"Recommend you to Nanjing?"

The prefect of Suzhou looked at Zhang Sizong in disbelief, he looked at the latter suspiciously, and asked, "Cousin, what do you want to do, is it possible that you are ready to enter the court as an official and get rid of the identity of a businessman?"

"That's nature." Zhang Sizong stroked his beard and said, "Although the merchant has a lot of money, he is regarded as a lowly person, and now the old man naturally wants to seize the opportunity to see if he can climb up."

"Then the duty of the tax department is to check taxes, and who in the whole world knows how to check taxes better than the businessmen themselves? If the Commander Chitose wants the Tax Department to really play a role, it is the best choice to select the chief officials from the merchants."

Zhang Sizong said with confidence.

Although the prefect of Suzhou felt that he was a little bold, he had to admit that Zhang Sizong's words were indeed very reasonable, and no one in this world could understand businessmen better than businessmen.

So, he was convinced.

The prefect of Suzhou pondered for a moment and said, "I will write a letter for the county king Chitose and recommend you, as for whether the county king Chitose adopts it or not, then it is none of my business, you need to deal with it yourself."

Zhang Sizong nodded, said a few more words to the prefect of Suzhou, and then ordered someone to put down the gift box containing pearls and return to his mansion.

The note written by the prefect of Suzhou was quickly sent to Su Yan's desk, and after he flipped through the content of the note for a while, he couldn't help but nod his head and agree with the content of the note.

In fact, Su Yan is facing the embarrassing situation of not having a suitable candidate after setting up the tax department, he does not trust the Wenchen of King Lu's family, and there is a lack of relevant talents among the people loyal to him, and this note of the Suzhou prefect is like a timely rain in the drought, giving Su Yan a good hint.

There is indeed no one in this world who knows more about tax evasion than the businessman himself, and after promoting an experienced businessman to this position, in order to show his loyalty to Su Yan, he will definitely work seriously and accurately crack down on any businessman who dares to evade taxes.

However, in order to prevent the head of the tax department from abusing his power for personal gain, they must not be allowed to do business - now that the tax department is just starting out, any rules must be set in place to avoid loopholes in the future.

In the face of business dealings that cost tens of thousands of dollars at every turn, few people can stick to their hearts, so the rule that they cannot do business must be implemented.

However, the first chief official also had to find an experienced businessman, and Su Yan ordered someone to investigate Zhang Sizong, who was recommended by the Suzhou prefect, and after confirming that this person did not have much problem, he ordered someone to invite him to Nanjing for an "interview" in person.

During the interview, Su Yan did not rush to tell Zhang Sizong the rules of not doing business, but asked him first, and Zhang Sizong also knew the importance of this interview, so he performed very well.

However, after the interview came to an end, after learning from Su Yan that the family of the official in the tax department is not allowed to do business, he was stunned, and Su Yan did not let him express his position immediately, but asked him to go back and think about it for a few days before making a decision.

After coming out of the Governor's Palace, Zhang Sizong locked himself in the room of the inn and thought about it for a night, and finally made a decision, he ordered someone to sell all the industries that the family was running, cut off all business contacts, and successfully won Su Yan's admiration with the courage of a strong man who broke his wrist.

I have to say that Zhang Sizong, as a sophisticated businessman who can develop a small family into today's behemoth, his ability and courage are indeed not to be underestimated, and Su Yan is very appreciative, so he ordered someone to send the book, official clothes and printing to the hotel where Zhang Sizong stayed.

The tax department and the subordinate departments of the household department are of equal grade, and its chief official is also known as Langzhong, the five-grade official, that Zhang Sizong jumped from a grass man to a five-grade Langzhong, Rao is mentally prepared in advance, still like being hit by a heavy punch, being smashed dizzy, and his heart is full of ecstasy.

However, after the ecstasy, Zhang Sizong faced a new problem - the tax department had just been formed, and there was no one else in the department except for him, Su Yan told him that after the three provinces were released, the new officials who were admitted and retained would be sent to the tax department on duty, and before that, he could only rely on his staff and Su Yan's tax police team specially formed for the tax department.

The Tax Police Corps, under the name of the Tax Department, is mainly responsible for anti-smuggling and tax collection and protecting the work of the officials of the Tax Department.

Although it is called a team, its scale is far more than one team, Su Yan transferred two Cossack infantry teams from the Shenji battalion as the basis of the tax police corps, on their basis, the future will also join veterans who retired due to injuries, local conscription of young adults, etc., the internal is also divided into regular soldiers and auxiliaries, regular soldiers are Cossack infantry and veterans, equipped with flintlock smoothbore guns, auxiliary soldiers are recruited young adults, equipped with uniforms and waist knives.

Veterans serve as officers in the auxiliaries and are treated the same as regular soldiers.

The tax police corps will not be limited to the city of Nanjing, Su Yan first used Jiangnan Province as an experimental field, and each state capital maintained two teams of Cossack infantry and a provisional 480-man auxiliary, responsible for anti-smuggling and taxation in the territory of the province.

The chief officer of the tax police corps was Yang Shouzhuang, who was once a deputy general under Zhang Tianlu and performed well in the Battle of Purple Mountain, so Su Yan transferred him to serve as the chief officer of the tax police corps.

The establishment of the tax department and the tax police corps has only just begun, and in the future, Su Yan will let these two agencies be set up in each province and each state capital to collect a large amount of taxes from the hands of businessmen.

……

The tax department had just been formed, Zhang Sizong did not wait for sufficient personnel before acting, he couldn't help but want to come to a new official to take office three fires, and use his ability to let Su Yan see if he could do it.

Therefore, Zhang Sizong first targeted a few merchants that he had heard of in his daily life, and used the connections and strength accumulated by his family over the years to investigate those merchants.

Because Su Yan did not publicly appoint the chief official of the tax department, the businessmen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang did not know that Zhang Sizong had become a five-pin langzhong in the imperial court.

They were just surprised at how Zhang Sizong's family suddenly gave up business on a large scale, and then swarmed like sharks smelling blood, seizing the business gap after the Zhang family withdrew.

No matter how smart a person is, he can't associate Zhang Sizong with the position of tax secretary.

Zhang Sizong knew the truth of the speed of soldiers, and he also knew that the longer the time dragged on, the greater the probability of his identity being exposed, so under his full mobilization, it only took less than seven days for him to collect a lot of evidence of smuggling, tax evasion and other crimes of those businessmen, and handed over these crimes and lists to Su Yan.

After reading these incriminating evidence, Su Yan couldn't help but be surprised by Zhang Sizong's efficiency, and immediately ordered Yang Shouzhuang to lead the tax police corps to cooperate with Zhang Sizong to arrest all the merchants on the list.

Zhang Sizong's efficiency was very fast, and in just three days, the five businessmen on the list were approached by the tax police team to check the water meter, and the people were sent to prison pending trial, and all their family property was confiscated.

The thunderous action of the tax department shocked the whole Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and Zhang Sizong's name also entered the eyes of every businessman, and it was only now that they finally realized why Zhang Sizong suddenly gave up doing business.

Subsequently, they only had contempt and scolding for Zhang Sizong, a "traitor", and more people hurriedly destroyed the crime of smuggling and tax evasion on weekdays, for fear that the next target of the tax department would be themselves.

Su Yan ignored the aftermath, and after finishing the business tax-related matters, he set his sights on the military system again.

After taking Nanjing and incorporating the army of King Lu, Su Yan's troops expanded greatly, and more than 12,000 soldiers from Fujian had entered Jiangnan Province, so Su Yan was ready to redivide the army and implement a rotten but useful system in the army.

Abolish the existing establishment above the post level and establish a new one.

And...... Military rank system.

Although the military rank system is a rotten street operation in the online article, it is enough to prove that this system is very practical, and as the army gradually develops towards the mercenary system and professionalism, the generation of military ranks has become inevitable.

For military ranks, Su Yan referred to the Celestial Empire's military rank hierarchy system that began in the late Qing Dynasty, which was divided into four ranks from private to private, and each rank corresponded to a rank in the military rank.

A private is an ordinary soldier, naturally

Needless to say, there is a level below the private corps called auxiliaries, and the punishment battalions are all of this class, and they are the lowest level of the ranks.

Sergeant: Corporal (sergeant), sergeant (sergeant), sergeant (sentry chief), sergeant major (sentry officer).

Junior officers: Right Military Academy (Deputy Company Commander), Left Military Academy (Company Commander/Deputy Division), Grand Military Academy (Division/Deputy General).

Lieutenant officers: Right Lieutenant (Staff General), Left Lieutenant (Brigade Commander/Adjutant General), Grand Lieutenant (General Soldier).

Superior Officers: Right General, Left General, Great General.

Arranged like this, it is clear at a glance.

The military rank system, Su Yan referred to the military rank system implemented by the provisional government after the Xinhai Revolution, compared with the late Qing Dynasty's chief and deputy co-capitalists, staff leaders, and military academies, this set is more suitable for the naming of the Han army.

After the restructuring, with the exception of light infantry, grenadiers, cavalry, and other arms with a relatively special establishment, it is generally necessary to use five people in one army, 10 people in one company, 40 people in one sentry, 120 people in one company, six companies in one battalion, three to four battalions as one standard, two to four standards as one brigade, and two or four brigades as one town.

The battalion officer is called the Du Division, the standard officer is called the general, the town officer is called the general soldier, and the brigade is the brigade derived from Zhou Lizhong, and its commander is the brigade commander.

Among them, the units equipped with flintlock smoothbore guns will be organized separately, and the cold weapon units will still be jointly established with the bird guns.

The Shenji Battalion was the first to be changed, and the establishment of the Shenji Battalion ceased to exist, and was replaced by the "Qinglong Left Brigade".

Su Yan summoned the line infantry, Cossack infantry, and Balgir infantry in the incentive package obtained after conquering Nanjing, and together with the existing 26 infantry companies in the Shenji Battalion, there were a total of 42 infantry companies.

However, considering that there are only two teams of light infantry, only seven teams of grenadiers including incentive packages, and six teams of the artillery company of the hand and mortar batteries, except for the two standard first battalions, which can have four infantry companies, one light infantry company and one grenadier company, the rest of the battalions can only have five infantry companies with one grenadier company.

The remaining six Tejiu artillery companies were organized into a battalion separately, and were incorporated into the second standard of only three battalions, and the number of battalions under the two standards could be level, and after the reorganization, the left brigade had 6,570 soldiers, and an artillery company under its jurisdiction, with eight 12-pounder infantry guns, 12 12-pounder infantry howitzers, and 12 4-inch mortars.

Such powerful artillery firepower is enough to destroy any enemy, which is also the basis of Su Yan's confidence.

It is worth mentioning that because it is named after the Qinglong, the head of the four elephant beasts, the soldiers of this brigade all use the Canglong as the battle flag.

The second pure firearms unit was based on the establishment of 6,120 Cossack infantry from Fujian, and the soldiers of these 51 companies were organized into the Qinglong Right Brigade, which also held the Canglong battle flag, and had two targets and an artillery company of the same establishment as the left brigade.

The artillery company of the right brigade directly emptied all the stocks in Su Yan's system space, and then only the captured Hongyi cannon, Furang machine gun and tiger squat cannon could be used.

If it weren't for the fact that the colors represented by the four elephant beasts would be full of bells and whistles when used as military uniforms, Su Yan would still want the soldiers of the Blue Dragon Brigade to wear cyan military uniforms.

After the formation of the soldiers and horses of the Qinglong Left and Right Brigade, Su Yan set his sights on the more than 10,000 officers and soldiers of the original Lu Wang Department, and he organized the more than 10,000 officers and soldiers into a town, named Zhoushan Town, and the two subordinate left and right brigades each had 5,000 each.

The rest of the Lu kings were generals and were appointed by Zhang Mingzhen himself.

Because the number of people in the Chinese military camp was too small, it was not moved for the time being, and the 6,120 Russian garrisons from Fujian were organized into the Suzaku Left Brigade, and there was also no brigade commander for the time being.

In Jiangbei, the 8,000 soldiers and horses brought by Wang Yi were organized into a brigade alone, called the White Tiger Left Brigade, and the 6,000 soldiers and horses brought by Su Ci were organized into a brigade, called the White Tiger Right Brigade.

In Jiangxi, more than 5,000 people under Su Dingyuan were organized into the Xuanwu Left Brigade, and more than 3,000 people under Lai Xun in Fuzhou were organized into the Xuanwu Right Brigade.

This is not that I don't know, Su Yan was shocked when he counted it, and unconsciously, his command has expanded to more than 50,000 soldiers, even if the more than 10,000 officers and soldiers under Zhang Mingzhen and the thousands of Qing troops in Jiangbei are removed, there are still more than 40,000 people who have enough combat effectiveness.

These forces, not to mention sweeping the whole world, it is not a problem to fight all over the south of the Yangtze River, right?

……

The military rank system and the new military system set by Su Yan were quickly conveyed to the grassroots level of the army, and the officers and men in the army were loyal to him, so naturally no one objected.

However, they were still a little troubled by the title of the new official position, the familiar captain officer was canceled, replaced by the company commander and deputy company commander, the garrison post was also abolished, the capital division and the staff general had an additional deputy position, as well as Su Ci and Wang Yi of Jiangbei, they were all confused after receiving the appointment of the brigade commander, and after asking the person who went to give the order, they finally figured out what this brigade commander was.

In any case, after Su Yan's military rank system and the new military system were promoted, it caused huge repercussions in the army, especially the military rank system, which intuitively represented the identity and status of the soldiers, which made them feel great satisfaction and vanity, and they were full of fighting spirit to continue to climb up.

------Off topic------

Thanks to the non-commissioned officer logistics department for the tip. It was going to be more than eight thousand a day, but it turned out to be Kavinka for one night