Li Chongrun said to himself that before he went out, he received a letter from Her Highness the Princess, as well as a turtle charm and a fan. Even his grandmother had not seen it, so how could such a high-end thing like a secret decree come from.
But before she could reply, Bing'er, who was pouring tea and water at the side, straightened her body and saluted to the two of them.
"Your Highness, Duke Wei, your Majesty's secret decree."
Whatever you say, come on. As soon as I finished speaking, Bing'er brought this thing.
The purpose is very simple and the number of words is very small. I have fully experienced the spirit of the idea that the fewer the words, the bigger the matter.
"Money shortage".
His Majesty sent Li Chongrun to Yangzhou. In the final analysis, it comes down to two simple words.
Li Chongrun was a little confused as to why His Majesty would assign this matter to him. Could it be because he knew that he was good at collecting money?
"Wei Gong, the imperial court has a lot of money, and Jiangnan has a lot of money. We haven't paid less taxes, and we haven't fought too many wars." Li Chongrun was a little confused. Things like deflation seemed a bit unbelievable to Li Chongrun. After all, he was more familiar with it.
It's inflation.
""Although Your Majesty likes to build temples, fortunately, although he supervised the construction of several Dayun Temples, he used internal funds and donations from the clan. Your Majesty is so kind that he did not even recruit corvees."
What seems to be criticism is actually a secret compliment to the current emperor. Wei Anshi is also a proven parent official, and he still understands these speaking skills.
"Although the weather has not been smooth in recent years, it has not been as miserable as the severe drought before His Majesty ascended the throne. Naturally, there is no need to spend too much money to provide relief to the victims."
Wei Anshi was also puzzled as to where this money shortage came from.
The grain and cloth piles in Luoyang Cang and Jiangdu Cang were overgrown with rats, and officials from all over the country were eating very well. There was a lot of singing and dancing everywhere.
But, the money is gone.
The copper mines are being mined less and less, but the imperial court still issues as many copper coins every year. But I don’t know where the money has gone.
"Does the King of Linzi know where the little old man went early yesterday morning?"
Yesterday morning, Li Chongrun was planning to go shopping, but he made a mistake and went to the old city of Yangzhou, where he met the governor who was on his way in a hurry.
At that time, I still felt that the old man was walking in a hurry, neither riding a horse nor riding on foot. He might be a small clerk in the yamen. Unexpectedly, he was a third-rank official in the Tang and Tang Dynasties and the governor of Yangzhou, one of the upper states.
"Yesterday Mr. Wei wore a white arowana suit. I guess he came here to understand the sentiments of the people."
"The little old man went to Wansheng Food Store."
Li Chongrun suddenly remembered that the above-mentioned companies covered almost all industries in the Tang Dynasty, but none of them was engaged in selling grain.
When he asked Wei Anshi about his doubts, he just smiled and explained to Li Chongrun that the threshold for Mihang and Buhang was too low. It was not like these companies each had a monopoly on supply, so all seven of them were doing it.
.
"There was some commotion at Wansheng Grain Store a few days ago. The old man couldn't feel relieved, so he went over to take a look."
"I hope Mr. Wei can clarify his doubts. What kind of commotion can be caused by a grain store? Could it be that the price of rice has been raised too high and people are looting it?"
Li Chongrun was very surprised that the riot was so big that the governor of a state needed to come forward in person. Could it be that there was a riot?
Wei Anshi smiled bitterly and slowly explained to Li Chongrun: "This autumn, the land in the south of the Yangtze River has a good harvest, and every acre of land has been harvested by three to five bushels. As a result, the grain price has been reduced by the three to five bushels.
It was forced down to more than half. A bushel of rice could only be sold for two cents."
Wei Anshi was also a little angry. He took pictures of the desk in front of him and made a loud noise: "A few days ago, it was still four cents. In just a few days, it dropped to two cents. Those farmers still have to pay the rent and pay back the rent."
The whole family still needs to eat the usury money from the temple. After working hard for a year, they still have to pay for it, because they are afraid that the land will still have to go to the temple."
"Then why does the farmer only focus on his own Wansheng Grain Store to sell it?" Li Chongrun was a little puzzled. If one family got it cheap, he would go to an expensive rice store to sell it.
"Does Your Majesty know that in less than a year this year, I have sentenced so many people to exile?"
Wei Anshi changed the topic and suddenly asked Li Chongrun a question.
"Students heard about it, so don't blame Mr. Wei." Li Chongrun naturally asked about such things. "I heard that Mr. Wei enforces the law strictly, and anyone guilty will be severely punished. This is how the huge Yangzhou city is so properly organized."
"King Linzi, please don't praise this young man. I'm naturally very ruthless in judging cases." Wei Anshi's wry smile almost turned the color of gall.
"This matter has a great relationship with the grain store's price reduction. The Yangzhou grain store, as well as Tongli, Qunyi and other companies, are all the business of these seven major companies. When I first took office, I saw
The price of rice here is very low, so I asked a few classmates to invite several stewards from grain stores from Suzhou and Changzhou to come and collect grain. I wanted to boost the price of grain, but who knew..."
"People were killed?"
"Almost, it's better to die. Those seven shops found a lot of desperate men who were making trouble in front of their stores all day long. I couldn't catch them all, so I simply sent them all to Lingnan."
Wei Anshi sighed melancholy: "It's just that from now on, no grain sellers from other places dare to come to Yangzhou to collect grain."
"With these businesses operating like this, aren't they afraid that there will be no farmers left to farm?" Food is the most important thing for the people, and with these grain shops operating like this, I'm afraid it won't be long before Yangzhou City stops producing grains of rice, and there will definitely be big trouble.
"This is back to the problem of money shortage. Goods are cheap but money is expensive. A few shops selling rice to Guanzhong, a grain-scarce area, only sold it for five cents a dou. Originally, Yangzhou's annual rice production was 120
Ten thousand shi, after a few years, the output will only be 200,000 shi. Jiangnan, the land of fish and rice, actually wants to buy rice from Shu and Japan. Isn't it ridiculous."
"Did all the vacant land and farmers go to work for the seven major business houses?"
Li Chongrun felt that this routine was very familiar. Isn't it the Tang version of sheep eating people? The early British capitalists should have silently given many likes.
"The spare fertile fields were converted into mulberry fields, and the farmers went to the workshops of big merchants. Yangzhou has a population of 70,000 households, but now there are less than 10,000 farm households."
With an output of 200,000 shi, Li Chongrun did some calculations on the price and felt that it was an opportunity to speculate.
From the perspective of social development, the imperial court is short of money and there is no shortage of food. In addition, Yangzhou's industry and commerce are developed, agriculture will inevitably be hit. In this way, it is a good idea to use this simple and crude method to convert the agricultural population into an industrial population.
opportunity.
But those who suffer are the lower-class farmers like Gongsun Lan's family who have a few small fields.
This actually gave Li Chongrun an opportunity to win over people.
Just like when he incited the people to overthrow the King of Wei, no matter what he does in Yangzhou, with the support of the people, it will be much more convenient to do things than to develop some underground organizations.
"Wei Gong, I have a plan that may solve the problem of not being able to sell the grain. We can also find out where our money has gone."