The day after tomorrow is the winter solstice, also called the Winter Festival in the Tang Dynasty.
The Winter Solstice Festival was a very important festival in the Tang Dynasty. On this day, the emperor would lead his ministers to hold suburban sacrifices.
Su Chen never wanted to go to Chang'an again. He had to participate in such large-scale sacrificial activities.
In addition, Su Chen has not reported to Li Er since he came back. Li Er must still have a lot of questions waiting to ask him.
So Su Chen planned to go to the palace the day before the winter solstice, and go home directly after attending the suburban ceremony the next day.
Although Su Chen has been staying at home these days, he is also aware of the excitement in Chang'an City.
First of all, the nobles and civil and military officials of the entire dynasty must have strongly opposed the fact that Li Er generously rewarded the naval officers and conferred nineteen titles in one go.
They did not dare to disobey Li Er's will face to face, but Li Er received a mountain of exhortations and memorials every day.
However, Li Er never looked at these things and simply threw them into the trash and burned them.
Fang Xuanling also rushed back to Chang'an on the third day after Su Chen came back.
He left Yangzhou two days earlier than Su Chen, but his body could not withstand the long journey on horseback. He took a carriage back to Chang'an, which was a bit slower, and returned to Chang'an later than Su Chen.
After Fang Xuanling returned to Chang'an, he proposed to Li Er the proposal to bring Liuqiu under the jurisdiction of the imperial court and vigorously develop Liuqiu at the Wangri court meeting the next day.
The civil and military officials in the court were confused. Fang Xuanling went to Lingnan for a trip. What did he want to do when he came back?
What is the significance of bringing an overseas desert island under the jurisdiction of the imperial court?
Do we still need to vigorously develop it?
Isn't this nonsense?
The civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty were very puzzled and surprised.
However, it seems that the Emperor is not surprised at all.
The civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty began to make various speculations.
Regarding Fang Xuanling's proposal, most of the ministers in the court were unconvinced.
They have no idea about this at all. Many of them don't even know the specific location or the area of the request, so what else can they say?
Although some people find the theory of development flow and demand ridiculous, it was Fang Xuanling who brought it up for discussion, and no one dared to stand up and laugh at Fang Xuanling.
Of course, there are also many courtiers who secretly collude with overseas clans and clans, but they know the importance of Liuqiu and are extremely resentful in their hearts.
However, these people do not dare to show it on the surface, or even stand up to oppose it.
So everyone placed their hopes on Wei Zheng.
Wei Zheng lived up to expectations and immediately stood up to oppose Fang Xuanling's proposal:
It is necessary to bring Liuqiu under the jurisdiction of the imperial court.
After all, Liuqiu’s military strategic position is still very important.
But vigorously developing Liuqiu is sheer nonsense!
Of course Wei Zheng is not an undercover agent, nor is he ignorant of the importance of Liuqiu. The reason for his objection is very simple and very realistic:
Datang currently simply cannot spare any energy to develop Liuqiu.
Liuqiu is far away from the Central Plains and is still isolated overseas, let alone developed.
Even transporting a large amount of manpower and supplies would be a problem.
Datang’s population and economy are growing steadily and well.
However, it had only been more than ten years since the war ended in the Tang Dynasty, and the people had just settled down, so it was not suitable for large-scale deployment of people to develop a desert island far overseas.
Moreover, the treasury of the Tang Dynasty is now empty, and there is no money available to develop Liuqiu.
Railways are great, but the cost of building them is staggering.
Su Chen's construction of the railway from Guanzhou to Chang'an has already emptied the treasury.
The railway from Chang'an to Luoyang has been under construction for almost a year, and it is still far away.
The construction speed is far less than the previous railway from Guanzhou to Chang'an, but the cost is far higher than before.
The state treasury simply cannot spare any extra money for other large-scale projects.
Wei Zheng's opinion was supported by the vast majority of people.
Facing Wei Zheng's objection, Fang Xuanling smiled and said: "I know that the imperial court currently has no time to care about overseas desert islands like Liuqiu,"
"But we can allow the rich and powerful, merchants and the like to develop Liuqiu tentatively first, and the court will only need to provide policy support."
"Just like in the past when merchants were called upon to set up business settlements in remote areas, the court did not have to pay anything."
When the civil and military officials heard this, they thought this was a good idea.
And no one has any reason to object,
If people go to reclaim land on deserted islands overseas, the court cannot stop them from doing so.
The question is, which fool would go to an overseas desert island far away from the mainland for development?
With that kind of financial resources, wouldn’t it be nice to buy some land in Datang?
The population of Datang is still in the recovery period, and there is still a lot of land available for cultivation in the country.
Even if the Central Plains is not enough, there is still plenty of land in the areas surrounding Datang.
For example, Liaoxi, which is under development, Liaodong, which has just been conquered, and the entire Northeast region.
Although these places are a bit remote, they are still within the territory of the Tang Dynasty. What is important is that they have a certain size of population and a certain agricultural foundation.
The overseas desert island in Liuqiu is not the territory of the Tang Dynasty at all. I heard that it is still a wilderness, with only a small number of savages gathering on it.
Wei Zheng frowned and glanced at Fang Xuanling. He didn't understand why Fang Xuanling raised this matter with great fanfare at the court meeting.
According to Fang Xuanling, it doesn't matter whether the imperial court supports this private individual's development in Liuqiu. If you want to go to the imperial court, can the imperial court stop you?
Besides, Liuqiu is a deserted island overseas, and the court officials are too lazy to take care of it, and they can't take care of it.
Not to mention Liuqiu, the Zhoushan Islands outside Hangzhou Bay have only been under the jurisdiction of the imperial court in the past two years, and it is still unknown how many people and how many pirates there are on the hundreds of islands.
This is true for the Zhoushan Islands, which are so close at hand, let alone Liuqiu, which is far away from the mainland?
Seeing that Wei Zheng and the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty had no objections, Li Er agreed to Fang Xuanling's proposal.
Liuqiu officially became a state in the Tang Dynasty.
Li Er felt that the name Liuqiu was unpleasant and could easily be confused with the Ryukyu Islands to the north.
So Li Er changed Liuqiu's name to Yizhou based on its ancient name during the Han Dynasty.
Li Er also announced his support policy for the development of Liuqiu in the hall:
The output of all land reclaimed by individuals and organizations seeking development will be tax-free for five years and half-tax for ten years.
The output of other factories and mines is tax-free for three years and half-tax for five years.
In total, these two policies are very simple and clear, and there is nothing suspicious about them.
The civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty had nothing to say about this.
Wei Zheng frowned and wondered: This tax-free policy is of no use!
Liuqiu is already overseas. If someone really went to Liuqiu, they would not have to pay taxes on their income on the island.
Just like Su Chen was digging gold mines in Japan, could Datang still collect taxes from him?
The important thing is, does anyone really want to go?
However, given Fang Xuanling's character, this was the first thing he did when he came back from Lingnan, so he should be very sure of it.
Moreover, when Wei Zheng looked at the appearance of Fang Xuanling and Li Er, he always felt that the two men were playing a double act!