Li Su said: "Father, if you do this, everyone will understand." ”

Li Shimin said: "Okay, let's arrange it like this." I'll talk to them all once and let them know your hard work. ”

Li Su said: "Thank you, father." ”

After Li Su became the crown prince, he handled all the small matters by himself, and consulted Li Shimin in advance for major matters, and cooperated with Li Shimin very tacitly.

When Li Chengqian was the prince, Li Shimin was like a nanny, but unfortunately Li Chengqian was a dou who couldn't help him. Li Su became the crown prince, Li Shimin felt that everything was going well, compared with Li Chengqian, it was really a heaven and an earth.

Li Tai hired murderers and assassinated the prince many times, and his crimes were extremely great. Li Su saw the face of Li Shimin and Empress Changsun, and only gave him the disposition of being demoted to the county prince, and let him come out to do things. Such a disposition is too light.

For Li Tai's disposal, Empress Eldest Sun was overjoyed and felt very ashamed. She personally came to the East Palace to thank Li Su.

Li Tai was treated leniently. However, his subordinates Wang Qi, the left attendant of the Ministry of Rites, Yan Liben, the right attendant of the Criminal Department, and Shi Ma Qianli, the head of the Wei Prince's Mansion, were all dismissed and assigned.

Although Li Tai was not convinced, he still had the idea of competing with Li Su, but his henchmen were basically eliminated. The strength of Li Su's supporters was too strong, coupled with the continuous persuasion of Empress Changsun, he gradually let go of the idea of competing for the throne and concentrated on learning, and later made great achievements in compiling the "Tuodi Chronicles" and "Five Classics of Justice".

The most touching is Concubine Yin, his son Li You has been deposed as a concubine and imprisoned. I didn't expect to be released, and I also got the title of a county duke, and I was an idle nobleman. Naturally, I am very grateful.

Li Ke has been depressed since he was demoted to the king of the county. Seeing that Li Su became the crown prince, he was unconvinced, but he saw that the people who supported Li Su were not only Li Shimin and Li Xiaogong, Hou Junji, Wei Zheng, Li Jing and almost all other high-level military and political leaders, but even Empress Changsun, Concubine Yang Niangniang and even Cen Wenwen firmly supported Li Su. He completely lost his confidence.

When Li Ke was a prince before, he didn't have anything practical to do. Li Su made him the Minister of Water Resources, which gave him a real position in the imperial court, and he was still satisfied. So he also worked in a down-to-earth manner and made great achievements in the water conservancy construction of Datang.

Straightening out the affairs within the imperial family, Li Su cooperated with Li Shimin to start the reform of the imperial court institutions.

Tai Chi Hall, Li Shimin's study.

After the eldest grandson Wuji left Chang'an, Wei Zheng replaced him as the right servant. Li Shimin took the draft of the reform of the imperial court that Wei Zheng drafted according to the prince's opinion, and asked: "Everyone has read it, can you talk about it?" ”

Gao Jingming, the head of the household department, said: "Your Majesty, the minister agrees with the idea of establishing a national tax bureau and a local tax bureau to conduct taxation independently.

In the past, there were great drawbacks in the taxation system: First, the imperial court set the total amount of tax revenue for the localities, and the localities took the opportunity to levy additional taxes on a large scale for the sake of local interests, which caused a heavy burden on the people.

Second, for the taxes handed over to the imperial court, the local government will also create various reasons to withhold, resulting in a large loss of taxes paid by the imperial court.

Third, when the imperial court set the total amount of tax revenue, it was based on the number of households, and the household department did not understand the actual situation in the locality, and the economic development of various localities was unbalanced, so it was unrealistic to set the standard for the total amount. As a result, there is a serious loss of tax revenue in the rich areas, and a heavy burden on the government and the common people in the poor areas.

Therefore, it is extremely necessary to set up a special tax authority.

It is a good idea to separate the national tax from the local tax, which is conducive to ensuring the tax revenue of the imperial court and also conducive to increasing the enthusiasm of the local government. Ministers strongly support. ”

Wei Zheng said: "Your Majesty, the minister studied history and found a problem. The warlords of all dynasties have a lot to do with taxes.

Historically, and in the current tax system, the imperial court has set the total amount of tax revenue for each locality, and each locality collects and pays it on its own. In addition to the tax revenue handed over to the imperial court, the localities collected a large amount of taxes and accumulated a large amount of wealth, which created conditions for the warlord forces in various localities to accumulate strength.

Once the imperial court was weakened or unstable, all localities reduced or defaulted on the payment of taxes to the imperial court, or even stopped paying taxes to the imperial court altogether. In this way, the imperial court was hollowed out and lost its ability to control the locality. This created the conditions for the warlords to divide their territories, which eventually led to the collapse of the regime.

Taxation is the lifeblood of the imperial court and must be controlled by the imperial court. ”

Li Jing nodded and said: "Yes, after reading the proposal on the reform of the tax system, the minister has the same idea as Lord Wei, and this idea of establishing national taxation and local taxation is definitely a good way to strengthen centralized power." ”

Fang Xuanling and Cen Wenwen also supported this opinion.

Li Shimin was very excited, and it had always been one of his ideals to strengthen the centralized system, but he could not find the key to the problem. The prince's suggestion not only found out the crux of the problem, but also found a good way to solve it. Li Shimin suddenly felt that his eyes suddenly opened up,

He said, "Yes, the prince's suggestion, very good. This is a good idea, and since everyone agrees, the Ministry of Household Affairs will take the lead in setting up the State Administration of Taxation and guiding the local taxation bureaus.

This candidate, everyone discusses, who will be in charge? Prince, you talk about it first. ”

Li Su said: "Father, my lords, taxation is the foundation of the country, and the establishment of the State Administration of Taxation is a start-up, so there must be an honest and capable person to take the lead."

Erchen recommended Ma Zhou, a doctor, to be the director of the State Administration of Taxation. ”

Li Shimin was deeply impressed by Ma Zhou, he nodded and said: "This Ma Zhou is a talent, I think it's okay." ”

Li Shimin nodded, and everyone had no opinions.

Li Su continued: "Taxation is a very deep science, and how to reasonably formulate tax standards and implementation rules is a very complicated project. Especially in the future, when industry and commerce are involved, the calculation of taxes will be more complicated.

This requires specialized knowledge and specialized talents, so please recommend a competent person. "The matter of recommending people, we must leave opportunities for everyone, and he can't monopolize it.

Gao Jingming said: "There are a lot of professionals in the household department of the minister, but when it comes to the taxation of industry and commerce, they are not familiar with it. Chen recommended a candidate, she is the first person in the Datang mathematics circle, and she is also familiar with industrial and commercial affairs. She is the county lord of the crown prince's side concubine. ”

Fang Xuanling said with a smile: "Yes, if you want to talk about a mathematical genius who is familiar with industry and commerce, it must be County Lord Li." The minister agreed. ”