Xiangyang is the capital of Jingnan Road. The spring drought here is not serious and it is relatively close to Jinzhou. It is a very suitable place to buy grain.
Qian Chen planned to give it a try, so he stopped and stopped walking forward.
After two days of inquiring in Xiangyang, Qian Chen went to visit a large local grain merchant.
Halfway along the way, Zhang Bor asked out his doubts: "What we learned yesterday was that the largest grain merchant near Xiangyang is the Pi family. Why did you go to visit the Wei family today instead of driving?"
Qian Chen explained: "There are three grain merchants in the world, one is called sitting, the second is called walking, and the third is called teeth."
"The Pi family are merchants. They transport grain to other places for sale. It is impossible to return empty ships, and they also need to buy other goods. They make two business trips during one business trip, and they do not only make money from grain. The more wealthy people in other places,
The happier they are if there is a disaster. There will be a shortage of food in the north this year. Even the prefect can see it. Don’t those grain merchants know?"
"The Wei family is a tooth merchant. They go to the countryside to collect grain, store it in warehouses, and wait for merchants from other places to buy it. Although prices will increase this year, they will definitely not be as sharp as those of merchants. Moreover, tooth merchants often still do business.
, must be the strongest locally, and the amount of grain collected in the countryside is the most stable."
Zhang Bor said sincerely: "Unexpectedly, there are so many ways to deal with merchants. It's no wonder that my husband entrusted money to Bijia to preside over the purchase of grain."
The Wei family does not live in Xiangyang, but in Dengcheng, more than ten miles northwest of Xiangyang, where Guan Yu flooded the Seventh Army.
The official ship was still docked in Xiangyang. Qian Chen, Zhang Bor and a few people took the car to Dengcheng that day.
After staying at an inn, I learned from the waiters that the Wei family had a manor in the suburbs and a mansion in the city. The person in charge of its business lived in the city, but the Wei family's patriarch lived in the suburbs.
Zhang Boring asked: "Don't you want to go to the suburbs to meet the Wei clan leader?"
"Of course," Qian Chen said with a smile, "if you go to visit the city, you can only discuss business, and the price cannot be lowered. If you go to the suburbs, you can discuss other things. My knowledge is not good, but the prefect is quite talented.
Maybe the Wei clan leader will give him some face."
That night, Qian Chen asked the waiter to bring him hot water to soak his feet, and took the opportunity to ask: "Mr. Xishang of the Wei family, do you know what kind of person he is?"
The waiter smiled and said: "He is disrespectful to his elders and loves to tease people. He often beat and scolded those he couldn't stand. In the past two years, he even beat the county magistrate with a cane. The magistrate could only hold his head and dodge. People from all over the country
Gentlemen were often beaten and scolded by him, and everyone who saw him walked around."
Qian Chen grasped the key point: "We just beat and scolded the county magistrate and the gentry, but didn't we harm the people?"
"That's not true. Mr. Wei is very aloof and aloof. He doesn't usually deal with mud-legged people," the waiter began to tell the gossip. "His temper is much more restrained now than when he was young. I heard from old people in the community that he failed the exam several times.
The successful candidate was so angry that he beat the examiner half to death on the spot."
Instead of beating him half to death, he almost beat the examiner to death!
From then on, he no longer participated in the imperial examination, but his friends were very powerful: Wang Anshi, Wang Anguo, Zhang Dun, Huang Tingjian, Mi Fu...
By the way, he also had a brother-in-law named Zeng Bu, and his sister and Li Qingzhao were known as the two most important female poets in the Northern Song Dynasty.
Qian Chen inquired again and found out that this man was good at poetry, and he immediately had a suspicion in his mind. He immediately took out a pen and paper and wrote out all Ju Ming's poems silently.
Why can Qian Chen silently write Ju Ming's poems?
Of course you have to study and figure out your boss!
…
Wei Tai is in his sixties. He is witty, sharp-tongued, aggressive, and good at rhetoric.
When he was young, he beat up the examiner and ruined his official career. When he was old, he became arrogant for a while. At that time, his brother-in-law Zeng Bu was in power, and Wei Tai was also arrogant. He refused to give face to anyone, and often made people unable to stand up. In the writings of writers, it is to fight against his brother-in-law.
The momentum is rampant in the countryside.
In fact, he was very lonely. All of his close friends in his youth had passed away, and not even a single one was left who could talk.
Now I do three things every day, one is to raise geese; the other is to fish by the stream and call myself my father-in-law on the stream; the third is to write nonsense articles, falsely claiming that they were written by the late famous minister, and then spread them to see the jokes of the people who ask for letters.
Zhang Shizheng, Mei Yaochen, etc. have been dead for decades, but there are some more works out of nowhere, all of which were written by Wei Tai to deceive people and have fun.
After hanging up the bait, Wei Tai swung his pole into the stream without looking at the buoy, and just leaned on the chair to drink.
The weather is not hot and there is shade from the trees, which is quite pleasant.
He was about to fall asleep in a daze when his grandson Wei Yingshi rushed over: "Grandpa, grandfather... Weng Weng!"
"Um?"
Wei Tai opened his eyes, picked up the fishing rod, and found that all the bait had been eaten, so he hung the bait again and threw it out: "Why are you here looking for me if you don't study at home?"
Wei Yingshi said: "My grandfather once praised Zhu Chenggong's poems highly, and my grandson saw several excellent works today."
Someone from Dengcheng County went to the imperial examination and copied Ju Ming's poems back. Wei Tai liked the one "Linjiang Immortal: Rolling Waters of the Yangtze River East" the most.
"Let's take a look." Wei Tai finally regained his energy.
There are only three new works, one is dedicated to Master Li, one was written when he left Beijing to take office, and the third was written in Kuiqiu.
Wei Tai read it carefully and found that the meter he copied from Wang Guowei was wrong, but it seemed to be intentional. He couldn't understand what it was expressing. The meter of the farewell poem when leaving Beijing also seemed wrong, and Wei Tai didn't like it very much. Only
The poem about Kuiqiu was quite to Wei Tai's liking.
"Where did it come from?" Wei Tai asked his grandson.
Wei Yingshi said: "Someone from Jinzhou passed by here and brought Zhu Chenggong's poems to ask for an audience."
"Don't drive in Jinzhou..." Wei Tai muttered twice, stood up with a cane and prepared to go home.
He was completely distracted because this position was usually given to people who had been demoted or retired. Wei Tai thought it was an old friend who was visiting.
Although all his close friends are dead, he had a wide range of contacts back then and many casual acquaintances are still alive.
When he came home and saw a young fat man, Wei Tai was a little dumbfounded and asked: "Which old lady are you?"
Qian Chen replied: "No. I just admire Mr.'s name and came here to visit."
Wei Tai asked again: "In what year were you a Jinshi?"
Qian Chen said: "This junior did not pass the Jinshi examination."
He didn't pass the Jinshi exam, but he could do other things, that is, donate an official position. Wei Tai said angrily: "You are a white person, and you come to amuse me. Get away as far as you can!"
"This junior is the envoy sent by Governor Zhu!" Qian Chen said quickly.
Wei Yingshi explained: "The governor of Jinzhou is Zhu Chenggong."
Wei Tai's anger subsided slightly: "I don't know him, so why did I send an envoy here?"
Qian Chen said: "Prefect Zhu has admired Mr. Shu's name for a long time, and also respected King Shu (Wang Anshi) and Duke Zeng Wensu (Zeng Bu) for their reform ambitions. He often lamented that he was born decades late and could not appreciate your heroic demeanor in person. Now he is a traitor. The truth is, Cai Jing used the name of King Shu to introduce new laws to enrich the country, but in fact he amassed wealth and harmed the people. I heard that Mr. Cai Jing was living in seclusion in Dengcheng, so he specially sent this junior to come and pay his respects."
"He's interested. Sit down." Wei Tai stroked his beard and said with a smile.
Wei Tai's brother-in-law Zeng Bu was kicked out of the court by Cai Jing, and Zeng Bu was even labeled as a Yuanyou party member.
No matter who scolded Cai Jing, Wei Tai liked it.
Qian Chen added: "When I came to Dengcheng, I heard someone criticizing Mr. and saying that he was running rampant in the countryside. But I didn't believe it, and after asking carefully, I found out that Mr. Xiang did not do anything to harm the people. He also treated the people well. The people all speak well of Mr.
The second half of the sentence is nonsense. Although the Wei family does not have common people, they do not treat the common people very well.
But Wei Tai liked to hear it. He felt that his family's family tradition was very good and he should be respected by the people. He immediately nodded: "Most of the people who said that I am running rampant in the countryside have been beaten, scolded and teased by me. You come from other places and can distinguish right from wrong. It’s not easy either.”
Qian Chen continued to put on his hat: "King Shu is dedicated to the public good, and he loves the people. Mr. Shu is a close friend of King Shu during his lifetime. He must also care about the people and do not want to see the people suffer."
Wei Tai has a bad temper and a straight temper, and he cannot change it even as he gets older.
This kind of person has to be smoothed over, and as long as it makes him happy, you can talk about anything. If you make him unhappy, hehe, he can rush into the Gongyuan and beat the examiner, just because he suspects that the examiner deliberately sentenced him to fail.
Wei Tai was comforted by a few words and said: "I see that Zhu Chenggong paid tribute to Kuiqiu, and he is also a person who cares about the people of the country."
Qian Chen said: "Zhu Taishou went to Puzhou and saw that Yao Ling was harming the people, so he violated the order and redefined the restricted area..."
Qian Chen recounted Zhu Ming's various deeds in Puzhou in detail like a treasure trove of treasures. He also added fuel to the fire by telling how Zhu Ming was jealous of Cai's party and tricked the emperor into transferring Ju Ming to Jinzhou, a place where people had nothing to do.
Besides, even when Ju Ming arrived in a barren land, he still cared for the people. Before he took office, he saw that the traitors were forcing the people to dig for gold. He immediately fell out with the general judge and sent the people back home to farm. He also said that Ju Ming retried the unjust case, which made a big fuss. ups and downs.
Speaking of Zhu Ming's forcible ban on market transactions and a fight with the general magistrate, Wei Tai clapped his hands and praised: "Well done, this guy is like me!"
Zhang Bor rolled his eyes when he heard this. When the city affairs were banned, the prefect was clearly not at the scene, so how could he fight with the tongpan?
Qian Chen said: "Sir, I don't know that before Zhu was admitted to the imperial examination, he took archers to suppress bandits. He killed dozens of bandits with one man and one sword. How could Li Daochong, the general judge, be compared with the prefect? He only met one person. He was beaten until his nose started to bleed. He kicked him to the ground again, grabbed Li Tongpian by the lapel of his clothes and asked, "You are not willing to accept your submission?" Although Li Tongpian was resentful in his heart, he was afraid of being beaten to death. He even said: I’m convinced, I’m convinced!”
Wei Tai laughed loudly: "Interesting, interesting, you are truly a man of my generation!"
After another round of nonsense, Qian Chen suddenly sighed: "Alas, the spring drought this year is serious, and the prefect cannot bear the suffering of the people. He sent me to Xiangyang to pre-purchase summer grain, but after asking many grain merchants, they all hoarded it and refused to sell it."
"This matter is easy to discuss," Wei Tai told his grandson, "call your uncle back."
Wei Tai's eldest son Wei Qun lives in the city and is in charge of the Wei family's business.
After waiting for about an hour, Qian Chen didn't stop talking. From beginning to end, he was choosing what the old man wanted to say.
Wei Qun hurried back to his ancestral home. Naturally, he would not be fooled by a few words and asked directly: "How much grain does Zhu need to buy?"
"Ten thousand stones." Qian Chen said openly.
One stone in the Song Dynasty was not 120 kilograms, but 92.5 Song kilograms, which converted to 59.2 kilograms.
Ten thousand shi is 592 tons.
Wei Qun said, "I'm only selling you five thousand shi. I'm not sure I'll get it if it's more."
"Five thousand stones are also acceptable. Please give me a price." Qian Chen said.
Wei Qun said: "This year is different from the past. There is a spring drought in various parts of the north, and we still don't know what the price of food will be. Come back in May and negotiate the price based on the actual situation."
Qian Chen turned around and bowed to Wei Tai: "Unexpectedly, the Wei family is just like other grain merchants. They only want to hoard and don't care about the lives of the people. That's all. I'll go to the south to have a look."
Wei Tai's face was a bit unbearable. He had already realized at this time that Qian Chen had deliberately flattered him just to trick him into selling grain. But after all the talk, where would he put his face when word spread? He immediately told his son
Said: "We can discuss the price first."
Wei Qun did not dare to disobey his father's orders, so the lion said loudly: "Wheat costs 1,500 yuan per stone!"
Grain prices in the Northern Song Dynasty fluctuated greatly.
Based on the national average rice price, in the first year of Dazhong Xiangfu, the price was only 80 Wen per stone.
Only thirty years later, by Fan Zhongyan's time, the price per stone meter had risen to 300 wen.
Another forty years later, due to the opening of the river and Huang River, the price per stone meter soared to 700 Wen.
Since then, it has fluctuated between 300 and 700 fen, and in some areas the harvest can drop below 150 fen.
Until Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty succeeded to the throne, various conflicts broke out, and the price of rice was higher than 600 Wen for a long time. In the past two years, during the war with Xixia, disasters occurred frequently in various places. In addition, large amounts of copper coins were issued indiscriminately, and the price soared to more than 1,000 Wen. (After the Fang La Uprising, the price of rice has exceeded 1,000 Wen.
, the price per stone meter is between 2,500 and 3,000 Wen.)
The price of wheat here in Xiangyang once rose to 1,200 wen per stone due to the war in the early years of the Huizong Dynasty. Later it dropped to 600 wen, but last year it rose to more than 900 wen.
The south of Jingnan Road and the north of Jinghu North Road, which were later the main areas of Hubei Province, had the lowest food prices in the country during the Northern Song Dynasty.
Because Hubei is vast and sparsely populated!
Affected by the wars of the Five Dynasties, the population has always been scarce. With the imperial court's encouragement of immigration and reclamation policies, Hubei's population gradually increased, reaching its peak (900,000 households) during the Yuanfeng period.
Since then, the imperial government's exploitation has become increasingly severe, and the population has declined instead of increasing. A large number of farmers have flocked to the cities or fled into the mountains, or even fled all the way to other roads.
During the Chongning period of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, the number of households dropped to 770,000, and the number of households in Jiangling Prefecture (affiliated to Jinghu North Road) was directly reduced by half.
A large amount of land is abandoned, and even if the landlord wants to cultivate it, he cannot recruit so many tenants.
"Have you ever seen wheat worth 1,500 yuan, old man?" Qian Chen looked at Wei Tai with a smile.
Wei Tai was really losing face and scolded his son: "Don't ask for excessive prices!"
But Wei Qun said: "Father, the war in the northwest is not over yet, and there is a spring drought in various parts of the north. This year's wheat will definitely rise to more than 1,500 yuan! The boy's bid has already been lowered."
Wei Tai said: "Move down again."
Wei Qun thought for a while: "1450 articles."
Qian Chen said: "The fixed price is 1,200 Wen! I have inquired about it. The highest wheat price in Xiangyang in the past years is only 1,200 Wen."
"Daydreaming!" Wei Qun didn't bother to bother anymore.
Wei Tai said: "Just 1,200 yuan, sign the deed immediately!"
"Father, you are confused." Wei Qun was speechless.
It felt like my old father was deceived by unscrupulous salesmen and spent all his family savings to buy health care products.
Wei Tai's temper exploded again. He picked up his cane and said: "I am very sober. One stone of wheat is 1,200 yuan, and my Wei family can also make a profit. I can help the people, so what if I make less? If you dare to say more, I will beat you to death."
What an unfilial son!"
Qian Chen looked serious and bowed to Wei Tai: "The old man cares about the people, and the younger generation admires him very much!"
If Wei Qun throws this hat away, he will have to sell it, otherwise he will be unfilial. Either he will be beaten to death by his father, or he will make his father angry to death.