After the imperial guard finished speaking, the shopkeeper and the waiter were stunned for a moment.

The people outside the store cheered——

"Very good!"

"Long live your Majesty!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty, otherwise I would not be able to survive this life."

"Your Majesty is truly a living Bodhisattva who has come into the world..."

When the shopkeeper came to his senses, he couldn't help but ask: "Is what the military master said true?"

The chief of the Imperial Guard stared and said: "Why, you suspect that I am falsely passing on the imperial edict? The imperial court has already posted a proclamation, and we are just here to convey it. The proclamation is here, and you don't know how to read it?"

The shopkeeper took a look at the notice and found that it was indeed the case.

But he rolled his eyes and said: "Master Jun, according to the rules of the rice store, the replacement price needs to be reported to the owner?"

The chief of the Imperial Guard said: "You can just go and report it, and you won't have to delay changing the rice price."

The shopkeeper looked embarrassed and said: "Master Jun, I don't know, it will take at least half an hour for me to go back and forth, and the rice store will have to be closed for a while."

"What are you kidding me about?" The commander of the Imperial Guard also seemed to have a bad temper. He glared and said, "Just ask a guy to report it. How will it delay you from selling food? In addition, the notice clearly states that unless there is no rice to eat,

Sell ​​it, otherwise you will not be allowed to close down without any reason!”

There was sweat on the shopkeeper's forehead, but he still didn't move.

Seeing this, the Imperial Guard directly pressed the handle of the knife and said: "Why, your store is going to disobey His Majesty's will?"

"I don't dare, I don't dare." Seeing that he couldn't hold on, the shopkeeper could only change the rice price sign and continue selling rice.

Then a waiter was asked to inform the boss.

The people outside were very happy, and some even knelt down facing the Forbidden City and cried.

Speaking of which, three cents and eight cents per liter of rice is very high, but in the past year or two, the price of one liter of rice in Nanjing has been around three cents silver, so now it has only risen to three cents and eight cents, which has already made countless people grateful.

As for those who could not afford to eat three cents of silver and one liter of rice, they had long since left Nanjing and became refugees, or they had died of hunger before Zhu Aona took over Nanjing.

The troubled times of the late Ming Dynasty were so cruel.

Zhu Ailao cannot change the past.

···

In order to deal with the food crisis, Zhu Yurao established a temporary command team to focus on observing and directing Nanjing to respond to the food crisis.

The main members of this temporary command team include the first assistant Yuan Jixian, the second assistant Ma Shiying, the Minister of Household Affairs Zhang Youyu, the Minister of Transportation Lu Zhenfei, and the right assistant minister Wan Yuanji of the Patrol Department.

In addition to the central departments of the imperial court, the units under command include Yingtianfu Yamen and Jiangning and Shangyuan County Yamen, as well as Jinyiweinan Town Fusi, Secretariat, Telecommunications Department, Five City Patrol Bureau and the First Town of the Imperial Guard.

.

In addition, Zhu Yurao also secretly ordered some personnel from the Dongchang and Yulin Army to participate in the matter.

When the sun sets.

Nanjing Forbidden City, Wuying Palace.

Wan Yuanji hurriedly walked in, bowed to Zhu Acuo, and said with a serious expression: "Your Majesty, according to the situation reported by the Wucheng Patrol Bureau, since Yingtianfu issued an announcement limiting the maximum price of grain in the afternoon, all rice stores have changed their prices.

The people were overjoyed for a moment, and countless people went to the Forbidden City to thank the Holy Father.

However, the number of people eager to buy food has not only not decreased, but has even increased than before.

Therefore, half an hour ago, there were rice shops one after another, and the grain shops put up signs saying that grain was sold out, and closed their doors one after another."

Having said this, Wan Yuanji paused for a moment, showed a solemn look, and then said: "Your Majesty, as far as I know, the total number of people in Nanjing and outside Nanjing is at least seven or eight hundred thousand, and tens of thousands of people need to buy food every day.

.

Today, the government ordered a price reduction, causing the food to be sold out in advance. If there is no food delivered in time tomorrow, civil unrest may break out."

After hearing this, Zhang Youyu immediately said: "Your Majesty, I have long said that Lu Jianbai's proposal to limit grain prices is a recipe for disaster. What now, something went wrong in just one day?!"

When he said this, Zhang Youyu glanced sideways at Lu Zhenfei with a sneer on his lips.

Lu Zhenfei frowned and said: "Your Majesty, every rice store and grain store in the capital supplies the needs of millions of people. There must be granaries to store grain. It should not happen that all the grain is sold out in one day. This matter must be

If there is any inside information... please investigate the grain merchants in the capital!"

Yuan Jixian spoke up at this time: "There is no problem in checking the grain merchants, but what should they do if they really run out of grain?"

No one answered Yuan Jixian's words, and the Wuying Hall became quiet for a while.

Zhu Yuluo seemed to have just come back to her senses and asked: "How many people are there in Nanjing now?"

Population involves household registration and is managed by the Ministry of Household Affairs.

Zhang Youyu hesitated for a moment before saying, "In the outer city and the inner city, there are probably more than 600,000 registered people, and there are about 200,000 registered people in the city walls. The unregistered migrant population should be... in 10

There are about ten thousand people.”

"Bastard!" After hearing this, Zhu Yuyao was so angry that she cursed, and then pointed at Zhang Youyu and said: "The words are either approximate or ambivalent, and the tone is hesitant. As the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, you don't even know the population situation of Nanjing?!

"

Zhang Youyu was so frightened that he knelt down with a plop, but he defended himself: "Your Majesty, it's not because I'm not sure, but it's because the population of Nanjing has not been checked for decades.

In addition, the Nanjing household registration yellow book is actually under the direct management of households in Tianfu and Shangyuan and Jiangning counties.

I have been appointed as the Minister of Household Affairs for less than a month, so it is indeed too late to conduct an inventory of the population of Nanjing."

"Is this your excuse for failing in your responsibilities?!" Zhu Yuluo was obviously dissatisfied with Zhang Youyu's explanation. She stood up and paced around, then looked directly at Zhang Youyu and said coldly: "I will give you ten days to find out the household registration and registration status of Nanjing City.

If the population situation cannot be solved, you should stop being the Minister of Household Affairs!"

Zhang Youyu trembled, kowtowed and said: "My lord, take the order..."

At night.

In a seemingly ordinary house in the outer city of Nanjing, more than twenty people gathered in the living room, each with a chair.

Even though the living room was originally quite large, it seemed a bit crowded at this time.

Almost all of these people are dressed in European-style expensive silks and satins, and most of them are rich and fair. There are also a few who are dressed as wealthy scholars, with a refined and elegant temperament that is cunning.

"Let's talk about it, what should we do about this?" Xu Chongru, the head of the Nanjing rice grain industry, who was sitting in the main seat, looked around the crowd and asked.

He is dressed like a wealthy scholar, and he does have a reputation as a scholar. He is over fifty, but he looks like he is in his early forties.

Ma Qiwen, a Hunan grain merchant sitting first on the left, hummed: "The imperial court not only limited the price of grain, but also set it so low. How much money can we make?

In my opinion, if we continue to close tomorrow, it means that too much grain was sold today and there is no more stock in Nanjing.

Only after three or five days of listening to those poor people who have eaten but failed to make a fuss will the imperial court know our weight."

The second person on the right, a younger and slightly plump man, hesitated and said: "This is not the Chongzhen Dynasty. The empress is on the throne. Not only does she hold an army in her hands, but she is also said to have many magical powers. We did this to anger her.

, I’m afraid it will damage my head and move.”

Ma Qiwen sneered after hearing this, "I don't know if that person has any supernatural powers, but he definitely can't change food. Otherwise, why bother to issue a decree to limit food prices and just create a mountain of rice that can't be eaten?"

Sitting in the first place on the right, Cheng Dagui, a grain merchant from Qimen, Huizhou, said: "We are all in business, and we pay attention to making money with others, and it is not easy to make things too ugly - the emperor and the court also want to save face.

Therefore, I suggest that only half of the stores will be open tomorrow to sell grain, and only for half a day or one or two hours.

In this way, the supply of rice and grain in Nanjing City will inevitably be insufficient, and those poor people will still cause trouble if they cannot survive.

But in the eyes of the court, we were not uncooperative in this matter and did our best. This situation was only caused by the fact that there was indeed a shortage of food and we could not make money to buy it.

Let’s talk to the sensible officials in the court and let His Majesty and the ministers understand that restricting food prices is a wrong move. Only by repenting in time can the food shortage crisis in Nanjing be solved.”

"Brother Cheng's suggestion is good."

"You're right. We can't make the court look too bad. That's not good."

"It is true that we cannot close the business together. If we do this, even fools will know that we grain merchants are resisting the will of the imperial court."

“···”

The others also spoke one after another, and basically agreed with Cheng Dagui's proposal.

This made Ma Qiwen look a little ugly - he had not changed his mind before, thinking that the imperial court was as incompetent as before and could directly confront it.

If you think about it carefully, this is really not a good idea.

Seeing that Ma Qiwen had nothing to say, Xu Chongru, the leader of the group, said: "In that case, we will do as Cheng Dagui said tomorrow. However, we still need to discuss whose stores will open tomorrow, and we can't mess around."

Then, more than 20 big grain merchants continued their discussion, and the scene was much more lively than before.

Because in the eyes of all grain merchants, they will suffer losses as long as they open their doors to sell rice. Although they can make money by selling it at the price set by the imperial court, it is too little to satisfy their appetite.

If you sell less now, you can sell more and earn more when the court compromises in the future.

As a businessman, no one wants to make less money, so they naturally have to fight for it.

Just when some people were blushing and blushing, they suddenly heard a loud bang, as if the courtyard door was slammed open.
Chapter completed!