In the flames of burning books, Guo Peng saw the end of the Wei Empire.

The end is destined to come, and no matter how you want to save it, you can't save it.

But before the end, in the crisis, there may not be no road that can sustain the life of the Wei Empire.

Guo Peng could not change the production relations of the Wei Empire, but he could give the Wei Empire an additional colonial attribute.

The Chinese Empire never had the attribute of colonization.

Is this OK? This is not good.

This can only cause the aging Chinese Empire to be attacked and beaten up by young and strong Western colonists when the colonial era came.

They don’t talk about martial ethics, and it is useless to reason with them.

However, their approach is not without reference value and significance.

Guo Peng had no way to lead the Wei Empire on an unconceived path. Since he could not turn the Wei Empire into an ideal country, he would turn the Wei Empire into an empire that never sets.

If you cannot become a god, then you will become a demon. It is better than an unavoidable cycle!

Let the Wei Empire become a terrible empire that never sets. When internal contradictions accumulate to a certain extent, the conflicts are transferred through colonization, oppression and enslavement, and the life of the Wei Empire is extended.

On the basis of this cruel primitive accumulation, the early era of navigation may be opened to light up the future of technology. Everything that the voyage needs and everything that the colonization needs can force the progress of science and technology. The progress of science and technology will inevitably affect ideas.

To develop a strong overseas interest group, if there are people who are confused in the future, they may not be able to close the country.

In this way, after one hundred years, two hundred years, three hundred years, people know what will happen to the Wei Empire.

Thinking about this, Guo Peng found that he had made two preparations from the beginning. If he could not sublimate the Wei Empire, he might as well just bury his head and embark on another path.

Whether it is feudal or empire, since it is already full of sins, it is nothing to add a single sum.

Isn’t the feudal colonial empire beautiful?

Anyway, both are unconceived paths, but one cannot be done at the moment, the other can be done.

Guo Jun went to India and Guo Qiong went to Indonesia. In the future, other children would be enfeoffed to other places, including the Silk Road on the Land, the Silk Road on the Maritime Silk Road, and the Wei Empire's external circulation.

The empire that the sun does not set will not be a false or an unattainable dream.

Sitting in the small pavilion behind the Taishan Palace, Guo Peng looked at the fish pond and strengthened his belief.

In order not to let the people of the Wei Empire suffer too much, they can only transfer conflicts. As for the cruel treatment that the indigenous people are about to suffer, of course, is the price they have to pay.

In order to survive this cold three hundred years, Guo Peng had to do anything.

When the empire was not set, the sky was falling, Chang'an City in February should be full of peach blossoms.

That way, it's good.

The lonely Guo Peng relaxed, leaning against the stone pillar next to him, covered with the afterglow of the sunset, and looking through three hundred years at a glance.

In the middle of this year, Guo Jin ordered the Crown Prince Guo Chengzhi to follow him and start assisting him in handling government affairs.

He planned to train his political abilities early and cultivate his emperor's thinking in the way Guo Peng taught him.

When Guo Peng heard about it, he sighed and held Cao Lan's hand beside him.

"The third emperor of our Guo family is about to be born."

Cao Lan looked at him with resentment.

“Isn’t this what you’re most looking forward to?”

"Yes, I'm looking forward to it, I'm looking forward to it."

Guo Peng nodded, Shaoqing said, "I just feel a little sorry for Chengzhi. I hope he can be like A Jin, and in the end, I can understand me."

Cao Lan didn't say anything anymore, covered her other hand on the back of Guo Peng's hand, and clenched Guo Peng's hand.

In early July of the fourth year of Xingyuan, the Grand Canal project was completely completed, and the super-large project that lasted ten years was finally successfully completed, and the whole country celebrated.

In order to celebrate, Guo Jin once again pardoned the world and exempted the villagers who participated in the entire project for one year. Then he went to Yecheng, Jizhou to see the northern section of the Grand Canal, and then took a boat all the way south and traveled across the entire Grand Canal.

Go straight to Yangzhou.

The complete communication of the Grand Canal Project laid the foundation for the Wei Empire to resist the attack of the small ice river.

This made Guo Peng more confident and more convinced that the Wei Empire could lead all people through the invasion of the small ice river, and welcome the February peach blossoms of Chang'an City together.

The entire second half of the fourth year of Xingyuan was safe and sound. The financial tension of the Wei Empire, which ended the two major projects, was greatly alleviated.

Under this premise, Guo Jin began to prepare for currency reform, intending to style a brand new currency to make business more prosperous.

At the same time, he announced the strengthening of the functions of local police, giving police more authority, and allowing local police to step up crackdown on various acts of selling private salt.

The Wei Empire implemented a strict salt and iron monopoly. In order to make enough money from these two hard currency, under Guo Peng's strict supervision, the official salt and iron of the Wei Empire were of good quality, sufficient quantity, and not high price.

The common people just thought it was like buying salt and iron in ordinary stores. It was no different, so the Wei Empire's behavior of selling private salt could basically be ignored during the reign of Guo Peng.

In March of the fifth year of Xingyuan, the General Administration of Linziying reported to Guo Jin about the corruption case of the salt system they had investigated and collected evidence for more than a year, so that Guo Jin knew that there was a big problem with the salt system of the Wei Empire.

The Wei Empire's salt and iron monopoly, formed a royal caravan and opened up two Silk Roads, and eliminated middlemen to directly grasp the taxation of farmers. The three major acts of ensuring a great abundance of fiscal revenue. These three items can be regarded as the three troikas of the Wei Empire's economy.

With the protection of these three troops, the Wei Empire's fiscal revenue far exceeded that of the Eastern Han Dynasty, so even the big project could be carried out to carry out big things. Although the finances were tight, they were not unsupported. It can be said that they were quite rich.

Among the three horses, agricultural taxation is the absolute leader, salt and iron monopoly is the second, and the two Silk Roads are the third, and salt and iron monopoly is the important part of the financial income of the Wei Empire, it has always been highly valued.

Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, Guo Peng decided to sell salt and iron, and set up a special Salt and Iron Department to be responsible for the monopoly, to mine, make salt, and manage the sale of salt.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Guo Peng refined the functional departments and set up special Iron Affairs Departments and Salt Affairs Departments, which were affiliated to the Ministry of Finance, and were specifically responsible for the specialty of salt and iron.

In order to further ensure this part of the income, Guo Peng ordered the Iron and Salt Affairs Department to cooperate with the Royal Caravan, who were responsible for mining, production and collecting money. The shops under the Royal Caravan were responsible for in-depth local sales, which was equivalent to the income that was divided between the Emperor's inner treasury and the National Treasury.

The inner treasury accounts for a small head, the national treasury accounts for a large head, and the left hand changes to the right hand, anyway, the money belongs to the court.

Under this system, it not only facilitates the strict implementation of the salt and iron monopoly, but also ensures to a considerable extent that the emperor controls the salt and iron monopoly, so as not to make the salt and iron monopoly unordered.

Guo Peng referenced the shortcomings of the salt and iron monopoly system in all dynasties, especially the private salt dilemma of the Northern and Southern Song dynasties, and set the standard of quality, quantity and price.

You cannot make money, but also provide inferior salt to the common people.

It is already a profit-making industry that guarantees profitability by drought and flood. It also needs to add more profits to make corruption. This situation will greatly affect national tax revenue, and will greatly expand private salt dealers groups, greatly interfere with national tax revenue and administration.

The salt tax in the north and south Song dynasties was extremely high, and the salt price itself was very high. When we arrived at the local area, local officials took advantage of it in order to make corruption and robbed it all kinds of tricks. In the end, the salt that was sold to the people was often inferior and insufficient.

The official salt bought by the people is often yellow, smelly, damp and chunks, and it tastes bitter, the price is high, and the quantity is not enough, so it is often out of stock.

People must not ignore salt. If you can’t do it, you can only buy private salt. The quality of private salt is good and the price is more than twice as cheap as official salt. Then you will be a fool if you don’t buy private salt.

Huge market demand has spawned an extremely large private salt sales group, spread all over the country, and there are gangs selling private salt everywhere along the coast and inland. The Song government has repeatedly attacked hard, and private salt has been repeatedly banned.

Moreover, from the official to the local government, it seems that everyone has reached a strange tacit understanding of the existence of private salt. Everyone has benefited from the salt together, and the last one is the treasury and the people.

Guo Peng strictly controlled the quality, quantity and price, and controlled the salt business very well. Therefore, during the Yande period, there was no market for private salt.

According to the report from Linziying, about the second year of Xingyuan, the Hebei salt affairs department began to experience cases of officials stealing official salt and reselling it privately.

They took advantage of their positions to steal official salt and then sold it to merchants at a price lower than official salt to make profits from it.

The merchants are well-informed and know that the prices of official salt in different places are different. According to the distance between the different places and the salt production areas, the closer the price is, the lower the price is, and the farther the price is, the higher the price is.

After getting the salt, the merchants will go to places with higher prices for official salt and sell private salt at prices lower than official salt. Although the price is low, compared with the cost, they still make a lot of money and make a lot of money. It is very powerful.

In order to avoid the investigation of taxpayers' checkpoints on the official road, they even chose not to walk on the official road, but chose to walk on the deep mountains and forests.

In order to avoid attacks from beasts, they often slander and move forward in groups. They do whatever they want to make money, and have summarized many effective experiences in selling private salt, which have been widely spread.

The gangs selling private salt are often greedy people. They are well-organized, and their members are fraught with blood and are extremely strict. They also agree on how their families will deal with their funerals once they are arrested, etc. The agreement is extremely detailed.

In the third year of Xingyuan, this situation began to spread further.

By the fourth year of Xingyuan, all parts of Hebei, Liaodong, Central Plains, and Guanzhong were spyed by Linzi Camp to see the news that private salt appeared.
Chapter completed!