Imperial County Magistrate

Chapter 382 Closing
As Zhao Kang expected, those small grain merchants who only carried goods ranging from a few hundred kilograms to several thousand kilograms saw the weather getting worse and worse.

Moreover, food was not as easy to buy as expected, and everyone was murmuring in their hearts.

How is this different from what you said before?
Under such circumstances, when they heard the news that the government was now collecting grain, these small grain merchants did not want to waste any more and sold the grain to the government for thirteen cents per catty.

Every account was recorded in the books, and the grain was sent to the temporary granaries established by the governments in various places. It was often put into the warehouse a moment ago and had to be distributed later.

At the same time, Zhao Kang also asked the government officials to purchase wheat and rice seeds.

The scope of the locust plague in Qingzhou this time is too large.

All the crops have been eaten up. If there are no seeds next year, the people will still be hungry.

In this way, people from the government collect grain from small grain merchants every day, and the price fluctuation is very small.

Today it is thirteen, tomorrow it is fourteen, and the day after tomorrow it will be reduced to thirteen, as if it is a deliberate disaster to tease these grain merchants.

Do you sell it or not?

If I don’t sell it now, I’m afraid it won’t be at this price tomorrow!
After doing this several times, some merchants with poor psychological endurance could only sell the food in a depressed mood, but secretly cursed that false information was harmful to people.

But the most uncomfortable thing was the grain merchants gathered in Qingzhou City.

As the hub center of Qingzhou, Qingzhou City has a population of more than [-] and covers an extremely large area.

On weekdays, there is no such thing as congestion, but these days, even if the autumn rain does not stop, the streets are still crowded with people.

As soon as you look up, you can see a large group of out-of-towners gathering together to ask if there is anywhere to collect food today.

How many people came from who's house? Let me scold you a few more times.

"Damn it, who said Qingzhou's grain is easy to sell! You can easily sell it for thirty or forty! Thirteen or four is about the same!"

In a restaurant.

Several well-dressed middle-aged men gathered at a table. They were the ones who brought the most grain among the foreign grain merchants.

Almost every family is worth more than ten thousand stones, and grain trucks are distributed all over Qingzhou.

One person frowned, glanced at the continuous rain outside, and said worriedly: "If the rain continues like this, our wheat might get wet and sprout!"

"No! This damn southern climate is so annoying. I mean, we can't keep doing this, right?"

One person was holding up a cigarette pole and smacking his lips: "But there are still many people rushing to Qingzhou like crazy. Today the government has offered [-], so why don't we just sell it."

"Isn't that a trip in vain?" one person said angrily.

The man holding the cigarette pole blew out white smoke and turned over the smoke: "Run in vain? In a few days, I'm afraid it won't be in vain but I'll lose all my pants!"

"I've spent hundreds of taels of money on food, drink, and housing for people down here these days."

"Coupled with this damn weather and those people who are rushing here, I estimate that there will be nothing in Qingzhou except food for five or six days at most!"

"It's really fucking evil!"

One person cursed, stood up and said: "Okay, okay, I won't hold it in with you anymore, I'll go find the people who collect the grain from the government. Just treat this trip as a sightseeing tour!"

Immediately, three or four people who were also frustrated left the restaurant and went to find the people who collected food from the government.

Qinyang Mashan has not been idle these two days. He really can't sleep well. Every day he sends people to the city to find out information, or he sends people to Wu's house in the hope of meeting Zhao Kang.Zhao Kang naturally understood what they were thinking, but he just didn't see it.

Finally, on this day, they couldn't hold it in anymore, and together with several foreign businessmen who transported the most grain, they came to Wu's house with gifts.

After listening to Wu Xinyi's words, Zhao Kang tutted: "Hey, everyone is here."

"How about I send them away?" Wu Xinyi said with a smile.

Now that the situation has been completely controlled by Zhao Kang, there is nothing to worry about.

"No, it's almost time to finish."

Zhao Kang laughed and asked Wu Xinyi to take the person to the lobby. He changed his clothes and then came.

"Mr. Zhao!"

As soon as they saw Zhao Kang, Qin Yang and Ma Shan couldn't sit still and stood up in a hurry.

"Everyone is sitting down, it's really cold today."

Zhao Kang pressed his hand and asked the grain merchants in the field to sit down and talk. After taking a sip of tea, he pretended to say: "Everyone, you are so anxious to see me. What's the big deal?"

Everyone looked at each other, but Qin Yang finally said bravely: "Mr. Zhao, I don't know if the government has any plans to collect grain recently. We all want to sell the grain we have."

"Collect it, isn't it being collected all the time?" Zhao Kang looked playful.

Ma Shan said thoughtfully: "Mr. Zhao, we all have a lot of food on hand. I don't know what price the government can give. If you don't reveal it, we will trade it if the price is right!"

Just waiting for you to ask.

Zhao Kang immediately let out a long sigh: "Brother Ma, I also know what you are thinking. I haven't seen you behind closed doors these days. It's not that I don't want to help you. It's actually because I am powerless!"

"Mr. Zhao, if you say it, we will all listen." Qin Yang said quickly.

Zhao Kang held his sleeves and said quietly: "First of all, the government must collect grain, but I'm afraid it won't collect grain from Brother Ma and Brother Qin!"

Qin Yang and Mashan were immediately confused and quickly asked: "What does Mr. Zhao mean by this!"

Why do you say you won’t collect our food?
Zhao Kang snorted coldly: "You are still asking me? Are you really thinking that the disaster relief ministers from the imperial court are blind!"

"Yes, you are businessmen. The pricing of sales and purchases is your own business and no one can control it. But it doesn't mean that the court ministers have no objections to this!"

"The price of food was so high some time ago. You won't say it has nothing to do with you, right?"

The expressions of Qin Yang and Mashan suddenly became extremely embarrassed.

At this time, Zhao Kang said mysteriously: "And you two, as far as the latest news I got, Mr. Qi Yunshan, the leader of the disaster relief ministers, has already drawn up a list."

"What is written above is all about the grain merchants from all over Qingzhou during this period. Those who participated in driving up the price of grain and sold and bought grain at high prices are all on it!"

"It is said that after the disaster is alleviated, this list will be handed over to His Majesty. The descendants of the families of those whose names are recorded will not be allowed to participate in the imperial examination for 20 years. It is said that these officials are stingy Woolen cloth."

"This is because I have a grudge against you! If this really happens, I guess there won't be any great people in Qingzhou in the next 20 years!"

Qin Yang and Ma Shan's eyes widened, and this happened!The other grain merchants from other places were also a little surprised.

(End of this chapter)