Jinling is a major trading city in the south, and goods are highly valued, but because of this, the people in the city will not have much food reserves.
This includes wealthy households in the city. Rich households pursue a better quality of life and buy most of their food.
Only some local prominent families with large fields outside Jinling City would use the grain produced by their own families. However, this grain was usually stored in warehouses outside the city and brought into their homes on a regular basis.
Now Jinling City has been ordered to be sealed off, and the flow of goods has been suddenly cut off.
Food and medicinal materials immediately became a problem.
There is still a solution to the problem of food shortage. When Jinling was the old capital of the Zhou Dynasty, the imperial court built Ying Tiancang in Jinling City, and the food stored in it was enough to feed the people of Jinling for several months.
But there’s nothing you can do about medicinal materials!
Although the Six Diseases Center in Jinling Prefecture has some medicinal materials, compared with the 200,000 patients, and the number is still increasing, the few medicines in the Six Diseases Center are not enough to make soup...
Just as Yang Qingyuan and others were planning, yesterday's number of infected people arrived.
"One hundred thousand people again?!"
Yang Qingyuan looked at the statistics table sent with some disbelief.
This is of course only an approximate number, and Dazhou's administrative capabilities are not enough to fully count the number of infections.
Then Yang Qingyuan felt slightly surprised. The people infected this time all lived in the east of the city, and most of them were ordinary people.
It stands to reason that although people from wealthy businessmen's families in ancient times were not rich in delicacies and nutrients, they lacked exercise and exercise, and their immunity was not strong.
On the contrary, ordinary people in the city can own houses in Jinling City. Even ordinary bungalows, these families are above the well-off level and have no worries about food and clothing. Most of them are small traders and craftsmen. They often
Exercise will actually improve your physical fitness.
But now, it is these ordinary people who are infected with the disease in large numbers. Is it possible that this plague also depends on people?
Not thinking about this matter for the time being, Yang Qingyuan simply stopped thinking about it. The most important thing now was to get the medicinal herbs.
Xue Wen heard this and said, "Yang Hou, the medicinal materials in and around Jinling Prefecture are controlled by Chen You, Wang Jie, Lu Che, and Liu Shi. They almost monopolize nearly 80% of the medicinal herbs in Yangzhou."
"These four are local wealthy families?!"
"No, that's not the case!" Although Xue Wen took office not long ago, he was originally the governor of Gusu County and his ancestral home was Jinling, so he knew very well about the Jinling period.
"None of these four families can be regarded as local prominent families. Among them, the two kings of Chen are natives of Jiangnan, while one of Lu Che and Liu Shi is related to the Lu family of Fanyang, and the other is a branch of the Liu family in Guanzhong. At that time, Taizu raised an army to attack Qian in the north.
In the Yuan Dynasty, when the world was in chaos, the four of them were considered wealthy people, so they took advantage of the troubled times to gather some thugs to guard the courtyard, and made a business of smuggling medicinal materials. In the troubled times, the price of medicinal herbs was high, and they quickly made a fortune.
After Emperor Taizu Gao unified the world, the four of them gave up smuggling and opened a pharmacy in the south of the Yangtze River openly and engaged in legitimate medicinal business. At first, the four of them competed with each other, but gradually they formed an alliance and joined forces to suppress
other businessmen.
At the beginning, they took all those who competed with them for business. Some were incorporated by them, some left after being depressed, and some disappeared... So gradually no one in Jinling City competed with them, and the business became more and more prosperous...
"
Yang Qingyuan rubbed the folding fan in his hand, "It seems that if you want to get a large amount of medicinal materials, you have to start with them."
Xue Wen reminded, "But Mr. Hou, you still have to be prepared. They are all businessmen who are treacherous to the core. They regard wealth as their lives. It is not easy to pluck out the hair from them."
Things. Now that there is a big epidemic in Jinling, their methods will definitely increase the price of inventory, which will greatly affect the country's wealth!"
An inexplicable color flashed in Yang Qingyuan's eyes, "We have been enemies since ancient times. Although the four of them are in alliance, it is not yet known what their true relationship is? Who is the boss among them?!"
"Lu Che is the most powerful and has the most nursing homes under his command, ranking first among the four."
Yang Qingyuan nodded to indicate that he understood, and then said to Xue Wen, "Chongwen, I'm going to prepare the medicinal materials. You will personally supervise a few things tomorrow! First, everyone's drinking water must be boiled before entering the mouth from tomorrow."
"yes!"
"Second, all the food eaten by the infected family should be sealed and sold, and samples should be taken in turn and handed over to doctors for examination!"
Xue Wen was stunned for a moment, "Master Hou, why is this?!"
Yang Qingyuan's eyes were profound, "As far as I know, there is no disease that can crazily infect 300,000 people in a few days, absolutely not."
The change in the spread speed of an epidemic disease is measurable. In the absence of huge mutations, it should change from slow to fast.
That is to say, one spreads to ten, ten spreads to hundreds, hundreds spreads to thousands...it is an exponential upward trend.
Even the most astonishingly transmissible and terrifying Black Death, cholera, could not infect 300,000 people within the first few days.
This speed of transmission is unreasonable!
There must be something that caused the disease in these people.
"Sir, if you say this, do you have proof?!"
What Yang Qingyuan said is not surprising.
"The best proof is that Mr. Xue, you can still stand in front of me now. Assuming that the epidemic can really spread at a rate of infecting 300,000 people in six days, Chongwen, you should have been one of them."
Xue Wen was stunned for a moment. Although he didn't understand the reason, he felt that Yang Qingyuan's words were conclusive and he must be sure of it. In addition, since he was a Shangguan, he didn't say much, so he was right to follow it!
"By the way, Chongwen, where did Maogong go?!"
Yang Qingyuan never saw Yang Guo after entering Jinling, but the official document was clearly issued jointly by Yang Guo and Xue Wen.
"Master Xiao Yang went to the Donghai Navy's station in Jinling. He heard that there were also sick people in the army and the morale of the soldiers was unstable. Therefore, Master Xiao Yang personally took people there to calm the morale of the troops and at the same time command the epidemic prevention."
Yang Guo was the envoy to promote Yangzhou and could even temporarily take control of Yangzhou's military if necessary. Now that there was a problem in the army, he naturally had to go immediately.
Yang Qingyuan nodded and asked someone to send him a rough strategy. As long as Yang Guo could follow his epidemic prevention strategy, although he could not completely cut off the spread of the disease, it would not be difficult to control it.
After determining the division of labor, Yang Qingyuan came to the Liumen Branch of Jinling.
If a worker wants to do his job well, he must first sharpen his tools.
Yang Qingyuan still wants to find the files of the Chen, Wang, Lu, and Liu families.
Even if you want to take action, there must be a legitimate reason.
Soon, a police officer from Jinling Liumen Branch found the case files of these four families.
These four families belong to the gray area in Jinling, and they have also received the attention of the Jinling Liumen Branch.
Yang Qingyuan sat in front of the desk and quickly flipped through the files of these four families.
But as Yang Qingyuan expected, they have been enemies since ancient times.
Chen You, Wang Jie, Lu Che, and Liu Shi also have some friction with each other from time to time. However, as long as someone intends to get involved in the medicinal materials industry in Yangzhou, they will work together as soon as possible and suppress them until they are included.
Or drive out of Yangzhou.
For this reason, apart from them, there are no other big drug dealers in Yangzhou.
The remaining 20% of the medicinal materials market is occupied by other scattered drug stores.
Among the four, Chen You is the oldest, followed by Wang Jie, Lu Zhe, and Liu Shi, the youngest. However, Lu Zhe is the most intelligent and ruthless, and is the brains and leader of the four.
All the ideas come from him, and he must be better than the other four in terms of wealth.
When Liu Wangshu saw a smile on Yang Qingyuan's face, he knew that Yang Qingyuan already knew the details of the four people.
As for whether Yang Qingyuan can deal with the four people, this is completely beyond the scope of Liu Wangshu's worries.
No matter how talented Lu Che is, how is he compared to Li Hongyi, the former Grand Scholar of Jianji Palace?!
No matter how powerful his methods are, how does he compare to Zhao Yu, the leader of the Blue Dragon Society?!
Yang Qingyuan raised his head and looked at the catcher at the six gates of Jinling, "Captain Li, there is something I need to trouble you with!"
Yang Qingyuan has not yet received the imperial edict. He is acting here only as the prince's young master. He does not have direct administrative power over officials at all levels in Jinling. He relies entirely on his own prestige.
"Master Marquis, this is a shame for me. If you have any questions, just give me your instructions. I will definitely do my best."
"It's not a big deal. I just want to ask Capt. Li to send an invitation to these four people. Just say that at noon tomorrow, I will host a banquet for the four of them at Jiangning No. 1 Restaurant."
…
-----------------------
Jiangning County is a county under the jurisdiction of Jinling Prefecture. It is located to the west of Jinling City. It is the mother county of Jinling together with Shangyuan County. It is a place of "luxury in the Six Dynasties" and an important place in the "Gyeonggi of the Ten Dynasties".
The canal also passes through Jiangning, so although Jiangning County cannot be compared with Jinling Prefecture, its prosperity is not far behind that of Jingzhou, Chuzhou, Jiaozhou and other state capitals.
Jiang Ning, Lu Zhai.
After receiving Yang Qingyuan's invitation, Lu Zhe immediately invited the other three brothers over.
Lu Che looked at his three brothers and smiled respectfully, then took the invitation from Yang Qingyuan in his hand and said: "Brother Chen, second brother Wang, and fourth brother Liu, you should have received the invitation from Yang Qingyuan like me, right?
"
These four people were brothers in name only, and they acted like brothers, friends and brothers.
The three of them all nodded in agreement upon hearing this, and the four invitations were delivered almost at the same time.
Liu Shi was the youngest, but he looked the oldest among the four. He had dark skin and looked like a martial artist, but in fact he was thick on the outside and thin on the inside. He said in a deep voice: "What happened in Jinling now is like this."
If there is a serious epidemic, the imperial court’s medicinal materials must be insufficient. If we don’t get the support of medicinal materials, more and more people will become sick!”
As he spoke, he had a gloating expression on his face.
He is not a doctor, but a businessman. He doesn't care how many people get sick or die. Those are just clouds, and only the benefits are real.
Wang Jie, who looked like an old Confucian scholar, narrowed his eyes and said with a smile: "Fourth brother, I thought of going together. When I got the news five days ago, I already told the people below to stock up on medicinal materials and wait for the epidemic to spread.
We sold this medicinal material at a high price. This is a God-given opportunity. If we brothers miss it, we will be struck by thunder from heaven!"
Chen You, the oldest, still had a string of rosary beads in his hand, "How good! How good! You guys should accumulate some virtue!"
Chen You is the oldest, but he has begun to believe in Buddhism over the years.
"We can sell medicine, but we can't harm people's lives! I feel that even if we want to make money, we can't go too far, so we sell it at five times the original price. Any higher price will damage our morality!"
As he spoke, Chen You also turned his rosary beads and recited "Amitabha, sin, sin, sin".
The remaining three people were stunned when they heard these words. Even Lu Zhe, the most intelligent one, didn't know what to say!
What does "just five times the original price" mean? Isn't that high?!
Even Liu Shi and Wang Jie just wanted to sell it at three times the price. Sure enough, the boss is the boss, and his appetite is bigger than them!
After a slight silence, Wang Jie and Liu Shi agreed.
As long as the four of them join forces and don't sell medicine, there will be no place in Yangzhou to get a large amount of medicinal materials. The channels are all in their hands!
But Wang Jie seemed to have thought of something and said, "Of course we have to earn this money, but this person named Yang is not Yi Yu's generation. I'm a little worried!"
Where are Yang's achievements? This is a person who has reached the pinnacle of power in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and is responsible for deposing and establishing the emperor. It seems that the four local snakes can't compete with others!
Chen You, who was chanting sutras, opened his eyes and said, "We all come from philanthropic families, and we usually use medicinal materials to help people. What can this man named Yang do to us?! If he really dares to violate the law and kill people, our brothers are here."
It’s not like there are no connections in the capital!”
The four of them can achieve this level of business without being coveted by others or attacked by the government. Naturally, they have a protective umbrella within the court.
Spending handfuls of money every year as a filial piety is not just feeding pigs, it will come in handy at critical moments.
"Brother is right!" Liu Shi immediately spoke in support, "This Emperor Linde is not in the right position, his foundation is unstable, and he has no real power. And this man named Yang was just kicked out of the capital back then. What's so scary about him?"
.”
The four of them had no access to the power struggle at the peak of the Great Zhou Dynasty. They could only speculate on the process of the struggle based on the results like ordinary people.
Chen You nodded and agreed, "In the final analysis, he is a young man who is less than 30 years old, and his methods are not too sophisticated. We are legitimate businessmen. Whether to sell medicinal materials or not is our own business. The court and others
He controls heaven and earth, but he still cares about how we do business?! This has never been the case in all dynasties! If you want medicinal materials, you can! As long as you come and buy them, the medicinal materials will do the trick!"
Wang Jie, who had not responded, noticed that Lu Zhe, who was the most intelligent among the four, had not spoken much. On the contrary, Liu Shi and Chen You were excited about the discussion, so they asked.
"Lao San, what do you think we should do?!"
Chen You and Liu Shi, who were having a heated discussion, also stopped and looked at Lu Che.
Lu Che was the third oldest, but although the three of them were dissatisfied with his intelligence, they were in awe and fear in their hearts.
He was able to go from being the one with the lowest foundation among the original four to becoming the leader of the four today step by step. His methods are naturally extraordinary. He even organized the industry's offensive and defensive alliance to fight against outsiders.
Wang Jie and Liu Shi also wanted to hear Lu Che's opinion.
"I can't tell you now! But if this man named Yang can control the situation in the court, he must be capable. We must not underestimate him!"
Under Lu Zhe's basin of cold water, Chen You and Liu Shi calmed down a little, and said in unison, "Lao San (Third Brother), what do you think we should do?!"
Lu Zhe shook his head, "It's hard to say now. Let's wait until tomorrow and meet the Marquis first!"