The Road to the Imperial Examinations of Farmers in Ancient Times

The imperial court rested until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and their officials did not go back to the Yamen until the sixteenth day of the first month.

There is a half-month holiday during the Chinese New Year. Apart from going out to meet friends in the first few days, I also invited friends to my house twice. After that, Li Wen basically didn't go out much.Others can rest when they are on vacation, but this does not include him. Basically, he goes into the study early in the morning every day and only comes out at night when he is busy.

In the middle, I went to the palace twice to meet the emperor and discuss some plans and things about this year.

Since the end of the previous year, roads from the south to the capital and from the capital to the north have been under construction.With the paving of the road, corresponding post stations and post offices will be built along the way. The post stations are allocated to the merchants who have invested money in. However, the post office is owned by the government and controlled by the imperial court, so it will need to be arranged at that time. The staff went down to take charge of the various post offices.

According to his plan, the post office can cover every town in Dacheng, and it is best to go down to every village, so that many people can be arranged to go to work in the local area.Therefore, regarding the arrangement of post office personnel, Li Wen proposed, "The imperial court can arrange for some veterans and wounded soldiers who were injured on the battlefield and could no longer go to the battlefield to come down from the front line, and arrange these people to work in post offices in various places. "

Li Wen knew something about Dacheng. When Emperor Wu came to power, he greatly expanded the number of soldiers. In the first few decades of Emperor Zhaozong's reign, the country increased its troops a lot, which resulted in too many soldiers at the border. , This is why the Ministry of Households can't even pay the military salary.It is really that the country is too poor and there are too many soldiers, the imperial court simply does not have so much money to support so many soldiers.

There are many soldiers, but it doesn't mean that all the soldiers here can be used. These people can kill the enemy on the battlefield.So, what does the imperial court need so many soldiers for?It's better to send some useless soldiers back to their hometowns, or arrange things for these personnel to do.Li Wen said, "...and the paving of roads still requires a lot of manpower.

There is also a lot of wasteland on the west side. If the imperial court gives these people iron tools and seeds and exempts them from tax for three years, I think many people will choose to reclaim the wasteland there and continue to live. "If these people stay on the west side, they can also strengthen the defense of the west side.

The country needs people everywhere, why should these capable laborers be trapped in military camps, the imperial court has to support hundreds of thousands of soldiers, no wonder the Ministry of Households can't afford to support these people.It would be better to let some people retreat from the front line, and make full use of this part of the labor force to carry out large-scale construction.

So in response to this situation, Li Wen proposed to the emperor to reduce the number of soldiers, arrange for veterans and disabled soldiers to work at the grassroots level, and at the same time proposed a plan for elite soldiers.As far as he knows, the military expenditures that the imperial court has given to the military over the years have been decreasing year by year, year by year. One reason for this is that the imperial court has a big financial problem, and another reason is that the imperial court's current soldiers Too many

Li Wen explained, "What I mean is that after cutting off these useless soldiers, leaving young and capable soldiers, the imperial court will increase military expenditures, strengthen the training of soldiers, and create a powerful army. If the army comes out, even if we face Hu Jun in the future, Dacheng will be fearless."

He already had these ideas before the business reform was proposed last year, but at that time the imperial court was really too poor, and the household department could run away if it was empty.But it's different now. With the development of economic construction, they can also put some plans on the agenda.

So there is a big difference between the court having money and not having money.Nothing is impossible without money, everything is possible with money.

"Well, what you said, let me think about it again." Yang Shaomu was a little moved by Li Wen's suggestion. The court has always been increasing troops, and has never proposed reducing soldiers.But according to what Li Wen said, let some soldiers who don't have them retreat from the front line, and the court can arrange these people to do things in the local area, which is also killing two birds with one stone.

And what moved him the most was that they created a group of powerful troops that could fight three against one on the battlefield.If this is the case, their Dacheng will definitely be invincible, and they don't have to be afraid of barbarians attacking Dacheng.

To build a country, it needs a lot of money.In the first half of the year, the effect of implementing the new tax law in the capital is obvious, and it has increased a lot of income for the household department. If the salary tax law can be implemented locally, the commercial taxation of various places in the entire Dacheng country will increase how much the household department can increase. Silver taels?It's almost impossible to budget.Li Wen said, "I suggest that this year the capital should continue to implement

The new tax law, as well as the local selection of a few north-south caravan travel routes, the more important towns to implement the new tax law.

"

As for the matter of increasing money for the household department, the emperor is naturally in favor of it.

The biggest obstacle to the implementation of the new tax law at the local level is actually the cooperation of local officials and personnel.Local officials collect all kinds of miscellaneous taxes from merchants under various names. This part of the money does not go to the central government, but is taken by local officials for themselves.The implementation of the new tax law will inevitably conflict with the interests of local officials, so this involves some issues in the officialdom.

In fact, to put it bluntly, it is the local corrupt officials who need to be dealt with. If the court allows these people to search for the people, it will affect the future development and direction of the entire Dacheng.But it is not an easy task to rectify the officialdom, clean up the officialdom, and deal with these people.

Regarding this question, Li Wen did not dare to offer any opinions or suggestions, and still depended on the emperor's own opinion.Seeing the emperor's thoughtful expression, knowing that this matter would not come to a conclusion so soon, Li Wen raised his head and glanced at the emperor, lowered his eyebrows and said, "Your Majesty, if you have no other orders, I will step down first."

"Don't worry, you have talked to me about so many things since you came here, and I was just looking for someone to have a drink with me, why don't Li Aiqing accompany me to have a drink before leaving." Seeing that Li Wen was about to leave, the emperor refused to let him go .

As soon as the emperor said that he wanted to drink, the chief eunuch who was waiting next to him immediately ordered the servants below to bring the wine and food.

Soon the maids brought up the food and wine.

Li Wen had no choice but to drink a small glass of wine with the emperor in the palace, knowing that his alcohol capacity was not good, this was in the palace, so he didn't dare to drink too much.Taking advantage of this meeting, he continued to talk to the emperor about some of the plans he had proposed earlier.

"Yeah." Yang Shaomu drank one glass of wine after another, and got a little drunk at the end. He looked at the boy opposite him with straight eyes. He only listened to half of the boy's chatter, and didn't listen to the other half. of.

Outside, the queen brought the little prince Yang Xuan over. The little prince had met his father, and Situ Xue brought his son to look for the emperor. Unexpectedly, Li Liuyuan was here.

When Li Wen saw the queen and the prince coming, he stood up and saluted, "I have seen the queen, Your Highness the prince."

"Li Liuyuan is free of courtesy. Xuan'er came to the emperor arguing early in the morning, and the concubine coaxed him for a long time, and promised to bring Xuan'er to see the emperor later, but this is not..." She had no choice but to bring the child to the emperor.If it wasn't for the child clamoring to see the emperor, Situ Xue wouldn't have come here at this time.

When the little prince saw his father, he ran to find him, "Father, father, my son misses you."

"Xuan'er misses my father, come here and let my father give me a hug." Yang Shaomu has always loved this son-in-law, and hugged his son and sat on his lap.Seeing that the queen was still standing, Yang Shaomu said, "Queen, sit down too."

"No, the concubine left Xuan'er here with the emperor, and the concubine will come to pick up Xuan'er later." Seeing Li Liuyuan here, Situ Xue thought that the emperor wanted to discuss business with Li Liuyuan, so it was not good to disturb her here.

With the emperor's permission, Situ Xue left his son with the emperor and left with others.

The little prince stayed as he wished, at first he sat obediently in his father's arms, but after a while he crawled into Li Wen's arms.With the little prince coming, both of them stopped talking about business. Li Wen hugged the little prince on his lap and teased him. He quite liked the little prince.

Yang Shaomu looked at the young man teasing the little prince with a smile, and said, "Xuan'er still needs a tutor, I wonder if Li Aiqing would like to be Xuan'er's tutor?"

"Should I be the prince's tutor?" Li Wen's eyes widened when he heard this. He didn't expect the emperor to ask him to be the prince's tutor.He looked down at the little luotou in his arms, and asked, "Your Highness is not yet three years old, right?" This little luotou doesn't even know what reading is, is it going to start growing so soon?

"Hehe, yes, it's not full yet." Yang Shaomu nodded and said, "Isn't this going to make Xuan'er a tutor first, I wonder if you would like it?"

Li Wen was actually a little hesitant in his heart, because he would definitely be very busy in the next few years, if he had to take care of His Royal Highness's teacher, he was afraid that he would not be able to take care of it, so he told the emperor about this concern.After hearing Li Wen's words, Yang Shaomu understood, and said, "Oh, you don't have to worry about this. Apart from you, Xuan'er will have other teachers to teach him, you just need to spare time to teach Xuan'er."

Now that the emperor has said so, if he refuses to agree, it will be too ignorant.

This is to be a tutor for His Royal Highness the crown prince. Seeing what the emperor means, he is to train the little crown prince as a prince.Now the emperor only has such a son. I don't know if there will be other sons in the future, but even if the emperor has other sons, the prince can only have one.

Li Wen lowered his head and glanced at the little carrot head in his arms. He quite liked this child, "Since the emperor has said so, then I would rather be respectful than obedient. I am willing to be the prince's tutor."

With his personal supervision, it can also prevent the little prince from going astray, which is actually quite good, Li Wen thought in his heart.

In this way, it was decided that he would be the little prince's tutor.

He spent a lot of time in the palace that day, before he left the palace, there was light snow outside, and he walked a little faster.After going out to the gate of the palace, Li Wen saw a man standing outside the palace gate holding an umbrella, walked towards the man, looked up at the man, and asked with a smile, "Why are you waiting for me here?"

"I know you've entered the palace, so I guess you'll be coming out soon." Zhao Xiangyi held up an umbrella and put most of the umbrella on top of the young man's head. He didn't mind snowflakes falling on top of his head.

Two people walked on the road, leaving a set of footprints...

Author's gossip: Thank you Chongya y (yahou) for supporting me,