Wujiang County is not far from Pingjiang Fucheng, and news of the skyrocketing food prices soon spread.
"Forty coins!?"
Zhao Mengqi was shocked, "Mr. Wu, didn't you say that there are nearly 800,000 shi of grain in Changpingcang? How could you let the price of grain rise to 40 wen?"
Simply put, the role of Changpingcang is to buy surplus grain on the market at a protective price when the grain harvest is good and the price is low. When there is a shortage of grain, the warehouse grain is sold to stabilize grain prices and keep grain prices at a relatively high level. within a stable range.
Wu Qian had a dark face and pulled off several strands of his beard, "I am also very puzzled. The grain stocks reported by Chang Ping Division are indeed of this amount. It is impossible that they were all sold out in such a short period of time, right?"
"Could it be that something went wrong in Chang Ping Cang?" Jiang Wanli guessed.
Although the food shortage is a fact, it is not about to break out immediately. The current food reserves can last for at least two months.
Zhao Mengqi was alert, "I'm afraid it's not that simple. Someone should be trying to cause trouble and obstruct the implementation of the Jingjie."
Jiang Wanli also came to his senses, "Nowadays, the national supply is in short supply, and the imperial court is also aware of the problem. In fact, there has always been a call for the implementation of economic circles. The officials must agree with it, and Prime Minister Dong also supports it, but there is no suitable candidate to preside over it." , Now His Highness has taken the initiative to take over this burden, and the princes in the court are also happy to see the success. Therefore, during this period, no matter how those people jumped up and down, the court remained motionless. The powerful gang saw that they could not stop it from the center, so So they started to move around the place."
"That should be it. I guessed that they would not accept their fate, but I didn't expect that they would not even care about the lives and deaths of millions of people for their own personal gain..."
Zhao Mengqi realized that he still overestimated the bottom line of the interest group.
"Your Highness, they probably want to use food as a bargaining chip in exchange for Your Highness's concession. After all, if the people have no food to eat, they will rebel. Your Highness will be responsible for it. Not only will it affect your reputation, but it will even shake your confidence. Storage spaces!"
Wu Qian has been an official for decades. With a little thought, he can guess what the powerful people are planning.
This is an obvious conspiracy, a daring bet that King Yan will not dare to starve the people to death!
Jiang Wanli said in a deep voice, "Your Highness, please conduct a thorough investigation of Changpingcang immediately. If the food in Changpingcang can be preserved, at least no one will starve to death."
In the absence of meat, an adult would need one to two liters of food a day if he wanted to maintain his labor force. If he only needed to survive without starving to death, he could survive for a long time with only one tenth.
Zhao Mengqi shook his head, "They came prepared. It's better not to investigate. If they dare to investigate, maybe there will be a fire waiting for us..."
"They dare!?" Jiang Wanli was startled. After thinking about it carefully, he felt a sense of powerlessness.
Why don't you dare?
Are there many such things in history?
For profit, murder and arson are just routine operations.
"The old minister was negligent and should have taken control of Chang Pingcang earlier." Wu Qian blamed himself.
"Wu Gong, this is not your responsibility. After all, no one can cover everything." Zhao Mengqi remained calm and analyzed, "Besides, even if you think of it, Changping Division is not someone you can just get involved in."
The official system of the Song Dynasty was full of checks and balances and decentralization, and we were always wary of the emergence of a dominant family.
"Lu" was the highest local administrative level in the Song Dynasty. It was similar to the later provinces. However, there was usually no chief official who had all the power. Instead, it was divided into four supervisory departments that were not subordinate to each other, called Shuai, Cao, Xian, and Cang.
Shuai was the pacification envoy. Earlier he was only in charge of the military. Now he was also in charge of civil affairs. Cao was the transfer envoy and was in charge of finance.
These four yamen are at the same level, and each has its own powers but they are not clear. At the same time, they all have the power to supervise and evaluate officials in their own way. They compete for power when it is beneficial, and blame each other when problems arise.
Although the administrative efficiency is low, it is conducive to the central government's control of local areas. Unless encountering special circumstances, a higher-power envoy will be established.
Wu Qian is now just the pacification envoy in western Zhejiang, with the most authority, but he is not the envoy to set up the system. In principle, the other three departments have no need to do so.
To be honest, if there is a conflict, most of the time we can only argue with each other and file lawsuits.
Wu Qian nodded, "Indeed, everyone says that Xie Tang is a very deep-seated person, quite talented but stubborn and difficult to control, and very difficult to deal with."
"Xie Tang?" Zhao Mengqi felt unfamiliar with this name.
Wu Qian replied, "Thank you for your promotion. It is the west of Zhejiang that promotes Chang Pingsi. In addition, he is also the saint's nephew."
"The saint's nephew?"
Zhao Mengqi was a little confused. As far as he knew, although Queen Xie was a prostitute, she was stoic and supported him. How could the Xie family come out to go against him?
"As far as I know, the Xie family is from Taizhou, but Xie Tang once served as the general magistrate of Pingjiang Prefecture, and it is likely that he has a large amount of land in Pingjiang."
The reason why Wu Qian said it was possible was because the land annexed by powerful powers would not necessarily be in his own name, so it could not be found out from official records.
"Come to think of it, other than that, there is no conflict of interest between the Xie family and I. This is very likely. I will have someone check his whereabouts later."
Zhao Mengqi sighed in his heart, not to mention that Queen Xie was only his mother in name. Even if it was his biological family, when the interests involved were large enough, it would be easy to turn against her.
But he didn't take it too seriously. After all, there were so many ghosts and monsters hiding in the dark. If they couldn't protect them, they would shoot a hidden arrow.
Jiang Wanli thought of a question, "Your Highness, if these powerful people have become one and are determined to use food to make a fuss, the food raising plan you envisioned will probably not work."
"Haha, they think they can easily take advantage of me if they control the food?" Zhao Mengqi sneered, and then his eyes showed determination, "In matters concerning the realm, we must do it alone!"
Wu Qian said worriedly, "Your Highness, the top priority is not to let the people starve. In other places, it is okay to say that the work-for-relief program can survive for a while, but hundreds of thousands of households in the city have to buy food to survive. Even if they The little savings we have may not be able to sustain us for long under such deliberately high food prices. From my perspective, let’s transport some food from Wujiang first to stabilize the food price.”
"Wu Gong's concerns are reasonable, but what if, I mean, if we transport grain and are bought by those powerful gangs, won't our efforts be in vain?" Jiang Wanli asked worriedly.
"Huh? Will they buy it!?" Zhao Mengqi's eyes lit up, "Hey, let them buy it!"
"Ah? Let them buy it?" Wu Qian and Jiang Wanli were both inexplicably surprised.
"That's right, if the food we have on hand is reserved for relief and the ten days' needs of the Wujiang people, how much can we free up?" Zhao Mengqi had a smile on his face.
Wu Qian was surprised, "Your Highness, are you serious?"
"Just forget it first."
After roughly estimating for a while, Wu Qian said slowly, "We still have 1.2 million stones on hand, and we consume less than 40,000 stones every day. If we only need it for ten days, we can actually come up with 800,000 stones." .”
"Eight hundred thousand dan. If it's fifty cents per liter, that's five guan per liter, which can be sold for four million guan. Hehe, it's time for us to get rich." The smile on Zhao Mengqi's face grew stronger and stronger.
Wu Qian and Jiang Wanli felt bad after hearing this. Could it be that His Highness King Yan is crazy?
Or is it that I misjudged him? King Yan didn't care about the people at all, but he was actually a dim-witted person who loved money as much as his life?
Zhao Mengqi didn't notice the expressions of the two veteran ministers. Instead, the woman smiled dryly and said, "Actually, it's more than 800,000 dan. There should be a lot of grain stagnant in Zhenjiang. There should also be a lot of Changping warehouse and military rations in Jiankang Prefecture. Maybe, it’s not difficult to sell ten million coins, hahahaha..."
It's really crazy. Not only do you want to use the food you have, but you also want to misappropriate the grain and military rations! ?
Wu Qian and Jiang Wanli were both honest ministers. How could they allow King Yan to do such a crazy thing? They reacted instantly and glared angrily. .
Jiang Wanli's eyes were full of sorrow, and he shouted loudly, "Your Highness! A gentleman loves money and gets it in a wise way. Not to mention that Your Highness is the crown prince of a country. How can you ignore the common people for the sake of A Duwu!?"
Wu Qian was shaking with anger, his old face flushed red, he clenched his fist and almost couldn't help but punch Zhao Mengqi's hateful face.
"Zhao Mengqi! You bastard
West! Do you still have the land, country, and ancestors in your eyes? ? If you dare to do such a stupid and unethical thing, I will be stigmatized for thousands of years, and I will kill you today! "
"If Your Highness insists on taking the wrong path, he will step over my corpse!" Jiang Wanli stood up and stood in front of Zhao Mengqi.
Well?
Why did these two old men suddenly lose their hair?
Zhao Mengqi was stunned and immediately realized that he had not made it clear and caused a misunderstanding between the two.
"Calm down! Calm down! You two, please listen to my explanation!"
"What's the explanation!?" Wu Qian was furious. He was really ready to fight with his old bones to eliminate this scourge for the people of the world.
Jiang Wanli adheres to the etiquette of a monarch and his ministers in his heart, but he is also determined to die, "No matter what excuses His Highness has, I will never agree with it!"
Zhao Mengqi was heartbroken by the angry looks of the two old men. He was not really afraid of what they could do to him. With his strength, even with one hand tied, he could easily bring down the two old men.
But if he really did this, it would really chill the loyal ministers.
"Wu Gong, Shi Yu, please let me finish what I have to say. If Meng Qi is really unreasonable, then you don't need to do anything. I can hang myself on a southeastern branch to apologize."
There was no other way, so Zhao Mengqi had no choice but to risk his life to get the two runaway old men to give him a chance to explain.
"Hmph! Let's see what reason you can come up with?" Wu Qian actually has a arrogant side.
Jiang Wanli was more refined and calmed down a little, "Could it be that there is some profound meaning behind His Highness's move?"
"This is natural. Even if I am not the crown prince, I am still a royal family. Will I still lack glory and wealth? What is the use of asking for my own money?"
Immediately, Zhao Mengqi explained his plan in detail.
The two old men were stunned for a while. When Zhao Mengqi finished speaking, they opened their mouths, but they didn't know what to say. They couldn't help but have an idea. They just wanted to break open King Yan's chest and see the exquisite heart of Qiqiao. What does it look like?
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