The concubine on the side took the clothes and put them on for Lu Yuanhou, and said in a low voice: "Master, if the price of food continues to rise like this, I am afraid that many people will starve to death......

"Hmph, woman's kindness!" He glanced at the little concubine, "It's just some mud legs and untouchables, in troubled times, how much is a human life worth?" Besides, they will starve to death, and it's not that the imperial court is not effective in disaster relief......"

Lu Yuanhou came out of the bedroom, and someone had already prepared meat porridge, rice, etc., and he sat down and was about to enjoy it, when he heard the sound of people outside the house, as if he was shouting "buy grain", "Zhao'an" and the like.

Before he could ask, Liu Cheng stumbled in, sweating profusely and said, "Boss, it is reported that the imperial court's grain ship has been anchored in Zhao'an Port two days ago, carrying nearly 20,000 stones of grain and rice!" ”

The chopsticks in Lu Yuanhou's hand fell to the ground with a click. 20,000 stones, he only has more than 30,000 taels of silver left in his hand, and it is impossible to buy out this batch of grain no matter what.

Lu Yuchao panicked for a while, "Dad, how is this good?" ”

"You, you go and see the situation first." Lu Yuanhou waved his hand weakly.

A few hours later, Lu Yuchao hurriedly returned, saying that there was a large group of grain trucks on the outskirts of the city to sell grain on the spot, and brown rice was only sold for five taels and one stone.

When Lu Yuanhou heard this, he felt a buzz in his head, didn't it mean that the grain in Jiangxi, Fujian and even northern Guangdong had been bought out, where did the imperial court transfer tens of thousands of stone grain and rice?

No, the court must have used some kind of trick. He immediately cheered himself up, 20,000 stone of food, only enough for five or six days' rations for the victims. I insisted on not doing business for a few days, and when his official food ran out, the price of grain would have to listen to me.

Unexpectedly, a few days later, another sea ship docked in Zhao'an, and it is said that 20,000 stone grain and rice were still transported.

At the same time, in recent days, several opera troupes have appeared near Nanjing, and they have performed on stage for free, attracting people to watch. Lu Yuanhou has been closed for a few days and has not done business, so he simply goes to the theater when he has nothing to do.

As a result, when he heard this, he almost lost two souls and six spirits. The stage was actually staged in the recent matter of the imperial court's grain transfer.

In the play, the price of grain in Dongfan, Luzon, Jiaozhi and other places is extremely low, and the imperial court sent a large number of sea ships to buy it, and the 700,000 taels of disaster relief silver allocated by the imperial court are enough to buy 700,000 stone of grain!

Later, a steady stream of ships docked at the ports of southern Fujian, and the price of grain became lower and lower, and finally it was almost close to the price of the Nanyang lands.

After the curtain ended, there were also missionary officials of the imperial court who instructed the people not to store grain, and if the disaster food issued by the government was not enough to eat, they would go outside the city to buy some grain that had just been brought back from overseas.

He also said that the price of grain has been high recently due to the lack of sea routes, and that the price will be lower in the future than at this time last year.

……

Outside Nanjing City, Lin Zunbin, the head of the household department, looked at the carriages that were constantly filling with grain from the port, and couldn't help but wonder and said to Yang Tinglin, who was standing in front of the side, "Cabinet Department, the lower officials don't understand. If you know early in the morning that a large amount of rice will arrive, why don't you just sell it at a low price to quickly calm the price of rice?

But it is sold at two per stone, and the price of grain and rice is still high......"

Yang Tinglin smiled and said, "Gong Yan, let me ask you, after we open the warehouse and release grain, where did all this grain and rice go?" ”

"Where?" Lin Zunbin was stunned for a moment, and then said, "I was bought by the people......"

Yang Tinglin shook his head slightly, "At the beginning, I also had the same thoughts as you, but fortunately, His Royal Highness the Auxiliary King woke me up.

"Let me tell you, since the official warehouse was opened, a total of more than 40,000 stone grain and rice have been sold, and almost all of them have gone into the hands of profiteers who hoarded Juqi."

Lin Zunbin is also a smart person, and he immediately understood that these profiteers want to dominate the market, and they must not allow grain and rice that is lower than their own price to appear on the market. Therefore, when the official rations come out, they will sweep them away. ”

Yang Tinglin continued: "If we open a warehouse at the price of one or five cents per stone, these 40,000 stone grain profiteers can buy it out for only 60,000 taels of silver, and then they will be sold to the people at a price ten times higher.

"In accordance with the instructions of His Royal Highness the Auxiliary King, the official started from the market price and gradually reduced the selling price. In order to continue to dominate the market, profiteers will definitely eat all this grain.

"Therefore, the 40,000 stone of grain we have sold in the past few days have yielded more than 300,000 taels of silver. And because the market price is getting lower and lower, the profiteers can only go out. ”

"But in this case, will the people also have to buy grain at a high price......

"Definitely." Yang Tinglin shook his head again, "Where can ordinary people rob these profiteers." I dare to assert that in recent days, the people of southern Fujian have lived on the disaster grain allocated by the imperial court to the villages, and there are very few people who buy the grain.

"Although it is a bit hard, as long as they get through this period, when the profiteers can't hold on, they will soon be safe."

He still had some words left unsaid, and if he only relied on the 100,000 or so stone of grain and rice that the imperial court had transferred from overseas, it would not be possible for the 800,000 victims to hold out until the autumn harvest.

Therefore, it is necessary to force out the food hoarded by the profiteers so that the drought can be survived.

……

With the continuous propaganda of the missionary government, for a time, the people in southern Fujian talked about the transportation of grain by sea ship in the court, and saw that the price of grain was getting lower and lower, but the relief of the imperial court was increasing day by day. The confidence of the people to survive the catastrophe is also growing.

On the other hand, Lu Yuanhou's life was extremely unpleasant.

Although he used the grain in his hand as collateral, and cooperated with several other merchants who were grain tyrants, and bought more than 60,000 stone of official grain at a price of about 6 taels per stone, Zhao'an Port had grain ships docked almost every day, and there was no sign of being cut off.

During this time, he listened to the drama of the mission every day, and the missionaries would report the amount of grain and grass that arrived in southern Fujian that day, ranging from 4,000 stone to 10,000 stone, which made him more and more convinced of the statement that the imperial court had bought 700,000 stone of grain and rice in Nanyang.

At noon on this day, several profiteers who were doing grain hegemony gathered at Lu Yuanhou's house to discuss future strategies.

As the person who controls most of the grain in southern Fujian, Lu Yuanhou was the first to speak: "Needless to say, the current situation is also well known.

"In a word, if the court keeps getting food, no one will buy our food at a high price. When the autumn harvest comes, the grain and rice in our warehouse will not even be able to sell for one or two dollars per stone. ”

He let out a long sigh as he spoke, and secretly said in his heart that if he arrived at that time, the shops and properties he went out would no longer have anything to do with his Lu family......

The profiteer surnamed Liu on the side frowned and said: "It is said that the imperial court has obtained 700,000 stone grain, if this is the case, it is impossible to eat it all if we kill it......"

"I sent people to keep an eye on Zhao'an every day, and there were indeed sea ships carrying Yi people constantly docking, unloading large bags of grain."

"I won't hide it from you, I don't have any money in my hand."

"I still have more than 100,000 taels here, but recently in order to collect all the official food, everyone has lost 400,000 taels into it, who knows when it will be a head?"

After a suffocating silence, Shopkeeper Liu said tentatively: "It's better to ...... We stopped there, and sold the hoarded grain for five or six taels and one stone, and there was still a profit. You are lonely, the young lady warms you with a movie

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