Abnormal Three Kingdoms

Chapter 363 Big Problem

"My lord, Yilang Zhao Yan sent a greeting card." In the government office, Zhou Cang handed a greeting card to Chu Nan, who was handling official business, and glanced strangely at the neatly piled desk next to Man Chong. , compared with Chen Gong and Chu Nan's bamboo slips that are just randomly classified and placed in a mess, it is simply different.

Chu Nan took the invitation, nodded after a moment of thought, "Tell him, I'll be at the residence tomorrow."

"Here!" Zhou Cang nodded, turned around and passed on the message.

"If I remember correctly, this is Zhao Yan's sixth visit, why didn't you see him before?" Chen Gong was probably tired, put down the things in his hands, looked at Chu Nan and asked.

During this period of time, not many people visited Chen Gong. Although he was a great Confucian, as Lv Bu's chief counselor, Chen Gong had a bad reputation among scholars. Of course, at the level of a great Confucian, he had a clear goal. , he will not care too much.

On the contrary, it was Chu Nan who was very popular during this time, and many people came to join him, either openly or secretly. Previously, Chu Nan directly refused. Today is Zhao Yan's sixth visit, and he is considered a relatively persistent one, but he knows that Chen Gong, who was a disciple by nature, didn't think that his disciple was moved by the other party's sincerity.

Although my disciple is laughing and joking on the surface, he has a clear division of camps in his heart, and he will not be moved by the so-called sincerity.

"At this time, there are two reasons for making friends. One is that people who are in power, seeing that I am waiting for power, come to attach themselves to me; Divide us up, now there are so many things, I don't have time to deal with them." Chu Nan said with a smile.

"Then why are we meeting again now?" Chen Gong asked with a smile.

"The Six Parts are complete now, and it's time for the court to formally establish them." Chu Nan smiled and took a sip of the bitter tea soup, and his spirit was instantly shaken.

Chen Gong nodded. The six ministries have now been established, the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Ministry of War have been established. The head of the Ministry of Industry, Liu Ye, will also come back with Lu Lingqi, and will take up his post at that time. Find someone in charge.

As for who it is, it doesn't really matter. The Ministry of Rites cannot say that it is useless. The Ministry of Rites is responsible for sacrifices, diplomacy, and some important ceremonies of the court.

But if you want to say how much right to speak or real power in the court, at least not now.

Indispensable but with little authority.

Although the six ministries were established, they still had to be helped by someone in order to pass the hurdle of the imperial court.

Now Lu Bu is in charge of Xuchang, but there are actually not many people in the court, let alone generals like Zhang Liao and Gao Shun who are outside, even if they come back to the court, it is still the domain of scholars, and they can't quarrel with others.

So right now, Chu Nan urgently needs his dog legs to help him charge in the court, and it happens that many people want to make friends with Chu Nan, no matter what the purpose is, but in the battlefield of the court, these people are very good thugs.

"It's good that Ziyan can tell the difference." Chen Gong nodded, and stopped hearing the news. Chen Gong still recognized his disciple's ability, and it was not easy to play tricks under Chu Nan's nose.

"Teacher, don't worry." Chu Nan nodded. Even if the poor family came to join him now, he had to think carefully. After all, not all the poor families were willing to stand with him, and some wanted to use the gentry to make themselves a member of the gentry. Help the gentry to push them down, it is best to never recover.

"What do you think of Ziyan's recent soaring prices in Xuchang?" Chen Gong mentioned a problem that was a headache for him. Prices are related to people's livelihood. That is.

However, according to Chen Gong's unannounced visits over the past few days, he gradually found out some clues that the soaring prices had something to do with them. The prices in Xuchang were indeed raised by the gentry, but the root cause was the mass killing of the gentry by the Xuzhou army.

Since Xuchang is the capital city, it is naturally a populous city. Xuchang’s own output alone cannot support the 100,000 people in Xuchang city. Therefore, Xuchang’s prices are more dependent on business. In the past, the local government sent the surplus output to To sell in Xuchang, the caravans organized by the gentry form countless large and small supply chains to form a stable price in Xuchang.

But in this war, the Xuzhou army began to continuously kill the gentry from all over the country with fierce methods. This is naturally beneficial in the long run, but for Xuchang right now, it directly cut off Xuchang's originally stable commercial supply chain.

Coupled with the severe drought in the Central Plains in recent years and the emergence of refugees everywhere, it has laid the foundation for the soaring prices. Now that the supply chain is broken, it is not surprising that prices are soaring.

Others are easy to say, but food prices are related to people's livelihood. If this problem is not resolved, it may directly lead to the collapse of Xuchang.

Xuzhou just finished a big battle with a scale of [-] people that lasted for several months, and now the soldiers and horses from all walks of life are still being supplied. year.

If you want to rely on Xuzhou's grain production to stabilize grain prices, you will not be able to rely on it within a year.

However, if Xuchang opens a warehouse to release grain, Xuchang's grain reserves can last up to a month, but it will not be of any use to the situation.

Refugees can be governed by means of work-for-relief, but firstly, there are not so many projects, and secondly, with Xuchang's grain reserves, it may not even be able to support them for a month.

The price problem is the fundamental problem in Xuchang right now. Maybe many gentry are waiting to see their jokes, but it is a bit unreasonable for you to directly attribute the price problem to the gentry and convict them.

Although Chu Nan killed the nobles ruthlessly, he was reasonable, and the rules he set must be followed, otherwise why should others follow them?

According to past experience, we can communicate with the gentry and negotiate to lower the price of goods, at least to lower the price of food.

But they are on the opposite side of the gentry, the gentry wish you could beg them later, how could they help you at this time?
As for the begging gentry, for the entire Lu Bu forces, it was tantamount to changing their original intentions. This time, they bowed their heads. It will not be so easy to imagine how unscrupulous they are doing to people in the future.

Even Chen Gong, a great Confucian and a top strategist, was helpless in the face of this dilemma and had to ask his disciples for advice.

Chu Nan thought about it: "Everything in this world, in the final analysis, is just a word of profit. We can encourage them to raise the price even higher."

"Huh?" Chen Gong frowned and looked at Chu Nan, while Man Chong, who had been burying his head in sorting out the new law, also looked up at Chu Nan.

"When the moon is full, there will be losses, and things will be reversed. The root cause of the high prices is that Xuchang City itself does not have enough materials. The supply exceeds demand, and those with high prices will win. This has never changed. Raising prices is the first step." Chu Nan saw The teacher is dissatisfied, and it is not easy to keep it up, explained.

"Oh?" Chen Gong looked at Chu Nan and said, "So Ziyan wants to take advantage of the high prices to get supplies from all over the place, so that the supplies will become abundant?"

"Teacher is wise!" Chu Nan said with a smile: "So the second step is to use all means to spread the news, so that merchants in the entire Central Plains and even the world will see business opportunities, attract them, and let a large amount of supplies be introduced to Xuchang. .”

"But what should they do if they don't want to lower the price?" Man Chong asked his own doubts. The abundance of supplies does not mean that they are willing to sell at a lower price. After all, they are selling at a high price.

"Open the warehouse to release the grain." Chu Nan said with a smile: "I thought they would be willing to lower the price at that time."

Chen Gong: "..."

Man Chong: "..."

For a while, the two of them suddenly couldn't find any words to express their current mood, this is too dark!
"If they still don't want to lower the price, what if they bring the supplies back?" Man Chong asked.

"The transportation of food and grass consumes more, and it may rot on the way, and they will lose everything!" Chu Nan explained with a smile: "I don't deny that there will be such people who would rather waste food than reduce the price, but I believe it will be a minority. Once the government office opens warehouses to release grain, it will also be the day when the two companies will plummet. This is the third step, and we have reasonable reasons. The price is too high and the people can’t support it. We can only open No one can say anything about releasing grain in warehouses to stabilize people's hearts." Chu Nan said with a smile: "And we can negotiate with these people to set a more reasonable price, we stop opening warehouses to release grain, so that they can sell the grain. "

"Don't continue to suppress?" Chen Gong had already sorted out Chu Nan's thoughts, and looked at him with a smile.

"Leave a line of life and give people a way to survive. Others are willing to cooperate with us. Take this opportunity to find suitable people and give them some preferential treatment so that they can start a business here. You can give them a piece of land at a low price or even free, so that they can establish Create a new supply chain, and at the same time recruit refugees to build their houses." Chu Nan laughed.

In this way, the problem of refugees being unable to be resettled can also be properly dealt with. In fact, these traders or wealthy families in various places are not considered a loss, but they have not made a lot of money.

However, Xuchang’s economic crisis has been resolved this time, and it can be used to become famous and lay the foundation of Lv Bu’s power in Xuchang. It fell completely into their hands.

Just when the six departments were launched, Chu Nan was the head of the household department, managing money and taxes, and his foundation was completely consolidated.

"The way of merchants, unexpectedly, has such a profound usage. Ziyan is applying the art of war to business affairs." Chen Gong said with a satisfied smile.

"All laws in the world come to the same goal by different routes." Chu Nan said modestly.

The problem that has troubled Chen Gong for many days has a way of solving the problem. Although it is impossible to solve it all at once, with this way of thinking, it is not difficult to solve the problem.

While the master and the apprentice were discussing some details of this method, and Man Chong was immersed in the copybook again, he saw Zhou Cang walking in quickly.

"My lord, something happened." Zhou Cang saluted Chu Nan with a serious expression.

"What's the matter?" Chu Nan asked.

"Mr. Cheng Zhongde, hanged himself in the prison today!" Zhou Cang said in a deep voice.

Man Chong's writing pen stopped suddenly, and he looked at Zhou Cang...

　Everyone must have had a good time last night. I believe I didn’t get up early this morning. In order not to disturb everyone, I deliberately posted more than an hour late
　　
　
(End of this chapter)