Chapter 547: The insights of a low-ranking official
Of course this time is no exception. Lao Zhu laughed and said, "Our knowledge is definitely not as good as yours, please give us some advice. What's the secret here?"
Seeing that Zhu Yuanzhang did not respond directly, Gao Fei did not continue to persuade him.
"It doesn't matter if I tell you. His Royal Highness the King of England told us this personally."
Zhu Yuanzhang quickly pretended to be scared: "Since His Highness the King of England said it in person, it must be a secret of the imperial court, and ordinary people like us will not pry."
Gao Fei smiled and shook his head: "This is not a secret. His Highness Wang also said this kind of thing. It doesn't matter even if we reveal it."
"Oh?" Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes lit up: "Why do you say that?"
Gao Fei's smile deepened as he recalled: "His Royal Highness calls this a conspiracy. Even if those businessmen know what's going on, they will fall for it obediently."
Zhu Yuanzhang also heard the word "yangmou" from Zhu Han and understood what it was about?
But when it came to Datong Mansion, he was still a little confused.
"Why? Now that those businessmen know that this is His Royal Highness's method, they don't have to come to Datong."
Hearing Zhu Yuanzhang's explanation, Gao Fei suddenly looked full of contempt: "You said you don't know how to do business, but you still don't believe it."
"Aren't you just a businessman? Even if you know there is a problem here, as long as you transport the food here, you can sell it for at least three or four times the price. Are you not interested at all?"
"That's it." Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly realized.
Businessmen pursue profits.
As long as Zhu Han can guarantee it, the price of food in Datong Prefecture will always be higher than elsewhere.
Those grain merchants will naturally risk their lives to transport grain here.
But there is a problem here. If there is too much food in Datong Prefecture, food prices will definitely keep falling.
If the price of food is similar to other places, how could those merchants transport food here?
As for the number of disaster victims currently accumulating in Datong Prefecture, the food gap must be extremely huge.
Therefore, Zhu Han refused to let go of the food price.
Even if a grain merchant wants to lower grain prices, the Yamen will never agree.
Therefore, in order to sell as much grain as possible, these merchants also racked their brains and gave the people as much discount as possible.
"But if they do this now, aren't they just trying to reduce the price?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked the doubts in his heart.
Gao Fei laughed: "As long as it's not too much, Wanfu will turn a blind eye. After all, the grain in the hands of these grain merchants must be sold, right?"
Zhu Yuanzhang found that whenever Zhu Han was mentioned, Gao Fei's face was full of admiration and his eyes seemed to be shining.
Although this boy admired his younger brother, Zhu Yuanzhang felt a little jealous for no reason.
Even when this kid talks about himself, the Ming Emperor, he doesn't have that much respect for his younger brother.
"Although there is plenty of food, the people cannot afford such high food prices."
Gao Fei raised his eyebrows and said, "Why don't you tell me, Old Chang, that you are ignorant."
"If His Royal Highness simply raises the price of food so high, it will certainly not mean anything to us in Datong."
"No matter how much money ordinary people save, they simply can't afford such high-priced food."
"But His Royal Highness is different from other officials. He can always turn decay into magic."
"Although the current price of food in Datong Prefecture is very high, most ordinary people can actually afford it."
"Those grain merchants want to come to our Datong Mansion to sell grain, but there is a price."
"You need to spend money to buy one..." At this point, Gao Fei was a little stuck and seemed to be unable to remember what the word was.
Seeing that he was muttering for a long time and did not continue speaking, Lao Zhu kindly reminded: "Distributorship."
Gao Fei clapped his hands fiercely: "Yes, yes, that's it. Those Liangshan people have to spend a lot of money to buy a distribution rights before they can sell grain in our Datong Mansion."
"This distribution right has only been sold to ten large grain merchants. Grain from other merchants can only enter our Datong Prefecture through them."
"And the distribution rights of these ten grain merchants cannot be paid once. They have to pay for the distribution rights again every month."
"In order to be able to transfer a lot of money to our Datong Mansion, these people have to spend a lot of money."
"It stands to reason that His Royal Highness himself will pocket all the money from selling these distribution rights, and no one can say anything."
"But His Royal Highness did not do this. Instead, he took out all the money to subsidize us, the people of Datong Prefecture."
"As long as people have a household registration in Datong Prefecture, they can get a certain discount."
"Don't look at the fact that the current price of food seems to be very exaggerated. In fact, after discounts, it is about twice as expensive as usual."
"Of course, compared with previous years, the price of food is still very high."
"I'm in Hancheng, Datong Prefecture. It's good to be able to buy food."
"In the past, the government would have asked grain merchants not to raise grain prices,"
"But in fact." Gao Fei's face was full of ridicule: "Those grain merchants will not sell grain to the people at normal prices."
"In the end, if people want to buy food, it will be impossible without spending three or four times the price."
"But what about now? On the surface, the price of food is several times higher than usual, and people don't really spend that much money."
"Although it's quite hard, I can finally get by."
"This policy alone can be said to have saved countless lives."
"Saving one life is better than building a seven-level pagoda. Your Majesty, I don't know how many people you have saved. If you really build a tower, I'm afraid it won't break the sky."
"I plan to write to the court and ask them to build such a tower for His Majesty the King of England."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Flying high is still flying high, and it started to be serious after a while and it started to be out of tune again.
Of course Zhu Yuanzhang knew the details here. Even if he didn't understand, Zhu Han would definitely write a letter to explain clearly the ins and outs here.
What really surprised Lao Zhu was that even a seemingly low-ranking official like Gao Fei could understand Zhu Han's intentions.
In the past, officials would only let their subordinates do things honestly. As for the real key here, they would never tell their subordinates.
Of course, only one of their true confidants can know their purpose.
Perhaps sensing the strangeness in Zhu Yuanzhang's gaze, Gao Fei curled his lips and said, "Old Chang, you seem to be doubting my knowledge?"
Zhu Yuanzhang did not refute, but looked at him with a half-smile.
It wasn't until Gao Fei was so scared that he pouted angrily: "Okay, okay, I'll tell you all. These are all preached to us by His Royal Highness himself.
No matter what decision we make, the key points will be clearly explained to us."
"It's because he's afraid that we don't understand what he really means and do something wrong."
"At this time, the people of Datong Prefecture are living an extremely difficult time."
"Any mistake we make may lead to many people starving to death."
Zhu Yuanzhang once again lamented how powerful his brother was. He would definitely not have thought of such a method.
"By the way, sir. Don't you have to be on duty today?" Lao Zhu asked doubtfully.
As expected, Gao Fei's attention was easily attracted by Lao Zhu.
"Nonsense, I am not a strong man. I have been busy for half a month. Can't I take a break?"
It would be up to the officials from Yingtian Mansion to dare to say this to Lao Zhu.
Lao Zhu would definitely let him rest forever, or even sleep forever.
But these days, Lao Zhu also sees Gao Fei's hard work in his eyes.
I have to be busy for almost six or seven hours every day. I go out early in the morning and come back late at night.
And once you get to the checkpoint, you will be busy almost until dark.
During this period, it takes time to even take a bite of food.
This is not done just for him to see, but actually working hard for the people.
The yamen servants and officials who work with Gao Fei will also take a vacation with their colleagues.
Only Gao Fei kept watching there and never had a day off.
Now that people are finally having a holiday, of course Lao Zhu will not lose it, so what can I say?
But then, Goofy style
The conversation changed, and Hehe smiled and put his arm around Zhu Yuanzhang's shoulders, and said to Zhu Yuanzhang in a tone that every man would understand: "Old Chang, you are lucky today, I will show you something good."
With that mean look, Lao Zhu knew what he was talking about without even looking at it.
It's not that Lao Zhu doesn't like the fireworks of the world, he has no interest in this aspect at all.
But as an emperor, you still have to respect your status after all.
Since it's a private visit incognito, it's not good to just go in and out of that kind of place casually.
He is not the emperor of some braided country in later generations. He pretends to be incognito for private visits, but in fact he just wants to do those shameful things.
"I appreciate your kindness, but at our age, we have to forget about this kind of nice place. If you like it, please just do it yourself."
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhu Yuanzhang noticed that Gao Fei looked at him with a very contemptuous look: "Old Chang, you said you are quite old, why do you think so dirty?"
"Who am I, a dignified official? Why would I take you to a place like that?"
Then he said sadly: "I'm not telling you, Lao Chang, you have a fairy-like figure like your sister-in-law in your family, but you still think about these things?"
"We are brothers after all. I won't complain to my sister-in-law this time. You should be more careful in the future."
"Let's..." Zhu Yuanzhang almost couldn't breathe, he was suffocating.
on purpose.
Gao Fei, this little bastard, definitely induced him on purpose.
Lao Zhu has lived his whole life, when did he ever feel this kind of anger?
I really want to strangle this bastard Gao Fei to death.
"My lord, I have a lot of wealth and will not care about the minor personal ethics issues of my subordinates."
"Forget it this time, just pay attention in the future."
"Let's go, I will show you some interesting things today."
With that said, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't care about the aggrieved Zhu Yuanzhang, and walked away.
In the end, Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to follow him. There was nothing going on, but he wanted to see what the good stuff Gao Fei said was.
The two of them walked about half a mile and came to a Tianyuan Teahouse.
There was still a long way to go, but Zhu Yuanzhang heard cheers from inside.
"Good kill!"
"I'm finally happy now."
Although Datong Mansion is relatively prosperous, I still suffered a disaster after all.
Lao Zhu is a little hard to understand why these people are so excited?
Gao Fei, who was familiar with this, took Zhu Yuanzhang into the teahouse and found a seat to sit down.
At this time, the storyteller in the teahouse had just finished speaking and was taking a tea break.
"Have you never seen it?" Gao Fei asked Zhu Yuanzhang with a smile.
"Isn't this just storytelling? Is there anything I haven't seen before?" Zhu Yuanzhang was quite disapproving.
It's not like he has never heard of storytelling before. Only an uninformed person like Gao Fei would listen to storytelling. It must be so mysterious.
But Zhu Yuanzhang also felt that something was not right. The people around him were not dressed particularly well, and there were not many scholars.
Can they really understand storytelling?
Hearing Zhu Yuanzhang say this, he chuckled: "The storytelling in our Datong Mansion is different from the storytelling you have heard before."
"What's different?"
Gao Fei did not answer Zhu Yuanzhang's question: "You will know after a while."
Knowing that this guy was selling a lawsuit, Lao Zhu didn't fall for it at all.
Nodding slightly: "Since your Excellency has said so, let's just watch it honestly."
This time it was Gao Fei's turn to be depressed. Why was it different from what he expected?
This guy Lao Chang is actually not in a hurry at all.
Depressed, I called the waiter and ordered some tea and cakes.
In this special period now, the price of pastries is also quite expensive.
But judging from how generous Gao Fei is, he must be someone who is not short of money.
There were many other people around who heard about it, but not many ordered anything.
More people were actually right next to the windows outside the teahouse. Although they were a bit far away, I guess they couldn't hear them very clearly, but at least they didn't cost money.
At this time, these people actually came to listen to the commentary, and Zhu Yuanzhang became even more curious about this so-called commentary.
He was now almost certain that this storytelling was absolutely different from the storytelling he had heard before.
In fact, storytelling first existed in the Han Dynasty and gradually matured after the Song Dynasty.
But the storytelling at this time is really storytelling.
As soon as the storyteller drank a cup of tea, the people below started urging him impatiently.
"Sir, how long do you want to rest? Start quickly."
"That's right, I'm really worried. If you don't start talking, I won't reward you."
Under the urging of these people, the storyteller had no choice but to be shocked.
Snapped!
He said in an extremely hoarse voice: "The book will be continued..."