The Tang army fought a hundred battles, even the desert wolf rode invincible and could not resist the enemy, as far as Hanhai, Beiting, the Western Regions, and even crossed the Green Mountains, south to Nanzhao, the Tang army's footprints traveled all over the east, west and north Asia, and no one was invincible in the world. In the famous Battle of Hengrus, the Tang army faced the enemy with six times its own Arab elite cavalry, and was not defeated for two days and three nights, relying on the famous cavalry coordination tactics.

The cavalry outflanked the two wings, and the infantry armed with Mo knives, advanced like a wall, and the pawn was shattered. And wearing Mingguang armor, ordinary swords are difficult to hurt, plus well-trained, they are all elite professional soldiers who have been guarding the frontier for a long time.

As a general in charge of the army, Yue Fei is familiar with history books and military books, how can he not understand the truth. As soon as he heard Li Gang finish speaking, he was overjoyed, and he suddenly got up and said: "This is simply overjoyed, if more than 10,000 sword players in the army are replaced by Mo Dao, it will meet the enemy cavalry, and our army's infantry will also have the strength to fight!" ”

At that time, Jin Bing's cavalry approach actually did not give full play to cavalry tactics. Like the Mongol cavalry, when dealing with the hoplites, they first used light cavalry to plunder, guerrilla, and harass the enemy to the extreme exhaustion, but they did not fight, tracked, archery, and harassed, and when the enemy was overwhelmed and exhausted, then the light cavalry outflanked the two wings, and the heavy cavalry broke through from the center. At this time, because the national strength of the Jin soldiers was stronger than that of Mongolia when the country was founded, although the cavalry and archery skills were not under the Mongolians, because of the strong national strength, they only paid attention to the construction of heavy cavalry, and ignored the corresponding number of light cavalry. In this way, with the armor of the heavy infantry of the Song army, plus a large number of swords and shields, although the enemy is a heavy cavalry and can break through the first few layers of defense, as long as the Song army wins with numbers, it does not necessarily suffer a loss against the heavy cavalry that fights hard with heavy infantry. Wan Yan Zongbi's abductor Ma Tiefutu. Several crushing defeats at the hands of the infantry of the Song army, this is the reason. The heavy infantry of the Song army, equipped with Mo Dao, is bound to be more effective, but it teaches Yue Fei how not to like his eyebrows and find it difficult to control himself.

Li Gang was also happy in his heart, his face was swept away, and he smiled at everyone: "Before Shicai spoke, I knew that General Yue would be happy. Sure enough. In fact, not only the Mo knife, but also the armor will be equipped in large quantities in the future, Your Majesty said, why does the court save money? The people of a province have a lot of income, and the people are rich, so they collect so many taxes on land. In fact, the miscellaneous taxes are counted, there are many names, the Tang Dynasty only collected two taxes, and I had two taxes in addition to the two taxes in the Song Dynasty. The people have long been suffering. Therefore, the Emperor Taishang levied the Flower Stone Gang that year. The two sides are reversed, and this is a lesson from the past. ”

When he said this, there was already a sneer on his face. In that year, Zhao Ji recruited the flower stone gang. There are few people in the whole world who agree, always because Cai Jing is powerful, few people dare to speak, and Li Gang is one of the people who speak against it, so now he is disrespectful to Zhao Ji, and others are also listening to him, and no one dares to say that he is rude.

Li Gang calmed down the agitation in his heart, and said: "So if you want to reduce or exempt miscellaneous taxes, how can you exempt them?" Money is needed everywhere. The only way to do this is to reduce redundant officials and redundant soldiers. ”

That's it. But he went around himself.

Seeing Fan Chong smiling, Li Gang also woke up. But he smiled bitterly and said to him: "Actually, the truth is like this, when you really do it, why suffer." I have been on Jingnan Road for more than two years, supplying the army, and my subordinates have been fighting and defending major affairs, during which I have benefited a lot from local officials. None of them are worse than ordinary people. The old man is going to do it to them now, and it is really difficult to reply when they ask each other. ”

Li Gangchang sighed and frowned. The excitement that Shi Cai had when he spoke the truth had disappeared.

Yue Fei only then understood that those officials were not in a good mood just now, but they didn't see him for the reason, but they fought with Li Gang in the ring, which involved their own jobs, but it was no wonder that those people were angry.

He was uneasy in his heart, and he had the heart to say a few words, but he also knew that he was politically naïve, and the emperor and the cardinal government reprimanded him many times, and he had already taken the lesson to heart, and he did not dare to interject in the face of such a major political event. It's just that when I think of my intentions, I can't help but feel anxious.

But seeing Li Gang stand up, he turned around the room a few times with his negative hand, and finally said categorically to Fan Chong:

"Things still have to be done. It's up to you to do it, and if anyone is in trouble, let him come to me. ”

"Good!" Fan Chong was waiting for Li Gang's words, and immediately got up with great joy, bowed to Li Gang, and laughed: "This is the style of beating the drum and breaking the thief, summoning the king to master the king, and the country's first minister." ”

"Jingnan Road governs Xiangyang, a total of eight states and one army, Xiangzhou, Dengzhou, Suizhou, Jinzhou, Fangzhou, Junzhou, Yingzhou, Tangzhou, Guanghua Army. According to the decision of the political affairs hall, Xiangzhou is an important military state, and it cannot be abolished, and the rest of the prefectures are combined into four prefectures, 56 counties, and 23 counties can be left. In total, the yamen and related officials were abolished and reported to the government affairs hall. The dismissal of each official has its own arrangements according to the outstanding ability, the middle level, and the lower and lower levels. ”

He looked tired, looked at Fan Chong who was standing down, and finally waved his hand and said: "Master Fan, let's go, just do it, if there is something to find me, I am here, and I will never teach you to be embarrassed." ”

"Yes, the lower official will do it, but please rest assured, you will not push everything on the adult, and I know that the adult is very embarrassed."

Fan Chong bowed, nodded and smiled at Yue Fei's father and son, and then took his leave.

Li Gang didn't send him either, he only went to the door to watch Fan Chong go, and then Fang turned his head to Yue Fei and smiled: "The general is here, it must be for the use of soldiers." ”

Yue Fei stood up and replied respectfully: "Exactly, as expected. ”

Li Gang sat down and said with a calm smile: "If you don't come to look for me, you have to invite someone to look for you." ”

He was about to talk about military affairs, but Yue Fei couldn't help but be curious, and asked Li Gang:

"What Master Shicai Fan said, the last general doesn't understand a little, and I have to ask the minister to teach me."

"Oh? How not to understand? ”

Yue Fei knew that it was taboo for military generals to ask about politics, and when he saw Li Gang's solemn question, he smiled, and only said: "The last general is just curious, if there is any obstacle involved, the minister does not have to answer." ”

Li Gang also smiled, waved his hand and said, "It's okay, you and I are just talking." ”

"The state and county are for the imperial court to manage the people, shepherd one side, under the rule of Nanjing, Jingxi eight states and one army, more than 50 counties, more than 1 million household registrations, more than 8 million mouths, even if there are too many officials, they can be reduced or exempted as appropriate, if the states and counties are withdrawn, how to collect taxes, who will handle the criminal case? Is it all entrusted to local clans in local affairs? The minister should know that the clan can certainly help the court do some small things, but if the government delegates too much power, the clan will sit big, and it is inevitable that there will be a powerful clan in the late Han Dynasty to reappear today. ”

He said very solemnly, but Li Gang didn't care, although the weather was getting cooler, Li Gang was in a thin silk robe, and the fan in his hand shook gently, showing unhurriedness, and after Yue Fei finished speaking, he replied: "Actually, the general doesn't know, in all dynasties, all the dynasties and dynasties have been in charge of state and county officials to manage the people's finances, and also take care of defense, and they also need to manage the prison, and the county magistrate and prefect are just one person, how to deal with so much?" Therefore, there are more and more subordinates, and there are more officials, so that the cooking is opened. And a person who has grown up since birth, memorized the books of Confucius and Mencius and read books, where does he understand too much about the way of the world? It's me, at such an old age, let me judge the case, I might as well mention a small official of the Criminal Division, if I appease the whole road of Jingxi, so many cases in so many states and counties will be taken care of by me, there will definitely be unjust cases in my hands. Therefore, since I established the Great Song Dynasty, I did not set up a criminal department and specialized in criminal cases, which is different from the previous dynasty. As for the collection of taxes, it is only necessary for the officials to urge the department, and it is not necessary for the state officials to be present in person. The defense is in charge of the Xiang army, and the state officials don't have to worry about it. Therefore, the abolition of the state capital is only to reduce the number of officials to worship, so that there are fewer Bodhisattvas on the heads of the small people to worship, and the remaining state officials will be aware of the water conservancy projects in the territory, disaster relief, and overall planning. ”

Li Gang has often said these words, and by the way, he is meticulous, and he is extremely proficient.

Yue Fei lowered his head and thought about it, and also felt that what Li Gang said was very reasonable, but there was a joint that he didn't understand, and asked again: "So who will take care of the original punishment, transfer, support, medicine, and local atmosphere?" ”

Li Gang said with a smile: "The prefectures and counties have been withdrawn, but the criminal divisions in various places will not be withdrawn, and the criminal divisions will be responsible for their affairs all the way, and the subdivisions will not be set up according to the prefectures and counties, but according to the number of people, the local atmosphere and public security. In this way, there will be no waste of personnel, criminal cases will be handled by experienced and specialized people, there is no need to let the magistrate interfere indiscriminately, and the sub-division will be directly subordinate to the criminal department, and it will not be subject to local jurisdiction. ”

"What Xiang Gong said is really a good word that has been applied to the world, if it weren't for that, the last general wouldn't have been able to figure it out."

Li Gang smiled proudly, and said: "Every way, there is a criminal envoy, a number of deputy envoys, a member of the legal department, and a number of deputy divisions, and the criminal department is responsible for investigating and solving the case, and the legal department will judge it, so as to prevent the criminal department from being corrupt and arbitrary, and if they hinder each other, they will be dissatisfied with the indiscriminate arrest and judgment." Set up a department of academic administration, specializing in local learning and politics, to be a scholar, not only Confucianism, but also to have the Ming scriptures, arithmetic, medicine, purely based on the classics, at the time of the war, you know that talent is rare. There are also defense envoys, who are responsible for commanding the box army to protect local law and order, and transfer envoys, and full-time financial and tax collections, which are also set up in the same way as the criminal department. ”

Yue Fei is such a smart person, at this time he has already heard and understood, tax exemption, reduction and exemption of officials, it seems that the central government has weakened the rule of the localities, in fact, on the contrary, the government's control over the local areas has not only not weakened, but has been greatly enhanced, this kind of situation has indeed been unheard since ancient times.