Chapter 377 Liu Sheng, the Winner of Life

For Li Shimin, the memorials of Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui were rigorous.

From his own level, the mathematics in the memorials can be called superb, but fortunately, the final conclusions are easy to understand and can be figured out after hard thinking.

The two ministers first listed the number of households in Huxian County in the former Sui Dynasty, one every five years, and finally sorted out a complex formula, called "calculation model", and called this step "taking the cause".

The second step is to use the figures of the first year of Wude, and calculate the growth of the number of households in Huxian County in the Tang Dynasty according to this "calculation model", which is called "verification result".

The calculated figures are listed on the left, and the number of households adopted by the Ministry of Civil Affairs is listed on the right. The two sides are directly compared. Although there is a difference, it is not large. This method can be called shocking to Li Shimin.

This calculation may not be accurate, of course, after all, the household registration policies of the Tang and Sui dynasties are different, and Yang Guang and Li Shimin have completely different attitudes towards the investigation of hidden households.

But it at least provides a glimpse into the future.

In the memorial, the number of households adopted by the Ministry of Civil Affairs ended in the fourth year of Zhenguan, and the rest was blank, but the numbers calculated by mathematics continued to move forward.

Moreover, Fang Xuanling was quite "considerate" and listed the number of acres of land that each household could have at the back.

According to this calculation, until a hundred years later, each household in Hu County had only 20 acres of good land.

Twenty acres of land was only enough to support one son and one daughter, and if the problem of land annexation that could not be calculated by mathematics was taken into account, this number would probably be even worse.

And what time was a hundred years later? It was the collapse of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the escape of the emperor, the fall of Chang'an, the strife of princes and nobles, the death of elites in civil strife, the death of civilians in the Tang army, and the emperor's promise to plunder the people of Chang'an.

That was a period of history that Li Shimin could hardly imagine. Now, a not-so-precise calculation by his two prime ministers allowed Li Shimin to glimpse a corner of the people's livelihood at that time.

The prosperous Tang Dynasty was extremely prosperous for a hundred years, but all this seemed to have little to do with the water that carried the boat.

So in the end, these gentle people like water turned into angry waves and overturned this huge Tang ship.

Empress Changsun listened quietly to the emperor's story, watching him sometimes heroic and sometimes mournful, and finally restrained his ambition and seemed to have a new goal.

"In this case, the prince should also know a little about mathematics." This was the first thing that Empress Changsun thought of.

Li Shimin also agreed to this, and the only doubt was whether Fang Xuanling was willing.

After simply finalizing this matter, Empress Changsun also asked curiously:

"Before, everyone asked ordinary people how many children they had, is this the problem?"

Li Shimin sighed again, shook his head and said:

"Xuanling Keming calculated the number of households in the county and the increase in the number of people in a household."

However, this problem was quite troublesome to explain in words, so Li Shimin simply gave an order on the spot and ordered the eunuchs to cut branches into short sticks as long as fingers, and brought two large handfuls over.

Pointing at these short sticks, Li Shimin said with a smile:

"If you use a short stick to make a mouth and place it on the ground, how many generations of descendants do you think these short sticks can represent?"

This description was vague, but Empress Changsun could understand its meaning. After visually estimating it, Empress Changsun hesitated and said:

"I think it will be enough to represent more than ten generations?"

Then Empress Changsun saw Li Shimin standing there laughing, and she was confused.

The eunuchs quickly started to mess with these short sticks. According to what Li Shimin said, a pair of short sticks were placed at the top as the first generation, and then three pairs of short sticks were placed below as the second generation.

Then they went back and forth, with three pairs of short sticks placed below each pair of short sticks.

As they were placed, Empress Changsun gradually widened her eyes in surprise.

Li Shimin sighed, looking at the short stick on the ground and recalling the memorial written by Fang Xuanling:

"Looking at the records of the Ministry of Households, one household can become three households. A hundred years of peace can last for five generations, so one household can become a hundred households. Later generations call it unlimited. I think it is just right."

Finally, Fang Xuanling also offered his own suggestions:

"If you don't want to make the country strong and the people poor, you should determine the households according to the cultivated land, and follow the example of the later empire named Ying in the west, and implement the policy of opening the sea to relieve the people's strength."

After exceeding the limit of a hundred years, Fang Xuanling also simply calculated the following numbers, and Li Shimin remembered those huge numbers very clearly.

The sixth generation is divided into more than 200 households, the seventh generation is divided into more than 700 households, the eighth generation can be divided into more than 2,000 households, the ninth generation is more than 6,000, and the tenth generation is nearly 20,000.

These calculations are very idealistic, and do not take into account factors such as disease, natural disasters, land annexation, and sudden wars.

But Li Shimin also understood that the more peaceful and prosperous the times, the less likely the people would suffer these accidents, and the faster the population would grow, which would eventually overwhelm the land and lead to the end of the dynasty. It was appropriate to call it a trap.

Moreover, the people would be affected by these factors, while the princes and nobles could still reproduce a large number of offspring even when the national strength was declining, and these offspring would occupy more land than the people.

Thinking of this, Li Shimin inevitably thought of Zhuge Wuhou who watched the light curtain with them, and his lord: Liu Bei.

His ancestor, Liu Sheng, King Jing of Zhongshan, is the best illustration of this set of numbers.

Although many of his descendants have fallen, it is now said among the people that half of the ancestors of the Liu family today are this King Jing of Zhongshan.

However, thinking of Emperor Zhaolie and Zhuge Wuhou, Li Shimin couldn't help but be curious:

Now with the help of the light curtain, and the Hu people have been crippled, I think they should have been drinking from the vast sea and reconnected with the Western Regions by now, right?

Li Shimin decided to ask about it next time he watched the light curtain.

On the other hand, Empress Changsun also made up her mind silently. She didn't ask her sons to be proficient in mathematics, but at least they had to know something about mathematics.

The memorials of Fang and Du had a great impact on Li Shimin. The most direct impact was that in December, when the four years of Zhenguan were about to end, the emperor issued an edict to further strengthen the maritime policy.

The officials naturally complained bitterly. After all, the end of the year was already busy. It was okay to just listen to the new order at this time. If it fell on their heads, they might not be able to rest during the ten-day holiday during the New Year.

But no matter how much they complained, they still had to execute it. However, this maritime policy made Shandong sea merchants excited.

The previous maritime policies were all for shipwrights and shipbuilders, but this new policy unprecedentedly added a decree for official ships to be rented by civilians.

The people could form their own sailors and rent official ships in Dengzhou and Laizhou. In the first year, they needed to go to designated places to work according to the assignments of the two local sea masters.

If you pass the assessment after one year, you can sail freely, and you only need to pay 40% of your wealth to the sea master every time you return.

The big families in Shandong all disdain it. Going to sea is too risky. How can it be more attractive to rob and plunder land?

But for the people along the coast of Shandong, they are very interested!

Perhaps because of the obvious tendency of the maritime politics, when the New Year celebration ended in December, Li Shimin could feel that the envoys from the Western Regions had a group of thoughts.

The Western Regions were fortunate that the Tang Dynasty seemed to turn its attention to overseas, or had no time to care about other things, such as Gaochang.

The small countries that hoped that the Tang Dynasty would enter the Western Regions to support them were also afraid that the Tang Dynasty would not be interested in the Western Regions and thus lose their backers, such as Qiuci.

Li Shimin had no interest in watching these things coldly. After the busy New Year, he simply hid back in the harem, and was affectionate with Guanyin maids, and had fun with his parents and children to build relationships.

Early in the morning on the third day of the first lunar month, Li Shimin could not wait to go to Ganlu Palace and issue a summons to his trusted ministers who were still in Chang'an.