Chapter 292: Raising BMWs in Hebei

【It was really easy for the emperor to rob money.

Mint a new coin, announce that one new coin can be exchanged for ten old coins, and then melt the collected old coins to mint new coins.

That's what Li Zhi did, announcing to the world to quickly exchange for new coins, and the old coins would be completely abolished by the end of the year at the latest!

The treasury was rapidly filled, and Li Zhi was smiling.

Prices rose rapidly, and the people cried for their parents.

This decree caused the prices of grain and cloth in the market to more than triple, and the waves of cursing in various places were also higher than the other.

Markets in various places either returned to barter or simply closed down.

Merchants talked about it, vaguely remembering that the last time this happened was at the end of the Han Dynasty. Was our emperor taken over by Cao?

It was not until half a year later that Li Zhi reluctantly issued an edict to abolish the new coins and everything was back to normal.

During the reign of Emperor Gaozong, on the one hand, he tried various ways to collect money, and on the other hand, he cut the welfare benefits of the soldiers one after another.

The emperor's life is getting more and more luxurious, and the soldiers' life is getting worse and worse. In this case, it is almost inevitable that the combat effectiveness of the soldiers will decline. 】

Li Shimin felt that the headache that had been far away from him was returning again.

And now he understood why he felt so complicated when he saw Li Zhi recruiting 300,000 troops before.

I have never been so luxurious!

This is all the wealth I have saved!

At this time, Li Shimin couldn't agree more with the saying of later generations that "the son sells the father's land without feeling sorry".

"I didn't expect that the cost of Fengshan was actually extorted from the people!"

"Later generations will also know that the people are like water and the king is like a boat. How dare my son forget it!"

At this time, a certain urgency in Li Shimin's heart became stronger and stronger.

If I can't beat Xuanzong and Xizong, can't I beat you, Gaozong?

I thought that this century of prosperity was the result of several generations of ministers and wise emperors, but in the end:

"I have only been in power for more than ten years, how dare the kid do this!"

It seems strange to say that he has died, so Li Shimin likes to use this novel word in later generations more and more.

For the ministers in Ganlu Palace, they heard the emperor scolding at the beginning, and then he said "die" at the end, which made everyone feel a little bit amused.

Du Ruhui chose to explain:

"During the Zhenguan period, the soldiers worked together with everyone to expand the territory, and the military merits were high and the rewards were generous."

"Later, the west of the Pamir Mountains was too far away from the Central Plains. Liaodong fought for thirteen years, and the gains were probably not as rich as the battle to destroy Jie Li."

Li Shimin nodded, which was what he thought of just now.

According to Guangmu, if you can recruit ten and get a hundred, you can certainly boast that you have won the hearts of the people, but it should be more straightforward that during the Zhenguan period, the rewards for joining the army were quite generous.

The prince's reign had changed from opening up new territories to defending the foundation, and it was impossible to reproduce the generous rewards of the Zhenguan period, but:

"That shouldn't mean that there should be no pension at all!"

Li Shimin couldn't accept this the most.

Even if we don't talk about the comradeship of the soldiers for the time being.

The triumphant soldiers saw that those who fought bravely and died for the country were penniless and ignored. Who would dare to fight bravely?

Ignoring those who died for the country would dig up the martial roots of the Tang Dynasty!

Repeating the currency back and forth would lose the foundation of the people's trust in the Tang Dynasty.

Li Shimin couldn't figure it out. He had only been in power for more than a decade at that time. How could this son raise a knife against the Tang Dynasty, and every knife hit the vital point.

Changsun Wuji popped up again:

"The prince is now under the guidance of Your Majesty. Even if he ascends to the throne in the future, he will inherit Your Majesty's style of accepting advice with an open mind, and have loyal and righteous Tang officials to assist him in advising. Why worry about the instability of state affairs?"

Hou Junji huddled behind and sneered silently at Changsun Wuji's back.

The meaning of the Duke of Qi's words is too obvious. Isn't it just secretly saying:

Since the prince Zhi has problems, he, the Duke of Qi, is a loyal minister of the Tang Dynasty.

It's a pity that the authorities are confused.

Looking at the important positions held by Zheng Rentai, Su Dingfang, and Xue Rengui, it can be seen that the prince Zhi is more nostalgic for the legacy of your majesty.

How come you are the only one killed, and someone was sent to Lingnan to be strangled.

You can imagine how the Duke of Qi was arbitrary and arbitrary at that time to force his nephew to this extent.

On the other hand, our old marquis, allowing soldiers to plunder may be improper management of soldiers, and being involved in rebellion may be affected.

Your Majesty, look at me, our old marquis is a loyal minister of the Tang Dynasty!

It's a pity that Li Shimin had no time to deal with them. At this time, he was explaining to Fang Xuanling:

"Book of Jin" should be revised quickly, he no longer counts on that emperor.

[Another reason for the poor combat effectiveness of the Tang soldiers is the neglect of horse politics.

Speaking of this, we have to mention an absolute hero during the Zhenguan period who was not very prominent: Zhang Wansui, the Grand Coachman.

During the transition from Sui to Tang, due to the war, the national horses of the Sui Dynasty were basically robbed by the Turks, leaving only 3,000 horses, which were moved to Longyou by Li Yuan to graze.

Later, Li Shimin sent Zhang Wansui to manage the horse farm, and he worked there for his whole life.

Until the end of Zhenguan, Li Shimin left 700,000 war horses for Li Zhi.

This was also the fundamental guarantee of the combat effectiveness of the Tang army during the Zhenguan period.

Zhang Wansui's talent for raising horses can be seen.

Then after this buddy died, the horse policy of the Tang Dynasty began to deteriorate. When Xuanzong took over, there were only 240,000 horses left.

The problem of insufficient horses, Wei Yuanzhong also wrote a letter to discuss this issue during the reign of Emperor Gaozong, and the final suggestion was to cancel the horse ban.

In the early Tang Dynasty, horses were divided into three grades according to shoulder height. The highest was the big horse, followed by the small horse, and the lowest was the Shu horse, which could basically only be used to pull the mill.

It was also because of the shortage of horses in the early Tang Dynasty that the limited horse order at that time stipulated that horses could not be used for civilian purposes, but could only be used for military purposes or as transportation tools for high-ranking officials of third rank or above.

Wei Yuanzhong suggested that this ban be lifted so that the common people could ride horses. This would give the common people the motivation to cultivate good horses, and the government could just buy them from the common people.

But regarding this proposal, although Li Zhi passed it, he still had the same old problem. If it was not for himself and his wife, he would not spend a penny more.

So in the end, this policy cannot be said to be useless. It can only be said that it is of no use at all.

Later, Tang Xuanzong, the "half-life wise emperor", had to patch up this policy and give profits to private horse breeders, which finally formed the unique scene of the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty:

"Everyone who recruits has a private horse"

In other words, the soldiers who were recruited all came riding on their families' big horses.

Xuanzong's policy was largely based on Emperor Wen of Han's Horse Restoration Order, which encouraged people to raise private horses and provided subsidies and profits to increase the overall horse ownership in the empire.

This is also the reason why the "horse protection law" of the Song Dynasty was useless. Private horses in the Han and Tang dynasties belonged to the people themselves, while the horse administration of the Song Dynasty was simply "people herding official horses."

The public herding of official horses is a kind of compulsory apportionment, and the so-called subsidy will be determined based on the quality of the horse when you hand it over. In this case, the people who are forced to apportion it will naturally just deal with it casually.

However, the reason for the failure of raising horses in the Song Dynasty was not only due to poor policies, but also to all aspects.

For example, Wang Yucheng of the Song Dynasty wrote a quite nonsense story:

The opening chapter is about a friend of mine who visited a horse farm and saw a horse breeder breeding a mare. As a result, the mare committed suicide after the breeding.

Why? Because the mare discovered that she was being bred to her own foal.

This is basically the style of some rotten Confucians in the Song Dynasty. They can't discuss things based on the facts. They have to say "I have a friend" and then use things to make sense.

In fact, the horse breeder's practice criticized by this great scholar is a very normal backcrossing method in modern animal husbandry laws, and it is part of selective breeding.

Selective breeding and conservation have always been weaknesses in the history of horse breeding in China for thousands of years.

Some people believe that one of the reasons why the horse administration in the Song Dynasty was ineffective was because the land for horse breeding was lost and there were no horses from the Western Regions for breeding.

However, from the perspective of modern breeding science, horses with the same bloodline and with a difference of less than 20 centimeters in shoulder height are considered normal.

The significance of selection and conservation lies in the artificial selection of superior breeds, artificial intervention in breeding, and ultimately, through generations of improvement, making horse breeds better and more in line with civilian and combat needs.

As lamented in ancient times, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty introduced the Dawan horse, and as a result, the bloodline of the famous horse gradually disappeared. This can be regarded as a failure of conservation. It did not cultivate an excellent hybrid horse, which is a failure of selective breeding.

Moreover, compared to the Han and Tang Dynasties, the horse breeding standards in the Song Dynasty also added beans and bran. In theory, the horses should be stronger.

But the end result was the opposite. To put it bluntly, it was still the horse breeders who were not good.

As for the Ming Dynasty, which raised horses entirely from beans and could raise sweat-blooded horses in Hebei, it was too bullying compared to their predecessors. 】

"The people of the Tang Dynasty are so unreasonable. The lowest level can be called a horse, but why is it called a horse?"

Zhang Song, a native of Shu, felt full of malice.

Zhang Fei stood up and offered consolation without hesitation:

"Didn't the Poet Saint still come to Shu? Then didn't Li Bai also come from Shu?"

"There are many talented people here, and they are all famous in Shu!"

Zhang Song also beamed when he thought of this. He was from the same hometown as Shixian. How should I put it? Thinking about it, he was a little excited.

Then Zhang Fei continued his efforts:

"And Xuanzong and Xizong, didn't they all flee to Shu in search of a peaceful place?"

Zhang Song suddenly felt complicated. It seems that there is nothing to be proud of...

Liu Bei glared angrily and almost wanted to get up.

Zhang Fei quickly jumped over and went to talk to the military advisor:

"Military advisor, this Song Dynasty talks about human relations with animals, and calls bandits brothers brothers. Isn't it strange?"

Kong Ming was busy thinking about the theory of conservation and selective breeding. He just nodded slightly and was immersed in his own thoughts.

Fazheng came over and said:

"I don't know if this great Confucian of the Song Dynasty ate pigs, or if he could talk to the pigs about human ethics."

In the Han Dynasty, uncastrated pigs were called pigs, and castrated pigs were called pigs.

Zhang Fei shook his head:

"You don't understand Xiaozhi. The great scholar still has to eat meat, and he doesn't have to ride a bad horse to fight in the front."

As he spoke, Zhang Fei sighed:

"In this Song Dynasty, why do you think joining the army is so difficult?"

Fazheng shrank back silently, why couldn't he get the title of French Military Advisor from Yide?

After glaring at his third brother, Liu Bei now felt truly envious:

"Why is Li Shimin so lucky and so talented in every position?"

Zhang Fei saw that his brother did not draw the sword, so he said:

"I can't say that I traded the throne for my luck."

Second update as soon as possible.

The Swiss Wheel yesterday and today almost sucked people dry.