Tibet.

Chapter 1441: Lunchtime Chat
On December 29th, the day before New Year's Eve, the court had already gone on holiday. Starting this year, the court will be on holiday until the fourth day of the first lunar month, and will officially resume on the fifth day.

Li Ye knew the hardships people had in worshiping their ancestors, so he moved the New Year's ceremony to the fifth day of the first lunar month, cancelled the New Year's banquet, and distributed tens of thousands of sheep to officials as welfare.

Most families worship their ancestors at the hour of Yin on New Year’s Eve, and rely on a good night’s sleep the next day to regain their energy.

But the officials could not sleep, waiting for dawn to start the New Year's Day court. So during the New Year's Day court, all the officials were listless and yawned continuously.

The New Year banquet was to be held immediately afterwards, so how could officials not get drunk? Passing out after just a few drinks was a huge blow to their health.

Although this fine-tuning is small, it is of great significance and breaks many old conventions that have become too much for everyone.

Everyone had opinions about the New Year's Day ceremony, but no one dared to say much.

Li Ye changed it, which aroused rave reviews from civil and military officials in the court.

The second detailed rule change was the time for court attendance. The traditional time for court attendance was at 6 o'clock, which meant that one had to get up at 5 o'clock, wash up, eat breakfast, and then change clothes before going to court.

This is mainly to catch the early morning court session, which ends around 8:30 and does not affect the handling of official business in the morning.

But if the shadow does not affect the body, the emperor will not consider it.

What is more important is what the court does when it holds a court meeting. To put it bluntly, it is to put on an act of deceit. A certain official steps out and directly reports to the emperor. Have you ever reported this to your superior? Have you ever reported this to the prime minister?
Going bypassing the boss and the prime minister and reporting directly to the emperor, isn't this just an eye-opener?
If it is really a national event, it is not the turn of a minor official to report to the emperor, but the prime minister should report to the emperor.

The morning court is more about attacks between several departments and power groups, so the morning court has not accomplished much since ancient times, but has caused many conflicts.

Of course, the emperor likes this and likes the ministers to fight among themselves, so the real purpose of holding the early morning court is just a means for the emperor to stir up internal strife.

Li Ye also made some changes. First of all, he no longer attended the morning court every day. The normal court time was changed to 2:30 pm, which is 8:30.

The nine prime ministers and assistant prime ministers would gather in the Council of State Affairs Hall every morning to discuss and vote on some major political affairs, and then return to their respective rooms to start the day's administration.

Of course, Li Ye's court also had morning court sessions, which were held every fifth day, three times a month, starting at around 6:30 and ending at 8:30.

However, the morning court was not a grand court in the sense of the imperial court, but only a medium court, attended by officials of the fifth rank and above, to discuss major decisions and finally vote on them.

Major military and national affairs such as abolition of slavery, tax reform, disaster relief, expeditions to Liaodong, Nanzhao, and the Western Regions were all implemented only after discussion and voting between China and North Korea.

This is also the political system designed by Li Ye, a kind of power restriction on the Political Affairs Hall.

Li Ye was considering a hundred years later. If one of his descendants was weak, there would likely be a powerful prime minister after he ascended the throne. The powerful prime minister would deceive his superiors and subordinates and make many major decisions that were detrimental to the country. Who would then check and balance him?

Of course, this China-North Korea system will also cause procrastination and wrangling, but no system can be perfect. The key is to give middle and senior officials a channel to express their power, and to use anonymous voting to bring together the wills of all middle and senior officials to form a strong voice.

If the decision made by the White Tiger Hall to characterize a major military incident is not discussed and voted on by China and North Korea, it will not pass the White Tiger Hall's compliance review. If it cannot be stamped with the White Tiger Hall's review stamp, it will not become a law and cannot be enforced.

Many tragedies in history could have been avoided earlier, but due to the inaction or misconduct of those in power, they eventually led to chaos.

In the study, Li Ye was explaining some necessary political concepts to his son Li Tan. "Governing the people is like governing a river. If a flood comes and there is no way or time to stop it, and it is about to burst the dam, what should we do?
The correct approach is to release the floodwater, find a place that is not very important, tear down the levee, and let the floodwater rush out. This way, the important areas with dense population and fertile land can be saved. This year, the Yellow River changed its course. If we could release the floodwater in Dizhou earlier, the wealthy Bozhou and Beizhou could be saved. This is a profound lesson!"

Li Ye sighed and said, "I agree. If a place is hit by a disaster and the court can hardly provide relief, what should we do? We need to find a rich place to transfer the victims so that they can have something to eat. This will prevent the victims from revolting in despair. Do you understand? Why is disaster relief so important? The court must act quickly and in a timely manner. This is not only about keeping the victims alive, but more importantly, it is about preventing the victims from causing serious political unrest and being used by people with ulterior motives."

Li Tan nodded, "I understand your father's teachings."

Li Ye laughed again and said, "Last time you asked your father why he wanted to conquer the surrounding small countries, was it your teacher who asked you to ask that?"

"No, we were discussing this issue in our school. No one could understand it. Many of my classmates said that the Tang Dynasty was showing off its power."

Li Ye pondered for a moment and said with a smile: "People in Chang'an have a bad habit when they are sick. After taking medicine, they like to pour the medicine residue on the road for passers-by to step on. Their purpose is to let passers-by take away the disease and their own disease will be cured. Of course, this is impossible to achieve.

My father was also making a metaphor, saying that if the Tang Dynasty's illness was transferred to the surrounding small countries, his own health would be restored.

First of all, our Tang Dynasty's conquests were not to show off its military power, but because the Tang Dynasty's finances had collapsed in the late period of the An-Shi Rebellion. The people had been exploited and could no longer bear the taxes. What should we do? At that time, my father used the method of exchanging land for finances to give the court a little blood transfusion, but it was far from enough. Even if the savings of the entire Helong Jiedufu were taken out, it could not fill the bottomless hole in the court's finances.

What to do? The only way is to launch foreign wars and plunder the wealth of other small countries to fill the treasury. This is how we use war to pass on the pain to the princes and nobles of the surrounding small countries. Why is there no opposition to foreign wars in the court? Everyone has a tacit understanding.

Now that the imperial court has a strong financial foundation, we can impose very low tax rates on the Tang Dynasty, exempting most of the taxes, allowing the people to recuperate and grow the population, so that the Tang Dynasty can quickly recover. "

At this point, Li Ye sighed and said, "Father knows that this is not righteous, but the world is a jungle. If you want to survive, you must eat weaker beasts. If you only care about righteousness, and can't bear to eat this or kill that, when a stronger beast comes, you will be powerless to resist. The weaker beasts will definitely follow the big beast and eat you. Although they also know that they will be eaten by the big beast in the end, they don't care about the future and only care about having a good meal in front of them."

"Father's teachings, I will remember them in my heart!"

"And the abolition of slavery. Why is father so determined to do so? I'll tell you two numbers and you'll understand. Five years ago, the imperial court counted the population and found that there were only 38 million people in the world. In the first year of Tianbao, the population was 48 million, a decrease of 10 million.

But three months ago, the imperial court conducted another population census, and the world's population unexpectedly became 43 million, an increase of 5 million people. What do you think is the reason?"

"Abolition of slavery!" Li Tan blurted out.

Li Ye nodded. "Since the abolition order was issued two years ago, a large number of hidden slaves have been freed. If it continues to be strictly enforced, by the end of next year, the population will basically be restored to 48 million. This includes natural population growth, but more are still hidden slaves."

Li Tan sighed: "If that's the case, how many slaves were hidden in the Tang Dynasty before!"

Li Ye nodded, "That's the problem. The slavery problem in the Tang Dynasty is too serious. The rich and powerful, the officials and nobles, the local government, the temples and Taoist temples are all keeping slaves. How many people's interests are involved in this? Now is the best opportunity. If your father doesn't do it and solve it, you and your descendants will not be able to solve it.

"My son, I understand!"

Li Ye patted his son's shoulder and said, "You are gradually growing up. Go to the Political Affairs Hall every day and listen to the ministers' discussions. You will learn more."

"Your son obeys your order!"

(End of this chapter)