At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

After they left contentedly, Ma Yuan realized that the Emperor Guishuang and those powerful factions under him did not seem to be so harmonious.

According to Ma Yuan's judgment, the internal crisis of the Guishuang Empire, which was in an internal crisis at the same time as the Han Empire, did not disappear with the establishment of the Wei Empire.

Perhaps this kind of dispute still exists, but it is not obvious. Although he also has the title of emperor, the gap between him and Guo is still relatively large.

So after the banquet, Ma Yuan approached Putiai, who wanted to do business with the Wei Empire with him, and carefully asked him some internal issues of the Guishuang Empire.

Chapter 978. 980 Baguo's heart is full of malice

Faced with Ma Yuan's careful questioning, Puti Ai said that what he knew was not very clear.

But even so, he also knew that the contradictions between the emperor and the nobles and other real power factions were not small.

The Guishuang Empire is very large, and it is not easy to rule. It is impossible for the emperor to rule the entire country by himself.

Moreover, the reason why the founder of the Guishuang Empire was able to establish the foundation of the Guishuang Empire was also because he was able to fight well and was supported by other powerful factions, so he established this empire.

Therefore, in addition to imperial officials, there are also some military generals and nobles in the land of the Guishuang Empire that belong to a semi-autonomous state, and their power is not small.

Even in the central government, there are many aristocrats who hold actual power, and their status is not as good as that of the emperor, but they still have power that the emperor cannot easily shake.

The emperor is the supreme ruler, but he is not the ruler of all people. The emperor also faces the restraint of nobles and local powerful factions.

Putiai also told Ma Yuan that the current Emperor Guishuang's prestige is not high, at least not as powerful as a certain emperor in the past. If the emperor's prestige is not high, he will be easily constrained.

Because he did not show his military ability, everyone disapproved of him.

Ma Yuan understood.

Emperor Guishuang is very similar to the former Emperor Zhou.

It is not the same as the warlord separatism at the end of the Han Empire. The warlord separatism of the Han Empire is already a split on the surface. The warlord separatism in Guishuang seems to be still in its infancy. It can only be said to be at the political level and has not transitioned to military struggle. level.

So it should be the Western Zhou Dynasty, the feeling of Zhou Xuanwang and Youwang period.

The Zhou royal family still has prestige and strength, and the power of the local princes is expanding, but it has not yet expanded to the critical point where an annexation war can break out.

Emperor Guishuang naturally has real power, but of course this power cannot be compared with that of Guo.

Guo is the emperor of horses, but any emperor of horses, no matter what constraints he receives, has prestige, and prestige is one of the sources of power, so the power of emperors of horses must not be weak.

This does not seem to be the case for the Guishuang Emperor at the moment.

To put it bluntly, the Guishuang Empire was more like a joint-stock group at the beginning of its establishment. The Guishuang Emperor was the chairman of the major shareholder, and the other real power factions were members of the board of directors, each with their own forces and groups.

This is very interesting. A local power is relatively strong, but the central power is not enough to completely suppress the Guishuang Empire.

Such a country cannot become the military opponent of the unified Wei Empire. If it really starts to fight, regardless of the geographical location, Ma Yuan can be sure that the Wei Empire can win.

Guo Peng's power and prestige are enough to spread his orders all over the world, and no one dares to disobey.

But this Emperor Guishuang may not be the case.

That's good, not dangerous.

After reaching such a conclusion, Ma Yuan was very happy. He thought that his mission had been preliminarily completed.

And he also successfully promoted the iron pot here.

He led the caravan people to cook and stew meat in an iron pan in the house where he lived, and invited Putiai and other Guishuang merchants to eat together. They were surprised when they saw the iron pan.

They felt novelty about this kind of food utensil that can be used for frying and stewing. After using it personally, they expressed their wonder.

Then they realized that iron pots are really useful things for merchants or armies traveling long distances. Compared with fragile pottery, this kind of iron pots may be more practical.

After further learning that this iron pot was an important kitchen utensil used in the army of the Wei Empire, Guishuang merchants became more interested and rushed to buy it.

But Ma Yuan only brought [-] of them, and after being snatched up by these merchants, he invited them to go to the Wei Empire to buy them and then sell them.

It has to be said that at this level, Ma Yuan is a natural business expert.

After staying in Lanshi City, the capital of the Guishuang Empire, for half a month, sold out almost all the goods brought in, purchased some products that were only available in the Guishuang Empire locally, and saved some Guishuang gold coins. Yuan chose to bid farewell to Emperor Guishuang.

He left the Guishuang Empire and embarked on a journey back to Wei.

Emperor Guishuang sent his cronies to see him off, and gave him many precious gifts from Guishuang Kingdom as a symbol of his friendship with the Wei Empire.

Ma Yuan expressed his gratitude.

When he came, he came by himself, and when he went back, seven Guishuang merchants followed Ma Yuan with their caravan.

There are more than 700 of them in total, only more than 500 people came with Ma Yuan, and more than 1000 people in total, as well as a large number of camels, horses and carts. Obviously, this is a huge walking merchant. Team.

Ma Yuan never thought that one day he could become a bridge between two great empires, but in fact he was.

It is really wonderful to travel across thousands of mountains and rivers to Guishuang, and to bring a group of Guishuang businessmen back across thousands of mountains and rivers.

And you can also learn about the unknown things outside the surface of this country. The value of this kind of intelligence should not be lower than the value of commercial interests.

Perhaps his beloved Emperor His Majesty prefers this kind of value even more.

Ma Yuan is very happy.

Someone Guo would be very happy if he heard the news, because the essence of the Guishuang Empire is a mess, the centralization of the empire is not perfect, it is only equivalent to the weakened Han Empire, and the construction of the grassroots regime cannot be compared with him at all .

War is not a battle between two armies.

This is war, not war.

War is a competition for population and resources, a competition for living space and war potential. When there is no difference in the level of science and technology between the two sides, the competition is mobilization and resource mobilization. It is the specific use of national strength by the top commanders of both sides. .

In this regard, Ma Yuan felt that the world was so big that no one could compare with his beloved Emperor.

It is impossible for the Guishuang Empire to compete with the Wei Empire, and even if there is a fight, he is not afraid.

His Majesty the Emperor has gone through hundreds of battles to wipe out heroes, and it is not uncommon for him to encounter enemies stronger than Emperor Guishuang, so what?Isn’t it His Majesty who won the final victory and established the Wei Empire?

With this thought, Ma Yuan's thoughts drifted to Luoyang City thousands of miles away.

Your Majesty, what are you doing now?

They should be working day and night for the development of the empire, right?

You should be frowning and thinking hard about the food and clothing of the people of the empire, right?

To be honest, Ma Yuan really felt sorry for his beloved Emperor.

At this moment, Mr. Guo is indeed working hard, and he is indeed frowning and thinking hard.

How should we deal with the more than 200 beauties from the Western Regions who were jointly paid tribute by the countries of the Western Regions?

This makes Guo very troubled.

More than 100 beauties from the Western Regions were sent to Luoyang by the alliance of the countries of the Western Regions. The momentum was quite large, so it naturally attracted some attention.

Cao Xiu sent 38 beauties before, which triggered Guo Peng's revision of the garrison policy.

Someone Guo sent their family members to the Western Regions to reunite with them, so that the life of the soldiers in the Western Regions would not be so boring, and at least they could have more children.

This policy was supported by the army, and Cao Xiu expressed his gratitude to Guo Peng on the table.

However, the countries in the Western Regions obviously didn't think that they had nothing to do, so in order to express their apologies to Emperor Wei, they immediately searched for all the beauties in the country and sent them to Emperor Wei, hoping that Emperor Wei would not be angry.

When Guo Peng heard the news, he hadn't even had time to enjoy the three exotic beauties he liked.

Because I still have a lot of things to do, I haven't had time to go to the harem, and occasionally I go to sleep and talk with Cao Lan or the concubines, and I don't have extra time to open up new routes.

Therefore, they continued to be strictly re-educated by senior court ladies with more means in the inner court.

After receiving re-education by the inner court, the remaining dozens were rewarded by Guo Peng to high-ranking officials and senior generals.

Guo Peng kept the three that he liked the most, and rewarded the others to his important subordinates, so that they could try something new, appetize, and feel His Majesty's care for them.

Blessed to share.

There are still many ways for the emperor to win people's hearts. This kind is very good, the effect is very good, and the cost is very low. Compared with political resources, it is high quality and cheap, especially cost-effective.

The subordinates who received the rewards expressed their gratitude to Guo Peng.

This time, more than 100 people came at once, nearly [-] people, a large group of Yingying Yanyan, each with its own merits and beauty, and Guo was frowning hard to relax.

Are these guys expecting my body to be gutted so I can die sooner?

Guo, who is no longer young, speculates the minds of those small countries in the Western Regions with full malice, and is more determined to destroy them earlier and annex the entire Western Regions.

If a small country in the Western Regions knew that someone Guo thought so, he would probably cry.

They really didn't think so, they just wanted to make someone Guo happy.

Some of these beauties were not willing to enjoy them themselves, so they sent them to someone Guo with heartache, just to please someone Guo.

It's not that Mr. Guo really doesn't understand, so since these beauties are here, they can't go back.

Otherwise, it would be bad if they let their wild thoughts cause chaos in the Western Regions.

Accept it, soothe people's hearts, let them think that they have been forgiven by someone Guo, that's fine.

Looking at these more than 100 beauties full of exotic styles, after much deliberation, Guo, who didn't know what beauty is, used his own arbitrariness and prejudice to pass the three original exotic beauties who were undergoing re-education.

Then from the new batch, the two most pleasing to the eye were reselected.

It is worth mentioning that Guo still can't tell who is beautiful and who is not.

He didn't care at all whether he was pretty or not, he was blind and couldn't recognize him, the reason why he chose this was because of his eyesight.

The waist is slender, the skin is delicate, white and firm, the eyebrows and eyes are attractive, the legs are long and thin, and the eyes are natural.

The waist is not thin enough, the skin is not delicate, tight, or white enough, the eyebrows and eyes are thin, the legs are short and thick, and there is no eye rim.

The standard of judging people by the emperor of the upper kingdom of heaven is so simple and boring.

Chapter 979 .980 Nine Beacon Smoke from the Backyard

For Mr. Guo, it wasn't that the three beauties from the Western Regions were not pleasing to the eye, but these two looked more pleasing to the eye.

Although Mr. Guo is face blind, he is not blind. This kind of basic judgment can still be made.

After selecting women who are pleasing to the eye, someone Guo handed over the two beauties from the Western Regions to the inner court for serious, efficient and sophisticated re-education.

Try to train these two exotic beauties into high-quality and high-level outstanding harem reserve talents, ready to be employed at any time, from then on to reach the pinnacle of life and change your own destiny.

The number of remaining beauties from the Western Regions is relatively large, and Guo believes that there are already enough women in the inner court, and if there are more women, a lot of money will be spent.

Mr. Guo has always been very strict with his money bag, and his expenditure is very meticulous. Suddenly there are more than 100 people, which will be a lot of money.

So Mr. Guo chose to keep ten more pleasing ones to serve the selected two particularly pleasing ones, and the rest were once again rewarded to the important officials who had made great achievements over the years.

Let them spread the cost for themselves.

The emperor also had to plan carefully in his life.

These ministers are all extremely rich and have a lot of wealth. A few more women are much easier for them than Mr. Guo, so of course they should help Mr. Guo share his worries.

Whether it is a civil servant or a general, as long as someone who has made meritorious service, according to the size of the meritorious service, he can be divided into several exotic beauties.

The civil servants and generals who received the rewards were naturally grateful, and felt that it was a very joyful thing for them to be in the emperor's heart, and then they went to the table again to express their gratitude to Mr. Guo for his kindness.

As a result, the courtiers who failed to get the reward in the court were envious and jealous.

It's not that they fancy beauties from the Western Regions, but from such small things, they can tell who is in the emperor's heart and who is not seen by the emperor. The difference between closeness and estrangement is particularly important in the court.

Especially after the Cui Qu case.

Speaking of which, these beauties from the Western Regions are indeed of high quality, each of them is an excellent seed player who is one in a hundred, and each of them seems to make Guo, who is ascetic and not feminine, feel an inexplicable impulse.

It's just that someone Guo knew that a man's body has limitations, and the limits of human beings are also in front of him, so in order not to let himself indulge and die early, he gave away all the rest.

As an emperor, keeping one's life alive is important, and winning people's hearts is naturally also very important.

As for whether this kind of behavior will lead to a new round of pursuit of orchids by high-ranking officials, dignitaries and wealthy businessmen in Luoyang City in the future, and whether this round of peaks will spread to the whole country, Guo does not know.

Anyway, this kind of thing happened in both the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty.

Not necessarily a bad thing.

Of course, for Cao Lan who heard the news and asked about the specific situation, Guo must also make a show.