"Lord, Yilang Zhao Yan has sent a greeting card." At the Yamen Office, Zhou Cang handed a greeting card to Chu Nan who was handling official duties. He glanced at the neatly lined table next to Man Chong with some weird eyes.
, compared with the messy bamboo slips that Chen Gong and Chu Nan had just randomly sorted and placed, it was simply different.
Chu Nan took the invitation, pondered for a moment, then nodded and said, "Tell him that I will be at home tomorrow."
"Here!" Zhou Cang nodded and turned around to deliver the message.
"If I remember correctly, this is Zhao Yan's sixth visit. Why didn't he see him before?" Chen Gong was probably tired, so he put down what he was doing and looked at Chu Nan and asked.
In fact, not many people visited Chen Gong during this period. Although he was a great scholar, as Lu Bu's chief adviser, Chen Gong's reputation among scholars was not good. Of course, at the level of a great scholar, he had clear goals and would not respond to the words of others.
, he won’t care too much.
On the contrary, Chu Nan has been quite popular during this period, and many people have come to defect to him, either openly or covertly. Before, Chu Nan had directly refused. Zhao Yan visited for the sixth time today, and he is considered a relatively persistent one, but he knows very well that
Chen Gong, who was a disciple by nature, did not think that his disciple was impressed by the sincerity of the other party.
Although my disciple is joking on the surface, he has a clear division of camps in his heart, and he will not be moved by the so-called sincerity.
"There are only two reasons why I came to make friends at this time. One is that people who follow the trend of others see that I am powerful and come to rely on them. The other is that they have malicious intentions and want to do it from the inside just like they did when they moved to Dong Zhuo.
To divide us, there are so many things now that we don’t have time to pay attention to them." Chu Nan said with a smile.
"Then why do we have to meet again now?" Chen Gongxiao asked.
"The six parts are now complete. It's time to go to the court to officially establish it." Chu Nan smiled and took a sip of the bitter tea soup, and his spirit was instantly shaken.
Chen Gong nodded. The six departments have now been established. The Ministry of Husbandry, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Ministry of War have been established. The head of the Ministry of Industry, Liu Ye, will also come back with Lu Lingqi and will take up his post at that time. The remaining Ministry of Etiquette is preparing to serve in the imperial court.
Find someone to take charge.
As for who it is, it doesn't actually matter. The Ministry of Rites cannot be said to be useless. Sacrifice, diplomacy and some important court rituals are all responsible for the Ministry of Rites.
But in terms of how much voice or real power he has in the court, at least he doesn't have it now.
Indispensable, but without much authority.
Although the Six Ministries were established, they still needed help to pass the imperial court.
Now Lu Bu is in charge of Xuchang, but he actually doesn't have many people in the court. Generals like Zhang Liao and Gao Shun are all outside, not to mention Zhang Liao and Gao Shun. Even if they come back to the court, it is still the territory of the scholars, and they can't make any noise.
So now Chu Nan is in urgent need of some losers to fight for him in the court, and right now there are many people who want to make friends with Chu Nan. No matter what the purpose is, these people are very good thugs on the battlefield of the court.
"It's good if Zi Yan can tell the difference." Chen Gong nodded and stopped hearing the news. Chen Gong still recognized his disciple's ability. It was not easy to play tricks under Chu Nan's nose.
"Teacher, don't worry." Chu Nan nodded. Now even if he wants to join a poor family, he has to carefully consider it. After all, not all poor families are willing to stand with him. Some of them want to join the noble family through the noble family. These people are eager to do so.
Help the nobles push them down, and it's best to be irrecoverable.
"What do Zi Yan think about the recent skyrocketing prices in Xuchang?" Chen Gong mentioned a problem that troubles him. Prices are related to people's livelihood. If the skyrocketing prices in Xuchang are caused by a few or a group of aristocratic families, then it would be easier to deal with it. Just take action.
That’s it.
However, according to Chen Gong's overt and covert investigations in the past few days, he gradually found out some clues that the soaring prices had something to do with them. The prices in Xuchang were indeed brought up by the nobles, but the root cause was the mass killing of nobles by the Xuzhou Army.
Since Xuchang is the capital, it is naturally a city with a large population. Xuchang's own output alone cannot support the hundreds of thousands of people in Xuchang. Therefore, Xuchang's prices are more dependent on commerce. In the past, the local government would send surplus output to other places.
To sell in Xuchang, the caravans organized by the nobles basically formed countless large and small supply chains, which resulted in stable prices in Xuchang.
But in this war, the Xuzhou Army began to continuously kill nobles from various places with fierce methods. This was naturally beneficial in the long run, but for Xuchang at the moment, it directly cut off Xuchang's original stable commercial supply.
chain.
In addition, the severe drought in the Central Plains in recent years and the rise of refugees have laid the foundation for soaring prices. Now that the supply chain is interrupted, it is not surprising that prices have soared.
It’s easy to talk about other things, but food prices are fundamentally related to people’s livelihood. If this problem is not solved, it is likely to directly lead to the collapse of Xuchang.
Xuzhou has just finished a major battle involving a hundred thousand people and lasting for several months. Now all kinds of troops are still being supplied. It will take at least a long time to carry out Chu Nan's original plan to overthrow the gentry in the Central Plains.
Year.
Trying to rely on Xuzhou's grain production to stabilize grain prices will not be reliable within a year.
And if Xuchang opens warehouses to store grain, Xuchang's grain reserves can last for at most one month, but it will be of no use to the situation.
The refugees can be managed through work-for-relief methods, but firstly, there are not that many projects, and secondly, Xuchang’s grain reserves may not be able to sustain them for even a month.
The price issue is the fundamental problem in Xuchang right now. Many nobles may be waiting to see their jokes, but it is a bit unreasonable for you to simply and crudely attribute the price issue to the nobles and convict them on this basis.
Although Chu Nan killed the nobles ruthlessly, he was reasonable. He must abide by the rules he set, otherwise why should others abide by them?
If we follow past experience, we can communicate with the nobles and discuss ways to bring prices down, at least food prices.
But they are on the opposite side of the nobles. The nobles hope that you will beg them later if you have no other choice. How can they help you at this time?
As for the Qiushi clan, for the entire Lu Bu force, it is equivalent to a change of original intention. This time they bowed their heads. It will not be so easy to attack people as unscrupulously as now.
Even Chen Gong, a great scholar and top counselor, was helpless when faced with this dilemma and had to ask his disciples for advice.
Chu Nan thought: "In the final analysis, everything in this world is just a profit. We can encourage them to raise the price even higher."
"Huh?" Chen Gong frowned and looked at Chu Nan. Man Chong, who had been immersed in sorting out the new method, also raised his head and looked at Chu Nan.
"When the moon is full, it loses money, and when things go to extremes, they must turn against each other. The fundamental reason for the high prices now is that Xuchang City itself does not have enough materials. The supply exceeds the demand, and the one with the highest price gets it. This is eternal, and raising prices is the first step." Chu Nan saw
The teacher was dissatisfied and couldn't stop pretending, so he explained.
"Oh?" Chen Gong looked at Chu Nan and said, "So Ziyan wants to take advantage of high prices to have supplies shipped from all over the place, so that there will be enough supplies?"
"Teacher is wise!" Chu Nan said with a smile: "So the second step is to use all means to spread the news so that merchants throughout the Central Plains and even the world can see the business opportunities, attract them, and introduce a large amount of materials into Xuchang
.”
"But what should they do if they don't want to lower the price?" Man Chong asked his doubts. Just because there are abundant supplies does not mean that they are willing to sell at a lower price. After all, they are selling at a high price.
"Open a warehouse to stock up on food." Chu Nan said with a smile, "I thought they would be willing to lower the price by then."
Chen Gong: "..."
Man Chong: "..."
For a moment, the two of them suddenly couldn't find any words to express their current mood. This must be too gloomy!
"If they are still unwilling to lower the price, what should we do if we take the supplies back?" Man Chong asked.
"Transporting grain and grass back and forth consumes more money, and it may also rot on the way. They will lose all their money!" Chu Nan explained with a smile: "I don't deny that there will be such people who would rather waste the grain than reduce the price, but
I believe they will be in the minority. Once the government offices open warehouses to release grain, it will also be the day when the two companies plummet. This is the third step. And we have reasonable reasons. Prices are too high and the people cannot support them. We can only open
No one can say anything about putting grain in warehouses to stabilize people's hearts." Chu Nan smiled and said: "And we can negotiate with these people to set a more reasonable price. We stop opening grain warehouses so that they can sell the grain.
"
"Don't continue to suppress?" Chen Gong had already figured out Chu Nan's thoughts and looked at him with a smile.
"Be a human being and give people a way to survive, so that others are willing to cooperate with us. We take this opportunity to find suitable people, give them some discounts, and let them set up business here. We can give them a piece of land at a low price or even for free, so that they can build
Create a new supply chain, and at the same time recruit refugees to build their houses." Chu Nan said with a smile.
In this way, the problem of the refugees being unable to be resettled can also be properly dealt with. In fact, these traders or local wealthy families do not suffer losses, they just do not make huge profits.
However, the economic crisis in Xuchang has been resolved, and it can be used to become famous and lay the foundation of Lu Bu's power in Xuchang. At the same time, the new supply chain is also based on Lu Bu's power, and he is naturally close to them. In this way, Xuchang's price power
It fell completely into their hands.
Just as the sixth department was launched, Chu Nan took charge of the official household department, managing money and taxes, and his foundation was completely solid.
"I never expected that the way of merchants can be used in such a profound way. Ziyan is applying the art of war to business." Chen Gong said with a satisfied smile.
"Everything in the world has its own destination." Chu Nan said with a humble face.
There is a way to solve the problem that has troubled Chen Gong for many days. Although it is impossible to solve it all at once, with this idea, it is not difficult to solve the problem.
The two masters and apprentices were discussing some details of this method, and when Man Chong was immersed in the eucalyptus slips again, he saw Zhou Cang walking in quickly.
"I Have a Picture Book of Ghosts and Gods"
"Lord, something happened." Zhou Cang saluted Chu Nan and said seriously.
"What's the matter?" Chu Nan asked.
"Mr. Cheng Zhongde hanged himself in the prison today!" Zhou Cang said solemnly.
Man Chong's writing pen suddenly paused and looked at Zhou Cang...
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