When he lost his mind, Su Zhe had already entered normal.

"Xiaguan Li Yan, meet Taishou." Li Yan stepped forward and bowed his hand.

Su Zhe came back with a thought, waved his hand to excuse him, and asked, "Li Xiancheng came to me so early, is there anything urgent?" ”

"Is it still early?" Li Yan glanced at the sun that had reached overhead outside.

"It's not too early, ahem." Su Zhe coughed dryly, brushed his hand and said, "Say, what's the matter." ”

Li Yan said: "The lower officials came to disturb the Taishou, just to remind the Taishou, the summer grain has not yet fallen, and the people in the city are almost exhausted of their winter grain stocks, and the grain prices on the market have risen, and according to the estimates of the lower officials, the increase in grain prices this year will not be inferior to the price of the grain shortage last year. ”

Soaring food prices?

Su Fei frowned, puzzled: "Last year, Wancheng was still Yuan Shu's territory, it was because Yuan Shu was extremely poor and wanton to loot grain and grass, which led to a food shortage, and now that the war in Nanyang is over, no one is robbing grain and grass anymore, how can there be a food shortage, and how can the increase in grain prices be the same as last year?" ”

"There is no open robbery, but I am afraid that the secret robbery is more ruthless than the open robbery." Li Yan had something to say, and it seemed to hint otherwise.

Su Zhe heard the meaning of his words, so he waved his hands and said, "Don't play dumb riddles with me, what do you want to say?" ”

Li Yan said: "The lower official is still the same sentence, Taishou wants to hear the truth or a lie?" ”

Again.

"Forget the lie, let's take it really this time." Su Zhe urged.

Li Yan sighed lightly and said: "Don't hide it from Taishou, since the predecessor Cai Taishou took office, the Cai family's tentacles have reached Nanyang, and they have taken the opportunity to swallow a lot of fertile fields, especially near Wancheng, there are almost thirty percent of the fields, and now they are all Cai family, which means that thirty percent of the grain sold in Wancheng comes from the Cai family, and Taishou understands the meaning of the officials." ”

Su Zhe's sword eyebrows froze, how could he not understand the meaning of his words.

As the saying goes, the economic base determines the superstructure, and the reason why the powerful people are strong is because they occupy a large amount of grain land.

In this era when grain is hard currency, the more fields there are, the more grain is produced, and the more grain there is, the more wealth there is, and it is this huge wealth that can make the children of the powerful people of the world worry about food and clothing, and squeeze out a lot of time to study and study, thus monopolizing knowledge.

It is precisely this huge wealth that allows their family to support a large number of domestic slaves and private soldiers.

With a lot of soldiers and enough food, and enough knowledge, the powerful people of the world have strong strength and become the head snakes of all parties who must be wooed by all princes.

Now that Liu Biao has driven Yuan Shu out of Nanyang, those children of the family are vying to come to Nanyang to be officials, and the big reason is naturally to take advantage of the convenience of being an official to seize the land in Nanyang and seek benefits for the family.

Cai Mao, as the head of the Cai family, one of the four major families in Jingzhou, and the official Nanyang Taishou, took the opportunity to swallow a large amount of land for the Cai family, which was also expected by Su Zhe.

It's just that what Su Zhe didn't expect was that Cai Mao had only been in office for less than a few months, and he had annexed one-third of the grain fields around Wancheng, which was really greedy.

"Cai Mao, Cai Mao, your appearance is really ugly......"

Su Zhe was sarcastic in his heart, and said: "I understand what you mean, are you saying that the Cai family relies on thirty percent of the grain in Wancheng to be their family property, so they deliberately sell high-priced grain to make huge profits?" ”

Li Yan nodded.

Su Zhe paused for a moment and said: "Even so, there are still seventy percent of the grain on the market that is not his Cai family, even if the price of grain is going to rise, it will not go to heaven." ”

Li Yan sighed: "If it is only for this reason, the price of grain will indeed not rise to the sky, but as far as the lower officials know, shortly before leaving office, Cai Taishou used the power in his hands to help the Cai family's grain store and forcibly purchased the remaining seventy percent of the grain on the market at a low price. ”

Swallowing his saliva, Li Yan finally said: "In other words, the grain sales in the entire Wancheng are all controlled by the Cai family, and they can push the price of grain as high as they want." ”

Bang!

Su Zhe's fist slammed the desk, and anger ignited in his starry eyes.

He understood that Cai Mao knew that he wanted to give up the position of Taishou, so before he got out, he used his power to let the Cai family monopolize food and buried such a disgusting one* for him.

As long as this * explodes, not only will the Cai family be able to make huge profits from it, but also make the price of food in Wancheng soar, and the people will complain, which is equivalent to giving him a dismount, and as soon as he, the new Taishou, takes office, he will face a food crisis.

"Just to embarrass me and seek personal gain, I don't hesitate to let so many people not be able to eat food, or even starve to death, Cai Mao, there is really you......"

Su Zhe scolded and asked again: "What about the grain in the treasury, can it be taken out to stabilize the price of grain?" ”

"I'm afraid it won't work." Li Yan shook his head, "Before that Cai Taishou stepped down, he also claimed to the state government that Nanyang had enough grain, and took the initiative to hand over hundreds of thousands of stones of grain and grass to Xiangyang, and the remaining grain and grass in the treasury was only enough for barely official use, and it was not enough to stabilize grain prices. ”

It's dark enough! It's really that after I left office, who cares about the flood.

"How about transferring grain from other counties?" Su Zhe asked again.

Li Yan still shook his head, "The situation in Wancheng is like this, and the rest of the counties are not much better, after all, those children of the family who do the county order must be the same as the Cai family, using power to make benefits for the family, encroaching on grain fields, and pushing up grain prices is the easiest means, maybe they just don't dare to be as desperate as Cai Taishou did, but I'm afraid that they won't be able to transfer much surplus grain to alleviate the food shortage in Wancheng." ”

After hearing Li Yan's words, Su Zhe was silent.

He realized that although he became the Taishou of Nanyang, he was still far from gaining a firm foothold and completely turning Nanyang County into his own territory.

"It seems that I must check the land in each county as soon as possible, so that those powerful people of the world can spit out the fields they have encroached upon, and hold the money, grain and land firmly in their own hands, otherwise my Nanyang Taishou is just a false name......"

Su Zhe muttered to himself, thoughtful.

At this time, Li Yan nodded approvingly, and arched his hand: "Su Taishou can realize the benefits and disadvantages of the land inventory, which shows Taishou's insight, but the biggest problem in front of him is to solve the food shortage in Wancheng." ”

"What's your idea?" Su Zhe looked at Li Yan.

Li Yan thought for a while and said: "For today's plan, I can only ask the state government for help, the lower officials heard that Taishou came to Nanyang to take office and got a lot of help from the eldest prince, so Taishou might as well communicate with the eldest prince, so that the state government can allocate hundreds of thousands of stone grain and grass to help us tide over the difficulties." ”

Su Zhe's eyes lit up, but he said: "That's so simple, then Cai Mao will definitely say that we have enough food and grass, and there is no need for assistance, our state pastor may not believe me, even if I want the eldest prince to speak for me, at least I have to give people a good reason." ”

Li Yan's eyes rolled slightly, but he smiled confidently: "Xiaguan has a plan here, which may give the eldest prince a sufficient reason, but there are some crooked ways, I don't know if I dare to use it." ”