The Great Arcanist Who Traveled Through the World of American Variety Shows.

Chapter 414 Richard Meets Guo Rong

"My fellow Taoist's ambition is beyond my reach!" Lu Dongbin was speechless for a long time, and finally bowed and said.

Richard accepted the greeting and continued, "Did you come here for the unusual movement of the Golden Dragon of Fortune?"

"That's right." Lu Dongbin said, "The world has been in chaos for a long time, and the unification of China is about to reappear. I am here to prevent evil demons from taking advantage of the opportunity to cause chaos."

The prosperity of China's fortune will naturally attract the covetousness of some evil spirits who want to steal it.

The system tower spirit also displayed the investigation data on Lu Dongbin in front of him.

"Pure Yang Immortal Lü Dongbin [Sword Immortal] [Imperial Immortal Body] [Pure Yang Primordial Spirit] [Residing Immortal] [Immortal Style and Spirit] [Sword Heart and Spiritual Communication]."

"Pure Yang Sword [Immortal Sword] [Destroy Evil] [Pure Yang] [Protect]."

In the system's danger level marking, its level has already surpassed that of a god with medium divine power. If it were to ascend to the fairyland, I'm afraid its strength would be even stronger.

In the multiverse, a god of medium power can already become the main god of a pantheon. As for powerful gods, their number is pitifully small, and great gods almost only exist in legends.

The gods with great divine powers have basically given up their divinity and begun to seek ways to transcend.

Richard and Lu Dongbin had a discussion. They learned from each other. They had different understandings of the law, but there were many good points in it. Richard benefited a lot from this discussion.

Next, Richard and Lü Dongbin exchanged tokens. After learning that Richard had no place to stay, Lü Dongbin immediately invited Richard to stay temporarily at his Chunyang Temple.

After all, there are very few people in the entire Chinese land who can sit and discuss philosophy with him. This time when he meets Richard, he will naturally not let him go easily. He will have to discuss philosophy for at least ten days.

Richard readily agreed, as he was also very curious about the cultivation methods of the Shenzhou land.

You know, many of the practitioners on the land of Shenzhou are ordinary people who practice to become immortals, and if arcane masters want to reach this level, they can only rely on floating cities or integrate divinity.

Lu Dongbin naturally noticed the fox demon and cat demon around Richard, but he didn't say anything. The demons that Master Chunyang exorcised were mostly man-eating monsters, and these two were certainly not them.

After staying in Kaifeng for a while, Richard had a pretty good understanding of the situation there.

He also met the Great Zhou Emperor Guo Rong in Kaifeng. Guo Rong, who was only 39 years old this year, looked strong and handsome. His long military career had made him tough, and he also knew the sufferings of the people. Now was the time to be full of vigor and ambition.

No one could have imagined that he would die of illness this year.

Richard also observed Zhao Kuangyin. As the inspector of the palace, Zhao Kuangyin was an important official of the Great Zhou Dynasty, deeply trusted by Guo Rong, and in charge of a part of the imperial army.

Zhao Kuangyin had a wide range of friends and had good relationships with almost all the generals. He also had outstanding military achievements and a high prestige in the army. However, Richard did not see any dragon spirit in him.

Obviously, only after Guo Rong's death would the true dragon energy fall into his body.

"Fellow Taoist, do you think Zhao Kuangyin is more important?" Lu Dongbin asked.

"He does have some potential to be a leader, but I am more optimistic about Guo Rong," said Richard.

Lü Dongbin looked at the dragon of luck in the palace and said, "Guo Rong is indeed very good, but he has a calamity in his life. Moreover, although his dragon of luck is vast, it is not condensed. His son is even younger. How can he take on such a big responsibility?"

"It's very simple, just help him get through this disaster!" Richard said with a smile.

Lü Dongbin was slightly stunned when he heard this, and then he said, "Do you really intend to do this, fellow Taoist?"

"Of course!" Richard said with a smile, "Zhao Kuangyin is indeed good, but the ones who came after him were not up to par. If I hadn't intervened, although the Central Plains would have been unified, in the end Shenzhou would have been divided into three factions!"

"I don't want to see this!"

"I'm afraid you're too deeply involved and it's hard for you to let go. How can you ascend to heaven then?"

Richard shook his head slightly and said nothing. He did not plan to ascend. After he completed these, he could naturally use the Space Stone to leave. Could the fate entanglement of this world still chase him to the Marvel world?

Lu Dongbin and others were restrained because they were worried that the entanglement was too deep and they would not be able to ascend to heaven in the end. But he was not worried about these things.

"What do you plan to do, fellow Daoist?"

"Of course, let him invite me!" Richard said with a smile.

Just last year, Guo Rong invited Chen Tuan to come and ask him for advice on the Huangbai technique. Many people don't know what the Huangbai technique is, but if you change the term, you will definitely understand it.

Alchemy.

That's right, what Guo Rong asked Chen Tuan for advice was the alchemy. Guo Rong wanted to use the alchemy to make money because he wanted to reduce the taxes of the people but had to fight a war and did not have enough financial resources.

Chen Tuan said: Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven, and it is your responsibility to govern the world. How can you be obsessed with these magic?

In fact, the alchemy that Guo Rong studied was more like chemistry.

Since Guo Rong was able to invite Chen Tuan, Richard naturally had a way to get him to invite himself.

So Richard first built a Taoist temple outside the city, and then he preached and cured the people. His preaching was not about Taoist scriptures, but about imparting various knowledge.

This era experienced the wars of the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, with heavy casualties among the people and few scholars. Otherwise, there would not have been the saying that Zhao Pu could rule the world with only half of the Analects of Confucius.

As for those aristocratic families, they gradually declined under the suppression of the Tang Dynasty emperors, and finally disappeared in the turmoil of the warlords.

Richard now imparts knowledge publicly, and many people flock to follow him to learn. At the same time, Richard also treats the people for free. The diseases of the people are basically not a problem for him, and he can cure them with medicine.

As a result, Richard's reputation began to spread in Kaifeng City, and many people came to visit. After seeing that Richard lived up to his reputation, his reputation became more and more famous.

The knowledge Richard imparted was not the Four Books and Five Classics, and it had nothing to do with them at all. The knowledge he imparted was very miscellaneous. Today he taught some arithmetic, tomorrow he taught some agronomy, the day after tomorrow he would talk about governing the people, and then he would talk about some health-preserving Huang-Lao studies.

It can be said that it covers everything, and more and more people come to listen to the lectures, even reaching a scale of thousands.

Such a big commotion soon alarmed Guo Rong, who was also worried about the lack of talent. At this time, the Great Zhou inherited the imperial examination system of the Tang Dynasty and held imperial examinations in Kaifeng. However, due to various reasons, although the imperial examinations were held, not many talents were selected.

After all, after a hundred years of war, even the noble families had perished, let alone ordinary people. Although the Great Zhou looked good at this time, it had many internal problems.

The Zhou Dynasty inherited the Later Han Dynasty, which in turn inherited the Later Jin Dynasty, which in turn inherited the Later Tang Dynasty. These countries had been at war for decades, and there were too few qualified officials.

Moreover, when the Later Jin was destroyed by the Khitan, the Khitan ravaged the country for half a year, and the Later Jin suffered heavy casualties. In this case, how much inheritance could the Great Zhou have?
So now Da Zhou is seriously lacking in talent.

In the recent imperial examination, Guo Rong personally examined the candidates, but less than one-third of them passed, which made Guo Rong very worried.

So when he heard that there was a great sage outside the city, he immediately led people to look for him.

When Guo Rong came here, Richard noticed it immediately, but he didn't show it, and continued to talk about knowledge. Today Richard talked about governing the people.

The way to govern the people he talked about did not have too many great principles, nor did it have a lot of nonsense, but he tried his best to make people understand. Richard was talking about the current situation of the Great Zhou. Although the Great Zhou occupied a lot of land at this time, there was very little arable land, so it was natural to encourage farming at this time.

How to encourage farming, equal distribution of land is an important part of it. In addition to equal distribution of land, it is also possible to encourage the reclamation of wasteland, reduce taxes, promise that the reclaimed land belongs to oneself, and collect taxes on the reclaimed land after five years, etc.

Although many of the things Richard described were methods used by other dynasties in the past, many people still didn't know about them.

Guo Rong nodded his head while listening to the talk. Guo Rong was not from a high family, but he had read some books and had been a businessman for a while after growing up, so he was quite knowledgeable. He was also hearing a lot of knowledge for the first time.

Richard also pointed out the issues that need attention, such as strictly prohibiting local tyrants and powerful families from occupying land, and explained the methods used by those local tyrants and powerful families.

Richard's narration made Guo Rong feel as if everything had suddenly become clear and the clouds had been cleared to reveal the light.

Soon today's lecture ended, Richard returned to the Taoist temple, and the people who came to listen to the lecture also dispersed. Guo Rong then stepped forward and asked someone to knock on the door.

Soon the gate of the Taoist temple opened and a Taoist boy came out.

"Is there anything I can do for you, sir?" the Taoist boy asked after seeing Guo Rong's clothes.

"I heard that the abbot is a great sage of the time, so I wanted to come and ask for advice!" Guo Rong said politely.

"Please come in, sir. The master has already said that if you want to seek advice, you can go there on your own." The Taoist child said as he opened the door.

Guo Rong was slightly stunned, then walked in with a few followers.

The Taoist temple was not big. After passing through the main hall, we came to the backyard, where Richard was sitting waiting.

"My name is Chai Rong, nice to meet you, sir." Guo Rong did not reveal his identity.

"Please take a seat, distinguished guest." Richard said with a smile.

"What do you want to ask today, my dear guest?"

"I have benefited a lot from your lecture today, but I still have many doubts and would like to ask you for advice." Guo Rong said politely.

"Your distinguished guest, please speak."

"Sir, I would like to ask about the teachings of Tao Zhu." Guo Rong said.

Richard smiled slightly when he heard what Guo Rong said. It seems that Guo Rong has been really short of money during this period of time!
"I see that your Excellency is quite wealthy, so he should not be short of money."

"I have a big family and many people depend on me for food, but I am also worried about it now."

"If you want money and food, you can use the salt and iron method." Richard said.

"Sir, are you talking about the salt and iron monopoly?" Guo Rong asked.

Richard waved his hand and said, "Salt field monopoly is naturally one way, but it's okay in the early stages, but after a while there will be a lot of corruption. We can talk about this later."

"What you want to know today is how to prepare food and money for the expedition," Richard said with a smile.

Guo Rong's expression remained unchanged as he asked, "How did you recognize me, sir?"

Richard did not answer, and continued what he had just said: "Now the salt fields are all in the hands of the court, and the number is limited, and the output value of the salt fields is also limited. I have a way to greatly increase the salt production."

"Please enlighten me."

"Does your honor know how to dry salt?" Richard asked with a smile.

"What is the salt drying method?" Guo Rong asked.

"Salt production in salt fields is mostly done by boiling brine to obtain edible salt, but this method requires a lot of firewood and labor, and the yield is not high."

"The method of drying salt is very simple, which is to open up salt fields on the seashore."

Richard explained the method of salt drying. At that time, the method of salt drying was not well known. If the method of salt drying could be promoted, the output of salt fields could easily increase several times.

Salt is money in this era. Humans cannot eat without salt. At the same time, salt is also an important strategic material that can be traded with other countries to obtain a lot of money.

This alone can bring Guo Rong a lot of money, and salt production will not affect the livelihood of the people, and there is no need to increase taxes, which is perfect for Guo Rong.

"If the salt-drying method is feasible, you should be the first to achieve the credit!" Guo Rong said happily.

Richard's expression was calm. He picked up the teacup, took a sip and continued speaking.

"Salting can generate income, but the distinguished guest still has concerns about food logistics."

"Sir, do you have any other ideas?"

"Of course there is!" Richard nodded and continued, "The problem with logistics and food is also that the national treasury is not rich, there is not enough money and food, and at the same time, civilians have to be conscripted for transportation."

"Your Excellency can also use salt to solve the problem."

"Please give me some advice, sir." Guo Rong asked solemnly.

"Your Excellency can order the production of salt permits, which can be used to purchase salt at the government salt fields at a price lower than the market price."

"Then tell those merchants that if they want salt permits, they need to transport grain to the designated area. The amount of grain they transport will be exchanged for the corresponding salt permits, and then let the merchants use the salt permits to buy salt at a low price."

"When merchants find it profitable, they will naturally gather people to transport food."

“This is the Kaizhong method!”

"It's really wonderful!" Guo Rong said excitedly.

"It is difficult to transport food and wages to the border areas, so we can use the Kaizhong method. In order to pursue profits, those merchants will also hire people to open up wasteland near the border and cultivate it, and then hand over the harvested food to the government in order to obtain salt permits."

"As long as the imperial court does not abuse salt permits, abuse its power for personal gain, or engage in corruption, this system will be able to solve the problem of logistics and food wages."

"At the same time, reclaiming wasteland in the border areas can also increase national grain production, achieving three goals at one stroke."

Guo Rong nodded repeatedly after hearing Richard's words, but he did not give Guo Rong any ideas that were beyond the current era.

"The world has been in turmoil for a long time. In order to avoid disasters, many people have no choice but to sell themselves as slaves in temples and Taoist temples. You can ask the temples and Taoist temples to release the slaves, register them as ordinary people, and grant them land. In addition, there are too many Buddhist and Taoist temples in the world that do not engage in production."

"At the same time, Buddhist and Taoist temples are hoarding a large number of gold and bronze statues, causing a shortage of money in the world. The distinguished guest should dismiss some temples and use bronze statues to mint coins."

(End of this chapter)