"Your Majesty is very clever, and I admire you all."
Liu Song stood up, dusted the cuffs of his official uniform with both hands, and bowed deeply to Zhu Han solemnly.
He is not the kind of person who flatters others. The reason for this is indeed because he admires Zhu Han's methods.
If Zhu Han was just using high grain prices to lure businessmen to Datong, Liu Song would certainly think Zhu Han's method was clever.
However, that was all. It was impossible to salute Zhu Han so solemnly.
As a traditional scholar, Liu Song is still a scholar at heart.
No matter what he does, he always puts justice first, and he looks down on Zhu Han's practice of talking about his interests but not talking about them.
However, what Zhu Han did was not just about profit.
While luring them with benefits, they also did not forget how to make ordinary people live a better life.
This comprehensive approach is completely beyond Liu Song's previous understanding.
Liu Song also admired Zhu Han from the bottom of his heart for what he had done.
"Lord Liu." Zhu Han said with a smile: "Now that you understand my painstaking efforts, I will leave the affairs of Yanjing to Lord Liu in the next period of time."
Liu Song was stunned when he heard this: "Your Majesty, what are you..."
Zhu Han stood up and said with a sassy smile: "I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty."
"Now, the people of Datong are in dire straits. Naturally, I will not sit idly by and ignore it."
"So, I am going to Datong to share the joys and sorrows with the people of Datong."
"This city of Yanjing, I will leave it to you, Mr. Liu."
"Although there are many things to do, I believe in your ability, Mr. Liu."
Liu Song looked solemn: "Please rest assured, Your Majesty, I will definitely live up to Your Majesty's hopes."
Zhu Han nodded slightly and patiently explained to Liu Song.
"I have no other requirements regarding official matters. As long as you, Mr. Liu, act in accordance with the law, there will be no problems."
"As for the construction of Yanjing, just leave it to those businessmen. But Mr. Liu, there is one thing you must remember."
Zhu Han said extremely seriously: "Of course they can be given free rein to build Yanjing, but you absolutely cannot trust those businessmen."
"There must be proper supervision and it must be strictly implemented. There must be no slacking off in this regard."
"Whenever there are any omissions in the government's supervision, those businessmen will seize these loopholes to benefit themselves."
"Master Liu, I absolutely believe in your integrity. But other officials..."
Zhu Han did not directly explain the details of other officials.
However, Liu Song already understood what Zhu Han meant.
After all, there are only a few officials in this world who are truly honest and law-abiding.
Most officials can be bought with money, it's just a matter of how much money they have.
And what those businessmen lack most is money.
"I understand." Liu Song replied sternly: "Please rest assured, Your Highness, I will never tolerate those who dare to take evil ways!"
Wu Zhen, the prefect of Datong, can be said to have been living like a year recently.
Although there were already signs of a severe drought at the beginning of this year, Wu Zhen had already made preparations.
But he never thought that this drought would be so serious.
Almost three-quarters of Datong Prefecture has lost its harvest, and there are victims everywhere who are crying for food.
Since the drought broke out, the official warehouse has almost completely bottomed out.
Every day, he would send a memorial to the court asking for disaster relief.
However, Wu Zhen himself knew that this kind of memorial was just to comfort his heart.
This does not mean that the imperial court will not do its best to provide disaster relief.
But it will take a few days for this memorial to arrive at Yingtian Mansion.
Then Yingtian will mobilize the grain and transport it to Datong Prefecture, which will take quite a long time.
If it were normal times, nothing would be too important.
But now in Datong, there are countless mouths waiting for food.
No one knows how many people will starve to death every day.
Wu Zhen actually doesn't really expect the court to provide timely relief.
What he hoped was that His Royal Highness King Zhu Han, who was in charge of the construction of the new capital in Yanjing recently, would be merciful and help them unite.
After all, everyone knows that in order to build a new capital city, the imperial court's allocation to Yanjing was quite generous.
Mainly Zhu Hanken, food is definitely not a problem.
But Wu Zhen didn't know whether King Zhu Han of England would lend a helping hand.
After all, the money he has is used to build the capital. If the construction of Yanjing is delayed, it is Zhu Han's problem.
But the disaster in Datong had nothing to do with Zhu Han.
In just a few dozen days, Wu Zhen lost a lot of weight.
If you are not a very familiar person, you may not be able to recognize the prefect.
"How long can the food in the official warehouse last?" Wu Zhen asked in a deep voice.
Wu Zhen's master also looked much older at this time: "Huifu Zun, if the number of victims does not continue to increase, we can last for about twelve days."
I know my master, this is a euphemism.
Now the number of victims outside the city is increasing day by day.
And it can be expected that the number of disaster victims will continue to increase in the next half month.
Ordinary people don't have much knowledge. After such a famine, they will subconsciously run to the surrounding big cities...
On the contrary, this caused an increasing shortage of food in the city.
If the increase in disaster victims is also included in the statistics.
Wu Zhen made a calculation secretly.
The food in the official warehouse may only last for another six days at most.
That's it, when the people are given those porridges that are so thin that you can barely see a few grains of rice every day.
"Are all the gentry from Datong here?" Wu Zhen asked in a deep voice.
The master forced a smile and said: "Master Fu, those gentry are very unlucky. They are either in trouble or sick."
"These moths." Wu Zhen couldn't help but curse: "Are they really willing to provoke a popular uprising?"
"Do they think that once there is chaos, they can protect themselves wisely?"
When the drought broke out, Wu Zhen invited these local gentry.
As for the purpose of inviting these people.
One is to ask him to donate money and food so that he can survive the famine.
As for the other reason, of course, I hope they can control food prices during the famine years so that the people can survive.
And those gentry did not disappoint Wu Zhen.
All these big local landowners in Datong, all put together, can only donate more than a thousand taels, and their food supplies can only amount to 800 shi.
It sounds like a lot, but now outside Fucheng, the number of people just waiting to eat is almost over 5,000.
These money and grains are simply a drop in the bucket.
As for controlling food prices...
On the surface, each of these people patted their chests and agreed happily.
On the surface, the price does not seem to be very high.
But the problem is that all the grain stores in Datong combined don't sell much grain.
People had to queue up at grain stores before dawn. But at one o'clock at night, they couldn't buy food at all.
Unlike grain stores, grain trading on the black market is in full swing.
According to Wu Zhen's understanding, the price of one stone of grain on the black market has reached three taels of silver.
Although his teeth were filled with hatred, Wu Zhen did not dare to do anything to the black market.
With this black market, ordinary people can still buy some food to survive.
But if we are really ruthless, we can directly ban the black market.
Those people who were affected by the disaster could not even buy food.
Just when Wu Zhen was so anxious that he had the urge to hang himself.
Suddenly I received news from Yanjing.
This is a letter written by King Zhu Han himself.
"Hurry up and bring it here for me to read!" Wu Zhen was so excited that he grabbed the letter and started reading it.
At this time, as long as there is news from the King of England, it will definitely be good news.
Otherwise, King Zhu Han of England would just ignore him.
When the time comes, you can refute the argument that he doesn’t know anything.
Since he specifically replied to the letter, he must have expressed something. For today's Datong, whether it is food or money, as long as you have it, it is better than nothing.
Just when he opened Zhu Han's letter and saw that the food was on the way to Datong, Wu Zhen suddenly smiled from ear to ear.
But soon, Wu Zhen's smile froze on his face.
The master next to him has never seen his own palace master look so happy and angry.
I am also very curious about the content of the letter.
It wasn't until Wu Zhen finished reading the letter that the master asked cautiously: "Master Fu, what does Your Highness mean? Why does Master Fu look like..."
Wu Zhen's face was as dark as the bottom of a pot, and he handed the letter directly to his master.
The master had been curious for a long time, so he quickly took the letter and read it.
At the beginning, his performance was similar to that of Wu Zhen, and his face was also full of joy: "That's great, the food is already on its way."
"Moreover, the prince actually used the train to deliver a batch of grain first. Now we can finally breathe a sigh of relief."
Although the railway is still under construction, it is not possible to reach Datong directly.
However, officials at Wu Zhen's level have personally experienced the power of trains.
This kind of monster is simply terrifying when it comes to transporting supplies.
Even if less than a quarter of the railway from Yanjing to Datong is built, it can greatly reduce the burden of transporting food.
Wu Zhen still had a cold face: "Don't get too happy too soon, keep reading."
The master understood that the main event that made his master look so ugly was probably the following content.
Be patient and continue reading.
But after only reading a few sentences, the master couldn't help but exclaimed: "Is the King of England crazy?"
As soon as the words were spoken, the master realized that something was wrong and hurriedly covered his mouth.
This is the all-pervasive Jin Yiwei commanded by His Royal Highness the King.
Once his words are known to His Majesty the King of England...
He was just a master, I'm afraid he didn't even know how he died.
Even Wu Zhen, the prefect, couldn't protect him.
Fortunately, he and Wu Zhen are the only two people in this room now.
What I just said out of control should not be known to others.
"Master...this..." Master held up the letter, feeling a little at a loss for a moment.
Zhu Han actually defined the price of food in Datong Prefecture as a minimum of four taels of silver and one stone.
The current price of grain on the black market in Datong Prefecture is only three taels of silver.
What is King Zhu Han doing?
Could it be that he wanted to take advantage of the chaos to force the people of Datong to rebel?
The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed to be possible.
From ancient times to the present, whenever there is a large-scale natural disaster, it is usually when some people want to take advantage of the opportunity to cause trouble.
Oh my God, they must have been involved in some terrible incident.
The two have worked together for many years, and Wu Zhen knew what his master was thinking just by looking at his expression.
He quickly stopped him and said, "Don't think too much. The things you think about are absolutely impossible to happen."
Once some ideas arise, they cannot be suppressed easily.
But Wu Zhen’s master also knew how powerful it was.
No matter what you think in your heart, you will never show it on the surface.
"Your Highness, what do you mean by this? At this time, not only do you not think about how to stabilize food prices, but you use the power of the court to actively help those profiteers to increase food prices."
"As soon as this price comes out, you will be infamy for eternity, Mr. Fu."
Wu Zhen felt that he had a headache.
Why is it so difficult for him to be the prefect?
Not only was there a drought that only happened once in a thousand years during his term, but there was also a guy with a brain problem like King Zhu Han of England, who was causing trouble and rain.
After feeling depressed for a long time, Wu Zhen waved his hand feebly.
"His Royal Highness the King of England stated in his letter that he has invited Your Majesty to issue an edict to directly define the price of grain. The edict will arrive in the near future..." After a pause, Wu Zhen said with difficulty: "Let's make an announcement."
"Master Fu..." Master still wanted to persuade.
Wu Zhen said in a deep voice: "Go."
After all, he is not a loyal minister like Liu Song, and he does not dare to directly offend the current King of England.
Sure enough, just as Wu Zhen thought, as soon as the notice defining the price of grain came out, the whole Datong was boiling.
Ordinary people are extremely angry.
"The imperial court doesn't intend to give ordinary people like us a way to survive."
"Forty taels of silver and one stone of food, these are simply bandits."
"Haha, the bandits' robbery will leave people a way to survive. The court wants to completely force us to death."
"Let's go to the government office. The government official must give us an explanation!"
"If we all go together, I don't believe that the imperial court will just watch us starve to death."
Compared with the excited ordinary people.
All the gentry grain merchants in Datong Prefecture were so shocked that they couldn't believe their ears.
"What? The minimum is four taels? Is the court crazy?"
"Could it be that the news was wrong? It was four coins of silver instead of forty taels of silver?"
It’s no wonder that the gentry and grain merchants didn’t believe it.
According to past experience, the imperial court must have tried desperately to lower the price of food at this time.
How is it possible that instead of controlling food prices, they actively help people like them raise food prices?
Now the price on the black market is only three taels, and they still sell it secretly.
Now as soon as this announcement comes out, they can directly sell it at sky-high prices in their own grain stores.
After many inquiries, the gentry and grain merchants confirmed that the price was real and valid.
And soon after, even after the imperial edict is issued, their eyes will turn red.
This is an opportunity authorized by the imperial court to steal money openly!