As the saying goes: "If you can run, a monk can't run the temple." This sentence is indeed a wise philosophical saying, pointing out why there is such a big difference between the results of "Kuhu" and "Kutian".

"Kuta" really affected the interests of many people and was met with great opposition. But the field is there, and the regulations of the imperial court are also placed, as long as the emperor supports it, pursues it relentlessly, and at most sends someone to actually measure it, and it can always be found out; And people are different, there is no suitable inducement, there are so many escapees in the world, they just don't turn themselves in, how can you catch them one by one?

However, after the lack of progress of the Kuta, the people who were originally dissatisfied with the Kuta found an excuse to make trouble, and in addition, there were indeed some cases where some imperial historians sent to the local area forced the local government to falsify the figures in order to achieve performance, and the backlash of the court officials against the Kutato increased unabated, and even combined the two things to oppose it.

For example, Emperor Fu Jing of Yangzhai County, Henan Province, wrote to the emperor to oppose the inspection of fields and households. The reason he gave was that the magistrates gathered people on the ridges to measure the land, which took so much time that they missed the busy time of farming. In addition, in order to curry favor with the magistrates of various provinces, local officials often ignore the actual situation and collect rents only according to the name of the household register, regardless of the actual situation, resulting in a flourishing of apportionment and unbearable suffering of the people. And Yang Xiangru, the left relic, also wrote that the local government responded to the "bracket household", which caused great inconvenience.

In view of this, Li Longji convened a meeting to discuss it. At the meeting, because Qianyao, the servant of Zhongyuan, and Lu Jian, a member of the Zhongshu House, were both in favor of continuing to promote the policy of covering households, and because the inspection of fields had already achieved initial results at this time, Li Longji made up his mind to continue to promote the policy of covering households.

In the twelfth year of Kaiyuan (724 AD), the disputes caused by the Kuhu households still continued, and Li Longji was so worried that sometimes he even couldn't sleep at night. At this time, he decided to summon Yu Wenrong again to understand the actual situation and propose countermeasures. Yu Wenrong had just returned from the field at this time, and was summoned to the Wuying Hall to face the saint, and as soon as he saw him, the emperor was anxious to ask Yu Wenrong about the status of the inspection of the field and the implementation of the policy of the household.

Yu Wenrong replied to the emperor very frankly. The land inspection policy has achieved great results, and it is estimated that about 800,000 hectares of land can be detected, which is about one-tenth of the original registered land. However, it is true that there has not been good progress on the issue of household closure, and there are still very few households that have surrendered themselves.

The Emperor then asked:

"What do you think is the problem?"

Yu Wenrong looked at the emperor's bloodshot eyes. I want to say that the emperor doesn't know how many days he can't sleep well, he is moved, this is a good emperor who loves the people! I must do my best to do this well, so that the saint has no worries.

Yu Wenrong replied:

"Your Majesty, since the ninth year of Kaiyuan, Weichen has played and asked for the inspection of the world's household registration. It's been three years now. In the meantime, the responsibility for escaping households cannot be described as lax; and the judges assigned to each place also fulfilled their duty of supervision; Including state and county officials, although they were a little wait-and-see at the beginning, they can now cooperate with the investment. Unfortunately, in the past three years, the results have not been as expected, and the minister is often thinking about the reason? “

"Have you figured it out now?"

"Wechen now knows a little bit about the reason!"

"Hurry up!"

(Serial Update)

"Yes! Wechen thinks that although we use severe punishment to demand that the people turn themselves in, if there is no way to survive after turning themselves in, the people will not have the will. "The people are not afraid of death. Why fear it? "If we don't provide the way out for the people after they turn themselves in, as well as the motive for turning themselves in, even if the laws and regulations are strict, the people will not be able to cooperate, so the core is what kind of policies the imperial court can provide to the people."

"Reasonable!"

"For the people who surrender in exile, the preferential taxation should be strengthened. In addition to paying a tax of 1,500 wen per Ding (male student): those who do not currently occupy the land will be exempted from rent adjustment for the next six years; If you already occupy the land. Waiver of the five-year lease adjustment. In addition, for customers who do not have land, the government should assist them in obtaining land, and they can choose a place for naturalization in their home country/exile state or county with more abundant land; It just so happened that the land could be distributed to the homeless people who had no land. Displaced people can also be encouraged to reclaim wasteland. The cultivated land only needs to pay taxes appropriately, and there is no need to bear the rent and labor (yong), and the minister thinks that such a policy will definitely work! “

After listening to Yu Wenrong's statement, Li Longji was very happy. "Jiaqi is loyal and worthy of anything", so he immediately appointed Yu Wenrong as the "Persuading Agricultural Envoy", and at the same time promulgated the "Edict of Persuading Agricultural Envoys", and fully adopted Yu Wenrong's proposal.

According to historical records, when Yuwenrong toured the world and read the edict to various places: "The old and the young are happy, and the only order is to obey; shed more tears to feel the heart, and poured out sincerity to accept the king's life." As a result, a large number of fugitive households in all prefectures and counties surrendered themselves, and after three years of implementation, the "bracket households" finally achieved a satisfactory result.

Judging from the figures, the number of registered households has probably increased for the country by more than 800,000, and the population has increased by nearly 100,000.

After Yu Wenrong achieved such a great achievement, his official position also rose all the way: in the ninth year of Kaiyuan, Yu Wenrong was only supervising the imperial history (Zheng Bapin); In the tenth year of Kaiyuan, he was promoted to the palace servant history (from the seventh grade); In the eleventh year of Kaiyuan, he was promoted to the history of the emperor (from the sixth grade); In the twelfth year of Kaiyuan, he was promoted to the middle of the imperial history (Zheng Wupin); It can be said that it moves once a year, and it rises at the speed of a helicopter.

Compared with the official position, what has risen more is his influence, because Yu Wenrong has all the information about the household registration and land in the world, and although the judges he sent out are not high, the state and county officials cannot help but buy it, so Yu Wenrong's power at this time can be said to be no less than that of the central high-ranking officials at the Shangshu/Shilang level.

When Yuwenrong was in full swing, what was the situation with the prime ministers of the court?

As mentioned earlier, at the end of the ninth year of Kaiyuan, after Zhang Shuo returned to the pot and served as prime minister, a three-headed carriage pattern was formed. At first, it was peaceful, but soon, Zhang Shuo found an opportunity to plot against Zhang Jiazhen.

This was in the tenth year of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, when Pei Ling, the governor of Guangzhou, was imprisoned for something, and the emperor then asked several prime ministers to discuss what crime to convict him. Emperor Zhang Jiazhen said, hit him with a big board! Zhang said on the side: "No! The emperor then asked Zhang what he had built? Zhang said:

"I have heard that punishment should not be inflicted on the scholars, because they are close to the king, and in this way they will develop the integrity and shame of the scholars. Therefore, as the saying goes: "A soldier can be killed, but not humiliated", this is the truth; Moreover, when I was in the north (referring to the time of the ambassador of the Heavenly Soldiers' Festival), I heard that Jiang Jiao was beaten with a stick on the spot in the court (Jiang Jiao was Zhang Shuo's comrade, see Chapter 4), Jiang Jiao was a high-ranking official of Sanpin, and he had also made meritorious contributions in the past, and if he was guilty and should be sentenced to death today, he should be sentenced to death. If he is guilty and deserves to be sentenced to exile, he should be exiled, why should he be beaten with a stick and treated a high-ranking official in the same way as a servant? Jiang Jiao's matter has passed and cannot be changed. Pei Lingxian should be exiled for his crimes, and he should not be beaten with a stick again, making the same mistakes he made before. “

After listening to this, Li Longji felt that what Zhang said made sense, so he announced that he would do what Zhang said. In my heart, I had a good impression of Zhang Shuo. For Zhang Jiazhen, he can't help but feel a little contemptible.

Zhang Jiazhen's mention was refuted by Zhang saying such a large paragraph, and the emperor praised him, naturally he was very unhappy, and he was not good in front of the emperor, and as soon as he withdrew from the court, he couldn't wait to question Zhang and said:

"Just now we were just discussing things, why did you come out with such a deep truth? Are you deliberately trying to get along with me? “

Zhang said that he was a veteran of the struggle, so naturally he would not be as unstable as Zhang Jiazhen, but he said unhurriedly:

"You know what? In the position of prime minister, when luck comes, there will be a chance to sit on it (it seems to imply that Zhang Jiazhen's position as prime minister is too easy). But when we are unlucky, Pei Lingxian's fate may also be what we will encounter. Today, we will build a big stick on high-ranking officials, and if we don't do it well, tomorrow the stick will hit us. So I said that paragraph, not to protect Pei Lingxian, but to protect us and the world's senior intellectuals, do you know? ”

Zhang Jiazhen was choked up by Zhang when she said this, and she couldn't answer. But the rift between the two has since deepened.

However, it seems that since the death of Yao Chong, the "natural enemy" of Zhang Shuo, Zhang Shuo's skills have increased greatly, and no one can stop him, and he is full of vitality. In addition to plotting against Zhang Jiazhen. In this year, he also proposed to Li Longji the most important military reform policy of the Tang Dynasty, which influenced the military deployment pattern of the Tang Dynasty for nearly 200 years.

As mentioned earlier, Zhang said that in the ninth year of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, with the assistance of the party members, he quelled the rebellion of the Hu people "Kang Zhibin", and in this year, the rest of the party "Kang Yuan" gathered people to raise troops. Calling himself "Khan", Zhang Shuo sent troops to crusade, captured him alive, and completely quelled the rebellion, in order to prevent the Hu people from gathering again to cause trouble. The remnants of their tribes were relocated inward and settled in nearby prefectures and counties in Henan.

After doing this, Zhang said that there was no strong foreign enemy in the north for the time being, and that the current border garrison in the country had reached as much as 600,000, and the burden on the people of the country was very heavy, so he reduced the army by 200,000 and let them return to their hometowns to farm.

In the face of Zhang's suggestion, Li Longji hesitated, not knowing whether such a large-scale disarmament would have a great impact on the military strength of the frontier!

Zhang said that he understood Li Longji's scruples, but he had been in the frontier for the past few years and knew the situation in the frontier very well, so he said to the emperor again as a person who had come over:

"Now the guards (the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty, usually mainly in the provinces, need to take turns to defend the Beijing division), mainly recruited from all over the country, at the age of 20 to serve, 60 years old before retiring, and the family can not be exempted from tax service, in the long run, the soldiers fled a lot, and the conscripts are old, weak, sick and disabled, unbearable. I changed my career to recruit soldiers (conscription) and no longer conscripted. At the same time, do not pursue the guilt of past conscripted soldiers for evading military service, and fugitive soldiers will surely be eager to apply. Li Longji also agreed, and soon gathered 130,000 elite troops, handed them over to the guards, and took turns to defend the Beijing division.

Zhang said that this mention yì had a great impact, and the military system of the Tang Dynasty gradually died out, and the conscription system was replaced, so is this building yì right?

If you think about the people, this is right. The military system originated in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and you can see the situation at the time of conscription from the Mulan poem (it is generally believed that the Mulan poem is a work of the Northern Wei Dynasty): "I saw the military post last night, the Khan ordered the army, the military book was twelve volumes, the volume has the name of the grandfather, the grandfather has no eldest son, Mulan has no eldest brother, and he is willing to be a saddle horse for the city, and from then on he will recruit for the master." "Men who are included in the military cannot evade military service except when they are over sixty years old (the percentage of people who live beyond sixty in ancient times is really low) or when they die. Hua Mulan was forced to join the army on behalf of her father because her father was old and in poor health, and there was no other male in the family to replace her.

Of course, Mulan has not been discovered in the army for twelve years, and it is also very clear in this poem, because "Mulan has no eldest brother (chest)"! Therefore, reading more poetry can understand history.

But at the time of the Anshi Rebellion, this also caused problems. After the formation of recruitment, the local Zhichong Prefecture (Conscription Commander's Office) gradually shrank and even disappeared. When the rebels swept across the country, the local government was unable to gather enough troops to fight in a short period of time, so that the rebels were able to advance lightly and vigorously, which cannot but be said to be the sequelae of recruitment. But in any case, Zhang said that he did the right thing at the right time, and the problem of the Anshi Rebellion should not be blamed on him.

In the eleventh year of Kaiyuan, Zhang said that the disagreement with Zhang Jiazhen was more intense, and the two had a relationship between superiors and subordinates before, when Zhang said that he was a squire in the military department, and Zhang Jiazhen was a member of the military department, that is, Zhang said that Zhang was Zhang Jiazhen's old chief, and now the two are in the same dynasty, Zhang Jiazhen not only does not buy the old chief's account, but also often talks to Zhang Shuo when dealing with things, which makes Zhang Shuo very unhappy, and decided to find an opportunity to repair Zhang Jiazhen, and kick him out of the ranks of the prime minister at one time. So he sent someone to collect whether Zhang Jiazhen and his relatives had any illegal affairs, and prepared to bring him down.

The emperor lived up to his painstaking efforts, Zhang Shuo finally found a good opportunity, and through the return of his subordinates, Zhang Shuo found that Zhang Jiazhen's younger brother, Zhang Jiayou, the general of Jinwu, had embezzled and accepted bribes, and obtained evidence. Zhang said that he would not report it for the time being, and decided to implement the surprise policy, so he visited Zhang Jiazhen with evidence.

Zhang Jiazhen was really caught off guard, because he had actually heard about his brother's corruption and bribery, and he had repeatedly advised his brother to stop, but now he was caught by Zhang Shuo, and he didn't know how to deal with it all of a sudden.

"In the past few years, I have been in the frontier, and I know the situation of the border guards very well, and the reason why the generals want so many troops with the imperial court is that many times they are used as their own guards or even let these troops assist the generals in their personal affairs. If it was really just for the defense of the frontier, an army of 400,000 was more than enough, and there was no need for so many soldiers to hinder farming. If His Majesty is still confused, I am willing to use the lives of more than 100 people in my family as a guarantee! Li Longji was very moved when he heard what Zhang said, so he agreed with what Zhang said. (To be continued.) )