Everyone in the audience was stunned again.
"This Liang Xiao, what kind of medicine is sold in the gourd?"
When Dugu Chen saw Liang Xiao smiling, he felt inexplicably uneasy.
He just wanted to see Liang Xiao angry or panicked.
But he is so calm now that he even invited himself to the stage to talk.
Even if he protested publicly, he would not be convicted by Liang Xiao, let alone be executed in public.
But he always felt that Liang Xiao had some conspiracy.
"Why should I talk to you? If you want to talk, you should face the questions from thousands of students and people calmly. Why should you stare at me alone?"
Dugu Chen responded proudly, making Mu Qinxue and others in the distance feel sick.
"With so many people and so many mouths, how long will it take to finish asking? In the end, it will just develop into a physical conflict. Is this what you, Duguchen, expected?"
Liang Xiao's loud questioning made Dugu Chen frown.
Is he also kidnapping himself morally?
"Master Dugu, on behalf of us, question him and see what he can say!"
The scholars below could no longer bear it any longer and made suggestions.
Immediately afterwards, there were endless echoes, and everyone agreed that Dugu Chen questioned Liang Xiao on behalf of the scholar.
Dugu Chen looked back at the crowd and saw the fear on their faces, and it became clear to him instantly.
These scholars are still afraid of death after all!
The Liang family's army was calm and unmoving in the face of danger, but these scholars were the first to become confused.
The current square is an invisible battlefield.
What he wanted was for the scene to be as chaotic as possible, so that Liang Xiao would not be able to argue.
Who would have thought that Liang Xiao planned to talk to him in front of thousands of people!
If he refuses now, he will be at a disadvantage.
Moreover, he had noticed Mu Qinxue's disgusted eyes.
Among the crowd in the distance, there was a masked girl with beautiful eyes, who was also looking at him with this look.
He was sure that they were all looking at him, not at Liang Xiao.
That kind of look that looked down on him from the bottom of his heart made him jealous.
"Then I will boldly question you on behalf of thousands of students and people in Yanzhou."
Duguchen's condescending attitude made Gongsun Yue feel disgusted.
But Liang Xiao's calm and calm attitude also made her doubtful.
Doesn't he understand that his current situation is unfavorable?
Now that the people have representatives, they are much quieter, and these students also have a reason to stop.
With everyone watching, Dugu Chen walked up to the high platform and sat opposite Liang Xiao.
Liang Xiao just calmly poured a cup of hot tea for him and himself.
Seeing him behave calmly, Dugu Chen couldn't help but feel timid.
The Liang Xiao in front of me was only seventeen years old, but he could never understand his words and deeds.
The outcome of every incident is always surprising.
This is an opponent that he cannot control.
"You can't judge it with common sense, but you can't show weakness either! At least he accepts the questioning and I have the upper hand!"
After Dugu Chen made up his mind, he stood up first and raised his voice to ask: "Let me ask you, why do you wantonly manipulate food prices and ignore people's livelihood?"
Everyone below spread the word, and soon Dugu Chen's first words were spread throughout the audience.
This is the question of all the people of Yanzhou.
"Isn't it because you aristocratic families, who occupy most of the land in Yanzhou, not only refuse to sell grain, but also buy surplus grain from other farmers at high prices, then transport it out of Yanzhou and hoard it, resulting in no grain to sell on the market. This will trigger a food shortage, waiting to drive up food prices.”
Liang Xiaoyi's stern response made Dugu Chen sneer.
"Then why did you take the initiative to increase the price of food?"
Liang Xiao replied: "Isn't it just to attract a group of rice merchants like you?"
The people below were thoughtful.
The largest force in Yanzhou is apparently the local Dongye family, but in fact it is several other big families who have united together. This matter is well known to every household.
Those families are all large landowners, and the main output of food is in the hands of them and their tenant farmers.
But the more they thought about it, the more they felt uncomfortable.
According to those scholars, it was Liang Xiao who neglected the people's livelihood, and then the rice merchants rushed back to support Yanzhou with grain shipments.
But they are not completely incapable of thinking.
Isn't this because the rice merchants were waiting for prices to rise, so they were deceived by Liang Xiao?
"Since ancient times, you and I have been willing to buy and sell grain. In the end, several of our rice merchants still shipped the grain, but you maliciously lowered the price and paid it to 20 cents. Such fraud!" Dugu Chen pretended to be angry.
Liang Xiao said with a smile: "The Prefecture has purchased a lot of grain. Lowering the price is not good for the Prefecture, but it is beneficial to the people. So, isn't it because I take care of the interests of the people that I keep the price low?"
Dugu Chen pretended to be angry again: "You treat rice merchants like this, how many rice merchants will dare to cooperate with you in the future??"
Liang Xiao said without hesitation: "Don't worry about it. As long as the rice merchants are not just a few of you, there will be no man-made famine in Yanzhou and the same mistakes will never happen again."
Dugu Chen's expression changed.
Liang Xiao's meaning couldn't be more obvious.
He just wants to kill all the rice merchants from the big family and let himself and others take their place!
"But you took the opportunity to suppress land prices and annexed massive amounts of land. Thousands of farmers suffered miserably because of the plummeting land prices!"
Faced with Dugu Chen's aggressive attitude, Liang Xiao still responded calmly: "You big landowners usually rob and annex farmers' land, but you don't say a word about it. But I only buy land from you big landowners, I won’t harvest any of the farmers’ land. Now that land prices have risen, the only ones who are really suffering the loss are your interests.”
Without waiting for Dugu Chen to reply, Liang Xiao asked again: "Then, why did you big families want to sell the land to me at that time?"
Dugu Chen gritted his teeth and said: "Business transactions are between you and me. How many times do you want me to emphasize this?"
Liang Xiao stared at Dugu Chen coldly and said: "You just saw the food shortage in Yanzhou. The price of food has soared, and sooner or later the people will be in dire straits, so you only want to sell the land and leave, and evacuate Yanzhou in time! But you didn't expect that I, the prefect In fact, the government still has food in hand to maintain people's livelihood, until you, a group of rice merchants from aristocratic families, can no longer hold on!"
There was a lot of discussion below, and even the scholars in the academy were confused.
The version they accepted was completely different from Liang Xiao's.
"Didn't it mean that the Prefecture raised prices arbitrarily, suppressed land prices, and then took away large tracts of land?"
Dugu Chen felt a little anxious.
He suddenly understood Liang Xiao's intention to talk to him, the representative.
People can muddy the waters by talking too much.
But in one-on-one confrontation, some things can only become clearer with more arguments.
Liang Xiao swept his eyes across the crowd and said loudly: "The imperial court and I personally have not taken away even an acre of land from real farmers. All sales contracts are kept in the prefect's mansion, which is enough to prove that these big landowners from aristocratic families are willing to Transfer the land. As Dugu Chen said, you and I agree on business transactions."
"In addition, in response to the rumors that the Prefecture is ignoring people's livelihood, I will announce the news in public here."
"From today until the autumn harvest, the price of rice will remain at thirty-five cents per stone!"
"Thirty-five cents per stone?!"
The whole place was in an uproar.
This is the lowest rice price in Yanzhou history.
At this moment, all the people in the audience cheered.
They all know that the free food rationed by the government is only temporary. What matters is the price of rice in the future.
Twenty coins and one stone is of course unrealistic. This is just Liang Xiao's bid to suppress those rice merchants.
Now the prefect's mansion controls all the food, thirty-five cents per stone... quite cheap!
Duanmu Yan below, Nangong Ning, Duanmu Yunqing and others on the balcony of the inn became increasingly anxious.
