Late Han Zhao Tang

In 204 AD, the sixth year of the Shenwu reign, the Tang army conquered Jiangdong, its might shaking the southeast. Shi Xie, terrified, submitted a memorial to surrender. Meanwhile, in Liaodong, Gongsun Du was about to die. Knowing that the situation could not be defied, he ordered Gongsun Kang to lead the entire prefecture westward to search for him.

Zhang Yu appreciated the submission of the Gongsun family of Liaodong and the Shi family of Jiaoling, and enfeoffed Gongsun Kang as Duke of Liao, and his younger brother Gongsun Gong as Duke of a county; Shi Xie as Duke of Yue, and Shi Yi, Shi, and Shi Wu all received the title of Duke of a county. The fiefdoms of the two families were ten thousand households, which were jointly granted by the enfeoffed nobles.

Although neither of the two states had the title of founding state, considering that the entire prefectures were surrendered, Zhang Yu specifically set a fief ratio of 2:1, which was roughly equivalent to exchanging 10,000 households of actual prefectures for the two prefectures of Ying and Jiao. This was a good deal for the Tang Dynasty, saving it from the losses of expeditions and the casualties of enemy and civilian soldiers.

With the fall of Yangzhou and the surrender of two other provinces, the land of China, which had been in chaos for one or two decades since the end of the Han Dynasty, was once again unified.

Therefore, in the winter of the sixth year of Shenwu, even without detailed household registration data for various prefectures and counties, the Ministry of Personnel still compiled a household registration map of the sixteen prefectures of the Tang Dynasty based on various sources.

First, after conquering Bashu, the population of Yizhou was counted. At that time, the Tang Dynasty had 1.86 million households and a population of less than 10 million. Later, 310,000 men and women were freed from slavery.

After the southeast was recovered, the five prefectures in Jingnan had 180,000 registered households, and Yangzhou had 320,000 registered households, totaling 500,000 households.

The Gongsun family donated books to Yingzhou, which had more than 40,000 households and more than 300,000 men and women; the Shi family donated books to Jiaozhou, which had 83,100 households and more than 400,000 men and women.

In total, when the Tang Dynasty unified the country, there were approximately 2.54 million registered households, with a total population of over 16.68 million (men and women). This is not significantly different from the population of over 10 million at the founding of the Eastern Han Dynasty. However, compared to the peak population of over 50 to 60 million in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it is about three to four times smaller.

Therefore, the description of "not one in ten survived" to describe the founding of the Tang Dynasty is slightly exaggerated, but two or three out of ten are normal. Even so, the founding of the Tang Dynasty was not good. Apart from a few prosperous counties, the vast majority of counties could be described as "desolate inside and out, with nothing left, the people exhausted, the fortifications destroyed, and the outposts wiped out".

Inside the Zichen Palace, the Tang Dynasty emperor and his ministers, having lost the excitement of unifying the country, now returned to reality and pondered how to govern the country ravaged by war.

"Your Majesty, the empire has just been at peace, but the people are devastated and the land is ravaged. Your Majesty may need to reduce taxes and corvée labor, and share the burden with the people. Salt and iron taxes used to account for half of the nation's revenue, and were the foundation upon which Your Majesty relied to seize the throne. However, with the war over and the horses returning to their nests, the expenditures will be halved!"

Du Ji pondered for a moment and said, "In my opinion, I wonder if it is possible to exempt the salt and iron taxes so that the people can recuperate."

"I cannot agree with Lord Du's words!"

Yu Yi cupped his hands and said, “When Emperor Guangwu restored the Han dynasty, he exempted the people from taxes on mountains and seas, which pleased the people and made wealthy merchants rich. The Qiang rebellion started in Longyou and lasted for several times, costing more than 10 billion, which emptied the national treasury. At the end of the Han dynasty, land taxes were increased, which exhausted the people and led to the rebellion of the E'zhai.

"Therefore, at the end of the Han Dynasty, the country was poor while the rich were wealthy. Our dynasty must take heed of this. Although abolishing salt and iron may alleviate the burden on the people, it would be detrimental to the country."

Du Ji said, "The people suffer greatly, and they are unwilling to have children. Without the people, there is no country. Excessive exploitation is detrimental to the nation!"

"Your Majesty~"

As he spoke, Du Ji looked at Zhang Yu, hoping that Zhang Yu could understand the importance of reducing taxes.

With the aim of reducing taxes and corvée labor, Du Ji hoped that the court would abolish the salt tax. In the early Western Han Dynasty, the ratio of grain to salt could even reach 1:1, but after the implementation of the salt tax, the price difference between the two could widen to three or even ten times. Therefore, abolishing the salt tax would greatly reduce the burden on the people.

As the Minister of Revenue, Yu Yi could not stand idly by and watch the salt tax be abolished. After all, if the salt tax were abolished, the authority of the Accounting Department would be significantly weakened. Moreover, the salt tax accounted for almost half of the national treasury's revenue.

Zhang Yu's expression turned slightly somber as he said, "What you two ministers say has its merits. Reducing taxes and levies is beneficial to the people's livelihood, while exempting salt and iron taxes is detrimental to the country. In my opinion, salt and iron taxes should continue to be levied, while taxes can be reduced or exempted in different prefectures."

"If Yangzhou has just experienced war, and Jiaozhou and Yingzhou have just returned to the dynasty, the taxes of the three prefectures will be exempted next year. The counties of Jingzhou may be affected, and the taxes can be reduced by half next year. If the taxes are collected as scheduled the year after, the taxes of Jingzhou, Yizhou and Xuzhou can be exempted, and three other prefectures can be selected to reduce the taxes by half."

"The state has fifteen states. Every year, three states are selected for tax exemption and three states are selected for tax reduction by half. According to this policy, each state can be exempted from tax once every five years and its tax can be reduced by half once every five years. Therefore, if calculated according to this, if a household pays one shi of tax, in the past they paid five shi every five years, but now they only need to pay three shi and five dou, which can reduce the tax burden on the people by 30%."

As an emperor who rose from the ashes, Zhang Yu had a thorough understanding of the daily needs of his soldiers and civilians. “Salt is priced at five times that of grain. One shi and five dou of grain is equivalent to three dou of salt, while soldiers consume three sheng of salt per month, so two soldiers consume six sheng of salt per month. One shi and five dou is roughly equivalent to one hundred and fifty sheng of salt. A family of four can eat for more than a year. Although this may not be as effective as exempting salt and iron taxes, it can still alleviate some of the burden on the people.”

Seeing that Du Ji still had something to say, Zhang Yu spoke earnestly, saying, "If you want to lower salt prices, instead of abolishing the government monopoly, you should encourage large-scale production of sea salt. If the whole country relies on salt from salt ponds, how can salt prices not be high? Besides, if the court doesn't operate salt and iron monopolies, wouldn't that be giving profits to the powerful and wealthy?"

"In the past, Emperor Zhang of Han wanted to reinstate the salt tax, but due to the strong obstruction from his ministers, he had to shelve the old plan. Therefore, now that the emperor does not take profits from salt, it will be difficult to reinstate the salt tax in the future!"

Perhaps because he lived at the end of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Yu had a very deep memory of the financial difficulties of the imperial treasury at that time. Therefore, Zhang Yu preferred to temporarily reduce taxes rather than abolish the state monopoly on salt and iron, which would affect the long-term financial situation of the country.

Zhong Yao agreed, saying, "Salt and iron are the pillars of the nation and should not be easily abolished. I believe Your Majesty's policy of alternating tax reductions and exemptions is feasible. When the people of the prefectures and counties hear of this, they will surely praise Your Majesty's benevolence."

"Although the policy of alternating tax reductions and exemptions may not be as effective as the benefits ceded by abolishing the state monopoly on salt and iron, it is still a feasible approach."

In truth, Du Ji was not unaware of the substantial financial benefits brought by the state monopoly on salt and iron. Rather, his political views leaned towards Huang-Lao philosophy, and he favored restoring the governance strategies of the early Western Han Dynasty. Seeing that Zhang Yu and Zhong Yao rejected his opinion, Du Ji, though unwilling, had no choice but to agree.

Yu Yi said, “Since there are no distant enemies in the world, if we want to reduce taxes, we should start with military affairs. There are hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Why not issue an edict to reduce or exempt soldiers and officers from taxes and corvée labor, so that their families can resume production, or abolish corvée labor to appease the people!”

"The plan is feasible!"

Zhong Yao said, “Your Majesty relied on Bingzhou when you raised your army. Now Your Majesty and your ministers are rewarding your merits, but the people of Bingzhou are not benefiting. Wouldn’t this be a disservice to Your Majesty’s wisdom? Soldiers from Bingzhou who joined the army should be exempt from corvée labor for six years. Those who wish to return home after their service should be exempt according to the length of their service. And if any soldiers or officers are transferred to the border, they should all be exempt from corvée labor for twelve years.”

Zhang Yu nodded slightly and said, "The soldiers and officers have followed me on campaigns and risked their lives for many years. They should be exempted from corvée labor and enjoy peace and tranquility."

As he spoke, Zhang Yu looked at Xun You and Zhang Liao and said, “Now that the world is at peace and the generals have been granted titles, the troops should be disbanded. Except for the troops left in the northern and southern outlying states, the rest should all return to their hometowns to enjoy life. As for the Imperial Guard, apart from the old troops of the Protectorate Army and the Divine Palace Army, the rest should be selected from the elite troops of the prefectures and counties. It is not appropriate to select the original troops or soldiers of the generals.”

"promise!"

In the imperial guard system, Zhang Yu did not trust any troops other than his own direct subordinates. Since the troops from the prefectures and counties were transferred from other places to Chang'an, they would not be affected by their original military leadership.

As for why?

It was nothing more than drawing on the failed imperial guard system of the Tang Dynasty and learning from the imperial guard system of the Han Dynasty.

The imperial guard system of the Tang Dynasty was similar to the Han Dynasty's system of northern and southern imperial guards. However, the Northern Imperial Guard of the Tang Dynasty was based on the original contingent of soldiers, and later recruits were drawn from the sons of these contingents. This easily fostered nepotism and a strong sense of personal connections. Consequently, political upheavals in the Tang Dynasty often originated from the Northern Imperial Guard.

The Han Dynasty's imperial guard system was more complex. Unlike the imperial guards of the Tang Dynasty, which were under the command of generals, the Han Dynasty's imperial guards were solely responsible to the emperor. Furthermore, deploying the imperial guards required a series of complicated procedures; in the Eastern Han Dynasty, even the approval of the Grand Secretary was needed.

The Imperial Secretariat was located within the palace, and soldiers were not allowed to enter, making the deployment of the Han Dynasty's imperial guards extremely difficult. As a result, during coups, the imperial guards often watched plays until the emperor left the stage.

Therefore, Zhang Yu studied the imperial guard system of the Han Dynasty and established the Northern and Southern Armies based on the Huguo and Shenfu Armies. Although the two armies were originally composed of elite troops, they would be retired and sent back to their hometowns, and the vacancies would be filled by local elites.

If the emperor and the imperial seal are not present, the deployment of the imperial guards requires the consent of the Privy Councilor Xun You and the official seals of the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Revenue. Without a written order issued by the Three Departments, the imperial guards may not leave their posts without authorization.

The Han Dynasty's imperial guard system was complex, making it relatively easy for emperors to stage coups and kill their ministers. The Eastern Han Dynasty's apparent collapse was related to Emperor Ling's unauthorized alterations to the imperial guard system. He established the Eight Colonels of the Western Garden, whose command was subordinate to others, not to imperial authority.

P.S.: I'm a bit tired today, so this is only one chapter for now. I'll make up for the missed chapter the day after tomorrow. (End of this chapter)