Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 200: The plummeting grain prices! The wealthy households are driven crazy!
A shout.

The crowd exploded.

"The grain from Mr. Zhou's family is cheaper than what the government warehouse sells it at?"

"Impossible, I don't believe it. Zhou Paopi has always been more powerful than Wang Paopi. How could he sell grain at a low price?"

"I don't believe it either. I know exactly what kind of person Zhou Paopi is."

"His family bought grain from the government warehouse and stored it in order to make a fortune when there was no grain. How could they sell it at a loss?"

"Maybe there's still some old grain that was saved from a few years ago. It's already moldy and spoiled, so they took some out on purpose to earn some fame."

"No matter whether it's true or not, why don't we just go and take a look?"

……

The people were talking about it, and most of them did not believe it, but with the mentality of believing it was true rather than not, many people still flocked to the Zhou family.

Old Zhu was also surprised.

"Is the Zhou family really going to open its granaries to release grain, and sell it at a price even cheaper than the grain in the government granaries?"

Kneeling on the ground, Yoshigaki hurriedly said, "There are treacherous ministers in the world, and there must be loyal and good people; there are profiteers who take advantage of the opportunity to raise prices and hoard goods, and there must be righteous merchants who are kind to others and have great righteousness in their hearts. Perhaps this Zhou family is a righteous merchant. Your Majesty educates the people of the world. Although there are those unruly people and profiteers who do not listen to your teachings, there must be people who are influenced by your majesty's benevolence. This is all thanks to your majesty."

Old Zhu glanced at him and snorted, "You only know how to flatter me all day long, but you can't spit out ivory from a dog's mouth. Didn't you listen to the people down there talking about it? They all call that guy Zhou Pa Pi? How can he be a person that we can influence? Regardless of that, let's go over and take a look."

At that moment, the carriage changed direction and headed straight for the Zhou family.

In front of Zhou’s house.

Bags of rice were carried out, and signs with rice prices were hung outside. The prices marked on them were indeed cheaper than the grain in the government warehouse.

Old Zhu got off the carriage, walked straight to the front, grabbed a handful of rice from the open bag, held it in his hand and looked at it.

The rice is of the best quality and has no mold or mildew.

"Why is the Zhou family's rice sold so cheaply?" asked Old Zhu.

"My master is kind-hearted. Seeing that the common people have no rice, he sells his own rice to them at a low price." The manager shouted, "If you want to buy rice, buy it quickly. If you don't want to buy it, don't get in the way here."

Then he shouted, "High-quality rice, sold at a low price, come and buy it."

When the people who came over saw that the rice was really good and the price was cheap, they immediately flocked to it.

"Buy me some."

"I also want!"

"I want!"

……

Witnessing this scene, Lao Zhu's gloomy face finally broke into a smile.

"Hahaha, it seems that there are still righteous businessmen in our Ming Dynasty who don't harm the people!"

"I thought that the world was in decline and that unscrupulous businessmen only cared about making money and ignored the lives of the people. Now it seems that I was wrong. Great! Great!"

Old Zhu stroked his beard and smiled, unable to contain his joy.

Along the way, I heard too many stories about evil gentry and unscrupulous businessmen, and they were all extremely bad.

Now that a "righteous businessman" has finally appeared, Old Zhu is immediately overjoyed.

Next to them, the people who had bought grain were discussing it.

"How strange! Did the sun rise from the west today? Zhou Paopi is actually selling good grain at a low price?"

"This is indeed bizarre. If you don't see it with your own eyes, it's hard to believe."

"I know Zhou Paopi very well. He is a man who eats human flesh and leaves no bones. What happened today is really strange."

"Maybe he did too many bad things and was punished by the Bodhisattvas and gods. In order to avoid disaster and pray for blessings, he came out to do good deeds."

"Don't tell me, it might really be like this."

"Whatever the reason, as long as we can buy cheap rice, that's enough."

……

Old Zhu listened to the people's discussions and felt a little strange in his heart.

It seems that the Zhou family does a lot of bad things on a daily basis.

Is today's behavior a little abnormal?

at this time.

Someone shouted not far away: "The good man Wang has also opened his warehouse to sell grain. The price is one cent cheaper than Zhou's. Everyone, hurry up and buy some."

When the people heard this, they were all surprised.

Lao Zhu ordered: "Let's go and take a look."

They rushed over again.

Sure enough, there was a lot of rice placed in front of the Wang family's door, and servants were carrying out bags of rice.

Old Zhu walked over to take a look. The quality of the rice was the same as that in the government warehouse, but the selling price was a little cheaper than that of the Zhou family.

Just as Old Zhu was wondering, another voice came from not far away: "Mr. Li has also opened his warehouse to release grain!"

"The great Jiang family has also opened their warehouses to release grain!"

"Mr. Wu has also opened his warehouse to distribute grain!"

……

Within one day, large grain hoarders in Suzhou opened their warehouses and released grain one after another, which was a spectacle to behold.

The people who had thought they could not buy rice were all overjoyed and bought rice.

The price is much cheaper than the official warehouse.

Zhou house.

The old man of the Zhou family took the teacup from the maid and personally served tea to the middle-aged guest in front of him.

no way.

After all, he was sent by the Ming Bank and is the Zhou family's God of Wealth.

"Can't you really delay the payment of this money?" Old Master Zhou looked at the middle-aged guest with a pleading look, "As long as Daming Bank can give me three months, I promise to return it to you, including the principal and interest, without losing a cent."

"You know, the grain in the government warehouse has been sold out. If my Zhou family holds back the grain, the price will soar in no time."

"At that time, I made money and the bank didn't have to worry about repayment. Everyone was happy. Isn't that better?"

He paused and said, "If it really doesn't work, I'm willing to pay an extra two cents in interest." The middle-aged guest glanced at him and remained motionless.

"Three points!" Old Master Zhou stretched out three fingers.

The middle-aged guest's expression remained unchanged.

"Four cents, four cents should be okay, right?" Old Master Zhou gritted his teeth and continued to raise the price.

As long as we can hold on through this period, everything will be fine.

But the middle-aged guest still shook his head slightly.

"Then five cents." Old Master Zhou's voice suddenly became louder, and he said, "Isn't the purpose of opening a bank to make money? We are offering such a high interest rate, isn't that enough?"

The middle-aged guest gently raised his hand and pressed down his open palm.

"This is not a matter of a few cents of profit." The middle-aged guest said slowly, "The Daming Bank has its own rules."

"When we do business, our bank never pursues huge profits, but first of all ensures the safety of funds."

"You also know that the money in the bank is deposited by customers."

"We have to be responsible for them. When lending, we must first ensure the safety of funds."

"Besides, the head office has regulations on how much interest to charge. I won't charge a cent more, and I don't have the power to do so."

Old Master Zhou stamped his feet and said, "Safe? How can the money borrowed by my Zhou family be unsafe?"

"I have pledged my house and land to the bank, and we have signed the contract, but you want to withdraw the loan halfway. Isn't this pushing me to death?"

The middle-aged guest sneered, "Mr. Zhou, you can't say that."

"We are talking business. The loan contract clearly states everything in black and white."

"The bank believes that you have business risks and your situation has changed, so they can ask you to repay the loan early."

"I didn't say anything wrong, did I?"

"You signed and sealed all of this."

"Don't you still want to deny it?"

Old Master Zhou roared, "But, hoarding rice and grain, what's the risk?"

No matter how furious he was, the middle-aged guest remained calm and composed: "The price you paid for grain from the government warehouse is not low at all, it is the retail price, the government warehouse did not give you any discount."

"If I sell it at the same price, I will definitely lose money. How can my bank support such a business?"

"Besides, I heard that the grain harvested this autumn has been snapped up by others who have signed contracts with landowners and farmers in various places, and buyers have already been found."

"You want to hoard food and drive up the price of food to make a profit, but will people cooperate with you?"

"My bank cannot and will not take the risk involved."

"Whether you sell your house or your land, as long as you can pay back the money today, then everything will be fine."

"If not, my bank will close its warehouses and collect the grain."

"Let's make it clear in advance that food will be damaged."

"When the bank takes it back and sells it, they still have to account for the labor costs and the cost of selling it."

"With one in and one out, the food in your hands can only be sold at half the price at most."

"The remaining shortfall will still be offset by the Zhou family's house and land."

"Think about it yourself first."

Old Master Zhou pointed at him, shaking with anger: "You...you...you...your bank is going too far!"

He was so angry that his blood pressure rose, his body could no longer stand steadily, and he fell down limply.

"Master!" The servant rushed over and supported Old Master Zhou: "Come quickly, go get the doctor."

……

The same thing happened to the Wang family, the Jiang family, the Wu family, the Li family...

All the wealthy businessmen in Suzhou who participated in hoarding grain or other supplies with the intention of driving up market prices had their loans withdrawn by the bank within a day.

The wealthy families suddenly realized that it was impossible to sell their houses and land to raise money to repay their loans.

Because at this time everyone exchanged their silver and money for food, cloth and other supplies.

In desperation, they could only sell the food and cloth they had.

But the consequence of this was that the prices of food and cloth continued to fall.

You know, under normal circumstances, it takes several months to sell out the grain in the government warehouse.

Then there is the new grain from this autumn harvest.

But now, how easy is it for them to sell all the food in just a few days?
At this time, no big investor is willing to take over.

The wind direction in Suzhou City changed suddenly within a few days.

At the same time, the "Da Ming Daily" published the results of the dike repair last winter, telling that there was no disaster or drought this year, the crops were growing well, and there would definitely be a bumper harvest this autumn.

At this point, everyone's expectations changed from a sharp rise in food prices to a sharp drop in food prices.

No one wanted to buy the grain that the big farmers were selling off.

Zhou House.

Old Master Zhou was lying on the bed, and asked weakly, "Have you sold all the grain? Can you pay off the bank debt?"

Next to him, his son cried, "Dad, the price of grain is falling every day, and we can't sell it at all. The bank wants to charge penalty interest for overdue repayment, and also said that we must repay the money within three days, otherwise they will seize our land and house."

Old Master Zhou said, "Didn't the bank say they would buy the grain at half price? Then we can sell it to them at half price. We can pool the remaining money together and pay off the loan first."

"Dad, half price was in the past. Now grain prices have dropped again. The bank said it's worth at most one-third of the original price."

"What?" Old Master Zhou's tone changed drastically: "They are going too far, too far!"

My son was also crying beside me.

"There is nothing we can do now. Sell! No matter how cheap the price is, we have to sell! If we sell some of the land, we can get through this difficult time."

"My Zhou family is doomed. Son, you must remember that no matter what, you must never engage in the business of hoarding goods again."

After Old Master Zhou finished his instructions, his breath suddenly became heavy, his head tilted, and his eyes slowly closed.

……

(End of this chapter)