The Imperial Study. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Li Shimin listened to Ma Zhou, the secretary of the household department, make a financial report, and the more he listened, the more frowning he became.

"Why hasn't the financial situation of the imperial court eased at all, didn't it issue salt bonds, salt stocks?"

Ma Zhou closed the account book in his hand, "Back to Your Majesty, after the minister took over the household department, Xiao Gui Cao followed, according to the method left by Li Xiang, stepped up the issuance of salt quotations, recruited salt merchants to issue salt quotations, and it was doubled, and a lot of salt citations were raised. Salt bonds were issued, and another amount of money was raised. In addition, the Salt Company was established, publicly issued salt shares to the world, recruited shareholders, and raised a lot of funds. ”

"Then why are you still short of money?"

Ma Zhou was also a little helpless.

If you don't belong to your home, you don't know that oil, salt, firewood and rice are expensive. When he became the head of the household department, he learned that in a country as big as Datang, there is a lot of fiscal and tax revenue, but the expenses are even greater. Everywhere you ask for money, everywhere you ask for money.

Fortunately, when Li Chao was in charge of the household department, he established a financial expenditure budget system, and at the end of each year, the financial revenue of the following year would be estimated, and then on this basis, a budget allocation would be made for the expenditure of the imperial court in the following year.

In this way, the large expenditure budget will be well allocated, and then part will be left for adjustment, and it will be difficult to spend. The biggest advantage of this budget system is that money is allocated reasonably.

But no matter how good the system is, it still has to be rich. There are too many expenses, and the budget is reduced everywhere, and the result is that everywhere does not get enough money, and without money, it is impossible to do things, and in the end, everywhere continues to ask for money. Even in many places, special people have been sent to stay in Xiangyang all day long, squatting outside the yamen of the household department every day, guarding them like thieves, and coming to report every day.

Although Ma Zhou will still leave a budget in his hand, this money is for emergencies and cannot be easily pulled.

Where he can make money, he has found a way. Just one salt, he followed Li Chao's method, issued salt, issued salt bonds, and issued salt stocks, in short, a salt stunned is to make tens of millions of dollars.

He has even set up a tea company, issued tea quotes, and raised tea stocks, all of which were over-issued.

However, the expenses of the imperial court were indeed large, and as soon as the catastrophe in the north ended last year, the imperial court was engaged in immigration, and also engaged in the granting of land equally, and also carried out tax exemption for two years for the people affected by the disaster and immigrants in the north.

In addition, the previous war had a staggering amount of expenditure, and at this time, it was necessary to step up the nine-sided defense of the north and build Xinjing.

Li Shimin sighed.

"The treasury of the imperial court is empty, and so is my inner house. But when I look at the nobles of the court, they are all very rich and wealthy. Even the merchants were just as wealthy. Brocade clothes and jade food silk and satin, in and out of carriages, raising polo teams, building high-rise mansions, building manor villas. ”

"On the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month this year, you can see how extravagant and luxurious the lanterns are made by those big wealthy businessmen in Xiangyang."

When Li Shimin talked about this, he was both angry and a little envious in his heart.

"Your Majesty, as long as the aristocratic businessmen pay taxes according to the law and there is no tax evasion, then the imperial court cannot arbitrarily increase taxes and fees. It's a good thing that the market is bustling these days. If the imperial court breaks its own tax laws and regulations at will because of lack of money, and collects money from the common people and merchants, it is no longer a long-term strategy to kill chickens and eggs, and dry up and fish. ”

"I know, Wen Yuan has also told me a few times, the imperial court has to take the road of sustainable development, what market is prosperous, the imperial court's taxes can be increased, I know all this, but it is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, seeing that the situation in the north is so tense, the imperial court has to step up the defense construction of the north, but these require money. To immigrate to Shibian and reclaim the tuntian, it also costs money. I need money everywhere, and I can't make money. ”

Ma Zhou has no choice.

"Your Majesty, you can only live within your means, and decide the expenditure budget according to the income and expenditure of the imperial court. Downcompress, cut, or even eliminate unnecessary, non-critical expenses. For other expenses, it is also necessary to reduce what should be reduced. ”

"That's all there is to it for now. However, this is not a long-term strategy, and the two tax laws proposed by Li Chao should be implemented as soon as possible, and the household tax and land tax in the first half of the year must be levied first this summer. If this tax is levied, it can alleviate a lot of financial shortfalls. "The new law of two taxes proposed by Li Chao is a supplementary tax law for the imperial court to adjust the tax on rent.

To put it simply, the rent adjustment is to collect taxes according to the Ding. No matter how many households you have, no matter how much property you have in your field, a tax will be charged for each of them.

If the uniform land system can be guaranteed, then this tax law is relatively fair and not too heavy. But on the other hand, when this tax law was formulated, it was actually biased towards the powerful and rich. For no matter how much money and land they have, they are only taxed according to the tithe.

And now that Li Chao has introduced the two tax laws as a supplement, in addition to the Ding tax, there is also a tax on tenants and tenants, and taxes on households, which means that everyone has added a tax, the poor have added less, and the rich have added more.

This tax is actually not a big burden for the rich.

But land taxes are different.

Because Li Chao's land tax is levied according to the field, and this tax is completely only levied on the number of acres, and there is no upper limit. The more land there is, the more land tax is levied, and neither officials nor nobles are exempt from this tax.

For the imperial court, this tax is the real big head.

There are as many fields in the world as there are taxes that can be levied, and this tax cannot be deceived by the central court in the local government, because how many fields there are will be clear with this census survey.

At that time, the imperial court only needs to check the local land tax according to the official registration number.

Li Shimin is now in great need of the two taxes.

If both taxes can be levied, according to official estimates, this will even exceed the income from the regular tax.

After finishing the discussion, Li Shimin returned to the dormitory.

"Father, the queen mother's qi illness has been committed again."

Hearing the prince's words, Li Shimin became nervous, "Have you declared the imperial doctor?" ”

"The imperial doctor came to see it and prescribed medicine, but it didn't have much effect. After drinking the Buddha porridge, I have settled down a little, and now I am asleep. ”

"I'll take a look."

"The queen mother has just slept, so don't bother my father."

Li Shimin raised his foot, stopped again, turned around and sat down again.

Empress Changsun has a qi disease, and it is not a day or two.

Every spring, the qi disease becomes more and more serious, and I often say a word and have to wheezing several times. In severe cases, not only will the asthma be severe, but also cough up blood.

Although there are countless imperial doctors in the palace, no one has ever had a good prescription to cure the queen's illness, at most it is only a symptom but not a cure.

Father and son sat there and sighed for a while.

The queen was sick and rested, so she couldn't cook for the two of them. Usually, the queen would often cook for the emperor by herself, and when the prince was in the palace, they also ate together.

After waiting for a long time, today's imperial meal came up.

Because the food was not made by the queen herself, before the imperial meal was passed from the imperial dining room, it had to be tasted by a special person to test the poison.

By the time the dish was delivered to the emperor and the crown prince, it was already cold.

The palace people took the dishes out of the food box one by one and prepared to heat them again.

In the past, it was too cold, and the dish was already cold after trying it, and it had to be hot again when it got here.

But today Li Shimin is in no mood.

No matter how delicious the dish is, it doesn't taste like that when it's cold and hot.

In addition, the queen's illness worsened, and Li Shimin's mood was even worse.

He stopped the chamberlain.

"The food doesn't need to be hot, I'll reward you."

"Your Majesty is not satisfied with today's imperial meal, the old slave can pass the imperial chef to make another one."

Li Shimin shook his head, and he called the prince, "Cheng Qian, follow me." ”

"Where, Father?"

"Go to Li's house, eat big dogs."

Cheng Qian smiled and got up very happily, the food in the palace has always been inferior to the teacher's hand.

The two of them left the palace and went straight to Li Chao's mansion.

The two of them did not set up a guard of honor to drive, and they drove lightly, with a few guards, and went directly to the door.

Li Chao was not surprised when he received the report and came out, anyway, Li Shimin was not like this once or twice.

"What would Your Majesty like to eat?" Li Chao saw that Li Shimin was stepping on the meal, and it was a light car Jane who came from Weifu, and knew that the emperor must not have eaten yet.

"What do you have to eat?"

Li Chao thought about it, the emperor, the delicacies of the mountains and seas are not rare. After thinking about it for a while, he said, "Coincidentally, there are fresh toon buds just sent by the Zhuang Shangren at home, why don't you stir-fry a toon scrambled egg?" ”

At this time, in the spring of the countryside, the toon buds that held back for a winter finally broke the stems and came out, the stems were fat and the leaves were tender, fresh and fragrant, mellow and refreshing, so there was a saying that the toon was tender and silky before the rain.

Toon has purple toon buds and green toon buds, but the purple toon buds are the best, the whole body is purple red, the buds are thick, the fragrance is mellow, and the nutrition is also high.

The most classic recipe for toon is, of course, toon sprout scrambled eggs.

The tender eggs and crunchy Tsubaki sprouts become more flavorful the more you chew them.

Li Shimin nodded, spring has arrived, winter bamboo shoots have gone, and toons have come. It's just that the thought that every spring, the queen's qi illness worsens, and he feels heavy.

"Your Majesty seems to have something on his mind?" Li Chao asked. Although they are kings and ministers, they are also friends in private. Looking at Li Shimin's appearance, Li Chao asked with concern.

The crown prince said on the side, "The queen mother's qi illness has been committed again, and the father and the emperor are worried about the queen mother." ”

"Wen Yuan, do you have any remedies for the queen's qi disease?" Li Shimin asked.

Li Shimin has actually asked Li Chao more than once, but Li Chao himself is not a doctor. The medicines he brought before were not many, and with the problem of timeliness, he had already used them up. He wanted to find a prescription from his computer and mobile phone, but fortunately, after a few years, whether it was a computer, a mobile phone or a tablet, it could not be turned on, because the solar charger was broken, so the electronic products had long run out of power.

He really didn't have the skills to make a new solar charger, and regretted that he didn't learn about it in the first place.

Qi disease, this is a relatively general classification of diseases in traditional Chinese medicine, what qi disease, wind disease, sometimes I can't figure out what it is. The queen's qi disease, after his research, judged that it was estimated to be asthma or something, maybe it was a lung problem, anyway, he couldn't figure it out, and the diagnosis of those imperial doctors really didn't help him.

"Your Majesty, the queen's illness, if there is anyone in this world who can cure it, there is only the medicine king Sun Si. According to the minister, His Majesty immediately issued an edict to let the whole world look for the king of medicine. ”

"I've already issued an edict, but I can't find anyone."

Li Chao thought about it, Sun Silian is a master and doesn't like to be constrained by the imperial court, but he will have some personal pursuits. Sun Silian doesn't want to be an official, don't want a title, don't want money, but he will definitely have a pursuit.

"Your Majesty, it is better to make another edict and invite King Sun Yao to come to Beijing."

Li Shimin was puzzled, he had issued many edicts, Sun Sihua must have known, but he should not be edicted, he made a wish and promised a thousand rewards, but it was useless.

"Your Majesty, for King Sun Yao, fame and fortune are all fleeting. It is better to build a medical school for Sun Yaowang, which can not only treat people, but also accept apprentices to teach and continue the medical Tao. Your Majesty can also publish medical books for King Sun Yao, etc.! Provide him with funding for medical research to help him solve incurable medical problems! ”

Li Shimin slapped his thigh, "Why didn't I think of these things before, okay, just do as you say!" If I can find Dr. Sun and cure the queen's illness, I will promise him any conditions! ”