Chastity Layman 2

Chapter 334 The Emperor's Abacus
Taiji Palace, Lizheng Hall.

This is the empress' bedroom, and Qin Lang knelt in the hall, which seemed out of place.

Empress Changsun is making tea.

"These 40 taels of gold per catty of tea, one sip can cover the people's food for three years."

Li Shimin held the teacup, looked at the tea soup inside and sighed.

Qin Lang respectfully took the tea made by the queen, "Your Majesty, it's more than that. Now the tea has been roasted to 160 taels of gold per box. One tael of tea is ten taels of gold. This cup of tea is at least worth it." Twenty thousand dollars. Ordinary ordinary people may not be able to use twenty thousand dollars in three years."

"It's too extravagant!" Li Shimin said.

"Your Majesty, you need to look at things dialectically. Although this tea is expensive, not everyone can afford it. Those who can drink this tea are either rich or expensive. For example, the king of Huaihua County recently spent 160 taels Gold bought a box of this tea from another house. Is 160 taels of gold expensive to the king of Huaihua County? Not expensive, he has hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep, and he is not short of money."

Li Shimin took a sip of the tea soup and listened to Qin Lang continue.

"For the king of Huaihua County, it doesn't matter if the tea costs 160 taels of gold or [-] coins. In fact, it doesn't make much difference to him. It's just a normal expense."

"If you have money, you shouldn't be so extravagant!" Empress Changsun said.

"Your Majesty, diligence and thrift are my traditional Chinese virtues, but I don't mean to be too frugal. For rich people like the king of Huaihua County, you can't ask them to spend the same living expenses as poor people. If that's the case, How will their wealth be spent, and what is the point of accumulating wealth? Or to put it another way, is he expected to accumulate money and bury it in the ground like many landowners do?"

In fact, many people in ancient times advocated frugality and even opposed consumption. This kind of concept cannot be wrong, but it is not true everywhere.

If everyone does not consume, it is not good for the economy.

"Your Majesty, I also oppose extravagance, but if you do what you can, it will actually be beneficial to the country and the people. If a person only wants to survive, two meals a day, simple tea and light food are enough, and common people can cover their bodies. You can live in thatched huts, but has your Majesty thought about a problem? If everyone is like this, then who will sell the silk woven by the people to grow mulberry and silkworms? And the craftsmen who build houses will also lose their jobs. If everyone does not drink Tea, tea growers will be unemployed, industry and commerce will fail, craftsmen and merchants will all be unemployed."

"A country cannot be stable without agriculture, rich without jobs, and prosperous without business."

Just like this cup of tea.

Because of the consumption and purchase of rich people like the king of Huaihua County, the tea merchants earned profits from trading and trafficking, tea farmers earned profits from growing tea and frying tea, and the imperial court collected tea taxes.Tea merchants and tea farmers make money, and they can buy and consume other commodities, which drives other merchants, craftsmen and common people to make money, so there are other taxes, which drive a larger market.

"Your Majesty, business brings tax revenue, business brings activity."

"So I oppose extravagance, but I don't object to everyone's normal consumption within their ability. This kind of consumption is benign. It can activate the market, increase taxes for the court, and increase wealth for the people. This is a good thing. Even if It is the home of poor people, and if there is a good year, they will kill a chicken to celebrate."

"What the imperial court has to do is to guide it well. For example, if this tea is good tea, as long as the government collects taxes from it, then although this cup of tea can be used for three years of food for the people's family, but the court has taxed it, it can also be used for the people. In other words, even if the king of Huaihua County does not buy the tea, does his money belong to the common people? On the contrary, he bought the tea, which really revitalized the related industries and increased taxes for the court.”

Empress Changsun didn't expect Qin Lang to talk about it from this angle, so she couldn't help but think about it.

"Landlords buy fields, lend money, and even sell goods. They have the advantage of making money from money. They can make more money than ordinary people. Therefore, the court should allow them to spend money, and even encourage them to spend money. Spend money because they have money, if money is not buried in the pigsty, it is just dead money, and even the court will have no money to use. If they are encouraged to consume and spend money, it can liven up the market, increase the circulation of money, and even more Importantly, consumption also generates tax revenue.”

Qin Lang's theory is, of course, the general law of later generations.

In this day and age, there are some limitations, but there is still some truth to it.

The money earned by the rich will not be distributed to the people or donated to the country in vain. If you want their money to play a bigger role, you can’t rely on beating local tyrants, allowing or even encouraging them to consume, even if it is extravagant consumption , which is also a method.

Just like this tea, although this kind of tea with ten taels of gold and one tael is actually very rare, many teas are indeed consumer goods for medium and high production. For every sip of tea, the imperial court can collect a tax.

Similarly, with the expansion of the tea market, tea farmers will also increase, which is equivalent to adding a lot of jobs for the people all over the world.

In the same way, alcohol, sugar, etc. are all like this.

Anyone who makes money by himself is eligible to enjoy it, but those who are emperors and officials are not eligible, because they are worshiped by the people.

Of course, Qin Lang didn't say this.

"I heard that your kid has been jumping up and down again recently?"

"Your Majesty said this. I'm not a monkey. How can I jump up and down? I just heard the king of Huaihua County tell me that this year's natural disasters are ruthless, and the newly attached Fengzhou Tianzi herdsmen are having a hard time, so I thought of contacting some people. Let's see if we can raise some money to purchase a batch of commercial goods, ship them to Fengzhou, and buy the cattle, sheep and camels that the herdsmen have no grass to eat."

"These herdsmen have lightened their burden and avoided losses, and we transported the fur, milk and meat back to the Central Plains. The fur can be used as clothing to avoid the cold, and the milk and meat can be used as food to satisfy hunger."

Li Shimin laughed twice.

He had already heard the reports from Zhenfusi Baiqisi and others, and knew that Zoulang was using the banner of the East Palace to contact many upstarts from Shandong who were doing this.

This thing is definitely profitable, and it can make a lot of money.

But it's not a big deal, after all, which of those aristocratic families doesn't behave like this.

He could only say that Qin Lang acted relatively quickly, and he also knew to ask Donggong to take the lead.

Li Shimin is a qualified emperor, he allows others to make money.

"I plan to let you go to Fengzhou."

"To Toyosu?"

Li Shimin chuckled, "Don't you like to jump up and down, don't you like to make money? I will grant you this time, and you will go to Fengzhou in person. I will appoint you as the comfort ambassador of Fengzhou to appease those Yu She who is attached to you. Set up a Turkic tribe, and Qin Guozhong will stay in Beijing for the time being, so you can inspect the governor of Fengzhou, and I will ask Li Daliang to inspect the governor of Fengzhou to assist you."

Qin Lang has been with Li Shimin for a long time, and he knows him better. Now that Li Shimin sticks his ass, Qin Lang knows what shit he is going to do.

Let him go to Fengzhou to be the governor of the school. This shows that the emperor wanted to take advantage of Qin Guozhong to enter the court and install forces in the newly attached land of Fengzhou. The important thing is, although Tang Chu managed to regain it, he lost it later.

Now finally with Qin Guozhong's attachment, this land has returned to Datang, but it is only in name, so Li Shimin wants to take the opportunity to actually control him.

But the action should not be too big, lest Yu She set up the troops to be dissatisfied and even cause chaos.

So now let Qin Guozhong's brother-in-law, Qin Lang, inspect Fengzhou governor on his behalf. Qin Guozhong is still Fengzhou governor and governor, but the emperor keeps him in Beijing temporarily, so let Qin Lang go.

On the other hand, Qin Lang happened to organize a lot of money and food for merchants to go to Fengzhou to do business with the herdsmen and buy their cattle and sheep furs, so that the resistance of Yu Sheshe's followers would definitely be minimized.

Of course, the most important point is that Li Shimin trusts Qin Lang's ability to handle affairs.

The governor of Youzhou, who inspected the school before, performed very well.

Li Daliang, Li Shimin also carefully selected Li Daliang as the candidate for the governor. This title is the baron of Wuyang County. Although the title is very low, he is very capable of handling affairs.

Li Daliang was also born in Guanlong. His father was Li Chongjie, the general manager of Shuozhou in the Sui Dynasty. Li Daliang, who is now in his 50s, has a resume similar to that of Qin Qiong. captured.

At that time, he was lucky, Zhang Bi, the Wagang general who captured him, killed all the other prisoners, but thought he was very special and left him alone. Li Daliang stayed under Zhang Bi and went to Wagang.

However, when he was in Wagang, after Qin Qiong joined Pei Renji, he was highly valued and served as the general of hussars, commanding the cavalry.But Li Daliang was only a school lieutenant under Zhang Bi at that time, so when he was in Wagang, Li Daliang was not well-known.

Later, when Li Yuan invaded Chang'an, Li Daliang immediately left Wagang and ran to Chang'an to vote for Li Yuan after hearing about it.Li Yuan didn't have much use for him, he just gave him the post of county magistrate.

But Li Daliang was also down-to-earth as his county magistrate, focusing on developing production, persuading the barbarians to surrender, and conferring meritorious service on Jinzhou Sima.

Later, he participated in Ping Wang Shichong's meritorious service and became the governor of Qian'an Prefecture.But at that time, Qin Qiong was awarded the Duke of Yi Kingdom with the merit of Ping Wang Shichong.

Later, Li Daliang was promoted to the governor of Yuezhou with the merit of Pingfu Gong Er.

After Li Shimin succeeded to the throne, he served as the governor of Jiaozhou, and then transferred back to the imperial court to inspect the school and be the Minister of Taifu.

He is capable of writing and martial arts, but because there are no hills, so far he is only a man from Wuyang County. He was also a false baron granted to all officials above the fifth rank and above when he ascended the throne.

What Li Shimin likes is that Li Daliang is hard-working and capable of civility and martial arts, especially his outstanding ability in recruiting Hu people and appeasing the people, so he was specially assigned to assist Qin Lang.

This also reveals that Li Shimin's attitude towards the Turkic descendants in Fengzhou still focuses on appeasement.

"I want you to go to Fengzhou. First, you have to appease Qin Guozhong's followers. Second, you have to beware of Xieli. You can't let Xieli swallow up the 10 horses, let alone let Xieli swallow Fengzhou. Swallowed."

(End of this chapter)