Chastity Layman

  Chapter 369 Earth Emperor

"The Supreme Emperor wants to live in the Daming Palace, and he named you to preside over the construction. Even the gold has already been taken out. What else can I say? Originally, I also planned to build a new palace for the Supreme Emperor, but the original plan was to build it in two years. , but now the imperial treasury is full, and there is no shortage of money, let’s build it, let’s build it.”

  The emperor shook his head and said.

   Obviously, the emperor didn't intend to build the Daming Palace now, but Li Yuan is like this. He was sent to the army, and it would be unfilial if he didn't build it.

"Sanlang, since the Supreme Emperor asked you to build it, I will entrust this task to you. I also know that two hundred thousand guan is not enough for a Daming Palace. I will give you another twenty thousand taels of gold for three years. Time, okay?"

  There is a total of 490,000 guan, which is definitely not enough to build a Daming Palace, but Li Shimin said that he did not intend to give any more money.

  Qin Lang didn't reply.

Li Shimin glared at him, "Don't think that I don't know how much money you can make from the transformation of Huaihua Sanfang that you carried out. I regret leaving it to you. I thought you were there to share my worries, but unexpectedly you It’s about making a lot of money out of it.”

  Qin Lang felt that the emperor was shameless.

  I obviously saved you a lot of money and a lot of things. It’s my own ability to make money, and I didn’t embezzle a penny.

"Your Majesty, it is not easy to build a Daming Palace in three years, especially the specifications of the Daming Palace. Many materials cannot be obtained locally, such as the beams and columns of the main hall, etc., which need to be harvested from Bashu. The transportation alone is an extremely difficult task. It can’t be done in a short time.”

"What's more, the construction of the Daming Palace requires a huge amount of manpower. Now that the imperial court implements the two-tax law, the people no longer need to do free labor. The imperial court conscripts the common people to work, but they have to pay wages instead. But it’s a lot of wages, and it has to not affect the people’s farming time..."

  Li Shimin snorted coldly, "Don't tell me these hardships, I won't listen."

   Isn't this a rogue?

   "To build the Daming Palace, this is the emperor's will, and it is also my will. The design drawings are ready-made, and the money is also given to you. If you want to employ people, the imperial court can also order people from all over the country to recruit people to do the work."

   "I want to welcome the Supreme Emperor to Daming Palace before the New Year's Day of the fifth year of Zhenguan! You can figure out the rest."

   "Your Majesty, can you really let me handle the rest?" Qin Lang hurriedly asked.

  When Li Shimin heard this, he didn't answer immediately, but looked at Qin Lang very alertly. Based on his understanding of Qin Lang, this kid might be laying some kind of ambush again.

   After thinking about it for a long time, I couldn't think of anything.

   "That's right, you can figure it out yourself, but the Daming Palace must be built according to the imperial design drawings, and can't be modified randomly."

   "Your Majesty, I only have one request, which is that the construction of the Daming Palace should be decided by the minister alone. The supervisor and the Ministry of Industry will only be responsible for listening to orders, okay?"

   "Yes!" Li Shimin readily agreed.

Seeing that Qin Lang really agreed to his request, Li Shimin felt a little embarrassed. After all, it took three years and only paid 490,000 guan, and there were no free civilians. Daming Palace, this is indeed not easy, anyway, he himself does not have this ability.

  But he still believed in Qin Lang, if he didn't put some pressure on this kid, he wouldn't try his best.

  Let this kid do it first, if it really doesn't work, then just draw money from the internal treasury for him. It is impossible to let this kid advance the money himself, although Li Shimin thinks that Qin Lang can't do this either.

   "Tai Shiling observes the sky, and this year may be a disaster year." Li Shimin's expression became serious. Tai Shiling is an official who is proficient in astronomy. Their research is very special, but the emperors of all dynasties would not take their words lightly.

  Since Tai Shiling said that this year will be a disaster year, it is very likely that he is right.

   "Last autumn, Tai Shiling said that the cold current that came from Mobei might last for two to three years before dissipating."

  Qin Lang couldn't help but secretly startled, two to three years, although it didn't directly enter the Little Ice Age, but this kind of cold snap in two or three years is quite terrifying.

  Summer will still be hot, but autumn will come earlier, winter will be colder, and spring will last longer.

  This means that the crops will be greatly affected, and the grain sown in autumn will be greatly affected. Even spring sowing will be delayed.

   Li Shimin frowned into a Sichuan word.

   "We can only count on summer grain. Most of the north will be affected by this, and grain will become a big problem again."

  The north is the foundation of imperial rule, and more than 70% of the population is in the area north of the Yangtze River. The areas with the highest population density in the Tang Dynasty were Guanzhong, Henan, then Hedong, then Huainan, Hebei, and Shuzhong.

  The big granaries of the later generations, such as Suchang and Huguang, are actually underdeveloped now, the Suchang area is better, and the Huguang area is only developed on both sides of the Yangtze River, but the Dabie Mountains and other places are still occupied by a large number of barbarians.

  Not to mention places like Jiangxi and Hunan in later generations, it is still the era of Han-barbarian co-governance. As for Yunnan and Guizhou, it is simply a place that the imperial court cannot directly govern, even Lingnan, Guangdong and Guangxi cannot compare.

  So, in the past, when the imperial court divided Daoism, it began by dividing the entire south of the Yangtze River to Wuling, thousands of miles away, as a Jiangnan Road, and then designated the land south of Wuling as a Lingnan Road.

  From this we can see the actual situation in these places.

   "Your Majesty, these two or three years will be difficult. We must strengthen the South. We must find a way to expand the area of ​​food planted in the South and increase the production of food in the South. Otherwise, we will not be able to survive."

  Qin Lang made a sincere proposal to the emperor.

   "The south is very hot, and there are many floods and epidemics." Li Shimin shook his head and said with a headache. From the pre-Qin period to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the core of the Central Plains dynasty was actually in the north.

  The Eastern Jin Dynasty crossed the south, which led to the development of Jiangnan, but the development was also limited.

  In the eyes of today's imperial court, although the south is big, the whole south is no match for the north.

  Not only is the hot weather in the south unsuitable for northerners, it is also mountainous and watery, with frequent floods and many diseases, so it has always been a place that northerners fear.

   In addition, there are still a large number of barbarian tribes in the south, which are uncivilized and uncivilized, which adds to the complexity of the south.

  Even in terms of farming technology, the south is much behind the north.

   It is not easy to ask for food from the south.

Just like the Huguang Jianghan Plain, an important granary for later generations, there is no granary today. This place suffers from severe floods, nine disasters every ten years, and sometimes it is flooded several times a year. The Jianghan Plain is full of lakes and swamps. After a lot of investment in renovation and dredging, it is impossible to have a granary without repairing dikes and digging rivers.

   There is also Jiangxi, which is known as the land of fish and rice, and the situation is not much better.

   But even so, in the face of the current severe situation, they can only ask for food from the south. The Jianghan Plain is not good, but the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and even the Red River Delta in Cochin are still worth a try.

   What is lacking in the local area is development, and what is lacking is technology.

  For example, in the Cochin Red Triangle area, it is completely possible to have two or even three crops a year.

   "Don't mention Lingnan." Li Shimin sighed.

   Speaking of Lingnan, Li Shimin was angry, not because of other reasons, because until now, the imperial court has not really received the tax from Lingnan.

  From the establishment of the Tang Dynasty to the present, there is no tax in Lingnan. It sounds strange, but it is true. Back then when Li Yuan was fighting in the Central Plains, the south of the Five Ridges was also a group of snakes dancing wildly. The various forces fought for each other and separated their territories. They either followed Li Yuan in the Central Plains, or Lin Shihong or Shen Faxing and other heroes.

  After many years of fighting, when Li Yuan finally put down Xiao Xian, Lin Shihong, Shen Faxing and other Jiangnan heroes, Li Jing also worshiped as Lingnan pacifier and went south.

  The warlords and chieftains in the south of the Lingnan saw the situation, and they also professed their vassals to the Tang Dynasty.

   But that's all.

All parties professed their ministers to Li Yuan, in exchange for the titles of dukes, marquises, and governors in charge, recognition of their respective turf, and even gave them the right to be elected in the south, that is, to allow these newly appointed governors and governors, etc., so that They themselves recommended local officials to the imperial court, which in fact recognized the autonomy of these local forces.

   What's more, these general managers and governors occupy eight states and I occupy five states, occupy a lot of territory, and even have the power to command the army, but in the end they only pay tribute to the imperial court, and there is no rent or tax adjustment to supply the country.

   This situation lasted until the sixth year of Wude. At that time, Datang had eliminated Wang Shichong, Dou Jiande and Liu Heita, etc., and unified the Central Plains. Li Yuan wanted to free up his hands to clean up Lingnan.

So he refused to accept the Hepu Dazhu and other local tributes from the Lingnan chiefs. This was an important move of the emperor. system.

  But as soon as Li Yuan refused to accept the earth tribute, the commander-in-chief Tan Dian, Feng Xuan, Ning Changzhen, and Ning Daoming immediately rebelled against the Tang Dynasty.

  Finally, Feng An, Ning Chun, Chen Longshu and other chiefs finally stood on the side of Datang, and the whole Lingnan fought in a mess.

   Ning Daoming and others were attacked and killed one after another, but the situation did not improve.

  Tan Dian and Feng Xuan fought and killed each other because of the land grab.

   Feng An, Chen Longshu, Ning Chun and other wealthy chieftains who stood on the side of the court also fought for the territory of the Ning family.

  The imperial court sent envoys to Lingnan again and again, not only adding officials to Feng An, Ning Chun, etc., but also recruiting officials such as Tan Dian, Feng Xuan, etc., but still failed to quell the Lingnan War.

   It has been going on and off for four years.

  Feng Andu has been named the governor of Gaoluo and other eight states by the imperial court, and has become the biggest handsome man in Lingnan. And Feng Xuan is Feng An's brother!

  Feng Xuan joined forces with the Xian family to rebel, and is also the Feng family's in-laws for generations, the largest slang leader family in Lingnan.

  Now in Lingnan, Feng Xuan joined forces with Feng An again, and talked with his former ally Shuai Shuai that there were endless wars in the Palace, what a mess of words.

Li Shimin has seen through it a long time ago. None of these **** are good. They all just want to be the emperor. He has been the emperor for more than a year. , but as soon as the imperial court mentions the establishment of prefecture and county systems in Lingnan, household clearing, naturalization, and tax collection, these guys will immediately go to war.

  With the war together, it is impossible to talk about the establishment of counties, naturalization, and taxation.

"I can't bear it anymore. I want to send troops from Jianghuai to conquer Lingnan. Whether it is Feng An, Feng Xuan, Ning Chun, Chen Longshu, Tan Dian, etc., whoever dares to resist the imperial court's power will be wiped out one by one." !"

   "Your Majesty, absolutely not!" Qin Lang hurriedly dissuaded.

  (end of this chapter)