Five hundred and seventieth chapters eunuchs in politics
In a small hall in the Chang'an Palace in the north of Chengdu, several eunuchs are sitting together to discuss government affairs. You read that right, several eunuchs are indeed discussing government affairs.
The leader was the old eunuch Song Chaofeng, followed by Huo Xianming, Dou Wenchang, Tian Wenxiu, and Liu Zhenliang. These five eunuchs formed a small group. They not only controlled the Shence Army and the power in the palace, but also often used Li Shi to intervene in government affairs, especially
Song Chaofeng directly approved memorials on behalf of the emperor, and many court decisions were vetoed by him in the name of the emperor.
Li Shi had great trust in these eunuchs. When his life and death were in danger, these eunuchs were the only ones who did not abandon him and loyally escorted him out of the palace, allowing him to finally see clearly who was truly loyal to him.
At the same time, Li Shi did not want to be the emperor in name only. He also wanted to interfere in government affairs and show his presence. However, his physical injury did not allow him to expend too much energy, so he handed over government affairs to the eunuchs and used them to control the country.
Li Yi and court ministers.
Emperor Li Shi established an office in the Tingzheng Palace, called the Shence Army Command Office, which corresponded to the Twelve Guards Office of the imperial court. Everyone called the Shence Army Command Office the North Office, and the Twelve Guards Office was also called the South Office.
Yamen.
Beiya sounds like a military institution, but in fact it is an integration of military and government. Five eunuchs set up a political participation hall here, and many major government affairs were discussed and decided by the five of them here.
"Everyone, Your Majesty has agreed in principle to our tax increase plan. He just hopes that we will reconsider the tax amount. I consider that as long as you have a house, you have to pay the space tax, so it is very broad and the tax cannot be too high. It is guaranteed to be collected every year.
Once implemented, it can greatly reduce financial pressure."
The rack tax discussed by the eunuchs is the real estate tax. A rack refers to a beam. A house requires two beams. The housing standard of an official residence is not the number of acres of land, but how many racks there are. Two racks make one room, so
The property tax in the Tang Dynasty was called the inter-rack tax.
Of course, it was not the eunuchs who proposed the idea of collecting the inter-chamber tax, but the imperial court proposed the move to collect the inter-chamber tax in order to solve the increasingly difficult financial pressure. However, because it involved the vital interests of too many court officials and dignitaries, the inter-chamber tax was controversial.
I haven't been able to come up with a plan for several months.
Li Shi decided to let the eunuchs draft the tax increase plan. The eunuchs lived in the palace, and the palace was tax-free. There was no conflict of interest with them, so the eunuchs drafted it smoothly and it was passed by the emperor Li Shi. But the eunuchs
The tax was set very heavy, and Li Shi felt that it needed to be reconsidered.
Song Chaofeng coughed and said, "Let's just cut our original plan in half! Change it to 2,000 yuan for the upper room, 1,000 yuan for the middle room, and 500 yuan for the lower room. This way we can almost afford it."
The five eunuchs raised their hands and expressed their agreement. They jointly signed the tax bill and Song Chaofeng submitted it to the emperor.
.........
Li Shi then forwarded the shelf tax plan to the Political Hall and ordered them to review and approve it.
As soon as this plan was revealed, it caused a huge stir in the government and the opposition, arousing strong repercussions, and there was a lot of opposition from both the government and the opposition.
The thatched houses that poor people live in are the lower rooms. Most houses have about two rooms, one bedroom and one living room. Each room is only about seven or eight square meters, and the kitchen, toilet, livestock stables and so on are only small.
It can only be regarded as a shed, not a house, and it is tax-free.
Even if there is not much housing, the financial burden will increase every year, which is still very difficult for poor people who cannot make ends meet.
Households with slightly better conditions have five or six houses, which cost several thousand dollars a year. It is not easy to make money now, which obviously increases the burden.
A large family has a slightly larger room, with a room of 20 square meters. It is a medium-sized house. Each house requires a tax. Generally, there are dozens of houses on an area of three acres. Dozens of houses will cost dozens of taxes.
, of course the big families are also strongly dissatisfied.
In the past two years, Chengdu has doubled its expansion to the east, and large tracts of fertile land have been transformed into mansions of wealthy families. Many wealthy families have hundreds to thousands of rooms, and most of them have spacious and bright upper floors. Counting all in,
They have to pay thousands of taxes a year, and this burden is equally heavy for them.
Moreover, the intermittent tax was for the entire Tang Dynasty. As long as the imperial court passed it, it would be implemented in all places, both urban and rural, including all vassal towns. They would also implement it, but the tax money would flow into the pockets of the vassal towns.
However, the poor people still have a way to deal with it. They simply demolish their houses and build them into shacks that are not taxed. They can still live in them, but they cannot let rich families live in shacks! Therefore, the room tax is mainly affected by the powerful and wealthy families.
strong opposition.
Supervisor Li Yi and all the prime ministers of the Zhengshitang were particularly opposed. What they opposed was not the tax bill itself, but the eunuchs' interference in politics. The eunuchs of Beiya not only vetoed their resolutions, but also overstepped their authority and drafted the tax bill. This was something the Zhengshitang could never do.
Tolerated ultra vires.
As expected, the intermittent tax plan was rejected in the political hall. Li Shi was furious and dismissed Xiao Fu, the right minister, and Jiang Gongfu, the left minister.
After expressing his support for intervening taxes, he was severely beaten by civil and military officials in front of the Xuanzheng Building.
Deputy Prime Minister Du Guqiu and Liu Congyi resigned from their positions at the same time.
Li Shi once again abolished the multi-phase system, appointed Lu Qi and Zhang Yanshang as the left and right prime ministers, and forcibly implemented the intervening tax.
Amid opposition and clamor, the chaotic four years of Jianzhong came to an end. At the beginning of the new year, Li Shi changed his reign name to Zhenyuan. In exchange for the implementation of the interstate tax, Li Shi officially canonized Li Yi as the crown prince.
The intermittent tax was passed and began to be enacted all over the world.
...........
The New Year in Zhangye is very lively this year. Guo Song also specially invited Pan Liao, Li Lue, Cao Wannian and other officials and generals' families to spend New Year's Eve at his house. From the first to the third day of the new year, Xue Tao took Dugu Youlan to visit the fallen soldiers.
I would like to pay New Year greetings to them at their home and give them New Year gifts.
They were busy until the fifth day of the first lunar month, when everyone finally had their own time. Early in the morning, Guo Song led his family to worship their ancestors. This was something Guo Song had always been in trouble for. He didn't know how to worship his ancestors. For many years, he had been avoiding it.
This problem was not solved until after he married Xue Tao and with Xue Tao's repeated suggestions, he reluctantly built the ancestral hall.
The ancestor worshiped by the Guo family in Lingzhou was Guo Jin, the governor of Tongzhou in the Sui Dynasty. Guo Song also worshiped him as his ancestor, as well as his nominal father Guo Huaishan and grandfather Guo Jinyuan.
Guo Song simply sacrificed the tokens of Xue Tao's ancestor Xue Daoheng and grandfather Xue Ling. This move moved Xue Tao deeply. After marrying Dugu Youlan, Guo Song also sacrificed the tokens of Dugu Youlan, the ancestor of the Dugu family, at Xue Tao's reminder.
The letter’s spiritual tablet was also placed in the ancestral hall.
Although this move was somewhat inconsistent with etiquette, it deeply moved Xue Xun and Du Lingqiu.
Guo Song seemed a little preoccupied. After briefly offering sacrifices to his ancestors, he left in a hurry on the pretext of something else.
"Sister, my husband seems to have something on his mind today?" In the room, Dugu Youlan asked after taking a sip of tea.
Xue Tao shook his head and smiled bitterly and said: "He is pretending to be worried, but in fact he is just perfunctory. He does this every year when worshiping ancestors. He seems to be worried. He simply puts three sticks of incense, bows and leaves. There are other sacrificial rituals.
None, it’s still the same this year, I’m not surprised at all.”
Dugu Youlan was surprised, "Why is this? This is an ancestor worship!"
In Dugu Youlan's impression, her family held ancestor worship twice a year, grandly and solemnly, and every aspect was meticulous. However, when it came to her husband's house, it was completely different. Even the offerings were temporarily prepared, and there was no bathing or dressing.
Putting on three sticks of incense feels like... just like burning incense in a temple.
Xue Tao smiled and shook his head, "After a long time, you won't be surprised by this kind of thing. In fact, my father is the same. Every year when he worships his ancestors, he puts three sticks of incense on my grandfather's memorial tablet. There are no ancestors or anything like that.
One time, I forgot to prepare the offerings and couldn’t buy them outside, so my mother had to bring some leftover dishes from the New Year’s Eve dinner to the offering table.
What I mean is, don’t pay too much attention to these things. Your husband must have his own hidden secrets. Just like my father, his status in the family was too low. When he was young, the family did not allow him to participate in sacrifices, so he was very indifferent to sacrifices."
"Then what's the reason, husband?" Dugu Youlan asked curiously.
"He didn't tell you?"
Dugu Youlan shook his head, and Xue Tao suddenly felt an indescribable pride in his heart. After all, in her husband's heart, she and Dugu Youlan were still different. Her husband would tell him many things, but he would not say much to Dugu Youlan.
, maybe this is called a married couple.
Xue Tao suddenly remembered that there seemed to be no hair-tying ceremony at the wedding of her husband and Dugu Youlan. Did he forget it or deliberately avoid it?
"Sister!" Dugu Youlan saw that Xue Tao was a little distracted, so she called her.
Only then did Xue Tao come back to her senses. She smiled and said, "This matter has something to do with his family in Lingzhou. He was expelled from the Guo family in Lingzhou and even his name was erased from the family."
"Why is this?" Dugu Youlan was extremely shocked that there was such a thing.
"This matter is rather complicated. I'll tell you later slowly. My husband will soon be heading to Beiting, so we have to get ready."
At this time, Dugu Youlan suddenly ran out, covering her mouth, squatting in the basin and retching.
Xue Tao quickly came over to support her and asked in surprise: "You...when did this start?"
"I've been feeling nauseous and chest tight since the day before yesterday. I might have caught a cold."
Xue Tao shook his head, "It's not that I'm catching a cold. I've been like you before. You're probably pregnant!"