NCCnovel Chapter 228 The future is promising
Chapter 228 The future is promising
In the Chang'an Imperial Palace, sunlight shone on Li Chengqian's imperial desk, where memorials were piled up like a mountain.
The news of the success of the steam engine was quickly conveyed by the Xianyang Industry Ministry, which sent the most elite Jinyiwei to Chang'an without stopping and delivered it directly to Li Chengqian's desk.
Li Chengqian was concentrating on the memorial, his brows sometimes furrowed, sometimes relaxed, and the red pen in his hand kept making annotations on the memorial.
When his eyes fell on the big red exclamation mark on the secret letter from Xianyang.
The good news about the successful operation of the steam engine came into view.
He was instantly so excited that he could hardly control himself.
Completely disregarding the emperor's dignity and demeanor, he suddenly stood up from the armchair and shouted excitedly: "Quick, Eunuch Zhang, call Master Qi to me, quickly!"
The voice was filled with uncontrollable ecstasy.
"Yes!" Zhang Ananda responded quickly. Looking at Li Chengqian's excited look, he knew in his heart that this matter must be related to the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty. He did not dare to slack off at all.
Li Chengqian paced back and forth excitedly, his hands trembling slightly and his breathing becoming rapid.
He tried hard to suppress the excitement in his heart that was like a surging wave. He took a deep breath, slowly sat back on the armchair, picked up the red pen again, and tried to calm himself down and continue reviewing the memorials.
At this moment, his thoughts had already run away like a wild horse, galloping into the distance. The image of the steam engine kept appearing in his mind, as well as the infinite glory and possibilities it might bring to the Tang Dynasty.
During this period, the Tang Dynasty was in an extremely critical and busy historical period.
Across the vast territory of the Tang Dynasty, many thorny issues still remain at the local governance level.
Due to the long-term turmoil in the past, many places have not yet fully recovered from the ruins and are in a state of relative vacancy and disorder.
Under such a chaotic situation, the number of people committing crimes naturally increases.
Although the Jinyiwei were given the power to act at their own discretion, in reality that power was strictly restricted by many rules and regulations.
After all, all the civil and military officials in the court and even the people of the world could clearly see that Li Chengqian cherished and valued the people to an extraordinary extent.
Nowadays, most of the people who break the law are ordinary people. According to the laws of the Tang Dynasty, even if they have committed a capital crime, local officials cannot arbitrarily sentence them.
According to the strict laws and system of the Tang Dynasty, all death sentences must be reported to Chang'an, and His Majesty must personally review and decide each one based on the nature, size and severity of the matter.
This year, difficulties and problems from all over the country have been falling onto the cabinet like snowflakes.
The ministers of the cabinet often sat together with serious faces, racking their brains and carefully considering these difficult problems, striving to come up with practical countermeasures and appropriate solutions, and then respectfully presenting them to Li Chengqian for the final decision.
Since the establishment of the cabinet, the heavy pressure on Li Chengqian has indeed been alleviated to a certain extent. He no longer has to handle every detail of government affairs personally.
However, with the continuous development and changes of the Tang Dynasty, the pressure and challenges it faced became greater and more complex than ever before, making him feel a little breathless.
To be honest, when dealing with these complicated government affairs, Li Chengqian even had a flash of thought about bringing out and using the Grand Council, a unique system of the Qing Dynasty.
Although the Qing Dynasty was a dynasty ruled by a foreign race, it must be admitted that during the long hundreds of years of their rule, they did indeed take great pains to learn many valuable lessons from past dynasties.
The political system it adopted can be said to be, to some extent, the epitome of the feudal dynasty system.
But Li Chengqian knew that now was not the best time to reform and implement the Grand Council system.
The main problems faced by the Tang Dynasty in its late period were the eunuchs' despotism and the separatist rule of the feudal lords. These two major cancers had seriously eroded the foundation of the Tang Dynasty and weakened the majesty and ruling power of the imperial power.
Now, under Li Chengqian's strong control, the power of the eunuchs has been greatly reduced, and it is no longer possible for them to act as recklessly as they did in the past.
The hidden danger of separatist regimes has been basically nipped in the bud through a series of swift and decisive policy adjustments and carefully deployed military strategies, and it will not easily appear again.
Many times, Li Chengqian also understood that although he knew some advanced and excellent systems and methods of later generations, he could not blindly copy them. He had to comprehensively consider and weigh them in combination with the current actual national conditions of the Tang Dynasty.
For example, is the current military system in use effective under the current situation in the Tang Dynasty? The answer is of course yes.
Because the Tang Dynasty had experienced many years of brutal wars and its population had sharply decreased, the military system was able to effectively integrate and utilize limited human and material resources, greatly reducing the country's financial pressure and heavy burden on the military.
However, once the population of the Tang Dynasty gradually increased and the social economy continued to prosper and develop, the drawbacks of the military system would gradually become apparent, and it might even become more harmful than beneficial.
After all, the strength of the military system depends largely on the emperor's ability to control it.
It can be understood in this way: under the military system, the emperor was like the largest military leader who held heavy troops and commanded all directions, controlling the military power of the world.
If the emperor's prestige and power are not enough to suppress the generals and military leaders who hold heavy troops and are eyeing the situation covetously, then the world will most likely fall into chaos and turmoil, with wars raging everywhere and countless lives lost.
At present, Li Chengqian needs to use the military system to stabilize the military situation of the Tang Dynasty, consolidate his ruling position, and lay a solid military foundation for the further development of the Tang Dynasty.
Since the first year of the implementation of the new policy, the lives of people everywhere have been significantly improved.
From the comparison of the number of memorials received at the end of the year and at the beginning of the year, it can be clearly seen that the number of memorials has decreased a lot. This is undoubtedly strong evidence that local conflicts and problems are gradually decreasing and people's lives are gradually becoming more stable.
Today, according to the careful planning and precise calculations of the Ministry of Revenue, the amount of fiscal revenue alone can reach a staggering 70 million.
You should know that when Li Shimin was in power, the annual treasury revenue of the Tang Dynasty was only 20 million coins.
Moreover, more than half a year of precious time has been spent on fully implementing this new policy this year, and its full potential and advantages have not yet been fully released.
It can be foreseen that by next year, with the in-depth implementation of the new policies and the full implementation of various economic measures, fiscal revenue is expected to rise again and reach an unprecedented high.
Today, commercial taxes have officially begun to be levied, and comprehensive and detailed statistics of state-owned resources have been completed. Everything is developing in an orderly manner in a good direction.
Coupled with the tax revenue from important materials such as salt and sugar next year, the Tang Dynasty's fiscal revenue will probably usher in a blowout growth, and its scale and speed will be astonishing.
Li Chengqian had even foreseen that if nothing unexpected happened, Chang'an's treasury would probably be unable to accommodate such a huge demand for wealth storage by next year.
Thinking of this, Li Chengqian's mouth corners couldn't help but rise, revealing a proud smile.
When the time comes, I must pull Lao Li over and let him take a good look at the brilliant achievements I have made.
Let him know that under his careful governance, the Tang Dynasty is striding towards a new era of unprecedented prosperity, and let him understand that his state governance strategies and grand blueprint are becoming a reality step by step.
"Your Majesty, I'm here!" Mr. Qi's calm words suddenly interrupted Li Chengqian's thoughts.
Li Chengqian raised his head slightly and looked towards the door, watching Mr. Qi walking slowly towards him, his eyes flashing with excitement.
"Master Qi, the steam engine has been made!"