Cultivation of chastity

Chapter 70 Ma Zhou's Memorial

After the discussion between Li Tai and Ma Zhou, Ma Zhou didn't write a letter immediately, but first sorted out the content of the discussion with Li Tai, especially this matter related to how the court collects taxes, and Ma Zhou didn't dare to be careless.

As time passed, because it was too late to send Jieli Khan to Chang'an before the great court meeting, Li Shimin ordered that Jieli be imprisoned in Luoyang first, and when Li Jing returned with the army, they would sacrifice to Taimiao together.

So the Great Court Meeting was held normally, dancing and dancing, long live long live, basically the Great Court Meeting didn't look like a rigorous meeting at all, but rather like a group of demons dancing wildly in the court hall.

Both Li Tai and Li Chengqian participated in this court meeting. This was the first time that they stood at the court meeting at the same time, and happened to be one on the left and one on the right, standing in front of all civil and military officials as a prince.

The only difference is that Li Chengqian was born here because he was the prince.

And Li Tai is standing here to help solve the problems of the victims, standing here relying on meritorious service.

Li Tai and Li Chengqian looked at each other, and no one knew whether there was lightning in their eyes.

No matter what, because the Turks were defeated, everyone from Li Shimin to all civil and military officials knew clearly that no matter how bad the situation next year was, at least there was no need to worry about being bullied by foreigners.

Fang Xuanling, as Shangshu Zuo Pushe, made a brief summary and outlook on the achievements of this year and the arrival of the new year.

Then Li Shimin dispatched several officials to inquire about this year's results, which is part of the procedure of the Great Court Conference.

For many small officials who may not be able to see Li Shimin once a year, if Li Shimin is lucky enough to transfer him, and he answers well, then maybe he will be able to rise to the top and give Li Shimin a good impression.

Finally, in the salute of all the demons dancing wildly, the grand meeting ended.

Li Tai returned to the Yue Palace and began to take out his pen, recalling Fang Xuanling's words, which were related to the future development of the Tang Dynasty.

Bai He looked at Li Tai and couldn't help saying:
"Your Majesty, the Great Court Council has just returned, and you didn't change this dress first. It's so troublesome to wear this dress!"

Hmm, what the Great Court will wear is not even a court dress, but a formal dress.

Basically, I only wear this once a year, and the whole set of Prince's dress weighs at least a dozen catties, which is indeed quite uncomfortable.

During the speech, Bai He skillfully changed Li Tai's clothes, and Li Tai also changed into the casual clothes he wore in the Yue Palace.

After Bai He had done all these things, he came to Li Tai's desk to grind ink obediently, quite a bit of interest in adding fragrance to his red sleeves.

Li Tai watched Bai He grind the ink well, and said, "Bai He, do you want to manage foreign affairs?"

"But what did the servant do wrong? The servant only wants to follow the King of Yue!" Bai He's expression changed when he heard Li Tai's words.

"Okay..." Li Tai nodded understandingly, and said, "Then go and find Peacock, I have something to do with her!"

"Obey!" Bai He hurriedly agreed when he heard Li Tai's words.

Li Tai watched Bai He leave, and sighed slightly, he was a bit short of manpower!

Compared with becoming a strong woman in charge of power, what Bai He is good at is being a little secretary by his side who checks for omissions and fills in vacancies.

In fact, Bai He was born in a scholarly family, and he was not bad at handling chores by his side, obviously capable.

But as women in this era, they still rely on men instinctively, instead of seizing every opportunity to gain power.

This makes Li Tai very helpless, because what Li Tai really needs is a tool man who can work!
"I still have to continue to find ways to find something!" Li Tai took a deep breath, put his eyes on the white paper, picked up a pen and began to write words, mainly to summarize Fang Xuanling's outlook and conclusions at the annual meeting.

"Judging from what Fang Xiang said today, with the defeat of the Turks, the oppression of Datang's external environment has declined, so Datang has begun to adjust its governance strategy. At least starting this year, more resources will be used within Datang instead of On foreign expeditions.

Moreover, Datang has suffered continuous disasters in the past few years and needs to recuperate to restore its national strength.

In other words, the political tone of the entire Zhenguan should be to cut extravagance and reduce fees, lighten corvees and pay less, and choose good officials.

During the Zhenguan period, Datang was able to quickly recover its national strength after suffering successive disasters and fighting against the Turks, because of light corvee and poor endowment.

This method of ruling by doing nothing is the most suitable method at the beginning of the founding of the country. At least before Tuyuhun is not long, Datang will win a long period of peace, which is quite important
But not only Datang, even I also need time to make arrangements and truly bring out the role of agricultural colleges! "

Li Tai took a deep breath, "These years are also quite precious to me!"

"King Yue!" Just as Li Tai was thinking, there was a knock on the door, and Bai He said, "The peacock is here!"

"Come in!" Li Tai replied calmly, and soon saw the peacock come in.

And Bai He came behind Li Tai and continued to help Li Tai grind ink, and there was no disturbance because of the peacock's arrival.

"I've seen King Yue!" Seeing Li Tai's flustered expression, Peacock quickly saluted.

Li Tai nodded, and said to the peacock:
"The business of the big shop is doing very well, after a few more days, King Bin should come to you.

At that time, he will hand over the coal industry in his hand to you to take care of, you have to be prepared! "

"Leave it to me?!" Hearing Li Tai's words, Peacock looked a little dazed, and didn't expect that he would be in charge of this matter.

Li Tai continued: "I will give you the direction of the industry plan, you just need to implement the direction I planned!"

"Obey!" Peacock breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Li Tai's words, and was instantly full of confidence.

Compared with the evaluation of Li Tai by the people in the court, he was only a capable official, but Li Tai's people all recognized Li Tai's ability to plan the layout.

At least in their view, Li Tai's planning took a lot of credit for the prosperity of Gaoling as a whole.

"Baihe, go get the map of Guanzhong!" Li Tai said to Baihe.

"Okay, Your Majesty!" Hearing Li Tai's words, Bai He quickly went over to bring a map.

Li Tai took the map and opened it. It was a map of Guanzhong, but the most detailed ones were the various tributaries of the Wei River.

Li Tai said to Peacock: "After you took over the coal industry, you mainly worked in two directions.

One is to use the Weishui River as a link to establish a complete coal industry chain in which the initial processing of coal mining is the first step, the processing of coal products in Gaoling is the second step, and finally all coal products are transported to the entire Guanzhong through the Weishui River. "

"If we do this, the cost of coal will become very high, so what profit can we make!" Peacock frowned.

"Sometimes the location is more important than the origin of minerals, and you need to remember that what we sell is not coal, but the standard!" Li Tai said calmly, "You just need to complete the system and you'll be fine. gone."

"Follow the order!" Although Peacock didn't understand, he still agreed.

Li Tai looked at the peacock and continued: "Next to the second point, build a laboratory to conduct comprehensive research on the properties of coal.

This research is mainly to accumulate knowledge about the basic properties of coal, such as burning at a higher temperature, burning for a longer time, being able to fuse with iron to produce steel, and so on.

Don't be afraid to spend money, just spend money on people to study and study all information about coal, whether it is useful or not!

This thing is our foundation, and we need all the information on it! "

"Subordinates understand!" Peacock immediately agreed when he heard Li Tai's words.

When Li Tai said this, he continued as if thinking of something, "If the big store enters a stable period, you can let it go slowly.

It is just a tool to revitalize Gaoling. Now Gaoling no longer needs big shops to continue to add bricks and tiles.

But continue to hold on to the cloth, you can try to use money to improve the machine to increase the efficiency of weaving.

But the most important thing is to find a way to master more raw materials for silk fabrics.

After all, once the weaving efficiency is improved, the cloth raw materials you have now are definitely not enough! "

"The raw materials of the cloth are basically controlled by the Kanto family. If you intervene rashly, it may cause misunderstanding!" Peacock smiled wryly.

To be honest, if there are not enough channels in this day and age, it is very difficult to do business across states or even across roads.

Even if King Yue stood behind him, Li Tai's influence would not be the slightest outside of Guanzhong.

Raw materials are often controlled by aristocratic families. Even if Peacock wants to intervene, based on the intricate connections in the other party's local area, it is almost impossible to bypass the aristocratic families and directly buy them from the people.

Li Tai said calmly: "I know that it is very difficult to compete in the same track, so let's cross the border!

I made a kind of cotton called Baidizi, which is also a kind of silk fabric, and Baihe even used it to weave a dress for Changle.

It's a pity that this kind of textiles eats both water and land, and it also eats up. Planting in Guanzhong would take up too much land for food.

You can try to send people to Yongzhou, Fengzhou, Lingzhou, where the Yellow River passes, or you can go to Qinzhou in the upper reaches of the Weishui River to find a land to try planting.

Only when you have your own raw materials can you have the foundation of your life.

Otherwise, the cloth production industry in your hands, not to mention other people, it would be too easy for Zheng Fengchi to cut you off! "

Peacock couldn't help sweating when he heard Li Tai's words, and said hastily, "Your servant must handle this matter well!"

"Well! Go down!" Li Tai said to Peacock, "Don't be too anxious, take your time, we still have time!"

The peacock didn't dare to say too much, and went down quickly.

After all, for Peacock, he has found the direction and wants to carry out this matter thoroughly, and he must have the ability.

With the peacock leaving, Li Tai couldn't help thinking deeply,
"Cotton is too good for the land, especially if you want to plant it in the hinterland of China and you will compete with grain. It is better to plant it in Longxi, and even donate it to the army as military supplies when the Tuyuhun is crusade.

The most important thing is that after the defeat of Tuyuhun, cotton should be planted in places like Qinghai, Xinjiang, and with economic interests as the link, the relationship between the border areas and the Central Plains will be closer.

At that time, even if you don't promote cotton yourself, the court will take the initiative to promote it if you want to come!
As a free move, let's fall first. "

Li Tai took a deep breath. After the Anshi Rebellion, Datang resolutely gave up the Western Regions. One of the most important reasons was that the benefits brought by the Western Regions were not enough.

And as long as the value is enough, Li Tai believes that not to mention that the Western Regions are originally the territory of China, even if they are not, then they should try their best to naturalize them, and there will be no such situation that they just give up and give up.

But cotton, as long as it reaches a certain scale and makes everyone understand its value, the emperor will usually take the initiative to promote it, and Li Tai doesn't need to worry about it.

In contrast, coal is a thing. Although Huaxia started to use coal very early, it never really paid attention to coal.

Needless to say, when things like salt, iron, and tea discovered their effects, they decisively taxed them to monopolize them.

However, although a large amount of coal is also mined, coal itself is only regarded as a simple fuel, similar to wood.

Therefore, Li Tai wants to integrate the entire coal system as much as possible, and promote the development of coal through scale and industry.

To be honest, both Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling noticed Li Tai's move to integrate the coal system.

But they don't care, because in their eyes, coal is just fuel for burning things after all.

It is neither food nor clothes, at most it is a material for heating in winter, and it is nothing if it is monopolized by Li Tai.

Even if something goes wrong, coal can't be used, but wood can be used to burn things, and there are many things that can replace coal.

Under such circumstances, they let Li Tai integrate the coal industry.

After all, after Li Tai's integration is completed, even if he wants to levy coal taxes in the future, he can just go to Li Tai directly.

Because those private black coal mines can't even collect taxes if they want to!
After the court meeting, the peaceful days passed day by day, as everyone waited for Li Jing's class teacher to return to the court, and then the Taimiao offered prisoners.

But at this time, Ma Zhou's memorial "On the Water Transport" was handed over to the court, and there was a lot of discussion in the court for a while.

Because Ma Zhou used Gaoling Wharf as an example, and gave detailed examples of the huge benefits brought about by the prosperity of the wharf.

However, in this process, due to the lack of specific management rules and regulations of the imperial court, there was no taboo in shipping, and it was easy to transport contraband. At the same time, this kind of circulation brought about the further development of commerce.

But the most important thing is that water transportation itself will consume a lot of labor, but these labors do not pay taxes.

This invisibly weakened the national power of the imperial court.

Therefore, Ma Zhou believes that it is necessary to pay taxes on this kind of industry that consumes a lot of labor and creates wealth.

This kind of tax payment is not to suppress this kind of industry, but to recognize this kind of industry, just like the imperial court's recognition of farmers.

Because Ma Zhou was a direct descendant of the Yue Palace, he suddenly played such a memorial, which made the whole court feel a little nervous.

Especially those censors who have been biting Li Tai all the time, when they saw this memorial, they all quieted down strangely, and all eyes turned to Li Chengqian.

Li Chengqian felt the eyes of everyone, and thought silently in his heart, "It depends on what I do, and I didn't order it!"

(End of this chapter)