"What news~?"
Li Zexuan originally thought that the matter had been settled, but he didn't expect that Pen Yatu seemed to have trouble again. Today was really full of twists and turns!
Pu Yatu cautiously glanced in the direction of the door. Li Zexuan waved his hand and said, "If the envoy has anything to say, just say it. No one will eavesdrop outside the door!"
With his current skill, if someone was eavesdropping nearby, it would be impossible to hide it from his perception. But Pu Yatu's behavior just showed that what he was going to say next was absolutely extraordinary.
Pu Yatu then said: "I wonder if the Marquis is wondering why us envoys suddenly came to the academy to watch the military training performance today?"
Li Zexuan narrowed his eyes, crossed his arms, leaned back on the chair, and said, "If you have anything to say, please speak directly!"
The expressions of the remaining two envoys changed drastically at this moment. Pu Ya Tu gritted his teeth and said, "The first person who proposed to come to the academy was none other than the Prime Minister of the Harsha Dynasty, Aronashun. Although I don't understand the reason. , but in the past two days, Cui Siqing often interviewed A Luo Dashun alone, so..."
At this point, Pu Yatu stopped talking, because anyone should be able to guess what he said next.
Li Zexuan's face was solemn, a cold light flashed in his eyes, Cui family, this is really like a maggot attached to the bone! They had previously sent people to assassinate him, but they had failed. Instead, they had stolen the people they sent. Unexpectedly, these people would not stop, and now they are doing little things secretly. It is really disgusting!
"Well, I know! I will pretend that I have never heard what I said before, and you two are not allowed to spread it~!"
Li Zexuan turned to look at the two envoys from Piao Kingdom and Funan Kingdom, and said in a deep voice.
He wanted to settle the Cui family's accounts by himself and didn't want to cause trouble.
"Yes, yes, once we understand, we will never spread it~!"
The two agreed quickly.
……………………
"Master, why haven't we sold the rent we collected this year?"
At noon that day, Li Zexuan had just returned from the academy, when Xiao He from the academy ran over and asked like this.
Li Zexuan became curious and asked: "What? Xiaohe has also begun to care about important events in the house~?"
The Li family had no intention of selling the rent they collected this year. Not only would they not sell it, Li Zexuan had also bought a lot of grain from other villages before. All of this was to cope with next year's locust plague. As the saying goes, the family has surplus grain. , not panicking. Although he knew that there would be a locust plague next year, he had never seen a locust plague since he was a child. God knows what the specific situation will be like by then. It is always good to be more prepared.
Of course, very few people know about the locust plague, and Xiao He definitely doesn't know, otherwise this girl wouldn't ask this question.
Xiaohe, who was not afraid of the sky or the earth, was startled by Li Zexuan's casual words. She quickly waved her hands and said:
"No, no, no, young master, I...I didn't mean that! I was just helping the young lady to go shopping in the West Market today. I heard that the price of food in Chang'an City has dropped sharply recently, and it will continue to drop, so I I remember that our food hasn’t been sold yet~!”
What a pity, she is just a maid, she has no qualifications to care about the important affairs of the house. If she were a mistress with a smaller mind, she would definitely be kicked out of the house after hearing these words!
"Food prices dropped sharply~?"
Li Zexuan didn't have as many strange thoughts as Xiao He. He frowned slightly and asked aloud: "What is the current price of food in Chang'an City? Why did the price of food drop suddenly?"
Xiao He breathed a sigh of relief and explained: "Master, now you can buy a bucket of rice for two pennies. It is said that the reason why it is so cheap is because when the imperial fleet returned a while ago, private merchant ships also brought back a lot of grain. , those merchants were eager to sell, so they lowered the price of grain and wanted to sell it as soon as possible! Now the major grain stores and granaries in Chang'an City are basically full!"
Previously, Li Er decided to let the court organize a fleet and lead private merchant ships to trade in Southeast Asia. The main purpose was to exchange for a large amount of food to deal with next year's locust plague.
The more than 500 official ships of the imperial court were all loaded with grain when they returned. Li Er had no hard and fast rules for private merchant ships, but each family must have at least two dedicated ships for carrying grain. As a result, as soon as the fleet docked, the private merchants were eager to sell the food on the ship. This stuff was worthless and would only rot in their hands.
Two pennies and a dou of rice?
Damn it, a bucket of rice weighs more than twelve kilograms. Li Zexuan suddenly felt like he wasted everything. Those grain dealers were really wasteful. How could they sell grain so cheaply?
"Well, okay, I understand! Xiaohe, you don't have to worry anymore. Master, I don't want to sell those grains. I have my own reasons. You can go about your business!"
In his heart, Li Zexuan lamented the cheap price of food in Datang, while at the same time he was quickly analyzing the impact of the sharp drop in food prices on Datang.
In modern times, foreign food has always been cheaper than domestic food. A large amount of food flows into China from abroad every year. This will inevitably cause domestic food price fluctuations.
As the saying goes, cheap grain hurts farmers. Many people who grow grain hope that the grain they grow will have a good harvest and be sold at a good price.
In order to protect farmers' enthusiasm for growing grain, the state can only purchase farmers' grain. However, most of the grain purchased by the state does not flow into the market. Farmers think that if their grain is sold, it meets market requirements. In fact, it was the state that finally put it away. Although this method will bury many hidden dangers and cannot fundamentally solve the problem, it is still a good way to stabilize food prices.
But in the era he lives in now, is it really necessary to stabilize food prices?
At this time, the food in the Tang Dynasty was mainly concentrated in the hands of the landlords. After the common people paid their rent, most of the food left in their hands was just enough for their family to survive, and few of them sold the food. , if I persuade Li Er to stabilize food prices, the landlords will be the ones who get the advantage!
Ahem, even though he is also a landlord now...
In view of this, instead of stabilizing food prices, he might as well take this opportunity to purchase more food and reserve it for next year's fight against the locust plague!
He did it as soon as he thought of it. After Li Zexuan sent Xiao He away, he rode directly back to Chang'an and found the housekeeper Wang Zhong.
"Uncle Wang, go help me contact several other members of the Yanhuang Chamber of Commerce in the past two days, tell them that I want to purchase a large amount of grain, and ask them to help~! At the same time, I will also recently have people build large granaries at the foot of Yunshan~ !”
Li Zexuan found Wang Zhong in the front yard of Li Mansion and explained straight to the point.
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