Chastity Layman

  Chapter 1173 Prince's trouble

  Eastern Palace.

In the hall, Fang Xuanling said slowly, "When Emperor Wen of the previous dynasty received Zen, there were 3.6 million households, and there were another 500,000 households in Pingchen. At that time, the population of the whole country was 20 million. There are 8.9 million households and a population of about 46 million."

"After the great chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty, the Great Tang Dynasty rebuilt the universe. Wu Deshi's statistics only accounted for more than 2 million households. Since then, the population has gradually increased. The statistics at the beginning of the Zhenguan period were 3.04 million households and 12.3 million households. 150,000, after the Eastern Turks were destroyed, there were more than 1.2 million Turks and Han Chinese who returned from outside the Great Wall."

   Cheng Qian interrupted Fang Xuanling.

   "When Emperor Wen of the previous dynasty first ruled the world, there were only 4.1 million households. How come there are nearly 9 million households in Daye? The population has more than doubled."

Changsun Wuji said, "Emperor Wen first searched the household registration, searched the whole country, and comprehensively investigated the hidden population who escaped from the household, etc. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, wars were frequent, and a large number of people evaded taxes and abandoned their fields. The household registration of the imperial court was greatly reduced. When Emperor Wen first received Zen, he begged Huihui to worship the governor of Caozhou. The old customs of Caozhou, many people are traitors and hermits, the household registration account is thin, and there are many false ones. Hui got off the car and inspected, and got tens of thousands of households!"

  Only one Caozhou, after the re-census, added tens of thousands of new households, we can know how chaotic the imperial government's household registration management was at that time, and how inaccurate the household registration data was.

  At that time, Huangfu Dan, Linghuxi and other famous officials were sent as envoys to the local area to collect household registration, and the court added a million new households.

  Another one is that Yang Jian formulates a policy to re-grant land to those who were forced to flee because of the heavy burden caused by the wars in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and who took refuge in the landlords and nobles.

The Sui Dynasty ruled the world, relying on the authority of the powerful central court to check the population, search and check the household registration, and recapture the population from the powerful nobles. After more than 20 years, by the second year of Daye, the population reached 890. There are 100,000 households with a population of more than 46 million, which is more than double that of the beginning of the founding of the country.

  Normal population increases naturally, and it is impossible to double it in 20 years. It is mainly obtained by reorganizing many hidden households and powerful tenants from the people.

When Daye arrived in Wude, the world was in chaos, household registration management was almost abandoned, even more chaotic than in the beginning of the first emperor, and the data was almost inaccurate, not to mention that a large number of people fled, or were taken by landlords and powerful people as tenants, etc. Monasteries and others took the opportunity to occupy a large number of people.

So although the war at the end of the Sui Dynasty was not fought for many years, from the seventh year of Daye when the world was in turmoil to when Li Yuan entered the customs and established the Tang Dynasty in Chang'an, it was actually only a few years, and then it took only five or six years for Li and Tang to basically rule the world unified.

It has been a total of ten years of chaos, and it is impossible for the population of the world to drop to two million. What's more, the 8.9 million households is only the data of the second year of Daye, and the chaos from the second year of Daye to the seventh year of Daye, with rapid development for several years in between, Therefore it is impossible to say that seven million households were lost all at once.

  Most of the population had fled at the time and was not registered.

And whether it is more than 3 million in the early Sui Dynasty or more than 2 million in the early Tang Dynasty, this refers to the household registration population. In fact, in addition to escaping from the household registration, there are still a large number of non-registered population in the world, that is, monks and Taoists. , slaves, tribes, etc., these people simply do not count among the demographics.

  It’s like the imperial court’s statistics on young men, there is a difference between class and non-class, and the registered household registration is also divided into class and non-class.

   After Sui Yangdi succeeded to the throne, he conducted a census, adding 243,000 Dingkou and 641,500 new Fukou.

  In the years of Renshou before he succeeded to the throne, in fact, the Sui Dynasty had already had serious problems, and many people began to flee their households to avoid service.

  When Li Tanggang was established, the so-called population of 2 million only refers to the number recorded in the official household registration of the area controlled by the Li family at that time. Later, when Li Shimin succeeded to the throne, the number of households increased to more than 3 million.

Then, in the Zhenguan New Deal, Li Shimin introduced several powerful household registration policies. One of them was Dasuo Maangyue, like Yang Jian and his father, to carry out a comprehensive population inventory, from the village to the state and counties, and then to the imperial household department. Management has been comprehensively strengthened. New births, deaths, and marriages are all required to be reported every six months, and a handbook is made every year. The state and counties update the household registration information in a timely manner and report it to the household department for archiving.

  It is impossible for blacks like the past who did not report their births and did not register their household registration when they grew up to be adults.

Then, just as Yang Jian asked, those who meet the conditions for household division will be divided into households, and that kind of multiple generations is not allowed, especially the situation where the entire family of the big and small clans is one household. There is no separation of families, but when the parents are gone, the brothers will divide the family.

  For the most grassroots management personnel, such as the head of the village, Lizheng, if they do not manage the household registration properly, they will be severely punished to restrain them.

  On the other hand, during the Sui Dynasty, slaves, tributaries, and tenants were not registered as registered permanent residents, but the Zhenguan New Deal of the Tang Dynasty changed this.

The household registration is divided into main households and customers. Those who have property are called main households and those who have no property are called customers. In the past, those who had no household registration and could only attach themselves to powerful landlords and tenants can now get a customer status and officially become a householder. The household registration population of the imperial court was reduced, and the household registration population of Datang surged by this alone.

Then, for slaves, the imperial court also brought them under the unified management of household registration. These people belonged exclusively to slave registration and were also subject to strict management by the imperial court. It was no longer the same as in the past. Although slaves had to sign deeds and register, they were only private property like cattle and horses. Law than livestock.

  In addition, monks, monks, nuns, prostitutes, etc. were not registered in the household registration before, but now they are all registered.

  Anyway, as long as they are human beings, the Zhenguan New Deal requires naturalization management.

Of course, later the imperial court took further action and implemented a comprehensive Buddhist and Taoist management system. It not only took back millions of tenants and slaves who were attached to them from the temples at that time, but also comprehensively rectified the temples, bringing the temples and Taoism into the imperial court. Examinations, granting certificates to become monks, limiting the number of monks and Taoists, canceling their tax-free privileges, prohibiting them from engaging in industrial and commercial economic activities, and so on.

A set of combined actions by the imperial court forced millions of monks and nuns to return to the lay world from the temples, including a large number of fake monks and nuns who sent their names to Buddhist temples, and even some so-called lay Buddhists who practiced at home, etc., demolished a large number of Temples, and privately built Lanruo, etc., the imperial court obtained tens of millions of fields and money, and added millions of people.

  Snatch the population from the hands of temples, **** the tenants from the powerful landlords...

   Then, after the Tang Dynasty became strong and conquered the barbarians, a large number of Han people who were taken away by the surrounding barbarians in the late Sui and Tang Dynasties, or were forced to flee abroad, also returned in large numbers.

Afterwards, the imperial court destroyed the Eastern Turks. Only among them, the blue Turks, that is, the core Turkic tribes such as Ashina and Ashid, had dozens of tribes with more than 100,000 households attached to them, and finally the registered household Qimin became the registered population of the Tang Dynasty. Reached more than 500,000 people.

Almost the entire Eastern Turkic Blue Turks and some Black Turks became citizens of the Tang Dynasty. When the Eastern Turks were strong, they claimed to control 400,000 strings and have a population of 2 million. This also includes Mobei Tiele under their rule. Among the various tribes, as well as the Khitan, Xi, Yu, and Shiwei tribes in the east, the most core Turkic Blue Turkic households did not exceed 200,000 households, including the Western Turkic tribes with ten surnames in the Western Regions.

  So ten years ago in Zhenguan, Datang passed various household registration reforms and foreign wars, which greatly increased the population on the imperial court household registration, and the number of households had already reached tens of millions.

"After the unification of the world, the population returned from the four sides was one million. The extermination of the Eastern Turks gained a population of more than half a million, and the extermination of Tuyuhun gained a population of hundreds of thousands. Dangxiang and the Qiangs of the Western Mountains were subordinated to Qimin, and they gained nearly a hundred population. Wan, the rebellion in the south of the Lingling Mountains, the conquest of central Guizhou and Yunnan, the expansion of Tonghai, and the acquisition of Nichinan, and then millions of people, plus the capture of Yiwu and the destruction of Gaochang, another hundreds of thousands."

"And the sage personally conquered Liaodong, expanded the land for two thousand miles, and gained a new population of two million. No matter how you calculate it, the current population of the imperial court will not be less than twelve million, and the population should exceed seventy million. It is not surprising that there are 80 million orphans."

   "But now that the imperial court wants to immigrate to Liaodong, it is said that there are no people to emigrate. Isn't it strange?"

  Before the Tang Dynasty, no imperial court had such strict management of household registration and population, and no dynasty could register all the population as households, let alone the barbarians attached to the four sides.

  Even at the peak of the Sui Dynasty, in Lingnan, Nanzhong, the southeast and southwest regions, there were actually only a few prefectures with household registrations, and the numbers were pitifully small.

  The tens of millions of people in the Sui Dynasty were all concentrated in Guanzhong, Hebei, Henan, Hedong, Huainan, Shannan and other areas, especially in Hebei and Henan.

  In the whole of Lingnan, the registered population is not as good as that of a prefecture in Hebei, and in the entire Nanzhong region, its registered population is not as good as that of a county in Guanzhong.

  Ten years before Zhenguan, Datang’s household registration policy was extremely strict, and it was almost perfect. But over the years, it has developed in a weird direction.

  The imperial court does not restrain powerful nobles from annexing fields, actively expands borders, encourages people to immigrate to the frontier, and vigorously develops business and trade. Under the guidance of these policies, the population is rapidly flowing.

  The population in the densely populated areas of the Central Plains began to immigrate to sparsely populated places such as Jiangnan, Lingnan, and Nanzhong. Rural people began to gather in towns, or to do business or work. Especially during the slack season, a large number of laborers flooded into towns.

   Although this made the four sides of the country lively and made the industry and commerce more prosperous, but some uncontrollable problems gradually appeared. For example, a large number of people are going abroad now.

In the beginning, it was just those nobles and tyrants who seized the opportunities in the frontiers, established commercial settlements, opened mines, etc., and then they recruited people from all over the Tang Dynasty to do things. Some young children from common people's families were also happy to go out to make money, but gradually, Now these people have moved their industries overseas, and transported people out to sea in large numbers.

Nowadays, the cities and towns in the Central Plains are more and more prosperous, but the countryside is no longer as lively as before. Although most of the people left behind are self-cultivated farmers and small landlords, the people who have no land left their homes and went to the frontiers to re-grant land, and also became owners or self-cultivated farmers. Or they went to the city to work as craftsmen or industrial workers with their skills.

Under the new law of the two taxes of the imperial court, the imperial court divided the population into the mu, and promised never to increase the tax, so the imperial court’s control over the population was not so strong, because in the past, the control of the population was to levy a poll tax, and the rent was collected by the population. Every year, strong men are conscripted to perform forced labor, and middle-aged men are conscripted to perform miscellaneous labor.

  Now, the tax is allocated to the mu, and the money is converted into the labor service. The service money is also allocated to the field. The regular tax of the two taxes is based on the land property and households, and has nothing to do with the population.

  Of course the local government is no longer so strict.

   Even loosen the management, allowing the surplus rural labor force to go out to work and earn money, which can also increase family income. The income of the people is higher, and of course it is easier to collect these two taxes.

  In short, the current situation is what all parties want to see.

  But the crown prince Chengqian lifted the cover that everyone had been covering all this time by citing that no one in Liaodong could move there.

"I heard that many powerful merchants are now building more and more overseas business villages and mines. They are constantly recruiting people from the Central Plains. Many of them are away all the year round, and some have even moved their small capitals. In the past, if this continues, what consequences will it cause, have you considered it?"

"Population is the foundation of a country, taxation, military, etc. The foundation of everything. Now that the population is losing a lot, isn't this problem serious enough? In the past few years, the imperial court has wiped out East Turks, Tuyuhun, Gaochang, Xinyiwu, Dangxiang, and Xishan And so on, and completed the household registration of Qimin in Lingnan and Nanzhong. Normally, the population should increase by one million or even two million. Since then, the imperial household registration population has grown slowly, and it can even be said to have almost stagnated."

"And the numbers on the household registration in many places are not accurate. In some places, there are people on the household registration, but in fact there is no one in the place. Where did the people go? They went to pan for gold, went to work, and went to business... "..."

   "The imperial court continues to expand and conquer, and the new conquests have moved a large number of people, but they can't keep up with the outflow of people. Is the management too dereliction of duty?"

  Faced with the series of questions from the crown prince, Fang Xuanling's eldest grandson Wuji and other prime ministers didn't know how to respond.

  This involves the basic national policies of Datang today, from emphasizing industry and sea trade to actively expanding borders, as well as the new tax law, non-stop mergers and other basic national policies.

  Population loss can only be said to be some minor problems caused by these basic national policies. After all, the huge dividends brought about by these national policies are visible to everyone.

According to the official household registration data of the Ministry of Households, there are more than 12 million households and a population of more than 63.88 million. However, the annual income of the imperial court from taxes and official workshops exceeds 100 million. These are all since the reform of the New Deal. Great changes to twenty years.

  Yang Jian unified the world, and it took more than 20 years to create the prosperous age of the first emperor. The population has only more than doubled, to more than 8 million households, and more than 40 million people.

  The Khan of Heaven, Li Shimin, spent sixteen years reforming the system, pacifying foreign aggressions, and creating the prosperity of Zhenguan. Compared with the beginning of the founding of the country, the population increased by 10 million households, a sixfold increase.

   Isn't this a miracle what is it?

  The imperial court couldn’t afford the local officials’ salaries, so they could only rent out the fields. Now that the revenue has exceeded 100 million yuan this year, the officials’ salaries have risen again and again, and the treatment is generous.

  It can also support the 100,000 standing imperial troops in the Beiya, and can support the continuous foreign expansion of the Tang Dynasty. These are very successful.

  Seeing that there was no answer, Chengqian got up and said, "Let's end the discussion today." The prince did not continue this topic, nor did he ask the prime ministers to write a memorial on this matter after returning, so it ended abruptly.

  (end of this chapter)