Pick up a princess to be your wife

The following day, at the grand court assembly.

A group of old fogies started impeaching Li Mu again in front of him for pardoning death row inmates.

Li Mu had already conspired with Xiong Wenjing. Xiong Wenjing stepped forward and debated with the group of scholars, holding his own against them.

Li Mu sat on the dragon throne, quietly watching this good show.

The entire grand court assembly was not discussed in terms of any state affairs; it was all just Xiong Wenjing hurling insults.

In the early fourth year of the Yongle reign, the Daming Dynasty enjoyed peace and prosperity, and all nations came to pay tribute.

The monarchs of those small foreign countries bordering the Da Ning Dynasty even personally brought members of their royal families to pay homage to Li Mu.

They knelt directly in the imperial court to express their loyalty to the Da Ning Dynasty.

During the previous dynasty, when these foreign states came to visit the Central Plains dynasty, they all sought to obtain benefits.

However, now they have all brought generous tributes, yet dare not mention any reward.

Especially the few small countries that were dealt with by the Da Ning Dynasty a couple of years ago, they were as docile as kittens.

This is the true Central Plains dynasty; this is true deterrence.

As long as Li Mu remains on the dragon throne, the Great Ning Dynasty will be a giant dragon coiled in the Central Plains.

But Li Mu's ambitions had only just begun.

In the early part of the fourth year of the Yongle reign, Li Mu personally formulated a set of rules to revitalize people's livelihoods.

Wanjia Real Estate has boosted the real estate industry across the country, while Tianbaolou has made it more convenient for merchants to do business.

The Fuyin Tea House, which features couplets personally inscribed by Li Mu, is now opening more and more branches.

The commercial prosperity of Da Ning was unprecedented, far surpassing that of previous dynasties.

This year, Daning's economy has begun to grow again.

The main reason was that the imperial court had gained absolute control over the twelve circuits of Daming.

Then came the establishment of the Zhiyan Division, where many inventions were registered as patents. For those patents that benefited the people, the imperial court would allocate funds to the inventors to facilitate mass production.

The patents included by the Knowledge Research Institute last year included, but were not limited to, printing, textiles, papermaking, and farming techniques.

These technologies already existed, but they have undergone some improvements.

The patent for printing technology was applied for by the Sima family.

Previously, these technologies were all controlled by major families and were never passed on to outsiders.

Now, encouraged by the imperial court, these relatively advanced technologies are being used to improve people's lives.

However, ordinary people need to spend money to buy products, which allows inventors to reap huge profits.

With improvements in printing and papermaking, book production increased, and ordinary people who couldn't afford books and paper before could now generally afford them.

This also provides great convenience for children from ordinary families to go to school.

Improvements in farming techniques led to a several-fold increase in grain production last year.

The increase in grain production cannot be entirely attributed to farming techniques, as many abandoned fields have been restored to cultivation.

Agriculture was still the lifeblood of the Great Ning Dynasty, but the fact that the court no longer levied taxes on ordinary farmers greatly increased their enthusiasm for farming.

Even without engaging in business, simply farming can provide a family with enough to eat and wear each year, and surplus grain can be sold directly to the government for a certain amount of money.

By the end of the fourth year of Yongning, the imperial court had again conquered several neighboring small countries and plundered a great deal of resources.

The imperial court conducted a census, and the population increased from five million households and less than thirty million people in the first year of Yongning to six million households and thirty-six million people.

Now that the country is prosperous and the people live in peace and contentment, their willingness to have children has greatly increased, and the population is still growing.

In the fourth year of Yongning, the imperial court collected a total of more than 40 million taels of taxes, of which 30 million taels came from commercial taxes.

The remaining ten million taels can only be said to have come from fees collected under various pretexts, but they were all within a reasonable range.

For example, fines for illegally parked horse-drawn carriages in various places, or fines for certain merchants who engage in irregular business practices.

With the further prosperity of commerce, Li Mu put forward a new concept at the end of the fourth year of Yongnian.

Employment rate.

A significant portion of the laws of the Da Ning Dynasty were written to protect ordinary laborers.

In order to safeguard the vital interests of ordinary workers, Li Mu thought of this point.

The employment rate is not static, but dynamic.

For example, in places like Lingnan Road, which have long been wealthy, the requirements are much higher, and the minimum wage standard for laborers hired by merchants is set slightly higher.

Places like Hexi Road, which haven't fully recovered from their desolation, have relatively lower requirements.

In order to improve the employment rate, the imperial court would provide certain compensation to businesses that created a large number of jobs.

The most direct form of compensation is that a certain percentage of taxes can be exempted based on the number of positions available.

This can also increase the enthusiasm of major chambers of commerce to recruit workers and promote an increase in the employment rate.

After conducting a survey, Li Mu realized that the business that created the most jobs was not Wanjia Real Estate, which made the most money, but Tianbaolou.

Currently, Wanjia Real Estate employs as many as 180,000 contract workers.

The number of contract workers at Tianbaolou has exceeded 250,000!

These two businesses originally belonged to Lingnan Circuit, but they have now moved their headquarters to the capital.

The two wealthiest merchants in the Great Ning Dynasty are both imperial concubines.

One of them was Xu Yi, the female prime minister of the current dynasty, and the other was He Xianzhi, the daughter of He Chou.

At the end of that year, Zhong Wu and Zhao Cuo got married one after the other.

Zhong Wu married Li Mu's fellow villager, who was also the time traveler.

Zhao Cuo, on the other hand, married Yun Ge, the eldest daughter of the Yun family.

Besides these two, many other veterans of the White Horse Army also got married one after another.

The new generation of powerful figures in Lingnan have spread their influence far and wide.

Under Li Mu's leadership, the entire Da Ning Dynasty is showing a new look.

Although Li Mu was tough on foreign powers and didn't even bother with reason, he would send troops to conquer other small countries with any lame excuse. As a result, these small countries outwardly respected Li Mu as the Heavenly Khan, but behind his back they cursed his ancestors countless times.

However, Li Mu consistently implemented benevolent policies, benefiting the people and ensuring that everyone had food to eat and clothes to wear. He was undoubtedly a wise and virtuous ruler.

During Li Mu's reign, Yongning was always used as the reign title.

This period is historically known as the Yongning Prosperity.