A morning's deliberations passed like this, and in the end the result was quite remarkable, raising a million taels of silver. At Yang Feng's strong request, the imperial court set up a temporary disaster relief team, with Zhu Youxiao as the team leader, and Gu Bingqian, Yang Feng, Huang Liji, and Guo Yunhou as the deputy leaders, responsible for raising and purchasing food, materials, and soup kitchens.

And Yang Feng also suggested that all the things given to everyone should be apportioned, everyone must be responsible for their own affairs, and report to Zhu Youxiao every day. or reprimand, or fine, or even dismissal from official positions, Yang Feng called this kind of work a responsibility contracting system.

As soon as Yang Feng's proposal came out, everyone was frightened. In a feudal society that pays attention to eating a big pot of rice and doing good and bad things, how have you ever heard of such a thing? Yang Feng of the dog day, do your parents know that you are such a bastard? Can we still let people live a good life, how can we live like this?

This groundbreaking nature of the work frightened many people, but at the same time, Zhu Youxiao was overjoyed. The biggest advantage of this system is that it can make the responsibility clear to the people, and there is no longer any need to worry about the people below passing the buck to each other after the incident. Since the responsibility is clear in advance, once this matter is not done well, it is your responsibility, once this matter goes wrong, then Zhu Youxiao can take you down directly without listening to your explanation.

Such a responsibility system was naturally commonplace in later generations, and there was nothing unusual, but it was groundbreaking in the Ming Dynasty. Confucianism in China pays attention to the same dust as light, hello, I am good, everyone, if something happens, everyone comes out and dilutes the mud, anyway, if you help me today, it may be that I will help you tomorrow, which has caused the disadvantages of the court and the yamen being inefficient and overworked.

Now Yang Feng put forward this system, but Zhu Youxiao was very happy, and immediately made a decision, and the disaster relief matter was divided into several pieces and assigned to several cabinet elders and the books of various ministries, even Yang Feng failed to pick it out, Zhu Youxiao assigned him the most important and most oily work in the eyes of others, which naturally aroused the malicious eyes of others.

After the court discussion, Zhu Youxiao specially left Yang Feng behind, and in the face of Yang Feng's slightly dissatisfied gaze, Zhu Youxiao explained helplessly: "Yang Aiqing, don't blame me, there is no way to hand over this matter to you, after all, I really can't think of anyone other than Aiqing who can withstand the temptation of millions of taels of silver and be unmoved." ”

What else can Yang Feng say? He could only smile bitterly and shake his head: "Your Majesty, you are certainly trusting the minister by handing over this matter to Weichen." But have you ever thought about it, after all, the minister is a military general, and the entire court can't find a few people who can be trusted, if that's the case, it's too sad. ”

After listening to Yang Feng's words, Zhu Youxiao didn't speak for a long time, and only after a while did he sigh lightly: "Yes, now I really don't know who of those civil officials is trustworthy and who is not trustworthy, do you say that I am too much of a failure as the emperor?" Looking at the civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty, except for Aiqing and a few people who chatted, they didn't know who to trust, and this emperor really didn't know what it meant to be. ”

Looking at the sadness that swept through the corners of Zhu Youxiao's eyes, a trace of sympathy flashed in Yang Feng's heart, everyone said that the emperor was good, but he didn't know the troubles of being an emperor. However, Yang Feng naturally wouldn't let Zhu Youxiao go down so lowly, he thought about it and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, don't worry, in fact, your troubles are not so important in Weichen's opinion. ”

"Oh...... Why is that? Zhu Youxiao looked at Yang Feng curiously, "Since ancient times, there has been a saying that "it is difficult to draw people and tigers, and it is difficult to know people and faces", which shows how difficult it is to use people, why does it become so important in Aiqing's mouth? ”

Yang Feng looked at Zhu You's correction and said: "Your Majesty, Confucius said that human nature is inherently good, but Xunzi thinks: Human nature is evil, and its nature is hypocritical. The nature of today's people is born with good interests and obedience, so they compete for life and resignation. This sentence is right in Weichen's opinion, human nature is originally to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, and who doesn't want to take advantage of it?

Those who read books keep saying that they are full of sages and sages, and almost all of them are righteous men and gentlemen, so it is just a matter of listening to this kind of words, and whoever takes it seriously is an out-and-out fool. Therefore, Weichen has always been disdainful of things such as the vertical arch rule or the Zen position of the three emperors and five emperors that those readers keep saying, and those things are not used by Confucianism to fool future generations? ”

Hearing this, Zhu Youxiao smiled bitterly and said: "Fortunately, Aiqing's words are said here, otherwise if Gao Panlong and those people hear it, I am afraid that I will have to send me a basket of impeachment twists and turns." ”

Yang Feng pursed his lips: "Are you still afraid that those rotten Confucians who can only play tricks will not succeed?" As long as he has the ability, let him let the horse come. ”

Zhu Youxiao didn't want to talk to Yang Feng about these disappointing things, so he quickly changed the topic, "Aiqing, this time I handed over the matter of purchasing food and materials to you, blocking the way for many people to get rich, they don't dare to complain to me, but they will definitely be angry with you, I hope you don't blame me." ”

Seeing a trace of guilt flashing in Zhu Youxiao's eyes, Yang Feng certainly understood the reason. In Zhu Youxiao's view, today's Yang Feng has long been an enemy all over the world in Daming, if it weren't for Zhu Youxiao's protection, he would have been torn to pieces by these countless civil officials and martial artists, but how could Zhu Youxiao understand Yang Feng's hole cards?

However, seeing that Zhu Youxiao could mention this matter to himself so calmly, Yang Feng's heart was warm, which also proved that Zhu Youxiao was not the kind of person who crossed the river and demolished the bridge, he smiled: "Your Majesty, you don't have to worry, Weichen's life is hard." Wechen knew that there were countless people in Daming who wanted Wechen's life, but Wechen would let them understand that Wechen's ability was much greater than they imagined, and it was not so easy for them to want Wechen's life. ”

Zhu Youxiao naturally didn't know what was going on with the "ability" in Yang Feng's mouth, he thought that this was just Yang Feng's words to comfort him, and when he heard this, he patted his arm with some emotion: "Aiqing, don't worry, I can promise you now, as long as I am there for a day, I will protect you for a day, and I will never let you end well." ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Yang Feng couldn't help but be moved in his heart, in this era, it is very difficult for an emperor to say this to his courtiers, this is almost the best promise an emperor has made to his courtiers.

After the two discussed for a while, Yang Feng left the palace, and at this time, the huge bureaucratic system of the Ming Dynasty also began to operate......

It turns out that although the Ming Empire has become very bloated and cumbersome, when the emperor and the ministers in the court go together to promote something, their efficiency is still considerable.

Less than two hours after going back, the ministers who pledged in the court today also sent people to send their pledged silver to the headquarters of the Daming Royal Commercial Bank in the capital. And Yang Feng was not idle, he sent people to send posts and letters to the major grain stores in the capital, the letter only said one thing, from now on, the major grain stores are not allowed to close, nor are they allowed to push the stores without grain, without the government's consent, let alone raise grain prices without authorization, otherwise the government has been investigated and punished.

It was such a short letter that immediately exploded in the capital, and most of the grain stores were disdainful after receiving this letter, ridiculing Yang Feng for being a dog and a mouse meddling. They don't care how much silver your grain sells, but you don't even think about how much my own grain sells. Don't tell me about hoarding, I'm a businessman, how can I make money if I don't?

However, there are also cautious shopkeepers, they have all heard of Yang Feng's name, this guy is well-known for his retribution, if anyone offends him, his counterattack will immediately follow, but this guy often says that he is broad-minded, so now someone is quietly giving him a nickname, called Prime Minister Jiang Ningbo.

These worried shopkeepers have asked their owners behind the scenes, and the answers given by these owners are also very different, some let them wait and see, some say to ignore the post, all kinds of attitudes.

"What...... Does this Yang Feng care about the heavens and the earth, does he care if I sell grain or not? Even His Majesty can't interfere in this kind of thing, and he Yang Feng is too lenient, you go back and tell our people, let them ignore this bullshit post, the grain is ours, we can sell as much as we want, you tell the shopkeeper Qiu that from today onwards, the price of grain will rise twice. Didn't Yang Feng just get a million taels of silver, I'll ask him to take out all the silver obediently today! ”

In the mansion of Chengguo, after hearing the report of his housekeeper, Zhu Chunchen was angry. It's this Yang Feng again, last time it was because he snatched the position of his governor Jingying Rongzheng, and after this seat was gone, there was a big loss of income in his house, and he almost didn't feel distressed to death.

In fact, the Chengguo Mansion has been camping in the capital for hundreds of years, and has already laid a foundation in the capital, so naturally it will not be so naïve to make money with the official position of the governor of Jingying Rongzheng, but for Zhu Chunchen, who loves money like his life, whoever blocks his way of wealth is his enemy, and now Yang Feng not only robbed him of his official position, but now he has blocked his way to make money, how can he bear it.

This time, a disaster finally happened in the capital, and he saw that he could take advantage of this opportunity to make a good profit, but it was this Yang Feng who jumped out again to prevent them from raising the price of grain, didn't this cost him his life?

Looking at Zhu Chunchen who was furious, the housekeeper didn't dare to say more, and quickly retreated and informed his shopkeeper of his words as they were.

Although the shopkeeper Qiu who received the notice had some objections to how Zhu Chunchen resisted Yang Feng, as the shopkeeper, he naturally did not dare to disobey the opinion of the owner, so he quickly erased the number on the sign of today's grain price, and then filled in a new number.

Soon, when a middle-aged man who came to buy grain with a cloth bag saw the price of grain on the sign, he was immediately stunned by the price on it, and he called the shopkeeper and asked: "Little second brother, is the price of grain in your store written wrong, how can it be four taels of silver and one stone?" ”

The shopkeeper looked at the sign, shook his head and said, "That's right, it's four taels of silver and one stone!" ”

"Aren't you robbing money?" The middle-aged man said angrily: "Our usual annual grain prices are generally around one or two to one or two five per stone, and even if we encounter a famine, it is only two or two at most, but how can you rise so much, aren't you robbing money?" ”

"Grab money?" The guy squinted at the angry middle-aged man: "We are willing to buy and sell, we pay attention to Tong Suo, how can we do that kind of forced buying and selling, if you don't want to buy, you can leave, we didn't force you to buy, how can we say that we are robbing money?" Besides, don't look at today's grain price is four taels, maybe tomorrow it will be more than that. ”

"You ......"

The middle-aged man with a flushed face who was angry threw off his sleeves and left without looking back, and the news that several grain stores under Zhu Chunchen's name had tripled the price of grain quickly spread, which immediately caused panic among the surrounding people.

Merchants are always profit-seeking, and when they saw someone raise prices, other grain merchants who were watching also raised grain prices one after another, so that the panic immediately began to spread.

It stands to reason that the people should not buy such a high price of grain, but now that the capital has just suffered a disaster, the people are the most panicked and helpless, and now seeing the price of grain rise like a kite, the panic in their hearts quickly turned into panic, and many people scolded the unscrupulous profiteers while carrying grain bags out of the house and ran to the nearest grain store to themselves.

In less than half a day, there was a long queue at almost all the grain stores in the capital, and when Yang Feng received the news, the entire panic wave had spread everywhere in the capital.

Yang Feng quickly called his butler in the capital, Yang Laishun, who had followed him when Yang Feng first came to Nanjing, and was now in charge of the grain trading of the royal trading house in the capital.

"Lao Yang, how is our grain store now?"

"Uncle, our grain store has now been surrounded by people who buy grain, and those people are like crazy carrying big bags and small bags around us to buy grain, and many people are going to buy several stones of grain when they open their mouths, and I am afraid that the grain stored in our store will not last long if it continues like this."

Yang Feng frowned and said, "Didn't you tell the people that our grain prices will not change, and we still sell them affordable grain?" ”

Yang Laishun stomped his feet and said: "Uncle, it is because we insist on selling affordable grain that those people are like crazy to surround our shop, and some people who forget their righteousness do not buy food at all to take home to eat, but sell it to others on the spot, and it is two or three times the profit when it changes hands, who is not willing to do such a good thing." ”

"These bastards!" Yang Feng's face suddenly darkened, he didn't expect that the situation had deteriorated to this point in less than a day.

"This Zhu Chunchen, it seems that I am still too merciful!"