Ziwei Hall, Zhengshi Hall.

Wu Meiniang and Lu Zhi sat on Li Qian's left and right sides, writing their voting plans on the small tickets with pens.

Li Qian stared at the memorial in front of him and fell into a daze.

Ever since he came back from Pingkangfang that day, Li Qian had some thoughts about the Juren group.

The class of Juren is very special. There has always been a saying in the folk that poor scholars and rich Juren are.

In other words, according to the common sense of the common people, there are many paupers and talented people, but with the status of Juren, basically no one is poor anymore.

The reason is very simple. If you are admitted as a Juren, you can be exempted from land tax and corvee. When a person becomes a Juren, a large number of fellow countrymen and gentry will donate their land to the name of the Juren.

In this way, you only need to pay part of the filial piety to the person every year, and you don't have to pay taxes to the court. The amount of this part of filial piety is smaller than the court tax, so many people are keen to contribute.

In addition, by virtue of his or her status, the Juren can exempt more than a dozen households from corvee service. In fact, this is what many people value most.

For some wealthy people, they may not be short of the difference in food taxes, but this privilege of being exempted from corvee is something they value extremely.

The so-called corvee includes forced labor, miscellaneous labor, military service, etc. It means that the government summons people to work without giving them money or remuneration.

For example, the most obvious ones are the civilian men who were recruited by the imperial army this year.

They were to help the imperial army transport grain, grass and ordnance all the way to the State of Wu, and follow the army in front or behind.

If you are lucky, you can still come back. If you are unlucky, you happen to encounter enemy forces intercepting grain and grass or other accidents, get injured, or simply die. This may mean the destruction of a family, and the people have no place to go. Reason.

There is no work-related injury compensation in this era, and the court cannot compensate you for a small civilian pension, so you can only consider yourself unlucky.

Regardless of whether you have money or not, as long as you are involved in a difficult and arduous corvee, it is very likely that the family will lose its vitality or even be destroyed.

Therefore, people like to use the name of being a candidate or a Jinshi to avoid corvee service, but the total number of civilians needed by the court will not decrease.

If the total amount of corvees remains unchanged, they can only be assigned to the remaining helpless people. The fewer people there are to serve, the more burdensome the corvees will be, making them more and more breathless...

In Li Qian's view, every appearance of a juren puts another burden on the backs of ordinary people.

Of course, the accounts cannot be calculated exactly like this.

The imperial court must rely on these elites and the privileged class to govern the country, rely on them to benefit the people, and count on them to correct the country's ills...

This is a process of offsetting each other. If the privileged class does something good and works diligently to benefit the people, it will offset the privileges they enjoy, and there will even be a surplus, making Daqian become more and more powerful.

But not every privileged class did something worthy of the imperial court's efforts to reduce or exempt grain taxes and corvees. Some people even had side effects.

The two cannot offset or balance each other. The result is that Daqian gradually goes downhill...

There is no longer smoke curling up in the incense burner, the dragon's head, and the mouth of the crane gradually become colder. The refreshing incense in the burner has long since burned out, leaving only a little red light still breathing weakly among the embers.

The old eunuch wanted to go up and change another one, but was stopped by Li Qian.

The late emperor liked this stuff, but he didn't like it very much. He always felt that it was a bit like a stimulant and would damage the nervous system.

Holding a pen in his hand, he wrote and drew unconsciously on the paper, raising people above the rank of ordinary people, including civil servants in the court. This was a huge force.

With the current situation, Li Qian could not do anything to them, such as reducing the treatment of the people, which would be self-destruction.

A great man once said that it is true to have many friends and few enemies.

Li Qian can only guide the situation, unite those privileged classes and officials who want to make a difference, help them, and gradually return the offsetting balance to normal, thereby gradually reversing the decline of Da Qian.

To change the balance, we must try our best to select officials who are honest and dedicated to their duties, or capable ministers who have the ability to make the people live a good life...

Thinking of this, Li Qian dug out a memorial. This was not a memorial written by an official below, but a letter written by He Shen to Li Qian. It was considered a personal letter.

Although when talking about capable ministers, Li Qian first thought of He Shen as a bit ironic.

But it has to be said that this little fat guy still has two skills. Not only did he punish the corrupt officials Li Qian wanted to do, but he also made disaster relief work very impressive. He also came up with such a way to make money and reduce costs by damming and silting up the land. ,increase the court's income.

This letter introduced what he did in the two disaster areas of Xingyang and Bianzhou, including borrowing food, building river embankments, building dams and silting the land, etc.

This is much better than some people who only talk empty talk.

Maybe he also reaped benefits when he built the river, but at least he allowed the people on both sides of the river to have enough to eat.

Moreover, if this embankment can really be built, it will definitely greatly improve the land conditions in Xingyang and Bianzhou, making these two places another grain-producing area for the imperial court after the Guanzhong Plain, and allowing the imperial court to reduce its influence on various places. Dependence on water supply.

But here's the crux of the matter.

Li Qian felt that he saw the huge benefits contained in this, and there must be others who saw it too.

Who wouldn’t want millions of acres of prime farmland created out of thin air?

Presumably the officials of the imperial court and the local gentry were all watching closely.

In this case, what will He Shen and Yan Song do?

Li Qian stared at the letter and was lost in thought for a long time, thinking about this matter. An honest person is not necessarily an official. For example, some censors usually point and point arrogantly, but when it comes to real matters, they may not be able to do so. Stand firm.

People like He Shen and Yan Song who can get things done, but their hands are not very clean, may take this opportunity to make a fortune...

"Your Majesty, this is the letter sent by He Shen, Lord and Yan Xiang."

While he was dazed, the old eunuch suddenly walked in from the door, holding two secret letters in his hand.

"Bring it here."

Li Qian waved with interest. Is there any new trick this time?

Wu Meiniang and Lu Zhi also stopped writing and looked at Li Qian curiously.

Li Qian first opened Heshen's letter, which said that thanks to His Majesty's blessing, everything in Xingyang was going smoothly, and construction was about to start soon, and he announced to the people and victims that the dams and landfills would be dug up.

In addition, I would like to express my gratitude to Your Majesty for your proposal to restrict people from buying and selling land so that large households cannot annex their land...

Li Qian was suddenly startled while reading.

"When did I say this?"

Li Qian thought for a moment, and suddenly understood He Shen's intention, and laughed out loud: "He doesn't want me to take the blame for him, right?"

The principle of Heshen is probably to be kind to others, and to be harmonious brings wealth.

Even if he could withstand the pressure from those wealthy country gentry owners, he would not completely stand on the opposite side of those wealthy country gentry families, let alone break up with those people.

"Your Majesty, aren't you taking your own initiative too seriously?"

Wu Meiniang frowned and said, "Isn't this causing trouble for Your Majesty?"

But Lu Zhi smiled softly and said: "How can you say that you are causing trouble?"

"My Lord and I have already said in the letter that as soon as these words come out, tens of thousands of people will surely praise Your Majesty's kindness. Those people who have benefited from this will definitely be grateful for His grace. Is this considered troublesome?"

Wu Meiniang shook her head gently, and Danfeng's eyes showed two cold arcs: "What's the use of the people's praise?"

"This move has offended the wealthy squires and their relatives and friends in the officialdom. What benefit will it bring to Your Majesty?"

"Master He is smart enough to keep the good things to himself and throw the bad things to His Majesty..."

"Don't say that."

Li Qian smiled and shook his head, then opened the letter written by Yan Song.

The content of this letter was very different from that of He Shen. The plagiarism check rate reached an astonishing 90%, which made Li Qian a little unsure for a moment. Did the two people come together to discuss whether the letter should be written? Otherwise, why would it be so similar?

But at the end of Yan Song's letter, he said otherwise that the disaster was urgent and that he had already started to build a dam and silt up the land on the north bank.

The controversy at this time is quite serious and will surely attract a lot of criticism. Please don't believe the slanderous words of villains and so on.

After Li Qian finished reading, he smiled softly: "It seems that Prime Minister Yan is also worried about slander and fear of ridicule..."

He put away the two letters, put them aside, and looked at Wu Meiniang with a smile: "Meiniang, actually what I did with the Qing family is quite in line with my wishes. The common people you mentioned are the foundation of my great work. .”

Looking at Wu Meiniang's expression, she seemed a little unconvinced.

But Li Qian can also understand her thoughts. After all, they don't have the education that Li Qian has experienced since childhood, and they don't know some truths.

But Li Qian must explain this truth to her clearly. This is the most fundamental difference.

There can be disagreements in daily life, but this most basic truth cannot be ambiguous.

If the ideas cannot be reversed and this difference persists, the two will continue to have conflicts in government affairs, which will eventually lead to Li Qian having to give up Wu Meiniang...

"I know that the big families have money and food, and there are people in the court, and they can organize soldiers at critical moments."

Li Qian said to her: "But Mei Niang, have you ever thought about why they can do this?"

Wu Meiniang frowned slightly and looked at Li Qian with some confusion: "Your Majesty, isn't it because they have colluded with officials in the DPRK?"

Li Qian said with a smile: "The reason why big households can make all the difference is not because they are powerful, but because they have the support of small people."

"Eshan should know that although the big landlords have been oppressing the small people, collecting rents and occupying the fields, the most authoritative people in a village are often the big landlords."

"Sometimes even the government's words are not as useful as theirs."

Lu Pheasant nodded his head lightly and quite agreed with Li Qian's words: "Your Majesty, many small people have to rely on landlords to survive."

"Needless to say, those tenants who rent land will definitely starve to death if no landlord rents land to them. Even those who have land at home are usually willing to follow those big squires and landlords."

"After all, if there is any famine, they will have to rely on the grain reserves of large families to survive..."

"Haha~"

Li Qian chuckled twice and shook his head: "Look, the common people don't want to believe in our court anymore. When encountering a famine, the first thing they consider is the big families, instead of trusting the court's disaster relief."

Lu Pheasant's pretty face changed color slightly, and she quickly lowered her head and said, "Your Majesty, I made a mistake."
To be continued...