The night was deep, and the icy wind was like snowflakes flying. The imperial study room of the Wude Palace, the lights are bright, and now it is a delicate situation, and the Tang Emperor Li Yuan seems to have found the motivation of his youth, and he is busy late every day.

In the study, the crown prince Li Jiancheng was reporting to his father about the recent government affairs, and he only heard Li Yuan's eyebrows dancing and his face full of red light.

Li Jiancheng said mainly about the financial and people's livelihood problems of the Tang Dynasty, from the end of the year, the Tang Dynasty began to exterminate the Buddha, got a lot of fertile land and the population in the temple, these people were incorporated into the official register, the next is to divide the land equally, this matter is in charge of Li Jiancheng, and sent the imperial history to supervise the implementation of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. In this extermination of the Buddha, a large amount of money and grain were also seized, in order to enrich the treasury, Li Yuan ordered, Jingxiang Bashu Buddha statues all became a piece of yellow and clear Kaiyuan treasures, which really made Li Yuan rich.

In fact, there is a big reason for earning it.

The original Buddhism and Taoism are similar, they neither gather property, nor buy real estate, a monk and a bowl to preach the doctrine, they make a living by turning fate, the spiritual belief is pure, the ambition is lofty, but later they have gathered a wide range of fields, jewelry Yingmen, they in order to attract more people, the temple is built to shine, the beautiful name is called: Buddha light Pudu. Over time, they occupied a lot of land and wealth, and they did not have to pay taxes, which also means that the more temples, the less the financial income of the imperial court, and what is even more odious is that the monks openly issue "usury", which makes the imperial court's finances a mess......

The monks of the Buddhist family do not accept conscription, nor do they have to serve in the military, and this special treatment leads to more and more monks, and when the imperial court fights, they can't even recruit soldiers. Moreover, because in the past 100 years, the Northern Qi Dynasty, the Southern Four Dynasties and the Great Sui Dynasty all believed in Buddhism, resulting in the temple acres in the whole country, although Jingxiang Bashu is not big in the country, the temple is not too much, but the accumulation of more than 100 two hundred years is also very amazing, and those oily monks have a strong physique, and after training, they are much stronger than the skinny common people.

This also made Li Yuan regret that his intestines were green, if he knew that destroying the Buddha could make a lot of money, he should have done it as early as when he was in Guanzhong, but now it is all cheap Yang Tong.

After Li Jiancheng finished his report, he talked about the situation of Juntian again, and Li Yuan, who was particularly unsatisfied, also paid attention to it, he pondered for a moment and asked: "I asked you to feast Fang Xuanling that day, did you talk about the Juntian system and the tax system for apportioning into the mu?" ”

"Erchen did talk to Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, and Cen Wenwen about these issues, but they didn't have hope for me, and said that if we also carry it out, it will be harmful to the present generation, and the merit will be in the future, they agree with the direction I am heading, but they don't think that my court can succeed."

"What do you mean by that?" Li Yuan held back the discomfort in his heart and asked suspiciously: "Why can't we if Yang Tong can carry it out?" What is the disadvantage of the contemporary, and the merit is in the future? ”

"The key is that the land controlled by my Tang Dynasty is too small, even if it wins the land of the Buddhist family, the proportion is still not as large as that of the family gate, which also makes it impossible for the court to implement the uniform land system and spread the land into the whole territory."

"That's true." Li Yuan agreed.

Once there are natural and man-made disasters and other things, they will incite the people, devour nearby villages and towns, and incorporate them into their own forces. Over time, it will evolve into a powerful force, and with a little training, the young and strong family slaves are a strong army, if they are not restricted, and there is an ambitious person in a certain family, there will definitely be chaos. The reason why Yang Tong was able to succeed is because he took away the wealth, land and population of the family gate lord under his rule with strong means with the help of war, and his country was fought inch by inch, and he fought very thoroughly, so all his policies can be implemented to the end, and every government decree we need to compromise with the family door valve, and finally it will be unrecognizable, but if it is forcibly implemented regardless of the opposition of all parties, it will inevitably provoke a strong resistance from the family gate valve, and the world will be in chaos. ”

Li Jiancheng's words made Li Yuan nod silently. In today's troubled times, in fact, as early as the birth of the imperial examination system, the foreshadowing had already been laid. It is only because the imperial examination system replaces the 'nine-product Zhongzheng system' that the family recommends talents as officials, and it is based on the premise of sacrificing the world's families, so the Guanlong nobles, the Guandong scholars, and the southern scholars are also opposed, although they are not public, but there are shadows of various forces behind many grass-headed kings, such as Lu Mingyue from Fanyang Lu's family, and Gao Shida from Bohai Gao's family......

If the Tang Dynasty implements the system of equalizing fields and dividing the land into mu in the whole territory, then the precarious Li Tang Dynasty may immediately rise in all directions, and the family gate lords don't even need to push the representatives of interests, they can directly go to the army themselves.

Thinking of this, Li Yuan had already understood, "Fang Xuanling means that I am too impatient and violent, so I say that it is bad for the present and merit for the future?" ”

Li Jiancheng nodded, "He did say that, Yang Tong broke the historical phenomenon of 'the Son of Heaven and the family ruling the world together' in a bloody and violent way, so he doesn't need to compromise with anyone to be able to penetrate the policy into every household." And the Jingxiang area we occupy is okay, because many families are afraid of the war and flee into Bashu, if it is forcibly implemented, the impact will not be too big, but Bashu is very serious, because Bashu has not experienced major turmoil, and small fights cannot affect the occupation of population and land by the family gate valve, and even some civil strife is provoked by the family gate valve, the purpose is to occupy more land and hide more population, and the land of Xiao Milling that was incorporated into the Sui Dynasty in a peaceful way also has this kind of problem, so Yang Tong intends to let Pei Renji, the secretary of the military department, sit in Nanjun, Encourage local people to sue local heroes, and then kill them one by one. This is also due to the strength of the Sui Dynasty, they are not afraid of local rebellion at all, and even wish, so that there is a reason to slaughter it. In the final analysis, it was Yang Tong who wanted to exchange the chaos of a lifetime for hundreds of years of peace. However, if we want to implement the system of equalizing land and spreading the land into mu in the whole territory, it is not realistic and will also cause serious problems. ”

"What's the problem?"

"Our local officials and army generals are almost controlled by the family gate valve, if we push it, the first target is the family gate valve, I am afraid it will cause a strong backlash from the local officialdom, and it will cause problems such as the resignation of local officials and the rebellion of the army."

Li Yuan was really uncomfortable in his heart, he snorted coldly: "They don't have backache when they stand and talk, if Yang Tong can give me a year or two, I can still solve it in a violent way." ”

Li Jiancheng smiled bitterly when he heard this: "Father, the Sui army is waiting for the day, and it is possible to attack the Tang Dynasty at any time, and the sons are worried that if the Guanlong nobles are moved, it will inevitably launch a huge turmoil, and the result is to make a wedding dress for Yang Tong." Now that we have hundreds of thousands of hectares of fertile land, and a large number of people, monks and soldiers, should the problem of the Guanlong nobles be put on hold......"

Without waiting for Li Jiancheng to finish speaking, Li Yuan interrupted him with a wave of his hand and said: "It is precisely because we have tens of thousands of more monks and tens of thousands of recruits that I can be sure to hold the door and solve internal worries with peace of mind, and the most important thing is that the contradiction between us and the Guanlong nobles has reached a time when we have to solve it, so don't talk about this matter anymore, no matter how turbulent the place and the army are, we must not give up halfway to solve internal worries!" ”

Li Jiancheng also knew that the arrow was on the line, so he had to send it, so he simply stopped persuading and suggested: "Father, the son thinks that if you discuss with a few more people, and with all preparations, you can minimize the turmoil, and the loss will not be big." If it is handled properly, the internal worries can be solved even before the Sui army reacts. ”

"What the emperor said is extremely true!" Li Yuan is as good as a stream.

"Father, the son has one more thing to say."

"The emperor said it!" Li Yuan was quite satisfied with this mature, steady, and knowledgeable heir.

Li Jiancheng said in a deep voice: "Father, the source of troops is not a problem for the time being, but a large number of troops, but also have the corresponding national strength support, not only need a lot of money and food, but also the corresponding armor, we were able to maintain the peak of the army, because the armor inventory is sufficient, but we lost too much in last year's Eastern Expedition, and now we have suddenly increased the troops, and there is a serious shortage of armor." If this problem is not solved, how can the soldiers fight? ”

Li Yuan was taken aback, before he only considered the issue of military resources and money and food, but ignored the issue of military armor.

Li Jiancheng continued: "The reason why the armor is seriously consumed, in addition to the disadvantage of the war, the most important knife can only participate in two wars at most, so it cannot be used, and it needs to be recast; The problem of armor is even more serious, the armor is not only cumbersome to build and compile, but also easy to damage, difficult to repair and so on, we have also built a large number of armor over the years, but I Datang has never had a truce since the start of the army in Jinyang, so the consumption is too great, even if it is built day and night, it can't be replenished. ”

Li Yuan asked with a heavy face, "I want to know, how far are we now?" ”

"After the end of the Eastern Crusade, we have successively recruited about 160,000 new soldiers, and from the current point of view, we are short of 80,000 sets of armor."

Li Yuan was furious: "What does Dugu Huaien eat?" Did he do it on purpose? ”

"Father, whether Dugu Huaien is intentional or not, the son doesn't know. But the craftsmen did their best, and many of them did not return home for a year, and they ate and lived in the workshop. ”

"Why is it so bad?"

"We don't have pig iron anymore, and now we can't even find a pound of pig iron in the Zuozang warehouse."

"......" Li Jiancheng's words really made Li Yuan unacceptable, his face suddenly became gloomy, and his eyes were so angry that they were about to erupt into flames, and it seemed that there was silence in the imperial study, as if it was the calm before the storm was coming.

At this time, Li Jiancheng said again: "The lack of armor can actually be solved. ”

"Go on!" Li Yuan's face softened a little.

"Erchen knows that there are more than 30,000 sets of armor in the treasury of Badong Mansion, which was prepared by Emperor Wen of Sui to destroy Nan Chen, and we can make use of it."

Li Yuan also remembered that in the seventh year of the emperor's reign, Yang Su built warships such as "Wuya" and "Huanglong" in Padang County to strengthen the naval division, and Badong, as one of the frontier positions for attacking Nanchen, did hoard a large amount of materials.

"But it's been thirty or forty years, can it still be used?" Li Yuan asked a little worriedly.

Li Jiancheng said: "Even if the quality is not good, you can use it for the forbidden army first, and then give the armor of the forbidden army to the combat army." Although this is an expedient measure, it can at least solve the urgent need, and if the Sui army comes to attack, it will not leave our soldiers without armor to use. ”

Li Yuan nodded: "This matter will be handed over to the emperor, it must be done as soon as possible!" ”

"Father, rest assured, the son will let people transport it to Xiangyang tomorrow!"

Li Yuan pondered for a long time, and said with a sad face: "Although 30,000 sets meet the needs of some soldiers, it is far from enough. I think the key is pig iron, and if you don't have enough pig iron, you will have endless troubles. ”

"In order to solve the problem of pig iron, Erchen reviewed a lot of information, and found that during the Northern Wei Dynasty, Bashu had a record of large-scale mining of iron ore, and the mine was in Longshan County and Meishan County, although there was no detailed record of the specific address of the mine, but Erchen believed that the local chronicles must have records, as long as the county records of the two counties were obtained, it should be easy to find the location of the mine, as long as we restore the mines in Bashu, the problem of insufficient pig iron can be slowly solved."

Although Li Jiancheng had a way, Li Yuan still said with a frown: "The emperor's idea is good, but it will take about a year for the mine to recover to smelt iron, to say the least, and it will take even longer if you count the time to become a soldier." How to solve the armor gap and wear and tear during this period of time? ”

"The iron tower, iron bell, and iron Buddha of the temple are a source, and they are all on the way to Xiangyang.

Li Yuan interrupted Li Jiancheng and said: "The problem of pig iron is urgent, you have to do everything possible to solve this matter, even if you take back the iron tools from the people, you have to fill the gap, our army is not as good at fighting as the Sui army, if we don't even have armor, we will definitely lose." ”

"Sons obey orders!" Li Jiancheng bowed down to answer the order.

Li Yuancheng took a few steps and said coldly: "Dugu Huaien, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, even has to ask the prince of a country about the problem of pig iron, it is really a dereliction of duty, just this ability, you still want to be the prime minister?" There are no doors. ”

Just as Li Jiancheng was about to say something, there was a brisk footstep outside the door, and a eunuch said outside the door: "Qisheng Sheng, Dugu Mansion sent to report that the Ministry of Industry Shangshu was assassinated in the mansion. ”

"......" father and son looked at each other.

There was a sudden deathly silence in the imperial study.

"Got it, stand down."

"Yes!"

"Why did you die? It's weird! Li Yuan seemed to be talking to himself, and he seemed to be proving his innocence to Li Jiancheng.

Li Jiancheng didn't eat this at all, but just frowned and looked at his pretending father.

Although he and his father have the same idea in dealing with the Dugu clan, but in dealing with the problem of the Guanlong nobles, there is neither a clear and safe good way, nor sufficient preparation, the key is that the Sui army is like a bow with a tight string, but whether the long arrow is pointing at the Tang Dynasty or the Wei State, it is still unknown, and he feels that he has to wait until the Sui army takes action before considering.

Well, now, if there is a great civil strife in the Tang Dynasty at this time, it will just give the Sui army a good opportunity. When will the old problem of the emperor be changed?

At this time, Li Yuanji, who had not yet entered Shu to take office, hurriedly broke in, and when he saw that there was only his father and brother in the room, he asked: "Father, I heard that Dugu Huaien died, and you sent someone to do it?" ”

"It's not!" Li Yuan said angrily.

"Who else could it be?"

"Check! A sucker. ”