In the front hall of the palace, Gao Jiong, who was waiting for Yang Ji, saw him arriving and quickly stepped forward to salute with his hands in his hands: "Gao Jiong, who is of humble rank, comes to see King Wei."
"Forgive me, please sit down!" Yang Ji said that although he was no longer the prime minister, his achievements and prestige had already surpassed those of the prime minister. Yang Ji was really not qualified to act like a boss or a prince. What made him helpless was that after Gao Jiong became the governor of Liangzhou, he never did anything official for a day. If it were not to cover his position as "envoy to the Western Regions", Yang Ji would have asked Yang Jian to step down from his post.
Gao Jong smiled bitterly to himself. He knew that Yang Ji was dissatisfied with him, and he also knew that the reason why Yang Ji was dissatisfied with him was because he coerced and induced the ministers in the city to lie. After all, Gao Jiong did something a little unreasonable in this matter, which made Dugu Min the laughing stock of the whole city and Yang Ji almost couldn't find a wife.
Later, he asked his wife to come to propose marriage. If Yang Ji didn't know that he was causing trouble, then he would not be in the position he is today. So it was normal for Yang Ji to dislike him. Of course, he didn't care anymore.
Gao Jiong coughed dryly and said shamelessly: "King Wei, don't blame me for what I did back then. If you want to blame me, blame you for being too good. Who wouldn't miss someone as good as you? Do your best. Think about it from other aspects. If I hadn’t helped you cover it up in the first place, would you have been able to marry such an outstanding woman as the princess? There’s no need to be grateful, but at least you can’t blame me, right?”
After hearing this, Yang Ji found that he was speechless. He stared at Gao Jiong for a while, then waved his hand: "That's it, this matter is over. Don't mention it again in the future."
"King Wei said this, I feel relieved now." Gao Jiong breathed a sigh of relief when he heard what Yang Ji said. His Gao family was in a worse situation than anyone else; he had made enemies with Yang Jian during the fight for the heir apparent. With Yang Guang, he is now secluded from the world's famous family. If Yang Guang ignores him or liquidates him afterwards, the Gao family's situation will be in danger. It is precisely in view of this that Gao Jiong slowly moved closer to Yang Jian and Yang Guang under the irreversible situation. However, Yang Ji was a very key figure in this. If Yang Ji continued to be dissatisfied with him and slandered him, the Gao family would be the same It was hard, but now that he heard what Yang Ji said, Manager Gao Jiong felt relieved.
He handed a thick roster to Yang Ji and said: "King Wei, this is 80% of the fertile land of my Gao family. Now it has been distributed to 80% of the slaves in accordance with the court's land equalization system. I hope you can hand it over on my behalf." Giving it to the prince can be regarded as the Gao family doing their little bit for the world..."
"Wait a minute, wait a minute..." Yang Ji frowned and interrupted Gao Jiong's words: "Do you mean not only to dedicate 80% of the fertile land to the court, but also plan to release all 80% of the slaves? "
Slaves were the most humble group in the Sui Dynasty, and their fate and future were in the hands of their masters. Their lives belong to the master's family, and the lives of their descendants still belong to the master's family. According to the "Kaihuang Law", the master of the family has the right to execute the servants in the family. He only needs to pay the funeral expenses and does not need to bear any legal responsibility afterwards.
In other words, domestic servants were no different from livestock and were equal to the property of the householder.
A slave was property.
Just imagine, if you had thousands of strong slaves working for free year after year, day after day, generation after generation, how much wealth would this create? Now, this guy Gao Qiao actually wants 80% of the slaves to be released?
Gao Jiong said of course: "The Gao family has a lot of wealth, shops and caravans, and the money they get from business every year far exceeds the land income; every time there is a disaster, the Gao family has to use the business income to replenish the land." Loss, relieving slaves, and evenly calculating the income over ten years, the Gao family actually lost money in terms of land and slaves. The Gao family has no choice but to be politically correct in the future. The current shops and caravans alone are enough. Why use so many slaves to ensure that generations of people can live a life of fine clothing and fine food? It is too low-level to use the number of slaves to show whether a family is prosperous. The Gao family will make a good slave family, which will make the Sui Dynasty more prosperous. A household with good people will provide one more household with tax revenue and one more quota for conscription during the Sui Dynasty."
Yang Ji was in awe.
How did the aristocratic family flourish? Hiding the population was the most important method. They appropriated the taxes and corvees that should belong to the country for themselves, and gradually became prosperous.
It is precisely because of this that every family member in troubled times will hide their population and occupy unclaimed land to strengthen their own strength. When the world is at peace, the new dynasty will inevitably shake its foundation and acquiesce to this established fact. .
After the chaos of the late Sui Dynasty in history, the social situation of sharp population decline in the early Tang Dynasty was because some people died in the war, but more of the population was hidden by aristocratic families, and Li Yuan and Li Shimin did not Those who dared to be as clean as Yang Jian and Yang Guang did not dare to offend the interests of aristocratic families, so there were only about 8.5 million people in the early Tang Dynasty.
But Gao Jiong is now doing the opposite. If all the aristocratic families are like Gao Jiong, how many more household registrations and population will there be in the Sui Dynasty?
How much more tax and corvee will the court pay every year?
"Gong Gao serves the country and the people, he is a model!" Yang Ji said sincerely. To be honest, Prince Wei's Mansion actually has a lot of fertile land and slaves, but as Gao Jiong said, the Prince's income from land is far less than the income from business. .
However, the slaves in the palace were reduced to being like livestock, seemingly without dignity. However, they also avoided the burdens of taxes, corvees, military service and other burdens. They only had to deal with it day after day, year after year. Able to live a life of adequate food and clothing. In the year of great calamity, the life of slaves in the royal palace was better than that in small places. It is for this reason that even if the palace freed some slaves, they would still be willing to become tenants of the palace in the end. In this case, everyone lost their sense of responsibility and the courage and ability to be self-reliant.
These slaves gave Yang Ji the feeling that their bones were soft and their spines were broken. It was as if they had been slaves for a long time and one or two of them had forgotten that they were still alone. It was very difficult for them to stand up again. What Gao Jiong did was obviously a tough way to force the slaves of the Gao family to stand up on their own. Once they lost the protection of the Gao family, it would be difficult for these slaves to be tough.
"Frankly speaking, this is actually a decision I made for the future of the Gao family." Gao Jiong glanced at Yang Ji and continued: "The existence of slaves allows the family members to hide their population as they wish, and allows the family members to have enough power. The tyrannical power of changing dynasties. Although 80% of the slaves of the Gao family are nothing to the whole world, they at least set an example and let everyone know that it is illegal to hide as they please. Next, I will I propose to the saints, princes, and the imperial court that the noble families who hide their populations should be severely punished.”
Yang Ji was stunned when he heard this, and said to Gao Jiong: "Mr. Gao, if you really do this, everyone in the world will hate you."
"Of course I know this." Gao Jiong raised his eyebrows: "When I presented the methods of losing family status and inspecting appearance, they were actually hated by the family members. It doesn't matter if they hate them more."
"I understand!" Yang Ji said with a smile: "Does Duke Gao want to be a lonely minister?"
Gao Yan said with a smile: "I have always been a lonely minister, so why not be a lone minister again?"
Yang Ji glanced at the roster in his hand and said to Gao Jiong: "Gaogong is very wise. Only when you give up can you get something. I will definitely give it to the prince and let these rosters be settled in the prefecture and county where they are located."
"Thank you very much." Gao Jiu saluted and continued: "During the days of the Hanshi demonstration, I have deeply felt the power of the Hanshi. If an emperor can integrate the Hanshi and the people at the bottom, a unity will surely be formed. The terrifying power of stock-share reform changing heaven and earth, in the face of this power, the situation of the world's aristocratic families is worrying!"
"So Duke Gao released these slaves?" Yang Jixiao asked.
"That's right!" Gao Jiong said very frankly: "I am worried that the Gao family will become the next unlucky family, so I take the first step."
"According to what you said, there are already families that are in trouble now." Yang Ji pondered for a while and then asked: "Which aristocratic families are in trouble now?"
"Of course it's the Bolingcui family." Gao Jiong glanced at Yang Ji and said, "After you announced the list of prisoners, the Bolingcui family's ancestral home was surrounded by poor people, and they were brutally criticized by words and writings. Their reputation in Shilin , their status plummeted. Their influence in the officialdom was also purged. In addition to Cui Zhongfang and those criminal officials, more than half of the other disciples were dismissed. The decline of the Boling Cui family is unavoidable. "
Yang Ji didn't pay attention to the local officialdom outside Liangzhou, so he didn't know that the imperial court had already taken action against the Bolingcui family. He asked again: "In this great purge of the Bolingcui family, do you represent Bohai Gao?" Did you take action?"
"I have nothing to do with the Bohai Gao family for a long time. There is no contact between the two, so I don't know if they took action. Anyway, I just became a spectator." Gao Yan finished explaining and emphasizing, Then he continued the topic just now: "Today's Bolingcui family is in a miserable situation where everyone is pushing them against the wall, so there are many family members who have contributed. Whoever benefits from it is the one who contributes. Now, Bolingcui I'm afraid I hate you very much."
"I don't care!" Yang Ji laughed and said, "Who benefits the most?"
"Qinghe Cui family!" Gao Jiong said with gloating: "Among the five surnames and seven sects, the Boling Cui family and the Qinghe Cui family have been separated for a long time, but they are the same family after all, so in addition to competing for the first noble clan, they also have the same family. The spirit connects the branches, advancing together and retreating together. But even so, there are differences between the two."
Yang Ji nodded slightly, he still knew the difference between Er Cui. After the separation of the Boling Cui family and the Qinghe Cui family, the Boling Cui family was surrounded by the Lu family of Fanyang, the Li family of Zhaojun, the Cui family of Qinghe, and the Gao family of Bohai. There were many restrictions on their development in any direction. The main direction of their advance was The direction was Bingzhou in the west, competing with the weakened Wang family of Taiyuan in the northern part of Bingzhou, but the Lu family, who had a good relationship with the Wang family, attacked their own territory, so the Bolingcui family skipped Hebei and changed to the direction of Qingzhou and Yanzhou. Development, and this was precisely the inherent territory of the Cui family in Qinghe, so there was a huge dispute between the two in the direction of expressing their interests. Therefore, the Qinghe Cui family's move to devour the Boling Cui family's territory when the Boling Cui family's reputation was greatly reduced is understandable.
Although they eventually fell into the hands of the Cui family, the Boling Cui family was a different sect after all. How could they forgive the Qinghe Cui family for adding insult to injury? The conflicts and rifts that already exist between Er Cui are very likely to be further expanded because of this struggle for interests.
Perhaps, this is the reason why Yang Jian gave Qinghe Cui a big cake.
"But the next competition is not in Guanzhong or Daxing, but in the world." Gao Jiong added.
"The world?" Yang Ji looked at Gao Jiong in confusion.
"Yeah!" Gao Jie nodded and said, "The circulation of books in Guanzhong is just a blind move."
"What do you mean by Gao Gong's words?" Yang Ji, as the chief culprit in book circulation, didn't know what kind of cover-up he had, and he was even more confused by Gao Jiong's words.
"The circulation of books in Daxing City is to let the world know about the existence and efficacy of movable type printing and ink. Next, the sage will make the real killing move. By then, even if they burn down the East Market, West Market, and even Daxing City, It's too late, there's nothing we can do about it." Gao Jiong sneered and looked out the door.
Yang Ji looked at Gao Jiong with dissatisfaction, frowned and said, "What Mr. Gao said is getting more and more mysterious. Can you finish it in one go?"
"The situation of printing books in Daxing is just a cover for the sage. I think the real intention of the sage is to spread printing and ink technology to the people through this storm. As long as skilled craftsmen have this theory, they will see Bamboo paper and papyrus paper books are so popular that they can be made. And the caravans sent to various places left with a lot of templates." Gao Jiong looked at the expression of surprise on Yang Ji's face with satisfaction. He continued: "I don't need to say more about the value of this book. King Wei, you must have seen the grand occasion of Daxing Bookstore. When even a small workshop can make these things, King Wei feels that the book banning order that the aristocratic family is still advocating has What’s the point?”
"The supply of these books exceeds the demand, and the price has not decreased much. Children from aristocratic families can buy them, but most ordinary disciples from poor families do not have the financial resources. It is instinct for businessmen to pursue profit, and due to the lack of sufficient supervision in various places, a large number of people will definitely be able to buy it." Books enter the market, and when the supply of books on the market exceeds demand, it will only allow more poor scholars and poor children who are eager to learn to afford books. With these prerequisites, in the future, It is natural for various places to restart the Three Studies. This is a trick that accurately predicts human nature and draws out the salary under the cauldron. The saints are getting more and more slippery in this trick."
"What Mr. Gao said is absolutely true!" Yang Ji felt that Gao Jiong had thought too much about things. It seemed that neither he nor Yang Jian had thought so much, so he could only say: "If we let go of books, it will be really difficult in a short time." It generates huge profits, but when books become abundant, these huge profits will naturally disappear. After all, things are more valuable when they are scarce, and if there are too many of something, it will be worthless.”
"It is true." Gao Jiong nodded: "The booksellers, shops, and businesses in Daxing City have a strong political flavor. To put it simply, the business community in Daxing City has become a very obviously privileged class, while the court and officials have changed from the original The distributor of wealth has become a creator of wealth. This is relatively unreasonable in the first place, but the economic lifeline is in the hands of aristocratic families, so there is no way around it. Fortunately, after the impact of books once, you can also use other things in the future Come and impact the world's business. In this way, the role of the family members will be further reduced. But this will also create a powerful business alliance. Once these people join forces, they will become a powerful political force."
Yang Ji agrees with this.
In his opinion, the Ming Dynasty seemed to be such a businessman's politics.
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