Diwu Qi - During Emperor Daizong's Reign

During Emperor Daizong's Reign

Diwu Qi was said to have governed Lang Prefecture well, and was eventually recalled to serve on the staff of Li Kuo, the son and crown prince of Emperor Suzong's successor Emperor Daizong. In 763, when Tufan forces launched a surprise attack on Chang'an and forced Emperor Daizong to flee to Shan Prefecture (陝州, roughly modern Sanmenxia, Henan), Emperor Daizong made the general Guo Ziyi the supreme commander of Tang forces in the Guanzhong region, putting him in charge of recapturing and pacifying the Chang'an region. Guo used his authority to make Diwu his deputy, in charge of logistics, and soon also made Diwu the mayor of Jingzhao Municipality (京兆), the special municipality that included Chang'an. After Emperor Daizong returned to Chang'an, Diwu was put in charge of financial matters again and was created the Duke of Fufeng. It was at his suggestion that in 765 that, after a good wheat harvest in the Guanzhong region, taxes were increased to 10% of the wheat harvest. In 766, Emperor Daizong divided the financial affairs of the realm into two halves — with Liu Yan, then the minister of census, in charge of the eastern half and Diwu, who was again made the deputy minister of census, in charge of the western half. Later in 766, with the people fleeing the Guanzhong region to escape the heavy taxation that Diwu imposed, Emperor Daizong issued a general pardon and abolished the taxation that Diwu had suggested. Also, around these times, with many generals making demands on the silk stored in the imperial treasury, Diwu could not meet all of the demands, and tried to make sure that the demands would cease by instead transferring the silk collected as taxes all to the Daying Storage (大盈庫), inside the palace, with the eunuchs in charge. (This, however, brought a serious side effect — as the eunuchs were not required to handle detailed bookkeeping, it became impossible to account for the silk collected. This system was eventually abolished in 779 after the suggestion by then-chancellor Yang Yan.)

At his post, Diwu was in charge of financial matters for more than a decade. In 770, after Emperor Daizong executed the powerful eunuch Yu Chao'en, Diwu was considered Yu's associate and was demoted to be the prefect of Kuo Prefecture (括州, in modern Wenzhou, Zhejiang). He later served as the prefect of two other prefectures, before he was recalled — but not to Chang'an, but instead to the eastern capital Luoyang — to serve, titularly, again, on the staff of the crown prince.