Wei Jiansu said calmly: "Weichen's first principle is that if land tax is levied, household tax should not be levied. This is only fair. City people cannot only bear household tax while farmers have to bear it as well."
In addition to land tax and household tax, tenant farmers even have to pay land rent. The exploitation is too cruel."
Li Ye walked a few steps with his hands behind his back: "Those big landowners with land in their hands all live in the city, haven't they escaped the household tax?"
Wei Jiansu smiled and said: "Your Highness, how many of these big landowners actually pay taxes? Your Highness can use other methods to collect money from them! For example, with titles, there were so many honorable officials before, and even an old farmer selling vegetables could do it.
Shangzhu Kingdom is simply meaningless. Your Highness can modify the title system and subdivide the titles. A baron can be divided into several grades. Is it more effective to use titles to harvest big landowners than to collect taxes?"
Li Ye nodded and said, "Then what?"
"Then His Highness can make a fuss about the household tax and reform the household tax internally. For example, the tax should be collected on a per-capita basis and children who are underage will not be taxed. Secondly, the tax can be reduced. If there are many underage children in the family, the tax can be reduced or even exempted.
This actually encourages having children in disguise.”
Next to him, Li Mi added: "The key is to suppress the price of grain so that the lower-class people with a large population can afford to eat. The imperial court can open government-run grain shops in various counties to sell coarse grains, old rice and burlap, mainly at a low price. In this way, the lower-class people can afford to eat."
Even though the common people have many children, they can still afford food."
Wei Jiansu's plan is indeed good. It gives profits to local governments, then turns the household tax into a special tax for the court, and then reduces the household tax. Instead, the household tax is reduced to encourage children, which is more effective than directly abolishing the household tax.
Li Ye thought for a while and said, "What should the tenant farmers do? The land is not theirs. Maybe since they have to pay land tax, they also have to pay household tax?"
"It's very simple. If you pay the household tax, you don't have to pay the land tax. If you pay the land tax, you don't have to pay the household tax. Let's talk about the tax bill. If the landowners use land rent to make a fuss, then the government land rent should be uniformly limited, and the farmers will naturally choose officials.
land instead of continuing to rent the land from the landlord.”
Speaking of this, Wei Jiansu said slowly: "In ten years, when Your Highness has completely stabilized his rule, Your Highness can implement the abolition of slavery step by step. This is the key to the complete prosperity of the Tang Dynasty."
Li Ye said happily: "I would like to ask Wei Xiangguo to write a complete memorial to what I said today, and re-pilot it in Bashu for one year according to the new plan. The tax increase can be abolished first."
March is coming soon, and according to the plan, Li Ye will lead his army on an expedition.
He immediately appointed his father Li Dai as the examiner of the imperial examination, and as before, handed over the power of the regent to Princess Dugu Xinyue.
He led an army of 100,000 to attack Puyang and Hebei. He wanted to personally lead the battle to wipe out the feudal towns.
After seizing Licheng County and Yidu County, Guo Ziyi took advantage of the fact that the Yellow River had not thawed, and led an army of 100,000 to cross the Yellow River and occupy Dizhou. The main army was stationed in Luhe County, the westernmost part of Dizhou.
At the same time, the Tang army sent a large amount of grain and grass supplies across the Yellow River.
Nearly ten days passed and the Yellow River began to thaw.
That morning, a group of scouts came rushing from Dezhou. The leader of the scout was a school lieutenant named Xue Wei. He was ordered by Guo Ziyi to go to explore the situation in Dezhou.
Half an hour later, the scouts arrived at Zhanghe County. On top of the city, Guo Ziyi was watching their arrival.
Although Guo Ziyi currently occupied Dizhou, businessmen from Dezhou revealed that there was not a single soldier in Dezhou or even Bozhou. This made Guo Ziyi a little confused. He could not see through Wei Bojun's strategy. He remembered what the regent had told him before.
One possibility is that Tian Chengsi may be withdrawn to the north, allowing the Tang army to fight the Uighur army first, and then they will reduce the interests of the people.
If this is the case, then it makes sense that there are no enemy troops stationed in Dezhou and Bozhou. However, Guo Ziyi is very cautious. He is worried that this is a trick by the enemy to lure troops to the west, and then cut off his own logistics in one fell swoop.
supply.
However, Guo Ziyi was not in a hurry to attack Tian Chengsi. He had already received news that the regent had led an army of 100,000 to fight in the direction of Puzhou.
Not long after, Xue Wei was led up to the city wall. He took a few steps forward, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See you, Marshal!"
“What’s going on in Texas?”
"It is true that there are no troops stationed in Texas and everything is normal. We asked the magistrate of Ande County and he said that there have never been troops stationed in Texas."
"Do you have any brothers in Texas now?" Guo Ziyi asked again.
"There are several brothers who will rush to notify us immediately if the situation changes."
Guo Ziyi knew the situation in Dezhou. It was the base camp where Yan Zhenqing fought against An Lushan. The officials and the people all supported the imperial court. Although Shi Siming massacred the city twice, they still refused to give in. It was a place of loyalty.
Moreover, Ande County has been repaired by Yan Zhenqing and is a large and solid city, much better than the dilapidated and short Dinghe County.
Guo Ziyi immediately ordered his deputy general Ma Lin to be the vanguard and lead an army of 10,000 people. He then led an army of 90,000 people and 20,000 camels, driving 200,000 sheep, to Ande County, 150 miles away.
Of course Tian Chengsi knew that one hundred thousand Tang troops had appeared on the north bank of the Yellow River, but at this time Tian Chengsi was dealing with a difficult matter.
Li Na led 15,000 people across the Yellow River and headed north, directly entering Bozhou. After bloodbathing Boping County, he burned and killed all the way into Jizhou and occupied Xindu County, a large city.
Li Na threatened that if the 10,000 Ziqing troops in the Hezong Army were not returned to him, he would rush into Weizhou and kill Weizhou to pieces, turning it into a river of blood.
Tian Chengsi was so powerful that Li Na's army completely disrupted his plan. Tian Chengsi had no choice but to send 3,000 pigs and sheep to stabilize Li Na first, and quickly ordered the joint army to march north to Jizhou. He also personally led four soldiers
An army of ten thousand marched into Jizhou, and Li Baochen was notified that an army of thirty thousand would march south.
A total of 120,000 troops surrounded Xindu County, preparing to annihilate Li Na.
It was in Xindu County that Tian Chengsi received the news that 100,000 Tang troops had occupied Dezhou.
This made Tian Chengsi really embarrassed. There were no soldiers in Xiangzhou, no soldiers in Bozhou, and no soldiers in Beizhou. Only his home base of Weizhou Yuancheng still had 10,000 troops stationed, led by his eldest son Tian Wei.
Just after Guo Ziyi's army arrived in Dezhou, an intelligence agent came from Yuancheng County, Weizhou and asked to see Guo Ziyi.
Guo Ziyi quickly sent his own soldiers to bring the intelligence spies up.
"My humble position is that of an intelligence agent from Weizhou. I came here to report the situation on the orders of the General Manager Wang. Something very important has happened!"
The intelligence agent took out a piece of intelligence and presented it to Guo Ziyi. The news inside surprised Guo Ziyi. Tian Chengsi's army actually besieged Li Na in Xindu County in Jizhou. Weizhou currently only has 10,000 troops.
Unexpectedly, Li Na not only failed to become Tian Chengsi's subordinate, but also disrupted Hebei. Now is the opportunity!
At this time, another soldier came to report, "To inform you, old general, the head of the Cui family in Qinghe County has sent someone to see you."
Guo Ziyi nodded, "Invite him in!"
Guo Ziyi asked the intelligence agent to go down and rest first. Not long after, a scholar man in his forties hurried over.
He bowed and said in salute: "I am Cui Ling. I was born as a Jinshi in the first year of Tianbao. I was originally the governor of Beizhou. I don't want to be a thief and abandoned my official position at home. I am here to see the old general on the order of the head of the family!"
Guo Ziyi nodded, "You are the younger brother of Cui Shijun, the admonishing doctor, right?"
"Exactly! I am his younger brother."
Cui Shijun, the remonstrating official, is Cui Huan, the former prime minister, and the current head of the Cui family is his second brother Cui Ze.
Guo Ziyi took the letter and read it carefully. It turned out that after Li Na's army massacred Boping County, they immediately went north to Beizhou to rob Qinghe County. The Cui family called on 10,000 Qinghe children to go to the city to defend the city. Li Na had no siege weapons, so he
They spared Qinghe County and continued northward to Jizhou.
Now that there is no soldier in Beizhou, the Cui family is still frightened and begs the Tang army to go north to Beizhou immediately.
Guo Ziyi thought for a moment. Although the regent had given him an order not to act rashly, the situation was changing rapidly and he had to seize this opportunity.
Guo Ziyi immediately divided his troops into three groups and ordered his deputy general Ma Lin to lead an army of 30,000 to attack Weizhou, and his general Wei Ran to lead an army of 10,000 to guard Ande County. He then led an army of 60,000 to attack Beizhou.
At the same time, he sent his men to Puzhou to report the latest situation in Hebei to the regent Li Ye.
