"It's a good idea to buy up all the grain in the hands of the imperial court! In this way, the imperial court will either impose more grain taxes and cause chaos in the world, or it will keep increasing the price of grain in Jiangnan, causing Jiangnan to rebel first. Anyway, the Dufu didn't think of it Let us go, then everyone should stop living! Let the world become chaotic first!"
Xu Hongji nodded and said.
"The vassals and princes of various countries also think so. Sooner or later, the court will not let them go. Now it is time to clear the land. Who knows what new policy will be coming next. It is necessary to use food and money to make the court suffer a big loss in Jiangnan this time, or The world is in chaos. Either change the master and end the current situation."
Dou Ding said, "That's why the feudal princes are willing to let me come forward and bring money to do this with the princes. As the shopkeeper of Henghe Grain Store, I will contact more merchants to help you." The princes buy grain, and the princes can also receive dividends from the Henghe Grain Store just like the imperial government-run enterprises. It’s still the same thing, but I don’t know how much money the princes can provide.”
"Since the vassal kings already have five million taels of silver, Xu will also contribute three million taels of silver. Then he can share more. Anyway, it is better to hold grains than to hold silver coins! It is better to exchange them for grains. The shop’s share of dividends.”
Xu Hongji said.
Zhu Guobi also said: "I will pay one million taels of silver."
For a time, these Nanjing nobles invested large sums of money to invest in Henghe Grain Store.
And because of this, it didn't take long for more people to come to the Yingtianfu market to buy grain at the comprehensive stores and government-controlled grain stores.
"The current price of rice in the comprehensive store is four silver coins per stone. After you buy it, you can sell it to our Henghe Grain Store for five silver dollars per stone. We will buy as much as you buy. Do you understand?!"
Therefore, the people of the Ganges Grain Store relied on their wealth to organize the people to buy more grain and repurchase the grain provided by the court at a higher price.
At the same time, Nanjing nobles such as Wei Guogong and Funing Hou also mobilized their domestic slaves and tenants to buy grain with silver dollars.
For a time, the imperial court's food flowed out in large quantities.
"Even now that the purchase limit has been changed to allow one household to purchase no more than ten shi per day, there are still a large number of people pulling carts to sell rice for ten shi. We previously limited the purchase to 20 shi because some wealthy families have large populations. , or those who open restaurants, need so much food, but not every household needs so much rice every day. Judging from my slave, this must be someone secretly causing trouble, sprinkling money to many people, and asking them to come and buy the rice. My slave After asking people from Dongchang to investigate, they found that a company called Henghe Grain Store was behind it, buying grain and rice sold by the people at a higher price. The slave sent people from Dongchang to arrest them, but they only caught them. Several downlines, the specific owner of the Henghe Grain Store has not yet been found out, but what is clear is that the Henghe Grain Store is very wealthy. The ordinary employees responsible for collecting grains can bring tens of thousands of dollars. Two silver coins or tens of thousands of silver coins."
Wei Zhongxian reported the situation to Zhu Youxiao.
Zhu Youxiao laughed after hearing this: "They are competing with me for wealth. There is no need to check it first. Now that there is so much reserve grain shipped to Jiangnan, it is better to find another way to deal with them. Just use this Find a way to nationalize all their money! Dongchang pretends to turn a blind eye for now and focus on blocking the news. Don't let them know how much food the imperial court has hoarded in the Jiangnan area. In addition, go Find out how much money they have prepared to buy my food."
"My slave obeys the order!"
Wei Zhongxian replied.
Then, Zhu Youxiao looked at Xiong Tingbi and Han Xu and said, "But it's hard to be sure that these people are really rich enough to rival the country. They have a lot of money to buy high-priced grain from me. In this case, I have to provide enough grain." They have to come and sell it. Therefore, the food transported by the imperial court in the country is not enough now, so it has to continue to borrow food from abroad to sell. A decree was sent to Shen Yourong, asking him to immediately lead the Denglai Navy and bring the latest warships to Seoul, North Korea. Let's fire a few cannons first. There is no need to wait for news about Yuan Chonghuan. We must borrow enough food on the basis of the original three million stone rations. In addition, let Chen Xinbu of the Guards Town Navy Battalion, who has been training for a long time, lead the " "Qi Jiguang" soft sailing ship and other new warships, go to the Japanese country Edo and Ryukyu! When the Henghe grain store ends purchasing grain, the imperial navy will end the task of borrowing grain from foreign countries! And the task of the imperial court is Be a big grain merchant and provide enough grain to Henghe Grain Store for them to speculate."
Zhu Youxiao laughed as he spoke.
After hearing this, Xiong Tingbi and Han Xu suddenly realized. For a moment, they both raised their hands and praised: "Your Majesty is a wise man!"
…
North Korea, Seoul.
Yuan Chonghuan has been in North Korea for a long time.
The king of Korea has always been willing to provide 500,000 stone grains to help Liao on the grounds that the treasury is empty.
Naturally, Yuan Chonghuan refused. After all, his task was three million stones.
In addition, in the spring of the third year of Tianqi's reign in North Korea, the historical "Injo Anyway" civil strife broke out.
Therefore, Yuan Chonghuan stayed in North Korea and did not go back.
After the civil strife in Korea ended, Yuan Chonghuan continued to ask the king of Korea for three million stones of grain to help the Liao Dynasty.
Although the new king of North Korea, Li Zhu, was willing to give up his throne so that his throne could be recognized by the Ming Dynasty as soon as possible, he only agreed to provide one million stone grain.
Yuan Chonghuan naturally refused, so he had to continue to stay in Seoul and threatened that the North Korean king ignored the national authority of the Celestial Empire and that the Celestial Empire would send a large army to crusade because of the coup that occurred in North Korea, and the North Korean king would come to beg him.
At the beginning, the King of Korea and the officials of North Korea still believed it, so they were a little uneasy. They tentatively increased the food supply to Liao to two million dan. At the same time, they also sent people to Ming Dynasty to inquire. After inquiring, they learned that Ming Dynasty did not attack Korea. This meant that he gradually no longer believed Yuan Chonghuan's words.
Yuan Chonghuan did not expect that his big words would not be believed by the North Koreans, and he could only continue to stay in North Korea in embarrassment.
But what Yuan Chonghuan did not expect was that when he stayed in North Korea until the beginning of the fourth year of Tianqi, officers and soldiers of the Ming Navy actually appeared in Jianghua Bay.
…
Only then did the North Korean King Li Zhu feel anxious.
"What are you talking about? The Ming Navy has already appeared in Incheon, bombarded Incheon, and landed from Incheon?"
At this time, Li Zhu asked his training general (equivalent to the commander of the Imperial Guard) Li Xingli in surprise.
Li Xingli hurriedly replied: "I dare not deceive Your Highness. The Ming Dynasty navy has indeed landed in Inchon. Their warships are very large and numerous. They can cover the sky and the sun. Their artillery is huge. One cannon can destroy our city wall! We don't have it!" Find a way to compete with Ming Dynasty's navy."
The political leader (equivalent to the prime minister) Jin Yaoze said: "Now we can only quickly invite the Celestial Minister Yuan Gong into the palace and ask him to find a way to contact the Celestial Navy and ask for the purpose. As long as he is not here for Li Hui, everything can be discussed. .”
Li Hui was the Gwanghae Lord of Joseon, and the Joseon King Li Jonggang successfully usurped the throne from him.
Therefore, Li Hui was most worried about Li Hui getting support from the Ming Dynasty for his restoration, so he hurriedly adopted Jin Liu's advice.
Soon, Yuan Chonghuan was invited into the palace and learned the news that the Ming Dynasty Navy was coming to court.
Yuan Chonghuan was very happy because of this. It is true that a strong military is the basis for having absolute say in diplomatic negotiations, and Yuan Chonghuan is the same now. Because the Ming Dynasty Navy landed in Incheon, he also has a lot of confidence: "I have already I just said that if you delay any longer, my emperor will send a navy to attack the court, but you refused to listen, and now you regret it so much?"
"Mr. Yuan, please calm down. It's not because we are delaying, but it is really difficult to prepare these three million stone grains. We have just collected them now. We are willing to spend three million stone grains. I wonder if Mr. Yuan can give us some advice and advice?" Are the Chinese navy going back?"
Li Zhu smiled apologetically and explained in person, and asked a little uneasily.
When Yuan Chonghuan saw that Li Zhu was so cheerful, he immediately agreed to go to Incheon to meet the Ming Dynasty navy for Li Zhu.
As soon as he saw Shen Yourong, the chief military officer of the Denglai Navy of the Ming Dynasty who came to North Korea with an order, Yuan Chonghuan received the imperial order from Zhu Youxiao.
"What, now His Majesty not only wants North Korea to provide three million shi of grain, but also needs to borrow another 30% of the grain tax from the imperial treasury?"
Yuan Chonghuan was shocked when he found out and couldn't help but confirm with Shen Yourong.
"This is what the imperial edict says. In addition, there is also an oral instruction. If Yuan Gong cannot do it, he will bring back three million stones of grain. From the end of the day, he will directly conquer Seoul and borrow grain by force."
Shen Yourong replied.
Yuan Chonghuan thought for a while and quickly made up his mind: "It can be done! It's easy. I'm going to see the King of North Korea right now!"
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