Guo Zongyi had a nightmare for half the night last night. When he closed his eyes, he saw the sword and blood of the Guo Mansion the year before last. He struggled to escape, but he ran into the parade ground of the front camp, where tens of thousands of people were like wild beasts.
She bites people she sees, rushes for food, and hurriedly turns around. Zhang, dressed in red, blocks the way again. She turns into a pink-faced skeleton, constantly shouting injustice, and pestering him to send her home...
…
After waking up, Guo Zongyi simply stopped sleeping and stood upright on the bed with his eyes closed. This frightened several attendants. Chao Yu and Wu Shen even stayed in front of the bed all night, fearing that something might happen to their master.
At dawn, Guo Zongyi fell into a deep sleep on Chaoyu's lap. Perhaps Chaoyu's nursery rhymes were the same as those of his mother, which drove away the demons in his heart. He had a particularly peaceful sleep until the afternoon.
When he woke up, he saw Chao Yu, Wu Shen looked haggard, and the other attendants were also yawning. Guo Zongyi waved his hand, rewarded them with some gold, silver and jewelry, and gave them a half-day off.
After washing up and having lunch, Guo Zongyi was in high spirits and wanted to greet the people around him and go to the camp to have a look. But when he turned around, there was no one behind him. There were only a few personal guards patrolling not far away. He suddenly began to miss Li Fang.
Lu Duan stayed behind as a follower.
"Alas." Guo Zongyi sighed quietly, suddenly feeling a sense of desolation in the world.
"Why does Your Highness sigh?"
Guo Zongyi was slightly pleased when the complimenting voice came, and looked away because of the reputation, only to see that the speaker was Li Gu, accompanied by a well-dressed young official.
"It turns out that Prime Minister Li is here, but he didn't meet you from afar." Guo Zongyi went up to greet him and bowed his hands.
Li Gu also hurriedly bowed down and asked with concern: "Your Highness will be here in the next ten days. How is Your Highness doing lately?"
He came here early this morning. He heard from Zhang Jin that His Highness saw too much blood yesterday and had a nightmare all night. He fell asleep at dawn and had to go back home, and then came again in the afternoon.
Guo Zongyi felt warm in his heart, and Li Gu's face showed his true feelings. His concern came from the bottom of his heart, and it didn't seem like he was pretending. He nodded and said, "It's all right. I'm sorry to have you, Li Xiang."
With that said, he invited Li Gu to sit in the small pavilion in the garden.
The two sat down. The young official was holding a stack of papers and standing behind Li Gu. Guo Zongyi saw him and asked Li Gu: "Who is standing behind Mr. Li?"
"This is Pan Mei, Pan Zhongxun, a land manager in Kaifeng Mansion," Li Gu introduced.
Guo Zongyi's eyes lit up and he asked: "Who are you from?"
Pan Mei saw that His Highness had a question and hurriedly bowed to answer: "I am a famous person. My father is from the Changshan Military Academy, so I grew up in Changshan."
"Oh." Guo Zongyi nodded, and it was confirmed. This Pan Mei was the famous founding general of the Northern Song Dynasty in history. No wonder he was able to serve as Guo Rong's attendant when Guo Rong was appointed as the governor of Kaifeng. It turned out that he had been serving in Kaifeng Prefecture since the beginning.
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"In that case, please sit down, sir." Guo Zongyi patted the stone stool next to him with an eager look on his face.
Pan Mei shook her head repeatedly and said humbly: "How dare I, a first-rate foreign official, sit with His Highness and Duke Li?"
Guo Zongyi did not force himself upon hearing this. After all, Pan Mei was not Cao Bin and could be bullied. Being too polite would be counterproductive.
At that moment, he ordered people to bring refreshments and asked Li Gu: "Li Xiang came to seek friendship, but has there been any clues about the field?"
When the new city was being sited, Li Gu once said that most of the unclaimed land was occupied by wealthy gentry. Guo Zongyi ordered them to send people to investigate, and I guess there were results.
"Exactly." Li Gu raised his hand and motioned to Pan Mei to bring the booklet, pointing to the words on the booklet, and said: "After the Kaifeng Mansion and the Third Division, plus the help of the Imperial City Division, we finally managed to get those useless things done.
The situation in the main field has been clarified."
"Your Highness, please see that there are a total of 63,600 acres of registered unowned land around Kaifu City, of which 47,200 acres are occupied by wealthy gentry, and there are more than 3,000 tenants under the fields."
"Three thousand people?" Guo Zongyi was slightly surprised, "Are they all men in their prime?"
"Exactly."
Guo Zongyi sneered, looked at Li Gu, and said playfully: "They are all in hiding, right?"
Li Gu blushed slightly, turned his face slightly, and replied awkwardly: "Yes, they are all runaway clients."
Guo Zongyi looked away from Li Gu's chrysanthemum-like old face, looked up at the sky, and sighed quietly: "How many hidden houses are there in this world?"
Li Gu and Pan Meijin both remained silent. Years of wars have made it extremely difficult to obtain household registration. In today's Zhou Dynasty, at least one-third of the people are hermits, tenants, or thieves. Anyway, they are not
For the people.
Now these three thousand people are just a drop in the ocean, the tip of the iceberg, but they have become a mountain in front of Guo Zongyi. If we use strong methods to take back the abandoned fields, we will take away the livelihood of these people and their families, not to mention whether it will trigger a civil uprising.
, even Guo Zongyi himself couldn't bring himself to act like this. They just wanted to survive, so what's wrong with them?
After briefly flipping through the field register, I saw that I remembered the situation of each large household in detail. How many people were in the family, who mainly made a living, whether anyone was an official or a soldier, etc. It was all clear. Guo Zongyi was aware of the plan and raised his eyes to ask Li
Gu: “Have they paid taxes on these fields?”
Li Gu suddenly realized, stroked his beard and said with a smile: "Of course not, Your Highness wants to start with taxes?"
But Guo Zongyi shook his head. Li Gu and Pan Mei looked suspicious. Guo Zongyi immediately explained: "Starting from taxes, they are still exploiting the tenants. The imperial court has never been able to govern the county. The villagers in the countryside are all under the control of officials."
If someone instigates the faction, these tenants will be evil to the court, and they will cause trouble together, and it will be difficult to extinguish them."
Li Gu nodded in agreement and said in a deep voice: "In this case, the first priority is to separate the tenants from the wealthy gentry, so that we can handle the king's affairs."
"Exactly." Guo Zongyi clapped his hands and said, as expected of Li Gu, he could hit the point with just one word.
Li Gu smiled, stood up and handed over his hands: "I have a solution. Please wait for a few days, Your Highness. I will definitely take back all the more than 40,000 acres of land."
Guo Zongyi stood up and said to Li Gu with a smile: "Yi also has a method. I don't know if it is the same as Li Xiang's."
Li Gu half-squinted his eyes and said with a smile: "Your Highness and your ministers would each write down the method in their palms and spread their hands together, then they would know the difference."
Pan Mei also became interested when she heard this and praised: "It's a great kindness. If it is spread out, it will be a good story."
Guo Zongyi's face darkened, thinking that this old man was quite childish, so he immediately refused: "No need to bother, let me tell you straight, Yi's method is to equalize the fields, give some of these fields to tenants, and compile them into Qimin
, if they can get permanent property, the tenants will definitely turn their hearts to the imperial court, and I think this is also the case with Prime Minister Li’s method, right?”
Li Gu chuckled, nodded and said, "Your Highness and I coincidentally agree."
"Then Prime Minister Li, please hurry up and do it. Each tenant farmer can be allocated five acres of land. If anyone wants to move to the refugee city and settle down, I hope Prime Minister Li will be accommodating."
"Wei." Li Gu cupped his hands and responded in a serious voice.
Guo Zongyi nodded, then remembered something, and added: "Also, after the fields are taken back, the taxes they have owed over the years will also be recovered, and I will still owe a lot of debt."
Li Gu looked hesitant and said in a worried tone: "Is this going too far and making enemies for nothing?"
Guo Zongyi smiled, blinked, and said indifferently: "In the whole world, it's not the king's land. They illegally occupied the king's land first, and then concealed property and evaded taxes. Now they have sentenced three divisions, Li Gu, to equalize the land, collect taxes, and save the people."
Compared with water and fire, it can benefit the country and bring prosperity, what can be done than this?"
When Li Gu heard this, his mouth felt bitter and he smacked his lips. He cupped his hands and was about to leave: "Your Highness is teasing people again. I'll take my leave first."
Guo Zongyi laughed, tugged on Li Gu's sleeves, and said seriously: "Li Xiangkuan, please be careful, the gentry are not easy to deceive. This account will definitely be placed on my head."
Li Gu stopped, weighed it up, and finally advised: "His Royal Highness Shicai also saw what was recorded in the book. It is not easy to get back to the fields safely. To sprinkle salt on their wounds, it will be for you and for them."
Your Majesty, you are not a good person."
Guo Zongyi naturally knows the pros and cons. This is a feudal society. If the privileged class is hit too hard, the country's foundation will be shaken. After all, his Guo family is the largest powerful person, but if he leaves it alone, it will affect the foundation of the rule.
Li Gu's words are mature and prudent words, but in Guo Zongyi's view, the contradictions in a country are ultimately "unequal suffering". The way to achieve long-term peace and stability is to fight a group of people from time to time, pull a group of people, return wealth to the people, and balance resources.
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What's more, the Five Dynasties were a troubled time. In troubled times, you don't need to be too reasonable and you can ignore the rules. This matter would have been really difficult to handle in the Ming Dynasty.
What's more, Guo Zongyi was on the side of the law when it came to equalizing land and pursuing taxes. A few rural gentry was not worth the risk for those in the court.
After comprehensive consideration, Guo Zongyi believes that pursuing taxes will not cause much splash, and it can also shock the mountains and shake the tigers, causing the wealthy gentry in the surrounding fish and meat towns to restrain themselves for a while.
At that moment, Guo Zongyi also spoke in a deep voice: "Yi knows the pros and cons, but once the land is equalized, the matter cannot have both sides. If it cannot have both sides, why should Yi be timid? Why don't you stick to it till the end and be ruthless? If they cooperate obediently, then they will
If you continue to be a powerful person and don't cooperate, you will do the same thing if you change someone else. Li Xiang, just go ahead and do it. Don't Kaifeng Mansion have thousands of patrols? You can borrow them to strengthen my momentum."
Hearing this, Li Gu pondered and said nothing. This was a difference in political philosophy, which cannot be refuted by words. There is no perfect way to govern the world. If you attract one group of people, you will offend another group of people.
After a long time, Li Gu finally spoke: "Since His Highness has made a decision, I just obey."
After saying that, he left with Pan Mei who was hesitant to say something. It wasn't until the two of them had left for a long time that Guo Zongyi slapped his thigh: "Oh no, I forgot to conquer Pan Mei!"
It was a pity that he had gone far away, so Guo Zongyi could only think about some reason in his mind to bring him over from Kaifeng Mansion.
While he was thinking hard, Zhang Jin came to report that Guo Wei had returned to the palace. Guo Zongyi immediately changed into court clothes, took the memorial from the study, and went to the palace.
