A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1068 I’m tired

"I'm tired,"

Under the corridor of Wude Hall, Li Shimin's voice was very tired.

Wu Huaiyu looked at the emperor who was not yet forty years old. His temples were already stained with frost. His complexion was very bad and his energy was very low. During this period, he suffered many blows. His beloved Queen Changsun died of illness. Unexpectedly, we encountered another cold wave disaster that is rare in a century.

The most distressing thing is the many discussions among the people. There are actually many voices saying that God is dissatisfied with him and has sent down a divine punishment.

"Your Majesty, please pay more attention to rest."

Li Shimin looked at the snow and felt the biting cold wind. He said to the prime ministers who were standing outside with him to blow the cold wind, "I am tired, but I can still persevere."

"I asked hundreds of officials to come up to discuss matters. As prime ministers, you should also discuss them."

"Say it, say it now, say it in front of me, say whatever you want, there is no need to be shy."

"Xuanling, you speak first."

The emperor again appointed Zhongshu Ling Ma Zhou.

Chu Suiliang, the living minister, wrote down everything that the emperor and the prime ministers discussed, and wrote it down in the future as a living note for the emperors after the Tang Dynasty.

Although Li Shimin was not in a good mental state, he was still holding back his anger. He was not convinced.

Each person is given a sum of money, and if he has a family, he can return home, but if he has no family, he can get married.

Fang Xuanling thought for a while and said, "Please suspend the construction of civil engineering and exempt from labor labor."

It turns out that the palace of Emperor Gaozu will basically be emptied this time. The concubines of Emperor Gaozu, those with children, will go out of the palace to live with the princes and princesses, and those without children will all go to Chang'an Ni Temple to become monks, settle and support them as usual.

"Your Majesty, I have two things to advise you. First, it is about the enfeoffment of kings and meritorious officials. The kings of the clan are hereditary to enfeoff. If an unfilial son takes over the heir position, the people will suffer and the country will be in trouble. Enfeoffment is really a big trouble for the country. . If your majesty wants to love the kings, you should love them in a right way and give them appropriate treatment. If you are talented, you should appoint them according to their abilities. This is the best way.

Your Majesty really wants rewards now, so you only need to reward them with money and silk. They must not be high officials or nobles, let alone interfere with the government's affairs. "

"Gong Yan, please tell me."

As for the other untitled or low-level people, as well as the palace people, they all arranged to leave the palace this time.

These close servants even began to interfere in government affairs.

Li Shimin nodded,
"It's a pity that the palace people are so confined in the deep palace. They are of no use other than sweeping the palace. Let them all go out and marry them to the people."

Ma Zhou asked the emperor to cancel the hereditary special titles of the heroes and cancel the enfeoffments of the kings. In particular, he should immediately stop the civil engineering projects such as the royal city and palaces of the kings who had broken the soil and enfeoffed the fiefdoms. There were already few people in the border areas, and now It is also necessary to recruit border people and barbarians to serve and build cities and palaces, which can easily lead to turmoil in the border areas...

Li Shimin also decided to increase the intensity of the repatriation this time and set a number of three thousand people for the repatriation.

Stop enfeoffing, stay away from villains.

If there are family members and relatives who can pick them up, they will go back with their families and relatives. If there are no family members or relatives, Wu Huaiyu and others will be responsible for official matchmaking to the soldiers and civilians in Chang'an.

The emperor named Wu Huaiyu, the Minister of Civil Affairs, and asked him to take charge of the matter together with Xu Jingzong, the Minister of Rites, and Du Zhenglun, the minister of Zhongshu, and repatriate the maids at the west gate of Yeting.

The meritorious officials have indeed deserved to be rewarded for their meritorious service to the country, but the country has already granted them real titles, and it is not appropriate to grant them hereditary titles. Even if they are hereditary, they are also public assets of the state. Furthermore, giving descendants the title of one of the three hereditary titles in a state is not appropriate. The income from taxes is too much, and those who have made great achievements can be given silk rewards or real enfeoffments of food. "

"Gao Xiang?"

"Your Majesty, I heard that although the palace maids were released in previous years, I heard that many of the maids in Emperor Gaozu and Your Majesty's palace and in Yeting were useless. Not only were they a waste of food and clothing, but the yin energy accumulated in them was enough to cause disasters."

"I would like to advise you on the second thing. I hope that your majesty will not be too close to your servants. Bai Mingda, Hu Sizheng and others around your majesty are just musicians and arrowsmiths around your majesty. But just because they are close to your majesty and please them, your majesty will Grant them the title of marquis,
You should know that these people were once the attendants of the Sui Dynasty palace. Bai Mingda was originally a musician from Qiuci. He entered the Sui Dynasty palace and was favored by Emperor Yang of Sui. However, throughout the Sui Dynasty, Bai Mingda was only the music director and never received any title.
Now His Majesty gave him a Marquis,
As for His Majesty's sidekicks such as musicians, arrow craftsmen, horsemen, eunuchs, etc., there are many others who have received titles, and those with higher titles have been granted the title of Duke.

Ma Zhou's advice is still very pertinent. The issue of enfeoffment has always been controversial in the court. However, Li Shimin finally implemented the enfeoffment. Although there were some changes in the process, it is still determined that the kings will entrust the border areas and the heroes will be hereditary. One system.

Ma Zhou has always been opposed to this matter.

Now, with the help of disaster, the emperor is advised to stop enfeoffing the kings and meritorious officials again.

Li Shimin looked at the snow in front of the porch, but did not agree to Ma Zhou immediately.

But after a while, he turned to look at the other prime ministers, "I can accept King Bin's second advice first. Musicians, archers, eunuchs and other servants, I am indeed a little too close. I will correct it later. Among them I will immediately adjust those who are awarded titles.

I will make a rule today: the court servants, such as musicians, archers, doctors, Taoists, monks, chefs, etc., are not allowed to be knighted or eunuchs, and their official positions are no more than the fifth rank. "

The emperor dismissed Bai Mingda and other attendants from their titles and instead gave them money and silk.

However, the eunuch Zhang Anan's title of Duke of Wenshan County was still retained, because although he was a close minister of the chamber of commerce, he was also an official who contributed to the founding of the country and even went to the battlefield, not to mention that he is now the head of the chamber of commerce.

None of the prime ministers objected to this.
Hou Junji also looked specifically at Wu Huaiyu. Everyone knew that Eunuch Zhang was not only the chief steward of the palace, but also a swordsman. He also had an adopted son, Fan Xing, Duke of Yingguo, and Wu Huaiyu was Fan Xing's son-in-law.

"About enfeoffment,"

Li Shimin paused, "This matter has been decided for a long time, and it is not appropriate to change it. However, now that the disaster has occurred, it is really not appropriate to build any more buildings. The construction of palaces and cities in the vassal kings' fiefdoms has been suspended, and the labor of the people in the fiefdoms has been cancelled.

Another decree was issued that several vassal princes would be exempted from rent and taxes this year. "As for the matter of the hereditary inheritance of heroes,"

Among the hereditary heroes, there are also several prime ministers, such as Fang Xuanling, Gao Shilian, and Hou Junji Wu Huaiyu.

Among the eight prime ministers, four are hereditary heroes.
Wei Zheng, Ma Zhou, Wang Gui, and Li Daliang are not among the four ministers.

It was not because Ma Zhou had no world title that he objected to the title of meritorious officials. He was the prime minister. From the perspective of the court, he believed that the title of title of meritorious officials was detrimental to the country.

For example, Wu Huaiyu himself has a real title of 1,800 households, but the imperial court has lost 1,800 households and 5,000 to 6,000 men in tax revenue, and now it has given him the hereditary title of Jiangzhou, not to mention the hereditary title of his descendants. How much bad influence does his official position have on the local area? Just one-third of the taxes in Jiangzhou every year go into the pockets of the Wu family.

Jiangzhou now has a population of more than 30,000 households, and as a land and water dock, the population is still increasing, industry and commerce are prosperous, and taxes are also high. How much does the Wu family take away every year?

This is not a one-time event, it is hereditary for descendants.

"His Majesty,"

Hou Junji stood up and said, "The national system cannot be changed overnight. Ma Zhongshu is too childish."

Before he finished speaking, Wu Huaiyu stood up.

"Your Majesty, I think what Prime Minister Ma said is reasonable. I am also one of the heroes of the world. Although I have made small contributions to the country, your Majesty has given me many rewards, and also granted me the title of food, and then gave me the hereditary title. The position, as well as one-third of the tax on food, accommodation, and the feudal state were too much favor.

The minister requested that the hereditary system of meritorious officials be abolished, and the system of food and state taxes be abolished. "

Hou Junji was stunned.
Wu Huaiyu actually agreed with Ma Zhou,
He himself is the hereditary governor of Jiangzhou. His Jiangzhou fiefdom is now very prosperous. The population is growing rapidly, industry and commerce are also prosperous, and the tax revenue is very high. His share is amazing, and it is still rising every year.

Just don’t want it anymore?

This guy had obviously tried every means to expand overseas before and got himself a Luzon state.
Why are we handing over the more prosperous and prosperous Jiangzhou now?

Not right.

Hou Junji didn't understand for a while. Anyway, he couldn't bear to leave Chenzhou for this worldly job, and he still had one-third of Chenzhou's tax income.
Chenzhou is also a large state in Henan Province in the Central Plains. It has also recovered very well in recent years. It receives a lot of tax money and food every year.

Chenzhou covers an area of ​​169 miles from east to west and 280 miles from north to south. It has a population of more than 26,000 households and governs six counties.

As a hereditary Chenzhou biejia, Hou Junji enjoys one-third of Chenzhou's taxes, which is equivalent to more than 8,000 closed households. In fact, it is more than that, because in addition to the two taxes for the common people, Chenzhou also has industrial and commercial miscellaneous taxes, customs duties, etc. ,
He risked his own life to enter the palace, kidnapped Li Yuan on the dragon boat, and helped Li Shimin's Xuanwu Gate Palace become a success. He was tied for first place with Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, Chang Sun Wuji, and Yu Chigong, and his settlement was only 1,300 households.

There are a total of more than 20 meritorious officials, and the minimum number is only 300 households.

For a Chenzhou official, the tax revenue alone is equivalent to ten thousand households.

Hou Junji was absolutely reluctant to part with this huge amount of income, so when Ma Zhouyi said he wanted to cancel it just now, he was the first to stand up and object.

But he didn’t expect that Wu Huaiyu actually agreed?
Jiangzhou now has more than 30,000 households, five to six thousand more than Chenzhou. Wu Huaiyu enjoys one-third of Jiangzhou's tax revenue, which is much higher than Chenzhou.
Jiangzhou is now the largest commodity distribution terminal in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, with gold and silver flowing from it.

Hou Junji felt that Wu Huaiyu was either deliberately going against him, or that this guy was retreating in order to advance.

Anyway, he didn't believe that anyone would be willing to hand over such a large income to the court.

Even Li Shimin looked at Wu Huaiyu with some surprise. He had the impression that Wu Huaiyu was a person who loved money. The Wu family was known to be the best at running businesses. Now it is even called by the people as a wealthy country.
Jiangzhou is so rich now, so he just doesn’t want it anymore?

Isn’t Jiangzhou better than Luzon?
Li Shimin couldn't see through it.

Does Wu Huaiyu love money? Love, economy is the foundation of the superstructure.

It's a bit vulgar, but it's indispensable.

Jiangzhou is indeed developing faster and faster, and the taxes are increasing. It is estimated that the emperor now often understands that with the stroke of a pen, he formulated a plan to give one-third of a state's taxes to meritorious officials.

But precisely because there were too many, Wu Huaiyu also knew that this matter would definitely be attacked all the time.

Ma Zhou is just one of them,

The Wu family can get a large amount of money from Jiangzhou every year, but to be honest, the Wu family is not short of this money. If there is no problem with getting this money, of course they will not refuse it. But if the money is difficult to obtain, or may even cause trouble, then you can give up.

At first, Wu Huaiyu supported the hereditary inheritance of heroes, hoping to win the heroes to be enfeoffed to the frontiers and become vassals, but in the end he did not get what he wanted. Li Shimin finally divided the clan to the frontiers to establish vassals, but still kept the heroes in the mainland of the Central Plains, and even gave them only It was a hereditary position, but the economic benefits were retained.

But this is exactly what Wu Huaiyu needs the least.

This road was blocked. Wu Huaiyu later turned to open up Liuqiu and Luzon. Finally, he exchanged Liuqiu for the private land in Luzon and was recognized and canonized.
So now, after Wu Huaiyu has Lu Song, he really doesn't care about Jiangzhou anymore.

It doesn't matter if we cancel Jiangzhou's hereditary privileges and return one-third of the state tax to the court.

Everyone in the world thinks that Jiangzhou is ten thousand times better than Luzon, but in Wu Huaiyu's eyes, no matter how good Jiangzhou is, it is not his after all.

Lu Song belongs to the Wu family.

(End of this chapter)