Limited Time Re-employment Event for Retired Prime Ministers

"Uncle, you can't do that!

" "Your Majesty

, you can't do that!" "Uncle, this matter must be done by you!"

"Your Majesty, I am incompetent and uneducated, and it is difficult for me to take on this important task!"

"Okay uncle, it will be meaningless if you keep pushing it."

"..."

Former Prime Minister Dou glanced at the old emperor, stood up, bent down and patted the dust on his knees, and asked in a low voice: "Collecting taxes on local tycoons and wealthy nobles is not a simple thing to implement. Do you have any ideas?"

Most people would think that land annexation is the root cause of the demise of a unified dynasty. In fact, it is the inability to collect taxes.

At the end of each dynasty, local officials were entangled in corruption and evasion of taxes. If the court could not collect taxes, it would have no money. Without money, it would have no army. Without an army, it would have no way to survive the turmoil. The

emperor would rather have a strong army and a strong horse.

The fate of the people is determined by the will of heaven. The old emperor knew in his heart that he could be the emperor and continue to be the emperor because of the number of soldiers he could command.

"Shanbai, do you remember Emperor Wu of Liang?"

Prime Minister Dou thought for a moment and was immediately shocked: "Your Majesty! You - this is really not okay. The situation in the country is not as bad as it was during Emperor Wu's time. Now is the founding of the country. If it is like Emperor Wu, the local tyrants who do not pay taxes will be directly confiscated and their families will be exterminated. It is too cruel. At the end of Emperor Wu's life, he could hardly suppress the people's uproar."

Empress Dou sat aside, and as her husband and brother discussed, she recalled the things related to Emperor Wu of Liang clearly and calmly.

It was a relatively rare era. After Liang (Tai) (Zu) founded the country, the fifth emperor t was the period of Emperor Wu of Liang.

After the accumulation of the previous emperors, he was left with a full treasury to help him achieve prosperity. But at the same time, he was also left with a large number of tyrants and land annexed by them.

The reason for this is that the powerful at that time could mint their own coins. The poor people could only exchange the food they worked hard to grow all year round for the money in the hands of the powerful. If the food was not enough, they could only sell land. The powerful could have as much money as they wanted.

This led to the fifth emperor of the Liang Dynasty entering the situation of the end of the dynasty, where the rich had fields stretching for miles and the poor had no place to stand.

Fortunately, Emperor Wu of Liang had a knife.

- He directly appointed cruel officials. He simply and roughly punished the powerful, confiscated their homes and exterminated their families, and redistributed the large amount of land that was confiscated. It was easy to ease land annexation. The reason why most dynasties could not do so in the end was because the emperors could no longer command the army.

And... Emperor Tiantong, he also had a knife.

Even as the founding emperor, his knife was the hardest and sharpest.

"Your Majesty." Empress Dou rarely interrupted, her face full of sternness: "Your Majesty, are you going to use cruel officials?"

Her husband responded with a suspicious look and a look of careful consideration of words.

The atmosphere in the box became strange.

A voice suddenly floated in, full of interest and with an incompatible vigor: [I know! Jinyiwei!!!]

[That is a well-known vicious dog under the emperor. He can bite anyone he wants and accuse him of any crime he wants!]

Some Jinyiwei almost cried when they heard this voice.

We didn't! We were busy fabricating and pretending to be well-informed, so how could we have time to fabricate charges.

The commander of the Imperial Guard couldn't help but smile.

He had always been worried about the positioning of the Imperial Guard. If it was to collect information and become the emperor's eyes and ears to monitor the world, it would be good, but in terms of power, it was a bit weak.

However, cruel officials were different.

Although most of the cruel officials ended up in a bad way, when they were alive, they were all terrifying. In their heyday, even the prime minister did not dare to offend them easily.

He would rather live a glorious life for twenty or thirty years and then die tragically, or live a peaceful life with neither merits nor demerits. Empress

Dou

was shocked.

But the old emperor was already happy.

It's dark under the lamp! He didn't realize that he already had a group of ready-made cruel officials around him. He just needed to add some more power - for example, the Jinyiwei was originally in charge of guarding, arresting, and imprisonment. Now they were allowed to bypass the Constitutional Court and report the imprisonment to the emperor. Moreover, they could directly arrest and torture prisoners, and the Ministry of Justice, the Dali Temple, and the Censorate had no right to interfere.

In this way, the perfect cruel official candidate appeared.

As for the restrictions on the Jinyiwei, he also had a rough idea: set up another agency to monitor the Jinyiwei.

However, for now, the Jinyiwei should be transformed first.

"Sister, you guessed right. I do want to reinstate the cruel officials." In the disapproving eyes of Empress Dou, the old emperor spoke generously: "Sister, do you still remember that during the Tianbo period of the previous dynasty, the court implemented the law of equal taxation for square fields. I didn't know until the establishment of the new dynasty that this law was intended to levy taxes based on the fertility of the land, and the land was divided into five grades. Rich people had more fertile land and paid more taxes, while poor people had less fertile land and paid less taxes. However, before that, I always thought it was a bad policy."

"This is all because local officials pretended to obey but secretly disobeyed, and turned the mountains and forests into dry land for the local people, and recorded the water holes in the streams and rivers as paddy fields, which were also returned to the people. This made them bear more taxes, but they didn't have much land. On the contrary, the land of the rich families with more land became less and less."

"But if there were cruel officials, they would rarely dare to do so."

Why? Because cruel officials can send people to jail without going through the procedures or talking about evidence. If a cruel official finds that your local policy seems to be wrong, he doesn't need to talk about evidence or procedures, but will directly strike with thunder, using imprisonment and killing to shock the world.

Moreover, if the national treasury is in urgent need, only cruel officials can use extraordinary means to plunder wealth.

- Of course, cruel officials are useful only when the emperor has guns in his hands. Without guns, no matter how tyrannical you are, it is useless.

As he spoke, the old emperor recalled the experience of his family being oppressed by corrupt officials in the past, and his tone was as cold as it could be: "Moreover, I have set restrictions. The Jinyiwei can only be used to target officials and scholars. Unless necessary, it is forbidden to arrest ordinary people."

Empress Dou's eyes became more worried.

She has always known that her husband, the emperor of the Tiantong Dynasty, a monarch who climbed up from the bottom, has a deep mark of "hating bureaucrats" in his soul because of his past experiences.

Even though he was already the highest official, he could not help but face his ministers with hatred and rejection.

"Wu Lang." Empress Dou tried to persuade him: "Do you still remember the story of 'ambiguity'?"

- During the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang, cruel officials were used, which made the emperor distrust his ministers and the ministers distrust the emperor. Although the ministers were very capable and did not dare to fool Emperor Wu of Liang, they developed a habit of never answering directly when someone asked them a question.

If something can be done, they will say vaguely: I feel that it can be done, but I feel that it is not very good, let's see first.

If something cannot be done, don't say it directly, but be vague: It seems that it can be done this way, it seems that it can be done that way, and it seems that it can be done without doing it. I think about it.

Thus, the idiom "ambiguity" was born.

But the ministers' words are so specious, which will be detrimental to the country in the long run.

The old emperor certainly knew this allusion, and he also knew what Empress Dou wanted to say, but...

"I need a sharp knife. Ambiguity is okay."

Former Prime Minister Dou asked cautiously: "Your Majesty, do you think I can be this sharp knife?"

The old emperor shook his head: "Although my uncle is also cruel, he is already successful and famous now, and he can't be this sharp knife. Throughout history, cruel officials must be people who come from obscure backgrounds, have never been happy in their lives, and are willing to take shortcuts for their ambitions."

"Then..." "

I already have a candidate for a cruel official, but the first time he strikes, I need my uncle to patrol the battlefield for him."

Former Prime Minister Dou was not very happy: "I can indeed squeeze some oil and water out of this old bone."

- It's called patrolling the battlefield, but in fact it's just to help the new knife to hold the pot first, so that the knife won't break before it can be used.

The old emperor was very easy to talk to at this time, and he didn't care how gloomy Prime Minister Dou was.

Prime Minister Dou bowed helplessly: "In this case, what official position will your majesty give me?"

The old emperor grinned, as if showing his fangs to the wealthy families in the people: "The railing."

Prime Minister Dou said "Huh", and was about to continue, when he suddenly heard a familiar voice: [Eh? Isn't this the tax official in charge of collecting commercial taxes in the Chu Dynasty? Later, it was abolished by the Zhou Dynasty and changed its name. Why did the old emperor bring it up again? ]

Prime Minister Dou was stunned.

The melancholy and confusion in his heart seemed to be much calmer.

——After many months, he heard Xu Yanmiao's voice again.

"Seven months and nine days."

Dou Qing counted clearly.

"Long time no see."

Xu Yanmiao.

And.

Don't just watch the show, persuade His Majesty! ! !