Chapter 1218 City Expansion Plan

The expansion of Chang'an was not a temporary idea. It had been in the Tang Gaozong era. The new Daming Palace was a plan for the expansion of the city. Finally, the dual capital system of Luoyang and the Eastern Capital was chosen as the plan for expanding the capital.

If we look at it from a broad probability perspective, the Tang Dynasty even had capitals such as Taiyuan Prefecture, Hezhong Prefecture, Chengdu Prefecture, Fengxiang Prefecture, Jiangling Prefecture, and even Tang Suzong Li Heng ascended the throne in Shuofang Lingzhou, so Lingwu County also became the capital of the Tang Dynasty for a short time.

But these are not real expansions of the capital. Chang'an was the capital of the Tang Dynasty for 266 years, and Luoyang, the Eastern Capital, was the capital for only 26 years, so the real expansion of the capital still requires the expansion of Chang'an City.

The idea of ​​expanding Chang'an was first proposed by Li Ye. It was mainly due to the merger of the two courts, involving the vested interests of a large number of officials, as well as the desire of military generals to have houses in Chang'an. There were also complaints from the Jiangnan gentry that they were too far away from Chang'an and that Chang'an had too strict control over houses, so they could not buy houses in Chang'an.

So after Li Ye came back from Quanzhou, he proposed the idea of ​​expanding the city, and then the Political Affairs Hall discussed and passed it. The Ministry of Works formulated the city expansion plan and handed it over to the military and political council for discussion.

According to Li Ye's original idea, Chang'an City was to expand westward and northward, integrating the Han Chang'an City with the current Chang'an City, but it was unanimously opposed by the Political Affairs Hall. They believed that this would destroy the unity and coordination of Chang'an City and destroy Chang'an Fengshui.

Right Prime Minister Li Dai proposed a second city expansion plan, expanding the city in the east, west and south at the same time, and building a new city in Baqiao in the northeast, which was balanced with the Han Chang'an City. This plan was recognized by everyone.

Although Li Ye felt that this plan involved too many aspects, it was a plan proposed by his father after careful consideration, and Li Ye reluctantly approved it.

The detailed plan formulated by the Ministry of Works has been delegated to the various ministries and temples, and has also been discussed within the various ministries and temples.

Right Prime Minister Li Dai said slowly: "Expanding the city involves turning farmland into residential land. Everyone knows that farmland is only a few dollars per mu, and residential land is also a lot of money. There are huge interests involved, so the top priority is to freeze all land transactions and have the court purchase the land from farmers."

As the representative of the rulers and the leader of the civil service group, Li Dai's first consideration is not the interests of farmers, but the interests of the court. Everyone knows that once the city is expanded, a large amount of land interests will be generated, and everyone will fight for this interest. Li Dai advocates that the court should take the lion's share. Li Dai's idea naturally received unanimous support from the Political Affairs Hall.

Li Dai's idea was taught to him by his son Li Ye. When Li Dai served as the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, the court was extremely tight. Li Ye's idea for him was to sell land. After selling part of the land, the financial constraints were greatly alleviated. Li Dai tasted the sweetness of selling land. He knew very well that once the city was expanded, a large amount of land would generate how much profit?

The first plan finalized by the military and political meetings today was the land acquisition bill. The court unanimously agreed to purchase the land from farmers at five times the price of farmland. Of course, farmers' residential land would not be purchased.

But there is not much land outside the city that actually belongs to farmers, probably not even one tenth. The trend of land annexation in the Tang Dynasty was so strong that the land close to Chang'an City was simply gold among gold. How many of them belonged to farmers? Most of them were in the hands of various powerful people, and the largest landlord was the emperor.

This includes three imperial farms, each covering an area of ​​10,000 acres, and a large amount of land in the Forbidden Garden, all of which belonged to the emperor, accounting for 40% of all the land.

The second is the court, which benefited from the collapse of the eunuch party group. Dozens of eunuchs were greedy for money. They used various means to occupy a large amount of land in Chang'an and Luoyang and collect huge amounts of wealth. After the collapse of the eunuch party group, 70% of the wealth such as gold and silver went into the inner treasury, and 30% went into the left storage treasury.

Then all real estate, including land, houses, etc., belonged to the court, plus the government controlled the land. For example, the Han Chang'an City basically belonged to the government, so the court and the government occupied about 30% of all the land.

The third largest landlord is the rich and powerful, including the royal family, Guanlong nobles, relatives, high-ranking officials, etc. They have accumulated for hundreds of years, and the amount of land is also very large, accounting for about 20% of all the land.

Finally, there are merchants, farmers and ordinary civilians, etc. Their land is very scattered, almost a few acres, dozens of acres, and dozens of acres. Collectively, they only account for 10% at most. The interests of farmers will be a little more. They have residential land, which is currently only 100 guan per acre. Once the city is expanded, the price per acre will at least increase by three or five times.

Therefore, the land acquisition bill passed is mainly aimed at the fourth category of people, merchants, farmers and ordinary civilians.

This is not the court exploiting farmers. Now the price of farmland outside Chang'an is 20 guan per acre. If it is purchased at five times the price, it will be 100 guan, which is the same as the price of residential land.

If the rich and powerful grab the land first, it is a bodhisattva's heart to pay a premium of two or three times. Most of them are purchased at the original price. If you don't sell it, you will offend the rich and powerful. If you don't deal with you now, wait! I will slowly settle the accounts later.

Common people could not afford to offend the powerful and were forced to sell their land, so the court issued a merger bill in a timely manner, which actually protected the farmers and also gained future land benefits.

The discussion on the expansion of Chang'an involved too many aspects, and it was not until dark that part of the discussion was completed, and the rest was postponed to the day after tomorrow.

Dugu Lie returned to the mansion, and his eldest son Dugu Jinyang had already gone ahead and was waiting for his father in the study.

Dugu Jinyang has resigned from all positions and only retains the title of Lantian County Duke. He mourned for his father for three years. When Mrs. Dugu passed away, Dugu Lie should mourn for three years, but the Dugu family did not want to give up the opportunity to serve as the assistant prime minister. They unanimously decided that Dugu Jinyang would mourn for his father for three years, and Dugu Lie would serve as the assistant prime minister of the Ministry of War. Like Li Dai in the past, he would not take off his mourning clothes, drink, have parties, and decorate his house.

The father and son sat down in the study. Dugu Jinyang asked, "Father, I heard that the court has decided to expand the city?"

Dugu Jinyang glanced at his son and said lightly, "The court has issued a decree to temporarily prohibit the sale of land around Chang'an. Don't even think about buying farmers' land. Even if you buy it, the government will not transfer it to you. In addition, the military and political affairs have not been voted on, and the final decision on whether to expand the city has not been made."

Dugu Jinyang showed disappointment on his face, and he could only smile bitterly and said, "Such a major event can be decided by the regent. Do you still need a vote on the military and political affairs?"

Dugu Lie sneered and said, "You don't Understand the political wisdom of the regent. Like the emperor emeritus and the previous emperor, they took all the power for themselves, but the eunuchs benefited from it. The wise superiors distributed power to the ministers, and at the same time, they also distributed risks to the ministers. But do you dare to say that this world is not his? "

Pause, Dugu Lie said: "You actually don't understand. The regent did not give all the power to the Political Affairs Hall. He actually used military and political affairs to restrain the Political Affairs Hall."

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[Lao Gao has recently started to prepare a new book. I am middle-aged and my body can't stand staying up late every day. I really don't have the energy to continue to update three times. I hope my book friends understand!]