The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 382 Relaxation of Restrictions
After talking about the steps of ascension to the throne, the next step is to involve the interests of civil and military officials.Fundamentally speaking, it is still a field problem.

Yang Tong also knows that everyone's yearning for land is more important than money.

He has also pondered and reflected on this aspect.

After the founding of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty set up three types of fields: one is Yongye Field, which can be passed on to his descendants, with an average of [-] mu per capita;
The second is that after death, the open fields must be returned to the imperial court. Middle-aged men and young men receive 80 mu of open fields, and women receive 40 acres of open fields. (Note: Men and women under 3 years old are yellow, under 10 years old are young, under 17 years old are medium, over 18 years old are small, and 60 years old are old.)
The third is "public farmland". The so-called "public farmland" means that government offices at all levels lease official land to people with surplus labor to cultivate, and use rent collection as the office expenses of governments at all levels, and the excess of public expenses is handed over to the imperial court , This kind of field is also the reserve field of the imperial court. After the local population increases, it will be distributed to the common people.

This setting is very reasonable for ordinary people, but it is not the case when it is applied to officials.

In terms of the distribution of land by officials, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty came in this way.

He first gave the nine-rank titles below the prince, ranging from 100 hectares to 30 hectares of Yongyetian respectively. However, there are not many people who have won the titles, so this amount seems terrifying, and no taxes are collected, but in fact it will not affect the country. fundamental.

Secondly, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty also granted Yongyetian to the incumbent officials. The first-rank officials were given 5 hectares, and each of the following ranks was reduced by 50 mu to 1 hectare for the ninth-rank officials. At the same time, no taxes were collected.

This regulation is the one that shakes the foundation of the country. There are three reasons: First, Yongyetian can be passed on to future generations, that is to say, after an official retires or dies, his descendants still enjoy the treatment of the official; second, the promotion of an official In the future, his Yongye land will be superimposed again and again; [-]. After a certain position becomes vacant, the imperial court will allocate Yongye land to his successor, and then, with his promotion, the land will be superimposed again and again.

As a result, a large number of fields were merged into the hands of officials and their descendants, and the court's taxes gradually declined as a result.What did the court do when there was no land to distribute to officials?Lower the standards of vulnerable groups, forcefully take away the people's fields for redistribution.

Thirdly, the imperial court also grants dew fields to the slaves and maidservants in the family and officials' homes according to the standard of the common people.Moreover, this type of open field is basically impossible to recover, which further accelerates land acquisition.

As early as the first year of Emperor Kaihuang, Su Wei realized the seriousness of the land problem.He sent a memorial to Emperor Wen, which said that "the household registration is increasing day by day, and the people's land is insufficient." Su Wei suggested "reducing the land of heroes to give to the people."The meaning is to take out the officials' hands and distribute them to the people. His proposal was seriously opposed by those with vested interests, and finally nothing happened.

Later, due to the continuous growth of the population, the social problem of "less land and more people, no food and clothing" appeared. Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty had to send officials to forcibly reduce the previous average farmland, but only the fields of the vulnerable group of the common people were moved.In this way, it has caused a strange phenomenon that the land of the newly added officials is taken from the hands of the common people, and the new population is also taken from the hands of the existing people, and the contradictions are accumulated day by day.

And officials not only continued to occupy a large amount of land, but also received rewards again and again. For example, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty rewarded Yang Su with 130 hectares of land many times.

At the same time, some bureaucratic landlords, relying on their family power, began to rob civilian land, and a large number of forced purchases of private land at low prices occurred.As a result, the problem of ordinary people having no land to grow has become increasingly prominent, and the phenomenon that ordinary people have no food to eat has become more and more common, which has become the prelude to the civil uprising.

When Yang Guang came to the throne, the land problem was very serious. Therefore, he deleted the ninth-rank titles into third-rank titles, and stipulated that they should be downgraded and inherited within three generations, and then deprived of all titles. Keeping the land in their hands, the reasons for opposing the Sui Dynasty became more sufficient.

After Yang Tong took control of Jizhou, he also reformed the land.

First of all, the officials and the common people all divide the land according to the standard of 20 mu of Yongye farmland per capita, 80 mu of open land for middle-aged men and 40 mu of open land for women, so that each family has a source of income.But no matter who owns the land, they have to pay taxes according to the standard.

Secondly, officials’ salaries replaced land with money, and salary standards were set for [-]-rank official positions, and each rank received the salary that each rank deserved, so as to avoid land annexation caused by the superposition of fields.And it can avoid the problem that the superposition of salary will bring burden to the court.

Third, the remaining official land and "public land" were changed to "public leased land" and leased to the common people for farming. The local government has the right to collect rent, but not the right to use it, so it must be handed over intact.The public expenses of the local government must be reported in the expenditure report, and the budget of the project must be approved by the audit department before the construction can start.

Fourth, the imperial court does not grant dew fields to people outside the household registration. That is to say, you can raise slaves and maidservants, but you have to pay for them yourself.And with the popularization of the "splits into the mu" and the abolition of the poll tax, what can be obtained from slaves and maidservants is only labor, and there is no loss to the court.And the more slaves you raise, the more pressure you have on yourself.

Fifth, the sale of land is strictly prohibited to avoid social problems caused by people without land.

Sixth, the system of separation of administrative power, law enforcement power, and supervisory power makes the official team clean and avoids collusion between officials and gentry to a large extent to seize the people's land.At the same time, the people are given the power to supervise and report officials.

Although Yang Tong's policy has been unanimously agreed by everyone and has been implemented well, everyone is looking forward to Yang Tong rewarding the land.If you don't give it, everyone's heart will be chilled.

Therefore, Yang Tong decided to reflect the reward of the land on the ninth-rank title. As mentioned earlier, there are not many people who have won the title, so the impact is actually not great. Putting it in the hands of the people makes no difference.

Although the meritorious officials who received the titles raised slaves because of this, but the slaves did not show up in the fields, so even if the heroes were raised, they were not like the Guanlong family, which easily supported tens of thousands of scholars.

After the titles have reached the top level, it is enough to reward money. They can't buy land and can only invest in the market. This can be regarded as accelerating the prosperity of business. After all, officials are the rich people these days, and only their money has arrived The market can drive the rise of the entire commercial economy.

Immediately, the decision to award the ninth-rank title to the field was thrown out.

After negotiating with everyone on the number of acres of the Ninth Rank, this matter has been settled. As for everyone's titles, they need to be canonized one by one after they ascend the throne.

If you announce it too early, you will lose the surprise it deserves.

But at this time, Yang Tong's mind is no longer on this, but turned to the army and military power.

The army of the Sui army gave Yang Tong the feeling of being scattered and chaotic, and he always planned to reform.

He felt that since he wanted to change it, it should be done sooner rather than later. Although he couldn't reform before taking the throne, but if he said it now, at least it wouldn't hurt the hearts of future generals.Because if you mention it after ascending the throne, it is too targeted, and it will make the freshly baked generals think that they don't trust them, so they restrict it.

"There is no problem with the enthronement ceremony!" Seeing everyone watching, Yang Tong continued, "There are many problems in our army in the Sui Dynasty. What I want to say is that there is no war now, so we should take this opportunity to carry out reasonable reforms. What do you think? ?”

"Your Highness! I think that there is no need for us to keep a large number of troops in the Sui Dynasty, and we should abolish some troops to reduce the burden on the court." Speaking of military affairs, Wei Yunqi, Minister of the Ministry of War, immediately came out and said.

Hearing Wei Yunqi's words, the whole hall was in an uproar, and many generals raised objections. Everyone was quite dissatisfied with Wei Yunqi's behavior of "eating the inside out".

"Master Shangshu, the world has not yet been unified, so it is too early to talk about disarmament?"

"In troubled times, the army is the foundation of our country, and the line of defense we need to defend is thousands of miles long. Why do you want to cut off your arms and abolish your martial arts?"

"The frontier defense line is extremely long, and a million troops are not enough! Besides, we are surrounded by enemies on all sides. If our army is fighting on the front line and the enemy comes from all directions, how can we deal with it? Your Highness, the last general does not agree with disarmament, no matter how poor you are. We also need to support the army."

"That's right! It's not that we can't afford to support the army. At worst, we will fight a few more foreign wars to support our troops."

"If you are idle now, you are also idle... Besides, people who are not of my race must have a different mind. I mean to take the army to the Western Regions to practice. You can train soldiers, eliminate border troubles, gain wealth, and build dignity. You can achieve multiple things at one stroke."

"I remember His Highness said a word, that is, it is better to snatch him than to raise him, so he just beat all the countries in the Western Regions and snatched him clean..."

"The last general will second the proposal!"

"The last general will second the proposal!"

"..."

Gradually, all dissents merged into one voice, that is to start war and rob.

Pei Renji and Wei Yunqi watched the generals rolling up their sleeves and lashing out at Fang Qiu, full of emotion in their hearts.

In the old Sui Dynasty, if someone said that the imperial court could not support the army and needed disarmament, the first thing the generals said was to raise taxes to solve the financial crisis of the army.Now no one is saying that.These two elders can even conclude that these young generals never thought of collecting more taxes from the common people, because their vision and vision were widened by Yang Tong, the wolf king, and they all aimed at them. In the vast world outside the Sui Dynasty, one and two advocated offense, and obtained corresponding things through foreign wars.

Seeing that even Qin Qiong, who was usually calm, joined the ranks of killing Zongheng, Yang Tong was greatly amused, but also very excited.

Indelible martial spirit!It is the fortune of the Sui Dynasty and the nation.

Seeing someone started swearing, Yang Tong roared, "How decent is it for one or two generals of the Sui Dynasty to swear all over their mouths? It's really disrespectful...Grandma is a bear, so he NN will shut my crow's mouth..."

Everyone was speechless: "..."

And this is a double standard, your Highness King Qin can set fire to the mountains, but I can't even light a lamp... Alas...

"Listen to Wei Shangshu first!"

"Here!"

The generals are like frosted eggplants—withered.

(End of this chapter)