If the dignitaries in the court are tigers, then the landlords and gentry are leeches that lie directly on the people and suck their blood.
Not only did Jin Feng dislike them, but so did the Ninth Princess.
The decline of Dakang to its present state is directly related to the crazy land annexation by grassroots landlords and tycoons.
When Jin Feng proposed to raise food from the landlords, the Ninth Princess's first thought was to forcefully raise food.
Although Jin Feng didn't have a good impression of the landlords, forced grain requisition could easily arouse the resistance of the landlords and gentry. Given the current situation in Sichuan and Shu, Jin Feng didn't want to cause any more trouble. He just wanted to raise enough food for disaster relief as soon as possible.
As for the landlords and gentry, they can be left to deal with it later.
Therefore, he rejected the Ninth Princess's suggestion of forcibly collecting grain, and instead proposed using water jade beads to "purchase" grain from the landlords and gentry.
"Buying food?"
When the Maozhou County Sheriff heard this, his heart finally fell to the ground.
Although it was more difficult to get food from the landlords and gentry under this situation, compared to the trouble caused by the Ninth Princess, he was already satisfied with the result.
What's more, the Ninth Princess didn't force her to conquer her, but gave her so much jade in exchange.
The reputation of water jade has long been established, and many wealthy families are proud to own water jade.
However, because Jin Feng and Ninth Princess have been controlling the shipment volume of water jade, the price of water jade has remained high, and ordinary landowners and gentry cannot afford it.
The governor of Maozhou never dreamed that one day he would be able to see so many jade beads.
Just like someone in the past life gave you a bunch of diamonds all at once, everyone will be excited.
Although these jade beads were not his, they still excited him.
At the same time, it also gave rise to new worries in his heart.
Are Ninth Princess’s things so easy to get?
If the lion opens his mouth and he cannot raise enough food, he may still be dead.
"Your Highness, how much food do you want?"
The Maozhou County Sheriff asked with a worried look on his face.
"Don't worry, I won't make it difficult for you."
The Ninth Princess said: "There are a total of one hundred and twenty water jade beads here, one hundred small ones and twenty large ones.
Each small one can be exchanged for ten cartloads of grain, and each large one can be exchanged for fifty cartloads of grain. Is that okay?"
"No problem, no problem!"
The Maozhou County Sheriff quickly waved his hand.
Based on the current market conditions of Shui Yuzhu, this price can be said to be very fair, and he even took advantage of it.
At the auction in Jiangnan, Tang Xiaobei exchanged water and jade beads for grain, using boats as the counting unit.
Of course, the jade beads at the auction are all high-quality, both in size and quality, far exceeding those in the hands of the Maozhou County Sheriff.
"If there is no problem, just hurry up and do it. In ten days, I will send someone to pick up the food!"
The Ninth Princess said coldly.
"Yes! I'll do it now, sir!"
When the Maozhou County Sheriff heard that time was so urgent, he left quickly.
"Sir, does it really matter if you release so many water jade beads at once?"
Princess Ninth asked with a frown.
"It's okay. Xiaobei has already promoted it in Jiangnan. The bigger the water jade beads are, the more valuable they are. The ones we are releasing this time are small and of poor quality. They will not affect the high-end market of water jade beads."
Jin Feng said without caring.
This sales model also imitates diamonds from previous lives.
Every time a diamond gets bigger, the price goes up several times.
Top-notch diamonds are something that only wealthy people can pursue. Not to mention ordinary people, even the middle class with some wealth cannot afford them.
But have diamantaires spared the middle class?
No.
Not to mention the middle class, ordinary people were not spared.
Those broken diamonds in jewelry stores are for ordinary people.
And some so-called treasures and collectibles are sold to the middle class.
As for truly high-end goods, they usually appear at auctions.
The three markets of high, middle and low end have no influence on each other.
Every year, we don’t know how many broken diamonds are sold around the world, and whether the auction should be held or not.
Not affected at all.
On the contrary, because diamonds are becoming more and more famous, their prices are also getting higher and higher.
After all, the diamond itself has no actual value. Whether it is one carat or ten carats, it is just a stone.
Its value is reflected in a sense of superiority and vanity.
The greater the reputation, the higher this added value will be.
In Jin Feng's view, the landlords and gentry in various places are the well-off middle class.
Jin Feng had been thinking about them for more than a day or two, but he had been busy with other things and couldn't spare any time to deal with them.
When the Ninth Princess said that they wanted to be conquered by force, Jin Feng's first thought was to trick the landlords and gentry.
As for whether the landlords will jump into the pit, Jin Feng is not worried at all.
The gap between the rich and the poor in Dakang is much wider than in previous lives. It is not an exaggeration to say that "the wine and meat in the rich families are stinky, and the bones on the road are frozen to death".
The common people have not even solved the problem of food and clothing, but the food in the homes of the landlords and gentry is piling up like mountains, and even moldy and rotten.
Living materials in Dakang are backward, and although the landlords have money and food, their lives are actually very boring.
You can't hang out with your wives and concubines every day, right?
Even if he could support groups of wives and concubines, his body would not be able to bear it.
Coupled with the influence of the powerful, many landowners have a special liking for rare and exotic toys.
In their view, rare and exotic toys not only represent status, but also represent taste.
Therefore, as soon as Jinfeng's water jade beads were launched, they quickly attracted the attention of powerful and wealthy businessmen.
In fact, the landlords and gentry also wanted to buy, but the price of large jade was too high, and they couldn't afford it.
Jin Feng now took out a batch of small jade stones and sold them to them.
Facts have proved that the enthusiasm of the landlords and gentry is higher than Jin Feng expected.
The Ninth Princess marked the price of each water jade bead, telling the Maozhou County Sheriff that if I give you so many water jade beads, you must at least give me this much food.
So raising food this time is actually similar to forced buying and selling.
The county governor of Maozhou also understood this, so he sent people out overnight to deliver the message, preparing to distribute the pressure to the county magistrates in various places.
The Ninth Princess gave him ten days, but he only gave the county magistrates seven days.
County magistrates in various places are required to deliver food to the county town within seven days.
I thought that even if the county magistrates forced the landowners, it would take several days to get it together. However, at noon the next day, the Maozhou County Sheriff found Jin Feng and Ninth Princess and told them that the county magistrates had replied and that the food had been collected.
Ask Jin Feng if he still has water jade beads.
After seeing off the Maozhou County Sheriff, Jin Feng still felt a little incredible: "Could it be that the Maozhou County Sheriff was flattering and bought all the jade beads himself?"
"Does he have so much food?" Ninth Princess frowned.
If the Maozhou County Sheriff really spent so much food on his own, he is definitely a super corrupt official, and she really needs to investigate him carefully.
"Wouldn't it be better to have someone check it out?"
Jin Feng immediately called Da Liu and asked him to contact the Zhongming Group in Maozhou County.
Zhong Ming's team acted quickly and delivered the information to Zhong Ling'er that night.
"Is the food really exchanged for water and jade beads?"
Jin Feng looked at the information with surprise on his face: "Do the landlords like water jade beads so much?"