Wanli 1592

Chapter 886 The Night Banquet

On the evening of October 27th, within the capital, a grand banquet was held at the home of Shen Yiguan, the chief assistant of the dynasty.

There were many participants, such as the Duke of England, the Duke of Ding, the Marquis of Yongkang, the Marquis of Taining, the Marquis of Wu Ding, etc., and these people from the top noble circles in the capital city. Yiguan helped him clean up the emperor's power, and now he is naturally a meritorious minister under Shen Yiguan's rule.

Anyway, it's all meritorious service.

Naturally, the so-called "grand" banquet is far from being really grand, at least not as grand as the grand banquet hosted by the emperor. To put it bluntly, it is just a private banquet. Shen, who is in power, has always held it, so it has special significance.

Every honorable person who was invited was very clear why Shen Yiguan invited them to dinner.

It's nothing more than a matter of prices in the capital.

After the Grand Canal was blocked, the capital’s sources of food and supplies were cut off. This year’s autumn harvest in the north was a big failure. The food in the north could not make up for itself at all. It could only be further recruited from the south through the Grand Canal. After a batch was shipped, the canal route was cut off.

Xiao Ruxun sent sailors to cut off the route of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Not only food, but also many Jiangnan specialty consumer goods and luxury goods were gone. The capital’s supplies suddenly became scarce, and the prices of many things were quietly falling. rise.

Since the nobles were raised in captivity, it's not that they have gained nothing. At least the Beijing camp has been swallowed up by them, and they are all good players when they are empty. In addition, except for Zhang Cong and Zhang Juzheng who have attacked Except for their property, the rest of the civil servants have never done anything to them. Their property is spread all over the capital and surrounding towns. When it comes to making money, these people are also good hands.

They have their own supply channels, the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal has been cut off, they can still get it from other channels, but ordinary people and ordinary officials do not have it, and when some products that are in short supply are out of stock, they start to raise High prices make money.

From daily necessities to consumer goods to luxury goods, and even food that Shen has always banned, prices have all begun to rise.

Shen Yiguan made a rule with them after Li Hualong led his troops to the south. The prices of ordinary consumer goods and luxury goods can be raised as you like, but the prices of rice, grain, and salt are not allowed to rise. Other than that, I don’t care .

On the surface, they agreed well, but everyone knows that rice and salt are necessary for the human body, and rice and salt are the most profitable things. At this moment, instead of selling rice to make money, they are selling luxury goods. Isn't there a problem with the head?

This is a violation of Shen's consistent taboo. Shen always does not allow them to raise the price of rice randomly. They must maintain the stability of rice. Only when the rice is stable can the capital be stable. No burial place.

Now that the price of rice grain has doubled, people in the capital began to fluctuate. Both ordinary people and literati began to express dissatisfaction with Shen Yiguan, thinking that they would soon be unable to afford rice grain. If this continued, they would die.

But the nobles didn't seem to care. With Li Hualong's defeat, they seemed to become more unscrupulous.

Right now everyone is eating, drinking and having fun, and they are very happy, and they have no scruples about Shen Yiguan who is sitting in the main seat and drinking silently.

Zhang Weixian and Xu Wenbi, who were sitting at the same table with Shen Yiguan, paid attention to Shen Yiguan's expression. Seeing Shen Yiguan's expression as usual, eating and drinking slowly, they relaxed a little, but it didn't matter, even if Shen Yiguan turned his back, they still had their lives saved The way.

"Come on, Duke Ying, Duke Ding, I respect you for this cup."

Shen Yiguan suddenly raised his glass to toast to Zhang Weixian and Xu Wenbi. The two were stunned for a moment, then put on smiles and raised their glasses.

"Don't dare, I should respect the chief assistant."

"Extremely, extremely, we should respect Shoufu and thank him for taking care of me!"

Zhang Weixian and Xu Wenbi laughed.

Shen Yiguan smiled slightly, and drank the wine in the glass in one gulp.

"Hehehe, this is what this old man should do. If it weren't for the help of the two princes, this old man would not be able to eradicate evil and maintain the safety of the Ming Dynasty. Thanks to the help of the two, the Ming Dynasty can be as prosperous as it is today, and the country is peaceful and the people are safe."

Shen Yiguan seemed to have something to say.

So, where is the world prosperous and the country peaceful and the people safe?

Xu Wenbi and Zhang Weixian looked at each other and smiled again.

"Extremely, thanks to the first assistant governing the world, Daming is as prosperous as it is today, and the country is peaceful and the people are safe."

Xu Wenbi toasted Shen Yiguan again. Shen Yiguan smiled slightly and put down the glass, as if he didn't intend to drink the toast.

"The old man is ashamed of what Ding Gong said. The prosperity of the Ming Dynasty is the prosperity of the country and the people's peace. This is the lifelong ambition of the old man, and it is also the expectation of His Majesty's reign. There is hope, what do the two dukes think?"

Shen Yiguan looked at Xu Wenbi and Zhang Weixian.

The two were stunned for a moment, and then agreed together: "That's natural, that's natural."

"Yes, that's natural. So, since we all hope that the Ming Dynasty will prosper, the country will be peaceful and the people will be safe, why do the two Dukes violate the rules set by the old man and the two, and raise the price of food?"

The smile on Shen Yiguan's face remained undiminished, as if he was asking if he had eaten lunch today.

Here we come, the main show is coming!
Xu Wenbi and Zhang Weixian knew that this was Shen's consistent goal, and everything else was fake.

On the wine table, they still pushed glasses to change glasses, but in the eyes of Xu Wenbi and Zhang Weixian, it was all background noise.

"Hahahaha, Shoufu is too worried. Why did I raise the price of grain? My thinking is that if the grain stock in Beijing keeps decreasing, but the people's purchase speed does not slow down, then the grain will eventually run out one day. , wouldn’t it be bad if the food ran out at that time?”

Xu Wenbi said nonsense.

"Extremely, I have adjusted the food price appropriately to make the people feel that the price of food has risen, so as to save food, thereby reducing the speed of food consumption, so that the food in the capital can be maintained for a longer period, and the canal is opened for the capital More time, I wait to do this, but it's all for Shoufu's ambition!"

Zhang Weixian was talking nonsense without changing his expression.

It sounds like it would make sense.

Even Shen Guanyi had to admit that what they said sounded a little bit right.

"In that case, the old man is not thinking about it?"

Shen Yiguan looked at Zhang Weixian and Xu Wenbi with a smile.

Zhang Weixian and Xu Wenbi smiled kindly.

"Where there is, the chief minister has a lot of things to do every day, such small things are what we should do."

"That's right, the chief assistant is already very busy dealing with state affairs. I can't wait to see the first assistant work so hard in his seventy-year-old years, so I'm trying my best."

Shen Yiguan really wanted to laugh more and more the more he listened, feeling as if he owed them a great favor.

However, the reason why Shen always wanted to talk to them was of course not just for the price of food. Some things about food price were discussed, but there were some things that could not be discussed.

It's a matter of life and family.

(End of this chapter)