"I want to wipe out the Guanlong magnates, but I know I can't. Because I can't afford the price of the chaos in Guanzhong! Therefore, I can only ignore the contradiction between the family and the people at the bottom. ”

Li Yuan lost his temper, and then he was extremely dignified, and said: "Since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the war has been endless, and the money and food of the imperial court have reached the verge of collapse. Respond to the threat of the Sui army with a united heart and majestic morale! ”

Li Jiancheng stood up and said: "My father is very right, my son visited the market, and I really felt that the people were tired of war and afraid of war, and now the morale is low, and my father advocates that the truce is a move that conforms to the will of the people and the army, and the son resolutely agrees." ”

Li Shimin saw that Li Yuan planned to give up the good situation in Hexi, and he said in a hurry: "Father, now that Liang Shidu and the Xue brothers are extremely weak, it is the best time to open up Hexi, and now the war horses of my Tang army are old, and it is the time to change horses, if you miss this opportunity, my Tang Dynasty will have no cavalry available, and how to deal with the cavalry of the Sui Dynasty at that time?" Father, eldest brother, Ma Yuan in Hexi is too important, we must not give up this opportunity because of the threat of the Sui army, if the Liang division is relieved, it will become a burden on the Tang Dynasty. ”

Li Jiancheng saw his father's gloomy face without saying a word, he knew very well in his heart that his father's livelihood and recuperation were all excuses, in fact, to put it bluntly, he was scared by Yang Tong. However, Li Jiancheng himself was also more opposed to war, and the burden of war on the imperial court was too heavy. Hurriedly persuaded Li Shimin: "Second brother, of course my father doesn't want to, but now we need to consider the overall situation, and the truce with Liang Shidu is only temporary, and when our strength is enough, we can fight again." ”

In the past, Li Yuan always felt that the Tang Dynasty had more than 300,000 troops in the Tang Dynasty, including Longyou, Bashu, and Jingxiang, and its strength was strong, even if it was defeated by the Sui Dynasty again and again, it was only temporary.

But since he saw Yang Tong leading 5,000 cavalry in Guanzhong as if there was no one in the country, and he also burned the palace city to a fire, he was really afraid of Yang Tong, so he thought about keeping the elite army by his side.

"What does it mean to wait for the strength to be enough? Aren't we strong enough? There are now 250,000 troops in Guanzhong, and there is the danger of Xiao Pass, isn't it enough to defend Yang Dong? Li Shimin was a little annoyed, his voice became stern, and he pleaded with Li Yuan: "Father, as long as the son has 50,000 troops, he can take the entire Hexi after the beginning of spring." ”

Seeing that Li Yuan had a sign of anger, Li Jiancheng said: "This year's grain harvest is poor, the tax is only half of last year's, and it was burned by Yang Tong, even if the Dugu clan and the Dou clan donated some, but it could not meet the daily expenses of the court and the official team, originally we still have surplus grain in Guangtong Warehouse to support the year-end Lu rice payment, but whether it is in Hexi or the south, we have sacrificed many soldiers, I calculated, the grain in Guangtong Warehouse is not enough to compensate the fallen soldiers!" The second brother is a general who leads the army, and he should know the serious consequences of not paying the pension. We have hundreds of thousands of troops, but our daily provisions have also become a heavy burden for us, what if you get stuck in a stalemate in Hexi? We really can't fight anymore, because we can't afford to lose, not even a stalemate. ”

Li Shimin suddenly turned off the fire, Li Jiancheng's words went to the point, and it was difficult to even support the money and food for daily expenses, what to use to fight?

After a long time, Li Shimin said: "It's better for us to pay taxes as a whole for the officials and gentry!" When the people saw that the families and families had also paid taxes, the people were balanced. The contradiction between the big family and the people at the bottom will not shake the foundation of my Tang Dynasty. ”

Guanlong magnates occupy eight or nine percent of the fertile land in Guanzhong, they gave a lot of money and food and manpower support at the beginning of Li Yuan's army, so after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan reciprocated Li with a peach, and did not levy taxes on the manor land of the Guanlong nobles, and the Guanlong nobles also took out a lot of money and grain from time to time to fund the imperial court, and after a long time, a tacit understanding was formed, that is, the Guanlong magnates replaced taxes with donations, and the amount of donations was much higher than taxes, but in this way, Li Yuan was subject to others, not only to see the faces of Guanlong magnates to eat, still needs to pay more things in return, and the lifeline is pinched by Guan Long, which makes Li Yuan very insecure.

On the issue of whether to levy taxes on the estates of Guanlong's magnates, the father and son discussed many times in private, and Li Jiancheng preferred to maintain the status quo, but Li Shimin levied taxes on the land of Guanlong nobles.

Li Yuan agreed with Li Jiancheng's prudent view, because he was also worried that if the tax was levied on the Guanlong magnates, it would trigger a strong backlash from the Guanlong nobles, which would lead to the unstable foundation of the newly established Tang Dynasty.

It should be said that this statement is still relatively reasonable and stable, and it really cannot touch the interests of supporters at the beginning of the founding of the country. But what Li Shimin said is also reasonable, he believes that the later the tax system is changed, the greater the resistance, and it will make the powerful Guanlong magnates further bigger, even if the world is finally unified, Li Tang will be like the Sui Dynasty during the Yang Jian and Yang Guang periods, subject to the Guanlong magnates everywhere!

But Li Yuan still did not change this tacit understanding, he believed that the territory of the Tang Dynasty would continue to expand, and then hand over the ownerless land to the people, so as not to affect the tax revenue of the imperial court.

Unexpectedly, in the past few years, not only has the territory not expanded, but even the land of Longxing has been lost, and then it has been defeated again and again, in exchange for huge compensation! And Bashu's taxes need to be prepared for Xiao Milling, which makes the imperial court can only count on the taxes in Guanzhong, but eighty or ninety percent of the good fields in Guanzhong are occupied by Guanlong magnates who are exempt from paying taxes, and Li Tang's tax income this year is only half of last year, and it was burned clean by Yang Tong, which makes Li Yuan not anxious.

Li Yuan listened to Li Shimin's statement, and was also a little moved, and asked Li Jiancheng: "What if we change the tacit understanding of 'donation instead of tax' and change it to tax the official gentry?" ”

Li Jiancheng smiled bitterly: "Father, if the Guanlong family is taxed now, they will definitely not donate another penny or a grain of rice." And even if you have to collect taxes, it will not be a day's work, because not only must you verify the tax rate and measure the fields, but also face all kinds of resistance, and you don't know that you will not be able to collect taxes until the Year of the Monkey and the Horse Month, even if you measure it clearly this year, you will not be able to collect a grain of grain, and the imperial court needs their assistance to solve the urgent need. Therefore, do not offend them. It was imperative that their donations be needed to make up for the lack of money and food in the imperial court, rather than to tax them. ”

Li Yuan thought for a while, and felt that it made sense, and asked again, "Will they donate?" ”

"There is no shortage of people in the Guan Long family who understand, they know very well the truth of cold lips and teeth, and they have no choice, they can only support my Datang to the final victory. Erchen thought that he would first explain the difficulties of the imperial court with the Dugu clan and the Dou family masters, and asked them to mobilize the Guanlong family to support the imperial court. It's best to draw up a total number and claim it! In this way, it will be much more than if they were donating on their own. And that's just the first step! Li Jiancheng said with a smile.

Li Yuan said: "What is the second step?" ”

"We are victorious in the south, if it weren't for the invasion of Yang Dong by the Sui army and the transfer back of the army in the south, maybe Xiaogong would have taken the Jingxiang area! The successive victories in the south also gave the Guan Long family confidence in our Tang army. Li Jiancheng sighed regretfully, and then said: "We might as well split each industry in each county of Jingzhou into 100 shares, and then sell it to the Guanlong family at a high price to operate for ten years, different industries and different prices!" ”

Li Shimin was amazed! Although the capture of the south is still a distant thing, on the premise of seeing hope, the mercenary family will not be moved. At the same time, he also felt that he was still much more tender than his eldest brother, which also made him reflect.

Li Shimin was born in a general's family, learned the art of war since he was a child, and his martial arts and archery skills are at the first-class level, but he only knows the surface of politics and does not understand the three flavors. Because he mixed well in the army, he was deeply loved by the soldiers. But in government affairs, he is always constrained, especially in dealing with people, and he does not know how to be flexible, and often offends people.

For example, Li Yuan's most favored concubine Yin Defei and Zhang Jieyu, as the emperor's favorite women, their role cannot be calculated in terms of materials. Li Yuan is a character who can't stand the wind on the pillow, so that they are crispy and numb, and the whole person is soft, as long as they ask for something, even the stars in the sky have to be taken off and given away.

However, Li Shimin was not politically minded enough, but he offended both Yin Defei and Zhang Jieyu to death. Because of today's injustice, the princes of all parties attach great importance to military merits, as long as they make military merits, they are easy to be promoted, so Yin Defei and Zhang Jieyu want to place their relatives in the army and go to Li Shimin's command to mix up military merits, but Li Shimin did not give it with a blue face, a group of waste who rely on women to be generals in the position, so it will not exhaust the three armies? Dream on you.

There is also the fact that Concubine Yin Defei's father relied on his daughter's favor and became Li Tang's national ruler, and the villain gained power, and since then he has been arrogant and lawless. The street in front of the Kokujo's Mansion is set as a pedestrian zone, and anyone who passes by here must dismount and walk to see respect for the Kokujo. Some foreign officials and gentry did not know that this rule had violated the ban, and they had to be severely cleaned up. When Li Shimin, who was a pastor in Yongzhou, heard this, he went directly to the door to arrest the national war and punished him according to law.

This also made him Li Shimin offend Li Yuan's most trusted women to death.

And Li Jiancheng is different, he has long known the huge energy contained in Concubine Yin Defei and Zhang Jieyu. And these two people have the same advantage, that is, they are beautiful like flowers and have big breasts, so as long as Li Jiancheng obtains rare treasures, he will not hesitate to give them to the two of them. Li Jiancheng's efforts have also been rewarded handsomely, and the two of them naturally said good things for Li Jiancheng at a critical time, and the effect was thousands of times better than fighting for it themselves.

And now, after witnessing Li Jiancheng's performance, Li Shimin also feels that he should make up for his political skills, otherwise, sooner or later he will offend everyone.

With this in mind, I will no longer mention the cancellation of the privileges of the Guan Long family! It was decided to wait for Li Jiancheng to collect the grain money before mentioning the war, anyway, there were still more than two or three months before he could use troops to Hexi, and he could afford to wait.

Seeing that Li Shimin did not object, Li Yuan nodded to show his agreement with Li Jiancheng's method, and then his face was solemn, and he said to Li Jiancheng: "Formulate a reasonable plan as soon as possible." ”

"Whoa!"

"By the way, the business of Lin Shihong's land was also sold!"

"......" Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin were speechless.

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