Guo Peng did not have the idea of ​​making things difficult for Mao Jie, but he just wanted to make some clear statements with Mao Jie.

There are some things that Mao Jie cannot misunderstand, otherwise there will be big problems in the future.

"Xiaoxian, I'm not here to ask for guilt, I'm just here to ask you why you dare to do this?"

Guo Peng looked at Mao Jie with interest: "As far as I know, some rules in the former Han officialdom are circulating in the officialdom of our Wei State. For example, for high-ranking officials, it is better not to do anything than to do something wrong. I think doing something wrong is more terrible than not doing anything, right?"

Mao Jie lowered his head and hesitated for a moment.

"yes."

"Except for the four border states in the country, most state governors are honestly like little lambs. Xiao Gui and Cao Sui, all of them follow their exes, making themselves extremely weak. They would rather not do anything than have conflicts with other central and local officials.

After Han Hao and Mi Zhu were taken down by me, this situation became even worse. Some governors wanted to lock themselves in the gate of the governor's mansion without going out. They didn't even want any power. They left them all to the central government and counties to do. Why don't you do this?"

Guo Peng stared at Mao Jie: "You should know that doing such things as the governor of your state can easily become a target for central officials to attack. They will regard you as a target and attack you hard, and will never give up until you are knocked down.

The governor is already the limit of local officials. Going further up, there is no other place to go except to the central government. Therefore, the governors are cautious. Except for a few people, most people are absolutely unwilling to ruin their future for a short time. Don’t you think so?"

Guo Peng's words were very naked, and Mao Jie couldn't avoid them even if he wanted to avoid them.

But to be honest, how could Mao Jie not want to be a shaking governor who never leaves the door?

Wei State is centralized, very high-intensity centralized? Many of them belong to local officials, especially state governors? On the surface, they belong to local officials, but no matter in which aspect? The central agencies must show their presence.

They invaded local power? Some previous dynasties' local powers were directly taken back to the central government.

Under such circumstances, the treatment and power of local officials are much worse than that of central officials.

The central one thousand stones and the local one thousand stones are the same as the same salary and the same treatment? But in terms of the welfare of officials, the two are completely different like lakes and seas.

Many hidden benefits of central officials are invisible to local officials? A small official with five or six hundred stones in the central government lives much more comfortable than a county magistrate with one thousand stones in the local area.

Local officials are limited by central institutions? They often do a lot of dirty and tiring work, but their income is not high enough, and they always face central supervision and infringement.

This naturally causes local officials to cut their heads and enter Luoyang to become central officials. Local officials have a strong yearning for the central government? As long as it is possible, they will definitely work hard to squeeze into the central government.

Moreover, in recent years, central officials have indeed been continuously expanding, and the central government needs a large number of personnel to concentrate and use power, so it is a major trend for outstanding local talents to concentrate in the central government.

Under this general trend, the possibility of grassroots officials entering the central government is more likely to enter the central government than senior officials.

Because the empire was constantly expanding mainly small officials and officials who were doing business at the grassroots level, not high-ranking officials.

There are always only a few high-ranking officials? One radish can be filled with one pit, and one can be missing.

If you make up for it, you need to look at your qualifications? What is your political achievements? Do you have any mistakes or something? And if anyone in the central government can help you.

Mao Jie was from Chenliu County, Yanzhou, and was a member of the Qingyan Group, a powerful political group of the Wei Empire earlier? To this day? The Qingyan Group has long declined and is unsustainable.

Mao Jie was a scholar and official of the old era, and he realized that the [leftovers of the old era] in the prosperous period of the imperial examination system, and was inconsistent with those officials who relied on the imperial examinations to compete for employment.

The Ministry of War had a problem before, Dong Zhao was dismissed and Chen Gong came to power. Guo Peng was still thinking about his old people, and he had already used up the last bit of political energy of Qingyan Group.

By the time Mao Jie realized that his situation was awkward, it was too late.

The Central Committee may not welcome another scholar-official official from the old era to appear in the Central Committee.

The old emperor, who was also a scholar, has retired, and the new emperor is an emperor with a new style of thought educated from the school. He is completely out of the same box as the scholars.

Mao Jie and Chen Gong had communicated with him several times. Chen Gong repeatedly mentioned his unsatisfaction in the court and the faint covetousness of his subordinates around him, which made Mao Jie very uneasy.

He increasingly felt that with the continuous prosperity of the imperial examination system, more and more officials were selected. In the future, his legacy of the old era might face more and more difficulties.

If he had learned to keep a low profile like others, his career would probably end up as the governor of Yongzhou.

So after thinking about it, he felt that only military action could be taken to let the new emperor see his determination to carry out economic reform and his ability to boost the economy, thus creating conditions for himself to enter the central government to serve as a minister.

What he targeted was the Minister of Finance.

Wang Can was also a scholar from the old era. He became Guo Peng's favorite minister by virtue of his expertise in mathematics. He was once the chief minister of the cabinet and later became the Minister of Finance. He has held this position until now.

There are also political achievements and problems. Overall, his career is relatively mediocre and has no highlights.

When Guo Peng was handling government affairs strongly, Guo Peng's ability was enough to turn Wang Can into a rubber stamp and a voice-sensitive insect, and do things according to his wishes.

At that time, Wang Can didn’t need to have any strong abilities.

But it's Guo Jin's turn. Whether Guo Jin has the ability to engage in economics as strongly as Guo Peng's economy is, it's hard to say whether Guo Jin needs a powerful economic assistant.

Mao Jie keenly noticed this and felt that with his rich ability to handle local government affairs and logistics, and his ability to engage in economics, he should be able to enter Guo Jin's vision.

This was his last bet.

"The Supreme Emperor, I have not thought of retiring and returning home and spending my old age. I want to enter Luoyang, at least, I will be in charge of the administration."

Mao Jie thought about it over and over again, but he thought he would be honest and say what he wanted to say.

In front of Guo Peng, he didn't think he could hide anything.

Guo Peng pursed his lips and was silent for a while.

"Breaking the boundaries of the market and loosening the ties of merchants, you are not the first to do this. I remember the first one to do this was the magistrate of Dunhuang County at that time, and now the magistrate of Beiting, Zhuge Liang."

"Yes, it was him. When he was the governor of Dunhuang County, I was the governor of Liangzhou. When I heard that he was doing such a thing in Dunhuang, I was very surprised and went to learn about it."

Mao Jie admitted all this: "His idea is very clear. He said that no matter how Liangzhou develops agriculture, it will not develop Zhongyuan prefectures and counties. In order not to be hungry and to live a good life, he must develop business. Breaking the boundaries of the market allows more people to engage in business is a point of breaking the deadline."

"Emphasis on agriculture and suppression of commerce is the basic national policy I personally set. Not to mention ten or twenty years, I don't think there is a need to change it for a hundred or two hundred years. You are doing it openly against my requirements, and it's no wonder that you have been criticized by so many people."

Guo Peng looked at Mao Jie with a calm face: "Do you think we produce a lot of food now, and every year it is so rich that the grain can be stored in warehouses and granaries everywhere, so you feel that we will no longer have any worries about hunger?

Xiaoxian, I might as well tell you that the situation is far less optimistic than you think. The accumulation of painstaking efforts in the thirteen years of Yande, if you encounter a large-scale small harvest, it will only be enough for the entire Wei State to eat for two years."

Mao Jie didn't know how to express his emotions for a while.

"Your Majesty, I think, these foods..."

"This is the foundation of Wei State and our last reliance. This batch of food must not be moved unless it is absolutely necessary. Don't think that there is no worries about hunger now, there will be no future, and there will be still in the future!

Do you think I don’t know the benefits of developing business? But I ask you, what do you want so much money to do? Don’t you still buy things? Your money is getting more and more, but your food is getting less and less. So what do you want so much money to do? Money is used to buy things, and what are the things? They all grow in the ground!"

Guo Peng's face was serious, which made Mao Jie think that he had done something wrong and was going to be punished by Guo Peng. His face was immediately scared to death.

"The Supreme Emperor, I... I... I... I..."

"Of course, I'm not saying that you must be wrong if you do this."

Guo Peng waved his hand and took Mao Jie back to the ground with a big breath.

"ah?"

"What? I mean, it makes sense to relax the boundaries of markets in some special places and allow private business to do large-scale business."

Guo Peng picked up the chopsticks and picked up another piece of meat and sent it to his mouth to chew it: "Zhuge Liang was right. No matter how you develop agriculture, it will not develop in Central Plains. There is a limit to developing agriculture, and there are limits to supporting people.

If you don’t want to go any other way, Liangzhou will reach the limit if you raise two or three million people, and there will be no more. The same is true for the Western Regions. If you don’t use special locations to do some business, you won’t be able to support people, and you may not even have enough food.

They are all people of Wei State. Why can the Central Plains prefectures and counties have enough food? The Western Regions of Liangzhou will go hungry? Do you think so? They will definitely think this way. If this problem is not solved, there will be civil changes in the Western Regions and Liangzhou in the future."

After Guo Peng said this, Mao Jie felt that Guo Peng’s intention was not to blame him.

"So the Supreme Emperor thinks it makes sense for us to do this in Liangzhou and Yongzhou?"

"Of course it makes sense, otherwise do you think you can continue to be the governor of Yongzhou?"

The same thing is true, Mao Jie can't even say a word.

"I mean, some places are not suitable for agriculture themselves, so they need to develop other industries to support people. They cannot stick to the rules and insist on digging food from the ground and always make some adjustments.

The Western Regions, Liangzhou, Mozhou, and Pingzhou are colder and will be even colder in the future. The land is not much, and the climate is not good. It is not suitable to stick to the land and not let go. Some people should be liberated to do business and sell the excess products from other places to the Western Regions, to the Kushan and Anxi Kingdoms.

In this way, Liangzhou and the Western Regions can support people. However, I think there are restrictions that need to be put into place. Some places can be mainly commercial, but more places, mainly grain-producing areas, must be mainly agriculture and must not be shaken, otherwise there will be nothing to be sold."

Guo Peng stared at Mao Jie: "You can't be so angry. Everyone is doing business together. As they do it, they find that nothing can be sold and they starved to death. You have to know that we don't have much left, and there are not so many things to do business for you. I understand?"

"I understand! I understand!"

Mao Jie was happy: "The Supreme Emperor means that the place that is suitable for production must be produced. If it is not suitable for production, you can do business, do business, look at it separately, and deal with it separately."

“Yes.”

Guo Peng nodded: "Adapting to local conditions, developing production, some places can farm, some places need to mining, some places can only do business, and some places need to grazing. However, that's why the group of Dianbiz masters know that they value agriculture and suppress commerce, but they don't know how ignorant it is."

Guo Peng smiled disdainfully.

Mao Jie hurriedly followed up and praised him.

"The Supreme Emperor is wise!"

"There is no wisdom, it's just that you walk more often and you're not easy to be influenced by others."

Guo Peng shook his head, drank another glass of wine, and said with a smile: "What you did is pretty good. Yongzhou can be done in some areas, Liangzhou and the Western Regions can be done. There is always an extra way to make money, because farming is indeed not enough for others."

After pausing for a while, Guo Peng looked at Mao Jie with a glass of wine.

"Xiaoxian, there is another thing. I want to tell you in advance. You need to be mentally prepared."

"Prince, please speak."

Mao Jie suddenly felt something was wrong.

Guo Peng put down his wine glass.
Chapter completed!