Chapter 1825: In the royal study, the emperor and his ministers played duel
After the prince finished speaking, the atmosphere in the imperial study became a little solemn.
The big bosses all remained silent because they had not yet figured out what the emperor and his son were planning, so they spoke rashly and were extremely passive if they said something wrong.
Ma Zhou and Cen Wenwen were obviously dragged to the emperor's side, and they didn't know how to talk much...
When the prince finished speaking, His Majesty Li Er had a heavy look on his face. He curled up the fingers of his right hand and tapped lightly on the desk. There was silence in the royal study room, and the soft sound of "snatching" was particularly clear.
After a while, His Majesty Li Er raised his head, looked at all the big guys, and asked: "Only when you enter the official position through the imperial examination can you recruit the best talents from all over the world to be used by the country, so that the ambitious people will not be able to stretch their ambitions and use their talents to their full potential.
Therefore, the imperial court vigorously supported it. However, in the past few years, little results have been achieved, and not many poor people have stood out and been used by the country... My dear friends, do you think the national policy of imperial examinations and officials is in line with current affairs? "
All the big guys were thinking to themselves.
It cannot be refuted that the imperial examination and official recruitment are inevitable. This is a national policy. It is not a decision made by the emperor alone, but is a policy formulated after detailed discussions among the ministers and ministers of the political affairs hall and many courtiers.
It is necessary to support the imperial examination. This is political correctness. Anyone who dares to oppose is denying the emperor and the entire court. It may not be possible to kill the family, but it is certain to be suppressed... So don't listen to the emperor's casual questions. If anyone dares to deny it, etc.
Let's deal with it.
Zhang Xingcheng lowered his eyebrows and lowered his eyes, saying nothing.
It's like the emperor asked him to come to a meeting and he came, but forgot to bring his mouth...
Xiao Yu was old and had just returned to Beijing after a long journey. He had not recovered yet. He was sitting there drinking tea, looking a little depressed.
However, these two could pretend to be deaf and dumb, but Changsun Wuji could not.
Because in the words of the prince just now, he mentioned the collapse of school buildings and the ruin of social schools in various prefectures and counties in Guanzhong, and seven out of ten officials in various places in Guanzhong are from the Guanlong nobles, and are the eldest grandsons of the Guanlong nobles.
How could Wuji get around it?
After pondering for a while, Changsun Wuji said cautiously: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's concerns are indeed necessary. Local officials in various places have indeed failed in their duties by failing to put sociology first. The imperial examination system is a basic national policy and a necessity for the empire to continue to be strong.
The means is that although the imperial examination system emerged from the previous dynasty, it was abandoned for many years during the great chaos in the world. It is now being revived. Although His Majesty has vigorously supported and called for it, the regulatory methods still need to be slowly explored. The only way is to constantly look for loopholes.
Only by constantly improving it can it become the cornerstone of the country. There is a long way to go!"
All the bosses silently praised Changsun Wuji from the bottom of his heart. He is worthy of being a "yin man". His ability to avoid important matters and play lightly is really slippery...
There is no doubt that the imperial examination was the political opinion of the emperor, and no excuses could be made.
Therefore, Changsun Wuji did not say anything about the difficulty of the imperial examination, the excessive expense, the lack of teachers, etc. He affirmed his own tendency and firmly supported the emperor's decision. However, objective reasons exist after all. You can't ask us to rise to the top in one step. Things have to be done.
Do it bit by bit, right?
Give us some time and we will do a good job.
But whether this time will be one or two years or ten or twenty years, or even until the emperor dies and the new emperor ascends the throne... no one can say for sure.
But Changsun Wuji knew in his heart that although these words seemed to be true, in the final analysis they were still excuses. As expected, as soon as he finished speaking, he secretly looked at the emperor's expression, and saw a dark cloud covering the face, which was originally handsome in all directions.
His face was so gloomy that he could drip water...
Changsun Wuji naturally felt the emperor's dissatisfaction, and his heart skipped a beat.
But he was also helpless. If he didn't speak at this time, what would the people in charge of the Long nobles think of them afterwards?
He must safeguard the interests of the Guanlong nobles, otherwise once people know that he betrayed everyone's interests to cling to the emperor's lap, people's hearts will be broken.
Once the hearts of the people are dispersed, it will be difficult to be the "big brother who takes the lead"...
Cen Wenwen, who had always been with the old god, seemed to come back to his senses until Changsun Wuji spoke. He coughed, sat up straight, and said slowly: "Social Studies is the foundation of the imperial examination, and it should naturally be taken seriously. However, Zhao
Everything the Duke said makes sense. The devastation of social studies in the world is not caused by a day and a half, but by various reasons for a long time. It is indeed difficult to prosper social studies. Teachers, buildings, subsidies... everything
It's difficult. But in the final analysis, it's just a word. As long as you have money, everything will be easy."
Li Ji was ill, bedridden, and could not come to the imperial study. During his expedition to the Turks in the past, his legs were frozen in the snow and ice. At this time of year, he had to stay in bed for a period of time. He was extremely miserable. He was Zuopushe, the minister.
When he didn't come, the prime minister of the court shot Zhang Xing with his right servant and made him the king...
His Majesty Li Er immediately looked at Zhang Xingcheng: "In the past two years, things have been prosperous and people have had good harvests. The Ministry of Civil Affairs has a lot of money in its account. Can you allocate money to support some social studies?"
Zhang Xingcheng said quickly: "Your Majesty, although the Ministry of Civil Affairs has a lot of income, its expenses are even greater. The states and counties have invested heavily in water conservancy projects and land consolidation. This year, military rations have been allocated across the country to be shipped to Youying Prefecture.
People eat what horses chew, and the expenses are huge, so... it is really difficult to support social studies."
This is not a shirk. The revenue of the Ministry of Civil Affairs is high, but the expenses are also high. The construction of water conservancy facilities such as waterwheels, canals, rollovers and other water conservancy facilities advocated by Fang Jun during his time at the Ministry of Works consumed a large part of the tax revenue of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
This is because many large-scale projects in the DPRK are funded by His Majesty Li Er's internal funds, such as the construction of Daci'en Temple. If the Ministry of Civil Affairs had to pay for it, it would probably go bankrupt.
Moreover, the biggest expense was to raise food and fodder for the Eastern Expedition. In order to ensure the success of the Eastern Expedition, not even a penny could be reduced...
Changsun Wuji and Xiao Yu felt something was wrong. After all this talk, why did they say that the court had no money?
Although these two people do not care about the Ministry of Civil Affairs, they always have their own channels to know whether the imperial coffers are rich. As far as they know, although a large amount of taxes were wasted due to the construction of water conservancy projects and the Eastern Expedition, but because of the huge amount of taxes in Huating Town,
With the existence of the Shipping Department, taxes have almost doubled compared to before. How can you spend so much?
I'm afraid the emperor will make a fuss about this.
Of course, the prince on the side seemed to be waiting for Zhang Xingcheng's words, and immediately said: "If you want to enrich the national treasury, allocating money to support social studies and promote imperial examinations is nothing more than increasing revenue and reducing expenditure. Now the court's expenses have increased greatly, whether it is building water conservancy projects or
Or maybe the preparations for the Eastern Expedition must not be cut back, so reducing expenditures is absolutely impossible, so the only way to increase revenue is to increase revenue. In my humble opinion, father, son, why don’t you follow the measures taken by the Shipping Department?"
Changsun Wuji and others were immediately shocked.
What is imitating Shibosi?
The reason why the City Shipping Department was able to generate huge amounts of revenue was by collecting high commercial taxes. Whenever goods came in and out of the City Shipping Department, heavy taxes were imposed on them. This made Jiangnan merchants miserable and they were unwilling to pay the merchant tax.
He went on a risky smuggling trip to pay taxes, but he was met with disaster. Not only were all the cargo on board the ship abandoned, but Fang Jun also held him tightly by his pigtails, making him want to cry without tears.
The prince said that if we follow the methods of the Municipal Shipping Bureau...then we will definitely collect commercial taxes all over the world!
Changsun Wuji said flatly: "Your Highness, you must not do it! The imperial court is doing well, but the whole country is following suit. How can we compete with the people for profit?"
He just strongly expressed his objections, but did not say much. In fact, there is no need to say much. The matter of collecting commercial taxes has been discussed in the political hall more than once, and even hundreds of officials participated in it several times. In the end,
The results are all in vain.
Of course not. Seventy-eight percent of the world's goods are in the hands of aristocratic families, and seventy-eight percent of the officials in the court are from aristocratic families. Let these people discuss whether they can spit out the meat in their own mouths. Only if they can pass will there be ghosts...
…
Cen Wenwen said calmly: "What Duke Zhao said is wrong. Scholars, farmers, industry and merchants are the four common people of the country. However, the merchants are at the bottom. They do not engage in production but make huge profits. They don't know etiquette but spend lavishly. They are ordered to take part of their income.
Why not use it as taxes to supplement people's livelihood?"
Changsun Wuji shook his head and said: "Although merchants are humble, they travel all over the north and south. If commercial taxes are levied, they will definitely feel resentful. If rumors spread and slander the court, the gains will outweigh the losses. It's not that commercial taxes cannot be collected, it's just that right now
Not long after the founding of the country, there are those who care about the Sui and Yang Dynasties, there are the remnants of the previous dynasties in the south of the Yangtze River, and there are the descendants of the heroes in Shandong... If they are connected through merchants, I am afraid that disaster will occur and the country will be unstable. If commercial taxes are levied
, we can wait until the people in the world are stabilized and the situation calms down before we can take a slow approach."
In any case, levying commercial taxes will definitely not work, and all the aristocratic families will boycott it.
Let us spit out the meat that has reached our mouths?
Don't even think about it. If you get desperate, there might be a few remote nobles thinking of raising a rebellious flag to shock the emperor in the Tai Chi Palace...
Otherwise, do you think that the emperors of all dynasties were willing to turn a blind eye to such a huge piece of fat like commercial tax?