Guo Peng's words made Guo Jin feel something.

"Is that what it means to be born in sorrow and die in peace......

"Yes, dynamic balance, only dynamic, can be balanced, the country can not be static, the peace is happy for a long time, but in the peace, there is a hidden sign of the country, the country wants to move, to move, the emperor to move, the ministers to move, Li Shu also to move.

The Son of Heaven is the one who can't stop the most, he must establish the law internally, and find a goal for the country to act on outside, the emperor must deter and restrain his subordinates, and also find a direction for his subordinates to continue to work on, so that they will not stop acting. ”

Guo Peng stretched out his hand and pointed to the south: "Although the four southern states have been largely pacified, there are still many people who listen to the tune and do not listen to the propaganda, and there are still many barbarian existences.

The Gongsun clan of Liaodong has been annihilated, but the Buyeo Kingdom and the Goguryi Kingdom are still there, and they also need to be eliminated, so the war in Liaodong is not over, and it can also be used, these are two wars that are close at hand, and they can be obtained for at least five years. ”

"At least five years ......"

Guo Jin nodded silently: "Has my father already thought of a way?" How to avoid the destruction of the country? ”

“……”

Guo Peng was silent for a while: "There are thousands of things, complicated affairs, a little carelessness, and broken bones, but this matter is not done by the father, including you, all the kings of future generations can't do it."

Ah Jin, only a father can do it, except for a father, no one can do it, if you can't even do it for a father...... Then there is no need to do it again, be the son of peace of mind, you too, and the kings of future generations, and then, wait for two hundred years, and lose the country. ”

"Father!"

Guo Jin clasped Guo Peng's hand with both hands: "My father has come to such a road of dominating the world, do you have to give up at this time?" Although the son is not talented, he is willing to follow in his father's footsteps until death. ”

Guo Peng looked at Guo Jin and looked at his shining eyes.

There is a light called hope in the eyes.

Then Guo Peng smiled.

"Ah Jin, I have you, I haven't lost yet, you look at it, you didn't have time to see the bloody battle for your father in the early years, but the bloody battle in the court, you won't miss it, first of all, you have to remember that no matter what you want to do, money is the most important.

Whether it's administration, or war, disaster relief, or development, money is indispensable, and force is important, right? But if you don't have money, what do you do to maintain force? ”

"The son understands that financial power must be held in his hands no matter what, so his father established an official prison in the inner court."

"Yes, money must be held no matter what, there must be, there must be more, so that you can do things without constraints, so I set up an inner treasury for my father, which is to prepare for this, but there are more and more things to do, and the money in hand is also stretched, and the current situation cannot be throttled, so we must open source."

"Open Source ......"

Guo Jin frowned: "In this kind of wasted situation, how does my father plan to open it up?" Does the father want to raise taxes? Raise taxes on households? ”

Guo Peng shook his head.

"In order to support the war, the taxes of the Tuntian households are already very high, not only can they not be increased, but they must be slowly reduced to give Li Shu vitality, so for Li Shu, the tax cannot be increased at the moment."

"So what to do? External plunder? ”

"It's temporary, not once-in-a-lifetime."

Guo Peng still shook his head.

Guo Jin had no choice.

"The son didn't know what to do, so he asked his father for advice."

Guo Peng smiled.

"Forgot what the Father told you? There is only one king, and there are hundreds of thousands of people, if you want to fight against the people, you must unite with Li Shu, and you can't use the premise of harming Li Shu's interests, and besides, the people are far richer than Li Shu, and the wealth they hold is not the best financial source? ”

Guo Jin was a little surprised.

"Does my father want to impose a tax on the scholars? Now even if we implement it strongly, I am afraid that there will be people who will exploit loopholes, go up and down, and do their best to obstruct them, I am afraid that it will be difficult to solve the real problem, but it will cause greater contradictions. ”

Guo Peng nodded.

"Yes, you think it very carefully, you know that attacking them directly will inevitably cause chaos, although their power has been weakened, but it is not just that they have no power to fight back, this is the lesson of Emperor Guangwu's failure, we must not ignore it, but my father did not say that he would attack them directly."

Guo Peng's smile made Guo Jin very puzzled.

"So what to do? If you don't pay taxes......"

"Does it have to be so straightforward to get money from them? Ah Jin, there are some things that are difficult for you to do directly, but if you attack in a roundabout way, you can get miraculous results. ”

"Roundabout Offensive ......"

Guo Jin frowned and pondered.

Guo Peng didn't continue to make things difficult for Guo Jin, and said with a smile: "If you don't raise taxes on them, you can increase taxes on those wealthy businessmen under them." ”

"This ...... It also seems to be quite straightforward, and the business tax ...... My son remembers that officials in the DPRK had proposed an increase in commercial taxes, but there were many people who opposed it, and the controversy was great. ”

"Yes, it's not easy, but it doesn't have to be so difficult to grab some money from these rich scholars."

Guo Peng held Guo Jin's hand and said in a low voice: "People, generally they will regard money as important as their parents, if you cut off people's money, it is equivalent to killing your parents, and you will inevitably be strongly resisted, and the failure of Emperor Guangwu Dutian is a precedent, so we can't do it blatantly."

However, in order to achieve a goal, there may not be only one way to go, our ultimate goal is to collect taxes, is to get more taxes, but not necessarily in the name of taxation. ”

"Father, if you don't do it in the name of taxes, won't you have a righteous name?"

Guo Jin was a little strange.

Guo Peng shook his head.

"Jun, it is righteousness in itself, Ah Jin, for my father to ask you, the target of our taxation is the strong and powerful, how many ways do they earn money?"

"This ...... Relying on land, occupying a large amount of land, collecting a considerable amount of tenant rent, this is one of the main sources, the second is the trade road, my father built the road extensively, but all the big families who have surplus wealth and spare power will organize caravans to go south and north to do business and make profits, the third ...... It's a gift to each other, no, an exchange of benefits. ”

Guo Jin summed it up a little.

Guo Peng nodded.

"Well, then my father asks you, which of the three ways in which is the most convenient for us to collect taxes?"

"Naturally, it's a commercial tax."

Guo Jin said: "Land is fundamental, the tax on the field is equivalent to Emperor Guangwu Dutian, it will cause widespread controversy, there is still a war to be carried out, the world is unstable, it is not the time to carry out the field, as for the bribery and exchange of benefits between each other, it is impossible to be taxed, the only choice is to pay the commercial tax, but the father, the commercial tax ......."

"In another name, tolls."

Guo Peng interrupted Guo Jin's words.

"Over...... Tolls? ”

Guo Jin's face was full of surprise.

"Ah Jin, why do you think your father is so keen on building roads? Why is the most important thing in every place you get is to build roads? Why do you need so many people to build roads on a large scale? ”

"Isn't it for war? In order to facilitate the advance of the army and the transfer of materials, reduce the logistical burden. ”

Guo Jin didn't quite understand it yet, but he didn't expect that layer.

Guo Peng smiled slyly.

"I've been thinking about this day for my father for a long time, and ten years of work is today."

"Ten years of work?"

Guo Jin was even more puzzled.

"Business travelers, many will not choose to do business locally, large business travelers will choose to go to other places to do business, the local does not have things from other places to introduce, the longer the road, the higher the price, the higher the profit, and the greater the risk, this is the case with Shu brocade trade.

Ah Jin, do you know that before taking Yizhou for his father, the price of this Shuzhong brocade from the local purchase to the sale to Luoyang, if you go to Hebei, to the Kanto, the price will continue to grow, the scarcity is expensive, the farther the place of origin and sale, the rarer, the more expensive. ”

Guo Peng pointed to the dress made of Shu brocade that he and Guo Jin were wearing, and said: "The more expensive, the higher the profit, the more businessmen are willing to operate, businessmen are profit-seeking, for higher profits, they do not hesitate to take their lives, in the past when there was no road, they still spared their lives to travel to and from various places, let alone now."

Ten years for the father to build the road, the Central Plains Hebei extends in all directions, the rest of the places also give priority to the construction of the main roads, walking on the road in addition to the army, more is the business travel, large and small traders, relying on the road built for the father, they can travel to and from all over the place faster, reduce costs, increase profits, so my Wei business is becoming more and more prosperous. ”

"So...... Father has to collect tolls? This ......"

Guo Jin didn't seem to understand what Guo Peng meant.

"Tolls won't be very expensive, at least for the profit they get from a round trip, it's a drop in the bucket, but for them, this road is equivalent to safety, there was no safe road in the past, they travel long distances, not only have to worry about the long distance, but also worry about safety.

I don't know where there will suddenly be a group of robbers, I don't know where there will be an extra group of man-eating beasts, or fall to death on the difficult road, or die of exhaustion, sickness and no one knows, people are life-saving, who doesn't care about their own lives?

And the choice to take the official road we build is different, people come and go, safety, there are patrol teams, and post stations for rest, it is definitely the best choice, for them, they will not risk choosing mountain roads because of a little toll. ”

"I see, so even if we levy a road tax, they will definitely not give up taking the official road."

Guo Jin somewhat understood.

"That's right, we can set up stations along the official roads to collect tolls, and send special tax collectors to station, who are specifically responsible for collecting tolls, how many people are transported, how many animals are transported, how many carts are collected, in principle, the more the number is collected.

The site should be as much as possible, more, and less, so that they will not feel so resistant, so distressed, of course, it can't exceed a degree, more than a degree they are willing to bear, even if they take risks, they will not choose to take the official road, and we will not be able to collect road tax. ”

Guo Peng explained carefully.

Guo Jin nodded again and again.

"In this way, the tax revenue can be collected into the treasury and used for major purposes."

"Yes, the tax collection should be cleverly established, because people and cars will cause damage to the road surface, and the annual cost of repairing the damaged road surface is indeed not a small amount of money, and this part of the tax does need to be taken out to maintain the road.

The rest can not only be used to do big things, but also to hand over a part of it to the local government to solve the problem of local financial difficulties, and the taxes received can be used to do more things, such as building water conservancy projects, repairing cities, etc., and with more taxes, more things can be handled. ”

Guo Jin was very happy.

"In this way, you can really get a lot of taxes."

"Yes, not only that, this tax basically comes from the merchants, from the scholars behind them, and they are big families, but anyone who can walk on the official road and stay away from the local area is not a poor Li Shu, so this tax is actually a tax on the scholars."

Guo Peng narrowed his eyes and said in a low voice: "They don't want to pay taxes directly, but this tax, no matter what, I have to collect it, and I can't directly tax it from their profits, so I collect money from other channels, the wool is out of the sheep, and I'm afraid that I won't be able to collect that money?" ”

"What if someone still raises doubts? Father, such a person is expected to have. ”

Guo Jin frowned: "With the greed of those people, they will never honestly take out this money." ”

"Yes, such people will naturally have them, and there will definitely be resistance, and it is impossible to pass naturally."

Guo Peng nodded.

"That'...... What is my father going to do? ”

"Ah Jin, since Emperor Guangwu suppressed the Ram School, the spirit of the Confucian scholars has become more and more conservative, the most radical in Confucianism is the Ram Confucian, the most conservative is the Lu Ru, the Ram School has been in decline from the beginning to the present, can't you still see the virtue of those scholars?"

Guo Peng's words made Guo Jin a little surprised.

"What does my father mean that today's Confucian scholars are becoming more and more conservative and no longer as sharp as they used to be?"

"Ram Confucianism was sharp enough to change the emperor, and it is strange not to be suppressed, that is, the scholars abandoned the ram in time, so it can be developed to this day, otherwise whether this Confucianism can continue to be respected is a problem."

Guo Peng sneered and said: "Back then, my father also once governed the ram, and I deeply felt that the sharpness of the ram was a double-edged sword, which could hurt the enemy and hurt oneself.

And even if they don't take the initiative to change, when they come to the father, they can't get any benefits, and now they end themselves, that's the best, losing the edge of the ram, the remaining Confucian scholars are more and more conservative, pedantic, conservative, unwilling to change the old system, this is the problem, but it is also where the opportunity lies. ”

"What do you mean by opportunity?"

Guo Jin looked at Guo Peng curiously.

"Opportunity is to use their conservative psychology to achieve our goal, Ah Jin, if you are in the same room with this kind of person, you feel that the room is stuffy, you want to open the window to breathe, you can't say you want to open the window, you have to say that you decided to lift the roof.

At this time, they will absolutely stop you at all costs, desperately pull you back, and when the stalemate is over, you take a step back and say, then open a window and forget it, then they will agree, and feel that you are calm and useful, and think that you have won the victory. ”

The smile on Guo Peng's face was a little cunning.

Guo Jin, who also listened to this passage, was stunned.

"This ......"

"Your original purpose was to open the window, but you didn't say that you wanted to open the window, you said that I was going to lift the roof, and first set the goal high to hide the real purpose.

When they panic like a mourner, you pretend to take a step back, so that they will be grateful to you and willingly open the window for you. ”

Guo Peng patted Guo Jing on the shoulder: "Governance is a skill, politics is not war, although the result is more cruel than war, but the process must be softer than war, the same life and death, but you must cover a fig leaf, and you must achieve the goal under the fig leaf, it is perfect politics." ”

Guo Jin frowned tightly and was silent.

"Of course, the premise of achieving all this, Ah Jin, you have to remember that the premise that you can achieve your goal is that you really have the power to overturn the roof, and everyone knows that you can really overturn the roof, so that they will cooperate with you to open the window."

Guo Peng spoke: "If you can't tear down the roof, then they will even seal your windows together, Ah Jin, remember, you are fighting with a group of smart, cunning and ruthless hungry wolves, and the most important thing is to never, never expose your true purpose." ”

Guo Peng grabbed Guo Jin's shoulder, put his forehead on Guo Jin's forehead, and stared at his eyes tightly.

"Always, always have to keep a hand, never underestimate your courtiers, even at this moment, our father and son have the initiative in the government, you must remember that they will always be your enemies, the most terrible enemies, enemies who will devour everything."

After a while, Guo Jin, who pursed his lips, opened his mouth.

"My son understands."

"To understand, to remember, but also to learn how to do."

Guo Peng smiled: "Do you know what your father will do next?" ”

"Father will announce on the spot that he is ready to raise the business tax in full!"

Guo Jin has already understood.

Guo Peng smiled with satisfaction.

"It's my son."

Guo Peng is very happy that he can educate a qualified heir.

However, despite this, Guo Jin's methods are still a little immature, and he still needs to learn and experience.

Guo Peng decided to let Guo Jin look at it carefully, and let him see how he played with this group of hungry wolves in applause.

Study well.

Master the core skills of being an emperor.

Core competencies that matter.

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