Tibet

The next morning, Li Ye and his family boarded more than 20 carriages, followed by hundreds of female guards and maids, and moved to Daming Palace in a mighty procession. They walked along the city wall and basically did not disturb the people.

Their luggage and belongings had been moved there a few days ago.

Xingqing Palace would not be empty in the future. Li Ye planned to give it to his father Li Dai and mother Pei Sanniang to live in.

There were 2,500 palace maids in Daming Palace and Taiji Palace, including 2,000 in Daming Palace and 500 in Taiji Palace. Taiji Palace was mainly inhabited by homeless old palace concubines, with a total of more than 70 people. The old palace concubines also had regular money, and many of them had shops, with 500 palace maids serving them.

There were also thousands of elderly white-haired palace maids living in Taiji Palace. They also had no home to go. Li Ye treated them well and allowed them to live in the Ye Ting Palace for retirement. Each person had two dou of rice, one catty of salt, and 500 coins per month.

There were also more than 300 eunuchs, who mainly did miscellaneous and rough work.

All the maids and eunuchs in Daming Palace were newcomers who entered the palace after the 14th year of Tianbao, and most of them were from Luoyang. This ensured that Yang Yuhuan no longer had to wear a mask and did not have to worry about being recognized by anyone, and could live freely.

Li Ye carried out major reforms on the maids and eunuchs in the palace half a year ago. In fact, maids and eunuchs were also a kind of slaves. Once they entered the palace, they were deep in the sea, and they didn't know when they would come out.

Li Ye implemented three reforms on these maids. First, there was a time limit for entering the palace. Before the age of 20, they had to leave the palace and go home to marry. Unmarried maids in their thirties and forties were not allowed to appear. Even if some experienced maids were needed to manage things, they would be hired back after they got married.

The second was the contract system. The maids in the palace were the same as the maids in the rich families. They signed contracts when they entered the palace, received daily wages, and returned home after the expiration of the contract.

The third is to ban eunuchs. Good family sons are no longer allowed to be castrated to become eunuchs.

These three regulations are very controversial. There are supporters and opponents. It is also very interesting to talk about it. The opponents are mainly royal family members and dignitaries, who think that this will damage the royal dignity.

But most of the supporters are court officials. Officials are more pragmatic. During the Tianbao period, the expenditure of the palace was second only to military expenditure. The huge amount of money each year made the court overwhelmed, but no one dared to say anything.

Tang Minghuang had more than 40,000 palace people and hundreds of concubines. There were also money for food, clothing, housing, cosmetics, travel, lamp oil, visiting relatives, delicacies from all over the country, seasonal fruits and vegetables, as well as support from the opera garden, support from the music studio, major repairs of the palace, daily maintenance, etc., and monthly regular money for concubines and palace maids.

What's more, the emperor often gave generous rewards, various banquets and squandered, etc. The annual expenditure was in the millions of guan. The finances of the Tang Dynasty were basically dragged down by Li Longji's extravagance.

So after Li Ye came to power, he had to learn from the lesson. After the recruitment system was implemented for palace maids, palace maids were hired maids and servants. They were paid 100 wen a day, which was only 3 guan a month. There were 2,500 palace maids, and 7,500 guan a month. The most they received were food and clothing benefits, and nothing else.

In a year, the annual expenditure of the palace was only 100,000 guan, less than 200,000 guan, which was a world apart from the millions of guan spent by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang.

Even though Emperor Suzong was very frugal, he still had to spend millions of guan every year, mainly to support a large number of people.

When it came to Li Ye, he didn't support them. Everyone worked for wages. Once the top-level system changed, the bottomless pit of the palace's expenditure in the past became a shallow pool. How could the court not welcome it?

There was also a ban on eunuchs. Li Ye and the court hit it off. They learned the painful lesson of the eunuch party's monopoly and banned eunuchs from the root. The current eunuchs can continue to be used, but there will be no new ones.

The purpose of recruiting eunuchs was mainly because some heavy work could not be done by women, but in fact, strong women could do it. The strong women in the Tang Dynasty were all strong and powerful, and ordinary men could not beat them at all.

Therefore, among the two thousand palace maids in Daming Palace, there were five hundred strong women. They cooked, lifted heavy objects, and did rough work. They were proficient in everything.

As for the security of Daming Palace, the inner guards were responsible for the periphery. There were five hundred female guards with strong martial arts in the palace, especially in the residential area of ​​Longshouyuan, where there were three hundred female guards, and there was also a Gongsun Da Niang in charge. She and ten apprentices were specially responsible for dealing with top masters.

In the past, the security of Daming Palace was the responsibility of the guards. Nearly ten thousand guards were recruited before and after. The monthly salary and welfare expenses were seven or eight thousand strings of cash. In fact, it was the most meaningless. The guards had nothing to do every day, just simple patrols and guards. If an assassin really came, they would not be able to play any role.

Therefore, cutting the guards could save millions of strings of cash every year.

There are also Li Ye's 10,000 personal guards, who are now reorganized into the Longwu Army, responsible for the safety of the imperial city.

The biggest advantage of the top-level system design is that Li Ye's descendants dare not change it at will. At most, they can make some small changes, such as increasing the number of people and increasing the wages. That's it.

The chief steward of the inner palace is Zhao Baozhong, an old eunuch. He was the chief steward of Xingqing Palace before. Now he follows and becomes the chief steward of the inner palace, but he is mainly responsible for Taiji Palace.

The deputy chief steward of Daming Palace is Aunt Wu, who is Li Ye's current housekeeper. Dugu Mingyue likes her very much and insists on taking her away. Li Ye simply appointed her as the deputy chief steward of the inner palace.

Daming Palace covers a large area. The harem residential area is mainly concentrated on Longshouyuan in the southeast of Taiye Lake. The palace complex here covers an area of ​​hundreds of acres and is mainly composed of six palace areas, Penglai Palace, Zichen Palace, Lingqi Palace, Yutang Palace, Xuanwei Palace, and Greenhouse Palace. Each palace is a group of buildings.

The Purple Palace is the emperor's side palace, where the emperor's imperial study is located, also known as the inner court. The emperor handles government affairs, summons important ministers to discuss military and national affairs, and rests at noon, all in the Purple Palace.

To the north of the Purple Palace is the Queen's Penglai Palace, where the emperor's inner study is also located.

If a minister has something to ask for an audience at night, he cannot go through the main gate, but must come in from the right Yintai Gate on the west, through the Hanlin Academy to the Linde Palace.

The Linde Palace is where the emperor handles government affairs and meets ministers at night. There is also a study there, which is the emperor's outer study.

The other four palace areas are where the concubines live.

Yang Yuhuan and Qingyu have a good relationship. The two live in the Yutang Palace, Shen Li and Dugu Taiwei live in the Lingqi Palace, and there is another Shen Zhenzhu who is more independent. She lives in the Greenhouse Palace with her son and Mu Da Niang.

Shen Zhenzhu was named Liangyuan, but she no longer cares about her status. She just wants her son and finds a place to raise her son quietly.

Li Ye brought her to Daming Palace mainly because he didn't want his son to be an illegitimate child.

Mu Da Niang was easy-going. As long as she was given a place to chant Buddha, she could live anywhere. Therefore, not far from the Greenhouse Palace was Mingde Temple, a nunnery that mainly worshipped Guanyin Bodhisattva, which made Mu Da Niang very happy.

Li Ye moved to Daming Palace with his family. He did not rest. His family members went to clean up their own residences.

He returned to his court room. His court room was in Zichen Hall, but not in the imperial study of Li Longji and Li Heng, but in a courtyard outside.

He returned to the court room and sat down. Du You bowed and said, "Just now, Prime Minister Wei said that he had important matters to see."

Li Ye nodded, "Summon him to see me!"

Li Ye drank a sip of hot tea and flipped through the memorials on the table. One of the memorials aroused his interest.

It was a memorial submitted by the Ministry of Works. The Ministry of Works discovered An Lushan's iron ore and smelting site in Pingzhou.

Li Ye carefully looked at the map attached to the memorial, and it was indeed Qian'an in later times. Ore ships carried iron ore south along the Luan River to Qianjin Smelting City for smelting.

An Lushan's army was well-equipped. His most elite cavalrymen in the Luohe River were all wearing iron helmets and armor, and even their horses were covered with iron armor.

Some of his weapons were delivered by the court, and some were made by himself. More importantly, he mainly relied on mining and iron smelting to support his army, and sold them to various parts of Hebei, making a lot of profit.

The Goguryeo people in the past mined and smelted iron for him.

Pingzhou is Tangshan in later times, a famous steel city, rich in coal and iron, with a long history. In particular, Qian'an Iron Mine is shallowly buried, high-quality, and has large reserves. It is easy to mine and has become one of the four major iron mines in the country.

The Ministry of Industry meant that they wanted to mine Qian'an Iron Mine in large quantities. Coal was also produced there, so it would be convenient to use coal to smelt iron directly.

The use of coal to smelt iron was not fully promoted until the Song Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, part of it was smelted with coal, and most of it was still smelted with firewood. However, the consumption of firewood was too high. It took 8,000 kilograms of wood to smelt 1,000 kilograms of pig iron, so deforestation was very serious in the Tang Dynasty.

After Li Ye came to power, he vigorously promoted three transformations: one was the transformation from wood to iron, one was the transformation from wood fuel to coal fuel, and the other was the transformation from hemp to cotton.

At this time, Li Ye thought of a problem. He was going to India to seize iron ore in two years. He must smelt pig iron locally before transporting it away, but is there coal in India?

It seems that there are quite a few, and they are all open-pit coal mines, but the quality is relatively poor. However, you can give it a try. If it doesn't work, you can transport the ore to Nanyang for smelting. There are high-quality coal mines on the island of Sumatra.

However, the ancients said, "No one sells wood for a hundred miles, and no one sells grain for a thousand miles."

It means that the meager profit from carrying firewood a hundred miles away to sell and transporting grain a thousand miles away to sell is not enough to cover the freight, which is not worth the cost.

So it is indeed not worth the cost to transport iron ore to Southeast Asia for smelting, and we still have to find a way to smelt it in Tianzhu.

At this time, the official reported at the door, "Prime Minister Wei is here!"

"Please let him in!"

Li Ye casually drew a circle on the memorial of the Ministry of Works, indicating that it was approved.

The memorial was placed in the basket, and it would take effect only after the regent seal was stamped by Du You, the military officer of the record room.

At this time, Wei Jiansu hurried in and bowed, "Your Highness!"

"Prime Minister, please don't be polite, please sit down!"

Wei Jiansu sat down and said with a smile: "Your Highness, how do you feel about moving into a new house today?"

Li Ye smiled and waved his hand, "I haven't felt it yet, I guess it's about the same! It's no different from Xingqing Palace."

"With more people, there will probably be more rules."

"That's right!"

"In addition, all of us officials hope that Your Highness will take more concubines. Your Highness's lineage is too weak, which is not good for the country!"

Li Ye nodded, "Let's take our time! There's no rush."

Wei Jiansu took out a memorial and handed it to Li Ye, smiling: "These are the six reign titles drafted by the Political Affairs Hall. The final reign title will be decided by Your Highness."

The reign title certainly has a deep meaning. For example, Wu Zetian's reign titles were often changed, which actually represented different meanings.

Li Ye had previously expressed his idea to the Political Affairs Hall, 'Auspicious and new, reviving the country', and the reign title should be decided based on this meaning.

Li Ye opened the memorial and took a look. There were five alternative reign titles: Jiaqing, Jiaxing, Renhe, Tianxing, and Longqing. He immediately chose "Jiaxing". Although it was a place name, it was also his most ideal reign title.