Roman Ambassador Manur is a close confidant around Caracala.

This time, he was sent as the ambassador to the Wei Empire out of trust, striving to learn more about the Wei Empire and develop the commerce and trade cause of the two countries.

And the more he knew about this huge empire, the more surprised he was.

He walked on the hard and neat stone slab road, looking at the neat shapes that were cut and processed, and couldn't help but ask the Minister of Foreign Affairs Xinpi who was accompanying him.

"How much does it cost and time to lay such a huge city?"

The general translator translated Manur's inquiry to Xinpi. After hearing this, Xinpi smiled and looked proud.

"Money and time are not the main issues, these issues are not important. What matters is whether His Majesty the Emperor wants, whether he wants, and whether he wants, and whether he needs it. As long as His Majesty needs it, we, as ministers, must do it.

What's more, Luoyang is the imperial capital, and it is very necessary to lay stone slabs throughout the city. It is not only necessary to walk easily, but also to do so. Isn't it good now? It's great if it rains and does not have mud or dust when it blows. "

Xinpi said happily.

"So is the only city in Luoyang like this?"

“It’s not like that.”

Xin Pi shook his head continuously: "At the beginning, this was the case before the first year of Yande. Later, over the past ten years, stone roads have been paved in every prefecture, every county and every county. Not to mention all, at least the main roads are paved with stone roads.

Your Majesty pays great attention to the cleanliness of the city. Your Majesty believes that one of the reasons for the plague is that the city is very dirty, and people pour shit and urine on the streets, so that the whole city is dirty and smells bad. The stone-building road is just one of the parts of His Majesty’s entire set of requirements.”

"Plague? What is this? What other requirements are there?"

Manur did not understand the meaning of the plague. After thinking about it for a while, he explained the meaning of the plague with the meaning of the plague using the meaning of [many people are infected at the same time and die quickly].

Manur was shocked.

"We also have plagues in our country. Many people are infected with the same disease, but we have no choice but to sit back and watch people die."

Xinpi nodded a little heavy.

"Sure enough, you have it, and I, Wei. Once a plague occurs, there is no time to find a way to treat it, and people will be dead. All we can do is isolate, and we don't know where the disease comes from and how to treat it.

Then His Majesty the Emperor proposed that the city where we live is dirty, eating raw food and drinking raw water are important reasons for the occurrence of the plague. His Majesty the Emperor ordered the rectification of our cities and habits in many ways. In recent years, the scale of the plague has become much smaller."

Xinpi expressed his thoughts with emotion: "Although I don't know how much this matter is related to what His Majesty did, the plague has indeed improved a lot. Wei Yong, tell him about the great plague that happened a few years ago."

Xinpi asked the translator Wei Yong to repeat his meaning and then talk about the great plague that occurred in the chaotic times of the pre-Han Dynasty.

Wei Yong translated Xinpi's words and then began to tell the tragic past of thousands of deaths in some prefectures and counties during the chaotic times in the late Han Dynasty.

At that time, hundreds of people were infected with the disease. They didn’t know where the disease came from, nor how to treat it or recover. In the end, except for a very few lucky people, most of them died.

When all people die, the plague will end. Burning all these corpses means that the plague crisis has been overcome, and no one knows when the next crisis will come.

But even if it comes, there is no way to solve it, because people in this era do not know what bacteria and viruses are, and they cannot observe them. Apart from prevention and isolation, there is nothing wrong with others, and it depends on luck.

The more Manur listened, the more he felt uncomfortable.

Because his hometown had also been attacked by such a terrifying disease, he almost died completely, and he was lucky enough to escape the disaster. Unexpectedly, the same thing happened to the Wei Empire twenty years ago.

"This happened in my hometown, and this happened in many places in Rome. What about now? Is this happening in Wei State now?"

Manur continued to ask.

Xinpi nodded.

"Yes, but the scale is much smaller. Your Majesty believes that if there is no way to treat the plague, the only way is to isolate it, isolate it quickly, and isolate the patients at the beginning of the plague as quickly as possible. This is the only way to deal with the plague."

"We also know that we need to separate patients from healthy people, but this takes a lot of time. During this period, more and more patients will become more and more uncontrollable, and eventually it will lead to a tragedy, and many people will always die."

Manur was puzzled: "How did you do it?"

"As long as you deal with it properly, there will be no deaths for many people, that's for sure."

Xinpi said, "I have participated in many meetings in which His Majesty responded to the plague. What I learned was that His Majesty would write down all the signs and possibilities of the plague.

Written on a piece of paper and sent to any village in the country where people live and officials manage it. The village chief in the village needs to memorize all the contents on the paper in the shortest time.

Your Majesty’s request is to memorize it in a slight way, and you cannot remember a word wrongly. If you remember it wrongly, you will be punished. Then observe carefully. Once you find any signs, you will immediately isolate the patient.

In this way, you can find problems in the shortest time, then isolate them immediately, control population movements, prevent people from going out, control problems, and then report them to the township and counties immediately, depending on the situation, and see whether to continue reporting. This is basically the process."

Manur looked at the translator Wei Yong in confusion.

"What are the village chiefs you are talking about?"

"I am the lowest-level official in Wei, who manages dozens or more households in a village, directly manages about 200 to 500 people, and there are more such officials."

Wei Yong said slowly: "There are about ten such villages that form a township, and many townships form counties, and then counties and prefectures, which is equivalent to five-layer hierarchical, management, and decentralization of power."

"His Majesty's official office directly manages the lowest people? Do you pay taxes directly to His Majesty?"

"Of course, everyone has to pay taxes to the court."

"How many people pay taxes to His Majesty the Emperor in this way?"

Manur asked with anticipation.

Wei Yong thought about it.

"Are you asking me about Wei's population? It has exceeded 70 million."

"Seven thousand..."

Manur took a deep breath: "No, I am asking, the population who paid taxes to His Majesty the Emperor."

"Yes, all the people will pay taxes to His Majesty, whether it is agricultural tax or commercial tax, or more or less, they will have to pay taxes."

Wei Yong said something very normal in his opinion, but in Manur's opinion, he found it incredible.

Seventy million people pay taxes to the emperor?

These 70 million people are citizens?

All are citizens and all pay taxes?

Will no one fail to pay taxes to His Majesty the Emperor and then embezzle the taxes themselves?

Then the huge empire does not have the super powerful force that can govern the country, thereby controlling all local taxes. Will the emperor only symbolically pay a little tribute every year?

Is there no such person in the Wei Empire?

Manur is strange.

“Is there no one who doesn’t pay taxes?”

He continued to ask.

"There are also, but it is all allowed by His Majesty. Those lands that have made meritorious and rewarded do not need to be paid taxes, but other lands are subject to taxes, and businessmen also have to pay taxes."

Wei Yong felt something that was a bit indescribable to this guy.

Xinpi was also a little confused at this time and asked Wei Yong: "What's going on? What is he asking?"

"Midang, he is asking me whether Wei's taxes have to be paid, and whether someone doesn't have to pay taxes or something."

Wei Yong replied so.

Xinpi frowned.

"What's there to ask about this? Is there..."

Xinpi stopped speaking before he finished speaking.

He suddenly remembered the current situation of the Roman Empire when the emperor convened a meeting.

The Roman Empire was an alternative Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

It can be said to be a relatively slight degree of warlord separatism in the late Han Dynasty.

The military leaders control the power of a province or region, and hold the power of administrative, judicial, finance and even the military. They are princes, the military leaders who listen to the tune but not the propaganda, and have strong independence in all senses.

However, since the Roman Empire was almost like this since its establishment, the emperor was able to slightly control the strength of the military leaders in various places when he was strong, and the emperor ignored it when he was weak. Over the long run, the Roman Empire was used to this situation.

If you have money, everyone will send troops together. If you don’t have money, everyone will do their own affairs. When necessary, they will compete for the throne, lead their own troops to grab the throne, or use money to buy the throne with the Imperial Guards, and live a plea.

This situation is very similar to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Their emperor was like the Emperor of Zhou. He directly ruled a piece of land, then controlled an army, and handed over the other land to the princes.

The princes had all power in their own territory, but were responsible for conquering the rebellious ministers for the Zhou emperor, and paying tribute, and then going to the Zhou emperor to report their duties at any time.

This model has good vitality and can last for a long time. As long as the transportation is not so convenient and the Zhou emperor is not so strong, everyone can develop freely.

It developed to the end, from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, from peaceful coexistence to mutual annexation.

Of course, with the weakening of the authority of the Zhou emperor, let alone taxes, there were few tributes. The Zhou emperor's life was getting worse day by day. In the end, even his capital was gone, leaving only a palace, and then it was simply destroyed by Qin.

I don't know if the Roman Empire will have this day.

Guo Peng sighed so at that time, and his ministers also refreshed their understanding of the Roman Empire and followed Guo Peng's ideas to understand what kind of existence the Roman Empire was.

Of course, there is no need to talk about taxation or other things in this model. If this emperor wants to reliably relies on taxation to centralize power, he must defeat all military leaders, place civil servants, and use county-level means to rule the local area.

At present, it seems that you can't even think about it.

An emperor as powerful as Guo Peng could not have. If he wanted to have it, first of all, he had to be a military strongman, had strong military talents, and had an army that could conquer and fight well.

Therefore, Sinpi was able to understand Manur's doubts.

"This is nothing to say. Tell him to talk about other topics. If you continue to study this issue, it is him who feels uncomfortable."

Xinpi patted Wei Yong on the shoulder.

He didn't want a person like Manur with good thinking to go to a dead end.

Not everyone can be a powerful emperor like Guo Peng.

And even if Guo Peng has come to this point today, he has threatened the country and shocked the world and made the rule of the Wei Empire deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. How many years have passed and how many talents have been killed?

I think of the martyrs on this road, the Luoyang City where people were panicked and bloody, the domineering and unscrupulous black-armored imperial guards, and the blood and tears of the tens of thousands of scholars and their families who were exiled in one breath...

Now those people should be almost dead.

In the terrifying living environment on the Shu Road construction site, those who do not work hard and do not distinguish between grains will not live long.

If the Roman emperor wants to achieve Guo Peng's level, he must first be prepared to replace the people around him.

Is he OK?
Chapter completed!