Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 198: Old Zhu is furious! His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has issued an order!
I thought the postman would continue talking, but unexpectedly he suddenly stopped talking and smiled slightly.

Old Zhu understood and winked. Ji Yuan quickly took out a few bills and stuffed them into the postman's hand, saying with a smile: "Thank you for your trouble, brother. This money is for my master to treat you to a drink."

The postman glanced at the money in Jiyuan's hand, but with a look of disdain on his face, he said: "Sir, your business is so big, you should treat people to some good drinks, right?"

Yoshigaki's face changed slightly. He didn't expect that there would be too few people.

I had no choice but to take the money back and exchange it for a thick stack.

The postman then smiled happily, took it immediately and put it in his arms.

"My information is definitely valuable, and I won't let you suffer any loss."

After that, he looked around to make sure that no one was eavesdropping, then he approached Old Zhu and said, "I heard that the wealthy merchants in various places are hoarding supplies, buying large amounts of grain from the court's warehouses and buying cloth everywhere.

"Everyone is saying that prices are going to go up, maybe even many times over."

Old Zhu was startled and asked hurriedly, "How do you know this?"

The postman laughed and said, "It seems that you really haven't heard anything about this!"

"You have such a big business and such a large team, but you are not well-informed about the news at all!"

"Isn't this the fault of the tax commissioner?"

"The tax commissioner wanted to collect taxes, but the wealthy merchants were unwilling to do so. The dispute between the two sides became more and more serious, and many murders occurred."

"If it were any other government office, they would have backed off long ago when faced with this kind of structure. Which official could take on such a heavy responsibility?"

"But, as you know, this tax bureau was established by order of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince himself, and the person in charge is the son of the Prince of Yan, the young prince."

"No matter how the wealthy merchants from all over the country make trouble, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the young prince will suppress them firmly."

"Seeing that the wealthy merchants were at their wits' end, someone came up with the idea of saying that the imperial treasury was running low on grain, cloth, and other supplies."

"But in order to stabilize the new currency, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has ordered that the grain and cloth in the treasury must be sold at a fair price and not be raised in price."

“Isn’t the business opportunity here?”

"As long as the wealthy merchants work together to buy up all the grain, cloth and other supplies in the treasury, what will the court use to stabilize the new banknotes? Won't the prices of grain and cloth rise to the sky?"

"Sir, if you have enough capital, this is a great opportunity."

"Hurry up and buy up grain and cloth. Take as much as you can. In a month or two, I guarantee you'll make a lot of money."

Old Zhu's expression suddenly changed: "If everyone is hoarding goods like this, won't the people suffer? Many people will starve to death?"

The postman sneered: "Look at what you said, sir. You are a businessman. Haven't you heard that 'business is business, and business is for profit'? Sir, you only care about making money. Whether the people starve to death or not, what does it have to do with you?"

Old Zhu was speechless for a moment, and then he said, "But the court will definitely crack down severely, and the government will also arrest people. Aren't they afraid?"

"Why else would I say that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has good intentions but ends up doing something bad?" The postman said, "The Tax Commissioner has angered the public, and all the wealthy merchants must teach him a lesson."

"Everyone is working in the same direction."

"Buying and hoarding are also a rush. If everyone hoards, who can the court arrest? It is impossible to arrest all the wealthy merchants, right?"

"Besides, the government has long disliked the Commissioner of Taxation, and the clerks are even more so."

"If we ask the government officials and clerks to arrest people, will they work hard?"

"Master, you are also a businessman, so you naturally know that as long as there is money to smooth the relationship, the government will not care too much about this kind of thing."

"To be honest, after hearing the news, I also went to stock up on some supplies."

"But we are a small family, and we dare not expect to make money. We are afraid that the price of goods will rise too much. We should make some preparations in advance. We can't let our wife and children go hungry."

"As for the other common people, I really can't take care of them."

"As the saying goes, 'When gods fight, mortals suffer.'"

"Right now, local gentry, merchants, and government officials are fighting against the tax commissioner. The poor common people are in trouble."

When Old Zhu heard this, he was already extremely angry and nearly had a fit on the spot. It was only when Yoshigaki pulled his sleeves that he calmed down.

He then turned around and went straight to the guest room.

The postman behind him said with some dissatisfaction: "Why did this man suddenly get angry? I told him such important news out of kindness, and he didn't even say thank you?"

He turned around, took out the treasure banknotes that Yoshigaki had just given him and took a look at them. Immediately, his anger turned into joy, and his eyes narrowed into slits with a smile.

"After all, he is a big businessman, so his actions are extraordinary. With this money, I will buy some food tomorrow."

……

Early the next morning, Lao Zhu's convoy set off again.

He stopped and walked along the way, asked about various folk affairs, and witnessed several conflicts between the tax collectors and merchants' clerks.

A few days later, their convoy finally arrived in Suzhou.

As soon as I entered the city, I saw many people flocking to the national treasury granary in Suzhou.

Jiang Li stopped one of them and asked, "May I ask what happened? Why are everyone going over there?"

The man said quickly, "Don't you know? The prices of grain and cloth have gone up. Right now, even the government's granary still sells grain at a fair price. But the prefect has posted a notice today, limiting the sales. Each person is only allowed to sell ten kilograms of rice per day."

"Now everyone is rushing to buy it."

"You guys should go quickly, if you go too late, it might be gone."

"No more talking. I have to go line up to buy rice." Old Zhu, who was sitting in the carriage, heard it clearly and immediately ordered, "Turn around and take a look over there."

The carriage turned quickly and headed straight for the granary in Suzhou Prefecture.

By the time they arrived, the place was already packed with people.

Lao Zhu and others could only watch from afar behind.

"Everyone line up, line up, don't push!" In front of the granary, the official in yamen uniform shouted loudly: "Whoever doesn't line up will not be sold grain, do you listen?"

The line was still crowded.

Only the order at the front was slightly better.

People came forward one by one, lined up to buy food, and talked about it at the same time.

"What kind of world is this? We just had a few days of good life, and now even the purchase of food is limited?"

"That's right. There are more than ten people in my family, and we can only buy ten kilograms of rice every day. How can that be enough? Don't we have to queue up every day to buy rice?"

"It's good enough that we can still buy it. In a few days, the grain in the government granary might be sold out. We can only buy grain from outside at a high price."

"Yes, yes. Now everyone is scrambling for food and cloth. If this continues, I'm afraid it won't be long before the government warehouses run out of supplies."

"It's already unbearable now, otherwise, why would there be a limit on the sale?"

"I heard that it was the tax commissioner who caused the trouble, and he angered the gentry and the clerks so much that they came up with this trick."

"If you ask me, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had good intentions. He wanted to pacify the Japanese pirates, conquer Japan, take Taiwan, and compensate the people who were robbed by the Japanese pirates. Everything is good, but isn't the matter of the tax commissioner a little too hasty?"

"Humph, those gentry and clerks are too much. Everyone pays taxes according to the law, what's wrong with that? But they have to cause so much trouble."

"People have been divided into different classes since ancient times. They are used to taking advantage of others. Now if they are asked to pay taxes together with new merchants, they will definitely not do it."

"Your Highness, you are too hasty in this matter. Even a rabbit will bite when it is cornered. What about those gentry? If you push them into a corner, will they not trip you up? Now, life is going to be difficult for everyone."

"Is there really no solution from the imperial court?"

"Isn't the purchase restriction the only solution now? Besides this, what other solutions are there? I hope that after the purchase restriction, the imperial court's granary can continue to hold out."

"I'm afraid that in the end, we will have no choice but to abolish the tax commissioner, give in to them and put an end to this matter."

"It has come to this. Can the food and cloth that were bought up earlier be spitted out by themselves? In my opinion, even if the tax commissioner is fired, price increases are inevitable."

"How much will the price increase be this time?"

"In my opinion, it will increase by at least ten times. You all know what the old Ming Dynasty treasure notes looked like. I'm afraid the new Ming Dynasty notes will follow the same path."

"Oh, it seems that I still have to exchange the treasure notes for silver."

"It's too late to say anything. Even if it's exchanged for silver, will the price of goods fall back on its own?"

"Everyone has money now and can borrow from banks. If the price really goes up, I'm afraid it won't be able to stop tenfold!"

"Food prices are really going to go through the roof. How are ordinary people going to survive?"

……

When Old Zhu saw this scene, his face suddenly turned ashen.

"How can we allow those evil gentry and profiteers to hoard goods and drive up prices? What do the government do for a living? What about the imperial army?"

"If it doesn't work, send the army over and kill all those evil merchants who hoard goods and profiteer."

Yoshigaki reminded from the side: "I heard that many generals stationed in the garrisons are also involved in the business."

"Your Highness is currently rectifying the military system, reducing the number of troops while implementing a dual-chief officer system. This was approved by His Majesty a long time ago."

"For the time being, the army may not be able to take care of these matters."

Old Zhu was so angry that his lungs were about to explode. He said, "Are we just going to let them continue to cause chaos like this? These gentry and clerks are really going too far. They should be killed, all of them!"

Yoshigaki advised: "Master, don't be angry, or you will get sick from anger."

"Hasn't Suzhou Prefecture already taken measures to limit grain purchases?"

"Although everyone is scrambling for food, you can still buy it."

"As long as there is grain for sale in the government's granary, people won't starve to death."

"There is grain in the government warehouses. Even if those evil gentry and profiteers want to drive up the price of grain, they can't do that."

"After a while, they can't hold on any longer."

When Old Zhu heard this, he felt that it was indeed true, and his anger subsided a little.

at this time.

A horse galloped over.

The man on horseback held the reins in one hand and the scroll with the other, squeezing his legs to spur the horse forward while shouting, "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has ordered that all government granaries in all regions must not limit purchases or hoard sales, which would cause panic."

"We should open up the supply of all food to the people at a fair price."

……

(End of this chapter)