On the 26th of February in the first year of Jingtai, there were only three days left until the Jijike Conference test results were released on the 29th.

During the process of marking papers with the examiner, Shen Yichen, in addition to resting and waiting in the house, also received the memorials he had originally written one after another and asked for his response.

As expected, Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu's criticism was very simple. He encouraged Shen Yichen to praise Shen Yichen for his dedication to the country and the people, and then nothing more happened. The reason is that even if Yu Qian is the governor of the world's troops, the nominal capital army

Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

However, Anyuan Hou Liupu and Jingyuan Bo Wang Ji still control nearly half of the capital's garrison. Now that the emperor has returned to the capital to support him, and the empress dowager Sun is ready to make a move, Zhu Qiyu will have no idea if it worsens to a coup.

Governing a big country is like cooking small dishes. Emperor Jingtai believed that time was on his side, and his brother should be much more anxious.

In contrast, Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu applauded and praised Shen Yichen on time, and sent a letter of thanks to Jingyuan Bo Wang Ji. At first, it was like nothing happened, and he waited for several days without any response.

Just when Shen Yichen thought that the other party did not want to agree, and was about to go to the Ichaohui directly to block the person, he finally received a reply from Uncle Jingyuan and Wang Ji, and the two parties agreed on a time for a visit.

However, when Shen Yichen went to Uncle Jingyuan's Mansion, he finally received the news he had been dreaming of. Xu Fengyuan, who was sent to the south to collect food, was finally leading the Ming Dynasty fleet, which was unrivaled in this era, and was about to arrive in Dagu.

Haiphong Port!

As early as the year before when drafting the memorial for the ice disaster in various state capitals, Shen Yichen had already anticipated that a large-scale food crisis might occur. So he almost bypassed the request process for Shangshu and used his own private power to dispatch a fleet.

, went to Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Huguang and others to buy grain.

In particular, Admiral Shen Yichen's Fujian Province has not been destroyed or established through the counter-insurgency war. The ordinary people who have been allocated farmland in the past two years are far more motivated to produce than other regions. The grain output has repeatedly hit new highs. Almost one province can meet Xu Fengyuan's procurement needs.

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We must know that even if the Ming Dynasty did not have chemical fertilizers and other things, the yield per mu would be far from comparable to that of later generations. But we must also know that the entire Ming Dynasty currently has only more than 60 million people and millions of square kilometers of land.

With such a small number of people, there are still famines that kill people everywhere every year.

The case in Fujian has proved that as long as land annexation is curbed and ordinary people have enough land to cultivate, they can still ensure that they have enough to eat even if they encounter a reduction in production during the Little Ice Age.

Of course, land annexation is a life-threatening rope that has been hung around the neck by successive dynasties and is constantly shrinking. If Shen Yichen wants to go against the current, he has a long way to go!

The original idea of ​​Shen Yichen sending Xu Fengyuan to the south to purchase rice grains was simply to help the poor people through the lean period of spring farming, and to prevent them from owing money to the gentry and landlords for loans and being robbed of the few they had.

The industry did not expect that there would be a situation of hoarding rice grains and driving up grain prices after the new year.

Now that we have encountered it, it is not in line with Shen Yichen's character to just release cheap food to save the market.

Shen Yichen wants to drive up food prices and eat steamed buns with human blood. This time, Shen Yichen plans to make the masterminds behind the scenes spit out their money and profits!

However, before fighting this "food war", Shen Yichen first came to Beizhen Fusi to meet Zhao Hongjie. Only by knowing yourself and the enemy can you be victorious in every battle. He needed his childhood friends to help him with some things.

For Jinyiwei's Beizhen Fusi, Shen Yichen was the most frequent civil servant in the imperial court, so much so that even the guards standing at the door knew each other.

"Young man, please pay homage to Mr. Shen Ge!"

Before Shen Yichen could get closer, a guard in imperial robes guarding the Fusi Gate in Beizhen immediately came over and saluted, so much so that his colleagues were stunned on the spot, unable to realize what was going on.

After all, even if Shen Yichen is famous, he has nothing to do with Jinyiwei, a secret service agency of the Emperor's own army. For Zhao Hongjie's sake, he can be respectful, so a public salute like this is a bit too much.

If this continues, how will the Jin Yiwei handle matters in the court in the future?

"The emperor's own army should have the dignity of a warrior. Wei San, you don't have to be polite!"

Before the guard Jinyi knelt down, Shen Yichen had already supported him. He was the jailer Wei San who helped run errands in the prison.

After the Battle of Tumubao, the ranks of the military commanders were weakened, and the status of military generals obviously collapsed. Even the emperor's personal soldiers such as Jinyiwei, as the previous commander Ma Shun was beaten to death by civil servants in front of the emperor, Lu Zhong, who succeeded him,

Weak and mediocre, they all seem to be unable to support the secret service.

In the past, Shen Yichen forbade any general to kneel down in front of him in the military camp. Now, even ordinary soldiers try to avoid such ceremonies as much as possible.

If a warrior does not have enough dignity and indomitable majesty, how can he build a strong and strong will to face powerful enemies from all directions?

"Yes, I humbly obey my orders."

"When Mr. Shen Ge comes to Beizhen Fusi, are you looking for Zhao Tongzhi?"

Wei San knew about the relationship between Shen Yichen and Zhao Hongjie. He was able to be transferred out of Jinyiwei's prison. In a sense, he was entrusted with Zhao Hongjie's care.

"Um."

"Then I will take you in right now."

Having said that, Wei San bowed and turned sideways, preparing to lead the way, leading Shen Yichen directly into Beizhen Fusi.

Under normal circumstances, outsiders are not allowed to easily enter such an important intelligence location, even if the cabinet minister wants to enter without official documents.

But Shen Yichen is not an ordinary person, and there is no need to wait outside for notification.

"No need, just go and tell Zhao Tongzhi, I will wait outside."

"Okay, Mr. Shen Ge, wait a minute."

Wei San did not dare to neglect, and immediately trotted all the way into Beizhen Fusi. Soon Zhao Hongjie's figure appeared in Shen Yichen's eyes.

"As the saying goes, no matter what happens, you don't go to the Three Treasures Palace. Xiangbei, you came to visit me this time. What good things did you think of me?"

After Zhao Hongjie met Shen Yichen, he first joked that he knew that the other person coming directly to Beizhen Fusi was definitely not for personal matters.

"I really need your help with something."

Shen Yichen smiled and replied, he had nothing to be polite to Zhao Hongjie.

"Say it."

"Help me spread the news in the capital, saying that I, Shen Yichen, will distribute grain at a fair price in the capital in the name of the Chengguo Government to provide disaster relief and help the people!"

Food at a fair price?

Hearing that Shen Yichen entrusted him to do this, Zhao Hongjie was a little confused. Why should he spread the news himself if he just distributed grain at a low price? The price of grain in the capital has now risen to the sky. It increased from two yuan to five yuan a stone a year ago.

Two nine and one stone.

In Northern Zhili and even closer to the border, Shanxi and other places that suffered serious wars last year have already broken through the two-two-one-stone mark, which is a full ten times increase!

Whenever the news of affordable grain distribution comes out, there is no need to promote anything at all. People will flock to buy it. Shen Yichen only needs to worry about whether he has enough rice to sell!

"Xiang Bei, just let me drop a message?"

Zhao Hongjie asked uncertainly, why he couldn't understand Shen Yichen's behavior more and more.

"That's right, the target is the imperial ministers who are hoarding rice grains. They must be convinced of one thing. That is, in order to cover up my boast of Haikou, I used the grain reserves of Chengguo Duke's government to provide disaster relief to the people."

What Shen Yichen wants Zhao Hongjie to spread is not an ordinary grain release news. Instead, it is Jiang Taigong's bait. Anyone who wants to take the bait will take the bait!

Zhu Yi and Yang Hongze both emphasized that the essence of the food shortage in the north lies in the insufficient supply caused by the entry of the Tartars last year. Even if there is only a 10% gap, the result will be a skyrocketing food price.

This tragedy of food shortage will not end until the 10% of people cannot afford food and starve to death.

Why did Shen Yichen's promise to He Wendao to plead for the people in front of the Shuntian Gongyuan gate not cause waves in the court like before?

It's because a group of interest groups headed by my relative, Sun Zhong, know very well where the core problem lies. Even if you, Shen Yichen, have super powers, can you still conjure food out of thin air to provide disaster relief to the people?

The food shortage will never be solved by just talking, so there is no need to worry at all.

Now Shen Yichen relied on the precautions he had made a year ago and asked Xu Fengyuan to raise nearly three million tons of grain from all over the south and transport it to the north in batches continuously by sea, which was enough to calm the market and solve this crisis.

But if it were simply lifted, the masterminds behind the scenes would have already made a lot of money during this period, and it would just be that they would no longer be able to continue to enrich the country.

Those people who died, those whose families were ruined, those tenants who were forced to sell their land due to loan debt, who will help them seek justice?

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Shen Yichen never believed in the principle of repaying evil with kindness, and he always practiced repaying evil with straightness. Even if he was a prince or an emperor, Shen Yichen would dare to do treasonous and unethical acts for the sake of "justice", let alone a mere relative.

He must make the other party pay a heavy price so that those who come after him will not dare to do it again. Only in this way can it be regarded as true disaster relief and helping the people!

"I'm afraid the Chengguo government's surplus grain won't be able to lower grain prices. They may even send people over to snap up all the rice grains you sell, which won't have much of an impact on market grain prices."

Zhao Hongjie shook his head. He didn't know that Shen Yichen had a grain transport fleet off the coast, and thought that the other party wanted to rely on the help of his father-in-law's family to complete disaster relief and help the people.

Although Cheng Guogong was once the Duke of the Ming Dynasty, compared with those vassal princes and relatives who were keen on making money, those family properties were really not ranked. The salary was only 3,500 dan a year, plus the manor

The output of the fiefdom is about 10,000 dan per year.

Grain cannot be stored for a long time. It can be stored for up to three years. Zhao Hongjie can roughly guess that the remaining grain in Chengguo Duke's mansion is about 30,000 shi.

It has to be said that Zhao Hongjie guessed very accurately that the amount of surplus food Zhu Yi could help Shen Yichen was only 30,000 shi!

"Hongjie, what if I say that the nominal surplus of Chengguo Duke's government is three million shi?"

"What, three million stones?"

Upon hearing this number, Zhao Hongjie felt as if Shen Yichen was joking with him.

The entire Ming Dynasty's annual grain tax revenue was only more than 20 million shi. When did Duke Cheng become a thief and could he have 3 million shi of surplus grain?

Cheng Guogong really didn't have this ability, but Shen Yichen monopolized overseas trade with Japan, and even let Deng Maoqi occupy the territory of Japan's foreign island. He restored his old business with the Fujian miner rebels and dug up Japan's banks himself.

It would be no exaggeration to say that the accumulated wealth is as rich as a country.

In addition, the price of grain in the south is far less exaggerated than in the north. Three million shi of grain is equivalent to less than one million taels of silver, and Shen Yichen can definitely afford it.

"Yes, nominally the Chengguo Duke's Mansion has three million shi of food, but you know this and I know that the outside world can only estimate that it is 30,000 shi."

The reason why Shen Yichen wanted to use the name of the Duke of Chengguo was because Zhao Hongjie could guess the surplus grain. Huichang Bo and Sun Zhong were both relatives, so they could easily come up with the same answer, which caused them to make strategic misjudgments.

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If Shen Yichen had just made a big show of saying that he wanted to distribute grain at a fair price without relying on the name of Duke Chengguo, based on Shen Yichen's experience of turning the tide many times in the past, the other party would definitely try to figure out where his confidence came from?
To be continued...