Volume 1 The storm is about to come and the wind fills the building

Author: Going to Drunk People

Volume 1 The storm is about to come and the wind fills the building

The gentry itself is a very contradictory group.

First of all, they admired the system of scholars, farmers, industry and commerce.

They restrained merchants from the bottom of their hearts, but if you look at it in detail, they were the largest merchants in the entire Tang Dynasty!

At least, the top five grain merchants in the Tang Dynasty were all from their noble clan.

The main reason why the status of merchants is not high is not that merchants are not engaged in production, are not beneficial to the country, or are cunning merchants.

What is the main reason?

The main reason is to prevent merchants from growing in power and fighting against each other in the court.

Even dogs know how to make money by doing business, and they can make a lot of money! How can they, the nobles, know this?

Therefore, suppressing the status of merchants became the only thing they could do.

Otherwise, if the merchants have money, people, and status, even the emperor may not be able to sleep peacefully.

Of course, this is also what the emperor wants to see.

At least, in this era, businessmen are indeed a group of people that people love and hate.

With them, I am afraid that they will become too powerful and do unspeakable evil deeds. Without them, a country's economy will probably collapse.

In the end, suppressing the status of merchants became a rule accepted by all classes.

…

Just when Li Chengqian and others were returning, the Cui family in Jingyang.

Cui Hao called all the business leaders of the Cui family in Jingyang to his home.

Dozens of people, covering all walks of life.

The reason why the gentry was so large was not only because they monopolized knowledge, but also because they relied on knowledge and gradually developed into all walks of life, which led to the gentry's current glory.

"Everyone, please be quiet."

Dozens of people were in the main hall, talking to each other. It was an exaggeration to say it was like a vegetable market, but in the end it was a bit chaotic.

Cui Hao saw that everyone had arrived and said, "I believe everyone knows that the current prince has arrived in our Jingyang County, and the family's intention is for us to control our respective industries.

After all, the prince is young and is easily bewitched by traitors, which is why he made this trip. As people of the Tang Dynasty, we have the responsibility and obligation to let His Highness the prince know his way back."

The greatest ability of intellectuals is to shirk blame, and at the same time, they can give a high-sounding reason for all their dirty deeds.

"This is indeed our responsibility." At that moment, some people began to criticize, "Our grain store has rejected large-scale transactions. It is absolutely impossible to buy enough grain from us."

The person who spoke was the largest grain merchant in Jingyang. Yesterday, they had begun to restrict the sale of large quantities of grain and only allowed small transactions.

The banner was that Jingyang has been experiencing frequent natural disasters in recent years, in order to prevent people from hoarding goods and to protect the local people in Jingyang from the suffering of famine.

As for this, no matter what they said, they were not afraid.

Cui Hao nodded and said: "We still need to pay more attention to the food supply. There must be no mistakes in the supply to the people. Otherwise, Mingyuan will not be able to explain it."

"Don't worry, we have only restricted large-scale transactions, but small-scale transactions are still going on. After the news came from Chang'an, we made a rough calculation. According to His Royal Highness's team, if people eat horse chews, it will cost 180 yuan a day.

Ten kilograms of grain can't survive.

If we want to satisfy them all the way west, it is estimated that at least 10,000 kilograms of grain will be enough."

They have indeed calculated this carefully.

Moreover, they will not deliberately prevent Li Chengqian's people from buying grain and opening their doors for business. As long as you come to your door, they will definitely sell, but they will not conduct large transactions.

If a person buys more than ten kilograms at a time, if he wants to get enough food, he will probably have to buy it a thousand times.

"By the way, why didn't you see Brother Mingyuan?" someone asked curiously.

Speaking of Cui Mingyuan, Cui Hao shook his head: "Mingyuan is an official after all. He cannot be like us in many cases. Let's not talk about him. I called everyone here today just to let everyone know that our Crown Prince is not easy to deal with.

"

With that said, Cui Hao briefly introduced what happened in the bamboo forest outside the city yesterday.

After he finished speaking, someone murmured: "The wind can enter, the rain can enter, but the prince cannot enter. What does he mean by this?"

Cui Mingyuan also shook his head and said: "I thought about it for a long time yesterday, but I didn't have a clue."

He instinctively felt that there was something wrong with this sentence, but he just couldn't figure out what the problem was.

"It stands to reason that based on the situation yesterday, if His Highness the Crown Prince spoke to his brother at that time, he would not refuse. But why didn't His Highness the Crown Prince say this?"

Someone asked in confusion.

Indeed, yesterday, when Cui Hao revealed Li Chengqian's identity, he had actually realized that he had lost the opportunity in this confrontation.

If Li Chengqian took this opportunity to speak, he would not be able to refuse.

The prerequisite for not committing a crime is ignorance. If you know his identity and deliberately create difficulties, it is inconsistent with the etiquette of the monarch and his ministers.

But this was exactly what he couldn't figure out.

"That's why I said that our Crown Prince is not easy to deal with. He would rather make his own journey more difficult, but also leave behind such an inexplicable sentence. Then there must be a deep meaning in this sentence, but we haven't figured it out yet.

That’s all.”

Everyone discussed it for a while.

In the end, I decided to deal with the immediate matters first.

What they were facing was preventing Li Chengqian from purchasing enough supplies in Jingyang.

At this point, it is not a problem for them. After all, the Cui family plus several other noble families account for too much of the entire shops in Jingyang.

It’s not just about food and carriages, but also involves all walks of life.

Only a few local merchants in Jingyang did not have the ability to provide such a large amount of supplies to Li Chengqian.

Of course, Li Chengqian could actually leave Jingyang and transfer to other cities for purchasing, and that would be fine too.

If Li Chengqian did this, they would never stop him.

But if Li Chengqian really did this, what does it mean? It can only mean that Li Chengqian left Jingyang in disgrace.

This is also a victory for the Cui family.

Suppressing the imperial power is what their noble clan has been doing all along.

Therefore, when Li Chengqian entered Jingyang City, if he left empty-handed, it would still be him, Li Chengqian, who would be embarrassed.

In other words, after entering Jingyang City, Li Chengqian actually had no way out and had to gain something here. This was not the reason for buying or not, but the confrontation between him and the nobles.

At the same time, Cui Mingyuan, who had just returned to the county government, was restless.

Just one sentence from Li Chengqian really drove him crazy.

He knew very well that there was nothing wrong with Li Chengqian's question.

They all rely on their own hands to eat, so why should they be classified as superior or inferior?

But at the same time, he also understood that if the system of scholars, farmers, industry and commerce was broken, the world would be devastated.

Let’s talk about himself. Why did he study so hard in the first place? Didn’t he just want to have a bright future? Didn’t he just want to be looked down upon by others?

He said it was for the sake of the country, the country, and the benefit of the people. He did not deny that this reason existed, but he knew exactly how much this reason accounted for.
Chapter completed!