Tibet

Chapter 1218 City Expansion Plan

The idea of ​​expanding the city of Chang'an was not a temporary idea. It existed during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty. The new Daming Palace was a plan to expand the city. Finally, the double capital city of Luoyang was chosen as the plan to expand the capital.

If we look at the probability from a broad perspective, the Tang Dynasty even had capitals such as Taiyuan Prefecture, Hezhong Prefecture, Chengdu Prefecture, Fengxiang Prefecture, Jiangling Prefecture, etc., and even Emperor Suzong Li Heng of the Tang Dynasty ascended the throne in Shuofang Lingzhou, then Lingwu County also became a historical event in a short time. The capital of the Tang Dynasty.

But these are not expansions of the capital in the true sense. Chang'an has been the capital of the Tang Dynasty for 266 years, and Luoyang, the eastern capital, has been the capital for only 26 years. Therefore, to expand the capital in the true sense, we still need to expand the city of Chang'an. .

The idea of ​​expanding the city of Chang'an was first proposed by Li Ye. It mainly stemmed from the merger of the two imperial courts, which involved the vested interests of a large number of officials. There were also demands from military generals who wanted to have houses in Chang'an, and there were also complaints from Jiangnan nobles. It's too far away from Chang'an, and Chang'an's house control is too strict. They can't buy a house in Chang'an.

Therefore, after Li Ye returned from Quanzhou, he proposed the idea of ​​​​expanding the city, and then the political affairs hall discussed and approved it. The Ministry of Industry formulated the city expansion plan and handed it over to the military and political affairs committee for discussion.

According to Li Ye's original idea, the expansion of Chang'an was to expand westward and northward, integrating Han Chang'an City with the current Chang'an City. However, it was unanimously opposed by the Political Hall. They believed that this would destroy the unity and coordination of Chang'an City and destroy Chang'an Feng Shui. .

Right Prime Minister Li Dai proposed a second city expansion plan. The city was expanded from east to west and south at the same time. A new city was also built in Baqiao in the northeast, which balanced with the Han Chang'an city. This plan was recognized by everyone.

Although Li Ye felt that this plan was too involved, it was a plan proposed by his father after careful consideration, and Li Ye reluctantly agreed.

The detailed plan formulated by the Ministry of Industry has been delegated to the supervisors of various ministries and temples, and discussions have also been held within each ministry and temple.

Right Prime Minister Li Dai said slowly: "City expansion involves turning farmland into residential land. Everyone knows how much farmland costs per acre, and how much residential land costs. There are huge interests in this, so the top priority is to freeze all land transactions. , the imperial court unified the acquisition of land from farmers.”

As the representative of the ruler and the leader of the civil servant group, Li Dai's first consideration is not the interests of the farmers, but the interests of the court. Everyone knows that once the city is expanded, a large amount of land interests will be generated, and everyone will grab these interests. Li Dai advocated that the imperial court should take the lead, and Li Dai's idea naturally received unanimous support from the Political Affairs Hall.

Li Dai's idea was taught to him by his son Li Ye. When Li Dai was appointed Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, the court was extremely strapped. Li Ye's idea for him was to sell land. After selling part of the land, the financial constraints were greatly alleviated. Li Dai tasted the benefits of selling land. Sweetness, he knew very well, how much benefit would a large amount of land generate once the city is expanded?

The first plan finalized in today's military and political discussions is the land acquisition bill. The court unanimously agreed to purchase land from farmers at five times the price of farmland. Of course, farmers' homesteads will not be purchased.

However, there is not much land outside the city that really belongs to farmers. I am afraid there is not even one in Chengdu. The trend of annexing land in the Tang Dynasty was so strong that the land close to Chang'an City is simply the best of gold. How much land does it belong to farmers? Most of it is in In the hands of various powerful people, the largest landowner among them was the emperor.

This includes three imperial mansions each covering an area of ​​10,000 acres, as well as a large amount of land in the Forbidden Garden. These are all owned by the emperor and occupy 40% of the total land.

Secondly, there was the imperial court. This was due to the destruction of the Eunuch Party Group. Dozens of eunuchs were greedy for money. They used various means to occupy a large amount of land in Chang'an and Luoyang and amass a huge amount of wealth. After the eunuch group was destroyed, gold and silver When 70% of the wealth goes into the inner treasury, 30% goes into the left treasury.

Then all real estate, including land, houses, etc., belonged to the imperial court, and the land controlled by the government. For example, the city of Chang'an in the Han Dynasty basically belonged to the government, so the imperial court and the government accounted for about 30% of all land.

The third largest landowner is the powerful, including the royal family, Guanlong nobles, relatives, high-ranking officials and nobles, etc. They have accumulated for hundreds of years and have a huge amount of land, accounting for about 20% of all land.

Finally, there are businessmen, farmers, ordinary civilians, etc. Their land is very scattered, almost a few acres, a dozen acres, or dozens of acres. When combined, they only account for 10% at most. The interests of farmers will be more, and they have Currently, there are only 100 acres of residential land. Once the city expands, the price per acre will increase at least three to five times.

Therefore, the land merger and acquisition bill passed mainly targets the fourth category of people, businessmen, farmers and ordinary civilians.

This is not about the imperial court exploiting farmers. The farmland outside Chang'an City now costs twenty guan per mu. If purchased at five times the price, it would be 100 guan. This is the same as the price of homestead land.

If you are preempted by the powerful to acquire land, paying a premium of two or three times is already a bodhisattva's heart. Most of them are purchased at the original price. If you don't sell it, you will offend the powerful. If I don't deal with you now, just wait! I will settle the accounts slowly in the future.

The common people could not afford to offend the powerful and had no choice but to be forced to sell. Therefore, the court issued a merger and acquisition bill in a timely manner, which actually protected the farmers and at the same time the court also obtained future land interests.

The discussion on Chang'an's city expansion was so extensive that part of it was not completed until dark, and the remainder was postponed to the day after tomorrow.

Dugu Lie returned to the mansion, and his eldest son Dugu Jinyang had already taken the lead and was waiting for his father in the study.

Dugu Jinyang has currently resigned from all positions, only retaining the title of Duke of Lantian County. He has been mourning for his father for three years. Old lady Dugu passed away. Dugu Lie should have been in mourning for three years, but the Dugu family did not want to give up this opportunity to serve as the assistant minister. They agreed It was decided that Dugu Jinyang would observe mourning on his father's behalf for three years, and Dugu Lie was appointed Minister of War and Assistant Prime Minister. Like Li Dai, he would not take off his mourning clothes, drink alcohol, or have parties, and there would be no lights or decorations in the mansion.

The father and son sat down in the study, and Dugu Jinyang asked: "Father, I heard that the imperial court has decided to expand the city?"

Dugu Jinyang glanced at his son and said calmly: "The imperial court has issued a decree to temporarily prohibit the sale of land around Chang'an. You don't want to buy farmers' land. If you buy it, the government will not transfer it to you. In addition, the military and political affairs will not be transferred to you." There was no vote and the final decision on whether to expand the city has not yet been made.”

Dugu Jinyang had a look of disappointment on his face, and he could only smile bitterly and said: "It is enough for the regent to decide on such a major matter. Do you still need to vote on military and political affairs?"

Dugu Lie sneered and said: "You don't understand the political wisdom of the regent. Like the Supreme Emperor and the late emperor, they took all power to themselves. In the end, they benefited the eunuchs in vain. The wise superiors gave the power to the ministers. , and at the same time distributed the risks to the ministers, but do you dare to say that this world does not belong to him? "

After a pause, Dugu Lie continued: "You actually don't understand that the regent did not hand over all the power to the political affairs hall. He actually used military and political affairs to contain the political affairs hall."

====

[Lao Gao has recently started to prepare a new book. When he is middle-aged, his body cannot stand staying up late every day. He really has no energy to continue the third update. I hope book friends can understand! 】

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like