Tibet.

Chapter 1458: Lunchtime Chat at the Restaurant
Chang'an, Wude Restaurant.

Dugu Ming looked at the people coming and going on the street outside, sighed and said, "I don't know when I will come back next time?"

The person sitting opposite Dugu Ming was the Minister of Personnel Liu Yan. Liu Yan and Dugu Ming had a good relationship. At the beginning, Liu Yan was responsible for contacting the court, while Dugu Ming did secret things for Li Ye. The two had frequent contacts.

Liu Yan smiled slightly and said, "You are going to Quanzhou temporarily, not overseas, why are you so sad?"

Dugu Ming shook his head. "My eldest brother also went to Quanzhou to take charge, but he ended up going to Dugu Island. He fell ill on Dugu Island, so I should go see him."

"You were fine, why did you fall ill again?" Liu Yan asked with concern.

"It's too hot and humid over there, and my eldest brother is old, so his body couldn't stand it and he fell ill. This time I went to Quanzhou to replace him so that he could go back to Chang'an to recuperate."

Liu Yan didn't want to interfere in the Dugu family's affairs, so he changed the subject and asked with a smile, "I heard that the Yu family wants to come back?"

Dugu Ming sneered and said, "We advised them at the beginning that they did not have enough capital to develop the island. They did not believe us and thought we would not allow them to establish a country. Now they understand that it is not that easy."

"They don't have enough money?"

"It is somewhat related, but not entirely. They thought too highly of themselves before, thinking that the land was fertile and they could grow crops three times a year. Now they find that the land on the island is very poor and they can't grow crops at all. They feel so disappointed that they decided to give up."

"What about the island?"

"What else can we do? The Yu family's island is right next to us. We took it over."

Liu Yan nodded and refilled Dugu Ming's glass. "Is the land really so barren that it can't grow crops?"

"Not entirely, it still depends on luck. The Dugu family's island is the best, with a narrow plain that is three hundred miles long. The land is very fertile and rich in water and heat resources, so we plan to develop rice and sugarcane in the future. The Yuan family's island has a pepper tree area that is dozens of miles long, so they plan to produce pepper as the main product. The Changsun family's island also produces spices. In short, all kinds of products are still very rich. Now the main thing is to open up open space and build houses and docks."

"The Yu family's land is very barren. Is there nothing there?"

Dugu Ming shook his head. "Of course not. I heard that their island is also rich in spices. Their problem is fresh water. The fresh water is in the mountains. They need to dig a canal to bring the fresh water out. They don't have that ability."

Liu Yan laughed, "I see. It really is a matter of luck. We can actually change to another island. The court will allow it."

Dugu Ming sighed and said, "The key is that they retreated in the face of difficulties. It is not easy to build a country. It takes several generations of struggle to see initial results."

Just then, the shopkeeper came in and handed a newspaper to Dugu Ming.

This was naturally a weekly magazine of the Tang Dynasty. Dugu Ming subscribed to every issue and made it a habit.

He looked at the front page, which read "The imperial court implemented local administration reform, which aroused enthusiastic response in various places."

Dugu Ming handed the newspaper to Liu Yan, pointed at the title and asked, "Is it true?"

Liu Yan looked at it, shook his head and said, "Of course the newspaper should boost morale, but the fact is just the opposite, it should cause a strong resistance!"

"I was saying that local administrative reforms, how could it be popular? It should be a very hard nut to crack!"

Liu Yan nodded. "That's true. The court wants to take back the power to appoint officials, but it has been generally resisted by local clans. Various states have petitioned to postpone the implementation of local official reforms, fearing that it will cause unrest and be detrimental to local governance. Do you think so?"

Dugu Ming sneered, "This is completely alarmist. It is difficult for the local clans to control the county magistrate, so they can only control the clerks. These clerks may not seem to have high status, but they all hold real power. They are the defenders of the interests of the local clans. Once the court touches the clerks, it is actually taking action against the clans. How can these clans give up? Of course, they will use all means to fight against the court. I dare not say that all the county magistrates have benefited from this, but most of them have also benefited from it, so they naturally have to speak for the local clans."

Liu Yan smiled slightly and said, "These state officials are also stupid. Don't they know that their voices at this time will become evidence of their collusion with local clans?" Dugu Ming sighed and said, "It's a pity that I can't see this scene. My dear brother, please tell the emperor that local officialdom is like ice three feet thick, which is not formed in one day. You need to be patient and have strategies!"

Liu Yan nodded, "I will definitely pass it on!"

The desk in Li Ye's study was piled with memorials from all over the country. In the past few days, he had been reading memorials from local officials to see why they opposed local administrative reforms.

The local administrative reform that Li Ye wanted to carry out was still a remnant of the Wei and Jin dynasties' aristocratic families. Since the Sui and Tang dynasties, successive rulers had been fighting against the aristocratic families, and the large aristocratic families had gradually been eliminated.

The imperial court used the Enfeoffment Order to force the major aristocratic families to split up. Each major family was divided into many branches, each of which was independent and gradually had no connection with each other.

For example, Wei Gao and Wei Jiansu both have the same surname and were originally from the same family, but they were not from the same branch, so they have no relationship with each other.

But when it came to Li Ye, he began to take further action against the local small families in various counties to break their monopoly on local power.

Why was reform necessary? Because there were huge problems in the implementation of the abolition order at the local level. At the court level and the local government level, it was easy to implement the abolition order. No official dared to disobey it, and those who secretly disobeyed it would be immediately exposed and would not be able to escape.

But when it came to the wealthy landlords in the counties, the abolition order came to an abrupt halt. After more than a month, only more than 5,000 slaves were abolished by the wealthy landlords in the counties throughout the country.

The root of the problem appeared in the registration. The clerks in charge of the registration falsified the information at will, and the county magistrate was unable to verify it. Therefore, in the official register of succession, every wealthy family basically had no slaves.

This made Li Ye extremely angry, and he was planning to use the inner guards to clean up each family.

But Li Ye suddenly realized that this might not be a bad thing. He cracked down on local tyrants by enforcing the abolition order and at the same time brought the control of the county back to the court.

The abolition order is the surface, and the recovery of local administration is the inner. Combining the surface and the inner is the right way to strike back at local tyrants.

The final result was that clerks were appointed by the imperial court.

Li Ye was fed up with reading the pile of memorials, which were all the same and would cause local unrest and be detrimental to local stability. Li Ye snorted heavily and threw the memorials in his hand aside.

At this time, Wei Gao said at the door: "Your Majesty, Prime Minister Wei, Prime Minister Zhang and Minister Liu are here!"

"Invite them in!"

Soon, Wei Jiansu, Zhang Li, and Liu Yan came in. The three of them bowed together, "Your Majesty!"

"My three beloved ministers, please take a seat!"

The three of them sat down. Li Ye pointed to the more than 100 memorials on the table and said to them, "I have read more than 20 memorials. Almost all of them have the same argument, that we need stability and recuperation. It sounds reasonable, but think about it carefully. Am I destroying stability? Am I destroying recuperation? It's just a superficial appearance. In fact, they are thieves and whores. I don't know how much benefit they have received to speak for the local tycoons."

Wei Jiansu smiled slightly and said, "Your Majesty, what you said makes sense. Perhaps they themselves do not realize that one person's statement is not a problem, but if more than a hundred people make the same statement, then there is a problem. I believe they regret writing this memorial now."

Li Ye nodded and said to Liu Yan, "Take these memorials back to the Ministry of Personnel, sort them out, and make a table for me. On the top are the various viewpoints, and on the bottom are the names of officials. I want to see how many officials are thinking about the court, and how many have ulterior motives?"

Liu Yan nodded, "I will sort it out when I get back!"

Li Ye slowly said to Wei Jiansu and Zhang Li: "I have been thinking about this issue these past two days. On the surface, the imperial court rules the world, but what about in reality? In fact, the local wealthy families and the imperial court jointly rule the world. Let's talk about how to break this situation."

(End of this chapter)