After the first month of the third year of Yande passed, the busy daily life returned to the core of the Wei Empire.

However, compared to the eagerness and excitement on everyone's faces at this time last year, in order to dominate the world, this time, the expressions on everyone's faces are somewhat relaxed.

The world is unified, the enemies are all defeated, the goal is achieved, and the existence of the Wei Empire is unshakable.

Everyone can relax and enjoy a little bit.

Officials strolled around the government offices in groups of three or five, talking, laughing, and having fun, and handling government affairs was not as active and urgent as before, and the spirit of the officials was not as sharp as it was at this time last year.

Feeling this inexplicable relaxed atmosphere, Zhuge Liang, who had only returned to Luoyang from Jiangdong for less than a month, was a little worried.

After dealing with the affairs of Jiangdong, Zhuge Liang ended his long-term business trip and returned to the Luoyang cabinet to continue his work.

But when he returned, he found that something seemed to have changed in the cabinet, unlike when he left.

Zhuge Liang's worries were noticed by Sima Yi, who had been sitting beside him and working.

"Kong Ming, what's wrong? Feeling like you're not in a good mood? Got in trouble with the one at home? ”

Sima Yi laughed and joked about Zhuge Liang.

Zhuge Liang smiled bitterly a few times and shook his head.

"I won't have conflicts with my wife, and I know very well what will happen if I have conflicts with my wife."

"Hahaha, isn't it true that this month's wine money was also deducted by Mrs.?"

Knowing that this friend was a little afraid of things, Sima Yi often made fun of Zhuge Liang with this matter.

The relationship between the two has been getting better and better since they went to Jiangdong to run errands together, and both of them found that the other party was very compatible with themselves, whether it was learning, interest, or goal.

Sima Yi went to Zhuge Liang's house, met Zhuge Liang's wife Huang, and ate and slept at Zhuge Liang's house.

Zhuge Liang also went to Sima Yi's house, met Sima Yi's wife Zhang, and also ate and slept at Sima Yi's house.

During this time, the two families had some contacts.

"Madame has only deducted my wine money once, and she has never deducted it again, the man always has to have some money when he is outside, otherwise it is really undignified to hide his face and leave when he encounters something, Madame already knows about this matter, and will not withhold my wine money."

Zhuge Liang actually said with some pride.

Sima Yi almost didn't laugh out loud.

What kind of virtue Zhuge Liang is at home, Sima Yi is clear.

Huang said one, Zhuge Liang never said two, the officials in the court who are afraid of the inside cannot be regarded as few, but Zhuge Liang is definitely the number one person.

Of course, the Huang family has a strong ability to manage the family, and Zhuge Liang's life is well organized, and Zhuge Liang never has to worry about family affairs.

"If it's not that, what is it?"

Zhuge Liang shook his head.

"It's not a big deal, it's just, Zhongda, do you feel it? The colleagues in the government office were a little too slack, feeling that after His Majesty had swept away the warlords, everyone had become relaxed, wanting to have fun instead of focusing on government affairs. ”

Sima Yi looked around.

Indeed, many people talked and laughed with each other with a relaxed face, which is very different from the situation in the past when everyone worked hard as soon as they entered the government office.

But......

"Kong Ming, it's normal for such a thing to happen, after all, everyone's official affairs were very busy before, everyone was very nervous, and now it's okay to relax and rest a little, it's always so busy, but it's going to be tiring."

"Yes, that's why there will be a day off, but I always feel that in this way, there will be some bad things to happen, the war is generally over, but it is not over, there is still a war in Liaodong and Jiangnan, and the affairs in Lingnan have not yet ended, is it really good to be so relaxed at this moment?"

Zhuge Liang looked worried.

Sima Yi felt that Zhuge Liang was a little worried.

He didn't think there was anything wrong with this, and after being busy for so long, he also wanted to relax.

In every sense, he wants to have fun comfortably, get together more with family and friends, talk about the world, drink wine and eat meat, relax and make himself happy.

He was well aware of his situation, and knew that as a very lucky Guo official, he would definitely make a big difference when the emperor was powerful, so he was not in a hurry.

The old top warriors are being cleaned up by the emperor one by one, and the emerging forces will inevitably be reused by the emperor.

This is the judgment within the Sima family group.

Therefore, as long as you follow the rules and don't make mistakes, you will be promoted.

He admired Zhuge Liang's sense of distress, but he didn't think so.

The world is unified, there is no threat to the dynasty, everyone will naturally want to rest and rest, everyone is not an iron man, flesh and blood, how can you not rest?

But soon he didn't think so.

Because Zhuge Liang's crow's beak really came true.

A few days later, when the weather was still cold, their immediate boss, Cao Cao, the chief assistant of the cabinet, brought the latest news about the government.

At the time of the Great Dynasty Meeting, the emperor ordered that the original Lingnan land be officially set up as Jiaozhou, a newly established state-level establishment of the Wei Empire, and appointed Zhang Jin as the assassin of Jiaozhou to govern Jiaozhou.

It can be regarded as a fundamental recognition of Jiaozhou's historical and political status, giving Zhang Jin good treatment, and allowing him to settle in Jiaozhou.

Anyway, looking at the emperor's meaning, he didn't pay much attention to Jiaozhou, probably because he felt that Jiaozhou was too wild, so he was not interested in Jiaozhou, and he didn't send officials or troops, which felt like recognizing Zhang Jin's semi-independent status.

There is really no card in this Jiaozhou.

Everyone is secretly laughing at Jiaozhou, saying that the emperor cares so much about land and taxes and people don't care about Jiaozhou, which shows how much Jiaozhou has no cards.

This news is just some explanations and summaries of last year's events, and it is not a big deal.

Next is the news that makes everyone's hearts grief.

The emperor decreed that the cabinet and the Ministry of Finance should work together to draw up a commercial tax statute within a time limit, and impose a commercial tax on the transactions of merchants and travelers in various places, so as to subsidize the expenses of marching and fighting and the administrative expenses of the newly acquired territories.

Is the Son of Heaven going to increase the business tax?

Cabinet officials were immediately amazed.

The relaxed atmosphere disappeared suddenly.

Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi were stunned for a moment, and then looked at each other.

No one expected that this would come a little suddenly.

In other words, no one has paid attention to it.

This happened once before.

From the end of the previous year to the beginning of last year, in a few months, there was a fierce debate in the court on whether to increase the commercial tax or not.

A group of officials strongly demanded an increase in the commercial tax.

The group of people, led by Wang Cang, the secretary of the Ministry of Finance, pointed out that the Wei state was prosperous in commerce, and the commercial transactions in the towns were very prosperous, and the large merchants benefited greatly from it, but the imperial court could not collect taxes from it.

The Wei Empire's commercial tax collection was based on the old system of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and as early as the Wei Principality, Guo Peng abolished some commercial tax items that looked like harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and further reduced the content of commercial taxes to stimulate commercial development.

Now commerce is booming, but part of the cost of business is also borne by the state.

The imperial treasury had a lot of expenditures, and the treasury could not store more money, and the surplus money was limited, and it was worried that it would not be able to cope with a catastrophe in the future.

Wang Cang cited the amount of financial expenditure of the Ministry of Civil Affairs for locust control along the Yellow River in recent years, and the budget for the amount of money needed for locust control in the future.

Wang Cang used this to argue that in the future, in order to control the Yellow River and the locust plague, the state treasury would face a situation where it would be unable to make ends meet.

What he said was a problem.

After Guo Peng established the Duchy of Wei, he appointed Tai Shi Ling and asked him to keep a close eye on climate change.

Later, according to the statistics of Tai Shi Ling, in recent years, the climate in various places has been cold, the precipitation has decreased, and the length of winter is longer than before Huan Ling, and the time of spring has gradually moved backwards.

This has not only affected agricultural production to a certain extent, but has also caused a flood of locust plagues.

Since the second emperor of the Han Dynasty, the number of locust plagues in the Yellow River basin has increased year by year, and the scope of influence has been expanding day by day.

Fortunately, after Guo Peng occupied Qingzhou, he actively promoted the strategy of raising ducks to control locusts, and called on farmers to release ducks into the fields to eliminate locusts when the locusts did not rise.

In this way, with the growth of Guo Peng's power, he went all the way west along the Yellow River Basin, built a network against locusts, and gradually rescued Qingzhou, Yanzhou and Yuzhou from the scope of the locust plague, and also greatly increased the production of meat ducks.

Although the results have been remarkable, they have failed to solve the root cause of the problem.