Li 9zhou bowed and said, "Now the court offices are carrying out anti-corruption, anti-corruption, anti-inaction, and anti-deficiency. The army directly under the court is in the training stage. Is it too hasty to reduce the vassal states? If there is a vassal state that does not cooperate, the court will catch it off guard."

Li Heng knew that his worries were not unreasonable. At this time, stability was the best choice, but he also knew that the matter of reducing the vassal states could not be delayed by one or more. The longer the time, the more ambitions the vassal states that already possessed power would become greater and more difficult to control. If you take action earlier, you will have one more chance of winning and one less resistance.

Li 9zhou asked back: "I wonder if the saints have thought about how to reduce the vassal states? What specific means should be used?"

Seeing him asking this, Li Heng knew that he should have already had an idea, so he said, "I don't know what Li Qing thought he would be more secure?"

Li 9zhou pondered for a moment and said slowly: "I believe that it is not impossible to first carry out the task of reducing the vassal states and counties in Guanzhong, where the court's governments have the strongest execution of government orders. The key is how to operate it. If the imperial edict is issued directly, the power of the chief officials of Guanzhong is separated, so that they can only manage political affairs or military affairs, and the other part of the rights are handed over to other officials, the execution of this order by the government will definitely be greatly reduced. Some people will definitely disobey the situation. On the surface, they say that they should only manage political affairs or military affairs according to the will of the court, but in fact they still secretly arrest them. The court still has no way of doing this. At most, they can only send officials to inspect and investigate. After the court officials go, they will definitely arrange everything. When the court officials leave, they will still be the same. This is called having policies above and countermeasures below."

Li Heng nodded, "What you said makes sense."

Li 9zhou continued: "Weichen believes that if the chief officials of each prefecture and county are transferred in Guanzhong area on a large scale and large scale, they will leave their current positions, such as transferring the governor of Huazhou to Qizhou as the defensive envoy, and transferring a prefect from other prefectures and counties. In this way, the chief officials of each prefecture and county in Guanzhong area are interleaved, and on the one hand, they will keep their official rank unchanged, or from the county level to the prefecture and level 1, and slightly promoted. On the other hand, when all the transfers are completed, the prefecture will only be in charge of government affairs, the defense envoy will only be in charge of military affairs, and will not interfere with each other. When they go to a strange prefecture and county, and those who are not familiar with the place will not dare to act as a polite violation.

In addition, in order to prevent the local army from fighting too strong and to prevent local military generals from rebelling, the Ministry of Revenue ordered officials to set up tax offices in various prefectures and counties to collect taxes. A small part of the tax is left to the local government for daily expenses, and the salaries of officials and local construction are mostly paid to the national treasury, so that the local governments cannot have too much money to use. They cannot recruit troops, add troops, and draw the elite of the local army into the direct army of the court. In this way, the military strength of various places is weak. Although it is more than enough to guard the place, it cannot pose a threat to the court. Even if they want to rebel, they cannot defeat the imperial army."

Li Heng nodded secretly. This is undoubtedly a good method. If you can slow down your pace and implement this method stably and continuously, it will be more safe.

Li 9zhou bowed and said: "If this method is implemented, at least the Guanzhong area should go very smoothly."

Li Heng nodded and said, "Now there is no threat from Tubo to the west, and there is no threat from grassland barbarians in the north. The Guanzhong area obviously no longer needs to continue to implement the local military and political system of military integration. If the chief officials of each prefecture and county will continue to hold power while holding military power, it will only make them grow ambitions. Therefore, it is the best time to reduce the vassal states and counties in Guanzhong. The implementation of the policy of reducing the vassal states and counties in Guanzhong will be left to you. First organize officials to develop a specific transfer plan. When arranging the transfer, you must check the employment history of all prefectures and counties in Guanzhong. They cannot be transferred to the prefectures and counties that each person has transferred to must be a new area that they have never served, and must be an unfamiliar place, so that they have no old official relationships in the new position."

Li 9zhou agreed, "Yes, I understand."

Next, Li 9zhou began to be busy dealing with government affairs that reduced the vassal states.

Li 9zhou met with the governors of Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi at his residence. In order to show his importance, Li 9zhou personally went to the door to greet him, which made the governors flattered and extremely moved.

In the wing room, Guo Ziyi took the lead and asked, "I wonder what happened to Li Shuai summoning us to come?"

Li 9zhou looked at him, "It's about reducing the vassal states."

~p

Several governors looked at each other, and Guo Ziyi said: "On the way we came, we heard the news that the court had already reduced the vassals in the Guanzhong area. It seems that the court's determination to reduce the vassals this time was already made, and the court's will was very firm. The commander summoned us this time and said there was something important to discuss. Although it was not stated clearly, we probably guessed that reducing the vassals was the general trend and no one could stop it. The court's intention was to let us take the initiative to hand over the power in our hands. As for how to arrange us, it depends on the commander's meaning."

Li Guangbi asked: "How does the head coach plan to place us?"

Hearing his tone, Li 9zhou asked: "What, don't you want to hand over the military power in your hands?"

Speaking of this, Li 9zhou sighed: "After all, the military power of the Tang Dynasty is now in the hands of the governors of various places. Everyone is in charge of their own affairs. The military power will sooner or later be concentrated in the hands of the court. Reducing the vassal states is the general trend, and no one can stop it. Besides, the world is pacified and we should take a break."

Guo Ziyi nodded and said, "Yes, I was just an ordinary little person back then. If the coach had not appreciated and promoted us, and had entrusted us with important tasks and promoted one after another. Without the coach, there would be no today I would have been waiting for."

Several Jiedushi present had been with Li 9zhou before. Because of his military achievements, the Anshi Rebellion was entrusted with important tasks after the Anshi Rebellion was quelled.

Those present, if we talk about the largest vassal king and the governor, it was Li 9zhou, the governor of Shuofang. Therefore, if Li 9zhou did not make any noise, others would not raise objections.

Several people sighed, and Guo Ziyi calmed down and said, "We decided on this matter like this. We will take the initiative to cooperate with the matter of reducing the vassal states, obey the arrangements of the court, and obey the arrangements of the commander."
Chapter completed!