Chapter 109: Carrying private goods

Several military attaches looked like they had nothing to do with themselves, and even looked like they were gloating about the misfortune.

Liquor and rice bag, this is a new title given to ministers by His Majesty! Which minister can serve with this title?

"Your Majesty, please spare my life! I was wronged!!"

Mao Liangji, who had runny noses and tears, and who was still thinking about getting things done yesterday, was dragged away like a dog by the Jin Yiwei.

Hong Liang and He Yingsheng felt regretful. Today, they were so quick-talking that they brought disaster to the whole clan.

"I have been lax in my supervision and have made mistakes in supervision. Your Majesty must be held accountable."

Li Daiwen knelt on the ground, burying his head and not daring to move.

"You can get away with it if you don't be strict with your subordinates? How does the Ministry of Household Affairs manage it? Why is this stupid idea of ​​borrowing grain from various places passed to the cabinet and then to me?"

Seeing that Li Daiwen still didn't speak, Chongzhen sighed.

"I will give you another chance to thoroughly inspect all prefectures and counties in Zhili. If there is a food shortage, you can pay me and pay me the food to make up for it.

If I can't make up for it or don't make it up, all the officials in the prefecture and county will have their official clothes stripped off by me. As for Lai Hongchang, as the prefect, he performed a trick like a fire dragon burning a warehouse for me.

If you make a mistake, as long as you actively correct it and make up for it, I can forgive you.

But if you treat me like a fool and use the rations of the people of the world to make fun of me, so that the people of the world cannot afford to eat, then you will be executed, do you hear me?"

"I accept the decree and thank you for your forgiveness."

Li Daiwen finally breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Chongzhen's words. Now, his official position was saved.

As for what he was going to do next, it would be equivalent to ransacking the whole house in Zhili, and he didn't care about that.

"Retreat!"

After Chongzhen left the lobby, he continued to have a headache. The problem now is that the food problem has not been solved.

The streets of the capital.

When the grain shops of the Kong family and the Fan family opened today, they raised the price of grain to two cents, which shocked the people who were about to buy rice.

"Did you, the shopkeeper, fill in the price wrong? Yesterday, the price of grain was only one cent per dou, why is it only two cents today?"

"Yes, that's right. Yesterday, I remember it was all for one penny, and the official ones sold it for one penny. Who can afford the two penny you have?"

"Then go buy the official food! Don't forget, the official food is not much these days. Hurry up, it might be gone now."

Kong Lianli, who was sitting on the second floor of Kongji's grain store, looked at the people of the capital downstairs through the window, smiling and saying nothing.

Sitting with him were Qiao An from the Qiao family and Fan Sanyi from the Fan family.

"Brother Fan, the Changping warehouses in Shuntian Prefecture are almost full. If you put them down any more, it will be officials' wages. I think the imperial court will not be able to hold on."

"Brother Kong has a good opinion. As long as the news about Baoding Prefecture is reported, the price of food will still rise. After all, we have to take care of Baoding Prefecture, right?"

Speaking of this, Kong Lianli and Fan Sanqi laughed out loud at the same time.

"Brother Fan and Brother Qiao, last time the north bought a batch of chicken powder and Shisanxiang that we bought from the capital. Father Gu said that they were very satisfied.

Now that the Jiannu and the Mongols have increased their orders, we have to raise funds as soon as possible to purchase them.

If you keep holding this food in your hands, don't let the emperor find other ways to get food in the end, and give those officials an advantage in vain."

"Brother Qiao, don't worry. After a few days, the price of food in Zhili will rise to a new level. The entire Shuntian Prefecture will have no food in stock. How many days can the official's salary be enough to sell it?"

Kong Lianli looked at the crowd outside again and continued, saying that the people he had arranged for downstairs were already queuing up to buy rice.

"But Brother Kong, is it really safe for us to do this? The grain purchased from Changpingcang is all recorded. Those officials should not sell it to us."

"Ha, not to mention whether anything will happen if they sell us, who among the civil and military officials of the entire dynasty would ask the emperor to investigate such a thing? And who dares to investigate? Then the officials of the capital who are not related to this area are allowed to

Your honor has been offended."

Fan Sanqiao had been saving barbecue spices. Hearing this, he also inserted a sentence at the right time, and Kong Lianli nodded repeatedly.

As more and more grain merchants received the news, grain prices in the capital began to rise.

Baoding Prefecture and Shuntian Prefecture are short of food, and grain dealers in Zhili Province have finally begun to increase prices.

The cheap grain store set up by the Ministry of Household Affairs was crowded with people at this time, but no one could buy grain.

"Why do you keep us waiting? I have no food at home!"

"Don't you still have a lot of them? Just sell them if you need to!"

Seeing the food stores full of food but unable to buy it, the people were going crazy with anxiety.

The person selling grain inside was an outsourced employee from the Ministry of Household Affairs, with the same arrogant look on his face.

"If I say I won't sell it, I won't sell it. You can buy it elsewhere."

"There is no market for low prices, but there is market for high prices. How good is this!!!!"

"Come on, it seems we can only buy two cents of food."

"The world has changed. Who would have thought that the majestic capital of the capital only has two coins of grain. How does your majesty manage it?"

The crowded cheap grain store welcomed waves of people. As word of mouth spread, the capital gradually learned that Changpingcang only had prices and could not sell grain.

People who could not buy grain began to rush to the Ming Dynasty Royal Merchant House, where they finally bought grain for one penny per dou.

Ordinary people would buy a liter of rice with ten copper coins.

By the way, the Royal Merchant also informed everyone that Baoding Prefecture and Shuntian Prefecture have opened Daming Royal Grain Shops to ensure that all grains in the two prefectures and counties will be sold at a fair price and will not affect the price of grain in the capital.

"Then why didn't the cheap grain store in the capital just sell grain to us?"

"Yes, yes, wasn't all the imperial rations burned?"

Facing the people who were asking questions, Jin Yiwei, who was responsible for publicizing news about the grain store, replied.

"Because the granaries are really out of grain, and the Ministry of Household Affairs can't come up with grain, the cheap grain shops naturally can't sell it.

But the Ming Dynasty Royal Company has His Majesty’s shares. His Majesty said that food is the most important thing for the people, and the most important thing is that the people can afford to eat, so the Ming Royal Company is not allowed to increase prices!

In order to provide food for everyone, His Majesty demolished several palaces in the palace, sold the beams for money, and purchased grain from other places to equalize the price.

Your Majesty, you are wise! How can we not be loyal to Your Majesty when we have been showered with such royal grace?"

Listening to Jin Yiwei's exaggerated shouting, the people below looked puzzled.

"What they said is true. My aunt is the maid in the palace. He said that many palaces in the palace have been demolished recently."

"Hu Er, I remember, aren't your aunts dead?"

"Go, go, that's my distant aunt."

"Speaking of which, I also have an impression. I'm also surprised. I heard that there are rumors of the palace expelling eunuchs. Because the Ministry of Revenue cannot collect taxes, your majesty can only find ways to reduce expenses."

"Why can't the Ministry of Household Affairs collect taxes? Isn't there so much fertile farmland in the world?"

"Your Majesty, you are wise! You are not living a good life, but you still have to save money so that we can eat!"

Among the onlookers, a few people who learned the "truth" suddenly appeared. Under their publicity, Chongzhen demolished houses to buy grain, and the deeds of calming grain prices began to slowly unfold.

In the palace, Chongzhen and Li Ruolian saw the live footage of the royal business through the video recorder brought back by Jin Yiwei.

The few bastards in the crowd who acted exaggeratedly and spoke exaggeratedly made Chongzhen Anzhuo scratch his feet in slippers.

Li Ruolian also looked at one of the men who kept squeezing his eyes and trying hard to cry. His fingers turned blue when he pinched his legs.

"You idiots, I asked you to arrange something clever. Is this cleverness? With this acting skill, even if I asked Yu Li to perform live, it would look more sincere than them."

"Your Majesty, forgive me. The time is too tight. The Ming Dynasty Public Opinion Department was established in a short period of time and the personnel are insufficient. I promise that next time they will burst into tears."

Li Ruolian complained in his heart, this department has only been established a few days ago, and they have to find suitable talents. They have to pick and choose, and there are only a few people who can perform today. If they can memorize the lines clearly, it will be good if they can mix in private goods.

That's right, private goods.

Chongzhen specifically asked them to include the fact that the Ministry of Revenue could not collect taxes, and it was done in an inconspicuous way.

Under this subtle influence, the tax reform in the future will only warm the water and will not cause a frying pan.

Just as Chongzhen thought, the whole capital began to spread the word. Although the performance at the beginning was very exaggerated, compared with the subsequent person-to-person transmission, it was simply not on the same level.

"Have you heard? Your Majesty demolished the entire Qianqing Palace just to sell things so that you can buy food. We have to buy some as soon as possible, otherwise it may be gone in the future."

"Have you heard? In order for us to buy food, His Majesty even demolished the palace to buy food to calm the price of food.

What are you talking about? Affordable grain store? The Ministry of Household Affairs can’t collect taxes now, so how can it be possible to have grain for you at a reasonable price?”

Zhou Kui, who was in the mansion, heard the news and couldn't help but beat his legs with regret.

"Oh, oh, what a loss. This is 20,000 taels of grain. I can't even bear to buy it. I bought this grain, but now I can't sell it at a high price. No, I have to ask the Kong family to buy it for me at 2 taels.

past."

The grain that Zhou Kui bought was originally bought when grain prices in the capital began to rise. Naturally, the price exceeded the par price. If the 20,000 shi were sold at the par price, he would lose several thousand taels. To him, this was the same as cutting meat.

So he thought of the best scapegoat, that is, the grain merchants, and asked them to tell the truth. However, he was not sure whether the grain merchants would tell the truth, so he thought about it and wrote another letter.

In the evening, after a day of spreading the news, Confucius and others knew about the royal merchants' price parity. At the same time, people sent to the surrounding counties of the capital also reported back, and sure enough, grain shops were opened.

However, it would take three days before it could be sold, which made local grain merchants and grain merchant branches everywhere panic.

"Brother Fan, I'm afraid the situation is not good. There are people hired by royal merchants from all counties in Baoding to sell grain."

"What? Where did the emperor get the food? No, that royal company, where did they get the food?"

"Master, Uncle Zhou has sent a letter."

The few people who were wondering all regained their composure after hearing the servant's words.

Kong Lianli opened the envelope, read a few words, and slapped the letter on the table in anger!

"Hmph! This old dog actually only wants to make a profit and not suffer a loss, so he asked us to collect all his grain at the price of two taels of silver. Otherwise, he would open a warehouse and sell the grain at a fair price."

"I know! This is the emperor's strategy. He uses grains he doesn't know where to get to force us to bring down the price of grains, and then he will buy them again.

The frontier army is also short of food now. This food must be misappropriated military rations. As long as we consume it with him, he will definitely not be able to survive for long."

When Fan Sanzhao heard Kong Lianli's words, he immediately figured it out, and then connected the things together.
Chapter completed!