One of the most important cities in the north of Qingzhou, close to Suzhou, it is regarded as the gateway to the north.
On this day, a mighty caravan arrived in front of the north gate of Chaicheng. There were hundreds of carriages, carrying loads of goods, which attracted the officers and soldiers guarding the city to look at it curiously.
In the past, there were often caravans traveling here, but since the chaos in the world, the number of caravans here has decreased sharply. Even if there are occasional caravans passing by here, it is only a dozen or so carriages. Three or five carriages are also normal. But like today, hundreds of carriages suddenly appeared. It's no wonder that the soldiers guarding the city couldn't help but be curious.
After paying the entry fee for carriages and horses, the convoy entered the city. Perhaps because the official road had been in disrepair for a long time and was too bumpy, when passing by the city, a carriage suddenly overturned, and then the goods fell to the ground, followed by bags of , the high-quality rice was scattered all over the floor, causing many people who saw this scene to exclaim in their hearts.
In times of war, what is the lowest thing—that is undoubtedly human life.
But when it comes to what is the most precious thing - it is undoubtedly food.
It is no exaggeration to say that as long as there is food, anyone with a little ambition can quickly raise a ragtag army.
With food, countless people have no choice but to work for it if they want to survive. You can imagine how valuable this thing is. But now, so much food fell to the ground, and it immediately attracted the attention of many people, and even more Some people in ragged clothes on the street swarmed up and grabbed things as they went up.
"Get out of the way, get out of the way." The guards in the convoy rushed out and pushed aside the people who were grabbing food. In the process, they inevitably used some kicks and punches, injuring a few people, and this allowed the mad rush to grab food. He paused and then watched helplessly as the caravan members repackaged the fallen rice and sealed it.
This scene in front of me was seen by many people. After it spread, Chaicheng quickly became lively.
Yu Tu, General Chaicheng, after learning the news, quickly went to the governor's mansion and met the governor Lu Se.
Lu Se, who is in his thirties, looks a little thin and his face is a little pale. In fact, he is as good as his name, and his appearance is as good as his destiny.
It has only been a year since I came to Chaicheng, but many people in the city have suffered from it, especially those with young women at home, who have become the number one target, so that now in the city, there are only a few pretty families. Some young girls either got married hastily or fled with their families to other places.
Although he caused such great destructive power, he still remained firmly in the position of county guard because his uncle was Lu Jiangling, the commander-in-chief of Qingzhou.
Lu Jiangling married several wives and concubines, and also gave birth to some children, but for some reason, none of the men persisted until adulthood, so that now only his nephew Lu Se is left in the entire Lu family. He liked him very much, and after his recommendation, he became the governor of Chaicheng County and became a high official. It seems that the mountains are high and the emperor is far away, so he is the emperor.
Yu Tu reported the news to Lu Se, and Governor Lu, who was originally lazy, immediately became energetic. "Is this serious? I will send someone to find out their details immediately. I am making other considerations." Although he said this. More than a hundred carts of food are very greedy, but because of this, we have to be more careful. After all, a businessman who can get so much food in troubled times must be a person of status, so it is necessary to get one Be clear and see if you can provoke it.
After Yu Tu received the order, he went to the inn where the grain merchants were staying. When he learned that the general in the city was coming in person, the leader of the caravan, Jin Zhen, greeted him personally with a smile on his face.
come out.
When Jin Zhen came, he saw that there was a group of soldiers following Yu Tu. His face did not change at all, and he still stepped forward with a smile. "Businessman Jin Zhen has seen the general, please come into the house to serve tea."
"
"Okay." Yu Tu made a gesture and asked the soldiers following him to stay outside. Then he followed Jin Zhen into the back room. He also wanted to see what the man in front of him wanted to say.
In the back room, the aroma of tea was overflowing. With a slight movement of his nose, Yu Tu could smell the aroma of Jizhou tea, or the best Jizhou tea. I heard that this thing is extremely luxurious even in the land controlled by Dahua.
The shipment rate of these items is extremely low. You don’t have to have money to buy them. You must have an identity to do so.
The last time Yu Tu went to Qingzhou with his county guard, he was lucky enough to smell it once, when he met Lu Jiangling, the commander-in-chief of Qingzhou. But that time, he was not even qualified to taste it. He never thought that in a grain rice
There is such a good thing in the hands of a businessman.
Jin Zhen walked in front, politely asked Yu Tu to sit down, and then poured out some tea, "The general's presence has made the humble house shine. A mere tea reception is too shabby."
Seeing that the yellow and orange tea leaves were within arm's reach, it was actually said that he was not greeted well. Yu Tu felt a little blushed. "Uh, I'm sorry to bother you, but please don't take offense, Mr. Jin."
"Haha, being able to make friends with an outstanding person like General Yu is exactly what Jin wants. Come on, please drink tea." Jin Zhen smiled and made a tea invitation with the look of Maitreya Buddha.
action.
Yu Tu was no longer polite, and immediately picked up the tea cup and started drinking. As expected, it was fragrant and tasted great.
Jincheng here was adding tea to Yu Tu while continuing to ask with a smile, "I don't know where the general is coming, but is there any official business?"
"Oh, it's not really a business matter. I just heard that a caravan has arrived in the city, so I came here to take a look for safety reasons." Yu Tu laughed and said.
"That's it. In fact, general, you can rest assured that Jin is a serious businessman. He is engaged in the grain and rice business. He is now affiliated with the Chamber of Commerce in Dahua. This time he is just helping Dahua transport grain. Well,
Canglang camp knows, this time it's actually to deliver food to them." Jin Zhen seemed to be easy to talk to, and he exposed all his secrets when he came up.
I originally thought that it would take some effort to find out the details of the other party, but unexpectedly, I found out everything so quickly. Of course, Yu Tu knew about the Canglang Camp. Since the founding of Dahua, it has been operating in the Dianzhou area.
The Canglang Camp was the first to respond and told the world that they were willing to obey the call of Emperor Vandant. It was at that time that everyone knew that this force was originally established with the support of Emperor Vandant Tang Ao.
Yu Tu had naturally heard of this incident, so he was not surprised at all, and his face was troubled.
Speaking of which, after Tang Ao established himself as China, he naturally attracted the rebuke and disapproval of Emperor Qianwen. But it was just beautiful words, but no action was taken. Even at the junction of the armies of the two sides, there was no change in the strength of the troops.
, as if nothing happened.
After Prince Tang Jia took charge of the country, he even issued an order to the five states below, that is, not to take the initiative to have any conflicts with the Chinese army. He also said that everyone is a gangster and should not fight their own people.
This kind of talk is just to deceive ordinary people. In fact, everyone who knows the truth knows that this is because King Shun simply does not have the courage to independently oppose the Chinese army.
As one of the cities under Emperor Qianwen's rule, Chaicheng naturally received the relevant orders. Now that he heard that Jin Zhen took the initiative to report Dahua's name, he hesitated, wondering whether he should take action to rob it. This batch of food is here.
To be honest, after the war in the south, many major grain-producing cities were severely damaged. Not only did they have no food to sell outside, but it was also very difficult to ensure the food they needed. The output of food decreased, so the price of food naturally dropped. It has been rising steadily and is already more than ten times what it was before the war. However, there are still many people who cannot buy food with money.
There is only one exception in the world, and that is the former Ji Di and now Hua Di. Because this place has long been settled down, and the fertile fields here are no longer in the hands of the powerful, but are all distributed to the common people, the fields are greatly utilized. , and Vantage has developed something called chemical fertilizer, which can increase the grain production by 30%. As a result, the grain harvest there is bumper every year, and there is a large surplus.
The whole world is in chaos and everyone is starving. Only in China, the price of food is low, and there are so many granaries that they can no longer hold it. This makes many people come to invest after hearing the news, and the population of China is increasing. more.
At the same time, many businessmen saw business opportunities and tried to find ways to go to China to sell grain. They just regretted that the journey was too far and the risks involved were very high. In addition, the price of grain sold in China was not low. , which was a different price than when they sold it themselves, so many merchants did not make much profit. On the contrary, many people met bad people because of the chaos in the world and died on the way to sell food.
Gradually, the number of grain merchants decreased a lot. Now a big grain merchant finally appeared, but he was from Dahua. How could Yu Tu not embarrass himself?
If you deliberately want to keep this food, whether you eat it yourself or sell it, it will be a fortune. But there are orders from above. If you really keep people, will it attract Dahua? Being dissatisfied, what about attracting the opponent's army to press the situation from the beginning?
When Yu Tu was still hesitating, Jin Zhen saw all this and thought that the other party wanted to ask for some benefits. He immediately smiled and said: "Oh, it's Jin who doesn't know how to behave. General, wait a moment."
As he spoke, Jin Zhen stood up, quickly picked up a small wooden box and placed it on the table. Then he opened it and took out five silver notes and sent them to Yu Tu. "General Yu , please take good care of me in your military territory in the future."
Holding five thousand-tael silver notes in his hand, Yu Tu's eyes widened as he watched Jin Zhen close the small wooden box filled with silver notes.