The reason why Li Ke said this was not that he made it up randomly, but that he had a basis for it, because there was another piece of information in his hand.
When Li Ke first took over the supervision of the country, those who calculated from the imperial treasury data and annual grain income found that about 20 to 30% of the land in the world was not cultivated at all. Li Ke didn't know the reason, so he asked the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Industry to investigate.
At that time, the deadline given by Li Ke was until the end of July this year, but both Duan Lun and Fang Xuanling from the Ministry of Industry said that this time was too tight and could not be investigated.
After that court meeting, Li Ke directly issued this order to Tian Meng and asked him to investigate the reasons. Along with the investigation, he also investigated the stock and distribution area of donkeys and horses among the people.
Now, less than a month and a half after Li Ke issued the order, he has received feedback on relevant information.
Li Ke didn't know the progress of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Industry, but they said it couldn't be completed in July, and now it will be completed in March. This efficiency has improved by an unknown amount compared to them.
Li Ke pondered the gap here. It was certainly because Yuelai Trading Company had fewer tasks. After all, officials in Datang had to be responsible for other things, and the number of officials at the bottom was seriously insufficient.
In other words, the Tang Dynasty cannot currently support so many officials, nor can we say officials, to be precise, they are officials and servants.
After all, some things can actually be done by officials and servants.
In the Tang Dynasty, official refers to a person with formal rank. In modern times, it means a formal rank, a minor rank, a major rank, etc.
In the Tang Dynasty, officials were ranked from Liuwai Jiu to Liuwai First Class to distinguish the salary and position size. It was a bit like a contract worker. There was no formal level, but your income was guaranteed, and you could become an official at any time. Salaries were paid by the Tang court.
The final servants, such as government officials, fall into this category. They are considered temporary workers, that is, they are called in temporarily. Their monthly salary is paid out by the local court itself. In many places, government officials are even paid for free. Workmanship.
This results in a serious shortage of available personnel in the local area.
The status of officials remains unchanged for the time being, but if these servants can be promoted to the status of contract workers and given a stable income, just like those ordinary people who work, so that they can support their families, then the efficiency of the Tang Dynasty court will be will be greatly improved.
Especially for things that require a lot of manpower, the efficiency will be greatly improved.
However, there is also a problem, that is, the financial pressure on the court will increase greatly.
According to the information obtained by Li Ke, after Li Zhi succeeded to the throne, the salary paid out by all officials in the Tang Dynasty was almost equivalent to 15 million yuan a year. It can be said that more than 80% of the treasury revenue was used to pay official salaries.
It is conceivable how low Datang's investment in other aspects was, which can be regarded as the advantage of the military system.
Li Ke wants to reform the currency for this reason, because if a country's economy is on a significant rise and the country's national strength is significantly improved, it can actually issue more currency to quickly improve the country's economy and develop the country's situation.
But the original monetary system of the Tang Dynasty could not do this. Based on the situation of barter as the mainstay and copper coins as the supplement, how could the currency be issued in excess?
If issuing more currency than the safe limit is not enough for the country's development, then issue national debt. In short, as long as the country's economy and national development are optimistic, there will be no loss in either of these and the country's development will accelerate.
Only after complete currency reform can Li Ke play this way.
After thinking about it, Li Ke took a leather notebook and began to write down special issues. This is a blank notebook he found in the warehouse.
"On the Outline of the Imperial Court and National Policy Reform of the Tang Dynasty"
1. Analysis of the current situation and improvement measures due to the small number of low-level officials and servants, resulting in extremely slow processing of court affairs and slow local response to emergencies.
2. Analysis of the impact of the expansion of officials and servants on the existing financial pressure of Datang.
3. How to maximize efficiency without increasing the financial pressure on Datang.
4. The necessity of reforming the monetary system of the Tang Dynasty.
5. The necessity for officials and servants to be literate.
6. The necessity of education system reform derived from this.
7. The necessity of reforming the imperial examination system.
8. How to improve the social status of government soldiers and carry out reform of the professional path of soldiers.
9. The necessity of improving reading and literacy among government soldiers.
10. Discussion on ways to temporarily supplement and replace policies between local garrisoned soldiers and local officials and servants to reduce financial pressure.
11. The necessity of optimizing and reforming Datang’s finances and treasury expenditures.
12. The necessity of reforming the existing accounting system and the necessity of establishing auditing.
13. Discussion on the detailed division of functions of the six departments.
14. How to increase Datang’s fiscal revenue.
15. Discussion on commercial tax reform derived from Article 14 (it is recommended to refer to the relevant income of Datang Everlasting City).
16. The necessity of increasing animal power in the Tang Dynasty (urgent)
Li Ke wrote down all of these in detail. Some of these things have already begun to be implemented, some have a clue, and some have not been started yet, but they are things to be solved in the future.
After writing the sixteenth article, Li Ke decisively threw the pen aside, feeling a headache.
Forget it, I won’t write it anymore, Yang Anning is so fun, why write this, it’s bad luck.
Li Ke put this thing away and threw it to Tian Meng, "Take it, don't let anyone see it, give it to me when I return to the palace."
"Yes." Tian Meng quickly took it, then took out a carefully crafted wooden box from the back, put the notebook inside, locked it, and then put it into his arms, with the key hanging on it. on his own neck.
Li Ke didn't care what he did. From the information Tian Meng sent over just now, Li Ke knew why 23% of the land was not cultivated.
It is taken for granted that he comes from the thinking of later generations, and the reason is actually very simple.
Animal power!
That's right, it's the simplest issue of animal power. Not all people in the Tang Dynasty had oxen, donkeys, draft horses and other animal power! In many places, a village or even several households only have one ox or horse.
Based on his own experience as a child in his previous life, Li Ke believed that people in the Tang Dynasty had no problem with one family cultivating one hundred acres of land, but he was wrong.
When he was a child in his previous life, his family had a mule at least. Although his parents could easily cultivate more than fifty acres of land, that was because there was no shortage of livestock in the village, and every household had mules and horses. Every household has agricultural tools such as plows, rakes, hoes, shovels, sickles, and small shovels.
These are the tiniest things that he ignored, but they had the most profound impact on Datang! According to the survey given by Yuelai Commercial Bank, the cattle in many villages in Datang are shared by the public. For the sake of fairness, each family will plow as many acres as they want, and the next family will be replaced to ensure that every household can sow an average of a certain acres during the best spring plowing time. number.
After the best spring plowing time is over, it’s time to draw lots and rush to plant as much as you can.
