Gu Hui put down the document in his hand, raised his head, and his gaze was calm yet profound as a deep abyss. He did not directly answer Yue Fei's question but instead asked, "Pengju, what do you think constitutes a golden age?"
Without waiting for Yue Fei to answer, he asked and answered himself, his voice steady and powerful: "Is it when the treasury is full, and people don't pick up lost items on the road?"
"Or is it when all nations come to pay tribute, and the territory spans ten thousand miles?"
"These are certainly signs of a prosperous era, but they are not the root of prosperity."
"Throughout history, so-called prosperous times are nothing more than the result of a wise ruler and virtuous ministers momentarily suppressing land annexation, easing conflicts between officials and the people, allowing the world to gasp for decades."
"Yet, the root cause remains unchanged!"
