Chapter 296 So rich? Robbery!
After Lu Zhi dealt with the King of Changsha with thundering means, she looked at Luo Xin who was sitting below her. The two of them nodded slightly with smiles in their eyes.
In fact, the two men had already anticipated the King of Changsha's actions. The edict from Lu Zhi was clearly intended to find out the strength of each kingdom.
Although I don't know what Lu Zhi wants to do, it's always right to downplay her strength and hide it a little.
Lu Zhi and Luo Xin predicted what they had predicted, so they picked the King of Changsha as a soft persimmon, and the King of Changsha really took the bait, and it was an outrageous bait.
Lu Zhi originally thought that the King of Changsha would say there were 50,000 households. After all, the current Changsha Kingdom should have a population of about 60,000 to 70,000 households, and hiding 10,000 or 20,000 households was already a lot.
I didn't expect it to be less than when I was awarded the title.
Lu Zhi was not angry at all. Instead, she was so happy that she wanted to laugh out loud. She was just worrying about having no reason to deal with him, but she didn't expect that he would hand her a knife.
Contrary to everyone's expectations, Lü Zhi did not continue to question the Liu clan princes directly, but asked Luo Xin: "Marquis Dong'e, how many households are there in your fiefdom now?"
Luo Xin replied: "Reporting to the Queen Mother, in recent years, villagers have gradually returned to the country, and now there are roughly 27,000 households."
hiss!
Everyone couldn't help but gasp when they heard this. Over the years, as the deceased households were gradually granted land and registered as households, the number of households had basically increased, but this time it directly increased by 15,000 households, which was enough to confer the title of Marquis of Che with a thousand households on fifteen people.
How much tax would be collected from just 15,000 households?
I'm afraid that among the Che Hou present, only a few such as the Ying Hou, Anyang Hou, Huaiyin Hou, Ying Hou, and Lu Hou can be richer than this man.
Everyone looked at Luo Xin, who was wearing only a simple court robe. The only accessory was a jade piece around his waist, which was extremely simple.
Everyone couldn't help but sigh, he was a typical Luo family member, he didn't think luxury was beautiful, he only loved beautiful jade.
Lü Zhi praised him directly, saying, "I have granted Dong'ehou a total of 12,000 households over the years, but now there are 27,000 households in Dong'ehou's kingdom. This is the result of Dong'ehou taking my words to heart.
Years of war have led to a decrease in the population, but that does not mean that many people have died.
Countless common people are unwilling to be under the control of the imperial court. This is the imperial court's fault.
King Su treated the people well and shared happiness with them, so the people and nobles supported him. A greedy and cruel monarch did not care about the lives of the people, so the people hated him and even shouted, "When will the sun perish? We will perish with you."
The Xia Dynasty encountered a tyrant like Jie more than 400 years after its establishment. The Shang Dynasty encountered a tyrant like Zhou 600 years after its establishment, which caused public resentment. The nobles hated him, the people resented him, and the slaves betrayed him. As a result, the countries established by sage kings such as King Yu and King Tang also perished.
How powerful was the Qin Dynasty when it swept across the six kingdoms. The millions of troops of the six kingdoms could not stop it, and the endless stream of strategists and brave generals were no match for it.
However, it collapsed after only enjoying the Mandate of Heaven for over a decade. Was it simply because of incompetent rulers and treacherous ministers like Hu Hai, Li Si and Zhao Gao?
I have ordered all the counties and kingdoms to recuperate, so that you can treat the people well, so that the people will naturally and actively submit to the rule of the court.
Is this something difficult to do?
I don't believe it.
What Marquis Dong'e has done has won my heart. It is not what a king should do for his subjects to have merits but not be rewarded. Today I will reward Marquis Dong'e with another thousand households as a reward for him.
What do you think, Emperor?
Liu Ying did not expect that he would have a say in such an important occasion, and he immediately said, "The King of Changsha is a relative of the Liu family, but he treats the Liu family's world like this. Is this what a loyal minister does?
I really hate him.
"Dong'e Hou has loyally assisted my mother and me. Such great merits cannot be highlighted without a generous reward. I think he should be granted 3,000 households, making Dong'e Hou a large country with 30,000 households. Half of the people in the country are granted by the royal family. Only such a good name and gift can show the royal family's trust in Dong'e Hou."
Lu Zhi didn't expect that Liu Ying could say such insightful words.
Although the reward was quite generous, at least the direction was right. He couldn't help but look at his son, who had always been kind to the point of being cowardly, with a new respect.
Two consecutive events finally made everyone realize that they had to report reasonably. It was unreasonable that the population had not grown for ten years, and the growth could not be too small. If the population decreased, that would be the fate of the King of Changsha.
The princes and nobles adjusted the numbers in their minds one after another, and the hall suddenly became harmonious.
Luo Xin was calculating below. As for the degree of recovery of the population and tax land of various countries, he had a rough idea in his mind through the trade and various consumption of these people. Compared with what the princes reported now, he expected a little more.
He immediately knew that these people were still hiding the population. Ever since the household registration, it had been almost instinctive for the wealthy and powerful families to hide the population. It was really the naked interests that they could not let go.
This is what Luo Xin is determined to crack down on. He is good at calculations. The court must bear most of the responsibility. The costs of disaster relief, defense, and the official system cannot be covered by relying solely on the current annual revenue.
The main reasons why the court has been able to operate stably in recent years are as follows:
First, Luo Xin and Luo Yi are very capable, and coupled with Luo Chen's reform of the official system, they basically ensured the stability within the court. Under the strongman politics, internal friction was very small.
Second, since the establishment of the Han Dynasty, there has been no major natural disasters. The current court does not need to make large expenditures and its financial situation is good.
Third, Luoling went to the grassland and inflicted heavy damage on the Xiongnu, which greatly reduced the pressure on the Han Dynasty’s border defense and no longer required it to bear huge military expenditures all year round.
Fourth, although Luo Chen increased the number of officials, overall, the court was still a typical Huang-Lao small government, and the administrative costs were relatively low.
But this cannot last long. In recent years, Confucianists believe that the time has come and the court should take on more practical tasks. They have put forward the idea of great unification that was touched upon as early as the Zhou Dynasty.
Today’s Confucianism is very different from what Ji Zhao had in mind.
They studied the core of Luo Sheng's thought from the "Luogong Chunqiu", "The king's etiquette rules the world."
King Su used rites and laws to unite the barbarians in the world, such as the Dongyi, Xirong, Jingman, Huaiyi, as well as the Shang people and Zhou people. The rites and laws penetrated into the family from top to bottom, and the emperor could control the world through rites and laws. The core of praise and criticism of the entire "Luogong Chunqiu" is the expanded Zhou rites.
Confucian scholars believed that the First Emperor's standardization of wheel gauges, writing systems, and weights and measures was a restoration of the early Zhou Dynasty system.
Because the two saints Luo and Kong had read Luo's history books, which clearly recorded that the writing styles of the early Zhou emperor and various countries were consistent, and there was also an official language for audiences with the emperor. However, after hundreds of years of chaos, it gradually dispersed.
Confucianists believe that what the imperial court is doing now is not enough and that its control over the vassal states is insufficient. This is the general trend.
The implementation of great unification is not a simple matter of issuing decrees and then receiving feedback. It is a very complicated, time-consuming and costly task. The current court does not have the ability to bear the cost of reform, so Luo Xin has set his sights on the princes and marquises.
Great power, little responsibility, high taxes, low expenditures, this is the current situation of the vassal kingdoms.
As the princes finished their reports, Marquis Che in the hall became a little restless. These princes often had hundreds of thousands, three hundred thousand, or even five hundred thousand households. Their combined strength far exceeded that of Guanzhong. The key was how much tax should be levied, especially in places like Chu and Wu, which were already rich and had little military pressure. No wonder the King of Wu could spend money like water.
When the last person finished speaking, Lü Zhi said directly: "It seems that evildoers like the King of Changsha are a minority after all. I am very pleased.
The country gradually recovered from the chaos at the end of the Qin Dynasty and became prosperous, with many other countries becoming even more prosperous than Guanzhong.
But I am a little worried. For thousands of years, I have never heard of branches growing stronger than the trunk and still thriving.
It is unheard of that a flood could enter a narrow river channel without causing damage.
The population of various countries doubled and the land area tripled, but the money and grain tribute offered to the emperor remained unchanged, which was a violation of Han law.
Dong'e Hou, you are in charge of the Han Dynasty's money and grain, what do you think I should do?"
The princes cursed inwardly upon hearing this. Sure enough, they were trying to collect taxes from us in various ways. However, they were in the palace, looking at the fierce and vicious founding hero. They could only bite the bullet and say, "Queen Dowager, you are right. We should pay taxes to the emperor according to Han law."
As for the Han laws, they didn't know. When Liu Bang was dividing the land, although there were necessary checks and balances, the power of the princes was still extremely great. After all, the princes were set up to ensure the survival of the Liu family's kingdom.
The historian quickly recorded this scene, "The Queen Mother, the Emperor and the princes had a feast for three rounds, and they were all very happy."
Luo Xin looked at the cunning kings of the Liu family and gradually felt murderous. Liu Ying was only in his twenties this year and would still have to rule for a long time.
Luo Xin was getting older, and he was worried that Liu Ying would not be able to deal with these uncles, so he wanted to clear away obstacles for him.
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The idea of great unification, which had been nurtured for nearly three hundred years, appeared before the rulers of the Han Dynasty. Centralization and great unification became the inevitable choice of the rulers of the Han Dynasty.
After more than ten years of recuperation, the central court finally began to intervene in the tax affairs of various vassal kingdoms.
Due to the strength of the group of meritorious officials in the early Han Dynasty and the lack of internal integration among the princes, the Han court achieved initial victory in tax sharing.
This enabled the Han court to obtain a stable tax channel, at least for a short period of time, in addition to the taxes it received from its directly governed territories, laying a great material foundation for the expansion of the Han court's power.
It was also a powerful attempt by the central government to intervene in local affairs again. Judging from the subsequent governing strategy, this was the first step in a complete plan for unification.
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(End of this chapter)
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