"You said the official warehouse is selling grain?" Lu Yuanhou couldn't help frowning and wondered, "With their little bit of food, it's not even enough for disaster relief, how can they sell it?" ”

He thought about it for a long time, but still couldn't get the point, waved his hand and instructed Lu Yuchao: "Go, invite your Uncle Liu." ”

"Yes, Dad."

A moment later, a thin man who was nearly forty years old came with Lu Yuchao, it was Liu Cheng, the general ledger of Lu Ji Silk Shop.

He entered the house and bowed to Lu Yuan first, "Boss, are you looking for me?" ”

Lu Yuanhou said about the sale of grain in the official warehouse, Liu Cheng touched his chin and squinted his eyes and said: "The owner, according to the villain, this may be someone in the government who intends to take advantage of the high price of grain to sell official grain to fill his pockets." ”

Lu Yuchao hurriedly said: "Uncle Liu, that dog official sells cheaper than our family!" In this way, everyone went to buy his grain, not to mention, they would definitely think that the grain and rice hegemony could not be done, how could the price of this grain continue to rise? ”

What he said about hegemony is to monopolize the supply of goods and control market prices.

Liu Cheng nodded and said, "What the young owner said is reasonable. However, there is not much grain stored in the official warehouse, and he just wants to take it out to make a profit, and he will not sell the official warehouse short. It is that there will not be too much grain and rice that will flow out. ”

He bowed his hand to Lu Yuanhou and said, "Boss, since we want to dominate the market, we shouldn't let people have other ways to buy grain." Failure to do so will be extremely detrimental to the rate of increase in food prices.

"The villain suggests that you should buy all the grain sold in the official warehouse to prevent future troubles!"

Lu Yuanhou has always relied on Liu Cheng as a think tank, and when he heard him say this, he was also calculating in his heart that he would buy the grain and rice in the official warehouse at a price of one stone and nine taels, and he could sell it for more than ten taels after changing hands. Steady profit without loss, but also to make their hegemony stable.

He then nodded and said, "Then I will buy all this official food." He saw that Lu Yuchao was about to go out when he turned around, and hurriedly stopped him, "Stabilize the point." Remember, don't let our people come forward. By the way, you go to the old knife handle on Sanli Street and ask him to take someone to buy food. ”

The old knife handle is a well-known gangster in Nanjing City, Lu Yu nodded hurriedly and said, "Dad, I can save it." ”

Early the next morning.

A steward of Lu Ji Silk and Satin Shop knocked on the door of Lu Yuanhou's house and said, "The owner, the official warehouse has opened a warehouse to sell rice again." ”

Lu Yuchao went out to buy official grain yesterday, and there was no result until this meeting, so Lu Yuanhou instructed the steward to go and see the situation in the official warehouse, who knew that he was still buying grain!

Lu Yuanhou was bored for a while, and ordered: "Go and get the court back for me." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard his son's voice outside the house, "Dad, it's not good! ”

"What's wrong?" Lu Yuanhou said with a calm face, "Let you buy official grain, where did you go yesterday?" ”

"Dad, I received a total of more than 6,000 stone of official grain yesterday," Lu Yu said angrily, "but the official warehouse still produces a steady stream of grain." It is reported that the government has also added two grain shops in the south of the city and Chongling County for anyone to buy. ”

"What? Bought 6,000 stones? Lu Yuanhou was stunned, the price of one stone and nine taels, six thousand stones is fifty-four thousand taels! How dare the official warehouse be so open to sell?

He hurriedly called Liu Cheng, who also seemed to be puzzled, and was thinking about it, when he heard that a steward came to report in a panic, "The owner, the price of the official warehouse has been reduced, and now a stone of brown rice is only sold for eight taels or three yuan." ”

Does the government care whether the victims live or die? Liu Cheng hurriedly asked: "Can those porridge sheds for disaster relief inside and outside the city still make porridge?" Is the relief food still distributed in the villages as usual? ”

"Back to the big account, I haven't heard of chaos in the city, and it should be the same as before."

"These dog officers! I don't believe how much grain there is in the storehouse. Lu Yuanhou was furious, nine taels yesterday, eight taels and three dollars today, and I don't know what the price of grain will fall like this.

He pointed at Lu Yu and said, "Go, continue to collect, until the official warehouse is gone!" ”

"Yes, Dad."

Only the victims of Nanjing, Longxi and other places know that there are two more uncommon things in today's relief food - potatoes and sweet potatoes. However, it is good to have a stutter under a catastrophe, it is better than gnawing on the bark and grass roots, not to mention that this thing tastes quite good.

Lu Yuanhou received nearly 30,000 stone of official grain for five days in a row, but the price of grain in the market fell all the way to six taels and six yuan, and he realized that the situation was wrong.

"Didn't you say that the official warehouse didn't have much grain storage?" He glared at Liu Cheng angrily, "The government distributes grain for disaster relief on one side, and there is surplus grain to sell on the other side?!" ”

Liu Cheng was frightened, lowered his head and pondered for a moment, gritted his teeth and said, "The owner, the government must be holding on."

"Let's hold on a little longer, I believe we will be able to buy the official position short soon!"

"Persistence?" Lu Yuanhou raised his head and let out a long breath, in the past few days, he had spent more than 200,000 taels in order to buy out the official warehouse, and almost all the silver he earned a while ago had been pasted back.

At present, there are only 20,000 or 30,000 taels of silver left in his hand, and if he wants to continue to dominate the market, he must raise another money.

He was hesitating, when he saw Menzi trotting over and handing him a note, "Master, this is sent by Mao Tong's court." ”

Lu Yuanhou hurriedly unfolded the note and saw that there were only five small characters on it—47,000 stones.

He was ecstatic in his heart, this Mao Tong sentence was really not bragging. These words on the paper are the total number of grain stored by the government, and for these words, he stuffed it back and forth to Nanjing Tong and sentenced Mao to no less than 2,000 taels of silver.

Lu Yuanhou lowered his head and calculated, he had collected 30,000 stone in the past few days, plus the food for the victims, it was estimated that there were at most 12,300 stone grain and rice left in the official warehouse.

After buying this last 10,000 or so stones, no one in the world will be able to stop him Lu Yuanhou!

"Eat him all!" He rubbed the note vigorously in the palm of his hand and instructed Liu Chengdao, "Go and contact Fu Ji Qianzhuang, I want to pay 100,000 taels of silver!" ”

"The owner, such a large amount, I'm afraid it ......"

"I use the old house in Tingzhou and the hundred poured fertile land as a countervail, and I will get the silver immediately."

Liu Cheng glanced at him in shock, and then arched his hand, "Yes." So he immediately rushed to the bank.

Lu Yu's eyes widened to the side, "Dad, bet on the ancestral property...... How does this work? ”

"You know what?" Lu Yuanhou said confidently, "The government must want us to believe that the official warehouse has enough grain and rice, and finally reduce the price of grain with him."

"As long as I hold on for a few more days, when the official warehouse is short-sold, I will definitely raise the price of rice to 221 stones. At the moment, the more than 100,000 taels are just a drop in the bucket. ”

Three days later.

Lu Yuanhou was awakened from his dream by his son's excited shouts.

"Dad, you're really scheming...... Foresight! Lu Yuchao said excitedly in the outhouse, "The rice shops in the government have not opened today, and the people who buy grain have already lined up for miles, and they are complaining at this time!" ”

Lu Yuanhou jumped up from the bed when he heard this, squinted his eyes, and counted that he happened to buy 12,000 stone of grain from the official warehouse in the past few days. It must be that the official warehouse is empty!

He hurriedly instructed Lu Yuchao: "Inform all rice shops that from now on, the price of grain will rise by five yuan a day!" ”