Changan.

Towering Taiji Palace.

In front of the corridor of the Ganlu Palace, Emperor Li Zhi squatted in front of the two clay jars, concentrating.

The two clay jars are very crude, that is, the simplest and crudely made pottery jars, with no aesthetic sense, let alone glaze or patterns on the jars.

Such a tank is placed in the royal palace, which is out of place with the surrounding area.

But Emperor Li Zhi has been completely fascinated by these two cylinders recently, and he has to stay in front of them more than a dozen times a day.

Even the emperor, who has always loved cleanliness, actually personally took a basket of dry horse manure sent by the Taifu Temple and kneaded it and crushed it, and then fell into the tank little by little.

Li Hongchang, the acting king who was less than three years old, was carved in pink and jade, and at this time he was also squatting beside his father, excitedly holding a piece of horse dung, and crushing and throwing it in a similar way like his father.

"Today it's a little taller and a new leaf." Li Zhi looked at this corn seedling that was getting greener and stronger and stronger, and said happily.

Wu Shi held his stomach up, but he also held a kettle on the side in his hand, "Your Majesty thinks that these two corn plants can really collect more than a pound of corn kernels?" ”

Li Xiao told me this, and he made a bet with me, saying that his family would harvest three buckets of corn kernels when he had a hundred corns. The corn I planted myself can't be worse than the one he grows, right? Li Zhi said unconvinced.

"Your Majesty, don't forget, that Li Xiao is a landlord from a peasant family, and His Majesty is definitely inferior to him when it comes to farming."

Li Zhi thought for a while, "What Concubine Ai said also makes some sense, then I will go to Li Zhuang to take a look after the next court today, and see how Li Xiao's corn is planted and how it is planted." By the way, you can also ask him for the bond. ’

"Your Majesty is interested in this bond?" Wu asked. The Emperor came back from Blue Creek that day and told her the magic of a large number of bonds.

Li Zhi smiled, "That Li Xiao is the best at all kinds of obscene skills, but this bond really makes my eyes shine." Although the Tang Dynasty has been operated by the efforts of two generations of emperors, Gaozu and Taizong, especially after the rule of Zhenguan, it can be regarded as a rich country and a strong people. However, compared with the 8.9 million households in the world and the population of more than 60 million in the Sui Dynasty, our Datang is still far behind. ”

Although the Sui Dynasty died as the second, the Sui Dynasty ended the division between the north and the south and unified the world. Emperor Wen of Sui was recuperating and recuperating under the rule of the emperor, when the number of households in the country was 8.9 million, and the population was more than 60 million, which was quite an astonishing number.

During the Wude period after the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the number of households in the country was only more than 2 million, and the population was only more than 11.6 million. By the end of Zhenguan's last years, the number of hukou had recovered, but it was only 3 million households, with a population of more than 17 million.

He also succeeded to the throne for five years, during which there were no major natural disasters and wars, and the policy continued the Zhenguan system and developed steadily, so far it is only 3.8 million households and 22 million people.

Compared with the peak of the Sui Dynasty, it is only one-third.

Li Zhi sighed and said, "This year's Eastern Expedition to Goguryeo, the soldiers and horses mobilized seven armies, enough for more than 100,000 soldiers. Military spending is huge, but unexpectedly, there is a once-in-a-decade drought in the south of Guanlongshan, and this summer's taxes will definitely be greatly reduced, and the imperial court is also stretched. ”

It is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice.

Fighting a war is the most expensive to consume money and food, and in case of a catastrophe, it is also necessary for the imperial court to pull out grain and money to help the disaster. But in the warehouse of the imperial court, there was not much grain.

Last time in Lanxi Lijiazhuang, Li Xiao asked him to fight the autumn wind, but he was shocked to realize that this bond is actually a good thing, and the imperial court can also learn from it.

In the past, the imperial court had no money, and under normal circumstances, it was to levy additional levies on the common people and levy additional levies on the wealthy households.

For example, raise some war taxes and ask the rich to donate money.

But every time, everyone complains.

"If the imperial court also issued bonds to raise money from the rich merchants, bureaucrats and aristocrats of the world, I thought it would be a good idea. This bond is a loan rather than an apportionment, and there is a loan and a repayment. The imperial court is short of money now, but it can be repaid later when it has a surplus. ”

Wu nodded, "What Your Majesty said makes sense, borrowing is better than apportionment, although borrowing money is not easy to borrow, but it is definitely stronger than apportionment." However, if you issue bonds and borrow money, the interest is not a decimal. ”

The interest rate of public money is 5 cents per month, and the annual interest rate is close to 100%. If the court borrowed a large amount of money, the interest was very heavy.

"Interest can be lowered." Li Zhi had already thought about this problem.

Li Xiao has been very busy these days, and the three-day vacation has ended, although Li Xiao is unwilling, he has to go to work in Sinong Temple.

Fortunately, Li Yuanfang, the deputy, is still very conscientious, although he stayed at home for three days before taking office, Li Yuanfang has already pulled up the shelf of the corn prison.

All the officials were also selected by the ministry, and a hundred farmers were also plucked.

Beiyuan, Lanxi, and Shayuan, each of the three places allocated 1,000 acres of land to the corn supervisor, and the emperor also specially asked the political hall to send soldiers and horses to station.

Lanxi and Shayuan each stationed a regiment of 200 government soldiers to garrison, and Beiyuan was directly under the responsibility of the Janissary Yulin Army.

Li Xiao, the acting corn supervisor, delegated authority to the affairs of the prison, and he did not care about the specific affairs at all, and he is now only responsible for the specific planting of corn.

The seven corn seeds were all handed over to Li Xiao, and in addition to the 200 seeds that Li Xiao had already planted, there were about 4,000 left, which could be planted about one acre of land. This is still an intensive seed, if it is planted directly, it will definitely not be planted to an acre of land.

At the edge of the rice field, the soldiers of the military government were carrying knives and spears, and their eyes were wide one by one, and the water around the entire rice field was blocked.

Every farmer in Sinong Temple who enters the seedling field has to carry a waist tag to check before entering and leaving, especially when he comes out of the field, he has to take off his clothes and check it, and even open his mouth to check it, so as to prevent them from carrying corn seeds out.

There was a farmer who wanted to take two corn seeds out to sell, but he was found and cut into two pieces by the government soldiers, without trial, and there was no mercy for his killing.

It is said that now the name of auspicious corn is known all over Chang'an, and the nobles of Chang'an want to get corn seeds, and even some foreign Hu merchants have offered high prices.

A corn seed, I heard that it has been fried to the sky-high price of ten copper coins, and a seed costs 10,000 yuan, listening to Li Xiaodu's amazement.

I knew that if I got some seeds and sold them first, I would be able to realize a huge amount of money immediately. One grain and ten grains, he has thousands of grains, so wouldn't he be able to become a millionaire.

Fortunately, no one in the government army dared to search Li Xiao like the peasants, otherwise he would really turn his face and get angry.

Because of cutting down a person who wanted to steal corn seeds, Sinong Siqing was furious, and personally rushed to Lanxi to inspect, and then became angry, and withdrew all the remaining ninety-nine farmers, and demoted them to transport grain to the Liaodong army, and he transferred a hundred new farmers over.

When the people arrived, Li Xiaolei was not light.

A hundred new farmers, all of them have black skin, but not because of the sun, these people are black from head to toe, and even their hair is curly.

"These are Kunlun slaves!" Si Nongqing said to Li Xiao with some pride. There are many Kunlun slaves in Chang'an City, these Kunlun slaves are famous for their strength, tame and obedient, and the nobles of Chang'an compete to be proud of having Kunlun slaves as coachmen and grooms.

Li Xiao didn't expect that Sinong Temple actually pulled out a hundred Kunlun slaves for him at a time to plant corn.

"Damn, Kunlun slaves, you can use them at ease, they will never steal corn seeds."