Pan Liao also knew that Guo Song was facing the dilemma of insufficient military spending, so he pondered for a moment and said: "In fact, there are other incomes, if we implement tuntian, solve the military rations by ourselves, and the cattle and sheep of our animal husbandry department, the surplus grain and cattle and sheep can be sold to the Central Plains, and we can also sell sheepskins, I estimate that we can earn at least eighty or ninety thousand yuan a year."

There is also half of the tax in Hexi, and there is not much household tax and field tax, mainly commercial tax, and there is 30,000 yuan a year, so there is a difference of 50,000 yuan at most. ”

Guo Song perked up and said with a smile: "I can find the Son of Heaven to solve tens of thousands of dollars, since he hinted that I should recover the Hexi Corridor, he must give me some benefits, and we don't want more, he has to help me solve it with tens of thousands of dollars!" ”

Pan Liao also smiled: "This is a good way, no matter how strong the political hall is, you have to give the Son of Heaven some face." ”

Thinking that the military dilemma had been solved, Guo Song's mood gradually brightened.

.........

Chang'an, the Son of Heaven Li Shi is quite troubled, what bothers him is not state affairs, but family affairs, these days Zongzheng Temple submitted a list to him, the county lord has not yet married up to ninety-one people, the county lord is the daughter of each prince, after reaching the age of marriage, he will live in the palace to be married, but many county lords have been married for more than ten years or even more than twenty years, and the old girl in her thirties and forties has not been married.

Although the emperor's daughter is not worried about marrying, but the daughter of the clan is still worried about marrying, according to the royal rules, the woman of the clan marries, and the dowry is to be paid by the Son of Heaven.

There are no suitable families, and there is not enough money to buy a dowry, and most of their fathers and brothers have no real power, so that other lords and nobles are not interested in marrying them, and it is also difficult for these county lords who can't get married.

Li Shi thought for a while and said to Cheng Yuanzhen, the chief manager of the Great Interior: "List the list of guards who have not yet married wives, as well as their family backgrounds, I will screen them and match them with the county lords, everyone's dowry will be calculated according to five thousand taels of silver, marry them out as soon as possible, stay in the palace all day, and fill the palace with grievances." ”

Marrying the guards is a good way, most of the guards are the children of high-ranking families, or the children of Guanlong nobles, pick some excellent ones, whether they want to or not, they have to marry.

Cheng Yuanzhen said cautiously: "There are fifteen county lords over the age of thirty, and I am afraid that they can only continue the string, otherwise they will not be able to get married." ”

"It's okay, pick some ones with better conditions, let them marry as a continuation, and all the silver needed for the dowry will be withdrawn from the imperial merchant's treasury."

"The old slave understands, and he will give His Majesty an answer within two days."

Cheng Yuanzhen hurriedly went, and Li Shi breathed a sigh of relief and finally solved this difficult matter.

He picked up another piece of music, this is the official battle report sent yesterday, the Hexi army won a great victory in the Dadou Ba Valley, completely annihilated nearly 7,000 Tubo troops, and occupied the entire territory of the Da Dou Ba Valley, which was the first time in more than 30 years that the Tang Dynasty occupied the entire territory of the Da Dou Ba Valley, which means that it is difficult for the Tubo army to get involved in Ganzhou and Liangzhou again.

Li Shi was greatly pleased with this report, he read it many times, and finally gradually understood the message that Guo Song had asked Zhongguan Pang Xiu to convey before, hoping that he could solve the problem of insufficient military personnel in the Hexi Army as appropriate.

Li Yi also wanted to solve it, but every place asked him to allocate money to solve the military expenses, and the imperial court had no financial resources.

According to the latest statistics, there are 770,000 soldiers registered in the Tang Dynasty Military Department, of course, at least half of these soldiers are soldiers of the feudal town, and the imperial court can ignore it, but even so, there are still 400,000 people who want the imperial court to solve the military situation.

The soldiers of the border army of the Tang Dynasty usually have three monthly salaries, and the Central Plains soldiers have two monthly salaries, and if there is a war, the military salaries will be doubled.

A month's military income costs 1 million guan, a year's military expenditure costs 12 million guan, and Datang's annual tax money is only 11 million guan, all of which is not enough to pay for military salaries.

In addition, there are hundreds of items such as officials' salaries, official daily expenses, armor and equipment expenses, craftsman expenses, water conservancy repairs, palace expenses, clan support, etc., which cost at least several million yuan, and it is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice!

Li Shi's ambition to revive the Tang Dynasty was gradually consumed by the shortage of firewood, rice, oil and salt.

At this time, the little eunuch reported at the door, "Your Majesty, Li Xiangguo is here!" ”

Li Shi sighed, put down the fold and said, "Announce him in!" ”

After a while, Xiangguo Li Mi hurriedly walked in, bowed down and said, "Weichen see Your Majesty!" ”

"Li Xiangguo, I'm too poor, I'm asking for money everywhere, what should I do if I can't take it out?"

"Your Majesty, Jianghuai's seven million salt tax will arrive soon, hold on a little longer!"

Li Shi let out a long sigh, "There are too many places to use money, where is seven million yuan?" ”

"Your Majesty, the lack of finance is an old problem for decades, mainly related to the sharp increase in military spending, the consequences of the reform of the government military system to the recruitment system, can not be solved for a while, and so on the flattening of the feudal towns, and then the land annexation, and then recuperation for more than ten years, the population grows, taxes increase, military spending decreases, life is better, now we can only tighten our belts to live, the first emperor advocated frugality, this is what it means."

Li Shi paced back and forth with his hands in his hands, and said slowly: "In fact, Datang is not short of money, and the rich people abound, especially big businessmen, whose family wealth is often tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, can they share a little financial pressure for the imperial court?" ”

Li Mi knew that the Son of Heaven wanted to increase the business tax, this was a plan proposed by Yang Yan, he hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, if the business tax is raised, it will be a devastating blow to the small businessmen, and it will have little impact on the big businessmen, but it will force the small businessmen to move to the Central Plains of Hebei and other places, which is not easy to implement, in fact, Weichen has a way to make the big businessmen willing to pay money." ”

"What's the solution?" Li Shi was immediately interested.

"Weichen went to the Golden Body Pavilion yesterday and found that the Qingxu Palace has the skill to collect money, they implement monks and blessing cards, and let the big families pay willingly every year, in fact, businessmen are eager to improve their status, I think businessmen can be exempted from all kinds of restrictions on businessmen as long as they pay a sum of money every year."

"How much money do you think Lee Sang-kook can receive?"

"There must be tens of thousands of dollars a year."

Li Shi was suddenly deflated, "Xiangguo, it's better not to say this way." ”

Li Mi smiled slightly: "Actually, Your Majesty didn't understand what Weichen meant, Weichen meant to encourage commerce and relax restrictions on businessmen, like Li Zhengji, he was able to raise 110,000 troops, how did he do it?" In fact, it is to make a fuss in business, encourage commerce, and improve the status of merchants, Wechen heard that the boats are busy there, the caravans are continuous, and there are large ships going to Silla and Japan, the business is prosperous, the handicraft industry is developed, and textile workshops with hundreds of looms abound, and even Chang'an has begun to sell Qingzhou cloth.

Your Majesty, we are financially tight, we should do everything possible to open source, open source is not deprivation, and release water to raise fish, as long as the business is prosperous, all kinds of materials in the south of the Yangtze River will be transported by the merchants themselves, there is no need for the government to organize transportation, the market is rich in goods, the imperial court only needs to increase efforts to open mines and mint money, I believe that the financial situation will be improved. ”

Li Shi nodded again and again, Li Mi's proposal is reasonable, but it will take a few years to implement, and it involves a lot of things, and it needs to be arranged by the imperial court.

"This matter has asked the Zhizheng Hall to make a complete plan, and I can approve the implementation after taking a look."

"Wechen obeys!"

At this time, Li Shi picked up Guo Song's army and reported: "Guo Song defeated the Tubo army in Dadou Tu Gu and occupied Da Dou Tu Gu, this matter is known in the political hall!" ”

Li Yu bowed down and said: "Your Majesty, the political hall has been informed, but we think that this is the same thing as the provocation of the Longyou army to defeat the Tuyuhun army, and it can only be regarded as a normal defense, and it cannot be compared with the previous defeat of the Shatuo army." ”

"You can kill seven or eight thousand enemies, and you can also recover the lost land of Dadou Tugu, if the court doesn't say anything, is it unreasonable?"

"What does Your Majesty mean?"

Li Shi said slowly: "There is no need for commendations and awards, but isn't it to help them properly solve the problem of insufficient military spending?" The ancients said that the emperor is not bad for hungry soldiers, but I am not very qualified as an emperor! ”

Li Yu sighed and said: "The Ganzhou army has already allocated the military in full, and before commending the merits, and rewarding them with 500,000 yuan and 300,000 horses, they have already given a lot, if they are given again, I am afraid that the opinions of other armies will be very great, Your Majesty, do not suffer from widowhood, suffer from unevenness!" ”

Li Shi knew that Li Mi was reasonable, military spending in various places was insufficient, and if it was allocated to the Hexi Army, it would inevitably arouse strong indignation from other armies, and it was indeed necessary to consider it carefully.

Li Shi took a few steps and said, "That's it!" Hexi Jiedu Prefecture was allowed to open mines and do business, and Hexi was rich in resources, creating conditions for them to find their own ways to raise military spending. ”

Li Mi smiled bitterly in his heart, where does this still need the approval of the imperial court, and not all the Jiedu Mansions are doing this now.

"Your Majesty Shengming!"

.........