Li Chao's wolf fighting operation was very smooth, and the results of the grain grabbing were quite brilliant. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

In just three days, more than 500,000 stone of grain were found from the entire Gyeonggi region, which was almost equal to the amount of grain that the imperial court transported from the southeast to Chang'an in a year.

In the past, Kanto was known as the land of abundance and the land of anointing. But by the time of the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Guanzhong Plain had long been unable to supply Guanzhong's grain needs. As the land of Gyeonggi, Guanzhong has a large population, especially a large number of people who are not engaged in production, the court, the bureaucracy, the army, and those who serve slaves.

The land is small and the people are better than the earth.

At the same time, due to the war, many water conservancy facilities fell into disrepair, and the output of land land decreased. As early as the time of Emperor Ping of the Han Dynasty, the population of Jingzhao reached 700,000, and now the Tang Dynasty is not as large as the population of the Sui Kaihuang Emperor, but Chang'an also has a population of nearly 300,000.

There are many officials in Chang'an City, many clans, many people in the court, and many people in the army.

Just the rice supplied to the officials every year costs 500,000 stones.

This is still in the case of tens of thousands of soldiers in Chang'an, who basically provide their own food and clothing, or they consume more food.

The imperial court now transports hundreds of thousands of stones of grain from the southeast every year. In fact, the imperial court could not supply the grain rented from the fields in Guanzhong to meet the needs of the court and officials, and there was a food shortage of hundreds of thousands of stone every year.

The commercial grain in Guanzhong is also unable to meet the living needs of the people in Guanzhong, and at least millions of stone of grain need to be transferred from other places into Beijing every year, or even more.

Transporting grain from Shuzhong, Shannan, Jianghuai, Henan, Hedong, Hebei, Jiangnan and other places into Beijing is a non-governmental business activity in which non-governmental businessmen are transshipment of grain.

Even in the middle and late stages of the most prosperous Kaihuang of the Sui Dynasty, once there was a famine in Guanzhong, the emperor had to take the official army to the eastern capital to eat. A large number of people in Guanzhong had to flee with them.

Why?

There was a lot of grain in the Sui Dynasty, several large granaries, the grain piles could not be eaten, and the war at the end of the Sui Dynasty, the rebels grabbed a granary casually, and they could get enough food for hundreds of thousands of people.

There's a very troublesome problem here.

It is very difficult to transport grain into the customs, especially the section of Shaanzhou between Chang'an and Luoyang. There is no way to sail here, there is a section of the Wei River in Guanzhou, a section of the Yellow River in the lower reaches of Shaanzhou is navigable, and even there are canals in Henan and Hebei, all of which go directly to Yangzhou.

However, the long section of Shaanzhou could not be transported by ship at all, and the grain ship could only be transported by land. After all, the grain is very heavy, one stone is more than 100 catties, and one million stones, that is, at least one or two million grain bales.

Therefore, even when the Sui Dynasty was peaceful, the southeast grain warehouses were full, and there were several large granaries on the edge of Luoyang, which were full of grain, but in normal times, they could at most lose a million stone of grain to Guanzhong a year, and relying on the strength of private businessmen, they could lose another one or two million stones.

It's the limit.

Every year, Guanzhong has to rely on one or two million stone of grain imported from the Kanto region to replenish it.

But once Guanzhong is hit by a disaster, one or two million stone grain is not enough, but no matter how much it is, it has no ability to transport it. As a result, the emperor could only bring hundreds of officials, generals, and his palace maids and attendants, and the common people to Henan to eat.

In fact, Henan can't produce so much grain, but Henan has a lot of grain stored and many granaries, which are built on the banks of the Yellow River and canals.

Last year, the Tang Dynasty fought several battles, and although it was said that the world was pacified, it was also enough to choke. finally destroyed those anti-kings, snatched back the grain, stabilized prices, and fought a few more battles, and it was gone.

The imperial court could not provide food to the people, so it could only rely on the grain merchants, but the grain merchants still wanted to die.

Repeatedly, there was no food.

As a result, Li Chao came up with a plan to draw wages from the bottom of the kettle and played a hooligan. In the name of searching and rebellious parties, a surprise attack was carried out, and all the grain stocks of various grain merchants fell into Li Chao's hands.

More than 500,000 stones.

This is only the grain in the hands of the grain merchants, and they haven't gotten the grain hoarded by the wealthy families.

However, Li Chao accepted it when he saw it, and more than 500,000 stones were enough to survive this period of green and yellow. In a few months, it will be the summer harvest.

Moreover, during this time, it is also possible to transport grain from Kanto to Chang'an one after another.

"More than 500,000 stone grain?"

In the East Palace, Li Shimin is trying on a dragon robe.

There are still three days to ascend the throne, and Li Shimin is getting busier and busier. The dragon robe is very gorgeous, it was made by the palace maids, but it is not very comfortable to wear on the body.

Hearing that Li Chao had gotten more than 500,000 stone of grain in three days, Li Shimin was also extremely surprised.

"These damn guys, keep saying that they have no food, they want to sit and watch Chang'an run out of food, and they want to see my jokes."

"I have expected it, this is just to check those grain merchants, if we check the entire Gyeonggi and find one or two million stone of grain, it is not unusual."

In fact, ordinary people may not have overnight food at home, but those famous nobles have a lot of food. Because these people are basically big landlords, there is a lot of land, and there is naturally a lot of food. They will not be like ordinary people, they do not have overnight food at home, they will hoard a lot of food, especially now that they have just experienced the war, who has no food at home?

Even Li Chao's own home also has thousands of stones of grain.

"Your Highness, I plan it this way, when I take these grains, I have taken the account books, there are detailed figures, and they have all been registered. This grain is borrowed by the imperial court, and after the summer grain and autumn grain come down, the imperial court will issue a list for them and let them go to Henan to get the grain by themselves, and we can also calculate some interest and give them a little more. This can be regarded as their support for His Highness and my Datang. ”

Li Chao's borrowing will hurt the hearts of many grain merchants.

After all, their grain is hoarded there, and the shortage of grain in Gyeonggi will naturally sell it more expensively. But Li Chao borrowed it, and then had to pay back the grain when it was harvested in the summer and autumn of this year, but he had to let them go to Luoyang to receive the grain by themselves.

Even if the price of Luoyang's grain is increased, can it be the same value as the grain borrowed now? Not to mention that it has to drag on for half a year, there is a backlog of funds, and prices are also changing, and the price of grain in Luoyang is also very different from that of Chang'an.

Even if Li Chao adds some interest to them, these people will have to lose a lot of money.

However, Li Chao can only do this, the court has no food, so he will ask them to borrow it. And Li Chao has no money to pay, the Taicang treasury of the imperial court is actually very empty, 500,000 stone grain, where will the money come from.

"Well, just do as you say, and issue receipts to the grain merchants."

Li Shimin didn't have a better way, so he agreed with Li Chao's method of borrowing grain to make white slips.

"Your Highness, food is precious, and the minister plans to set up several grain sales points in Chang'an. Rationing supplies to the people, according to the number of people in the household, can ensure that everyone can buy food. ”

If the grain that was borrowed with great difficulty is not managed well and sold in the store, it is estimated that it will definitely be bought by those profiteers and magnates at a low price.

Li Chao didn't want to borrow a second round of grain.

For the first time, the grain merchants borrowed it, and it was better. If you have to find the powerful to do it, it will not be very wise, Li Chao does not want to be the enemy of all the powerful people.

"Your Highness, we can also take advantage of this opportunity to distribute food, by the way, find out the details of Chang'an's household registration, and check those hidden households. We distribute grain and supply it according to household registration, and those who have a household registration will naturally be given according to the amount, and those who do not have a household registration will not be able to provide food. It's okay to ask for food, register for naturalization, and then send food. In the same way, those who have slaves in their families have to receive food for their slaves, and they must also register their slaves with the government so that they can receive food. ”

"We take this opportunity to take a closer look at the household registration situation of Chang'an. By the way, I plan to implement the armor protection system implemented in Taozhou, so that the people of Chang'an will have five households as the first and ten households as the first, and the people of Chang'an will be jointly defended and jointly defended, and the joint defense will sit and supervise each other. ”

It is not so easy to control a Chang'an city with a population of hundreds of thousands.

Grasping the registered population is a crucial step.

I can't even figure out how many people there are in Chang'an City and how many black households there are, and a large number of black households exist, which will inevitably make the control of the government weak.

Now, with 500,000 stone of grain in hand, Jingzhao Mansion undoubtedly has a lot of chips in his hands.

During this period, we should make a grain supply according to the amount and link the grain supply with household registration, so that Jingzhao Mansion has a good entry point.

"It's good, you always come up with these good ideas. When I look at the household registration of the imperial court, it is also quite shocking. There are only 3 million households, 15 million people, and 2.3 million students left in Datang. The average per household has not yet been reached. In the Sui period, there were nearly 9 million households, nearly 50 million people, in just over ten years, it was impossible to lose more than two-thirds of the population, this is simply impossible, too many hidden households, a large number of people Dingkou, all entered the name of the wealthy family and even the temple and Taoist temple, and became their slave tenants, not the people of the imperial court. ”

These people are digging the walls of the imperial court and sucking the blood of the Tang Dynasty.

But now it is not so easy to conduct a census, and the family will definitely resist it.

Li Chao now proposes to find out the bottom in Chang'an, which makes Li Shimin see an opportunity to break the situation. Test the water in Chang'an first, see the situation, and try the reaction.

Let's discuss what to do.

"San Lang, you were in Taozhou, a remote place on the frontier, and in more than half a year, you made more than 100,000 people, and you were very surprised and shocked. There are no hidden households, no escapees, and no powerful clans who disregard the laws of the country. The people were all registered in the household register, the fields were registered, and they even paid tens of thousands of yuan in taxes for the imperial court in half a year. ”

Datang has more than 300 states and more than 1,000 counties.

Taozhou is just an ordinary border state. And Li Chao made Taozhou the most dazzling state in Datang last year.

"San Lang, Jing Zhaoyin is in charge of the Tang Dynasty Erchi Twenty-one Gi, a total of twenty-three counties. This is almost the entire Guanzhong Plain, the most fertile place, Lone has handed them over to you, I hope you can give Lone more surprises! (To be continued.) )