Chapter 1288: Grand Vision

Two days later in the morning, Liu Yan submitted the final draft of the tax reform to the Political Affairs Hall for discussion. The tax system was a major military and political matter. After it was approved by the Political Affairs Hall, it would be submitted to the Military and Political Council for a vote.

It will take effect after it is finally signed by Li Ye.

This time, the political affairs hall meeting and the military and political affairs meeting were held together.

Li Ye also participated in the discussion of tax reform. He wanted to give some explanations, especially the household tax reform, which he led. He wanted to explain it so that the officials could understand his long-term intentions.

In the round hall of Zhongshu Province, hundreds of officials of fifth rank and above gathered together.

Hundreds of officials were listening to discussions among the nine cabinet ministers in the political affairs hall.

Wei Jiansu tapped the cloud board with an iron stick, making a crisp sound, and hundreds of people fell silent.

Wei Jiansu smiled and said: "His Royal Highness the Regent must first give everyone an explanation and deliver a speech. Your Highness is invited!"

Li Ye walked in from the side and walked to his seat. Everyone stood up one after another.

"See Your Highness!"

Li Ye waved his hand, "Everyone, please take a seat!"

Without sitting down, he raised his voice and slowly said to everyone: "The top priority of this tax reform is the household tax reform. Because this is what I proposed, I have to explain it to everyone, so that everyone can understand. Why should we implement household tax reform?”

Everyone listened with rapt attention. This was the first time that the supreme ruler of the Tang Dynasty explained the situation to everyone.

Li Ye said slowly: "I believe everyone is confused. The household tax has been implemented for thousands of years. Why should it be reformed or even abolished? In a simple word, because of population.

In the first year of Tianbao, the population of the Tang Dynasty was about 8 million households and nearly 50 million people. After the Anshi Rebellion, the population dropped sharply to just over 40 million. If you go to Hebei, you can deeply understand the tragic situation of the sharp population decline. I am afraid that only During the Tianbao period, Youzhou was almost the same. Henan Road and Hedong Road also lost half of their population. Chang'an's total population originally exceeded two million, but now it is less than 1.3 million.

We urgently need to restore the population, but the household tax actually hinders the growth of the population. The more children the people have, the more taxes they pay, which is a very heavy burden. As a result, the people are unwilling to have more children.

If the household tax is not changed, I am afraid that a hundred years later, the population of the Tang Dynasty will not recover to the number in the first year of Tianbao. "

At this time, several officials hung up a huge map of the future territory of the Tang Dynasty. Li Ye pointed to the northeast direction on the map with a wooden pole and said: "Everyone, next year I plan to implement the Liaodong strategy. The imperial court will capture the entire Liaodong. Everyone knows how big the land is there. From the Liaoxi Corridor to the north, all the way to the northernmost ice and snow zone, it is almost half the size of the Tang Dynasty. It is a vast and fertile black land, with thousands of miles of forest at a glance, and just the wheat grown there. , even if it is harvested once a year, it can feed the entire population of the Tang Dynasty. Such a vast land requires the migration of at least 30 million people. Can we use it? "

Li Ye pointed to the northwest with the wooden pole again, "There is also Anxi. Back then, I established Aral Sea County, the farthest place in the Tang Dynasty, on the Aral Sea. I needed 30 million people to move to the Western Region. Can we provide it?

There are also countless islands and uninhabited continents that cannot be shown on the map, but each continent is larger than the Tang Dynasty and needs a population.

Everyone, population is the scarcest resource in the Tang Dynasty. We need to recuperate, develop agriculture, reduce the burden on the people, and make sure that every person has enough to eat. They will work hard to give us children. Twenty years from now , can the population of Datang reach 80 million people?

This is my grand plan, and the first step in realizing this grand plan is to reform the household tax until it is finally abolished. "

There was silence in the rotunda. Everyone was shocked by the regent's lofty ambitions. Suddenly, warm applause broke out in the rotunda, which lasted for a long time. The ambition in everyone's bones was awakened at this moment.

The tax reform plan of the Tang Dynasty was successfully passed. After Li Ye signs it as the emperor of the Tang Dynasty on January 1 next year, it will be promulgated and implemented to the world.

……….

At noon, business was booming in Wude Restaurant. In an elegant room by the window, Wei Jian Suzheng and Pei Zunqing were sitting together for a drink.

Pei Zunqing poured a glass of wine for Wei Jiansu and said: "I always thought that Liaodong was to clean up the Khitan and reset the Anton Protectorate. I didn't expect that it would expand thousands of miles north. I'm not familiar with the geography there. His Highness said Does the ice and snow zone refer to the North Sea? "

"It shouldn't be the Beihai. The Beihai is actually just a very deep freshwater lake, located to the north of Uihe. The ice and snow zone His Highness mentioned is in the northeast, thousands of miles away from the Beihai, and further north. It is said that there is ice and snow all year round. The local people use deer to pull sleds. I saw a map from His Highness’s staff room, and he marked that side as the North Pole, and that side is the real ocean, as far as the eye can see.”

"Ah! It's so far away, what's the point of coming?"

Wei Jiansu smiled and said, "Under the heaven, it must be the king's soil! Although it is of no use now, it may be useful to our descendants in the future."

"That's true!"

Pei Zunqing lowered his voice and said, "I heard that the Dugu family, the Changsun family, the Dou family and the Yuan family went to Nanyang together. Where do they really want to found their country?"

Wei Jiansu smiled faintly and said: "Isn't it good for them to go overseas to build a country? Do we have to wait for them to become powerful again? Once they left, how many yeoman farmers appeared in the Tang Dynasty. This is an extremely clever move by His Highness, and his future historical status will be worthy of mention. I greatly admire Bitien’s order, so I firmly support the plan of establishing an overseas country.”

Pei Zunqing nodded, "The Guanlong nobles have controlled the Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang Dynasties for almost two hundred years. Once they left, the Tang Dynasty entered a new era."

It was almost dark when Li Ye returned to his house. The family was packing up. They were going to move into Daming Palace next month. Although Li Ye didn't want to move, the east city wall would be renovated next month, and the city wall alley would not be safe. The court and the inner guards insisted that he move into Daming Palace. More importantly, his family wanted to move, so Li Ye had to take care of everyone.

The weather turned cold, and they no longer lived in Wangtian Pavilion, but moved back to Chenxiang Pavilion.

Li Ye returned to his study, but saw his wife Dugu Xinyue tidying up his bookshelf. He was very stubborn and said in a pinched voice: "See the Queen!"

"Didn't I tell you? Don't shout! Hey——"

Dugu Xinyue suddenly reacted, turned around, and saw her husband looking at her with a smirk. Her pretty face turned red, and she stepped forward to twist her husband's arm.

"You look so stupid, teasing me on purpose!"

Li Ye hugged her tightly and said with a smile: "Are you not happy to be called the Queen?"

"Of course I am happy! But won't it start next year?"

"Next year is the official enthronement, but it is already here now. The world cannot be without a monarch for a day. The guys in the court have changed their words. They used to call me a humble official, but now they call me a humble minister."

Dugu Xinyue poked him on the forehead, "You are dreaming. The little emperor hasn't abdicated yet! How can you be the emperor? Besides, you don't look like an emperor. How can you hug your wife in the study?"

"That's not right! Hugging your wife and being the emperor are two different things. The emperor will hug her every day!"

Dugu Xinyue sneered, "The emperor hugs other women every day, such as Concubine Shen and Empress Dowager Zhang."

Li Ye was a little embarrassed. Empress Dowager Zhang, that stupid woman, came to visit his wife two days ago. I don't know what stupid things she said, but she actually let his wife guess that he and Empress Dowager Zhang were ambiguous.

Seeing her husband embarrassed, Dugu Xinyue was afraid that he would be angry, so she took the initiative to kiss him and gently advised: "Although Empress Zhang is somewhat pretty, she is the Empress Dowager after all. Your husband is interested in her, it is better to wait until next year. If the officials know about it, it will affect your reputation. Listen to my advice!"

Li Ye nodded, hugged his wife and kissed her back. At this time, there was a sound of running on the stairs. The eldest daughter Xingsha ran down from upstairs with a book, "Mom, Daddy actually has "Soushen Ji" here, I like it!"

She looked up and found that Daddy was hugging her mother and kissing her mouth? She stuck out her tongue and ran back quickly, "I didn't see anything!"

Dugu Xinyue quickly broke away from her husband and complained to him: "The child has grown up, be careful next time!"

"I didn't know she was upstairs!"

Li Ye then remembered that his daughter was already nine years old, and time passed so quickly!

He suddenly woke up, it was bad! He hurried upstairs, "Xingsha, that book box can't be turned over!"

Daughter found that he had secretly hidden the book box of erotic novels.