"Yang Gebu got up and spoke first." Zhu Linmiao hurriedly went out of the study to help Yang Tinglin up, and let him into the house, "What happened?" ”

"Alas......" Yang Tinglin sighed heavily first, and said with an anxious expression, "Xiaguan went to southern Fujian for disaster relief, and it was smooth at the beginning, the official warehouse has hoarded nearly 40,000 catties of grain and rice, and Xiaguan sent people to Guangdong and northern Fujian to buy rice.

"According to the original plan, the imperial court allocated 700,000 taels of silver for disaster relief, plus a part of the local donation, and the grain and rice purchased should be enough for the disaster victims to survive the autumn harvest.

"Who would have thought that the profiteers in northern Fujian, Guangdong, and eastern Jiangxi heard that the court wanted to buy grain for disaster relief, so they colluded and colluded, and at the same time bought at a large price, swept away the grain and rice on the market, and then hoarded Juqi and sold it to the imperial court at several times the price.

"When Xiaguan first arrived in southern Fujian, brown rice was only sold for one tael or six taels per stone, and then it rose to three taels, and the day before yesterday, one stone of rice was sold for eight taels! Zhangpu, Changtai and other places in southern Fujian are even more ......

"At present, not only is it difficult to buy disaster relief grain in southern Fujian, but also the people in northern Guangdong and northern Fujian are also implicated.

"These bastards!" When Zhu Linmiao heard this, she slapped it the case, and couldn't help but burst out with a foul word, "You dare to make a fortune!" ”

He frowned and thought for a moment, then said to Yang Tinglin: "Can you directly collect grain from the farmers?" ”

"The lower officials have sent people to requisition in the countryside, and then ...... Those profiteers moved very quickly and bid highly, and they had already swept away the floating grain in the villages. In the past few days, more than 20 counties in northern Fujian have collected less than 1,000 stones......"

Zhu Linmiao's brows furrowed even deeper, at first it was just a famine in southern Fujian, but at this time, it was spread to the entire Fujing by these profiteers!

No matter what the era, the most basic demand of the common people is to have enough to eat, and in the face of the threat of starvation, they usually have only one way out, and that is to rise up.

If the situation continues to deteriorate, it may not be long before a second Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong will appear in Fujing. At that time, don't talk about the grand ambitions such as the Western Expedition and the Northern Expedition, the current Ming Dynasty is likely to collapse from the inside like the Chongzhen Dynasty.

When the Chongzhen Dynasty was in the famine, the imperial court was ineffective in disaster relief, although the main reason was the emptiness of the treasury, but the profiteers were also an extremely important factor.

We must not follow in the footsteps of the Chongzhen Dynasty! A chill surged in Zhu Linmiao's eyes, since you profiteers are unkind and ignore the life and death of the people in order to make the country difficult and wealthy, then don't blame me for being unjust!

He said coldly to Yang Tinglin: "Order all the magistrates of all prefectures and counties, all those who dare to hoard and raise the price of grain, all of them will be imprisoned for the crime of disturbing the country, and those who resist will be killed on the spot." ”

Yang Tinglin said gloomily: "Your Highness, this may not be easy to do......

"Oh? But why? If the local troops are insufficient, Lu Chang and Song Jincheng's men and horses can be mobilized to assist. ”

"It's not a matter of soldiers and horses, it's that the county officials can also take down those merchants." Yang Tinglin continued, "It's just that there should be only a few big households that speculate on the price of grain, but they are all hidden behind the scenes, they split the grain to the next family, and then the next family dismantles and sells the next family, and finally flows into the rice store."

"We only know that the rice shop sells grain at a high price, but its purchase price is extremely high, and the selling price has to be high. is to arrest them all, but they can't hurt the real traitor in the background.

"In addition, if a large number of rice shops are closed, it will inevitably make it even more difficult for the people who are already struggling to buy grain to buy grain, and it may push the price of grain higher."

"Can you find out who is storing the grain?"

Yang Tinglin shook his head with a bitter face, "If you follow the vine and touch the melon, you may be able to find some eyebrows in a few months, but then the hungry people in southern Fujian are afraid that they will not be able to wait ......for a long time."

Zhu Linmiao was stunned when he heard this, he only felt that he had all his strength but nowhere to go, and he looked at Yang Tinglin again, "Then according to the meaning of the Yang Pavilion, what should I do now?" ”

A few wisps of cold sweat flowed from Yang Tinglin's forehead, gritted his teeth and said: "The lower officials think that the imperial court can only allocate more disaster silver, and reinstate the hungry people to save food, or they can tide over the difficulties......"

"How much?"

"At least one and a half million taels are needed."

One and a half million taels?! Zhu Linmiao clenched his fists, there is so much silver in the treasury right now, but that is the "fund" for the future development of the Ming Dynasty, is it better to cheapen these traitors?

This hatred in his heart!

On the side, Yang Tinglin saw that the auxiliary king's face was not good, although he was afraid in his heart, but when he first arrived in southern Fujian, he still took half a step forward and said: "Your Highness, the disaster is urgent, please make a decision as soon as possible." Xiaguan ...... The lower officials were not effective in disaster relief, so they only resigned and returned to their hometowns after the autumn harvest. ”

"Profiteers mislead the country, Yang Gebu should not blame himself too much." Zhu Linmiao suppressed her anger, forced herself to calm down, and asked, "How long is the grain stored in the official warehouse enough to consume now?" ”

"Back to Your Highness, if you save food, you can still last for twelve or three days."

Zhu Linmiao nodded, which means that thousands of people will starve to death in more than ten days, but he is really unwilling to feed the silver from the treasury to the profiteers.

After a while, he said to Yang Tinglin: "Yang Gebu go back first, and I will reply to you tomorrow morning." ”

"Xiaguan...... Yes, sir. ”

Zhu Linmiao stayed awake all night, took a pen and paper, and listed the various cases of cracking down on hoarding in his mind one by one.

When he wrote the words "The Battle of Shanghai Rice and Cotton", his subordinates suddenly stopped.

The so-called battle of rice and cotton was in 1950, when a large number of speculators took advantage of the lack of materials just liberated by Shanghai to jointly buy out the "two whites and one black", that is, rice, cotton yarn and coal. After that, they hoarded and sold and wantonly raised prices, causing prices in Shanghai to soar by more than 20 times in a short period of time, which in turn triggered a nationwide wave of commodity price increases, and the lives of ordinary people were greatly impacted.

How similar is this to the situation in Fukyo right now? Zhu Linmiao immediately recalled our party's response at that time, which was very simple but extremely practical, that is, to centrally transfer "two white and one black" materials from all over the country and sell them in Shanghai in large quantities to stabilize prices.

After the sell-off lasted for a period of time, prices became lower and lower, and speculators could no longer hold back, so they had to sell and hoard goods at a loss, and finally prices stabilized.

Zhu Linmiao's eyes narrowed slightly, secretly thinking that he might be able to paint cats and tigers in Fujing. But he immediately shook his head slightly, at that time, our party was able to keep prices down, and there were two key points.

First, it has a huge source of materials -- it can allocate materials from all over the country to concentrate on stabilizing prices in Shanghai. The second is that the economic ability in hand is strong enough to ensure that the speculators are unable to eat all the items they sell, and eventually blow up their positions.

He didn't have either of those things.

At present, there are only Jiangxi and Fujian under the rule of the imperial court, and almost all the grain that can be purchased in these two places has been bought out by profiteers, where else can they transfer grain and rice?

Moreover, even if a source of rice is found, all the silver in the treasury cannot be used to stabilize the price of grain. But if you don't invest millions of taels of silver, it is difficult to influence the direction of the market......

He tapped his fingers on the table in thought, but his eyes inadvertently swept over the pile of official documents on the desk, and among them was a roll of yellowed thick paper that made his heart move.