The two things that made Murong Xue have a headache, one was the Yuzhou Thorn Shi Song to manage the Jinhe main road project; The other is about the promotion of Feng Yiwei, the commander of the Long Knife Legion.

Objectively speaking, it is indeed not trivial.

Yuzhou Thorn Shi was the first local official to be replaced after Xie Guang came to Luoyi, and he was naturally his hardcore cronies.

This time, the Yuzhou Assassin proposed to govern the Jinhe, and the purpose behind it was not simple.

Since ancient times, the construction of water conservancy has always been an important task in governing the country, especially the water control of the Jinhe River. If you get it right, you will change the wind and rain for decades or hundreds of years, and the country and the people will be safe, but if you don't get it right, it will be natural and man-made disasters.

The water conservancy projects in Shengtang were generally under the responsibility of the Ministry of Industry under the rule of Shangshu Province, and the Ministry of Industry had set up a special position in the Yamen of the Ministry of Water Affairs to supervise the construction of water conservancy projects in various prefectures and counties.

However, Yuzhou's proposal was not an ordinary water project, but hoped that the imperial court would approve the implementation of the governance of the entire main Jinhe River.

The so-called main road refers to the main stream of the Jinhe River, which is more than 5,000 miles long and about 100 zhang wide. The Jinhe River has a well-developed water system and abundant flow, passing through the 12 northern states of the Tang Dynasty, involving various issues such as farmland irrigation, drinking water for the people, navigation and transportation, flood disasters, etc., and is related to the livelihood of millions of Li people.

However, governing the main way was a huge problem at the time.

Due to the sheer size of the Golden River, the projects involved often require the consumption of countless funds, materials and manpower, and even the mobilization of a large number of troops to participate in them.

Therefore, if it is not a prosperous era and a thousand years of Ming monarchs, the imperial courts of all dynasties did not dare to easily start the issue of governing the main road of the Jinhe. In the history before the Shengtang Dynasty, there were almost countless examples of blindly building water conservancy projects on a large scale, which led to the shaking of the national capital, the loss of money and labor, and even the rebellion of the people.

At the same time, once the imperial court approved the start of the project to control the main road of the Jinhe River, then the officials who were fully responsible for this matter could instantly control nearly half of the national resources of the imperial dynasty and become power-leaning towards the government and the opposition.

In view of this, Murong Xue believes that this letter from Yuzhou Thorn History is simply tailor-made for Xie Guang.

In terms of official positions, qualifications, and status, who in the DPRK and Central Committee can compete with Taifu Xie for the "Governor of the Jinhe Project", which is equivalent to the position of "Grand Sikong"?

And once Xie Guang is allowed to preside over the entire construction project, he will not only be able to grasp more substantive power, but also take advantage of the situation to contain all the government soldiers and young adults in various states and counties in his own hands, and the recovery war against the ghost desert in Western Xinjiang will definitely become far away.

For Murong Xue, the construction of the main road of the Jinhe River must not be implemented, at least not when Xie Guangzheng is gaining power.

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The proposal to build the main road of the Golden River was something that Murong Xue had to resist, on the contrary, another thing was obstructed by Xie Guang and Lao Jianhua in every way.

At the beginning, the Long Knife Legion was ordered to pull out, and not long after going to the two passes, the imperial capital moved the idea of removing Feng Yiwei.

It is no wonder that in the Imperial Capital Incident, the position of the Long Knife Army was quite ambiguous, although it did not directly support Xie Guang's rebellion, but it already posed a great threat to the imperial court. It is imperative to take out Feng Yiwei and cut off Xie Guang's wings.

However, Li Chengwu considered that the situation in western Xinjiang was tense at that time, the next movement of the Turkic army was unclear, and the change of commander in the battle was very unfavorable to both the country and the army, so after discussing with General Xu Lie, he decided to put the matter aside for the time being.

Now, the imperial court saw that the Long Knife Legion had successfully entered the two passes, and the defense system against the Turkic northern and southern camps had also been constructed, so it started the idea of the Feng commander again.

As soon as Xie Guang received a message from Luoyi from the imperial capital, sending it to the prince to review the official document on replacing the commander of the Long Sword Army, he immediately secretly shouted that it was not good. While secretly suppressing the cantata, he didn't send it to the East Palace first, and at the same time, through Lao Jianhua's channel, he secretly contacted the Turkic Temple Prince Ronia.

Not long after, the Turkic army stationed on the front line of the two passes suddenly carried out a large-scale mobilization and launched military exercises outside the Zijin Pass and Shengyu Pass, and the scene was extremely terrifying.

The deputy capital of Zhenjiang stationed at Zijin Pass guarded Guan Zhan, and he was so frightened that he sent twelve emergency military reports a day, lest his Zhenjiang army and Feng Yiwei's long knife army would not be able to resist the other party's sudden attack, and asked the imperial court to send reinforcements quickly.

When Li Chengwu, who was in the imperial capital, saw this situation, he immediately felt helpless, so he had to temporarily dismiss the idea of replacing Feng Yiwei and continue to observe the situation.

Unexpectedly, more than two months have passed in a blink of an eye, and apart from the previous earth-shattering military exercises, the Turks have not made any other moves, and obviously do not want to further expand the war. Only then did the imperial capital finally put his mind at ease and brought up the matter of changing generals again.

This time, Xie Guang can't play the original trick anymore.

Let's not talk about whether the imperial court will be frightened by the tension on the front line again, just talk about the Prince of the Turkic Temple, he is not Xie Guang's father, you can do whatever you want. An army of 100,000 is dispatched once, do you think you are playing a good game?

The Turks were benevolent and righteous, and no longer helped, and the article of "planning to be promoted to the post of Captain Feng Yiwei, returning to Beijing to take up his post, and assisting His Majesty in advising the military" was soon placed in front of Li Bing, the crown prince of the Fujun Prison State.

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This time, Li Bing presided over the court meeting, and these two major events touched the heartstrings of both the imperial capital and Xie Guang respectively, and a fierce intrigue was inevitable.

Li Bing checked the two copies in his hand, and as soon as he opened his mouth to ask the opinions of the ministers present, Yuzhou Thorn Shi jumped out one by one, holding a large pile of various "petitions" and began to gush.

According to the Assassin Historical Report, these petitions were written by the people of the counties on both sides of the Golden River, who eagerly hoped that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would grant permission to govern the main road of the Golden River for the benefit of the people of the Quartet.

Prince Li Bing casually flipped through the letters stacked into a small mountain, and was silent.

Seeing this, Lao Jianhua took the opportunity to step forward and add another handful of firewood: "Your Highness, according to the information reported to the Ministry of Industry by the water management offices in various places, the flood season of the main road of the Jinhe River this year is slightly earlier than in previous years; Qin Tianjian also predicted that with the circulation of the stars and the overlapping of the moon and shadows, the next two years will be a year of high tides, and all major rivers in the country will be affected by it, causing the water level to rise, especially the main road of the Jinhe River. Therefore, the treatment project of the main road of the Jinhe River is really urgent. ”

As he spoke, he secretly gave Yuzhou Thorn Shi a sneak look.

Thorn Shi understood what he meant, and bowed down again: "Your Highness, for the sake of my Shengtang's Jiangshan Sheji, and for the people of Li to live and work in peace and contentment, I also ask Your Highness to be the Holy Judge, and grant permission to the Jinhe Project!" ”

Li Bing raised his head and said lightly: "Don't keep kneeling, stand up and discuss things well." Murong Xue, what do you think about this matter? ”

"Your Royal Highness, the minister does not agree with the proposition of Yuzhou's assassination." Murong Xue said: "A few days ago, for this matter, the minister specially went to Shangshu Province to ask the opinions of the lords in the imperial capital, but he got a completely different answer from Lord Lao and Lord Thorn Shi. ”

"Oh? What does the imperial capital say? Li Bing asked with interest.

Murong Xue replied calmly: "First of all, it is the reply of the household department. Although there was a big harvest in the Lianghuai area last year, Longyou Road, Henan Province and Guannei Road all suffered serious disasters, resulting in a reduction in grain production; There was also an earthquake in Kennam Province, causing nearly 100,000 victims. Coupled with the rebellion in Western Xinjiang, the imperial court not only lost the tariffs and foreign trade of the Silk Road trade route at once, but also the pension of the fallen soldiers of the Zhenjiang Metropolitan Protectorate, the Fierce Blade Legion, and the two levels of the Long Knife Legion's defense were all costly. Your Highness can know that the relief of the victims and military spending alone have taken away 12 million yuan of silver from the national treasury in the blink of an eye, which is almost the scale of tax revenue in the past six months. ”

Hearing this, Li Bing couldn't help frowning: "There are so many?" So how much money is currently left in the treasury? ”

"The reserves of the imperial treasury are probably more than 30 million yuan. In order to cope with various unpredictable crises, the adults of the household department dare not agree to large expenditures anymore. Murong Xue paused for a moment and continued: "In addition, there is also the opinion of the Ministry of Industry. Master Shangshu Qiao of the Ministry of Industry personally wrote a letter to the minister, detailing in detail the dredging and reinforcement project of the tributaries of the Jinhe River that he had presided over since he took office for six years. Qiao Shangshu believes that there is no need to build a large number of buildings to govern the main road of the Jinhe River at the moment. ”

When Lao Jianhua heard this, he couldn't help coughing lightly, and while the crown prince Li Bing hadn't spoken, he retorted: "What Lord Murong said is wrong. Everyone knows that the household department has always liked to cry poor, even if they have money, they are like iron roosters and misers, and they are easy to refuse to let go of spending. Actually, this is lazy politics. The imperial court tax was paid by rent, and the emperor implemented the rule of inaction, and lowered the tax rate many times, resulting in the fact that the tax of the people could not be collected, which made the treasury empty and overstretched in the slightest change. Nowadays, the 800-year-old Saint Tang Dynasty has been rich in the people for a long time, and we can completely follow the example of the ancestral system and re-levy the river donation set up by the 16th emperor to be used exclusively for the Jinhe project. Your Highness, according to the minister's calculations, just the twelve states along the river can basically guarantee all the expenses required. ”

"Lord Lao is joking," Murong Xue snorted coldly: "Most of the twelve states along the river are on the list of victims last year, and the people's livelihood situation is not optimistic. It's too late for the imperial court to give relief, and now they have to increase the river tax, aren't they afraid of provoking a popular uprising? ”

Not to be outdone, Lao Jianhua replied: "Lord Murong, according to what you said, a little increase in taxes can provoke a popular uprising, so what do you need the court and the army to do?" ”

Murong Xue argued: "Okay, even if you can suppress the people's grievances and start a river donation." But you should not forget that the budget for river control projects in the past dynasties has always increased unabated. Once the implementation begins, the final state and county involved in the donation will certainly be far more than the 12 states, but all over the country. At that time, if the western frontier needs to use troops, where will the military spending come from? ”

Xie Guang, who had been silent, opened his mouth at this time: "Murong Zhan Shi, you mean that as long as the ghost desert in the Western Xinjiang is unstable for a day, we won't be able to do anything serious for a day, and the entire Shengtang will stare and wait, right?" ”

"Xia Guan didn't mean that!" Murong Xue said angrily: "Master Taifu, please don't misinterpret my thoughts. ”

Xie Guang asked unhurriedly, "Then what do you mean?" At every turn, he moved out of the war in Western Xinjiang as an excuse. You must know that even the emperor has not clearly dealt with the holy will of the Western Xinjiang issue, and our army will be in a situation of confrontation with the Turks for a long time, which is a basic judgment that everyone knows. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is in charge of the country's affairs and is in charge of people's livelihood affairs, and he needs to make one or two great achievements in order to establish the emperor's authority. You obstruct it in every way, what is your intention? ”

Murong Xue was not afraid of Xie Guang's questioning, and said-for-tat: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is a virtuous crown prince, if you want to establish your prestige and create great achievements, you don't have to fight for this overnight time. Sage Cloud: Governing a big country is like cooking a small fresh. The more we grasp the national Zuo Society, the more we should judge the situation and walk on thin ice. Now that the external troubles in western Xinjiang have not been eliminated, it is difficult to say that everything is available in terms of time, location, and people, and it is difficult to carry out a huge project, which is like a galloping horse in the abyss, and dangers are lurking. Taifu Xie, shouldn't we, who are courtiers, remind Your Highness to be cautious and decisive in everything? ”

Lao Jianhua sneered and retorted for Xie Guang: "Lord Murong still failed to understand what Taifu meant, but instead secretly changed the concept to confuse the saint. Although the external invasion of the ghost desert in Western Xinjiang has not yet been completely resolved, it has also entered a period of relative stability. In the current situation, it is precisely time to shift energy from the military to the construction of Shengtang, which is the so-called 'heavenly time'. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and Lord Xie are located in the eastern capital of Luoyi, close to the main road of the Jinhe River, supervising the governance project, and have the advantage of 'geographical advantage'. The people of the 12 states along the river asked for the history of Yuzhou, hoping to control the river as soon as possible. The time, place and people are all in our hands, and the guarantee of funds and labor is not a big problem, so why can't we start to create this great achievement for the benefit of the country and the people now? ”

Li Bing was a little moved by Lao Jianhua's words, and nodded slightly: "Lao Aiqing is reasonable. We really should take advantage of the current conditions and make a difference. It can't be that we have lost the western Xinjiang and failed to do a good job in domestic affairs. ”