"My lords, are you willing to do this with me since ancient times?!"
Li Yuanji saw that the emotions of Li Shentong and others were aroused, he straightened his back, stood behind the royal eucalyptus and shouted.
Li Shentong, Li Xiaogong and other military ministers all stood up, walked quickly to the palace, knelt down on one knee, and solemnly declared: "I am willing to go through fire and water for His Highness, even if I die!"
Seeing this, Li Gang, Pei Ju and other civil servants hesitated for a moment. Li Gang took the lead and quickly walked to the palace, knelt on the ground and solemnly declared, "I am willing to devote myself to your highness until my death!"
"good!"
Li Yuanji nodded with satisfaction and said loudly: "I hope you will remember your promise. As long as you keep your promise, I will definitely live up to your promise!"
Li Shentong and others all lowered their heads and said loudly: "I will defend my promise to the death!"
Li Yuanji nodded with satisfaction again and continued: "Everything said in Wude Hall today is confidential. I don't want you to spread it out, but I hope you will remember it.
If anyone disobeys my order and leaks even half a sentence of what I said today, he will be killed without mercy!"
"Here!"
Li Shentong and others lowered their heads again and agreed.
Li Yuanji nodded, said nothing more, put his hands on his back and left the front hall of Wude Hall.
"Brother Wenji, I'll leave it to you civil servants to fill the granaries in Luoyang, and leave it to our military officials to increase the number of households in the Tang Dynasty to three million. How about that?"
Li Shentong took the initiative to talk to Li Gang while the people were still there.
Wenji is Li Gang's character.
According to his age, Li Shentong should call Li Gang his uncle, because Li Gang is almost 20 years older than him, and calling him his uncle would not insult his identity.
However, Li Gang was a minister and had nothing to do with Li Tang's clan. As a king, he was also a county prince and the leader of the military ministers. Calling Li Gang "Brother Wen Ji" was already considered as lowering his head.
Calling him uncle would be a bit flattering to Li Gang.
Even if he was willing, none of the military ministers were willing, let alone some of the military ministers who were similar to or older than Li Gang.
As the head of the military ministers, he represents all the military ministers. If you bow to the head of the civil servants, you will be looked down upon by all your colleagues.
Li Gang was about to leave and go back to the three provinces to discuss with Pei Ju, Xiao Yu, Chen Shuda, Wang Gui and others on how to supervise Ren Gui and the governor of Yuezhou to build a city and promote rice in Yuezhou. When he heard Li Shentong's words,
He paused for a moment, froze for a moment, then slightly cupped his hands and said: "It is our duty to collect food for the imperial court and to raise food and grass for the army. Even if His Highness the King of Huai'an doesn't say anything, we will do it."
Li Shentong laughed and said: "That's good, then it's settled."
Li Gang did not rush to express his position, but asked: "I wonder how His Highness the King of Huai'an is going to lead a group of military officials to restore the Dingkou of the Tang Dynasty?"
Li Gang's words here are very level. He used the word "restoration" instead of "strengthening".
Because in the pre-Sui Dynasty, the population of the Central Plains had reached more than 30 million. After more than ten years of war, the population had declined to the current level.
The Tang Dynasty was established before the Sui Dynasty, so it was natural to focus on restoration in terms of population.
Although saying this is a bit of a word choice, the meaning it represents is very important.
If the Tang Dynasty recognized that it succeeded the former Sui Dynasty, then during the unification war, all the territories occupied by the former Sui Dynasty would be included in the Tang Dynasty's recovery.
The vassals owned by the former Sui Dynasty were also among the conquests of the Tang Dynasty.
Regardless of whether the Tang Dynasty raised troops against any place that the former Sui Dynasty had occupied or recognized, it was a war of unification, not a war of aggression.
In terms of justice, Datang is defensible.
Although the military ministers of the Tang Dynasty did not pay attention to this, the civil servants did, so did the sages among the people, and the scholars in the scholarly community also paid attention to it.
As long as the Tang Dynasty can always stand firm in its righteousness, then the sages in the countryside and the scholars in the scholarly community can be used by the Tang Dynasty.
More importantly, some people who had ulterior motives and criticized the Li family's bloodline could not take advantage of the opportunity to cause trouble when the Tang Dynasty was raising troops.
Faced with Li Gang's question, Li Shentong shouted without hesitation: "Of course I want our non-garrison soldiers from all over the Tang Dynasty to return home and get married and have children as soon as possible.
He also told them that if they give birth to one child, they will be promoted to team leader, two children will be promoted to captain, and three children will be promoted to team leader.
I believe there will be brave men under heavy rewards."
Li Gang opened his mouth involuntarily and stared at Li Shentong in astonishment, not knowing what to say.
Li Shentong's method is really simple and crude.
However, there is currently no war in the Tang Dynasty, so it will not delay matters if the soldiers who are not guarding the border return to their hometowns to marry and have children.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers will all return to their hometowns at once, marry wives and have children, and the population in various places will inevitably grow.
However, following Li Shentong's method cannot maximize the advantages of this matter.
Because it takes time for soldiers to return home, it takes time to marry a wife and have children, and it takes even more time to make babies, especially multiple babies.
No one knows when Li Yuanji will launch an attack on the Turks and Tuyuhun, so this time cannot be wasted.
After Li Gang thought for a while, he pondered and said: "Your Highness the King of Huai'an, what do you think of this? I asked people from Shangshu Province to pass orders to various places, and let the governors, Sima, and chief historians of each place follow the military registration of each place.
According to the civil status, the unmarried officers and soldiers among the generals are selected first, and they are given official betrothals. After they return to their hometowns, they don’t have to wait and can directly marry their official wives and enter the bridal chamber."
Li Shentong's eyes lit up, he clapped his hands and shouted: "This is good! This is good!"
At this time, Chen Shuda came forward with a hesitant look on his face and said: "Forcibly marrying the soldiers to official positions before they return to their hometowns. If they are not satisfied with their newlywed wives, will there be trouble?"
"Can we let them go?"
Li Shentong shouted with his eyes widened, and then said imperiously: "That's it, who of them dares to make trouble?!"
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Chen Shuda opened his mouth, shook his head and said no more.
Shi Wanbao took the opportunity to make a crooked idea and said: "I think, for those who are above the rank of captain and have military merits, they should be given a wife as a wife. It is best to be the kind who can survive the death of her husband and parents-in-law." With a child.
Anyway, they have military exploits and a lot of land, so they can afford to support them."
The Tang Dynasty rewarded military merits, in addition to promotions and titles, money and land.
The Tang Dynasty now has the most ownerless land, so the rewards given to soldiers are mainly based on land.
Those who are at the rank of squadron sergeant and above basically have some merit, so in addition to supporting their families, the land they receive can also support some idle people.
Therefore, giving them a house as a wife and raising a child will not be a burden to them.
Xiao Yu was stunned by Shi Wanbao's crooked idea, "Isn't this...isn't this inappropriate?"
Wang Gui, Wei Zheng and others nodded.
Although Madam Ru was mentioned in the Tang Dynasty, it was spread privately among powerful people. The imperial court did not officially recognize it, and there were no relevant regulations in the imperial court's laws.
The most important thing is that in the secular world, such an identity that can threaten the identity of the head wife is not allowed to appear.
So this is just a special status derived from the concubines of some powerful families. Because of the strong strength of their natal family, they secretly fight against the main wife, and even overwhelm the main wife.
If this special status is shown openly, it will violate etiquette.
As the guardians of etiquette and law in the Tang Dynasty, Xiao Yu, Wang Gui, Wei Zheng and others did not dare to agree with Shi Wanbao's crooked idea.
When Shi Wanbao heard Xiao Yu's words, he waved his hands disdainfully and said, "How long has it been since then, and you still care about etiquette? Don't you know what the situation is now in the north of Duji Road, Hebei Road, and Guannai Road?
If you don’t marry off those women whose husbands have died, their parents-in-law have died, and they only have one child to live with, how will you let them live?”
Xiao Yu opened his mouth in shock, not knowing how to refute Shi Wanbao.
He was one of the three prime ministers of the Tang Dynasty, and his understanding of the local area of the Tang Dynasty was far deeper than that of Shi Wanbao.
He knew the current situation in the places north of Duji Road, Hebei Road and Guannai Road that Shi Wanbao mentioned.
Because these places have experienced many wars, almost all the men are dead, and the only ones left are women and children.
Although the imperial court has issued corresponding decrees, asking various places to do their best to accommodate these women and children.
But after all, this is an era in which men are in power. Without a man, a family is not a home at all.
It is very difficult for women to live peacefully with their children, even if the court takes care of them.
Therefore, the court must find someone to rely on for them.
But after the war, there were a lot of good-looking girls left behind, and there were too few men. It was impossible to choose from all the good-looking girls. Who would want to marry a woman with a dragster?
Maybe one or two of these women with outstanding beauty will be noticed by others, but most of them are mediocre in appearance and incomparable with the yellow-flowered girls.
What's more important is that the vast majority of men, whether in the military or civilians, are unwilling to leave their homeland.
Therefore, even if the imperial court wanted to forcibly recruit people, they would not be able to find anyone locally.
According to documents submitted by Ma Zhou when he was an official in Hebei Province, adult men in Hebei Province today have four or five wives and concubines, and the most exaggerated number is as many as twenty or thirty.
Just like this, there are still a large number of widowed women and children in Hebei Province, lingering in the houses distributed to them by the imperial court.
Therefore, although Shi Wanbao's crooked idea is very crooked and illogical, it can really solve the problem, and it can solve a big problem.
"Forget it, madam. It's against etiquette and the trend won't last. How about sharing a house or living in two places?"
Li Gang felt that what Shi Wanbao and Xiao Yu said were reasonable. After stroking his beard and pondering for a while, he gave his own suggestions.
Xiao Yu, Shi Wanbao and others looked at Li Gang blankly.
Xiao Yu couldn't help but asked: "What is a shared house and what is dual living?"
