The Tang Dynasty started from saving Empress Changsun

Chapter 33 The First Business

Behind the Zixiao Palace are three side-by-side halls, the middle one is the Lingxiao Palace, which is dedicated to the gods of the heavens such as Liuyu; the left side is the Sanqing Palace, which is dedicated to the Sanqing and Taoist gods.

On the right is the Hall of Sages and Sages, dedicated to Nuwa, Youchao, Suiren, Fuxi, Shennong, Huangdi, Yao, Shunyu and so on.

Afterwards are the Yin Gods of the Underworld, the Empress, the God of Wealth, the God of Plague, the God of Medicine, the Stove Lord, the Star of Civil and Military Music, the God of Longevity, and the Old Moon.

Their temples are much smaller, and it is more appropriate to call them halls, but they are still called halls out of respect.

Li Shimin led all the civil and military officials to worship all the gods and burn the first stick of incense.

It took a lot of walking in this big circle, Chen Jingke was sweating, and the fat Li Tai was as if he was fished out of the water.

Li Shimin let everyone move freely, and he accompanied Sun Simiao to the backyard to rest, but before he had walked a few steps, he heard exclamations from behind.

"Shu Bao, Shu Bao..."

"General Qin, General Qin fainted..."

"Hurry up and invite Master Sun..."

Li Shimin stopped quickly and said, "Ren Feng, go and see what happened."

"Here." Ren Feng trotted over to inquire about the situation, and rushed back after a while: "Saint, Duke Yi has passed out."

"What?" Li Shimin was shocked, and hurriedly said to Sun Simiao, "Please, sir, go and have a look."

Sun Simiao said: "Okay, please, Your Majesty."

Chen Jingke also wanted to go and see it. First, it was Qin Shubao; second, he was overjoyed at the opening of Zixiao Temple today, and he didn't want any tragedy to happen.

Unexpectedly, he was pulled back by the eldest grandson Wugou before he even moved.

Looking at her suspiciously, she shook her head: "Don't draw attention."

Chen Jingke immediately understood what she meant, and kept his identity low-key so that no one would target him.Thinking of his own safety, he flinched and retracted the legs he had already stepped on.

"Let's go, let's go see your residence." Changsun Wugou felt that it was not safe enough, so he dragged him to the backyard.

Chen Jingke followed behind in a daze. It was against his original intention to see death without saving him, but he really didn't want to put himself in danger.

The eldest grandson Wugou saw what was on his mind, sighed secretly, and said: "Don't feel guilty, the sages said that a gentleman should not stand under a dangerous wall, only by protecting yourself can you save more people."

"And Yi Guogong is not a serious illness, it is caused by excessive bleeding in the battlefield when he was young. The imperial doctor asked him to cultivate more in peacetime. Today, it should be that the fainting caused by walking too much will not endanger his life."

Chen Jingke felt much better in his heart, and said, "Thank you for your comfort, Auntie, I understand."

"If it's anemia, I really don't have a good solution, but I do know that some methods of nourishing food and nourishing blood may improve his condition. Well, this method is also applicable to women who are ischemic."

The eldest grandson Wugou suddenly became interested, and asked, "What method?"

Chen Jingke said: "Eat more pig blood, pork liver, red dates, kiwi fruit, pinpo fruit (apple)...the best way is donkey-hide gelatin boiled from Dong'e well water."

Speaking of this, Chen Jingke clapped his hands and said, "That's right, Ejiao, why did you forget this?"

Changsun Wugou knew that he had thought of something good, so he hurriedly asked, "What is donkey-hide gelatin?"

Li Chengqian, Li Lizhi and others also looked over curiously.

Chen Jingke said excitedly: "The glue made from Dong'e well water and donkey skin is a sacred product for nourishing blood. It can also beautify the skin and delay aging, and it can also moisten the lungs and relieve cough..."

The eyes of Changsun Wugou and Li Lizhi stared immediately, they didn't hear about other effects, they only heard eight words: beautify the skin and delay aging.

Changsun Wugou said: "Don't worry, just speak slowly. Where is the water from Dong'e Well? Do you have to use the water from here?"

Chen Jingke said: "It is necessary to use the water here. The water from other places cannot be boiled to this effect. Dong'e Well is an ancient well in Dong'e County. It seems that there is a well dug by Yibo in Huainanzi."

"Haha... Ga..." Li Tai couldn't hold back his laughter, but just after he laughed a few times, he saw his mother and younger sister staring at him coldly, and he held back, shrinking his neck and saying in a hurry :

""Huainanzi Benjingxun" says: Boyi builds a well, and Long ascends Xuanyun."

Chen Jingke blushed a little, but he was very cheeky, and said: "Erlang is really knowledgeable and memorized, it is the well that Boyi dug, it should be easy to find."

"Using the water in this well to boil donkey skin, three catties of donkey skin can yield one catty of glue. It can nourish blood and nourish skin, nourish yin and lungs, and delay aging. Both men and women can eat it."

"If this well is occupied to specialize in the production of donkey-hide gelatin, and then sold to rich women and wives, it is equivalent to sitting around and picking up money."

Changsun Wugou's face was getting darker and darker, and finally he patted him lightly on the head and said: "You should hit him, why is the smell of copper in your mouth, spreading it to make people laugh."

Chen Jingke scratched his head and said: "Ah... what my aunt said is that she is too excited. The main reason is that the court's income is insufficient, and the life of your majesty and aunt is not rich. I feel distressed when I see it, so..."

The eldest grandson Wugou immediately turned his anger into joy, and said, "Good boy, Auntie didn't dote on you in vain...you wrote me the formula of donkey-hide gelatin, and I will share the money with you later."

In fact, donkey-hide gelatin is an ancient prescription, which has been recorded in "Shen Nong's Materia Medica", and many later medical books have also recorded it.

It's just that at that time, everyone took it as medicine, and it was not popular because it was not easy to make.

What Chen Jingke has to do now is to make it into a health care product and sell it. The queen personally brings the product, and it becomes popular all over the country in seconds.

And donkey-hide gelatin does not necessarily have to use the water in that ancient well, as long as it is the local well water in Dong'e.But hype, it is natural to add a little magic to make it more gimmick.

The eldest grandson Wugou said not to be contaminated with the stench of copper, but in fact she was already moved.

The annual income of the huge imperial court is only more than 300 million yuan in money and food. If you think about it, you can know what it looks like. It is true that there will be a financial deficit if there is any disaster.

Someone may ask, why was the annual tax income so low in the early Tang Dynasty?I am so sorry for his status as a unified dynasty.

The reason is actually very simple. There is no commercial tax, and salt and iron is not a state monopoly... Just look at the history to see how much money the salt and iron franchise has made.

In the more than 2000 years since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, only during the Sui Dynasty and the early Tang Dynasty, the state gave up this piece of profit, and the rest of the time was the state's monopoly.

The other three major sources of annual revenue are land tax, household tax and commercial tax.

In order to collect more household taxes, other dynasties will force people to separate their families. As long as you are old enough to get married, you must separate your family, and as long as you divide your family, you will have to pay an extra tax.

On this point, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty was the most domineering. He directly legislated to force the people to separate their families, and all those who were not separated were treated as tax evasion.

In the Tang Dynasty, in order to reduce the burden on the people, Li Yuan and Li Shimin abolished this law, and the people divided the households if they wanted to, and did not divide them if they didn't want to.

Then a very strange thing happened. At the end of the Sui Dynasty, the population was 900 million households. When the country was basically unified in the seventh year of Wude, there were only more than 200 million households left, a full reduction of 700 million households.

Some scholars speculated that there were 5000 million people in the end of the Sui Dynasty based on the calculation of five or six people in a family, and only 500 million people remained in the seventh year of Wude.

In other words, the chaotic times at the end of the Sui Dynasty led to a decrease of 500 million people, and then came to a conclusion that the war was too cruel.

However, these scholars have overlooked a problem. The time difference between the two population censuses is only 15 years.

Thirty-five million people died in 15 years, and if the millions of people born in the past 500 years are removed, more than 15 million people died.

It's impossible to think about it with your toes.

It was not until later that everyone found out that it was not that people died, but that the Tang Dynasty did not force people to separate households. In order to pay less taxes, people closed households one after another. Dozens of people in a large family shared one household registration book.

This situation continued until Li Longji ascended the throne. In order to make money, he picked up the old routine of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty and forced the people to separate households.

Then a miracle happened. The number of households did not increase much in the 100 years since the establishment of the Tang Dynasty. In the prosperous Kaiyuan period, the number of households increased by three or four times.

Then Kaiyuan Prosperity deserves its name, huh, huh.

Closer to home.

After Li Shimin ascended the throne, he even exempted the household tax of impoverished states and counties at every turn.

In other words, during the Zhenguan period, the only thing that the country could really collect as scheduled was the land tax. If the finances can become rich, it will be hell.

That's why Changsun Wugou was so excited when he heard about the business of donkey-hide gelatin. She is really poor, and she can see tens of thousands of dollars in her eyes.

(End of this chapter)