Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 459: Take You to See the Prosperity of the World
"Is there anywhere you want to go today? I'll take you around."

Now Xia Lin is still under house arrest in theory, but the restrictions have been relaxed. After all, at the beginning Li Yuan just wanted to teach him a lesson and he didn't really want to trap him to death in Chang'an like Cao Cao imprisoned Xu Shu.

It's not that Li Yuan didn't want to, but that he didn't dare, because the spies in the front had reported that the seven armies of the Po Lu Army had completed their deployment and were stationed in Xiangyang City. They said it was a military training at the end of the year, but everyone knew where the arrows were pointed.

So when Sanhu comes back, you can ask him to leave. If he doesn't leave, something bad might happen.

"Your Highness."

The princess was stunned for a moment when she heard the word "Your Highness". Then she said angrily, "What's wrong with you today?"

"Isn't this a respectful title? How can it be considered a disease?"

"No, you must be sick."

Xia Lin was half lying on the recliner at this moment. The princess walked up to him and sat on him. "Have I been too busy these days and neglected you? Then I'll sneak over here tonight."

"Don't come. You're already six or seven months pregnant. It's dangerous. Wait until eight months later." Xia Lin touched her belly and said, "Don't be so addicted."

After finishing speaking, Xia Lin stood up and asked: "Does Chang'an provide assistance to the needy people during the New Year?"

“It seems to be nothing.”

"Go apply for one, and then take me to see the living conditions of the lower-class people in this area."

"it is good……"

In fact, the poor are bound to exist before productivity reaches the ideal world, but the core issue is how to treat and deal with these poor people. Xia Lin does not have enough information on hand now, and now he wants to see how many lice are living under the gorgeous robes of the prosperous Chang'an.

Although it is not quite appropriate to say this, it is actually true. After some deep reflection and self-examination, he cheered himself up and decided to continue what he should have done.

Her Royal Highness was very efficient, and Li Yuan thought it was okay, but Prince Li still asked, "He was the one who mentioned this to you, wasn't he?"

"Father is wise."

"It's not that I'm smart." Li Yuan sighed deeply and said with regret: "Why don't I have a son like this?"

These words made Sanniang want to laugh, and she thought to herself, "Why don't you have a son like this? It's just that you don't treat such a son as your son. If Xia Daosheng really became your son, he would not necessarily give you less trouble than Erfeng. What Erfeng said is understandable to you, but you can't even understand Daosheng's thoughts."

"In terms of governing the country, he is definitely better than the two phoenixes, and Jiancheng is even more incomparable. Forget it, the good things in the world cannot all fall into the hands of my Li family." Li Yuan was still sighing: "In this case, you can go and get 100,000 kilograms of rice and flour to distribute."

"Then I thank my father on behalf of the poor people."

"Go."

The princess collected rice and flour worth 100,000 gold coins, and Xia Lin also collected some other side dishes through the Chamber of Commerce in Chang'an. Anyway, they had packed a lot, so they started transporting them to the surrounding areas the next day.

In fact, even Her Royal Highness the Princess did not have a clear concept of poverty. She thought that the beggars in the city were the poorest people because she had never really come into contact with poverty in her life. However, when Xia Lin took her to distribute supplies along the map, she was shocked to find that even ten miles outside Chang'an City, there were people who only had one meal every two days.

When their convoy arrived at the village called Huangjia Village, the people inside came out to collect food after hearing the news, but there was no excitement or look on their faces. Instead, there was only a kind of numbness as if they were about to die. Some people had frostbite on their hands and faces, and they didn't even have straw sandals to wear. Some people could only fill their raincoats with wood ash to keep warm.

Everyone was skin and bones, and the children had thin bodies and big bellies, which were obviously due to hypoproteinemia and ascites caused by malnutrition.

Seeing the looks on these people's faces, the princess and Xia Lin fell silent. They distributed the supplies silently, and then the princess held back her tears and bought a large amount of eggs from the city overnight with her own money.

But as they went deeper, they discovered a problem: there were too many places like this, and they simply couldn't save them all. Everyone was struggling to make ends meet, and some couldn't even get enough food and clothing.

Some people cried bitterly for a bag of rice, hugged the rice bag and cried loudly, saying that if they had come earlier, their wives/children/fathers/mothers would not have died of hunger and cold. The princess pursed her lips throughout the whole process, not knowing how to respond, and Xia Lin did not dare to look anyone in the eye.

"Why is this happening? Why?" The princess asked Xia Lin as she was heading to the next area. "This is Chang'an, it should be very prosperous...but how could it be like this? Is there someone who is corrupt..."

Xia Lin lowered his head, and smiled helplessly after hearing the princess' words: "This is to fight for the world, and the people must suffer first. Why do you always ask me why I have to endure this and that? Because I have no choice but to endure it. It's not that I don't want to say I can't. According to my intelligence analysis, the military expenditure of the Li family accounts for 30 to 40% of your total tax revenue. Guess how much Fuliang is?"

"a lot of."

"Yes, 7% from taxes. The rest of the money is not from taxes, but from trade and industry. But even with this money, it is still much less than your Chang'an. New technology, new military system and higher local grain production can greatly reduce the cost of armaments."

Xia Lin continued, "In fact, I think there are experts among your father's staff. I calculated in my mind along the way. If each household here wants to eat well, it needs about 30 taels of silver. However, the annual income of each household is less than 25 taels, which means there is a gap of 5 taels every year. This gap of 5 taels will turn into debt. In the past two years, due to the expansion of the Li family's army, the increase in taxes has increased this gap of 5 taels to 10 taels."

"When the gap was five taels, they could still fill it with more time and more labor, but when the gap reached ten taels of silver per year, they completely lost the ability to resist risks. Perhaps one person got sick or a laborer died, which would cause the whole family to collapse completely. So the situation you see now appeared. Is there corruption? Yes, but corruption alone cannot reach this level. The only reason is that the people have to suffer first because of the large-scale preparations for war and the inheritance of the aristocratic families."

The princess was speechless after hearing what Xia Lin said, because at this point, she knew that she was powerless. She did not have the ability to persuade Li Yuan to give up his dream, nor did she have the ability to comprehensively control the survival risks of a large region like Xia Lin.

"One hundred thousand kilograms of grain is just a drop in the bucket." Xia Lin smiled bitterly.

"What should we do?"

"It's very simple." Xia Lin held up three fingers. "As long as the average annual debt of the people is reduced from ten taels to three taels, they can live a normal life. With the relaxation of trade and the increase of employment opportunities, it is very easy to make up for the three taels. But the problem is that the seven taels of silver that are reduced will have to be borne by your Li family. As long as you are still racking your brains to fight, this money will never be squeezed out. That's why I am trying my best to be a peacemaker to avoid chaos. The number of people who died on the battlefield is less than one-tenth of those who died of starvation. Well, now you want to be the empress, let me ask you a question, can you fill in the seven taels of silver?"

"I……"

"You can't. One household earns seven taels, so one million households earn seven million taels. Your Li family governs 3.45 million households, which means 23 million taels per year. Without this 23 million taels of income, can you still support your military system and maintain the operation of your huge family? You can't. That's why I look down on you from the bottom of my heart."

The princess was moved to tears after hearing what he said. She didn't even have a chance to refute because Xia Lin was right in his calculations.

"But...but what should we do?"

"It's easy." Xia Lin spread his hands. "Let go of your dream of becoming an emperor, gather all your strength and resources, roll up your sleeves and start working. Work on agriculture, handicrafts, and breeding. Reclaim farmland, develop industry, and develop technology. Can you do that? If you can, in three years, I will make the population under your command exceed 30 million. I'm asking you, can you do it?"

The princess lowered her head and said nothing. Xia Lin's aggressiveness had left her speechless.

"Yes, I can't." Xia Lin leaned against the carriage. "This is not your fault. This is the biggest problem now and even in the next thousand years. This is not even a question of whether to be an emperor or not. The answer is in the riddle. Mencius said that the people are the most important, the country is second, and the emperor is the least important. So let me ask you a question, how can we make the people the most important."

"How can I do that?"

"Development, of course it is development. Development and progress, and the improvement of productivity can solve 99% of the world's problems. Don't hold back on fighting. When I was in the Northeast, I taught you lessons, but you just slept."

"I..." The princess was a little embarrassed by what he said: "I get tired easily, so I should have had it at that time."

"I told you I don't blame you. Now we should work together to solve this problem, right?"

"Ah."

"Okay, don't think too much. You and I are just a drop in the ocean in the torrent of history. Don't be anxious and take your time. There are no roads in the world. Only when many people walk on them can there be roads. Now there are too few people on the road."

After returning, the princess reported what she had seen and heard to Li Yuan.

But Li Yuan's words made the princess completely disappointed in her father.

"Hey... I also know that the people are suffering, but there is no other way. In the current chaotic situation, we can only make the people suffer for a while, and things will get better in the future. Sanniang, you knew at that time that sometimes you really have to do something to achieve a great cause."

(End of this chapter)