At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Guo Peng sat down and was silent for a while.

"So I will not suggest that the emperor punish anyone. This incident itself is not their fault. It is a bit harsh to insist that they made a mistake. I don't know what will happen after the incident, but it is wrong to punish the person before the incident. wise conduct."

"Taishang Huang Mingjian."

Cao Ang was really worried that Guo Peng would mess with them, and they were really innocent.

"Having said that, you have gained experience in this crisis, and you know the dangers of business, right?"

"exactly."

Cao Ang smiled wryly with lingering fear: "I never expected that such a thing would happen when the Supreme Emperor came here, and the Supreme Emperor laughed."

"No, I think you have done a good job. In the face of unknown risks, you can stabilize the situation, stabilize people's hearts, and resolutely prevent the army from entering the city to restore order. Such behavior is very appropriate. You are also a mature official. .”

"The Supreme Emperor's absurd praise, I dare not bear this praise."

Cao Ang shook his head: "If the Supreme Emperor did not give me advice from time to time, it would be difficult for me to hold on and stabilize the situation."

"Your credit is your credit, there is no need to push it to me."

Guo Peng shook his head and said, "I just hope you can be calmer and wiser than those frightened people, don't give up because of choking, don't dare to develop business when you think there will be a crisis, or even beat you to death with a stick. .

This is timidity, lazy and irresponsible behavior. The three prefectures of the Western Regions and the two prefectures of Yongliang and Liangzhou cannot develop agriculture in the Central Plains and Jiangnan. If they do not develop commerce, the people here will have a hard life. It's not good for the country either.

You have to learn lessons from this incident, accumulate experience, and understand how to deal with this kind of incident in order to minimize the loss, instead of passively avoiding it, avoiding it, how will the three prefectures of the Western Regions and the two prefectures of Yongliang and Liangzhou develop? "

Chapter 1545. One thousand four hundred and sixty-five crises lie not only in business, but also in politics

Cao Ang was quite moved by Guo Peng's words.

He quickly remembered how proud the officials under his command were when the economy was prosperous a few years ago.

Now that the economic crisis is coming, people are panicking and self-closing.

He sighed.

"What the Supreme Emperor said is absolutely true, the ministers must not be afraid."

"Politicians must have courage, boldness, and the courage to take responsibility, instead of avoiding responsibility when they encounter it, and just thinking of dodging. Such a person cannot entrust great power to take on great responsibilities, so Zixiu, you understand Have I expected of you?"

"I understand."

Cao Ang nodded resolutely: "I will never shrink back, I will never slack off, before being transferred, I will do my best to rectify the business and agricultural affairs of the Zhenxi Dufu Mansion, try my best to restore it, and will do my best with my successor afterwards. Good handover, after everything is ready, return to Luoyang."

"Okay, this is the person I fancy."

Guo Peng smiled and patted Cao Ang on the shoulder, encouraging him.

Cao Ang laughed for a while, and suddenly thought of something, his face changed.

"Taishanghuang, if Zhenxi Protector's Mansion is under such an impact, then the three Western Regions and Yongliang Prefecture... Anxi merchants will not come to Zhenxi Protector's Mansion, nor will they go there, then they..."

Guo Peng restrained his smile, nodded solemnly, and said, "Among the three prefectures in the Western Regions, the Zhenxi Duhu Mansion has the best agricultural development and the lowest proportion of commercial taxation. Panic, almost on the level of a catastrophe.

Now the crisis should have gone along the Dachi Road to the Beiting Dufu Mansion and the Annan Duhu Mansion. The two agriculture depends entirely on the oasis, and the business tax ratio is very high. A more serious crisis for the Protectorate. "

"Isn't that going to be a problem?"

"There will be problems, but it's not too serious, because including Zhenxi Dufu, the total population of the three prefectures in the Western Regions combined is less than that of Liangzhou. A small population means that the losses are limited, easy to deal with, and easy to contain. Good rectification.

Moreover, the three prefectures of the Western Regions do not produce too many products. The relationship between local people and commerce is mainly concentrated on agricultural products. "

Guo Peng took a deep breath: "Compared to the three prefectures of the Western Regions, I am more worried about Liangzhou and Yongzhou, and compared with Yongzhou, I am more worried about Liangzhou."

"What does the Supreme Emperor mean?"

"Yongzhou and Liangzhou have a large population. When the crisis comes, it will spread to a wider area. However, Yongzhou still has trade in Hanzhong, Shuzhong, and Luoyang. The proportion of foreign trade is not large, and agricultural production is stable enough. Something really happened. Mao Jie was able to hold on.

The most worrying thing is Liangzhou. To the west is the three prefectures of the Western Regions, and to the east is Yongzhou. After taking over the three prefectures of the Western Regions and Yongzhou, there is no way out at both ends. Once there is a problem, it will explode. Moreover, Liangzhou has a large population and agricultural development. But limited. "

Guo Peng looked worriedly towards the east, in the direction of Liangzhou.

"Agriculture is not well developed, and the power to deal with the crisis will be much smaller. Liangzhou's agriculture cannot be compared with the Central Plains. Once the crisis breaks out, I am really worried that Lu Qian will not be able to handle it."

"Isn't that dangerous?"

Cao Ang's complexion changed drastically.

Guo Peng waved his hand.

"The problem will be very big, but it won't lose everything. Fortunately, my registered residence, Wei, has land. Private business is mostly caused by one family doing two things. A family usually divides into two groups. , while farming the land, while doing business.

So even if the business fails and you can’t go on, you still have land and food, and you will not starve to death when you go home to farm. That is to say, the debt problem is serious. question. "

Cao Ang froze for a moment, his face relaxed a little.

He remembered that the problem of Zhenxi Protectorate was also contained in this way.

People who do business have land outside the city, and some family members are still cultivating the land. Even if the shop closes down or goes bankrupt, they can return to the land to cultivate the land, self-sufficient, and will not starve to death.

This is the last escape route left for them by the Wei Empire. With this retreat route, the economic crisis will kill no one.

Unless they have too much debt and can't afford it for a while, the court will not force them to pay off the debt immediately.

As long as the court stabilizes itself and gives them enough time to repay slowly, they will not be driven to a dead end, and they will eventually be able to pay off their loans and write off bad debts.

Guo Peng's behavior of dismantling local tyrants and distributing land, demolishing powerful manors and granting land to all private households has in fact given the people all over the country the bottom line. The farm model of garrisoning farmland allows them not to starve to death even if they fail in business.

The people who run businesses in the city are often the families in the farms outside the city with surplus labor, or the elderly and women.

Their original intention of opening a shop is to make extra money.

They can't earn extra money, the land and the house are still there, as long as the court gives them time, they can use agricultural production to repay the loan, the court will not be damaged, and they will not be unable to survive.

As long as this is the case, the impact of the economic crisis will not be able to destroy the economy of the Wei Empire, and the agricultural economy of the Wei Empire can still continue to operate.

That is to say, the business level will suffer a lot of losses.

Many people went bankrupt and had nothing, so they had to go home and continue to cultivate the land, and they had to pay back the money owed to the court.

There are also problems in the handicraft industry. Without Anxi, a big customer, many handicraft workshops in Liangzhou and Yongzhou, some porcelain and lacquerware workshops, and some government-run enterprises affiliated to the inner court will all be affected, and the products will accumulate and cannot be sold. .

The inner court has the emperor's internal treasury, and it can maintain a certain cash flow even if the products are piled up and cannot be sold, and it will not go bankrupt.

The handicraft workshops set up by private individuals will be impacted, the products will be piled up and cannot be sold, the workshops will close down, and the workers will lose their jobs.

If this is an industrial society, it is a big problem.

In industrial society, agricultural productivity has been greatly improved, so much labor is not needed, and surplus labor has no place on the land, and must go to urban factories to survive and become urban residents.

Once the economic crisis occurs and the factories close down, the workers will have nowhere to live, and they will not be able to find a place to stand when they return home, not to mention that many people have no land as a way out.

Therefore, the productivity of industrial society is high, and once a crisis occurs, it will be extremely destructive.

But the agricultural society, or the current Wei Empire is still the same sentence.

There are fields at home, and the labor force is not too much. If you can go home and farm, you will not starve to death.

In addition, the biggest impact on the society of Wei State is panic. The psychological panic caused by the economic crisis will destroy the safety valve of many people, making them think that developing business is a very dangerous behavior in their hearts.

So the biggest trouble is not Lu Qian, but Guo Jin who is in Luoyang, Guo himself, and the political forces in the DPRK and China that support the development of commerce and advocate a certain degree of loosening of commerce.

The crisis is not just about business, but more about politics.

Even during Guo Peng's reign, conservative forces continued to attack these business innovators, saying that the experiments they conducted in the three prefectures of the Western Regions and the two prefectures of Yongliang and Liangzhou were messing up people's hearts and killing themselves.

However, due to the good economic environment at that time and the increasing commercial tax revenue, Wang Can, Minister of Finance, under the instruction of Guo Peng, gave this political force a platform and withstood the impact of conservatives.

The conservatives were intimidated by Guo Peng, who did not publicly express their stance behind Wang Can, so they did not dare to further attack the reformers.

In a certain sense, the brand-new production model brought by the reformers brought more people engaged in commerce and handicrafts among the people, and the emergence of these people increased the competition intensity of private commerce.

Most of the conservatives are officials themselves, and there are other members of the family who run business, and even friends and slaves do business, relying on their power to obtain commercial benefits, and then feed them back economic benefits.

Relying on such a traditional model to realize the combination of government and business within a family has nothing to do with his own family.

The rise of private business forces, and the government's encouragement of private business, will naturally have an impact on the commercial forces that rely on political power to protect these traditional wealthy families, thereby affecting their interests.

They naturally don't want this situation to continue to spread in the country, further increasing the difficulty for them to gain benefits in business and gain political advantages.

But Wang Can is the emperor's favorite minister, and when Wang Can speaks out, it must be the emperor's instigation behind him.

They didn't dare to go any further against the emperor, so they could only endure it.

As a result, the business model of the three prefectures of the Western Regions and the two prefectures of Yongliang and Liangzhou was preserved and greatly developed. After the fiscal revenue of the imperial court increased, this model was also partially imitated in other regions.

For example, Qingzhou and Yangzhou, where maritime trade was very developed, Qingzhou governor Xin Ping and Yangzhou governor Gu Yong also relaxed the restrictions on squares and cities to a certain extent, allowing commercial development, encouraging commercial development, and driving local economic development.

After the situation in Jiaozhou was gradually pacified by Manchong, Manchong also planned to use the huge advantage of Jiaozhou's seaside to develop commerce, allowing to break the boundaries of squares and cities, loosening restrictions on private commerce, vigorously developing maritime trade, and accumulating wealth for the development of Jiaozhou.

The rest of the inland states have also followed the Yongliang model in the central cities where commercial transactions are very developed.

Like Runan, like Xiangyang, like Jiangling, like Chengdu, like Yecheng, like Jixian, all of these cities have a relatively large amount of commercial trade, which is suitable for the development of commerce, and is sufficient to do so.

In this way, business taxes will continue to increase.

Moreover, this ratio of commercial taxation is mainly a domestic circulation, and has nothing to do with Rome, Anxi, or Guishuang abroad.

Until the emperor Guo Peng abdicated and became the Supreme Emperor, the power to suppress the conservatives suddenly disappeared. Although the power of the reformers has developed, they are not strong.

Under such a situation, once an economic crisis occurs in the Northwest and affects the government's fiscal revenue, those conservative forces that have been suppressed for a long time will inevitably climax collectively, and will inevitably launch a vigorous attack on the reformers immediately.

The impact on the external economic model will definitely also impact this relatively stable domestic circulation of commercial taxation.

At that time, conservatives will exert unprecedented political pressure on the emperor, and it is still a question of whether bureaucrats at all levels who support innovation can resist the pressure.

Of course, the most important thing is the emperor's attitude.

Chapter 1546 One thousand four hundred and sixty-six Sima Yi is worried

As a centralized emperor, Guo Jin's attitude is crucial.

If he withstands the impact of the conservatives, he will be able to stabilize the established situation in the country, will not let the achievements of innovation over the years go to waste, and can further improve the country's financial strength.

If he can't hold on, if he falters, it's a big problem.

If the emperor wavers, the courtiers must waver one after another. This is a disaster for the relatively weak reformers.

This is a great test of Guo Jin's political determination and vision as an emperor.

It all depends on Guo Jin's courage whether he can firmly support the development of some businesses, insist on not changing the current model, not suppressing the reformers, and not complying with the demands of the conservatives to change the situation of the Wei Empire.

Therefore, the biggest impact of this wave of economic crisis is not economic impact, but political impact.

A huge blow to the reformers will severely impact the fragile business model that the Wei Empire has just developed.

It will also have an impact on Guo Peng's "going out" strategy, which Guo Peng cannot accept anyway.

This is Guo Peng's reverse scale.

It is a place where he cannot be offended.

Anyone who dares to take action against this achievement is courting death.

After so many years of hard work, it is to let the people of the Wei Empire break the shackles of existing concepts, work hard to attack outside, and find a way out. Now, the conservatives are very likely to expand the contradiction along the economic crisis, pointing at Guo Peng's formula Strategy.

That's something Guo Peng can't stand.

He felt that Guo Jin would not accept such a thing—his younger brothers were still sending them out.

Now, it remains to see how the situation will develop.

In addition, he will continue to introduce outstanding officials with innovative tendencies into the central government to expand the political power of the reformers so that they can continue to maintain the achievements of Guo Peng's reforms after his death in the future.

Cao Ang couldn't understand Guo Peng's worries.

Similarly, Guo Chengzhi, who was listening on the sidelines, couldn't understand it either.

However, things did develop as Guo Peng expected.

The economic crisis spread along with the trade routes. After the crisis of the Zhenxi Protectorate's Mansion, the crisis of the Beiting Governor's Mansion and the Annan Protectorate's Mansion followed.

From the first restaurant or hotel in the westernmost city of the two prefectures that could not persist and chose to go bankrupt, this bankruptcy seemed to form a wave, and it began to spread in the city and spread to other cities.

Those with small scale, weak capital, and unable to attract many customers, had no customers for more than ten days in a row.