No matter how well-versed Dawanma is in human nature, it is impossible for him to know where he should go with his three masters, so the three people who got in the car were big-hearted enough and let Dawanma go on his own. Go ahead.
At first, the two women were quite curious and wanted to see where the Dawanma would take them. However, Li Hong obviously had no such curiosity and sat in the carriage with his eyes closed and fell asleep.
He wanted to make a bet with the two women on where the carriage would eventually stop, but both women had obviously learned a lesson. After summing up their experience, no one was willing to bet with him.
So after a short while, Bai Chun and Yan Lingbin lost their focus and continued to watch the Dawanma, pulling them where to go, because the street scene on the roadside was so familiar to them, and they were completely heading towards the palace.
The Central Army at the gate of the Imperial City obviously recognized this ordinary carriage, but in their eyes, it was anything but ordinary. As they watched the unmanned carriage enter slowly from the gate of the Imperial City, there was no one there. Soldiers of the Central Army went to intercept.
Dawanma obviously also knew his responsibilities. After entering the imperial city, he followed the usual path and slowly walked to the entrance of the side hall of Zichen Hall and stopped.
The two women in the carriage were not in a good mood. They thought the horse would bring them some surprises, but they didn't expect that the horse had no interest at all. The old horse knew the way and only knew how to go to the palace.
Heng Yanfan, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, Xu Yanbo, the new Imperial Consecrated Wine, the "retired" Imperial Consecrated Wine Prince Li Dan of Yin, the King of England Li Zhe, and the Prince of Pei Li Xian, stood not far from the entrance of Zichen Palace, looking at the unmanned vehicle strangely. After the carriage stopped, the carriage door opened, and Li Hong and three others stepped out one after another.
"No... no one is driving? Did you come back by yourself?" Li Dan was most surprised. His Majesty the Emperor left the palace, but there was not even a driver. What if something happened? !
"As the saying goes, an old horse knows its way. Although this horse is in its prime, it is obviously very smart. It knows how to go back to the palace without being driven. How about Li Zhe, is it much better than your horse?" Li Hong stepped out of the carriage, proudly. He looked at the people at the entrance of the palace proudly and said show off.
There were two stallions, and Li Zhe and he had to choose one each. In the end, Li Zhe chose the smaller one and left the one that was much larger than an ordinary horse to Li Hong.
"Hitch my horse to the cart and we can run to Luoyang by ourselves." Li Zhe said lightly, the disdain and sourness in his tone could be smelled from a long distance away.
"Come on, I heard that the last time someone drove a car, he stumbled and ran to Luoyang by himself. Did he get lost or was he wild?" Li Hong said mercilessly, hitting his brother.
Li Zhe had been staying at his mansion a few days ago and didn't go anywhere. When he finally inquired, he found out that the horse bucked and overturned, so Li Zhe's arm was dislocated, so he had to stay in his mansion. Recuperate.
Hearing Li Hong's sarcasm, the disdain on Li Zhe's face became more obvious. He moved his dislocated arm on the day of the exercise and said vaguely: "This shows that it is a good horse with good character."
After waving his hands to stop Heng Yanfan and Xu Yanbo from greeting them, Bai Chun and Yan Lingbin, who were behind them, saluted a few people and then went to the harem to rest under the leadership of the palace maids waiting at the door.
"What day is it today? Why have you all been summoned together? Do you have something to do with me? Or do you want to find someone else?" Li Hong took the lead and walked towards the main entrance of Zichen Hall.
"Every time "Fang Jian Tian Xia" is released after the court meeting, so after we watched "Fang Jian Tian Xia" this time, we naturally have to come to see you, the emperor." After Li Xian resumed his status as a prince, during this period He looks much better than before, unlike when he just returned to Luoyang from Jiling City. He looks like a simple middle-aged man.
"Is it about the slaves?" Li Hong asked knowingly: "Are you asking me to plead for mercy or to clarify your doubts? Let's talk about it first. All the maids in the palace are involved in this reform of slavery, so if you If you want to keep the slaves in the mansion, there is no other good way except to register them, and in the end, it depends on whether they are willing to stay. If they are not willing to stay, you can't force them to stay. "
"Then what if you are willing to stay?" Li Dan's fat figure squeezed between Li Zhe and Li Xian, half a step behind Li Hong, and stood still at the entrance of the Zichen Hall.
"You can stay if you want to." Li Hong turned around and looked at the people standing side by side and said.
"Your Majesty, I still have something unclear. If you are willing to stay, then of course you will still be a slave. But wouldn't this conflict with your Majesty's restructuring? How to register your household registration and how to divide the land? If you stay in the palace or among the princes, After the mansion, those fields will still be..." Heng Yanfan looked at Li Hong and asked cautiously after saluting.
"It's a good problem, but it's easy to solve." Li Hong glanced at the Xuanzheng Hall in the distance in front of him, then turned around and walked into the Zichen Hall. When he came to the side hall, he motioned for everyone to sit down and then said: "I understand the previous opinions of the Ministry of Finance. Yes, there are big differences in these areas, but there is no one-and-done solution to anything. If you solve the current problem, new problems will arise when you look back. The face of the court is not that it cannot make mistakes, but that it does. Knowing how to change after making mistakes is the face of the imperial court. As an emperor, I don't care if I make a small change every year or a big change every three years. What are you afraid of? "
Li Hong smiled, stood up and walked to the handwriting that was still left on the page when he last talked with the Ministry of Household Affairs. He pointed to the slave land distribution and the flow of the population and said: "Whether it is a prince's palace or an imperial palace, slaves want to If you want to leave, you should naturally leave with your household registration and fields. If you don’t want to leave, then your household registration and fields will be handed over to the owner’s family for management. The income from the fields, except for taxes, will naturally belong to the owner’s family.”
"The equal distribution of land solves the problem of local annexation by local tyrants and evil gentry, but it only treats the symptoms but not the root cause. The rights of life and death of slaves are still closely linked to the master's family. Even if they want to leave, the master's family is unwilling to give them land and household registration. , what should we do?" Li Xian thought for a while and said after looking at the others who had similar feelings.
"As I said just now, there is no wise decision that can be made once and for all in this world. Even the emperor is not much smarter than anyone sitting here. What's more, the initial restructuring was only to give slaves an independent personality and freedom. Equal status, instead of being destined to be a slave for the rest of his life." Li Hong's expression was equally serious.
Then after taking a look at a few people, he continued: "The imperial court's laws and regulations will also be revised simultaneously. For this class of slaves, household registration is the most important, and farmland is the second. All we can do is to do it step by step, and then Problems were discovered and solved in the process, and finally, through unremitting efforts, the laws and regulations of the Tang Dynasty were improved step by step. "
"No more buying and selling?" Li Xian thought for a moment and asked uncertainly.
"Without buying and selling, there is no harm! Are you familiar with this sentence? By the way, you may not be familiar with it. But it makes sense. Slaves are assets, not people, so they can be bought and sold. After the ban on buying and selling, give them Equal status, all I want is this first step. As for what will happen next, I am afraid only the devil knows." Li Hong shrugged and spread his hands and said helplessly.
"So that people who own slaves cannot buy and sell them at will, or even dispose of them at will, and give slaves a certain degree of legal protection, instead of being like goods or livestock, and even being able to kill them?" The person in charge understood the problems that Li Hong wanted to solve much faster and more thoroughly than others.
Just like a secretary, you can often understand the intentions of your boss and leader in just a few words.
"Yes, that's what it means. Once you have a household registration, as long as a person dies, whether it is a man, woman, old or young, or the old, weak, sick or disabled, whether it is a normal death or not, he must report it to the Yamen to cancel the household registration. If the death is not a normal death, it is naturally required The owner gave an explanation, whether it was murdered by others or something else, it was a human life case." Li Hong nodded and looked at the frowning people.
The banquet hall suddenly became silent. Whether it was Li Zhe, Li Dan, or even Li Xian, they began to think about whether this step would be good or bad for themselves.
After all, once a slave has a household registration, it is natural for him to go to the Yamen to cancel the household registration after death. However, if the death is abnormal, then he should bear the responsibility. If he died in the hands of an outsider, it is better to report to the Yamen. If the murder case is not an outsider's but one's own, then it's hard to tell. Maybe a person with a transcendent status may be implicated or even convicted because of the death of a slave who is no longer a slave. .
"I think it's pretty good. If you don't have evil intentions or selfish motives, and you just use them as maids and other servants to serve the people in the house, this is a good personal protection for those slaves. There will be no more mass graves..."
"The Tang Dynasty has become rich and powerful, so we should have some humanity. All nonsense about the way of heaven is useless. When people are not completely equal, talking about other things is just fart. Therefore, if you want to comply with the way of heaven, you want to In order not to violate the harmony of nature, let’s first solve the problem of human equality. Only when there is the most basic equality between people and respect can we talk about other things. Otherwise, at this stage of the Tang Dynasty, talking about other things is just a luxury. It's all a joke." Li Hong said with a smile.
The prosperity of the Tang Dynasty did not mean that every corner of the Tang Dynasty was wealthy. There were many poor and remote places, and only a few were able to be wealthy. After all, in the five thousand years of Chinese history, no dynasty was , truly achieving that all people can have no worries about food, clothing and health.
Unless some self-deceiving experts ignore those low-income people who are holding them back, and only conduct surveys and certifications on the average income of middle-class and wealthy families, and only survey people in first-, second-, and third-tier cities without going to the surrounding areas. Surrounded by mountains, transportation is limited to walking, and high altitude places to collect evidence.
How ridiculous! sad! Shameful again!
(End of chapter)