My name is Chang An, your name is Gu Li

After the gifts were delivered, it was time for each region to present congratulatory messages to Li Longji. At this time, Li Ying also returned to Chang An's side and sat down, then asked: "Father seemed to be in a good mood just now, it must be because of your method."

Chang An smiled and shook his head slightly, saying, "I don't know, it's better not to guess."

"By the way, Chang Yonghe, is there any shortcoming in the method you just used?" Li Ying simply stopped talking about other topics at this point, and asked directly about what happened just now.

"Your Highness, what do you think is lacking?"

"First of all, let's look at the people. What if they are unwilling to hand over the land to the court?" Li Ying asked what he thought was the most critical question.

But Chang An smiled and said, "We just redistributed the land. Why do we need to reclaim it? What can the people eat and use after we reclaim it? Later, we just need to redistribute the land to the people."

"Anyway, it's the end of winter now, and it's not time for spring ploughing yet. If my estimate is correct, it will be two or three months before the spring ploughing season. During this period, we can still divide the land again if we hurry. It all depends on whether these people can cooperate."

Li Ying added: "But what if the people disagree? After all, some of the land has been cultivated by their ancestors for generations."

"Your Majesty has even changed the laws of our ancestors, and the people have only changed the land they cultivate." Chang An said. After all, in this era, you can't convince them with ordinary morality.

"Besides, their ancestors have been farming for generations, which is just an excuse for them to shirk responsibility and express their concerns. What is the most important thing for the people now? Having enough food to eat. If they are starving to death, they can even sell their ancestral land."

"The only risk now is that we don't have enough land in the Tang Dynasty." Chang An lowered his voice when he said this. Li Ying's face suddenly became serious.

Li Ying frowned slightly and asked, "How can it be less? The territory of our Great Tang is vast..."

"It's not the territory, it's the cultivated land, that is, the fields. Why didn't anyone in the Tang Dynasty make false reports of fleeing before? Because the war had just ended, there were not many people in the Tang Dynasty, and the land was just enough."

"But now that the Tang River Lantern Festival is flourishing, the population is so huge. Who can be fed with just one acre and three mu of land? My law on public ownership of land actually implicitly states that it is allowed to reclaim wasteland, and it only needs to be reported and registered."

"In this way, everyone has land and everyone can cultivate it. Why worry about not having enough land? The tax on land has been changed to be calculated according to the share. The more land, the higher the tax, and the less land, the lower the tax. If you really want to cultivate more land, you need money. Having money is not enough. So much land needs people to cultivate it."

Li Ying thought for a moment and asked again: "According to what you said, is it because the rent and labor service system is not good enough? Because the rent and labor service system is a fixed quota, no matter how much land you have, you have to pay that much."

"That's true. This fixed tax will cause big problems. However, each farmer has more land, but still pays the same amount of rent and labor service, so there may be a lot of surplus grain. Any farmer who is good at budgeting should be able to figure this out."

"Although the accounts are unclear, the farmers in the Tang Dynasty are good at calculating grain production."

Li Ying nodded, suddenly realizing what was going on, then gave Chang An a thumbs up and said, "Your idea is brilliant. No wonder my father is so happy."

At this time, the tribute was almost over, but Chang An didn't even have time to eat, he just talked to Li Ying. So he leaned closer to Yuan Qianyao and asked:

"Master Yuan, when can we start eating?"

Yuan Qianyao looked at Chang An in surprise. Where was the high-spirited and strategic look just now? How did he become a refugee who was about to starve to death?

He looked at Chang An, suddenly laughed, and said, "Why? Are you hungry?"

Chang An said, "No, I think it's a bit troublesome. The adults are submitting congratulatory memorials, do I have to just stand by and watch? Besides, the food in front of me has been tempting me."

Yuan Qianyao said at this time: "My dear Chang, there is still some time before the banquet actually starts. Now it is only the time for the Minister of the Central Secretariat to present the congratulatory messages from the local areas. Later, the Minister of the Imperial Household will present the auspicious signs, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue will present the contributions from various states, the Minister of the Ministry of Rites will present the contributions from various tribes, and so on."

"So complicated?!" Chang An was a little upset at this time, and almost shouted, "If we don't eat the delicacies on the table, they will get cold."

"These delicacies from land and sea are not to be eaten. At least, the food on the first table is not to be eaten." Yuan Qianyao explained with a smile.

"If it's not for eating, then what is it for? For looking at?"

"Young friend Chang is indeed very talented," Yuan Qianyao stroked his beard with a smile and said, "Yes, these are indeed for viewing."

“It’s really for viewing!”

Chang An raised his eyebrows, obviously shocked. At this time, he turned around and began to observe the food on the table. The rice looked cooked, but it felt a little translucent, and the texture was finer than normal white rice - half-cooked.

Looking at the dishes on the table, they were shiny and glossy, and the sauces and bases inside did smell tasty. At this time, Yuan Qianyao said, "Except for the rice, everything on the table is cooked and can be eaten."

"But these are just for display. Every dish here has its own meaning. How can we eat them?"

"Then I can drink the wine, right?"

"You can drink the wine, but does Young Master Chang dare to drink it?" Yuan Qianyao had a gloating look on his face at this time. After all, almost all the ministers present were holding wine glasses and drinking.

Only Chang An did not touch the wine pot and wine glass at all, and the only drink was the tea that Li Ying had brought him at the beginning. When Chang An thought of this, his face turned black, and his fingers subconsciously wrote on the table stroke by stroke.

Seeing Chang An's actions, Yuan Qianyao thought he was bored and ignored him. Instead, Zhang Shuo, who was standing beside him, asked in a somewhat slow manner: "Marquis Dingkang, what is this..."

"It must be a bit boring." Yuan Qianyao smiled and said.

Then Zhang Shuo subconsciously looked at Chang An's hand:

"Uh…ye…yu…li?"

When Yuan Qianyao heard these four words, he was suddenly at a loss whether to laugh or cry. He quickly patted Zhang Shuo and said, "Even if you know, don't say it out loud, Prime Minister Zhang."

Then he secretly glanced at Chang An who was still scribbling something on the side. At this moment, he had no other thoughts to pay attention to what Yuan Qianyao and Zhang Shuo were talking about.

So Yuan Qianyao explained to Zhang in a low voice: "Young friend Chang is just bored and starts to miss his wife at home."

Zhang nodded at this time and stopped talking.

......

After an unknown amount of time, the sky outside had already darkened slightly. Finally, all the tedious procedures were over. Li Longji took a deep breath and adjusted his sitting posture. The beads on the crown on his head moved slightly, making a slight sound.

Then a eunuch came in and said, "Your Majesty, the Queen has arrived."

At this time, Chang An sat up straight and saw that Queen Wang was wearing a dark blue woven robe with a pattern of phoenixes and pheasants. The upper part was made of red brocade, the lower part was made of green brocade, and the lower part was made of blue silk. She wore a blue robe, a leather belt, blue socks and shoes, and the shoes were decorated with gold. Her jewelry had twelve flower trees and two sideburns. She wore a phoenix crown on her head, looking elegant and noble. Two palace maids supported her and two eunuchs held up the hem of her clothes behind her.

Let's take a look at Li Longji's. He wore a crown on his head, a wide-sleeved black top, embroidered with eight chapters: "sun, moon, stars, dragon, mountain, Hua insect, fire, and Zong Yi"; his lower garment was a red pleated skirt embroidered with four chapters: "algae, rice powder, fu, and fu". Although it was indeed very grand, why did it look...

Queen Wang's ceremony was even more grand than that of Emperor Li Longji. After all, Li Longji came to power on his own and didn't need anyone.

"Greetings to the Queen. Long live the Queen!"

All the ministers also stood up and bowed to Queen Wang in greeting.

Queen Wang also smiled and sat down next to Li Longji, then said, "My Lords, please don't be polite. Please take a seat."

As soon as Queen Wang sat down, the maids left. The only women present were Queen Wang and a few princesses. Then, as the bell rang outside, many maids came in. They first walked in in an orderly line, then dispersed, with two maids standing in front of each seat, just the right number.

Even in front of Chang An there were two people standing.

Then he looked at the two palace maids in front of him. One of them bent down, picked up the dishes in front of Chang'an, and placed them on the tray in the hands of the standing maid.

After packing up, the palace maids retreated one by one and left in an orderly manner, just as they had done when they came.

The dishes were taken away, and according to Chang An's guess, the next step should be serving the dishes. However, the person who came in was not a palace maid, but a dancer wearing a red dress and a phoenix crown.

Then Chang An saw another familiar person in the crowd - not a very familiar person, Li Guinian. He was also the head of the musicians, responsible for conducting the music.

The music started and the dancers began to dance.

As the dancers were dancing, the maids came in one after another and placed the dishes on the tables of the adults. Each maid only had one dish in her hand, and after placing the dish on the table, she left directly through the side door, and then the next maid came to serve the dish.

After the last dish was put down, the music from Li Guinian's side suddenly became more exciting. At this time, all the officials stood up, and Chang An also hurriedly followed and said to Li Longji:

"Long live His Majesty!"