At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Land transportation is not good, and the transportation volume is too low to meet the huge demand at that time, so waterways need to be considered.

And there is no ready-made waterway, so to put it simply, the emperor had the idea of ​​building an inland river transportation channel.

This has to be said to be a huge project.

And in order to realize this series of actions, the emperor needs money, where does the money come from?

Come from business tax.

Therefore, under the promotion of many people, the emperor had the idea of ​​comprehensively increasing business taxes, and this behavior also had a righteous name-emphasis on agriculture and suppression of business has been the national policy of all dynasties.

Minister Wang Can of the Ministry of Finance and Minister Zaoyi of the Ministry of Civil Affairs put on the table together, bluntly saying that over-prosperity in commerce will cause commerce and agriculture to compete for labor, and indirectly affect food production. Therefore, they insist on curbing the development of commerce and suppressing commerce in order to stabilize agriculture.

Agriculture is the foundation of the country.

When a big hat was buckled down, the anti-commercial and tax groups were panicked.

Of course, they decided not to admit defeat so easily.

This request was opposed by many officials, and many officials in Shangshutai, which has the largest number of officials, raised objections.

They think that Wei State’s business tax has always been implemented in accordance with the strategy formulated by the Eastern Han Dynasty. After so many years, the sudden tax increase will not cause dissatisfaction among the people?

Once it is found that the money is not enough, taxes will be raised. If things go on like this, the people will not be able to live. How can we talk about governing the country?

It is reasonable to emphasize agriculture and suppress business, but without merchants, where will the money come from?

How do goods flow around?How can the needs of the people be met?

Is it all organized by the imperial court?

How much does the court need to spend?

Isn't this a struggle with the people? !

Wang Can, you trash!

Zaozhi, what are your intentions?

Cao Mengde, what do you want to do?

If you don't know how to solve the problem fundamentally, you just know how to grab everyone's wool!

Many officials attacked Wang Can, Zaoyi and others like jumping feet, saying that they had bad intentions and tried to compete with the people for profit. A bunch of hats were put on, and they turned into Zaan people one after another. I resigned myself.

Of course, there are some people who care more about Guo Peng's opinion than Wang Can and Zaozhi.

Because they knew that Guo Peng was the one who could decide everything, they thought it might be a temptation from the emperor, and Wang Can and his gang were just pawns pushed out to test everyone.

Is this what the emperor meant?

Someone is so worried.

However, such worries did not arise, because the emperor never raised such an issue from the beginning to the end. When the officials raised arguments, the emperor never expressed his position.

So a few months later, such a debate will die down.

The emperor was obviously more concerned with war than with these things.

There were also some people who rejoiced, thinking that the emperor had seen public opinion and chose to back down and compromise.

That's how it went.

Unexpectedly, a year later, this matter was brought up again, and it was not Wang Can who brought it up, but Guo Peng himself ordered it.

The emperor personally decreed.

Skip the discussion stage and directly enter the legislative implementation stage, requiring the cabinet in charge of auditing power and the Ministry of Finance in charge of fiscal revenue and expenditure to jointly draft commercial and tax regulations, and submit a regulation to the emperor for review within one month.

Among the emperor's decrees, there is a request to modify the collection ratio of commercial taxes in various places, and there is also a request to increase the amount of commercial tax collection.

Then it is also required to increase the tax called transaction tax, and there is a caravan tax for all caravans in the country based on the Cao's and Mi's caravans.

Anyway, it is full of tax formulations for business, with a variety of names, so that people can't understand how these names are thought out for a while.

But everyone knows that the emperor said so much, in short, it is just one sentence.

Who will support the levying of commercial tax alone?Who is against?

Who dares to support?

Who dares to object?

This is a big proposition.

After Cao Cao read out the emperor's order, the cabinet fell into a short period of silence.

Cao Cao looked around at the cabinet officials.

"What are you doing in a daze? Why don't you hurry up and do something? Are you going to wait for His Majesty to blame you?"

Called by the Chief Assistant, the cabinet officials all reacted, and quickly retreated back to their workstations to handle business.

After returning to his seat, Sima Yi didn't react for a while.

Seeing Zhuge Liang who was in a daze like this, Sima Yi spoke.

"Kong Ming, what's going on?"

Zhuge Liang looked at Sima Yi and shook his head.

"I don't know what to say, I always feel that this matter is not simple."

"I think so, this thing happened a little suddenly."

Sima Yi stroked his chin for a while, then suddenly said, "But Kong Ming, your worries should be gone, right?"

Zhuge Liang froze for a moment, then smiled wryly.

"Indeed, the old worries are gone, but new worries have emerged. This incident... may cause turmoil in the court. Now that the army is out, the war has not yet subsided. If there is turmoil in the court, I am afraid it will be a big problem for the country. Not a good thing."

Sima Yi felt the same way and nodded.

"I don't know what His Majesty means..."

Chapter 902 .910 Two Cao Cao needs psychological balance

Sima Yi was very puzzled when he thought of His Majesty the Emperor whose one sentence revealed the thoughts of his entire family.

He couldn't figure out why His Majesty the Emperor wanted to increase the business tax at this time.

When taxes are raised at this time, the world has just stabilized, and the people's hearts have just stabilized. Isn't His Majesty the Emperor worried about another disturbance?

Isn't peace and prosperity the best choice?

Why is this?

But this has nothing to do with Sima Yi.

Since the world was in chaos, his family had already changed to the farming-studying heirloom model. Right now, they are all focused on officialdom, and their children are being suppressed by Sima Fang to study at home, and then they are looking for people to marry and trying to rebuild the Sima family's personal network. Not interested in running a business at all.

The rewards given by the emperor were enough for his family to spend, Cao Cao also had friendly sponsorship, and his family also had land, so Sima didn't worry about the money at all, he just wanted to climb up and gain power.

Power is what matters.

The same is true of Zhuge Liang's family.

Both Zhuge Liang and Zhuge Jin are working as officials, and Zhuge Jun is studying, waiting to become an official when he becomes an adult. The family lives in Luoyang on the two salaries of Zhuge Liang and Zhuge Jin. The life is rich, and there is no shortage of food and clothing, so Zhuge Liang This tribe has nothing to do with business.

They just want to be officials seriously, make a breakthrough in their official career, become high-ranking officials, grasp power, and realize their ideals and aspirations.

This turmoil will not affect Zhuge and Sima, but it will affect many other people, including cabinet officials.

So Cao Cao could see that some cabinet officials were worried and frowning, as if they were worried about something.

But I have to say that in this matter, Cao Cao is happy to see it succeed.

He is very happy, even willing to vigorously promote this matter, do his best to fight against the anti-commercial tax groups, and in any case, he will help Guo Peng to promote the passage of this policy and make this policy come true.

Before, Guo Peng took the initiative to summon Cao Cao, Zaoyi and Wang Can and explained his thoughts to them.

For later wars and construction on a larger scale, he will increase business taxes, save unnecessary expenditures, increase income and reduce expenditure, and accumulate funds in the national treasury.

The business and tax turmoil before was because he didn't have the energy to take care of it, so he put it aside for the time being. Now that he has the energy to take care of it, it will be done.

Guo Peng decided to use Cao Cao, Wang Can and Zaoyi as the main force to defeat the anti-commercial tax group, promote the new commercial tax policy, and successfully achieve his goal.

Cao Cao and the other three were overjoyed, and were immediately summoned to act according to Guo Peng's order.

Cao Cao acted quickly, and he really wanted to see the decree of increasing business taxes put into effect.

Of course, this is not without reason.

Cao Cao has always regarded himself as the emperor's confidant, but this kind of thing needs to offend many people, how could he easily get involved in it?

The biggest reason lies in Cao Hong and Cao's caravan.

The main person in charge of Cao's caravan is Cao Hong's clan.

And the nature of the Cao's caravan was no longer the Cao family's private caravan. The actual controller of the Cao's caravan had already changed, and became Guo himself, and no longer belonged to Cao Hong.

Cao Hong is currently serving in the Guard Army, and there are not many things to do. Sometimes he will arrange the affairs of Cao's caravan himself, and sometimes he will leave it to his clan members who are good at management.

Basically, the whole Cao family has a share in it, and Cao Cao also has a share.

Guo's side and Xiahou's side also participated in a share according to Guo Peng's arrangement, so although Cao Hong is in charge of the Cao's caravan, it is actually a joint caravan formed by the royal relatives. Controller behind the scenes.

With strong funds, rich industries, and a wide range of operations involved, and more importantly, Guo Peng can directly intervene to issue administrative orders. Cao's caravan must be completed, and Cao Hong dare not stop it.

Therefore, according to Guo Peng's request, in addition to dividends, the profitable Cao's caravan had to pay a relatively heavy tax, which was directly handed over to the treasury.

In addition, the part of the profits from the Guo family's shareholding will be charged to the internal treasury and will be at the disposal of Mr. Guo himself.

Cao Hong didn't dare to say or do anything, he honestly followed Guo Peng's order to cooperate with him, and honestly paid the money.

He was terrified of Guo Peng, so he didn't dare to make a mistake. He made a lot of money, but he also paid a lot of taxes. Cao Cao would tremble for a while when he knew the amount of taxes.

But Cao Hong himself is quite satisfied, at least he won't be fined or beaten, and he can still live a luxurious life.

It's just a little distressed.

Coincidentally, the same is true for Mi's caravan.

The Mi's caravan supported Guo Peng earlier than the Cao's caravan, so it developed earlier and received Guo Peng's support earlier, injecting huge sums of money into them and arranging business routes and trade directions.

Therefore, the business of the Mi's caravan can compete with the Cao's caravan, and the taxes paid are naturally quite a lot.

However, as far as Cao Cao knew, the Mi's caravan also had Guo's shareholding, a large amount, and the Tian family's shareholding under Guo Peng's leadership, but the actual controller was also Guo himself.

Therefore, part of the profits will also go into Guo Peng's internal treasury and be at his disposal.

It is equivalent to Guo Peng doing it himself, uniting the royal relatives and families around him, using their funds to inject into the caravan, taking himself as the core leader, using Cao Hong and Mi Zhu, mastering the two major caravans of the Cao family and the Mi family, and making bulk goods The business of trading.

Such as food, such as fruits and vegetables, such as salt, such as iron products and wine.

Footprints have already spread all over the country.

In addition to dividends, the money earned by the caravan was included in the national treasury, and Guo's part was included in the emperor's internal treasury.

The big black hand behind the huge Mi's caravan and Cao's caravan is actually Guo himself. He is the real controller of these two big caravans, he can dominate the commercial activities of these two caravans, and he is also the biggest profiteer.

However, Guo Peng's actions did have the effect of stabilizing prices.

Especially for the most important grain, it is almost impossible for the powerful families to rely on hoarding to drive up the price of grain. Many other daily necessities are also difficult to raise, because the Cao's caravan and the Mi's caravan are strong. .

With someone from Guo as the backing, it's hard to imagine whether it is strong or not.

As for what Guo Peng's inner treasury got so much money for, Cao Cao didn't know all of it, but he knew a little bit, and it seemed that it was used for the development of Linziying.

Linziying is a spy organization that specializes in investigating intelligence and collecting military information. It needs a lot of money. Guo Peng specially uses it to collect military information and engage in anti-espionage operations.

The Linzi camp made great contributions to Guo Peng's sweep of the warlords all over the world.

This is basically the consensus of all civil servants and generals who knew the existence of the Linzi Camp.

As for the others, Cao Cao didn't know very clearly, and he vaguely understood that Linzi Ying seemed to have other responsibilities.

But he has no way of knowing the specifics, and he is not from the Staff Office. It is said that the Staff Office has more cooperation with the Linzi Battalion, and the top military generals have also cooperated with the Linzi Battalion.

But he knows exactly how much taxes Cao's caravans and Mi's caravans have to pay.

So whenever Cao Hong complained to him that he paid so much taxes while the large caravans of other wealthy families did not pay taxes, Cao Cao would feel jealous and resentful.