Every year, there are still some places in the Central Plains where small-scale locust plagues occur.

Since it has become an adult, it is not a chicken or duck that can be solved, the locust can fly, the speed of eating is extremely fast, and the speed of flight is also very fast, and the chickens and ducks can only eat it with admiration.

At this time, it is necessary to fight with manpower, encircle and suppress, and even burn, and the local government will come forward to organize manpower and material resources to fight, and then pay for the purchase of locusts, and finally burn them or treat them with medicine.

Fortunately, the large-scale locust plague no longer exists, and the small-scale locust plague can barely be suppressed with local coordination.

In a sense, raising ducks to cure locusts is a kind of remedial measure, which is an intervention during the period of locust larvae, not a cure.

The local locusts have been wiped out, and the locusts from other places will still migrate, and the locusts have a really strong ability to fly.

Guo Peng knew that locusts like warmth and drought, so in order to solve the problem of locusts at the root, Guo Peng actively built water conservancy projects in various places, reclaimed wasteland, and improved land utilization, so as to destroy the locust eggs hidden deep in the land.

Even if it is a no-man's land that cannot be filled because of the large loss of population, Guo Peng will organize people to carry out actions such as afforestation or grass planting to increase the vegetation coverage and reduce the living space of locusts, so as to control locusts.

Relying on such actions, the scope and frequency of locust plagues have slowly decreased over time, and food production has been greatly ensured, but such actions are also accompanied by large expenditures.

After giving such an example, Wang Cang insisted on increasing the commercial tax to increase the source of income and reduce expenditure, in case of emergency.

Because no one knows where the next locust plague or even the next drought will be, the imperial court must have sufficient money and food reserves, otherwise once the locust plague starts, it will be a situation of starvation.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs Shangshu Zao only agreed.

"In recent years, the day of spring is moving further and later, but the day of winter is getting earlier and earlier, which is not a good sign, not conducive to the production of grain, from the Central Plains to Hebei and then to Youzhou, such a trend is becoming more and more obvious, which is very worthy of attention.

Therefore, after I reported to Your Majesty, Your Majesty asked us to organize people to reclaim land in the south, believing that the south is generally warmer, and if the grain production of the Central Plains and Hebei decreases, and if the south of the Yangtze River can produce a large amount of grain, it can also make up for the shortage of the north, which requires money. ”

Zao Yi also gave his own reasons in the court, and resolutely supported Wang Cang's proposal to levy commercial taxes to make up for state use.

The reasons given by Cao Cao, the first assistant to the cabinet, are also very noteworthy.

In June of the second year of Yande, Guo Peng issued an order to Cao Cao, asking Cao Cao to lead the cabinet members to contact the Ministry of Industry to explore the possibility of building a waterway transportation channel from Luoyang to the south of the Yangtze River.

Guo Peng believes that the move after the beginning of spring and the advance of winter have become a fixed trend, so that in just a few decades, the Central Plains and Hebei may face a serious reduction in grain production.

The Central Plains and Hebei are now important grain producing areas, and once grain production is reduced, it will inevitably cause famine, so it is necessary to take precautions and take Jiangnan as an important grain production base.

Not only that, but also consider the transportation channels from Jiangnan to the Central Plains.

Land transportation is not good, the volume is too low, and it simply cannot meet the huge demand at that time, so it is necessary to consider waterways.

And there are no ready-made waterways, 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 achieve this series of actions, the emperor needs money, where does this money come from?

Comes from the commercial tax.

As a result, the emperor had the idea of raising commercial taxes in an all-round way under the impetus of many people, and this act also had a righteous name - heavy agriculture and suppression of commerce was the national policy of all dynasties.

Wang Cang, the secretary of the Ministry of Finance, and Zao, the secretary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said bluntly that the excessive prosperity of commerce will make commerce and agriculture compete for labor and indirectly affect grain production, so they resolutely demand that commercial development be curbed and suppressed in order to stabilize agriculture.

Agriculture is the foundation of the country.

A big hat was buttoned down, and the anti-commercial tax group was immediately panicked.

Of course, they decided that they would not throw in the towel so easily.

This demand was opposed by many officials, and many officials within Shangshutai, which had the largest number of officials, raised objections.

They believe that the commercial tax of Wei has always been implemented in accordance with the strategy formulated by the Eastern Han Dynasty, and after so many years, the sudden increase in tax revenue will not cause dissatisfaction among the people?

Once it is found that the money is not enough, it will be taxed, and in the long run, the people will not be able to make a living, so what can we talk about governing the country?

It makes sense to emphasize agriculture and suppress business, but where does the money come from without businessmen?

How do goods move around the world? How to meet the needs of the people?

Is it all organized by the imperial court?

How much does it cost the imperial court?

Isn't this a competition with the people?!

Wang Cang, you waste!

What is your intention?

Cao Mengde: What do you want to do?

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

Many officials jumped to attack Wang Cang, Zao Yi and others, saying that they had bad intentions and tried to compete with the people for profit, and a bunch of hats were buttoned up, and they turned into Zu'an people one after another, spitting fragrant tongues and lotus flowers, and almost asked them to resign themselves.

Of course, there are some people who care more about Guo Peng's views than Wang Cang and Zao.

Because they knew that it was Guo Peng who could decide everything, and thought that this was a temptation of the emperor, and Wang Cang's gang was just pushed out to test everyone's chess pieces.

Could this be what the emperor meant?

Some people are so worried.

However, such fears did not arise, because the emperor never raised such an issue, and when the officials raised the argument, the emperor never took a stand.

A few months later, the argument was over.

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

There are also some people who rejoice, feeling that the emperor has seen the will of the people, and has chosen to back down and compromise.

And so it passed.

didn't expect that a year later, this matter was brought up again, and it was not Wang Cang who mentioned it, but Guo Peng himself ordered it.

The emperor personally decreed.

After the discussion stage, they went directly to the legislative implementation stage, and asked the cabinet with the power of auditing and the Ministry of Finance, which controlled the fiscal revenue and expenditure, to jointly draw up a commercial tax charter and present it to the emperor for review within a month.

Among the emperor's decrees, there were requests for a revision of the proportion of commercial taxes levied in various regions, as well as a request for an increase in the amount of commercial taxes collected.

Then there was also a request for an additional tax called a transaction tax, and a caravan tax based on the Cao and Mi caravans for all caravans in the country.

Anyway, it is full of tax formulations for business, and all kinds of names are dazzling, so that people can't understand how these names are come up for a while.

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

If you want to increase the business tax, who supports it? Who is against?

Who would dare to support it?

Who would dare to object?

That's a big proposition.

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

Cao Cao glanced around at the cabinet officials.

"What are you doing? Why don't you get to work? Do you have to wait for Your Majesty to blame? ”

was shouted by Shousuke, and the cabinet officials reacted in unison, and hurriedly retreated and returned to their workstations to do business.

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

Then looking at Zhuge Liang, who was in a daze like this, Sima Yi spoke.

"Kong Ming, what the hell is 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 easy."

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

Sima Yi touched his chin for a while, and suddenly spoke: "But Kong Ming, your worries should be gone, right?" ”

Zhuge Liang was stunned for a moment, and then smiled wryly.

"It is true that the old worries are gone, but new ones have arisen, and this thing is ...... I am afraid that it will cause turmoil in the DPRK situation, and now that the army is out on the march, the war has not subsided, and if there is turmoil in the DPRK situation, I am afraid it will not be a good thing for the country. ”

Sima Yi felt the same way and nodded.

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

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