Every year, there are still some places in the Central Plains that will experience small-scale locust plagues.

Since they have become adults, they cannot be solved by chickens and ducks. Locusts can fly, eat very fast, and fly very fast. No matter how much chickens and ducks can eat, they are just sighing.

At this time, manpower is needed to fight, encircle, or even burn. The local government will organize manpower and material resources to fight, and then pay for money to buy locusts, and finally burn them or use medicine to deal with them.

Fortunately, large-scale locust plagues no longer exist, and small-scale locust plagues can barely be suppressed under the coordination of local governments.

Raising ducks and treating locusts is a kind of remedy for the sheep that has lost. It is an intervention measure during locust larvae, not a fundamental solution.

The local locusts have been eliminated, and the locusts from other places will still migrate. The locusts have really strong flight capabilities.

Guo Peng knew that locusts like warm and drought, so in order to solve the locust problem from the root, Guo Peng actively built water conservancy in various places, reclaimed wasteland, and increased land utilization, so as to destroy locust eggs hidden deep in the land.

Even if there is no man's land that cannot be filled due to excessive population losses, Guo Peng will organize people to carry out actions such as afforestation or grass planting to increase vegetation coverage and compress the living space of locusts to control locusts.

Relying on such actions, the range and frequency of locust plagues have slowly decreased over time, and grain output has been greatly guaranteed, but such actions are also accompanied by large expenditures.

After giving such an example, Wang Can firmly demanded that commercial tax be imposed to increase revenue and reduce expenditure in case of emergency needs.

Because no one knows where the next locust plague or even the next drought will occur, the court must have enough money and capital reserves and grain reserves, otherwise once the locust plague occurs, it will be a situation of starvation for thousands of miles.

Zao Zhi, Minister of Civil Affairs, agreed with this.

"In recent years, the day of spring has been moving backwards, but the day of winter has become earlier and earlier. This is not a good sign and is not conducive to grain production. From the Central Plains to Hebei and then to Youzhou in Bingzhou, this trend is becoming more and more obvious, which is worth paying attention to.

So after we report to Your Majesty, Your Majesty asked us to organize people to reclaim land south, believing that the south is generally warmer. If the grain output of Central Plains and Hebei decreases, if Jiangnan can produce a large amount of grain, it can also make up for the shortcomings in the north, which requires money."

Zao Zhi also gave his own reasons in the court and firmly supported Wang Can's suggestion of imposing commercial taxes to make up for the national use.

The reasons given by the cabinet chief Cao Cao are also worthy of attention.

In June of the second year of Yande, Guo Peng issued an order to Cao Cao, asking Cao Cao to lead the cabinet members to connect with the Ministry of Works to discuss the possibility of building a waterway transportation channel from Luoyang to Jiangnan.

Guo Peng believes that the later transition of spring and the early winter has become a fixed trend. After only a few decades, Central Plains and Hebei may face serious grain production cuts.

Central Plains and Hebei are now important grain production areas. Once grain production is reduced, famine will inevitably occur. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare for the future and use Jiangnan as an important grain production base.

Not only that, we also need to consider transportation channels from Jiangnan to the Central Plains.

Land transportation is not good, and the transportation volume is too low, which cannot meet the huge demand at that time, so waterways need to be considered.

The waterway is not ready-made, so simply put it, the emperor had the idea of ​​building an inland transportation channel.

This has to be said to be a huge project.

In order to achieve this series of actions, the emperor needs money, so where does this money come from?

Coming from the commercial tax.

Therefore, under the promotion of many people, the emperor had the idea of ​​levying commercial taxes in a comprehensive manner, and this behavior was also known as the great name - emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce was the national policy of all dynasties.

Wang Can, Minister of Finance and Minister of Civil Affairs, and Zao Zhi, Minister of Civil Affairs, jointly stated that the overly prosperous business situation will cause commerce and agriculture to compete for labor and indirectly affect grain output. Therefore, we firmly demand that commercial development be curb, suppress commerce, and stabilize agriculture.

Farming is the foundation of the country.

A big hat was put down and the anti-trade tax group immediately caused panic.

Of course, they decided not to give up so easily.

This request was opposed by many officials, and many officials within the Shangshutai, which has the largest number of officials, have raised objections.

They believe that the Wei State's commercial taxation has always been implemented in accordance with the strategies formulated by the Eastern Han Dynasty, and has been here for so many years. Now that the tax revenue is suddenly increased, will it not cause dissatisfaction among the people?

Once you find that the money is not enough, you will have to pay extra taxes. If this continues, people will live in poverty. What else can you talk about governing the country?

It makes sense to emphasize agriculture and suppress business, but without merchants, where does the money come from?

How do goods flow in various places? How do people meet their needs?

Is it all organized by the court?

How much does the court cost?

Isn’t this competing for profit with the people?!

Wang Can, you trash!

Zaozhi, where is your intention?

Cao Mengde, what do you want to do?

If you don’t know how to solve the problem fundamentally, you will know how to get everyone’s wool!

Many officials attacked Wang Can, Zao Zhi and others like jumping, saying that they had bad intentions and tried to compete with the people for profit. They put on a bunch of hats and turned into Zuan people, spitting fragrant tongues and blooming lotus flowers, and almost asked them to resign themselves.

Of course, there are also some people who care more about Guo Peng's views than Wang Can and Zao Zhi.

Because they knew that it was Guo Peng who could decide everything, and they thought that this might be a test of the emperor. Wang Can and his group were just pushed out to test everyone's pawns.

Is this what the emperor means?

Some people are so worried.

However, such concerns did not arise, because the emperor never raised such an issue from beginning to end. When officials raised an argument, the emperor never expressed his opinion.

So a few months later, such a debate was left in vain.

The emperor was obviously more concerned with war than these things.

Some people were also excited and felt that the emperor saw the public opinion, chose to give in, and chose to compromise.

This matter has passed like this.

But unexpectedly, a year later, this matter was brought up again, and it was not mentioned by Wang Can, but Guo Peng himself issued an order.

The emperor personally issued an order.

After going through the discussion stage, we directly enter the legislative implementation stage, requiring the cabinet that has the power of audit and the Ministry of Finance that has the financial income and expenditure to jointly formulate a trademark tax charter, and take out a charter for the emperor to review within one month.

Among the emperor's decree, there were contents that required the modification of the commercial tax collection ratio in various places, and there were also contents that required the increase of the commercial tax collection amount.

Then, it is also required to add taxes called transaction taxes, and there are caravan taxes for all caravans across the country based on the Cao family and Mi family caravans.

Anyway, it is full of business taxation, and all kinds of names are dazzling, making people wonder how these names are come up with for a moment.

But everyone knows that the emperor said so much, in short, it is just one sentence.

If the orphans want to impose a commercial tax, who supports it? Who opposes it?

Who dares to support it?

Who dares to object?

This is a big proposition.

After Cao Cao read out the emperor's orders, the cabinet fell into a short silence.

Cao Cao looked around the cabinet officials.

"What are you doing while standing there? Why don't you go and do things quickly? Do you have to wait for His Majesty to blame?"

As soon as the chief minister called out, the cabinet officials all reacted and hurriedly stepped down and returned to their workstation to do business.

After returning to the seat, Sima Yi didn't react for a while.

Then, seeing Zhuge Liang who was in a daze like this, Sima Yi spoke.

"Kong Ming, what's going on?"

Zhuge Liang looked at Sima Yi and shook his head.

"I don't know what to say, I always think this is not simple."

"I think so, this happened a little suddenly."

Sima Yi touched his chin for a while, and suddenly spoke, "But Kong Ming, your worries should be gone, right?"

Zhuge Liang was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly.

"Indeed, the old worries are gone, but new worries have appeared again. This matter... may cause turmoil in the DPRK. Now that the army is on the battlefield, the war has not yet subsided. If there is a turmoil in the DPRK, it may not be a good thing for the country."

Sima Yi felt deeply the same and nodded.

"I don't know what Your Majesty means..."
Chapter completed!