Li Mu faced Li Shimin and all the officials and asked this question. Who could know this? If the emperor and his ministers knew about it, it would not be Li Mu's turn to boast here.
Li Mu answered it himself, saying: "In fact, it is very simple. It is nothing more than greed and reluctance to spend money. The monarchs, ministers, nobles, and nobles of the previous dynasty, these high-ranking people, have enjoyed all the glory and wealth, but they
He still wants more. He refuses to give even a little bit of his profit to the poor people. He only wants to exploit them in various ways!"
"Let them work and perform corvées without giving them any money or even enough to eat! Are they still considered human beings?"
"You have mountains of gold and silver in your house! The food is rotten and moldy, but you still refuse to use it to feed these people. How can you still be considered a human being?"
Li Mu pointed at Sang and scolded Huai. When he spoke, his eyes were on several officials with powerful backgrounds in the court. Wang wanted to avoid his sight, but Li Mu had already walked in front of him, so he had no choice but to respond and said: "
If it doesn’t count as a human being, how can it be considered a human being?”
"Well said!" Li Mu took Wang's hand and said: "Look at our Lord Attendant. Although he is from the Wang family in Taiyuan, he is able to understand the suffering of the people and has such a high awareness. I think one day,
If poor people come to ask for help, our Lord Attendant will definitely donate generously and not let the poor people down."
What else could Wang say, the big hat was already on his head, so he could only echo with an awkward smile on his face.
"But!" Li Mu suddenly changed the topic and said: "Not all people can be as upright and upright as Wang Shizhong. Most people are very ugly in appearance and appearance. So sometimes, I don't pretend to be noble and treat money like dirt.
I really can't figure it out. Why do some wealthy families accumulate wealth for generations? What's the point of continuing to compete for fame and fortune? Your family has thousands of houses, and you can only sleep.
It’s just one room. Your house has a mountain of gold and silver, so what? Can you eat it or drink it?”
"It is better to curb greed and distribute a little profit. If you do things this way, you will get twice the result with half the effort. The people are actually very satisfied. They only need to make ends meet. But even this small hope is a luxury for most people.
That’s why there are so many refugees who leave their homes just for a piece of food.”
"Why do I treat money like dung? The reason is very simple, because I have suffered like that!" Li Mu glanced at the crowd and asked word by word: "I dare to ask you, have any of you ever tasted the feeling of hunger?"
Everyone had different reactions. Some looked moved, while others looked confused. Those with moved faces were mostly generals who had experienced the chaos of the late Sui Dynasty and had fought in all directions. Those with confused faces were mostly from aristocratic families. People like them,
Even during the chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty, I had never been hungry, so how could I know what it felt like to be hungry?
The corner of Li Mu's mouth curled up, as if he was smiling, but also as if he was mocking, and said: "The feeling of hunger is really uncomfortable. I suggest you try it, what it feels like to go without rice for three days, I believe you
After you try it, you will have more thoughts of kindness in your heart."
Li Mu turned around and faced Li Shimin. While everyone was thinking about his words, he secretly winked at Li Shimin. Li Shimin was sitting on the dragon chair and could see clearly below. When he saw Li Mu's hint, he knew
I have to start praising myself again.
"I have said so much just to make you feel the same way. I can't control whether you do it or not. But now that I have discovered the problem, I will give you what I think of.
way."
Li Mu looked serious and said: "First of all, I request your Majesty to lighten the corvee and reduce the tax. The so-called light corvee and the small tax are slightly different from what is recorded in the history books. The so-called lightening of the corvee does not mean to reduce it, but to avoid the corvee as much as possible.
Change the corvee system to a system similar to the one currently used by the Ministry of Industry, which means paying people to hire people to start work."
"Your Majesty and the princes may be worried that if implemented in this way, it will bring a huge burden to the court. I dare to guarantee that it will not!"
Li Mu said loudly: "I have done an experiment. For the same errand, two methods of apportioning the corvee and settling the salary were started at the same time. The method of settling the salary was twice as fast as the method of apportioning the corvee! In this way, a lot of time was saved.
, and in terms of quality, the settlement of wages is much better than the apportionment of corvee. We might as well do a calculation. If it is corvee, even if it does not cost money, food must be provided, right? Save twice the time, and also save twice the food.
.At the same time, the construction period is shortened, which frees up time to do other things. In the same time, more things are done, which is also valuable.”
"The issue of quality is also very easy to understand. Suppose you are a bricklayer, and now the court asks you to build a wall. If you don't pay me, what you are thinking is that if the court doesn't pay me, then I won't work hard, and I will just wait and see.
, I do less work and let others do more. How can the quality of such a project be good? But if you give money, it is different. If you work more, you will make more money. If you work well, one day
The wages are also more. So everyone will work hard because they are doing it for themselves."
"Loyalty, filial piety and justice are what the saints say to the scholars. Is this correct? Yes! But what your majesty and the princes need to know is that most of the people do not read or have no chance to read the saint's books. They do not understand what loyalty, filial piety and justice are.
There is no need for them to understand loyalty, filial piety, justice, and justice. Even if they understand these and speak eloquently, they will not be able to buy food in exchange for food. Food is the most important thing for the people. Your Majesty wants to be a wise king, and all the princes want to be able to govern the world. In the eyes of Mu
Come on, just do a little bit, and then you can be praised by all generations."
"There are no people dying of hunger in the four seas. This alone is enough to be famous throughout the ages!"
"This brings us to the issue of food again." Li Mu paused, glanced at Wei Zheng, and said quietly: "The price hike incident by grain merchants a few years ago revealed a very serious and chronic disease of the imperial court, that is, the imperial court
Regarding grain, the control over grain is very weak. Faced with grain traders driving up grain prices, the imperial court has no sharp weapon. Seeing that Your Majesty is worried about this, I, Zhuluhou Li Mu, stayed up all night and finally came up with two ways to curb this situation.
It happened again."
"The first way is to follow the example of the previous government and reopen the Changpingcang, which will play a role in regulating grain prices at critical times."
After hearing this suggestion, Tang Jian, who was in charge of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, couldn't help but said: "Li Mu, you don't know something. It's not that the Chang Pingcang court has never thought about it. However, our country has only been in existence for more than ten years, and we have been fighting for many years. We are waiting for nothing."
Xing. Nowadays, the grain produced every year is eaten every year. How to store it if there is no surplus? Besides, the court does not cultivate the land. Even if there is grain, it must be collected from the grain merchants, who refuse to sell it.
Are you going to rob it?"
After Tang Jian finished speaking, four or five people immediately stood up and accused Li Mu of empty talk and lack of understanding of reality.
Li Mu listened to them quietly before continuing: "What Tang Shangshu said is exactly what he said. The imperial court wanted to build Changpingcang, but the grain merchants refused to sell grain to the imperial court. Then we might as well think about it.
Why do merchants refuse to sell grain? Because selling grain to the court is equivalent to cutting off the source of wealth. Only fools would do this! Then there is no way to solve the problem? Not necessarily. The Tang Dynasty Minister has just said the solution. The court will not plant crops.
Why don't you plant the land? If the court cultivates the land and gets food, won't it be possible to build Chang Pingcang?"
Wang Jingze knew that it was time for him to speak, so he stood up at the right time and said: "Hou Zhulu said it lightly. Farming requires labor. Where can I find cattle for farming?!"
"Labour, government soldiers! Plowing oxen? With the Zhenguan plow, as long as an adult man can pull it, why do you need plowing oxen? Is there still a shortage of strong men among the government soldiers? As for those who don't know how to cultivate fields? Sorry, the Ministry of Industry
Have you ever heard of the Farming Secretary? He masters the latest farming technology of the Tang Dynasty, and you are guaranteed to be taught and mastered! As long as you are willing to work hard, within a year, hundreds of thousands of hectares of fertile land will be at your fingertips!"
Wang Jingze was defeated and murmured and stopped talking. On the other side, Hou Junji opened his mouth. He was about to say, "How can the soldiers of the government go to cultivate the land?" Suddenly he remembered what he had just said and shut his mouth.
Go ahead. Let’s not talk about it anymore. The soldiers can all be bodyguards. There is nothing more embarrassing than farming. One sheep can drive two sheep or shepherd them. Your face is on the soles of your shoes, so you don’t need any shame anymore!
Hou Junji did not stand up, but some people had to stand up. Because the farming matter was related to their vital interests. These people were the powerful families in the court, especially the Shandong gentry.
If the imperial court starts farming, then the imperial court will have food in less than a year. If the imperial court has food, who will they sell it to? Someone immediately stood up and shouted that the low price of the grain hurts the farmers, spitting and spitting, without caring about offending them.
The risks that Li Mu may have brought are clear, and he is ready to risk everything.
Li Mu did not refute, and watched their performance quietly, until Li Shimin couldn't listen anymore, and shouted: "Where do you think my Liangyi Palace is? Everyone is yelling like this, but there are others.
In my eyes, Jinwu Guards, drag these lawless people out, each of them will be responsible for ten battles, and they will be driven out of the palace!"
Jin Wuwei responded and dragged the noisy people out. Seeing that Li Shimin was really angry, all the officials calmed down and did not dare to stand up and argue with Li Mu again.
Li Mu waited until he calmed down, then continued: "There is another reason why I made such a suggestion. As far as I know, the imperial court now implements the land equalization system, and each male is allocated one hundred acres. However, in the late Sui Dynasty,
Since the Great Rebellion, the population has been stagnant. After each person was assigned a hundred acres of land, there was still a large area of land that was barren. Due to the restrictions of the "equal land system", no one cultivated these lands. This directly led to huge and immeasurable food losses for the court. Even if
The soldiers of the government do not cultivate the fields, but plant these barren fields, which will also be a huge help to the court's food shortage."
As soon as this statement came out, many people stopped talking.
This time Li Mu didn't say it right, but he said it wrong, and it was so wrong!
Nowadays, the imperial court implements the equalized land system, which is not wrong. But is it really implemented in accordance with the equalized land system? Of course not. As Li Mu said, due to the equalized land system, each person can only be allocated a hundred acres of land, resulting in fertile land being left uncultivated.
, how is this possible?
If the family members listened to the court in this way, Li Shimin would not be unable to sleep.
The real situation is that nowadays, all the fertile land in the world is in the hands of wealthy families. For example, the Wang family in Taiyuan. Nine out of ten fertile fields in Taiyuan are in the hands of the Wang family's children. And the hundred acres of land allocated to the common people,
Basically, it's all 'leftovers', square fertile farmland that ordinary people have no chance to get. If you can make up enough leftovers, it's considered good.
Another mistake made by Li Mu is: Is there really a shortage of food in the world today? The imperial court feels that there is a lack of food. The imperial government calculates the existing fields based on the population and the land equalization system, which is naturally not enough. Because the population is underreported, and the actual number of fields does not match the reported number.
It doesn't match up. But in fact, the population is greater than what was reported to the court, and the cultivated fields are also more. The excess is in the hands of aristocratic families, and they want to take advantage of the court's game.
Advantages.
Li Shimin knew this well, and so did all the officials, but no one exposed it. But Li Mu, an "innocent" guy, actually took it seriously. He also said it so seriously that it was so serious that people looked at it.
They all want to laugh.
Some people want to point out that Li Mu made a mistake, but when the words come to their lips, they don't know how to say them.
How to say it? Whoever breaks this layer of window paper will offend all the powerful families in the world. Therefore, this matter cannot be said. But if he doesn't say it, judging from Li Mu's posture, he will really let the soldiers go and follow the books
The above amount is used to cultivate the fields, but whose fields are cultivated? All the fields are cultivated by aristocratic families!
What a vicious plot!
Everyone suddenly realized it and looked at Li Mu again, only to find that the corners of his mouth had been slightly raised. It was very obvious that this was a hole he had dug long ago and was just waiting for everyone to jump in!
Now there are wolves in front of us and tigers behind us. It is neither possible to advance nor to retreat. The powerful families in the court don't know what to say anymore. After being plotted by Li Mu, everyone's face is livid.
Among them, of course, Changsun Wuji was included.
Although the Changsun family is not a millennium-old family like the Five Surnames and Qiwang, their ability as a dragon is enough to make them a new rising star in the court. The Changsun Family also has a lot of land, but not as much as the Five Surnames and Qiwangs.
That's all.
The number is naturally excessive. If Li Mu's calculation is followed, the Changsun family will also suffer huge losses.
But Li Mu didn't play his cards according to common sense. Changsun Wuji didn't expect this result at all, and he didn't know how to deal with it for a while. He clearly knew Li Shimin's fear of the family. Li Mu had laid the groundwork so well, Li Shimin would not understand it.
What it means and what he will do are already clear.
Changsun Wuji was never willing to suffer such a big loss. Just when Li Shimin opened his mouth and was about to speak, Changsun Wuji finally stopped being a coward and stepped forward.
"Your Majesty, this is a serious matter, so please think twice before you act!"