Thief Emperor

Chapter 205 A historic encounter!

In the past, Yuezhou City had one set of accounts, and all expenditures and income were handled from one account. But now, with a new superior in Yuezhou, it is not easy to do so.

After all, a lot of the money Li Yun got was from shady sources. Envoy Du worked so hard, who knew if he would suddenly hold on to it. If things really got out of hand and they fell out, there would most likely be bloodshed.

Liu Bo's decision to go out and do business was made a year ago, but it was only a temporary assignment, and in the future Liu Bo would have to return to work for Li Yun.

In this era, the status and role of merchants are not high. Liu Bo has very good abilities, but it would be a waste of his talent to only use him for traveling business. In the future, when Li Yun's territory expands, he can let Liu Bo be responsible for some state-run businesses.

"Lao Jiu."

Before Liu Bo left, Li Yun stopped him and told him, "Don't go too far this time. Just go to Jiangdong. But there is one thing you need to pay attention to."

Liu Bo quickly said, "Second brother, you speak."

"It would be great if we could get news from the outside world. If we can't, it doesn't matter. But you have to keep an eye on the grain prices in Jiangdong for me. It would be best if you could send someone to bring me news every few days."

Two years ago, that is, before a series of events occurred, the price of a dou of rice in Xuanzhou was only forty or fifty coins. A dou of rice was about twelve catties, which means that a catty of grain cost only about four coins.

After the Shidai Rebellion in Xuanzhou, grain prices began to rise. At that time, a dou of rice cost sixty or seventy coins. After the Yuezhou Rebellion broke out, grain prices rose again.

Nowadays, the price of rice in Yuezhou has exceeded one hundred coins for a dou of rice.

In other words, one stone of grain now costs almost one guan of money.

This is a price that has not been seen in the Great Zhou Dynasty for decades, and it is also a price unique to times of chaos.

This is because Jiangdong was not greatly affected by the chaos in the Central Plains. Although Li Yun did not know the exact grain prices in the prefectures and counties of the Central Plains, he thought that the grain prices in the prefectures and counties of the Central Plains might have reached an exaggerated level.

No matter in which era, if you want to govern a place well, the most important thing is the word "stability". Therefore, maintaining stability is the most important thing for those in power.

If we want to maintain stability, food prices cannot be too exaggerated, so that people cannot go hungry.

Although Liu Bo didn't quite understand Li Yun's idea, he still nodded and said, "Okay, second brother, I will pay attention."

He looked at Li Yun and said, "Second brother, should I buy some food?"

Li Yun thought for a moment and said, "The price of grain is too high now. You can't buy much grain with the money you earn from selling salt. But you can ask for me which family in Jiangdong Road is the big grain dealer."

"After you find out, send someone to bring it back to me."

Liu Bo heard this and laughed: "Second brother wants..."

Li Yun interrupted him and said with a smile: "In order to stabilize the grain price in Yuezhou, I plan to build a Changping warehouse."

At this point, he looked at Liu Bo and said softly, "But with the current grain prices, if we spend all our money, I'm afraid it will only be enough to build the Changping Warehouse."

Liu Bo scratched his head and asked, "Second brother, what is Changping Warehouse?"

"A warehouse."

Li Yun patiently explained to him: "In good years, when grain prices are low, we add three or four cents to each bushel of rice to store the grain to ensure that the price is not too low. In bad years, when grain prices soar, we release grain into the market at the purchase price to stabilize prices and ensure that the price is not too high."

In Li's plan, Liu Bo was to be trained in the direction of managing money and grain, so he was patient in explaining the relevant knowledge to him.

Liu Bo was very smart. After listening to it once, he understood it completely. His eyes lit up and he clapped his hands, saying, "Second brother, this is a good idea. In this way, as long as we have enough food, the price of food in Yuezhou will never go up."

At this point, he thought for a moment and muttered, "Second brother, why can't the court come up with such a good idea?"

"If the imperial court could set up such granaries in various places, there wouldn't be so many famines. Our ancestors might not have had to become bandits in the mountains."

Li Yun was silent for a while, then shook his head and said, "I've read in a book that in the early years of the Great Zhou Dynasty, many places set up Changping warehouses, but as time went by, this method was gradually abandoned."

"why?"

Liu Bo scratched his head, unable to figure it out.

In his opinion, the mechanism of Changping Warehouse is perfect and can perfectly solve the problem of skyrocketing grain prices in disaster years.

"because…"

Li Yun silently exhaled a breath of foul air and said, "There are many reasons, and it's hard to explain them all at once, but the most direct reason is that I think officials from all over the country will collect grain and store it in good years, but they will not release grain at a fair price in bad years. Instead, they may collude with businessmen and sell rice at a high price."

He looked at Liu Bo, feeling rather helpless: "Between buying and selling, you can make a lot of money. Those local officials would like to squeeze the poor people when they see them. How could they miss such a good opportunity to make a lot of money?"

Liu Bo thought for a moment, then sighed as well.

"The sutras are all good, but the monks recited them wrongly."

Li Yun patted his shoulder and said with a smile: "When you are free, read more books." Liu Bo nodded.

"I know, second brother."

…………

The next day, Liu Bo took about twenty people, disguised as a caravan, and went out to do business.

However, in order to conceal their tracks, the cargo on their vehicles was not all salt. They also carried some local specialties of Yuezhou, which were transported to other states and counties for sale.

After Liu Bo left, Li Yun stayed in Yuezhou City most of the time, handling some affairs there, except occasionally going out of the city to check on the situation of Yuezhou Camp outside the city.

It’s not that he is monopolistic, but Du Qian is not in the city. If he doesn’t deal with some things, no one else can handle them.

In this way, a few days passed in a blink of an eye, and it was the Lantern Festival in the fifth year of Xian De.

Yuezhou City became a little lively again. Some families whose family members had not been killed began to prepare lanterns and celebrate this year's Lantern Festival.

Even some families who had lost family members were excited at this time and participated in the festival.

On the night of the Lantern Festival, when Yuezhou City was bustling with activity, a master and a servant braved the cold wind and entered the city in a very embarrassed manner.

After entering Yuezhou City, the servant Lai An could not help but complain: "It's winter, but you have to go out to run around the county. Can't you warm up a little before going out..."

Master Du Qian turned around and gave him a vicious look, cursing, "Spring sowing will start when it gets warmer! If this isn't done well, how will Yuezhou's spring sowing be done? Are you going to plant those fields?"

Lai An was scolded and shrank his neck, still a little unconvinced: "Didn't several counties follow the orders of Li Sima? We went down there and ran around, which was equivalent to a wasted trip."

“That’s what’s strange about it.”

Du Qian touched his red nose and murmured, "When I was in Yuezhou, I saw the notice he wrote and thought he was a bit whimsical and unrealistic. I didn't expect that when I went to the counties, I saw that the document was actually followed by all the counties..."

"I really don't know how he did it."

Distributing some of the "unclaimed" land to tenants to cultivate and collecting a tiny amount of insignificant rent sounds like nothing wrong at all, but the problem is that the counties and the big families in each county often collude with each other, and the relationships are complicated and intertwined.

If the county level does not cooperate, this matter will be impossible to carry out. Even the unclaimed land in the counties will be treated as cakes by the county level and divided up quickly.

Du Qian was in a hurry to leave Yuezhou and visit each county in person because he saw this. He wanted to personally urge each county to do this well before spring sowing, which could be considered a benevolent policy.

But what he didn't expect was that after arriving at the counties, each county was actually doing things according to Li Yun's instructions. This phenomenon made Du Qian very puzzled and shocked.

At this moment, the master and servant have arrived at the main road of Yuezhou. Because there is no curfew tonight, they see many young men and women holding lanterns and setting them off in the streets and alleys.

Looking up again, the streets and alleys are also quite lively.

Du Qian looked up at Yuezhou City, feeling a little dazed. After a long while, he sighed, "I originally wanted to come here to do something for the court, but now it seems that I really don't know why I came here..."

Today’s Yuezhou cannot be said to be thriving, but at least everything has returned to normal. The next recovery is only a matter of time.

But for Mr. Du, Yuezhou is too damn unchallenging!

When Du Qian was sighing, a tall young man in black was striding towards him not far away.

After the young man approached, he clasped his fists and saluted: "Li Zhao, the Sima of Yuezhou, greets Envoy Du!"

Du Qian looked up and down at the famous Sima Li in front of him. After a long while, he sighed, "I just entered the city and Sima Li already knew about it. It seems that Sima Li sent people to follow me all the way."

At this time, Du Qian began to have doubts in his heart.

Since there were people following him all the way, could it be that everything he saw in the counties along the way was fake?

Li Yun was also looking at the young Envoy Du at this moment. He smiled dumbly and shook his head, saying, "Envoy, Yuezhou has just experienced war and is very unsafe. We sent someone to follow you to protect you."

"Moreover, the people following the envoy were not sent by me."

"At that time, I was not in Yuezhou."

Du Qian looked at Li Yun, suddenly smiled, and returned the greeting by bowing his hands: "I have seen the document of the Political Affairs Hall appointing Li Sima. Li Sima was ordered to guard Yuezhou, so please stop calling me your humble official."

"We can just call each other by our courtesy names. My name is Du Qian, and my courtesy name is cursive."

Li Yun clasped his fists and said with a smile: "My name is Li Zhao, um..."

"No courtesy name yet."

(End of this chapter)