Chapter 226: Morning at Xingqing Palace

In the morning of Xingqing Palace, the heavy rain had just stopped. The air was filled with a mixture of earthy smell and flowers, which made people feel refreshed. Li Qing had been standing in front of the gate of the Political Affairs Hall of Xingqing Palace for nearly an hour, looking bored at the few peach trees withered red in a daze.

It is now past Si (9:00 am), but Li Longji has not seen any shadow. ‘Is this the emperor not going to court early since then?’ Li Qing thought to himself that since Li Longji moved to Xingqing Palace, the daily morning court has disappeared. Every day, the prime ministers rushed to Xingqing Palace to discuss state affairs with the emperor. However, in the past few days, the daily discussion has gradually changed to one discussion every three days, and it will soon end. If there are other major state affairs, Li Longji will think of what to summon a minister.

‘Li Qing!’ A crisp and surprising voice interrupted his thoughts.

Looking back, a beautiful face as beautiful as peach blossoms appeared ten feet away. She was wearing a thick and beautiful face and picturesque eyebrows, but it was a flower. She was wearing a light yellow long dress with a long chest exposed and a light green gauze scarf, which was suitable for the thick and thick Tang royal style.

"You, what are you doing here?" A blush floated across Yang Huahua's face and her eyes lit up.

"Here we are naturally waiting for the emperor's summons."

Qing smiled and said, "I haven't seen my third sister for a long time, but she has become more noble and I'm almost missing."

After being praised by Li Qingyi, Yang Huahua looked a little shy, but she was a little worried and said, "I am just me, why don't you know me? If you don't like it, I will change it to the original."

"The concubine's sister is naturally different from ordinary people. This way she dresses her better for your identity. I don't think she has to change her life back."

Li Qing was a little surprised when he saw that there was no palace maid or eunuch around Yang Huahua, "What are the third sister doing here alone?"

Yang Huahua sighed. She slowly walked to the peach tree, squatted down to pick up the petals on the ground, with a little sadness in her tone, "I don't know if I come here, I am just a blind person, just like the peach blossoms after the rain, withering but I don't know where I'm my destination."

Li Qing couldn't help laughing, "Sister I'm saying too much. Do you believe it or not? As long as you shout, I, Yang Huahua, want to get married, those ministers, must be in a long queue to come to marry."

Yang Huahua squatted on the ground and glanced at Li Qing with a slanted look. Her fingers like jade-like onions were circled in the soil, and her white teeth as thin as shells bit her lips gently. She asked in a low voice: "Where is the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue? Will he come!"

Li Qing smiled faintly, "Mr. Li from the Ministry of Revenue is a pile of cow dung. He is not worthy of inserting you into the flowers. Mr. Wei from the Ministry of Revenue is a little too old and his son is still young, so he may not be suitable!"

Yang Huahua suddenly smiled and slowly stood up and said coldly: "You came too early. The emperor slept very late yesterday and suffered a little cold in the hunting patrol. It will take at least half an hour to come."

After saying that, she ignored Li Qing, walked straight through the path in the flower, and quickly walked towards the inner palace, but when she walked under the tree, she suddenly turned around, stared at Li Qing for a long time, shook her head and said, "You are a coward, you are even afraid of a woman!"

Li Qing kept watching her back disappear, and then shrugged helplessly. What he saw today was that Yang Huahua was getting closer and closer to Lady Guoguo.

As Yang Huahua said, Li Qing waited for another half an hour before seeing the eunuch Yu Chaoen running quickly. When he saw him, he shouted in a low voice: "Mr. Li, the emperor has entered the study, come with me!"

Li Qing followed Yu Chaoen and walked quickly towards Qinzheng Hall. Li Longji's imperial study room was located at the far left of Qinzheng Hall. It was already very vigilant. After one strict search after another, Li Qing finally walked into the imperial study room. Various documents and memorials were piled up in the room. Gao Lishi was kneeling on two memorials and sorting out the documents with his hands and feet.

Seeing that Li Longji was bowing his head to review several memorials before the imperial case, Li Qing hurriedly knelt down and said, "My minister Li Qing bowed to His Majesty the Emperor!"

"No gift! Give him a seat to Mr. Li."

Li Longji did not look up and just agreed casually. After a while, he finished writing the last word, then gently put down his pen, rubbed his hands and smiled at Li Qing: "The person I hate the most is those censors. Every time I either impeach or complain, I was in a bad mood for a day, but my dear friend was the opposite. Every time I came, I would bring me good news."

He took out Li Qing's memorial from the drawer, and his excitement was overwhelming. "The thing I am most happy this year is that my dear 600,000 guan of salt tax was released into Beijing. In less than two months, plus there were millions of guans in Shuzhong, Jingxiang, Hedong, Shandong and other places. It seems that the goal of 3 million guan this year can be achieved without waiting for three years."

He couldn't help but get up and walked to the window, staring at the rich spring scenery in the yard, and couldn't help but sigh: "In fact, governing a big country is no different from maintaining a small family, and he is also worried about his family's difficulties. The reason why I promised you to implement the new salt method is because the national treasury is empty. I see that after eating the last meal, I have no meal. It's like a heavy piece of lead stone, which is always under my heart. This moneyless life makes me difficult to bear!"

He suddenly looked back at Li Qing, and said as if he was happy and complaining: "According to this trend, you can receive at least five million guan of salt tax this year, but you told me that this year is only two million, which is a little too big."

Li Qing stood up and smiled and said, "Report to Your Majesty, the new salt law has been implemented, and big salt merchants in various places are afraid that the price will be raised, and they usually store more goods.

It will take a certain amount of time to digest these inventory, so this million is actually overdrawn taxes for the next two months. In a few months, if the salt price is stable, the amount of salt should drop. On the other hand, the two million guanchen is estimated at a lower price, leaving some room for himself. In fact, I understand in my heart that there is no problem with the three million guan in the salt tax this year."

Li Longji nodded, sat back on the chair, with a relaxed expression and half-joking, "You are right. Who will eat more salt if you have nothing to do? My Tang Dynasty population is here, and the salt consumption is stable, and the salt tax should not change much. However, from this matter, I found that our Tang Dynasty's financial resources still have potential to dig. Do you have any good suggestions? I will give me another surprise."

Li Qing smiled slightly, took out a memorial and presented it with both hands, "I have a suggestion that it can not only use the remaining money from the people, but also strengthen the imperial court's control over the local area."

“Strengthen control over local areas?”

Li Longji's relaxed expression gradually became serious. The demise of the Sui Dynasty was caused by the sharp conflict between the court and the local government. Since its founding, the Tang Dynasty has been committed to strengthening the court's control over the local government, such as taking the personnel appointment power of grassroots officials to the court, or restricting the power of the major tribes in Hedong and Shandong, although various measures were taken, the effect was not very ideal. Especially under the recruitment system, the court's financial resources were insufficient, which led to local raising soldiers. This is another hidden danger. However, Li Qing suddenly raised this matter, which really surprised Li Longji.

Gao Lishi stepped forward to take Li Qing's memorial and handed it to Li Longji. He waved his hand and ordered Li Qing to sit down first, then opened the memorial and read it carefully. The content was what Li Qing said to Li Linfu, establishing a national cabinet shop to absorb private savings. However, today, Li Qing added a lot of content to Li Longji, including extending the branches of the cabinet shop to each county. The tax collected by each county was directly paid to the cabinet shop, which was regarded as being paid to the court. The cash shop's own system escorted money and grain into Beijing, and unified by the Ministry of Revenue. In this way, it is actually to take the local financial power into the court in disguise, and curb the development and growth of local forces from the financial perspective. This is Li Qing's real purpose. To avoid the Anshi Rebellion and the future separatist vassal states, one must take multiple measures, and do not give An Lushan and others the opportunity to develop and grow, and cut off their source of wealth. This is also an effective method.

In addition, the circulation of currency in the Tang Dynasty was relatively weak, such as people paying taxes, officials' salaries, etc., mostly in physical goods. Therefore, the rise of banks will also promote the circulation of currency, gradually reducing the number of physical goods transactions in the Tang Dynasty, which will greatly promote the development of the commodity economy.

Li Qing's suggestion was like opening a door, allowing Li Longji to see the scenery he had never seen before. He understood that the weight and connotation of this memorial was actually changing the country's fiscal distribution system, changing the previous fiscal revenue and expenditure of the imperial court and local governments to take all the financial income and expenditures to be collected by the imperial court, and then allocated them to the local government according to the budgets of each region.

The room was extremely quiet, and Gao Lishi stood aside and looked at Li Qing worriedly. From the emperor's concentration, he could infer that what Li Qing had reported must be of great importance. If it was involved in the government affairs, he should first report to the Secretariat, and then go to the Secretariat to the Secretariat to preview the preview of the Prime Minister before handing over to the emperor. The implementation of the new salt law last time bypassed Li Linfu, and now he has exceeded his authority and reported again. Again and again, once Li Linfu caught him, the emperor would not be able to save him, and he would inevitably be blamed. It seems that he is still a little tender in his actions!

"This matter is of great importance. I will discuss it with the prime ministers before making a decision."

Li Longji carefully put the memorial down, looked at Li Qing for a long time, picked up his most beloved jasper paperweight from the imperial desk and handed it to Li Qing and smiled gently: "I am old, my ambitions no longer exist, and my energy is not as good as I want. My only wish is to make the world peaceful and the people live and work in peace, so that I can entertain my old age. My beloved is young and promising. I hope you can be loyal to me and my descendants with all my heart. This paperweight has been with me for thirty years and is my favorite thing. I am now given to you. I hope you can remember what I say today and not let my expectations down."

Li Qing knelt down, raised his hands to take the paperweight, and said in a deep voice: "I will never let Your Majesty down. I hope Your Majesty can take care of the dragon body and lead my Tang Dynasty subjects to the prosperity of Kaiyuan for thousands of years!"
Chapter completed!