Chapter 85 Miao Heizi also has a time when he is powerless(1/2)
In a huge capital city, news spreads very quickly during the day.
Just as people began to talk about Miaowei Tower again and actively started queuing, the yamen runners of the Imperial Court Office also began to dispatch a large-scale manner.
After watching the imperial palace prefect Miao Yan, who had been watching for a whole morning, finally couldn't help it.
He asked all the top 20 grain merchants in the Gyeonggi area to invite them to their office hall. - Li Wangfu is one of the top 20 grain merchants in the Gyeonggi area, but they are less than the top 100 in the country.
Miao Yan looked coldly at the group of people sitting down drinking tea silently, and anyone could see the anger in his eyes.
But these people were not very scared.
The reason is very simple. It is their right to sell things or not. There is no chance to commit this crime.
Even Miao Heizi, who had the worst methods, dared not kill them directly or copy them all their food.
This violates the ancestral system of Taizu and the support of Dakang Dynasty for merchants in history.
To put it bluntly, at least half of the taxes in the Dakang Dynasty came from merchants - although most of the merchants more or less evaded taxes, they still paid more than those mud-legged.
If there is a ruthless plunder, the merchants may not be willing to give a penny of silver to the future.
It was originally.
Anyway, you will come and grab it when I get bigger. I might as well hide it from the beginning and leave some foundation for myself.
They guessed it right.
Miao Yan really has no choice but to them now.
But Miao Yan didn't have any ideas.
He coughed lightly: "Dear shopkeepers, I think you already know that the locust plague has gone straight to the Gyeonggi area, right?"
"Report to the master, we have heard of it." A chubby middle-aged man sighed, "It's so hard for the people!"
His name is Luo Jiang. His ancestors were all engaged in rice business for three generations. "Zhengyu Rice Village" ranks third in the Gyeonggi region.
However, Zhengyu Rice Village has a bad reputation. Sometimes it is mixed with some wheat bran, or the scales are always insufficient, or the quality of the rice is a bit old.
But the advantage is that their prices are cheap. When they sell 18 cents per liter, Zhengyu Rice Village only sells 16 cents, and most of the shops are located within a radius of 30 miles outside the city. The people there pay more attention to prices, so the business is pretty good.
People like this are lamenting the hardships of the people, and Miao Yan doesn't believe in the slightest.
But he was just following this sentence, "Because the lives of ordinary people are difficult, these wealthy businessmen and heroes should give up their help at this time... Just like what Prince Yu's Mansion is doing now, do you think so?"
After all, Miao Yan is not a smooth person and has no skills in speaking. He asks for money at the beginning, which makes him look a little stiff.
A tall and thin old man smiled bitterly when he heard this, "Don't you know yet? How much salary and food does Prince Yu's mansion have every year? The prince's double salary and the prince's three salary, and the grain alone is 19,000 stones!
Even if they throw out the 20,000 stone grains a year, there will be new ones in the warehouse next year. What about us? If we don’t make some small profits by doing business, the whole family and the thousands of fellow workers under us will have to drink the northwest wind!"
The old man is named Zhan Jiasan, and his family has made grain for generations. The "Zhan Ji Grain Shop" is the first in the capital region. It is said that there are millions of stones of grain in the warehouse at any time, and it is very strong.
Think about it, if there is a person with a million stones of grain in the warehouse, and he is still crying poor, can Miao Yan be happy?
He snorted coldly: "Old Zhan, do you see what you say on the banner of Miaowei Building of Prince Yu's Mansion today? 'Don't do good because of small good, and do not do evil because of small evil'. Even if it is good to make a little contribution, it is not reasonable to make any contribution. Isn't it too much for the villagers in the country?"
While speaking, a sharp light flashed in Miao Yan's eyes, and a evil spirit arose naturally.
Even though Zhan Jiasan is almost sixty years old, he is used to the strong winds and waves, and he can't help but feel tight at this time.
Everyone has seen Miao Heizi's methods. Even the prince's favorite concubine dares to burn it to death. Is there anyone else who dare not touch him?
A strong man sitting in front of the other side laughed and said sincerely: "Mr. Miao is right. Although I, Zheng Laosan, came from a turbulent family, also knows what family, country and world are... Let's do this, our Dayun Merchant donated 5,000 stones of rice and wheat flour to express our feelings."
This man is not only strong, but also has a clear scar on his face. Even though he is smiling, he is a little hideous.
He is the fourth-ranked grain merchant in the Gyeonggi region, named Zheng Fuzhang.
Although the name is elegant, it is actually a name that has only been changed in recent years. He used to be called Zheng Laosan and kept making a living in the Grand Canal.
It is said that Zheng Laosan was a little unclean from a background, but there were many friends on and off the canal, and all kinds of goods could be sold. Grain was just one of his business.
In terms of overall strength, Zheng Fuzhang can rank among the top 20 in the openly prevalent area of the Gyeonggi area. He dare not say that his net worth is 10 million taels of silver, but there are at least five or six million taels.
And such a big businessman actually donated only 6,000 taels of silver, which really made Miao Yan feel powerless.
Miao Yan also understood that the meaning of these six thousand taels was that in Zheng Fuzhang's eyes, the face of the imperial prefect is only worth six thousand taels of silver.
Seeing Zheng Fuzhang speak, another middle-aged man in pockmarked, he said, "Boss Zheng is right, I will come to work together to make good deeds. Our abundant grain shop also donated 5,000 stones of rice and wheat."
The abundance of grain stores ranks second in the Gyeonggi area, with the grain in the warehouse being less than hundreds of thousands of stones, but the boss Shen Ruhu is still willing to give so much.
He and Zheng Fuzhang said this, and immediately Zhan Jiasan and Luo Jiang nodded one after another and pledged five thousand stones.
The food merchants below didn't say a word just now, but now they are following you, you two thousand stones, and I three thousand stones will start donating.
After this trip, the top 20 grain merchants in the Gyeonggi area donated a total of 53,000 stones.
Although Miao Yan had known this result, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart that the businessman was indeed a typical example of being very meticulous!
But he still held back his anger and started the second round of more negotiations.
"The court will remember your donations in your heart." Miao Yan glanced at everyone, and many people lowered their heads. "But what the court needs most is that you can set an example and stabilize the supply of food... I heard that all your shops here did not open to sell food this morning?"
None of the people present replied to him.
"You guys are so brave!"
Miao Yan suddenly slapped his table hard and angrily said, "Last night, the emperor issued an order. If there is any raising the price of grain and not selling it, the official and the Embroidered Uniform Guard Office will strictly investigate it! If you think that the official's blade is unfavorable or cannot kill you, then you should know that it is amazing when you walk through the Embroidered Uniform Guard Office! "
Miao Yan's sudden change of face shocked the group of people.
The prefect of the imperial capital and a senior official who was in charge of the life and death of more than three million people, was angrily scolded, which was of course very intimidating.
Especially he is still a Legal official who dares to kill people!
As for the words "Walking in the Embroidered Uniform Guards" behind them, many people's skin twitched.
Especially Zheng Fuzhang.
Although Master Zheng San is already developed now, the legend of the embroidered yamen cell of the brothers on the Tao has never stopped.
It is said that no matter how powerful a person is, he will be a hero after entering the house for a day. After he stays for three days, he will not only not resent him after coming out, but will instead present him with wine and celebrate him and praise him for being a strong man.
As for the seven days...
It seems I haven't heard of it yet.
The matter of food must be a big deal.
Zheng Sanye had never experienced the big locust plague in Jinghe in the 23rd year, but he heard that he had killed many people and arrested many people back then.
If the embroidered sibling guards were going to catch people among these people, Master Zheng San probably wouldn't be able to escape.
Others don’t know about his black material, so will the Embroidered Uniform Guard Office not know about it?
The reason why he was not caught was purely because he was too involved in the back, too complicated and difficult to do, so the people above were a little worried.
Zheng Fuzhang knew that he would be the one who was originally introduced to the table, so he always enjoyed himself and lived a life of enough money.
As a result, as he enjoyed it, he felt that it would be better to live, and it would be better not to die so early.
If he took this opportunity to arrest him by the Embroidered Yiwei Yamen, wouldn’t he be able to enjoy such a good life?
As a result, before Zheng Fuzhang lay down, a grain merchant next to him was already scared.
He said tremblingly: "Mr. Miao, I have my own difficulties too! If others don't open it, I will open it alone. Everyone is rushing to buy all my rice and wheat flour. What should I do in the future? Wouldn't my store collapse?"
"What you mean is that if everyone sells it, you will definitely sell it?" Miao Yan looked at him with a smile.
"Yes...yes." The grain merchant swallowed.
Miao Yan pointed, "What about you? What do you think? Zheng Fuzhang, I am asking you."
not good!
Zheng Fuzhang felt that the back of his neck was cold, and he had no choice but to say: "Everyone sells food. Whatever everyone does, Zheng Laosan will do it naturally, so it is better for everyone to sell food together."
Luo Jiang cried out inwardly, and quickly interrupted, "Sir, the current locust plague is hard to say. We have no idea how big the scale and how long the impact will last. So the villain thinks that we should be careful and not sell out all the food at once, otherwise what should we do in the next days?"
Zhan Jiasan also said, "Yes, sir, don't you see that we have a lot of inventory, but there are more than 9 million people in this Jingxi area, even if there are mountains, they will be eaten up in an instant.
Although the harvest in Jiangnan is going to be carried out, and we have a contract, it is clear that food will be in short supply now. They may rather lose money than sell it to us at the original price! You should also think about the livelihoods of tens of thousands of us grain merchants!"
Miao Yan smiled at the sun.
These people are talking about the truth, but unfortunately they still have no responsibility.
To be precise, they still can't let go of the heart that wants to make a fortune.
But the problem is that I can't really kill them and confiscate all their food.
So I can only compromise.
Miao Yan doesn't like this kind of thing very much, but he has to do it.
"This is how it goes!"
Miao Yan nodded, "I know your difficulties, and the emperor knows them too. Therefore, I will give you a suggestion, and you can see if it is OK."
"Sir, please speak!" everyone said in unison.
"From today, we will set a month first. Each of your families will pay 5,000 shi of grain every day, and the price can be set to 30 cents per liter." Miao Yan said straight away.
To be continued...