A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 679: How can others be allowed to sleep soundly on the side of the bed?
The Tang court had no intention of engaging in a war in the near future. One of the important reasons for this was that the world was in decline and needed to recuperate.

Wang Xuanjing knew very well what the world was like now. He had looked through the court tax collections for the three years of Daye in the Sui Dynasty. At that time, it was recorded that various grain taxes collected were 42.97 million shi, of which 3673 were taxed on grain. Thousands of stones.

Chang Pingcang had 6.24 million stones, 4.5 million pieces of silk, 7.8 million pieces of linen, 4.3 million pieces of copper coins, and more than 100,000 pieces of silver.

The third year of Daye can be said to be the most glorious period of the Sui Dynasty. At this time, Yang Guang, who had just ascended the throne, had not started messing around. With the afterglow of Emperor Wen around, this period was also the period when the Sui Dynasty had the most annual income.

Although it has been ten years since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the world's tax revenue is still less than one-third or even one-quarter of what it was during the three-year period of Daye.

After the wars at the end of the Sui Dynasty, 60% of the world's population dropped from 10% to 60%, leaving only a little more than one-third. Coupled with severe drought, banditry in various places, etc., the current income is the result of the court's efforts.

In fact, if they really want to send troops, the imperial court can also provide a lot of food and grass. Just like last year, even if the money and food borrowed by the Wang family were returned, the court still had millions of money and food in hand.

With so much money and food, it can be said that the emperors and ministers of the Tang Dynasty have never fought such a rich war since the founding of the country, because many ministers in the court, after seeing that the money and food in the court were so abundant, wrote letters one after another asking for troops to send troops out of the Turks to repay the first year of Zhenguan. , the shame of Jieli Khan plundering Guanzhong.

However, both Wang Xuanjing and Li Shimin objected. Wang Xuanjing said that the Turks were at their peak at this time. They had returned from the invaders with great success and their reputation was booming. It was not suitable to send troops. Moreover, the world was exhausted. At this time, they should take this opportunity to recuperate instead of sending troops.

Li Shimin even more soberly said: "It is a good thing that the imperial court has abundant money and grain, but isn't the former Sui treasury's granary rich? You must know that there are still more than 100,000 shi of grain in the Luokou granary. Is the demise of the Sui Dynasty due to the lack of abundant money and grain?"

Fang Xuanling next to him also smiled and said: "Your Majesty, the world is at peace now. Although there are disasters, the court has been able to provide disaster relief and there have not been a large number of refugees. The price of food in Chang'an City is even lower than during the Kaihuang period. No matter how easy the court is, With less corvee and less wealth, the people’s lives will gradually get better.”

"no!"

"It's not my fault, it's all the officials who worked together that made the Tang Dynasty what it is today." Li Shimin said with a smile: "However, too low food prices are not a good thing. Low grain prices hurt farmers, and it is not impossible for people to sell their sons and daughters in good years."

"Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty plundered a large amount of money and food from the people, abused the people's power, and made the people live in poverty. Is this also a prosperous age?"

"The disaster of Sui Yang is still before our eyes. How can I ignore the plight of the people and use troops wantonly?"

Fortunately, he won last time, but what if it's the next time? If Wang Xuanjing hadn't predicted this in advance, the court would have suffered heavy losses last year.

Even in order to borrow food from those aristocratic families and Guanlong nobles, he, the emperor, had to promise those people a lot of benefits.

"I am going to re-introduce Chang Pingcang and collect grain at a fair price in good years to protect the people from harming farmers due to low grain prices. In disaster years, we will sell grain at a fair price to protect the people from selling their sons and daughters," Li Shimin said.

"Now is the best time for the people since the founding of the emperor. This is all due to His Majesty."

Even though a long time had passed since last year's classic grain war, Li Shimin still found it thrilling. For the first time, he realized the importance of grain prices and the power of the economy.

"Your Majesty, your Majesty!" The ministers were also frightened by the last situation. Not only food, but also many important people's livelihood supplies were also prepared to be included.

Li Shimin now pays attention to people's livelihood and recuperates with the people, but this does not mean that he does not want to establish military exploits. As an emperor on horseback, to be honest, he is better at leading an army in battle than recuperating and governing the world.

Especially since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the border situation has become increasingly severe. The DTZ in the north, which was in its period of prosperity, is eyeing it. The Liaodong Kingdom continues to invade the northeast, which makes the imperial court feel like a thorn in its back. The miscellaneous beards in the Hehuang land and Tuyuhun are also a nuisance.

The land of Hehuang is rich in water and grass, suitable for raising horses and farming. If Tuyuhun continues to grow, it will be a threat to Hexi Longyou, and Hexi Longyou is a barrier in Guanzhong. Once this place is lost, the northern barbarians can rush into Guanzhong.

Therefore, although the Tang Dynasty is now established, it is not as stable as it seems.

Li Shimin is letting the people recuperate now in order to accumulate strength and wait for the enemy to make mistakes. As the saying goes, there is no room for others to sleep soundly on the side of the couch.

Therefore, Li Shimin has been accumulating strength and preparing to fight the Turks.

The management of Hexi is also an important part of this.

After the Turks split into East and West Turks, there has always been animosity between the two families. The West Turks are still far away from the Central Plains, so they can ignore it now. The main thing they face is the DTZ.

In order to deal with DTZ, Li Shimin prepared several plans. He prepared a three-pronged army to attack the Turks, and Hexi was to attack the Turks from the west.

Li Shimin sent Wang Xuanji to Hehuang, not only to connect the Western Regions, but also to stabilize Hexi and Hehuang. When he was about to attack the Turks, he also sent troops to cut off the DTZ's retreat.

Turks.

The Turks at this time can be said to be unexpectedly powerful.

It's just that unlike the Tang Dynasty's policy of striving for governance and recuperation, Jieli Khan became very powerful after he went south to Guanzhong and drank the Mawei water. He accomplished what his father, and even his ancestors, had not accomplished.

He forced the Central Plains dynasty to surrender and also sent generous supplies of materials and goods.

Therefore, since the withdrawal of troops from Chang'an in the first year of Zhenguan, Jieli Khan has become more arrogant, and after obtaining a large amount of wealth from the Central Plains, Jieli Khan oppressed other barbarians who surrendered to the Turks even more heavily.

This also caused the Xueyantuo, Uighur and other tribes that originally submitted to the Turks to become increasingly dissatisfied, and eventually rebelled against the Turks.

The rebellion of these tribes made Jieli Khan furious, so he sent Tuli Khan to attack them. As a result, Tuli Khan returned in defeat. At this time, Jieli Khan did not comfort him, but instead placed him under house arrest, and he was even more intoxicated and enjoying himself.

This made DTZ's strength begin to weaken. What's more serious is that his actions led to an increasingly fierce struggle for power among Turkic factions.

Li Shimin had always been very concerned about the Turks and sent a large number of scouts into the grasslands to collect intelligence on the grasslands. Even after he learned about the situation of the Turks, he almost couldn't hold back and set out to conquer the grasslands at the beginning of the second year of Zhenguan.

Fortunately, he endured it in the end, but what Li Shimin didn't expect was that Jieli Khan's operations made Tuli Khan feel in danger and secretly asked Datang for help.

This made Li Shimin feel that the time to conquer the Turks was getting closer.

(End of this chapter)