Looking through the thick file in his hand, Li Ze changed his expression in horror. He raised his head and stared at Gao Xiangsheng opposite him.

"Are there so many people?"

"This is only what we can still count now." Gao Xiangsheng said: "Most of these people who can be counted came to our Tang Dynasty with their own money. Your Majesty, over the years, our fleet has appeared in the New World. Many people who have not lived well in the New World are willing to come to us to take risks and see if they can find opportunities for development. Another small part is the slaves who were sold. They were not sold for various reasons. Over time, they were abandoned by those who caught them and allowed them to fend for themselves."

Li Ze lowered his face: "So, wouldn't he die more?"

Gao Xiangsheng nodded.

"Those people bought slaves?" Li Ze asked coldly.

Gao Xiangsheng fell silent and did not answer Li Ze's question. Li Ze immediately understood. He reached out and pulled a rope on the table. The small bell ringed outside. Lu Lin immediately pushed the door and walked in.

"Go and call Wu Jin, Li Mi come here."

"Your Majesty, there are only some foreigners on the side. Since they are Tang people, they will never be slaves. From the perspective of law, these people did not violate the laws of the Tang Dynasty." Gao Xiangsheng said. "If you investigate it to the end, the impact will be too great and involve too many people. Not to mention other places, in Chang'an, many people will have foreign slaves. And in other places, there will be more. Especially those rich merchants."

"This is not a trivial matter!" Li Ze shook his head and said, "Gao Xiangsheng, I am not simply compassionate to the world. I will tell you a few points. Think about it, does it make sense."

"Please make it clear to you," Gao Xiangsheng nodded.

"Last year, Xu Xiang, they just passed the minimum wage plan. Any merchants in the Tang Dynasty who hired personnel must not be lower than the minimum wage stipulated by the court. In this regard, the costs of merchants have increased. Why do they have to buy slaves in large quantities? Because there is almost no cost! What consequences will this cause? The people of our Tang Dynasty are unemployed and become poor because they cannot find jobs."

Gao Xiangsheng was slightly stunned.

"The problem is not obvious now? Is it because there is still a lot of land in the Tang Dynasty? It is enough to allocate land to support our families, but our population is increasing a lot every year. And the urban population is also increasing year by year."

"Yes, I looked at the statistics department's statistics? In the first three quarters of this year, our Tang Dynasty had more than three million new babies. This is a terrifying number."

"This is just one. The second? These merchants who hire slaves to produce? Their goods appear on the market, and they will inevitably seize the market at a lower price, defeat those merchants who hire Tang people to produce, and cause these merchants to fail or even go bankrupt in the mall? This will impact our labor market. And the price is suppressed? It will have a huge impact on the market."

"But your Majesty, Xu Xiang and others don't seem to care about this issue. He is very clear about these things."

Li Ze sneered: "Did Xu think clearly? He only sees the immediate interests. The Development Committee is re-elected every five years. He must achieve re-election within five years. So he turned a blind eye? Because there must be many slaves who are engaged in many dangerous tasks, and those contractors will not care about the casualties of these slaves in order to complete the construction period faster. Xu wants real results. I can guess Xu's idea now? After his second term, he will limit it with all his might. Fight such a thing, because he knows that after the second term, as the chairman of the Economic Development Committee, it is impossible for him to be re-election."

Gao Xiangsheng took a deep breath.

Li Ze's words were a bit heartbroken and made him unable to answer the conversation.

"If this situation is not suppressed, the more slaves will flow in, the more slaves will flow in. The slave traders are testing our bottom line step by step. They will not stop when they see the good, and they will only gain a lot of urgency. Moreover, in addition to the economic reasons mentioned above, there are some other risks, which I am afraid that none of you will expect. That is, a large number of people from other continents will come in, which may also bring public health risks."

"Public health?" Gao Xiangsheng blinked his eyes and didn't understand.

"It's a very simple thing. On other continents, there must be some diseases that we don't have here. And these diseases have reached a state of balance and symbiosis with people after long-term changes and struggles with people. They will not be in danger themselves, but the problem is that people here have never seen this disease or had this disease. Can you imagine the consequences?"

Gao Xiangsheng's face changed slightly.

"If it is a common disease and the individual attack is not contagious, then it's okay, what if it is an infectious disease?" Li Ze knocked on the table, "Gao Xiangsheng, what if this disease is as powerful as the plague? Then it might cause our great Chinese nation to suffer a devastating blow."

"Is this possible?" Gao Xiangsheng murmured. He knew how terrible the plague was, and he had experienced it personally. The hellish years would be unforgettable for him. The entire city was closed, and piles of corpses were dragged out of the city every day. A plague caused a city of tens of thousands of people to survive, but only thousands of people.

"How is it impossible?" Li Ze said sternly: "Prepare for the future and prevent in advance. Should we prepare until things come? Over the years, Yan Jiu has devoted all her energy to preventing large-scale infectious diseases, but she is only targeting the fierce infectious diseases that have appeared in the history of our land. What if there is a new kind of thing we have never seen before?"

"I'll go find Yan Jiu immediately and talk to her about this matter." Gao Xiangsheng said seriously.

"Let Yan Jiu set up a new working group immediately to conduct research in various places where the Yi people live. The places where these people live are most likely to happen like this." Li Ze said.

"Yes, Your Majesty, I will send special personnel to assist Yan Jiu in completing this matter." Gao Xiangsheng said.

"The last point is that these people are, after all, they are also humans. The Tang Dynasty tolerate everything, and we can tolerate them. Since we are here, we must treat them as human beings, rather than large animals that can be squeezed infinitely, or cattle and horses. If you don't feed some feed, it will be useless to work! If the Tang Dynasty wants to become a central empire, a model in the world, and a country on the top of a mountain, we must try our best to avoid too many flaws in morality. I will not take it if I serve people as cattle and horses!"

"I obey Your Majesty's will. I have understood what Your Majesty means!" Gao Xiangsheng stood up and bowed. When Li Ze discussed matters with these close and important ministers, he rarely called himself me, and he would only claim that he was above those formal dynasties or high sacrificial rituals. Now, even I have emerged, obviously to remind Gao Xiangsheng that the emperor has a bottom line in this matter.

While speaking, Lu Lin gently knocked on the door, "Your Majesty, Chairman Wu and General Li are here."

"Let them come in!" Li Ze nodded.

Wu Jin, chairman of the Supervisory Committee, specializes in supervision of illegal affairs in the world. Li Mi, commander of the Jing'an Army, specializes in local security work. The two of them stepped into the room and saw Gao Xiangsheng, and were stunned. Then they were energetic. Anything that touched Gao Xiangsheng was not considered a trivial matter.

"Gao Xiangsheng, you should talk about these things first with Wu Jin and Li Mi. You can also talk about what I have to say to you."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Gao Xiangsheng turned around and looked at Wu Jin and Li Mi.

"Two, what I'm talking to you now is that our Tang Dynasty is increasingly rampant slave traders. The wide range of personnel and the high level involved are unprecedented. The harm is so great that I woke up as if I had just heard the words of Your Majesty."

"Please say to Vice Chairman Gao!" Wu Jin and Li Mi sat upright and stared at Gao Xiangsheng intently.

After a stick of incense, Gao Xiangsheng basically explained the matter clearly.

"Wu Jin, what do you think?"

"Your Majesty, our Tang Dynasty has issued a special bill that the Tang people are not allowed to be slaves, but there is no law prohibiting the extortion of slaves from foreign races. If this matter is really done, it is still unacceptable to be followed." Wu Jin's answer made Li Ze both quite pleased and extremely surprised. Because Wu Jin was a truly righteous gentleman and a strong man.

If one day he becomes a foolish monarch and there is a minister who dares to squeeze his own clothes and spit on his face, it will definitely be him. This is a person with a strong sense of justice.

"So, if the Supervisory Committee wants to intervene in this matter and investigate those who are servile slaves, the first thing to do is to have a specific law on this matter. Otherwise, it will be possible to do so without prohibition of the law!" Wu Jin said with a stick.

"Chunyu's legislation can only be formally promulgated after the Yixing Society's full-staff representative meeting is passed, which takes a long time." Li Ze said.

"So Your Majesty, now General Gao can do things, Doctor Yan can do things, and Li Mi can do things, but I can't do anything here." Wu Jin said.

"Can I issue a special decree on this matter in the name of the emperor?" Li Ze knocked on the table and asked. "If this decree is issued, can the Supervisory Commission intervene?"

Wu Jin smiled: "If Your Majesty signs such an executive order, then the Supervisory Committee can certainly intervene in this name, but the law must also keep up in time. Otherwise, if you violate Your Majesty's administrative order and commit crimes, there are two concepts. The former's punishment is far less than the latter."
Chapter completed!