A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 652: Rectify the world
Wang Xuanjing couldn't stand Buddhism, even though Buddhism included King Haotianwen among its gods and Buddhas.

Because these people were not engaged in production, but they occupied a large amount of land. After the collapse of Daqian, Liu Song established the country, and Buddhism and Taoism began to develop rapidly.

Now there are at least thousands of temples across the country. These temples occupy a large amount of farmland. If they do not pay taxes or serve, they are equivalent to thousands of clans. No, the clans also have to pay taxes to some extent. Many times, people need to help.

But temples and Taoist temples are different. They don't contribute at all.

What makes Wang even more disgusted is that many temples have a lot of money due to their large amounts of land and donations from common people and nobles.

The money could only be looked at in their hands, and those monks with flexible minds began to lend money to others.

By lending money to the people, temples in various places made a lot of money in this way.

Now that the imperial court has no money or food, the best way is to inspect the temples and Taoist temples and restrict their development.

"There are many Taoist believers in the temple. If we take action rashly, there will be huge resistance!" Li Shimin hesitated. After all, in this era, there are too many people who believe in Buddhism and Taoism.

Not only the common people at the bottom, but also many nobles and nobles are its believers. For example, the former Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty and Empress Duhu were both firm believers in Buddhism.

"Besides, how many things are needed to worship King Haotianwen? Are the temples and Taoist temples holding so much money and food for the use of gods and Buddhas?"

"Wang Qing also started complimenting him. What kind of sage? If he were a sage, how could he not know that those people were doing whatever they wanted!" Li Shimin shook his head.

If there are no restrictions, the Tang Dynasty will become weaker and weaker, and the powerful families in various places will become stronger and stronger.

"If we have open source, what about reducing expenditure?"

"I have never heard that gods and Buddhas need money and food. It's not just the monks and Taoists who use it."

"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"

"Start from Chang'an to implement it. Don't take it all at once at the beginning, but restrict it bit by bit." Li Shimin finally decided to implement the policy of restricting Buddhism and Taoism.

"The vast majority of clans have no merit, but they are all county princes. The court needs to spend a lot of money and food every year. I suggest that the clans without merit be demoted."

Temples and Taoist temples in various places work together with local aristocrats to help aristocratic families hide their property and population to avoid taxes.

"Since it is not used by gods and Buddhas, why don't you pay taxes? It's just using the name of gods and Buddhas!" Hearing this, Li Shimin nodded, and he had already understood the meaning of these words.

"Reducing expenditures naturally starts from the imperial court!" Wang Xuanjing said: "After the Supreme Emperor ascended the throne, he generously rewarded the clans. The number of clans and princes in the Tang Dynasty was far greater than that of the previous dynasties. How long had it been since the founding of the Tang Dynasty?"

"Your Majesty, if we don't restrict it at this time, it may be even more difficult to restrict it when Buddhism and Taoism continue to grow!" Wang Xuanjing said.

Wang Xuanjing slashed directly at the king of the clan. Unexpectedly, Li Yuan had nothing to do back then and was engaged in wholesale business. As long as it was for the clan, he was also the prince of various counties. Before the world was settled, he started to do it blindly.

Li Shimin had long been dissatisfied with those princes, so he agreed directly and demoted all the princes who had no military merits to the rank of county duke, which could be said to be a direct demotion of three levels.

After the policy, the court was greatly shocked. A large number of officials wrote letters to oppose it, and then they were sprayed bloody by Wang Xuanjing, Fang Xuanling and others. After all, the Wang family has never lost a debate. So what if you debate with them, read poems and books, and quote scriptures? They can bring out all the original texts you quoted from the scriptures, and there are also annotations made by the Wang clan members who asked those great sages.

What do they win with?

The result was that everyone in the court was sprayed all over by Wang Xuanjing, and in the end no one raised any objections.

Both policies were quickly adopted and implemented. First of all, a large number of temples around Chang'an City were eliminated, and in the end only two were left.

The remaining acres of land in the temples were taken back to the imperial court and prepared to be distributed to the people later. The monks and Taoists began to conduct assessments. If they passed the assessment, they would be issued certificates. If they did not pass, they would directly return to secular life and go farming.

In Chang'an alone, thousands of monks were returned to secular life, and at the same time, as many as 100,000 acres of fertile land were confiscated. Coupled with the gold, silver and bronze vessels in the temples, this wave of imperial court obtained a large amount of money.

On the other hand, the sect kings were also demoted. After all, the Supreme Emperor no longer had anything to do, so they could only accept it no matter how dissatisfied they were.

When Li Shimin learned that so much money and food had been confiscated from the temple, he was shocked. Some temples in the area actually had so much money. Li Shimin even wanted to immediately inspect temples and Taoist temples across the country.

After having money and food, it was easy for the court to prepare troops and horses. Li Shimin prepared his troops partly to conquer and pacify Jiangnan, and partly to prevent those in the north from taking the opportunity to cause chaos.

He had not forgotten the recent Turkic invasion. Those people had dared to let the Turks go south, and they did not dare to rebel.

Sure enough, just after Li Shimin officially changed the Yuan Dynasty to Zhenguan, and after seeing Li Shimin continuously dismissing a large number of northern officials and installing his own people, some people finally couldn't help but rebel.

The leader is none other than Luo Yi, the general manager of Youzhou.

Luo Yi was close to the prince Li Jiancheng and was Li Jiancheng's loyal minister. Later, he was stationed in Jingzhou to guard against Turks. This time the Turks invaded, which was the opening he let go.

After Li Shimin stabilized the court and replaced a large number of generals, he then began to lay off the remaining people.

There are only two options left in front of Luo Yi. One is to give up military power, go to Chang'an, and become a rich man honestly, and the other is to rebel.

Luo Yi was already domineering, and as the general manager of Youzhou, he controlled tens of thousands of troops. It can be said that he was the largest force in the Tang Dynasty besides the imperial court. You must know that he was the only king with a different surname among Li Tang.

After seeing this situation, the cavalry immediately went south to attack Chang'an.

Li Shimin was well prepared for Luo Yi's rebellion and immediately sent Yuchi Jingde and Changsun Wuji to lead an attack. Luo Yi's army went south, but he forgot that Youzhou had been in chaos for many years, and the people were more eager for stability and unwilling to rebel.

In addition, Luo Yi has not been very good to the soldiers and people in Youzhou over the years. When Luo Yi first joined the army, the morale of his soldiers was low.

He was even opposed by his left and right troops.

Luo Yi did not expect that the generals on his left and right would actually oppose him. He was unprepared and was defeated immediately. The rebellion failed before the imperial troops could quell the rebellion.

Luo Yi wanted to escape to the Turks with his family of guards, but the guards around him were not willing to go to the Turks to live under the fence, so they fled one after another. In the end, before he could reach the Turks, there were not many people around him, and he was captured and killed by the left and right. Go to the court.

(End of this chapter)