At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Page 502

"Always, always keep a hand, never underestimate your subjects, even at this moment, our father and son have the initiative in the government, you have to remember, they will always be your enemy, the most terrible enemy, An enemy that devours everything."

After a while, Guo Jin, who was pursing her lips, opened her mouth.

"My son understands."

"You have to understand, you have to remember, and you have to learn how to do it."

Guo Peng smiled: "Do you know what you will do next as a father?"

"Father will announce at the court that he is going to fully levy business taxes!"

Guo Jin already understood.

Guo Peng smiled with satisfaction.

"As expected of my son."

Guo Peng is very happy that he can educate a qualified heir.

But even so, Guo Jin's methods are still a little immature, and still need to learn and practice.

Guo Peng decided to let Guo Jin watch carefully, and let him watch how he played with these hungry wolves in the applause.

Study hard.

Master the core skills of being an emperor.

crucial core skills.

Chapter 900. 910 The Son of Heaven is going to levy business tax?

After the first month holiday of the third year of Yande passed, the busy daily life returned to the core of the Wei Empire.

However, compared to the eagerness and excitement on everyone's faces at this time last year, and the eagerness and excitement to dominate the world, this time, the expressions on everyone's faces are more or less relaxed.

The world is unified, the enemy has been defeated, the goal has been achieved, and the existence of the Wei Empire has become unshakable.

Everyone can relax a little bit and enjoy a little bit.

The officials wandered in groups of three or four in the official office, chatting and laughing, having a great time, handling government affairs was not as active and urgent as before, and the spirit of the officials was not as sharp as it was at this time last year.

Feeling this inexplicable relaxed atmosphere, Zhuge Liang, who had only returned to Luoyang from Jiangdong for less than a month, was a little worried.

After dealing with Jiangdong's affairs, Zhuge Liang ended his long-term business trip and returned to the Luoyang cabinet to continue his work.

But after he came back, he found that it was different from when he left, and something seemed to have changed in the cabinet.

Zhuge Liang's worries were noticed by Sima Yi who had been sitting beside him at work.

"Kong Ming, what's the matter? I feel that you are not in a good mood? Have you had a conflict with someone at home?"

Sima Yi laughed and teased Zhuge Liang.

Zhuge Liang smiled bitterly and shook his head.

"I won't have conflicts with my wife. I know the end of conflicts with my wife very well."

"Hahaha, could it be that this month's wine money was also deducted by the madam?"

Knowing that this friend has a little fear of internal affairs, Sima Yi often makes fun of Zhuge Liang with this matter.

The relationship between the two has become better and better since they went to Jiangdong to do business together. Both of them found that the other was very compatible with themselves, whether it was talent, learning, interest, or goals.

Sima Yi has been to Zhuge Liang's house, met Zhuge Liang's wife Huang, ate and slept at Zhuge Liang's house.

Zhuge Liang also went to Sima Yi's house, met Sima Yi's wife, Mrs. Zhang, and also ate and slept at Sima Yi's house.

During this period of time, the two families had quite some contacts.

"Madam only deducted my drink money once, and never deducted it again. A man must have some money with him when he is away. Otherwise, it would be unseemly to hide his face and leave when something happens. Madam already knows about this, so I won't." Withhold my drink money."

Zhuge Liang said quite proudly.

Sima Yi almost didn't laugh out loud.

Sima Yi knows Zhuge Liang's virtues at home.

Huang said one thing, Zhuge Liang never said two. There are not few officials in the court who are afraid of internal affairs, but Zhuge Liang is definitely number one.

Of course, Huang's family management ability is very strong, and he manages Zhuge Liang's life in an orderly manner. Zhuge Liang never has to worry about family affairs.

"Since it's not this matter, what is it?"

Zhuge Liang shook his head.

"It's not a big deal, but, Zhongda, do you feel it? The colleagues in the government office are a little too slack. I feel that after His Majesty wiped out the separatist warlords, everyone became relaxed and wanted to have fun instead of Let’s focus on government affairs.”

Sima Yi looked around.

Indeed, many people talked and laughed with each other with relaxed faces, which was very different from the past where everyone worked hard as soon as they entered the official office.

but……

"Kong Ming, it's normal for such a thing to happen. After all, everyone was very busy with their official duties before, and everyone was very nervous. It's okay to relax a little now. It's always so busy, but it will tire people."

"Yes, that's why there are holidays. However, I always feel that in this way, some bad things will happen. The war is basically over, but it's not over. There are still wars in Liaodong and Jiangnan, and things in Lingnan will also happen." It's not over yet, is it really good to be so relaxed at this moment?"

Zhuge Liang looked worried.

Sima Yi felt that Zhuge Liang was a little unfounded.

He felt that there was nothing wrong with this. He wanted to relax after being busy for such a long time.

In various senses, he really wants to go for a comfortable outing and have fun, get together with his family and friends more to chat, drink and eat meat, relax his body and mind, and make himself happy.

He is well aware of his situation, and knows that as an old official of the Guo family with great luck, he will surely accomplish a lot when the emperor is powerful, so he is not in a hurry.

The old top gentry are being cleaned up one by one by the emperor, and the emerging forces will inevitably be reused by the emperor.

This is the internal judgment of the Simajia Group.

So, as long as you obey the rules and don't make mistakes, you will definitely be promoted.

He admired Zhuge Liang's sense of urgency, but he didn't take it seriously.

The world is unified, the country is no longer a threat, everyone will naturally want to have a good rest, we are not iron men, flesh and blood, how can we not rest?

But soon he no longer thinks so.

Because Zhuge Liang's crow's mouth really came true.

A few days later, when the weather was still cold, Cao Cao, their immediate boss and the chief assistant of the cabinet, brought the latest government news.

During the Great Court Meeting, the emperor ordered that the original Lingnan land be officially established as Jiaozhou, a newly established state-level organizational system of the Wei Empire, and Zhang Jin was appointed as the governor of Jiaozhou to govern Jiaozhou.

It can be regarded as basically acknowledging the historical and political status of Jiaozhou, and giving Zhang Jin a good treatment and letting him settle in Jiaozhou.

Anyway, judging from the emperor's intentions, he didn't pay much attention to Jiaozhou. He probably felt that Jiaozhou was too barbaric, so he was not interested in Jiaozhou. He didn't send officials or troops. It felt like he recognized Zhang Jin's semi-independent status.

This Jiaozhou really has no cards.

Everyone is secretly laughing at Jiaozhou, saying that the emperor who cares so much about land and taxes doesn't care about Jiaozhou, which shows how shameless Jiaozhou is.

This news is just some explanation and summary of what happened last year, it's not a big deal.

What follows is the news that makes everyone's hearts tremble.

The emperor decreed that the cabinet and the Ministry of Finance would work together to draw up commercial tax regulations within a time limit, and levy commercial tax on the transactions of business travelers in various places to subsidize the cost of marching and combat and the administrative expenditure of newly acquired territories.

Is the emperor going to levy business tax?

The cabinet officials were immediately astonished.

The relaxed atmosphere just now disappeared in an instant.

Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi were taken aback for a moment, then looked at each other.

No one expected that this incident came a bit suddenly.

In other words, no one has paid attention to it.

This happened once before.

From the end of the previous year to the beginning of last year, within a few months, there was a heated debate in the court on whether to levy business taxes or not.

A group of officials strongly demanded to increase the business tax.

A group of people headed by Minister of Finance Wang Can pointed out that the business of Wei State was flourishing, and commercial transactions in various cities and towns were very prosperous.

The business tax collection of the Wei Empire was based on the old system of the Eastern Han Dynasty. As early as the Wei Dukedom period, Guo Peng had abolished some business tax items that looked like exorbitant taxes, and further reduced the content of business taxes to stimulate business development.

Now business is flourishing, but part of the cost of doing business is also borne by the state.

The imperial treasury has a lot of expenditures. The treasury cannot store more money, and the remaining money is limited. It is worried that it will be unable to deal with major disasters in the future.

Wang Can cited the amount of financial expenditures the Ministry of Civil Affairs has spent on locust control along the Yellow River in recent years, and the budget for the amount of money needed for future locust control.

Wang Can used this to demonstrate that in order to control the Yellow River and locust plagues in the future, the treasury will face a situation where it cannot make ends meet.

What he said was indeed a problem.

After Guo Peng established the Principality of Wei, he appointed Taishi Ling to pay close attention to climate change.

Later, according to Taishi Ling's statistical calculations, in recent years, the climate in various places has been colder, and the precipitation has decreased. Compared with before Huanling, the duration of winter is longer, and the time of spring has gradually moved backward.

This not only affects agricultural production to a certain extent, but also causes floods of locust plagues.

Since Emperor Huanling of the former Han Dynasty, the number of locust plagues in the Yellow River Basin has been increasing year by year, and the scope of influence has gradually expanded. After the Yellow Turban Rebellion, locust plagues widely appeared in important grain-producing places such as Qingzhou, Yanzhou and Yuzhou.

Fortunately, after Guo Peng occupied Qingzhou, he actively promoted the strategy of raising ducks to control locusts, and called on farmers to release ducks into the fields to clean up locust gnats before the locusts emerged.

In this way, with the growth of Guo Peng's power, he went west along the Yellow River Basin to build a net against locust gnats, and gradually rescued Qingzhou, Yanzhou and Yuzhou from the locust plague, and greatly increased the production of meat ducks. .

Although the effect is remarkable, it fails to solve the problem fundamentally.

Chapter 901. Who will support the levy of commercial tax in 910?Who is against?

Every year, small-scale locust plagues still occur in some places in the Central Plains.

Now that it has become an adult insect, it cannot be solved by chickens and ducks. Locusts can fly, eat food very fast, and fly very fast, and chickens and ducks can only eat it.

At this time, manpower is needed to fight, encircle and suppress, or even burn. The local government will organize manpower and material resources to fight, and then pay for the locusts, and finally burn them or use them as medicine.

Fortunately, large-scale locust plagues no longer exist, and small-scale locust plagues can barely be suppressed under local coordination.

Raising ducks to control locusts is a kind of remedy in a sense. It is an intervention measure during the period of locust larvae, not a permanent solution.

The local locusts have been completely wiped out, and the locusts from other places will still migrate. The flying ability of the locusts is really strong.

Guo Peng knows that locusts like warmth and drought, so in order to solve the problem of locusts from the root, Guo Peng actively builds water conservancy in various places, reclaims wasteland, and improves the utilization rate of land, so as to destroy the locust eggs hidden deep in the ground.

Even if it is an uninhabited area that cannot be filled due to excessive population loss, Guo Peng will organize people to carry out actions such as afforestation or grass planting, so as to increase the vegetation coverage and reduce the living space of locusts, so as to control locusts.

Relying on such actions, the scope and frequency of locust plagues have gradually decreased over time, and food production has been greatly guaranteed, but such actions are also accompanied by a large amount of expenditure.

After citing such an example, Wang Can insisted on increasing business tax, increasing income and reducing expenditure, in case of emergencies.

Because no one knows where the next locust plague or even the next drought will occur, the court must have enough money and food reserves, otherwise once the locust plague occurs, it will be a situation of starvation for thousands of miles.

Zaoyi, Minister of Civil Affairs, agreed with this.

"In recent years, the beginning of spring has been pushed back more and more, while the beginning of winter has been getting earlier and earlier. This is not a good sign, and it is not conducive to grain production. From the Central Plains to Hebei to Bingzhou and Youzhou, this trend is getting worse and worse. It's becoming more and more obvious, and it's something to watch.

So after I reported it to His Majesty, His Majesty asked me to organize people to reclaim the land in the south, thinking that the south is generally warmer. If the grain production in the Central Plains and Hebei decreases, and if the south of the Yangtze River can produce a large amount of grain, it can also make up for the shortage in the north. This requires money. . "

Zaoyi also gave his own reasons in the court, and firmly supported Wang Can's suggestion of raising business taxes to make up for state expenses.

The reasons given by the cabinet chief assistant Cao Cao are also worthy of attention.

In June of the second year of Yande, Guo Peng issued an order to Cao Cao, asking Cao Cao to lead the cabinet members to connect with the Ministry of Industry, and discuss the possibility of building a waterway transportation channel from Luoyang to Jiangnan.

Guo Peng believes that the shift of spring and the advance of winter have become a fixed trend. If this continues for only a few decades, the Central Plains and Hebei may face severe grain production cuts.

The Central Plains and Hebei are now important grain producing areas. Once the grain production decreases, famine will inevitably occur. Therefore, it is necessary to plan ahead and use Jiangnan as an important grain production base.

Not only that, but also the transportation channel from Jiangnan to the Central Plains.