The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 537 What's wrong with the Emperor?

Many people in Chang'an City witnessed this oath. Perhaps many years later, when these students who took the oath come back again, they will remember the scene of the oath today, and the people in Chang'an City will also remember that they took the oath.

Li Chengqian couldn't remember when the collective power and collective consciousness began to sprout. Maybe it started with the question "Are there any kings, princes, generals or ministers of the same race?" Or should we say it started with the remaining strength of the six generations?

The oath in front of Chunming Gate continued. Li Chengqian wiped away his tears and walked down the city wall.

The emperor was still on the city wall watching the child, with two guards beside him. Li Chengqian said, "The rest of the matter will be arranged by the Ministry of War and the many generals in the army. If there are any more objections, let Lord Ying talk to me."

"Here."

Li Chengqian walked along the city wall of Chang'an, not knowing whether this was the right thing to do. After all, he had taken this step, but who knew what would happen in the future.

At least someone took the oath, and at least someone watched them take the oath.

Not many people noticed that the emperor who was originally standing on the city wall had left. In fact, not many people noticed when the emperor came here, and no one paid attention when the emperor left.

Li Chengqian walked into the imperial city and heard a call.

"Father!"

Little Magpie ran over quickly, grabbed his father's arm and said with a smile, "I heard that Chunming Gate is very lively today?"

Li Chengqian nodded and said, "Yes."

She smiled and said, "My daughter and Shangguan Wan'er are learning Shu embroidery."

Li Chengqian hesitated and asked, "Is it Shangguan Yi's granddaughter?"

"Yes." Xiao Que'er said, "She is three years younger than my daughter."

Li Chengqian said: "I have heard that Shu embroidery is difficult before."

Xiao Que'er said with a smile, "These days, my daughter studies in Beiyuan in the morning, and returns to the palace in the afternoon to learn Shu embroidery with Wan'er."

Li Chengqian nodded and said, "Okay."

When they returned to the new palace, Ma Zhou and Yu Zhining were already waiting there. A pile of files were placed on the table. These were matters concerning the rewards for this year's Battle of Pamirs.

The two of them saluted together.

Yu Zhining said: "Your Majesty, everything is ready."

"Ah."

Li Chengqian immediately sat down and worked with Ma Zhou to deal with the affairs of the Ministry of Personnel. Xiao Que'er sat aside very sensibly, helping to pour tea for his father, grind ink, and organize files.

Li Chengqian looked at the list and asked, "Have Pei Yan and Liu Rengui been appointed as assistant ministers of the Ministry of War?"

Ma Zhou said: "The Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of War and the Secretariat have all reviewed it, and they have all passed it."

"It seems that the abilities of these two people are obvious to all in the court."

Yu Zhining nodded. "Since Jin Chunqiu came to Chang'an, Silla and the old land of Baekje have had several rebellions. The Ministry of War and the Secretariat both hope to send people to Silla to stabilize the situation. Now the general Liu Boying stationed in Silla has retired for the third time."

Li Chengqian put down the roster and whispered, "Is there a vacancy for the official stationed in Silla?"

Little Que'er listened quietly and refilled his father's teacup with tea.

Ma Zhou handed over another file and replied, "This is the idea that the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of War, and the Military Guards have exchanged."

Li Chengqian stared at a name on the file and asked, "Heichi Changzhi?"

Yu Zhining explained: "This man was originally from Baekje, and after joining the army, he followed Pei Xingjian."

The files clearly state that this incident happened in October of the eleventh year of the Qianqing reign, when Liu Boying submitted his retirement petition for the third time. After the petition reached the Ministry of War, it was handed over to the Ministry of Personnel, which then returned the document and asked the Ministry of War to select another candidate.

Ma Zhou was both the Minister of Personnel and the current Minister of the Central Secretariat. His power was close to that of the Prime Minister, just like Yu Zhining.

Ma Zhou and Yu Zhining are in charge of people and accounts respectively.

"According to the Ministry of War's plan, Liu Rengui will be in charge of internal affairs, while Pei Yan will be in charge of external affairs."

After Yu Zhining finished speaking, Ma Zhou added: "Liu Rengui will control the internal affairs of the army, and Pei Yan will control the border guardhouse. This is what I discussed with Lord Ying before."

Inside the new palace, Li Chengqian was still flipping through the files and did not reply immediately.

Seeing that His Majesty still seemed to have doubts about the current arrangements, Ma Zhou continued to explain the contents of the file.

It was not until dusk that Ma Zhou and Yu Zhining walked out of Chengtian Gate, and the oath at Chunming Gate had just ended.

At night, Di Renjie, Li Zhi and Li Shen sat together around a brazier.

The night dew was still a little heavy. Di Renjie put on his coat and drank some wine and asked, "Pei Xingjian will be the commander of the left army, and Xue Rengui will be the commander of the right army?"

Li Zhi nodded and said, "Everyone in the government and the public is asking about it. The fact that Pei Yan and Liu Rengui are serving in the Ministry of War is probably correct."

Di Renjie picked up the baked cake beside the brazier, broke off a piece and put it in his mouth to eat, and then asked: "What are you looking at me for?"

Li Shen said: "Huaiying, you have also made military achievements this time."

Di Renjie chewed a biscuit and said, "What merits I have, most of them are to explore the way ahead for the army. In the battle of Anguo, it was Liu Rengui who led the Sai people's cavalry to rush to the rescue and saved the day. His military merits were great."

Li Zhi whispered, "There will probably be arrangements in the East China Sea."

"really?"

Li Zhi looked at the two men and whispered, "After Jin Chunqiu and his son came to Chang'an, rebellions broke out in various parts of Silla. My brother and Lord Ying probably want to put an end to it once and for all."

Li Shen made a gesture of wiping his neck with a serious look on his face.

Di Renjie looked suspicious. When his mouth was dry after eating the biscuits, he drank a mouthful of mutton soup, then tightened his coat and sat down.

The next day, the sun just appeared from the east.

When Li Zhi woke up, he saw Di Renjie facing east, "Huaiying, what's wrong with you? You always like to look at the sun."

Di Renjie grinned and said, "I've developed a habit recently. I really like the scene of the sun rising."

Li Shen brought a wooden tray, put it down and brought out three bowls of mutton soup, saying, "Have some soup noodles, Huaiying! You have to be on duty early in the morning."

Only then did Di Renjie withdraw his gaze and sit down to have breakfast.

Afterwards, officials from Jingzhao Prefecture arrived one after another.

Yan Qinli didn't come at this time, which meant that the morning court was still held.

But Liu Rengui came at this time, which meant that the appointment from the court had not been made. Li Zhi and Li Shen were still in Jingzhao Prefecture. These days, the two brothers were eating and drinking in Jingzhao Prefecture. Liu Rengui saw it and wanted to impeach them for a long time.

Unexpectedly, Prince Jin and Prince Ji seemed to take their place in Jingzhao Prefecture for granted. As they were royal brothers of the current emperor, Liu Rengui could only tolerate them again and again.

Fortunately, the two brothers were just eating and drinking for free, and even Prince Ji was very diligent in helping out. Liu Rengui had not submitted the impeachment memorial yet, but he had already written it.

In fact, the Prince of Jin's Mansion was really poor. Li Zhi spent all his money on inventions and on craftsmen who improved productivity. He almost sold his mansion.

"There's news!" A clerk came running over and said, "There's news."

Li Zhi immediately perked up and asked, "Is it an imperial decree?"

"That's right. General Liang Jianfang defeated the various tribes in the Pamir Mountains and defeated the enemy in one battle at Mulu City. He beheaded more than 9,000 people, captured 30,000 people, captured more than 100,000 people alive, and seized another 100,000 cattle, horses and other livestock. Your Majesty..."

The clerk breathed out a sigh of relief and then explained, "He was conferred the title of Duke of Yanmen County."

Li Zhi understood and said, "County Duke, isn't that the same as State Duke?"

Li Shen chewed a biscuit and added, "Since my father abdicated, my brother has not been conferred the title of Duke. Besides, Duke of a County is the highest title given to my brother since he ascended the throne."

"Didn't you mention Lingyan Pavilion?"

"Replying to King Jin, I didn't mention it."

Li Shen added: "Everyone who can enter the Lingyan Pavilion is extremely important. Maybe the emperor will let Taoist Li Chunfeng and Taoist Sun Simiao enter the Lingyan Pavilion. As for Liang Jianfang, I'm afraid we have to wait a few more years."

"How did Brother Shen know about this?"

"My father said so at the family dinner on the winter solstice."

Li Zhi slapped his forehead and said in annoyance, "I was drunk with my brother, the King of Wu, and I didn't hear it. I won't drink too much at family banquets in the future."

Next, the imperial edicts were brought to the Suzaku Gate by the eunuchs.

As expected, Pei Yan, who was in his twenties, was appointed as the Minister of War at the young age. Liu Rengui was also appointed as the Minister at the same time.

Secondly, Pei Xingjian was in charge of the left army and Xue Rengui was in charge of the right army.

Zhang Da'an was appointed as the prefect of Jingzhao Prefecture in Chang'an, and Di Renjie was appointed as the junior prefect of Jingzhao Prefecture in Chang'an.

Su Weidao had just returned to Chang'an City with his luggage when he heard about this major event. His Majesty began to reward the generals who fought in the Congling War.

The twenty-year-old Assistant Minister of the Ministry of War and the twenty-year-old Junior Inspector of Jingzhao Prefecture all reflect that the current emperor only looks at talent and not background when employing people, and does not care about so-called seniority.

This gave an encouragement to many young people in Chang'an City. The excitement just now had not yet passed, and His Majesty's decree was still continuing. Liu Hongye, the director of Tianzhu Chongwenguan, was appointed as the director of Luoyang Chongwenguan and concurrently the chief historian of Luoyang.

The rest is the appointment of many young officials. Many young people have been promoted this year. It seems that the Ministry of Personnel has been prepared to promote a large number of young people this year. At the same time, many old ministers and generals have left the court.

Among the young people who were promoted were Li Yiyan, Li Fengjie, Li Anqi, Zhao Renben, Cui Xuanwei, including the Western Region Garrison General Bai Fang and the King of Sairen.

The emperor's reward was neither too high nor too low. At least he gave everyone the reward they deserved.

In fact, the amount of military pay and rewards given out by the emperor made Chu Suiliang worry that Chang'an City would suffer a financial disaster, that is, copper coins might depreciate due to the emperor's large-scale rewards.

Chu Suiliang was worried but could only endure it silently. What else could he do?

Your Majesty's rewards are what the soldiers deserve. Chu Suiliang does not want to be in trouble between Your Majesty and the army, so he can only think about sending people to make arrangements and prepare in advance after the morning court session.

The Tang Dynasty is still the Tang Dynasty, but it has undergone more and more changes.

It is obvious that as the peaceful years pass, the population of Guanzhong has increased and people are becoming busier and busier.

In the eyes of some elderly people, people in Guanzhong are very busy nowadays. The elderly people are all those who lived during the Wude and Zhenguan periods. Their lives in the past were very comfortable. After busy work in the fields, sometimes they could not find anything to do all day. They were either giving birth to children or eating food.

Su Weidao waited for Yao Chong by the Xianyang Bridge.

Yao Chong, who had just returned from teaching, asked with his bag on his back, "How is Chang'an?"

"I want to tell you something."

Su Weidao told Yao Chong about a new tax law. In the past, the emperor's taxes on land were based on grain. For example, if a village had a declining population and only ten households, but the village had one hundred hectares of land, in order to obtain taxes, the emperor would issue an edict requiring more than ten households to pay taxes, and the taxes paid would be the taxes on the one hundred hectares of land.

More than ten families paid taxes for one hundred hectares of land. Just farming would exhaust people to death, and they could not cultivate the full one hundred hectares, so there was a shortage of taxes. Imagine how stressful it would be to cultivate endless fields but pay taxes beyond one's ability.

After that, taxes began to change. The emperor began to collect taxes based on the number of people, instead of based on the amount of land.

But nowadays, the emperor no longer considers the size of the land or the population, but the grain value of the land. He gives the value of the grain to the villagers and collects taxes according to the value created by the villagers. The emperor gives the villagers the autonomy to farm, allowing them to be self-sufficient and create value.

But nowadays, only when the land has value will the court collect taxes.

Even if the grain grown on your land is consumed by your family and is not bought or sold at a price, and the grain is not taken out for exchange, the court will not collect taxes.

In other words, the court and the counties no longer managed the food rations of the villagers. There was no such thing as everyone sharing the same pot. Instead, each household had to take care of its own food rations.

Su Weidao told Yao Chong about this matter, and he waved his sleeves and said, "Look at the current situation in Guanzhong."

Yao Chong said: "You said a lot, but I only understood one truth."

"Appreciate further details."

Yao Chong said: "What the emperor wants is hard-working people."

"Ah."

"So the emperor distributed many benefits to his hardworking subjects, including the taxes you mentioned. The emperor hoped that more and more hardworking people would be taxed."

Su Weidao raised his head and looked towards Chang'an City in the distance. "Your Majesty now really has a long-term vision. Without the careful planning over the years, we wouldn't be in this situation now."

Yao Chong also felt that this was what His Majesty was best at now, and Su Weidao shouldn't be so surprised.

This year, Yao Chong and Su Weidao returned to Chang'an City to report on their work and to get some new books in preparation for the imperial examination next year.

In June of the twelfth year of the Qianqing reign, half a year after the Battle of Pamirs, news came that the expeditionary army had won a great victory. A general named Wang Xiaojie captured cities and won several great victories in the territory of the Arab Empire.

Li Chengqian was sitting by the Kunming Lake and handed the good news to his father, the emperor, who was standing beside him. There were still five eunuchs holding fishing rods and sitting upright by the lake under his father's seat.

"Who is this Wang Xiaojie?"

"A student from Chongwen Academy was sent to India after joining the army. After making meritorious contributions, he will be sent on an expedition."

"Expedition?" Li Shimin asked with a hopeful look, "Where did you fight to?"

"Wang Xiaojie said he would not come back until he captured Ali from the Arab Empire alive." Li Chengqian said with a smile, "Mr. Ying said that a Tang general should do this, but Liang Jianfang and his men said that the Arab Empire is vast and it would be difficult to come back. If he goes too far, they are afraid that he will not be able to come back. I have always been very tolerant. If he does not come back and starts a family abroad, or establishes a small country, as long as it is a Tang country, I will confer him a title of duke or prince."

(End of this chapter)