Guangzhou.

Privy Council.

"not good!"

"Li Ji was not going to take the Hunan-Gui Road, his target was not Guizhou."

"The information just sent by the Staff Office was Li Ji in the middle of the Xiang River and moved into the tributary Xiaojiang River. He came for Hezhou."

"Hezhou? Xianggui Road is the best route. Yuechengling is low and open, and there is also a spiritual canal there, which can make the transportation of military supplies more convenient. If you can capture Guizhou, you can go all the way from Lingxi to Guijiang and Zuojiang to Guangzhou."

"The water has no constant shape, and the soldiers have no constant momentum. Li Ji is also a famous general who is known as the God of the Prime Minister. We all know that Xianggui Road is the best offensive line, so how could he not know? Because Xianggui Road is the first choice for offensive, Li Ji must know that we must be very cautious here, so he will definitely not come to fight head-on. It is natural to choose Xiaohe Road."

"Do we need to adjust the deployment immediately? We have deployed 50,000 troops in Guizhou. But only 30,000 people have been deployed in Hezhou!"

In the Privy Council, a group of generals and schools quarreled.

No one doubted the intelligence of the Staff Office. This Staff Office is very mysterious and belongs to the Privy Council, but it is very independent. In fact, this Staff Office was established by Zhang Chao as a Shadow person. The Staff Office is just a skin of the Shadow.

Since its establishment, the various intelligence provided by the Advisory Office has never made any mistakes.

"Report to the cabinet and the Prime Minister first." Privy Councilor Zhang Zhongjian is not in Guangzhou now and is in charge of Guizhou.

·······

cabinet.

After Zhang Chao received the report from the Privy Council, he was not surprised. Before Shadow gave the information to the Privy Council, he had already copied a copy to Zhang Chao, and even Zhang Chao had to be more detailed.

"Do we want to adjust the deployment?" Ci Xiangma Zhou asked.

Li Chao smiled.

"Actually, Li Ji's journey to the Xiao Congratulations was as expected by us. We have made various plans before, and no matter which way Li Ji goes, we are not afraid. However, since we have already seen Li Ji's offensive direction, we can also make some fine adjustments."

"In this way, I suggest that the envoy Zhang Shumi draw 20,000 Guizhou defenders to rush to Hezhou to reinforce. In Hezhou, the war situation will be led by Zhang Shumi, and General Cui Yan will be the deputy general."

After the cabinet meeting ended, Li Chao went to see Chengqian.

"Can you stop Li Ji? Do you need to go to Hezhou personally to boost morale?" Cheng Qian asked.

This battle is of great importance. If you can win, it will naturally boost morale, but if you lose, the imperial army will tear open the gap and enter Lingnan.

"Among the generals of the court, Li Jing liked to take risks and often attacked with elite troops. Li Ji was relatively stable and good at large-scale combat. Li Ji was the general, which was a very good choice, but the emperor kept interfering. Li Ji only gathered half of the troops in Tanzhou, and the food and grass were not raised yet, but the emperor had already urged him to march."

"How can Li Ji win in such a march?"

"Your Highness, please rest assured. If the soldiers come to block the enemy, the water comes to flood the earth. General Zhang Zhongjian is still Li Jing's sworn brother. His military use is also quite experienced."

"Your Highness, I wonder what instructions do you have on the election of the parliament?"

Chengqian shook his head.

"I thought the parliamentary constitution submitted by the Prime Minister and the Second Prime Minister were very reasonable and in line with each other. Now the situation in the south is very good, and it is very rare. It is because our country and court has fully considered and taken care of the interests of all classes to achieve a great unity. This must be maintained. The teacher's parliamentary system is very good, and I have no objection."

"I think the number of members of the Central Civil Assembly should be reduced slightly. It turns out that the Central Civil Assembly of the imperial court was 1,000. I felt that there were too many members of the Central Civil Assembly, and I thought that I could choose two members of the National Civil Assembly in each county."

There are now more than twenty roads, 200 states, and 1,000 counties. If there are two councillors in one county, then there will be two thousand people, which is more than one thousand eight. But now the imperial court in charge of the state actually controls Fujian and Siguang, with only more than one hundred counties in total. Therefore, two councillors in one county can finally elect about three hundred councillors.

This number is not too large, nor too small.

"I think it's very good, but some important prefectures can add several places appropriately."

After all, there are only a few people in a county on Hainan Island, but like Guangzhou Prefecture, there are so many people. It is not in line with the facts only by counties. After all, members of parliament represent the interests of all regions and classes.

"Can."

After talking about the special subject matter, Chengqian still asked Li Chao to be the chief examiner.

"Recently, the Central Plains court issued an order to ban the sea, which seems to have a great impact on us. Does the teacher have any solutions to it?" After all, Lingnan has not been developed yet, and the reason why it has been able to rise in recent years is also the sea trade.

Once the Central Plains banned the sea, it will have a great impact on the Lingnan side.

"Your Highness, the court cannot really ban the sea. It is just to deal with our temporary ban. However, this does have a great impact on us. In this regard, I have considered some solutions, mainly smuggling."

"smuggling?"

"For the imperial court banned the sea, this is a devastating blow to the sea merchants in the Central Plains. If the ship does not go to sea, the losses will be huge. Similarly, those who rely on foreign trade are almost equivalent to being sentenced to death. You should know that now, in the Tang Dynasty, the number of goods produced in foreign trade is huge every year, and most of them are exported from sea. The sea exports account for the majority."

"Silk, porcelain, tea, sugar, paper and even weapons and armor are huge, and it involves not only marine trade, but also multiple industrial chains such as transportation and production. The imperial court banned the sea, and the loss was not only a few maritime merchants, but countless merchants and workers in the entire industrial chain."

During the Ming Dynasty, the sea was banned, but in fact, the amount of maritime trade in the Ming Dynasty was huge every year and the official was not allowed to go to sea, so they went to sea without permission to engage in smuggling.

Even if you catch me and want to be beheaded, it will continue to be banned.

This is like selling private salt. During the Wude and Sui Dynasty, the court did not engage in salt monopoly sale, but allowed private mining, did not impose salt taxes, and only collected some salt responsibilities. Therefore, the salt price was cheap, and there were almost no people selling private salt, because they could not help but sell privately.

But from Zhenguan, the court implemented a salt monopoly, and the tax was levied, which was basically ten times the cost of salt. The salt became expensive all of a sudden, and the profit became greater. So countless people took risks, even if the court specifically stipulated that the private salt would be exiled for one stone, but who would care, and countless people still took risks.

The imperial court could not resist the ban on the sea.

Zhang Chao planned to send merchant ships to the north coast to smuggle, to buy silk, cotton, porcelain, paper, etc., and trade still needs to be done. If there is no goods, then smuggle and purchase.

Those who do foreign trade in the Central Plains, the imperial court did not allow them to go overseas, and their goods could not be sold out even if they were sold domestically. The backlog was going to be over. Li Chao sent someone to buy them, and they would definitely be happy.

There will definitely be many bold smugglers appearing.

"What we have to do is allow these smugglers to enter our ports and allow them to collect goods of unknown origin. Anyway, we just need to impose tariffs as they did in the past, and ignore the rest."

Cheng Qian sighed, "I feel that because of the lonely army, the people of the Central Plains suffered a lot."

"Your Highness, this is not your fault."

"I hope this will end soon."

·······

Hanjing.

Many people are paying attention to Li Ji's march.

Everyone wants to know who wins and who loses the battle between the God of War.

"Li Ji's army of 100,000 troops in the south, do you think he can win?"

In the Zuixian Building in Hanjing, this restaurant that originally belonged to Zhang Chao and his students has been sold by Li Gan. He was originally one of the shareholders of the restaurant.

Because Li Ji was determined to stand on the side of the court, Li Gan, as Li Ji's younger brother, could only stand on the side of the court in pain. In fact, he wanted to raise the flag bravely and respond to the teacher like Cheng Chumo, Yuchi Baolin, Cui Yan, Niu Jianhu and others.

The only thing he could do when staying in the capital was to pay for the Zuixianlou.

After buying Zuixianlou, Li Gan did nothing, leaving all the chefs and men, leaving the restaurant to remain open as usual without any changes.

For old customers who often come, Zuixianlou is still the same Zuixianlou. The taste of the dishes has not changed and the atmosphere has not changed.

When I have time, I invite a few friends, open a private room, sit upstairs, drink with the window, and chat with me, so unhappy and comfortable.

However, now the Han and Beijing are in chaos, and those who can come to drink are all noble officials. Most of them are still affected by this storm and their lives are tight.

"In terms of record, Li Ji is definitely not as good as Zhang Chao. Although Li Ji is also known as the ever-winning general, he was defeated several times when he fought against Dou Jiande and Liu Heita in his early years and was captured. As for Zhang Chao, he has never lost in dozens of battles."

"Yes, no matter whether it is a big or small battle, what kind of soldiers you lead or what kind of enemy you fight, Zhang Chao has never lost. At least, he will win miserably."

Speaking of this, everyone admired it very much. Zhang Chao said that he should be a civil official, but in terms of his ability to fight and his achievements, he could definitely rank first in the Tang Dynasty.

Li Ji and Li Jing are still a little inferior to the charming style.

"Li Jibing has many."

"Zhang Chaobing will not be missing either."

"Li Ji led the official army and had elite equipment."

"Do you think Zhang Chao's military equipment is not bad? Have you ever heard of it? Zhang Chao has built a complete set of military industry in Lingnan, ranging from artillery, plate armor, to horizontal swords and spears, and can produce everything, and it can also be produced in large quantities. In terms of elites, I guess they are no worse than the official army."

"Who can win this battle?"

One of them stroked his beard, "I think, maybe Zhang Chao can win. He has the risk of taking advantage of his life and waiting for work. No matter how he looks at it, he will have an advantage."

"If Li Ji loses, then will this turmoil continue?"

"Yes, when will this end?"

"If Li Ji loses this time, maybe His Majesty will be in person next time!"

"Don't you dare, did Qin Qiong, Cheng Yaojin and others rebell on the border? Cheng Yaojin is in Longyou, Su Dingfang is in Langshan North, Qin Qiong, Zhang Tieqian is in Yanbei, Shan Xiongxin, Luo Shixin, Niu Jinda and others are in Yinshan North, and Cheng Chumo is in Yunnan, there are rebellions everywhere."

"Don't worry about those, they just expressed their support for the prince, and would not take the initiative to march into the Central Plains. Unless Zhang Chao defeated Li Ji and led his army to the northern expedition, at that time, maybe those princes and dukes would lead their troops into the Central Plains to join him."

"The Northern Expedition is not enough. Zhang Chaofeng's prince's side will rule the Lingnan, and he will lead his troops to the Northern Expedition? Why is it no match for the imperial court!"
Chapter completed!