The next day, Fang Chongyong went to Jingzhao Mansion, just in time for Jingzhao Yin to work in Yamen.

After explaining his intentions, Jingzhao Yin Weijian laughed, and immediately ordered someone to go through the formalities, and completed the steps of Cui Qianyou from an official slave to a private slave, and then from a private slave to a ministry, without any twists and turns at all.

As for the details that need to be guaranteed by many people, they are all ignored, which fully shows what it means to "do urgent matters, special matters, and special personnel".

In these years, slaves are the same as objects, not just talking, but clearly written in Tang Law.

What Fang Chongyong wants to do is essentially "delivery of goods", and it will be done with some money.

Official slaves become private slaves, which is equivalent to the cattle and horses of the government being picked up by the good family on the road and brought home, theoretically they are to be "returned", but in practice they can be "special affairs", such as redemption.

This kind of operation is very common, and some officials have their homes raided because of their crimes, and their families have become slaves, and their whereabouts and experiences are complicated.

And after the private slaves were released, it became a trilogy, and it was also a conventional way. As long as the owner agrees and agrees to "return", he can complete the procedure according to the procedure, which is also one of the important sources of the family's private army.

Therefore, both of these things are easy to do, and it can even be said that they are effortless.

However, when Fang Chongyong came to the barracks outside the city where the Longwu Army recruited soldiers and horses to inquire about the recruitment conditions, it was as if a basin of cold water had been poured on him for thirty-nine days.

He never expected that Long Wujun, who was well paid, didn't mention much about the quality of the soldiers themselves, but there were a lot of moths!

If you are not a good family with a household registration in Chang'an, you will not accept it!

Those who have a criminal record will not accept it!

The private army is even less collected.

As for the martial arts related to the quality of the soldiers, the military strategy is not tested at all.

It's not like recruiting an elite army that can fight and dare to fight, but it's a bit like a dung pit that shelters the children of Chang'an's powerful people.

In these years, the Tang Dynasty was full of martial virtues and powerful all over the world, and no one felt that the Longwu Army guarding Chang'an had any battles to fight. There don't seem to be many people who are infiltrated into the Longwu Army who are eager to make meritorious contributions! Everyone is here for the generous treatment.

Fang Chongyong walked around inside and outside the recruiting camp, and felt that this army must be useless.

He can see that Li Longji wants to reform the Wanqi and eliminate redundant personnel, but he realizes that the former Wanqi has been raised and abolished and has become a tool for the palace coup.

Other than that, it's useless.

Li Longji wanted to disband Wanqi, and although the method of reorganizing the Longwu Army was good, it was difficult to implement.

In the blood basin of cowards, a heroic army cannot be born!

What kind of combat effectiveness will the Longwu Army, with the rich scoundrels and nobles from the Gyeonggi region as the main soldiers, have in the future?

I am afraid that there are many people in the DPRK and China, but Li Longji thinks that there is no problem and thinks that he can build a strong army by relying on sophisticated equipment.

After all, Li Longji grew up in the deep palace, and he was good at intrigues and tricks, and he was completely a layman.

Fang Chongyong thought of the customs and customs of the Hexi Corridor that Niu Xianke showed him, and remembered that among the adult men over there, the proportion of them who had served in the army was as high as more than 90%.

Comparing the two, fools know where the high-quality soldiers are.

Since Li Longji ordered those who entered the Longwu Army to be exempted from forced labor and part of taxes, the eunuchs in Beijing and the children of the rich vied in vigrating with each other!

The barracks are about to turn into vegetable markets.

Now the recruitment of the Long Wu Army can be described as hot and too popular. Because there are too many people who pay attention, it is not good for internal operations.

Fang Chongyong didn't have any special relationship in the Longwu Army, and he didn't want to stuff people into the Longwu Army in the name of Fang Youde, so Cui Qianyou's entry into the Longwu Army was in a dilemma for a while.

Fang Chongyong deeply felt that his communication channels with the government were too narrow, and he had ideas in his head, but there was no place to use them. Now he has the reputation of being a handsome son, but he can't do anything, and he is like a waste.

If only Lao Zheng were still in Chang'an.

As a result, Cui Qianyou had to live in Fang Chongyong's house as a "ministry" and wait for things to turn around. In his spare time, Cui Qianyou didn't want to eat idle meals, and "learned" the art of war with Fang Chongyong every day. It is called "Learning", but in fact, it focuses on the essence of the art of war, and it can be regarded as a hand-in-hand teaching of military strategy.

Teach Fang Chongyong how to set up camp, how to march, how to organize the team, starting from the most basic things little by little.

And the possibility of joining the Dragon Martial Army, as the days passed, the soldiers were saturated day by day, and gradually became unattainable.

The name of the son of the marshal is not omnipotent, and there are too many characters with heads and faces in Chang'an City. Staying here is like a running person with his hands and feet tied, and I don't feel good at all.

Fang Chongyong had the urge to leave Chang'an urgently.

He felt that if he continued to stay here, the whole person would be ruined.

Even if the scumbag Fang Youde is the envoy of the Youzhou Festival, based on this alone, if he wants to stir up the storm in the treacherous center of the Tang Dynasty and climb up step by step, it is almost like a daydream.

The prosperity of the Tang Dynasty is like cooking oil on fire, which cannot last.

Fang Chongyong wanted to plan more for the future, and didn't want to sink with this boat. He waited for Wang Zhonghe's return to go to Hexi, and then took advantage of this opportunity to go to the border town to train.

The troubled times are about to begin, and any poems and articles, and what songs and dances are all empty. Only the knife in your hand is the only thing you can really rely on.

Fang Chongyong felt that he didn't need to deal with those literati and artists in the future, there was no need to waste time on the imperial examination, and there was no need to stay in the center of Chang'an to play some tricks and tricks with those bureaucrats.

These things are all spicy chickens that waste time, even if they play the lotus flower step by step, after the chaos rises, they can't withstand the fatal knife of Qiu Ba.

The ability to manage one side and manage logistics is what is necessary for future survival, and this is the direction of his efforts.

As for why he had to wait for Wang Zhongji to come before going to Hexi, it was not because the Tubo people were too fierce, Fang Chongyong was afraid that he would be left unattended when he arrived in the border town, and he would be sent by the Tubo people.

Safety first, life is important.

……

Just when Fang Chongyong followed Cui Qianyou to learn the art of war every morning and went to He Zhizhang to "practice calligraphy" in the afternoon, when the days were dull and boring, the center of the Tang Dynasty actually made waves!

Zheng Shuqing, the head of the household department and the transfer envoy, was sent to Luoyang on a business trip and inspected the grain storage in Hanjiacang.

I don't know if I don't check, and I'm shocked when I check it!

The inventory including Jiacang is about eighty percent less! Its vacancy rate can be described as a new low since the opening of the position! It is estimated that it is a little stronger than the day it was just completed!

In the past few years, the government and the opposition have been praising Pei Yaoqing's meritorious service, and the government treasury is full. Unexpectedly, Hanjiacang, which was the "first warehouse in the world" during the Wuzhou period, was actually half empty!

It's appalling!

Li Linfu wrote a detailed note, stating to Li Longji the fact that Luoyang was a place for grain and grass transshipment, and the grain stock was far from meeting the standard.

Li Longji saw this sparse performance, was furious, and in a fit of anger, he removed all the officials who had undertaken grain transfer from their posts and investigated them!

As a result, a courtier immediately wrote to him, saying that the reason for Hanjiacang's vacancy was not here, and he hoped that Li Longji could take back his life.

In government affairs, in fact, many times there are not so many rights and wrongs, and there are only "doing something and not doing something".

From a certain point of view, those people are not purely vexatious, they still have a point.

Pei Yaoqing reformed Caoyun, adopted "segmented" transportation, and transported more than 7 million stone of grain to Chang'an in three years, and the results are not dazzling.

However, there are two sides to the development of things. There are gains and losses, which is the norm.

The reform of Cao Yun was carried out at the expense of the Cao Yun section from Biankou to Luoyang. It has a long-term and profound impact on the layout of Datang Caoyun and even the layout of the national economic center.

It's just that the vast majority of people don't see this at this time.

Such examples have existed before.

At the beginning, he destroyed the Northern Qi from the Northern Zhou Dynasty to Wei Chi Xiangzhou and raised troops against the Sui. The rulers saw the terrifying power of Yecheng to unite the hearts of the people in Hebei, so they changed the watercourse of the Zhanghe River, so that the Yellow River transportation route no longer passed through Yecheng.

Yecheng, which has flourished for hundreds of years since the beginning of the Three Kingdoms, has declined. Yecheng, which lost Caoyun, also lost its status as the economic center of the north.

Since Pei Yaoqing's Caoyun reform, because of the diversion of Caoyun's route, Luoyang is no longer the only way, so the boats willing to go to Luoyang have become increasingly rare.

In three years, the transportation from Biankou to Luoyang has been reduced by almost 80%!

The volume has increased from one million stones at the peak to less than 200,000 stones now.

The core of Pei Yaoqing's Caoyun reform, in addition to the segmented Caoyun, is to take Biankou as the core of transshipment and abandon the previous strategy of Caoyun with Luoyang as the transshipment core.

The boats don't go to Luoyang, Hanjiacang only can't go in and out, what's so strange about the reduction of grain stocks?

Under the voices of the court singing praises of virtue, the impact of this major change has obviously been deliberately ignored and diluted.

This Caoyun reform was that the government placed Heyin County (now the east of Heyin County, Henan) and Heyin Cang at the intersection of the Bianhe River and the Yellow River, Baiyacang in Heqing County (50 miles southwest of Mengxian County, Henan), Jijin Cang in the east of Sanmen on the north bank of the Yellow River, and Sanmencang (one as a salt warehouse) in the west of Sanmen.

This reform directly led to the rise of the Caoyun economy with Bianliang as the core in the future, and laid the basic economic pattern of five dynasties and ten countries.

The method of segmented transportation is adopted to transport grain to Chang'an, and the water transportation conditions are suitable, then it is transported; If the water transport conditions are not suitable (such as dry periods), then it will not be transported.

Its reform ideas are revolutionary.

The implementation of this reform cannot be said to be ineffective, but there is a core problem: such high-intensity grain transportation is not sustainable.

The transportation volume is large, but the transportation cost has not decreased substantially, and most of these freight costs have to be paid by merchants. This is the economic price that must be paid for setting the capital of Chang'an.

In fact, throughout the Tang Dynasty, it is only in the past few years that the grain and straw transported to Chang'an have reached more than 2 million stones a year.

The grain and straw from Hebei are all from the "Yongji Canal Six Prefectures", while the grain from Jianghuai is often blocked and capsized by boats because the river route is too long, resulting in extremely high grain transportation costs. Pei Yaoqing's Caoyun reform had a great impact on the northern grain of the canal, but it did not have a great impact on the transportation of the Jianghuai grain.

If the freight is high, someone must pay for it, either the court or the merchants.

If the court refuses to pay, the people will stop doing it, and no one's wealth will come from the waves.

Moreover, now the grain and grass of Jianghuai have been transferred to Heyin Cang, if it is to be transferred to Luoyang, then it is necessary to take another unjust road, and these grains and grasses cannot be transferred from Luoyang to Chang'an.

So now the merchants of Jianghuai no longer want to transport grain from Jianghuai and Jiangnan to Luoyang, because the freight is too high and unprofitable. The mode now used by the imperial court is to use the method of "bidding" to transport grain, and the ships directly controlled by the government are not dominant.

That is to say, after the merchant transported the grain to Luoyang, the government purchased it uniformly, and then subsidized the freight.

According to the actual investigation sent by Li Linfu, the average freight cost of each stone of Jianghuai's grain transported to Luoyang exceeded 50 yuan. The corresponding freight subsidy is pitifully low.

The cost of freight was too high, and the freight given by the imperial court was too low, so that merchants were reluctant to transport grain from Jianghuai!

So from this point of view, most of the empty Hanjia cangs are not because the officials in transit are unwilling to work hard, but because there are many objective conditions that make them unable to display their abilities.

The difficulty of grain transportation is not only a matter of transportation, but the overall mechanism of the imperial court, which cannot adapt to the new economic situation!

These twists and turns of truth sound like that. But in Li Longji's view, what he needs is not an excuse, but whether the thing has been done.

Hanjiacang is the country's strategic reserve, and if it is not full, it is dereliction of duty!

Are the other questions that he, a saint, should worry about?

As for what canal routes have changed, and the way of transportation has changed, he doesn't want to ask about those birds, and he doesn't want to hear about them!

Faced with a new predicament, Li Linfu prescribed his own prescription to Li Longji.

First of all, all the old transfer officials should be dismissed from their posts and replaced with new ones (most of them are Li Linfu's own henchmen).

Secondly, in the Luoyang area, the implementation of the peace law, the harvest year to the private sector to buy grain at a high price, the price of two percent higher than the market price, to meet the needs of the Jiacang reserves.

The required wealth comes from Jianghuai and Jiangnan.

Thirdly, the household tax will be increased to the six prefectures of Yongji Canal in Hebei, and the household tax of each household will be increased by 20 percent, and the rent will be paid with grain in a unified manner.

Finally, the grain transported from Jianghuai was changed to cloth and local specialties with lighter weight and higher value. Then use these cloths to go to Hebei to buy grain for transshipment.

In this way, the cost of transshipment can be reduced, and at the same time, the reserve grain of several strategic granaries can be filled to prepare for the war in the Hexi Corridor and Longyou.

As for the "small problems" such as the grain in Hebei being transported away, resulting in expensive grain and cheap cloth, Li Linfu did not fail to consider it.

It's just that Hebei is the Hebei of the Tang Dynasty, not the Hebei of Hebei. Sacrifices must be made when necessary. The so-called balance of interests, considering the whole situation, is naturally someone who has to make sacrifices.

Jiangnan and Jianghuai are far away, and the Tongji Canal is often silted, and the transportation conditions are really poor. It's that Li Linfu wants to make "sacrifices" in these places, and the efficiency is too low!

Only Hebei has manpower and strength, and the transportation conditions are also good.

All in all, Li Linfu's plan does not require the expansion of the canal's capacity in the next few years. After the new river is dug up, Luoyang's grain and straw can be directly transported to Chang'an, and then the overall planning will be carried out.

Li Longji was very satisfied with the detailed performance of this plan, but he still asked Li Linfu a few key questions.

Li Longji asked: Will such a reform affect Chang'an's grain supply?

Li Linfu said that it will not be affected, because there is a continuous supply of grain from Hebei, and the freight for transshipment is still small.

Li Longji asked again: Does the state treasury want to contribute more money?

Li Linfu said no, because the Jiangnan Jianghuai side paid taxes and replaced the rice and grain with cloth, which was convenient for transshipment. Therefore, the money in the treasury has not decreased, but increased!

Li Longji asked again: Will it affect the war in Youzhou?

Li Linfu replied: The tax increase is only for the six states of Yongjiqu, not in other parts of Hebei, and the grain is exclusively for the border towns of Youzhou for military needs, so there will be no bad impact.

Hearing these words, Li Longji was completely relieved.

He directly issued an edict and ordered Zheng Shuqing, the squire of the household department and the transfer envoy, to be responsible for the grain and straw transfer of Hanjiacang, regardless of other things, and to supply the grain needed for the war in Hexi.

And outside Chang'an City, around Guangyuntan in the lower reaches of Bashui, a special granary was built. Specialized grain is used exclusively to receive grain from the Kanto region.

After all this was done, Li Longji took Yang Yuhuan to Lishan Huaqing Palace for a vacation, no longer interrogated in government affairs, and Li Linfu presided over the overall situation, and it was enough to deal with it first and then report. He will come back next year.

Huaqing Palace is backed by the mountain and faces Wei, leans on the Lifeng mountain and builds, the scale is large, the building is magnificent, the building is grand, the pavilion hall is all over the Lishan Mountain. It is famous for its high-quality hot springs, and its original name was "Yusennomiya", which was later renamed Onsen Palace.

In the Kaiyuan period, it was renamed Huaqing Palace again, because it was in Lishan, it was also called Lishan Palace, also known as Ligong Palace, Xiuling Palace, etc.

When the harsh winter comes, going to bathe in the hot springs is indeed a pleasure that only emperors have.

I have to say that it was Yang Yuhuan who woke up Li Longji's second spring. Since he was a teenager, he has overcome obstacles and overturned one political opponent after another, and finally created this prosperous situation.

Is it for those unscrupulous people? Li Longji obviously does not believe that "success does not have to be me".

For him, enjoyment comes first. Yang Yuhuan stimulated Li Longji's desire to enjoy and made him sink into it and couldn't extricate himself.

……

"Finally arrived in Chang'an."

Outside the Chunming Gate of Chang'an, the burly Wang Zhonghei couldn't help but sigh intently at the endless crowd of people coming and going, going out of the city and entering the city.

On the order of the sage, he returned to Guanzhong from Kuizhou and was appointed as the general of the left army of the Longwu Army, responsible for guarding the palace city of Chang'an.

This appointment...... It's not what he wants.

"Let's go to the palace first."

Wang Zhongsi sighed, he hadn't returned to Chang'an for a long time, and he didn't know if it was a matter of fact.