The heavens start from saving Daming

Chapter 494 Li Sanlang has resisted everything by himself

"Have you heard?"

In the villages in Lantian County, the villagers gathered to talk about things.

"The emperor wants to buy the grain in our hands, and it costs six cents per bucket of rice."

"What is enough money for this, it's better to keep it."

"That is, don't say that there is no food in the house, even if there is, it will not be sold."

As the imperial court promoted the peace purchase law and the news that it was preparing to buy grain at a high price came out, the attention of all parties was concentrated.

It's just that the vast majority of people scoff at the price offered by the imperial court, six cents for a bucket of rice, just to send beggars.

For several days in a row, the food purchasing team hardly received any food.

In desperation, the prince who was in charge of promoting the Hebu method had no choice but to go to the palace to report to the emperor, hoping to raise the price of grain, otherwise no one would sell grain at all.

The emperor agreed to the prince's request very intimately, and even allowed the prince to increase the price of grain purchases to the highest level of ten coins per bucket of rice.

It's just that the emperor had specially taken care of him and ordered that he was absolutely not allowed to give the prince any extra goods, and at the same time he had to buy a full 500 million hu of grain.

For Li Sanlang, this is a disguised form to increase the difficulty for Li Yunze, directly doubling the difficulty.

As for Li Yunze, when he walked out of Daming Palace, there was a mocking smile on the corner of his mouth, "This is the famous Li Sanlang? Is this his ability?"

When the purchase price of grain increased to ten cents per bucket of rice, many people in Guanzhong villages were moved.

Ten coins for a bucket of rice is not too little.

After all, the Guanzhong area is still a grain-producing area at this time, and when the autumn harvest is approaching, it is also a good thing to see that new grain is coming down, and there are old grains at home to sell for money.

Many villages began to produce grain, and Li Yunze's acquisition finally saw income.

It's just that the big households who really hold a large amount of rice grains sneer at this price.

Because they have more or less heard the rumors and know that the prince is under a lot of pressure this time, and a mere ten pennies of rice is far from reaching their psychological bottom line.

At the same time, another piece of news began to spread secretly.

It is said that a group of people from the prince's mansion secretly sold the grain purchased by the prince, and the price was cheap.

It's just that they don't do retail business, and at least they have to buy more than ten thousand stones before they are willing to sell at the price of eight cents for a bucket of rice.

After investigation, the big households learned that this was actually true.

Not surprisingly, big households rushed to buy cheap rice grains.

This is simply a costless transaction. Now that you buy it and sell it back to the prince, you can earn a handling fee of two cents for Doumi. Is there anything easier to make money than this in the world?

However, Li Yunze is well aware of the greed of human nature, and he clearly knows that these big families will not make a move right now.

Sure enough, except for a very small number of people who are earning the transfer money, most of the big households are frantically buying and hoarding grain, and they are going to talk to Prince Haosheng about the grain price issue when the prince's mountain is exhausted.

Among other things, at least the price had to be raised to the level of [-] cents per bucket of rice before they were willing to sell grain to the prince.

In the days that followed, an extremely strange scene occurred in the Guanzhong area.

On the one hand, the people of the Prince's Mansion bought surplus grain from the common people at the price of ten coins per bucket of rice.

On the other hand, it was the big households who bought grain from the prince at the price of eight coins for a bucket of rice.

The common people sold out their surplus grain and happily waited for the autumn harvest.

But those big households who bought Wanshi's grain at every turn were very puzzled, how could the Prince's Mansion not be able to buy enough grain?
As the autumn harvest is approaching, the prince is already stubborn and refuses to raise the price to buy.

And the ruthless big households are constantly raising money and vowing to buy up all the prince's food, and then double it and sell it back.

In this wave of weird operations, only a very small number of people made a fortune secretly.

Li Linfu, Niu Xianke, Gao Lishi, Bian Lingcheng and others made their fortunes quietly and secretly. They bought grain at a low price and immediately sold it back at a high price, earning a difference of two cents for a bucket of rice.

It was precisely because of this that these people who could speak in front of Li Sanlang all cooperated with each other very tacitly to prevent Li Sanlang from knowing the truth of the matter.

According to Li Sanlang's news, the big households were always reluctant to sell, and it was difficult for the crown prince to buy grain.

In this regard, Li Sanlang is often happy from ear to ear.

As for the failure of the reconciliation and purchase method, which would lead to people continuing to starve to death, he didn't take it to heart at all.

As the autumn harvest approached a little bit, the big households also realized something was wrong.

The most important point is that they spent countless goods and bought a mountain of grain, but the grain in the crown prince's hand was like a bottomless pit, no matter how much they bought it, they couldn't buy it all.

When more and more wealthy households stopped buying grain due to doubts and sold grain at the price of ten coins per bucket of rice, the Prince's Mansion immediately announced the news.

"The five hundred Wenhu rice grains required for this peace purchase method have all been purchased, and the purchase of grains is over!"

As soon as the news came out, the whole Guanzhong was boiling.

The big households were all exclaiming that this was impossible, since the prince had been selling grain all the time, and the grain bought by these big households was piling up like a mountain.

Where did the prince get the rice grain of 500 million hu?
However, the prime minister took the household department to personally check, and confirmed that the prince had indeed handed over 500 million hu of rice grain.

Not only the big households were dumbfounded, but Li Sanlang was also full of disbelief.

"This is impossible!"

Angry Li Sanlang ordered Gao Lishi and others to check the household department to see if it was the household department that gave the prince extra money to buy food.

However, the result of the strict investigation was that the Ministry of Household Affairs did not give any extra money.

Li Sanlang didn't believe it, he didn't believe that Li Yunze could complete the reconciliation under such circumstances, so he ordered Gao Lishi and others to investigate clearly.

However, the big households here approached Li Sanlang directly.

The reason is simple, the autumn harvest has begun.

The weather in Guanzhong this year can be regarded as good weather, and the output forecast for the autumn harvest is not low, which means that food prices will inevitably fall.

And these big households hold a huge amount of grain in their hands, and they can't sell it at all right now, especially the grain purchased from Li Yunze at the price of eight cents a bucket, which made many big households throw all their goods into it. .

In the jargon, it is smashed in the hand.

Where are these big households able to endure losses? Of course, at this time, they must ask the emperor to come forward to recover their losses.

There were only two demands from them. One was for the crown prince to buy the rice from them at a price of at least ten fen per bucket of rice.

There is another one, that is, the implementation of the Harmony Buying Law does not allow the government to release grain.

From a normal person's point of view, these demands are simply wishful thinking, which completely violates conscience and morality.

But from Li Sanlang's point of view, those who come to intercede are all relatives of the emperor, ministers, powerful officials, and nobles.

These are the cornerstones of his rule over Datang, and he cannot do things that harm the interests of so many people.

However, when Li Sanlang was thinking about how to make Li Yunze take the blame, Li Yunze directly took the blame.

Rumors began to spread inside and outside Chang'an City, saying that His Majesty strongly advocated the law of purchasing and ordering the prince to buy grain, and the government would sell the grain directly at the price of five cents per bucket of rice!
As soon as the news came out, the city of Chang'an suddenly burst into cheers. Many people ran to the Daming Palace and shouted long live. Even the supervisors of the Guozijian wrote a letter praising Li Sanlang as Yao, Shunyu Tang, and the rebirth of Mingjun!

After the public opinion fermented, Li Sanlang was directly forced to a dead end.

On the one hand, the interests of the rich and powerful were damaged, forcing him to help recover the loss.

On the other side, there is persecution from the people. The news has already spread. If he repents, the damage to his reputation will be too great.

When he was in a dilemma, Bian Lingcheng took the initiative to offer a plan, "Your Majesty, you can order the prince to do this. The reputation belongs to your majesty. It is the prince who colluded with grain merchants against your majesty's orders."

Li Sanlang's eyes lit up immediately, and he nodded with satisfaction, "Okay, you go to announce the decree."

Excited, Bian Lingcheng ran to the East Palace, and then came back.

"Your Majesty, it's not good, the prince is ill."

"Ill? Ill at this time?!"

"Yes." Bian Lingcheng said with some trepidation, "The imperial doctor said it was caused by overwork, and he must stay in bed to recuperate."

"Heh~~~"

Li Sanlang laughed angrily, this bastard is playing with me? !

Angry Li Sanlang called Li Linfu and Niu Xianke over again.

It's a pity that these two prime ministers are slippery loaches, how could they be willing to take such a terrible blame for the emperor?

If you really memorize it, your house will be set on fire by the angry people tomorrow.

After being busy for a while, in the end, Li Sanlang could only carry everything by himself.

It is impossible to directly ask the imperial court to pay for the grain bought at high prices by the big households who were cheated.

Not to mention that the courtiers disagreed, Li Sanlang himself did not agree.

In this case, it can only be the poor people.

Li Sanlang refused to order the imperial government to sell grain directly, acquiescing to grain merchants to sell grain at high prices on the black market.

Moreover, the people in the villages outside the city were prohibited from transporting grain to the city for sale.

As soon as the news came out, there was another uproar in Chang'an City.

Although Li Sanlang did it very covertly, he tried his best to let go of himself.

It is a pity that under the guidance and instigation of caring people, all the truths have been revealed to the world.

Although Datang is an agricultural society, there are quite a few people in the city.

For example, here in Chang'an City, the population in the city is close to 200 million at this time.

Most of these people do not have their own fields and can only support their families by working.

But at this time, the harvest is obviously bumper, and it is obvious that the court has a lot of food, but they just can't buy it!
The impatient grain store didn't even do superficial work, and just sold grain at a high price, and the price continued to rise.

There is a family surnamed Wang in the city of Chang’an. The male lead is working outside to make money. When he went out this morning, the food price was still 35 yuan per bucket of rice, but when he went back home after a busy day to buy food, the price had already increased. Dou Mi [-] Wen.

The male lead, who was short of a few pennies and couldn't afford food, thought of the hungry children at home, so he threw himself into Yong'an Canal in a rage.

As soon as this incident happened, the entire city of Chang'an was erupted.

During the time when Yuan Taotian was named, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, who was ill in bed, came out with his sick body, and led the people in the East Palace to set up porridge shops in various places in the city to release food and relief for the people.

For a while, the diametrically opposed attitudes of the emperor and the prince towards the common people made countless people sigh with emotion.

　PS: Thanks to the book friend Dalun Mingwang for his 100-point reward and support, I am very grateful, thank you!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)