The Emperor ordered Zhao Tang

Chapter 188 Review (Added for Alliance Leader Sky Realm)
On April 22, the first year of Qianning, the sage strode into the Zuozangku. He urgently needed to understand the economic system under his rule. Most meat eaters were mean, so he had to understand the situation to avoid being fooled.

The Zuozangku was first built in Wude, and was distributed on the small ponds and flat land between Dongneilinde, Jinluan, Yanying, and Neijiaofang. It was partially destroyed during the Chaos Rebellion, but has been repaired in recent years. There are now 21 courtyards and 38 warehouses.

According to the system, all the wealth in the world belonged to the Zuozang. When Yuwen Rong and Song Jing came to power, they began to station censors in the palace to supervise the treasury and guard against the royal family stealing state assets. Xuanzong was displeased. After a struggle, the eunuchs were replaced.

By the end of the Dali period, the Zuozangku structure, which was jointly managed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Chancellery, the Censorate, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Comparison, and the Ministry of Revenue, collapsed, and fiscal revenue and surplus were transferred to the Dayingku, which served as the emperor's private wallet.

After Yang Yan came to power, under his persuasion, Emperor Dezong agreed to return the money. In exchange, he had to share a portion of the annual income - "300,000 to 500,000 yuan per year to Daying and Qionglin."

On this basis, Li Deyu ordered that a portion of the money be taken out every year in Huichang. If a war breaks out, this will be the military expenditure, which can only be replenished after it is used up. Because the policy benefits the people, it was renamed Yanziku in Dazhong, and it became a custom to keep 500,000 strings of cash every year.

Thus, the outer court's Zuozang, Yanzi and the emperor's Daying and Qionglin were the four major warehouses. In theory, they did not interfere with each other and no one should look for anyone else.

In terms of income, income is complicated.

The major taxes were the two taxes. The lieutenant of each county was responsible for collecting the land tax and the head tax in summer and autumn, and could not keep them for himself. After the governor collected all the taxes from the counties under his jurisdiction, he sent part of them to the Jiedushi, Guanchao, and Fangyushi, which was called the "send envoy". The part he kept for his own expenses was called the "liuzhou". The Jiedushi collected all the money for the send envoys and gave part of it to the court, which was called the tribute.

The two taxes that could be normally received at this time were only from the counties within the Great Wall, Shanxi and Shandong.

Ling, Hu, Fujian, and Zhejiang also paid, but they were often late, with a small share and high losses. The Guanxi administrative system had not yet achieved in-depth and efficient development, and the household registration and farming were still in progress, with the main focus on extensive collection of livestock and specialties.

The second is the income from the monopoly of salt, iron and wine, which is managed by the Salt and Iron Envoy and the Wine Envoy. Wine is also sold in the Northern Department, and there are twelve markets in the Forbidden City and the Imperial Palace, which are divided among the two Wine Envoys.

The third is the money for ordination. It was created during the Tianbao period. "Yang Guozhong was afraid to use the official treasury, so he sent the imperial censor Cui Zhong to Taiyuan to ordain monks and Taoists, and earned a million in ten days." In the Tang Dynasty, in order to protect the household registration and restrict religion, becoming a monk required official approval, but in fact, it could be bought. This dynasty is so poor that it has been selling it, but what can I say? It depends on the weather.

The fourth is the rate loan. It was born in Zhide. "When Emperor Suzong ascended the throne, he sent the censors to register the rich people in Wu and Shu, and collected two out of ten, which was called rate loan." The rich people were registered and two out of ten were collected from time to time according to their assets. This money was collected by the censors in the prefectures and counties. It used to be a big income, but now it is not worth mentioning, only a few tens of thousands of strings.

The fifth is selling official positions and titles. It was born in Daizong - "Prime Minister Pei Mian and others were not able to make ends meet, so they could call people to pay money. Hundreds of thousands of people were granted the title of Mingjing. Merchants who helped the army were exempted from corvée and taxes. Those who could help the poor were given titles." Originally, officials also wanted to buy their positions, so what should they do? - Pay 2,000 dan of millet, and those who exceed 2 dan of salary will be granted official positions. The starting price is 2,000 dan, but you can only be promoted appropriately in your current position, which is equivalent to legal bribery.

Not to mention the green seedling money and the "land money" of twenty cents per mu levied on powerful landlords, they have all become taxes.

The seventh is the tea tax. When Dazhong was at its peak, it was more than 800,000 strings of cash a year. Now it has also dropped dramatically to less than 300,000 strings of cash.

Eighth, the red envelopes given to the emperor by local officials on holidays, the emperor's birthday or for secret purposes. During the reign of Emperor Dezong, Wei Gao received "daily payment", Li Jian received "monthly payment", Du Ya, Liu Zan and Li Qi received "surplus". In the reign of Emperor Yi, there was "tribute". Some were given voluntarily, while others were asked for with a flattering face. The saint was thin-skinned, and would accept if given, and would refuse if not. In the past few years, he also received some wealth and goods, which were kept by the Privy Council.

In addition, there are several miscellaneous items.

Land, defense, product, capital seized from public offices, official land, and reduced materials.

Officials in the capital and prefectures and counties were allocated land, and part of the output was used to supplement their salaries and expenses. The so-called land money was to protect the interests of the farmers who cultivated the official land, and to collect grain from the government and ministers per mu, and return it to the farmers. During the reign of Emperor Daizong, two liters of millet were collected per mu, but this was adjusted to 20 coins per mu per season.

In the third year of Emperor Gaozong's Yifeng reign, the government was in financial difficulty, and he issued an order: "The princes and nobles below the level of the people should contribute money to support the salaries of all officials, the defense of the court, the common servants, the county officials, the guards, and the households."

Regardless of whether you are an official or a member of the royal family, you must pay money according to the number of people in your family. It costs money to send you various types of personnel, provide you with working meals, issue you official uniforms, and grant you fiefs. You cannot enjoy it for free. This is probably a test of obedience by Li Zhi. If you don't even want to pay this little money, how can you be loyal?
It is a good thing for the saint. The initiator has already been found, and he can conquer him again at any time.

Pinzi refers to the sons of officials of the sixth to ninth ranks and honorary officials of the third to fifth ranks who are eighteen years old and above.

What's the purpose of doing this?
The answer is to work. When the princes travel, you lead the way. When the emperor dies, you cry, sing and throw paper money in the funeral procession, or you work as an errand boy or thug in the palaces of the kings and princesses. If you are lazy and don't want to work, you will be paid 1500 coins a year for years.

Seize the capital of the public office. Allow the prefectures and counties to lend public funds, and appoint a money-seizing officer to be in charge. The profits are divided into 30% and 70% between the central government and the local governments. The court gets 70%, and the prefectures get the remaining 30%.

Official land money. It was also during the Su Dynasty that the Chinese and foreign officials were required to hand over one-third of their official land grain to support the army. This was originally a response to the extraordinary situation at the time, but the Qing Dynasty had its own national conditions. In the Changqing year, the number of soldiers nationwide reached 99.

Reduce the salary income - "In the third year of Jianzhong, the salary of officials was reduced to support the army." As the risk that the army could not meet increased, they took advantage of the officials' salaries.

The above are all formal and informal income items.

Is it enough? Not bad.

There are three main expenses for this meeting.

The salaries of the Southern Court and the Northern Court. During the reign of Emperor Daizong, there were 1854 civil officials and 942 military officials, and their monthly salaries were maintained at around strings of cash. Most of them could not reach this level. “Those who were not paid for many years would not receive it.” When the finances were tight, they would not receive it.

During the reign of Emperor Dezong, there were 1892 civil officials and 896 military officials. After several salary cuts, the annual salary was yuan, less than yuan per month.

During the reign of Emperor Xianzong, Li Jifu thought there were too many idlers, so he reduced the number of court officials. There is no record of how many layoffs were made, and there was no major change after that. After the Guangming and Guangqi dynasties, the number of officials dropped significantly compared to the Yuanhe structure.

After the sage ascended the throne, he constantly supplemented the staff through various channels, such as the imperial examination, family connections, military merits, and conscription. As usual, the court supported the officials in the capital, the court officials, the princes and princesses, the officials directly under the counties and the officials employed by them, and he supported his own family and the eunuchs and the palace. Last year, the two sides spent a total of 700,000 yuan - not just money. Whatever was given was given, you didn't have to pick and choose. In fact, half of the 700,000 yuan was paid with Hezhong salt and Jingzhou tea.

The second is the resettlement of gangsters and immigrants. Since the first year of Jingfu, the cumulative investment in this area has exceeded 1.7 million strings of cash.

Military spending is a major concern.

Spring and winter clothing, daily food rations, holiday benefits, pensions, armor repairs, medicine and firewood purchases... expenses for horsemen, craftsmen, guides, medical officers, prostitutes, drivers, sanitation workers and other military service personnel. Guess how much it cost? In the Guangde Year, "30,000 soldiers were sent to guard the west of Beijing every year, with more than 1.5 million strings of grain."

Each soldier receives no less than 50 strings of cash per year.

The army of this dynasty is limited. The guards, the Chinese and foreign troops, and the four envoys together barely have 50 soldiers. Except for the fire-killing lieutenants, the rest of the foreign troops are half-agricultural defense soldiers from Guanzhong, which is relatively free. According to a rough calculation of 200 strings of cash, the lower limit of the annual fee is between 300 million and million strings of cash. It is less than half of the amount before the Chaos, but it accounts for more than % of the current finances, and it has to be borne by the court and the saints.

Overall, with the current income and expenditure situation, as long as we don't spend recklessly, we can live.

Of course, the late Tang Dynasty was not the most difficult.

Guo Wei rebelled, and the order was sent to the Imperial Guards, but the imperial guards stood still. The rebel army reached Huazhou, but the army did not go out. The eunuch asked the prime minister Su Yugui to give him a reward, but Su had no money. The eunuch brought him to Emperor Yin and begged him: Think of a way! Su tried his best to collect a batch of money and goods, and gave each person ten strings of cash. The imperial guards were reluctant to go out, and after a quick battle, they joined Guo Wei.

Murong Yanchao of Yanhai rebelled and ordered his army to rob as much grass and grain as they could. He beheaded Sima Yanhonglu and Judge Zhou Du for not finding any money in their homes. Even so, the harvest was still pitifully small. Murong Yanchao forged counterfeit coins to give out as rewards, but was discovered, so he "did not use any of them." He then committed suicide.

This shows the extent of the economic collapse during the Five Dynasties.

Well, I forgot to take back the Shangzhou Mint and the Jingxiang Jin Sanzhen. The former mints more than 70,000 coins a year, and the latter's two taxes have been restored, which will be two major supplements.

After understanding the general structure and operation of the finances under his rule, the sage made some well-thought-out instructions.

The first thing is to keep the state, send envoys, and pay tribute to the two taxes and three parts. Sanfu, Qinfeng, Xinqin, and Qingyang counties have developed transportation and are close to each other, so transfer payments are very fast and there is no need to keep them for yourself.

It was decided to temporarily set up four routes, namely Beijing North, Beijing West, Hanzhong and Kui, for water and land dispatch, transportation and storage.

The land and water envoys were responsible for collecting and urging the counties under their jurisdiction to hand in taxes, and they also monitored the speed of transporting taxes across the border.

The treasurer was in charge of keeping the treasures. After the treasurer collected all the treasures in his jurisdiction, he handed them over to the treasurer. The treasurer built warehouses at each node of the transportation route under his jurisdiction to store the collected treasures for transportation.

The transfer agent is responsible for transporting the revenue of the route out of the country and also relaying the revenue of the next route.

Jingbei Road governs Beidi, Xinqin, Qingyang, Shang, Zuofengyi, and Jingzhao Yin.

Jingxi Road included Shan, Yin, Liang, Jin, Qinfeng, and Youfufeng. Hanzhong Road included Hanzhong, Jianmen, and Bazhong.

Kui Road was under the jurisdiction of Shangluo, Jiangling Prefecture, Yu, Fu, Zhong, Wanshi and other states.

This is a blueprint, and the details and specific plans are to be sent to the relevant departments for discussion. However, it can be foreseen that the number of messy positions, messengers, and inferior officials and clerks will increase a lot. Are there enough existing officials to transfer? We must prepare for the election immediately, but this can only solve the problem temporarily.

For the economic system, it would be best to set up schools to recruit young people when they are confused and their values have not yet been formed, and to train talents independently on a large scale, in a professional and brainwashing manner.

In the future, when there is spare capacity, the same will be done in the judicial, military, and agricultural fields. Professional matters will be left to professionals, and the bureaucracy will be gradually diverted. The imperial examinations, family connections, and conscription will be abolished in favor of those who can enter the government through school.

In addition, the corresponding salaries, corruption losses, material shortages caused by transfers in and out, and manpower and material costs will also increase significantly. I hope that this will not lead to redundant officials and unnecessary expenses.

The second is about taxation.

Well, can the official cost of Gojong, the rich tax of Sukjong, and the property tax of Deokjong be restored?

Especially the property tax. If the Later Jin, Later Zhou, and the two Song dynasties could collect it, why couldn’t Li Sheng collect it?

It's not greed. Every day when I open my eyes, I see tens of thousands of warriors eating, drinking, defecating and urinating. When I go to war, I pray that it won't rain or blow, or that it won't be too cold or too hot, so that I don't have to pay more. I lead the troops in fear and live a depressed life.

"Let's go." After clearing his chaotic thoughts, the saint waited for Rounu to put all the files he had read back into the cabinet and locked the door. He gathered his sleeves and walked out with his hands behind his back. After leaving the warehouse, the scorching sun was like a blazing fire. He jumped into the sedan chair, and the eight people from Kongwu Temple lifted it steadily. Listening to Rounu's suppressed breathing, his mind shifted to political affairs.

Liu Chongwang was sent as a secret envoy to persuade Zhang Cunjing, the commander of the pseudo Lianghe Central Camp, to surrender - this can be understood as an observation of Zhang Cunjing and a test of his relationship with Zhu Wen.

What is puzzling is that Zhang Cunjing refused to see the envoy, but did not kill him. Can it be said that Zhang Cunjing was lenient on the issue that should be used to prove his position, not that there was no point in discussing it, but that the time was not right? Or is it that Zhang Cunjing was a gentleman who disdained to kill the envoy?
He had no idea who Zhang Cunjing was, and he only had two pieces of information: First, he was good at fighting, and later he made great contributions in the wars against Chengde, Weizhou, Hedong, Henghai, Youzhou, and Hezhong. In the Battle of Yishui, he killed 60,000 Youzhou soldiers, earning Zhu Wen the result of "Since then, all of Hebei has submitted."

Second, he was extremely suspicious. Historically, Zhu Wen first asked him to hold the title of governor of Xuzhou, but he was actually the governor of Yingzhou. Not long after, he was transferred to Songzhou. The whole situation was that he had no real power, kept changing places, and was only called upon when there was a difficult job that he couldn't handle.

In the first year of Tianfu, he was sent to conquer Hezhong and quickly conquered it. After the success, Zhu Wen appointed him as the governor, but then changed his mind and changed him to the governor of Songzhou. But before he took office, Zhang Cunjing died suddenly on the spot. The official statement was that "he fell ill while taking office and died in Hezhong more than ten days later."

At least cover it up. He was still full of energy in the war, and there was no news of him getting sick or getting injured, but he died of a sudden illness the next moment... How can the world be convinced by the words "illness in bed"?

Moreover, Zhu Wen started the purge only after he proclaimed himself emperor, and Zhang Cunjing was the only senior official who was secretly executed before that.

What taboo was violated?
Could it be because he was sending fish to the queen... Zhang Hui?
Why Zhu Wen hated Zhang Cunjing so much is a question. But there is no need to dwell on it. Just understand that this is a case of "such a monarch and ministers". It is better to add fuel to the fire and force Zhu Wen to death and execute this great enemy in advance.

In addition, Cai generals Wu Ziling and Xianyu Midea, who announced their rebellion, were asked to give support and response as soon as possible.

The Zhongwu Army can also send people to test the Zhao family's attitude.

There was definitely no hope before. The Zhongwu Army was adjacent to Bianliang, and now the Huaixi area bordering them had rebelled. Chang'an could provide blood transfusions to them through the Dengzhou Defense Envoy and the Shandong Jiedushi through Huaixi to cope with Zhu Wen's suppression.

Will this change in the geopolitical structure cause the Zhongwu Army, which was originally suppressed by Zhu Wen, to have inappropriate thoughts?

Let’s send someone to do some diplomacy first.

As he was thinking about various things, the sedan chair under him suddenly stopped, causing him to lean forward.

"What are you doing!" He stuck his head out and was dumbfounded.

At the turning of the desolate brick road about ten steps away, there were two graceful figures that seemed to be heading towards the Sanqing Temple in the north.

She was about thirty years old, with shaggy hair and a dark green jade lotus crown on her bun. She wore a purple feathered robe with a black-rimmed and gold-embroidered collar, which concealed her figure but just enough to highlight her erect breasts. She held a whisk in her hand, resting on her right arm. She was calm and skilled.

At this time, he was standing by the road, facing the sunlight, shielding his eyes with his hands and looking at himself.

The saint recognized it at a glance.

I remember that Meng Cairen had a teardrop mole under her left eye, and Zheng Zhaoyi's eyes were "smiling" in the standard sense when she smiled, which was very contagious.

My heart was in a mess, and my voice was like I hadn't eaten, and I was a little embarrassed: "Sister-in-law..."

For a moment, Rounu thought she had seen it wrong. Could it be that this man who was always calm, indifferent, and shameless could also feel shy and embarrassed sometimes?
Something is wrong with you.

"I heard that the government army recaptured Jin, Jing and Xiang?" Meng Cairen was in good spirits and smiled.

"Yes."

"When Zhonghe returned to the capital, the city was covered with dense grass and foxes and rabbits roamed freely. Your Majesty was so heroic and heroic that he saved the country from danger and maintained peace in the area. The spirit of the ancient sage is comforted." Meng Cairen said sincerely.

"Lucky." The saint was modest on the outside, but he was actually very proud on the inside. At his age and status, the flattery of generals and bureaucrats would only backfire and disgust him, but the praise and admiration from women in their eyes was different.

Wow, you are awesome!

Can it be the same thing when a woman and a man say it?

"Everything has a beginning, but few have an end. Let's wait until the revival is complete." Zheng Zhaoyi looked at the saint with her lively eyes and said with a smile, then took Meng Cairen and continued to walk towards Taiye Lake and Sanqing Hall. It seemed that she had already let go of her worries.

It's pretty good. Seeing the two sisters-in-law he saved with his own hands recovering day by day, he feels a sense of accomplishment as a chief physician, and he feels proud of it.

He drew aside the curtain.

I saw palace maids talking and laughing in groups of three or four.

A new generation of young temple dwellers, no more than twelve or thirteen years old, hiding in the corners and stealing food.

A dancer from the imperial music school sits alone beside the lotus pond, silently watching the koi fish.

This is the result of the blood and fire of the killers, and these are the Mantingfang, Linjiangxian and Qingpingle that he nurtured day and night with great difficulty.

After staggering to Penglai Palace, Yuwenrou pushed him away with all her strength, wiped her saliva and panted heavily: "Your Majesty, I will not argue with you. I will endure this once more, and there will never be a tenth time." After saying this, she was about to flee.

"Envoy Xuanhui." The saint gently called Rounu: "It's a mess."

Touching her messy hair with her backhand, Yu Wenrou glared at him fiercely. She was really disappointing, and she was always played to the point of being crazy.

"Next time if you scream twice like Concubine Shu, I may consider reducing the time." Admiring Rounu's beauty, the saint supported his head and said.

"Never." Yu Wenrou shook off her dirty hands, turned around and tidied up her clothes that had vaguely exposed her deep and tender white skin for years, then she walked away with a sullen face, covering the obvious water stains.

(End of this chapter)