Cultivation of chastity

Chapter 126 Li Shimin's Reward
Is it the first generation of entrepreneurs? Although Li Tai didn't mention war, don't they know?
Of course not, how to maintain the population to an area where the population will not explode, they naturally know this cruelest method.

But the reality is that the first generation will never take this road, because not to mention that they themselves are very clear about how bumpy this road is.

They won the final victory in the troubled times of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and lived to the Zhenguan Dynasty. Only they themselves know how many adventures on thin ice and how many desperate gambles there are.

Not to mention, compared to their children, to a certain extent, the Great Tang itself that they built is more like a derivative of their will, the crystallization of their hard work, and they hope that the Great Tang can be passed on for as long as possible.

If it is in those self-righteous kings who ignore the people, maybe they will implement some policies of cutting back and forth.

But they knew very well how the Great Sui Dynasty was played by Yang Guang. If it really came to stand on the opposite side of the people, the world would still be this world, but Datang would no longer be Datang.

After all, the people of Huaxia are desperate, but they will rebel.

So no matter Li Shimin or Fang Xuanling, after knowing about the population limit, the solution they can think of is to increase the arable land area of ​​Datang, or to find a way to implement enfeoffment.

What they can't think of is productivity, but they are still very clear that increasing food production can alleviate this data.

Under such circumstances, the importance of agricultural colleges is naturally highlighted.

At this time, the Confucians don’t say that they hate Li Tai’s agricultural school because of Li Tai. Even if they understand that the agricultural school is in competition with them and suppress it, as the top of the court, they will definitely take the initiative to escort the agricultural school.

Because without Confucianism, at most it is a management problem, but without agricultural colleges, it is really a matter of counting down the countdown to the dynasty.

To be honest, if it is possible, the imperial court can't wait for a genius like Jia Sixie to come down at this time, so that the food can increase at an unimaginable speed.

But obviously, at least until now, the person who is best at farming in this era is named Li Tai.

It's not that Li Tai's farming skills are really high-end, but that Li Tai has the highest status and has established an agricultural school that can integrate a lot of contemporary agricultural knowledge, and then teach it to students, so that these students can spread farming skills.

To be honest, if it wasn't because Li Tai was the prince, the people of Gaoling would have built a temple for Li Tai.

It's just that for the common people these days, the attitude towards the royal family is somewhat different from the attitude towards those ordinary people.

Because for the Chinese people, the government is to manage themselves, and at the same time, the Chinese government also hopes to be able to control the people's eating, drinking, and messing.

And so Li Tai, as the prince of the royal family, increased the number of acres produced by the people. Although the people were grateful, they took it for granted.

I was in the Tang Dynasty, and the people are naturally happy when a virtuous king emerges, but at most they hope that Li Tai can live a little longer, preferably a long life. It fell on Li Tai.

In the final analysis, for the common people, this is Li Tai's job. At most, Li Tai has done a good job, so they respect and admire him.

Just like this, Fang Xuanling supported Chu Suiliang to open a branch school in the south of the Yangtze River so that the crown prince could take over the position smoothly in the future.

The same goes for crop planting, at least to a certain extent, to reduce Li Tai's power, so as to achieve the effect of decentralization.

Fortunately, although Li Tai was very unhappy with Confucianism, he did not stop what Chu Suiliang wanted to learn, and was even very strict with Chu Suiliang, and Chu Suiliang also grasped the progress quite quickly.

If it is not necessary to wait until the grain is harvested, it is considered a complete learning process. In fact, with the current knowledge of the agricultural school, Chu Suiliang can actually go to Jiangnan to open a branch school.

But the matter of the wheat harvest is definitely not something that the current manpower can violate. Even Fang Xuanling can only wait patiently.

After all, the depth of knowledge of Li Tai Agricultural University is really not deep, it is more of a new way of thinking, but the trouble with agriculture is that if you don't really harvest once, no one can really master agriculture by themselves.

"Don't be in a hurry, don't be in a hurry!" Fang Xuanling sighed at this time, thinking, "I'm going to send a letter to Keming, and the matter of entrusting it is a bit too involved, but the current big Tang Zhen is not suitable for enfeoffment, you must persuade the saint!"

To be honest, compared with enfeoffment, Fang Xuanling was more concerned about how to increase the population capacity of the entire Tang Dynasty.

Fang Xuanling was not worried about the matter of entrustment, because although it is easy to say, it is not easy to restore it.

The most direct reason is the population. Now it is the beginning of the Tang Dynasty. According to the census in the seventh year of Wude, there were only 210 million households in Nuoda in the Tang Dynasty. Timely Edict", but in terms of the speed of population recovery, the recorded population of the entire Tang Dynasty is only more than 1000 million.

With such a small number of people, the arable land in the world is not unsatisfactory. It is also quite difficult for the saints to implement the enfeoffment system.

Not to mention a complete solution, at least delay something, as a bureaucrat, Fang Xuanling can definitely do it.

After all, sometimes procrastination can really solve a lot of things. For example, maybe someone like Jia Sixie is born, or find some better crops to cultivate. In short, there are more solutions than difficulties, and it is not necessarily necessary to take the road of enfeoffment. !
To be honest, as a minister of a unified dynasty, I really don't want the court to adopt the system of enfeoffment.

This is not only because he is also considered to be born in Confucianism, but more importantly, once the enfeoffment is divided, it will inevitably lead to wars a few generations later.

After all, as the first Prime Minister of the Tang Dynasty, Fang Xuanling had nothing to say, but he still had this vision.

Of course, Li Tai was not idle either, originally Li Tai thought that he had slept peacefully and was going back to Gaoling the next day.

It was the servant who arrived at the gate of Yuewang Mansion early in the morning the next day, and Xuan Litai went to Taiji Hall after eating breakfast.

Because Li Shimin planned to meet Li Tai early and later, mainly about enfeoffment, and hoped to discuss further with Li Tai.

Hearing Li Shimin's words, Li Tai naturally didn't delay for a moment, and went to the palace with his servants after breakfast.

After waiting in the side hall for a long time, Li Shimin, who had finished his morning court, called Li Tai.

At the same time, Li Tai also knew why Li Shimin called him, because Li Shimin said:
"Qingque, in your opinion, how should the enfeoffment be divided now?"

Yes, Li Shimin is already thinking about how to divide the seals.

For a period of time, almost everyone opposed Li Shimin's enfeoffment, even the people closest to him, such as Empress Changsun, Li Chengqian, Fang Xuanling, and Changsun Wuji, were either neutral or opposed, leaving him alone and helpless.

But only his own son, Li Tai, not only firmly supported his plan, but also found a theoretical basis for himself.

If it is not Li Tai or his own son, Li Shimin feels that he can already train Li Tang to be the future prime minister of the Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, Li Shimin thought about it all night last night, and today he decisively called Li Tai in and started to make a distribution plan.

Li Tai didn't expect Li Shimin to be so active. You know, even when it comes to the construction of Zheng Baiqu in his Luoyang Palace, Li Shimin has never been so active.

Is it really so important to Li Shimin to entrust such things?
Li Tai looked at Li Shimin, but shook his head and said, "Aye, from Qing Que's point of view, at least in a short period of time, you shouldn't think about enfeoffment!"

"Huh?" Li Shimin heard Li Tai's words, as if he had been poured cold water by Li Tai when he was excited, and his face suddenly looked ugly. This was quite uncomfortable, and he couldn't help but said in a deep voice, "Qing Que, do you know what you are talking about?" !"

"Qingque understands!" Li Tai looked at Li Shimin, and said calmly, "I just know that Qingque doesn't flatter me, and I can't be disqualified. When facing Aye, I can only be sincere!"

Li Tai sighed silently in his heart, fortunately he is Li Shimin's son, if he changed his identity, he wouldn't dare to speak so bluntly!

"Then you said yesterday that you support enfeoffment, are you flattering you, Aye?" Li Shimin looked at Li Tai and said seriously.

"Of course not!" Li Tai shook his head and said to Li Shimin, "Aye, do you have a map?"

"Prepare a map of the ten realms for Qingque!" Li Shimin said in a deep voice.

Soon a servant came over, but it was not a map, but a model!

To be honest, ever since Ma Yuan developed the military skill of gathering rice into mountains, basically the emperors have made a hand-made model of mountains and rivers. Of course, only the palace has a set, and the generals only use it. map.

So in this hall, Li Tai soon saw a topographic map of the mountains, rivers and rivers of the entire Tang Dynasty.

Although it is not as accurate as satellite detection, in fact the terrain accuracy of the entire Central Plains is not bad, but the areas outside the Central Plains are a bit blurry.

Li Tai looked at the map, clicked his tongue, then pointed to Goguryeo and said:

"First of all, because of the existence of Goguryeo, I don't think Datang is suitable for enfeoffment!"

"You are afraid that Goguryeo will take the opportunity to provoke trouble!" Li Shimin couldn't help saying when he heard Li Tai's words.

"Yeah!" Li Tai replied with a nod, "Aye, please listen to Qing Que's opinion.

Although enfeoffment is a means to solve the problem that the increase in population exceeds the area of ​​arable land.

But it is undeniable that enfeoffment will reduce the population of the main body of our Tang Dynasty, which also means reducing the war potential of the Tang Dynasty.

So before Goguryeo is destroyed, I don't agree with enfeoffment! "

"Why don't you send people to the north!" Li Shimin looked at Li Taidao, "This way of fighting can further weaken Goguryeo, and it will even make it easier for us in the Tang Dynasty to suppress and command the foreign races in the grassland!"

"Aye is the God of War who is invincible in all battles, whether there is this person or not, he can suppress the grassland.

But my brother and I have never experienced war, and our command ability may not be comparable to Zhao Kuo.

If there is a fiefdom on the grassland, it will be fine for one or two generations. After a long time, I am afraid that it will become a situation like Goguryeo.

After all, the biggest threat to my Tang Dynasty has always come from the north! "

Li Shimin couldn't help frowning when he heard Li Tai's words, but nodded in approval,
"If that's the case, wouldn't it be different when my Great Tang destroyed Goguryeo?!"

"It's still like what I said last time, because my Tang Dynasty has always been troubled by the north.

But after the Grassland Project is completed, our northern line of defense will be able to push further north, encroaching on the grassland forces.

Before I can determine how far the north is, I think the land in the north should be directly controlled by the imperial court as much as possible.

As for the enfeoffment, in my opinion, thousands of miles away is the best. Whether it is the thousands of miles of desert in the Western Regions, the endless plateau in Tubo, or the rugged mountains and forests in the Erhai Lake area, you should be able to avoid disputes when these feudal states grow bigger in the future.

After all, the distance is far away, so that disputes can be avoided, and strategic alliances can be formed.

Then there should be no foreign forces that can develop in the circle where our Chinese forces are all over the place. "

Li Tai pointed at the corners of the map, which made Li Shimin frown.

Although intellectually speaking, Li Shimin understood that Li Tai was right, but in reality, Li Shimin didn't want his old brothers to be separated, and he would never see them again in his life.

After all, I want to subdivide them, not exile them.

"But we are separated by thousands of mountains and rivers, so how can we contact each other?" Li Shimin said with a frown.

"We need to open up the former Silk Road and maintain the stability of the Silk Road, that is, to maintain the vassal state of our Tang Dynasty.

In addition to the Silk Road on land, you can try to travel along the coastline from the sea.

As long as the land is not endless, there will still be a coastline after all, let's see if there is a more convenient road on the sea! "

Li Tai said, "At least now our ships can leave Jinkou and the coastline to hunt down pirates.

Ships in the future will eventually travel farther and farther. After all, water transportation is cheaper than land transportation. "

"That is to say, you mean to get rid of Goguryeo, open up the Silk Road, and then divide it?" Li Shimin heard Li Tai's words, but he had a certain understanding of Li Tai's words.

"If possible, it's best to increase the population to 3000 million before proceeding!" Li Tai said calmly,

"Seniorization will reduce the imperial court's own potential.

Although I am very much in favor of the enfeoffment system, the main population of Datang itself is too small, and I don't think this will be a good thing. "

"3000 million, that is 600 million households?!" Li Shimin couldn't help staring at Li Tai when he heard Li Tai's words.

"Yeah!" Li Tai said to Li Shimin without flinching,
"The implementation of the enfeoffment system is a century-old policy, both at the national level and at the executive level.

I am more inclined to implement this system step by step, at least I do not agree to enfeoffment in the Central Plains, Shu, Jiangnan, Longyou and other areas.

Instead, after the settlement of Goguryeo and the opening of the Silk Road, enfeoffment was carried out in places farther than the Western Regions.

Otherwise, even if the population problem is solved, sooner or later the Central Plains will reappear the troubled times of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States. "

Li Shimin looked at Li Tai, how to look at this white and chubby face, how disgusted he was, the only comrade-in-arms he agreed to, and his own son!
When Li Shimin thought of this, he couldn't help saying angrily: "Go back to Gaoling and repair Zheng Baiqu!"

"Oh..." Li Tai didn't expect Li Shimin's painting style to change suddenly, but he could only obediently agree.

After all, it's about one's own political stance, even in the face of Li Shimin, he will not change, because only by sticking to one's own political stance, can one gather talents of one's own.

"Come back!" Li Shimin said suddenly, "By the way, this time you have made meritorious advice, and Aye hasn't rewarded you yet!"

"Oh?!" Hearing this, Li Tai came back in a panic.

"The "Preface to the Lanting Pavilion" written by me has a private seal on it. Take it back and copy it for me a hundred times. Next time you go back to the palace, bring the copied article with you. If the words are well written, the "Preface to the Lanting Pavilion" I wrote will be as good as it is. I give it to you!" Li Shimin said seriously.

"Thank you, Aye!" Li Tai had tears in his eyes, facing Li Shimin's gift, he was beyond moved!

(End of this chapter)