Li Mi quickly found Zhang Tianlun, pointed to the signature in the newspaper and asked:
"Master Zhang, is this Jiang Lun a famous scholar in Longyou? Does he have an official position?"
Li Mi cherished his talents. Many young ministers in the imperial court were recommended by Li Mi. This article by Jiang Lun is enough to show his level. Li Mi also had the intention to recommend him to the imperial court.
Zhang Tianlun said: "Jiang Lun, this guy is already the chief of the Salt and Iron Tax Department of Longyou Dudu Prefecture."
Li Mi was stunned for a moment and asked: "What is the status of the Salt and Iron Tax Department in Longyou?"
Zhang Tianlun was stunned for a moment and said: "Status? The Salt and Iron Taxation Department is in charge of Longyou's taxation and salt and iron franchise. It is almost equal to the Ministry of Finance, or the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs."
Li Mi felt disappointed. It turned out that Jiang Lun was already a senior official in the Longyou Governor's Mansion.
If he was lured to the court again like this, he would be a bit sorry for King Jianning.
Li Mi had no choice but to give up this idea for the time being and continue reading this article.
Jiang Lun continued to list data in the article. Starting from the Wu Zhou court, due to the large amount of land that was not taxed by the powerful, the rent collected by the Tang Dynasty from the Guanzhong area was so low that it was not even enough to maintain the operation of the local government in Guanzhong.
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At that time, the Jinshi who came from poor families were unwilling to go to Guanzhong to serve as county magistrates, because Guanzhong was full of powerful and powerful people. Not only could they not collect taxes, but even government salaries were often in arrears.
Only those children from rich families who are not short of money will use their own money to subsidize expenses, just to be promoted as soon as possible.
Guanzhong's finances have reached this point. How can the Tang Dynasty maintain the prosperity of Chang'an?
The answer is the Grand Canal.
The Tang Dynasty dredged the Tongji Canal connecting Luoyang to Jiangnan and connected the water transportation between Guanzhong and Jiangnan.
At the same time, the Yongji Canal that went north to Zhuojun (the administrative seat of Beiping) was dug and the canal in the north was opened.
Unlike later dynasties that had their capital in Beiping, the Ming Dynasty used water transport to transport grain from Jiangnan to Beiping.
Today, the role of the Yongji Canal is to transport money, grain, and taxes from the north to Chang'an.
Relying on the Tongji Canal to draw blood from the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, and the Yongji Canal to draw blood from the Hedong and Hebei areas, the prosperity of Guanzhong was maintained and Chang'an, the greatest capital city, was built.
However, Jianghuai and Hebei combined accounted for less than one-fifth of the country's population. Although they provided almost half of the imperial tax, they did not obtain the political status to match it.
Li Mi was shocked. The problem pointed out by Jiang Lun was indeed the deepest struggle in the Tang Dynasty.
Li Mi also thought about the current issue in the court regarding the treatment of officials who defected to the puppet Yan. In fact, even today, there are still a large number of people in Hedong and Hebei areas who support the puppet Yan.
This is not only the soldiers in the puppet Yan army, but also the people and scholars in the north are supporting An Lushan.
The reason is very simple. There were only so many positions in the Tang Dynasty. Those who can be officials now are all the children of powerful people.
Even in the imperial examination, candidates from Chang'an and Guanzhong are more likely to pass the Jinshi examination than candidates from other places.
For example, Yan Zhuang, who had just surrendered to the imperial court with Luoyang, was also a Hebei scholar who failed many times. He later joined Anlu Mountain and rose to prominence.
Li Mi's heart became heavier and heavier. What Jiang Lun said was the current situation of the officialdom of the Tang Dynasty.
Official positions are only in the hands of a few ministers, and it is very difficult for ordinary scholars to get ahead.
Poetic talents like Li Bai and Du Fu had to rely on writing poems to flatter the emperor and high-ranking officials before they could become officials.
As for scholars such as Cen Shen and Wang Changling, they could only seek refuge with the military governors in the border areas and gain promotion through military exploits in border counties.
Even within the elite group, there are no longer enough positions.
During the Kaiyuan period, Zhang Bo, the son of Prime Minister Zhang Shuo and the consort of Emperor Li Longji, could not be awarded a high official position.
In the end, Zhang Bo surrendered to Anlushan and became the prime minister of the puppet Yan like Da Xixun and Chen Xilie.
It's just that Zhang Bo didn't know whether it was luck or misfortune, but he died of illness during the battle at Xiangji Temple, so he was not escorted to Dali Temple for trial.
The upper level is involuted, the middle level is hopeless, and the bottom level is starving to death.
Jiang Lun continued to point out in his policy statement that such heavy population pressure and several failures in opening up frontiers during the Kaiyuan period had actually sown the seeds of the Anlushan Rebellion.
Li Mi nodded, this Jiang Lun is indeed a great talent!
At the end of the emperor's reign, two major defeats in the attack on Nanzhao destroyed hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers of the Tang Dynasty.
With the rise of Nanzhao, the powerful enemy Tibet was aggressive, and the north also suffered a defeat. Even An Lushan was almost beheaded because of this defeat.
The pace of expansion of the empire has slowed down, and the newly acquired land cannot be profited. If it were another dynasty, the people would have revolted by this time.
But the Tang Dynasty did not wait for the peasant uprising, but encountered the Anlushan Rebellion.
Jiang Lun believed that the Anlushan Rebellion was not an invasion of the Tang Dynasty by northern aliens, but an internal power struggle within the Datang Group.
Anlushan was supported by the gentry and common people in the north. Even when Anlushan established his capital in Luoyang, many gentry in Henan gave up their entire family fortune to support Anlushan.
The An Lushan Rebellion was a struggle for power within the Tang Dynasty, and the cruel part was that even when the population of the Tang Dynasty had reached its limit, such a war was needed to "consume" the excess population.
Li Mi felt cold all over his body, but he also felt a sudden sense of enlightenment.
Why was the early dynasty always able to achieve political clarity and make the country prosperous and strong?
The number of troops during the Taizong period was far less than that during the Kaiyuan Tianbao period, but their combat effectiveness was far greater than the current Tang army.
It's all population!
If there is not enough food and the people cannot live, they will rise up and rebel.
The world was peaceful, the population was reduced, and the people continued to multiply.
When the population again exceeds the limit of land burden, people will once again be unable to survive.
After reading all this, Li Mi felt completely desperate.
If fighting chaos is an inevitable cycle, then what is the point of your own efforts?
But there was still another paragraph in the article, so Li Mi quickly continued reading.
Li Mi was full of expectations. Since Jiang Lun could see the historical laws in the fog of history, did he have a solution?
Sure enough, here is the solution written by Jiang Lun.
The first is to increase productivity, which simply means increasing the value of goods that land can produce.
This productivity includes not only land cultivation for food, but also the goods that can be produced by the workshops on the land.
This solution is also very simple. When the total amount of land cannot be increased, increase the output of the land.
Whether it is the introduction of high-yielding food crops or hybrid rice to increase grain yield per acre, more people can be fed.
The output of the land also includes the output of the workshop. The article also points out that if more goods can be produced, dumped to other surrounding countries, and then exchanged for food, more people can survive.
After reading this, Li Mi also praised, this is indeed a good way to solve the population trap!
From this point of view, the establishment of ironware workshops and manufacturing industries was also Longyou's first attempt to solve the population trap.
But does Li Mi think this path is really feasible?
Even through trade, how much food can be brought back?
Keep reading, this is the second solution proposed by Wang Lun - colonization.
This method is also very simple. Since the land cannot support such people, then find more land to accommodate these people!
Jiang Lun's method is also very simple and crude. The world is very big and there are many rich places.
Datang could organize colonial groups to develop overseas territories.
What if there are limits to the territory ruled by an empire?
Then let the colonization group become a semi-independent vassal state. As long as these vassal states still use the etiquette and writing of the Tang Dynasty, respect the Tang Dynasty as the suzerain state, and pay tribute to the Tang Dynasty on a regular basis, it will be enough.
In this way, Datang could solve the dilemma of internal population growth, obtain overseas colonial territories, and obtain a larger market and earn greater profits through trade!
Seeing this, Li Bi's heart surged, and he wanted to run immediately towards the beautiful future described by Jiang Lun.
"How magnificent! How magnificent! What a magnificent article!"
But Li Mi still had some doubts about the vast overseas territory Jiang Lun mentioned.
Although from the merchants in the Western Regions, we know that there is an ancient country similar to the Tang Dynasty in the far west.
But what Jiang Lun said in the article, do the two supercontinents on the other side of the ocean, the north and the south, really exist?
But no matter what, this article has far-reaching intentions.
The article raised questions, analyzed the rules of the rise and fall of dynasties, and also proposed its own solutions.
This kind of article is already as famous as Jia Yi's "Public Security Shu"!
What interests Li Mi even more is the argumentative method of Jiang Lun's article.
Asking questions about population changes, the data is detailed and terrifying. Although there is no gorgeous rhetoric, it still makes people break into cold sweats after reading it.
The detailed data is irrefutable. This is the first time Li Mi has seen this argument method.
Li Mi closed the newspaper and exclaimed with sincerity: "There are so many talents under King Jianning! Jiang Lun is as talented as Jia Yi! This article is as powerful as "Public Security Shu"
!”
Regarding Li Mi's praise, Zhang Tianlun said disapprovingly: "This guy advocates the theory of colonization and expansion on forums every day, and now he wants to publish it in newspapers. This idea of colonization and expansion overseas is not his alone."
Zhang Tianlun continued: "This guy advocates free market in newspapers every day, but he also runs a royal palace franchise in Longyou, which is really divisive. When we get to Shazhou, maybe we can meet Jiang Lun, and then Mi Gong
Let’s talk to him again!”
Li Mi and Zhang Tianlun rested in Guazhou for a day, and continued to take a public carriage the next day to Shazhou City, the seat of the Longyou Governor's Mansion.
The emperor Li Longji, who was in Shu, also met the prime minister Li Lin sent by his son Li Heng.