Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 151 Business war is also a war!
Panic was spreading, and the people of Wei were experiencing an unprecedented terror - there was not enough food.

The Wei Dynasty lasted for 300 years, and during the reigns of nine emperors, the weather was relatively good. Although there were disasters, there were rarely famines.

But now famine is imminent. There is no food to buy on the market, and there is not even much to eat. Although government grain is released every day, it is almost sold out as soon as it hits the ground. Faced with so many panicked people, it is just a drop in the bucket.

As for the grain merchants, big and small, they were madly absorbing all the visible grain on the market like sponges.

At this moment, in the distant Fuliang County Government, there were no yamen runners holding water and fire sticks in the lobby. Instead, there were tables placed everywhere, and in front of the tables sat a group of students from Ehu Academy, the abacus in their hands shuttled up and down like the woman's awl.

"Hengshui Zhou family, average cost 442 kilograms."

"The average cost of Runan Han's is 430 kilograms."

The quotations are constantly updated, and the average costs in the hands of grain traders from all over the country are constantly calculated in this small world.

One tael of silver costs about 400 kilograms. These grain merchants really invested a lot of money.

"Can we vote now?" Miss Tang beside him asked Xia Lin nervously, "It should be high now."

"No hurry." Xia Lin waved his hand. "The cost reduction is not severe enough. They still have some spare money. Someone, send a message to the palace and ask the state granary to open three more warehouses. Set the price at 350 catties per ounce of silver, and reduce the price of grain to less than ."

After the carrier pigeon was sent out, three more warehouses of Hongdu Prefecture were opened that afternoon. Once the grain was sent out, the price soared and the common people certainly could not afford it. However, wealthy merchants from all over the place pounced on it like mad dogs seeing food. This time they were obviously struggling, but even so they still tried hard to eat up the goods.

This thing is about seeing the whole picture from a small part. Jiangnan Road itself is a prosperous place. If the merchants here are starting to struggle, other places should be about the same.

The sound of abacus continued until late at night. The next morning, when the grain prices collected by caravans from all over the country came again, the sound of abacus rang out again.

"The cost for grain merchants in Huainan and Huaibei is 392 catties. The cost on both sides of the Yellow River is close to 330 catties!"

"In the Jingchu region, Xiangyang weighs 310 kilograms, and Jiangzhou weighs 385 kilograms."

Xia Lin paced back and forth as he listened to the quote: "How are the victims doing?"

"Everything is OK."

"Wait!" Xia Lin looked back at Miss Tang and said, "Hold it for another half a month!"

For ordinary people to be transformed from ordinary people into disaster victims, their family's stored food and surplus money must be eaten up, and only then will they consider leaving their homes. The food stored in an average family is at most one month or at least ten days. After most of these things are consumed, they will use their savings to buy expensive food.

That was when the second round of looting officially began. Xia Lin's goal was to save lives rather than property. How much money they spent had nothing to do with him. His goal was to reduce the number of people who starved to death as much as possible.

When he was on a mission in Africa, he happened to encounter four major grain traders attacking the grain price in Rwanda. At that time, it happened that a certain grain storage group had a very large grain planting scale there, so Xia Lin happened to witness a classic grain war.

In the end, those international grain traders were helpless, and compared with the four most powerful grain traders, the grain traders of this era were indeed a little lacking in skills. What these fragmented grain traders lacked was the most critical ability to resist risks.

They can only follow suit and stockpile, but they are completely impatient.

Half a month passed in a flash, and a large number of refugees had appeared on both sides of the Yellow River. These poorest refugees were the first group to suffer from the disaster and the first group to eat up all their food. They had no choice but to flee to the south.

Their first stop was naturally the Huaibei area, but Huaibei itself had also suffered a disaster and could not accommodate more people. At this time, the young prince showed up. He began to set up porridge shops and grain stations along the way according to the layout he had planned with Xia Lin before, and guided these refugees all the way to the south while ensuring the minimum dietary standards.

This is how people are. If there is a bite to eat, even if it is just a small bite, no one will eat humans. Although there are more than 200,000 disaster victims, they can still eat two bowls of taro porridge every morning and evening along the way. This is already a great favor from the emperor and a blessing from heaven.

While the first group of people affected by the disaster are migrating here, the people who suffered subsequent disasters or those who suffered less serious disasters can only look at the horrific food prices every day and cry in tears.

Today, the price of grain in Luoyang has risen to one tael of silver for one hundred and forty jin. This is the price of unprocessed grain. After removing the husk and drying it, we are thankful if there are one hundred jin left.

Even so, the grain merchants had no intention of leaving any way for the local people to survive. When they gathered together, they were so cheerful and happy that they all sang praises to Gao Xiang.

Time has entered the first solar term after the Mid-Autumn Festival, Cold Dew. The temperature has dropped sharply, and the locust plague has indeed subsided, but the losses along the way cannot be recovered.

Half a month passed, and the cost price of grain had basically stabilized, fixed at about one tael of silver for three hundred kilograms. These grain merchants had become sponges that absorbed water in Xia Lin's mouth. All the hot money had been invested in them and turned into mountains of grain piled up in the warehouses.

And this is just the beginning for them. There is still one year left next year, and these grains will be like countless leeches lying on the body of the Wei Dynasty, continuing to suck blood until the new grain comes on the market the year after next.

As for how many people will starve to death during this period, what does it have to do with them? Those who starve to death are trash who can't afford to buy food, and in their eyes they are not even considered human beings.

"This cup is for Prime Minister Gao!" In the capital, several wealthy businessmen joined together to host a banquet for several officials in the court. Prime Minister Gao was naturally among them. He was a little tipsy at the moment and laughed heartily: "You have made great contributions to the disaster relief this time. I will ask His Majesty to reward you later."

"You are so welcome, Mr. Gao, you are so welcome!"

The wealthy businessmen laughed, and one of them, still drunk, walked to the window and looked down, and suddenly said, "Let's have some fun."

After saying that, he poured out a large bowl of rice next to him. In an instant, the ragged children who were guarding downstairs swarmed over and squatted on the ground and began to swallow the rice in big gulps, not caring about the filth and dust on the ground.

At this moment, Xia Lin and the little prince were standing not far away. The little prince was scratching his head while Xia Lin stood with his hands behind his back with a smile on his face.

"How come you can still laugh?"

"Why aren't you laughing, Your Highness?" Xia Lin glanced at the little prince and said, "I wonder if Your Highness has heard the saying that if you act arrogantly, God will punish you."

"How to collect? When to collect?"

"I will collect it today."

Xia Lin turned his head and said to Lao He who was following him: "Uncle He, let's start. If they like to play, then play with them to their heart's content."

Lao He nodded, turned around and entered the inner hall of the Tang Family Business, and slapped his big hand on the counter of the head shopkeeper: "Begin!"

The young prince on the other side also crossed his arms. Although he hesitated for a moment, he finally said to Mr. Zhu who was accompanying him, "Mr. Zhu, let's start too."

"Your Highness's command."

After saying that, he looked at Xia Lin, and Xia Lin nodded at him.

It was on this afternoon that both the government and the merchants suddenly began to release grain. The opening of dozens of large warehouses caused the high grain prices to plummet. The Tang family's grain, Fuliang's grain, Jiangnan Road's grain and the royal family's grain, all four warehouses were opened at the same time, and nearly 700 million kilograms of grain that had been stored for two and a half years poured out like a flood.

The official market, which was originally empty, was instantly filled with grain, and the price was locked at the level of one tael of silver for seven hundred and seventy kilograms, almost equaling the grain price before the disaster.

At this moment, Xia Lin and the young prince were standing beside the archway of the official market, looking at the people pouring into the market to buy grain, neither of them had much expression on their faces.

But the grain merchants who got the news could no longer sit still. Urgent reports from all over the country came in like a death spell. Except for the area with more than 200,000 refugees who were severely affected by the disaster, grain in other places began to explode one after another.

Under the impact of large amounts of grain, the average price in the market has been raised from one tael of silver for 150 jin in the morning with purchase limits to a high of 300 jin now. But even so, no one is interested.

Because the regular grain in the official market next door costs more than 700 kilograms for one tael of silver, even dogs wouldn't buy the expensive grain from private individuals.

At this moment, some merchants who still have spare capacity are trying hard to swallow this huge inventory, but it is of no avail. Seven hundred million kilograms of grain are rushing towards them like a tsunami, and those retail and small households are just like people trying to drink up the sea water during a tsunami. It seems so futile and ridiculous.

They wanted to resist, too! That night, grain merchants from all over the country reacted and tried to unite to resist.

And these data came to Xia Lin in the capital city through carrier pigeons from military camps all over the country. The sound of abacus was so loud that sparks were almost coming out, and he and the young prince were pacing back and forth in the field.

"Okay, if they want to fight, then we'll fight!" Xia Lin laughed after reading the data: "Old He, release the cheap grain! Crush them all!"

Cheap grains refer to those coarse grains, such as taro, millet and other miscellaneous grains that were once not considered high-quality. Their prices are obviously lower than those of refined rice and flour, but in years of disaster, no one would care about the taste, as long as they can survive. For ordinary people, the cheaper the food, the better.

"I never expected that the emperor would agree to let me use the military camp this time." The young prince chuckled, "What I didn't expect was that he actually appointed you to come to the capital to assist me in fighting this war."

"Your Highness is too polite." Xia Lin rolled up his sleeves. "I am so grateful to Your Highness for your kindness. Without you, I would still be a little book boy eating slop in Luoyang."

"Hahaha...what are your plans next?"

Xia Lin grabbed an abacus in one hand and slammed it on the table: "I want them dead! Lao He, lower the price of cheap grain to 1200 kilograms per ounce of silver!"

The young prince was shocked when he heard this: "This is also..."

"Your Highness, I want them dead!"

(End of this chapter)