Chapter 440 It Is Better to Fail than to Hand in a Blank Paper

[Ten months after moving to Shangyang Palace, Emperor Wu Zetian died of illness here.

At the last moment of her life, the old lady may have finally looked away and formally issued the last edict in her life.

The content of this edict is quite simple, retaining the title of the Great Sage Queen Zetian, and taking the initiative to remove the rest of the messy imperial titles.

The descendants of the Wang and Xiao clans, as well as Chu Suiliang and Han Yuan, who were affected in the incident of deposing Wang Liwu, were pardoned for their old sins and ordered to resume their careers.

As the most significant political struggle in Emperor Gaozong's reign, the deposed king and established military forces involved the struggle between imperial power and prime ministerial power, the struggle between the royal family and nobles, and the contradiction between the centralization of monarchy and the politics of nobles, which fundamentally determined the imperial power politics in the feudal era of ancient China. trend, and it was also the beginning of Wu Zetian's rise.

Therefore, the Supreme Emperor Wu Zetian did indeed do another good thing. After all, Li Xian may not be able to remember these people, and he may not be able to pardon them if he does.

In May of the following year, Wu Zetian was buried in the Qianling Mausoleum with Gaozong as empress, ending a life that was difficult to judge.

A Wu died. What we talked about the most before was the old lady’s luxurious ostentation. So setting aside these clouds, what does the real Wu Zhou look like under the control of a female emperor?

In a nutshell: civilized governance is far stronger than state affairs, and state affairs is far stronger than martial arts.

What is worthy of recognition during the Awu period is the inclusive attitude towards culture in society. The three schools of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism developed unprecedentedly. Gaozong went further in recruiting scholars with literary talents. It was also because of the unprecedented emphasis on literary talents that a series of flourishing events in the Kaiyuan Dynasty were born. Tang poetry.

But if we continue to peel back the surface of this cultural prosperity, there are still a few pimples underneath that are quite eye-catching.

Limited by the inherent deficiencies in the legal system of women in the feudal era, Awu chose to support Buddhism to strengthen his own momentum. After ascending to the throne, he increased his efforts to support Buddhism, and finally raised a deformed behemoth.

The most eye-catching thing is the rapid increase in temples: According to the edict of Awu's accession to the throne, Dayun temples must be established at the prefecture and county levels to enshrine and explain the Dayun Sutra that calls her the reincarnation of Maitreya.

Although the Dayun Temple built on the border of the country like the Four Towns of Anxi has indeed played a positive role in spreading culture and stabilizing the border, the establishment of Dayun Temple in the three hundred states in the entire country is still a huge sum of money for Wu Zhou's finances. expenditures.

These state-run temples also expanded at an unprecedented rate during the Wu and Zhou Dynasties, and the harm they caused to them was quite clear in a memorial written by Di Renjie, who returned to Beijing to serve as prime minister.

Being extravagant and strong, painting and silk craftsmanship to the fullest... without harming the people, what else can you ask for? ...The rich and beautiful property can be obtained twice as much; the water-milled manor is not small... The unknown monk, who has tens of thousands, has gone down to check and collect, and has already obtained thousands.

The extremely luxurious temples were definitely not built by ghosts and gods. The expenses will eventually fall on the common people. Moreover, the monks in the temples have properties and manors. If you just search Luoyang, there are thousands of escaped monks, which is something the whole country would not even dare to think about.

During the Wu and Zhou Dynasties, the temple economy also prospered along with the Jianghuai money economy.

During the last hundred years of the Tang Dynasty, the contradiction between the country's rapidly prosperous economy and the productivity of making money has always existed. The Jianghuai area was far away from the center and had a prosperous economy. From the time of Emperor Gaozong, bad money had been banned repeatedly. Later, Emperor Gaozong's Awu Fengchan Taishan came back and there was not enough money. There have also been waste money measures to compete with the people for profit, making bad money even more popular.

When Awu officially took power, he made a stupid move. In order to control bad money, he ordered people to hang formal money in the market. If the money was not in compliance, transactions would be banned. As a result, "transactions were stagnant."

As a last resort, Awu once again issued an edict to remedy the situation, saying that as long as the bad money was not too excessive, the bad money could be used, and the money with rough workmanship was not allowed to be withheld.

As a result, this edict allowed bad money to break away from its gray status and gain official endorsement, turning it into regular money. Big Jianghuai households even regarded coining money as a living, causing the proliferation of bad money to an unprecedented level.

Throughout the Wu and Zhou Dynasties, evil money circulated in all aspects, making the prosperity of the market no longer related to the official state.

During the Kaiyuan period, Xuanzong spent a lot of energy on controlling bad money. Even Prime Minister Song Jing had to pay for it but with little effect. No matter how the blame for bad money was divided, Awu still had three-thirds of the credit. 】

"I also understand. I don't know if the Tianshu Bronze Pillar has convinced all the nations. Killing yourself with a knife is a real thing."

Ma Chao muttered while eating the fruit.

As one of the former leaders of Yongliang, Ma Chao is no stranger to money.

When I was young, I went to Chang'an and saw the prosperous trade between the two cities. When I was a handsome man in my prime, I also saw the difficulties of bartering in Yongliang.

Even the dirty money that the people in the Central Plains look down upon is somewhat handsome in Yongliang.

Therefore, it is very difficult to judge at this time. On the one hand, millions of pounds of copper are used to cast dead things, and on the other hand, evil money circulates in the world, leaving endless poison.

Zhang Fei paid attention to another aspect: "This martial arts can be said to be the best, but what should martial arts be like..."

Lu Su also frowned at the light screen's simple statement. He turned around and saw Kong Ming looking at him with a smile, and his heart skipped a beat as soon as he spoke:

"The five baht coins in Jiangdong are gone, right?"

Kong Ming said it simply, but Lu Su also understood instantly that this good money should be compared to the bad money, which refers to coins of regular size and sufficient copper content.

After pondering for a moment, Lu Su asked:

"All merchants in the Jianghuai River obey Jiangling's orders?"

In fact, what Kong Ming said is correct. It is difficult to find a single piece of real money in Jiangdong today.

But what Kong Ming probably didn’t expect was that there wasn’t much bad money left.

The people in Jiangdong still use bad money to make ends meet, and merchants use Shu brocade and Shu sugar to pay for their purchases. These two items are sold smoothly in Caodi.

In addition, there is a "gold note" that Lu Su has seen with his own eyes. It is said that it was made by Liu Bei. It can be exchanged for dozens of ships of supplies in the official market of Jiangling, and is quite popular among the big families in Jiangdong.

At least as far as Lu Su knows, the wealthy and powerful people in Jiangdong are now trying to imitate gold notes, including Sun Hou.

Hearing Lu Su's question, Kong Ming laughed and said:

"Zijing's words are quite unreasonable. It is difficult for Jiangling to attract merchants, let alone Jianghuai merchants."

Lu Su did not care whether what Kong Ming said was true or not, but continued to ask:

"In Kong Ming's opinion, how can the proliferation of such bad money be stopped?"

For a well-educated man like him who is good at governing the country, the current dilemma is like the best test paper, and talking about strategies can show his talent.

As for the temple issue, Lu Su didn't even bother to talk about it. It was nothing more than a matter of following the example of the superiors. Once "Awu" left, as long as the emperor didn't worship Buddha, the danger would be solved. The two issues were not at the same level of difficulty.

Kong Ming laughed when he heard this, and immediately said:

"To eliminate bad money, we need to promote official administration, control the copper industry, and promote coin casting, so that we can deal with bad money."

"If we want to deal with bad money, we must first deal with the border market, then rectify the capital market, and at the same time, we must impose strict laws and punishments. Privately mining copper and casting coins will be punished by decrees and laws."

"Regulate with the official market, and regulate with the private market. If the regular money is sufficient, bad money will not flourish."

Pang Tong on the side looked at Lu Su's astonished face and smiled:

"Kong Ming and Liu Zichu discussed the matter of money for a long time in Chengdu."

...

Changsun Wuji in Ganlu Hall was also making a similar statement, and his views were similar to Kong Ming's:

"... Therefore, we can learn from the money policy of Kaihuang in the Sui Dynasty that if we want to deal with bad money, we need to punish the lawbreakers with severe punishment, and we also need to open copper mines to cast coins."

"And I think..."

At this point, Changsun Wuji carefully worded and said:

"We have set up charity granaries to provide relief to the hungry. If there is a surplus of copper, we may set up a department to regulate the currency."

"If the money is cheap, we will collect the money and put it into the department. If the money is expensive, we will release the money into the market..."

But the more he said, the more unpleasant the words became. Li Shimin, who was listening carefully, understood that this idea seemed good at first glance, but there were problems everywhere. If we want to collect money, what name should we use? If we want to release money, what form should we use?

And the biggest problem is "if there is a surplus of copper", he smiled bitterly when he thought of these four words, which was too difficult.

But when it comes to money, Li Shimin can't help but turn his head to look at the big map. The Japanese country across the sea from the Tang Dynasty is a little more attractive at this moment.

He still clearly remembered that the younger generation said that there was a silver mountain here that could provide 30% of the world's use.

Since there is such a rich silver mine, what about copper? What about... gold?

His breathing became heavier involuntarily, but he finally put this thought back for the time being and nodded to Changsun Wuji:

"I will write down what I just said and present it to you."

Changsun Wuji was overjoyed and nodded in agreement.

[Another prominent problem during the Wu Zhou period was the escape of households.

There is no need to elaborate on how the escape of households came about. After all, Di Gong also said that during the Wu Zhou period, there were all kinds of extravagant spending, "If it doesn't harm the people, what else can we ask for?"

At that time, the common people had to face the temples occupying their land and the big households exploiting their property with bad money as a weapon, so it was normal to escape.

However, the escape of households was a problem throughout the feudal era. The root of this problem was the land annexation problem brought about by the rentier class in the feudal era. If you don't transcend the times, it is unsolvable.

Therefore, there is no need to be harsh on Awu on this issue. It can only be said that she gave a failing grade in the face of escaped households, but it is still much better than a blank paper.

Wei Sili's memorial clearly stated the seriousness of the escaped households in Wu Zhou and the negative effects it brought.

Today, more than half of the households are escaped, rent and tax are reduced, and the national expenditure is insufficient.

The annexation of land by wealthy landlords has led to the escape of the main tax-paying self-cultivating farmers, which directly led to a sharp drop in rent and tax. Awu has been building large-scale projects, and there is no way the money is enough.

Therefore, after Awu had the fun of being an emperor, he also tried to solve this problem. Starting from 698, he spent five years to conduct a census, which is what history books call "household census".

There are two main reasons for the failure of this census.

One is that it is very sloppy, and many people who have died for 20 or 30 years are still registered, resulting in a false population in the census.

The other is that the escaped households that were cleared out were all repatriated to their original place of residence regardless of the actual situation, which caused greater contradictions. 】