A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 852 The waist of a Chu woman exceeds the cheeks of a woman

The Chu girl's waist extends over her cheeks, which are round and pink, and her bun is open in the middle.

Yue girls are as beautiful as flowers, and Wu children are as clean as jade.

Wu Huaiyu has been in Guangzhou since returning from Beijing. In the blink of an eye, several months have passed and he has not left.

The winter in Lingnan is short and warms up in a blink of an eye. The reconstruction of the old city of Yacheng Zicheng and Luocheng Sanchong City in Guangzhou is almost completed, and the expansion of the east and west outer cities has begun to take shape.

The Western Australia Inner Harbor Terminal is even more lively and prosperous, and even the Fuxu Outer Harbor is extremely lively.

May is very close,

The city of Guangzhou is becoming more and more lively.

There is a falling plum blossom wind in May, and the Jianghuai River is thought to be a trade wind.

The trade wind in May will bring countless foreign trade ships to land and berth, and it will also bring countless goods.

Everyone is waiting for the falling plum blossoms in May. What they are waiting for is not the red bayberry branches, but the smell of money in the wind.

When the ship comes, there will be countless goods. The merchants have been waiting eagerly for it. They have prepared money and silk and are waiting to grab the goods. Spices, rhinoceros horns, ivory, gems, pearls, even slaves, gold and silver, etc. , if you grab the goods, you can make a lot of money by reselling them.

Now that the ship has arrived and the goods have been sold, more Central Plains goods are still needed to fill the cabin, and we can wait until September or October to ride the wind and leave.

Silk, porcelain, tea, medicinal materials, paper, sugar and wine······

There were so many exquisite goods in the Tang Dynasty that the barbarian merchants wanted.

In order to prepare for the grand occasion of sea trade when the annual trade wind comes, Wu Huaiyu has been busy recently with official coordination and management.

Personally, he also had to prepare for the Wu family and his allies for this grand occasion, ordering orders, preparing money, contacting upstream and downstream channels, and even working overtime day and night at his own foreign trade workshop in Guangzhou.

After a busy day,

Back to the mansion,

Lying on the bamboo lounge chair, enjoying the singing and dancing of Wu Yue beauties, looking at the slender waist, listening to Wu Nong's soft words,

Very mysterious and alluring.

Close your eyes,

Huaiyu is empty,

After a long time, Huaiyu opened his eyes. It was already dark and he was covered with a blanket.

"How long have I slept?"

Several sword maids loyally guarded the side.

"About an hour."

Feeling hungry, Huaiyu got up and moved his hands and feet before going to the restaurant.

It was getting late, and the wives and concubines in the mansion were waiting for him with their children.

"Why don't you eat first?"

"It's still early. If you don't wake up, I will wake you up." Fan Xuanfu said with a smile. Her belly was already quite big and she would give birth in two to three months.

Fan Xuanfu likes to eat spicy food recently, so she firmly believes that she is pregnant with a daughter, because the three previous ones she was pregnant with were all sons, and she did not want to eat spicy food at that time and preferred to eat sour food.

A sour girl, she firmly believed that the baby was a daughter, so she was in a particularly good mood during the pregnancy. She had always wanted a daughter.

The dinner was very sumptuous,

Mainly seafood, the most indispensable thing when visiting Guangzhou is seafood, and it is extremely fresh. Basically, the seafood they eat is freshly caught from the Haili River on the same day, and the live fish is incomparable.

Fresh seafood is delicious whether steamed or boiled.

Now there are several more pregnant women in the family. Perhaps because they eat a lot of seafood, their skin has become very good.

After dinner, Fan Xuanfu took Huaiyu for a walk together.

"Have you been worried about anything lately, Alang? You look very tired?"

"It's just to prepare for the arrival of sea ships for trade,"

Fan Xuanfu smiled. She was a smart person. The arrival of sea ships for trade in May would not be a stressful thing for her husband.

It can only be said that the husband has other things on his mind.

"Is it about Chang'an?"

"It's nothing serious. Don't worry. The weather is getting hotter and your body is getting heavier every day. You should also pay attention to one or two things. I think you have a better appetite recently, but you need to control it a little bit in the future. Otherwise, the fetus will be too big. Production is not easy at this time.”

"Alang, do you think I'm fat?"

"Where, you are very plump now, just right. If you gain a point, you will be fat, and if you lose a point, you will be thin. It is good to keep it like this. You will look thin when you are wearing clothes, but you will look fat when you are undressing..."

The two were joking, and their mood improved a lot.

After walking with his wife, Huaiyu had almost eaten and was sweating, so he went to the swimming pool and swam for half an hour. He took a shower, changed clothes and returned to the study.

After opening several locks, there were secret correspondence with the emperor.

Looking at the recent letter sent to him by the emperor, Wu Huaiyu frowned again and even had a headache.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the emperor suddenly issued an edict to enfeoff twenty-four kings and twenty-four meritorious officials. This was obviously done with a certain will, because there were not many supporters.

In fact, the emperor's enfeoffment order was almost the same as the enfeoffment law of the Western Han Dynasty. The kings regarded the states as their countries, hereditary governors, and at the same time appointed governors.

The heroes were appointed governors for generations, and their power was much smaller than that of the kings.

But this time the enfeoffment, Wu Huaiyu felt that it was a very bad start. Except for the capital area within the pass, the emperor enfeoffed the forty-eight states all over the country.

This year, Prince Cheng Qian finally completed the coronation ceremony, and then the nine kings entered the vassal kingdom.

Look at where these nine kings are: Jingzhou, Liangzhou, Xuzhou, Luzhou, Suizhou, Zhengzhou, Anzhou, Qizhou, Yizhou.

They are all important and strategic places in the world.

There is also Li Tai’s Xiangzhou, which is also an important place in Hebei.

These clan kings are not only hereditary governors, but also hold important positions as governors. The twenty-four kings are the twenty-four governors.

According to the emperor's approach, these kings will basically serve as governors of various regions in the Tang Dynasty.

There are only twenty-four governors now, and there will be princes in the future, and the new emperor will have a large number of princes. If this continues, I am afraid that these governor positions will not be enough now. Could it be that one day, all the governors and governors of more than three hundred states in the Tang Dynasty would be princes, grandsons and honorable ministers?

This will be a big problem.

Wu Huaiyu himself was the governor of the world, and there were two governors of the Wu family, but Wu Huaiyu still had to oppose it. This was not about becoming bigger and stronger, but about directly dividing the burden and disbanding.

Li Shimin was a great hero. Of course he could suppress it when he was in power, but after his death, would there be a flood?

Wu Huaiyu has been urging the emperor in letters for several months.

But Li Shimin actually couldn't listen at all.

The emperor seems to have changed,

It's become a little unreasonable.

Wu Huaiyu couldn't believe it. He felt that the emperor had not changed. He was only in his early thirties and was only in his seventh year as emperor. It was impossible for him to faint.

It is more likely that the emperor had a deeper intention, or that the emperor was fishing.

It's just that he felt that there was no need for the emperor to do this.

But now the nine kings have already settled in the country of vassal, and they have been in vassal state for a hundred days. They are busy building royal palaces in various places and forming their own national affairs teams.

He even recruited and formed his own army guard.

The eldest of these young vassal kings is only sixteen, and the youngest is only twelve. The young ones are a bit outrageous, so the real leaders of the feudal country are actually people sent by the emperor. Many of them are teachers of the vassal princes and members of their mother's clan. .

The governor-general duties appointed by the vassal kings are now mostly represented by the chief historians and Sima, but this may not necessarily be the case in the future as these vassal-lord governors grow up.

Wu Huaiyu was obsessed with promoting the new feudal system, enfeoffing the clan kings to the border areas and to the barbarian lands, driving the most loyal nails of the Tang Dynasty into the wilderness, and making them the bridgehead for the Tang Dynasty to expand its territory.

If the emperor wanted to reward the meritorious officials, he could actually entrust a county in the border barbarian land.

This kind of enfeoffment has a positive effect on pioneering and enterprising, and can also shield the center of the imperial court.

But now Li Shimin insists on imitating the method of enfeoffment in the Western Han Dynasty and the Western Jin Dynasty. He has established so many feudal states in the mainland of the Central Plains and wants money, money, and soldiers. Isn't this a time bomb?

But the emperor couldn't listen.

Wu Huaiyu and Li Shimin got along very well in the past because they understood each other and had a tacit understanding. Even if some of Huaiyu's ideas were advanced, the emperor really understood them and could support them.

But this time, the emperor wouldn't listen.

My heart is tired of cherishing jade,

It would be fine if only the place where the clan kings went out to town was the governor, but if the state was the country and the governor was hereditary, it would be very fatal.

Now Li Shimin not only refused to listen to the advice, but also told Huaiyu in a letter that he should go to Jiangzhou when he has time.

Jiangzhou is the place where Huaiyu was granted the title of governor.

The original Jiangzhou governor has been transferred, and now Jiangzhou governor is concurrently held by Huaiyu. This position can be passed on to sons and grandsons in the future.

There are now twenty-four such hereditary governors.

But everyone is actually a feudal minister, not a prince, but at least a county duke, not a general, but also a prime minister, governor, etc.

If you go to be the governor, you will still be demoted.

Uncle Changsun Guojiu had always been opposed to it.

So now the emperor said that the existing official positions of the world's heroes will remain unchanged, and the governor will serve concurrently.

Although they serve as governors, they are also their fiefs. They enjoy one-third of the state's taxes, and the other two-thirds go to the local government and half to the national treasury.

One-third of the state's tax revenue is a huge economic benefit.

Although in the past, two-thirds of the rents and taxes of the feudal households went to the feudal state and one-third went to the imperial court. The vassals received more, but there were few feudal households. The top feudal lord only had one thousand Five hundred households, and later Pei Ji of these 1,500 households was exterminated. Now the highest one is Huai Yuwuji's 1,300 households, and the lowest one is only 300 households.

And a state, no matter how small its household registration is, must have thousands of households, and some upper states have more than 30,000 households.

Even in a state with 10,000 households, this means that he can get at least 3,000 households in rent, which is several times higher than what Pei Ji had before.

The benefits of being a hereditary governor are not only economic benefits, but also

The biggest advantage is that the descendants will all be governors for generations, starting as at least fourth-rank officials.

The meritorious governors and governors can also create their own state and county officials, and can also have a specified amount of army guards.

The emperor asked Wu Huaiyu to take some time to go to Jiangzhou.

Let him set an example,

For this reason, the emperor gave him a lot of real power. One-third of the taxes in Jiangzhou were given to him, and all officials below the seventh rank were allowed to conquer and build their own land.

In addition, he was allowed to build a military guard house in Jiangzhou with an allowance of 1,000 people. There are two houses in the tent and the wedding house. There are three hundred and three in the wedding house and six hundred in the tent.

Jiangzhou covers an area of ​​599 miles from east to west and 177 miles from north to south. It governs Xunyang, Pengze and Duchang counties.

There are a total of 41 townships, with 17,945 households currently registered.

Although Jiangzhou has less than 20,000 households, its location is important, so it is designated as Zhongzhou, and the rank of governor is above the fourth rank.

Among Jiangzhou officials, the governor is the fourth rank, the chief historian is the sixth rank, and the Sima is the sixth rank. The rest of the officials, the Cao Cao who joins the army, and the county magistrate, county prime minister, and county lieutenant are basically all eight or nine ranks.

This means that except for Chang Shi and Sima, who are selected by the imperial staff, all other officials in Jiangzhou can be appointed and removed by Huaiyu himself.

The power given is large enough,

The emperor's request was only that he go to Jiangzhou to take office and set an example for the heroes of the world to be granted the title.

But Wu Huaiyu didn't want to go because he didn't support this worldly law at all, and he even suspected that the emperor was just fishing.

(End of this chapter)