Tibet

After entering October, Chang'an has been drizzling with autumn rain, and the air has begun to feel a bit chilly.

But the atmosphere in the court and the streets of Chang'an is very warm, and a major moment is coming.

Empress Dowager Zhang officially issued a statement on the emperor's abdication. The emperor has had serious intellectual disabilities since childhood. He was supported to be the emperor due to the eunuch party's interference in politics. Now as he grows older, his intellectual disabilities are becoming more and more obvious. After collective confirmation by the court's military and political deliberations, it has been determined that the emperor is unable to assume the responsibility of governing the world. Hereby announce to the world that the emperor will formally abdicate at the end of the year.

The edict did not avoid the issue of the emperor, but directly pointed out the reason. He has a serious intellectual disability and was supported to the throne by the eunuch party. Now it is getting worse. It has been confirmed by all officials in the court that the emperor's situation is no longer able to perform the duties of the emperor, and it is time to abdicate.

Immediately afterwards, Empress Dowager Zhang issued a second edict, confirming that the heir, that is, the current regent, will ascend the throne on the first day of the first lunar month next year.

Li Ye wrote to the emperor at any time, saying that he could not accept the throne because of his shallow virtue and incompetence, and begged the queen mother and the officials to choose another wise man.

The Political Affairs Hall immediately made a resolution to reject the regent's request and asked him to inherit the throne.

The queen mother also issued an order again, urging the regent to accept the officials' request and ascend the throne.

Li Ye wrote to the emperor twice in succession, begging for another wise man to be chosen.

The second time was the military and political meeting to deprive Li Ye of his request and ask him to succeed the throne.

The third time was initiated by the Political Affairs Hall, and all the officials of the court signed jointly, unanimously requesting the regent to ascend the throne.

The queen mother issued an order for the third time, hoping that the regent would take the Tang Dynasty as the most important thing, not disappoint the expectations of the civil and military officials in the court, and take on the important task of reviving the Tang Dynasty. This is not an honor, but a responsibility.

Finally, Li Ye finally accepted the queen mother's will and made a public statement that he did not regard the throne of the emperor as an honor, but as a responsibility, and would do his best to lead the Tang Dynasty to its peak.

When the news of Li Ye's acceptance of the throne came out, the whole court was jubilant. The streets and alleys of Chang'an were decorated with lights and colorful lanterns. Hundreds of thousands of people spontaneously took to the streets to parade, beating gongs and drums to celebrate the revival of the Tang Dynasty.

Then the court set up a preparatory committee for the enthronement, with Wei Jiansu as the chairman, Zhang Li and Li Mi as vice-chairmen, and seven or eight departments including the Ministry of Rites, Taichang Temple, and Zongzheng Temple jointly allocated 30,000 strings of money to prepare for a simple and grand enthronement ceremony.

The so-called simplicity means that everything is made of ready-made materials and no additional purchases are made. The Luoyang Palace also preserved the full set of ceremonial guards used by the previous emperor Li Longji to ascend the throne. Emperor Li Heng renovated and repaired it, intending to ascend the throne for the second time to make up for the simplicity of his enthronement in Lingwu. However, due to the tense war, this set of ceremonial guards was not used in the end. It was taken away when the capital was moved to Luoyang and is currently preserved in the Luoyang Palace.

Taking all of this set of ceremonial guards and using them saved at least 200,000 strings of money for purchase.

Then the whole Chang'an and the imperial city were decorated with lanterns. Because it was the first day of the first lunar month, the lanterns were moved out and kept until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, which would kill two birds with one stone.

There were also 30,000 ceremonial guards. The armor and weapons of the ceremonial guards alone would cost hundreds of thousands of strings of coins. Just think about it, and move out 30,000 Longxiang cavalry, put on Mingguang armor for combat, and hold new three-pointed double-edged swords. This is more majestic than the ceremonial guards.

The 30,000 strings of money were mainly spent on maintaining order and welfare. It was like giving a new dress and a cane to every elderly person over 70 years old in Chang'an. For example, when making fireworks, the gunpowder arrows used by scouts were modified, the amount of gunpowder was increased, iron powder was added, and they were fired into the sky with a large crossbow. They burned and exploded in the air, becoming colorful.

The gunpowder arrows that were originally used to report messages have evolved into grand festival fireworks.

Of course, there are still many details that need to be slowly considered and enriched. There are still more than two months, so don't be too anxious.

But for Li Ye, enthronement is just a ceremony, a confirmation of identity. At present, he is actually the emperor in fact. He is also the emperor most welcomed by ministers since the founding of the Tang Dynasty.

Why? It is the confirmation of the power of the prime minister.

Li Ye learned the lessons of Li Longji and Li Heng. They both deprived the power of the prime minister and magnified the power of the monarch infinitely, but they did not have so much energy to handle government affairs, so they threw a lot of government affairs to the eunuchs to handle, and the power of the eunuch party was formed.

Li Ye creatively established the White Tiger Hall, which distributed memorials according to the clear division of power. This is unlike Li Linfu in the past. It was obviously the power of the prime minister, but he took the initiative to give it to the emperor Li Longji. Li Longji also pretended to be confused and enjoyed this transfer of prime minister power. Even the appointment of a state official was decided by the emperor.

With the decentralization of the White Tiger Hall, only the Class A memorials with red labels would be handed to Li Ye.

Moreover, the power of the prime minister is not exclusive to the prime minister, but the power of the political affairs hall. The power of the right prime minister is mainly the power of the personnel. The five-rank and above, and the three-rank and below, are appointed by the right prime minister, while the political affairs hall is the power of affairs, discussing and voting.

In addition, if the Ministry of Personnel feels that the personnel appointment of the right prime minister is inappropriate, it can appeal, and then it will be discussed by the political affairs hall. If there are still too many differences after the discussion of the political affairs hall, the emperor will decide.

In the past few days, Li Ye has been paying attention to the harvest of Jiaozhou rice. Jiaozhou rice is mainly early rice. After it matures in June, it will immediately rush to plant the late rice unique to the Tang Dynasty, so that two seasons are guaranteed in one year. Whether the Jiaozhou rice is effective or not must be seen throughout the year to see how much the harvest is in one year.

In addition, the farmland can be idle in winter to rest, fertilize and conserve moisture, and build water conservancy, and then cultivate after the spring.

Li Ye specially ordered the political affairs hall to arrange dozens of inspection teams to go to various states in the south to inspect the planting of Jiaozhou rice in various places.

In the official room, Li Ye was listening to the briefings from Liu Yan, the Minister of Revenue, on the harvests in various places. Although there was no official report, all places sent briefings to the court by pigeon mail, so at least the general situation was known.

"According to preliminary statistics, the harvest in Jiangnan East Road is better, which is more suitable for the promotion of Jiaozhou rice. The grain output has generally increased by 40%."

"What about other places?"

"Jiangnan West Road and Bashu have increased by 30%, and Shannan East Road, Huainan Road, and Huaixi Road are all a little more than 20%."

"What about Fujian Road and Lingnan Road?" Li Ye asked again.

"It has not been sent yet, and the situation is unclear. Maybe Fujian Road will be better, after all, they started planting last year."

Li Ye nodded. He had great expectations for Jiaozhou rice. In history, the Northern Song Dynasty, whose population exceeded 100 million, started with the introduction of Jiaozhou rice. Of course, it was called Champa rice at the time, which is actually the same thing.

But the population of the Northern Song Dynasty was passively increased. If Li Ye wanted to actively increase the population, he had to learn from the Qing Dynasty's method of allocating taxes to each mu of land and abandon the head tax. For the Tang Dynasty, it was the household tax.

But the resistance to abolishing the household tax was too great. From the court to the local governments, almost everyone opposed abolishing the household tax.

But the household tax reform was imperative. The best way was to turn the household tax into a court tax. There would be no resistance from the local governments. Then the liquor tax and deed tax were assigned to the local governments, and part of the land tax was assigned to the local governments, such as a 30-70 split. In this way, the local governments would have no objections.

Once the household tax was assigned to the court, reforms could be carried out, reducing both ends, reducing the elderly and children, and only levying taxes on the young and strong, allowing the land tax to be used to offset it.

Li Ye stood in front of the window with his hands behind his back, thinking for a long time, and said to Liu Yan: "Can the tax reform I want to promote be fully implemented next year?"

Liu Yan pondered for a moment and said: "From the pilot project in Bashu, the salt tax income is considerable, far exceeding the household tax. Now the Political Affairs Hall no longer opposes the reform of the household tax. In addition, the court opposes the sharing of land tax with local governments. Now the local rental income alone is already very large, and the wine tax is considerable, which also far exceeds their previous household tax sharing. Together with the deed tax, the local tax and rental income are definitely enough."

Li Ye certainly knew that in the Northern Song Dynasty, salt tax and wine tax became the two main taxes, far exceeding the land tax. The Northern Song Dynasty also invented the exemption money. If you don't want to serve labor, you can pay money to offset it. This is actually a disguised head tax. Li Ye is now considering recuperating and does not plan to collect exemption money.

Li Ye pondered for a long time and said: "The court still has to bear the salaries of local officials. It is almost enough. Starting next year, the household tax will be assigned to the court first. Don't abolish it immediately, and reform it first. Collect household taxes between the ages of 20 and 40, and collect them according to the number of people in each household, reducing the tax amount by half. Farmers can use land taxes to offset them. If a household has more than two children, they are exempt from household taxes; if there are soldiers in the family, they are exempt from household taxes.

Second, domestic commercial taxes are temporarily exempted, but import commercial taxes are still collected by the Maritime Customs Office.

Third, the land tax is uniformly reduced to 30% tax, and it will remain unchanged for ten years.

Fourth, the salt, iron and wine monopoly will be fully implemented, among which the wine tax and deed tax will be collected by the local government, and the salt and iron will be collected by the court.

Fifth, the mining tax will be uniformly collected by the court, and then the local government and the court will each collect half.

Sixth, the internal guards will be responsible for tax inspections and crack down on all kinds of tax evasion."