A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 723 Conspiracy late at night
"Your Majesty, one must eat one bite at a time and walk one step at a time. Set your goals, take it slow, and don't rush. You must not be hasty."

Seeing the glint in the emperor's eyes, Li Yi quickly offered his advice.

The worst thing is to act rashly and rush into implementation without considering the consequences; that won't do.

Li Shimin smiled slightly.
He picked up the teacup and took two sips. "This tea is quite good."

"Don't worry, I am someone who has commanded thousands of troops and won countless battles. I know the principle of not fighting a battle unprepared."

Let's start with the grain from the public granaries. We'll begin by levying two liters of millet per mu (a Chinese unit of land area), with officials and gentry paying the same amount.

Li Shimin put down his teacup.
"Let's skip the tea and get some wine, along with some snacks. Let's have a couple of drinks."

It was clear that the emperor was in a very good mood.

"Your Majesty, please wait a moment."

Li Yi left the bedroom. It was the middle of the night, but fortunately, preparing a few dishes was no big deal. The steward on duty went to wake up the cook and the maid.

None of them dared to be negligent.

He asked Li Yi what snacks he wanted to go with his drinks.

"Fry some peanuts, smash some cucumber, make a cold tofu skin and wood ear mushroom salad, steam some smoked chicken and cured duck, and boil some salted duck eggs."
Fry some crispy pork belly, and slice some pickled mustard greens.

It's the middle of the night, there's no need to make such a big fuss by killing chickens and sheep, just pick a few that can be made.

Knowing they were cooking for the Emperor and the Minister of Works, the cooks perked up and gave it their all. Upon hearing this, the two Imperial Guard generals, Xu Luoren and Zhou Xiaofan, even came to the kitchen to chat with Li Yi.

Xu Luoren kept a close eye on the cook, afraid that there might be the slightest mistake.

Zhou Xiaofan was a confidant of Li Shimin. He started his career as a clerk in the Qi Prince's court during the Sui Dynasty, and later served as a clerk in the granary of Jiaozhi Prefecture, where he worked with Qiu He and Gao Shilian. After returning to the capital, he became a treasurer in the Qin Prince's court through the recommendation of Gao Shilian, Li Shimin's brother-in-law.

He is now the Right Inner Commander of the Crown Prince, General of the Thousand Oxen, and has been enfeoffed as the Duke of Yichun County.

"I had a good relationship with your uncle when I was appeasing Shannan, it's a pity."

Zhou Xiaofan's father, Zhou Fashang, was the Left General of the Martial Guard in the Sui Dynasty. He participated in the war to destroy Chen, pacified Lingnan for a long time, and also followed Yang Guang to destroy Tuyuhun and conquer Goguryeo. He died in the army.

His uncle, Zhou Faming, returned to Huangzhou at the end of the Daye era to raise an army, controlling four prefectures and calling himself the governor. Li Yi pacified the southern mountains; he was relatively pragmatic.
Li Yi treated him fairly well.
Unexpectedly, while he was doing well as the governor of Huangzhou, he was ordered to attack Zhang Shan'an of Hongzhou. He carelessly drank wine on the warship in front of the battle and was assassinated by Zhang Shan'an's men disguised as fishermen.

The Zhou family of Runan was also a prominent family.

I heard that Zhou Xiaofan also made great contributions on the day of the Xuanwu Gate Incident.
He now commands the emperor's most trusted hundred cavalry.

"Fortunately, that scoundrel Zhang Shan'an was eventually executed by the imperial court," Zhou Xiaofan said.

Zhang Shan'an was persuaded to surrender by Li Daliang alone. Li Daliang defeated and recruited Zhang Shan'an's followers. Afterwards, Zhang Shan'an was sent to Chang'an, where the emperor pardoned his crimes and granted him high-ranking official positions and generous salaries.

However, after Fu Gongshi's rebellion was defeated and he was killed, the letters between him and Zhang Shan'an were found, and Zhang Shan'an was executed.

After hearing that Zhang Shan'an had been killed, Zhou Xiaofan deliberately enslaved Zhang Shan'an's wife and daughter.

The cook quickly prepared the appetizers to go with the drinks.
"Leave a copy for General Zhou and General Xu as well," Li Yi instructed with a smile.

Zhou Xiaofan didn't stand on ceremony and thanked him with a smile.

They even helped Li Yi carry the groceries back to his room.

Li Shimin didn't invite him to drink with him either, as he had other matters to discuss with Li Yi while they drank.

"Just some peanuts will do, why did you prepare so many snacks to go with your drinks?"

"I am a glutton, and all of these are readily available at home. Your Majesty, please don't mind my plump cook's poor cooking skills."

The yellow wine chosen by the emperor was brewed from millet.

This wine tastes good; a couple of small sips won't harm your health.

"If we were to fully implement the policy of collecting two liters of millet per mu for public granaries, there would be considerable resistance." Li Shimin picked up a peanut, which was fried to a crisp and cooked to perfection.

“There will definitely be resistance, after all, nobles and high-ranking officials own a lot of land,” Li Yi said with a smile.

"If only everyone could be as willing to give as you," Li Shimin sighed, taking a sip of wine. While princes, nobles, and officials were all vying to buy land, Li Yi had voluntarily given up several thousand hectares of land.

Li Yi thought to himself that the emperor only saw that he had resold several thousand acres of land, but did not mention that he had bought tens of thousands of acres of land in just a few years.

In fact, the royal family were also large landowners.

"The imperial court can first spread the word that it will strictly investigate the over-occupation of land, and make a show of it first."

Li Yi tore off a smoked chicken leg and handed it to the emperor.

"And then?" Li Shimin asked.

"This matter of exceeding the land limit is something that almost all princes, nobles, powerful families, and wealthy people have done, so there will definitely be many opponents when this matter comes to pass."

Once the commotion has subsided,
Your Majesty could compromise with everyone by levying two liters of millet per mu (unit of land area) from the public granaries, with officials and gentry paying the same amount.
If they still object,
We can get a smaller refund later.
Princes, nobles, and officials could be exempted from paying a certain amount of land tax for the public granary, depending on their rank; however, taxes would still be levied on any amount exceeding that amount.

Li Shimin nodded in agreement, took a big bite of chicken leg meat, and chewed it with relish.

"You came up with a good idea for bargaining."

"Hehe, that's what you call wanting to open a window. You can first shout that you want to tear down the roof, and then when the other side objects, you can say you want to break down the wall to open a window. They won't object so vehemently then."

"Hahaha," Li Shimin laughed, "Come, let's drink."

The emperor and his ministers clinked glasses.

"anything else?"

"Once they agree to pay grain to the granary on a per-mu basis, we can then take the opportunity to re-measure the land acreage. Currently, there are serious problems with inaccurate land registration in many places."

A large amount of land is not registered; this land is considered "hidden land" and no rent or taxes are paid on it.

These hidden fields are numerous.

Furthermore, many fields have discrepancies in the accuracy of their size (acreage), or even the exact number of fields.
At that time, a full inventory check and verification can be carried out.

The land that is discovered must be accurately recorded in the ledger. If anyone does not claim it, it will be considered unclaimed land and confiscated by the government as public land.

To claim land, one must first obtain a land deed, and then grain will be collected from the granary based on the acreage. This will uncover a large amount of hidden land.

This is all taxes.

The situation in Yintian, Henan and Hebei provinces, is the most severe. These areas were among the hardest hit by war and famine during the Sui Dynasty.

However, it was also the place where powerful clans and families, such as the Five Surnames and Seven Families, took the opportunity to seize land most severely.

According to statistics compiled by the imperial court in the fifth year of the Daye era of the Sui Dynasty, there were a total of 380 counties in Henan and Hebei provinces, with a population of nearly 5 million households, averaging more than 13,000 households per county.

Both regions are predominantly plains, and in peaceful times they possess an excellent agricultural foundation, which is why they can support half of the country's population.

Currently, the imperial court has 65 prefectures in these two regions, but only 679,000 households, averaging just over 10,000 households per prefecture.

The population of a whole prefecture is less than the population of a single county during the Sui Dynasty.

“The problem of hidden land and households is most serious in Guandong,” Li Shimin knew in his heart the power of the local gentry and powerful families represented by the five surnames and seven families in Shandong.

This situation cannot be tolerated.

"To win a war, we must first annihilate the enemy's elite forces. If the imperial court wants to implement the new policy of public granaries and assess land, then this first battle must be fought in the Shandong region."

"We have to confront the Five Clans and Seven Families head-on." After a few cups of wine, Li Shimin's face was flushed, but his eyes shone even brighter.

Encountering a formidable opponent only fueled the emperor's fighting spirit.

At the time, he and Jiancheng actively courted the Shandong gentry, and even the retired emperor treated the Shandong gentry very well.

The Shandong gentry mostly supported Crown Prince Jiancheng.

This support, on the surface, doesn't seem wrong. After all, Jiancheng is the crown prince, the future emperor, and he married Zheng Guanyin, a woman from Shandong, the Zheng family of Xingyang.

Li Jiancheng was also very close to the Shandong gentry.

But who could have imagined that...

Crown Prince Jiancheng was suddenly reduced to a commoner and imprisoned in the imperial city.

Instead, the King of Qin suddenly became the Son of Heaven.

Li Shimin naturally harbored some resentment towards the Shandong gentry at the time.

"Let's start with the Zheng family in Xingyang."

With no outsiders present, Li Shimin spoke frankly, saying that he needed to make an example of someone, and the Zheng family of Xingyang was a good one.

Give a sweet date with a shot, pull back as you hit.

He poured another glass of wine, and then the emperor changed the subject.

“Yushu Township has 500 registered households, but there are actually more than 5,000 households here. If we want to make changes here, where do you think we should start and how should we make changes?”

The emperor smiled at him and said.

Most of the more than 5,000 hidden households in Yusu Town rely on the Li family for shelter, including both tenant farmers and hired laborers.
Although they lived a decent life and had enough to eat, they were unwilling to accept the imperial court's offer of relocation and land grants.

For the Li family, although they kept many slaves and some tenant farmers and hired laborers, they were all registered citizens.
However, in Yushu Town alone, the large number of hidden households did provide the Li family with a significant labor force.

If we relocate all these people...
This will certainly have an impact on the Li family, and even on the prosperous town of Yushu.

"Your Majesty, without industry there is no wealth, without commerce there is no life; industry, commerce and sideline businesses are indispensable."

It was these few thousand households that made this place such a bustling town rise up in just a few years.

The imperial court can pilot the collection of industrial and commercial taxes, travel taxes, residence taxes, and deed taxes here. I believe that this town will bring considerable tax revenue to the imperial court.

This town can provide jobs and food for thousands of households, and also bring many conveniences to the surrounding villages.

"Even farmers and local residents from the surrounding area can bring their agricultural products here to sell, increasing their income."

"This town and its people don't really need much interference. It's fine to continue like this."

"All we need to do is register those unregistered individuals as customers, grant them legal status, personal freedom, and legal protection."

If they are allowed to buy and sell land and houses, and even study for the imperial examinations, then I believe they are willing to pay household taxes and corvée labor.

"For customers, if they buy land and reach a certain amount, they become the main households and have to pay rent and taxes."

If the land occupied is not much, then rent and taxes will be levied and transferred according to the acreage. The amount of rent and taxes will be levied based on the amount of land, and the amount of labor service will be based on the number of able-bodied men.

Those who fail to perform their duties, are not registered in the official registers, and drift aimlessly in their neighborhoods are called runaways.

In the past, those who absconded with household registrations were severely punished.
These people broke away from the control of the imperial court and instead attached themselves to landlords and powerful families, which the imperial court could not tolerate.

And now,
Li Yi suggested that we should stop focusing on fugitives; arresting fugitives doesn't address the root cause of the problem.

The equal-field system was fundamentally flawed and would only deteriorate further over time.

We can only find another way.

In the past, those who fled their homes were considered unregistered residents, dependent on landlords, lacking personal freedom, and suffering exploitation, yet the imperial court received no taxes or corvée labor.
Therefore, we will be more lenient with them, designating them as customers, and considering them law-abiding citizens. We will still levy taxes and corvée labor on them, but the taxes will be based on their land and property, not on the number of people. Only in terms of corvée labor will we levy taxes based on the number of men.

This is a concession to these proletarians; otherwise, they would have fled.

Even if they are arrested, they will still flee because they cannot afford the taxes and corvée labor.

These people, registered as clients, could still continue to be tenants and laborers of powerful landlords, only their status changed from semi-servants of the powerful landlords to law-abiding citizens of the country.

Now that they have status, they can no longer be arbitrarily used or exploited.

Li Shimin still secretly wanted to relocate people from the narrow villages to the wider villages, and to move the runaway households back to their original places of residence, or to relocate them to the wider villages and grant them land.

Let them become self-sufficient farmers and head households, so that the state's taxes and corvée labor will be more guaranteed.

"Your Majesty, let those who are willing to move to Kuanxiang and be granted land go, and let those who are unwilling stay. Let them be free to do so, and do not force them."

"It's better to guide than to block; going with the flow is the best approach!"

(End of this chapter)