Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 183, sky-high food

"The Duke of England is a famous old fox, of course he is smart."

Emperor Hongzhi smiled and said: "If it weren't for him, we might not have been able to raise enough money and food for disaster relief this time. Now not only have millions of taels of silver for disaster relief, but we have also raised [-] dans of food. It finally went through smoothly.”

"Father, your thinking is too simple."

Zhu Houzhao glanced at Emperor Hongzhi, curled his lips and said, "This time they have been calculating for a long time, how could they pay attention to this mere million taels of silver?"

"Didn't I say it before, this time they are actually coming for us father and son, for our royal family, not to take all the money in our hands, and take away our property , They will never let it go."

"Right now, father, you just took out five hundred thousand taels of silver, which is only one-fifth of your internal money, and you have two million taels of silver left in your internal money, and my private money has not been touched at all. How could they stop here?"

Hearing Zhu Houzhao's words, Emperor Hongzhi's face darkened, and after thinking about it, he nodded and agreed with Zhu Houzhao's statement.

Emperor Hongzhi thought for a while and asked, "Then what will they do next?"

"It's very simple, create a phenomenon of extremely scarce food, and then drive up the price of food until the price of food is raised to a sky-high price. At that time, the millions of taels of silver raised will not be able to buy much food at all, and then they will Write a letter again to ask Father, you can use the money to buy food."

Zhu Houzhao said almost without thinking.

"If they really want to do this, then I really can't blame me this time."

A cold light flashed in Emperor Hongzhi's eyes, and then he thought for a while and said, "Let Liu Jin here in Tianjin get ready as soon as possible."

"Yes."

When Zhu Houzhao heard this, he became even more excited immediately. At this time, he felt as if he was marching and fighting a war, but the battle between the two sides was not soldiers, but money and food. Now it depends on who has the money and food in their hands. Whoever holds the key to this victory.

Things were just as Zhu Houzhao expected.

On the same day, in Beijing city, rice was still sold for fifty-five yuan a catty in the morning, but in the afternoon, it was like riding a rocket. The price of a catty of grain rose to one hundred and fifty yuan a catty. Only ten catties of grain can be bought.

What's even more exaggerated is that these grain merchants have also imposed purchase restrictions. Even if they are rich, each person can only buy a maximum of two catties of grain at a time, and a store can only sell a maximum of one thousand catties a day, creating a shortage of grain. How much stock looks like.

Originally, due to the famine, the price of food has risen again and again. The original price has risen to more than [-] yuan, and now it has risen to [-] yuan all of a sudden, and it seems that there is no food to sell at all. The entire capital city suddenly became turbulent.

After all, food is the foundation of everything. As long as people are alive, they must eat and drink. If food is not stable, people's hearts will naturally be unstable. Food prices have risen to sky-high prices, and the famine has spread from outside the city to the capital.

One hundred and fifty yuan a catty of grain, even here in the capital, everyone is still shouting that they can't afford it. You must know that in this era, it is not bad for a young and strong labor force to earn forty or fifty yuan a day. Adults can't earn a catty of grain a day, so one can imagine how high the price of this grain has risen.

In the entire capital city, people's grievances boiled over. Countless people who couldn't eat or buy food began to gather to put pressure on the government, asking the government to severely punish these profiteers who made a fortune in the country, and open warehouses to release food as soon as possible to help the victims.

The news naturally spread to the court very quickly.

"what?"

"The food has increased to one hundred and fifty Wen a catty?"

On the morning of the next day, when the Minister of the Household Department, Zhou Jing, announced the latest grain prices, Emperor Hongzhi was shocked, with an unbelievable expression on his face.

"Didn't it only cost over fifty cash a catty yesterday?"

"To be precise, it was still fifty-five yuan a catty yesterday morning, and the price of grain rose to one hundred and fifty yuan a catty yesterday afternoon."

Zhou Jing said helplessly that he had sent someone to contact the grain merchant yesterday to discuss the purchase of grain. When he heard the price quoted by the grain merchant, he was also shocked.

These unscrupulous grains sell for one hundred and fifty yuan per catty, and there is no room for negotiation at this price. Everyone keeps saying that food is scarce now, and there is not much grain in their hands, so even if it is sold, it is still There is no way to sell too much to the court at once.

"One hundred and fifty jin of grain, one tael of silver can only buy ten catties of grain, and the one million taels of silver donated by everyone can only buy ten million catties of grain."

"The three provinces of Beizhili, Shanxi, and Shandong have a total population of almost [-] million. That is to say, the donated money is only enough to buy a catty of food for each of the disaster victims in the three provinces?"

Hong Zhi simply calculated the number with his fingers. The one million taels of silver seemed a lot, but it was only enough to buy a catty of grain for each of the victims.

How long can this catty of grain last?
Even if all the porridge is used to cook, even if everything is good for a day, just lie down and drink porridge to hang your life, this catty of grain will not last for a few days.

"Yes, Your Majesty, one million taels of silver won't last long at all, but the food mobilized from the south will take about a month, so we need more silver taels to buy food."

"I implore Your Majesty to use more silver from the internal funds to buy food and relieve the victims."

Zhou Jing nodded, and habitually acted as a pig's skin, preparing to pick up some money from Emperor Hongzhi's internal funds.

"Zhou Jing, is my money used to help the victims? Or to help those grain merchants?"

Hearing Zhou Jing's words, Emperor Hongzhi immediately stood up, staring at Zhou Jing with extreme anger.

At this time, what he, the Minister of the Ministry of Households, was not thinking about the price of grain being too expensive, whether these grain merchants should be severely punished, but instead focused on his own money again, how could Emperor Hongzhi not be angry, no matter how good he was Temper is also limited.

"Chen Chen also knows that the price of this food is ridiculously high, but now food is scarce, no matter how expensive the price is, we still have to buy it. The people outside Beijing are starved to death, and the victims are all barking for food."

Zhou Jing fell to his knees all of a sudden, and replied in fear, cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

"good very good."

Emperor Hongzhi laughed angrily, and then asked, "Zhou Jing, the one million taels of silver haven't been used yet?"

"No, because the price of grain has skyrocketed, I think it is too expensive, and the major grain merchants say that grain is scarce, and there is not much grain in hand, so I haven't spent it yet."

When Zhou Jing heard this, he quickly replied.

"It's fine if you don't spend it."

Emperor Hongzhi nodded, then smiled and said: "The price of this grain is too expensive, one hundred and fifty Wen a catty, one million taels of silver can't buy much grain."

"However, I have heard that in Tianjin, the price of this meat is only one penny per catty. I see Zhou Jing, you can go to Tianjin to have a look. We might as well stop buying grain and buy meat instead. "

　If rice now costs more than 100 catties, how many catties of rice can everyone earn a day?
　　
　
(End of this chapter)