"The treasury is empty, the court has no money, and it cannot fight this war now."
Wu Huaiyu said bluntly.
······
Li Shimin was silent. He didn't expect that this was the reason for Wu Huaiyu's objection. Fang Xuanling didn't object a moment ago, but he didn't support it either. In fact, as the prime minister, he knew the current family background of the imperial court.
Of course, Wu Huaiyu stood up and said that he had no money and opposed the war. That was also his duty.
His current official position is: Doctor Jin Ziguanglu's farewell tour to Yongzhou, concurrently serving as minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, judge of branches, inspector of schools and books, minister of censorship, official title of Duke Yiguo to 600 households, title of champion general, bachelor of Chongxian Hall
, Shangzhu Guowu Huaiyu.
In this long list of official titles, there are ranks, officials, positions, honors, titles, additional titles, and general titles. Of course, the most important ones are Yongzhou Biejia, Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Judgement, and School Inspector.
Censor.
Among them, the rank of Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Fendu Zhi, although not high, has great authority. This is equivalent to Wu Huaiyu being the current Minister of Finance of the Tang Empire.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs of the Tang Dynasty was roughly equivalent to a combination of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Bureau of Land and Resources, and even the Central Bank, the State Administration of Taxation, etc. in later generations. The Du Branch of the four subordinate departments was equivalent to the Ministry of Finance.
In charge of the entire country's finances.
Doctor Duzhi, the chief of Duzhi Division, was originally in charge of this area.
But now the emperor made Wu Huaiyu concurrently serve as the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and he also specialized in judging Duzhi, a high-ranking official and a low-level official. Letting the minister judge Duzhi division was actually equivalent to taking away the power of the doctor of Duzhi.
Wu Huaiyu was specially appointed to take charge of the entire national finance.
One doctor also appointed a minister to judge the situation. It’s not that the emperor didn’t trust the doctor, but it was a temporary appointment specially made for issuing bonds and coordinating disaster relief. However, all the affairs of the Du Branch now require him.
The minister who specializes in judging the branch will sign and review it.
Judging Duzhi is a temporary job. In fact, you can do it even if you are not an official of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, but it has to be a high-ranking official judging a minor position. In modern terms, this job is roughly equivalent to the leading group for the reform of the Tang royal financial system.
long.
In order to facilitate his leadership, Li Shimin gave him the title of deputy minister.
Originally, this leadership group was only temporary, but Li Shimin continued to add tasks to Wu Huaiyu, making him almost completely in charge of the affairs of the branch, and everything involving national finances had to go through his hands.
The emperor trusts you and takes care of your burdens, but you can't complain.
Wu Huaiyu was in his position, so of course he had to find a job. Anyway, he was quite surprised after having an in-depth understanding of Datang's finances.
Too poor.
Not only is it poor, it's also chaotic.
The entire country's finances have no system at all. They are just based on the Sui Dynasty, making patch after patch, borrowing from here and there.
In fact, just from one piece of data, we can tell how chaotic the finances of the early Tang Dynasty were.
When the Sui Dynasty flourished, there were nearly 9 million households and a population of nearly 50 million. It has been ten years since the founding of the Tang Dynasty. Up to now, there is still no clear census of the population and no clear arrangement of the fields. There is only a general data, which is that the number of households is close to each other.
two millions.
From nine million to two million households, the war in the late Sui Dynasty wiped out seven million households?
But the problem is that the chaos in the late Sui Dynasty only lasted a few years. In the seventh year of Daye, he conquered Liaodong, Wang led an uprising in Shandong, and in the fourteenth year of Daye, Yang Guang was killed in Jiangdu. It only lasted seven years.
The subsequent unification war between Li and Tang lasted for about five years before they were basically unified, so the period of turmoil at the turn of the Sui and Tang Dynasties was quite short.
It is simply impossible to lose 70% to 80% of the population in just ten years.
The actual situation is just that the Tang Dynasty's administration was chaotic and inefficient, so up to now, a real census of the registered population and land registers has not been completed.
Of course, this is not all bad, there are also some benefits, that is, since the late Sui Dynasty, many people have been able to evade tax and get a chance to breathe. Otherwise, years of wars, natural disasters, and taxes and military service would be a better life for many poor people.
Can't go down.
Of course, this is also related to the fact that the imperial court deliberately turned a blind eye. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the main goal of Li Yuan and the imperial court was to unify the world, and everything else was secondary. In order to unite and win over the powerful gentry and powerful landlords, they
Things like clearing land and registering people are not so strict.
Because the powerful landlords took the opportunity to annex and occupy many fields, they also took the opportunity to turn many refugees into their tenants or even slaves. Before the world was unified, if the court started to inventory their fields and population, it would force them to oppose each other.
Go.
I think of the time when the Sui Dynasty Pingnan Chen immediately conducted a population and field census of the entire Jiangnan. The result was that the powerful Jiangnan gentry who had originally surrendered collectively rebelled.
Li Yuan came from that era, so his policy was not to touch this area first.
The advantage is that it does not touch their interests and can gain their support, but the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, the Tang Dynasty implemented a rent-to-yong system, based on population as the basis for taxation, and what was levied was mainly the output of the land.
However, the population has changed from nearly 9 million households to less than 2 million households, and the national tax revenue has also been reduced by more than 70%.
If taxes cannot be collected, the national treasury will have no money.
what to do?
Serve cold.
At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, officials did not even have salaries. Local officials did not have lumis, so they directly allocated plots of land to collect rent. Officials in the capital later gave lumis, but it was very little, and they were often in arrears, and they did not have monthly salaries. Later, conditions became better.
It just gradually increased a little bit.
Even now, officials' monthly salary and daily allowances are not actually provided by the state finance. Instead, they use the money earned from lending and collecting interest from public money to provide salary subsidies to officials.
The three major expenditures of the national finance are palace expenditures, official salaries, and raising soldiers and fighting wars.
The Tang Dynasty implemented the government military system. When not fighting, there was no military expenditure. Anyway, the land was divided into pieces, and then they had to prepare their own clothing, food, equipment, horses, etc. to serve the country. Only when going to war, the country was responsible for food, grass, equipment, and rewards.
Compensate for these.
Officials have low expenditures, and the staff establishment is very small, and most of them are unemployed. Without establishment, naturally they do not need to pay salaries. They find their own ways, and even many of the servants are free services recruited by the state.
The government's office expenses, etc., were even met by the money from the public fields.
Therefore, at the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, a big feature was that officials not only had to work, but also had to engage in side businesses, public land, job fields, and public money to lend, and they had to earn wages for themselves.
The capitalist will cry when he hears this.
But that’s how it’s been over the years.
The amount of public money alone is astonishing. Every government office is trying to find a way to set up a small treasury, lend money, and make money to pay wages and benefits.
There are hundreds of money-catching orders in Chang'an currently responsible for lending money to public houses, and that's just a formal establishment.
The two provinces under Zhongshu's sect have 80 money-grabbing orders, while the Ministry of Civil Affairs has the largest number of money-grabbing orders, a total of 170.
The public money lending in Datang has actually gone out of control. The interest rates are too high, with almost 100% annual interest. Furthermore, it is not easy to lend out such a large amount of funds every year and ensure that they are recovered, so now all yamen are
Find a way to find those wealthy merchants and lend them money directly, and return the principal and interest when due.
Whether you need it or not, we'll share it.
In fact, this is a kind of plundering of wealthy merchants.
In order to ensure the income of their own units, each yamen has a performance appraisal for the money-catching orders, and recruits those high-status officials' children. They have the status and background to ensure that they lend money and recover it.
The money-catching officials who have performed well will be given priority for promotion. Each government office wants to keep its own small treasury. Most of the officials promoted now are these money-catching officials. This makes other officials in Chang'an now
The officials were very dissatisfied because their normal promotion channels had been blocked. Last year, during the money-catching order in Chang'an, more than 600 people were granted official status.
There are many problems.
Including public farmland and occupational farmland, the additional burden on the people is actually quite large.
These are all the results of the imperial court's lack of systematic finance.
Normally, it can barely support its operation through repairs and repairs, but when it comes to war, it will be a big hole.
This is just like last year's severe drought in Kantung, where a large number of victims were affected, and the court had no money for food relief, so it had no choice but to use Huaiyu's method of issuing bonds to fill the hole.
The hole has just been filled in, and the fiscal deficit has increased a lot. Now we have to fight another war, or to conquer the Turks. If three or five armies march together, they will have at least 100,000 soldiers. Then the military expenditure is very staggering.
.
When the cannon fires, there are thousands of taels of gold. Before the soldiers and horses move, food and grass go first.
Anyway, Wu Huaiyu knew that the imperial court was going to war, but there was no money or food at all.
"Your Majesty, the imperial court is really out of money and cannot afford the Northern Expedition against the Turks. I suggest that we wait another year or two." Wu Huaiyu said bluntly.
Li Shimin's enthusiasm was extinguished by a basin of cold water.
Qin Qiong insisted on asking for a fight, "Your Majesty, this opportunity is rare and fleeting. If the Turks can survive this difficulty and give them a breather, it will be difficult for us to send troops to conquer again in the future. I am willing to take the lead in donating money and food supplies."
Army, I am willing to contribute 10,000 pieces of silk." Qin Qiong also stood up and donated 10,000 pieces of silk to fight the war, using his own money to kill the enemy for the country.
Hou Junji even said bluntly, "Gong Yi, the Ministry of Civil Affairs can issue some more bonds. The bonds issued for disaster relief last time raised a lot of money. This time we will issue bonds to raise money."
Wu Huaiyu wanted to roll his eyes at him.
Wei Zheng stepped forward to help him refute, "Your Majesty, issuing bonds is borrowing money. Since it is borrowing money, it does not come out of thin air. It must be repaid. In essence, it is a matter of hard work. The imperial court's annual tax revenue is only that much. Now,
It is very dangerous to overdraw the taxes in advance.ωωw..net
If it's as simple as Hou Junji's, just borrow it casually, how can you pay it back when it's due? If you can't pay it back, then what about the court's credit?
Moreover, even if the money is borrowed, it belongs to the people. If it is used to fight a war and it is not repaid by then, what will the people do if they encounter difficulties?
The war does not have to be fought, it does not have to be fought now. A sage king will not care about the life and death of his people. If the country has no money, then it will continue to recuperate and recuperate. When enough money and food are saved, he will look for opportunities to fight. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty made several expeditions to Liaodong, and the Great Sui Dynasty II
If the world dies, the lessons learned from the past are before our eyes, so please think twice, Your Majesty."
Li Shimin's heart was chilled to the core.
"Is the national finance so bad?" Li Shimin couldn't help but sigh. He was originally excited to discuss sending troops to destroy the Turks, but now he could only turn around and start discussing why the Tang Dynasty's finances were so poor.
"Erlang, you are now the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and in charge of the national finance. Do you have any good ideas that can change the current predicament?"
