The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 1264 Huge Wealth
"Besides, even if we have to fight, we'll have to fight on the grasslands, not in this densely populated area around the capital. Once the war starts, it will be the largest battle in history, with nearly two million soldiers on both sides."

"After the war, this beautiful land will be reduced to ruins, and countless people will lose their homes and families. Don't wage such a war unless it is absolutely necessary."

"I have made up my mind to accept the Turkic people's conditions and urge them to withdraw their troops."

Li Shimin looked at Li Chengqian, who was in a tangle of indignation, and patted him on the shoulder. He smiled bitterly and said, "Fortunately, you are the current emperor of the Tang Dynasty. I am already the emperor emeritus. Even if I issue an edict of guilt, it will not affect you."

"You must work hard, make progress, bear in mind today's humiliation, forge ahead, and build our Tang Dynasty into a powerful country. One day, when you have sufficient troops and food and the time is right, you can march north to pacify the Turks."

Li Chengqian took advantage of the situation and immediately promised indignantly: "Don't worry, father, I will never let you down. One day, I will personally chop off the head of the Right Wise King to avenge today's humiliation."

"Yes, but just keep this in your heart and don't show it."

Li Shimin advised: "Before you are completely sure, you should maintain a good relationship with the Turks and try to restrain them. You can use the method of division and disintegration to weaken them, but don't rashly make enemies. Otherwise, the Turks will march south every year and drag down the court."

"Yes, father, I will remember it." Li Chengqian felt relieved that the matter was finally settled.

After informing his son of the latest details and letting him accept them, Li Shimin looked at Fang Xuanling and said, "Xuanling, I asked you to come here today mainly to discuss with you which thing to do first?"

"Father, which one should we do first?"

Fang Xuanling looked at Li Chengqian, who was confused, and explained the details of the agreement with the Right Wise King to withdraw troops after completing one task. Finally, he said, "Grand Emperor, Your Majesty, I think that you can move Li Jiancheng's tablet to the Imperial Ancestral Temple first."

"Give him a title of honor, posthumously confer the title of Tang Wang's principal wife on the Right Wise King's mother, and announce the Right Wise King's true identity to the world."

"Then we can eliminate Shiluodi and issue a confession of guilt. Besides, we can let them do it themselves by eliminating Shiluodi, and we can also avoid being branded as someone who betrayed our allies."

"Well, Xuanling's words make sense." Li Shimin nodded silently.

"No, father, I think Lord Fang is wrong." Seeing that Li Shimin was moved, Li Chengqian hurriedly spoke out to stop him.

Fang Xuanling was old and in poor health. Although he was rehired, he could not work for long. After Li Shimin issued the edict of guilt, his prestige was gone. Both of them could not be active in the court for long. The Tang Dynasty would eventually be handed over to Li Chengqian.

Therefore, the two of them had to take his opinion seriously.

Li Shimin frowned and asked, "What do you think?"

Li Chengqian sorted out his thoughts and then said, "Father, Lord Fang, actually when Shi Luodie led 300,000 troops to the south last year and began to distribute the land, I wanted to use this opportunity to redistribute the land and completely disintegrate the foundation of the aristocratic family."

"You also know Shi Luodie's analysis of the degree of land annexation and the rise and fall of dynasties. The more dispersed the land is, the more stable the country is. Conversely, the more concentrated it is, the more dangerous it is."

"We in the Tang Dynasty adopted the Fubing system, and the core of the Fubing system is that every household owns land. The land is the main source of tax revenue for the national treasury, and it also guarantees the foundation for the implementation of the Fubing system."

"The issue of land distribution is the core problem of our Tang Dynasty. If this problem is not completely solved, no matter how good the other measures are, they will only scratch the surface and not solve the root cause."

Li Shimin nodded: "What you said makes sense, but what does this have to do with the three conditions of the Right Wise King?"

"Of course, these things are actually interconnected."

There was only Fang Xuanling here, and no outsiders, so Li Chengqian did not hide, but explained: "The lands in Hebei and Shandong have been resolved, and the Right Wise King has driven the noble families in Guannei Road to the Western Regions."

"After they retreat, we will send troops to take over, and divide the land in the north, so that the interior of the country will be stable."

"The only ones left are Hanzhong, Bashu, and Jiangnan. Those places are far away from the north and have not been affected by the war. If you want to divide the land, you will inevitably have to fight against the local noble families. It may be a battle no less than Yang Guang's conquest of the Southern Chen."

'hiss'

Fang Xuanling and Li Shimin's pupils suddenly shrank and their expressions became stern. They were so busy dealing with the war in front of them that they didn't think about such a long-term thing for a while.

Now that Li Chengqian mentioned it, they finally realized that, yes, the fields in most areas of the north had been distributed, and the people had benefited greatly. But what about Jiangnan and the two areas in the southwest? Could they just leave them alone?
Definitely not, but there is no chaos there, and the nobles are intact. If we leave it alone, it will be unfair to the people; if we really intervene, what should we do? The court can't forcibly take back people's land just because of the land distribution, right?

The Turks can do this, but the court cannot, otherwise it will definitely cause chaos.

For a moment, Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling were both in a dilemma. Fang Xuanling saw Li Chengqian's calm face, and his heart moved. He bowed and asked: "I wonder if the emperor has any good ideas. Why not tell me? Let's brainstorm and maybe we can come up with a proper solution for this matter." "I think this matter should be considered from two angles."

Before the two asked, Li Chengqian told them all his ideas: "First, we should legislate on land, stipulating that no household should own too much land to prevent land annexation; second, the court can compensate the gentry who currently own too much land."

"Collect these excess lands and redistribute them."

"No."

Before Li Shimin opened his mouth, Fang Xuanling said anxiously: "Your Majesty, this strategy is not appropriate. The first option may be considered, but as for the second option, even if we try to lower the price of the reclaimed land, the amount of land in Bashu, Hanzhong and Jiangnan is so huge."

"How can the court have so much financial resources to reclaim the land?"

"Well, then we have no choice but to fight."

Li Chengqian's face turned cold. "The situation in the north has been decided. There hasn't been such a good opportunity in hundreds of years. If we don't take this opportunity to implement equal distribution of land across the country, it won't be long before the Tang Dynasty will return to its previous state."

"In fact, I am not willing to pay money either. Like Fang Qing, it is more practical to solve the problem with swords and guns."

"Uh"

Fang Xuanling's expression froze and he felt like cursing. When did he say he wanted to fight? Seeing the emperor in front of him being so shameless and misinterpreting his meaning in front of him, he almost forced his head into the water.

He quickly said: "Your Majesty, that is not what I meant. I think we should think about it again. Maybe there is a way to have the best of both worlds."

"How can there be so many good things that are best of both worlds?"

Li Chengqian said in a deep voice: "Those aristocratic families have plundered the people, abused their power and enjoyed all the honors. Now we just ask them to give up some land to those helpless people. Why should we bother to think of ways to satisfy them?"

"I would rather take up my butcher knife and do it like the Turks, cleanly and decisively."

Seeing that he was reaching a dead end, Li Shimin quickly stepped out to smooth things over: "Cheng Qian, you just said that the court would pay for the recovery. Even if the land price is pushed down to the extreme, the amount will be tens of millions of strings of cash. Where will you get the money from?"

"During the previous war in Shandong, the national treasury already owed the Ministry of Finance 30 million strings of cash. This time, in response to the Right Wise King, another 20 million strings of cash were spent. These two items alone have exhausted the national treasury's income for a year. Are they going to borrow from the Ministry of Finance again?"

"The total amount of money in the Ministry of Finance is only 300 million strings of silver. We have already invested 100 million strings of silver in the development of the Asset Management Bureau. If we take another 100 million strings of silver, there will not be enough silver in the treasury. Once a run on the bank occurs, the court will not be able to come up with enough silver to pay, which will be dangerous."

Although Li Shimin was also very greedy for the money in the Finance Temple, after listening to Li Chengqian's introduction and fully understanding the operating logic here, he did not dare to move. No wonder Li Chengqian did not allow the court to directly reach out for the money, which was the cornerstone of the country and could not be moved lightly.

The Ministry of Finance has strict regulations that the money collected from issuing currency must not be used to operate or cover court expenses.

The Asset Management Office actually borrowed money from the Currency Issuing Department using numerous properties as collateral. Regardless of profit or loss, the money must be repaid in full by the end of the year, and part of the interest must also be borne.

Each of these departments has set up strict warning lines, and the proportion cannot exceed a certain level, otherwise it will cause unrest.

Even so, a large part of them are from the aristocratic families. Now they are forced to leave the Central Plains by the war. Once the war subsides, they want to come back and will inevitably conflict with the court. If they use this method to squeeze the court, it will also bring endless troubles to the Tang Dynasty.

Li Chengqian had reminded him of these things to avoid making big mistakes due to negligence.

Li Chengqian said decisively: "Of course not. Not a cent of the money in the Finance Temple can be moved. In addition, the money that the court borrowed from the Asset Management Bureau to cope with the two wars must be returned immediately. We must ensure that there is enough silver for storage."

"This..." Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling suddenly felt a headache, as if they were facing their creditors.

"Haha, father, Lord Fang, the court will soon receive a huge amount of wealth, and all these problems will be solved?" Li Chengqian smiled.

When the two heard this, they were immediately confused. Where did the huge wealth come from?

Fang Xuanling knew even more that the emperor was in charge of the Ministry of Finance and had 300 million strings of cash in his hands. He had long looked down on the income of the national treasury. What he could call wealth was still a huge amount. How could this number be less?

(End of this chapter)