Chapter 494 Li Sanlang has resisted everything by himself
Chapter 494 Li Sanlang resisted everything on his own
Author: The best is like no water
Chapter 494 Li Sanlang resisted everything on his own
"Did you hear that?"
In a village in Lantian County, villagers gathered together to discuss matters.
"The emperor wants to buy the grain from us for six cents per dou of rice."
"What can you do with this little money? It's better to keep it."
"That's right, don't say you don't have any food in your house, even if you do have it, you won't sell it."
As the news spread that the imperial court was promoting Hebian law and preparing to buy grain at high prices, the attention of all parties was focused.
It's just that most people sneered at the price offered by the court, and sent away beggars for six cents per bucket of rice.
For several days, the grain purchasing team barely received any grain.
In desperation, the prince who was responsible for promoting He Bian Fa had no choice but to go to the palace and report to the emperor, hoping to increase the price of grain purchase, otherwise no one would sell grain at all.
The emperor agreed to the prince's request very considerately, and even allowed the prince to increase the price of grain purchase to a maximum of ten cents per bucket of rice.
However, the emperor had given special care and instructions that he was absolutely not allowed to give the prince any additional goods, and at the same time, he had to purchase five million dendrobium of grain.
For Li Sanlang, this is a disguised form of increasing the difficulty for Li Yunze, directly doubling the difficulty.
As for Li Yunze, when he walked out of the Daming Palace, he had a sarcastic smile on his face, "Is this the famous Li Sanlang? Is this all he has?"
When the purchase price of grain increased to ten cents per bucket of rice, many people in Guanzhong villages became interested.
Ten cents for a bucket of rice is not a small amount.
After all, the Guanzhong area is still a grain-producing area at this time, and as the autumn harvest is approaching, it is a good thing to see that new grain is coming, and if you still have old grain at home, sell it for money.
Many villages began to provide grain, and Li Yunze's acquisitions finally saw income.
However, the big households who really control a large amount of rice sneered at this price.
Because they had all heard the news more or less, they knew that the prince was under a lot of pressure this time, and a mere ten cents for rice was far from reaching their psychological bottom line.
At the same time, another news began to spread secretly.
It is said that a group of people from the Prince's Mansion secretly sold the grain purchased by the Prince, and the price was so cheap that a bucket of rice only cost eight cents.
It's just that they don't do business with retail investors. They have to buy at least ten thousand shi before they are willing to sell it at the price of eight cents per dou rice.
After some investigation, the big guys found out that this was actually true.
Unsurprisingly, big business owners started buying cheap rice grains one after another.
This is simply a business without capital. If you buy it now and then sell it back to the prince, you can earn two pence in handling fees. Is there anything in the world that is easier to make money than this?
However, Li Yunze is well aware of the greed of human nature and knows very clearly that these big business owners will not take action now.
Sure enough, except for a very small number of people who are making this resale money, most of the big households are frantically purchasing and hoarding grains, preparing to discuss the food price issue with Prince Haosheng when Taizi Mountain is depleted.
Apart from anything else, they had to at least raise the price to twenty cents per dou of rice before they would be willing to sell grain to the prince.
In the following days, an extremely strange scene occurred in the Guanzhong area.
On the one hand, people from the Prince's Mansion purchased surplus grain from the people in various places at the price of ten cents per bucket of rice.
On the other hand, it was the wealthy households who purchased grain from the prince at the price of eight cents per bushel of rice.
The people sold all their remaining grain and happily waited for the autumn harvest.
However, those big households who frequently purchased tens of thousands of tons of grain were very confused. How could they not buy all the grain in the Prince's Mansion?
As the autumn harvest was approaching, the prince was already stubborn and refused to raise the price to buy.
As for the wealthy wealthy people who had become ruthless, they kept raising money and vowed to buy up all the prince's grain and then sell it back twice as much.
In this wave of strange operations, only a handful of people are secretly making money.
Li Linfu, Niu Xianke, Gao Lishi, Bian Lingcheng and others all made money quietly and secretly. They bought grain at a low price and immediately sold it back at a high price, making a difference of two cents per bucket of rice.
It is precisely because of this that these people who can speak in front of Li Sanlang all cooperate with each other very tacitly to prevent Li Sanlang from knowing the truth of the matter.
The news Li Sanlang received was that large households were reluctant to sell, and the prince had difficulty purchasing grain.
In this regard, Li Sanlang was often grinning from ear to ear.
As for the fact that the failure of the He Bian method would lead to people continuing to starve to death, he didn't take it to heart at all.
As the autumn harvest drew closer, big business owners began to realize something was wrong.
The first and most important point is that they spent countless wealth to buy mountains of food, but the food in the prince's hands was like a bottomless pit, and he couldn't buy it all no matter how much he bought.
When more and more wealthy families stopped buying grain out of doubt and sold it for ten cents per bucket of rice, the news was immediately announced in the Prince's Mansion.
"All the five hundred hu of rice and grain required for this Hebian method have been purchased, and the grain purchase is over!"
As soon as the news came out, the whole Guanzhong was boiling.
The big households were all exclaiming that this was impossible. It was obvious that the prince had been selling grain, and the grains they bought from the big households piled up like mountains.
Where did the prince get five million bushels of rice?
However, the prime minister took the Ministry of Household Affairs to conduct a personal inspection and confirmed that the prince had indeed handed over five million hu of rice.
Not only were the big players dumbfounded, but Li Sanlang was also in disbelief.
"This is impossible!"
Angry, Li Sanlang ordered Gao Lishi and others to investigate the Ministry of Household Affairs to see if it was the Ministry of Household Affairs that had given the prince extra property to buy grain.
But the result of a strict investigation was that the Ministry of Accounts did not give him a penny more.
Li Sanlang didn't believe it. He didn't believe that Li Yunze could complete the Hebian method under such circumstances, and ordered Gao Lishi and others to investigate clearly.
However, the big players here directly approached Li Sanlang.
The reason is simple, the autumn harvest has begun.
Guanzhong is experiencing good weather this year, and the forecast for the autumn harvest is not low, which means that food prices are bound to fall.
And these big households held a huge amount of grain in their hands, which they couldn't sell at all at this time, especially the grain purchased from Li Yunze at a price of eight cents a dou, which caused many big households to spend all their money on it.
.
To put it in jargon, it was smashed into your hands.
These big investors are not the ones who can endure losses. At this time, of course they have to ask the emperor to come forward to recover their losses.
They had only two demands. One was that the prince should buy away the rice grains in their hands at a price of at least ten cents per dou of rice.
There is another one, that is, to implement the Hebian Law, the government shall not release grain.
From a normal person's perspective, these demands are simply wishful thinking and completely violate conscience and morality.
But from Li Sanlang's point of view, those who came to plead for mercy were all relatives of the emperor, ministers, powerful officials, and nobles.
These are the cornerstones of his control over the Tang Dynasty. He cannot do things that harm the interests of so many people.
However, just when Li Sanlang was thinking about how to let Li Yunze take the blame, Li Yunze directly passed the blame.
News began to spread inside and outside Chang'an City, saying that His Majesty advocated He Bianfa and ordered the prince to purchase grain, which would be sold directly by the government at the price of five cents per bucket of rice!
As soon as the news came out, there was a burst of joy in Chang'an City. Many people ran to the Daming Palace and shouted long live. Even the supervisors of the Imperial College signed a letter praising Li Sanlang as the emperor of Yao, Shun, and Yu, the reincarnation of the Ming Jun!
After the public opinion fermented, Li Sanlang was directly forced into a corner.
On the one hand, the interests of the powerful have been damaged, and they are forced to help recover the losses.
On the other hand, there is pressure from the people, and the news has spread. If he regrets it, the damage to his reputation will be too great.
When he was in a dilemma, Bian Lingcheng took the initiative and offered a plan: "Your Majesty, you can order the prince to do this. The reputation belongs to your majesty, and it is the prince who disobeys your majesty's orders and colludes with grain merchants."
Li Sanlang's eyes immediately lit up and he nodded with satisfaction, "Okay, you go and announce the decree."
Bian Lingcheng was so excited that he ran to the East Palace and then came back.
"Your Majesty, it's not good, the prince is sick."
"Sick? Sick at this time?!"
"Yes." Bian Lingcheng said with some fear, "The imperial doctor said it was caused by overwork, and he must stay in bed to recuperate."
"Heh~~~"
Li Sanlang laughed angrily, this bastard is trying to trick me?!
Angry Li Sanlang called Li Linfu and Niu Xianke over again.
It's a pity that these two prime ministers are both slippery and careless loaches. How can they be willing to bear such a fatal blame for the emperor?
If you really memorize it, your home may be burned down by angry people tomorrow.
After a lot of work, in the end Li Sanlang had to shoulder everything by himself.
It is impossible to directly ask the court to pay for the grain bought at high prices by the big families who were cheated.
Not to mention that the court officials did not agree, Li Sanlang himself did not agree.
In this case, it can only be a hardship for the people.
Li Sanlang refused to order the imperial court to sell grain directly, and acquiesced to grain merchants selling grain at high prices on the black market.
It also prohibited people from the villages outside the city from transporting grain to the city for sale.
As soon as the news came out, the city of Chang'an was once again in an uproar.
Although Li Sanlang acted very secretly and tried his best to put himself aside.
Unfortunately, under the guidance and encouragement of thoughtful people, all the truth has been revealed to the world.
Although Datang was an agricultural society, there was also a large population in the cities.
For example, here in Chang'an City, the population of the city at this time is close to two million.
Most of these people do not have their own land and can only support their families by working.
But at this time, there was obviously a great harvest, and the imperial court obviously had a lot of food, but they just couldn't buy it!
The impatient grain stores didn't even do any superficial work. They just openly sold grain at high prices and kept increasing the prices.
There is a family named Wang in Chang'an City. The male protagonist earns money by working outside. When he went out in the morning, the price of food was still thirty cents per bucket of rice. But when he went to buy food on his way home after a busy day, the price had already increased.
Thirty-five pieces of rice.
The male protagonist, who was short of a few cents and could not afford food, thought of the hungry children at home who were waiting to be fed, so he threw himself into the Yong'an Canal in anger.
As soon as this incident came out, the entire city of Chang'an was boiling.
When the garden was in turmoil, His Royal Highness, who was bedridden, forced himself out of the hospital with his sick body, and led the people in the East Palace to open porridge restaurants throughout the city to provide food relief to the people.
For a time, the emperor and the prince had completely opposite attitudes towards the people, which made countless people sigh.
PS: Thank you to my book friend Mr. Ohrin Meiou for your 100-point reward and support. I am very grateful. Thank you!