Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 457
Food is the most important thing for the people, and the problem of food for the people is not only the most concerned by the rulers of all dynasties, but also the top priority of the people's homes.

So when hundreds of yamen servants went door-to-door to tell Zhang’s Grain Shop that rice was only sold at the price of [-] Wen a Dou, the people in the city were all excited. As far as ordinary people living their lives are concerned, the half-cheap price still drives countless ordinary people crazy.

All households mobilized, carrying grain bags and baskets to the Zhang's grain shops scattered throughout the city. Hundreds of thousands of people were mobilized, and there was a grand flow of people in Songcheng County, which can only be seen during the Lantern Festival.

The main store of Zhang's Grain Store is located on Songzhou Street. It is a large store covering an area of ​​nearly ten acres. The store's facade is at least three feet away, with a long row of counters and a huge picture hanging above the store. There is only one line of big characters on the signboard: "Twenty Wen for Dou Mi, and each person is limited to five Dou." '

At this time, there was a huge crowd in front of the grain store, and thousands of people crowded in front of the store carrying baskets and pockets, making a lot of noise and noise. A soldier who was originally in charge of protecting the store was also forced to maintain order instead. They spent a lot of time With the power of a tiger, the overcrowded crowd was divided into twelve teams, each team was hundreds of paces away, and there was a steady stream of rice-buying people coming from all directions.

Although the shop is limited to only five buckets of rice per person, the wisdom of the people is infinite. After buying five buckets of rice, many people hand over the rice bags to the wives and children to guard them. They put their clothes on backwards and go to another queue. up.

Or father and son, brothers, wives and children go to battle together, each team has one person, and it is guaranteed that you can buy a few stones of rice at a time.

A dozen or so steps away from the team, dozens of people from other grain stores were protesting with banners. They were stared at by soldiers, and no one dared to approach the grain store, so they could only shout slogans from behind.

"The profiteers get out of Ying Tian Mansion!"

"Disturb the market, you will die!"

The shouts one after another had no effect. People queuing up to buy rice stretched their necks and looked at the shop. Everyone was anxious, and no one would pay attention to the protesters.

Market competition is like this, as long as the common people want benefits, you can't get benefits, and it doesn't make sense to shout more slogans.

Behind the rice shop counter is a small two-story building. At this time, Zhang Xing is standing by the window with his arms folded in front of his chest. With a joking look.

Originally, the price reduction measures that had to be taken just to save the flow of people had received unexpected results, making him realize the benefits of price reduction. In the past, he relied on power to monopolize the market, but now even if Yang Du is drained, he can still monopolize food. In the market, his price cuts are enough to squeeze out all competitors.

This is to see whose capital is thick, and who can compare with the Zhang family's capital?

In fact, he sold Doumi for [-] cents just to protect his capital, and the loss was not too big. If his opponent dared to follow, he would drop it to [-] cents for Doumi.
A senior manager was a little worried, stepped forward and said cautiously: "Yamei, the grain store will lose too much in this way, why don't we end it in three days!"

Zhang Xing turned his head and gave the chief steward a hard look, "Who dares to end it? If we don't completely monopolize the Yingtianfu market, the price reduction will never end."

Another steward said: "I heard that the county government is still promoting it for us everywhere, encouraging people to come to us to buy rice, and wants us to suffer heavy losses."

Zhang Xing snorted, "He gave us free publicity, I wish for it, they underestimate the Zhang family, this little loss, my Zhang family will not take it to heart."

"Yanei, aren't we planning to go back today? Should we go or not?"

Zhang Xing chuckled, "Wait for two more days, it won't be too late to leave after the general situation is settled!"

He remembered something again, and said to his followers: "Go to Zhao Qian's place and bring me a message, saying that I understand his loyalty very well, and I will definitely speak well for him with my uncle!"

The seventeen Zhang's Grain Shops in Songcheng County are scattered all over the city, and each shop must face the river to facilitate grain transportation. The general granary of Zhang's Grain Shop is located at the Grain Wharf, which is a large warehouse covering an area of ​​[-] mu.

The boom in grain sales made the warehouse extremely busy, with folkmen constantly coming in and out, loading bags of grain onto boats and transporting them to various parts of the city.

Zhu Long was a little dumbfounded when he was dozens of steps away from the granary. The rice he transported away was filled with sacks, so how could they mix sand into it?
You must know that the mouth of the sack is sewn up, and there is no way to mix sand into it.

"Why don't we set fire to the warehouse!" Zhu Hu whispered.

"Nonsense!" Zhu Long glared at him, "If the plan is well thought out by the officials, report it if it doesn't work. We can't change the plan randomly."

At this moment, Zhu Bao, who had sneaked in among the civilian husbands, absconded and whispered to the crowd: "There are bulk grains, and there are a lot of them!"

Zhu Long lifted his spirits, "Is it all in the granary?"

"It's all in the back. There are grain bags in the front, and dozens of large buckets in the back. There are bulk grains in them, accounting for at least half of them. There are labels on them, which are loose grains from the Zhao family in Gushu County."

Zhu Long was overjoyed, and asked again: "Then can I sneak in from the back window?"

Zhu Bao said with a smile: "There is indeed a window in the back, which is locked, you wait behind, and I will sneak in from the front and open the window for you!"

The four acted separately, Zhu Bao mixed into the peasant team again, Zhu Long led Zhu Hu and Zhu Ying to the back of the granary, they prepared dozens of bags of sand and placed them neatly under the wall.

Not long after, the window one foot above the head 'click! With a sound, a crack opened slowly. Zhu Ying was the best in lightness kung fu among the four. He jumped up lightly, climbed up the window, rode on the window, passed bags of sand in, and finally put Zhu Long and Zhu Hu also pulled into the window.

The next day, the rice rush in Yingtianfu remained unabated. Seeing that the situation had stabilized, Zhang Xing was eager to rush back to the capital, so he asked Zhao Qian to continue to protect Zhang's grain shop, and he himself returned to the capital by boat.

At the same time Zhang Xing arrived in the capital, Prime Minister Han Qi presented a secret report to Emperor Zhao Zhen.

The more Zhao Zhen looked at it, the more serious his face became, and finally there was a look of shock and anger on his face, "Is this true?"

"Your Majesty, the content is absolutely true. The magistrate of Gushu County reported it. Liu Jiansi of Zuo Jianyuan personally led a team to Gushu County to conduct a secret investigation. They obtained a lot of facts. They brought back investigation materials that were half a foot thick. If Your Majesty If needed, Weichen can provide it at any time."

"It's just ridiculous!"

Zhao Zhen slapped the table heavily, furiously said: "The ancestral hall surpasses the Guide Hall, so I can bear it, but occupying tens of thousands of hectares of fertile land, and not paying a single tax for 70 years, who gave them the power? What to maintain?"

Zhao Zhen was so angry that his chest was about to explode. He paced back and forth in the imperial study with his hands behind his back, and even dared to raise a private army of thousands of people. This is a rebellion!
Han Qi said calmly: "Zhao Qian has [-] troops in his hands, we can't push him into a hurry, I suggest that he be secretly arrested and sent to the capital, or find an excuse to lure him to the capital first, and then His Majesty will interrogate him."

Zhao Zhen calmed down slowly and asked, "What about Xianggong's suggestion?"

"Weichen is worried that someone will inform Zhao Qian soon, and Weichen suggests using flying pigeons to send the message, so that Fan Ning will secretly arrest Zhao Qian and go to Beijing."

"Will someone tip off the news?" Zhao Zhen asked Han Qi with a glance.

"There will be!" Han Qi nodded affirmatively.

"Weichen's suggestion can minimize the risk."

Zhao Zhen pondered for a moment, and finally nodded. He returned to the imperial case and wrote a note, stamped his private seal, and handed it to Han Qi, "Use a flying pigeon to send a message, and pass this to Fan Ning!"

At the same time, he took out a gold medal for mobilizing troops from all over the world, and handed it to Han Qi, "Send someone to Yingtian Mansion as quickly as possible, and hand over this gold medal for mobilizing troops to Fan Ning. I have appointed him to temporarily act as a comforter."

"The minister obeys the order!"

Han Qi took the note, bowed and bowed before leaving.

Zhao Zhen continued to read the secret report of Zuo Jianyuan. He remembered that the Zhao family applied to him to build an ancestral hall many years ago. It turned out that he was deceiving himself.

(End of this chapter)