Outside the bedroom and under the eaves, Huang Yan stood silently, motionless, listening to the movement inside.

In the bedroom and outside, Empress Dowager Xie sat, a little restless, listening to the movements inside.

Inside, Queen Li Ping'an was shouting that a little life is about to be born.

Is this little life a man or a woman? It is something that many people care about.

But for Li Li, who was passing outside the bedroom, it didn't matter.

First of all, the path of loyal ministers will definitely not be able to go through. Secondly, he will not be so crazy that he will "cut off the roots" of his possible grandson.

So, it doesn’t matter whether it is a man or a woman.

However, if the boy is born, it will be a little troublesome.

Not to mention anything else, the baby's death rate is very high these days. If something happens to a little guy, he or she will have to take the blame as his grandfather.

Or, someone deliberately poured sewage on him, saying, "Li Li killed his grandson in order to usurp the throne."

So, today, Li Ping'an must be a girl.

As for Concubine Zhang, he was about to give birth today. If he gave birth to a boy, he would be the heir to the throne.

If so, Zhang Guiren's mother's family, Fan Yang, would become a relative of the outside world again, but it has nothing to do with the overall situation.

Li Li moved to a palace group, where he was the official office of the Prime Minister's Office - he worked directly in the palace and did not give any chance to potential enemies.

Zu Yi had been waiting for a long time, and when he saw Li Li coming, he asked in a low voice: "Ming Gong, where is the queen?"

"No news yet." Li Li walked to the seat and sat down, then signaled Zu Qi to take his seat.

Zu Qi sat down and reported to Li Li a policy that was about to be implemented.

That is to start an operation at the Buddhist temple: the fields of the Buddhist temple must be paid to the government, and the temple households must obey the government's recruitment and serve labor.

The Liang Kingdom's Buddhist singularity has reached the point of becoming obsessed with the evil spirit. Jiankang City alone has hundreds of Buddhist temples, occupying a large number of fertile land and a large number of dependent people, but does not pay a grain of rice, and no one serves labor.

He also absorbed a large number of monks and nuns, recited scriptures and Buddhas all day long, but did not do anything to produce, causing a large amount of labor to lose.

At the same time, wealthy temples are also engaged in pledge and debt lending businesses, operating industries like merchants, with large "cash flow" every day, but they almost never have to pay any taxes.

Therefore, over-expanding temples have become a cancer of the country. These temples with a large amount of land also form part of the manor economy - the temple manor economy.

Ordinary manors, no matter how big or small, are condensed by clans (blood ties) as a bond.

The temple manor is condensed with religious beliefs.

No matter which kind of manor is, it is one of the foundations of the manor economy, which is the mainstream of the current era. Manors of all sizes and places occupy a large amount of land and labor, which is the culprit that weakens the central economic strength of the dynasty.

If you want to revitalize the imperial power (monarchy), if you want the center to master the large amount of land and labor that you should have, you must attack the manor economy.

To start an operation on a clan manor, tax the manor, and check the hidden households, and snatch the labor force from the owner of the manor.

To operate on temple manors, we must control the number of temples, tax the temple fields, and investigate the temple households, control the number of monks and nuns, and force the "surplus" monks and nuns to return to secular life in each temple.

And we must control the number of monks and nuns who are ordained and become monks.

According to the difficulty of the matter, Li Li decided to start an operation on the temple first and ask for land rent and labor from the temple, but would not use pure violence to destroy the Buddha.

Zu Qi is responsible for the specific matters.

The measures taken were mainly formulated by Li Li. His strategy was to "boil the frog in warm water" and take it step by step.

In short, it is to use Brother Kong Fang and Senior Brother to use both soft and hard to achieve the ultimate goal in stages.

First, implement the system of sacrificial certificates, which are the identity certificates of monks and nuns. Only those who have sacrificial certificates must be "true monks" and "true nuns".

Otherwise, he would become a monk illegally and would go to jail.

The government has the final say in the issuance of the sacrificial certificate.

However, considering the "professionality" of qualification recognition, the government will invite the Taoist monks from famous temples to form a "jury" as "experts" to evaluate the monks in the existing temples.

According to the evaluation results of the "jury" by local governments, they issued certificates to monks in relevant temples.

The number of sacrificial certificates is limited. After evaluation, monks and nuns who cannot obtain sacrificial certificates will immediately return to secular life.

If monks and nuns return homeless, the court will have a special agency to solve the "employment problem" for them.

Li Li controlled the number of issued certificates this time and implemented a "proportional system".

For example, there are 200 monks in a temple. After the jury review, it is believed that 180 of them are qualified, but the number of certificates will be distributed at 30%.

Therefore, among the 180 qualified people, only fifty-four people could obtain the certificate of sanctions, and the remaining 126, together with the twenty-two people who failed the assessment, all had to return to secular life.

To be ordained, you must obtain permission from the government and issue a certificate of justice before you can become a monk.

In this way, after the implementation of the sacrificial system, the number of monks and nuns in the Liang Kingdom will be greatly reduced in the first stage.

Second, implement a regular Buddhist assessment system, and several "jury panels" composed of eminent monks regularly assess monks in their respective areas according to their scope.

If these monks fail the exam, it means "no wisdom root" and have no chance to be with the Buddha. They must return to secular life, so as not to squeeze out valuable places for the quota.

Such a system is to solve the problem that the number of monks and nuns in Buddhist temples is increasing in the number of monks and nuns.

Third, implement a temple hierarchy system, establish several famous large temples as top temples of each "faction", and other temples are classified in turn.

There are regulations on which level of temples can have how many monks and nuns.

At the same time, there are also regulations on how many tax-free fields can be owned by temples of all levels. If the amount of fields exceeds the amount of fields, it means that the monks and nuns need to pay full taxes to the court.

There are no slaves in temples, but tenant farmers can be hired to farm. The number of tenant farmers is not allowed to exceed the number of monks and nuns in the temple. The employment contract must be kept in the local government.

Fourth, temples are not allowed to do business, but they can operate a riot (inn) and can be paid for books and statues, but statues are not allowed to be made of copper.

This is a general strategy. When it comes to implementation, there are many "standards"

However, the most important thing is to establish a "jury" and use Buddhist children to "clean up the portals", and clean up the excess monks and nuns, ignorant gangsters, and Buddhist scum who steal.

Considering that those monks who have been in great success for many years and are not very convenient to travel around, Li Li specially appointed these monks to recommend their disciples to replace their masters as "high-level brothers" and serve as "experts" in the jury.

The various jury teams composed of the "big brothers" are regularly assessed and evaluated the personnel of Buddhist temples and temple "qualifications" in various places, just like the supervisory censor or the examiner in the bureaucratic system.

Zu Yi thought Li Li's trick was simply despicable... It was too targeted. The rebound caused by letting the Buddhist children "clean up their doors" by themselves will be much smaller than the direct violent "destroying Buddha".

However, forcibly tax the temple land, clean up the temple households, and prohibit the temple from doing business. This is to cut off people's wealth and money, and there is no difference between killing parents.

Therefore, Li Li gave another way out: the court regularly allocated funds to temples at all levels according to the level, and the amount was determined by the level to meet the normal daily expenses of the temple.

However, local governments must send personnel to the temple to supervise the use of funds.

The temple can continue to operate pledge and money lending business, operate "paid savings", and even participate in "off-site deposits and withdrawals" business with its own credit, with a money tree.

But you must first obtain a "license" issued by the government.

If you do not obtain a license, you are not allowed to engage in related business. Once an illegal operation is discovered, the consequences will be serious.

If you want to obtain a license, of course you must meet some conditions and assume certain critical responsibilities.

For example, the interest on debt lending should be controlled and not too high.

For example, it undertakes the exchange of money made by the imperial court to meet the exchange needs of local people.

For specific implementation, of course, there are many detailed rules to ensure that the "obedient" temple can get help from "Brother Kong Fang".

With the help of "Brother Kong Fang", the temple can have considerable stable income every year, cope with some additional expenses, or save savings for emergency response.

Of course, this is just the beginning. Li Li's ultimate goal is because it is too much, and it is inconvenient to reveal it.

Zu Qi reported to Li Li about the relevant matters. Next month, this policy will be officially implemented, and will start first in Jiankang, because there are really too many Buddhist temples in Jiankang and even the Sanwu area.

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The goal is to complete the first phase within one year:

The number of monks and nuns nationwide has decreased by 60%. More than 60% of the land in most temples must be paid for land rent, and the temple households must be cleaned at least 60%.

This hurdle is crossed and it is the second stage.

If you can't get over it, it will make the crowd excited...

"I will take responsibility, you just do things." Li Li made it clear that when you become a leader, you must have the awareness of taking the blame, otherwise your subordinates will not dare to let go of their hands and do big things.

"If it's really a mess, I'll join the army. They have bronze-cast Buddha statues, and I have bronze-cast cannons!"

"Now, first take the temple to get a lot of land and labor, increase the income of the treasury, and raise more soldiers."

"Then they will be the big landlords in Jiangnan! I don't care whether they are from a noble family, from the Three Wus surnames, or from strong clans and big families, and they don't pay taxes or work hard, so I can pay the heads!"

"Only military merits can tax cuts and tax exemptions can be made within a time limit. Why do they enjoy the same treatment as soldiers who fought for the country!"

"I took the lead in paying taxes in person!"

Li Li spoke with murderous aura, while Zu Wei was ready to let a large number of monks and nuns return to secular life and let the temple pay tax on the land occupied. Only in this way can we make a big move next.

When the center has enough land and population, it means that it can raise more food and grass, raise more troops, and engage in larger-scale wars.

Then the unity of the world is not far from the end.

Hundreds of years of troubled times ended in my own hands (even if I am just a helper), how can I not make people excited about such a feeling?

While he was talking, the follower came in to report that the queen had been born.

"Birth?" Li Li was stunned for a moment, and his thoughts turned back, "Is it a man or a woman?"

The follower hesitated for a moment and replied: "It's a girl."
Chapter completed!