Insufficient balance

  The situation in Chang'an is very good, and it is very beneficial for Xue Chongxun to reform the canal transportation. After completing the preparation of formulating laws and regulations, he began to implement specific steps.

  Things must be done with momentum. With momentum, it's like sailing with the wind, much smoother. Many officials along the river were almost punished and escorted to the capital, such as Lyu, the governor of Ru Prefecture, who were grateful to Xue Chongxun and cooperated in many ways; public opinion among scholars also reluctantly turned around, praising the "Three Rivers Law" for benefiting the country and the people, even Prime Minister Zhang Yue acknowledged this. All these factors made Xue Chongxun's progress extremely rapid and unusually smooth.

  Xue Chongxun gathered a group of local talents with some reputation from his hometown in Hedong (now Shanxi) and started building his team. The Xue family was a prominent family in Hedong, with a reputation and status accumulated over a hundred years, making Xue Chongxun feel more reliable using locals as the backbone.

  He first set up two major government offices in the Ministry of Revenue, one was "Ministry of Revenue Grain Transport Division" and the other was "Grain Transport Military Guard".

  Inside the Transportation Division, there were poets from Hedong, scholars and even some shopkeepers hired from merchant guilds. By establishing basic rules, Xue Chongxun envisioned turning this government office into a fund-like institution that not only collected taxes and managed grain transportation along the canal but also infiltrated commerce and finance to make money with public funds... Of course, this was just an idea for now. Currently, the function of this government office was to calculate warehouse expenses, transportation costs, and salaries in grain, etc.

  "River Transport Military Guard" has four battalions, set up to defend grain warehouses and escort grain ships. The scale is not very large, otherwise it will be feared by the central government, as long as it can complete the purpose of protecting transportation, it cannot pose a threat to the imperial court's stronghold.

  But in Xue Chongxun's heart, this military force may also be useful in extraordinary times, so he attaches great importance to the selection of generals for the transportation army.

  The chief of the recruitment of boatmen was a man from Hedong, named Tang Chao-ren. His father had participated in several border wars with the Tang army during the Zhenyuan period and was considered a military family, but due to repeated involvement in political turmoil, the Tang family's fortunes declined greatly. Tang Chao-ren had previously served as a team leader on the territory of the Xue family in Hedong for some time, and since he often interacted with the Xue family, it can be said that Xue Chongxun's boxing skills were taught by Tang Chao-ren himself, their relationship was not shallow.

  Tang Chongren rushed to Luoyang as soon as he received Xue Chongxun's letter, and Xue Chongxun also attached great importance to it and personally went out of the city to greet him.

  The sky was drizzling with a thin rain, and Xue Chongxun's group waited for nearly half an hour before seeing three horses walking towards them. The fine rain was like fog, and although they were not far away, it was still impossible to see the faces of the people on the three horses clearly. However, Xue Chongxun recognized Tang Zhenren at a glance.

  Tang Chao's majestic physique was unlike anyone else, with exceptionally broad shoulders. At a glance, although only the outline could be seen, adding his horse-riding movements, Xue Songyun almost confirmed that the man riding in the middle was indeed Tang Chunbo, who had taught him martial arts when he was young.

  Xue Chongxun spurred his horse and rushed out from under the umbrella, with guards on both sides hastily shouting "Drive!" as they chased after him.

  "Tang Tuan Lian!" Xue Chongxun shouted.

  The man opposite him exclaimed in surprise, "Ha!" and shouted: "Xue Lang! How did you come out of the city to meet me?"

  Xue Chongxun smiled and said: "You've never been to Luoyang, I'm afraid you'll get lost in the city. It's been a few years since we last met, but your spirit remains unchanged."

  At this time, Tang Chuan's horse had already walked to the front, and he saw that he was not tall, but his arms were round and his waist was thick. His broad shoulders made him look very majestic. In his thirties, his face was white, and his mustache on his upper lip and chin was neat and tidy.

  Tang Chao-ren didn't say much, and directly jumped down from the horseback with a "thud" sound, splashing mud everywhere. He beckoned with his hand: "Xue Lang come down, I'll try out how much your fists and feet have improved over these years."

  As soon as they met, they wanted to fight. The guards beside Xue Chongxun's face all changed slightly. Xue Chongxun looked down at the ground, this road outside the city was not like the stone road inside the city, the whole road was muddy, and he was stunned for a moment, but soon he burst out laughing and said: "I haven't practiced my fist and footwork in years, but I often practice with weapons. Tang Tuan is old now, definitely not as fierce as a few years ago, let me try..." He then dismounted his horse.

  Tang Chao, who was over thirty years old, heard Xue Chongxun's implication that he was old. He immediately became displeased and said: "Good! Let's try it out and see if I'm old or not!" After speaking, he took up a stance.

  Xue Chongxun smiled brightly, flipped his long gown and stepped into the mud with his palm outstretched, standing in front of Tang Zhenren. All he heard was Tang Zhenren saying: "Let you go first, come on."

  "Hmph, since you want to play big, I won't be polite!" Xue Chongxun rushed over and kicked out with one foot. He didn't kick the person, but the mud on his foot flew everywhere, covering Tang Changren's head and face.

  Tang Chao-ren dodged the attack, then wiped the mud off his face with a scowl, cursed, and charged forward with his fists flying. The two of them immediately started fighting.

  At this time, only a "bang" was heard, and Xue Chongxun unfortunately got punched in the face. The guards beside him exclaimed, the horses under the seat were stirred up, Fang Yuzheng raised his hand to stop the commotion of the guards, he was an old man of the Xue family, had seen Tang Tuanlian before, and naturally understood the relationship between Tang Tuanlian and Lang Jun.

  "Hit my face!" Xue Chongxun cursed angrily, and immediately launched a series of quick punches, but Xue Chongxun's boxing skills were far inferior to Tang Tuan's, and he didn't gain any advantage. In an instant, he was kicked in the leg, lost his balance, and fell into a heap, covering himself in mud, looking extremely disheveled.

  The guards were taken aback: Xue Chongxun was normally never so unbecoming.

  Tang Chongren burst out laughing: "You're still not my match!" He walked up and reached out to pull Xue Chongxun, but unexpectedly Xue Chongxun grabbed his wrist and at the same time hooked a foot towards his groin.

  Tang Chongren's hand was caught, and he couldn't dodge, instantly being knocked to the ground by Xue Chongxun, also getting covered in mud. Seeing this, Xue Chongxun felt extremely pleased and burst out laughing.

  "How dare you ambush me!" Tang Chao-ren was furious, grabbing a handful of mud and throwing it at Xue Chong-xun's face. Neither of them gave in to the other, and soon they were fighting again, this time without any technique, rolling around in the muddy water.

  Xue Chongxun's guards and the two attendants brought by Tang Chaoren could only watch in silence as the two men wrestled, completely beyond the realm of martial arts training, like a pair of street thugs fighting over an unpaid debt.

  The last two men turned into mud people and were exhausted. Tang Chuanren finally shouted: "Stop, no more fighting."

  "You can't move anymore, admit defeat or not?"

  "Oh dear...... Alright, alright, I give up! Stop pulling my beard!"

  They met and made a big fuss, but as a result, their relationship became closer. Then they returned to the Ministry of Revenue's headquarters covered in mud for a bath. Xue Chongxun also ordered someone to prepare a sumptuous banquet to welcome them back and wash away the dust. Not only did he accompany them personally, but he also had civil officials like Liu An and military generals like Bao Cheng join the banquet.

  Xue Chongxun was so courteous, Tang Chuanren's heart knew it clearly, and he had to get things done well. At the banquet, he couldn't wait to say his own idea: "The four navigation channels are all dependent on official transportation, and about 2,000 grain ships are needed. The grain transport soldiers can be organized in a similar way to the team training soldiers, with ten ships as one group, equipped with five 'fire' troops for escort, and the team leader is responsible. Wherever something happens, find the team leader of that place. One fire has ten people, and one team has five fires, which is fifty people; 2,000 ships need 200 teams of soldiers and horses, which is a scale of 10,000 people. Adding several large grain warehouses, at least 12,000 soldiers are needed to be recruited."

  "Do we need so many troops?" Liu An asked in surprise, glancing at Xue Chongxun. The implication was that mobilizing tens of thousands of soldiers would cause trouble in the imperial court.

  Xue Chongxun pondered and said, "The nationwide grain transportation is a huge project. It's reasonable to recruit 10,000 soldiers for this task. Liu Shijun, can you estimate how much money it would take to recruit 12,000 government soldiers, provide them with food, horses, military equipment, and pay their salaries?"

  Liu An snapped his fingers and calculated: "If we reduce it by 300,000 yuan per year, I'm afraid we won't be able to get it down."

  Xue Chongxun smiled and said, "You divide my 70% of the money, how can it be only 300,000 guan? From now on, let the local officials in the prefectures and counties impose a surtax on households that meet the standards for wealthy families. They will no longer have to be conscripted to transport grain taxes to distant places."

  "It's not difficult to impose a surtax on the rich households, they should have been requisitioned to transport grain taxes originally, now they are exempt from corvée, just pay some money, and there is no increase in burden..." Liu An said.

  Xue Chongxun saw his hesitant expression and said: "Director Liu, just say what you want to say."

  Tang Chuanren smiled slightly after listening.

  Liu An then said, "The problem of official corruption is indeed a big one... If we exempt them from taxation and change to collecting taxes instead, local officials will likely take the opportunity to extort money from the people. In the end, good deeds will turn into bad ones, and the people will be filled with resentment - isn't that extremely unwise?"

  Xue Chongxun said, "The official system is beyond control, we can't manage it now, and any move will have far-reaching consequences. It's not that I've secured benefits for those corrupt officials this time, or protected their positions, could things be going so smoothly for us otherwise?"

  Liu An furrowed his brow and said, "Last year when I was sent down to dredge the river, it was also because of the difficulties in governing. Many of the local officials who bought their positions have a network of connections... unless the imperial court issues a clear edict declaring that buying official positions is illegal, it will be difficult to screen them out."

  Xue Chongxun glanced at the people seated and took over, saying: "The money we have in our hands now is 70% of the profits from the official's private deal. They get 30%, we get 70%. This division is still reasonable. In the future, let them share some of the taxes too, but if anyone breaks the rules, we'll take care of them one by one."

  Liu An nodded and said, "It can only be like this. As long as we are not against all local officials, but only deal with some people who do not follow the rules, we will not encounter too much resistance."

  Several people discussed it again, and this matter was indeed very complicated... Xue Chongxun thought that his main purpose in coming down was not to rectify the boat transport, he couldn't be trapped inside and delay major events.

  Before the meeting was adjourned, he verbally revealed the personnel arrangement: Tang Chuanren would be in charge of recruiting soldiers, Liu An would be responsible for fundraising and distributing benefits to all parties, while the warehouse, disbursement and other matters would be handled by the "River East Literary Office" of the Grain Transport Division.