Today is the last day of the fifth year of Zhenguan.

After that, most officials can have a long vacation.

However, as the head of the household, Tang Jian's easy days are not coming so soon.

"Your Majesty, this is the result of the tax statistics of Zhenguan for 15 years, an increase of 18 percent compared with last year; We at Datang have now maintained double-digit tax increases for five consecutive years, which is really gratifying. ”

Tang Jian showed a smile on his face and briefly explained the latest statistics from the household department.

Since Dai Xuan was the head of the household department, he lost a bet with Li Kuan, and the officials who entered the household department needed to pass the arithmetic test organized by the Guanshishan Academy, which was not particularly obvious at the beginning.

However, after a few years of fermentation, everyone will find that the efficiency of household statistics has been qualitatively improved, and there is no need to worry about being chased by Li Shimin every day to ask if the data has come out.

"Another eighteen percent? That's great! I'll have more things to do next year. ”

Shang Shu's left servant shot Fang Xuanling's face also showed a smile.

As for Li Shimin, who is black-bellied, he is sitting there expressionless, but in fact, he is happy in his heart.

In the past few years, not only has the tax payment of the household department increased, but also the increase in Li Shimin's domestic income has been even more severe.

There is money in the family, and there is no panic in my heart.

"Tang Shangshu, is there any of the latest demographic results of Datang?"

The change in tax income was expected by Li Kuan, but he didn't feel any curiosity.

However, the demographic changes of Datang are what he cares about.

Sometimes, Li Kuan forgot that the task of breaking the system and increasing his population by 10 million was not completed.

I don't know how the progress is.

"That's right, the Tang Dynasty has been smooth in the past few years, how has the population of the state capitals increased?"

Fang Xuanling was also very curious and asked,

For a long time, the imperial court has attached great importance to household registration statistics.

However, this kind of statistics often describes how many households, and it is not known how many people there are.

One person per household is counted as one household, and ten people per household is also counted as one household.

No one can figure out how many people there are in these 10,000 households.

The circulating population in these years is relatively small, and it is not as difficult to count a relatively accurate number of people as imagined, but it takes some manpower and material resources.

"This ...... Nowadays, Nanyang rice has been planted on a large scale in Shannan Province and Gangnam Province, and there are also people in Lingnan Province who are planting Nanyang rice, and the price of food has dropped by 30% compared with the early years of Zhenguan, so many people do not have to worry about starvation, so the number of households in each state must be increasing, but the specific increase still needs to be confirmed. ”

Tang Jian's grandfather, Tang Yong, once served as the left servant of the Northern Qi Shangshu, and his father Tang Jian was the Rongzhou Assassin of the Sui Dynasty and a proper son of the family.

In addition, he has been familiar with Li Yuan and Li Shimin since he was a child, so his career is very smooth.

However, this also leads to a problem, that is, his relative lack of understanding of grassroots things.

"Don't worry about starving? Tang Shangshu, the expectation of the household department for the people is not to starve to death? ”

Li Kuan felt a little uncomfortable in his heart when he heard this, and couldn't help but stab Tang Jian.

The people may let it be done, but they cannot know it.

This is the subtle thinking of many officials.

Although Li Shimin also put forward the views of "the people are precious, the monarch is light", "water can carry the boat and also overturn the boat", but it is still very difficult to fundamentally change this concept of Datang.

In their opinion, the people do not have to worry about starving to death, they do not have to worry about freezing to death, this is the ideal world depicted by the saints.

How?

Do you still think that the people will be able to eat meat every day?

"His Royal Highness the King of Chu, have you ever seen the tragic scene of the people changing their children and eating, and now the people of the Tang Dynasty can not worry about starving to death, this is already a scene of slight prosperity in the past thousand years. His Majesty is eloquent and strategic, and there is no rival talent in the world, which is why Datang has today's situation. Why, His Royal Highness the King of Chu is still dissatisfied? ”

Tang Jian and Li Kuan do not have much intersection, and with the status of the Tang family in the Tang Dynasty, they are not afraid of Li Kuan.

In addition, Li Kuan obviously meant to be sarcastic about him just now, so he came back directly.

"Your Majesty is eloquent and strategic, and I am in favor of this with both hands and feet. But don't worry about starvation, are you satisfied? To be honest, I think everyone's requirements are a little too low, right? ”

Li Kuan was a little helpless, he was originally discussing the issue of population numbers, how could he become hungry when he was talking about it?

"Oh, Kuan'er, how do you feel satisfied?"

Li Shimin couldn't help but ask.

Obviously, he should have recognized what Tang Jian said just now.

"Your Majesty, the sixteen-year governance program of Zhenguan that Weichen just put forward a while ago, and the people's yearning for a better life is our goal; Do you remember? ”

This is what Li Kuan dared to ask.

For another person, Li Shimin is estimated to be crazy directly.

"Not to mention the various state capitals of Datang, there are more than one million people in Chang'an City alone. If we ask a few random people, we will know that their yearning for a better life is not just not starvation. Is a four-wheeled carriage running on the street bad? Is it inconvenient to be a popular bike? Don't the people want mutton, pork, and fish to appear on their tables? Don't they want nice and warm cotton clothes to wear? Don't they want to live in a big house? ”

Li Kuan asked several questions one after another, which made everyone a little confused.

His Royal Highness the King of Chu, we are talking about ordinary people now.

Are you getting the wrong person?

Many people present couldn't help but complain in their hearts.

However, Li Shimin's eyes brightened the more he listened, and he felt that if he could really achieve the kind of scene that Li Kuan said, then he would definitely be a veritable emperor of the ages, and he would become an existence that had never been seen before or after him.

"His Royal Highness the King of Chu, who doesn't want the people's lives to be better? I still think that every people's house is full of granaries, piles of clothes, herds of cattle and sheep, and endless money. But is there any meaning to this so-called good life that is divorced from reality? ”

The eldest grandson Wuji, who had not spoken out all this time, saw that Li Shimin was very interested, and immediately stood up to scold Li Kuan.

His words can't be said to be completely unreasonable, so after saying that, many people present couldn't help but nod.

Yes, even in the time of the saints, the lives of the common people were far from reaching this ideal state.

If Datang takes this state as its goal, it is indeed very unrealistic.

"In a year or two, it is certainly impossible to achieve this situation; But what about five, ten, or even twenty years? As long as Datang continues to maintain its current pace of development, it will not take twenty years, and this situation will no longer be an illusion. ”

"Ahem, why don't we go back to the original topic of discussion, how many people does Datang have now?"

Fang Xuanling looked at Li Kuan's argument with everyone, it was obviously impossible to have a result, so he simply skipped this topic.

：。 ：m.x