The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 498 The Emperor's Team

The position of Pushe originally held the power of the prime minister, but because it was previously shared by the regent Ying Gong, Ma Zhou and Yu Zhining, the power of the prime minister was now once again divided among five people.

Xu Jingzong frowned and thought, this is neither the power of a prime minister nor the head of all officials.

The two have worked together for many years and were the first to follow Your Majesty. Back then, they were both struggling to grow grapes in Jingyang and climbed up step by step from Jingzhao Prefecture.

Shangguan Yi whispered, "Your Majesty, have you ever thought of establishing a prime minister?"

The two men ignored Du Zhenglun who was counting a cart of melons and walked into Chang'an City. Xu Jingzong said, "Your Majesty has always acted like this. Sometimes he is so arbitrary."

Shangguan Yi quite agreed. How could such an important position as Pushe be given with just an imperial decree?

But when it comes to the ability to govern the country, Your Majesty only cares about who is easy to use and who is not. As for how to govern the country, Your Majesty knows better than all the ministers in the court how this country should be governed.

Xu Jingzong said: "This matter is most likely caused by Yu Zhining's memorial, Ma Zhoujin's advice, and Yinggong's approval."

Shangguan Yi sighed: "He is really arbitrary."

"I'm afraid someone is going to make another remonstrance."

Suddenly, a voice was heard. Xu Jingzong looked back and saw Du Zhenglun following him again.

Shangguan Yi asked, "Where are your melons?"

Du Zhenglun said: "It was sold to General Cheng."

As he spoke, he shook his purse to show off his earnings.

Xu Jingzong shrank his neck. If anyone talked about His Majesty behind his back, Minister Du would definitely report it.

Although Du Zhenglun did not hold a high position in the government, he made many reports to the emperor. It was said that he was an expert at this during the Zhenguan period.

Shangguan Yi was still worried about the imperial edict. If His Majesty was good at making decisions arbitrarily, then His Majesty now did have the capital to do so. His Majesty's talent was rare in history, and it would be difficult for the Qianqing dynasty to have prime ministers like Lord Liang and Lord Zheng.

Your Majesty is an expert in governing the world. The ministers seem much less capable than you in terms of your ability and skill.

If you really want to become the head of all officials, or a minister with enormous power, then pray to God that you are not born in the Qianqing period.

The emperor emeritus back then was good at fighting, right? How could the General Tian Ce not be good?
Your Majesty is very powerful now. He himself is an expert in governing the world.

The power of Li Tang lies in the emperor.

Incredible.

Shangguan Yi looked back at Du Zhenglun who was still following behind him, and whispered, "Do you think there will be more in the future?"

"What do you mean?" Xu Jingzong's expression also became a little nervous.

"Twenty assistant ministers, competing for five positions?"

"Isn't it enough?"

Shangguan Yi emphasized again: "Do you think you can still look at the present with the same perspective as before? There are already 20 Zhongshu Shilang."

Xu Jingzong understood and said, "You mean the number of Zhongshu Shilang will increase."

Shangguan Yi nodded, "Your Majesty has never thought of appointing a prime minister, but rather a group of Zhongshu Shilang to serve Your Majesty."

Xu Jingzong suddenly turned around and looked at Du Zhenglun, wondering how long this man would follow him.

The recent changes in the court have made it seem to outsiders that even if His Majesty does not want to mention the new policies, people will suspect that His Majesty wants to formulate new policies.

Ten years after Your Majesty ascended the throne, you have completely changed the court structure of the Zhenguan period.

But in practical terms, it was just a change in the government and did not change people's lives.

This shows that Your Majesty is cautious in implementing the new policy.

We must be down-to-earth. It took Guanzhong ten years of accumulation to achieve its goal. Now we must be even more down-to-earth.

In October of the tenth year of Qianqing's reign, the morning court was still in progress and another decree was issued. The imperial guards at Suzaku Gate posted the decree on the city wall.

The court once again adjusted the land tax, reducing the land tax for families with less than ten acres of land and increasing the land tax for families with more than ten acres of land. In addition, except for Liaodong, Hebei, and the Hexi Corridor, the land tax of all noble families with more than 100 acres of land in other places was increased by 50%.

This decree does not affect Hebei and Liaodong. In Liaodong, Hebei... every family has hundreds or thousands of acres of land.

This is also the first time that land tax has been adjusted according to region.

The land tax in various places was no longer a one-size-fits-all measure, but for the first time it was collected according to the amount of land. To be precise, this was not a land tax, but an asset tax that was accurate to each household.

From then on, there was no more land tax based mainly on population. It didn’t matter whether you were a hidden household or not, and noble families did not dare to annex your land.

The land tax is not divided according to the number of people in the family. It has nothing to do with the number of people in each family, but only with the amount of land.

In other words, the more wealthy families there were in the Tang Dynasty, the more land taxes the emperor had to collect. Even after the land was divided more intensively, the emperor no longer had to collect land taxes and only collected market taxes on grain sales.

If a family owned one hundred acres of land, they would need to pay half of the grain as land tax.

This extremely exaggerated dispatch caused an uproar in Chang'an City for a while.

The emperor wanted the families who had annexed the land in the past to return the land.

Production is a very complicated account. If the number of employed people is not enough to cover the income from the grain, it is better to leave the land idle. It is better to not plant than to lose money.

This is the method that wealthy families choose when the season is good.

When disaster strikes, wealthy families exchange grain for land.

In the city of Chang'an, small families and large families had already started arguing. Poor peasants were always the majority, and the emperor also stood on the side of the majority.

Whoever controls resource allocation will have a greater say. When resources become fixed and cannot be shaken, when the distribution of land reaches a bottleneck and the emperor cannot redistribute resources equally.

Taxation was the emperor's most powerful weapon.

For Li Chengqian, it was very simple to resolve this problem. He just needed to divert the conflict. This method had always worked. It would be even better if someone rebelled because of dissatisfaction with the taxes.

When power is concentrated in oneself and as long as one stands with the majority, there will be many people in the world who will call you wise.

Even if you are not very wise and not very outstanding during your reign.

There will always be people shouting for the emperor.

Of course, every tax adjustment will face huge resistance, otherwise there would not be so many dynasties that have perished due to harsh taxation.

Today's morning court session ended, and Li Yifu said goodbye to Shangguan Yi. He needed to leave Chang'an City and pass on His Majesty's decree to all parts of the Central Plains to begin checking the land tax.

This time, it was Yu Zhining who made the memorial, Ma Zhou advised, and Duke Ying nodded.

Xu Jingzong left Taiji Hall in a hurry. His Majesty ordered him to go to Jingzhao Prefecture and send bad people to assist Li Yifu.

Chu Suiliang was also in a hurry as he needed to submit land registers from various places to His Majesty.

The twenty secretaries and assistant ministers were extremely busy in the Secretariat.

Li Chengqian, who had just finished the morning court, was eating lunch.

Su Wan had just finished reading the letter her son sent her. "Yu Tu has arrived safely in Xizhou."

Li Chengqian nodded and drank the soup in the bowl.

Ning Er said, "Your Majesty seems to be in a good mood today." Li Chengqian put down the bowl of soup, "We accomplished a great thing today."

Ning'er knew clearly in her heart that His Majesty was becoming more and more solid in terms of centralization and power.

What Your Majesty wants to do can be done more smoothly.

In fact, it has nothing to do with power, it’s just that the current Majesty is a very capable person.

Eunuch Yang leaned on a cane with one hand and asked a palace maid to bring a stack of memorials. "Your Majesty, these are the court officials' memorials of persuasion and remonstrance."

Li Chengqian put down his bowl and chopsticks and said, "Put it aside."

"Yes." Eunuch Yang said again, "There are still quite a few. I will have someone bring them over."

In his spare time after dinner, Li Chengqian looked through the memorials of persuasion. They brought hundreds of them back and forth.

Li Chengqian looked at the court officials' words of advice with appreciation.

Everyone inside and outside the palace knows that His Majesty is always in a good mood when he sees these memorials of advice and admonition, and His Majesty loves to read them very much.

Asset taxation is a huge change, even if it doesn't bring much benefit.

In the memorial of persuasion, as Kong Zhiyue said, he was afraid that no one would serve the country in the future. Soldiers went to the battlefield to gain military merit, get land, and support their families. Fighting a battle would ensure that future generations would have no worries.

It is true that interests drive people to strive for success, but Kong Zhiyue's concept is wrong. The mistake lies in his outdated utilitarianism and the outdated concept of land annexation being supreme, which has not changed.

Changing people's values ​​is a long process.

Land annexation will only produce generations of people who do not work, and then there will be people whose heads are made stupid by the comfortable environment, and it will be difficult to produce people who dare to seek change and strive for strength.

Li Chengqian wrote down his comments and said to the eunuch beside him, "Give it to Xu Jingzong to read, and then have him give it back to Kong Zhiyue."

"Here."

The eunuch received the memorial and left quickly.

Once an order was issued, hundreds of memorials were submitted asking the emperor to revoke the order.

Li Chengqian looked at every memorial of advice carefully. To be a wise ruler, one must be advised by others. An emperor who does not accept advice will hardly become a wise ruler.

Even if you just take a look?
As for this controversial tax reform, even if the current policies are criticized by people in the future, so what?

As long as there is an anti-merger trend, people will know the benefits of anti-merger, and successors will understand that there is such a direction.

As for how things are done or what will happen in the future, Li Chengqian doesn't care.

For now... this is enough.

"Your Majesty, Minister Xu said he has caught a cold."

Li Chengqian flipped through the memorial, his tone contemptuous and with a hint of majesty that could not be refused, he said: "Tell Xu Jingzong that if he can't deal with these people, he might as well retire early. After he retires, I will still give him a salary so that he doesn't have to worry about the future."

"Here."

Xu Jingzong's cold was not actually serious. After hearing the words from the eunuch, he finally understood why His Majesty put him in this position. His Majesty wanted him to clear away obstacles so that government orders could be implemented.

After recuperating at home for two days due to illness, Xu Jingzong kicked open Kong Zhiyue's door full of fighting spirit.

Afterwards, rumors spread that the two had a quarrel over the land tax policy.

Xu Jingzong is still the same Xu Jingzong, the cruel official who fought his way from various counties in Guanzhong all the way to Jingzhao Prefecture.

Xu Jingzong was never a coward. Although he was really ill, he came to the door as soon as his condition improved.

The two sides argued endlessly, and Xu Jingzong didn't care about the reputation of his Kong family and beat Kong Zhiyue up.

As a result, Kong Zhiyu was unable to get out of bed for three days and had to recuperate at home.

It was dusk that day, and the residents nearby still remember it clearly: it was Kong Zhiyue's scream that startled a flock of birds.

Xu Jingzong had not exercised for a long time. He took his men to several houses and persuaded those who advised the emperor.

Rumors are about persuasion, not coercion.

The emperor fined Xu Jingzong one year's salary and ordered people from the Imperial Medical Bureau to treat the injured courtiers, and the matter was over.

The emperor is still the same emperor, and he, Xu Jingzong, is still the same Xu Jingzong.

Du Zhenglun, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Personnel, said to Shangguan Yi: "The Qianqing era has a lot of Zhenguan style."

Shangguan Yi said: "Xu Jingzong acts rudely and becomes arrogant when he is in power. Are you satisfied?"

Du Zhenglun said: "Your Majesty said that if there is a problem, it must be solved. Your Majesty promoted Xu Jingzong. Does that mean that Xu Jingzong will eat more rice?"

Shangguan Yi drank tea and looked at the bustling Suzaku Street in silence.

Du Zhenglun emphasized: "Your Majesty appointed Xu Jingzong as Zuo Pushe so that he could solve the problem. Otherwise, what would happen?"

Shangguan Yi wanted to say something but stopped himself, but the conversation continued.

"This problem may be a certain person, certain people, or certain things. If I can solve it, I will not be in vain for the appointment of His Majesty."

Duke Ying was responsible for nodding, Yu Zhining was responsible for accounting, Ma Zhou was responsible for submitting memorials, Xu Jingzong was responsible for solving "problems", and Chu Suiliang was responsible for doing the work.

There were five prime ministers in one dynasty, each doing his own job, which gave the impression of a prosperous era.

Shangguan Yi always felt that something was missing. In addition to the left and right prime ministers, His Majesty should be able to appoint a few more people to avoid a shortage of manpower.

In Longshouyuan and Anning Village, the calls of ducks can be heard occasionally.

"Professional people do professional things. Xu Jingzong's talent is not as outstanding as Yu Zhining, Ma Zhou, and Chu Suiliang, but his expertise is what I need."

Hearing his son's words, Li Shimin said: "If Duke Zheng were still alive, he would..."

Li Chengqian said: "The old man will definitely be pleased."

“How come you see?”

Li Chengqian explained: "Because Lord Zheng has wanted to do this for a long time. If he were still alive, it would not be Xu Jingzong who would do it, but Lord Zheng himself."

After saying that, Li Chengqian took out a piece of paper from his sleeve and handed it over, "A letter from Yu Tu."

Seeing that his father was still watching, Li Chengqian said, "If your father has any other instructions, you can write a letter and I will have someone give it to him."

"I won't write it. You can write it and send it to me."

"I will tell him about the recent situation of the Emperor and the Empress."

This time when she came to visit her father, she also brought a lot of silk, daily necessities, and some rice cakes from Jiangnan.

After a debate that lasted for half a month, when there were fewer people attending the morning court, the voices opposing the taxation became less frequent.

In the tenth year of Qianqing's reign, at the beginning of winter, new tax decrees began to be issued to various places.

New policy, new policy... Young students once again gathered in Chongwenguan, shouting in unison that they were willing to follow the emperor and become staunch followers.

(End of this chapter)