"A polo match?"

Hearing that the saint suddenly remembered to have a polo game, this made the ministers a little baffled.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks it is impossible. The incident of batting and gambling on Sanchuan is vivid, and Your Majesty must not waste national politics because of his hobby! ”

Before most of the people came to their senses, Yang Hanzhou, the imperial historian, immediately stood up and told the story of using polo games to decide the appointment and dismissal of official positions during the reign of Emperor Li Yi.

"Your Majesty, I think Dr. Yang is reasonable, I hope Your Majesty will think twice!" Li Ling, the secretary of the ministry, also stood up and objected.

"A few Aiqing are too worried, I just think that I can tap some talents through this polo game, which is limited to the army, and it can be regarded as allowing me to have fun with the people." Li Ye was speechless for a while, did he really think of himself as a faint king?

There is nothing wrong with liking polo, this is the national politics of Datang, and it is through this that Datang trains enough cavalry.

The Han people belong to an agrarian civilization, so it is impossible for them to ride horses every day, right?

And through the sport of polo, a group of skilled and qualified cavalry can be cultivated, and once there is a war, these people can directly go into battle to kill the enemy.

Therefore, from the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, polo has become a sport that has been liked and promoted by kings of all generations.

"What does Your Majesty mean?" Pei Rong on the side asked cautiously.

Although he acted in accordance with the will of the Holy Lord, he did not want to offend all the ministers because of this, so he was more cautious.

Seeing that most of the ministers had misunderstood, Li Ye hurriedly explained, "What I think is that there are more than a dozen forbidden armies in the imperial court now, and there is little communication with each other, and I don't know much about the situation of these forbidden armies.

So I thought about holding a polo tournament and letting each forbidden army form a polo team and come to Chang'an to participate in the polo match. However, in order not to have a situation where the appointment and dismissal of official positions are decided by polo matches, I require that only officers and ordinary soldiers who are lieutenants and below can sign up, and there is an age limit.

As a reward, the winning team and the outstanding soldiers can be given a certain reward or sent to martial arts learning, which can be regarded as adding fresh blood to martial arts.

What do you think, ministers? ”

Li Ye looked at the ministers with a look of relief, if there were too many opposing voices, this matter could only be blown up.

In fact, Li Ye thinks more, he wants to hold a sports meeting, not only polo, but also riding, archery, and fighting.

Through this, some talents can also be discovered, after all, the number of people recruited by martial arts every year is not much, and the number of people recruited by martial arts is also small, but there are so many talents in the world, Li Ye can be regarded as giving them a chance.

However, the scale of the sports meeting is too large, and he is afraid that there will be more opposition to it, so he only talks about holding polo.

But he didn't expect that just a polo would make these ministers' opposition so loud, and he still underestimated the impact of what Li Yi did when he was in power on these ministers.

"Your Majesty is really just for the selection of talents?" Zheng Congyan on the side couldn't believe it.

"That, the selection of talents is the main thing, and the viewing is supplemented." Li Ye said to him.

The ministers couldn't help muttering in their hearts, I'm afraid it's mainly for viewing, supplemented by the selection of talents!

They roughly guessed what the saint thought, but they didn't know whether they should stop it, after all, this matter was a bit of a waste of money and money.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that it should not be limited to the forbidden army, and the local garrison can also be included in this polo However, it can be participated in in the name of the Tao. Moreover, it should not be limited to the provinces under the actual control of the imperial court, and other feudal towns can also participate in this polo match. ”

Just when everyone didn't speak, Xiao Rong, who was silent on the side, actually came to do this.

When everyone was stunned, Li Ye couldn't help but look at this Xiao Rong, a smile appeared on his face, and he couldn't help clapping his hands and said, "Xiao Aiqing's idea is not bad, but my vision is too narrow." All the feudal towns should be included in the scope of this polo match, and they can be informed, and it is their own business whether they come or not. ”

And seeing the reaction of the saint, Pei Rong guessed the plan of the saint, if it weren't for so many ministers, he would have wanted to slap himself, why didn't he expect this, he was actually preempted by the little-known Xiao Rong.

"Your Majesty, I think this is a good idea. The imperial court can take this opportunity to publicize the strength of the imperial court and deter those feudal towns, wouldn't it kill two birds with one stone! Pei Rong hurriedly said.

Li Ye nodded, there were finally a few smart people, and Li Mi, the head of the household, stood up, "Dare to ask Your Majesty, how to solve the cost of this competition?" ”

Sure enough, it is the book of the household, and the three sentences are not separated from the money.

"I plan to take a piece of land from the East Inner Garden to build a special land for polo matches, and the cost will be borne by Taichang Temple, so I will not pay from the household department.

However, the household department is responsible for the accommodation needs of the forbidden army and the local army to come to Chang'an, and I think Li Aiqing's household department can still afford this little money! Li Ye said with a smile.

"The household department is willing to bear this cost." Li Mi nodded.

Yes, it was originally said that Li Mi, the head of the household, would oppose it together?

Now it's okay, the seven scholars, Pei Rong, Li Mi and Xiao Rong support, while Li Sizhou and Zheng Congyan have an unclear attitude, and only Li Ying and Yang Hanzhou are really opposed.

At first, Li Mi really wanted to oppose it, but after hearing that the household department only needed to bear the daily expenses such as the accommodation of these competition teams, Li Mi did not object.

Unlike other ministers, as long as they don't spend much money, Li Mi has no objection, except for war, of course.

How much can it cost?

The current household department can be said to be wealthy, with Hedong, a new tax source, the income of the household department has risen a lot.

As long as it is not to form a new forbidden army, Li Mi generally does not oppose it too much.

The forbidden army is the most expensive for the imperial court at present.

The imperial court currently has 350,000 forbidden troops, as well as about 120,000 local garrisons and border troops, which is 470,000 troops.

The average annual cost of each soldier in the forbidden army is 35 guan, which is more than 1,200 guan; The border army is 25 guan a year, and there are about 30,000 border troops in Datang at present, which is 750,000 guan; The average soldier in the local garrison is 20, and the 90,000 local garrison is 1.8 million.

Fortunately, the salaries of the local garrisons are borne by the localities, and the forbidden army and the border army add up to 13 million yuan.

This figure already accounts for two-fifths of the current revenue of the State Treasury.

And there can't be a war, otherwise the number will be more than twice as much.

Therefore, the previous incident of the Right God Mighty Army made Li Mi very angry.

Of course, as long as it is not to expand the army, Li Mi is easy to say here, not to mention that the bulk of this polo game is still from Taichang Temple, which is the private treasury of the saint.

Shengshang is very rich, at least the number that Li Yu knows is very large, you must know that Zhang Xiong and He Dong, who are very rich in the Tang Dynasty, are both people who make money for Shengshang.

Li Yu didn't object, and Li Li and the others could only look at Li Sizhou and Zheng Congyan, but they were soon disappointed.

Li Sizhou stood up to express his support, but Zheng Congyan did not support or oppose it, so the matter was decided.

Since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, preparations for the first national polo match began at Li Ye's strong request.