In response to this, Xu Xianggong hesitated for a moment, and did not respond directly to Lu Yihao, but directly bowed his hands and spoke to Zhao Guanjia:
"Your Majesty, it is true that the rich and powerful have always been prone to disasters, and it is also true that we cannot forget about war in today's world. However, Liangzhe and Jiangdong (Eastern Jiangnan Road) have always been rich and have many scholars. In addition, there are more cities than villages. Your Majesty and Prime Minister Lu are directly supervising these areas, so they can be said to be in compliance with the king's rule... This memorial is the evidence... If you say that rebellion will occur in Liangzhe, I think I am worrying too much."
"What Mr. Xu meant is..." Zhao Jiu could see that the two men had never liked each other, but he interrupted before Lu Yihao could refute. "Can we ask the troops in the north to prepare, but they should wait a little longer? Or stay far away, such as stationing in Yangzhou or Huaidian, and not cross the river for the time being?"
"That's exactly what I mean." Xu Jingheng bowed earnestly. "Your Majesty, if this matter can be done without resorting to war or chaos, it will comfort the people of Jiangnan and strengthen the central authority in Jiangnan. Otherwise, even if we suppress it with war, it will be like the Fang La Rebellion, which will cause a rift between the southeast and the country... During the Fang La Rebellion, the Western Army suppressed the rebellion, which was more disastrous than Fang La, so that the people of the southeast were terrified when they heard about the government army. Later, Li Gang, the Prime Minister, caused a military rebellion in the southeast, which could not be suppressed for a long time, which made the southeast more resistant to military affairs... Therefore, unless it is absolutely necessary, I think it is not necessary to send more troops to Liangzhe."
Zhao Jiu said nothing and looked directly at Lu Yihao. He was obviously persuaded by Xu Jingheng to some extent, but he still had to respect Lu Yihao's attitude.
In a matter of seconds, the two gentlemen had already discussed the matter.
Lu Yihao wanted to emphasize that he was a legitimate husband, while the other party was a re-employed one. However, he did not expect that Mr. Xu, because he was a re-employed one, was too lazy to pay attention to Mr. Lu. This made Lu Yihao not know how to avoid the grudge and he was already at a disadvantage.
Of course, Lu Yihao was a man of action. After a long silence, he slowly nodded and made a conclusion amid the crows' cries: "Your Majesty, I am not really worried about Liangzhe and Jiangdong (Eastern Jiangnan Road), because there are far more scholars here than the powerful households, and even the powerful households have a literary style. The so-called scholar rebellion will not succeed in three years, so there is no need to be afraid of them... But what about Lianghuai, Jiangxi, and Fujian Road? Some of these places have fierce folk customs, and some worship witchcraft. Who knows if there will be disasters? Therefore, I think the emperor should at least send more than 10,000 imperial camp troops to Jiangbei, and prepare ships and make all preparations... And they must be the imperial camp vanguard with the best military discipline."
"Then let's do this. Officially issue an imperial decree to have Wang Gui, the deputy commander of the Imperial Camp Front Army, lead 10,000 troops to station in Wuwei. They have marched here before and are familiar with the place." Zhao Jiu immediately made the decision. "And Prime Minister Lu, please work hard to make the local officials in Wuwei behave themselves and not make a scene like the rebellion in Qianzhou that year when the Imperial Camp soldiers were not allowed to stay and were not given supplies."
"I saved it." Lu Yihao immediately bowed slightly.
"Since you two gentlemen are here, do you have anything to remind me about the issue of the land tax?" Zhao Jiu thought for a moment and continued to ask.
"Yes." Xu Jingheng said solemnly. "I want to ask the government, since the Tang Dynasty, the rent and labor system has been a practice. The money used to pay for the service of the people is silk, and the silk and the grain used to pay the rent are just what the men in the small households can earn from farming and the women weaving, so it can last for a long time. But after the tax is distributed according to the land, the silk that the people don't pay will be transferred to the households with status, but where do the households with status get so much silk? And if there is no silk, whether it is bought or collected directly, there will be a worry of lack of silver and copper. Not to mention, if we talk about unifying the system and preventing corrupt officials from harassing the people, even ordinary small households will never be taxed, and after the tax is distributed according to the land, the collection of silk should be abolished, and the collection of money and grain should be transferred... But collecting money and grain is equivalent to forcing the people to sell their silk, and then they will be forced to sell their silk by the households with status and wealthy merchants. What should we do?"
As Zhao Jiu listened to the other party's narration, another word instinctively came to his mind, which was the whip method.
It can only be said that since ancient times, those important reforms have been the inevitable trend of history... However, the problem now is that the Song Dynasty is in unprecedented shortage of precious metals, and relying solely on the few ships of precious metal exchange trade from Japan is simply a drop in the bucket.
Not to mention, Xu Jingheng’s final reminder was also correct... Any behavior that forces ordinary people to participate in abnormal trade will result in the ordinary people being exploited once more.
Therefore, the current one-whip method is just a thought in one's own mind. If it is really implemented, it will be a dead end.
However, Zhao Jiu, who had been the emperor for seven or eight years, was no longer a novice. After a little thought, he gritted his teeth and said, "I don't have a very good solution for this matter, but I have two principles... The so-called principles are the unshakable provisions like the basic phenomena in the original learning... First, no matter what, we can't put the cart before the horse and let the benevolent policy of reducing the burden on the lower-class people become a bad policy. At most, we can push the trouble to the situation households, because the situation households will not suffer any loss no matter how much trouble they have. In comparison, the poor households can continue to collect silk and silk if they really can't. Second, no matter what, this major policy of never increasing taxes and allocating taxes to land must be implemented. We can't let things shrink because of this kind of derivative troubles, and make the situation where the old party attacks the new law."
Xu Jingheng quickly smiled and said, "Your Majesty, you are overthinking. I have no such intention..."
"It is not necessary to uniformly exchange them for silver and copper. We can set a strict rule to make grain, silk and money equal." At this time, Lu Yihao suddenly interrupted coldly. "A piece of cloth is two strings of money, which is about two stone of new rice! At least in Liangzhe, no one can say that this price is unfair! And if money, grain and silk can be exchanged, the shortage of silver and copper will not be a big problem."
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