As usual, I entered the palace early in the morning to participate in the court meeting, and after the court meeting, I went to the Yamen of the Ministry of War to order Mao. After signing his name on a few innocuous papers, there was nothing to do all morning, relying on a large cup of strong tea and a few newspapers to pass the time. At lunch, I had a working meal in the cafeteria of the yamen, and chatted with a few waiters and principals. In the afternoon, he drove out of the city and went to the Royal Military Academy in Beibi Mountain, where he felt that his life was fulfilled only when he was with the young cadets. As night fell, Li Jing returned to the Weiguo Mansion in the city in a four-wheeled carriage given by his emperor.

"The meat is a little salty."

As usual, Li Jing dined with his wife. The meal was not sumptuous, a plate of stir-fried pork with lotus root slices, a mutton soup, and a plate of vegetarian stir-fried cabbage. Mrs. Chen sandwiched a chopstick meat, which was very salty.

"Since the promulgation of this new tax law, the use of salt in our cooks has become heavier." Li Jing shook his head and smiled.

"It's all caused by the salt monopoly, since the imperial court announced that the salt monopoly will start in September, and the price of salt will be raised, you don't know, the salt in Luoyang City has been robbed by the people. The housekeeper Fu Bo and the cook Zhao San pulled a big cart a few days ago, and they also grabbed a big bag and came back, a whole stone of salt, and they didn't know what year and month they had to eat. Mrs. Chen said to her husband with a gentle smile.

"No wonder I put so much salt in my dishes every day lately." Li Jing smiled, "In fact, the people are also blind and panicked, and the price of salt will indeed rise after the salt is bought, and it will rise a lot." But the family only eats a few catties of salt in a month, and the cheaper salt is only a few pennies a catty, and a month is actually a matter of ten or twenty cents. But there are some people who fan the flames behind them, and they are really not afraid of death. ”

Mrs. Chen's brows furrowed slightly. "What, there's an inside story behind this?"

"If you don't have an inside story. How could it be that because of such a little oil and salt, the city will be full of wind and rain and the world will be in turmoil. Li Jing ate a few mouthfuls of the dish and it was not too salty, so he picked up a spoon and scooped the mutton soup to drink, and finally the cook had not put salt in the soup, "This tax reform, for ordinary people, is not as simple as a few pennies per catty of salt, and the burden on the vast majority of people is lighter." But the burden of the people was lightened. Others have to bear a little more. Those who have a lot of fields, those who have many shops, workshops, and mines, are basically greatly affected. People in the world are unwilling to suffer losses, the original ownership of thousands of acres of land, a year is only to pay so many taxes, but now according to the mu tax, an acre of dozens of dollars, 10,000 acres is hundreds of thousands of dollars, this is a very large piece of meat. Naturally, there are those who are unwilling, but who are not self-sufficient, lard and do some stupid things. ”

Mrs. Chen smiled slightly, "You are not a good family." I've always been careless about money, so I naturally don't think anything. The concubine usually manages the family's income and expenditure, and the new tax law has come down. secretly calculated an account, but I was distressed for a long time. The Zhuangzi in all parts of our house add up to more than 100 hectares. Now under the new tax law, I have to pay more than 300,000 yuan a year to the imperial court and pay two taxes and land rent. In addition, our family's shops and a few workshops will spend at least 20% of the income to pay taxes every year, and it will be no less than 100,000 yuan, and our family will spend nearly 500,000 yuan in land rent and commercial tax in the next year. ”

"No matter how the court collects it, we pay more taxes, which naturally means that we have more income, in fact, we pay taxes according to a proportion." Li Jing really doesn't pay much attention to these things like money, and he is not short of money, he is a Guanlong nobleman, although he did not inherit his father's county dukedom, but he earned a hereditary real feudal duke by virtue of his military merits, the emperor rewarded him countless before and after, he himself got it from the family, and he earned it himself, and the land added up to more than 10,000 acres, and there were several shops and workshops, which were all married by the lady at the beginning, and later purchased some, these shops can also earn thousands of income for the Weiguo Mansion every year, What's more, Li Jing, the prince of the country, is a top important minister of the imperial court, and the annual official titles add up to no less than a thousand. This is not counting the 100,000 yuan deposit in Li Jing's bank, Li Jing is really a wealthy nobleman. He is still an honest official, and he refuses to accept gifts and bribes, otherwise it will not be too easy to make money with his official position.

But some people just can't understand this, and they are always greedy and endless, and their desires are insatiable. The emperor measured the land, and then reformed the tax system, changing the original tax according to the ding to the tax per mu, which touched the interests of these big landowners, and these people immediately went crazy and didn't know who they were. Could it be that they have forgotten what happened to those who dared to go against the emperor before?

Although after the promulgation of the new tax system, Li Jing actually belonged to the group of people whose interests were touched, he still stood firmly on the emperor's side. Now he only hopes that the new tax law will be promulgated smoothly and will not affect his command of the Northern Expedition.

"Husband seems to have something on his mind lately? Are you worried about the new taxes? ”

"I'm not worried about the implementation of the new tax law, no matter how many people try to block the car with their arms in the end, they will only end up being crushed. I'm worried about the Northern Expedition again, and I don't know when I will be able to officially set out. "Although the emperor has chosen him as the marshal of the Northern Expedition, he refuses to give him a single soldier, well, he gave 200,000 troops, but they are all Turkic troops, and they only promise to supply grain and grass to the border. These days, the 200,000 Turkic troops who want to fight back to the steppe have begun to assemble, and the noble leaders such as the small khans of the Turkic tribes such as Nili and Poshi have also met the Son of Heaven and received the title. The emperor was a total of nine grassland princes, eighteen marquises, thirty-six counts, seventy-two viscounts, plus more than 100 barons, in short, a large seal of special seals, all those who surrendered to the Great Sui, loyal to the Great Sui Emperor, and fought for the Great Sui Emperor The original nobles of the various ministries who had fought for the Great Sui Emperor were rewarded. The emperor did not confer the title of Khan as originally agreed, but changed the title to the title of Duke of the State. And he sealed nine princes at one time, all of them were the original little khans, real power agents, such as Tuli and Nili were originally little khans, this time they were naturally the princes of the country, and there were also some big tribes. The rest of the clan leaders with real power also have eighteen marquis.

Before the army set off, the emperor was already in the main hall of Kaiyuan Palace, holding a huge map, dividing the eastern and western grasslands into pieces after pieces. In the end, a total of 243 grassland princes were feuded, and what made Tuli Nili and others a little dissatisfied was that the Great Sui Emperor divided the grassland, not that it was divided into nine feudal states, and their nine princes then led the following Hou Bo Zi Nan, but Gong Hou Bo Zi Nan, regardless of the size of the title, it was a feudal country. Although the relationship between them is different in height and the size of the feudal territory, it is parallel to each other and does not belong to each other. Tuli and others also spoke out against it, but Yi Feng gave the Great Sui a credit to the leaders, and he could only thank him for it. The emperor didn't listen to them at all, Tuli and the others stayed in the Central Plains for more than a year, and they had already learned the power of this son of heaven in the Central Plains, and they had to put their dissatisfaction in their hearts at the moment, and finally accepted this separation.

In front of the kings and ministers of the Manchu Dynasty of the Great Sui, the Turkic 243 feudal princes stepped forward one by one, bowed to the Great Sui Emperor and swore allegiance, and then the Great Sui Emperor gave the seal letter and the map of the country. The 200,000 Turkic armies were finally divided into the names of these 243 feudal lords and became the princes' armies of various countries. In the end, the Son of Heaven of the Great Sui and the 243 feudal princes of the grassland swore an oath to agree, and from then on, the princes of the grassland swore allegiance to the Great Sui Empire and the Son of Heaven of the Great Sui, and each feudal state took the Great Sui as the suzerain. The Great Sui did not interfere in the internal affairs of various countries, but the two sides agreed that the princes had to send envoys to the Sui Dynasty every year to meet the emperor and pay tribute. Every three years, the princes of the steppe must personally enter Beijing to meet the emperor of the Great Sui. In addition, the Great Sui opened up trade with other countries, and the most important one was that the vassal states were not allowed to cross the border and not invade other vassal states. The Great Sui Empire could build roads, post stations, and merchant markets in the vassal states, and at the same time send troops.

A series of treaties were basically extremely favorable conditions for the Great Sui, and the vassal states became the princes of the Great Sui from then on, and they were attached, and basically there would be no more Turkic khanates in the future, only the princes of the Mobei and Western Regions of the Great Sui Empire. The conditions were very harsh, but if they agreed to sign it, the ministries could return to the grassland, and even be a prince, if they didn't agree, the Great Sui Emperor could change someone to be one of the two hundred and forty-three princes at any time. Tuli and the others had no choice at all, and in the end, the princes signed a document together, recognizing that from now on, the Sogdian states in Monan and the Western Regions would no longer belong to the steppe vassal states. The Hetao, Saishang and other areas in Monan will be directly under the Great Sui, and the imperial court will set up state counties there. The Gaochang and other countries in the Western Regions will also be canonized as vassal states by the Great Sui Emperor, and the Western Regions countries have a total of 16 countries, but they do not belong to the 243 grasslands.

Now, all kinds of preparations are almost complete, but the imperial court has not yet given the order to go out.

The dinner was over quickly, and today the husband and wife did not have a good appetite, and the wife went to the Buddhist hall at home to recite sutras and pray for her husband who was about to go on the expedition. Li Jing, on the other hand, returned to his study and began to study the battle plan of the Northern Expedition against the map.

When Chi Gong, the magistrate of Mayi County, came to convey the emperor's will and summoned him to enter the palace immediately, Li Jing looked at this big black man with joy for the first time and felt that he was a little cute. He immediately closed his notes, blew out the oil lamp, and followed the big black man to the palace.

"Pei Shilang and General Changsun have returned from the Western Regions and Mobei respectively, and Tiele and the countries of the Western Regions have accepted His Majesty's edict and are willing to send troops as scheduled to cooperate with the imperial court's Northern Expedition to Datou and Dulan!" Wei Chigong took the initiative to reveal the latest news to Li Jing on the road.

"It's finally time to start." Li Jing said excitedly.

Wei Chigong nodded, "Principal, Wei Chigong will also participate in the Northern Expedition this time, Your Majesty will let us form a cadet battalion with the students of the Bishan Military Academy as the principal's personal guard battalion to accompany the Northern Expedition." ”

"Haha, okay." (To be continued......)