On August 12, Gu Lao Er walked on the way from work, frowning. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Nowadays, for Gu Laoer, the manager work in the textile factory only provides Gu Laoer with a social status, and the financial head of Gu Laoer's family is the Grange in Liaodong. Gu Laoer's grange has 320 acres of land, all of which are contracted to the service team, and this year's harvest is cut off next year's seeds, and there are 195 stone of grain.

The grain of one hundred and ninety-five stones, Gu Lao Er and the service team were divided into thirty or seventy, and Gu Lao Er got thirty percent of the land rent, that is, fifty-eight stones and five buckets of wheat in hand.

These ground rent incomes are now the majority of Gu Lao's family's income. Compared with the manager's monthly money of more than 40 taels a year, this 58 stone and 5 buckets of wheat is worth a lot.

However, the recent food prices have made Gu Lao Er very worried.

In July, the animal wheat harvesters produced in various factories in Tianjin showed their skills in Liaodong, and the wheat harvesters that used to require farmers to work for several days to harvest wheat were finished in a few hours under the operation of the harvesters. Heaps of wheat were collected in the barn, as high as a hill.

This year's bumper harvest of wheat in Liaodong is, in the words of the newspaper, "12 million mu of wheat fields in Liaodong like waves." It is said that due to effective irrigation and good years, wheat fields in eastern Liaoning have generally harvested more than seven buckets this year. According to newspaper estimates, this 12 million mu of wheat fields in Liaodong produced at least 7 million stone of grain.

This is a large number, and according to the analysis of the newspaper, the total population of Liaodong is currently no more than one million. In other words, Liaodong needs to retain only 3 million stone of grain in the next year. There are still four million stone of grain, which will be surplus grain.

Coupled with the continuous expansion of grain planting in Shandong and Taiwan over the years, this year's Li Zhiling can be described as a bumper harvest. Grain ships from the south continued to transport grain to Tianjin, filling the granaries of Tianjin.

Of course, the most terrifying thing is the extra four million stone grain in Liaodong. As soon as the four million grains came out, Tianjin felt a little indigestible.

From the beginning of the grain harvest in Liaodong, the price of grain in Tianjin began to fall. At first, it fell by a centimeter, a few centimeters per stone, and then it fell by a cent.

Even Grandpa Guo's affordable grain store determines the purchase volume based on the annual sales volume. Under the general influx of "dumping" wheat in Liaodong, the cheap grain stores had long since filled all their granaries and stopped buying grain from the market.

As soon as the parity grain stores stopped purchasing, the price of grain jumped and fell, and every day it was a new price. The price of spring wheat fell from 221 stone all the way to 124 coins and 1 stone. Affected by the decline in spring wheat prices, winter wheat and paddy prices also plummeted.

The newspaper has seriously raised the issue of "grain cheapness hurting peasants." Tianjin Daily held a two-day discussion on this issue to solicit the opinions of people from all walks of life. But in the end, no one could come up with a solution.

This plummeting grain price caused Gu Lao Er to suffer heavy losses. Gu Lao Er could have received one hundred and seventeen taels of silver. But because the price of grain fell like this, Gu Lao Er could only get eighty-two taels of silver. came and went, and Gu Lao Er lost thirty-five taels of silver.

The loss of thirty-five taels of silver can feed three people.

Along the way, Gu Lao Er frowned, he was worried that if this continued, the price of grain would be reduced next year. It is said that more than 20 million mu of dry land has been built with water conservancy facilities in Liaodong Province, and the grain that Liaodong Province will sell to Guannai next year will be in the tens of millions of stones.

Gu Lao Er was originally going to rely on these more than 300 acres of dry land to turn over and become a rich man, but he didn't expect to encounter such a grain price. If the price of grain falls like this, these granges in Liaodong will be worthless.

Gu Lao Er sighed and walked into his villa.

In the living room, the eldest son, Gu Weisheng, was sitting at the table reading a newspaper. Gu Lao's daughter-in-law sat on the side with her youngest daughter in her arms, and kept urging her eldest son to tell her what happened in the newspaper - Gu's second daughter-in-law was illiterate, but she wanted to know what was going on outside, so she urged her son to read the newspaper to her every day.

Gu Lao Er walked into the room listlessly, pulled the chair back, and sat down at the table.

"Dad, is the factory busy today?"

Gu Lao Er said weakly: "I'm busy, I'm not busy..."

Gu Laoer's daughter-in-law glared at Gu Laoer, and shouted: "What do you mean that you are not busy or busy, why do you seem to have lost your soul?" ”

Gu Lao Er sighed and did not speak.

Gu Laoer's daughter-in-law thought for a while, and then said: "Boss, do you want to transport the fifty-eight stone grain from Liaodong to Guannei to sell?" That's a lot of money! Put it in the barn in Liaodong, don't be moldy, it will be eaten by insects. ”

Gu Lao Er sneered and said: "I went to ask, and it will cost fourteen taels of freight to transport it back, and now that the price of grain is so low, there is really no luck!" ”

Gu Laoer's daughter-in-law also sighed when she heard Gu Laoer's words. However, she was soon attracted by the movements of her youngest daughter, who finished eating a piece of maltose in her mouth and reached out to her to ask for candy. She stood up with her little daughter in her arms, walked to the cabinet at the other end of the living room, and took out two pieces of candy.

Hearing the conversation between Gu Lao Er and his mother, Gu Weisheng suddenly shouted: "Dad, don't you know? Food prices have risen today? ”

Gu Lao Er was stunned: "It's up?" ”

"It's up! Grandpa Guo came up with a policy of 'national grain protection price,' stipulating that spring wheat could be sold for 128 yuan, and winter wheat and rice could be sold for 222 yuan, and the government would buy as much as they wanted. I was playing in front of the grain store at the intersection in the afternoon, and I noticed that the price of grain in there had risen. ”

Gu Lao Er looked at his son in surprise and asked, "Really?" ”

Gu Weisheng stuffed the newspaper in front of Gu Lao Er and said, "You read the newspaper by yourself." ”

Gu Lao Er carefully looked at the article in the newspaper, and the more he read it, the more happy he became.

"Grandpa Guo is really in charge of the people, and now he doesn't have to worry about the wheat being sold for a price."

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Li Zhi sat in the third hall of the Guogong Mansion, with several generals and civil officials under his command sitting in front of him.

Zheng Kaicheng asked: "Grandpa Guo set this national protection price, which I have never heard of, and I think it is indeed exquisite." ”

When several officials next to Zheng Kaicheng heard this, they sang and nodded one after another. Obviously, the state protection price that Li Zhi learned from later governments was refreshing to them.

"It's just that if you buy grain from the people at a price lower than the market price, what if the deficit is too big?"

Li Zhi looked at Zheng Kaicheng and said slowly: "Businessmen manipulate grain prices and suppress grain purchase prices during the grain harvest season. Now that the grain harvest in eastern Liaodong is in full swing, grain prices are falling all the way, which is caused by grain merchants sitting on the ground and lowering prices. Daming was full of famines, in Henan and Shaanxi, the people were easy to eat, and the grain was sold to ten taels and one buckets. As long as you find a way to transport the grain to other places, why worry about not being able to sell it at a price? ”

"With this protective price, grain merchants can't afford to make waves. The enthusiasm of peasants and landlords to farm can be protected. After a pause, Li Zhi said: "Now is a troubled time, we have food in our hands, and it is useless to worry!" Then the opportunity for food prices to come down, we put food in the hands of the government. ”