Yu Zhining quickly understood the meaning of Li Shimin's sudden run out to pull the bias, the eldest Sun Shunde's heart was also relieved, and Sun Xiangfu secretly praised Li Shimin's excellent management methods.

Giving those corrupt officials a chance to fill the shortfall, not only will it not affect the reform, but they will also be able to recover a large amount of money that they have embezzled, which is the most appropriate way to deal with it at the moment.

As for those diehards, since they don't even give the emperor face, then Li Shimin doesn't have any psychological burden to convict and raid his family, and it is difficult for other ministers to come out and say anything.

However, this is just an appetizer for the dynasty this morning, the eldest grandson Shunde is still so-so in the war, and playing politics in officialdom is a stupid hat that is used every minute.

After the main hall was quiet, there were officials who came out to play, and it was the right attendant of the Ministry of Officials, Lang Zhang, who said.

"Your Majesty, the demand for manpower in all the ministries of the imperial court is very large, if all of them are selected according to the demand, then the number of officials is only two or three times more than the original, even if our Ministry of Officials is currently only responsible for evaluating officials and training officials, there is also a large shortage of manpower.

If these people become actual officials in the future, then the imperial court will at least increase the expenditure of officials by two or three times, and at that time, the imperial court's finances and taxes may not be able to afford it.

Therefore, the minister suggested that it is better for all the functions and powers of local officials to be concurrently held by the existing chief officials, so that the expenses of the imperial court can be greatly reduced, and the officials will not be too idle in the local area. ”

Zhang said this, obviously for the sake of the imperial court, but in fact, on behalf of those local officials who were unwilling to delegate power, he euphemistically expressed his will to Li Shimin.

At the same time, it also denied the new imperial examination system of Xiao Yu and Sun Xiangfu in accordance with the needs of the imperial court and recruited scholars on a large scale, so that Li Shimin's reform was only unworthy of the name in Chang'an or Guanzhong, and played on a small scale.

Zhang said that he was already in the position of the third-in-command in the Ministry of Officials, and he came out to speak, basically representing the attitude of the Ministry of Officials, a department in charge of officials, in terms of public opinion, the greater the number of officials, the greater their authority, which is a good thing, but they jumped out to oppose the increase of officials in the imperial court, which is strange.

Li Shimin looked at Wen Yanbo, the secretary of the ministry, who was also a little puzzled, and spoke again, "What do you think?" ”

In fact, Li Shimin also has an account in his heart, after Guanzhong implemented the reform of officials, although a large amount of land was recovered for the imperial court, hundreds of thousands of households of yeoman farmers who paid taxes directly were added, and the tax revenue increased somewhat, but the expenditure was also larger than before.

If the whole country is reformed, then this expenditure will at least triple the amount, that is, about 300,000 or 400,000 yuan, and in a year, the expenditure of the officials with the establishment alone will reach about 5 million yuan, and if you count the expenses of all local yamen officials, miscellaneous servants, and office expenses, it will be at least 10 million yuan or more.

In the past, the imperial court directly used the output of the field to pay about ninety percent of the income to the officials, and the officials themselves paid the income of the miscellaneous servants, and the cash needed to be paid was very small, so that the imperial court had a surplus of about two or three million yuan every year, and as for how much surplus could be after the reform, in fact, Guanzhong was used as the basis to calculate, and we could roughly know the situation of the whole country.

According to the data reported to him by the eldest grandson Wuji, from the beginning of the year to October, Guanzhong has created a total tax revenue of 3.79 million guan, which is full for the whole year, almost a little more than 4 million guan, but it is enough to support the central court center and the expenditure of all the yamen in Guanzhong, and there can be a surplus of about 1 million guan.

However, other places outside Guanzhong may not be able to do this, although they are not like Guanzhong, they need to bear the central courtiers and Lulu, a large part of the expenditure, but their tax output is also much less, because Guanzhong is planted in two seasons this year, and most of them are cash crops planted with new agricultural technology, and the development of commerce is also incomparable to other places.

That is to say, even if the situation is relatively good and there are no natural disasters, the total tax revenue of the whole country will not be much more than in the past after bearing the expenditure of the reform of the official salary, but if the number of middle and low-level officials is increased by two or three times, then the expenditure on the income alone will increase by at least several million yuan every year, even if all the tax balance of the imperial court is spent, it may not be enough.

But what if there is a natural disaster? What if there is a foreign war?

Li Shimin had to consider these problems, so even if he knew that Zhang was obstructing the reform, he had to ask the ministers for advice with a pleasant face.

For such a more realistic problem, even wise men like Fang Xuanling, eldest grandson Wuji, and Xiao Yu are at a loss, however, just as Zhang Shuo was about to open his mouth to force the emperor to make a decision, the eyes of several top bigwigs all looked at Sun Xiangfu, and they felt that since the reform of the official system and the reform of the imperial examination system were proposed by Sun Xiangfu, then he must have a solution.

"Masaaki, do you have anything to say?"

"Uh, that, like, it should be, right?"

Sun Xiangfu, who originally wanted to see how many people jumped out to do things, was asked by Fang Xuanling, and he was embarrassed to pretend to be an ostrich anymore, so he went out and said, "Your Majesty, the imperial court takes scholars in a large area according to demand, because it is necessary to expand output, increase income, and make local political and people's livelihood management to a higher level. ”

Didn't you talk about money, my brother will come to tell you about money.

After listening to Sun Xiangfu's words, Li Shimin suddenly rejoiced and said, "Sun Qing has any wonderful ideas, please tell me carefully." ”

After getting Li Shimin's title of 'Qing' and getting permission to speak, Sun Xiangfu said, "The people taken by the imperial court will gradually become court officials after two or three years, and even if they become officials, at the beginning, they are all middle and low-level officials, even if they are counted according to 5,000 scholars and 3,000 regulars, the annual expenditure is only about 5 million." ”

According to the official reform system, the monthly salary of the chief official of the county order of the seventh grade is 300 guan, and the middle and lower counties are gradually reduced by 20 guan, and when it comes to the ordinary seven-grade adjutant, it is only 160 guan, as for the petty officials of the eighth and ninth grades, which have more people, they do not even have a hundred guan, because there is basically no chief official in the eighth and ninth grades.

Not to mention that these 3,000 people can be the seven-grade chief officials in two or three years, not even half of them will not have it, even if there is, half of it, that is, more than 100 chief officials, the monthly income Lu adds up, but only 20,000 or 30,000 guan, and the rest of the people, all according to more than 100 guan, the whole will not exceed 400,000 guan, it is more than 4 million guan a year, Sun Xiangfu said 5 million guan, it is already about 10 percent more, the ministers are not stupid, they silently calculated in their hearts, and they no longer dare to speak out.

Because, they don't dare to think as much as Sun Xiangfu, a total of more than 8,000 people in a imperial examination are referenced, and you will take 5,000 people? Isn't this child's play?

Therefore, they only counted about 1,000 people, and came to the conclusion that even if all these middle winners became officials, and all of them became rulers of the seventh rank or above, five million guan would be more than enough.

"It's just five million? Sun Dudu, you can say that it is light, and the annual balance of taxes in the imperial court is only about three million yuan. Zhang Shuo seized an opportunity and immediately interjected.

However, Sun Xiangfu didn't care, and said with a smile, "This governor doesn't use 'mediocre' to describe five million guan, because he is afraid that the ministers in the court are old, have bad hearts, and are prone to accidents. Zhang Shilang should not use the current amount of tax revenue to calculate the expenses in two or three years, this is not a concept. ”

As soon as Sun Xiangfu said this, Li Shimin instantly understood, Datang's taxes are increasing every year, and after two or three years, he may not be able to afford the five million expenses, since this matter is a problem, he can't let the people who obstruct the reform come forward, and pressed Zhang Shuo with the palm of his hand, "Zhang Shilang, you go back to work for a while, let Sun Qing finish talking and then ask." ”

was banned by Li Shimin, Zhang said that he didn't dare to show his displeasure, and after giving a salute, he retreated to the court, leaving the position of the middle performance to Sun Xiangfu to perform alone.

"Your Majesty, the expenses calculated by the minister just now are roughly calculated according to the reform of the official system, that is to say, even if the imperial court really expands the group of officials by two or three times, and all the 3,000 people selected are turned into officials, the expenditure will only increase by 5 million.

In fact, through the comparison of Guanzhong's tax revenue with the past, it can be roughly calculated that after the overall reform of the Tang Dynasty, the total tax revenue and total expenditure of the imperial court in a year. In this regard, the minister asked the eldest grandson Shangshu to make it public first, so that he could say it with a basis. ”

"Of course, the auxiliary machine will come out and tell Zhongqing about it!"

Li Shimin nodded and approved, and the eldest grandson Wuji went out and said, "Your Majesty, before the reform of the official system in the second year of Guanzhong Zhenguan, more than ninety percent of the officials' salaries were all from the fiefdom of the fields, and the imperial court converted all the money, grain, cloth, brocade, etc. collected into money, which can roughly balance about 700,000 yuan, accounting for a little more than 20% of the national tax balance.

In February of the third year of Guanzhong Zhenguan, the reform of the official system was fully implemented, and as of October, the total tax revenue was 3.79 million guan, excluding the salaries of all Guanzhong officials, local officials, miscellaneous servants, and the supply of the imperial palace, the balance of 1 million guan should be no problem, and it is expected to account for about 5 percent of the total tax revenue of the whole country. ”

What's going on? It's just a reform of the official system, which can actually increase the fiscal and tax balance in Guanzhong by 30 percent, but the balance is obviously 300,000 yuan more, how can it go from accounting for more than 20 percent of the national tax balance to about 1 percent and 5 percent?

According to the output of Guanzhong, in fact, the total tax amount accounts for more than half of the country, because Li Tang almost put most of his energy into the governance of Guanzhong, however, the output of Guanzhong needs to support the ministers of the imperial court and the royal family, which is Li Tang's largest expenditure in addition to the national war, so that the balance of Guanzhong does not account for much of the national tax balance, once the local tax revenue increases greatly, then, the balance share of Guanzhong is easy to be compared.

The amount of information contained in the data that Changsun Wuji said is too large, and officials who are not stupid have thought of a lot of points, for example, Guanzhong has planted a large number of cash crops with new planting technology this year, and the total trade volume and output of Shanyang have increased very hugely, and the grain output in Jiangnan has increased hugely, etc., etc., resulting in the country's tax revenue, thinking that there must be a big increase compared with last year, but no one doubts the data he reported.

Of course, after thinking of these points, the ministers also have some smacks, the balance of 1 million guan only accounts for about 5 percent of the total tax balance of the country, so doesn't it mean that the total tax balance of the imperial court this year will reach more than 6 million guan, more than double that of last year?

Thinking about last year's data, it was just created in the year of the catastrophe, and it seems that doubling this figure is not so difficult to accept.