At this time, Fan Ning looked at the sky, it was not early, he smiled at Zhao Zhongzhen and said: "Talk about the arrangements for the past two days, I went to see Han Qi and Han Xianggong today, we need the support of money and land, he promised to try his best, and you will urge him tomorrow."

In addition, it is best to visit Mr. Cao in the evening, enlist his support, and ask him to help you contact the barracks by the way, and it is best to go to the research tomorrow afternoon, which is conducive to you writing a report tomorrow night. ”

"Going tonight?"

Fanning nodded, "I'll go tonight!" ”

Zhao Zhongzhen hesitated, "I'm wondering, should I tell my father first?" ”

"How long has it been since you saw your father?"

"About two months!"

Zhao Zhongzhen sighed and said, "In fact, I didn't tell him what happened in the palace. ”

"It's the same with this matter, I think your father has been silently watching you by the side, he knows a lot of things that happen in the palace, and if he wants to know something, he will inform you."

Zhao Zhongzhen nodded silently, "I understand, I'll go to Cao's Mansion tonight, but won't the envoy go with me?" ”

He looked up at Fanning expectantly.

Fanning laughed, "Of course I want to go with you, but you are the nominal leader in this matter, so it is better for you to contact you, and I can have someone deliver the letter for you." ”

Zhao Zhongzhen breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, "Okay! I'm going to write a message now. ”

After all, he is only twelve years old, and he can't face many things on his own like an adult.

Zhao Zhongzhen wrote a prayer post, and Fan Ning asked Zhu Bao to go to Cao's Mansion and handed it to Cao's Mansion together with his own prayer post.

Fan Ning had dinner in the money shop, and asked the shopkeeper Liu to arrange a carriage, and he and Zhao Zhongzhen got into the carriage and headed for Cao's mansion.

........

It was getting dark, and the carriage was moving slowly along East Street.

At this time, Fan Ning asked: "I'm a little puzzled today, why did the official family ask me if I knew martial arts, and did His Highness know what the reason was?" ”

Zhao Zhongzhen thought for a while and smiled: "I think the original idea of the imperial grandfather was to let you serve as the prefect of Zhending and the defense envoy of Hebei West Road, not to Yingtianfu. ”

"What!" Fanning was taken aback, why let himself go to the frontier?

"Really?"

Zhao Zhongzhen laughed, "I don't know, once the emperor's grandfather accidentally talked about it, he said that you can't stay in a comfortable place, go to Kunzhou first, and then go to Zhending Mansion, he said that it is recommended that you practice martial arts well, and then start a war with the Liao army in the future." ”

"Even if I go to war with the Liao army, I don't need to go to the battlefield, I'm handsome, not a general, as long as I can ride a horse, I ......."

Fanning suddenly came to his senses, "No wonder he asked me if I could ride a horse." ”

"That's right, Grandfather Huang really wants you to go to the frontier."

Fan Ning bit his lip lightly, "But I still let me go to Yingtianfu, I guess I just want me to do something in Yingtianfu!" ”

"Uncle Fan, I really want this change to be successful!" After a moment of silence, Zhao Zhongzhen whispered.

Fanning glanced at him and saw that there was a maturity and stubbornness in his gaze that did not match his age.

At the age of twelve, he began to have his own ideals and ambitions.

Fan Ning said earnestly: "The reason why I told you that the success of the change is an unexpected joy, and the failure is expected, not that the change of Jingdong Road will fail this time, on the contrary, I am ninety percent sure that the change will succeed, but the thing I am most worried about is that I am afraid of misleading you, making you feel that the change is very simple, just like a county order can manage a county very well, but it must not be said that he can manage the world well, the change is difficult, it is not that Jingdong Road is difficult, but the change of the whole world is very difficult, and there are too many interests that need to be touched. You'll find out later. ”

A trace of doubt flashed in Zhao Zhongzhen's eyes, he didn't understand what 'I'll know later' meant?

.........

Cao Cong received the arrival of Fan Ning and Zhao Zhongzhen very warmly, and just an hour ago, a decree was sent out in Ouchi to seal Zhao Zhongzhen as the king of Liangjun and stay in Nanjing, and inspect Jingdong Road on behalf of the Son of Heaven.

Anyone who knows a little about the situation in the imperial court knows what it means for Zhao Zhongzhen to be crowned the king of the county, you must know that the biggest supporter of Zhao Wenyun's faction is Zhao Zhen, the son of heaven, and the subtle change in the attitude of Zhao Zhen, the son of heaven, is a strong signal for every minister.

Of course, Zhao Zhongzhen was named the king of Liang County, and Zhao Wenyun's Langya County King was at the same level, indicating that he had caught up with Zhao Wenyun, if he was named the king of Liang, it would really be settled.

Anyway, Cao Cong was still very happy today, and bought wine to entertain the two distinguished guests.

Cao Cong picked up his wine glass and smiled at Zhao Zhongzhen: "Connections are very valuable resources, and many contradictions and conflicts seem to be unsolvable, but if you take a detour and look behind the contradictions, you will find where is the key to unlocking it?" ”

Fan Ning said with a smile on the side: "I deeply understand the old man's words, at the beginning, Yang Du firmly controlled the military and political power of Ying Tianfu, I simply didn't know where to start, but after analyzing the background of Gu Changwu, the left inspector, I found that his grandfather turned out to be a former subordinate of Old Man Cao, and finally relied on a letter from the old man to help me open up the situation." ”

Fan Ning's unobtrusive compliment made Cao Cong laugh happily, and Fan Ning saw that he was full of emotion, so he gave Zhao Zhongzhen a look.

Zhao Zhongzhen said: "Actually, Fan Yuanjun and I came to visit Elder Cao Ge today to ask Elder Pavilion for help. ”

"You said that as long as I can do it, I will do my best to help."

Zhao Zhongzhen said about the situation of preparing to carry out a pilot change in the Jingdong Road Army.

Cao Cong's face became solemn, although Zhao Zhongzhen repeatedly emphasized that it was only a pilot, but Cao Cong still sensitively tasted the political trend in it, the Son of Heaven was dissatisfied with the army, and wanted to use the army as the first knife to change the law.

Redundant soldiers are the first of the three redundancies in the Great Song Dynasty, according to the average monthly salary of each soldier four guan money, a year is 50 guan money military expenditure, the Great Song Dynasty 1.2 million troops, a year of military burden of more than 60 million, as well as soldiers' food, drink, Lazar and clothing, food, housing and transportation all year round, as well as armor manufacturing, military weapons development, military camp construction, horse raising and other army-related expenditures.

The financial revenue of the Great Song Dynasty is only less than 80 million yuan a year, and the army alone consumes most of it, but such an astonishing military expenditure, the combat effectiveness of the Song army is getting worse and worse, where is the problem, everyone knows in their hearts that the middle of the Great Song Dynasty army accounts for at least half of the waste, and the result is that the military expenditure is getting higher and higher, and the soldiers are becoming more and more difficult.

Cao Cong also understands these problems, but how many people's interests will be involved in the army's change, if Zhao Zhongzhen implements it, I am afraid that he will become the common enemy of the entire army, offending too many people, even if it is a pilot, it will also cause strong disgust from the army's vested interests, which will cause the army to not support Zhao Zongshi.

Cao Cong was really a little embarrassed, he really didn't want Zhao Zhongzhen to take over this hot errand, for a while, Cao Cong was silent.

Fan Ning saw Cao Cong's embarrassment, and persuaded: "Elder Cao Ge, this is a question given by the Son of Heaven to His Highness, which is very important to His Highness's future, it doesn't matter what the result will be, the key is whether His Highness has the heart to do it, how to do it?" ”

Cao Cong finally understood a little, and asked with wide eyes: "You mean, this change in Jingdong Road is related to .......?"

Fanning nodded slowly, "That's true!" ”

"In this way, if you don't do it, you have to do it, so where are you going to start?"

Zhao Zhongzhen shook his head, "I haven't figured it out yet, so let's ask Fan Yuanjun to talk about it!" ”

Fan Ning said: "We plan to start by cleaning up the old, weak and remnant army, and the soldiers over the age of 40 will return to their hometowns, and each person will be compensated with 20 acres of land as pension funds." ”

Fanning set the retirement line at the age of forty, which was repeatedly considered, and the life expectancy of ordinary people in the Song Dynasty was more than fifty years old, so there was a saying that life was rare in seventy years, and if you retire at the age of forty, you can retire at the age of twenty acres of land.

This is also the advantage of the pilot, because it is a pilot, the number of people is small, there are enough resources to compensate, if the whole world to implement overrun retirement, where to get the compensation of 20 acres of land per capita, I am afraid that there are no five acres of land.

Cao Cong nodded slightly, this breakthrough point is not bad, there is compensation, it is only for soldiers, the resistance of the generals is relatively low, and it is still relatively easy to implement.

Next to him, Zhao Zhongzhen added: "This is actually the second step, to consolidate the actual soldiers, put an end to the airspace to prepare, give generals at all levels a chance to correct their mistakes, let them check by themselves first, don't wait for us to find out, then the military law is ruthless." ”

"That's okay, if that's the case, then don't talk about changing the law, the word change is too sensitive, just say that the army is cleaned up and rectified, what do you think?"

Fan Ning said with a smile: "Deliberately reducing the difficulty is not good for His Highness, and the final score will also be lowered." ”

Cao Cong suddenly woke up, "That's right! Right! Right! It's my lack of consideration. ”

"In fact, there will still be changes in the law, and I plan to implement the art of war, reducing the nine military camps to four military camps, each with 5,000 people, and the generals and soldiers will remain unchanged for a long time, and the establishment will not be changed when going to the battlefield, so as to avoid the passivity of the generals when fighting, and the soldiers will not know the generals."

The Great Song Dynasty inherited the Tang system, and in peacetime it was one establishment, and in combat it was another establishment, and it was very chaotic during the operation, and it was difficult to coordinate and cooperate, and Fanning's change of law wanted to combine the peacetime and wartime establishments into one, and there were no commanders and commanders, but only generals, deputy generals, partial generals, brigade commanders, team leaders, gang commanders, and soldiers, and simple seven levels, so that the reform would make the soldiers know their generals, and they would train their soldiers, and greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the army.

Cao Cong smiled: "Anyway, it's just an experiment!" No matter how it is changed, I will fully support it, and where I need to come forward to coordinate, I will definitely come forward and never postpone it. ”

Fan Ning said with a smile: "I really need the old man's support for one thing, can I publish an article in the newspaper in the past two days to denounce the harm of redundant soldiers to the Great Song Dynasty." ”

Whether or not to support it is not a matter of lip service, but the need to take practical actions, with the high prestige of the Cao family in the Song army, Cao Cong's article in the newspaper is a clear statement.

Cao Cong pondered for a moment and said, "I will try my best to persuade the Shi family, the Gao family, the Han family, the Wang family, and the Pan family, and each of the six of us will write an article to cheer for His Royal Highness the County King's change." ”

The descendants of Shi Shouxin, Cao Bin, Gao Huaide, Han Zhongyan, Wang Xianqi, and Pan Mei, who had absolute authority in the Great Song army, were all military heavyweights who supported Zhao Zongshi as orthodox.

They created public opinion in the newspaper for Zhao Zhongzhen's change, not so much to support the change, but to support Zhao Zhongzhen's succession.

.。 m.