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Chapter 1017: The Assets of the Tang Dynasty (Part )
This is something that everyone knows. If we take into account the territory expanded by the Tang Dynasty in recent years, this number can be multiplied several times.

But the reality is that it has only increased by a few percent, and the amount is included in the land and population in the expanded areas.

Just from these figures, we can see how terrifying the power of today's aristocratic families is. No wonder they dared to attack Li Shimin unscrupulously. It is because of the powerful strength supporting them behind the scenes!
Li Yan suddenly thought of something, and hurried to the information rack on the side, flipping through the policies that Li Shimin implemented when he implemented land reforms. Even if he didn't understand the specific steps, he knew that before taking these major measures.

There will definitely be a land survey, which is an essential step to consolidate land and population. Only by understanding the most authentic data can we make targeted changes based on the actual situation.

Each of these changes is related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and the survival of countless people. How can we be careless?
But after searching through the archives, Li Yan did not see any record of surveying the land and population. He was shocked. What did this mean?
Does this mean that the court’s reform did not involve surveying the land?

Returning to his seat, Li Yan's face had turned extremely ugly. He already knew that this meant that the aristocratic families had concealed too much land and population, and the interests involved were too great, so this measure could not be resolved at all.

Most of the country's power lies not in the hands of the court, but in the hands of the aristocratic families.

Li Yan knew what this meant. Judging from the population and land size alone, the Li family only owned 40% of the shares in Datang Company, and the other 60% were in the hands of other shareholders. No wonder they could replace the chairman at will.

Li Yan began to look through the information about the imperial examination, a powerful tool to curb the expansion of power of aristocratic families in officialdom. After more than an hour of reading the information, Li Yan's heart became even colder.

Although the Tang Dynasty had the imperial examination system, which was held every three years, it was never truly implemented and existed in name only. It did not really play the role of selecting talents for the country. Instead, it became a convenient door for the children of aristocratic families to enter officialdom.

In the past, officials in the Tang Dynasty mainly adopted the Nine-Rank System of the Wei and Jin Dynasties. In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, officials were recommended by officials in the court and then directly entered the officialdom. The soup is the same, and the emphasis is on origin and family influence.

Those with poor backgrounds have no chance of entering the court.

Although the Former Sui Dynasty initiated the powerful measure of imperial examination, it also offended the aristocratic families and even failed to preserve the dynasty.

After nearly twenty years of efforts, Li Shimin brought back the imperial examination, but it was no longer the imperial examination during Emperor Yang's reign. Instead, it was only a form, and the power to host the imperial examination was in the hands of officials from aristocratic families.

The biggest benefit that Li Shimin could gain was that the imperial examination system raised the threshold for children of aristocratic families to become officials. In the past, as long as you were born into an aristocratic family, you could become an official regardless of your talent or knowledge, but now it is different, at least you have to have talent.

He must have some talent and knowledge to prevent some of the children from noble families from becoming good-for-nothings.

In addition, in order to maintain their family's competitiveness, some top families have also realized that if mediocre people in their family enter the officialdom, it will not only be of no help to the family, but will also affect the family's strength.

Therefore, they set aside some places to recruit some children from poor families who are willing to marry into wealthy families but have real talents and knowledge. These people enter the officialdom through their channels and naturally become their own influence in the power field.

The current high-ranking official in the court, Ma Zhou, entered the officialdom through such channels.

Later generations used Ma Zhou as an example of an official of commoner origin to demonstrate that the imperial examination system of the Tang Dynasty had broken the monopoly of the aristocratic families over officialdom. This is actually biased.

Although Ma Zhou entered the officialdom through the imperial examination, he actually had a strong backer. He was a disciple of Princess Ankang, the favorite daughter of Li Shimin. In the early days of entering the officialdom, he was repeatedly escorted by Ankang, which is how he came into Li Shimin's sight.

Afterwards, his clean origin and background quickly attracted the attention of Li Shimin, who then trained him and he became an important official in the Secretariat.

Ma Zhou's classmate Min Guoqi was repeatedly suppressed by officials because he was unwilling to curry favor with the rich and powerful, and he failed the exams many times. Finally, he was recommended by Ma Zhou and came into Li Shimin's sight, but he had no strong backing.

He was exiled to Zezhou, and later was involved in a counter-revolution and died among the rioters.

In Li Yan's opinion, Min Guoqi's death was almost inevitable.

First of all, Min Guoqi was a free and unrestrained person, who acted recklessly and ignored the rules of the court. Although he was talented, he was not liked by the officials in the court, so his fate was completely different from that of Ma Zhou.

Ma Zhou went straight into the Secretariat, walked in front of the emperor, and worked beside Li Shimin, and was highly valued by Li Shimin.

However, Min Guoqi was demoted to Zezhou for training. This also shows from another perspective that Li Shimin did not like this person very much.

Secondly, Ma Zhou had been out of control and had slipped to Li Shimin's side, becoming a black sheep that disrupted the interests of the aristocratic families. How could the aristocratic families tolerate another Min Guoqi with a strange personality?
Li Shimin must not succeed no matter what.
Ma Zhou caught the nobles off guard and had already alerted them. How could Min Guoqi repeat the same mistake? If the nobles were prepared, how could Min Guoqi, an ordinary official, turn the tables? This was also where his bad luck came from.

Finally, although Min Guoqi was a minor figure, by chance, he was involved in the Zezhou counter-case and became a member of the storm vortex of the struggle for succession between the Eastern Palace and the Wei Palace, and also became a pawn in the game between the royal family and the aristocratic families regarding the imperial examination. The death of Min Guoqi was a declaration by the aristocratic family to Li Shimin that they would strongly protect the basic interests of the aristocratic family.

Therefore, no matter from which perspective, Min Guoqi cannot become the second Ma Zhou.

This is how the world works. When the first person to try something new makes a fortune, the second person who wants to repeat the same trick can only fill the hole.

However, as writing and books become more popular, and common people acquire knowledge, this group will become larger and larger. Their interests will one day become more and more important, and they will become a helper for Li Yan to promote the imperial examination.

By the time Li Yan had roughly gone through the information about various affairs of the dynasty in Chengqing Hall, a whole night had passed. The morning light outside was gradually turning brighter, and Li Yan had already grasped the true situation of the Tang Dynasty.

The king and the horse share the world!
It is indeed true. If we want to truly eliminate the aristocratic families and take their power back to the court, we still have a long way to go.

The aristocratic families occupied most of the land and population in the Tang Dynasty, which not only meant that they were rich enough to rival a country, but more importantly, they relied on this wealth to control official power.

Of course, the most important thing among these is that the military power has fallen into the wrong hands.

Li Yan's pupils shrank. Financial power, official power, and military power, among which the core is military power. With military power as the core, Li Shimin could not shake his position whether in terms of land, population, or officials in the court.

The so-called changes are just scratching the surface.

'call'

Li Yan breathed a sigh of relief. No matter how difficult the situation was, it was not scary. The scary thing was that he couldn't find where the problem lay.

Now that Li Yan is in the position of emperor, he has cleared away all the fog and truly understood the problems facing the country. If he has found the root of the problem, then wouldn't the solution to the problem be obvious?
Military power is the foundation of all power.

Li Yan now understood why Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty took the risk of launching three expeditions that led to the destruction of his country. It was not because he did not understand the danger of such actions, nor was it because he could not see the consequences of doing so.

Instead, he knew that land, population, wealth, officials, and military power had combined into a concrete beam like steel bars, sand, and cement, which was harder than iron and stronger than steel, and firmly supported everything of the aristocratic families.

Land and population are the foundation; the power of the court and local officials is superficial; what really connects them together is the army.

But how to solve the problem of aristocratic families’ control over the military?
Li Yan knew that these areas would breed some people in power over time, and no one could avoid it. But the key was that they could not unite. In all dynasties, the military and finances had to be strictly separated.

A family of military leaders can only have power in the military.

No matter how much influence they have in the army, they can't change the world. Because the mobilization of the army is inseparable from the approval of the court officials, and even more inseparable from financial support. Without these two things, no matter how powerful the military leaders are, they can't change the world.

Those who are in politics can only stay in the officialdom. No matter how much power you have or how many wings you have, as long as you don’t have an army, you can only lie down obediently in front of the imperial power.

The aristocratic families in the Sui and Tang dynasties had already combined these powers together because of the lack of court power during the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the need for their own survival. These aristocratic families were actually small countries in another form.

Therefore, to solve the problem of aristocratic families, it is also necessary to separate the military power, financial power, and official power. As long as they can be separated, the size of any family in any field will not be able to influence the overall situation, let alone threaten the imperial power.

When Li Yan thought of this, he suddenly understood and his expression was shocked.

So that's how it is. Yang Guang's three expeditions to Goguryeo were actually intended to cut off the aristocratic families' hold on military power.

In the armies of the Sui and Tang dynasties, military positions above the rank of Fourth-rank General were decided by the court, or by the emperor.

A large number of middle and lower-level military positions, such as generals of the fifth rank and below, military officers, colonels, brigade commanders, and team leaders, are in the hands of aristocratic families.

In a 5,000-man guard, there was only one Zhonglang Jiang, and two or three deputy generals. But there were hundreds of middle and lower-level generals. When several guards were united, there was only one general and two deputy generals.

(End of this chapter)