Datang: Acting as a celestial mystery at the beginning

Li Yi'an got up early in the morning, and was summoned by Li Shimin to come to the palace.

Entering the palace this time, Li Yi'an guessed that it should be the follow-up of the spies. Li Shimin had some matters and wanted to chat with him.

After the morning retreat, Li Yi'an came to Ganlu Hall and saw Li Shimin, there were only the two of them here, even Guo Dong was not present, it was a secret conversation between them.

This seems a bit mysterious.

After the incident at the Planting Flower House, Li Shimin had always been frowning, and said helplessly: "After that day, I have arrested more than 50 officials, all of whom are from aristocratic families. If it wasn't for Mr. I don't know that there are still people in the court who dare to collude with foreign enemies for the sake of profit."

Li Yi'an said: "It's just a coincidence, how about Duke Du?"

Even Du Ruhui was involved in this matter, he was a close minister next to Li Shimin, a hero who once fought with Li Shimin in the Qin Palace.

If you want to get to the bottom of it, you don't know how many people have been implicated.

"Ke Ming has meritorious service to me, and I've found out. It's just his nephew's behavior. Du's house is clean, so I'll let it go."

Li Shimin really didn't want to deal with Du Ruhui, and said again: "In this incident, I only caught two families with not so deep backgrounds, and the others only caught the adulterers, and didn't touch the families behind them."

This was a great opportunity to attack the family, and Li Shimin didn't want to waste it in vain, but if he moved, so many families might turn against him, and he couldn't stand it.

"Aristocratic family, we need to be cured!"

Li Yi'an thought of another matter to deal with the aristocratic family, and said, "Your Majesty, have you finished the imperial examination?"

Li Shimin said: "It has just been completed, but I added another list yesterday, removing those on the list, and adding the top [-] scholars in the exam, and I am going to arrange the second palace exam tomorrow. I will send officials from those aristocratic families , try to replace them as much as possible, and let poor people replace them, the aristocratic family is definitely the moth of the country."

"This time, I want to see who dares to object to my liquidation of those officials who are serving vegetarian meals."

As he spoke, he was full of murderous intent, and after a while he said: "This time, I invite you to enter the palace. There is one more thing. I remember that you said that to deal with aristocratic families, it can be done through rich countries. There are two points, changing the land system, cracking down on land mergers, and reforming taxes.”

"Mr. has probably done the other points, so how should the remaining two points be carried out?"

He can't wait to do this now, he doesn't want those aristocratic families to continue to harm Datang.

Li Yi'an finally understood why he called him here. After thinking for a while, he shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, with the current situation, there will be considerable resistance to implementing reforms. I have a method, but it will be opposed by everyone. Even Fang Gong and Du Gong.”

The Du family, the Fang family, and the eldest grandson's family are all aristocratic families.

His method is to take over the aristocratic family in one pot, without exception.

Li Shimin said: "Let's listen first."

"Then start with taxation. Firstly, change the current method of taxation based on the number of people, and change it to asset-based. Taxes are levied on a per-acre basis, rather than a fixed amount per person per year. Loosen the grip on ordinary people."

"The second point is to strictly check the number of servants, nurses, etc. of the family, and include them in the personal property of the family, and their masters will pay taxes. This can limit the expansion and development of the family, and can also increase the income of the national treasury."

"The third point is that for businessmen who do not have a fixed address, the state and county where they live will be taxed one-thirtieth of their income."

Li Yi'an thought for a while, and tentatively put forward these three points on the reform of the tax law. They were still based on Yang Yan's two tax laws after the mid-Tang Dynasty.

Hearing this, Li Shimin thought about it for a while, and finally understood why even Du Ruhui and the others might object.

First of all, the first point is to pay taxes according to the amount of personal assets. The stronger the assets of the aristocratic family, the more tax they have to pay, and the pressure on ordinary people can be greatly relieved. This is a special tax increase for the aristocratic family.

The second point is obviously set up for aristocratic families. Ordinary people who are qualified to raise those servants are only aristocratic families.

In an aristocratic family, it is normal to have hundreds of servants. If all of them are included in the scope of taxation, how much money will they have to pay the court every year?Even in Du Ruhui's family there are quite a few servants, they cut flesh from the aristocratic family.

As for the third point, it is quite normal. It is mainly to relax the management of business, and it is aimed at businessmen, so that they can leave their place of residence to do business at any time.

"If this reform is carried out, the second point will make Mr. the public enemy of the world!" Li Shimin shook his head and said.

He can implement it forcefully, but the resistance must be great.

"That's why I said, it's not stable now, the time has not come, and it can't be implemented for the time being." Li Yi'an didn't want to become a public enemy.

"As for the first point, it doesn't seem feasible either."

Li Shimin thought deeply, shook his head and said: "Farmers' income is mainly in the fields. If the income is less, then the tax payment will be less. Some people will abandon the fields because they don't want to pay taxes, and land mergers are even more out of control. Whoever is willing to pay taxes will merge and cultivate."

"If the land is annexed by the aristocratic family, the farmers have no way to eat, so they can only rent the fields of the aristocratic family to cultivate, because the land is not owned by themselves, and the farmers do not need to pay taxes. But the aristocratic family pays more taxes, then they will transfer them to the From rented farmers, they use means such as raising rents to fight for their own interests, which is an endless loop.”

This is indeed the deficiency of Yang Yan's proposed two-tax law, which led to more serious land annexation.

"To solve this, it is to solve the land issue, and the land must be before the tax reform."

Li Yi'an said: "Your Majesty has to order the clearing of the land, verify the owner of the land, and classify the land into five grades according to the quality of the soil. Then, the unowned wasteland, the land that has not been recorded by the government, and the land that does not belong to anyone will be collected. Return it to the state, distribute it to the poor people according to the actual situation of each household, strive for fairness, and order that private trading of this part of the land is not allowed."

"If you want to trade their original land, you must go to the government to file a record, write down the detailed reasons, and get the approval of the government. During the transaction, both the buyer and the seller have to pay a certain amount of taxes before they can buy and sell. way."

"As for the land that is nationalized and then distributed, it is not allowed to be bought or sold at all. Otherwise, both the seller and the buyer, and even the local government, will have to be severely punished, and then the court will take it back."

"To achieve this, the number of supervisory censors must also be greatly increased to ensure that every state capital can be supervised in place."

This move was based on the content of Wang Anshi's reform, and he changed it a bit, and then combined it with Yang Yan's two tax laws.

Li Yi'an added: "These are just my outlines. I haven't figured out the detailed method yet. For example, how to integrate the land with the tax law so that there will be no mistakes or omissions. I haven't thought about it in detail."

Li Shimin said: "It is no easy matter to clear the land of the whole country, let alone increase the number of supervisors."

"Yes!"

Li Yi'an said: "Restricting the aristocratic family through reform is a long way to go, and it is difficult to complete in a short period of time, but the improvement of the imperial examination system and the conduct of government-run business have already hit them."

Li Shimin nodded slightly, he also saw the effectiveness of the imperial examination, replacing the officials of the aristocratic family with poor scholars, limiting the right of the aristocratic family to speak in the court.

The development of government-run commerce breaks their monopoly on social resources, keeps all capital in the hands of the court, and prevents the court from continuing to be restricted by capital.

"Without my husband's help, I wouldn't be able to take care of so many things."

After thinking so much, Li Shimin stood up and bowed his hands.