The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 1016: The Assets of the Tang Dynasty (Part )
Changsun Wugou looked relaxed and in a good mood, as if he had seen the blue sky through the clouds and felt the pleasure of being a serf and becoming a master.

The years of being neglected by Li Shimin in the past and the unhappiness that had accumulated over the years were finally gone in an instant.

Li Yan saw it all and naturally understood that the current situation was somewhat like the situation where Tian Khan fell and his wife and children were well fed.

When Li Shimin was in good shape, he was at the top of the throne and held great power. He had the final say on all matters, and everyone had to act according to his mood. No one dared to go against his wishes. There was only one master of the entire Taiji Palace, and that was Li Shimin.

If you stay in this position for a long time, you will naturally become arrogant.

Under the authority of the Emperor, Li Chengqian was just a crown prince, one of the princes; although Zhangsun Wugou was the empress, she was also one of the emperor's concubines, and her status was only slightly higher than that of other concubines.

If the emperor's attitude changes even slightly, this advantage will disappear.

After Li Shimin fell into a coma, Li Yan became the ruler of the world, ruling the country and holding the power of life and death.

Zhangsun Wugou also stepped out of the harem and became the empress dowager who truly ruled the country. The power she actually controlled and the indirect influence she had were by no means comparable to that of the queen, who could not even fully control the concubines in the harem.

This status is unique and cannot be replaced.

The most direct beneficiaries of Li Shimin's fall were not the aristocratic families, but the emperor's wife and legitimate son.

In just a moment, the change in status brought about by the transfer of power will in turn affect the mentality of the parties involved.

Changsun Wugou's back straightened up without her knowing when. Looking at the son she gave birth to, who was now wearing a bright yellow five-clawed dragon robe and was respectfully accompanying her, her thoughts underwent some unspeakable change.

This change was beyond Li Yan's expectations.

Before Li Yan left, Zhangsun Wugou actually pulled Li Yan aside and whispered with a complicated expression: "Qian'er, your mother thinks that for the sake of your father's health, he should be allowed to rest for a while longer. This way, when he recovers, his health will be better. What do you think?"

'Well'

Li Yan's eyes suddenly widened, and he shuddered subconsciously. Then he nodded silently and firmly, agreeing with Changsun Wugou.

The lessons of the past are still fresh in my mind. I am now the emperor and I must learn from them. Even my closest wife and son cannot be fully trusted. In the face of such power, only I will not betray myself.

Li Yan once again told the emperor that he was alone and had a profound experience of this.

After dealing with the matters in Daming Palace, Li Yan returned to Taiji Palace under the protection of Heng Lian. By this time, it was already late and the palace gates were closed.

Other places may still seem a bit messy due to the handover, but Chengqing Palace is Li Yan's residence, so it has naturally been strictly guarded and heavily guarded.

Arriving at Chengqing Palace, he ordered Henglian and Wang Xuance to stand guard outside and not to disturb anyone. When Li Yan sat alone in the imperial study where Li Shimin once handled memorials, flipping through them, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and began to plan his future.

Li Shimin's affairs have come to an end for the time being and there is no need to worry about them anymore.

Judging from Zhangsun Wugou's attitude today, her ideas have changed and she is in the same pace as herself. That is, for Li Shimin, who should have died today, she temporarily maintains a state of living dead.

That is, he will not be allowed to die completely, nor will he be allowed to wake up again.

If he wakes up, he will definitely take power again, which will be bad for his mother and son; but if Li Shimin really dies, it will be the collapse of the mountain mausoleum. Without Li Shimin's control, it is unknown whether Li Yan, a new emperor, can really control the situation?

Maintaining this state is no less than having a nuclear weapon-like trump card in hand, which allows one to maintain power and also to use it to save the situation if the situation gets out of control.

Li Yan has always been very cautious in doing things and always prepares a few trump cards for himself.

No matter whether it was Yang Ji or Quan Wanji, it is better to be prepared and not use it than to have nothing to prepare when it is not needed.

No one knows how many cards a big man who can truly make continuous progress and finally rise to the top has in his hand except himself.

Even though Li Yan has the system as a backer, he is still not very confident in dealing with these aristocratic groups that have been passed down for hundreds of years, have withstood several changes of dynasties and chaos in the world, and have played the emperor in the palm of their hands.

If Li Shimin is kept alive, in case the situation gets out of control, he can be replaced and replaced to clean up the mess for himself.

Although Changsun Wugou does not have the same scheming and plans for the future as himself.

As a queen who ruled the country, no matter how wise, generous, and peaceful she was, she must have been very proficient in power. Otherwise, she would not have been qualified to assist Li Shimin and was called a virtuous queen by later history books.

However, it seemed a lot dimmer under the brilliance of Li Shimin. Today, she was only in Li Shimin's bedroom for a short time. After listening to Li Shimin's current situation, she immediately realized that this situation was very beneficial to her and her son, and it also left unlimited possibilities. That's why she took the initiative to hint to Li Yan that they could continue.

From now on, Li Shimin only needs to sleep in the deep palace where Zhangsun Wugou is, and slowly fade out of the limelight to the outside world. In this way, he is as good as dead even though he is alive, and no one will suspect that Li Shimin is under house arrest.

If there really was someone who meant bad for him, they could just let him die without going through the trouble of keeping him alive.

With the previous series of events, in the eyes of all officials and relatives, Li Shimin should have passed away as a matter of course.

After all, the transfer of power had been completed smoothly, even the farewell ceremony for relatives had been held, and important officials such as Fang Xuanling and Zhangsun Wuji had also been entrusted with the care of their children. Who would still have doubts?

Although the coma has been temporarily prolonged, no one knows how long it can last.

Now Li Shimin is still alive, but in the eyes of many people, he has been promoted to the late emperor. As long as the news of his death comes from the Daming Palace one day, the court will hold a ceremony and then send him to the mausoleum.

From today on, he no longer exists in the power structure of the court.

Li Yan had no guilt towards Li Shimin, as he passed the throne to him. But he saved his life. In history, Li Shimin only lived to be 51 years old, but now he has two years less power.

After two years of peaceful recuperation, I may be able to live a few more decades, maybe even into my seventies or eighties.

No matter from which perspective you look at it, it is a pure profit-making business.

My ban wouldn't last long, at most ten days or eight days. However, every three to five days, when I went to pay my respects to the Queen Mother, I would take care of his health and strengthen the ban, so that I could control his condition.

Changsun Wugou also entrusted himself with the task of finding Sun Simiao.

This means that he only needs to wait for the right time and let Sun Simiao appear in Chang'an to reawaken Li Shimin's trump card.

Li Yan has seen clearly how to deal with the aristocratic families.

The few reforms in history all relied on force and resulted in bloodshed. I used to think that Li Shimin had enough power to adopt the methods of Qin Xiaogong and Shang Yang, using peace and square labor to carry out a top-down reform with the power of the monarch.

It now appears that the situation in the Tang Dynasty was even more serious and could not be solved without drastic measures;
In the words of the old thief Jie Li, there is no way the problem can be solved unless a river of blood is shed.

Li Yan agreed with this deeply and felt that what the old thief said was useful.

As the head of Datang, after half a month of in-depth understanding and inventory of the family assets, Li Yan learned that Datang currently has about 380 million households, about 2200 million people, 280 million hectares of cultivated land, and an annual grain output of nearly 3000 million shi.

Seeing this result, Li Yan couldn't help but frown.

This data may seem like a lot, but you have to know that in the fifth year of Emperor Yang of Sui's Daye reign, there were more than 890 million households, more than 4600 million people, nearly 600 million mu of cultivated land, and an annual grain output of more than 7000 million shi, more than double the previous year.

During the heyday of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang in later generations, the arable land area of ​​the Tang Dynasty reached 850 mu, the population reached its peak of more than 900 million households and more than 5300 million people, and the annual grain output was nearly 8000 million shi, exceeding the Kaihuang reign of the Sui Dynasty.

The population, cultivated land, and grain production of the Tang Dynasty today are more than double those of the previous Sui Dynasty and the later Kaiyuan period.

Seeing this data, Li Yan felt heavy in his heart and his face looked extremely gloomy.

Over the years, with the help of his prime ministers, the Tang Dynasty conquered the east and the west. Although it lost part of the grassland, it actually gained the Korean Peninsula, Indochina Peninsula, and the Western Regions. The area under its rule has reached more than 12 million square kilometers.

What's more, there is no arable land in the Mobei grassland, so how can it be compared with Liaodong and the Indochina Peninsula, especially the Southeast Peninsula, which is the granary of the Tang Dynasty that I chose for it.
In his expectation, the Indochina Peninsula alone would provide the Tang Dynasty with 20 million shi of grain and fodder every year, while the Tang Dynasty's current annual grain collection should be more than 50 million shi.

But now there are less than 30 million stones. What does this mean?
This shows that the grain of Indochina was not collected into the national treasury, but fell into the hands of other people for various reasons. In addition, after nearly 20 years of governance in Zhenguan, the cultivated land area and population were far less than those in the previous Sui Dynasty and later dynasties.

The Central Plains has enjoyed peace for many years, and the population should have recovered long ago.

This only means that more than half of the land and population have been swallowed up by the wealthy families and local gentry.

During these years of recuperation, the growth of national strength mostly fell into the hands of the nobles, but the growth of the court was not obvious. After careful observation, Li Yan discovered that the increase in a lot of land and population was also the increase after the expansion of the Tang Dynasty.

In other words, the original Central Plains area has not seen any growth in data over the years.

After a period of chaos, people returned to their hometowns, expanded the land, and multiplied and grew. Both the population and the land would experience explosive expansion.

(End of this chapter)