My name is Chang An, your name is Gu Li

In Prince Ning's Mansion, Li Mao was playing with Prince Ning's children and was completely unaware of the woman standing outside the courtyard gate, secretly watching him.

Wu Qinghui did nothing but stood there and looked at Li Mao quietly. At this time, Ning Wang Li Xian came over and greeted softly: "Your Highness Wu Jieyu."

Wu Qinghui was so absorbed in watching that she reluctantly withdrew her gaze after Li Xian called out to her. She looked at Li Xian and said, "Greetings, Prince Ning."

"Is Concubine Wu here to see the child?"

Li Xian asked, Wu Qinghui nodded, and turned her gaze back to Li Mao. The more she looked at him, the more she couldn't pull her eyes away. She gritted her teeth, and finally, as if she had made up her mind, she closed her eyes and turned away.

Li Xian followed him and said, "Why don't you look at him for a while? Your Highness is not a child anymore, but it seems that you and your son have never met face to face."

"It's not the right time yet. When the time comes, I will naturally meet him." Wu Qinghui said without turning her head.

"It won't be long."

Li Ying and Eunuch Cheng returned to the imperial city. Eunuch Cheng wanted to accompany Li Ying back directly, but Li Ying stopped him and said, "Eunuch Cheng, you don't have to follow me. I still have some things to deal with."

Eunuch Cheng was stunned for a moment, then nodded slightly and turned to leave. Li Ying stood there, watching Eunuch Cheng walk away, and then ran directly towards the harem.

Queen Wang was still sitting in her own palace, taking a short rest. Li Ying also knew this point, Li Longji must be going to find Wu Qinghui, and it is impossible for him to be with the Queen.

Queen Wang had also been informed in advance, so Li Ying was able to come in directly without any obstruction.

Li Ying came to Queen Wang's room. The latter was a little surprised at this time, and then quickly asked: "What's the matter?"

......

The next day, Chang An came to the Prince's Palace as usual, but he was not in a hurry to attend class with Li Ying today. Instead, he drank morning tea and ate breakfast, talking about something.

As they were talking, Eunuch Cheng and Gao Lishi came in. Chang An put down the tea bowl in his hand and said to Li Ying with a smile: "Isn't it starting now?"

Eunuch Cheng and Gao Lishi didn't know what was going on. The former said, "Your Highness, Marquis Dingkang."

Gao Lishi then turned to Chang An and said, "Duke Kangguo, His Majesty has summoned you. You are in Xuanzheng Hall."

"Someone impeached me?"

"Exactly."

So, Chang An stood up and said to Li Ying, "Your Highness, take a day off today. You don't have to attend class."

"Then I'll go to court with you. It's my day off anyway, and you have no right to tell me where I go!" Li Ying stood up and went out with Chang An.

Although he was impeached, Li Longji did not say that Chang'an had to walk, so he and Li Ying rode in a sedan chair together to the Xuanzheng Hall. When they walked up the stairs and arrived at the entrance of the hall, Eunuch Cheng shouted, "Duke Kangguo, please come to see me!"

After shouting, Chang An followed Eunuch Cheng in.

In the hall, many people cast their eyes towards him, and many of them were somewhat dissatisfied with Chang An. It was not because of political dissatisfaction, but because of Chang An's style of doing things.

Chang An's style of doing things has always been centered on Gu Li, and he would do whatever Gu Li wanted. This also made him seem a bit self-willed in the eyes of other officials, and some officials were even more dissatisfied because they were rejected when they wanted to marry in the past two years.

And today, Chang An is making a fool of himself, how can I not watch it?

Chang An nodded slightly and said, "I pay my respects to Your Majesty. Long live the Emperor!"

Li Longji glanced at Li Ying, then looked back at Chang An and said, "Duke Kangguo, someone impeached you today."

At this time, Chang An also saw Yuwen Rong standing in front of the hall. The other party also turned around and looked at the former. Then Yuwen Rong asked: "I just don't know if I have the qualifications to impeach Duke Kangguo?"

"Of course there is, but I don't know what Yuwen Zhongcheng is planning to impeach me for?"

Yuwen Rong nodded slightly to Chang An, then turned around and said to Li Longji: "Your Majesty, I want to impeach Duke Kangguo for his public ownership of land and the contracting system."

Chang An raised his eyebrows, and Li Longji's expression also became solemn.

"What's going on? Yuwen Zhongcheng, please tell me about it in detail." Li Longji said.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Yuwen Rong took out a piece of paper from his sleeve and said, "Your Majesty, this is the reward I received from the county magistrate some time ago."

"It says that there are many reports that the people are hiding their own grain. In the Tang Dynasty, there are many people, but the land is unevenly fertile, and the types and yields of grain produced are also different. It is difficult for the government to accurately count the specific numbers."

"Once it is impossible to count the exact number, then there will be no standard for taxing the grain grown by a farmer. It will all be up to the people to decide how much to pay. The government and its grain officials will not be able to keep statistics."

Li Longji nodded slightly and asked, "Is there any tax evasion?"

"Your Majesty, at the moment there is none."

"Why not? Could it be that Yuwen Zhongcheng is just talking nonsense this time?"

Yuwen Rong shook his head and continued, "It has been discovered that some people hid their own food, but if no one reports it, the government will find it difficult to detect."

"Although there are fewer people who hide grain privately, it does not mean that there are no officials with bad conduct who hide grain privately. Once this trend is formed, coupled with the collusion between the Jiedushi and his subordinates, it will be even more difficult for the court to detect it. If this continues for a long time, the country will not have enough military pay."

"I hope your Majesty will learn from this."

At this time, his best friend Yuan Qianyao spoke up and said, "I have a question that I would like to ask Yuwen Zhongcheng."

"Prime Minister Yuan, please speak."

"I wonder if there is any tax evasion or underpayment in your statistics?" Yuan Qianyao said at this time, "And I remember that you, Yuwen Zhongcheng, just said that there is no such statistics, right?"

"Not really, but..."

Yuwen Rong then took out another piece of paper from his sleeve and said, "Your Majesty, this is a list of officials who embezzled grain. Although there are not many, they all embezzled and falsely reported."

Li Longji sat up straight and said, "Bring the things up!"

Eunuch Cheng nodded, then walked down, took the paper from Yuwen Rong's hand, and finally handed it to Li Longji.

After Li Longji saw the content above, his face changed slightly, and then he asked: "Yuwen Zhongcheng, is what you said above true?"

"Your Majesty, every word is true. Please understand your majesty."

Li Longji crumpled the paper into a ball, held it in his hand, and said, "I understand, Duke Kangguo, this is a mistake in your strategy. How do you explain this?"

Chang An smiled and said, "Your Majesty, I once read a sentence in a book: There is no completely honest official in the world. I dare not hide it from your Majesty. Every New Year's Day or other holidays, someone has given me gifts."

"At the same time, I have also borrowed these things to help those who seek my help."

Li Longji frowned slightly and asked, "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that, in this world, as long as one is an official, there will be some corruption, it's just a matter of how much. The truly honest officials would have starved to death long ago." Chang An said with a smile.

"Here, I would like to see the Minister of Revenue."

"Where is the Minister of Revenue?"

"I am here. I wonder what Duke Kangguo wants to ask you?" The Minister of Revenue stepped out.

"I would like to ask, according to this year's tax standards, is there any county that has paid insufficient taxes?" Chang An asked.

"No, some places even oversubscribe, and it's like this every month, every year." The Minister of Revenue was no longer sleepy when he said this, because since Chang An's method came out, their Ministry of Revenue no longer had to worry about the problem of filling false accounts -

Because the amount of tax collected is even more fake than the fake accounts. If you lower it, it will really look like a fake account.

Chang An smiled and said, "Your Majesty, despite the corruption in the localities, they still pay more taxes than they should. Doesn't this prove that the public ownership of land and the contract responsibility are very successful?"

"What's scary is not that every household has rotten grain. What's really scary is that a few households have rotten grain. The people feel at ease when they have surplus grain. The officials have more grain, which means the local grain production is high, so much that the officials can even hand over more than the quota."

"What's wrong with this?"

Yuwen Rong interrupted at this time and said, "But what if there is a famine? In a famine, what will happen if the people don't have enough food at home?"

"In that case, we should send some tough measures and order the provincial governors to arrest any officials who hoard grain and do not release it. Depending on the severity of the case, they will be punished. They think that the emperor is far away, but it is just their opinion after all. We need to let them know that the world belongs to the king."

At this time, another voice suddenly sounded: "Your Majesty, I have objections."

Everyone looked over there. At this moment, a man stood up and said, "I think that the law of Duke Kangguo is too harsh. The people of the Tang Dynasty were all educated by Confucianism and should be gentle. If they are too harsh like Duke Kangguo, it is not in line with the Confucian style."

Chang An looked at the official, and Li Ying explained, "He is the Chief Censor who just took office two days ago, his name is Li Linfu."

Suddenly, Chang An's face fell, as if it had turned black. Then he took a few steps forward, almost standing in line with Li Linfu, and said, "May I ask Li Zhongcheng, do you know the law?"

"Nature knows the law."

"Then I wonder if there is a saying in the Tang Dynasty law that officials should not be punished, and common people should not be treated with courtesy?"

"No." Li Linfu frowned slightly.

"Then we should act according to the law and punish the guilty ministers. How can this be called tough talk?" Chang An slightly sideways glanced at Li Linfu.

"Or does Li Zhongcheng think that the minister can escape responsibility if he breaks the law?"