Chapter 15 "If I Suspected Lord Li..."

As Zhao Jiu choked out those words instinctively, not only did Li Gang fall silent, but the other close officials also fell silent…for there was a time and a place for everything.

Not to mention the two involved and the many close officials who had personally experienced that period, even the Dangxiang elder, Ren Baozhong, knew that when Zhao Guan’s family had just ascended the throne, Li Gang was the court’s reliance, the nation’s banner. If they wanted to resist the Jin, unite the people, and re-establish a court, only this Lord Li could do it.

At that time, Lord Li regarded Zhao Guan's family as a child, and Zhao Guan's family could only ‘remain silent’ under the Buddha statue.

And so, later, this Guan’s family tied down Han Shizhong with a belt on the Huai River, bought Zhang Jun with half a duck, and incidentally killed Liu Guangshi, seizing military power for a time. He also used fishing tactics to create the illusion of resisting the Jin army's advance, thus gaining some power…but immediately after the war, he played a trick, leaving Lord Li in Yangzhou and taking the opportunity to turn to Nanyang…Although this move had the argument of resisting the Jin, the intention to get rid of Lord Li's control and personally take the initiative in the court was all too obvious.

But even so, he still had to change Lord Li to Public Minister Li, and entrust the Empress Dowager, Virtuous Consort, and Imperial Heir to him, as an unspoken agreement. Then, all the great powers of the Southeast government had to be entrusted to him to stabilize the situation.

This situation continued until the victory at Yanling. Zhao Guan's family recovered the old capital, received the approval of Zong Ze, the Chief Administrator of the Eastern Capital (东京), and the political and military heritage of the Tokyo Garrison Command, and gained unprecedented political prestige. Only then did he completely change the host and guest, reversing the situation between the monarch and his ministers.

In fact, in the eyes of some political animals, the Southeast military chaos and the Imperial Heir incident were not necessarily bad things. Otherwise, according to the characters of this monarch and his ministers, the two might have made some monarch-minister dramas in traditional feudal politics.

That would not have been beautiful.

And as time went on, to the present, Li Gang's internal and external wings had been removed, and even his own younger brother did not want to do any intermediary work for his elder brother. Zhao Guan's family, after the Yao Mountain, enjoyed his prestige and blessings. Then, this old minister who was out of touch with the times, and an old power minister, of course seemed even more out of touch with the times.

Under this circumstance, according to everyone's understanding and the default political rules, anyone could mention the old things, whether it was treating him like a child, or the Southeast military chaos and the issue of the Imperial Heir, or the previous resistance to the court's major policies. As long as Zhao Guan's family wanted to, he could brazenly end Li Boji's political life completely – the so-called recommendation to Mingdao Palace, to be placed in Nanjing.

Li Gang himself, after experiencing so much, obviously thought so too.

However, these people had miscalculated. For Li Gang, the time-traveler Zhao Jiu had a special view from his own perspective. Even just now, that sentence was just a retort to shut him up after being choked up as soon as they met.

In fact, if there was one person in this world who knew that Li Gang would never be treated like that by him, Zhao Guan’s family, that person would definitely be Zhao Jiu himself.

"When I crossed the river, I first went to Taiping Prefecture, partly because I hadn't seen Lord Li for many years and missed him…I should always come and see…" Zhao Jiu thought for a moment and finally chose to be honest. "Secondly, I wanted to use Lord Li's place to avoid the limelight first, and first take stock of the foundations in the South, so that I can act…"

"How does Your Majesty want to act? And who do you want to act against?" Li Gang remained wary after his silence. "Forgive my bluntness, but since Lü Yihao established the yuechun qian (monthly tax) and jingzhi qian (standard tax), the people of Jiangnan have been exhausted…"

"Who are these people you're referring to?" Zhao Jiu, having finally suppressed some of his emotions, became annoyed again. "Are they the poor people who weave with their own hands, or the wealthy merchants and landlords who throw out thousands of strings of cash at every turn? Or the temples and monasteries that receive seven or eight hundred dan (石) of rent every year?"

Li Gang was silent again for a moment before retorting with a stubbornness, "Why does Your Majesty think I am speaking for those people? When and where have I ever spoken up for these people?"

This time it was Zhao Jiu who stalled.

The two men, one twenty-seven or twenty-eight, full of youthful vigor and authority; the other about fifty, knowing his weakness but with undiminished aura, fell into a long silence and stared at each other on the banks of the Yangtze River, north of Dangtu City, the seat of Taiping Prefecture, and south of Caishiji.

The accompanying close officials and the officials of Taiping Prefecture all buried their heads as deeply as possible.

The authority of Guan's family need not be said, and no one dared to really provoke someone like Li Gang, who had been a Public Minister, before receiving a clear indication from Guan's family… The atmosphere gradually became awkward and heavy.

After a long pause, it was Zhao Guan's family who chose to back down, sighing slightly and softening his tone as he said earnestly on the south bank of the Yangtze River, "Lord Li, I am going south to do things, not to argue with you. Even if Lord Li has grievances, you should have the demeanor of a minister and let me enter the city first."

Li Gang probably also felt a little desolate, so he bowed and made way, then shook his head and replied, "I am guarding the land for Your Majesty, how can I stop the Son of Heaven from entering the state city?"

Zhao Jiu was even more speechless, and immediately took the book of accounts in hand, turned over, mounted his horse, and entered the city.

After entering the city, since the monarch and his ministers had another quarrel, there was naturally no harmonious atmosphere like in Yangzhou. Both sides went through the motions for a moment and then immediately dispersed – Li Gang returned to his residence, while Zhao Guan's family, because of his hasty arrival, could only temporarily reside in the state government.

Monarch and minister reunited, but had nothing to say. Recalling their farewell on the Huai River, when they compared themselves to Zhaolie and Wuhou, it was simply inexplicable.

"I had long heard that Lord Li's temper was upright, but I didn't expect him to be so aggressive? Your Majesty can actually tolerate it?"

Now that Zhao Guan's family had returned to the state government and there was still time, he naturally had to look at those investigation reports. The others were fine, but the close officials who had crossed the river in advance and written the investigation reports could not disperse, and could only stay in the side courtyard of the state government, chatting idly with each other, waiting for a summons for questioning… The one speaking at this time was none other than the newly appointed Secretary Lang, Zong Ying, who was accompanying the entourage for the first time.

"Master Xiaoshe thinks too much."

Ren Baozhong, knowing that this newly joined close official was another one who had been born well, but whose qualifications were ordinary, and whose father had died after all, was intent on winning him over, so he immediately responded. "This has nothing to do with temper, it has to do with position… After all is said and done, Lord Li was ultimately driven down from the position of a dignified Public Minister, so it's normal to have a lot of anger in his heart. As for Your Majesty, he also understands this principle, so how can he keep arguing with him? Do you believe that as long as Your Majesty immediately restores Lord Li to the position of Public Minister, the two of them will immediately… immediately enjoy fish and water harmony."

Zong Ying gave an oh and was momentarily enlightened, not knowing whether he truly understood or was pretending to.

That said, according to reason and character design, although there were only a few people in the side courtyard, only the Dangxiang old dog Ren Baozhong could say these words of advantage and disadvantage… In fact, since Ren Baozhong had said these words, the other people, not to mention, Mei Yue and Yu Yunwen, two friends of the same class, exchanged glances, but both of them held back a little thought while understanding in their hearts.

For one, this Ren Baozhong could be considered a powerful minister in Western Xia back in the day. After a setback, he was left idle for decades. When Guan's family attacked Hengshan, he directly surrendered. I'm afraid it's also a matter of comparing hearts to hearts.

Of course, these words could not be said to his face.

However, the two young people, Mei Yue and Yu Yunwen, were not good at speaking, but there was someone who didn't care. One person immediately spoke, without the slightest reservation. It was none other than the Hanlin Academician Lü Benzhong:

"Academician Ren, don't judge others by yourself! As for a figure like Lord Li, even if he cares somewhat about the gains and losses of the Public Minister position, it won't be to this extent…"

"Please enlighten me, Academician." Ren Baozhong cupped his hands in response, not angry in the slightest.

The others knew that although Lü Benzhong was only a yamen academician, said to be good at writing poetry and running small newspapers, but was completely incompetent in politics… But everyone also knew that he had a good father… So as soon as he opened his mouth, not only Ren Baozhong, but even the others pricked up their ears with a bit of seriousness.

"You only know one thing, but not the other. For a figure like Lord Li, the gains and losses of the Public Minister position are the appearance, and the evaluation of his administration is the root." Lü Benzhong looked around and spoke eloquently. "In fact, the reason why Your Majesty and Lord Li were arguing like that just now, though there were few words, already directly touched on the key point, and that is financial strategy (财略)… Financial strategy is the real reason why Hangzhou Public Minister Lü (Lü Yihao) replaced Lord Li, and it is also the real reason why Your Majesty is having us investigate this time, and it is even related to Lord Li's posthumous reputation… It would be strange if he wasn't angry."

"How do you say that?" Ren Baozhong urged impatiently.

"How can I say it?" Lü Benzhong shook his head with his hands behind his back, as if sighing. "When Your Majesty ascended the throne, Lord Li was in power, building the court and cleaning up the situation. His merit was greater than anyone else's. But at that time, the country had collapsed, and there were no finances or soldiers. Everything had to go through finances. However, Lord Li's financial strategy was indescribable – whether he was in Nanjing at that time or came to the Southeast, he probably only had two financial methods: one was called frugality, which allowed the court to save money, and no one could say anything about that; the other was to have the wealthy people of each state and county voluntarily donate to make up for the loopholes…"

The crowd was momentarily stunned.

Ren Baozhong was stunned for a moment, almost in disbelief, "Since ancient times, when people have been asked to pay money, either laws and regulations were set up to forcibly levy them with the authority of the government, or they were lured with other things like Your Majesty did in Yangzhou. Lord Li is also someone who has become a Public Minister, so why would he think that he could rely on donations from wealthy households to help the country overcome its difficulties?"

"This is the real reason why Lord Li went to the Prime Minister's office."

Lü Benzhong shook his head even more and said, "At the time of the world's collapse, he had integrity, so he could stand out from the crowd, but when it came to doing practical things, he showed his shortcomings… During the Taiyuan campaign, Li Yanxian, the Military Commissioner of Hedong (河東), impeached him for not knowing the military. There has already been a conclusion today, so I won't say more about it; and the reason why the court, from top to bottom, and even Your Majesty, were disappointed in him was because he carried out this absurd financial strategy in Nanjing, and it could be seen at a glance that it was unfeasible; the second was that he still had no way to deal with it after arriving in the Southeast. At this time, it was the then Public Minister Lü (Lü Yihao) who got up to clean up the salt administration and wine administration in the Southeast and suggested collecting the Standard Tax and establishing the Monthly Tax… Coincidentally, Li and Lü were at odds with each other in the Southeast, so the court had to make a choice!"

"No wonder Lord Li had to say that Public Minister Lü's establishment of the Standard Tax and Monthly Tax was not good just now, and no wonder he had to say that he had never harbored any intention of protecting the wealthy, so there was a reason for everything?" Zong Ying seemed to be lost in thought.

"Of course the Standard Tax and the Monthly Tax are not good." Fan Zongyin, a Third Rank Councilor (三照相公), could not help but join in the discussion. "But if Public Minister Lü had not hastily collected six million strings of cash in the Southeast and sent them to Tokyo in those years, where would we have been able to avoid chaos after we collected the troops in He'nan? And if we had not later established the Monthly Tax as a regular practice, increasing the tax revenue in the Southeast by three million strings and the tribute in Jingxiang by three million dan (石), where would we have gotten the funds to gather the Western Army, and then win the Yao Mountain Line?! So looking back, no matter what, Public Minister Lü is better than Lord Li… The struggle between Lü and Li has decided the outcome in this finance, and Lord Li can forget about turning this matter around in this lifetime."

Ren Baozhong was filled with admiration, and Zong Ying even felt that the two Academicians, Fan and Lü, were unfathomable. As expected of the dignified Inner Secretariat Academicians (内制), after investigating secretly in Jiangnan for nearly a month, they had indeed been reborn… It was just that Academician Lü didn't know whether these were the words that Public Minister Lü had instructed before leaving the capital.

However, just as the scenery in the side courtyard was momentarily beautiful, suddenly, one person walked out of the neighboring courtyard quickly, came to the side courtyard and waved the documents in his hand, directly questioning loudly:

"Fan Zongyin! Is this the investigation you've done?!"

The Third Rank Councilor was shocked, and the other close officials were also suddenly startled. They saw that Zhao Guan's family, who had changed into casual clothes, walked further in front of Academician Fan, pointing at the documents in his hand with unabated anger, prompting Liu Yan and several young ban zhi (班直) to follow hastily:

"I gave you a month to investigate a county town, and I even specially drew up a form and set the options. But how did you write it? Approximately, rumors, I've always heard… A city with an annual business tax of no more than three thousand strings of cash, but you don't even know which family is the richest in the city?! How did you investigate in this month?"

Even though he knew that eight out of ten parts of Guan's family's anger was brought about by Li Gang, Lord Li, Fan Zongyin was also flustered by Guan's family's thunderous anger and quickly bowed to reply, "To let Your Majesty know, I asked people for information after arriving in Ningguo County…"

"Of course you asked people for information, who did you ask? Why did you ask like this?"

"Naturally, I asked the local scholars…"

Zhao Jiu was exasperated and laughed instead, but then opened the documents in his hand with a smile, turned to one place, pinched out a piece of paper, and then asked:

"Then let's not talk about the fact that you can't ask about family property. I ask you, why is there a clip at the back of this document, saying that someone in Xuancheng is disregarding the law and harassing the scholars and commoners… Did I ask you to go to Xuancheng?"

"I'm ashamed. This is because the scholars in Xuancheng heard that I was in Ningguo and ran over to talk to me…" Fan Zongyin quickly explained with a sigh of relief.

"So, I asked you to investigate privately, but you couldn't help but reveal the identity of the dignified Inner Secretariat Academician?" Zhao Jiu laughed even more, obviously angered to the extreme.

Fan Zongyin was completely speechless.

Zhao Jiu turned his head and looked around. The smile and anger on his face disappeared for a moment, but he was expressionless, asking coldly, "Is there anyone else who has exposed their identity?"

The others looked at each other, and then Lü Benzhong, who had just made a big splash, took a small step forward and bowed.

Zhao Jiu was not surprised at all, but turned his head to look at Liu Yan, who had chased him out, "Bring over Academician Lü's report on Gucheng Town…"

Liu Yan did not dare to delay and turned back quickly, then came out quickly again and presented Lü Benzhong's report.

Zhao Jiu opened it and saw that the first few landlords, fields, and so on were still clear, but when he turned it over and saw the other few pages, he saw one item and felt a surge of anger rushing to his head… After a long time, he managed to hold it back, and then gritted his teeth:

"Lü Benzhong!"

"I'm here." Lü Benzhong was frightened, and the others shuddered as well.

Among them, Zong Ying, experiencing this kind of thing for the first time, almost lost his composure and was about to beg for forgiveness, but Ren Baozhong was quick-witted and pulled him back.

"I ask you, how many bridges and ferries are there in Gucheng Town under the jurisdiction of Gucheng Lake?" Zhao Jiu, of course, did not notice the small movements over there, but seriously questioned Lü Benzhong in front of him.

"Four ferries, four bridges." Lü Benzhong blurted out. "I counted them myself."

"Then why didn't you write clearly, four ferries and four bridges?" Zhao Jiu only felt a breath stuck in his heart, almost suffocating him. "But write 'seven or eight places with small bridges and diagonal crossings'?"

Lü Benzhong didn't dare to speak at all.

"Also." Zhao Jiu laughed in anger again. "Why is it written below, 'I went out in the autumn wind on a moonlit night and walked to the small bridge on Gucheng Lake. I climbed onto the bridge and looked out, and the light and shadow in the lake were flowing. Although it is not as good as the 'Moonlit Night on the Twenty-Four Bridges', it has a special flavor'… You went to count the bridges, but you were still thinking about the 'Moonlit Night on the Twenty-Four Bridges' in Yangzhou. Who do you want to play the flute for you?"

Not only Lü Benzhong, but the entire side courtyard was silent except for the sound of the autumn wind shaking the trees.

"Forget it!" Zhao Jiu was too angry to bother arguing. "I had thought about this situation before, but if the others are as romantic as these two Inner Secretariat Academicians, then I will have wasted a month in vain!"

After saying that, the Guan's family was about to turn back and continue reading, but when he walked to the door of the side courtyard, he frowned and looked back, "Lü Benzhong, since you have exposed your identity and are 'going out in the autumn wind every night', then who are these biggest landlords in front? How much land do they have? How much tax do they pay? And even how many shops do they have? What do they do? And how can you be so precise… Who did you ask?"

"I asked the monks." Lü Benzhong quickly explained. "There is a Mingquan Temple on Gucheng Lake… I only revealed my identity to the monks in the temple and asked them to help me investigate."

Zhao Jiu's expression softened slightly… This was actually a method, even a very good method. The monks had a great advantage in conducting local investigations, so no wonder Lü Benzhong's investigation was pretty good in many places except for these messy words.

However, just as Zhao Guan's family was about to nod and turn around, he remembered something and asked again seriously, "Then what about the Mingquan Temple itself? How much land does it have? Has it ever participated in local trade? And how many monks are there? How many monks' rooms are there?"

Lü Benzhong opened his mouth, but was speechless.

In Jiangnan, in this small area, Zhao Guan's family only sighed as he looked up, but finally turned back, leaving behind a courtyard full of unease.

Of course, their unease was actually unnecessary. Just like Zhao Guan's family would not really let Li Gang come to a bad end, this Guan's family could not really punish these close officials for this matter.

After all, Zhao Jiu knew very well in his heart that it was nonsense to expect these people to come up with the "Xunwu Investigation" in this day and age. Of the people in the side courtyard, including Yang Yizhong and Ren Baozhong, none of them could personally talk to the farmers. It was enough for them to seek out scholars, monks, and Taoists to ask questions, and then do this much.

Zhao Jiu himself was also psychologically prepared.

Besides, Zhao Jiu was not qualified to punish these people for this. Not to mention anything else, he had spent the whole month in Yangzhou enjoying the scenery, eating, drinking, and having fun. Had he ever done an investigation himself?

It was nothing more than showing off the prestige of the Guan's family, assigning the work and forcing them to fill out a form… Throughout the ages, those who did not do their jobs well as superiors had only these methods.

Even more bluntly, he, Zhao Jiu, as an emperor, had no way to personally investigate the truth in disguise. If he could not trust these people, there was no one else he could trust.

As for the evil fire that he had just stirred up, it was essentially caused by being angry with Li Gang. These reports were actually not that absurd… Many things and many problems could be seen from the cracks in the words.

Moreover, as an ordinary college student who had experienced nine years of compulsory education, Zhao Jiu knew the root of the problem from the beginning, so rather than looking for problems based on the report, it was better to say that he was looking for corresponding evidence in the report:

Fan Zongyin mentioned the evil custom of infanticide, which was not only in Fujian, but also widely existed throughout the Southeast;

Lü Benzhong mentioned the rampant lascivious sacrifices by rivers and lakes, and the resurgence of the vegetarian demon sects in the locality;

Mei Yue mentioned the universal integration of wealthy merchants and landlords, temples and landlords;

Yu Yunwen mentioned that the customs of cremation and water burial were common in the countryside;

Yang Yizhong mentioned that there was widespread dissatisfaction among the scholar-officials and the people with Lü Yihao, Zhao Ding, and Zhang Jun, the relevant ministers in power;

Zong Ying mentioned that some rural people were abandoning their land and entering the city;

Of course, it was inevitable that everyone would mention that super landlords who collected more than 500 dan (石) of rent were common in the towns and countryside of the Southeast, and that the common people in the Southeast were indeed under extremely heavy burdens.

For three consecutive days, Zhao Jiu stayed in the courtyard of the state government, neither attending any banquets nor reconciling with Li Gang. He just kept studying the reports and summoning, questioning, and discussing with the relevant close officials.

After three days, Zhao Jiu finally wiped away those superficial things and fundamentally incorporated the problems into the periphery of the core issue of Southeast taxation… This was of course the case, not only because Zhao Jiu had seen the answer in history books long ago, but also because all social problems would ultimately realistically fall into this basic issue.

It was really everything, infanticide, the rampant lascivious sacrifices, the intrusion of the vegetarian demon sects, the universal existence of landlords, the popularity of water burial and cremation. In the end, it was this issue of land, population, and taxation.

Therefore, three days later, Zhao Guan's family, after reading the reports, completely abandoned them and re-listed several words in his summary notes:

First, the zu yong system (租庸制);

Second, the Two-Tax System (两税法);

Third, unlimited annexation;

Fourth, tian pi tian gu (田皮田骨);

Fifth, ding shen qian (丁身钱);

Sixth, corvée labor (劳役).

Among them, the meaning of the zu yong system is very simple. Zu is land rent, and yong refers to the fact that when the common people need to perform corvée labor, they can complete their corvée labor obligations by paying silk.

This is a basic tax system in China that has been widely implemented for the common people since the Tang Dynasty. Of course, it has many problems, but its progressive significance is beyond doubt… Especially 'yong', by paying silk to avoid performing basic corvée labor, the common people can produce with peace of mind, and they do not have to worry about delaying agricultural work, which greatly improves the enthusiasm for production.

Therefore, no matter how many problems the zu yong system has, it cannot offset its enthusiasm.

Next is the Two-Tax System, which is also a reform achievement of the Tang Dynasty, and it is also a good policy.

Speaking of the Two-Tax System, you need to understand a concept first, that is, in the feudal era, the common people of any country have no resistance when facing the government. Every time those yamen runners and officials come into contact with the common people, it will cause great damage… Even if they come to implement good policies, one contact will harm them once.

When the people above come to collect taxes and grain, don't they want to extort and blackmail? Don't they want to kill a chicken to entertain them? Don't they want to take a fancy to your beautiful daughter? Won't the local ruffians who have a relationship with the government take the opportunity to annex your few acres of good vegetable garden?

The Two-Tax System, to put it bluntly, is to calculate all the taxes uniformly, and only collect them twice a year in summer and autumn. This greatly reduces the degree to which the common people are harassed by yamen runners, and they can also allocate production materials on an annual basis without having to be nervous day after day and month after month.

So, of course, it is a good policy.

As for Zhao Jiu's own use of temples and merchants to replace the government to engage in green seedling loans, it is essentially a similar idea… No matter how good the method is, if yamen runners and the government who hold power are allowed to implement it, it will quickly degenerate into a bad policy. This is not unexpected in the feudal era… Monks and wealthy merchants may also ruin the situation, but they are still much better than the feudal government.

Even, according to what Taira Kiyomori in the Red Heart Team said, there was a similar system in Japan hundreds of years ago, that is, lending to the common people when there was a shortage of food… What was the result? The result was that the dignitaries took the opportunity to force the common people to take out loans, and then used interest to plunder and annex on a large scale, so that the Japanese-style land grant system was destroyed, the manor economy completely rose, and the samurai class was subsequently born.

Then, if the zu yong system and the Two-Tax System are basic good policies that have stood the test of time and must be adhered to, then the remaining four are the real problems.

The third one doesn't need to be said much… The Great Song Dynasty allowed annexation, and annexation was legal and compliant.

The fourth, that is, the tian pi tian gu (田皮田骨) problem, is the evil resistance measure taken by the big landlords to evade this tax after the court announced an additional tax on land last year.

In short, the landlords have in fact annexed the surrounding land of the common people and collected rent, but in order to pay less tax, they use contracts to nominally leave the land in the hands of the common people. This transfers the court tax that they should have borne to the tenant farmers.

The fifth one, needless to say, is the ding shen shui (丁身税), which is the population tax. No matter how much or how little land your family has, you have to pay this thing if you have an adult male.

Sixth, it is another disguised form of population tax… Of course, most of the corvée labor can be avoided under the zu yong system, but the corvée labor itself is transformed into a tax like silk, in other words, corvée labor still exists, it has just been changed to paying taxes.

And what is corvée labor based on? It's still the population.

Moreover, in addition to traditional corvée labor, there are always other types of corvée labor that must be done by people… For example, the notorious yamen qian lizheng (衙前里正) system in the Song Dynasty.

Yamen qian (衙前) is to let you take care of public property, but in fact, which public property is not emptied by the officials? Therefore, the yamen qian labor has become a de facto robbery in which the common people are forced to make up for the official property.

The lizheng (里正) is similar… The lizheng is to designate a household as the lizheng to act as a tax contractor for convenience when collecting taxes.

However, if a large household comes to be a tax contractor, it can take the opportunity to plunder. If an ordinary commoner takes on this job, he would not dare to collect taxes from the truly powerful, not to mention that there are poor people who really cannot afford to pay taxes. The result is that the commoner's family who takes on the labor of the lizheng has to take out his own family property to make up for the tax… It is basically equivalent to public robbery.

In short, after going around in a circle, the rich inevitably get richer and the poor get poorer, but the richer the rich are, the greater their power is, and the less likely they are to be exploited. On the contrary, the poorer the poor are, the less their burden is reduced.

For example, in the case of infanticide, the logic is very simple. There is only so much land and family property in the family, but as long as the children grow up, they have to bear the corresponding population tax and corvée labor tax (silk)… Then the result is that the poor cannot afford to raise children, they dare not raise children, and they drown them if they have too many children.

This is especially true in Fujian Road, where there are more people than land. Infanticide has become a basic custom in that place. Hu Yin almost drowned because of this. Although there are fewer in the wealthy Liangzhe Road and Jiangnan East Road, there are still similar things.

The matter is matched here. Infanticide is not an evil custom, the people of Fujian are not born to bear a bad name, but it is a matter of the contradiction between people and land and taxation. Cremation and water burial are also the same. It is to save some land and make it easier to cultivate. Lascivious sacrifices and vegetarian demon sects are still the same. It is the grassroots losing confidence in the government, and it is the result of the government's failure to govern the grassroots.

Since ancient times, China has had this problem… The farmers at the bottom bear everything, but no one looks at them directly.

This is the prosperous world of the Great Song Dynasty that has lasted for more than 100 years, and it is also the problem that Zhao Jiu had considered for a long time before his trip to the Southeast… He came here, he was already psychologically prepared, it was just that after he let the close officials do the investigation and analyzed it himself, it was even more profound.

In this way, after another two days, Zhao Guan's family, who had not stepped out of the Taiping Prefecture government for half a step, wiped out those six words and re-wrote them into two simple words:

First, annexation;

Second, population burden.

This is connected to the textbooks that he had learned in those years.

Shortly after writing these two words, Zhao Jiu only hesitated for a moment, then tore these two words away as well, and then re-wrote two words in his notebook that had been circling in his mind before he came:

First, a prosperous age nurtures the people, never increasing taxes;

Second, the population tax is apportioned to the land.

Two words, two pieces of paper, Zhao Guan's family fell into the difficult choice again.

However, just as the Guan's family was hesitating, Li Gang finally requested an audience – after Guan's family crossed the river, he stood up the gentry in the Southeast, but he stayed in his state government for six or seven days without saying a word. At the same time, more and more gentry, including those from both sides of the Huai River, Jiangdong, and Fujian, had already gradually gathered in Liangzhe, and he could not bear the pressure from top to bottom, left and right.

Therefore, he wanted to ask Zhao Guan's family to travel east to Liangzhe to fulfill his promise of a relevant ‘political symposium’.

Zhao Jiu, who had not made up his mind, also knew that he could not delay, but after a sigh, he put the two pieces of paper away and set off eastward, but also ordered Li Gang to accompany him.

On the second day of October, the imperial carriage arrived in Jinling and gathered the soldiers of Liu Qi's department.

On the eighth day of October, the imperial carriage arrived in Suzhou. The whole city of Suzhou welcomed him. Zhao Guan's family immediately issued an imperial edict here, announcing that he would convene a political discussion with the gentry of the Southeast around Hangzhou at the end of this month. Moreover, in addition to the officials in office and retired officials with ranks and salaries, students and scholars, regardless of monks and laity, regardless of merchants, workers, and commoners, regardless of those belonging to both sides of the Huai River, Liangzhe, Liangjiang, and Fujian, as long as there were those who wanted to speak, they could come forward and speak in front of the imperial presence without counting the written documents… As soon as the decree was issued, the Southeast was finally boiling again. The gentry and people everywhere ran around to tell each other, and they gathered in the Suhang area. When Zhao Guan's family's entourage left Suzhou, there were already no less than hundreds of gentry from the Southeast who followed him on donkeys and in carriages.

On the fifteenth day of October, because of the unexpected rain, the imperial carriage arrived in Hangzhou a little later. Immediately, Zhao Guan's family met and talked with Chancellor Lü Yihao in secret. In the next few days, the gathered scholars had filled Hangzhou City inside and outside, numbering no less than a thousand.

On the nineteenth day of October, the final decree was officially issued. Zhao Guan's family, Chancellor Lü, together with Inner Secretariat Academicians Fan and Lü, would hold a corresponding symposium on the bank of the West Lake starting on the twenty-fifth day of October, for five consecutive days. The emperor, the prime minister, and the Inner Secretariat Academicians would work on site. If an agreement was reached, an edict would be issued on the spot to form a decree.

For a time, the Southeast was boiling for the third time.

On the twenty-second day of October, with the arrival of Chancellor Xu Jingheng, Zhao Guan's family finally remembered one thing, but he took the three chancellors, Lü, Li, and Xu, to Dongxiao Palace to visit the Supreme Origin Sage Emperor… The two brothers met, and it was said that they were brotherly and respectful, and the scene was extremely warm. Even the two emperors and the three chancellors ate a meal of Dongpo pork together at Dongxiao Palace.

As a result, in the three days that followed, the price of Dongpo pork in Hangzhou City directly doubled.