At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Cao Ang used to be an official in Xuantu County, Liaodong. He is famous for his good at farming and developing agriculture in the county. He is very good at agriculture and has developed the local agriculture in a few years.

Afterwards, out of various considerations, Guo Peng transferred him from the northeast to the northwest, across the entire Wei Empire.

He did not live up to Guo Peng's expectations. He made use of limited manpower and material resources to make agriculture impressive and impressive.

Just talking about food, now there is no need to mobilize support from the Western Regions and Liangzhou, self-sufficiency is no problem.

Before the Wei army crusade against the Kangju state, the Zhenxi Duhufu served as a rear area and provided a considerable amount of food and fodder for the army.

Facts have proved that they have done a good job in this big rear.

Cao Ang is very good at civil affairs. Since he first became a county magistrate, he has been a competent and competent official. He is very shrewd in his work. Guo Peng admires him very much.

So he was constantly given various important tasks, let him serve as an official in the frigid border area, and sharpened his will and administrative means in the harsh environment.

This time when he came to the Zhenxi Protectorate, Guo Peng also came to fulfill his promise, transferred Cao Ang to the central government to take up an official position, and asked him to return to Luoyang, return to his father, and reunite his family.

Speaking of which, Cao Ang hasn't seen Cao Cao for seven or eight years.

Although the communication is constant, it feels really hard not to meet each other.

Occasionally, Cao Cao would bring up this matter with Guo Peng, saying that he hadn't seen Zixiu for a long time, and he didn't know how he was doing now, implying that he blamed Guo Peng for keeping him from seeing his son for many years.

Of course, Guo Peng couldn't refute this kind of thing. He also wrote to Cao Ang in private, asking him if he wanted to come back.

Out of a strong sense of responsibility, Cao Ang insisted on completing his five-year term, and assumed great responsibilities here without complaint or regret.

This commitment is a full five years.

Chapter 1541 One thousand 460 one Cao Ang's heart is full of strange emotions

When Guo Peng saw Cao Ang again, Cao Ang was already a middle-aged man.

Back then, he was a handsome and vigorous young man, but now he has become mature and restrained.

The wind and sand in Central Asia left traces of time on his face, but it also made him more tenacious and tenacious.

He is like a desert rock that has been blown and beaten. He can't see the handsome Fengshen back then, but he can see the strength after tempering.

He likes Cao Ang very much now, and he likes Cao Ang more than Cao Cao.

"Zixiu, it's been five years. At the beginning, I told you that you came here to be an official for five years, and I asked you to go back to Luoyang to meet your father. Now that the five years are up, you can go back."

Standing at the head of Zhenxi City, the capital of the Zhenxi Protectorate, Guo Peng and Cao Ang looked at the setting sun that was about to sink into the sky.

"The Supreme Emperor still remembers the subject, and the subject is very grateful."

"How can I not remember you? After all, you and I are a family. I put you here because I believe in you and think that together with Wen Lie, you can build the Zhenxi Protectorate and become our Wei Kingdom The real West Gate, now it seems that you are doing very well."

Guo Peng patted Cao Ang on the shoulder, and then held his hand: "It's thousands of miles away from my hometown, and I've lived here for five years, Zixiu, I'm sorry for you."

"To be praised by the Supreme Emperor, in the past five years, even if the body has worked hard, the heart is still sweet."

"Hahahaha, you've always said good things like this."

Guo Peng laughed for a while, but stopped laughing.

"It's also good for you to stay here and stay away from the center of the court for five years. In the past five years, there have been constant turmoil in the court. You can stay away from the court and accumulate merits here. For you, for your Cao family, it is important. is a good thing.

Sometimes, staying away from the court is a lucky thing. Many people can't do it if they want to stay away, but from now on, you won't have such an opportunity. The emperor needs your help, so you have to go back. "

Cao Ang bowed and saluted.

"Wherever the Supreme Emperor asks the minister to go, the minister will go there. This is the duty of the minister."

"It's good to understand the duty of a minister, but now I'm not the emperor, I can't let you go anywhere, everything is the emperor's will."

Guo Peng waved his hand and said with a smile: "The me now is just an ordinary old man whose body is half buried in the ground. Every day is less and less, and I don't know when I will kick my legs and leave."

Cao Ang blinked his eyes, looked at the "old man" in front of him with black hair, high spirits and strong figure, and was silent for a while.

"The Supreme Emperor is too modest, you will surely live a long life."

"Really? Hahahahahaha!"

Guo Peng didn't hold back either, and burst out laughing.

Chatting like this, the two talked about the current situation of the Parthian Empire.

"According to the statistics of the past few months, it is true that the number of merchants coming from Anxi is much smaller. Even if many people come, they still look panic-stricken, and they don't seem to be here for business, but rather for refuge. Rumors are gradually spreading in the Duhu Mansion."

Cao Ang said with a serious face: "They dragged their families with them, and brought goods instead of goods, to buy houses in Zhenxi Protector's Mansion, and what's more, they reported to the government, hoping to stay in Zhenxi Protector's Mansion forever and become The people of Wei State, pay taxes to us, and never go back.

There are also some people who seem to think that the Zhenxi Protectorate is not safe enough. After passing the Zhenxi Protectorate, they go to Beiting and Annan Prefecture. It seems that Anxi is really in big trouble this time. "

"It's very big. The Loumo Kingdom has beaten the Anxi Kingdom so badly this time. It is said that the main army of Anxi was wiped out. The Emperor Anxi was injured in his shoulder and fled in embarrassment. The guards suffered heavy losses."

Guo Peng nodded: "I won't be surprised if Anxi country can't survive this time. As for those who come to take refuge... allow them to take refuge, allow them to live, let them pay taxes, and wait for the situation in Anxi country to become clearer." After that, they can go if they want to."

"The Supreme Emperor is not worried that there may be people with ulterior motives among them?"

"No matter how much you have ulterior motives, where can you go with ulterior motives? After all, they are people who have ruined their country and their families. Moreover, those who escaped at this time are also merchants and have assets. Wouldn't it be a good thing for us to let them come? ?”

When Guo Peng said this, Cao Ang immediately understood what Guo Peng meant.

"I understand."

Guo Peng didn't say anything more, but mentioned another matter.

"By the way, speaking of this matter, Zixiu, your younger brother Cang Shu is doing very well in the Lomo Kingdom now. He is now an important think tank around the emperor of the Lomo Kingdom and is very trusted. Rest of the country, there are his efforts in it."

When Guo Peng suddenly mentioned Cao Chongzhi's matter, Cao Ang was taken aback for a moment, and then was greatly surprised.

"what?"

"I didn't expect it? I didn't expect that Cang Shu just turned 20 years old this year. He is already the brain truster next to Emperor Loumo. He went to the battlefield with him and commanded the army to fight. I really didn't expect that he has such a talent. .”

Guo Peng was a little emotional.

"This... I never imagined that my younger brother would have such a talent."

In Cao Ang's mind, the Roman Empire was a superpower about the same size as the Wei Empire, and the emperor should be surrounded by talented people, so it was impossible for a 20-year-old kid like his younger brother to come out on top.

As a result, his younger brother not only became famous, but also became famous around the emperor, and even commanded the Roman army to win battles.

"Thinking back, when I first went to the battlefield with Master Lu, I was also in my twenties, but I didn't have the height of Cangshu."

Guo Peng smiled: "This time Cangshu has made great achievements. I don't know how Emperor Lou Mo plans to reward Cangshu. Will he be an official? I'm really looking forward to it."

"This... the Supreme Emperor, Cang Shu is from Wei, how can he be an official of Lomo Kingdom?"

Cao Ang was taken aback.

"It doesn't matter, at Cangshu's age, if he wants to achieve his current status in the country of Loumo in Wei, he can't even think about it in 20 years, but now there is an emperor of Loumo who is willing to provide him with this opportunity , Let him get the opportunity to exercise that ordinary people can't wait for, why not do it?"

Guo Peng waved his hand and said with a smile: "Zixiu, you don't have to worry that Cang Shu will stay in Lomo country and never come back. You are all in Wei country, and his relatives are all in Wei country. He will come back."

"But the Supreme Emperor, this is too..."

"Zixiu, the defeat of the Anxi Kingdom will have such a huge impact on us. Have you ever imagined that if there is a civil strife in the Lomo Kingdom, what impact will it have on our Southeast Sea Silk Road?"

Guo Peng put away his smile and looked at Cao Ang.

Cao Ang was startled.

"Your Majesty means that the country of Loumo..."

"According to the analysis of letters from ambassadors Wang Wei and Cang Shu, the current Emperor Loumo is not a peaceful person. He won such a big victory suddenly and his prestige soared. What will he do?

Now I'm not sure yet, but even if I can be sure, I'm beyond my reach and can't intervene. If Lou Mo breaks out, it's not a good thing for me, but Cang Shu may be able to do something. "

For some reason, Guo Peng always felt that Cao Chongzhi could do something in Rome.

He was helpless, thousands of miles away, beyond reach, but Cao Chongzhi was beside Caracalla, he might be able to do what Guo Peng could not.

Guo Peng can only look forward to this.

After listening to Guo Peng's narration, Cao Ang was deeply shocked.

He has never realized that the internal affairs of the Roman Empire, which is thousands of miles away, will also have a huge impact on the interests of the Wei Empire.

Is this what World Unicom is all about?

Cao Ang's heart was full of strange emotions.

The military and political officials of the Zhenxi Duhu Mansion are all Cao family members, and they are all relatives and generals, and they have a close relationship with Guo Peng, so there is no need to have too many restrictions on the dinner party.

Guo Peng took his family members to participate, and Cao Lan, as an elder, prepared a gift for Cao Ang and Cao Xiu.

The dinner was extremely joyful, and everyone gathered together to talk about many things in the past.

In the next few days, Guo Peng stayed at the Zhenxi Duhu Mansion. While taking his family to visit the scenery of Central Asia, he walked around and took a look around to collect materials for his "Book of the World's Commanderies and Countries' Benefits and Diseases".

The west gate of the empire must be well controlled, and the Silk Road will not be threatened if it is well controlled, otherwise the Silk Road will be threatened, and the situation in the entire Northwest will be corrupted.

Just before Guo Peng was about to leave, the economic crisis was fully charged, and finally broke out first in Zhenxi City, the capital of the Zhenxi Protectorate, which delayed Guo Peng's departure.

As a result, Guo Peng was able to personally experience the first economic crisis encountered by the Wei Empire.

Earlier, in order to encourage the development of the private economy, Guo Peng had allocated funds to the local branches of the Ministry of Finance to allow private self-employed people to borrow money from them to start small businesses.

Loans are issued with no interest or low interest, and they will be returned to the government when they make money.

Guo Peng tried to stimulate the development of the private economy.

This model has been maintained and has not been abolished. However, as many problems occurred and Guo Peng gradually tightened the restrictions on commercial development, the application threshold was gradually raised.

Even today, there are many folks who can take loans from the government, but the number has been greatly reduced, and it is almost impossible to apply for a loan casually.

The imperial court stipulated that there must be a clear reason, a detailed plan, and someone willing to guarantee them to ensure that nothing will happen, and then they can borrow money to avoid large-scale bad debts and bad debts.

Before the loan operation was immature, the application conditions were very low, and there were relatively large-scale bad debts in Yanzhou and Yuzhou that could not be disposed of.

Many people take loans just to take advantage of the loopholes, thinking that the imperial court gives out money for free, and of course they have to keep up with such good things, and use the money to eat, drink and play, spend time and wine, and do not operate at all.

There are also people who take out loans to operate, but the management is not good, and they go bankrupt soon, losing all their money and leaving nothing.

As for the implementation of the imperial court, due to the pressure from the superiors, they simply pursued the quantity, and did not strictly review it at all. As long as someone applied for it and looked decent, they would allocate the loan without checking at all.

So once the bubble burst and the repayment period came, the imperial court could not recover the loan at all and suffered heavy losses.

At that time, Guo Peng slashed at the Ministry of Finance for this matter, dismissed a large number of mediocre officials for dereliction of duty, and fined all the chief officials of the Ministry of Finance with three years of salary, but the financial loss has already been caused and cannot be recovered.

Guo Peng can't deprive those farmers of their land so that they become refugees. Although this is indeed the last resort to punish these people, Guo Peng doesn't have the heart to use it.

For matters involving ordinary people, Guo Peng's policies are always relatively mild, and he is also a lot of forbearance and restraint in his actions, which is completely different from the frequent yelling and killing of officials.

After careful consideration and introspection, he felt that the poor handling of this matter also had his own problems. It was because he failed to intensify the supervision and the regulations were not detailed, so that the officials' operations were simple and rough, which caused this wave of credit crisis.

In this wave, both the civil society and the government have suffered losses.

So in the end, it was Guo Peng who used the money from the internal treasury to pay for the Ministry of Finance and ended the credit crisis. He swallowed the bitter fruit himself and did not transfer losses to the private sector.

Since then, Guo Peng has become very cautious about granting loans.

He specified in detail that lenders must meet a series of conditions before they can be granted a loan.

For example, many guarantors, such as a detailed business plan, such as the tracking and direct accountability of local finance department officials.

Tighten the loan policy through a series of means to prevent the occurrence of bad loans and avoid large-scale bad debts from happening again.

Mr. Guo also has a lot of things to use in his internal treasury. At the moment when the finances are tight, this money, which is equivalent to the national reserve fund, cannot be used casually to support the policy.

The internal treasury has never been Guo's own small treasury, but Guo's confidence to bypass the court and forcibly promote certain policies.

In other words, it is also an extension of imperial power.

Chapter 1542 One thousand four hundred and sixty two thousand mistakes are the fault of the Anxi people

When governing the country, certain policies need to be promoted quickly and cannot be delayed.

However, it was put in the court to discuss the way of taking the national treasury, and it had to follow the laws and regulations set by Guo himself to conduct court discussions and decision-making, resulting in a lot of arguing and prevarication.

Once that time comes, someone Guo will directly use the internal treasury, bypass the imperial court, and directly let the cabinet or the inner court handle it, and forcefully promote the matter as the emperor.

At this time, the court has nothing to do with the emperor.