"Do you really have no food left?" Ruan Yuan continued to ask.

"There really isn't much left. What little is left is not enough for the people of this prefecture?" Yu Liang also argued: "If you don't believe me, you can go to Wenzhou Prefecture and ask if we two were in trouble in Wenzhou.

Aren't you going to help us a lot? But in this current situation, we can only... we can only worry?"

Seeing Yu Liang and Zhou Hua making excuses in every possible way, Ruan Yuan had no choice but to give up first, dispatched the Fuyuan guards, and sent the two of them to a commercial building in the city for temporary resettlement.

"Zhongcheng, listening to what they mean, it seems that Chuzhou really has no other way." Qing'an Taizi also knew how to watch people's words, and when he saw the anxious words of the two, he believed them a little.

"Not necessarily." Ruan Yuan thought thoughtfully: "What they just said is true, but it is not entirely true. Can you hear it?"

Qing Antai shook his head, and Ruan Yuan could only continue: "You may not know the truth, but before I asked them to come to Hangzhou, I had already written to Wenzhou many times to ask them about the disaster situation. Their first paragraph was true.

, they rarely go to Chuzhou to sell grain, and they don’t have enough ships to transport. I can ask Magistrate Xu to help with this. But what follows is half true and half false. I asked Magistrate Xu a few days ago, and Wen Chu said

Li Daotai, Wenzhou has indeed had heavy rains for several days, and food prices have increased a lot, but it is far from the level of a food shortage! When I was an academic administrator, there were students living in Wenzhou, and I also wrote to these two people asking about their situation.

. Sure enough, they are all people who are good at calculating. A few days after the rain, they each sold some grain, but within six or seven days, they said that there was a shortage of grain and refused to sell any more grain. But within a few days, they

Judging from the situation of grain sales and the situation of their two grain depots, the grain they sold was not even one-tenth! In other words, when they saw the seriousness of the disaster, they acted coyly and provided grain first to win people's hearts.

, and then stopped selling grains for the purpose of...hoarding!"

"That is to say... they may not want to sell grain to Chuzhou, but... they just want to wait for Chuzhou to increase prices?" Qing Antai said.

"Yes, they are considered worthy businessmen in Wenzhou, and they have always had a lot of contacts with the government, so we know the government information, and they also know it. The current situation in Chuzhou can still be sustained, so the price of food will not rise.

It's too fast, but after one month, once Chuzhou's grain storage and Wenzhou's grain adjustment are exhausted, grain prices will inevitably double. By then, of course they will be able to make a lot of money. As for the rest, look at them,

Will you think about other things?" It seems that Ruan Yuan has done sufficient investigation work before meeting the two businessmen.

"Hey, how many things in this world have been ruined by such small-minded people?" Li Gengyun was not angry after hearing this, and said to Ruan Yuan: "But Ruan Zhongcheng, the current situation is that he has food in his hands and keeps his word.

, even if we wait here for grain from Sichuan, we will still have to wait for at least a month, which is really embarrassing."

"Yes." Ruan Yuan also began to ponder, thinking about how to break the current deadlock. Suddenly, Ruan Yuan's eyes lit up and he asked Qing Antai: "Qingfantai, Wu Kangcheng said that he would donate money to help, is it to Qing Fantai?

Can you tell me? Apart from us who are discussing this matter, who else knows about this matter?"

"No one knows." Qing Antai said: "Besides, Wu Kangcheng doesn't have much food in hand. This time he just prepared some money to donate to us in case of emergencies. If he wants to exchange it for food, we have to go out.

Buy it?"

"In that case, I have an idea." Ruan Yuan pondered for a long time, and then the plan was decided. He took the two of them to the back hall and explained his plan to them. After hearing this, Qing Antai and Li Gengyun nodded again and again.

Qing Antai said: "Zhongcheng's plan is certainly good, but it may not be convincing if it is done by Zhongcheng alone. I will prepare another letter and send it out. When the time comes, Zhongcheng will be sure to be safe."

"Yes, in that case, I think it's time for these two businessmen to bring out the grain." Li Gengyun also nodded and said: "But after all, we are buying grain, and we should prepare the money to give them, but

I'm worried that just relying on the money from Wenzhou's treasury won't be enough?"

"That being the case, I still have some savings from the Lianlian Silver in the past few years. The vassal treasury can also contribute another sum of money. Let's collect ten thousand taels first. If the price of food still cannot be reduced by then, you can

Tell me the situation at that time. If it is not enough, I will make up for you." Ruan Yuan looked at Li Gengyun who was gradually promoted by his personal recommendation, and he also had great trust at this time.

"Okay, now that we have a way, let's give it a try." Qing Antai said. After that, the three of them went according to their plans. A good show to counter Yu Liang and Zhou Hua is just that.

The curtain opened.

Yu Liang and Zhou Hua returned to their business store in Wenzhou, but nothing unusual happened. After a few days, whenever anyone came from the government, they only suggested that they stay for a few days, but there were no soldiers to guard the business store, and no one restricted them.

The two of them took action. They discussed secretly, and both felt that as long as time was delayed, the price of food in Chuzhou would inevitably rise. Ruan Yuan would eventually have no food, and there was nothing he could do about it, so they felt at ease and continued to stay in Hangzhou for a few days.

But just as the two of them continued to feel confident and sipping tea leisurely in the store, they heard hurried footsteps and one person walked up quickly. The two of them saw that it was a fellow villager in the store. Judging from his expression

, but seemed a little panicked. The confidant saw the two of them and said quickly: "Master Yu, Master Zhou, over in Jiangsu, I heard something unusual recently. I received a letter and asked the two masters to take a look."

After saying that, he took out a letter and handed it to the two of them.

"What's so unusual? Why are you so panicked?" Yu Liang took the letter and realized that there were quite a few pages in it. He took out the first few pages and looked at them while saying: "Over in Jiangsu, the various prefectures in Su and Song are making arrangements.

The grain may be sent to Hangzhou, which costs more than 100,000 dan... What does this have to do with us? We don't sell rice to Hangzhou. This time, we only need to make a fortune in Wenchu ​​Road, which is enough. Hangzhou

I won’t join in. Why, what’s wrong with this?”

"But...but Mr. Yu, our people over there have heard that this batch of grain is not for Hangzhou, but more than half of it is going to Chuzhou?" the confidant said.

"How is this possible? Even if the government wants to transport grain, there must be a way to transport it, right? If we take the land route, by the time they transport the grain to various states, the price of food in Chuzhou will have risen early. So even if Ruan Yuan wants to save Chuzhou like this

, it’s too late?” After that, he also took the letter, took out the following pages, and said: “They were careful. This is the order from Chen Dawen, the governor of Liangjiang, and Wang Zhiyi, the governor of Jiangsu. They each copied a copy, and it said

Now...the grain ship from Sichuan will be able to enter Jiangsu in ten days. After the relief grain arrives in Hangzhou, it will go south to Chuzhou...Huh, it's a beautiful thought."

"Yeah, even if they transport the food here in such a hurry, how will they get there?" Yu Liang also sneered.

But after a while, another merchant servant ran over and said to the two of them: "Master Yu, Master Zhou, what's wrong, I heard that Ningbo is now gathering merchant ships that can go to sea, and Ningbo and Dinghai

The warships in the town are also ready to be dispatched, but Cai Qian was repulsed last month. Now, there is no need to use so many ships on the sea in Zhejiang, right? I'm afraid the government has other important matters. "

"What? The government is gathering ships at sea?" Yu Liang and Zhou Hua both said in shock when they heard this.

"Yes, I was afraid that they would lie, so I asked a few more businessmen from Ningbo. It seems that... it is indeed the case." The servant said.

"This...Brother Yu, do you think these two things are related?" Zhou Hua reacted faster and thought about it: "Look, if the government collects this batch of grain from Jiangsu,

At the same time, we are preparing to transport food by sea. The food sent to Chuzhou is only tens of thousands of dan at most. Judging from the government's attitude, it can be shipped through merchant ships and warships. Then...at that time, the food in our hands will not be sold.

?”

"Yes, if at that time, the government suppresses the price of rice, and then adjusts grain from other places in September or October, then we will..." Yu Liang also thought of the worst result, his batch of grain

Once the opportunity to sell is missed, even if they can sell it, the value will definitely not be as good as expected. Not only will the two not make any money, but they may continue to lower the price in order to sell the rice before it spoils, in which case the two will lose everything.

Already.

What's more, the two men stopped selling grain in Wenzhou and waited to see the price of rice, which somewhat aroused the resentment of the people in Wenzhou. Once the two lose power, they may be in danger of being pushed down by everyone...

"These... these two letters from Jiangsu, are they true?" Zhou Hua was still calm. He immediately thought that there might be something fishy about the government's grain transportation, so he asked the confidant again.

"It should be right. Sir, you see, the monograms of Mr. Chen and Wang Zhongcheng have been copied in Jiangsu. The handwriting content of this letter can be faked, but the monograms are only for these senior officials. If they are not particularly trustworthy,

I am someone who is a person, or I have seen their monograms before, so I am determined not to copy them. But Mr. Chen and Wang Zhongcheng have not been in Jiangsu for a long time, so most people who want to imitate their monograms have no chance?" said the confidant.

"Then you go ask someone quickly and see if you can find out the monogram of both of them. Sigh... If this letter is true, should we... Sigh..." Yu Liang watched as he suddenly fell into passivity.

At this time, I couldn't help but lose my perspective.

Sure enough, two days later, a confidant found another letter from Wang Zhiyi. The monogram at the end of the letter was exactly the same as the previous letter. It seemed that the content of the previous letter was indeed written by Wang Zhiyi himself. Although Chen Dawen's monogram has not yet been

Seeing other handwritings, Wang Zhiyi's monogram has been confirmed to be authentic, and Chen Dawen's monogram is probably not fake. Thinking of this, Yu Liang and Zhou Hua also turned pale and were speechless for a moment.

"Brother Zhou, tell me...if we don't sell the food as soon as possible in the past few days, will we really have to pay for it?" Yu Liang asked.

"Yes, if we had gone back late, maybe... I regret it now. Why didn't I tell Mr. Ruan at that time to settle the matter of renting the boat? If we had to pay for the boat rental, then... then
Chapter completed!