A sound of horses' hooves swept from a distance, and the four horses rode in parallel, with yellow dust behind them.

Feng Ziying rode the horse to hide in a light stirrup, and then quickly jumped up again, gently took the reins of the horse, and overtook the black horse under the crotch in a beautiful corner, overtaking the jujube horse that had been running in front, and rushed through the archway in front.

At the end of the race were two yellow-maned horses, which had slowed down in the second half, and in the end they simply gave up the chase and hung far behind.

The knight on the Zao Horse, who rushed across the archway, was quite unconvinced and caught up with Feng Ziying's slowed horse's head, "Ziying, come again, I don't believe that your level looks average, how can you always catch up at the end?" ”

"Brother Wen, if you can't do it, if you can't do it, you can't fake it, this horse is also picked by you first, you can't complain about me, it's a good thing to learn from Brother Junyu and Ruogu, people know that they can't win the race, so they just run away."

Feng Ziying took the reins of the horse, slowed down, and let Yang Sichang walk side by side.

To say that Yang Sichang's equestrian skills are quite passable, but compared with himself, Feng Ziying is confident that he can make the other party have a few horses.

When I was seven or eight years old, I started riding horses in college, and at that time, my mother refused to allow it, and I couldn't resist my curiosity, and later even my father agreed to learn to ride a horse.

Over the past few years, from a pony to a big horse, Feng Ziying's equestrian skills have improved rapidly, of course, if you say how superb you must be, it will definitely not work, but in a group of Jinshi who can obviously only be regarded as able to ride horses, Feng Ziying's equestrian skills are definitely outstanding.

Yang Sichang's equestrian skills are good, but he is definitely far behind Feng Ziying, and he can't resist this wild rush.

"Ziying, where did you practice your horseback riding skills? Datong? The relationship between Yang Sichang and Feng Ziying quickly approached after the palace test.

Without him, Qiao Yingjia can be regarded as Feng Ziying's master, and Yang Sichang's father Yang He and Qiao Yingjia joined forces to attack on Zhejiang Salt the year before last and won a big victory, the two should actually be regarded as one camp, in this case, it is logical for Yang Sichang and Feng Ziying to get closer.

"Where else could it be besides Datong? In those years, I followed my father to practice in the army every day, and when I had nothing to do, I started by riding a pony, and then gradually rode a healthy horse, and then practiced riding, and it was unsatisfactory after a few years. ”

Feng Ziying clamped the horse's belly and increased her speed slightly, Yang Sichang hurriedly followed, "The military affairs here seem to be very sharp, how is Ling Zun's situation in Yulin now?" ”

"My father's letter also said that the military salary has been lacking for many years, the military food is insufficient, and the army's morale is unstable, so it can only be barely maintained, and once the Tatars invade the south, I am afraid that it will be difficult to support." Feng Ziying's words are also true.

However, Feng Tang has been operating in the border area for many years, so he naturally has some sideways to deal with it, and it will be a big trouble to change to an inexperienced one.

"Ziying, this financial problem has always been the biggest problem in the imperial court at the moment, so Zheng Jizhi, as an official of the household department, is helpless and can't share the worries for the monarch, why can't he still go to the vegetarian food and love stack? Why did the imperial historians of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the household department turn a blind eye to the matter? Yang Sichang couldn't help but say when he thought of this: "I asked my father, but my father said that this matter can be explained clearly in just a few words, and it is not the fault of one person,......

"Brother Wen, what Ling Zun said is very true, the finances of the imperial court have become like this, I am afraid it is not an overnight achievement, nor is it the responsibility of a certain household official, if it is really him who has something wrong in it, I am afraid that Ling Zun and Qiao Shi will attack it in groups, I am afraid that this is a problem of the entire imperial court, a problem that has accumulated for a long time."

Feng Ziying also knows this problem, even if she is a person who has come over, if she wants to say that she can solve this problem at once, it is all a lie.

The current situation, social environment, and the structure of various social strata determine that if external variables are not introduced, it will be an unsolvable problem.

Either it is completely broken, or it is necessary to find a breakthrough opportunity from the outside, but the former is not feasible at present, and the latter must also have sufficient preparation, ideological preparation, public opinion preparation, organizational preparation, and preparation for a specific environmental period.

"The household department believes that the number of border troops is too large, and the military funds consumed are too large, which has dragged down the finances of the imperial court, and requires the abolition of the border army, the post army and even the Cao army, which is the only way to alleviate the current financial constraints, and even then it will take many years to slowly recover."

When Yang Sichang said this, he couldn't help but shake his head, if this method could be effective, I am afraid he would have thought of it a long time ago.

"The dismantling of the border army means weakening the border defense, so where should it be abolished? Liaodong, or Xuanda, or Yulin and Ningxia? Feng Ziying also scoffed, "Or is it the Jiangnan Health Institute?" Not to mention that the troubles of the Japanese people have made Jiangnan like a great enemy, and the weakening of the strength of the Jiangnan Guard may not be of much significance, right? ”

"What about Ziying's opinion?" Hou Sui had already caught up with Lian Guoshi.

Today's gathering is a small gathering of the leaders of Qingtan Academy and Chongzheng Academy, but there is no Xu Zheng.

It should be said that these four should be the representatives of the future northern scholars, although Yang Sichang is originally from Huguang, but he has lived in Beijing for a long time, and he is actually used to positioning himself as a northern scholar.

"The younger brother's point of view is very consistent, that is, to open source, throttling is to sacrifice the basics, and open source is the king!" Feng Ziying is not shy in front of these people.

Lian Guoshi and Yang Sichang are both characters who will immediately enter the Hanlin Academy, and if there is no accident, he and Hou Sui will also take the road of Shu Jishi, and the possibility of future cooperation will increase rapidly.

It is important to convince them to agree with their own views, because their views largely represent the northern scholars, and the Lian family, where the Lian State Affairs is located, is a Henan Wang clan, and Hou Sui's father served in Taichang Temple, and he is also a famous northern scholar, and an important opposition force in Kaihai is the northern scholar.

This is not an easy task, and it needs to be done step by step, so that they understand the current big picture, the pros and cons, and even the urgency.

"It is absolutely impossible to dismantle the border army." Lian Guo's point of view is also very clear, "The defense of the Nine Frontiers is already quite dangerous, some of the information I have obtained from the Ministry of War, the pressure on Liaodong Town has become more and more great, the Jianzhou Jurchen is steadily advancing their pace of unifying the Jurchens, and even colluding with the Mongolian left-wing tribes adjacent to Liaoxi, which is a very dangerous sign, once they unify the Jurchen tribes, then their strength will swell enough to subvert the Great Zhou's rule in Liaodong, and once they infiltrate the power into the Mongolian left wing, Then we will not only face the danger of the Tatars breaking through, but may even be attacked by the Jurchens who take advantage of the raid to enter the border wall. ”

Yang Sichang and Hou Sui didn't expect that Lian Guo's affairs had such a deep understanding of border affairs, especially the situation in Liaodong Town, and they were a little touched in their hearts.

These disciples of Qingtan Academy really worked current politics and court affairs, and Feng Ziying was just that, he was born in a family of martial artists in the border area, but he didn't expect to practice state affairs as a Henan scholar, and he also knew about the defense of the Nine Frontiers.

This shows that Qingtan Academy is all-round in the emphasis on government affairs, not a certain person attaches importance to government affairs, no wonder people can win a big victory in today's department.

"Ziying, I'm afraid your open source won't be taxed, right? Then the gang in Jiangnan is afraid that they will really collapse the sky. Hou Sui also groaned: "But in addition to increasing taxes, it seems that there is only the opening of the sea, but how much tax growth can the opening of the sea bring?" This cannot be calculated, and it will also bring a lot of confusion to Jiangnan and even Guangdong, and the imperial court may have to think twice. ”

If it were a northern official who had served in the imperial court for many years, he would oppose it without thinking when he talked about Kaihai, but a young scholar like Hou Sui had not been eroded by the old habits of the court, so he still had a relatively independent judgment ability, and he was only worried about Kaihai, but he was not blindly opposed.

The Great Zhou Dynasty followed the practice of the former Ming Dynasty, and the additional taxes generally only fell to Jiangnan and Huguang, which were important places of wealth, and the additional taxes were ten times better than those of the northern provinces.

Moreover, the frequent floods and droughts in the north in the past ten years have caused the people of Beizhi, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other provinces to live poorly, and the situation in Henan and Shandong is not much better.

"It's not feasible to raise taxes." Yang Sichang shook his head slightly, "Jiangnan has been asking the imperial court to reduce taxes, and the response is strong, thinking that they have borne more than eighty percent of the taxes of the entire Great Zhou, which is extremely unfair, and Huguang has only been relieved in recent years, but the situation of the displaced people in Yunyang is becoming more and more prominent, and the imperial court is particularly worried, as for the northern provinces, it is even more impossible to count on ,......."

"In fact, although it is not feasible to levy additional taxes, if the imperial court dares to make up its mind to completely clean up the official fields and villages,......

Feng Ziying hadn't finished speaking, the other three people all shook their heads like rattles, that is, they wanted to challenge the limit, if they didn't get it right, they would fall apart, no one dared to do such a heroic act at such a time, if they didn't pay attention to it, they would really be heroic, even if it was the emperor.

Yang Sichang, Lian Guoshi and Hou Sui, even if they have just passed the exam, they understand how deep the water is here, and it can even be said that it directly involves their own and family interests.

"Then I'm afraid it's really only a glimpse of opening the sea." Feng Ziying smiled and said: "Actually, as Ruogu just said, no one knows how much tax the opening of the sea can increase to the imperial court, but then again, if you don't try it, how do you know if there is an increase in revenue and how much it can be increased?" Anyway, the situation is getting worse and worse now, the deficit hole is getting bigger and bigger, and it all depends on the household department to tear down the east wall and make up the west wall, and one day it will suddenly crack open, and it will become out of control, do you have to wait until that time? ”