After being reminded by Wang Dehua, Zhu Youjian suddenly realized that the crisis caused by the war had really arrived. The capital's material supply system was facing the most severe test. It was necessary to find ways to reduce the losses caused by the crisis, so that it would be easier to recover in the future.
.
What means can be used to solve it? Traffic is almost cut off. Even if you have money now, you can't solve the fundamental problem, let alone there is not much money.
After thinking about it for a long time, Zhu Youjian had no choice but to give up. He finally decided to grasp the current situation in detail first. To clarify the current situation in the city, he could only use Luo Yangxing.
Jinyiwei system.
After Luo Yangxing was summoned to the palace and saw the ceremony, he asked: "Your Majesty summoned the minister to the palace. I wonder if there is any important matter for the minister?"
"Tai Ru, I need you, Jin Yiwei, to report to me the items with the greatest price changes in the capital in recent days. I don't know how long it will take to do it?"
"Calculating prices? Your Majesty, our Jinyiwei have never done this, and I can't estimate the time!"
"Since you can't estimate it, I'll give you a time. You must make a clear count of the prices in Beijing within four days. When making statistics, don't make it general. It must be divided into areas and regions. There must be a comparison with the previous ones. Otherwise
I don’t know how the price situation has changed recently.”
Luo Yangxing and his colleagues, Jin Yiwei, still have some execution ability. In less than four days, they calculated the prices in the main areas of the capital.
Looking at the price list reported by Luo Yangxing, Zhu Youjian truly felt the impact of the war on the lives of ordinary people. Major food crops such as rice and wheat have more than doubled compared to before the war. Calculated based on labor wages in the capital,
They work hard all day, and the wages they earn are barely enough to buy two or three kilograms of rice.
Food prices have not changed the most, but meat, eggs and vegetables have changed the most! The price of pork has increased more than four times compared with before the war, and the price of beef and mutton is about the same. The price of vegetables is even ridiculously high. An ordinary Chinese cabbage
It has doubled more than ten times.
"Tairu, how come the price of meat and vegetables in Beijing has increased so much? Far more than the increase of other supplies?"
"I can't answer this well. It's probably because these things are hard to store and there are few in the city! Now it's not easy to get things in and out of the city, so the price of meat and vegetables has naturally increased."
Is it difficult to survive? What Luo Youxing said seems to be the main reason. It is impossible to raise poultry and livestock in the capital, and it is impossible to grow vegetables. These things are supplied by the prefectures and counties in the suburbs of Beijing. The Qing army once
Later, it was difficult to bring these things into the city, and there was no excess storage in the city, which ultimately led to a sharp rise in prices.
For the time being, there is no good solution to the problem of rising grain prices. There is not much grain stored here in the suburbs of Beijing. Water transportation is cut off, and grain cannot be transferred from the south. If Tianjin is a freeze-free port, we can still think of some ways to transport it by sea.
But Tianjin has a freezing period of 70 to 80 days a year. It only lasts from mid-to-late November to early February of the following year on the lunar calendar, so sea transportation is impossible to count on.
However, Zhu Youjian felt that he should be able to think of some ways to supply meat and vegetables. The Chinese New Year is coming soon, and he must quickly take effective measures to lower the prices of these items so that the people in the capital can barely survive the New Year.
If this year cannot pass, how can the people still have confidence in the Ming Dynasty?
"Tairu, you Jin Yiwei need to be more active in the streets of the capital these days to catch out some of the gangsters who are harassing the operation of street shops. This will at least allow normal business to resume to some extent!"
In addition to asking Jin Yiwei to take action to rectify the street order, some measures must be introduced. The new army needs to be mobilized to the suburbs of Beijing for activities. If nothing else, it is to stop chaos around the capital. The suburbs of Beijing are the main supply base for meat supplies in the city.
The Qing army is not active in this area, so it is not difficult for the new army to go out and deter the chaotic Qinwang soldiers and the small local tyrants who take the opportunity to do evil.
At present, the formation of new troops in the two brigades has reached the final stage. Letting them go out of the city to practice and use them will basically not delay anything. Originally, people in the Beijing camp could also use this, but Zhu Youjian was not convinced of their quality.
Xing and military discipline cannot be trusted, and they are afraid that if they let these oilheads out, they will not do their job well, but will cause greater chaos in the suburbs of Beijing.
"General Liu, your new army is patrolling the suburbs of Beijing this time mainly to stabilize the situation in this area. After leaving the city, you must abide by military discipline and do not do anything that damages the reputation of the new army. While patrolling,
, one is to frighten the local foxes, rats, snakes and insects that take advantage of the national crisis to endanger the countryside, and the other is to expel the defeated troops who have drifted to the outskirts of Beijing. Regardless of which troops they are, anyone who causes trouble in the outskirts of Beijing should be beaten.
Fight and drive out when necessary. We must ensure that the suburbs of Beijing are stable and free of chaos during the Chinese New Year."
"The general will respect the holy words!"
"Don't let up on your daily training after leaving the city. This is the critical period for recruit training. If you delay the basic drill training, you will not have suitable soldiers when you officially go to the battlefield. This will be a major military and national event!"
These two policies are measures to maintain stability and cannot directly affect the supply guarantee. If you want to guarantee the supply, the idea must be directed to the head of the inner palace.
Of course there is no extra meat and vegetables in the palace, but the smart Zhu Youji came up with a way to deal with the problem. Make some canned luncheon meat and bean sprouts, and take out the bean skins! Add wheat flour, rice flour and other starches and some miscellaneous minced meat.
, then add salt and heavy seasonings. After it is done, put it into a small glazed pot, steam it, empty it, seal it, and luncheon meat can be made. Bean sprouts and bean skins, the current production technology of Ming Dynasty is very mature, through the work of the palace
If you make a lot of it and put it into the capital market, it can be regarded as a means to balance prices.
Recently, the young and old in the palace have been busy with endless tasks. This is a common feeling among the eunuchs and maids in the palace. In the past, everyone was always busy, but it was not like now. A new job emerges almost every day.
Making clothes and armor, boiling urine, and now I have to make canned meat, hatch bean sprouts, bake bean skins, and at the same time, I have to be busy replacing and renovating stoves. Fortunately, today's emperors don't use people for free, and their monthly salary is more than
It was much taller before. This made the people in the palace both painful and happy.
The senior eunuchs and female officials do not live on their monthly salary, but the main source of livelihood for the junior eunuchs and maids is their monthly salary. Increasing the monthly salary will have a considerable impact on their lives.
"Daban, tell Liu Dachang that we need to find a few more shops in the capital. The bean sprouts and canned meat produced in the palace must be sold in large quantities to ordinary people through these shops. The shop must be large, but it cannot be as big as
The shops in Nancheng used to be so luxurious. The things we make are just for the common people, so don’t make them too complicated."
Supply to the common people? Can the common people eat canned meat? Can they afford to sell bean sprouts? Wang Chengen had the urge to explain this truth clearly to the emperor, but fortunately he finally endured it.
The common people mentioned by Zhu Youjian are not the same thing as the common people Wang Chengen thinks of. The common people Wang Chengen thinks of are the kind of people who are extremely poor, while the common people mentioned by Zhu Youjian are ordinary consumers! No matter how dilapidated the capital is, there are still consumer groups.
Yes, there are 200,000 to 300,000 people with income surrounding the yamen and camps in the capital. As long as their wages are paid normally, their lives can still be decent.