During this time, Li Zhi was very worried, mainly because after his father was seriously ill and fell into a coma, the officials led by his uncle eldest grandson Wuji, regardless of his sad feelings, had to drag him to deal with heavy government affairs every day. But Li Zhi only wanted to guard his father quietly now, and he was in no mood to pay attention to those courtiers, which led to the persuasion of those courtiers one after another.

Li Zhi's arrival yesterday made Li Zhi very happy, especially after his father Li Shimin fell into a coma, Li Zhi felt as if he was missing the backbone of his heart, and he did not have the slightest sense of security. But when the sixth brother, who had always had a deep relationship with him and was also the most talented of the brothers, arrived, this made Li Zhi feel that his backbone had returned all of a sudden, and his mood became extremely happy.

Originally, Li Zhi wanted to go to Li Su yesterday and talk about the depression of these days and the domestic situation, so that he could not only vent the depression in his heart, but also ask the sixth brother for advice, how to deal with the current situation? But after Li Su came back yesterday, he first went into the Ganlu Hall to talk to Li Shimin for a long time, and then went to Concubine Yang and Empress Changsun, and finally left the Lizheng Palace, it was already dark, and Li Su was busy arranging for his family to live in the original Qi Palace, which made Li Zhi unable to visit at all.

Originally, as soon as it was dawn this morning, Li Zhi planned to take Cai'er to Li Su's house. Now that Li Shimin is seriously ill and in a coma, those of them who are sons naturally can't put on any more receptions, otherwise they will definitely attract the criticism of many ministers. However, it is normal for the two brothers to meet and then have a light meal.

But just when Li Zhi got up and freshened up with great interest, Cai'er also finished cleaning up little Li Hong, and the family of three was about to leave the East Palace. was blocked by the eldest grandson Wuji at the door, and then he was pulled by the other party to deal with government affairs.

The Hall of Virtue is the most important building in the entire East Palace. At the same time, it was also a place for the prince to meet his ministers and deal with government affairs, even when Li Shimin lived in the East Palace. Because the palace was inhabited by Li Yuan, he ascended the throne as emperor in the Hall of Xiande.

The layout of the entire Xiande Hall is similar to that of the Taiji Palace of the Taiji Palace, but the scale is much smaller, and after Li Zhi became the crown prince, he often met with the subordinate officials of the East Palace here. Some time ago, Li Shimin was unconscious, and the Xiande Hall became a place for Li Zhi and the eldest grandson Wuji and other courtiers to discuss government affairs.

In the main hall of the Xiande Palace, Li Zhi sat on the chair a little helplessly, and the eldest grandson Wuji and other ministers in front of him sat on both sides according to their grades, and one of the old ministers was marching to Li Zhi.

"His Royal Highness the Prince. Yesterday there was news from Bazhou, because of the continuous spring rain in the past few days, the Bazhou section of the Changsong Highway caused a flash flood, which has washed away a large section of the highway, which makes the traffic jam from Chang'an to Songzhou and other places, seriously affecting the circulation of people and goods, although the history of Bazhou Thorn has been transferred to repair the road, but there is a shortage of funds, so the letter to ask the court to allocate the road money! Among them, Chu Suiliang, whose status is only under the eldest grandson Wuji, was the first to play.

Changsong Highway is more than ten years ago. When Li Su first invented cement, the highway from Chang'an to Songzhou built by Datang was listed as the first highway in Datang along with the highway from Chang'an to Luoyang, and this road was completed after completion. This makes Datang's rule over the southwest region increasingly stable, and at the same time, it also exerts huge economic value. However, due to the choice of route and the quality of the cement, the road has been overhauled several times. But there is still no way to avoid problems.

"yes, I see. The Ministry of Household allocates the required road funds, and the Ministry of Industry sends people to supervise the use of road funds! Li Zhi said weakly. In fact, these things are not a big deal. It's not small to say that it's small, the eldest grandson Wuji and Chu Suiliang can handle it at their own discretion, but now they are all pushed to him, the reason is to let him be more familiar with the handling of government affairs.

"Wechen obeys!" Chu Suiliang immediately retreated after hearing this, and at the same time wrote down Li Zhi's handling method on the fold, and when the court meeting was over, there would naturally be the following people to deal with it according to the order.

"Your Royal Highness, the northern part of Huzhou was suddenly hit by heavy snow this spring, more than half of the cattle, sheep and livestock froze to death, Huzhou Thorn History disaster relief is effective, so that there are no casualties, and the victims have been resettled, but Huzhou Thorn History plays, I hope the imperial court can reduce some local taxes!" Another minister stood up to report. Huzhou is a new state established by the Tang Dynasty in the northern grasslands, and the entire state covers a vast area, and the state is dominated by animal husbandry, which is often attacked by various disasters.

"Exactly! Exempt the Huzhou disaster area from taxes for one year, and publish the news, I believe that many food merchants will be interested in those frozen beef and mutton, which can also reduce the losses of some victims, and the imperial court will also give those merchants some preferential policies, such as tax reduction and exemption along the way, etc.! Li Zhi replied without thinking. Over the years, he has followed Li Shimin's side, and he has been very experienced in handling various government affairs, although his mind is not on this, he can also deal with it.

One by one, the ministers reported the political affairs, and Li Zhi also handled them very reasonably, and occasionally if there were some objections, the eldest grandson Wuji and others would also put forward their own opinions, and Li Zhi would put forward a more reasonable way to deal with them after deliberation.

According to the unwritten practice of the court, the most important things are generally put forward at the end, and they are generally played by the eldest grandson Wuji himself.

Counting the eldest grandson Wuji is one year older than Li Shimin, but for most of the previous time, he was not as entangled in government affairs as Li Shimin, coupled with proper maintenance, although he is fifty-eight years old, he looks like a middle-aged man in his forties, with three long whiskers under his chin floating on his chest, indescribably elegant and graceful.

I saw the eldest grandson Wuji stand up at this time, stepped forward and bowed slightly to Li Zhi and said: "His Royal Highness the Prince, Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Fuzhou and other twenty-three southern states jointly played, saying that the local business wind is becoming more and more intense, so that most of the original people abandon agriculture and business, which has seriously damaged the local agricultural industry, and the grain output is declining year by year, taking last year as an example, the local rice production is less than half of three years ago, this situation has attracted the attention of local officials, but I don't know how to deal with it, so go to the court, please make a decision!" ”

The matter reported by the eldest grandson Wuji seems to be small, but it is actually related to a major contradiction in Datang over the years, that is, the contradiction between commerce and agriculture. Originally, commerce and agriculture are interdependent, and they can promote each other, but they can also form contradictions.

Taking Datang and Daqi as an example, there is a huge constraint on the industrial and commercial development of the two countries, that is, the shortage of human resources, even after more than ten years of encouraging childbirth, the total population of Datang is just over 30 million, and the total population of Daqi is only one-third of Datang except for those foreign races, even if those foreign races are added, it can be on par with Datang.

Although the steam engine has been widely used, whether it is industry and commerce or agriculture, there is still a long way to go from the kind of mechanization in later generations, so the two industries now require a large number of manual operations, so that the contradiction has also appeared, and industry and commerce and agriculture began to compete for a few human resources.

In order to solve this contradiction, Li Su's Daqi worked hard to promote sinicization, and at the same time carried out a cruel slave capture trade, using slaves to fill the shortcomings of some industries, such as large plantations in agriculture, industrial and commercial mines, textile factories, etc., all used a large number of slaves.

Although the industry and commerce of the Tang Dynasty also used a large number of slaves, but because of some historical or other reasons, there are few plantations in the Tang Dynasty, and agricultural production is still dominated by the original kind of small peasant economy, but with the development of commerce, many farmers find that doing business or working is far more cost-effective than farming, so these people began to abandon farming and turn into the city to become workers or merchants, this situation is particularly prominent in the southern region, although the industry and commerce in the Guanzhong region are also very developed, but the population base here is large, So agriculture hasn't been affected much for the time being.

Li Zhi was not the first day to deal with government affairs, so he naturally knew the weight of the eldest grandson Wuji's performance, so he saw him frowning and thinking for a moment, and then raised his head and said to the eldest grandson Wuji: "What is Lord Sikong's opinion on this matter?" ”

Sikong is one of the three princes, ranking first, although it is a false title, but it is enough to show that the status of the eldest grandson Wuji is extraordinary.

The eldest grandson Wuji heard Li Zhi ask his opinion, and immediately replied: "Prince Qiyu, the old minister thinks that the contradiction between industry and commerce and agriculture has been around for a long time, and the development of industry and commerce in the past has indeed brought greater income to the treasury, but everything is too much, and industry and commerce cannot develop indefinitely, and agriculture is the foundation of the country, so the old minister believes that heavy taxes can be levied on some commercially developed areas to curb the development of local commerce!" ”

"Lord Sikong's words are wrong!" As soon as Eldest Sun Wuji's words fell, a person immediately stood up and objected. I saw that this person was not very old, at most in his early thirties, white and chubby, and had a blessed face, if he took off his official uniform of the fourth grade, he would look like a kind businessman. If Li Su was here, he would definitely recognize it at a glance, this fat man was Li Jingheng, one of his fox friends.

Li Jingheng is different from Li Yong, Cheng Huailiang and others, he is the eldest son of Li Daozong, the king of Jiangxia, and he will inherit the title in the future, so naturally he can't take risks with Li Su, not to mention that he can't do anything, his only strength is greed for money, Li Daozong didn't expect his son to have any success, he just hoped that he could be a peaceful prince.

But the world is wonderful, under the influence of Li Su, Li Jingheng began to get involved in industry and commerce, as the so-called natural talent must be useful, Li Jingheng, who was originally useless, actually broke out with superhuman business talent, and soon developed the industry of Jiangxia Wangfu to all parts of the country, and even attracted the attention of Li Shimin. Later, he gave up business and entered politics, relying on his own background to enter the household department, starting from a small principal, and slowly rising to the fourth grade of the household servant, which can be regarded as a very important figure in the Tang Dynasty. (To be continued......)