On May 15, the Tang Empire declared war on Yan Zhou.

The declaration of war was issued at the same time as the announcement of the war bond.

Once the wartime official notification system is activated, within seven days, the central news can reach the most remote Lujiang Prefecture of the empire, and within fifteen days, it can reach the farthest territory overseas of the empire. This is unbelievable for a huge empire with a territory of more than 100,000 li and an area of 39 million square miles, but this is only a silhouette of the strength of the Tang Dynasty - a strong country must be as fast as thunder and as fast as the wind.

On the sixth and seventh days of the declaration of war and the announcement of the war bond, they arrived at the Aral Sea City in the westernmost part of the empire, the Meihe City in the southernmost part of the Annan Prefecture, the Lingbei Ice Plain in the northernmost part of the Anbei Prefecture, and the Liuqiu Prefecture in the East China Sea. On the fourteenth and fifteenth days, they arrived at the most distant overseas frontiers of the empire, namely the four governors' palaces under the jurisdiction of the Andong Prefecture and the Donghai Prefecture—the Bering Governor's Mansion and the Huagang Governor's Mansion in Beidadongzhou, and the Huayang Jinchuan Governor's Mansion and Yongxia Changchuan Governor's Mansion in Nandadongzhou. …… The whole empire rejoiced.

No matter which class of Shinong, industry and commerce, whether it is the Han people, the Xianbei Hui Hui Sogdian people, the Li people, the Lu people, etc., whether they are yellow-skinned, white-skinned, black-skinned, brown-skinned, black-haired, yellow-haired, red-haired, brown-haired, all the "nationals" who belong to the official register are all jubilant, long live the Tang Dynasty, long victory and long victory!

Yes, that's right, no matter where the Tang people are, when they hear that the Tang Dynasty is going to war with the outside world, they are all overjoyed - ah, the imperial court is going to pay money again!

This money is the war bond.

What is a War Bond? Even the easternmost Eagle Feather Thian people know that it is the war dividend issued by the Tang Dynasty to the people! Of course, this bonus is to ask everyone to buy bonds first, and when the war is won, the imperial court will return the principal and pay interest - that is the war dividend. According to the practice of the imperial court, the interest rate is generally around five percent. When the imperial court beat the Tibetan Qingtang Dynasty, it was 4.5 percent interest - later the imperial court actually wiped out the entire Tubo, which was a surprise for the people, and the imperial court also added 0.5 percent when cashing out the dividend, making up the interest rate of 5 percent...... In short, the empire did not hesitate to give money to its citizens. And this time the war interest rate surprised everyone: it turned out to be 6 percent!

But when everyone thinks about it, Yan Zhou is much bigger than Tubo, if the empire is defeated, how much land will have to be added, how many fields and minerals will have to be, etc...... No wonder to give six percent.

When everyone went to the county and state to register for subscription, they all laughed, talking about how big Yan Zhou was, which direction of the empire, what was produced, in addition to cattle, sheep, horses, fur, jade, gemstones, wood, whether there were iron ore, gold mines, silver mines, copper mines, etc., and so on. As for the defeat of the war, what should I do if I can't redeem the dividends without the principal? - How is this possible?

It must be a foreigner who says this.

For foreigners, the Tang people are usually proud: will our Tang Dynasty defeat the war? Scold! Since the Shenggao martial arts dividend, when has our Datang been defeated? There may be disadvantages on the battlefield, but the final result of the war must be the victory of the Tang Dynasty! The Tang people's strength for the Tang Dynasty and the Tang Army was deeply rooted in the bone marrow. Moreover, there is a concept that has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and only those who have confidence in the foreign wars of the empire can be eligible for dividends. Those who do not trust the country and dare not invest should enjoy the dividends of the war?

So, as soon as the war bonds were issued, they were quickly sold out.

And these huge amounts of silver were not hoarded in the official treasury, but flowed from the government to the people, and became a large military order received by various factories to support the empire's war with a steady stream of materials. These large military orders brought benefits to millions of factory workers, increased their family wealth, and in turn drove consumption in the market; The orders of the large factories have brought benefits to the upstream raw material suppliers and the most source growers, and this chain transmission has not only not been depressed by the war, but has driven the economy to be more prosperous. This is the war economic system of the Tang Dynasty, the money comes from the people, and it is back to the people. It is called "wartime chain economy" by Datang's strategists, which is an important trick for Datang to frequently launch foreign wars and win for a long time, and it is also a trick that is difficult for other countries to learn.

The truth of this economics is not complicated, but the system of implementing it is complex and rigorous, and the most difficult to learn essence is: fairness. Corruption and bribery may be inevitable in some links, but the entire transaction system is fair and has strict legal guarantees, which comes from the country's rule of law. Datang emphasizes the law and is known to the whole world. This law is not a law in which "the powerful and the common people are guilty of the same crime", but a law in which the powerful and the common people must be guilty of violating the law. For example, if the powerful kill someone, they will be deprived of the crime in turn according to their merits, and civilians must pay for their lives when they kill people, because civilians have no merit to deduct, this is the fairness of Datang. Another example is the transaction of power and money, the conviction of the official who received the bribe must be greater than that of the common people who bribe, because the official has a high status and has obtained more rights, and the corresponding responsibility should be heavier, which is the fairness of Datang. In short, Datang uses visible interests to tie the people and the country together, and the country gains benefits, and the people must share the benefits, which is fairness, and uses the rule of law to ensure the fairness of the government-people trading system. Datang's ability to rally the people to support the war lies in this benefit-sharing system. Gaozong, who had the most powerful external expansion back then, was scolded by the officials for "being reckless in military force", but the people never scolded this majesty for being reckless in military force, but they were full of love for Gaozong, because this majesty gave everyone a dividend, so that everyone knew that I could share the benefits of the victory of the national war.

This time, the imperial court issued a total of more than 346 million bonds, which were divided into four classes, each with its own issuance volume and subscription limit, according to the convention, and these measures were to ensure that every household could buy bonds, and not be monopolized by the powerful and wealthy. However, not every Tang person is eligible to buy bonds, and must be a "registered householder" in the official household register, which Tang Lu calls a "national".

The Tang Law stipulates that citizens pay taxes to the state and enjoy the treatment given by the state accordingly. Slaves are the private property of the people and do not contribute to the state, so they certainly cannot enjoy national treatment. Beggars and unemployed vagrants who do not produce their land, as well as hidden households who entrust their fields to the powerful nobles, do not pay for the country, and of course do not get national treatment. This is the fairness of "give and get". When the interests of the individual are linked to the "national", the concept of the state and the national character are born. This is an important reason why Datang can immediately unite the people's hearts every time there is a war and natural disasters. When the strength of the country is closely related to personal interests, the people will be proud of the strength of the country and pay for it, and the Tang Dynasty will become the "our empire" in the hearts of the Tang people, rather than a family surname dynasty that they don't care about who is the emperor.

“…… Only by buying war bonds, so that all classes do not care about the victory or defeat of the war without being on the battlefield, and participate in the war, can the foreign war become the 'war of the empire' rather than the 'war of the imperial court'. Only common interests can truly unite a country. ”

These are the words of Gojong.

Li Yuzhen sat in the reading room on the second floor of Fengxian Pavilion, reading Emperor Gaozong's imperial bookcase, the sun shining through the large glass window on the clean white sandalwood bookcase, and also shining on her calm face.

Her heart has also been calmed.

The words in the Edicta have a calming power.

The volume she was reading was a military war volume, not the original of Gojong, which was treasured and immovable, and she was reading a copy of Emperor Sejong. This is also the rule set by Gaozong: every emperor must copy the imperial book of the previous emperor for the next emperor to read. This is to protect the original authenticity, the emperor may have to look at it many times, each time you look at the original may have wear and tear, of course, the more important purpose is to let the successor emperor strengthen the understanding of the previous emperor's governance, only by writing it one by one, can it be remembered...... to ensure the continuity of governance. However, every emperor of Gaozong's emperor has copied it, and Li Yuzhen has read the war scroll before, and at that time she read the manuscript of her grandfather Emperor Jingzong, but this time she chose Sejong's manuscript.

Because Sejong's transcription condenses feelings.

Not only the reverence for Gaozong, but also the daughter's admiration and nostalgia for her mother, which is revealed from the pen of the copy, this feeling is profound, gentle and calm, not as fierce as love, and has the unique broad tolerance of family affection. This is exactly what Li Yuzhen's painful heart needs.

She needed a quiet and gentle power that flowed through her heart like water, and like the earth, to carry her pain.

Gojong's words can give her strength, and Sejong's brushwork can calm her.

When the entire empire was boiling over the war, Li Yuzhen's heart was in calm pain.

This pain is no longer the turbulence of a torrent crashing against a reef, but flows calmly, like a river washing over the riverbed, like the earth bearing wind and frost, calm and silent.

On June 29, the combined forces of the Tang Dynasty and Oghuz invaded the capital of Yan and Zhou, and Emperor Yan and Zhou committed suicide.

Yan Zhou Empire, died.

At this time, it was forty-four days before the Tang Dynasty declared war.