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

Chapter 735 Refuting the Imperial Edict Four Times
Upper decision decided by the economic background.

Li Yi returned to the Council of State Affairs, but this time, he did not return as a Chamberlain; he returned with the title of Chancellor.

The prime minister was not the head of three provinces.

Another example of someone who was not appointed prime minister from the three provincial governors was Wei Zheng, the Secretary-General who entered the Hall of State Affairs with the title of Participant in State Affairs.

It's been a while since I've been here.

The official room that the Chamberlain originally occupied had naturally been given to Wang Gui.

However, after the emperor issued the edict appointing him as the Chancellor, the clerks in the Hall of State Affairs immediately prepared a new office for him.

Right next to Wei Zheng's house was a spacious and elegantly decorated public residence.

The morning court session ended.

When he arrived at the Provincial Administration Office, a clerk came to lead him to his new office, which was bright and clean.

Hot water has already been boiled, and tea and snacks have been prepared.

Just sat down,
Wang Gui arrived, knocked lightly on the door, and said with a smile, "What does Situ think of this public room? If you don't like it, you can go back to the original one."

"Please come in and sit down, Attendant Wang."

Li Yi brewed tea.
“This public housing unit is bigger than the old one, I like it very much.”

Wang Gui sat there, watching the rising soda, and said, "I have rejected His Majesty's edict limiting land use."

Li Yi rinsing the teacup was not surprising at all.

I brewed two cups of tea.

"Even Minister Pei refuses to sign?"

"Prime Minister Pei suggested discussing it in the Hall of State Affairs first, but I firmly rejected that idea."

Li Yi smiled, held the teacup, and slowly sipped his tea.

Get up early to attend court.

A cup of tea and a couple of snacks would be perfect.

“I thought His Majesty’s land restriction decree was well-intentioned, but it cannot be done in such a simplistic and brutal way. Forcibly buying back half of the land exceeding the limit—where will the court get so much money and silk to buy up that land? And isn’t this blatant robbery?”

"For the other half of the land exceeding the limit, two dou of grain will be levied per mu, which is ten times the rent."

Li Yi picked up a piece of Jushengnu and ate it.

This is a pastry that was introduced to the Central Plains along the Silk Road. The production process is very particular, with black sesame as the main ingredient, and honey and sugar added.

It's actually just sesame brittle.

Golden and crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside, with rich layers of flavor. One bite, and the aroma of black sesame and the sweetness of honey intertwine.
These are truly delicacies from the Western Regions, carefully selected by the Tang Dynasty.

"Does Attendant Wang have any good ideas?"

Wang Gui said, "I think limiting land use is still necessary, but the policy must be stable. First, the buying and selling of land for distribution should be strictly prohibited."
Secondly, those who have already occupied more land than permitted are prohibited from purchasing any more land.

For land that has exceeded the permitted occupancy limits, it cannot be forcibly purchased or subject to heavy rent. Instead, farmers should be encouraged to sell the excess land to landless or under-occupied farmers.

After trying the giant sesame seed cake, Li Yi picked up another pastry.

The tea and snacks served to the prime ministers were quite good: plum blossom pastries, translucent glutinous rice balls, lotus root candy, jade dew dumplings, and sesame cakes.

"Prime Minister Wang is merely encouraging them to sell off the excess land; no one will listen to him."

Without penalties for exceeding land occupation limits, the land restriction order is merely a piece of paper.

"Punishment? How should it be punished? Many people own private land that has been passed down through generations of their families. Now the court is going to buy it off just because it's exceeded the limit. Wouldn't that cause public outrage?"

Wang Gui still insisted that if the imperial court wanted to limit land use, it could only do so in the future, not in the past.

In the past, even if the land exceeded the limit, it could not be bought or rented again; otherwise, it would be considered robbery.

“Those who have already occupied more land than permitted are prohibited from purchasing any more land. Violators will be punished, with the maximum penalty being exile. The land must be returned to the seller, and a fine will be imposed,” Wang Gui said.

Li Yi picked up another piece of translucent rice cake and ate it. "If we only consider the future and ignore the past, it's just treating the symptoms, not the root cause."

“We can’t just do whatever we want,” Wang Gui insisted.

When the clerk came to announce that the other ministers had arrived and it was time to begin the meeting, the two stopped talking and got up to go to the Hall of State Affairs.

Left Minister Fang Xuanling rose to welcome Li Yi back to the Hall of State Affairs.

“It’s Li Pingzhang’s turn to take charge of the pen this time,” Fang Xuanling said with a smile, handing the pen to Li Yi.

"I'm here to take my duty right away," Li Yi said with a smile, glancing at the hall where all eight prime ministers were present. "Now that everyone is here, let's begin the council meeting."

Wang Gui was the first to speak.

"Yesterday, His Majesty's land restriction decree was rejected by me in the Secretariat. His Majesty issued four such decrees, but I rejected them all."

I would never sign or affix my seal to that land restriction order.

I also want to ask Yuwen Linggong and Wen Linggong of the Secretariat: Faced with such an unreasonable imperial edict, what are your thoughts?
Shouldn't they have offered their advice to His Majesty instead of simply drafting an edict on his behalf?

Wang Gui went all out.

“Your Majesty’s edict is a chaotic order. We prime ministers are here to assist the monarch in governing the country. How can we possibly obey such a chaotic order?”
If this were to be promulgated throughout the land after passing through three provinces, it would inevitably cause widespread chaos. At that time, we would be held responsible and would become sinners reviled by everyone.

“If you still have the responsibility of a prime minister, then you cannot simply pander to the emperor. We must take responsibility for this matter.”

As long as I remain a Chamberlain, no matter how many times His Majesty's edicts are sent to the Secretariat, I will not sign them; every time they arrive, I will reject them.

Li Yi picked up his political pen and wrote down Wang Gui's speech.

"Gentlemen, what are your opinions on what Prime Minister Wang said?" He glanced at the other six prime ministers.

Wei Zheng spoke up, "I also think that His Majesty's edict is somewhat inappropriate. The purchase and heavy taxation of land exceeding the permitted limits are too harsh."

Wen Yanbo also agreed.

The limits proposed by Wang Gui were subsequently supported by the majority of people.

Eight prime ministers were in the hall.

Li Yi owned the most land, with several thousand hectares, exceeding the limit by hundreds of thousands of mu. Wei Zheng owned the least land, but still had several thousand mu, exceeding the limit for his rank. Others, such as Wang Gui and Wen Yanbo, came from prominent families in Hedong, with the Wang family being one of the Five Surnames and Seven Clans.

Du Ruhui's family was the Du clan of Jingzhao, one of the six prominent clans in Guanzhong.

Fang Xuanling's hometown was Licheng, Qizhou. His family belonged to the Qinghe Fang clan. Although not as prominent as the five major clans, it was still a well-known family in the prefecture.

Pei Ju was born in Pei Village, Hedong, and was one of the six prominent families in Guanzhong.

Yuwen Shiji was a member of a noble family from the Guanzhong Plain.

These prominent families were all large landowners.

Both publicly and privately, the emperor's edict was far too shocking and too radical.

Li Yi sipped his tea, watching the prime ministers' discussion.

In fact, someone in history has made this imperial edict.

At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the national treasury was empty and the financial situation was in serious crisis. As a result, the powerful minister Jia Sidao implemented the public land law.

The core of the Public Field Law was that the imperial court would purchase excess land from the people. It stipulated that in places like Liangzhe, Jiangdong, and Jiangxi, officials and private households with more than 200 mu of land would have one-third of their land allocated as public land, which would then be rented out by the government to fund military expenses.

Jia Sidao took the lead by donating 10,000 mu of private land as an example, and officials at all levels were forced to follow suit. In a short period of time, more than 3 million mu of public land were seized, generating an annual rent of more than 6 million shi of rice.
However, during the implementation process, officials surveying the land arbitrarily lowered land prices, even using official titles, ordination certificates, paper money, and tea and salt certificates to offset the cost of purchasing land, causing many small and medium-sized landowners to go bankrupt. To ensure the full collection of rent rice, the government forcibly imposed quotas, including even barren sandy and lakeside fields in the taxation scope, causing immense suffering to the farmers.

On the contrary, it hastened the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty.
This policy of public land reclamation is actually a case of drinking poison to quench thirst.

At that time, the land quota for officials was 50 qing (approximately 3.3 hectares) for a first-rank official and 5 qing (approximately 1.3 hectares) for a ninth-rank official.
For the purchase of excess land, the actual payment was only one-third of the land value, while the original tenant farmers were allowed to continue renting the land, and a fixed rent of one shi per mu was collected.

Jia Sidao's public land law was a piecemeal policy, designed to address the symptoms rather than the root cause of the problem. Initially targeting high-ranking officials and large landowners to solve the military food shortage, it later resorted to purchasing public land.

Instead, it targeted small and medium-sized landowners and even self-cultivating farmers.

This sparked widespread public resentment, and as the Yuan army marched south, officials and landlords in Jiangnan surrendered one after another.

Ultimately, Jia Sidao's public land law severely damaged the interests of the ruling class of bureaucratic landlords, and therefore its implementation inevitably resulted in deviations.
The land requisition ultimately targeted small and medium-sized landowners and even self-cultivating farmers.

In particular, officials engaged in corruption and embezzlement, resulting in land purchase prices being less than one-third of the market price.

Even the tenants, who had gone from being tenants of landlords to being tenants of government-owned land, found that their rents had increased and they too had become victims.

Li Yi believed
If Li Shimin were to forcefully implement this policy of excessive land purchases, the final result would certainly be that these nobles and officials would find ways to shift the burden onto the common people, turning a good policy into one that harms the people.

This is similar to some of the policies in Wang Anshi's reforms, which were good in themselves, but were misinterpreted by a crooked monk.

Going against the entire vested interest group is not so easy.

Li Yi delivered a concluding speech.

"I also feel that this land restriction order was somewhat ill-considered and rushed. One must take things one step at a time, and walk one step at a time."
We can't rush things; haste makes waste.

I agree with Prime Minister Wang's proposal.

We will first set a limit on the amount of land that can be occupied, and then strictly prohibit the buying and selling of allocated land.

For existing perpetual land, whether it exceeds the limit or not, it is permitted to buy and sell, but a red contract must be drawn up for the transaction. For every 10,000 coins, 400 coins are deducted, 300 coins are deducted by the seller and 100 coins are deducted by the buyer, which is called the loss of valuation.

also,

Those who have already occupied more land than allowed are not permitted to purchase more land in narrow villages, but are only allowed to purchase land in wide villages in border prefectures.

The imperial court will temporarily refrain from implementing the order to purchase land exceeding the permitted limits and to impose a tax of two dou per mu on such land.

but,"

Li Yi changed the subject...
Turn up the volume.

"Regardless of whether it is public or private land, whether it is nobles, officials or commoners, all land must pay two liters of grain per mu to the granary, and gentry must pay grain in the same way."

This was the true purpose behind the discussion between the emperor and Li Yi.

The claim that half of the land occupied beyond the limit would be purchased and the other half taxed at two bushels of millet was nothing but a smokescreen.

The real purpose was to provide two liters of grain per mu for the public granary.

They came in with a posture as if they were about to overturn the table, trying to divert attention.
The prime ministers in the hall were all deep in thought when Li Yi suddenly proposed this idea.

Each mu (unit of land area) was taxed with two sheng (unit of volume) of grain from the public granary, and officials and gentry alike were required to pay the tax.

Compared to the emperor's previous strict land restriction order, this seemed much milder.

"Minister Pei, you previously served as Minister of Revenue, so you are familiar with the current state of the court's finances. The country only has two million taxable laborers..."

Even if the weather is favorable in all regions, the annual rent and tax would only amount to four million shi (a unit of dry measure). The household tax would only amount to about one million bolts of silk.

Ladies and gentlemen,

With such a small amount of tax revenue, what can you possibly accomplish?
That's right, the grain stored in the public granaries was a form of land tax, intended to increase government revenue.

Wang Gui said, "I think we should live within our means and cut back on spending."

"Prime Minister Wang, even a clever cook can't cook without rice. Simply cutting expenses isn't enough; we also need to increase revenue. For instance, officials in the capital are currently without pay, and local officials aren't even receiving a salary."

The various government offices didn't even have enough money for their own offices; they relied entirely on rent from public land and loans from public funds to stay afloat.

The imperial government, a supposedly prestigious institution, engaged in usury. Various levels of government offices were staffed with numerous officials responsible for collecting and lending money. Those who excelled at this were given priority for official appointments.

In the capital alone, there are over seven hundred clerks responsible for collecting money, and hundreds of these clerks are granted official positions every year. If this continues...
Doesn't that mean all the officials in the imperial court were originally money collectors?

The tax was two liters of millet per mu, and the grain collected from the public granaries could amount to several million shi of millet, which was equivalent to doubling the regular rent. For the current imperial treasury, this was a huge sum of money.

Pei Ju, who was nearly eighty years old, stroked his long, silvery-white beard and agreed with Li Yi's words. "You don't know the cost of firewood and rice until you're in charge of the household." He had served as the Minister of Revenue, and although it was not for long, he was very clear about the national finances.

After a conversation,

Li Yi said, "Then today's meeting will reject His Majesty's edict on limiting land use. I will compile and record the policies on limiting land use and grain storage that we just discussed, and submit them to His Majesty."

“I agree,” Wang Gui said first.

Wei Zheng, Du Ruhui, Fang Xuanling, and others also voiced their agreement.
Wen Yanbo, Yuwen Shiji, and Pei Ju nodded in agreement.

The emperor's land restriction decree must be rejected!
In comparison, the grain system of charitable granaries, which required paying two liters of millet per mu, was nothing special.

They were quite clear about which was more important: the requisition of excess farmland and the tax of two dou per mu, or the grain of one mu and two sheng for the public granary.

(End of this chapter)