The fiercest soldier of the border army

Tang Shun put down his pen, looked up at him, and asked, "Why did you need to transport grain into the city?"

Xie Anzhi was taken aback.

"They surrendered, and we brought new grain into the city."

Tang Shun tapped his fingers lightly on the table. "If there is no new grain, they will just sit and wait for the government to sell out, and then they will retaliate and raise the price back to 150 or 200 coins, and the people will still go hungry."

"By then, who will be in charge? Us, or them?"

Xie Anzhi opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Tang Shun stood up, walked to the map on the wall, and pointed his finger between the East and West markets: "I set the price at one hundred coins per dou, not to sell at that price, but to force them to sell at a price lower than that."

"If the price is higher than this, nobody wants it; if it's lower than this, people are scrambling to sell. That's called regulation."

Xie Anzhi frowned, pondered for a moment, and repeated in a low voice: "Regulation...you mean, government pricing, forcing them to follow suit?"

"Exactly." Tang Shun nodded. "Grain merchants hoard grain in order to sell it at a high price."

"I first spread the word that the imperial court was allocating 500 shi of grain every day, with carts transporting it into the city daily, accompanied by gongs and drums, and with flags waving, so that they would think there was no shortage of grain."

"Smallholders couldn't hold on and sold off their grain to break even. We took the opportunity to buy it all up and then announced that the price of new grain in the official granary would be 75 wen per dou starting today."

"With this inflow and outflow, the market supply of grain remains unchanged, the people can afford it, the government makes a profit from the price difference, and only the grain merchants lose money."

Xie Anzhi's breath hitched, and his eyes widened suddenly.

He got it!

He forcefully dumped the grain at a price of 100 coins, forcing grain merchants to lower the price to 80 coins.

They bought a large amount at a price of 80 coins and then sold it again at 75 coins.

After all the calculations, I still made a profit of twenty-five coins per dou.

"We use their money to buy their grain, then sell it to the people, making a profit in the process."

He murmured, "Grain ends up in the people's pots, money flows into the government's coffers, while grain merchants... lose everything?"

Tang Shun didn't answer, he just looked at him.

Xie Anzhi suddenly became excited and took a step forward: "Then... what if we lower the price again? You set it at eighty coins, and they can only sell it for seventy-nine or seventy-eight? Perhaps they can get it down to seventy? Sixty?"

"Wouldn't the people eat better, and the government make more money?"

"That's exactly right."

Tang Shun said calmly, "As long as we can still transport grain into the city, they won't dare to raise their heads for a single day."

"Remember this phrase: 'Once you move, you fall.'"

Xie Anzhi nodded emphatically, his eyes gleaming as if he had seen a signpost in the fog.

Suddenly, he had a strange feeling.

It seems that the biggest unscrupulous merchants in Wenchi County are not Zhang, Wang, Liu, or Li, nor are they merchants from other places.

Instead, he is the pacification envoy who is strategizing and making decisions right before our eyes!

But then he hesitated: "But... those who are lowering prices right now are mostly small grain merchants and porters, while the real big players hoarding grain are the four major grain merchants, who haven't made a move yet."

"What should be done if they continue to stick together and hoard goods?"

Tang Shun sneered and said disdainfully, "You think too highly of them."

"Xie Xingjun, let me give you one more piece of advice."

Xie Anzhi immediately stood up straight and listened attentively.

There's an old saying: "Competitors are enemies."

"The businesses of these four companies in Wenchi County have always been intertwined and competitive."

"They're just banding together to fight against the government because of their immediate interests."

"Naturally, they will also fall apart for their own interests."

"There are no monolithic relationships in the world, only indivisible interests."

"Besides," Tang Shun said calmly, stretching his shoulders, "I already gave them the order."

"If they keep hoarding, that's fine. The grain will just rot in the warehouse. If they can handle it, I have nothing to say."

"If they dare to sell for less than two hundred coins per bushel..."

"That is defying the government! Disobeying orders!"

"This is the knife hanging over their heads!"

"If they engage in other underhanded tactics, I can prosecute them for 'disrupting people's livelihoods and plotting treason'."

"The four major merchants were all exterminated, their property and families were confiscated, and all their fields, shops, granaries and money were confiscated."

The room suddenly fell silent.

Xie Anzhi stood frozen in place, his hands and feet turning cold.

He understood!

Those small-time vendors from other places could sell grain to save their lives.

But those four wealthy merchants are doomed!

Their assets are enough to save tens of thousands of refugees!

That's it!

From the moment Tang Shun entered Wenchi County, he wove a huge net for the four wealthy merchants!

Xie Anzhi looked at Tang Shun, his gaze shifting from shock to awe, and then from awe to a hint of fear.

This man made the city's grain prices bow down without using any weapons!

Without killing a single person, a single order can wipe out an entire family!

What he seeks is not only the current food price, but also how the displaced people will survive in the future!

After a long silence, Xie Anzhi said in a low voice, "I understand."

Tang Shun didn't turn around, but simply said, "Go. Keep an eye on the market, take a look, and learn something."

Xie Anzhi responded with a bow: "Yes."

He stepped out of the hall, his footsteps becoming much lighter, as if afraid of disturbing something.

Tang Shun was the only one left in the room.

He sat back down at his desk, picked up his pen, and began to write and draw.

Outside the window, a faint commotion drifted from the distant market, with someone shouting, "The government is going to lower prices again!"

"Announcement! Announcement!"

"The government has ample grain reserves, and the pacification commissioner has ordered a further reduction in grain prices!"

"Seventy-five coins for a bushel of rice! Seventy-five coins for a bushel of rice!"

Soldiers and county officials shouted at the top of their lungs in the street.

The entire county was in an uproar once again!

Then came more footsteps, surging like a tide.

"Grain prices have dropped again! They've dropped again!"

"Go buy it right away!"

"Are you stupid? The price has dropped by twenty-five coins from yesterday to today, and it'll definitely drop again tomorrow!"

"Stop buying! Stop buying!"

"Let's take another look, let's take another look!"

"That's true. I heard that in Lingwu County next door, it's already 65 wen per dou! It's still too expensive here."

Tang Shun raised his head and looked at the bright sky outside the door.

The sky was clear and cloudless, as if the gloom that had hung over Wenchi County had been swept away.

Who says only grain traders will wait and see or hoard grain?

When grain prices plummet, people, once they realize what's happening, will start wondering if prices could drop even further.

As a result, fewer people are buying grain, and more people are hoping for prices to drop.

With positive and negative forces clashing, grain merchants, in order to break even, panicked and began to frantically lower prices to sell off their stock.

This is a loop, a loop with no solution.

At the same time, Manager Liu hurriedly headed towards the Zhang family's house.

In the span of a single day and night, the situation changed dramatically!

Who would have thought that the sky-high price of grain, which was 260 coins yesterday, would plummet to 80 coins overnight!

He had been in the grain business his whole life and had never heard of such a drop in price!

Tang Shun laid his sword horizontally, setting the price precisely at one hundred coins.

This price is neither too high nor too low, just right between the profit and loss for grain merchants from other regions!

Selling it now might make a profit, but shipping it back will definitely result in a loss!

The key issue is that we can't transport it! We can only sell it!

Manager Liu heard rumors circulating in the county town early in the morning and could no longer sit still.

Those out-of-town grain merchants who had made appointments yesterday are all vying to back out, fearing they'll sell too slowly!

At that moment, Manager Liu rushed into the backyard of the Zhang residence, his boots leaving two wet streaks on the brick floor, wet with the puddles of water.

He was panting heavily, his words incoherent, "Brother Zhang... something's happened! The market price... has dropped to eighty coins a bushel!"