When Kaifeng Mansion sent a few old officials to patrol the riverside avenue, Xu Ping ordered his family's servants to watch from the shore before leaving the Bianhe River. After returning home and talking to his mother and Lin Suniang, Xu Ping rushed back to the Sansi Yamen.

The founding marquis is from the three products, although at this time the official uniform treatment is still based on the official, but when it comes to the "noble" official and the "noble" official, the founding marquis's from the three products is still useful. When the officials and guards in the yamen saw Xu Ping, they were much more respectful than before, and they bowed down one after another.

Xu Ping went back to his official office to take a look, and there was no particularly urgent official document, so he asked the official to call the head of the commercial tax case.

The director Zheng Zhaoyan has three generations of officials, and he is familiar with the stories of the classics, such as the silver wine superintendent, that is, the silver Qingguanglu doctor, the inspection of the school Guozi sacrificial wine, the supervision of the imperial history and the martial cavalry, respectively, the loose official, the inspection school, the constitutional title and the honor. Although these official titles also have official notices, they do not have any actual meaning, and Doctor Yinqing Guanglu is from the second grade, and it is almost time to bring this loose official to Zaizhi, and the granting of these small officials is just to satisfy their vanity. In the three divisions, everyone calls Zheng Zhaoyan the head of Zheng, and only when they sit together with officials of similar status will Zheng Yinqing call his own people feel honored.

This principle is similar to the selection of people's "scarlet" and "order purple", Xu Ping's father-in-law Lin Wensi is a person who chooses people, and he can wear a vermilion official uniform after a year, that is, "scarlet", and Xu Ping was only "given scarlet" after many years as an official of the Beijing Dynasty.

It is precisely because of the low actual status of the public officials and the electors that they comfort them with these honors that have no practical effect, and these official titles are carried with them, and they are neither paid nor treated. However, on the other hand, it also shows that the status of officials at this time was much higher than that of later generations, far from the level of analogy with lowly people.

Zheng Zhaoyan came in and saluted Xu in parallel: "What does Xu Juan command?" ”

"I'll take a look at the books of the past few days, especially the prices and taxes in the market recently."

Zheng Zhaoyan promised, and after a while, he brought in a large number of case files with the officials.

Xu Ping had a headache when he looked at the current case file, although there is also a fixed format, but after many years of follow-up, and there is no unified system, it is quite a test of people's IQ and patience, as well as physical strength. The three divisions have millions of case files every year, thousands of officials, and dozens of officials, and those who can sort out the numbers are all great figures who deserve to be written about in the history books.

Put down the case file, Xu Ping asked Zheng Zhaoyan to stay, and then called a few familiar officials to help sort out the case file.

Xu Ping spread out the paper and recorded it by category, and asked Zheng Zhaoyan to take a few other people to find the data, and listed the price changes and changes in commercial tax income in the recent days into a table, which seemed to be clear at a glance.

Prices are not counted every day, and it seems that the fluctuations are not obvious, and the commercial tax revenue is much more conspicuous. Since the sacrifice ceremony, the commercial tax has increased day by day, and it has been rising day by day, and it will be higher in the future.

Commercial tax is collected according to the value of goods, which means that the increase in prices and the increase in transaction volume will lead to an increase in commercial tax, and in recent days, there is no doubt that the increase in prices is the main reason for the increase in commercial tax revenue.

After counting the data clearly, Xu Ping said to Zheng Zhaoyan: "Tomorrow, you will take a few of your right-hand men to several markets and lively places in the capital to see what the prices are now, and give me a clear report." ”

Zheng Zhao promised, and Xu Ping asked them to go back with the file.

Sitting alone behind the desk, Xu Ping thought about the recent surge in charcoal prices.

When supply is less than demand, prices will rise until a new equilibrium is formed, which is an objective law of commercial society, and does not depend on people's subjective will. But now it is difficult to say that it is a commercial society, and even the emperors and officials do not want this society to become a commercial society, they have their own reasons.

Officials do not care much about whether the price rises or not, until it affects the people's livelihood and even their own lives, and it becomes a major event of concern to the government and the opposition. The merchant must have a bad conscience when raising the price at this time, or the ancient sages thought that the merchant was a moth to society.

It is the first step to suppress the price of the official inventory, and if the first step is ineffective, Zhang Guan, the prefect of Kaifeng, will be powerless, and it is estimated that he will be replaced. Changing the means to be tougher, and then forcing the charcoal dealer to sell at a low price, whether or not he can gain the upper hand in the battle of wits and courage with the merchants is the standard for evaluating an official's talent.

Xu Ping doesn't care about these, he is not interested in the battle between officials and businessmen, the real people's livelihood problem is to force the charcoal store to sell all the charcoal stored, and then what?

This season is the time to store charcoal, whether it is the charcoal shop, or the palace, or the rich and large families in the city, they have only begun to store charcoal for a short time, and the inventory of charcoal in the capital is indeed not much.

Suddenly, the weather is very cold, the snow is closed, and the water is not passable, and now the lack of charcoal in Kaifeng City is real, that is, all the charcoal in stock is forced to the market by various methods, and all of them are sold, or shortage. Relative to demand, the gap in supply is hard and does not depend on human will.

At such a time, forcing the limited inventory into the market by force can cause a disaster, a disaster that is unbearable for the poor people at the bottom.

Even if the charcoal in the market is sold at half the price of 300 wen a bill, the poor still can't afford it. It's that the price is cut by half again, and they still can't afford it to 150 yuan. When the charcoal in the market is sold out, it goes into the homes of the rich or at least the middle class, and the families of the poorest at the bottom can still only use their bodies to resist the cold winter.

That's when the real trouble begins. Now whether the charcoal is in the palace, or in the third treasury, or in the treasury of the charcoal line, as long as the Kaifeng Mansion has a heart, it can be concentrated. And when they enter the house, they are afraid that the emperor will not be able to come forward in person, and the lower-class people can only freeze to death?

Thinking of Panpan clapping his hands happily and laughing under the big willow tree, Xu Ping sighed secretly, spread out the paper on the desk, and wrote his first real proposal to the government.

has been an official for so many years, Xu Ping's recitals have always been routine, as long as they are not directly related to his position, he basically ignores them. This mentality is amazing, he has always thought that being an official is just something he has to do to survive in this world, and he has never regarded it as a career for himself.

First of all, the situation of heating fuel faced by the capital today, the price of charcoal has skyrocketed, from 30 wen per weighed before the snow to 600 wen, and the original price of 45 wen per weighed coal (coal) has also risen to 150 wen per weigh. Although the Kaifeng government sold charcoal on the market, it did not push down the price of charcoal, but led to the rapid loss of official charcoal, and overdrew the capital to deal with the tense situation in the future.

Then the supply and demand of carbon and coal in the city were analyzed, and the huge gap was real, and the measures taken now seemed to solve the problem, but in fact did not work at all. What's even more terrifying is that this will lead to the acceleration of the only heating fuel into the upper class of society, and if the weather does not improve quickly, there will be a large number of low-class people in the city who have no charcoal heating.

It is not uncommon for a large number of people to freeze to death and suffer frostbite if the north wind blows strongly.

At that time, the government has no charcoal in its hands, and there is no means to collect charcoal, and it is powerless to help, which is very likely to cause a catastrophe in the world. It is not uncommon for people who cannot even keep their homes to gather and there is unrest.

Compared with the scholars of this era, Xu Ping's language is quite soft, unlike them who are alarmist at every turn. But the prospects for acting in the current way are bleak, and Xu Ping writes clearly.

In the end, Xu Ping asked the Kaifeng Mansion and the Third Division to cooperate and immediately try their best to collect all the charcoal and coal in the city to form the necessary emergency stocks. First of all, Xu Shen, who had worked hard and had no success, minted money, and then all the places where the officials used charcoal and could be suspended were stopped, and the charcoal used was concentrated by the Kaifeng Mansion and the three divisions.

If the situation does not improve, it must be stopped immediately to prevent the emergency loss of charcoal stocks.

Three days later, if the weather continues to be bitterly cold, the Kaifeng Prefecture will organize and forcibly implement the rationing system of heating fuel, distribute heating charcoal and charcoal according to the number of households and equal households, and try to tilt the lower classes of people to avoid large-scale freezing to death.

After writing, Xu Ping sealed the chapter and sat quietly for a while.

The market mechanism can only cope with the normal social situation, communicate with each other, and even multiply social wealth. However, in the event of an emergency, the market mechanism will fail, and the social crisis will be multiplied.

People of this age do not understand this, nor do they understand the nature and function of various means of governance, and they act on their own feelings and experiences, and if they are not careful, they will cause great disasters.

With the memory of his previous life, almost instinctively, when it came to an emergency, Xu Ping's first thought was rationing. Rationing is not a good system, but it is a life-saving system that can use limited resources to survive the crisis with minimal overall cost. As long as this most critical time is passed, there are countless means to solve the fundamental problem in the future.

The only thing that can be said is whether the rulers of this era will understand these suggestions, and how likely they will be to adopt them. Xu Ping didn't want the rulers to remember the meaning of his words after a real human tragedy.

Thinking of the piece that was returned by Zhongshu a few days ago, as well as Wang Sui's comments, Xu Ping had an indescribable feeling.

The collision of ideas in different eras is difficult to understand with each other, at least what Xu Ping is facing now is not who says right and who is wrong, but whose official position is higher and whose authority is greater.

He has already been reprimanded by Zhongshu once, and what the result will be this time, Xu Ping doesn't know, but this is the only thing he can do at this time and at this time.

The quality of state affairs depends on the prime minister, Xu Ping did not play the emperor's power directly, and the emperor did not bypass the rules of the Chinese book to directly meddle in affairs, just look at the princes in the political hall, how to look at it this time. (To be continued.) )