Luo Cheng loves money more than other emperors, that is, he knows that money is the foundation of the country's operation, and without money, the country will not be a country. And the money of the imperial court naturally comes mainly from taxes, and trade is only a supplement.

Li Gang was speechless when asked by the emperor, he couldn't tell lies with red lips and white teeth, saying that the people of the previous dynasty were better off than now, even if it was the opening of the emperor's reign, which was known as the prosperous era, in fact, the burden of ordinary people was also very heavy.

Luo Cheng no longer paid attention to Li Gang.

specially recruited Li Jing to his side and chatted with him.

At this year's Zhengdan Dynasty Meeting, Li Jing of Lingnan, Xu Shiji of Andong, Su Dingfang of Xishan, and Cheng Yanjin of Anxi all returned, and these are also the frontier commanders who are still using troops in Daqin.

"A few years ago, the Privy Council added two new positions of deputy envoys, one was given to Cheng Yanjin, who was bold in Anxi, and the other was originally intended to be given to you, but you said that Lingnan is not yet stable, so I will keep this position for you first."

Li Jing crossed his hands and thanked him.

"The situation in Lingnan is still relatively complicated, and now it seems that it has temporarily maintained stability, but it is only on the surface." Li Jing is also very worried about the situation in Lingnan. After quelling the rebellion of Ning Changzhen and others, on the surface, the imperial court was in Lingnan to promote the national prestige, and took advantage of the situation to seize the positions of the original heroes.

But in fact, it was only the imperial court that replaced the positions of Ning Changzhen and other local marshals in the past, and there was still not much progress at the bottom.

On the surface, there are a lot of slang bureaucrats who have returned to naturalization, but they are also some preferential policies of the imperial court, such as the elderly and children can receive some free salt every month after naturalization, and for example, after the slang bureaucrats are naturalized, their children can go to the official school to study, and they are also given money and food subsidies every month.

Another example is that after naturalization, the slang people can grant land equally, assign it to mountains and forests, and issue land deeds.

But even after doing this, Li Jing is facing a dilemma that is difficult to break through, that is, these people refuse to pay taxes even after naturalization.

If taxes are not paid, then everything will be in vain, and the Lingnan government will not be able to really rule these people.

As the emperor said just now, taxes are the state. The Lingnan government can't even collect taxes, so what kind of government yamen is there to talk about. But the problem now is that if Li Jing forcibly starts collecting taxes, it will inevitably lead to a rebellion among these natives.

Before, he separated naturalization from paying taxes, so he finally lured the natives to naturalize. In the past, Ning Changzhen and others were in Lingnan, although they had been operating for several generations, but once they wanted to naturalize the natives, they would also cause a rebellion among the people.

Now it's an endless loop.

"Please give me a good plan to resolve the impasse." Li Jing, who is nearly sixty years old, can be regarded as a late bloomer, and he sits in Lingnan for the imperial court, which is a meritorious achievement, but now he cannot directly use force against the natives of Lingnan.

Luo Cheng smiled and personally poured Li Jing a glass of wine.

"The situation in Lingnan is indeed quite special, there are too few Han people, too many slang barbarians, especially those Han people are still a bit of a monstrosity, and many policies that are suitable in the Central Plains will not work in Lingnan. Especially now that there are still three feudatories in the south of the Yangtze River between the imperial court and Lingnan, the imperial court has to have some scruples in acting. Otherwise, it really can't be done, just use soldiers to recruit all the way to the past, sweep them with knives and fire plows, force them to naturalize, and let them pay taxes to serve. ”

Li Jing nodded, it is precisely because of the existence of the three feudatories, and there are too few Han people in Lingnan now, and the imperial court is not willing to engage in large-scale wars now, so it is difficult to implement this strong policy.

"In fact, the two taxes in Lingnan are not levied or not, but the tax is a symbol of the country, if the tax cannot be levied, Lingnan will never be considered a real national territory, not a county."

Took a sip of wine.

"In the current situation, we can only grasp the military power with two hands. The 72 battalions of government soldiers in Lingnan must strengthen their training, not slack off, and have complete camps, forts, military cities, and post stations. The barracks of each military city must be stocked with food and equipment. As long as the soldiers are strong and the horses are strong, the weapons and food are sufficient, they can be invincible. ”

"The other is to strengthen the resettlement of tuntian, invigorate the economy, encourage the families of the soldiers of the Weifu battalion to move to the army, establish a military tunzhuang next to the garrison, and move more Han people tuntian."

As long as the number of Han immigrants increases, it can quickly change the situation in the entire Lingnan, which is a strategy to draw salaries from the bottom of the kettle.

Of course, it is very important to invigorate the economy, and if the market is invigorated, it can attract more immigrants and merchants, and if you have money, you can build more roads, build more tunzhuang, and build strong military fortresses. It can even attract more slang people down the mountain through the economy, and slowly let them integrate.

"Now don't take the initiative to provoke disputes with the people, you must jump out, stand in the perspective of the referee, make good use of the contradictions between the streams, act as a referee, and give mediation, which is conducive to this opportunity, or win over or suppress, and the prestige of the government can continue to increase!"

"Your Majesty Xie's advice." Li Jing nodded in agreement.

"It's easy to say, but it's not easy to actually do, it depends on how you perform in the local area. I believe in your ability, the three ports of Nanhai, Ningyue, and Jiaozhi need to invest more, these places are the territory of the Han people, with the help of today's sea trade, let the three cities develop first, and then drive the surrounding areas. ”

"Lingnan still needs His Majesty to select more talents."

"It's going to be the imperial examination soon, there are more than 2,000 people in Luoyang City, and there will be more than 200 new scholars, these people are all the top scholars in the world, all of them are young and sharp, and they can be of great use."

The imperial examination system formulated by the emperor was not quite the same as that of other imperial examinations, and more emphasis was placed on talent. Although some people commented that the imperial examination of the imperial court paid more attention to art than Taoism, Luo Cheng thought that if he just talked about it without talking about it, there would only be a group of nerds, even if the outstanding ones were like the crown prince Zhan Shi Li Gang.

As an official, of course, you have to be good at managing politics, if you know everything, but you are just a moral pacesetter, it will be even more misguided. Many civil servants believe that the country must first have good character and then be capable. But Luo Cheng is the opposite, he thinks that even if it is impossible to be excellent in both, he must first choose talented people, and then choose those with good moral character from these talented ones.

"Xinke Jinshi, I'm afraid that I have no experience and can't adapt to the complicated situation in Lingnan." Li Jing said.

"Don't worry, after the imperial examination, I will let some of the new scholars enter the central imperial court in the provinces and ministries of the temple supervisors, and I will also let some of them serve in local provinces and counties, starting with some deputy positions and slowly exercising. After these people went down, I transferred a group of capable old officials from the central and local governments and transferred them to all directions. Among them, I will naturally be given a batch of Lingnan. These veteran officials who have been given priority will be promoted and used after they go to the border, and if they perform well, they will be reused in the future. ”

"Of course, if there are Jinshi who are willing to go to the border land, I will also pick a few good seedlings to go through the experience, and when they arrive in Lingnan, you will have to take good care of me."

"Certainly." Li Jing listened to the emperor's assurances and was overjoyed. "Give the minister five years, and Lingnan will change greatly."

Luo Cheng laughed, "You have also been in Lingnan for several years, I will give you another three years at most, and then you will serve in Lingnan for eight years and two terms, and according to the imperial court system, you will have to be transferred to another position." Three years later, I transferred you to the Privy Council as Deputy Privy Councillor. When my teacher is a priest, you will take over the post of privy councilor. ”

In the Wufeng Tower, many people saw the emperor chatting with Li Jing, and even laughed, and couldn't help but cast envious eyes at Li Jing.

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