The Tang Dynasty was established only a few years ago, and it actually took less than two years to actually occupy the three provinces. In these two years, the focus of the Tang Dynasty was naturally on the war with the Ming army.
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However, he never let go of internal affairs. Li Xuan took advantage of the fact that the Tang Dynasty was still in a blank slate and implemented a series of internal affairs reforms according to his own will.
At the center, he concentrated imperial power and implemented strict separation of military and political affairs!
In terms of education, he promoted scientific education, opened doctoral courses, reused science talents, set up military camps and young students, and tried to establish a scientific modern education system in the mid-16th century.
In terms of finance, he exempted from exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, divided the land into acres, and the gentry all paid the grain and errands, implemented a unified agricultural tax, and levied commercial taxes and customs duties. At the same time, the salt business was directly run by the government, and the salt tax was collected from it.
In terms of industry and commerce, he promoted the development of industry and commerce, especially manufacturing and maritime trade, and used this to drive revenue from commercial taxes and customs duties.
Administratively, he promoted the transfer of political power to the countryside, established administrative agencies at the town and village levels, and directly established the governing body at the village level to strengthen governance at the grassroots level in rural areas.
These and more reforms were implemented in just one or two years, and the process was counterattacked by many old forces. However, Li Xuan showed no mercy, especially when the gentry paid the rations and served as errands.
The reform caused many rebellions, but Li Xuan resolutely suppressed them and gave them no hope at all.
But now, Li Xuan feels that it is not enough!
The Tang Dynasty is at war with the Ming Dynasty and needs to concentrate all its efforts to fight the war.
This requires more military spending, more guns, and even more food!
On June 26, Li Xuan held a cabinet meeting. Without any discussion, he directly announced that the judicial power would be stripped from the Ministry of Justice and the Royal Court would be established.
As soon as you hear the name, you will know that this organization is not simple!
Because this is the second institution in the Tang Dynasty to be given the prefix of 'royal'. Although the Royal Academy of Sciences, the first institution with the prefix of royal, is of no use, this Royal Court is different, because Li Xuan
This institution is given judicial power!
The judicial power of all civil and criminal cases will be handed over to the Royal Court, and it is stipulated that the work of the Royal Court will not be interfered by the cabinet and local government offices, and will be directly responsible to the emperor.
Like the Privy Council, the Naval Command, the Inspectorate, and the Hanlin Academy, this is another authority that is directly responsible to Li Xuan.
It also stipulates that the Royal Court should open branches at the county level and work independently!
Immediately afterwards, it was announced that from now on, promotions of personnel in the three independent judicial agencies: the Patrol Department, the Inspectorate, and the Royal Court can only be carried out within the same agency and cannot be transferred to other departments, and officials from other departments cannot be transferred to the above-mentioned agencies.
The Supervisory Office has established new agencies such as the Anti-Corruption Department and the Malfeasance Department to specialize in investigating corruption and perversion of justice by hundreds of officials!
These are all public institutions, and in the Hanlin Academy, Li Xuan established the Hanlin Academy Inspection Section, which dispatched personnel from time to time to inspect various places in the name of imperial envoys, investigate major illegal activities, and accept complaints from local people.
The Hanlin Academy’s Complaints and Calls Section was also established, stipulating that people all over the world could report by mailing letters to the Complaints and Calls Section, or they could report in person to the Complaints and Calls Section.
In order to prevent the reporting letters from being intercepted by local officials, the letters can be delivered directly to the post station under the management of the military and mailed together with the official documents!
These are all measures regarding the administration of officials. Although Li Xuan feels that they may not be of much use in the end, they are still some measures, and Li Xuan does not expect them to be very useful. As long as they are issued and all officials are afraid, then
That's half the success.
Subsequently, in view of the fact that the people were easily incited to cause chaos, Li Xuan ordered the Ministry of Rites to set up a court newspaper department, which was responsible for running a court newspaper for the people of the world, informing the people of the world about the court's dynamics, policies, and detailed interpretations of the policies.
The newspaper is published every five days and is directly sponsored by the Chaoyang Newspaper Department of the Ministry of Rites. The sample manuscripts are dispatched to various places along with the official documents. After being printed in important local cities, they are directly dispatched to counties and towns and posted in conspicuous places!
The name of this Chaobao is "Datang Chaobao", which can be regarded as a modern newspaper sponsored by the government. However, this is not the first newspaper in the Tang Dynasty, because in addition to Datang Chaobao,
There is already a Dibao within Datang.
The Tang Dynasty was a feudal dynasty, and its establishment was greatly influenced by traditional feudal dynasties such as the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, there are also things like Di Bao.
However, the Di Bao was only circulated within the officialdom. It mainly published some important news and had nothing to do with ordinary people.
But now the Chao Bao is an official newspaper specifically for the common people, so the officials of the Ministry of Rites are still not sure what to do.
Because this kind of thing has never happened since ancient times, and if this one doesn't go well, it might cause a big mess, so officials from the Ministry of Rites soon found the Ministry of Rites and asked about the regulations for preparing the court report.
Of course, their problem is not how to print or distribute the morning newspaper to the world. What they are more concerned about is what content to publish.
In this regard, Li Xuan gave oral instructions to the officials of the Ministry of Rites: The core points of running a newspaper are as follows: First, the most important point is: Emperor Li Xuan is always correct and extremely wise; thirdly, he must be correct
Guide the public to support the various policies of the imperial court.
Under these two general policies, what should be done specifically?
To sum up, the emperor and his ministers are very busy. What are they busy with? Naturally, they are busy working for the welfare of the people, especially the emperor Li Xuan. He is busy caring about the welfare of the people every day. For example, Li Xuan went to inspect the Zhaoqing Arsenal some time ago.
Can you please write an article in which the emperor expressed his condolences to the workers and was loved and loved by them so much that even the workers who received the condolences were moved to tears?
Then the subjects of the Tang Dynasty were extremely supportive of the emperor and various policies. For example, the recent typhoon disaster in western Guangdong has caused the price of food to rise in Guangdong and Guangxi. You can write an article with the title "People welcome the rise in food price".
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Furthermore, the people under the rule of the Tang Dynasty were extremely happy, while the people outside the Tang Dynasty were living in dire straits.
If it is a war report, you must be firm: the Tang Dynasty’s royal army is extremely brave and powerful, but the Puppet Ming army is just scum!
In short, the most important and core function of this court report is to correctly guide the people's thoughts and prevent them from doing things blindly and rebelling if there is nothing wrong!
Regarding Li Xuan's oral edicts, all the officials in the Ministry of Rites are excellent people, and as the most noble yamen in the Tang Dynasty, the Ministry of Rites has gathered a large number of small experts in the imperial examination. Writing articles is what they are best at, and even
The only thing I'm good at is saying on the spot that there's nothing wrong with the content of the newspaper.
The Ministry of Rites also raised the difficulty in a tactful way, saying that the Ministry of Rites was short of funds. The funds needed to run the court report were probably not a small amount, and the expenditures continued for many years. The Ministry of Rites said that it could not support it!
I also deeply agree with Li Xuan!
The Ministry of Rites is indeed a pauper. In fact, all departments in the Tang Dynasty are paupers. They think that most of the fiscal revenue is used for military expenses, and administrative expenses are seriously insufficient.
Local governments are fine. They have local taxes. As long as local officials use their brains diligently and develop the local economy, if the national taxes go up, local taxes will naturally go up. In this way, they can naturally afford to support local government officials.
However, all departments in the central government rely on the money allocated from the fiscal budget to survive. Although the Ministry of Rites is noble, it is also a real Qingshui Yamen.
So Li Xuan gave them a way. Who said this morning newspaper must be free? It can definitely be charged!
And you can also sell advertising space!
The commercial value of this Chao Bao, which is published all over the world, is very large. Even if it charges only one penny for a newspaper, if the circulation is large enough, part of the distribution cost can be recovered.
In addition, you can sell some advertisements. Of course, the advertisements must be strictly reviewed by the Ministry of Etiquette, and messy commercial advertisements are not allowed!
And because the environment of each place is different, the Chaobao published for different provinces can also report on some local government affairs, and then receive some local advertisements, but the premise is that the reports and advertisements on these local government affairs are still directly under the Ministry of Rites
Sponsored, and need to be submitted to the Etiquette Department for review, and then each issue needs to be reviewed by Li Xuan.
Only after Li Xuan has reviewed it can the Ministry of Rites officially publish it.
In other words, although local government affairs will be reported, the organization of the court newspaper is still directly led by the Ministry of Rites. The relevant officials stationed by the Ministry of Rites at the local level only have the power to print and collect news, but they do not have the power to directly organize the court newspaper.
The final review power of the Chaobao is in the hands of Li Xuan.
When they heard Li Xuan say that advertisements could be posted, the officials of the Ministry of Rites still didn't understand it at first, and they were even a little repelled.
Because in their view, although this court report is for ordinary people, it is also extremely serious. It is an important public opinion tool of the imperial court and cannot be tainted by the smell of copper.
However, although I feel dissatisfied or even rejected, it is a fact that the Ministry of Rites does not have enough funds. Although the court newspaper can charge a fee, because the cost is not low, it is too expensive and ordinary people cannot afford it, and the circulation cannot increase.
, it will not be able to educate the people and promote policies.
But if the fees are low enough for the public to accept, then Chaobao will suffer substantial losses!
After all, writing, printing, and shipping all cost money!
In the end, the officials of the Ministry of Rites struggled for a long time, and finally gave in to the funding and chose to publish advertisements cautiously!
The Ministry of Rites is very cautious about commercial advertisements, so naturally this first commercial advertisement may be a folk advertisement, which is too unqualified. This first commercial advertisement in the Tang Dynasty is a recruitment advertisement for the Zhaoqing Arsenal!