At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

So he made up his mind to promote Lu Qian to Liangzhou governor and put Lu Qian in Liangzhou.

Now it seems that Lu Qian is indeed a far-sighted official who can see places that many people can't see, so when Guo Peng met Lu Qian and mentioned this matter, he kept praising him.

But Lu Qian did not accept it calmly.

There was shame on his face.

"The minister has failed the trust of the Supreme Emperor. In the past few years, Liangzhou governor has been in office, but he has not succeeded in curbing the increase of shops in Liangzhou. The number of restaurants and hotels is still increasing. The county guards and magistrates of various places do not take seriously the restrictive orders of the minister. , many."

Guo Peng felt a little guilty for a moment.

This is his fault, but he would rather bear it than smash it.

It is necessary for the governor of the state to exist, but he must also wear shackles.

"You have done a good job. You have restricted the appearance of some restaurants and hotels. If you continue to follow Mao Xiaoxian's method, there will only be more restaurants and hotels. The current problem is not your problem."

Whose problem is that?

Naturally, someone Guo.

It was Guo who did not give the state governor real authority, making it difficult for the state governor who wanted to do something.

Both he and Lu Qian knew it in their hearts, but neither would say it out loud, nor would he change it.

Therefore, Lu Qian, who is very politically wise, must take the initiative to take the blame to show political correctness.

"The minister is guilty."

He took the initiative to take the blame.

Guo Peng was very satisfied, so he smiled.

"You are not guilty. On the contrary, you have credit. You gave me the form to express your concern about the situation in Liangzhou. Now I can tell you that your concern has become a reality."

Lu Qian was taken aback.

"The Lomo Kingdom fought with the Anxi Kingdom, and the Anxi Kingdom lost a lot. The capital of the country was lost. The fate of the country was in danger. I don't know when it will recover. It won't be long before the Anxi Kingdom's caravans will not come so much. "

After Guo Peng finished speaking, Lu Qian turned pale with shock.

"Then... Isn't Liangzhou..."

"That's why I say you have merit. At least you have restricted them a little bit and didn't let them continue to set up shops without restrictions. As for other things, you can't solve them. This time I come, I also have the idea to solve the problem."

Guo Peng talked about his thoughts, and then told Lu Qian that the central government will issue an order soon to grant Lu Qian special powers.

Lu Qian can implement his own ideas throughout the state, forcibly close a number of shops, and can reject the applications of other shops. In this matter, all central agencies and local counties must abide by Lu Qian's orders, otherwise they will Punishment.

Lu Qian was very excited when he heard the words, and immediately saluted.

"I will never let down the trust of Your Majesty and the Supreme Emperor, and will do my best to deal with the crisis!"

"Okay, it's up to you."

Guo Peng patted Lu Qian on the shoulder.

Chapter 1526 One thousand four hundred and sixty six different Liangzhou

After talking with Lu Qian, Guo Peng left Wuwei County.

He crossed the Hexi Corridor to the westernmost part of Liangzhou, and then prepared to cross the Yumen Pass and enter the Western Regions.

A few years ago, under the leadership of Cao Ren, the Wei army left Yumen Pass, galloped across the Western Regions, wiped out all the countries in the Western Regions, occupied the land of the Western Regions, set up three Protectorates to directly rule the Western Regions, and reform the Western Regions, which is of great significance .

Before that, the transformation of the four counties in Hexi was of greater significance.

Without the transformation of the four counties in Hexi, there would be no logistics base for the Wei army to enter the Western Regions.

After these years of transformation, the four counties in the Hexi Corridor area have made great progress, and they are no longer the dilapidated scene after the ravages of war in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

Guo Peng walked west along the Hexi Corridor and saw business travelers coming and going.

There will be a checkpoint every certain distance on the official road.

Armed police and tax collectors sent by the local government are stationed at the checkpoint, responsible for collecting tolls—this is the department that Guo Peng decided to strengthen.

Let these tax collectors be armed and become a powerful department of the country to collect taxes from all aspects.

These days, business travelers are the main travelers traveling on the official roads, and the common people are traveling between the two counties at most, and there will be no such long-distance travel from one area to another.

In the period of agricultural society, as the main labor force and production tools, they were still controlled on the land by the household registration system of the Wei Empire, and they basically could not circulate freely. Those who circulated were merchants, and the powerful forces behind them controlled the merchants.

Therefore, the purpose of setting road card fees is to target the richest people in the Wei Empire.

Collecting taxes in the upstream of commercial operations is tantamount to indirectly drawing a sum from the profits of commercial operations, mainly responsible for the maintenance of roads throughout the country.

As for the toll, it will naturally be passed on to the downstream of commercial operations, that is, the consumers.

However, these days, what merchants travel to sell is basically high-value luxury goods, and the consumption terminals are also local rich and powerful, and have nothing to do with ordinary people.

The necessities consumed by ordinary people, such as food, salt and iron, cloth, etc., do not need to be sold thousands of miles away, and can often be provided locally, and the price generally does not include tolls.

Even if there is, it is minimal, and basically does not harm the interests of the people at the bottom.

Doing so is actually tantamount to extending the imperial court's hand to these fat merchants and dignitaries, touching them, passing through their clothes, and rubbing oil on their fat pork belly, which will damage their interests.

Therefore, when this system was promoted, it was opposed by many local tycoons and some imperial officials who still existed at that time.

Of course, in the end it was forced to go on, and the people who stopped Guo Peng from promoting this policy were either dead or reformed.

As a result, the Taxation Department of the Ministry of Finance has also embarked on the path of a powerful department, but it has not yet mastered the armed forces and cannot be called a male position.

Once this department has mastered the armed forces, and the head is still the emperor's cronies, then this powerful department can logically become the meat-cutting knife in the hands of the emperor, cutting the flesh of the world's dignitaries.

The road control card is relatively calm and orderly, and everyone queues up quietly, neither fighting nor grabbing, neither pushing nor crowding -- mainly because there are armed people watching.

At that time, the country's finances were difficult, and Guo Peng had no extra budget to arm the tax department. He had to ask local armed forces to assist him, and there were several tax corruption incidents involving local armed forces.

Now that Guo Jin has money, he can push the local armed forces out of the tax system and build an armed force that belongs to the tax system alone.

Now it is still local armed forces assisting tax collectors to collect taxes. In the future, well-trained and powerful armed tax collectors will stay here, holding steel knives and crossbows and asking these merchants to collect tolls.

Every time you pass a certain distance, there will be a small checkpoint in front of you, and you will encounter one in about half a day, and the frequency is not bad.

The tax collectors I met were still conscientious, at least they were very proactive in collecting taxes, and their eyes were shining when they saw the passing merchants coming.

According to Guo Peng's understanding, the Taxation Department still has some welfare regulations on the income of tax collectors, such as calculating welfare based on head count.

Every time a group of tolls to and from merchants are charged, detailed records are made, and when the monthly settlement is made afterwards, the tax collectors can get a certain amount of income from it.

The more you collect, the more careful and active you are, the higher the tax collector's income will be.

In Guo Peng's view, this kind of incentive policy still has some positive significance, at least it can mobilize their enthusiasm.

Moreover, there are a large number of toll checkpoints and relatively low fees, which to a considerable extent curbs the motivation of caravans to bribe tax collectors.

With so many tax collectors and such low tolls, you still pay bribes. Bribe one, and the next ten are waiting for you. Do you want to bribe them one by one?

In this way, there will be no motivation to bribe, and everyone will pay tolls honestly, and tax collectors will collect tolls honestly.

This amount of money accumulates little by little, and the seemingly astronomical road maintenance fees are accumulated little by little every year, basically without using the national treasury additionally.

Had it been necessary, it would have surely alerted the Emperor—what was wrong, whether there was corruption, or some military action that had reduced tax revenue.

At least for the moment, the stable internal political and military environment of the Wei Empire and the greatly improved transportation environment have enabled the rapid development of commerce.

The overland Silk Road in the west and the Maritime Silk Road in the southeast sea go hand in hand, resulting in an endless stream of caravans traveling along the two golden routes.

Liangzhou, which used to be desolate, with few people and more chaotic wars, has completely restored peace and order.

If an old Liangzhou native from 20 years ago saw the current Liangzhou, he would definitely not believe that this is Liangzhou, and would definitely say that someone lied to him.

During Guo Peng's journey, not every official in every place will meet, but some officials will be selectively selected to meet.

For example, Ma Bo, the prefect of Zhangye County, was born in the first imperial examination. The Ma family came from a small scholar family in Yanzhou.

Guo Peng met him, asked him about his achievements and style of work, and then talked with him about the changes that had taken place in Liangzhou over the years.

According to his description, the four counties in Hexi and even the whole Liangzhou developed mainly after [-] years in Yande.

When a major corruption case broke out in Liangzhou, a large number of old bureaucrats fell in Liangzhou. Afterwards, a large number of new bureaucrats selected by the imperial examination went to Liangzhou to take office, restoring the chaotic administrative order in Liangzhou.

Later, Mao Jie, the governor of Liangzhou at the time, put forward a new policy, calling on all counties to learn from the policy of Zhuge Liang, the prefect of Dunhuang County at that time, focusing on commerce and supplementing agriculture.

He called on everyone to pay attention to urban construction, relax restrictions on the operation of catering and accommodation in the city, and encourage the opening of more catering and accommodation stores.

And encourage them to place orders with Tuntian farms in agricultural areas outside the city, buy more surplus food, dishes and poultry raised by farmers from Tuntian farms, and supply them to catering stores in the city, so as to make the catering and accommodation industries bigger and stronger .

At the same time, it can also bring an extra income to the farmers in the Tuntian farm, and everyone who has money can earn it together.

Mao Jie also asked counties and counties to pay attention to service quality, attract more merchants to settle in the city instead of sleeping in the wilderness, and earn more money from them to increase people's income, so as to drive the development of Liangzhou, which lacks economic vitality. develop.

This started the process of Liangzhou moving towards a new development path.

"I knew about this matter. Later, Mao Jie's remarks caused an uproar in the court. Many people accused Mao Jie of forgetting the ancestral motto of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business. They said that Mao Jie was engaged in the way of subjugation. Mao Jie's melodies are piled up so high."

Guo Peng made a gesture over his head, which made Ma Bo laugh happily.

"At that time, I remember that many Shangguan were very afraid, thinking that Mao Shijun was risking the world's disgrace by doing so, challenging the ancestral precept of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business, and trouble would soon come.

At that time, many people were discussing in private when Mao Shijun would be arrested and held accountable by people from Luoyang, so apart from Dunhuang County and Wuwei County, no other county could keep up, and everyone was waiting and watching. "

Ma Bo recalled the weird political situation in Liangzhou at that time.

Guo Peng nodded.

"At that time, I also considered the overall situation and the people's hearts, and felt that I could not openly support Mao Jie. I felt that the few frontier states with inhospitable climate were indeed not suitable for the development of agriculture, and it did not matter to engage in business.

If other inland agricultural states are encouraged to do the same thing, it will be a waste of money. The inland states have fertile land, suitable climate, and do not develop agriculture, but are envious of the high income of a few states in developing commerce. They will follow suit. Sooner or later Everyone in the world will be hungry. "

"The Supreme Emperor is farsighted."

Ma Bo slapped a lot of flattery, and then said with a smile: "The Supreme Emperor naturally thinks far-reaching, but many people don't think so. Later, the court came to investigate Mao Shijun, and many people were waiting to see Mao Shijun. In the end, I feel that the governor of Liangzhou is going to be replaced."

Guo Peng nodded, lost in memory.

"At that time, Gu allowed the three divisions to form a joint investigation team to investigate Mao Jie in Liangzhou. It was because of this consideration. If Mao Jie wanted to risk the world's disgrace to engage in business, he must stand the test. If he had problems himself, then If you do it, you won't be able to stand at all.

At that time, if someone is jealous of him and wants to frame him, there is no need to make any charges. As long as the third division investigates him according to the formal procedures, a small charge can ruin his Liangzhou New Deal, and also destroy the courage of countless newcomers.

Those who dare to risk the disgrace of the world must first be clean enough to withstand any investigation, and then they can gain a foothold on key issues, so as not to be brought down because of personal morality. "

chapter 1527 one thousand four hundred and forty-seven devastating effects

Anyone who wants to implement policy innovation must either be the emperor himself, or he must be a powerful minister with sufficient power and himself invulnerable.

When the policy needs to be reformed, there will inevitably be many [water workers] who rely on the policy to survive, and they are the natural enemies of the reform.

Even the emperor would have a headache if they touched their interests.

Because as long as you are human, as long as you are willing to give up your life, you have the right to rebel and overthrow the table.

Except for the founding emperor, Rongma, who held power throughout his life and was not afraid of any challenges, the other emperors had to weigh whether the power in their hands was enough. If it was not enough, it would be difficult to say the result.

And if it is a powerful minister, it will be even more difficult. In addition to gaining the emperor's trust, he also has to face unlimited firepower from interest groups and endless frame-ups and slanders.

It is said that you are corrupt, that you are corrupt, that you are disregarding human life, that you are lawless, that you are lustful, that you are greedy for alcohol, that you have a problem with your sexual orientation, that you have an improper relationship with your relatives, and so on.

Even if you die, you won’t be spared. Anyway, if you open your mouth, they will frame you up in the middle of the night to commit adultery, and then go back to lie down and die on the spot. Isn’t it just a mouth anyway?

So if you are not strong enough, clean enough, or neat enough, then don't try to promote reform.

Even if it is only a small reform, it is necessary to have a passionate confrontation with the [Water Workers].

The greater the number of water workers, the more difficult the reform and the higher the probability of failure. When the number of water workers reaches a certain level, it cannot be solved by reform.

Want a revolution.

Although Mao Jie had no subjective sense of reform, what he did was only for his own future, but objectively, he led the first innovation action of the Wei Empire.

In addition to the traditional agricultural economy, a certain commodity economy should be developed on top of the agricultural economy, injecting economic vitality into areas with underdeveloped agriculture, and loosening the constraints on commercial development in a certain sense.

This is the original state of a development model tailored to local conditions.

Therefore, what Mao Jie challenged was not an interest group in the general sense, but a rigid thinking.