After talking to Lu Qian, Guo Peng left Wuwei County.

He crossed the Hexi Corridor to the westernmost part of Liangzhou, and then prepared to cross Yumen Pass to enter the Western Regions.

A few years ago, under the leadership of Cao Ren, the Wei army went out of Yumen Pass and galloped across the Western Regions, destroyed the Western Regions countries, occupied the Western Regions, and set up three protective palaces to directly rule the Western Regions and transform the Western Regions, which was of great significance.

Before this, what was more significant was the transformation of the four counties in Hexi.

Without the transformation of the four counties in Hexi, there would be no logistics base for the Wei army to advance to the Western Regions.

After years of transformation, the four counties in the Hexi Corridor area have made great progress, and are no longer the ruined scene after being ravaged by war in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

Guo Peng walked west along the Hexi Corridor and saw the business trips coming and going.

There will be a level on the official road every once in a distance.

The local armed police and tax collectors were stationed at the checkpoint, responsible for collecting tolls - this was the department that Guo Peng decided to strengthen.

We must arm these tax collectors and become powerful departments of the country, collect taxes from all aspects.

Nowadays, business travelers are mainly traveling on the official roads. At most, ordinary people are traveling between two counties, and there will be no such long-distance travel from one area to another.

In the agricultural society, as the main labor force and production tools, they were still controlled by the Wei Empire's household registration system and basically did not circulate freely. Those circulate were merchants and the powerful forces behind the circulating.

Therefore, the purpose of setting up Loka charges is to target these richest people in the Wei Empire.

The imposition of taxes upstream of commercial operations is equivalent to indirectly withdrawing a profit from the commercial operations, mainly responsible for repairing roads across the country.

As for this toll, it will naturally be passed on to the downstream of the commercial operation, that is, the consumers.

However, these days, those worthy of traveling by merchants are basically high-value luxury goods, and the consumer terminals are also rich families in the local area, powerful people, and have nothing to do with ordinary people.

Necessities consumed by ordinary people, such as grain, salt, iron, cloth, etc., are not necessary to come thousands of miles away to sell. They are often available locally, and the price generally does not include tolls.

Even if there is, it is very small and basically does not harm the interests of the lower class people.

Doing this is actually equivalent to reaching the hands of the court on these fat merchants, touching the powerful and powerful, wearing their clothes, and wiping a handful of oil on their fat pork belly, which harms their interests.

Therefore, when this system was promoted, it was opposed by many local tyrants and some imperial officials that still existed at that time.

Of course, in the end, it was forced to implement it? The people who stopped Guo Peng from promoting this policy were either dead or reformed.

Therefore, the Taxation Department of the Ministry of Finance has also begun to embark on the path of a powerful department? It is just that it has not yet mastered its armed forces? It cannot be called a powerful position.

Once this department has mastered the armed forces? The head is still the emperor's confidant, then this powerful department can naturally become the flesh-cutting knife in the hands of the emperor? The meat of the powerful and powerful people in the world.

The passerby tube is relatively calm and orderly? Everyone lined up quietly, neither fighting nor rob, nor pushing or rushing—mainly because they were armed and staring at it.

The country was in financial difficulties at that time? Guo Peng did not have any extra budget to establish armed forces for the Taxation Department? He could only ask local armed forces to assist? There were several tax corruption incidents involving local armed forces.

Now Guo Jin has money? Can he squeeze local armed forces out of the tax system? Establish an armed force that belongs to the tax system alone.

Now the local armed forces will assist tax collectors in collecting taxes? In the future, the well-trained strong armed tax soldiers will stay here, holding steel knives and crossbows to ask these merchants to charge tolls.

Every time you pass a section of the road, there will be a small checkpoint in front. I will encounter one in almost half a day? The frequency is OK.

The tax collectors I met were still very responsible? At least they were very proactive in collecting taxes? When they saw past merchants coming, their eyes shining.

According to Guo Peng’s understanding, the Taxation Department still has some welfare regulations on the income of tax collectors, such as counting benefits based on the cap.

For every extra toll from the merchants to and from, make detailed records? When the monthly settlement is completed later, the tax collector can get a certain amount of profit.

The more you collect, the more careful and positive you are, the higher the income of the tax collector himself will be.

In Guo Peng's view, this kind of incentive policy still has certain positive significance, and at least it can mobilize their enthusiasm.

Moreover, the number of charge levels is large and the fees are relatively low, which has to a considerable extent curb the motivation of the caravans to bribe tax collectors.

There are so many tax collectors and such low tolls, you still bribe one, and the next ten are waiting for you. Do you want to bribe one by one?

In this way, the motivation to bribe is gone. Everyone pays tolls honestly and tax collects tolls honestly.

This money is accumulated in small amounts, and the seemingly astronomical road maintenance expenses are accumulated bit by bit every year, basically without the need to use the national treasury.

If needed, it will definitely arouse the emperor's vigilance - something went wrong, was it corruption, or was it a military action that caused the tax reduction.

At least at present, the stable internal politics, military environment and greatly improved transportation environment of the Wei Empire have made business development very fast.

The land Silk Road in the west and the maritime Silk Road in the southeastern sea are advancing together, causing a steady stream of business and travel teams on the two golden routes, and caravans are constantly embarking on the journey, and caravans are constantly returning with full loads.

Liangzhou, which was desolate in the past, was rarely crowded and chaotic, has completely restored peace and order.

If an old Liangzhou man from twenty years ago saw the current Liangzhou, he would definitely not believe that this is Liangzhou, and he would definitely say that someone would lie to him.

During Guo Peng's journey, not every official in every place would go to see him, but he would select some officials to come to see him.

For example, Ma Bo, the prefect of Zhangye County, was born in the first imperial examination. The Ma family was born in a young scholar family in Yanzhou. They had no reputation and were not as good as the Guo family.

When Guo Peng saw him, he asked about his political achievements and style, and then talked to him about the changes that have taken place in Liangzhou over the years.

According to his description, the development path of the four counties in Hexi and even the entire Liangzhou, which mainly took place in Yande six years later.

When a major corruption case broke out in Liangzhou, a large number of old bureaucrats fell from Liangzhou. Later, a large number of new bureaucrats selected from the imperial examination went to Liangzhou to take office, restoring the chaotic administrative order in Liangzhou.

Subsequently, Mao Jie, the then governor of Liangzhou, proposed a new policy, calling on all counties to learn from the policies of Zhuge Liang, the prefect of Dunhuang County, at that time, with business as the main focus and agriculture as the supplement.

He called on everyone to pay attention to urban construction, relax the operating restrictions on catering and accommodation in the city, and encourage the opening of more catering and accommodation stores.

They are also encouraged to place orders with military farms in agricultural areas outside the city to buy more excess grain, vegetables and poultry raised by farmers from military farms, and provide them to catering stores in the city, making the catering and accommodation industries bigger and stronger.

At the same time, it can also bring additional income to the farmers in the military farm, and everyone can make money together.

Mao Jie also asked all counties to pay attention to service quality, attract more merchants to enter the city instead of sleeping in the wilderness, and earn more money from them to increase people's income, thereby driving the development of Liangzhou, which lacks economic vitality.

This has opened the journey of Liangzhou towards a new development path.

"I know this. Later, Mao Jie's remarks caused an uproar in the court. Many people accused Mao Jie of forgetting the ancestral teaching of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, saying that Mao Jie was doing the way to destroy the country. At that time, the memorials for impeaching Mao Jie were so high."

Guo Peng made a gesture that exceeded his head, which made Ma Bo laugh happily.

"At that time, I remember that many Shangguans were very scared, thinking that Mao's envoy was taking advantage of the world's ruthlessness, challenging the ancestral teachings of valuing agriculture and suppressing commerce, and soon there would be trouble.

At that time, many people were discussing privately when Mao Envoy would be arrested and held accountable by Luoyang, so except for Dunhuang County and Wuwei County, no county followed, and everyone was watching."

Ma Bo recalled the strange situation in the political situation in Liangzhou at that time.

Guo Peng nodded.

"At that time, I was considering the overall situation and people's hearts, and I felt that I could not openly give Mao Jie support. I felt that the few border states had a desolate climate and were indeed not suitable for the development of agriculture, so it didn't matter if I was engaged in business.

If other agricultural states in the mainland are driven to do this, they will lose their money. The land in the mainland is fertile and the climate is suitable. They do not develop agriculture, but they are jealous of the high income of developing commercial businesses in a few states. They will follow it. Sooner or later, everyone in the world will go hungry.”

"The Supreme Emperor has a far-sighted vision."

Ma Bo flattered a little and then smiled: "The Supreme Emperor is naturally far-reaching, but many people don't think so. Later, someone from the court came to investigate Mao's envoy, and many people were waiting to see Mao's envoy's end, thinking that the governor of Liangzhou was going to replace him."

Guo Peng nodded and fell into memories.

"At that time, I allowed the three departments to form a joint investigation team to come to Liangzhou to investigate Mao Jie himself for this consideration. Mao Jie wanted to risk the world's worst and engage in business, and he must stand the test. If he had problems himself, he would not be able to stand it.

At that time, someone would be jealous of him and would frame him without having to frame him. As long as the three officials investigate him according to the formal procedures, a small charge would destroy his new Liangzhou policy and the courage of countless latecomers.
Chapter completed!