Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 972

"Your Majesty, after all, Chang'an is the Xijing of the Great Qin Dynasty. With such a change, wouldn't it be a mess of fish and dragons, and the market chaos?"

When Prime Minister Xiao Yu was summoned by the emperor at the Zichen Palace, he strongly opposed the emperor's new policy.He believes that this is too inappropriate, it is simply nonsense.

"But I just think that breaking the isolation of squares and streets and market restrictions will help make Chang'an City active. Look at the current Chang'an City, it is lifeless and lifeless. In the past, there were hundreds of thousands of people in Chang'an City, but Now? Less than [-]."

A giant city that was designed to accommodate a million residents, but now has a population of less than 10.

Only the west city is a bit popular. Dongcheng, which used to be known as Donggui, was ransacked because a large number of old nobles and officials from the former dynasty participated in the conspiracy, or were exiled because they were implicated in it, making Dongcheng a dead silence.

As for the Nancheng where the common people lived in the past, only the area near the north was inhabited, and in the urban area further south, Duohaofang districts were all empty, and even some Fang districts had been empty since the city was built. Residential houses have not been built yet, so many people in Chang'an simply use it as a wheat field or a vegetable garden, and grow rice and vegetables there.

There are also a large number of Buddhist temples and Taoist temples occupying many square areas.

Luo Cheng told Xiao Yu directly that if this continues, Chang'an City will only die.

He doesn't want the empire's Xijing to die. This is the largest city in the western region of the Qin Dynasty. Even if the imperial court is now established in Luoyang, Tokyo, Xijing is just an accompanying capital, but he still hopes to build Chang'an City into a core military town in the west. and the economic center of the west.

The commerce and trade of the entire Heshuo, Guanlong and other roads are concentrated here, and even connect Bahan, Jiannan, Hedong, Henan and other places.

Because Chang'an City is partial to one corner, it is no longer suitable to be the capital of the world in the period of great unification, especially now. It is inevitable to choose Luoyang as the capital.

But Chang'an City also has many advantages, so it is still necessary to be the center of the west.

The center of gravity of the world will move eastward, which is a historical trend and inevitable. When the world is united, the importance of the south will be highlighted. Jianghan, Huanghuai, and Jiangnan will become new taxation centers. It is more convenient for their taxes to be transferred to Luoyang through the canal. But it is extremely unfavorable to transfer to Chang'an.

Not to mention, with Luoyang as the capital, it is easier to transmit government orders to all parts of the world, but Guanzhong is not even enough to support Chang'an. If it becomes the center of the world, it will be restricted everywhere.

No matter what the emperor said, Xiao Yu still believed that the act of breaking the streets was too outrageous, and even thought that it was not a good thing for the imperial court to focus too much on commerce, and believed that the order of scholars, farmers, commerce and industry should not be disordered.

"The imperial court should properly restrain business and industry." Xiao Yu said bluntly.

Luo Cheng laughed.

"Xiao Xiang, you know that when the imperial court is not fighting now, the military expenditure of the Imperial Army in the North Yam alone is 2000 million guan, and the inner government has to spend 500 million guan. The imperial court usually spends at least 500 million yuan on military expenditures every year. So, if we calculate this, it will start at 3000 million yuan, which is only an approximate figure.”

"As for any war, even if it is a small-scale war, the military expenditure is hundreds of thousands to millions. If it is a war that mobilizes more than 10 people, the military expenditure will be unstoppable. How much is the budgeted military expenditure for the battle of Tuyuhun? Mobilizing the army and civilians, consuming money, food, materials, military equipment, etc., as well as building castles, post-war pensions and aftermath, etc., at least 3000 million guan, this is the lowest budget, if the war cannot If the battle is resolved quickly, the expenditure will continue to increase.”

Without industry and commerce, it is impossible for the court to have so much tax revenue. Without money, it cannot support so many soldiers and horses. Without an elite army, how can it defend the frontier and defeat the enemy?

All of these are linked together.

If one link is out of touch, it will bring about a chain reaction.

However, Xiao Yu is still just an old idea. He keeps talking about scholars, farmers, business, and business, saying that business and business should be suppressed, but he can't see that Daqin's recovery is so fast and its strength is so strong, it all depends on business and business.

For example, Xiao Yu proposed to abolish the salt tax more than once, but he failed to see that the salt tax now earns more than 3000 million yuan a year, and it is still growing rapidly every year.

With such a large amount of money, Luo Cheng can't abolish the salt tax.

According to what Xiao Yu said, suppressing industry and commerce, and returning to the era of the Sui Dynasty when industry and commerce had no taxes and only collected rent and mediocrity, it seemed very good, but in fact, whenever there was some engineering labor or war, all the burdens It's all over the heads of the people.

It is precisely because of this that the Sui Dynasty seemed extremely wealthy and powerful, but it collapsed after an Eastern Expedition. The essential reason was that the system of the Sui Dynasty was unreasonable, especially its tax system.

Those who control the wealth in the world did not bear the tax responsibilities that they should bear, but ordinary people who can hardly even afford food and clothing have almost completely borne the country's taxes.

So the imperial court was rich, the nobles, officials, landlords and powerful people were all rich, but the common people had nothing to spare.

Now Xiao Yu still keeps saying that he wants to be retro and reasonable, but he pretends not to see those essential problems.

These systems of Daqin can be said to be the foundation of Daqin. Whoever wants to shake and change these systems will shake the foundation of Daqin.

Hou Mo and Chen Yi stood up unceremoniously.

"Your Majesty, I think Xiao Shilang is the prime minister, but he is as pedantic as a scholar. If he continues to live in the political affairs hall, it will be a serious disaster for the country."

The prime minister attacked another prime minister face-to-face, and said so seriously, the atmosphere in the hall suddenly became dignified.

Wen Yanbo wanted to speak up for Xiao Yu, but at this time even Du Yan came out and stepped on him.

"Xiao Yu's words are indeed old-fashioned, too pedantic, and not a prime minister."

The emperor sitting on the dragon chair was silent at this time.

The right servant of the Shangshu, Wang Ziming, came out to ease the atmosphere at this time, "I feel that your majesty wants to implement the new policy in Chang'an, which can be regarded as a pilot project. As for whether it is good or bad, we can wait a year or two to see the results. As for the restraint of business, I think It’s still a little over.”

If Xiao Yu was a smart person, he should have seen the direction of the wind at this time, and immediately pleaded guilty to the emperor and confessed his mistake, and the matter might be over.But his temper has always been stubborn. When he was Yang Guangguo's uncle, he never compromised and bowed to the emperor, let alone he thought he was right.

"Your Majesty, please think twice before acting!"

But the emperor ignored Xiao Yu, obviously not accepting his advice, and all the ministers accused him one after another.Xiao Yu felt disheartened for a moment, and in a fit of anger, he simply resigned from the palace.

"Xiao Xiang, it is normal to have different political opinions, and there is no need to resign if there is a disagreement." Luo Cheng finally spoke.

But these words did not comfort Xiao Yu at all, on the contrary, it made him more stubborn and determined to resign.

Luo Cheng tried to persuade him a few times, but Xiao Yu had no intention of retreating.

"Since Xiao Yu's three speeches are sealed, I will not be reluctant." Luo Cheng no longer tried to persuade, but directly agreed, "Well, now I will seal Xiao Yu in the west of Qinghai Lake, a land of hundreds of miles, and a city. Qianhu, bestow the title of Duke Xuande."

Xuande was originally the name of Xuande County under Xihai County, one of the four counties established by Yang Guang after he destroyed Tuyuhun. It was located in the south of Qilian Mountains and west of Qinghai Lake. Now the emperor set aside a hundred miles from it and granted it to Xiao Yu to establish a duchy, named Xuande.

The title is still the duke of the country.

"Add Prince Shaofu!"

Prince Shaofu is the second rank, but it is only a false title. After the prime minister was removed, the emperor didn't even leave him a real job, and didn't let him go outside, but directly let him go to the fiefdom.

"Minister Xiao Yu pays homage to the emperor's grace, accepts the decree, and thanks my emperor!" Xiao Yu became angry, and even eight cows could not be pulled back.

Immediately, he took off his unicorn talisman, took off his beam crown, put down the jade wat, and directly exited the Zichen Palace.

Xiao Yu, the servant of Zhongshu, removed the prime minister.

A group of prime ministers watched the back of this obstinate prime minister leaving, thinking about each other, but no one persuaded him to stay. Maybe everyone thought that the stubborn Xiao Yu was actually not suitable to stand in the political affairs hall.

(End of this chapter)