History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 934: Later Lord Li Yu (Part )

【Later Lord Li Yu】

After Li Yu ascended the throne, he urgently needed to consolidate his ruling position and establish a centralized feudal power system with Comrade Li Yu as the core. Let's take a look at Li Yu's three political axes:
"Return to the capital to bury my father and establish the legal system"

Li Jing hastily moved the capital to Hongzhou and died of illness three months later. Before his death, he warned Li Yu to bury him simply on the spot, otherwise he would not be a loyal minister or filial son. However, after Li Yu ascended the throne, he violated Li Jing's last wish and brought his coffin back to Shengzhou and buried him next to the mausoleum of his grandfather Xu Zhigao.

Shengzhou was the best district of Southern Tang. When Li Jing discussed moving the capital, almost all the civil and military officials in the court were unanimously opposed to it. Only Tang Hao strongly supported it. If the central administrative agency continued to remain in Hongzhou, Li Yu would lose the support of civil and military officials. This was a political risk that Li Yu could not take.

At the same time, burying Li Jing next to Xu Zhigao also sent a signal to the world: Li Jing was the legitimate heir of the Southern Tang Dynasty and the legitimate product of the primogeniture system.

"Follow the orthodox rule of the Song Dynasty"

After Li Yu ascended the throne, he immediately sent an envoy to the Song Dynasty to express his condolences, report the changes in the country, and express his respect for the orthodox system and everything else. At the same time, he asked for the title of emperor to be conferred on his father posthumously. Zhao Kuangyin replied with an imperial edict to comfort him. In the edict, Zhao Kuangyin "decreed without naming" to show his generosity.

At Li Yu's request, the Song Dynasty posthumously conferred the title of Emperor Li Jing on him. With the recognition and support of the Song Dynasty, Li Yu felt relieved.

Previously, although Li Jing had removed his title of emperor, all the rules and regulations were the same as royal etiquette. After Li Yu ascended the throne, whenever he received envoys from the Song Dynasty, he would change into a purple robe to show his obedience to the Celestial Empire. After the envoys left, he would put them back on. The palace in Shengzhou was decorated with a chiwen, which was also an exclusive ornament for the emperor. Whenever he received an envoy from the Song Dynasty, Li Yu would take it off first and put it back on after sending the envoy away. The closed-door emperor.

In terms of contribution, we should also show a respectful attitude:

In July 961, Li Yu sent envoys to the Song Dynasty to express his condolences and declare his accession to the throne, offering a tribute of 7 taels of gold, 9 taels of silver, and rolls of painted gauze and silk; in September, the Song Dynasty sent people to Shengzhou to offer condolences and gave rolls of silk as a gift.

In the following year (962), Southern Tang sent envoys to the Song Dynasty to pay tribute three times in March, June and November.

In addition to paying tribute during festivals, the Celestial Empire also paid tribute to express congratulations on every major event, such as weddings, funerals, expansion of territory, construction of palaces, etc.

Foreign nations such as the Uighurs, Jurchens, and Goryeo also paid tribute to the Central Plains, but their tribute was profitable; the tribute from the Southern Tang was a real tribute, often involving tens of thousands of taels of gold and silver, and additional bribes to senior officials, while the return gift from the Song Dynasty was so plain and simple, and the sentiment was profound.

A grandson should act like a grandson.

"Financial reform"

In his later years, Li Jing implemented a quantitative easing policy, minting large coins and iron coins, and increasing the issuance of currency, but it was abolished in just half a year. After Li Yu took over, the decadent national economy still failed to recover. The act of throwing a lot of money to the Song Dynasty made the broken economy of the Southern Tang Dynasty even worse. Li Yu had to restart the printing press and resume the quantitative easing policy.

Compared with Li Jing's two-pronged approach, Li Yu was relatively conservative and only took the path of cast iron coins, whose advocate was still Han Xizai.

Previously, Li Jing minted the "Tang Guo Tong Bao" copper coin. The "Tang Guo Tong Bao" has a place in the coin collection circle because it is the earliest "pair of coins", that is, it is minted in pairs with regular script and seal script, which is quite interesting.

At first, the official standard for minting was 3.2 jin of copper for every 1,000 coins. As time went on, a large number of "counterfeit banknotes" appeared among the people, that is, the so-called private minting and theft, taking the way of cutting corners to earn the price difference. In the later period, every 1,000 coins weighed only about 1 jin, which was reduced by one third! How thin was this privately minted coin? According to historical records, it could float on the water...

The economic difficulties faced by Southern Tang (use the term "economic crisis" with caution) are exactly the same as those faced by many countries today, which is the imbalance between supply and demand caused by insufficient production capacity or hollowing out of industries. However, many experts and public intellectuals have deliberately packaged it as a "money shortage" to guide public opinion, and then interfere with the country's major policies and promote the poisonous cup of quantitative easing, which is putting the cart before the horse.

for example:

A tourist named Zhang San from another place came to a village A that was in economic difficulties. He spent 100 copper coins to stay in a hotel. The innkeeper used the 100 copper coins to buy meat, the butcher used the 100 copper coins to buy clothes, the tailor bought another 100 copper coins for cloth, and the cloth shop owner returned the accommodation fee owed to the innkeeper. At this time, Zhang San had something to do, so he checked out, took back the 100 copper coins from the innkeeper and left village A. In this example, the 100 copper coins went through a big circle and returned to Zhang San's hands, but the market of the entire village A was fully mobilized and the economy was revitalized.

Therefore, some people came up with a truth, believing that issuing more currency is the magic weapon to solve all economic difficulties. However, they overlooked the most critical issue: the reason why the economy of Village A was able to recover was only because there was a lack of sufficient currency in circulation in the market. Therefore, after Zhang San injected liquidity into Village A, the so-called economic difficulties were naturally solved.

Let’s look at the second example:

Zhang San came to Village B. The innkeeper said that the house was in disrepair and badly damaged, so he could not provide accommodation. The butcher shop owner said that he had no meat because his farm had stopped production. The tailor shop owner said that he could not make clothes because he had no cloth. The cloth shop owner said that he had no cloth because he had no textile workshop... Even though Zhang San took the initiative to raise the price, asking for 200 or 300 copper coins to stay in the hotel, it was of no avail. In the end, he could only shake his head and sigh and leave Village B.

In fact, the economic difficulties faced by many countries in the world today are exactly the same as those faced by Village B. They are not lacking liquidity, but the most fundamental factor in commodity trade - commodities. The "commodities" here include agricultural products, industrial products, and various services. To change this predicament, we should start with encouraging farming and weaving, that is, restoring productivity, increasing production capacity, and upgrading industries, rather than blindly printing money at full capacity. Otherwise, we will fall into a vicious cycle of inflation. Ordinary people hold a lot of money, but can't buy anything. A loaf of bread costs 50 yuan, and even art students who failed the exam can't sit still...

In the prosperous times, the emperor imposed light taxes and levies, cherished the people's strength, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, the enthusiasm for production was fully mobilized, goods were sufficient, and the market was active, so the problem of overcapacity gradually emerged. For example, in Village A, everyone had sufficient goods and services, but lacked enough circulating currency. This was a "money shortage". The Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty both faced this problem. In this case, it could be perfectly solved by simply issuing more currency.

In ancient times, the usual way to increase the issuance of currency was to mint large coins, cast iron coins, etc., and another most effective method was the "short money" mentioned earlier in this book, using 80 or 70 coins as 100 coins to create some non-existent currency out of thin air, using natural leverage to inject liquidity into the market.

The same symptoms have different origins and different treatments. Only by finding out the essence of the problem can we find the right remedy. The problem of Southern Tang is the problem of Village B. Minting big coins is only a temporary solution and will not work.

Li Yu was certainly aware of the root of the problem. While increasing the currency, he also promulgated a series of more effective measures, such as abolishing the "Tuntianshi" and "Ratefen".

The military farming system was used by Cao Cao in the late Han Dynasty and was also vigorously promoted during the reign of Emperor Li Jing. It was to recruit refugees, soldiers guarding the border, and merchants to reclaim wasteland. The military farming system had certain positive effects, but it was not a panacea and had limitations.

During the war, farmers left their homes to avoid the chaos, leaving a large amount of farmland uncultivated, resulting in a contradictory situation where no one was cultivating the farmland, while the refugees had no land to cultivate; a large number of soldiers were stationed at the border, which not only occupied a large amount of labor, but also consumed a large amount of food and wages. In this case, the military farming system can perfectly solve the above problems, so that those who cultivate the land have their own land, and the government can also reduce military expenses.

However, in times of peace and stability, farmers returned to their hometowns to cultivate their own farmland, and border garrisons were able to return to their fields. The military farming system lost all its advantages, and under the stimulation of policy dividends, its drawbacks became increasingly prominent.

First, the military farming system required a bureaucratic system to maintain it. Each place had a "military farming envoy" with officials at all levels under him. The cost of managing it itself was a huge expense for the court.

Secondly, there was a huge difference between the tax on military farms and the normal land rent, which was originally a policy support provided by the imperial court to encourage military farms. The military farm envoys used it for arbitrage, that is, they forcibly designated ordinary farmland as military farms and earned the difference in taxes. In order to maximize their personal interests, the military farm envoys blatantly occupied farmland, even artificially created disasters (such as opening the gates to release water), maliciously created disaster areas, turned farmers into refugees, and then forcibly confiscated their farmland...

The military farming system was originally implemented in Southern Tang by the "Four Evils and Five Evils" group, which was condemned by thousands of people. There is no doubt that the military farming system in Southern Tang became a legal tool for corrupt officials to exploit the people and bully the villagers. It not only reduced the tax revenue of the court, but also seriously damaged the national production. It was harmful to the country and the people, but not beneficial.

In the same month that Li Yu ascended the throne, he announced the abolition of the various military farming envoys.

The so-called "rate" is similar to the well-known "sparrow and mouse loss". The "rate" of the Southern Tang Dynasty was 10%, that is, local officials only paid 90% of the prescribed taxes to the court.

At the same time as the abolition of the Tuntianshi was announced, the "Liefen" was also abolished.

Thanks to the overthrow of the "Four Evils and Five Ghosts" group, Li Yu's economic reform encountered almost no resistance.

Later, Li Yu carried out another important economic reform - the well-field reform, but this reform soon failed.

(End of this chapter)