it sideways, but the person didn't kick it, but the mud on his feet was thrown all over the sky, making Tang Chaoren head and face.

After Tang Chaoren dodged the attack, he wiped the mud on his face angrily, cursed, and rushed up with his fist, and the two immediately fought.

At this time, only a "bang" was heard, and Xue Chongxun was unfortunately punched in the face. The guards next to him exclaimed, and the horses under the seat were in a commotion, Fang Yuzhong raised his hand to stop the guards' movements, he was an old man of the Xue family, he had seen Tang Tuan Lian before, and of course he understood the friendship between Tang Tuan Lian and Lang Jun.

"Hit me in the face!" Xue Chongxun scolded angrily, and immediately snorted and attacked a few quick punches, but Xue Chongxun's fist and foot kung fu was really sparse and ordinary compared with the soup dumpling practice, and he didn't get a little cheap.

The guards immediately looked at each other: Xue Chongxun would never lose his identity like this.

Tang Chaoren laughed when he saw this: "You are still not my opponent." After that, he stepped forward and stretched out his hand to pull Xue Chongxun, but unexpectedly, Xue Chongxun grabbed his wrist and hooked his bottom plate at the same time.

Tang Chaoren's hand was caught, and he couldn't dodge, and he was instantly knocked to the ground by Xue Chongxun, and he was also covered in mud. Xue Chongxun was in a happy mood when he saw this, and laughed.

"Sneak Attack!" Tang Chaoren was furious, grabbed a handful of mud and threw it at Xue Chongxun's head and face. The two of them didn't let anyone, and soon they fought again, this time with no tricks at all, scuffling in the sludge.

…… Xue Chongxun's guards and the two entourages brought by Tang Chaoren could only watch the two scuffle speechlessly, and now they were completely out of the category of martial arts, just like ruffians fighting, as if one of them owed money and didn't pay it back.

In the end, the two of them turned into clay figures, and they were so tired that Tang Chaoren shouted: "Tie, don't fight." ”

"You obviously can't move, admit defeat or not?"

"Oops...... Okay, can't I throw in the towel? Don't pull my beard! ”

They messed around when they met, but it made them closer, and then returned to the household with a body of mud to take a bath. Xue Chongxun also asked someone to prepare a sumptuous banquet to wash the dust for it, not only to accompany him personally, but also to let the civil official Liu An, the military general Bao Cheng and others attend together.

Xue Chongxun was so courteous, Tang Chaoren knew that he had to do things well, so he couldn't wait to say his idea during the banquet: "The four waterways all rely on official transportation, and about 2,000 grain ships are needed. The grain transport troops can be modeled after the regimental training organization, with 10 ships as a program, equipped with five 'fire' troops to escort them, and the team leader is responsible for it, and the team leader will be found wherever something happens. Ten people in one fire, and fifty people in a team of five fires; Two thousand ships required two hundred troops and horses, that is, ten thousand men, plus several large granaries, and at least 12,000 soldiers had to be hired. ”

"So many troops?" Liu An said in surprise and glanced at Xue Chongxun. It means that with tens of thousands of troops, will there be trouble between the DPRK and China?

Xue Chongxun muttered: "The national grain escort is a big project, and it is reasonable that 10,000 soldiers are needed. Liu Yuanjun estimated how much it would cost to recruit 12,000 officers and soldiers, ration of grain, grass, horses, ordnance, and military salaries? ”

Liu An pinched his fingers and calculated: "I'm afraid I can't get it if I lose 300,000 yuan a year." ”

Xue Chongxun said with a smile: "You share seventy percent of my money, let alone 300,000 yuan?" In the future, the state and county magistrates will be asked to levy a transportation tax on households that meet the criteria of wealthy households, so that they will not have to be levied to escort grain from afar. ”

"It is not difficult to levy a transportation tax on the wealthy, they should have been levied and escorted to transport grain, but now they are exempted from conscription, just give some money, and do not increase ......the burden," Liu Andao said.

Xue Chongxun saw that he wanted to speak and stopped, so he said: "Liu Yuanjun has nothing to say. ”

Tang Chaoren smiled slightly when he heard this.

Liu An said at this time: "The rule of officials is indeed a big problem...... If it is exempted and the tax is collected instead, the magistrate is likely to take the opportunity to rein in the people. When the time comes, good things will be done badly, and the people will complain, won't it be very bad? ”

Xue Chongxun said: "There is no way to govern the officials, we can't manage it now, and it will be widely implicated if we move." Didn't I fight for the benefits of those oblique officials this time and keep their official positions, can we do things so smoothly now? ”

Liu An frowned and said: "Last year, I was transferred down to dredge the river, and I also suffered from the rule of officials, and many of the people who bought officials in the local area had connections in the local area...... Unless the imperial court explicitly decrees that oblique officials are illegal, it will be difficult to screen them. ”

Xue Chongxun glanced at a few people present, took over and said: "The money in our hands now is seventy percent of the dividends from the oblique officials, they get thirty percent, and we get seventy percent, so it's reasonable to divide it like this." In the future, they will also be allowed to share some of the transportation tax, but if anyone violates the rules, we will clean it up one by one. ”

Liu An nodded and said: "That's the only way, as long as we don't go against all the magistrates, and just deal with some unruly people alone, we won't encounter much resistance." ”

Several people discussed it again, and this important matter is indeed very cumbersome and complicated...... Xue Chongxun thought that the main purpose of his coming down was really to rectify his fortune, he couldn't keep stuck in it and delay the big thing.

So before the dismissal, he verbally revealed the personnel arrangements: let Tang Chaoren handle the recruitment, Liu An was responsible for fundraising and the distribution of interests of all parties, and the warehouse, branch and other matters were operated by the Hedong literati of the Yamen of the "Caoyun Branch". G