Tibet.

Chapter 1287 Dabao is determined
Since October, Chang'an has been shrouded in continuous autumn rain, and the air has begun to feel a bit chilly.

But the atmosphere in the court and the streets of Chang'an was very heated, and a great moment was about to come.

Empress Dowager Zhang officially announced the emperor's abdication. The emperor has had severe intellectual disabilities since childhood, and was supported to become the emperor due to the eunuch party's interference in politics. Now as he grows older, his intellectual disabilities are becoming more and more obvious. After collective confirmation by the court's military and political deliberations, it has been determined that the emperor is unable to assume the responsibility of governing the world. The world is hereby notified that the emperor will officially abdicate at the end of the year.

Zhaoshu did not avoid the issue of the emperor, but directly pointed out the reason. He had serious intellectual disabilities and was supported to the throne by the eunuch party. Now his condition was getting worse. It was confirmed by all the officials in the court that the emperor's condition was no longer able to perform the duties of the emperor and it was time for him to abdicate.

Immediately afterwards, Empress Dowager Zhang issued a second edict, confirming that the crown prince, who is currently the regent, would ascend the throne on the first day of the first lunar month of next year.

Li Ye wrote to the emperor at any time, saying that he was unable to accept the throne due to his shallow virtue and insufficient ability, and begged the empress dowager and all officials to choose another wise man.

The Council of State immediately made a decision to reject the Regent's request and demanded that he inherit the throne.

The Queen Mother also issued another decree, urging the Regent to accept the requests of all officials and ascend the throne.

Li Ye wrote two more letters, pleading for the selection of another wise man.

The second time was when the military and political council deprived Li Ye of his request and asked him to succeed the throne.

The third time was initiated by the Council of State, with all officials of the court signing jointly, unanimously demanding that the regent ascend the throne.

The Queen Mother issued an edict for the third time, hoping that the Regent would put the Tang Dynasty first and not disappoint the expectations of the civil and military officials in the court, and take on the important task of reviving the Tang Dynasty. This is not an honor, but a responsibility.

Finally, Li Ye accepted the Queen Mother's order and issued a public statement that he did not regard the throne as an honor, but as a responsibility, and would do his utmost to lead the Tang Dynasty to its peak.

When the news of Li Ye's acceptance of the throne spread, the whole court was immediately jubilant. The streets and alleys of Chang'an were decorated with lights and colorful lanterns. Hundreds of thousands of people spontaneously took to the streets to parade, beating gongs and drums, celebrating the revival of the Tang Dynasty.

The imperial court then set up an enthronement preparatory committee, with Wei Jiansu as chairman, Zhang Li and Li Mi as vice-chairmen, and seven or eight departments including the Ministry of Rites, Taichang Temple, and Zongzheng Temple jointly allocated 30,000 strings of cash from the treasury to organize a simple and grand enthronement ceremony.

The so-called simplicity means that everything is made of ready-made materials without purchasing anything else. The Luoyang Imperial Palace also preserves the complete set of ceremonial guards used by the previous emperor Li Longji when he ascended the throne. Emperor Li Heng renovated and repaired it, intending to ascend the throne for the second time to make up for the simplicity when he ascended the throne in Lingwu. However, due to the tense war situation, this set of ceremonial guards was ultimately not used. They were taken away when the capital was moved to Luoyang and are currently preserved in the Luoyang Imperial Palace.

By taking advantage of this entire set of ceremonial equipment and making use of it, we could save at least 200,000 strings of cash on purchases.

Then the whole Chang'an and the imperial city were decorated with lights and lanterns. Since it was the first day of the first lunar month, the lanterns were moved out and kept until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, thus killing two birds with one stone.

There are also 30,000 ceremonial soldiers. The armor and weapons of the ceremonial soldiers alone will cost hundreds of thousands of strings of cash. Just think about it and don't bother. Just move out 30,000 Longxiang cavalrymen, put on combat Mingguang armor, and hold the new three-pointed double-edged swords. They are more majestic than the ceremonial soldiers.

The 30,000 strings of money were mainly spent on maintaining order and welfare, such as giving every elderly person over 70 years old in Chang'an a new piece of clothing and a walking stick. Another example was making fireworks, where the gunpowder arrows used by scout soldiers were modified by increasing the amount of gunpowder and adding iron powder. They were launched into the sky with a large crossbow, burning and exploding in the air, becoming colorful.

The gunpowder arrows that were originally used to send messages have evolved into grand festive fireworks.

Of course, there are still many details that need to be slowly considered and enriched. There are still more than two months left, so there is no need to be too anxious.

But for Li Ye, ascending the throne was just a ceremony, a confirmation of identity. At present, he is actually the de facto emperor. He is also the most popular emperor among ministers since the founding of the Tang Dynasty.

Why? It is to confirm the power of the prime minister.

Li Ye learned the lessons of Li Longji and Li Heng. They both deprived the prime minister of his power and expanded the power of the emperor infinitely. However, they did not have enough energy to handle government affairs, so they threw a large number of government affairs to the eunuchs to handle. Thus, the power of the eunuch party was formed.

Li Ye creatively established the White Tiger Hall, which distributed memorials according to a clear division of power. This was unlike Li Linfu back then, who, although it was the power of the prime minister, took it upon himself to give it to the emperor Li Longji. Li Longji also pretended to be confused and enjoyed the upward transfer of the prime minister's power. Even the appointment of a state official was decided by the emperor.

With the power sharing of the White Tiger Hall, only the Grade A memorials with red labels would be handed to Li Ye. Moreover, the power of the prime minister is not exclusive to the prime minister, but the power of the Political Affairs Hall. The power of the right prime minister is mainly the power of officials. Those above the fifth rank and below the third rank are appointed by the right prime minister, while the Political Affairs Hall is the power of affairs, discussing and voting.

In addition, if the Ministry of Personnel feels that the appointment of the Right Prime Minister is inappropriate, it can appeal, and then the matter will be discussed by the Council of State. If there are still too many differences after the discussion in the Council of State, the decision will be made by the emperor.

In the past few days, Li Ye has been paying attention to the harvest of Jiaozhou rice. Jiaozhou rice is mainly early rice. After it matures in June, it is immediately planted with the late rice unique to the Tang Dynasty. This ensures two seasons a year. Whether the Jiaozhou rice is effective or not must be viewed throughout the year to see how much is harvested in a year.

In addition, farmland can be idle and rest in the winter, fertilized to conserve moisture, and water conservancy projects can be built, before cultivation can resume in the spring.

Li Ye specifically ordered the Council of State Affairs to arrange dozens of inspection teams to go to various southern states to investigate the planting conditions of Jiaozhou rice in various places.

In the official residence, Li Ye was listening to the briefing on the harvests in various places from the Minister of Revenue Liu Yan. Although there was no formal report, various places sent briefings to the court by pigeon letters, so at least the general situation was known.

"According to preliminary statistics, the harvest in Jiangnan East Road is better and more suitable for the promotion of Jiaozhou rice. The grain output has generally increased by 40%."

"Where else?"

"Jiangnan West Road and Bashu both saw an increase of 30%, while Shannan East Road, Huainan Road, and Huaixi Road all saw an increase of a little over 20%."

"What about Fujian and Lingnan?" Li Ye asked again.

"It hasn't been delivered yet, so the situation is unclear. Maybe Fujian Road will be better, after all, they started planting last year."

Li Ye nodded. He had great expectations for Jiaozhou rice. Historically, the Northern Song Dynasty, whose population exceeded 100 million, started with the introduction of Jiaozhou rice. Of course, it was called Champa rice at that time, which is actually the same thing.

However, the population of the Northern Song Dynasty increased passively. If Li Ye wanted to actively increase the population, he had to learn from the Qing Dynasty's method of allocating land tax and abandoning the head tax, which was the household tax for the Tang Dynasty.

However, there was too much resistance to abolishing the household tax. From the imperial court to the local governments, almost everyone was against abolishing the household tax.
But household tax reform is imperative. The best way is to turn the household tax into a court tax, so that there will be no resistance from the local areas. Then assign the liquor tax and deed tax to the local areas, and give the local areas a portion of the land tax, for example, a 30:70 split, and the local areas will have no objections.

Once the household tax was assigned to the imperial court, reforms could be carried out to reduce both ends: the elderly and children would be exempted and only the young and strong would be taxed, and the land tax would be allowed to be used to offset the tax.

Li Ye stood in front of the window with his hands behind his back, thinking for a long time, and said to Liu Yan: "Can the tax reform I want to promote be fully implemented next year?"

Liu Yan pondered for a moment and said, "From the pilot project in Bashu, the salt tax revenue is very considerable, far exceeding the household tax. Now the Political Affairs Hall no longer opposes the reform of the household tax. In addition, the court opposes the sharing of land tax with local governments. Now the local government's rental income alone is already very large, and the liquor tax is also considerable, which also far exceeds their previous household tax share. Together with the deed tax, the local tax and rental income is definitely sufficient."

Li Ye certainly knew that during the Northern Song Dynasty, salt tax and liquor tax became the two main taxes, far exceeding the land tax. The Northern Song Dynasty also invented exemption money, which allowed people to pay money to be exempted if they did not want to perform labor service. This was actually a disguised poll tax. Li Ye was now considering recuperation and did not intend to collect exemption money.

Li Ye pondered for a long time and said: "The court still has to bear the salaries of local officials. It is indeed almost enough. Starting next year, the household tax will be assigned to the court first. Don't abolish it immediately, and reform it first. Collect household tax between the ages of 20 and 40, collect it according to the number of people in each household, and reduce the tax by half. Farmers can use land tax to offset it. If a family has more than two children, they are exempt from household tax; if there are soldiers in the family, they are exempt from household tax.

Second, domestic commercial taxes are temporarily exempted, but import commercial taxes are still collected by the Maritime Customs Administration.

Third, the land tax was uniformly reduced to one in thirty and would remain unchanged for ten years.

Fourth, the salt, iron and wine monopolies were fully implemented, with wine tax and deed tax owing to local governments, and salt and iron owing to the imperial court.

Fifth, mining taxes were collected uniformly by the imperial court, and then the local governments and the imperial court shared half of the tax.

Sixth, the Internal Security Department will be responsible for tax audits and crack down on all forms of tax evasion.”

(End of this chapter)