"Did you hear that?"
In a village in Lantian County, villagers gathered together to talk about something.
"The emperor wants to buy the grain in our hands for six cents per bucket 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 at home, even if you do have it, you won't sell it."
As the news spread that the imperial court was promoting peace and buying 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. They paid six cents per bucket of rice and sent it to beggars.
For several days, the grain purchasing team almost failed to receive any grain.
In desperation, the prince who was responsible for promoting He Bian Fa had to go to the palace to 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 a full five million dendrobium of grain.
For Li Sanlang, this was a disguised form of increasing 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 lips, "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 finally saw income from his purchases.
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 a fight 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 at a price of eight cents per dou rice.
After investigating, the big players found out that this was actually true.
Not surprisingly, big business owners have started buying cheap rice.
This is simply a business without capital. If you buy it now and 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 knew very well the greed of human nature and knew very clearly that these big business owners would not take action now.
Sure enough, except for a very small number of people who were making resale money, most of the big households were frantically purchasing and hoarding food, preparing to discuss the food price issue with Prince Haosheng when Taizi Mountain ran out of water.
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.
But those big households who frequently bought tens of thousands of tons of grain were very confused. Why couldn't they 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.
The wealthy wealthy people who have become ruthless are constantly raising money and vowing 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 happy from ear to ear.
As for the fact that the failure of the Hebian 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 clear 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 filled with disbelief.
"This is impossible!"
The angry Li Sanlang ordered Gao Lishi and others to investigate the Ministry of Revenue to see if it was the Ministry of Revenue 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 pay a penny more.
Li Sanlang didn't believe it. He didn't believe that Li Yunze could complete the Hebian method in this environment, and ordered Gao Lishi and others to investigate clearly.
However, the big players here came directly to 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 made many big households spend all their money on it. .
In jargon, it's a hit in the hand.
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.
Another one is that the government is not allowed to release grain when implementing the Hebian Law.
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 after ordering the prince to purchase grain, the grain 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, forcing him to help recover the losses.
On the other side, 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 declare the decree."
Excited, Bian Lingcheng 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 had to stay in bed to recuperate."
"Heh~~~"
Li Sanlang laughed angrily, is this bastard playing this trick on me? !
Angry Li Sanlang called Li Linfu and Niu Xianke over again.
It's a pity that these two prime ministers are slippery 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 could only bear everything by himself.
It was impossible to directly ask the court to pay for the grain bought at high prices by the big families who had been cheated.
Not to mention that the courtiers 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 court to sell grain directly, and acquiesced to grain merchants selling grain at high prices on the black market.
It also prohibited people in 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 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 good harvest, and the 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 just a few cents short and unable to buy food, thought of the hungry children at home who were waiting to be fed, so he threw himself directly into 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 his body to come out, and led everyone 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 book friend Mr. Ohrin Meiou for your 100-point reward and support. I am deeply grateful. Thank you!
(End of chapter)
