The Great Tang General

When people are in trouble, they tend to seek change. This has been the case since ancient times.

In Li Xian's opinion, the system of equalizing the land tax may have its flaws, but it must be reformed to replace the gradually decaying rent-labor system.

Rent, tax, and labor service are the tax systems that were established based on the benefits and disadvantages of past dynasties. They are based on a long-term approach, have a profound purpose, collect money evenly, have a solid population, are simple in their rules, and are well prepared. If you have land, you have rent; if you have a family, you have tax; if you have a job, you have labor service.

The disadvantage is that once there is a change in the country's fiscal revenue, such as frequent wars, the continuous expansion of the number of officials, and the emperor's incompetence, it will be difficult for the rent and labor system to sort out the chaotic tax system and solve the country's fiscal crisis, which will lead to an increase in the gap between the rich and the poor.

When the equal-field system gradually collapsed due to land annexation, when a large number of good people fled and became dependent farmers of the powerful families, and when the distribution of national wealth became increasingly uneven, that was the time of its demise.

The country has a lot of work to do and the daily financial expenditure is increasing.

The burden on the people is getting heavier.

In this case, taxes should not be increased.

Instead, he used the system to bring taxes that should have belonged to the imperial court into his own hands.

According to the tax laws of various dynasties and the current national conditions of the Tang Dynasty, it is feasible to distribute the tax based on the amount of land.

"Do you have any other opinions?"

Li Xuan was very satisfied with Li Xian's words.

He has always believed that there is no perfect policy, and only through continuous reform can the country progress.

The suggestions put forward by Pei Zunqing and Zhang Hao can be eliminated.

"Your Majesty, abolishing the Ding tax may cause unrest in the counties, so we must take precautions early."

The Minister of Justice Lu Sigong said to Li Xuan.

Ding tax, or poll tax, is the most efficient but also the most unfair tax in state governance. The gap between the powerful and wealthy and the common people will become wider and wider.

The prevalence of land annexation is also closely related to the head tax.

It can be imagined that if taxes were no longer levied on individuals, but the fixed capitation tax was evenly distributed among the land taxes, the powerful families would suffer heavy losses.

His ideas were similar to Zhang Hao's, but Zhang Hao believed that the powerful would seize power by trickery and continue to oppress the people.

However, Lu Sigong believed that in the current political environment, the probability of unrest among powerful families was extremely high.

"Once the tax reform is implemented, all the prefecture soldiers and county soldiers across the country will be on high alert. As long as the people are not deceived by the powerful families, the powerful families will not be able to gain power."

Li Xuan wanted to force the powerful and wealthy families to rebel, which would be the beginning of eliminating the lowly and promoting the good.

Throughout China's history, as long as the lower-class people live well, the population will increase dramatically.

The population explosion in history played a key institutional role in the distribution of land tax.

The Tang Dynasty needed to increase the speed of land development and to fill the border areas with immigrants, which required a large population.

Of course, the emergence of crops is also a key factor affecting population growth.

If he just wanted China to continue to be an agricultural country in history and continue to cycle in the long river of history, then he would not need to abolish the city household system, would not need to distribute the tax based on the amount of land, and would not need to use violence to eliminate the lowly and make the good. He would only need to promulgate the Two Tax Law and rectify the administration of officials.

He believed that by doing so, the "Qianyuan Prosperity" would also be a glorious chapter in history.

But Li Xuan believed that given the complexity of the Chinese nation, if he did not lead the country out of this cycle before opening its eyes to the world, even if he eliminated the threats from the surrounding Hu tribes, China might continue to cycle for more than a thousand years.

A century of prosperity!

The policies he implemented, such as the land-based tax system and the performance evaluation system, did not necessarily last a hundred years.

Solve the problem first, and solve the deeper problems later when they are exposed.

"Tax reform is a major plan for the country. Your words are very much in my heart. However, I think it is not necessary to test the tax system in one place, but should be implemented throughout the country."

After some more discussion, Li Xuan was ready to carry out his plan.

The purpose of allocating taxes to each acre of land is to reduce the burden on the people, increase national finances, and bring the country into a virtuous cycle.

In later times, the tax was paid in silver, but now it is the same as using silk money.

According to the previous rent, labor service, taxes, charity granaries and household taxes, these are the formal taxes to be paid.

Li Xuan didn't have time to experiment.

Even if it has been tested, there may be errors when it is announced to the world in the future.

The movement to eliminate low status and promote virtue was intensified, and the land-based tax system was implemented in counties under this contradiction.

"Your Majesty, I will obey your command."

The civil and military officials did not explicitly refuse. Compared with the Single Whip System, the policy of allocating land tax to each household made the ministers clearly feel the relaxation of the policy.

Many of the ministers present were from aristocratic families, but they knew that even the emperor himself did not consider himself a member of the aristocratic family.

After the impact of papermaking, printing, and clan records, it was successively suppressed by emperors such as Li Shimin, Li Zhi, and Wu Zetian.

If a noble family were asked to rebel against Li Xuan, what could they use?
Might is right!
Li Xuan once expanded the army and increased the number of Jinyiwei in order to be able to deal with these people at any time.

The reason why the nobles could rise and become powerful families was mainly because they monopolized knowledge.

Li Xuan did not think that all the gentry were killed.

If there were no papermaking and printing technology, even if one group of powerful people were killed, a new group of powerful people would definitely be born.

The application of papermaking technology led to the rise of children from humble backgrounds and poor families, which was a sign of the decline of the gentry.

In history, wasn’t the Niu-Li factional struggle in the Tang Dynasty a contest between the gentry and the poor?
From this we can see that the withdrawal of the gentry from the stage of history was inevitable.

Li Xuan used Gao Lishi to develop woodblock printing technology more than ten years in advance, and he also established a rural school in conjunction with Li Longji, who loved the "prosperous age".

Plus his reforms to the imperial examination system.

The trend of noble sons emerging from humble backgrounds is about to take shape.

Under the butterfly effect, an inadvertent policy can affect millions of people.

"The matter of allocating land tax to each acre will be supervised by the Prime Minister of the Political Affairs Hall. You should organize the censors to supervise the localities and supervise the new law of the Changping system."

Li Xuan assigned this matter to the five prime ministers.

Now that the Censorate has been restructured, the number of supervisory censors has increased from fifteen to thirty.

That is, thirty inspection teams.

In addition, the Censor-in-Chief was promoted from a minor official of the eighth rank to the upper sixth rank, and the number of his subordinates was increased by ten.

To prove Li Xuan's emphasis on supervision.

At the same time, most of the promotions to Censor-in-Chief were from county magistrates.

An outstanding county magistrate would be promoted to the position of Censor-in-Chief. With his understanding of the grassroots level, it would be easier for him to understand the ins and outs of the matter.

If one performs well as a censor, he will be directly promoted to be a prefect.

This promotion mechanism will encourage the censors to work diligently.

"The minister obeys the order!"

Five prime ministers came out to receive the order.

Although Li Xuan exercised his absolute control over the country through the Tiance Palace, the Secretary General, and the Jinyiwei.

However, Li Xuan always left internal affairs to the civil and military ministers.

In handling government affairs, he was not arbitrary. He would directly sign some memorials that he thought were simple and not controversial.

If there was a dispute, he would draw a circle around it and send it to the Council of State.

"In today's world, there are many officials who are rotten wood; they eat salaries in vain by eating the beasts and prey of the people. These officials have been bred since the Kaiyuan period. They are like maggots attached to the bones, sucking the nutrients of the country and squeezing the people. As a result, in some places, the people are living in misery."

"In the third year of Tianbao, I went to the east of Jiangnan to wipe out the pirate Wu Lingguang. He was just a bandit with no strategy or martial arts skills, only a few hundred people, without a piece of armor to cover their bodies, but he ran rampant for ten years. You should know that shocking case. The people were like being in hell on earth, and I killed the tyrants, but some people still said that I was wrong. At that time, they attacked me because they were afraid of disaster for themselves, right?"

"Officials protect each other. They don't work for the country and the people, but for their own families. Such beasts in human clothing should be eliminated as soon as possible to prevent them from continuing to cause harm. In the future, I don't want to hear memorials like "merits and demerits offset each other" and "ancestors have virtues". Officials who commit crimes will be punished more severely."

"I have said a lot. How can we remove this pest from among the wise and capable officials?"

“The success of the legislative examination is clear at a glance!”

"Starting from the first month of the second year of Qianyuan, the performance evaluation system was implemented. The court set tasks for officials of all levels, based on performance evaluation. Officials were promoted based on their abilities, not seniority or family connections."

"The Prime Minister of the Political Affairs Hall will still be in charge of the examination."

After the civil and military officials were mentally prepared, Li Xuan formally promulgated the Kaocheng Law.

When Li Xuan was appointed prime minister, one of the reasons why the Kaocheng system was opposed by civil and military officials was that it hit the children of the powerful and wealthy who entered the officialdom through family connections.

Officials who became officials directly without going through the imperial examination accounted for a very large proportion in the Tang Dynasty, and their level could not stand the test.

A good-for-nothing mediocre person, who was good for nothing, became a county magistrate because of his family background.

They have no political ideals and are easily addicted to pleasure and collude with local tyrants.

The people living in that place will definitely be in trouble.

Since ancient times, the magistrate of a county has been like a local emperor.

The country has censors, but there are more than a thousand counties in the country, and the censors can only visit a few places even if they run their legs off.

If the county governor does nothing, a county magistrate will become the most powerful local tyrant and no one can stop him.

Under such circumstances, Li Xuan founded the Jinyiwei and went deep into the countryside.

He placed a knife directly above the county magistrate's head.

The Jinyiwei could also monitor secretly and restrict the lawless power of the county magistrate in the county.

Of course, in this situation, many officials will become passive and give up.

Some people become officials for political ideals and life aspirations, while others are self-aware and become officials just for pleasure and wealth.

While the performance evaluation system is intended to spur officials, it is also intended to expose those officials who are inactive.

This is what Li Xuan said, "The success of the legislation is clear at a glance."

Whether it’s a mule or a horse, come out for a walk.

Li Xuan used the five prime ministers system to check and balance each other. It was also to prevent some officials from privately retaliating against officials who disagreed with their political views and assigning impossible tasks to counties.

"I will obey your orders!"

The five prime ministers Li Xian, Pei Zunqing, Liu Yan, Lu Huan and Yang Wan received the order.

All officials could only respond.

The concept of performance evaluation had been around for eight years, and at that time civil and military officials were extremely resistant to it.

Li Xuan was dismissed from his position as prime minister because of this.

As time passed, Li Xuan climbed to the top step by step.

He also appointed many capable officials to fill the court, and they were confident in their performance.

The rest of the officials also had to accept this fact.

In the past, whenever Li Xuan issued an order, there would always be veteran ministers who would debate with him. Now, the ministers just raise doubts, analyze the pros and cons, and then execute them.

After the land-based tax system and the performance evaluation system were finalized, the court meeting temporarily came to an end.

Li Xuan summoned the prime minister to the Council of State to study the details of the two decrees.

When the policy is first implemented, in addition to the prime minister, some other capable officials must be appointed to test the effectiveness at the local level.

"Yesterday, I saw another memorial, which was a memorial that concealed the status of a lower-income household. Similar things are not uncommon." After Li Xuan talked about the land-based tax distribution and the performance evaluation system, he talked about this matter again.

All households in the country are divided into nine categories based on their assets.

The highest level of household registration is Shangshangdeng, and it is possible for the wealth to accumulate to billions.

These often refer not to businessmen, but to the landlords and wealthy families.

The lowest class refers to the lowest level of household registration, most of whom are tenants who rent land from landlords. It is no exaggeration to describe them as penniless and destitute.

"This is the most common method used by local powerful families to evade taxes. This situation indicates that these families are in collusion with local officials. We can directly send people to investigate the local officials."

Liu Yan replied to Li Xuan.

False household registration is the most direct evidence of collusion between officials and powerful people.

As long as the imperial court can verify the facts, they can arrest people with their eyes closed.

"Your Majesty, from the population and taxation of some counties, we can roughly judge whether a place needs to be thoroughly investigated. In addition, once the household registration level is concealed, it is definitely not an isolated case. Just like Jiangnan West Road and Jiangnan East Road, they are obviously very rich, but according to the legal system, they cannot collect taxes. At the end of the Tianbao period, Yang Guozhong sent officials to Jiangnan many times to collect taxes, but most of them were muddled accounts."

Lu Huan analyzed the tax situation to Li Xuan.

The tax revenues in Jiangnan, Lingnan and other places are insufficient.

This certainly did not mean that the powerful families were openly defying the imperial court and refusing to pay taxes.

Given Li Longji's character, if anyone dared to do this, he would send troops to suppress them.

No matter how powerful a powerful family is, it is not as powerful as a country because they are not a whole.

It’s just that these powerful families use insidious means to deceive their superiors and subordinates.

In this situation, if there is no determination, no matter how you investigate, it will all be a mess.

The means used by officials in the south of the Yangtze River include giving away gold and beautiful women.

When the imperial censors arrived, few of them could leave with clean hands.

Even if there is an imperial censor who "leaves his name in history", what does it matter if he finds out the crimes of one or two powerful families in a certain county?

This is all the energy a censor has.

After the censor left, they opened the gates again and acted tyrannically.

Lu Huan has been working in the local area for many years and has rich experience in this area.

"I am deeply concerned about what Lord Lu said. Let's not talk about how many powerful families are playing tricks. Do you know how many serfs the powerful families control?"

Li Xuan nodded and asked the prime ministers again.

Serfs had no household registration, and in an era when imperial power did not extend to the countryside, they could easily hide among the powerful.

As long as you take care of the above, you can sit back and relax.

Serfs were not eligible for the benefits of the land-based tax system.

Those tenant farmers who still have household registration cannot make any profit either.

It is imperative to eliminate inferiority and promote virtue.

"The number is incalculable, especially after An Lushan's rebels occupied Luoyang, some powerful families saw an opportunity."

"Although the Ministry of Revenue has not yet conducted a thorough investigation of the national population, from the tax report, we know that the national population is far behind the late Tianbao period in terms of both quality and quantity."

“More than a million households!”

"I estimate that the number of serfs exceeds 10 million."

The prime ministers appointed by Li Xuan were all very practical. They gave clear judgments based on actual conditions.

Even selfish prime ministers like Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong would try every means to get some powerful families to increase taxes. Not to mention them.

Everyone wants to become a famous prime minister who creates a prosperous era and leaves a lasting legacy in history books.

In this era, civil and military officials judged a prosperous era as one of civil governance.

Therefore, people like Qin Shihuang and Emperor Wu of Han have a terrible reputation.

When there were no ministers praising the emperor, they would use the Qin Emperor and Han Emperor to praise him. Even if they did, they would only use the military achievements of the Qin Emperor and Han Emperor to exaggerate that an emperor had both brilliant civil governance and illustrious military achievements.

Even Li Longji had to wait until the late Kaiyuan period, after he established civil governance, before he began to "take the steps of Emperor Wu of Han."

"I and the other ministers have promulgated the tax system based on the amount of land, which will certainly lead to a vicious cycle. It will also allow the powerful families to continue to exploit the people. Therefore, I am preparing to eliminate the lowly and make the people good, free tens of millions of serfs, and let them return to owning the land."

Li Xuan formally proposed to the prime ministers to eliminate the lowly and promote the good.

Since ancient times, there has never been a prosperous era with tens of millions of serfs.

The prime ministers vaguely understood what Li Xuan meant.

Now the equal-field system has been destroyed, and there is no land to be distributed among the counties and prefectures.

The prerequisite for these serfs to be freed was that the state had to have enough land.

"Your Majesty, are you going to confiscate the unregistered lands of the powerful families?"

Pei Zunqing tried to ask Li Xuan.

When Li Longji launched the movement to expand household registration and inspect land in the early days of his reign, his main focus was on confiscating land outside the household registration system.

"Land outside the household register" refers to the extra land that is not registered in the household register under the equal-field system.

In the Tang Dynasty's equal-field system, land was distributed according to population. The state would record in detail in the household register the amount of land each household should receive, the amount of land it had received, and the location, acreage, and orientation of the land.
Therefore, "land outside the household registration system" is mostly illegally occupied by nobles, bureaucrats, and powerful people who rely on their power to seize land. These people annex large amounts of land but do not include it in the household registration, resulting in a reduction in the land that the state can collect taxes on, affecting national taxes.

When he was young, Li Longji saw through the essence at a glance.

After the Zhenguan Administration, the political situation in the Tang Dynasty became corrupt and land annexation once reached its peak, which inevitably led to its decline.

The birth of the Kaiyuan Prosperity was directly related to the inspection of land and expansion of households.

The problem is that the powerful families are already prepared. Confiscating the land outside the family's jurisdiction once again may increase the financial resources a little, but it is ultimately only a temporary solution and not a fundamental solution.

"The powerful families are too powerful to be eliminated. The land outside the registered capital is only a small part of the land they own. How should we view their use of private punishment, bullying the weak, and taking human lives? Once the campaign to eliminate the lowly and make the good begins, the powerful families must declare their land and the number of serfs and slaves. The court will conduct a trial. If there are cases of plundering and taking human lives, all their property will be confiscated and they will be punished according to the law."

Li Xuan said calmly.

If there really is a wealthy family that acquires land simply by working hard, then he is considered to be very powerful.

If it is just land annexation, without taking human lives or resorting to lynching, then the punishment can be lenient, with only the land being confiscated.

If you bully the people in your hometown, you will be marked as a tyrant by a spear. The person who caused the disaster will be executed and his family will be exiled to the western regions.

"It's just that the land outside the family was confiscated, and the powerful families dared not complain. If Your Majesty directly examines their family assets, they will definitely rebel and resist."

Liu Yan reminded Li Xuan.

In this era, many local powerful families are not clean.

Li Longji's inspection of households and expansion of land only caused pain to the big and powerful families.

Li Xuan wanted to kill them, and no one would surrender.

In Jiangnan, Lingnan and other places, when the local prefects and county magistrates were implicated, they would join forces with the powerful for fear of the matter being exposed.

"I have set up ten military governorships in the south, and nearly 100,000 Jinyiwei, just to suppress the civil unrest."

Li Xuan told the prime ministers not to worry too much.

No matter how powerful the wealthy and powerful families are, they cannot be as powerful as An Lushan's rebels.

Without armor, powerful crossbows, or war horses, they were destined to be vulnerable to the regular army.

Hundreds of years ago, after Wang Mang stole the throne, he only knew how to issue decrees and ignored the suffering of the common people.

However, the power of the powerful and the slavery at that time were much stronger than they are now.

Therefore, in terms of caring about the people's hearts, Li Xuan started preparing ten years ago.

Wang Mang's control over military power is nothing compared to his.

Li Xuan's great martial arts skills even frightened the rebels.

Although it is said that Li Xuan was "humble and respectful to Wang Mang before he usurped the throne", Li Xuan's prestige is incomparable to Wang Mang's.

"Since the Zhenguan Period, our dynasty has accumulated a lot of problems. Since ancient times, dynasties have always been unable to avoid the decline of prosperity. The Former Han Dynasty, the Later Han Dynasty, the Wei Dynasty, the Two Jin Dynasties, the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and the Sui Dynasty were all caused by the powerful families when they perished and collapsed. Or as Your Majesty said, we should eliminate the lowly and promote the good, and eliminate the disasters caused by the country."

Li Xian replied to Li Xuan.

Today, wise men are becoming more and more aware of the concept of dynastic change.

Li Xian is a defender of the country. He does not believe that a country can last forever.

He was also a member of the royal family and upheld the rule of the Li Tang dynasty.

Once the country falls, there is a high probability that these powerful families will stir up trouble.

When An Lushan rebelled, many powerful people offered their property and invested in it.

"Your Majesty only asks about the crime. If they are punished, it is their own fault."

Yang Wan also began to support Li Xuan.

Yang, Lu, Pei, Liu, and Li.

The five prime ministers were all from prominent aristocratic families.

However, there were many conflicts among the nobles. They only had the same surname, but not the same will.

For example, when Li Xuan recruited Yang Wan, he was so poor that he didn't even have the money for the travel.

It was his relatives who worked together to raise enough money for him to travel to Longyou.

The prime ministers were deeply trusted by Li Xuan, and if they were unable to make important decisions, he would replace them without hesitation.

"I agree with your Majesty's decision. Confiscating the land outside the household registration is only a temporary solution. Ordering the powerful to get rid of their low status and become good people is the only way to deter the world for fifty years."

Lu Huan also agreed. Having served in many counties, he could empathize with the situation.

He was not as strong as Li Xuan, but he certainly hated the local people for their cruelty to the people.

After Lu Huan finished speaking, Liu Yan and Pei Zunqing expressed their opinions one after another.

Criminals deserve to be punished.

They are reformists who consider themselves to be "adults who change like tigers" and "gentlemen who change like leopards".

They are not worthy of being prime ministers because they are concerned about the impact and they are lenient with local tyrants and powerful families, causing millions of people to suffer.

And they know Li Xuan.

If you want to convince Li Xuan, the first thing you need to do is to be morally right.

The second is to be right in terms of the law.

In the overall situation, Li Xuan has planned ten military governorships in the south. Each military governorship now has an average of 20,000 soldiers, 5,000 elite cavalry, and more than 1,000 powerful crossbowmen.

There is no justice in the actions of the powerful families.

They finally understood why Li Xuan promulgated the tax distribution system at this time.

After the lowly are eliminated and the good is established, many hidden dangers of the land-based tax system will be curbed.

(End of this chapter)