A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 651 Zhenguan Long Song
"Your Majesty, although we have won a temporary victory this time, Chang'an's troops are empty, so peace talks are still needed." Wang Xuanjing rode his horse to Li Shimin's side and said. He was also worried that Li Shimin would be tough with these Turks.

The Turkic army of 200,000 came, and even if the Tang Dynasty won in the end, it would suffer heavy losses.

Li Shimin nodded. He was very angry that the Turks took the opportunity to go south. But what was even more angry was that the passes along the way deliberately allowed the Turks to go south.

Although he has ascended the throne as emperor, many people are still dissatisfied. When these people saw the Turks attacking, they deliberately indulged themselves. Otherwise, the Turkic army would not have reached Chang'an in just ten days.

After defeating the Turkic vanguard and defeating the Turkic army in the first battle, the originally arrogant Turkic Khan no longer looked arrogant.

He became more and more afraid of the Tang army, especially Wang Xuanjing's amazing arrow.

Only with war can there be peace. If there can't be war, why would the Turks want to negotiate peace with you and kill you? Aren't all those things theirs?

It was precisely after seeing the Tang army's front that the Turkic Khan was unwilling to fight the Tang army, so that both parties could sit at the negotiation table.

Even so, the Tang Dynasty still paid a heavy price. A large amount of cloth and money was sent to the Turks, demanding that the Turks release the looted people.

The two sides made an alliance by killing the white horse on the banks of the Wei River, and then the Turkic army retreated.

Li Shimin punched the table and said in a hateful voice: "Jie Li, I will repay you for today's humiliation!"

Originally, the Turks did not want to return the population, but when they saw the reinforcements from the Tang army arriving, they became frightened, so they had to return the population and leave with their money and silk.

Li Shimin returned the greeting: "Good morning, all gentlemen!"

Li Shimin came to the main hall. Due to the Turkic invasion from the south, this was his third official court meeting since he ascended the throne.

Groups of palace people entered quietly, and hundreds of civil and military officials filed in behind.

Tai Chi Palace, due to the rush of construction, the location of this palace was not good, and it was a bit damp and dark. The early morning sun shines on this majestic palace, and a vigorous vitality leaps out.

"I obey my orders!" All the ministers around said in unison.

The apse of the palace.

"Your Majesty, as long as we recuperate with the people, encourage farmers to cultivate mulberry trees, prepare soldiers and armor, and strictly guard the passes, we will surely win the battle in one battle when we wait for civil unrest in the grasslands before dispatching a large army!" Wang Xuanjing said.

Although the south has not yet been pacified, it is already the center of the world.

"boom!"

All the ministers bowed down and said: "Long live the Qianqiu period, the Tang Dynasty for ten thousand years, may your Majesty be safe."

"I will never forget this great humiliation today! The country is at a critical moment, and I hope you will work together to tide over the crisis."

The ministers bowed three times and the emperor bowed once. The rules handed down from Daqian have not changed. As for kneeling three times and kowtowing nine times, it is simply impossible.

The next step is to deal with major court affairs. The ministers report on their work during this period. Some important matters require the emperor and ministers to make decisions after discussion. Normally, not many major matters are dealt with at this kind of meeting.

But today is different. Although the Turks retreated, this time the Turks went south, and there were a large number of generals and officials in the north who needed to be held accountable. And Li Shimin also needs to take control of this place. Li Shimin dismissed a large number of officials and generals, and then re-appointed officials. Originally, many officials in the north were from the prince's lineage. After this replacement, the remaining power of Prince Li Jiancheng was basically wiped out.

After handling the appointment and dismissal of officials, the next thing the court had to do was to recuperate and unify Jiangnan.

Since Yang Guang, the world has been in turmoil for decades, resulting in countless casualties. The population has dropped from the peak of 15 million households to the current 5 to 6 million households.

The population has dropped by more than half.

Due to wars in various places, a large amount of farmland is deserted, and water conservancy facilities also need to be repaired. The imperial court needed to send a large number of officials to organize the resumption of production.

As for Jiangnan, Li Shimin was not prepared to use the army.

After the Wang family supported Li Tang, the Huai'an Wang family began to contact Jiangnan and cooperated with Li Tang in trying to get Jiangnan to surrender.

Because of the large number of casualties and casualties, large tracts of farmland were available in various places where new farmland systems could be tried.

After discussion with Wang Xuanjing, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui and others, they implemented the land equalization system based on the land system of the Sui Dynasty. Due to the overpopulation and insufficient farmland under the Sui Dynasty's land equalization system, people often did not have much land in their hands, and those 'fields' were all recorded in household registrations.

But Li Tang now has this promotion condition. It can effectively transfer land to the people.

But even so, the number of acres granted by land equalization in the Tang Dynasty was smaller than that in the Sui Dynasty. This is to prevent the population from increasing and the land to be insufficient in a few decades. As for what to do when the population becomes larger in the future, let it be left to future generations.

After all, no matter how perfect the system is, various problems will arise after it is implemented for decades or hundreds of years.

The Tang Dynasty implemented the land equalization system, and the military system used the government military system. This system, which originated from the Huai Kingdom period, has been carried forward from generation to generation. By this time, it was very complete.

The government military system can save a lot of military expenses. They can farm and farm in peacetime, and send out troops with weapons and armor in war. Coupled with the elites of the court, it is enough to deal with the enemy.

Whether it is to encourage farmers to teach or to organize the army, money is needed. Li Shimin was a little troubled by the lack of money in the court, so he asked Wang Xuanjing: "Do you have a way to solve the problem of lack of money and food in the court?"

"Your Majesty, the money and food in the world will continue to accumulate. The food may continue to be consumed, but the money will continue to increase. However, most of this money is transferred to the hands of wealthy families, and then these wealthy families hide the money in cellars. , This makes the market look very depressed and the court is short of money. "

“If we want to change this situation, there are only two ways to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.”

"Do you already have a good plan?" Li Shimin asked.

"Since the Liu Song Dynasty, many people in various places believe in Buddhism, and Buddhist temples often use gold, silver, copper and other metal statues, and these Buddhist temples occupy a large amount of cultivated land and population, but do not pay taxes. In the long run, these Buddhist temples The people will inevitably become richer and poorer.”

"This is not conducive to the stability of the world. Your Majesty can issue an edict that there can only be one Buddhist and Taoist temple in each city to reduce the number of temples. The monks and Taoists among them will be sent home and let them farm. And the temples and Taoist temples will be brought under the jurisdiction of the imperial court. , Monks and Taoists need to pass the imperial examination before they can issue ultimatums to prevent people from cheating."

"All acres of land in temples and Taoist temples also need to be registered, and private increases are not allowed. All lands also need to pay taxes."

Wang Xuanjing targeted Buddhist and Taoist temples because they were too wealthy. Chang'an City alone has more than a dozen temples, large and small.

There are thousands of monks and monks, and the fertile fields under them are even more amazing, so they must be restricted.

(End of this chapter)