The Grain Price Storm in the Capital

"Gao Banban, summon Li Ruolian for me. When Li Ruolian arrives, he will summon Sun Chuanting and Chen Xinjia. Also, what's the progress of the Southern Jinyi Guards in the monitoring room?"

"Back to Your Majesty, according to yesterday's news, we have met Zheng Hongda and are taking a merchant ship to Anping Town, Fujian Province under their escort."

"Okay, it seems that in a few days, I can have a good chat with this pirate leader."

Chongzhen's mouth watered when he thought of Zheng Zhilong's navy, but now he also understood that if you want to recruit people, you can't do it without money, no benefits, and most importantly, no strength, especially for this kind of local bully.

Therefore, he could only comfort himself with his official position and his son's future prospects. After developing the army, he could discuss the issue of cannon range with Zheng Zhilong.

After waiting for a while, Li Ruolian hurried over.

"Li Aiqing, has Jin Yiwei made any new discoveries recently?"

"Back to Your Majesty, according to your instructions, oh no, according to my instructions, many ministers in the court have been caught.

Especially the corrupt ones are in the process of liquidating their family properties, but some rumors have been revealed as a result."

"It's okay to reveal the rumor. Continue to observe. When necessary, you will come out to impeach. I asked you to come and there is something you need to arrange for someone to do."

Li Ruolian secretly pondered, if His Majesty said that, what kind of dirty work would someone have to do? Thinking about it carefully, the only person who has made His Majesty angry recently is Jiang Cai, the censor.

"I want to investigate Chen Yan's details. Including how much his property is, how much he has embezzled over the years, and what he has done recently."

"I understand, I will keep a close eye on you when I go down."

Li Ruolian didn't know what Chen Yan had committed. But judging from His Majesty's intention, it was probably not that he wanted to kill him, but that he wanted to change his cabinet minister. He was used to it.

"By the way, Your Majesty, I have heard some rumors in Beijing recently. It seems that food prices are rising, and it is not just one or two businesses, but a collective rise."

"Oh? Food prices are rising? What exactly is going on?"

Chongzhen sat up straight when he heard this. Food is related to the foundation, so he couldn't help but not take it seriously.

"The details have not yet been clarified. Many small merchants have had their grain confiscated. Nowadays, grain is becoming more expensive every day in various merchants in Beizhili. Now, one stone of rice costs one tael of silver, but the increase is not high.

"

"What? Such important information, why are you telling me now? Gao Banban? Gao Yushun, get out of here!"

Chongzhen's beard trembled in anger and he spat wildly at Li Ruolian.

"I deserve to die because the information was only delivered today and I didn't have time to report it to His Majesty in the evening."

"Your Majesty, my servant is here, who made your Majesty unhappy?"

Gao Yushun paused when he heard the first call, and was about to respond and enter the door in a decent manner.

But when I heard that the emperor suddenly called me by his first name, I instantly knew that the emperor was angry, and he quickly rushed into the hall and knelt down.

"Dongchang is responsible for purchasing military rations for me with Jin Yiwei and transshipping them, right? The price of food has risen recently. Why did you not tell me when it increased from one tael of silver, one stone and three dou to one stone?"

"Oh, Your Majesty, I heard a few days ago that due to the drought in the south last year, there is not enough grain stored this year. Grain dealers have raised prices and will not come back until the autumn harvest. I have stopped purchasing and have not bought more."

Gao Yushun was rejoicing. Fortunately, he had asked others to stop early, otherwise he would not have been scolded by the emperor for buying grain at a high price.

"Am I talking about the question of whether you should buy it or not? Don't you know that there is a saying that food is the most important thing for the people?

I just sent you to take people to buy grain, and then the price of grain went up. You idiot. Fortunately, Li Aiqing was alert and saw the abnormality.

Dongchang and Jinyiwei will immediately investigate who is trying to drive up food prices for me under the eyes of the capital."

Chongzhen thought for a long time and couldn't figure out how to break the situation, so he sent a message to Chen Ye who was entertaining.

"Chongzhen: That's what happened. So, shopkeeper, why did these grain merchants suddenly increase their prices? It's just as I guessed. Is it related to the Jinzhou War? Or is it related to normal historical development?"

"Chen Ye: Pretty much. The specific reasons may be partly because you said you would support half of the food supply, but also because of the disaster, which would have increased in the first place.

Market behavior cannot be regulated by the state. When grain merchants see an opportunity to make a fortune and take advantage of you, they will naturally increase their prices. In this case, I think there is a good way to trick you into cheating them."

Food war, when Chen Ye heard this, he thought of the war between COFCO and the four major grain merchants.

Maybe many people now think that rice costing more than 2 yuan per catty is quite expensive, but what they don't know is that if the war had not been fought before the financial crisis, rice today might cost more than 20 yuan per catty.

"Chongzhen: What's the trick? Just force the house to be searched? Luo Yangxing already has hundreds of thousands of taels. I don't think these grain merchants have a small fortune."

『Chen Ye: No, first let them vigorously absorb your food and use various materials to absorb it. Since they are willing to increase the price, they will not let go of any food on the market.

When these grain merchants have all their money, suck them until they can no longer suck, and then catch them and make them spit them out. By that time, the money is yours, and the grain is also yours."

Chen Ye then told Chongzhen about the act of stockpiling grain to save the market. As long as Chongzhen could keep smashing, he would smash 100,000 tons or 200,000 tons of various foods.

This group of grain merchants are all going crazy. This time, Chen Ye plans to buy more corn, soybeans, wheat and other international cheap grains. He just doesn’t know if the four major ABCD grain merchants are willing to sell so many goods to a Chinese company. Maybe

I have to switch to a leather bag company.

"Chongzhen: That makes me feel at ease. I may not be able to use so much. I will ask the Ministry of Household Affairs how much grain is left in Changping Granary in the capital, and I can release grain quickly to stabilize the price."

"Chen Ye: Well, the granary...forget it, the Chang Ping Granary in the capital still has some."

Chen Ye doesn't trust the current management of various granaries in the Ming Dynasty, but he can think of temporarily releasing grain and calming down the capital market.

The so-called Changpingcang is actually a national granary supervised by the Ministry of Household Affairs in each state and county. It is the same as the current grain reserve and is used for disaster relief and crackdown on grain merchants.

It was just that the operation was fine in the early Ming Dynasty. However, in the middle and later stages of the Ming Dynasty, with the evolution of natural disasters, disaster relief in various places was unable to make ends meet. Coupled with corruption, there was not much left in the granary.

Chongzhen also knew what Chen Ye meant. He didn't have any hope for the local granary, but he still had confidence in the Changping Granary in the capital.

'There should be, right? I don't remember the Ministry of Revenue saying that the capital is short of food.'

Chongzhen felt that his confidence had weakened a bit, and he began to feel upset. Fortunately, his mentality had become much more stable recently, so he would not tear his hair out like before.

"Huh, take your time, take your time, the shop owner is right, governing a big country is like cooking a small meal."

"Your Majesty, Governor Sun and Chen Shangshu have arrived."

"Call in."
Chapter completed!