Sitting on the dragon chair, Li Heng looked at the middle-aged official.
Wearing a green robe, Wu Qi is tall and thin, but has fair complexion and a beautiful beard. It can be seen that he was a handsome scholar when he was young.
Although the supervisory censor Li Xing was only of the sixth rank, it was indeed a very important official position in the official sequence of the Tang Dynasty.
The duty of the Supervisory Yuan is to detect the illegal behavior of impeached officials. Starting from the Wu Zhou court, the court has granted considerable power to supervise the censors.
The supervisory censor can choose the objects of investigation on his own, and can even investigate the prime minister's illegal activities.
Many prime ministers were impeached by small supervisory censors, because they were of low position and power.
This important position was either held by a new scholar or a close minister of the emperor.
However, Wu Qi, the supervisory censor, was awarded by Emperor Li Longji before his abdication. His previous official position was as a marching commander under Wei Jian.
Hearing that Wu Qi had met the emperor from Shu, Li Heng immediately asked: "Is the emperor well?"
Wu Qi secretly looked at Li Heng, seeing the emperor's expression in his eyes.
Wu Qi immediately said: "After the Emperor entered Shu, his dragon body was not in good condition. Later, when he heard that His Majesty had ascended the throne, the Emperor took off his burden and said to the ministers on the left and right, 'With Your Majesty taking charge of the Tang Dynasty, I can finally rest.' From then on,
The emperor takes his ministers to banquet in Shu every day."
Hearing this, Li Heng's face improved a lot, but he also knew that Li Longji's abdication was not voluntary, but that everyone in the world resented him, so he had no choice but to recognize Li Heng who had ascended the throne.
Moreover, Maweipo's mutiny also frightened Li Longji's courage. If he continued to be emperor, Li Longji would personally lead the troops to regain the two capitals, so he simply abdicated the throne and gave it to his son.
However, Li Heng had been the prince under Li Longji for decades, so he didn't know the emperor's political tactics, so he was still worried, fearing that Li Longji would finally pick the fruits of victory.
After asking about Li Longji's current situation, Li Heng said, "Why did you come from Yizhou to see me?"
Wu Qi bowed to Li Heng and said, "Your Majesty, I am here to counter the rebellion. May I ask Your Majesty, what is the most important thing about countering the rebellion?"
Li Heng blurted out: "Needless to say, of course it's the army!"
Wuqi shook his head and said: "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no matter how large the army is, it will inevitably lead to defeat if the sergeants don't work to the death."
Li Heng added: "In the legal system, I am the emperor, and it is my destiny to put down the rebellion. With this destiny, I will be able to put down the rebellion one day."
Wu Qi shook his head and said: "In terms of legal system, it can be said that Yang Guang, the second emperor of the Sui Dynasty, won the country unjustly. However, Yang Guang led his elite troops to station in Yangzhou and was finally trapped and defeated. Can the legal system alone make people in the world loyal?"
Li Heng thought for a while and then said: "What about talents? I have Li Mi, Guo Ziyi and other civil servants and generals serving me, so why worry about the world being unfair."
Wu Qi shook his head again and said: "The second emperor of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Guang, also had Su Wei, Han Qinhu and other civil servants and generals under his command."
Now Li Heng is a little unhappy. You, Fifth Qi, keep using Yang Guang as an analogy. Am I the same as Yang Guang?
Wu Qi saw that Li Heng's expression had changed. He knelt down and knelt down and said, "Sage, I believe that the most important thing to pacify the world is wealth."
"Only when the imperial court has wealth in its hands can it reward the three armies, and only then can the soldiers use their lives."
"Only when the imperial court has wealth can it afford the salaries of hundreds of officials, and only then can civil servants and military officers be loyal to the imperial court."
Li Heng nodded immediately, this Wu Qi is a talent!
He stepped down from the dragon chair, helped Wu Qi up and said, "Please teach me how to gather the world's wealth to quell the rebellion of the thieves?"
Wu Qi said: "Now that the world is in chaos and the people have been suffering for many years, I am afraid it is not appropriate to increase the rent."
Li Heng nodded. Now the imperial court had already collected enough mediocre rents. Coupled with the exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, the people's lives were already very difficult.
The last time Li Heng sent Huangmen to Shuofang to collect "military donations", it almost triggered a civil uprising. In the end, it was Guo Ziyi who sent his own soldiers to provide compensation and eliminate the people, which suppressed the civil uprising.
If we continue to increase taxes, I am afraid that Li Heng's throne will have been overthrown by the peasant army without An Lushan's attack.
At this time Wu Qi said: "Everyone in the world says that the wealth of the world will be raised once and benefited twice. The wealth of Yizhou will naturally be transferred to your majesty by the emperor. I can go to Yangzhou to raise money and food for your majesty to suppress the rebellion!"
Li Heng held Wu Qi's hand and said, "How do you want to raise money and food from Yangzhou?"
Wu Qi said loudly: "Salt!"
"Salt?"
Li Heng looked at Wu Qi in confusion, and only heard Wu Qi say: "Salt is something that every household must use every day. If tax is added to the salt, even if the price is a little more expensive, the people will still
If you need to buy salt, no matter you are rich or poor, the court can collect taxes from them."
Hearing Wu Qi's suggestion, Li Heng nodded, but then he asked: "But in the Taizong Dynasty, salt was exclusively owned by the government, but private salt was rampant and the salt administration was corrupted. In the end, Emperor Taizong exempted the private sector."
Wu Qi said: "Your Majesty, the Taizong Dynasty set up salt shops in various places. It was stipulated that only the court could sell salt. However, it was impossible to set up salt shops in every township. In the end, the people still had to sell salt from salt dealers.
.Taizong also sympathized with the hard work of the people, so he abolished the salt shop monopoly system."
"But my method is that the court does not need to control the sale of salt. It only needs to take control of the salt manufacturing industry and sell the salt to salt merchants at a high price."
"There are only a few places where salt is produced in the imperial court, and most of the salt in the world is produced from the Jianghuai River. I went to the south of the Yangtze River and compiled the salt farmers into salt households, and strictly managed them according to the military households, so that they could only
Salt can be made in the imperial salt field."
"Your Majesty will give you some more sergeants to specifically crack down on dealers who make illegal salt. As long as the salt fields are in the hands of the court, then you will add taxes to the salt and sell it to those salt merchants. Finally, the salt merchants will resell it to the people. In this way,
If you can gain fame without adding gifts, your country will be rich and prosperous. Only then will your Majesty have the wealth to reward the ministers of civil and military affairs and the soldiers who dare to die in service."
After listening to Wu Qi’s method, Li Heng and Long Yan were delighted, this method is great!
Indeed, as Wu Qi said, for the court, the most important thing is to be able to distribute rewards to soldiers.
Li Heng, who had personally experienced the Maweipo Mutiny, knew that these soldiers were the swords that protected the Tang Dynasty, but if they were owed military pay, they would violently demand payment. At that time, it didn't matter whether you were the emperor or a minister.
As long as the money is not given, it will be cut off.
When he first arrived in Shuofang, Li Heng was often looked down upon by Shuofang's arrogant generals because he could not afford to reward the army.
It was now that he had plenty of money that the army gradually obeyed his orders. After understanding this, Li Heng said to Wu Qi:
"I order Aiqing to be the Supervisory Censor, the Jianghuai Renting Envoy, the Salt and Iron Transport Envoy, and take charge of the salt affairs of the five states on the left and right of the Yangtze River!"