At this time, a soldier reported at the door, "Vice President Wang and Zhao Envoy Jun are here." ”

"Let them in!"

After a short time, Wang Gui and Zhao Kai walked in successively, and at present, Zhao Kai is serving as the transfer envoy of Shaanxi Road, responsible for preparing the money, food and materials of the Jingzhao Army.

The two saluted, Li Yanqing smiled and invited them to sit down, and let the soldiers serve tea.

"Vice President Wang, tell me about the current recruitment situation of the militia group?"

Since the 50,000 troops recruited by Li Yanqing Taiyuan Mansion were handed over to Zhang Shuye, after he returned to Jingzhao Mansion, he began to recruit 50,000 new soldiers on Shaanxi Road and prepare for the establishment of a 100,000-strong militia regiment.

Wang Gui sighed, "It's still that problem, regular army soldiers can be exempt from taxes, and there are six yuan per month, the militia soldiers are very unbalanced, just give tax exemption is not enough, they ask for at least two yuan per month, otherwise it is difficult to recruit militia soldiers." ”

The militia soldiers, that is, the reservists, once the Jingzhao army is insufficient, they will be transferred to the army, and they do not need training, they usually use their spare time to conduct a lot of training, and they are basically quasi-regular troops.

If it is two yuan per month, then the 100,000 militia group is 200,000 yuan, which is a very large amount, Li Yanqing looked at Zhao Kai again.

Zhao Kai's face was embarrassed, the imperial court had given all the 10 million taxes of Bashu Third Road to the Northwest Third Road, and Shaanxi Road had only 6 million guan, an average of 500,000 guan per month, but the newly recruited 50,000 soldiers had to pay 300,000 guan per month, and the previous Jingzhao army was also 300,000 guan per month, which was a fixed military expenditure of 600,000 guan per month, and the taxes on Shaanxi Road itself were very low, and it could only rely on the additional income of a few silver mines, but all the financial revenue could not only be used to raise the army, but also pay attention to people's livelihood. It is also necessary to pay for the salaries of officials and government affairs, as well as a large amount of expenditure on weapons and armaments, which is already beyond the means, and where can we still get the 200,000 yuan per month for military expenses.

Zhao Kai had to smile bitterly and said to Li Yanqing: "This matter can only be discussed with the imperial court, to see if the imperial court can support us with another 300,000 yuan per month?" ”

Li Yanqing shook his head, "I had a pigeon exchange with the official family a few days ago, and the official family said that at most we would be given some special powers, but we still have to figure out how to pay for the food and grain." ”

"Either you can only squeeze the three roads of Bashu, but now the taxes of the people of Bashu are also very heavy, and they are overwhelmed, if you increase military spending, I am afraid that there will be a rebellion."

Li Yanqing didn't answer, he muttered and said: "It seems that the tax in the first half of this year has not been paid to us, I remember correctly!" Only Zizhou Road and Kuizhou Road were sent. ”

Zhao Kai nodded and said: "It should be sent in August, I have been urging for two months, they had to promise to send it immediately, but they haven't given it yet." ”

"Looks like I'm going to have to make a run myself."

Li Yanqing immediately said to Zhao Kai: "Later, we will set off for Bashu, and Zhao Zhijun will go with you!" ”

"It's no problem to be lowly, and let the lowly post go back first to arrange things, and follow the capital south the day after tomorrow."

Zhao Kai's official office still had a thousand things to solve, so he saluted and left first, at this time, Li Yanqing said coldly to Wang Gui: "Mobilize 10,000 cavalry to wait in Lantian County, and then wait for my orders!" ”

...........

Two days later, Li Yanqing embarked on a tour of Bashu, which was his first trip to Bashu, and of course the first time he went south since he became the envoy of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Economic Strategy.

The imperial court appointed Li Yanqing as the envoy of Sichuan and Shaanxi, more out of financial support for Shaanxi Road, and used Bashu's money and grain to support the northwest center of Shaanxi Road, not to include Bashu in his Li Yanqing's sphere of influence, he was only the nominal highest political official in Bashu, and from beginning to end, the officials of Bashu did not report to him on any government affairs.

On the one hand, it is certainly because of the inconvenience of the road, but more importantly, the court has never let go of Bashu, which Li Yanqing knows very well, although he is in charge of Sichuan and Shaanxi government affairs, but he can't really put his hand into Bashu, it will become a taboo for the court.

Due to the closed natural environment, Bashu is prone to independent trends when the world is in turmoil, so there is a saying that the world is not chaotic and Shu is in chaos, and the world has been governed and Shu has not been governed.

Since ancient times, the central court has taken the means of dividing and ruling the Bashu administration, the two Han Dynasty are divided into Xichuan and Dongchuan, the Sui and Tang dynasties are divided into Shannan West Road and Jiannan Road, and in the Song Dynasty, it is also divided into three large administrative districts: Chengdu Fu Road, Zizhou Road and Kuizhou Road.

Li Yanqing went south through the Meridian Valley, and arrived at Nanzheng County in Hanzhong three days later, and the Hanzhong area belonged to Lizhou Road, which was regarded as entering Bashu.

Li Yanqing only took five hundred female soldiers south this time, but this was only the public part, and before that, Yan Qing had already led the five hundred most elite scout troops to disperse into Bashu first.

In addition, in addition to the main Bo Cao Ye, the officials who went south with him were Zhao Kai, the transfer envoy of Shaanxi Road.

One of the purposes of Li Yanqing's southward trip this time was also to urge money and grain, and asked Chengdu Fulu to transfer the taxes paid in the first half of the year to Shaanxi Road as soon as possible, which was also a national policy set by the imperial court, and supported the Northwest Third Road with all the financial resources of Bashu Third Road.

In addition, the imperial court has decided to implement the salt tea reform in the third road of Bashu to increase tax revenue, but it has not been implemented for a long time, the local resistance is too great, and there are some signs of failure, the new imperial court has just been established in Lin'an for more than a year, and the central authority is far inferior to the Northern Song Dynasty court in Tokyo, so the local government can completely ignore some decisions of the imperial court, and the imperial court is helpless.

However, the consequences of the failure to implement the salt tea reform directly affected the vital interests of the Northwest Third Road, and Li Yanqing could not stand idly by.

Zhao Kai was not optimistic about Li Yanqing's trip to Bashu, when he was appointed as the transfer envoy of Chengdu Fulu, he was ostracized by the Bashu officialdom in order to implement the salt tea reform, and was finally demoted to Hanzhong as a small county lieutenant. Moreover, the imperial court did not support Li Yanqing for managing too much of the Bashu officialdom.

"Zhao Yuanjun, can you tell me about the reform of Bashu salt tea?" Li Yanqing and Zhao Kai rode side by side and asked with a slight smile.

Zhao Kai smiled and said: "After a little knowledge, it can be seen that there is a saying in Bashu called the poor temple and the poor monk is the rich abbot, how to understand this sentence?" ”

"Does it mean that the people are poor and the government is poor, but the officials are very rich?"

Zhao Kai nodded, "That's pretty much what it means, in fact, not only the officials are rich, but also the local gentry are also rich enough to rival the country, Bashu is rich in salt, tea, pig iron, sugar and wine, these products are huge tax sources, it stands to reason that they should be monopolized by the government, that is, they are in charge of the Salt and Iron Division and the Tea and Wine Division, and they are directly subordinate to the Imperial Court Planning Division, and the state governments cannot interfere, but after the reform of Yuanfeng, the three divisions were weakened, and the functions and powers of the Planning Division were vested in the Ministry of Households, and the Hu Cao Division of the state capitals could also justifiably meddle in the Salt and Iron Division and the Tea and Wine Division, and they were old for a long time. The salt and iron division and the tea and wine division on the side of Bashu have existed in name only, and the local chief official has obtained the monopoly right, so he will naturally do everything possible to make money for himself. ”

"Can you give us an example?"

"In the case of sake, the government controls the koji, and then sells the koji to the main store, which in turn sells the wine to the taverns, but who designates the main store? Of course, it was the three aunts and six mothers-in-law of the officials who opened the main store, and then the government sold the koji cakes to the main store at a low price, and then sold them to the taverns at a high price after the main store made wine, and most of the profits from the wine were taken away by the main store, in fact, it was obtained by various officials, and the same was true for salt, a few big salt merchants took away the huge profits, and the government and many small salt merchants were unprofitable. ”

"So how are you going to reform it at that time?" Li Yanqing asked again.

Zhao Kai smiled bitterly and said: "The so-called reform is actually the redistribution of interests, I was planning to issue wine koji and salt in Chengdu Fu Road, cancel the control of the main store and the big salt merchants, all the taverns can directly buy wine koji from the government to make their own wine, all the small salt merchants can also buy salt from the government and go directly to the salt field to pick up the goods, the main store and the big salt merchants will not be able to profit from it, as a result, less than three days after this plan was proposed, someone reported that my subordinates were doing tricks and feet on the loss of the granary, filling their own pockets, Yu Shi came to check for a month, and arrested a lot of people, But I couldn't find any evidence of my personal gain, but I was still impeached and demoted to Hanzhong, and the salt tea reform I proposed was gone. ”

Li Yanqing said with a smile: "Actually, your thoughts are the same as mine, this time I went to Bashu, just to rebuild the Salt Iron Tea and Wine Envoy, and take back the monopoly from the hands of the local government, so that you think it is feasible?" ”

"The direction is right, but I'm afraid that the court will not be effective! I heard that the imperial court also found the drawbacks and asked the Bashu Third Road to implement the salt tea reform, but the local government did not pay attention to it at all, and the imperial court had no choice, after all, it was too far away, and the authority of the imperial court was not enough, and the control of the local government was not effective. ”

Li Yanqing shook his head, "I don't want to hand over the Tea and Wine Division to the imperial court, but the Jingzhao Army will take charge of the military and use the strength of the army to forcibly implement it." ”

Zhao Kai was taken aback, and implemented military management, so how could the court explain it, but as soon as he thought about it, he understood that Li Jingliu was not a reckless person, and he must have obtained the permission of the official family, otherwise he would not have delayed going to Bashu until now.

Zhao Kai pondered for a moment and said: "Military management is only a means of protection, and the specific implementation must be carried out by civilian officials, so as not to be seized by the imperial court and not good for the reputation of Jinglu." ”

Li Yanqing smiled slightly, "I have negotiated with the official family to set up the Metropolitan Transit Envoy Division on the Third Road of Bashu, and set up the Salt Tea Lifting Division and the Cangcao Lifting Division, which are subordinate to the Sichuan-Shaanxi Jingluo Mansion, and will hand over the Metropolitan Transit Division to the imperial court after five years, and this time the official family will also send the imperial history to Chengdu Mansion to assist me." ”

"It turns out that Jingluo has already communicated well with the official family, and he is worried about his humble position in vain."

Li Yanqing said with a smile: "As you said, the army is just an escort, and the specific needs have to be implemented by civilian officials, and I will also serve as the transfer envoy of the capital, and Zhao Envoy Jun will serve as the deputy transfer envoy of the capital, responsible for specific affairs, so that you can accept this hot position?" ”

Zhao Kai laughed, "As long as Jingluo cuts off all the thorns on the stick, I am willing to dance this big stick for Jingliu." ”

Li Yanqing's face showed a faint smile, the thorns on the stick are not easy to cut off, this trip to Bashu may mean a bloody storm.