Zhong Hui had certainly been busy these past two days.
Ever since Cao Mao had told him about the head tax, Zhong Hui had been unable to sit still.
Zhong Hui's greatest ambition was to assist a Sage King and usher in a golden age.
Zhong Hui believed he worked hard enough, and the emperor could hardly be called anything but wise. His various policies were also quite appropriate.
Yet even so, creating a true golden age that rivaled the peak of the Two Han Dynasties, or even surpassed them, would take at least fifty years.
Zhong Hui felt he might not even live that long.
The reason it would take so much time was the problem of "hard power"-population, the most important component of a golden age.
Without enough people, everything else was futile.
Guanqiu Jian, for instance, could conquer all of Goguryeo, and the land there was suitable for cultivation and reclamation, but what use was that?
Even the Central Plains were sparsely populated now. Apart from the great metropolis of Luoyang, all the other provinces and commanderies were desperately short of people. How could the imperial court spare the strength to occupy Goguryeo?
Whatever one did required people. Though too many people would burden and pressure the imperial court, Zhong Hui believed he could establish a virtuous cycle.
The simplest way to increase the population was to abolish the head tax.
Without the head tax, the common people, who had almost no entertainment, could only keep making babies.
Historically, population had been a headache during Sima Yan's reign. To increase it, the imperial court had even decreed that seventeen-year-old women had to marry!
If they did not marry on their own, the imperial court would arrange their marriages.
In fact, such conduct was not unique to Sima