Recreating the prosperous Tang begins with summoning players

Chapter 164 The benefits belong to the "people"?
In Shazhou City, various restaurants and teahouses were discussing the Shazhou Conference. As soon as Liu Yan and Yang Yan entered a teahouse, they heard a few people dressed as scholars at the next table talking loudly:

"King Jianning finally understands that it is impossible to govern Longyou well with these barbarians serving as soldiers!"

"Yes, yes, Master Han's articles have been spread all over Shazhou City. I heard that those traitors in the Overlord Mansion are thinking hard about how to deal with Master Han's majestic writing!"

These few days Yang Yan and Liu Yan were reading in the inn, they did not expect the situation in Shazhou to change so much these few days.

Yang Yan called Dr. Cha, handed him a penny and asked, "Dr. Cha, who is this Mr. Han?"

Dr. Cha is the one who knows the local trends best. After receiving Yang Yan's copper coin, he immediately said: "This Mr. Han is a scholar of literature respected by the rich and powerful in Gaochang. Now he is at the height of his power in Longyou! Mr. Han wrote a It’s a great article, and I’m going to present it to His Highness King Jianning at the Shazhou Conference.”

"Isn't this a meeting yet? How come Mr. Han's article has already spread?"

Dr. Tea said with a smile: "Isn't it true that several Marquis in Gaochang think Mr. Han's articles are wonderful? Dong Hou specially asked a woodblock craftsman to carve Mr. Han's articles, and then printed thousands of copies and brought them to Shazhou City Now everyone in the city who has a bit of ink and ink already knows Mr. Han's article."

"Do you have Mr. Han's article in your tea shop, can you let me read it?"

Dr. Cha smiled and said: "There are some, sir, wait for a moment, and I will take them out!"

After a while, only a framed article was carefully taken out by Dr. Cha. It seemed that Mr. Han's article was really well written. Dr. Cha even framed the article and prepared to pass it on to his descendants.

Yang Yan took the scroll and read it seriously with Liu Yan.

This article is not a four-six parallel essay, which surprised both Yang Yan and Liu Yan.

Yang Yan and Liu Yan are both scholars of literature, and now the imperial court has to write four or six parallel essays with neat antithesis and high format requirements.

The imperial court issued decrees, and the government passed official documents, all in four or six parallel prose. This kind of prose is complicated and obscure, and ordinary people can't understand it at all.

Perhaps in order to win the support of the people in Shazhou, this article was written in relatively easy-to-understand "ancient Chinese".

Ancient prose is the prose of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties. The writing is not rigid in format. The ancient prose is mainly for reasoning.

As young people, Yang Yan and Liu Yan both hate fake parallel prose.

Nowadays, young scholars in Guanzhong have also begun to advocate writing in ancient Chinese, but this is still an initiative among ordinary scholars and has not yet been able to affect the imperial court.

Yang Yan quickly finished reading Mr. Han's article, and he exclaimed in admiration: "It really is a majestic essay, although it is not a parallel essay, but the momentum of overwhelming mountains and seas has not diminished at all!"

Liu Yan frowned and said: "Xiongwen is Xiongwen, but Yan does not agree with the viewpoint of this article."

Yang Yan also nodded and said, "It's indeed a bit biased, but Mr. Han, who wrote this article, will surely be immortalized with the Shazhou Conference!"

Although Liu Yan didn't like the point of view of the article, this article by Mr. Han was indeed excellent in terms of literary quality.

Yang Yan said: "The views in this article can indeed be debated."

Liu Yan also said: "It's true. The article said that agriculture is the foundation of the country at the beginning of the article. This is not wrong."

"Persuading farming and farming is a great righteousness. This article stands on the righteousness, and it can be regarded as invincible."

Yang Yan also nodded, this is the brilliance of the article.

The article starts with agriculture, and believes that agriculture is the foundation of the Tang Dynasty, and the granting of land by the government soldiers is the foundation for the Tang Dynasty to rise from the troubled times at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and puts forward the concept of agriculture first.

Regarding this point, scholars in Datang recognized it, and so did the general public.

Then the article extended that since agriculture is fundamental, King Jianning ordered Bafu to specialize in salt and iron, which violated the national policy of putting agriculture first.

This is the case in all overlords, so the people will only follow the example, stop engaging in agricultural production, and turn to participate in industry and commerce.

Now in Shazhou and Guazhou, many people have given up farming and chose to work in workshops.

This is tantamount to destroying the cornerstone of Datang agriculture and setting a bad example for the common people.

Both Liu Yan and Yang Yan have no objection to this argument. Nowadays, the industry and commerce in the three states are prosperous, but the people are also uneasy and unwilling to farm properly. This is also what Liu Yan and Yang Yan have seen and heard along the way, and the article is not exaggerated.

At this time, the style of the article changed again, this time the article was about "profit".

This made Liu Yan and Yang Yan's eyes brighten. Gentlemen are ashamed of talking about profit. Since the Han Dynasty, after Confucianism was the only one, there are not many scholars who dare to speak publicly.

The second paragraph of Mr. Han's article talks about this "profit".

Bafu controls the mountains, rivers and mines, and specializes in salt and iron. This is to seize the profits in the hands of the government, and Mr. Han believes that this is "competing for profits with the people."

The interests of the common people that the imperial court is competing for are naturally inconsistent with the Confucian ideas of hundreds of years. Mr. Han believes that the government controls the mountains, rivers and mines, and monopolizes the salt and iron. If the government participates in the operation, the quality of the goods will inevitably be poor over time, and the attitude will also be arrogant. , and even use these government products to exploit businessmen.

And the people also need to serve corvee for the saltworks and mines, which further squeezes the people.

Therefore, Mr. Han proposed that the government should release its control over mountains, rivers and mines, release the monopoly of salt and iron, and let the common people undertake the salt field and mine, so as to "return the benefits to the people."

Yang Yan, who used to be the secretary of Hexi Jiedushi's Mansion, said: "The imperial court does exactly what Mr. Han said. The iron mines under the Hexi Jiedushi's mansion impose hundreds of corvees every year, and there are countless deaths and injuries in the mines every year. .”

"Furthermore, the officials who manage the iron mines are exploiting up and down, losing money every year. The iron ore produced cannot be smelted at all. The ordnance supervisor of the Jiedushi Mansion has to buy iron ore from other states to forge weapons."

"The same is true for the Armament Supervisor of the Jiedu Mission Mansion. The weapons they make are rough, and some weapons even break when chopped. They are not as sharp as the pig-killing knives made by the people."

Liu Yan also nodded and said, "Master Fifth Qi went to Jianghuai to preside over the salt industry franchise. After turning the salt farm into the imperial court, it also caused a salt shortage in Jianghuai. The government-run salt farm is indeed serious, and the quality of the salt produced is not high. They often allocate salt merchants to purchase.”

However, Liu Yan still supports Fifth Qi's policy of "returning salt farms to the public" in Jianghuai. It is precisely because of the means of collecting money that salt is the means of raising money. A large amount of military equipment, food, grass and money were continuously transported to Fengxiang Mansion to supply the army to fight.

However, Mr. Han's articles all start with righteousness and focus on the common people everywhere, but Liu Yan can't make mistakes.

This is what Yang Yan and Liu Yan felt terrified of. There was clearly something wrong with this article, but they couldn't find anything to refute.

Therefore, this article discusses rigorously, and finally puts forward the final conclusion.

The imperial court controls the "mountains, rivers and mines" and specializes in salt and iron. These are all things that compete with the people for profit.

Then, as a virtuous king, King Jianning should not use the Yanchi Mine to exploit the people. He should return the "mountain and river mines" to the people, open up the monopoly of salt and iron, so that ordinary people can also participate in the operation of salt and iron Come.

After reading the article, Yang Yan handed the scroll to Dr. Cha, and said to Liu Yan:

"With such majestic writing, it's not good for King Jianning Bafu."

Liu Yan also nodded. It is obvious that the two questions raised in the article can be said to be aimed at the vital point.

With the spread of this article, public opinion in Shazhou has gradually changed. Even some people feel that it is not good for the imperial court to control so many things. If the mountains and rivers and mines can be opened up, ordinary people will go into the forest at will to chop firewood without being chased by the government guards guarding the forest.

On April [-]th, amidst the attention of the three states, the Shazhou Conference was finally going to be held.

Because the number of people attending the meeting this time far exceeded the expectations of Li Yan and the players, the Governor's Mansion definitely couldn't let so many people go.

Li Yan simply decided to hold the Shazhou meeting on the ruins of Leiyin Temple outside the city of Shazhou.

The monk's room in Leiyin Temple is still intact and can be used as a place for participants to rest.

Most of the back temple of Leiyin Temple was burned down when the monks rebelled, but now it has been flattened out and paved with wooden boards as a venue for debate.

For this debate, Li Yan also summoned Zhang Mian, governor of Guazhou, Li Xiuzhang, governor of Xizhou, and Jia Sishun, governor of Shazhou, to attend the meeting at Leiyin Temple.

Cui Tao, the Sima of the Bafu, and Jiang Lun, the judge of Yantie Shi, were the representatives, and they discussed the big politics of land distribution and the monopoly of salt and iron with Xianliang Literature.

In addition, there were 80 players who served in the government, 70 players who served as village chiefs, 20 players who served in the army, and 30 representatives of merchant players who participated in the meeting.

As for the aborigines, 70 people from wealthy families from the three prefectures participated in the meeting, 60 people were recommended by the local people, and all twelve patriarchs from the old Gaochang clan were present. There are 20 teachers.

Leiyin Temple is close to Shazhou City. In order to protect the safety of King Jianning, a player army is stationed near Leiyin Temple.

At the same time, in order to "live broadcast" the meeting to the people in Shazhou City in a timely manner, King Jianning also allowed storytellers and tea doctors from all over Shazhou to enter the venue. They can record the content of the debate and then relay to the people what happened in the meeting. things.

On April [-]th, King Jianning's chariot came out of the Governor's Mansion, and under the escort of elite players, he drove to Leiyin Temple.

Yang Yan and Liu Yan, who were standing on both sides of the road, finally saw the majesty of King Jianning after seeing the frame of King Jianning.

(End of this chapter)