At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

However, concubines are bound in the palace, and they have to make a report and wait for approval when they go out. It is as difficult as going out of the palace once.

Obviously living in the same city with their family members, it is very rare to meet them once, and it may not last long. Usually, someone will watch by them to prevent them from revealing information that should not be disclosed to their families.

Guo Peng himself is busy with government affairs, and all his energy is spent on fighting wits and courage with his courtiers. The remaining energy is very limited. Even if he is in good health, he can't keep up mentally.

When I get older, I don't always think about doing things in bed, and I don't accompany them a few times a month. I go there occasionally to eat and sleep, and basically don't take care of their needs.

Whether it is physical or psychological. , They don't care too much about it, they can only entertain themselves, huddling together inside the cold palace wall to keep warm.

It can be said that it is very inhumane to put them in the palace.

Now I can finally leave Luoyang, the center of the power vortex, and return to a place where I can indulge and be free. For a while, everyone let go of their little girl-like mentality. Looking here and there, I don’t know how happy and happy they are.

The same is true for Guo Chengzhi, who was under strict supervision by Guo Jin in Luoyang, and was required to carry out high-intensity learning tasks.

Even if Guo Peng later took over his educational task, he didn't give him any chance to relax.

it is really hard.

This time, he left Luoyang, away from the harsh education of his parents, and enjoyed the long-lost feeling of freedom by the side of his loving grandmother.

So Sa Huan rode around on horseback, not knowing how enjoyable it was.

They are all very happy.

Seeing their happiness, Guo Peng was also very happy.

The nerves that have been stretched for decades are slowly relaxed during this process, and I feel as if I have ushered in the second spring of my life.

They traveled all the way west, and when they were eating, if they could meet a city, they would change their clothes and go into the city to find a place to eat.

If you can't meet it, you can also find hotels and restaurants along the way. If you haven't, then you can simply solve it on the spot.

Every time he passed a city, Guo Peng would send his entourage to buy some supplies.

They carry a lot of things with them, but the food does not have such a long shelf life, so in addition to asking the warehouses in the cities along the way to provide military rations, Guo Peng will also let the accompanying eunuchs enter the city to buy supplies and buy some things that are not in the warehouses.

Occasionally, when he encounters a beautiful field, he is interested, and he will personally show a barbecue skill that he has not shown for a long time.

He still remembers that the last time he had a barbecue in the wild was nearly 40 years ago.

At that time, he was still a boy in his teens. When he was protecting Cai Yong's exile in Bingzhou, he showed his barbecue skills, but he met the assassin who wanted to kill Cai Yong.

After that, he didn't have the opportunity to show off his barbecue skills. After becoming a leading general, there was always no shortage of craftsmen who could barbecue and barbecue under his command, and it was not his turn to do it himself.

This time it was a complete relaxation, and it was rare to be in a good mood, so the eunuchs of the inner court were asked to make a good appearance, set up a barbecue pit, light up the coals, and start grilling by themselves.

In the former Han Dynasty, because there were no iron pots and no cooking, so barbecue was an important cooking skill besides steaming, and people with conditions in the whole country would engage in barbecue.

In addition to the traditional fire grill, they will also prepare delicious seasonings to make a barbecue similar to modern teppanyaki.

This model is especially liked by the well-to-do groups like gentry literati——

They always eat steamed food, and the soup is a bit unpleasant to eat, so they get some strong barbecue to improve their lives.

Today, the popularity of iron pans and the appearance of soy sauce have allowed cooking to enter the homes of ordinary people. Ordinary people can also set up a frying pan to moisten their dry stomachs every now and then.

The increase and improvement of seasonings have also added more partners to the simple taste of salt, allowing the delicious taste to enter the homes of ordinary people.

People have long passed the era when they could not eat salt, and now even soy sauce can be tasted every now and then. It is also good to eat a fried braised dish with the whole family and smack your lips.

It is really embarrassing to think back to the era when eating salt was a problem.

Salt and iron monopoly is actually not a very friendly policy for ordinary people.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty engaged in the monopoly of salt and iron in order to collect people's wealth across the country to support the huge military expenditures against the Huns, which almost exhausted the folk savings of the Wenjing era, in exchange for that great victory.

The monopoly of salt and iron, especially the sale of salt, is a great contribution.

Chapter 1509 One thousand four hundred and forty nine

In order to pay the military expenses for the crusade against the Huns, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty tried his best to make money. It was against this background that the salt and iron monopoly was born.

People can't live without salt, but they don't need to eat so much salt. It doesn't matter if it's crudely produced, or it doesn't matter if it's short of catties or taels. As long as you can eat a little salt, you won't die.

So the salt and iron franchise store at that time was called a pit.

It is short of selling unprocessed poisonous salt for people to eat in exchange for high military expenditures.

It is unimaginable how profitable it is to buy those poorly made salt at an expensive price.

But at the same time, the reputation of the salt and iron monopoly was also damaged.

The reputation of the salt and iron monopoly is so bad, it is obvious that it has been corrupted since the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

For higher profits, without worrying about market competition, the quality of the goods can be imagined, and the poor living conditions of the people at that time can also be imagined.

Guo Peng's salt and iron monopoly is to search for the whole people under his rule, and at the same time to search for wealth from them to expand the military power to pacify the world, which is similar to the purpose of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

For the unification of the world, he did no less than Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. He did most of the things that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did.

But to be honest, from all angles, he is really not as fierce as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and what he does is far more kind than Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

In order to defeat the Xiongnu, Liu Che used all means to search for wealth. That is to say, in that era, common people and princes and nobles were treated equally in the eyes of the emperor.

In his opinion, no matter what the princes, nobles and common people, you are all a piece of meat around my mouth, as long as I tear it, you will obediently enter my stomach.

He made white deer coins for princes and nobles and his own people, used deerskin to search for their wealth, and scraped off the fat on their bodies layer by layer, which made the princes and nobles miserable and burst into tears.

For ordinary people, the salt and iron monopoly is used to search for wealth, and heavy taxes are imposed. The more property the more taxes are paid.

In order to deal with the problem of hiding wealth, the people are encouraged to inform each other, and the successful informants and the emperor share the property of the informants equally.

Then came up with things like salt and iron monopoly, using inferior necessities to search for the wealth of the whole world, and pocketing the wealth of the whole world bit by bit into their own pockets, the food looks extremely ugly.

This is not enough. In order to pay for the huge military expenses of the bottomless pit, he also sold officials and nobles, not only selling the positions of officials, but finally simply selling the positions of officials, making the administration of officials in the middle and late period of Emperor Wu a mess and corrupt.

With the productivity level of more than 300 years ago, he has achieved things that Guo Peng would find extremely difficult to do 300 years later.

It is conceivable to what extent the wealth of the whole country was looted by him at that time.

Without the accumulation and recuperation of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing for decades, the Han Empire really couldn't stand Liu Che's toss.

Of course, at this price, he won the Xiongnu war, straightened the backbone of a country and a nation, and prevented the Han Empire from being blackmailed and militaryly deterred by the Huns, and played the mentality of the heavenly kingdom.

Compared with him, Mr. Guo, who has enjoyed the bonus of productivity improvement, is indeed a lot of kindness. At least at the level of salt and iron monopoly, the quality is strictly controlled.

Coastal people eat sea salt, while inland people eat well salt, mine salt, and lake salt.

Salt-producing areas have professional concentrated production salt-making factories, all of which have special departments in charge of production, and professionals are in charge of control. of.

Not to mention iron, it will not cause problems of lack of weight or low quality, so that people can't even turn the ground.

Moreover, in recent years, with the stabilization of production, technological innovation, and increase in output, the price of salt and iron monopoly has also been continuously reduced, which is much cheaper than when the people were squeezed out for the sake of unification.

This is also the determination that Guo made back then.

No matter how hard and tiring it is now, and the price paid, as long as we can reunify, regain peace, and people are still alive, then sooner or later, what we paid back then will be recouped.

Someone Guo said, and he did it. In the later period of his rule, he continued to reduce the burden on the common people, abolished the poll tax, divided it into mu, measured land, lowered the proportion of agricultural tax, and increased the scope of corresponding conditions for agricultural tax reduction and exemption, etc.

All in all, he has done all kinds of things that he can do. As a feudal emperor, he feels that the concession he has made to the interests of all people in the world is not small.

So this barbecue, he ate with peace of mind.

He was sitting on a small chair, flipping the skewered meat, and constantly applying oil and seasoning on it, while Guo Chengzhi, Cao Lan and other five people sat beside him, helping him skewer vegetables and meat.

Pork, mutton, donkey meat, horse meat, fish, chicken, etc. He sent people to buy a lot of what he could buy, and then processed and grilled it himself.

Others only need to help him skewer the skewers, and they can wait to eat.

The high temperature generated by the raging charcoal fire forced the aroma of fat from the meat, and the aroma around the grill was overflowing.

Guo Chengzhi was young, with a strong appetite, and his mouth watered when he smelled the fragrance.

The five women were not young, but they kept sucking their noses and swallowing their saliva, looking at the meat skewers in Guo Peng's hands with great anticipation.

Not to mention them, even the inner court eunuchs on the side suppressed their appetite, swallowing their saliva while secretly inhaling the aroma, they were so greedy.

But they dare not open their mouths to ask the Supreme Emperor for meat.

Guo Peng happily enjoyed the process of making delicious food, enjoying the moment of great spiritual relaxation, and felt that he had never lived so relaxed and happy.

After a while, the first batch of meat skewers were grilled. Guo Peng bit a bunch of chicken skewers in his mouth, and passed a large handful of the grilled meat to Cao Lan, asking Cao Lan to distribute it to others.

Cao Lan loved Guo Chengzhi so much that he gave half of it directly to him, and shared the remaining half with the four sisters.

As a result, everyone was divided into a few pitiful bunches.

However, Guo Peng's barbecue here is also very fast, and he will not starve anyone by handing them over one by one.

The five people ate delicious kebabs, laughing and laughing non-stop.

Guo Chengzhi was so hungry, he took the meat skewers and started to eat them, mouthful after skewer, as if he had been hungry for three days and nights without eating.

Watching him wolf down, Guo Peng couldn't help thinking of himself at the same age more than 30 years ago.

When receiving Lu Zhi's ghost-like education, I also ate like this.

It's like eating like a desperate person.

Lu Zhiyun Wen Yunwu, mount a horse and be able to rule the army, dismount a horse and herdsmen, he is a typical figure who is a general and a picture. He studied with him and was his student. Guo Peng not only studied but also practiced martial arts at that time. Prepare for battle later.

Lu Zhi treated Guo Peng mercilessly, and he had heavy and fixed tasks every day. Whenever he had time, he would stare at Guo Peng with a stick with a straight face, and when he saw dissatisfaction, he would directly slap him with a stick, and use the pain to make Guo Peng remember something. Where mistakes are made, what can't be done.

From studying with Lu Zhi at the age of 13 to becoming an official in the palace, Guo Peng was beaten countless times.

Of course, I deserved a lot of treatment, and I didn't eat less of what I should eat.

Chicken, mutton, donkey meat, even horse meat, and occasionally beef from somewhere—that is contraband, but as long as there is meat, Lu Zhi will try his best to find it for Guo Peng to eat, staring at him Eat big mouthfuls.

Lu Zhi pays great attention to nutritional supplements for Guo Peng, and personally formulates Guo Peng's recipes. Although they are enough to keep him full, the taste is not very good, but as long as there is something to eat, he will be very happy.

To be honest, at that time, when I was studying and training, I felt like I lost my soul. I didn't feel that I was a person at all, just like a machine without emotions.

Only when eating, the temperature of the food can make Guo Peng regain his sense of existence as a human being, so every time he eats, Guo Peng feels very happy.

But thanks to Lu Zhi's strict education, Guo Peng laid the capital for future hegemony.

He has personally led troops to fight and charged into battle for many years, relying on the foundation laid down at that time.

Against the Yellow Turban Army, against the Xianbei people, against the Karasuma people, against Zhang Ju and Zhang Chun, and finally face-to-face with Lu Bu, without the foundation laid at this time, he dared not even think about it.

Time has changed, more than 30 years and almost 40 years have passed, Lu Zhi has long passed away, and the world has changed again. The heroes of the late Han Dynasty are scattered like smoke, and the rest belongs to the prosperous age of the Wei Empire.

It was Guo himself who created the prosperity, and it was these young children who decided how long the prosperity would last.

Seeing Guo Chengzhi eating meat with big mouthfuls, Guo Peng was very happy.

Eat a little more, eat a little more, the more you eat, the stronger your appetite, the better your body will be.

The better my body, the longer my will can last.

Guo Peng roasted while eating, and after a while, he roasted one skewer after another, one after another, filling Guo Chengzhi and the five women's mouths with oil.

After all, women don't have much appetite. Although everyone is an old couple and there is nothing embarrassing, but if they can't eat, they can't eat.

In the end, Guo Peng couldn't eat anymore, and only Guo Chengzhi was left holding a whole bunch of meat skewers and kept eating.

"The barbecue made by my father is so delicious. My stomach is full, but I still want to eat it."

He talked while eating.

"Hahahahaha!"

Guo Peng couldn't stop laughing, and gave Guo Chengzhi more than a dozen meat skewers. Then, seeing that there were still some leftovers, he called over Mao Wen, the eunuch leader, and Qin Wu, the captain of the Imperial Army who followed him.

Guo Peng distributed the remaining meat skewers to the two of them, half of each, and asked them to eat it by themselves, and also shared some with his subordinates.

"The Supreme Emperor! This is the food baked by the Supreme Emperor, how dare the ministers overstep it?"

The two were taken aback and did not dare to ask for it.

"The reward for you is yours. Take it and share it. The amount is not much, which means, give it to a few heads."

Guo Peng waved his hand, and happily cut up the melons and fruits after the meal, and distributed them to the family members around him after cutting, so that they would get tired of eating.

"According to the order."

The two had no choice but to endure panic and joy, took the skewers baked by Guo Peng, and left.

After Guo Peng ate a few pieces of melon, he swayed comfortably on the recliner he brought.