The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 258 Psychological Warfare

The concubine at the side took the clothes and put them on Lu Yuanhou, and said in a low voice: "Master, if the price of food continues to rise like this, many people will starve to death..."

"Hmph, the kindness of a woman!" He rolled his eyes at the concubine, "It's just some mud legs and untouchables. In troubled times, how much is a human life worth? Besides, they will starve to death. It's because the imperial court is not effective in disaster relief..."

Lu Yuanhou came out of the dormitory, and his servants had already prepared meat porridge, rice and other breakfasts. He sat down and was about to eat, when he heard the noise of people outside the house, as if they were shouting "buy grain", "zhaoan" and so on. .

Before he could ask a question, Liu Cheng stumbled in, sweating profusely, and said, "Master, I heard that the imperial court's grain ship was moored at Zhao'an Port two days ago, carrying nearly [-] shi of grain and rice!"

The chopsticks in Lu Yuanhou's hand fell to the ground with a clatter.With 3 shi, he only has more than [-] taels of silver left in his hand, and it is impossible to buy out this batch of grain no matter what.

Lu Binchao panicked for a moment, "Father, what should I do?"

"You, you go and see the situation first." Lu Yuanhou waved his hand weakly.

A few hours later, Lu Jinchao hurried back, saying that there was a large group of grain trucks selling grain on the outskirts of the city, and the brown rice was only sold for five taels a stone.

When Lu Yuanhou heard the words, he felt a buzzing in his head. Didn't it mean that the grain in Jiangxi, Fujian, and even northern Guangdong had been bought out? Where did the court transfer tens of thousands of grains and rice?
No, Chaotang must have used some kind of blindfold.He immediately cheered himself up and said that [-] stone grains are only enough for the victims of the disaster for five or six days.I will force myself not to do business for a few days, and when his official food is exhausted, the food price will still have to be at my discretion.

Unexpectedly, in the next few days, another sea ship docked at Zhao'an, and it is said that [-] shi of grain and rice were still transported.

At the same time, in recent days, several theater troupes have appeared near Nanjing, and they set up a stage for free, attracting people to watch.Lu Yuanhou closed his shop for the past few days and did not do business, so he simply went to the opera when he had nothing to do.

As a result, when he heard this, he almost lost his soul.What happened on the stage turned out to be the recent food adjustment by the imperial court.

In the play, the price of grain in Dongfan, Luzon, Jiaozhi and other places is extremely low. The imperial court sent a large number of ships to buy it. The 70 taels of disaster relief money allocated by the imperial court was enough to buy 70 shi of grain!

After that, sea-going ships continued to call at southern Fujian ports, and the price of food became lower and lower, and finally almost approached the price of places in Southeast Asia.

After the curtain fell, the missionary officials of the imperial court asked the people not to stockpile food, and if the disaster food distributed by the government was not enough, they would go outside the city to buy some food that had just been brought back from overseas.

He also said that due to the poor sea routes recently, the price of food has been high, and the price will definitely be lower than this time last year after a while.

……

Outside Nanjing City, Lin Zunbin, Minister of the Household Department, looked at the carriages filled with grain from the port, and he couldn't help but bowed to Yang Tinglin who was standing in front of him in doubt: "Minister, I don't understand. Knowing that there will be a large amount of grain and rice arriving, why not sell the grain directly at a low price to quickly calm down the price of rice?
But it is sold at eight or nine taels per stone, and the price of grain and rice is still high..."

Yang Tinglin smiled and said, "Duke Yan, let me ask you, after we opened the warehouse to release the grain, where did all the grain and rice go?"

"Where?" Lin Zunbin was taken aback, and then said, "It must have been bought by the common people..."

Yang Tinglin shook his head slightly, "I thought the same way as you did at the beginning, but luckily His Royal Highness the Coordinating King woke me up.

"Let me tell you, since the opening of the official warehouse, a total of more than 4 stone grain rice has been sold, almost all of which have been hoarded by profiteers."

Lin Zunbin is also a smart person, and he immediately understood that these profiteers want to dominate the market, and they must not allow grain and rice sold at a lower price than their own to appear on the market.Therefore, as soon as the official food comes out, they will definitely wipe it out. "

Yang Tinglin continued: "If we open warehouses to release grain at a price of one tael or five renminbi per shi, profiteers of these 6 shi grains can buy them out for only [-] taels of silver, and then they will resell them at ten times the price and sell them to the common people.

"And this official, according to His Royal Highness's order, started from the market price and gradually lowered the price. In order to continue to dominate the market, profiteers will eat all the food.

"So we have sold more than 30 taels of silver for the [-] shi of grain we sold in the past few days. And because the market price is getting lower and lower, profiteers can only get out of it."

"But in this way, wouldn't the common people have to buy grain at a high price..."

"No." Yang Tinglin shook his head again, "How can ordinary people snatch these profiteers. I dare to say that the people in southern Fujian must be living on the disaster grain allocated to the villages by the imperial court these days, and there are very few people who buy grain.

"Although life is a bit difficult, as long as they survive this period, when the profiteers can't hold on, they will soon be able to eat and drink without any worries."

He still has some words to say, if only relying on the 80 shi of grain and rice dispatched by the imperial court from overseas, it is impossible to keep the [-] victims of the disaster until the autumn harvest.

Therefore, the food hoarded by profiteers must be forced out, so that this drought can be passed safely.

……

With the continuous publicity of the Missionary Office, all the people in southern Fujian were talking about the transportation of grain by sea boats in the court, and seeing that the price of grain was getting lower and lower, the amount of disaster relief provided by the imperial court was increasing day by day.Everyone is more and more confident in surviving the catastrophe.

On the other hand, Lu Yuanhou's life was extremely unsatisfactory.

Although he used the grain in his hand as collateral, and cooperated with several other merchants who were overlords in grain, and bought more than 6 stones of official grain at a price of about five taels per stone, Zhao'an Port has almost every day. The grain ship docked, and there was no sign of severance.

During this period of time, he listened to the drama of the Xuanjiao Mansion every day, and the missionaries also reported the amount of grain and grass that arrived in southern Fujian on the same day, ranging from 70 shi to [-] shi. Wan Shiliangmi's statement is becoming more and more believed.

At noon that day, a few profiteers who were engaged in food hegemony gathered at Lu Yuanhou's home to discuss future strategies.

As the person who stockpiled grain at most and controlled most of the grain in southern Fujian, Lu Yuanhou was the first to speak: "Needless to say more about the current situation, everyone is well aware of it.

"In a word, if Chaotang Energy keeps getting grain, no one will buy our grain at a high price. When the autumn harvest comes, the grain and rice in our storehouse may not even be able to be sold for one or two yuan per shi."

He took a long breath as he spoke, and thought to himself, if by then, the shop and real estate he bought out would no longer be related to his Lu family...

The profiteer surnamed Liu frowned and said: "It is said that the imperial court got 70 shi of grain. If it is true, even if we are killed, we will not be able to eat all of it..."

"I sent people to watch in Zhao'an every day, and indeed there were ships carrying Yi people constantly docking, unloading large bags of grain."

"To tell you the truth, I have no money left."

"I still have a hundred thousand taels here, but recently, in order to collect all the official rations, everyone has thrown in more than 30 taels. Who knows when it will be the end?"

Powerful enemies are not to be feared, but enemies that cannot be grasped are the most frightening.

After a suffocating silence, Shopkeeper Liu tentatively said, "Why don't we just stop here and sell the grain we have hoarded for five or six taels a stone, so we can still make a profit."

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(End of this chapter)