Tibet

Li Xian bowed and said: "Your Majesty, in terms of the power of appointing and removing officials, the other party has agreed to hand over the power of appointing and removing officials to us."

Li Xian remained silent, and the imperial study room suddenly burst into joy. This was the power that the imperial court valued most. Only by obtaining the power to appoint and remove officials would it mean that Bashu returned to the imperial court.

Li Heng was really happy in his heart. He waved his hands and said, "Everyone, be quiet. Please let Li Xiangguo continue talking!"

Everyone calmed down, and Li Xian continued: "The other party agreed to hand over the power of appointing officials to us on condition that we would not be given the power of supervision, and all officials in Jiannan Road and Shannan West Road must be included in their supervision. "

The imperial study room fell silent for a while. After a long while, Wu Qi said: "In this case, wouldn't the officials we appointed be allowed to be suppressed and humiliated by them?"

Li Heng glanced at Pei Mian and asked, "Pei Xiangguo, please tell me!"

Pei Mian said slowly: "Actually, the other party's intention is to decentralize power. Except for military power, it is estimated that everything else must be decentralized. Official power, financial power, criminal power, mineral distribution, etc., are only given to us part, and they retain part. I believe that as long as the power of appointing and removing officials belongs to us, even if some officials are removed by supervision due to corruption and malfeasance, the appointment of new officials will still belong to us, which is detrimental to individual officials, but does not affect the overall situation."

Li Heng was convinced that Pei Mian's last sentence would not affect the overall situation. Li Heng nodded and said: "If I were asked to choose between the power of appointing officials and the power of supervision, I would choose the former!"

"What if we want both?" Wu Qi asked.

Everyone looked at him with strange eyes. The prime ministers all knew that if they wanted both, the final result would be to get neither. Attitude was attitude. But in the end, when negotiations actually started, they had to be pragmatic.

Li Heng smiled and said decisively: "That's it! The power of supervision belongs to the King of Qi, and the court wants the power to appoint and remove officials."

At this time, Pei Zunqing asked Li Xian: "How do they exercise their supervisory power?"

Li Xian thought for a while and said: "They have an inspection station. The chief officer is called the Chief Supervisor. Originally, Wang Changling took the post. After Wang Changling passed away at the beginning of the year, Cen Shen is now the chief inspector. There are eight inspection tours under it to deal with different situations. Itinerant inspections are carried out, not only against officials, but also against the military, serious cases, examinations and various business orders, and then assisted by internal guards, the system is very strict."

Li Heng was shocked, "Ah! Wang Changling passed away."

"Your Majesty! Wang Changling was already very old. He did not survive the severe cold at the beginning of the year and unfortunately passed away."

Li Heng nodded, "What a pity!"

He immediately said: "The division of official power has been decided. The focus is tomorrow's financial power. As for the military power, I will consider it again!"

In another official room of the Daming Palace, Luo Fengxian was also reporting the progress of the negotiations to Li Fuguo and others.

Li Fuguo originally thought that Li Ye wanted to completely annex Bashu, so he agreed to give him one hundred thousand taels of gold. Unexpectedly, Li Ye actually gave up the power of appointing and removing important officials to the imperial court, and the imperial court also agreed to hand over the supervisory power to Helong. Li Fuguo couldn't help himself.

The main points of this kind of negotiation are nothing more than military, personnel, and finance. Everything else is insignificant. Now that the personnel part has been solved, only the army and finance are left.

You must know that although Li Ye promised to give them one hundred thousand taels of gold, he has not handed over the physical object so far. If the Quanhuan Group fails to perform in the negotiations, then they may not get the one hundred thousand taels of gold.

Including Yu Chaoen and Cheng Yuanzhen were a little nervous. They all had memories. Li Ye gave them annual money and stopped giving it after two years. They couldn't do anything to Li Ye?

Cheng Yuanzhen said: "Aweng, let's talk to the Dugu family again. What do we need to do?"

Yu Chaoen was also a little dissatisfied and said: "We have given in on everything, what use do we have?"

Li Fuguo nodded, he really wanted to talk to Dugu Ming again.

In the evening of that day, Li Fuguo came to visit Dugu Ming for the first time. He couldn't wait any longer. Tomorrow was the financial rights negotiation, and he couldn't wait any longer.

The carriage slowly stopped in front of Dugu Ming's mansion. Li Fuguo sat in the carriage, waiting for his men to call the door.

Coincidentally, Liu Yan was also at Dugu Ming's house at this time, explaining the day's negotiations to Dugu Ming.

"The issue of military power will not be too big. It is a fait accompli. Unless the imperial army defeats our army, there will be no point in negotiating. The focus of the negotiation will be financial rights. The key is that we need taxation rights and transshipment rights. This will be The most important thing that the two sides are fighting for will also be deadlocked on this point."

The right to set taxes means to levy what kind of tax and how much tax to levy. Currently, Helong is different from the imperial court. The taxes in Helong are much lighter than those in the imperial court. The imperial court's field tax is fifteen taxes per one, and Helong's tax is thirty tax per one. The imperial court The commercial tax in Helong is 10%, while the commercial tax in Helong is only half. The salt in Helong is a government monopoly, but the court cannot control it.

Fixed tax is a matter of authority and the ownership of people's hearts, and neither party wants to give up.

The right of transfer is the jurisdiction over the physical goods and money. Who has the real money and food in their hands? This is also the core of financial rights. It is useless no matter how much taxes are on the books. In the end, you may not get a penny.

Dugu Ming pondered for a moment and said, "My brother also plans to help King Qi."

Liu Yan smiled and said: "This is actually not forced, we have a plan to deal with it."

Just as Dugu Ming was about to speak, the housekeeper said outside the door: "Master, Li Fuguo is here to visit!"

Dugu Ming nodded, "Ask him to wait in the guest room, I will come right away."

Dugu Ming smiled at Liu Yan and said, "It seems they are anxious, one hundred thousand taels of gold!"

Liu Yan sneered and said, "It's just in their hands for now!"

"What do you want them to do?"

Liu Yan pondered for a moment and said: "The main thing is financial power, they must contribute!"

"Okay! I'll go and talk to him. Brother Xian, sit down for a while."

Dugu Ming got up and went to the guest hall. After a while, Dugu Ming came to the guest hall and saw Li Fuguo sitting alone in the guest hall drinking tea.

Dugu walked up to the hall and apologized: "I kept Li Changshi waiting for so long!"

Li Fuguo's official position was Chief Shi of the Generalissimo's Mansion, but his power in the Generalissimo's Mansion was not as good as that of Yu Chaoen, who had the power to appoint and remove generals below the third rank.

Li Fuguo's power mainly consisted of two parts. One was his influence on the emperor, including his approval of memorials on his behalf. Especially on the appointment of high-level officials, he had great power to make suggestions.

The second power is the power of surveillance, not supervision, but surveillance. He controls the Plum Blossom Guard, which was established after the Helong Internal Guard.

But the inner guard does not monitor officials, but protects them. The plum blossom guard has no protection, but only surveillance. Tens of thousands of plum blossom guard members have penetrated into every corner of Chang'an, and even the emperor cannot escape his surveillance.

Coupled with the emperor's connivance towards Li Fuguo, everyone in the court was afraid of him. Even if they hated him secretly, they had to pretend to be diligent on the surface.

Li Fuguo calmly took a sip of tea and said with a sinister smile: "Only half of the puzzle of Dugu Prince Consort has been solved, which is very interesting to our family!"