The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 322 The Prince and the Teacher
Today, my father seemed to be in a bad mood. He said a lot of things, all of which were about what he saw and heard after this trip. If war is a way of distributing wealth, then this method of redistributing land based on the military system is the most brutal, simple, and intuitive.

The world is huge, and the empire established by Li Tang needs to rule the entire world. There are tens of millions of people in this world waiting to be governed.

Guanzhong today is completely different from what it used to be. All counties and places in Guanzhong, including Longxi in the Hexi Corridor, have been transformed. This transformation is very interesting.

All of these were under the high-pressure management of the court, mainly in Jingzhao Prefecture, and all of them were improved under the strict orders of the crown prince himself.

Of course, there were complaints from officials or some people who grumbled.

Until the three brothers left Ganlu Temple, the three bowls of cold noodles were still on the table without being touched.

My father said he was tired and wanted to go to Taiye Lake to rest.

After leaving Ganlu Palace, Li Tai asked, "I heard that Yu Tu hit father with building blocks?"

Li Ke was surprised and asked, "Is this true?"

Li Tai said: "I just heard about it when I came to the morning court today. Fortunately, Xiao Yutu and my father are both fine."

Li Chengqian walked in front and said, "That child is quite active. It's all because of Grandpa and Li Zhi who spoiled him."

Li Tai smiled helplessly. It seemed a little abnormal that little Yu Tu was not spoiled.

Arriving in front of Chengtian Gate, Li Ke said, "Ke will go to Xianyang County to visit Liu Rengui first."

Li Tai also said: "Qingque has also returned to the Literature Museum first."

After both of his brothers left, Li Chengqian went to the Secretariat. Neither Li Tai nor Li Ke mentioned the Eastern Expedition.

On the way back to Chang'an from Luoyang, the officials in the court and the country were discussing whether Your Majesty would launch an expedition to the east.

But this time, after the emperor came back, no one talked about the matter anymore. Everyone kept silent about it.

The imperial city was very lively, with officials coming and going constantly, and it was busier than ever before.

The emperor came back and brought back a lot of things, such as the decree that all those who were wandering around without a registered residence in the world must return to China by the end of next year. This decree needed to be announced to the world.

The emperor and Lord Zheng returned to Chang'an and brought a lot of files. Li Chengqian had not read them yet but could guess some of them.

During this one-year trip, I left the comfort zone of Guanzhong and headed for the real world. The so-called floating stateless people are now the escaped households and hidden households, and this problem has reached the point where it must be solved.

Now it is announced to the world that those hidden and escaped households need to restore their household registration, but is this really easy?
Or how many people will be moved when the emperor issues this decree to the world?
Can this kind of emotion change the current situation?

That's too idealistic.

In a certain sense, from an emperor's perspective, taxation and prestige complement each other. Without these two, the country will lose its appeal.

Therefore, we can indeed draw some lessons from past experience in "The Book of Lord Shang", but looking at the current environment, if we still blindly use this book to govern the world.

As a result, we lose the ability to judge the actual environment and current situation, which seems a bit idealistic and unrealistic.

Generally speaking, some people only believe in the teachings of Huang-Lao or the Legalists, which is a bit lazy.

When he arrived at the gate of the Secretariat, Li Chengqian saw his uncle again.

Changsun Wuji bowed and said, "Your Highness."

Li Chengqian stopped walking with his hands in his pockets and said, "I'm afraid we'll be busy these days. All officials of the Secretariat of the Fifth Rank and above, please stay for the night."

"Mr. Zheng is seriously ill."

Li Chengqian was silent for a moment, then frowned and said, "No wonder Lord Zheng was not present at the morning court today."

Zhang Sun Wuji said again: "I will go to visit Duke Zheng right now. Your Highness should focus on state affairs. Please come back to visit after you finish these things."

"Thank you, uncle."

Changsun Wuji bowed again and left quickly.

Suddenly I thought that Mr. Zheng is now sixty-three years old.

Li Chengqian stood there for a while before walking into the Secretariat.

Zhang Xuansu had just returned to Chang'an at the beginning of this year. When he saw the prince coming, he immediately handed over a memorial and said, "Your Highness, this is the memorial written by Ma Zhou on the governance of Luoyang in previous years."

Li Chengqian took the memorial but didn't read it before he asked, "Thank you for your help during these years in Luoyang?"

Zhang Xuansu bowed and said, "I dare not slack off."

The teacher was discussing with several civil officials, and Cen Wenben was arranging some political affairs.

Many clerks also sent some files to the Secretariat.

Piles of files were piled up next to the Secretariat, half a person's height when piled together.

Many of them were placed on the desks of various officials, and the task of sorting out the files from various places was handed over to Yu Zhining and Chu Suiliang.

Li Chengqian took the memorial from Luoyang and sat down to read it.

In recent years, Luoyang has developed very well, even better than expected. Now Luoyang has increased to 25 counties. Including the population of Luoyang city, the total population is 750,000, of which 40% are immigrants.

The problem of hidden and escaped households that my father was worried about was not a problem in Luoyang. Whether in Luoyang or Guanzhong, if you want to work in a workshop, you need to have a household registration. Those without a household registration cannot enter the workshop to work, and the county governments will also conduct regular inspections.

In this way, the taxation and population registration issues can be well alleviated.

Today's Chang'an and Luoyang are huge wealth absorbers, constantly absorbing wealth from the Western Regions and the Central Plains. Cartloads of goods are exchanged for money and flow into various workshops. After the workshops pay taxes, the money becomes the court's wealth.

And it is still constantly absorbing labor. This siphon effect will allow Guanzhong and Luoyang to absorb huge amounts of resources in a short period of time.

Li Lizhi's resource theory must be taken seriously. To produce, one must master resources, such as minerals and timber, even tea mountains and salt mines, or sericulture.

The problem comes back to the means of production and means of production, a huge and difficult problem.

Ma Zhou wants to increase the city tax in Luoyang. He thinks the current city tax in Luoyang is too low, and he wants to increase the city tax to 40%.

Li Chengqian made a comment, moving the tax collection closer to the front end of production, and determining the tax based on the price, regardless of the goods.

Essentially, Ma Zhou’s problem was not how much tax to collect, but how little tax was evenly distributed among the people.

A pilot project can be carried out in Luoyang, but the right measure needs to be struck during the trial. It should be more when necessary, and less when necessary, and try not to impose a burden on the lives of the villagers.

In the 16th year of Zhenguan, after the autumn, the price of grain in Guanzhong did not fall but rose instead, reaching ten coins per dou of rice.

When the morning fog dissipated, Li Chengqian and his teacher walked to a river a few miles away from Chang'an City. The river was the Chan River, and Xinfeng County was next to it.

There is a kind of liquor in Xinfeng County, which is the world-famous Xinfeng Liquor.

Xinfeng County was a city built by Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang. It was formerly called Xinfeng City, which was built because Emperor Gaozu missed his hometown of Pei County. After several changes in the times, it became a county.

I don’t know whether Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, had ever drunk Xinfeng wine, or whether he really loved it.

Only in later historical books were people like Li Bai fond of Xinfeng wine.

Walking outside Xinfeng County, you can see cartloads of jars being sent into the county.

Li Chengqian asked: "Mr. Zheng is seriously ill, but he has not mentioned the Eastern Expedition again. Teacher, do you think the Eastern Expedition is necessary?"

Fang Xuanling asked, "Do you think that if Duke Zheng were here, he would definitely oppose Your Majesty's expedition to the east?"

"What do you think, teacher?"

"Well...I will also oppose Your Majesty's expedition to the East."

Li Chengqian looked into the distance with his hands in his pockets, seeing a group of children picking up wheat straw in the fields, and said, "If the emperor insists on going on the expedition to the east, will the teacher stop him?"

"Your Highness, in the fourth year of Zhenguan, the Tang army conquered the Turks. It was not until the tenth year of Zhenguan that the Tang army quelled the Tuyuhun rebellion. Then in the thirteenth year of Zhenguan, the battle of Gaochang was over. Then the Tubo army invaded Songzhou. Later, there was the battle of Tianshan and the current battle of Mobei."

The teacher did not respond directly, but instead talked about the various wars that had been launched in the sixteen years from the Zhenguan period to the present.

The emperor of the Tang Dynasty was warlike, and so were its generals. The amount of manpower and material resources consumed in their campaigns to conquer the east and the west can be imagined.

Li Chengqian was walking along the official road. On one side of the road were the fields unique to the Guanzhong Plain. At a glance, the fields stretched to the end of the field of vision.

"If the battle in Songzhou had not ended so quickly, I'm afraid my father and the court officials would have agreed to the marriage."

After Li Chengqian finished speaking, he continued walking, and the teacher did not answer.

In fact, Songtsen Gampo chose a very good time. He was also powerful. He absorbed the remaining herdsmen of Tuyuhun and united many tribes around Tubo. If Songzhou had not been defended and if that battle had not been won, I am afraid that the Tang Dynasty and Tubo would have become relatives.

The war has been fought, and Qinghai has become a land for the Tang army to cultivate farmland. There is no point in talking about this now.

Fang Xuanling said: "Your Highness, now everyone in the world is longing for peace."

"If the cost of conquering Goguryeo was not high, and only a thousand soldiers were needed to conquer it, would the court still be obstructing it?"

Seeing the teacher's hesitant expression, Li Chengqian raised his head and said, "I still remember that before Mr. Wen Yanbo passed away, he was still thinking about Liaodong. A thousand men took down Goguryeo... Am I too delusional?"

Fang Xuanling remained silent.

"Maybe. Yang Guang almost emptied the Central Plains in order to conquer Goguryeo, which was also the reason for the collapse of the Sui Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty has only been based in the Central Plains for more than 20 years. If we bring up this matter again, there will definitely be many people who will obstruct it."

"In fact, I understand your majesty's intention."

The teacher finally spoke, and Li Chengqian slowed down and listened.

Guards stood around, and no one was allowed to approach within fifty steps. Half of the official road was occupied by guards.

Standing on the official road at this moment are the most famous Prime Minister Fang and the Crown Prince in the Tang Dynasty.

Fang Xuanling said: "Your Majesty can actually ignore Liaodong, but there are some things that if the emperor succeeds, and recovers the remains left in Liaodong, the foundation of the Li Tang Dynasty will be consolidated and people's hearts will be settled. But if he fails, the consequences will be disastrous."

"As a minister, I know that the country is still in a state of population decline and needs to recuperate and build up national strength. It is my duty to advise the emperor to do the right thing."

"Teacher, rest assured. I will not make things difficult for those ministers who give advice."

Fang Xuanling added: "Your Majesty knows that some battles will be more difficult to fight later if they are not fought now. If we miss this opportunity, there will be greater resistance to the Eastern Expedition in the future. Once people have been settled for a few years, there will be more people who oppose the expedition again, and some people may even oppose it for their own benefit."

"Your Highness, people's hearts are like this. Just like Xu Jingzong opened the workshop forcefully, he also knew that if he stopped Jingzhao Prefecture two years ago, Guanzhong's production plan would probably come to a standstill. Although he acted recklessly, he finally got through."

Li Chengqian nodded in understanding.

Duke Zheng would teach an emperor what to do and what not to do, his uncle would teach how to control court officials, and his uncle would do his best to assist.

Only the teacher can clearly tell me what is hidden deep in my father's heart.

As the current crown prince, Li Chengqian unexpectedly discovered that none of the elders around him would teach him how to be an emperor.

When the children carried bundles of straw home, Li Chengqian and his teacher also returned to Chang'an City.

Chang'an is the busiest at this time of year because after autumn many goods are rushed to Chang'an to be sold.

Di Renjie sat on the street and asked, "Your Highness Prince Jin, what's wrong with you lately?"

Li Zhi sighed deeply, "Ah... I don't want to talk about it."

Di Renjie looked at Li Shen who was standing beside him and asked, "Your Highness Prince Ji?"

Li Shen also let out a long sigh.

Di Renjie scratched his head, with a puzzled look on his fat face, and asked, "Could it be that there is no food in the palace?"

Li Zhi hesitated and finally said nothing.

Di Renjie's fat face showed some suspicion, and he said, "I don't eat much, do I?"

Not long after, Zhang Jianzhi sat down at the foot of the city wall with a tired look on his face, yawned and said, "I'm afraid I will never be able to enter the government in this lifetime."

Li Zhi snorted coldly and said, "So what if you become an official? Will it be useful?"

Zhang Jianzhi squatted down, put his hands on his knees, lowered his head, and said, "I thought I had enough talent, but now it seems that talent alone is useless if I want to pass the imperial examination. Even if I am good at Mingjing, I cannot pass if I can't pass the policy questions."

"I've made up my mind!" Zhang Jianzhi suddenly said, "I won't take the imperial examination in this life. I want to be a famous official in the future."

"Ha ha……"

Li Zhi smiled.

Li Shen knew why his brother was in such a bad mood. The windmill was originally a very good idea. When the villagers were drying their grain, they could just put the windmill on the side. It was useful, but not very useful, because it would turn when the wind came, but would not turn when the wind didn't come.

The sound of knocking on the pottery jar was not loud enough to scare away the birds.

Therefore, the things made by the emperor's brother were useful, but of little use, and were ruthlessly abandoned by the villagers in various counties.

Therefore, I have been depressed ever since.

Li Shen whispered, "Actually, my sister said that if my brother could use his knowledge in a better place, he would definitely be able to do something more meaningful."

Li Zhi clenched his fist with one hand and said with a firm look: "Zhi must create something good that will be famous throughout the ages."

In Guanzhong in the autumn, the sun is still somewhat warm, but it is very dry, and the children's faces are all red.

(End of this chapter)