"The son of the emperor to meet his father!" In the imperial study room of Wude Palace, Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin came together and saluted respectfully.

Seeing the arrival of the second son, Li Yuan waved his hand and said, "You guys sit down!" ”

The two brothers saw that their father was full of energy, and they didn't have the previous gloom at all, and they couldn't help but glance at each other, and they both saw a look of surprise in each other's eyes. The two looked away at the touch of a touch, and neither spoke, although it was only because of the conflict because of the different governing concepts, but the-for-tat dispute made the unstable affection and trust give birth to a slight rift.

"Completed, do you think the news of Yang Tong's expansion of the army of 500,000 is true?" Li Yuan looked at Li Jiancheng, and Li Jiancheng's father and son came into contact with Yang Tong.

"Father!" Li Jiancheng sighed and said with a wry smile: "He is so capable of pretending, what he says is very honest, and what he does is also on the surface, but we always fall for him, and to be honest, Erchen can't guess whether it's true or false." However, for me Datang, it doesn't matter whether he really increases his troops by 500,000 or deliberately spreads rumors. ”

Li Jiancheng's implication is very obvious: Yang Tong is now in full swing, it is enough to deal with Li Tang, whether he increases his troops or not, the result is the same.

Li Yuan nodded silently and sighed: "In fact, from preparing to raise troops to entering the main pass, everything is in my calculations, and I just came out of the anomaly of Yang Tong, this person is really weird, or he is lucky, it seems that the time and place are favorable, he has all of them, and now the Sui Dynasty is stable inside and outside, and there are no external enemies." And we don't have much time for the quasi-army to fight, if I expect it to be good, Yang Tong will definitely wait for the day, after the beginning of the spring, he will immediately send troops, of course, this is not the most terrible thing, the key is that we don't know what other conspiracies and tricks he has, but he can always look at us poor, in this aspect alone, we have completely fallen behind, the only thing we can do is naturally passive to face the battle, improvisation on the battlefield! But these are all external troubles, and what are our internal worries? If the internal troubles are not eliminated, how can the external troubles be calmed? ”

Li Jiancheng was slightly stunned, and then lowered his head helplessly, his father knew what the internal worries were, but he still wanted him to say, obviously quite dissatisfied with the recent performance of the various gate valves, which led the topic here, although he felt that now was not the time to break with the gate valves, but if there were these people when the Sui Dynasty responded internally, and when the Sui army attacked again, the Tang Dynasty would definitely be embarrassed internally and externally. "Internal worries are mainly in two aspects, one is the family door valve, among which the strength of the Guanlong aristocracy is the most amazing, the various powerful door valves, the children of the family are either in business, or as officials as generals, the power is extremely huge, in the local like the emperor, control the local power, I once played the emperor, to take certain measures against them, to limit their excessive expansion, but the father of the emperor in them have the merit of support, can not bear to treat the heroes lightly, adopted a tolerant policy, resulting in them gradually monopolizing the Tang Dynasty military and political positions at all levels, They hold positions of power politically and militarily; As for the land on which they depended, in the name of troubled times, they secretly set up bandits and slaughtered village by village at night, so that the fields of the villages became terra nullius, and by the day of the next day, the land was put under their names. ”

"And such evil deeds?" Li Shimin, who was silent, was shocked when he heard it.

"Many, much more!" Li Jiancheng said with a wry smile: "You have been stationed in Xicheng County for many years, haven't the people fled north?" ”

"Yes! Due to the flight of a large number of yeoman farmers to Hanchuan, the population of Xicheng County has plummeted, and it has reached the point where the imperial court has been seriously shaken to pay taxes, and I have to set up a card to block it. Li Shimin said.

"What about the vacated land, in the hands of the imperial court, or is it deserted?"

"This, of course it's not wasted." Although Li Shimin has always been in charge of the army and ignores people's livelihood and government affairs, he still knows that the grass grows in the field or rice.

"It's all gate land now." Li Jiancheng no longer paid attention to Li Shimin, but bowed his hand to Li Yuan and said: "Father, the gate valve wantonly annexed the land and ran the manor, and because they did not need to pay taxes, the treasury was empty, and it gradually became a trend of tearing the land for the king and dividing one party, so that the imperial decrees could not be effectively implemented many times, and if this matter is taken seriously, it will become a huge disaster sooner or later." ”

Li Yuan smiled coldly, "The Guanlong nobles are the foundation of my Tang Dynasty, and they have made a lot of meritorious deeds at the beginning of the incident, and they should be treated a little preferentially, and I don't object to it, but if you can't keep to yourself, then don't blame me for being polite." ”

Li Jiancheng's words made Li Yuan more vigilant against the gate valves, although Bashu is Li Tang's rear, but it has not been quiet in recent years, 'bandits' attack on the village has happened from time to time, these people can't deal with the murderous 'bandits', they can only be forced to be outcasts, and after the Guanlong gate valve lost Guanzhong, it is urgent to restore the murderous means made by the peak, everyone has this heart, and they have acquiesced to the behavior of other gate valves, and they can't compete for more and better land, one or two are competing hard, slaughtering, The people of the native land were expelled so that they would not be taken by others first, so that innocent people would suffer.

Li Yuan actually knew that these lands had not only become the land of the gate valves, but also the people who were forced to wander were actually hidden by the gate valves, and if these hidden people were released, the imperial court would increase the population of at least nearly one million people in Bashu, which would play a vital role in improving the tax revenue of the imperial court. If you really want to do this, of course, this is something that offends the Guanlong Gate Lord, and it will offend their vital interests, so Li Yuan has been holding back for many years, but the imperial court is now not only reduced to the point where it cannot maintain its operation, but even the danger of being subverted, even if he is unwilling, he has to break with the seizure of Guanlong's magnates in advance.

"Let's talk about the second one!"

"Whoa!" Li Jiancheng frowned, and said in a deep voice: "A fierce rogue has emerged in Bashu recently, including Han and wingmen, and the number is about 10,000!" These people call themselves the Taihe Army, they are elusive, constantly attacking the manors of the gate lords, the means are quite vicious, all the people who are related to the gate valves, all of them are tragically poisoned, and then use the seized money and grain to relieve the displaced people, in Bashu is very popular, according to the local report, the number of this Taihe army has a tendency to expand. ”

"Taihe Army?" Li Yuan's face changed slightly, and the number of more than 10,000 people made him feel a heavy vigilance in his heart.

"The word 'Taihe' is a bit like Taoism, could it be that Shuzhong Taoism took the lead?"

"It's not just like Taoism, it's also the name of an emperor!"

"Emperor Wei Xiaowen."

"During the period of Emperor Xiaowen, in order to defend the national capital Pingcheng, many military towns were established along the Great Wall, the most important of which were Wuchuan Town, Woye Town, Huaishuo Town, Fuming Town, and Rouhuang Town, collectively referred to as the six towns in the north. These six towns were important military towns in the Northern Wei Dynasty to resist the invasion of the northern nomads, and most of the guards were nobles of the Tuoba family and virtuous ministers of the Northern Wei Dynasty. In the seventeenth year of Taihe, Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital to Luoyang, which caused the status of the six northern towns to decline rapidly. At the same time, it also made the imperial court's control over the six towns weaken rapidly, and the military generals of the six towns were ready to move, forming gangs, forming alliances with each other, and competing for power and profit, becoming warlords themselves. Wuchuan Town Yuwentai and Huairou Town Gao Huan gradually rose, becoming the two most powerful separatist forces, quickly dominating the political situation of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and then the famous 'Eight Pillars of the Twelve Generals', it can be said that the 'Seventeenth Year of Taihe' is of far-reaching significance to the Guanlong magnates! Speaking of this, Li Yuan's eyes were filled with a cold chill, and there was a trace of fear.

Li Jiancheng asked: "Father is saying that this so-called Taihe army is very likely to be the army of the Guanlong nobles?" ”

"Do thieves do less to catch thieves, plant blame, and merge with each other?" Li Yuan's temples bulged from time to time, showing that he was angry to the extreme.

The Li brothers were horrified, they knew that their father was ready to attack the Guanlong nobles, this time not only to ask for money, food, and population, but to uproot them like Yang Tong, but Li Tang did not have the good conditions like Yang Tong, nor did he have enough time to suppress the civil strife, just because after the beginning of spring, the Sui army would attack in a big way, if the Guanlong nobles were moved at this juncture, the consequences would be unimaginable.

But their brothers knew very well in their hearts that their father deliberately guided Li Jiancheng to say this, in order to put the threat of Guan Long's magnates in the open.

In fact, on the issue of dealing with Guanlong's magnates, Li Jiancheng and Li Yuan discussed.

Because the Guanlong magnates gave Li Yuan a lot of money, grain and manpower support at the beginning of the army, so after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan gave the manor land of the Guanlong nobles without taxation, and the Guanlong magnates also took out a lot of money and grain from time to time to support the Tang army when the Li Tang Dynasty encountered difficulties.

Just after the battle of Guanzhong, Li Jiancheng and Xiao Yu in order to buy time to evacuate Daxing, personally went to the Sui army camp to negotiate with Yang Tong, Yang Tong not only gave three days, but also talked with him a lot about the threat of Guanlong magnates and Kwantung scholars to the imperial court and imperial power, Li Jiancheng thought so.

When he arrived in Xiangyang, he thought that he should take back the privileges of the Guanlong magnates and exchange the tacit donation for the normal payment of taxes, but Li Yuan was afraid of causing the dissatisfaction of the Guanlong magnates, which led to the collapse of the Tang Dynasty, which was repeatedly defeated and lost in Guanzhong.

Li Yuan's consideration is actually very reasonable, any dynasty would not dare to rashly attack its supporters at the beginning of the founding of the country, but Li Jiancheng believes that the later it is changed, the more difficult it will be, and it will form a privileged group in the Tang Dynasty.

Li Yuan thought that the Tang Dynasty would gradually expand, and the population and land would increase, so that it would not affect the tax revenue of the imperial court, so he insisted on his own opinion. Unexpectedly, Li Tang's territory did not expand, but continued to shrink, and Bashu is the back garden of the Guanlong magnates, and the most fertile countries of Tianfu are occupied by the Guanlong magnates and local magnates, but they all enjoy tax-free treatment, coupled with the Guanlong magnates and the Guandong scholars and southern scholars who settled in Bashu, and the brutal set of killing a village late and occupying the fields the next day, resulting in less and less land that the imperial court can collect taxes, and the taxes are getting less and less year by year.

Before, the gate valves had no way out, they could only follow Li Tang all the way to the end, it was a relationship of both prosperity and loss, so regardless of Li Yuan's demand for food and money or population, he would vigorously support it, but with Yang Tong's voice of reconciliation, and seeing Li Tang's lingering breath and bleak future, they all stopped supporting the Li Tang Dynasty for fear of provoking the dissatisfaction of the new master, and they stopped supporting the Li Tang Dynasty with money and grain, causing Li Tang to fall into the dilemma of lack of money and food, if this problem is not solved, the army will collapse without a fight. Since then, Li Yuan has had the idea of moving the Guanlong magnates, he asked Li Yuanji to take over the 'one eye' when he was in Nanyang, in fact, he was collecting evidence of collaborating with the enemy, and he was able to force the Guanlong magnates to give in at a critical moment, but now he saw that the Guanlong magnates were becoming more and more presumptuous, and they were afraid of their army, so they had a killing opportunity, even if they died and the country was destroyed, they had to fight, if they could eliminate the Guanlong magnates before the Sui army broke through, they could completely follow Liu Bei's example, calmly retreat into Bashu, close the country, and develop to the west and south. If you don't do this risky trick, you will definitely die.

Li Yuan's mentality is actually to eat meat together when you have money, and if you don't have money, you will take your subordinates to cut it, who has let Guanlong's magnates accumulate for more than 100 years, and they are all so rich, and the pigs will always be slaughtered after they are fattened, Li Yuan asked his two sons in private, which is exactly the same as asking about the slaughtering skills.

Li Yuan let out a long sullen breath, the Guanlong magnates are very powerful in the military and localities, especially controlling the lifeblood of money and food, so they have the confidence to wrestle with the imperial court. He said slowly: "It's not that we can't eliminate the Guanlong magnates, but the foundation of the Tang Dynasty is very weak, and if we forcibly eliminate it, the price is so big that we can't afford it at all." However, the Guanlong magnates were always a cancer, because their large possession of fertile land prevented us from implementing the Juntian system and the government military system; Their large possession of the positions of officials and military attaches made it impossible for us to open a department, and the reason why Yang Tong succeeded was that he controlled everything and did whatever he wanted, which was the fundamental reason why the Sui army repeatedly defeated us. ”

"Father still wants to compromise?" Li Jiancheng frowned when he heard this.

"Nope! Not this time. Li Yuan shook his head and sneered: "The Guanlong magnates have bet on Yang Tong, and it is very likely that they will cooperate with the Sui army, if I compromise again, the result of my Tang Dynasty will be exactly the same as that of the Yuwen clan, and they will all die and die." That's why I'm going to strike first. ”

Since the date of its establishment, the struggle between the Guanlong magnates and the imperial power represented by the 'Twelve Generals of the Eight Pillars State' has never been broken, and the fight against the Yuwen clan and the Yang clan has been defeated, and now it is Li Tang's turn, and the contradictions between the two have reached the point where they cannot coexist.

Li Shimin pondered for a while, and then arched his hand and said: "Father, don't worry about anything else, I'm afraid that something will happen to the army." ”

Guanlong magnates started with military weapons, military power and the army are their heirlooms, just like the family study of famous scholars, family learning is the key to their training of children and protégés, and the key to building a huge bureaucratic network, giving up family education is equivalent to giving up the inheritance of interests, and for the Guanlong magnates, giving up the army is equivalent to giving up the weapon to protect their family wealth, once they lose the army, they can only be slaughtered.

However, allowing Guanlong's magnates to raise private armies was the price Li Yuan paid to gain their support, but it became the biggest obstacle to their solid national foundation. This is exactly the same as Yang Jian back then, but after Yang Guang's continuous elimination and beating, as well as Yang Dong's direct suppression, Li Yuan faced the Guanlong magnates in terms of military influence, which has been much weaker.

"It's okay, just supervise the generals in their army! If these people are eliminated and the military attaches at the grassroots level are selected in a way that can be promoted from top to bottom, the morale of the military will certainly be completely changed. As for the officials, I will let Wu Chuanchu secretly supervise. ”

"Can Erchen do something?" Li Jiancheng asked.

"The two of you can monitor the Guanlong officials and military attachés respectively, and leave the rest to me."

"Whoa!" The Lee brothers were on call.

"I will leave the military and political affairs to you, and I must not leave anyone behind, and besides, only our father and son know about this matter, and we can't reveal half a word to others. I will wipe them all out and rid them of the aftermath forever. "Li Yuan is smart this time, unlike the last time he wanted to move the capital, he let out the wind first, and he was very passive.

"Please rest assured, my son's ministers will start preparing today."

"It is said that many homeless people come to Xiangyang?" Li Yuan asked again.

"Exactly!" Li Jiancheng sighed and said in a low voice: "The people's lives are already difficult, and when they encounter a snow disaster, their lives are unsustainable, and they have run to Xiangyang to survive. According to statistics, there are more than 300,000 people, plus the people from Nanyang, more than 300,000 people have been affected, and they all need relief from the imperial court. ”

Thinking that many of the victims of hunger and cold would die during the Chinese New Year because of the lack of relief from the imperial court, Li Jiancheng's face was unbearable, and his heart was like a knife.

Li Yuan's expression was also very solemn, he was silent for a long time, looked at Li Shimin and said, "Erlang! Immediately lead the troops to set up tents to settle the victims, select young and strong people to join the army, and distribute them with money according to the standards of the county soldiers as long as they meet the requirements, and promise to distribute grain seeds to them to plant at home in the spring. The old, the weak, the sick and the disabled temporarily gave soup with military rations, and tried their best to tide the people through the difficulties. ”

"Whoa!" Li Shimin was overjoyed in his heart, the heavy snow has lasted for a long time, and the old and weak are afraid that they will have died in the ice and snow a long time ago, and the three or four hundred thousand displaced people who have persisted until now can at least pick out thirty or fifty thousand new soldiers, which is a relief for Datang and himself.

Li Yuan said to Li Jiancheng again: "After Jiancheng stays, I still have something to say to you." ”

"Son's resignation!" Li Shimin saluted his father and brother respectively and left.

Only Li Yuan and Li Jiancheng, father and son, were left in the imperial study, and Li Yuan asked: "You have been in charge for so many years, do you have any experience with Yang Tong's Juntian system?" ”

"Erchen talked to Yang Tong about this in Guanzhong back then, and he asserted at that time that we couldn't carry it out." Li Jiancheng smiled bitterly.

Li Yuan was a little curious: "What did he say?" ”

Li Jiancheng recalled seriously and said: "Yang Tong said that land is the lifeblood of all people, and it is difficult for the magnates to hand over the land and population. But my Datang is the concentration of the family's gate valves. A single order will not help at all, and there must be real means. ”

"By what means?"

The reason why Li Yuan was very concerned about this matter was that this time he wanted to deal with the Guanlong magnates who had military strength, and the people relied on by the Kwantung Shi clan and the Southern Shi clan were nothing more than the essence of scripture and righteousness. Their presence does not have much influence on the imperial court, and if the imperial court gets rid of the powerful and domineering Guanlong magnates, these people will raise their hands and cheer, which means that there will be seventy percent of the official positions for them to distribute.

Li Mi once promoted the Juntian system in Xuzhou, but it was unanimously resisted by the officials of various counties and counties, because most of these people were the children of the Dongguan Shi clan, and if he forcibly implemented it, it would provoke vested interests to rebel, and it would shake the safety of the Wei state, and finally it would be over. On the contrary, Du Fuwei and Wang Shichong copied Yang Dong's method and started to fight local tyrants and divide the land, and the results were quite good.

Li Tang's situation is very similar to Li Mi, even if he is a powerful person in Guanlong, he also has relatives in the east and south, and the imperial relatives and relatives, so the situation of land and population is extremely complicated, there are not only those he rewards, but also many of them are purchased by private individuals, and many of them are obtained by slaughtering villages, and if he wants to implement the equalization system, he will definitely violate the interests of many people. Therefore, he wanted to hear how Yang Tong did it, hoping to learn from the experience of the Great Sui.

Li Jiancheng smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Yang Dong's methods are still difficult for us to implement. ”

"That's it, what is it?"

"His method is very simple and straightforward, using brutal means to bring down the family, including the slave family in the official household register, and then measuring the distribution." Li Jiancheng glanced at his speechless father, and then said: "If we implement this policy, we must first find out the situation of the land, we must know who occupies how much population and land, and then have a target, fortunately, we have to target all the magnates of Long, re-measure the manor fields that have not been received, and distribute them one by one, it is not difficult to do this step." But the key is that supervision must be in place, otherwise there will be unfair distribution, as long as you accumulate experience, it will be easy in the future. In order to prevent the recurrence of the Tibetan Ding incident, Erchen suggested that the system of 'apportioning the land into the mu' should also be extended, and then extended to the homesteaders, and gradually affect the gate valves of various families."

Li Yuan nodded again and again when he heard this, and ordered: "Yes, you can draw up a detailed implementation plan first, and as long as our side succeeds, we will promote it under the rule." By the way, we urgently need money and food to maintain the court and the army, and to relieve the victims, you go to Dou Mansion and visit Dou Xiang. Ask him to come forward to contact Dugu and the old Xiangguo to find out how much they can come up with and what they want. ”

Compared with Duguquan's old fox, Li Yuan believes in the Dou family more, and chasing interests and betting in many ways is the survival instinct of the family's gate valve.

"The retainers obey!" Li Jiancheng knew that it would not take a day or two to plan the Guanlong magnates, and at the moment, hundreds of thousands of people were in urgent need of relief, so they could only continue to compromise now, which would also have the effect of paralyzing the Guanlong magnates.