On February 13, the ninth year of Zhenguan, a very important day in the history of the Tang Dynasty, on this day, at the imperial court meeting, dozens of ministers led by Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui jointly handed a piece of music to Li Erma, Li Ermaxi opened the chapter and looked at it, a little surprised, because what was said above was about the content of the court officials' request to revise the Zhenguan law.

The ministers attached great importance to this situation, because according to a report submitted by Wei Zheng, in the past three years, the population engaged in agricultural production in the Tang Dynasty has dropped by 10%, and the population engaged in commercial activities has increased by 30%.

There is not enough labor force to engage in agriculture, and there is not enough physical condition to serve in the army, some people with physical defects or congenital diseases began to engage in commercial trade that they regarded as empty gloves white wolves, although commercial activities have been regarded as cheap industries since ancient times, but compared to agricultural production, commercial activities do make money quickly, and therefore, in the past three years, the assets of the people of Datang have been greatly improved.

This is a good thing, but it will definitely lead to a decrease in the agricultural population with the increasing prosperity of commerce, agriculture is the foundation of the country, there is not enough agricultural production, the country's grain production cannot be raised, it is useless to have money, what people need most to survive is food, it is food, if there is a food crisis, and some profiteers hoard it. A sharp rise in grain prices will trigger civil unrest.

He also pointed out that the recent tide of 100,000 people going to sea due to the incident of the Seven Kings going to sea is not an ordinary phenomenon, and the imperial court must pay attention to it, and should immediately send officials to each important grain producing area to investigate and secretly visit the changes in grain production and labor population in the relevant producing areas, and see if there are any families who have violated the imperial court decrees and blindly went to the sea to do business regardless of the agricultural production at home.

The courtiers were deeply concerned about this state of affairs. They agreed that more money was a good thing. However, food production should not be wasted because of this, Datang's reform of agricultural production has just begun, and it is the time when a large number of laborers are needed, and a large number of people go to sea to do business at this time. Most of them are young and strong. This situation cannot but be vigilant. The reason why the ancients wanted to focus on agriculture and suppress commerce was because commercial activities were too developed, and they would compete with agriculture for labor, which would eventually lead to a food crisis.

This is not unprecedented. It is precisely because of this that Shang Ying will put forward the policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business, vigorously suppressing giant businessmen, so that businessmen no longer have the power to control prices, but Datang's control of commerce is too lax, so that commercial behavior is almost unrestricted, and all are managed by the people themselves, which is good, but once a commercial crime occurs, what should it be?

Whenever there is a famine, no matter whether the imperial court forbids it or not, there are always some wealthy businessmen who encircle the grain as a commodity of life and sit on the ground to raise the price, so as to obtain high profits, and when the food crisis subsides and the prices return to normal, that part of the wealth obtained will become their wealth, and once such ill-gotten gains are flooded, once such unrighteous acts are flooded, it will be fatal for the entire Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, the courtiers unanimously proposed that while rewriting the Zhenguan Law, all merchants in the country should be thoroughly investigated, especially some well-known merchants, such as the family assets under the name of Hou Suning in Sanyuan County, as well as the assets of the huge commercial group of the Western Turkic Caravan, as well as the Xue Yantuo Business Group, the Western Regions Business Group and the Tubo Business Group, etc., the assets and businesses of these huge business groups must be thoroughly investigated!

At first, Li Erma was somewhat surprised, but then he realized that the Western Turkic merchant group and the Xue Yantuo merchant group, a military merchant group and a civilian merchant group, had developed very well, in addition to the Western Regions merchant group and the Tubo merchant group were very useful in politics, the Western Turkic merchant group and the Xue Yantuo merchant group had been established for several years, the Western Turks had been almost squeezed dry, and there had been a food crisis in many places, and it would not be long before they would be annexed by the Tang Dynasty, and the Western Turks would fall. Xue Yantuo and the Western Regions will be in the bag sooner or later.

The meaning of these merchant groups was first used to squeeze out the wealth of these tribes, so that they had no wealth and food that could be used to fight against the Tang Dynasty, and now this purpose has almost been achieved, but because more and more civil forces have entered, the original more political and meaningful actions have become more purely commercialized, and Suning's concerns at the beginning are gradually becoming a reality.

In the past few quarters, Li Erma's tax account has been checked, it is obvious that the number of agricultural taxes is still the largest, but the proportion has begun to decline, and although the number of commercial taxes is ranked behind, the ratio is rising year after year, the explanation is that the momentum of commercial development is very fast, far exceeding the development of agriculture, although the value of agricultural production has been rising in recent years, so that Li Erma's mouth is smiling, but it is obvious that the momentum of commercial development is more fierce!

The amount of business tax in Zhenguan's eight years is an astronomical amount that was unimaginable in the past.

Li Ermaxi thought of the money in his inner treasury that was too much to be used up, and he had some understanding, using the power of commerce to deal with those foreigners was really a double-edged sword, Suning's worries were very reasonable, no matter what, he couldn't turn a blind eye to the development momentum of commerce, Li Ermaxi decided to comply with the opinions of his courtiers and do something!

"So, what you said you were worried about at the beginning is now about to become a reality, take out the tricks you prepared, I'm going to use it!" Li Ermajesty threw the above table jointly signed by dozens of courtiers to Suning, and asked Suning to see it himself, Suning picked up the text and looked at it carefully, and felt that what he said was right, Wei Zheng understood his meaning very well, and promoted the unity of thought of some far-sighted ministers in the court, and no longer stood idly by for the development of business.

After reading the recital, Su Ning said very calmly: "When the first minister used these strategies, he told His Majesty that this is a double-edged sword, no matter how good it is used, there is a possibility of hurting himself, and it is not impossible to even die from his own weapon." At the beginning, His Majesty didn't quite understand why the minister was so worried, but now he should understand that using this method to deal with foreign clans will inevitably affect the Tang Dynasty itself. ”

Li Erqi said impatiently: "I didn't call you here to listen to you say this, but to ask you to take out the prepared strategy, it's time to come in handy, you must not say that you have not prepared at all in the past three years, then if something happens, I will cut you off to thank the world!" ”

Suning was shocked: "Your Majesty, what's wrong with the minister?" ”

Li Er's eyes rolled: "If you can't worry about you, what's the use of you?" ”

Suning was immediately depressed. This narcissist is really going to give himself a reason to get out. If it weren't for his preparation, it would really be difficult to deal with him, but fortunately, I already knew the nature of this group of guys who eat people and don't spit out bones, so I expected this. Suning smiled and picked up the recital. Hand it back to Li Erma. smiled: "Your Majesty, the countermeasures prepared by the minister are among them!" ”

Li Er Xià frowned and paused for a while, and asked tentatively, "Rewriting the law of Zhenguan is your countermeasure?" ”

Suning nodded: "Exactly!" ”

Li Erqi said suspiciously: "This is a big matter that involves the entire Tang Dynasty. Just by revising the Zhenguan Law and adding some clauses, can it be done to turn the situation around? The situation in Datang is booming, and at this time, I am afraid that it is a little bad to use strict punishment and harsh laws? ”

Suning said: "In the past, Zhuge Liang ruled Shu, and the first thing he did was to show Liu Bei to convene Liu Ba and Li Yan and other five people to jointly formulate the "Shu Branch", "Shu Branch" is a model of strict punishment and strict law, but after the implementation, although it is strict, it has been supported by the people of Shu, so that "Shu Branch" has become the basis of the law in Shu, and the people in Shu are stable, so that Zhuge Liang has enough confidence and strength to conquer Meng in the south and strengthen Wei in the north.

At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, Huang Lao's learning was the policy of governing the country, resting with the people, recuperating and recuperating, and accumulating national strength to prepare for the decisive battle against the Xiongnu, which was not wrong, but with the stability of the imperial court's rule, time went by day, and the transition from the troubled times to the relaxed world, Huang Lao's learning has been difficult to meet the needs of the Han court to govern the world, so that the guide zhì Hao is rampant everywhere, the people are miserable, and the government does not dare to control it.

The former Qin Dynasty has been in charge of the past generations, and later generations believe that it is wrong to govern the people with strict punishment and strict laws, which is a wrong idea in itself, Confucianism still has no rules, and it is not a square circle, which itself is to explain the importance of the law, Shu Han has been established for more than 40 years, the domestic contradictions are very small, and there are basically no large-scale rebellions and Han rebellions, the reason is that Zhuge Liang adopted the legal measures to govern Shu, the perfect combination of etiquette and law, the use of the strict law of the former Qin, and the tolerance of Confucianism, cooperate with each other, complement each other, and Shu is peaceful.

And now the Tang Dynasty is gradually away from the troubled times, the grain output is increasing year by year, the number of goods is also increasing, the people have gradually got rid of the fear brought by the Sui Rebellion, and began to live a normal life, and at the beginning of this life, it will inevitably inspire all kinds of contradictory events, the current situation of the Tang Dynasty can be regarded as after Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, Huang Laozhi's theory continued to prevail, and the rule of inaction occupied the mainstream consciousness.

Then it can be imagined, and the Tang Dynasty and the Han Dynasty are different, the Han Dynasty is the local tyrants, the Tang Dynasty will be the rich businessmen, the local tyrants of the Han Dynasty will be the power and force of the rebellion, and the rich businessmen of the Tang Dynasty will be in turmoil with money, which does not mean that it is absolute, but when the maritime trade flourishes and the wealth in the Tang Dynasty becomes more and more, at that time, there will definitely be a big turmoil.

That's why the ministers are so worried, businessmen have money and no power, but they can't bribe officials with money to gain power? His Majesty can cast a net all over Chang'an and make the imperial history control a qiē, but how much imperial history does it take to fill it all over the Tang Dynasty? Can a royal history really prevent a qiē corruption from happening? Can Zhuge Liang spread the imperial history everywhere to supervise officials in various places?

No, no, because the minister believes that it is impossible to absolutely eliminate corruption, as the so-called water is clear, there are no fish, everything is over, it is not good, but it is possible to limit corruption to a very small range, and what can be done is only the law! ”

Li Erqi pondered for a long time and nodded slightly: "What you said is reasonable, but how to legislate?" How to promulgate and implement it, and how to make all officials abide by this law, I'm afraid it's not so easy, right? ”

Suning once wanted Li Er's majesty to allow local officials to set up spontaneous non-governmental organizations in various places, similar to democratic organizations such as the Consultative Bureau, so that the rights of officials would be restricted and thus deterred, but after thinking about it, Datang said that the people sued the officials whether they won the lawsuit or not, and they knew that this would definitely not work, rather than looking for themselves, it was better to take their time, and don't freak out this big boss......

"The minister is not very sure of this, but what the minister knows is that it is a stupid practice to forcefully suppress the development of business, and it can only be gradually guided by legal means. Suning said honestly. (To be continued......)