On the carriage returning to Ziwei Palace, Zhang Xuan remained silent. After entering Duanmen, Zhang Xuan finally broke the silence. "The military advisor seems to have no comments on my inspection of the stationery store?"

Fang Xuanling smiled bitterly and said, "I fully understand Your Majesty's thoughts. I have no objection, but if Your Majesty must say something, then I have two suggestions."

"Military advisor, please tell me!"

"The first suggestion is to look forward to it. This will not be effective in a few years or more, and there will even be a situation where a large number of scholars continue to rely on aristocratic families. But this is only temporary. The seeds planted by Your Majesty today will only grow into big trees within at least decades or even hundreds of years. This is the reason for ten years to tree people."

Zhang Xuan nodded, "I understand, please continue speaking by the military advisor."

"The second suggestion I have said is the imperial examination and official school. If Your Majesty vigorously promotes cheap stationery to make more people afford to read, this is a seed. Then the perfect imperial examination system and the official school that spreads all over the world are sunshine and soil. With them, the seeds can take root and sprout and eventually grow into towering trees."

At this time, the carriage slowly stopped in front of the Tiange. Zhang Xuan got off the carriage and smiled at Fang Xuanling, "Thank you for accompanying me on a trip today, and for the two suggestions given to me by the military advisor."

Fang Xuanling also smiled and said, "Your Majesty, you don't have to thank me. This is the duty of the Wei minister."

The two looked at each other and understood it.

......

In the afternoon, Zhang Xuan was reviewing several important resolutions passed by Ziwei Pavilion in the imperial study. The king had the power of the king, and the minister had the power of the minister. Generally speaking, he was firmly in his own hands. In addition to major military and state affairs and the appointment of senior officials above the fifth rank, he basically no longer cared about political affairs. However, he would convene a small court meeting to hand it over to all officials for discussion in the administrative power.

The so-called small dynasty meeting is a court meeting attended by officials above the fifth rank. It is basically the attendance of important officials from various temples. Every official can express his own opinions at the small dynasty meeting. This is also an important channel for Zhang Xuan to encourage officials to participate in government affairs.

In recent days, the court has been discussing the term of Ziwei Pavilion. This is also the plan proposed by Zhang Xuan. The prime minister cannot be in his life and must give the chance to become prime minister. Zhang Xuan proposed a five-year term system for the prime minister. After the term of office expires, he can continue to serve for another five years, but it must be nominated by the emperor and then voted by officials above the fifth rank and above to vote. This is also a restriction of imperial power to a certain extent. Although Zhang Xuan is clear-headed, he is afraid that his descendants will be confused on this key issue.

Of course, if the emperor does not nominate to remain in office, he will directly step down and change to other official positions. In the future, he will continue to improve the system of prime minister and hand over the power to choose a prime minister to all officials, rather than the emperor to decide.

Zhang Xuan devoted all his efforts to the prime minister system. He knew that good ministers could revive the country, while treacherous ministers would sink the country. He also believed that most officials had sharp eyes and would make the right choice.

This prime minister will be counted from Beihai County and will be five years old by the end of this year. In this way, a few inappropriate prime ministers can withdraw from Ziwei Pavilion and change to other official positions.

In this prime minister, Zhang Xuan considered staying four and three, Wei Yunqi, Li Gang, Xiao Yu, and Lu Chu remained, while Su Wei, Chen Leung and Li Jing stepped down, and then Fang Xuanling, Yang Gongren and Zhang Xuansu took over.

However, there is still half a year for the Prime Minister to reform, but another major reform is imminent, that is, the reform of the military system.

The generals have served as generals for too long and should be promoted. They can have a general and a general above the general.

The generals were added to three levels, namely General Longxiang, General Hu Ben and General Yingyang, and each had deputy positions. General Lang was also divided into three levels, namely General Shanglang, General Zhonglang and General Lang, and each had deputy positions. Similarly, the rank of the lieutenant was divided into three levels, including General Qiwei, General Yuwei and General Yunwei, and the brigade commander and team below remained unchanged.

The characteristic of reforming the military system in this way is that it expands the middle and middle and high-level positions, which is conducive to inspiring morale and making talents stand out.

The local county soldiers have a maximum of 1,000 people, including three levels: generals, chief lieutenants and school lieutenants, which are jointly managed by the Ministry of War and the prefect, while the local militia are managed by the county Sima and county lieutenants.

In this way, the three military, county and civilian military responsibilities and clear jurisdictions have been formed, forming a huge and complete military system.

This is a plan that Zhang Xuan had considered for a long time. He originally wanted to launch it when he ascended the throne, but considering the upcoming war, he postponed it backwards. Now as the war progresses smoothly in various places and the time is ripe, now that the military reform is launched, basically all generals can be improved, which will help stimulate the enthusiasm of the soldiers.

While considering it, a guard outside the door reported: "Your Majesty, the order of the prince's mansion is here."

Zhang Xuan nodded with a smile, "Please come in!"

After a moment, the Shaofu Supervisor Wang Shan quickly walked into the imperial study room and bowed and said, "I am here to see Your Majesty!"

Wang Shan was born in the Wang family in Taiyuan and belonged to the Bingzhou faction. He had a very good relationship with Pei Ju. He was strongly recommended by Pei Ju. He was once the Left Chief of Shangshu. After his position as Left Chief of Shangshu was removed from his post, he became the prefect of Changping County. At the beginning of the year, he was transferred back to the court to serve as the Shaofu Supervisor, responsible for smelting, minting and specific management of handicrafts. He was a relatively important department.

Zhang Xuan asked with a smile: "How is the situation of the new money now?"

The new coins, namely Datong Tongbao, were minted by the Northern Sui Dynasty, but there was no trace of the Northern Sui Dynasty. Therefore, after the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, it continued to be minted on a large scale. In contrast, the Kaiyuan Tongbao of the Tang Dynasty was severely lacking materials, and only minted by less than one million guan. There were also a large number of counterfeit and inferior coins in it, which were only circulated in Chang'an and its vicinity. In vast areas including Longyou and Bashu, they were still using the Sui Dynasty coins. On the contrary, the Bingzhou area has begun to use Datong Tongbao in large quantities.

"Report to Your Majesty, the progress of minting coins is going smoothly. So far, five million minuscules of Datong Tongbao have been minted. Hebei, Central Plains, Qingzhou, Jianghuai, and Jiangnan have all been circulated, and the currency value is very stable."

"What do you mean by stability?"

"Weichen used private exchanges to compare. The official gold exchange is one or two to ten jin Datong Tongbao, but private exchanges are only one or two to ten jin, and there is not much difference. In contrast, Chang'an exchanges gold is crazy. One or two gold can be exchanged for fifty jin of Kaihuang Five-Caihuang, or thirty jin of Kaiyuan Tongbao. Some people even discovered loopholes between the Sui and Tang Dynasties."

"What loophole?"

"Use cloth to make the difference. Chang'an and Zhongdu's cloth are similar. They probably have one piece of money. They buy one hundred pieces of cloth with one hundred pieces of cloth with one hundred pieces of cloth and sell it to Zhongdu. They get eighty taels of Datong Tongbao, and then exchange it for eight taels of gold to return to Chang'an, and then they can exchange it for four hundred taels of Kaihuang Wuzhu coins. They made a net profit of three hundred coins. Now many Chang'an merchants come to Zhongdu to exchange gold. Needless to say, they never exchange it, but now even the black market can no longer be exchanged. Most merchants just take the Datong Tongbao back directly. In Chang'an, the Datong Tongbao can be exchanged for two taels of Kaihuang Five Coins, which is also profitable."

Zhang Xuan paced back and forth in the imperial study with his hands behind his back. Wang Shan's words resonated with him. Last year, Wei Yunqi went on a mission to Chang'an, and the two countries re-established trade relations. Since the Zhou Dynasty relaxed some bans on strategic materials to a certain extent, such as pig iron, the Zhou Dynasty also agreed to import some inferior civilian pig iron into the Tang Dynasty every year. This was undoubtedly an unavoidable temptation for the Tang Dynasty, which lacked pig iron. Even the war broke out between the two countries, and the trade between the two countries was still going smoothly.

However, it is precisely because of the high prices of gold and Datong Tongbao in Chang'an that a large amount of gold and copper coins flow into Chang'an, while a huge amount of material flowed into the Zhou Dynasty, which eventually led to the increasing lack of material in Chang'an, while more and more money. The Tang Dynasty would face the crisis of people's livelihood and the closure of ten thousand shops. This is actually another war, a trade plunder war with invisible weapons, but the Tang Dynasty has not yet awakened.

Zhang Xuan sat down and smiled at Wang Shan and said, "I invited Wang Aiqing to come today because I want to talk to Wang Aiqing about the affairs of the Wang family in Taiyuan."

(To be continued.)
Chapter completed!