Hanging up and cultivating immortality in the troubled times

Chapter 25 If the price of rice does not rise, the rice shop will not open!

It was bright and the sun was just rising.

Han Tong, the chief registrar of Heyang County, looked at the book in his hand and felt cold all over his body, with cold sweat pouring down his forehead like rain.

"How is this possible? How is this possible? How could the tens of thousands of stones of food in Changping Granary disappear?"

He suppressed the panic in his heart and hurriedly went to Changpingcang to check it out in person.

But when he saw the situation here, he was so frightened that he collapsed on the ground, feeling as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

There really wasn't even a grain of rice left.

It's too exaggerated. The mice will starve to death here!
"I obviously checked last month! How could this happen? What should I do now?
"If the news leaks out, local wealthy families and businessmen will definitely drive up food prices, and I don't know how many people will die by then.

"It must be kept secret and absolutely cannot be known to anyone...Hey, how can it be kept secret? I don't know how many county officials are from these wealthy families and merchants...

"I have to report it to the county magistrate immediately. No, before that I should think of a way to solve this problem.

"By the way, the foreign affairs director of the Zixiao faction just arrived a few days ago. Maybe you can ask her for help. First, sell some grain from Heyang County. It should be feasible!"

Han Tong's eyes suddenly lit up when he thought of this.

He was like a drowning man grabbing a life-saving straw, and his whole body cheered up.

He immediately got up from the ground, took the document and ran towards Fang Qian's house.

It's too early now, and the county magistrate hasn't come to the Yamen yet.

I can only find it at home.

Fortunately, Fang Qian's house was not far away, and Han Tong arrived here quickly.

"Huh? Why isn't there a concierge?" Han Tong was a little surprised, but he didn't think much and just opened the door and walked in.

As the county chief registrar, he often came to the county magistrate's house to report on his work, and Fang Qian had already allowed him not to hand in greeting cards.

Along the familiar road, Han Tong came to the living room, but it was still empty.

"What's going on? It's just that there's no concierge, but why are there no servants to serve the guests?"

Han Tong looked around in surprise and confusion, feeling very puzzled.

Normally, even if the county magistrate is not ready to receive guests, a servant will come to welcome him with tea.

What's going on today?
It's so deserted, and it's weird inside and out.

"It's broken!" Han Tong suddenly slapped the chair and had an ominous guess in his heart, "Could it be that the county magistrate has discovered what happened in Chang Pingcang and ran away with his servants and personal entourage?"

The food in Changpingcang disappeared out of thin air, not even a grain of rice was left. This kind of thing must have been investigated by the prison long ago.

However, the main responsibility generally lies with the county magistrate.

But if the county magistrate runs away, the culpability of the county magistrate and the chief registrar will definitely increase.

"I have to go find Qian Shaoyin, before they all run away in the end and I am the only one left!" Han Tong thought to himself, and left Fangqian to look for the county magistrate Qian Liu.

If the first-in-command runs away, the second-in-command must stay and take the blame!

Otherwise, wouldn’t he, the third-in-command, be in bad luck?

But while running, Han Tong suddenly stopped again, hit himself hard on the head with the book in his hand, and cursed in a low voice: "Han Tong, Han Tong, you have read all the sages' books in vain. Well, at this time, you only want to find someone to share the responsibility with. You are really nothing.

"Hey, the county magistrate is not here, so I will go find Fairy Pei from the Zixiao sect. I hope she can be more reasonable and transfer the grain to the Heyang County government as soon as possible. If the price of grain is really driven up by those merchants and wealthy people, Get up, the consequences will be disastrous."

Although the official second-in-command in Heyang County is the county prime minister Qian Liu, he is a Beijing official who was demoted here. He is over 50 years old and does not do anything on weekdays. He only travels around and enjoys singing.

In fact, Han Tong, the chief registrar, has been acting as county magistrate.

Therefore, since he no longer planned to find someone to take the blame with him, he naturally did not go to Qian Liu.

But just when Han Tong was about to leave, he suddenly heard a voice coming from the living room, "Why are you leaving so soon, but you dislike me for not treating guests well?
"County Lord!" Han Tong was overjoyed. It turned out that the county magistrate had not run away, so he hurriedly held up the book in his hand and said, "County Lord! I have something important to report. The food in the Changping warehouse has disappeared!"

"Stop talking nonsense!" The voice came again, and said in a deep voice, "Han Tong, are you still awake? There are 10,000+ stones of grain in the Changping warehouse. How could it disappear out of thin air?"

"My lord, I have personally checked. It is indeed empty. Not even a grain of rice is gone!" Han Tong hurriedly explained, "After confirming the matter, I came to you as soon as possible. Here, I plan to report to you.”

"Is this really happening?!" Fang Qian's voice was full of astonishment, as if he was extremely shocked by this incident.

After a while, he said in a deep voice, "I'm afraid this matter cannot be concealed. The merchants in the city must be dishonest. If you temporarily take over the position of county captain, lead people to keep an eye on them. If anyone dares to drive up the price of food, go and warn them." If they don't listen, come and report to me."

"Yes, Lord County, I will definitely fulfill my mission!" Han Tong hurriedly bowed his hands and said goodbye.

……

After Han Tong left, calm returned to the living room.

Fang Qian, who now had only one arm left, sat tremblingly on the chair, looked at Lu Heng with fear in his eyes, and asked: "Gang, are you satisfied with my performance just now?"

"It's okay." Lu Heng nodded.

What Han Tong heard just now was indeed Fang Qian's voice, but it was Fang Qian who had already been controlled by him.

In fact, he originally planned to kill Fang Qian directly.But after some consideration, he still planned to let the county magistrate live for a while longer.

Otherwise, it will be very troublesome if the entire county lacks people to manage it.

When Fang Qian heard Lu Heng's comment, a glimmer of unrealistic hope suddenly ignited in his heart, and he said respectfully: "Then could you please be more generous? If my relatives are foolish enough to raise food prices for a while, I will give you a warning. Order rectification?"

"Oh?" Lu Heng laughed immediately when he heard this, shook his head and said, "Sure enough, if you act too gentle, you will be considered easy to negotiate. Don't worry, I will focus on taking care of your Fang family... I will definitely not miss anyone!"

Fang Qian's face suddenly turned pale, his whole body went limp, and he murmured: "It's over, it's over..."

……

After Han Tong left Fang Qian's house, his whole face turned red, and he felt a surge of blood in his heart.

Reporting the problem to the county magistrate this time made him feel unprecedentedly excited.

"It only took such a short time to set the tone for action." Han Tong recalled the conversation just now and felt deeply that this was so different from before.

Fang Qian was so straightforward this time. In the past, this matter would have been delayed for at least two or three days before there was any follow-up, and it would have had to be the result of his urging countless times every day.

I don’t know what happened today, but it went so smoothly.

"I always feel that something is fishy and not quite right." Han Tong had a lot of doubts in his heart, but in the end he shook his head and suppressed it, "We don't have time to think about these things now. We should supervise the merchants and wealthy families in the city. Righteousness, lest the common people..."

And just when he was thinking this, there were sudden noises from the road ahead.

Immediately afterwards, groups of people appeared on the road, dozens or hundreds of people, running after each other, pushing carts of different sizes in their hands.

There is only one destination:
A rice shop on this road - Fang's rice shop.

"Grab the rice!!"

"Go grab the rice!"

"The government is out of food!"

Everyone was shouting and running towards Fang's rice shop.

When Han Tong saw this, he immediately froze on the spot, dumbfounded, and murmured: "Are you kidding? I actually found out later than ordinary people, and I have already started grabbing rice?!"

However, after a brief shock, he quickly regained his energy and hurriedly joined the rice-grabbing army.

Since Han Tong didn't wear public clothes and didn't identify himself, he didn't attract anyone's attention and quickly rushed to the front of the team.

Of course, he is not here to buy rice.

But I came to see the price of rice.

"One thousand two hundred coins and one stone of rice?!"

Han Tong couldn't help but exclaimed when he saw the price of the rice shop. He glared at the shop owner and asked, "Who told you to set the price like this? The price of rice yesterday was only [-] cents!"

It is true that eight hundred cash per kilo of rice is already very expensive, more than twice the price of three to four hundred cash in Fengnian, but compared with the current price of one thousand two hundred cash, it actually seems very kind.

Other people who came to buy rice were frightened by the outrageous price.

Ordinary families only spend twenty or thirty thousand dollars a year at most, but now they can’t even afford a stone of rice with the same amount of money? !

"Where does all this nonsense come from?" The shopkeeper of Mipu waved his hands away and angrily shouted at Han Tong, "If you like it, buy it, if you don't, go away!"

"You are driving up the price of rice!" Han Tong took out his official badge, raised it above his head, and shouted sternly, "I am Han Tong, the chief registrar of Heyang County. I have been ordered by the county magistrate to inspect the price of grain in the city and order all shops to stop selling rice. If you drive up the price of rice, you must not raise the price maliciously!"

When the people around him heard this, they immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, there was government control, otherwise they would not be able to survive this day.

Who can afford one thousand two hundred coins and one stone of rice?

But the shopkeeper of Mipu was not afraid at all. Instead, he said to Han Tong with a sarcastic face: "That's ridiculous. Lord Fang County is our master's cousin. How could you have such an order? I think you are talking nonsense!"

"You!" Han Tong was so angry that veins popped out on his forehead, and he almost took action. At the same time, he couldn't help complaining in his heart, "I don't know what happened to the court, but you actually let Fang Qian come to your hometown to be the county magistrate. Damn it!" Ridiculous."

"Ah Er, don't be so presumptuous." At this moment, a middle-aged man who looked like a gentle man walked out of the room, shouted away the shopkeeper of Mipu, bowed his hands to everyone, and said with a smile to Han Tong, "My lord, "Sheng, I didn't know that Master Han came here, but he was greeted from afar."

"It turns out that he is the master of the house. I have admired his name for a long time." Han Tong said with cupped hands.

Fang Sheng loved painting bamboos and called himself the Zhulin Zhaizhu. People in Heyang County often called him Fangzhaizhu, and many people called him Fangzhaizhu. He was also the largest loan shark in Heyang County.

"Master Han, I speak directly, so I won't be polite." Fang Sheng still smiled and looked very gentle, but his words were full of threats, "Since Master Han feels that the price of my rice shop is unreasonable, Then we won’t sell rice today. Ah Er, get ready to close the door!”

"Wait a minute! What does the owner of the house mean?" Han Tong quickly stopped him. With so many people here waiting to buy rice for cooking, how could they suddenly stop selling it.

"It's a loss-making business, so don't do it." Fang Sheng said calmly, "One thousand two hundred yuan per stone is the price that several of our major shops have discussed together. It just barely allows us not to lose money. If it goes lower, it will be a loss. It's better to close the door. . Ah Er, see the guests off!”

"What do you mean, as long as I don't let you set the price of [-] yuan, I won't sell it?!" Han Tong was shaking with anger and said in a deep voice, "You are disobeying the government!"

"Your little chief clerk can't represent the government!" Fang Sheng sneered, "Listen up, you can't set a price of [-] yuan a day, and the rice shops in the city won't open for a day.

"By the way, it's not just my Fang family, but also the rice shops of the Wen family, Li family, and Gao family. We can't do business at a loss.

"Please come back!"

　I'm working overtime temporarily, so the update at 7 o'clock has been postponed until now. I'm sorry, but this chapter has more words~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)