Capital Datang

During this period of time, Li Zhi was very troubled, mainly because after his father became seriously ill and fell into a coma, the officials headed by his uncle Changsun Wuji, regardless of his sad feelings, insisted on dragging him to deal with heavy government affairs every day. (you can find this site) But now Li Zhi just wants to guard his father quietly, and he is not in the mood to pay attention to those courtiers at all. As a result, those courtiers give advice after wave after wave.

The arrival of Li Yin yesterday made Li Zhi very happy, especially after his father Li Shimin passed out, Li Zhi felt as if he had lost his backbone and did not have the slightest sense of security.But when the sixth brother who has always had a deep relationship with him and is also the most talented of several brothers arrives, this makes Li Zhi feel that his backbone has returned all of a sudden, and his mood becomes particularly happy.

Originally, Li Zhi wanted to go to Li Yin yesterday to talk about the depression of these days and the domestic situation, so that he could not only vent his depression, but also ask Brother Six for advice on how to deal with the current situation?But after Li Yin came back yesterday, he first entered the Ganlu Hall and talked with Li Shimin for a long time, then went to Concubine Yang and Empress Changsun, and when he finally left the Lizheng Hall, it was already dark, and Li Yin went to the palace again. He was busy arranging for his family to live in the original Prince Qi's mansion, which made it impossible for Li Zhi to visit.

Li Zhi planned to take Cai'er to Li Yin's residence just after dawn this morning.Now that Li Shimin is seriously ill and comatose, they, sons, naturally can't hold any reception banquet, otherwise they will definitely attract criticism from many ministers.However, it is normal for the two brothers to meet and have a light meal.

But just after Li Zhi got up in high spirits to wash up, and Cai'er also cleaned up little Li Hong, when the family of three was about to leave the East Palace, the eldest grandson Wuji blocked the door, and then he was dragged by the other party to deal with government affairs .Capital Datang 715

The Xiande Hall is the most important building in the entire East Palace, and it is also the place where the prince meets the officials and handles government affairs.Even when Li Shimin lived in the East Palace, because the imperial palace was occupied by Li Yuan, he was enthroned as emperor in the Xiande Hall.

The layout of the entire Xiande Hall is similar to the Taiji Hall of the Taiji Palace, but the scale is much smaller. After Li Zhi became the crown prince, he often received officials from the Eastern Palace here.Some time ago Li Shimin was in a coma, and the Xiande Hall became the place where Li Zhi, Changsun Wuji and other courtiers discussed government affairs.

In the main hall of Xiande Hall, Li Zhi sat on a chair helplessly, while the eldest grandson Wuji and other ministers in front sat on both sides according to their ranks.One of the old ministers was playing to Li Zhi.

"His Royal Highness, there was news from Bazhou yesterday that because of the continuous spring rain for several days, the Bazhou section of the Changsong Highway caused mountain torrents and destroyed a large section of the road. This caused traffic jams from Chang'an to Songzhou and other places, seriously It affects the circulation of people and goods, although the governor of Bazhou has dispatched civilians to rush to repair the road, but there is a shortage of funds, so I have written to ask the imperial court to allocate road funds!" Among them, Chu Suiliang, whose status is only under Changsun Wuji, was the first to report .

The Changsong Highway is the road from Chang'an to Songzhou built by Datang when Li Min first invented cement more than ten years ago.It is listed as the No. [-] road in Datang along with the road from Chang'an to Luoyang. After the completion of this road, Datang's rule over the southwest region became more and more stable, and it also exerted huge economic value.It's just because of the choice of the route and the quality of the cement.The road has been overhauled several times, but problems cannot be avoided.

"Well, I see, the Ministry of Households allocates the required road funds. The Ministry of Industry sends people to supervise the use of road funds!" Li Zhi said weakly.In fact, these things are neither big nor small.Changsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang could handle it on their own, but now they all push it to him, the reason is to make him more familiar with the handling of government affairs.

"My minister complies with the order!" Chu Suiliang immediately stepped back after hearing this, and at the same time wrote down Li Zhi's handling method in the memorial.

"Your Highness, the northern part of Huzhou was suddenly hit by heavy snow this spring, and more than half of the cattle, sheep, and livestock froze to death. The governor of Huzhou rescued the disaster effectively, so that no one was injured or injured, and the victims of the disaster have been resettled. It's just that the governor of Huzhou said that he hopes that the court can reduce some local taxes. !” Another minister stood up and reported.Huzhou is a new prefecture established by Datang in the northern grasslands. The entire prefecture has a vast area. The prefecture is dominated by animal husbandry and is often attacked by various disasters.

"Quite! Exempt the Huzhou disaster-stricken area for one year, and announce this news. I believe many food merchants will be interested in the frozen beef and mutton. This will also reduce the losses of some victims. The imperial court will also give those merchants some money." Preferential policies, such as tax reduction and exemption along the way, etc.!" Li Zhi replied without thinking.He has been by Li Shimin's side for these years, and he has already gained a lot of experience in handling various government affairs. Although he is not focused on this, he can still handle it.

Every political matter was reported by the ministers, and Li Zhi handled it very reasonably. Occasionally, if there were some objections, Changsun Wuji and others would put forward their own opinions, and Li Zhi would come up with a more reasonable solution after consideration.

According to the unwritten practice of the court meeting, the most important things are usually brought up at the end, and usually Changsun Wuji will play in person. As the previous political affairs are dealt with one by one, it will soon be Changsun Wuji's turn to play up.

Counting that Changsun Wuji is one year older than Li Shimin, but most of the time before, he was not as involved in government affairs as Li Shimin, and he was well maintained. Although he was 58 years old, he looked like a man in his 40s The middle-aged man, with three long strands of long beard floating on his chest, is indescribably refined and elegant.

At this moment, Changsun Wuji stood up, stepped forward and bowed slightly to Li Zhi and said: "His Royal Highness, Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Fuzhou and other 23 southern states jointly signed a performance, saying that the local business wind is getting hotter, making the original people Most of them have abandoned farming for business, which has severely damaged the local farming and mulberry industry. Grain production has been declining year by year. Taking last year as an example, the local rice production was less than half of what it was three years ago. This situation has attracted the attention of local officials, but I don't know how to deal with it, so I will report to the court, Your Highness, please decide!"

The incident reported by Changsun Wuji may seem trivial, but it is actually related to a major contradiction in Datang over the years, that is, the contradiction between commerce and agriculture.Originally, commerce and agriculture are interdependent, and they can promote each other, but they can also form contradictions.

Taking Datang and Daqi as examples, the industrial and commercial development of the two countries has a huge constraint, that is, the lack of human resources. Even after more than ten years of encouraging births, the total population of Datang has just exceeded 3000 million. The total population of Great Qi except for those alien races is only one-third of that of Datang.

Although the steam engine has been widely used, whether it is industry, commerce or agriculture, there is still a long way to go before the mechanization of later generations. Therefore, in the two industries now, a lot of manual operations are required. , contradictions also appeared, and industry, commerce and agriculture began to compete for the few human resources.

In order to solve this contradiction, Li Min's Daqi worked hard to promote Sinicization, and at the same time carried out the cruel slave trade, using slaves to fill the shortage of some industries, such as large plantations in agriculture, industrial and commercial mines, textile factories, etc. , all using a large number of slaves.

Although Datang's industry and commerce also used a large number of slaves, due to some historical or other reasons, there were few plantations in Datang, and agricultural production was still dominated by the original small-scale peasant economy. With the development of commerce, many farmers found that doing business or working part-time was far more cost-effective than farming, so these people began to abandon farming one after another, and turned to the cities to become workers or businessmen. This situation is still prominent in the southern region. It is very developed, but the population base here is large, so agriculture has not been greatly affected for the time being.

It is not the first day for Li Zhi to deal with government affairs, so he naturally knows the importance of Changsun Wuji's memorial, so he frowned and thought for a while, then raised his head and said to Changsun Wuji: "Lord Sikong has something to do with this matter." What's your opinion?" Capital Datang 715

Sikong is one of the three lords, ranking first rank. Although it is a false title, it is enough to show that Changsun Wuji's status is extraordinary.

When Changsun Wuji heard Li Zhi asked his opinion, he immediately answered: "I want to tell you the prince, the old minister believes that the contradiction between industry and agriculture has been going on for a long time. The development of industry and commerce in the past did bring more income to the treasury, but Everything is too late, industry and commerce cannot continue to develop indefinitely, and agriculture is the foundation of a country, so the old minister believes that heavy taxes can be imposed on some commercially developed areas to curb the development of local commerce!"

"Lord Sikong's words are wrong!" As soon as Changsun Wuji's voice fell, a person immediately stood up and objected.I saw that this person was not very old, he was in his early thirties at most, he was white and fat with a happy face, if he took off his fourth-rank official uniform, he would look like a kind businessman.If Li Yin was here, he would definitely recognize at a glance that this fat man is Li Jingheng, one of his cronies.

Li Jingheng is different from Li Yong, Cheng Huailiang and others. He is the eldest son of Jiangxia King Li Daozong, and he will inherit the title in the future, so naturally he cannot take risks with Li Yin. I didn't expect my son to be successful, but I just hoped that he could be a prince of peace.

But the world is strange, under the influence of Li Yin, Li Jingheng began to "get involved" in industry and commerce, as the saying goes, if you are born with talents, you must be useful. Li Jingheng, who was originally useless, unexpectedly exploded with superhuman business talents, and soon developed the industry of Jiangxia Palace to All over the country, it even attracted Li Shimin's attention.Later, he abandoned business and went into politics, relying on his own background to enter the household department, starting from a small principal, and slowly rising to the fourth rank of the household department servant, he can be regarded as a very important figure in the Tang Dynasty .