There is a lake on the west side of the imperial city, and the Leyou Garden is built near the lake, and the pavilions and palaces loom among the flowers and trees. Aquatic plants such as lotus and calamus are planted in the lake, fish are raised in the water, mandarin ducks and white geese frolic on the lake, you can go boating, it is the place where the nobles in the palace spend their summer and avoid summer.

Meditation Pavilion, the nine-curved wooden bridge leads to the center of the lake, a table, a couch, and an incense burner in the wooden pavilion. There are two people in the pavilion, one lying and one standing, one reading and one listening.

Shi Fangzhen, dressed in a thin silk shirt, reclined on the bamboo couch, slightly closed his eyes, and listened to the prince Shi Chongwei reading the article. There were stacks of neatly stacked pieces on the table, which was exactly the countermeasure that everyone in the Xuanzheng Hall answered.

The clear children's voice occasionally blew with the wind to the stone flower boat on the shore, and the queen was embroidering, looking up in the direction of the meditation pavilion from time to time, and the corners of her mouth showed a knowing smile.

The sun gradually moved to the west, and Queen Wang stood up and moved her arms, glanced at the incense on the table and said, "It's been almost an hour, why don't you let the prince take a rest." Liu Weiguo, you send the pot of icy grapes on the table to the two of them, and by the way, when will it end? ”

Liu Weiguo stood aside, hurriedly bowed to him, walked across the long nine-curved wooden bridge with grapes in both hands, and deliberately increased his pace when he approached the meditation pavilion.

It happened that the prince finished reading another book, Shi Fangzhen opened his eyes and sat up, motioned to Liu Weiguo to hand the grapes to the prince, picked up the tea himself, and commented on the piece that the prince had just read. The prince seemed to understand whether he understood or not, but he remembered it carefully, and he didn't even open his mouth when Liu Weiguo's peeled grapes were handed to his mouth.

Shi Fangzhen smiled and said: "Emperor, you are still young, what I said may be difficult for you to understand, but it doesn't matter, the Chongwen Pavilion Straight Scholar I chose for you today will be your useful ministers in the future." ”

Liu Weiguo took advantage of the time to interject: "Long live, how long will it take for the mother to ask the slave?" ”

Of the thirty-six countermeasures, only six remained unread, Shi Fangzhen glanced at his sweaty son and asked, "Does the emperor want to take a break?" ”

"Father, my sons are not tired. There wasn't much left, so I simply finished reading it and went back to the palace with the queen mother. Shi Chongwei replied with a smile.

"Yes, the world only says that the Son of Heaven enjoys the blessings of the world, but they don't know the tiredness of the Son of Heaven, Wei'er, you will inherit the throne in the future, you can't have the idea of comfort and pleasure, being the emperor is a very hard thing." Shi Fangzhen said as he lay down on the bamboo couch again and closed his eyes again.

Shi Chongwei stretched out his hand to pick up a book of music from the table and read it aloud, Liu Weiguo saw a cool fan next to the bamboo couch, picked it up, stood behind the prince and shook it gently, fanning the wind for the prince.

“…… Including the enlistment of a state and county, the amount of land is counted, and the grain is lost to the official ......"

Shi Fangzhen sat up and asked, "Who wrote this?" ”

Shi Chongwei saw the end of the text and read: "Jiang Anyi." ”

Shi Fangzhen stood up, took the piece from his son's hand, quickly read it from the beginning, paced two steps in the pavilion excitedly, and leaned against the pillar to take a closer look. After watching the tea, he praised it out loud: "Good, good article, good method." ”

He returned Jiang Anyi's recital to the prince's hand and instructed, "Read." ”

Shi Chongwei read word by word from the beginning, and Shi Fangzhen sat on the bamboo couch with a solemn expression, as if he was in the middle of a dynasty.

When Shi Chongwei read it, Shi Fangzhen sighed again and praised: "Okay, good article." Emperor, can you read the meaning of the text? ”

"Erchen doesn't really understand."

"This article involves many aspects such as people's livelihood, land endowment, labor, taxation, etc., Wei'er, you haven't known about the government yet, so you don't know anything." Shi Fangzhen stared at the song and thought for a moment, and explained to the prince: "In short, Jiang Anyi suggested that his father should combine the field endowment, forced labor, and other miscellaneous levies into one, collect silver money together, and pay it to the court according to the mu conversion. ”

Shi Fangzhen said, stood up excitedly, paced in the meditation pavilion with his hands behind his back, and said something in his mouth: "Gather the land endowment, forced labor, and miscellaneous taxes, etc., convert them into silver coins, and distribute them to the acres of land, and those who have more fields will have more." In this way, it is bound to curb the mergers of the powerful and powerful, the people can reduce their burdens, but the national taxes will inevitably increase, and the prosperity of the country is just around the corner. Okay, good way, but unfortunately, the timing is not right. ”

The crown prince was a little dumbfounded, even Liu Weiguo had been by the side of the Son of Heaven for decades, and it was rare for the Son of Heaven to lose his temper like this. Hearing his father's sigh of "pity", Shi Chongwei asked puzzledly: "Father, since this method can solve the problem of land annexation, and my father only needs to implement it, why do you say that the timing is not right." ”

Shi Fangzhen reached out and touched his son's head, and explained lovingly: "The annexation of fields and lands is mainly done by the family and the family of the eunuchs. Don't talk about others, even the royal family and your mother's family have embezzled no less than a million hectares of land. Although the other families more or less spit out the fields during the war, they are still only a minority, and most of the fields are still not handed over under various names, and I am not easy to investigate. The father's re-investigation of the 27 states in the world this time was only aimed at court officials, but it was a taboo for the family. To implement Jiang Anyi's policy, it is bound to touch the interests of the family and officials in the world, and it is difficult. ”

Shi Chongwei asked puzzledly: "Isn't there a provision in "Da Zheng Law"? 10,000 acres of Jingguan Yipin free land, decreasing below until 1,600 mu of Jiupin free land; halving of magistrates; 3,350 acres of preferential and exempt fields for Weishi Jinshi, and 1,200 acres of preferential and exempt fields for unqualified people; Eighty acres of students and prisoners. Acting according to the law, the land occupied by the officials is taxed. ”

"If only it were as simple as Wei'er you said." Shi Fangzhen smiled bitterly, dipped his hand in the tea in the cup, drew it on the table, and said: "The fields of the country are divided into several categories, one is the fields where the lord is entitled, these fields are public fields, and they have the privilege of being exempted from taxes and servitude. But these lords also purchased their own fields in addition to the grants of land, and these fields were taxed according to the law, except for the reduction of rank. But think about it, for example, who has the courage to go to your uncle King Ning, and you will collect taxes from the Great Boshen Kingdom. ”

Shi Chongwei stuck out his tongue and didn't make a sound.

"Then there's the family's field. Take Wei Xiang as an example, the prime minister's official residence is a second-class residence, and he can be exempted from land tax of 9,000 mu, but if you think about it, the Wei family's field is only 9,000 mu. In this battle alone, Wei Xiang handed over more than 3,100 hectares of tax-paying land, more than 300,000 mu. ”

Shi Chongwei was taken aback and asked in surprise, "Why are there so many?" ”

"Well, that's just a small part. How many people are in the Merriam-Webster? How many people are in office, it is estimated that there are hundreds, and how many have achieved fame? According to the calculation of "Da Zheng Law", the Wei family can reduce at least more than 100,000 hectares of land, and the number of other families will not be small. ”

Shi Chongwei scratched his head, stunned by the number reported by his father, the fields in the hands of the Guang family are worth the total number of fields in five states, no wonder the treasury has no money, and the money has been taken away by these people.

"Officials are exempted according to rank, can a Jiupin Beijing official afford to buy 1,600 acres of land? I tell you that as long as you become an official, someone will send land to your family, so that you can sit and receive benefits, and those who send land will also have less taxes and can also be exempted from forced labor. These officials eat the country's money, but they dig the corners of the country. Shi Fangzhen said angrily.

"Catch these corrupt officials and get rid of them." Shi Chongwei's little face was swollen red, and he clenched his fists and shouted.

"Hahaha", Shi Fangzhen was amused by the prince's fairy tales.

After a long time, Shi Fangzhen stopped laughing and said: "Ordinary people have a difficult family background, and it is difficult to make a living from farming, Jiang Anyi was born in poverty, and he knows this very well. Therefore, he came up with this method, wanting to change 'tax for people' to 'tax for land', so that ordinary people would pay less taxes and live a better life. ”

"It's just that those rich and noble families who are sitting on thousands of acres of fertile land are willing to pay taxes to the country, if I force Jiang Anyi to implement the method said now, Jiang Anyi will inevitably become the target of public criticism. This son has the material to go through the heavens and latitudes, and has a loyal and patriotic heart, and he is really a peerless countryman. Wei'er, you must remember that in the future, as a king, you must treat him with the courtesy of a countryman. ”

Guoshi, this is the highest praise of the Son of Heaven for his subordinates. Shi Fangzhen said to the prince: "The eight straight bachelors I chose for you this time are not very old, and they are all talents that I have left for you to use in the future. Jiang Anyi, loyal and patriotic, talented, both civil and military, and unparalleled among the countrymen; Wei Youcheng is your brother-in-law, with a family background, outstanding talent, and a trustworthy person, who can balance with Jiang Anyi in the future; Zhang Yucheng, this person has both ability and political integrity, has the courage to do things, and is a candidate for the six books; He Ziying, who is familiar with the law and is upright, can be used as the imperial history; Cui Yuanhu, born in a family, humble and gentlemanly, moist as jade, can be used for the Ministry of Rites ......"

Shi Fangzhen is serious and eloquent, and Shi Chongwei memorizes it with his heart. In the meditation pavilion, the father is kind and the son is filial, and a piece of harmony. When the sun was about to sink into the West Mountain, the eight straight scholars of the Chongwen Pavilion had already been born.

Picking up Jiang Anyi's recital and handing it to Liu Weiguo, Shi Fangzhen said: "Seal this recital in the imperial study, God knows what happened today, and you and I know it, and it must not be leaked out." Liu Weiguo, you asked Jiang Anyi to secretly inform him not to speak to outsiders, even his teacher. Let him wait patiently for the day when I will take this recital to the Golden Temple and read it. ”

Shi Fangzhen looked at the setting sun in the west and muttered to himself: "There are many methods that can be implemented in this question, encouraging the people to engage in all kinds of industries, mining deposits to increase national strength, strictly supervising land sales, and prohibiting private contributions. I hope that this time the land will be cleared more of the donated land, so that the tax will be relatively fair. I freed up my hands to slowly weaken the power of the family, and then wrestle some land from the hands of the nobles of the family, and then there would be less resistance to paying taxes according to Jiang Anyi's fields, but I don't know how long it will take. If it's ten years, I'll still be able to do it myself, but if it's twenty years, I'm close to the sixtieth year, and I'm not energetic, I'm afraid that I will be powerless at that time, I'm afraid it will depend on Wei'er to implement it. ”

As the sun sets, the figure of the most noble father and son in the world is cast in the lake and falls on the lotus leaf. A gust of wind came, and the lotus leaves swayed, startling gulls and herons, breaking the tranquility of the lake.