Chapter 332: It’s all Lao Deng!

Bei Jingchu originally planned to discuss and persuade the emperor in a friendly manner.

As a result, the emperor obviously made up his mind not to turn back until he hit the south wall.

Bei Jingchu's heart skipped a beat as he looked so impatient, as if he wanted to mobilize his troops and attack Huang Long tomorrow.

Bei Heng was just getting excited when his older son put out the flames.

"War is a very expensive thing, and militarism is not advisable."

Bei Heng frowned and retorted: "Since agricultural production has increased, the national treasury has been much fuller than before. Didn't you not object to the attack on Ningzhou and Yuzhou before? Why are you worried about the national treasury now?"

Speaking of this, Bei Jingchu's head hurts.

"At first, Ningzhou and Yuzhou were eyeing us covetously. Although Yuzhou was more honest than Ningzhou, it also kept harassing people on the border."

"If there is any internal unrest in Dai Viet, these two have the power to take advantage of it, Aye, you know that."

"Now that these two issues are resolved, there will be less worries."

"But the other small countries are not important. Conquering them is just to satisfy your wish of building a great cause for generations to come."

Thinking of the hair she lost while dispatching rations to ensure the logistics of the army when she was in power, Bei Jingchu couldn't help scratching her head in annoyance and complained: "I was really frugal, and I spent every penny in a hundred ways, so that the expenses didn't seem so terrible."

"The rations, salaries, rewards, and transportation for so many soldiers. After four wars, the treasury, which was once quite full, has already regressed to what it was a dozen years ago. All we can say is that there is no loss."

"We have to save it for natural disasters and man-made disasters."

"You can recover after a few years of nursing. Even if you want to achieve great achievements, you should at least take a rest first."

Bei Heng is not someone who refuses to listen to advice. No matter how ambitious he is, he can't move forward without money.

He only sighed, "Dai Viet's agricultural production is increasing rapidly now. It didn't take long for us to win these four expeditions. Can't we save more money to support my military efforts to conquer other countries?"

Bei Jingchu scratched his head again in annoyance, and said with a headache: "Because the daily expenses are already high. If it weren't for the increase in agricultural production now, it would even be unable to make ends meet."

"Ayeyi already knew that, didn't he?"

Otherwise, in the original novel, the Yue Dynasty would not have collapsed so quickly under the enemy's iron cavalry.

Bei Heng had indeed known this for a long time, but ever since the birth of the crown prince, the country's fortunes had changed and talented people had emerged.

He was blinded by the prosperous and thriving scene and acted too hastily.

Bei Heng tightened his jaw with a slightly disappointed look, and sighed: "Originally, the increase in agricultural production was terrifying, and the national treasury should have been full, but there were too many people who fled."

“To escape citizenship is to evade taxes.”

"At the end of the previous dynasty, there were 9 million households. Nine years ago, there were only 2 million households. Now, it has only grown to 3 million households."

"Dai Viet has been prosperous for so many years, but its population has not increased but decreased, and the decrease is really not exaggerated. The omissions in household registration management are outrageous."

"If we can find all the people who have fled, I won't have to worry about the treasury being full."

Bei Jingchu looked up at the sky, but the problem was that she couldn't find it, and there was no internet.

Ordinary people spend their entire lives on a small piece of land in their own village, and at most they make some money there.

You don't need to leave the city, stay in an inn, or get various travel permits. Even if you don't want a household registration, you can still live a lifetime. Of course, you don't want to pay this money.

After escaping from nationality, not only did they not have to pay taxes, they also did not have to perform labor service. It was simply a profitable business.

But she can't just let this go, she has to reform it.

The household registration management of the Yue Dynasty was too bad. Finance, agriculture and taxation were the foundation of the country in a feudal dynasty. If they couldn't even manage the household registration well, then any orders they issued would not be implemented.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince feels that he has his life very difficult. Who could have seen that the glamorous court actually has an unstable foundation?

If it weren't for the crazy increase in agricultural taxes, the building would have collapsed long ago.

This did not happen during the first two emperors of the Yue Dynasty. It was only after Aye succeeded to the throne that the people began to flee.

There is a reason why four generations perished. We cannot blame it all on the original male protagonist. The court system itself has a lot of problems.

During the reigns of the first two emperors, the people registered their household registration obediently not because of their charisma, but because of the benefits.

In order to prevent land annexation, the Yue Dynasty adopted the equal-field system.

All the land was owned by the imperial court, and the amount of land each person was allocated was stipulated. After death, 20% could be left behind, and the rest would return to the imperial court.

It is worth mentioning that adult males could get 100 mu of land from the court, but for women, only widows and concubines could get 30 mu of land.

Bei Jingchu immediately discovered the truth behind the folk saying that every family has a daughter and only one family stays.

If you raise a son and he grows up, you can get 100 mu of land. If you raise a daughter and she grows up, she can only marry someone else, and if her husband dies, you can only get 30 mu of land.

Putting aside the feelings, it is indeed a losing deal.

Talking about benevolence and righteousness with the people who may not even have enough food to eat is like being unwilling to eat meat.

It turns out that everything is subject to the regulations of the imperial court. Bei Jingchu feels that she has a long way to go and a heavy responsibility.

Changing the land distribution is a piece of cake, but the difficulty now is that the court cannot distribute the land.

Yes, even though it was stipulated that the land should be returned to the court after a person's death, after two generations of emperors, the court could no longer distribute the land.

Giving out the land is like throwing meat buns at a dog, it is gone and never comes back.

Many rogues would conceal the death of their elders and steal their property.

Or they were resold privately. For various reasons, the court had less and less public land.

There is no profit to be made, no land to be claimed, and the people get no benefits, so naturally they are unwilling to register and pay taxes.

Bei Jingchu was so angry that his teeth itched. He wanted to rush into the Taimiao and curse at his grandfather and great-grandfather. He felt so good when he was in power, right?

You have taken all the fame and achievements, leaving her and her father alone to depend on each other for the two old men to clean up the mess.

Lao Deng, it’s all Lao Deng!

What Bei Jingchu has to do now is to re-include all those who have fled.

After hearing her thoughts, Bei Heng, who had regained consciousness, shook his head and commented, "You think too simply. I sent people to collect this matter a long time ago, but the people were unwilling to cooperate. Even if I forced them to interrogate, I only found out one million more households."

"Everyone can think of an investigation, but the difficult part is how to do it."

Bei Jingchu pondered for a long time, then said hesitantly: "Then...then how about I give it a try?"

The emperor seemed to have been waiting for these words for a long time, and immediately wrote her an imperial edict.

Bei Jingchu:......

Holding the freshly stamped imperial edict in her hand, she found that she seemed to have given herself another task, making her already busy life even more difficult.

At this point, Aye began to urge: "The prince is getting old, when will you select beauties to fill the harem and produce royal heirs?"

Bei Jingchu couldn't help but roll his eyes, raised the imperial edict in his hand, and sneered: "Is it a human problem now? It's a problem that I don't have time to enjoy it."

"When the candidates come in, the men will stay alone in the empty room, and I will be in the study with the officials."

Bei Jingchu seemed a little irritable because of the new official duties.

His hair was a little messy because he always had it in a bun, and he looked on the verge of madness.