Since Xia Xue married Li Shimin and the Angel Kingdom was merged into the Tang Dynasty, Xia Xue found that due to the long-term war in the north, the Tang treasury was very empty, and even the Yellow River burst the embankment and needed the money for disaster relief could not be raised, and there was a serious economic crisis.

In the face of this predicament, Xia Xue and Li Shimin both understood that relying on the blood transfusion of the Angel Kingdom alone would not work, nor could it last long, and it was necessary to reform the economy of the Tang Dynasty and enhance its own hematopoietic function. Therefore, after research and discussion, Xia Xue and Li Shimin decided to first carry out a bold reform of Datang's unreasonable tax system.

After the founding of the Tang Dynasty, due to the royal palace nobles and wealthy merchants through their own privileges and through primitive accumulation, the peasants had reclaimed land, and there was a serious phenomenon of land annexation, resulting in a large number of peasants losing their land and a large amount of cultivated land being abandoned. In this case, Datang still adopted the poll tax in the past, so that the peasants who were already short of land or even lost their land had to pay the tax per capitation, which greatly increased the tax burden of the people and made the lives of the ordinary people of Datang even worse and miserable.

However, those aristocratic and wealthy merchants who owned a large area of land and "Zhumen wine and meat stinked" paid very few taxes because of their relatively small numbers, resulting in the Tang Dynasty's fiscal revenue exceeding its income every year, the treasury being empty, and the common people living in great poverty.

In the face of this new situation, the drawbacks of the "poll tax" in the past have been very serious, and have seriously hindered the development of productive forces and the finances of the Tang Empire.

Therefore, Xia Xue suggested to Li Shimin that the "poll tax" should be changed to a property tax to "apportionment into mu", and that heavy taxes should be levied on the aristocratic and wealthy merchant class who own a large amount of land, crack down on land hoarding, and reduce the taxes of peasants who have no land, so as to increase the financial revenue of the Tang Dynasty, avoid the economic crisis, reduce the burden of the people, encourage the new reclamation of farmland, restore agricultural production, and promote the benign and sustainable development of the Tang economy.

Li Shimin felt that his beloved wife's idea was very good, so he immediately issued a decree to carry out a comprehensive tax reform according to the proposal of the eldest grandson.

After the implementation of the new tax reform plan, Datang's fiscal revenue did increase substantially that year, and the state treasury had a surplus for the first time.

But one person's honey may be another person's arsenic. Frost. Because Xia Xue's reform touched the vested interests of the Tang aristocracy and cut the flesh of the aristocratic landlords, the implementation of the new policy was extremely difficult and difficult. A large number of aristocratic officials wantonly attacked and slandered the tax reform proposed by Empress Changsun, describing Empress Changsun as Su Daji who brought disaster to the country and the people, and a "fox spirit" who charmed the emperor, hoping that Li Shimin would depose Empress Changsun as soon as possible and end the new tax reform plan that harmed all parties.

All kinds of impeachment and slander against Empress Changsun flew like snowflakes from all over the country to the Chang'an Imperial Palace. As the old saying goes: "All mouths are gold, and all bones are destroyed", what everyone accuses, even if the other party is as solid as gold, can be melted by the blame of all mouths; Slander can make it difficult for people to survive, lose their footing, and even end up losing their lives. The slander and public opinion in the sky are like a knife that kills people without seeing blood, and this time the noble ministers feel that Empress Changsun should die.

However, to the great surprise of the aristocratic ministers, Li Shimin, who has always been good at accepting advice, insisted on his own views and insisted on going his own way. As long as you don't read any of the notes against Empress Changsun and tax reform, as long as you don't listen to any advice about Empress Changsun and tax reform, you would rather be scolded by many old ministers as a "faint king" than compromise.

This reminded the aristocratic ministers of the impeachment and slander of Empress Changsun by conservatives such as Hou Junji and Li Junxian many years ago, and Li Shimin, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty at that time, also had such an attitude and tried his best to protect Empress Changsun.

Some aristocratic officials who had annexed a lot of land and suffered very large losses felt hopeless, and felt that it would not work through the text. In order to protect their vital interests, they decided to take risks, first, to buy the killer to assassinate the eldest grandson empress, and second, to secretly plan and prepare for rebellion against the tax reform of the imperial court.

The entire Datang undercurrent is surging and full of dangers.

Fortunately, Xia Xue had already felt the danger of the undercurrent, except for not wearing high-tech protective clothing when she was intimate with Li Shimin in the palace, she was basically armed all the time, and the helmets, protective underwear, protective jackets, etc. were basically never left by her, so although the assassins shot Empress Changsun with poisoned arrows in several assassinations, Empress Changsun was unscathed afterwards. Second, through the information collected by the black-clothed guards, the big nobles and big landlords who were preparing to rebel were secretly assassinated and suppressed, and their generals in the military were deprived of their military power one by one in the name of transfer, so as to nip hidden dangers and dangers in the bud.

However, there are still a small number of local nobles and large landowners who openly rebelled against the imperial court, and played the banner of "Qing Jun's side, after eliminating evil, abolishing taxes and reforms, and returning justice", and also attracted and bewitched many small landlords and small nobles to participate in the rebellion.

Blatantly rebelled, openly assassinated and slandered the queen, this is still worth it! This time Li Shimin was really angry, Xia Xue considered that this tax reform is not the last battle of concepts, but a battle of vital interests, "people die for money, birds die for food", as long as it involves the struggle of vital interests, there will inevitably be more acute conflicts, which cannot be solved by mercy and leniency, and must be bloodshed and suppressed with thunder. Therefore, this time Xia Xue did not stop Li Shimin, who was furious with Long Yan, and did not ask Li Shimin for leniency this time.

Xia Xue knew that Li Shimin wanted to let these big nobles and big landowners know the supreme authority of the country this time; It is to let these big nobles and big landowners know that the country is going to cut their flesh this time for the sake of long-term peace and stability. Whoever dares to rebel and who dares to rebel is a dead end.

This is a struggle between national interests and individual interests, a struggle between the overall situation and a part, a struggle between the main stream and the tributaries, and a policy that the state is resolutely implementing.

"If you want money and don't want to die, just come!" Li Shimin decided to be ruthless this time, to suppress it with iron and blood, and to use all state apparatus to suppress these rebels, rebels, and assassins in a bloody manner, whether they were princes and nobles, whether they were Guanlong clique or not, whether they were prominent families or not, whether they were rich or not, as long as they were involved in the case, they would all be beheaded severely and quickly to show the public. Among those who were beheaded, Li Xiaochang, the king of Yi'an County, was the son-in-law of the Dou family, the wife of Tang Gaozu Li Yuan, and was a relative of Li Shimin; There are also Liu Deyu, the general of the Right Military Guard, and Liu Deyu's nephew Yuan Hongshan, the general of the prison gate, Sun Anye, and others, these heavyweight princes and generals were killed, which shocked and shocked the entire Tang aristocracy.

Through this incident, Xia Xue finally understood why most of the reforms and changes in history ended in failure, and most of the reformers ended up miserable, either killed, or depressed or forced to go into exile.

Xia Xue was most impressed by: "Shang Martingale Change". Shang Ying successively carried out two reform activities centered on "agricultural warfare" and "rule of law". The abolition of the Shiqing Shilu system of slave owners and aristocrats, the abolition of the privileges of the clan, and the re-regulation of the rank and treatment of officials and lords according to the size of military merits effectively dealt a blow to the old Shiqing Shilu system and the old production relations, made the backward Qin State leap into a first-class power that overwhelmed the six countries, and laid a solid foundation for the later unification of Huaxia by Qin Shi Huang. But in the end, after Qin Xiaogong died, he was framed for "rebellion", arrested him and tortured him with Shang Ying's own invention of "car splitting".

There is also an outstanding thinker and Zhengzhi activist in the early Western Han Dynasty, Chao Cuo, on the issue of endangering the Western Han Dynasty to the local princes and kings, Chao Cuo has written to Emperor Wen many times, putting forward suggestions for cutting the princes and reforming the decree. Emperor Wen died, and the crown prince Liu Qi ascended the throne. In the second year of Emperor Jing, Chao Cuo made another suggestion to cut the domain, which is the famous "Cutting Domain". As soon as the "Policy for Cutting the Domain" was proposed, it immediately caused a great shock in the imperial court. In the third year of Emperor Jing, Liu Bi, the king of Wu, first rebelled in the capital Guangling, and issued a declaration to the princes and kingdoms, and jointly raised troops to achieve the famous "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu" in history. The final scapegoat of the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu" was killed at the cost of Chao Cuo, and Chao Cuo, who was loyal to the Han family, was beheaded in Dongshi.

There is also Wang Anshi's reform, which was finally opposed by many courtiers because the change violated the interests of the big landlords, and finally ended in failure, and Wang Anshi was also forced to resign as prime minister and spent the rest of his life depressed.

The final result was that Tan Sitong, Yang Rui, Lin Xu, Liu Guangdi, Yang Shenxiu, and Kang Guangren of the "Six Gentlemen of Wuxu" were beheaded by the Empress Dowager Cixi at the entrance of the vegetable market. Xu Zhijing was sentenced to life imprisonment; Zhang Yinhuan was distributed to Xinjiang. All new policies were repealed.

Xia Xue finally understood why the Zheng struggle was always so cruel, because the core of the Zheng struggle was actually the competition and conflict of interests. "People die for money, birds die for food", "the world is bustling for profit, and the world is bustling for profit", "there are no eternal friends, only eternal interests", etc., recalling these words of the ancients, I can't help but sigh: "The ancients are honest and do not deceive me!" ”

Xia Xue pondered why there was little resistance to the implementation of various new policies in the Southern Angel Kingdom, and after careful analysis, she finally came to the conclusion that the foundation of the formation of the Angel Kingdom and the Tang Dynasty was different. In the Southern Angel Kingdom, firstly, he has a high prestige in the Angelic Country, and secondly, his Angel Kingdom is established by those peasants, commoners, and grassroots poor people through hard work under their own leadership. The Tang Dynasty is different, the Tang Dynasty was established by the "Guanlong Group" and other aristocratic classes, and its foundation is the big aristocracy, big family, and big landlords, so the resistance to the implementation of the new policy in Datang is hundreds of times higher than that of the Angel Kingdom.

After Li Shimin's iron-fisted suppression, the rebellious and rebellious nobles and large landowners were basically eliminated one by one, and the forces against tax reform were dealt a heavy blow. After all, everyone finally saw the strong will of the country, and also saw the strength and resoluteness of the Tang Emperor Li Shimin on tax reform. I also understand that life is more important than money, and without life, no amount of money will be blessed. In the end, the living aristocratic landlords had no choice but to cut their flesh, spend money to buy their lives, and accept the new tax reform.

After the tax reform, Xia Xue suffered countless public opinion attacks and personal attacks, and Xia Xue felt physically and mentally exhausted for the first time. She loves her husband Li Shimin, knows that Li Shimin is a person who regards the Tang Dynasty and the country as his life, and every time he sees him frowning and depressed for the empty treasury, she feels like a knife, she helps her husband Li Shimin carry out tax reform, increase national revenue, and promote agricultural production, all of which are due to her love for her husband Li Shimin, all of which are due to her love for Datang. Datang has become the motherland in Xia Xue's mind and has become Xia Xue's second hometown (Angel Country is her first hometown).

Xia Xue, who felt physically and mentally exhausted, wanted to go back to the Southern Angel Country to recuperate for a period of time, plus the angel company had several new projects to be built in Australia, and the Angel Army was also going to conduct repair training in the south, so she asked Li Shimin for leave and wanted to go back to the Southern Angel Special Zone for a while.

Li Shimin didn't expect that the resistance to reform would be so great, the road to reform would be so dangerous, and he saw that his beloved queen was in danger for tax reform, and he was in crisis; Seeing that the beloved queen was haggard and physically and mentally exhausted for herself, she also felt very distressed, and although she was reluctant, she finally agreed to the eldest grandson's request for recuperation.

So Xia Xue temporarily left Chang'an and returned to the Angel Special Zone in the south, the Angel Country is its own territory, of course, it is very safe, it just so happens that the Angel Company wants to build several large factories in Australia, Xia Xue went to Australia in February and has been staying there to direct infrastructure projects.