Wentang

Chapter 791
"Separate disposal, how to separate?" Li Shimin asked.

Hearing Li Chengqian's words, the opposition looked at him expectantly as if they had met a great savior.

"After all, the tax-free privilege has been implemented for thousands of years for its own reasons. If it is abolished rashly, no one knows whether it will bring bad results. It is better to have two laws in parallel." Li Chengqian said.

"What is the parallelism of the two laws?" Li Shimin asked pretending not to know.

"This law was also mentioned by Xia Guogong a few days ago. Taking this imperial examination as a boundary, the former officials will all follow the old law, and the future officials will all follow the new law of high salaries to maintain integrity." Li Chengqian said.

While everyone was still thinking, Ma Zhou stood up and said:

"Your Highness's method is very good, but I think it can be slightly modified. The previous officials should also be given a chance to choose between tax-free privileges and high salaries. This is only fair."

Li Chengqian's eyes also brightened, and he said with admiration: "Ma Shizhong's words are very kind, and they are more fair than my method."

The dignitaries and the reformers were very savvy, and they voiced their support together: "The ministers also think that His Highness's law is very good."

Although the opposition is a little disappointed, it is much better than being directly deprived of tax-free privileges, at least there is a buffer.There might be a chance to turn the situation around in the future.

So they also said reluctantly: "The ministers also support the prince's law."

Seeing this scene, Yue Shan sighed again in his heart, Mr. Lu really deserves to be a boss, his research on willfulness is too thorough.

If you want to open the windows, everyone will object. If you directly say that you want to lift the roof, they will come to persuade you, come to reconcile, and then offer to open the windows.

When the window finally opened, those people would think that it was the credit of their own reconciliation, and their hearts would be filled with a sense of accomplishment.

This is probably the case for the opposition right now. I don’t know if they are happy, but with this buffer, they will feel better and will not choose to go to extremes.

Instead, pin their hopes on the future and look for opportunities to win this round.

Li Shimin pretended to be thinking and did not speak for a long time, and everyone's hearts were suspended again, not knowing what he was thinking.

Especially the opposition, for fear that Li Shimin would not agree with the prince's suggestion, they would take away all the privileges across the board.

At this time, they don't want to stop this plan, as long as the emperor is willing to implement the prince's method to give them a chance to breathe.

After a long time, Li Shimin seemed a little reluctant: "Your method is good, but it is too troublesome. The court's laws should be simple rather than complicated."

Hearing this, the opposition's heart suddenly hangs up, don't, we have won you, as long as we don't cut it across the board.

Li Chengqian persuaded: "The parallelism of the two laws will indeed bring some troubles to the government's administration, but it is not impossible to solve."

"However, many veterans have served the court for half their lives, and they have become accustomed to this set of rituals. It may hurt their hearts to withdraw it hastily. Please forgive the loyalty of the veterans in the court."

Those in the opposition didn't dare to talk anymore, and quickly stood up and said: "Your Highness is right, please forgive the loyalty of the veterans."

Then Li Shimin let go and said: "What you said is not unreasonable, so follow the prince's law?"

"The ministers have no objection." The ministers said together.

Li Shimin immediately made a decision and said:

"Okay, let's follow the prince's law. With this imperial examination as the boundary, before the officials practiced the old law, they were given a chance to freely choose the new law; after that, the officials all followed the new law. This order will be announced to the world immediately."

"The sage is holy."

After retiring from the court, the officials began to get together to discuss this matter, and most of them were happy to see it.

Officials naturally hope for more salaries, and many people are discussing when to apply for the replacement of the old law with the new law.

Is it true that there are not many taxes exempted from my own land every year, so let's talk about getting the high salary.Among other things, those one thousand yellow-orange-orange gold coins are more real than anything else.

Although the dignitaries did not have the opportunity to receive the thousand gold coins, most of them would continue to work in Datang, entrusting the Congress to their family members to manage.

The salary has increased several times, which is also real cash.

The landlord's family has no surplus food, and the dignitaries owe a whole lot of debt to the Royal Commercial Bank in order to run the feudal country, waiting to be repaid.

No matter how little the salary is, it is still money. Besides, Datang's original salary was not low, and now it has doubled, which is even more impressive.

In a word, everyone is happy to get several times more wages for the same job.

The expression of the opposition is more complicated. The current situation is better than the worst outcome, at least for now the tax-free privilege is preserved.

But it was much worse than the best result. Right now, the privilege is preserved, but the power will be gone when they die.

The court made it very clear that all officials will no longer enjoy tax-free privileges, including their descendants.

Faced with this situation, they want to cry but can't cry, want to laugh but can't laugh.

Yue Shan was naturally very happy to achieve his goal, humming a ditty that he didn't know what it was, and prepared to leave the palace and go home.

As soon as he walked out of the palace gate, he heard Changsun Wuji calling him: "Cuilan."

"Uncle Zhao..." Yue Shan subconsciously wanted to call Zhao Guogong.But he suddenly realized that he called his own words, which meant he was talking to himself in a private capacity, so he quickly changed his words.

Uncle and eldest grandson Wuji seemed to be very proud of this sound, and he couldn't help showing a somewhat smug smile on his face: "Let's go, let's go to Qinzheng Hall."

"Go to Qinzheng Palace? Why are you dragging me to see your empress?" Yue Shan asked puzzled.

"Do you believe that someone from Qinzheng Palace will come to call us soon, do you want to take a gamble?" Changsun Wuji laughed.

"Don't gamble, I'm asking for trouble if I gamble with an old fox like you." Yue Shan said decisively.

"You..." Changsun Wuji twitched his eyebrows angrily, and said, "You are rude."

"Hehe...you just ask what you always want to know, you don't need to beat around the bush. I will tell you what I can tell you, and it's useless to set up tricks if you can't." Yue Shan laughed.

The courtiers around were very surprised to see the two of them talking and laughing. What's going on?Don't they have different political opinions? Why does it seem that the relationship is so good?
Ma Zhou, Sun Fujia and others who originally wanted to come up to chat with Yue Shan also stopped in their tracks, revealing their thoughtful expressions.

They are all thousand-year-old foxes, and it is easy to see something from the clues.

Combined with the current increasingly weird court situation... Forget it, if you don't understand it, don't think about it, let's just do your own job honestly.

Anyway, with their identities, as long as they don't take the initiative to make big mistakes, they can save their lives no matter what happens to the court.

Yuan Gai Suwen looked at the two people talking happily, then at Gao Yun and others who were downcast, and made a decision in his heart.

Just now Gao Yun and others stood in the ranks of the opposition in the court. They originally thought that the court would not adopt Yue Shan's opinion. Who knew it would end like this.

For these shallow-rooted surrenders, the blow brought by this stance was too fatal, and it almost pronounced the end of their political careers.

Naturally, the emperor would not do anything to them, but their gradual marginalization was inevitable.

Yuan Gai Su Wen was already dissatisfied with their meddling in government affairs by forming alliances with others behind their backs, and now he didn't want to be implicated by these people anymore.

Since everyone has nothing to do, let's go our separate ways.

As the saying goes, life has dreams and each is wonderful.

Changsun Wuji and Yue Shan walked slowly towards the Qinzheng Hall and said, "Then tell me if it is your idea to abolish the tax-free privilege."

Yue Shan said in admiration: "I didn't expect such a deep plan to be seen by you. I admire you. Tell me how you saw it?"

Changsun Wuji laughed and said, "Cunning, you haven't answered my question yet."

Yue Shan didn't hide anything, and said: "It is true that I told the saint... Originally, the saint and I thought that it would take at least a hundred years of hard work to accomplish this matter, and whoever thinks it will be done in a muddle."

Speaking of this matter, Yue Shan felt a little unreal.

Even though Yue Shan is a time traveler, he has been involved in the Tang Dynasty too deeply and is already a part of the chess game.As the so-called fan of the authorities, he has lost the perspective of God.

In the matter of abolishing tax-free privileges, he also has to try to cross the river step by step.

This time, he and Li Shimin's original plan was to encourage some scholars from poor backgrounds to stir up this topic and let everyone know that there was such a thing.

I didn't expect to be successful, nor did I think I would be successful.

After all, the bureaucracy, especially the aristocratic family, is still too powerful, and it is almost impossible to abolish their tax exemption rights.

Whoever wants to stir up their thinking becomes clearer and clearer, and they really find a good way out of the impossible.

The core of this method is to divide the bureaucratic and powerful groups.

Compared with the imperial power, the dignitaries and the bureaucrats are one. If you want to take a knife against a family, you will attract everyone's opposition.

The best way is to divide, pull one faction to fight against the other, which is what the previous reforms did.

For example, the Guanlong military elite group was used to fight against the Shandong gentry group, and then the academic and political system and the imperial examination system were used to dig out the foundation of the gentry.

In fact, only the gentry family was beaten, and Li Shimin could barely control the situation.

But if the tax-free privilege is abolished hastily, it will offend both the Guanlong Group and the gentry group. Let alone Li Shimin, any emperor would dare not do such a thing.

But now there is an opportunity, an opportunity to divide the bureaucracy and power.

That is encapsulation.

The imperial court has long intended to divide the feudal system, and it is preparing to implement it recently. Isn't this an opportunity to divide the powerful and bureaucratic?

After you have sealed off the country, you certainly cannot retain the privileges of Datang. This is an exchange that everyone recognizes.

So the rich and the bureaucrats no longer have a common interest in tax-free privileges, and even in business they stand on opposite sides.

When the bureaucratic class with tax-free privileges is doing business, it is completely possible to slap the princes and kings who have to pay taxes, regardless of the technical content and quality, and the price is unilaterally slapped.

As long as they provoke a little, the two sides can easily stand on the opposite side.

What's more, the enfeoffment has only just begun, and the imperial court has the final say on who will be enfeoffed first, and most of the rich and powerful naturally hope that their families will be entrusted first.

Do you want to get the seal in advance?Okay, let's see how you behave.If you perform well, everything can be discussed. If you perform poorly, you can wait in line.

Under such circumstances, for the sake of enforcing the country, the rich and powerful would not hesitate to sell the bureaucrats who had no common interests and even had conflicts of interests.

The step of breaking up the bureaucracy and the powerful has been achieved.

Within the bureaucratic group, there are also differences on tax-free privileges.

Officials from powerful families naturally hope to be exempted from taxes, while children from poor families and ordinary people are more willing to receive generous salaries.

In other words, the same bureaucracy has different interests.

So the second division started again, dividing the bureaucracy into reformists and opposition groups.

At this point, the powerful and bureaucratic class that was originally one was divided into three, and they then encouraged the "two" to unite against the "one", and finally completed this impossible feat.

A full 1000 years earlier than the original history, the tax-free privileges of officials and gentry were abolished.

Recalling the whole process at this time, Yue Shan himself admired his brain.This inspiration came up entirely on his own, without reference to any case.

The fact of the whole plan is full of chance, but if he is a little conservative or makes a wrong step, he may miss this opportunity.

And once this opportunity is missed, if you want to do this thing again, you will have to pay a thousand times the price.

The bureaucrats who have passed the imperial examinations have not yet been completely corrupted, and their family properties have not yet accumulated.

Once they become powerful through being officials, they will suddenly become the biggest supporters of tax-free privileges.

Moreover, they will use various means to win over the new imperial examination official and quickly make him one of them.

Think about Fan Jin Zhongju, Fan Jin just passed the exam, and some gentry offered to give land, money, and houses, and some offered themselves as slaves.

He changed from a poor man to a gentry class overnight. This is the assimilation effect of the group on the newly born individual, and it is almost difficult for the individual to resist.

There is also the powerful class, all because they only want to close the country, they have no other thoughts, and they dare not have other thoughts.

But after their feudal country is completed, they will inevitably have ideas that they shouldn't have.

At that time, they will think that only by colluding with Datang's bureaucrats can they drink Datang's blood better.There is no doubt that this is the inevitable situation.

When the bureaucratic and gentry classes are completely corrupted, and when the bureaucrats and vassal states collude, the resistance of the imperial court to abolish tax-free privileges will be greater than in the original history.

So right now is the best opportunity to abolish the tax-free privilege, and he and Li Shimin seized this opportunity.

This is the first time that Yue Shan has accomplished a major event without the help of his previous life experience, so he is very proud of it.

So when chatting with Changsun Wuji, it was inevitable that he said a few more words, and he didn't hide his pride.

Changsun Wuji was also amazed after hearing this: "Cuilan's performance in this matter makes me feel inferior. I would never be able to do it."

"Haha, you are too old, you are lucky." Yue Shan couldn't close his mouth with a smile.

At this moment, a powerful warrior came forward: "You two princes, your empress is here to invite you."

(End of this chapter)