"The British prince is a famous old fox. Of course he is smart."
Emperor Hongzhi smiled and said: "If it hadn't been for him, we might not have been able to raise enough money and grain for disaster relief this time. Now we not only have one million taels of silver for disaster relief, but also raised 30,000 dan of grain. This famine
Finally, I was able to get through it smoothly.”
"Father, you think too simply."
Zhu Houzhao glanced at Emperor Hongzhi, curled his lips and said: "This time they have been planning for a long time. How can they see this mere million taels of silver?"
"Didn't I say it before? This time they are actually coming for us, father and son, and our royal family. They are not going to drain all the money in our hands and take away our property.
, they will never give up."
"Now, Father, you have only taken out 500,000 taels of silver, which is only one-fifth of your internal funds. You still have 2 million taels of silver left in your internal funds. My private money has not touched a penny.
How could they just stop?"
After hearing Zhu Houzhao's words, Emperor Hongzhi's face darkened. After thinking about it, he nodded and agreed with Zhu Houzhao's statement.
Emperor Hongzhi thought for a while and asked: "Then what will they do next?"
"It's very simple, create a phenomenon of extreme food shortage, and then drive up the price of food until the price of food is raised to a sky-high price. By then, the millions of taels of silver raised will not be able to buy much food at all, and then they will
I’ll write to you again and ask my father to use the money to buy food.”
Zhu Houzhao said almost without thinking.
"If they really want to do this, then I really can't be blamed this time."
A cold light flashed in Emperor Hongzhi's eyes, and then he thought for a moment and said, "Ask Liu Jin here in Tianjin to prepare as soon as possible."
"yes."
When Zhu Houzhao heard this, he immediately became more excited. At this time, he felt as if he was marching and fighting. However, what was at war between the two sides was not soldiers, but money and food. Now it depends on who has the money and food in his hands. Then
Whoever holds the key to victory in this battle.
Things were just as Zhu Houzhao expected.
On that very day, rice was sold in Beijing for fifty-five cents per catty in the morning. In the afternoon, it was like riding a rocket. The price of one catty of grain rose to one hundred and fifty cents per catty, and this amount of silver was only
I could only buy ten kilograms of grain.
What's even more outrageous is that these grain merchants have also implemented purchase restrictions. Even if they are rich, each person can only buy a maximum of two kilograms of grain at a time, and a store can only sell a maximum of one thousand kilograms a day, creating an extremely scarce food supply.
How much inventory does it look like.
Due to the famine, the price of food has been rising again and again. The original price of a few cents has increased to more than fifty cents, and now it has suddenly risen to one hundred and fifty cents, and it seems that there is no food to sell at all.
The entire capital suddenly began to be in turmoil.
After all, food is the foundation of everything. As long as people live, they must eat and drink. If food is unstable, people's hearts will naturally be unstable. Food prices have risen to sky-high prices, and famine has spread from outside the city to the capital.
One hundred and fifty cents per pound of grain, even here in the capital, everyone keeps saying they can't afford it. You have to know that in this era, it is considered good for a young and strong labor force to earn forty or fifty cents a day. In other words, a
An adult can barely earn a pound of grain a day, so you can imagine how expensive this grain has become.
Throughout the capital, public dissatisfaction boiled. Countless people who could not afford food or buy food began to gather to put pressure on the government, demanding that the government severely punish these profiteers who had made great fortunes in the country, and open warehouses to release grain as soon as possible to provide relief to the victims.
The news naturally spread to the court very quickly.
"What?"
"Food has increased to 150 yuan per catty?"
On the morning of the next day, when Zhou Jing, the Minister of Household Affairs, told the latest grain prices, Emperor Hongzhi was shocked and looked in disbelief.
"Didn't I only have more than fifty yuan per catty yesterday?"
"To be precise, yesterday morning it was still fifty-five cents per catty. Yesterday afternoon, the price of grain rose to one hundred and fifty cents per catty."
Zhou Jing said helplessly that he had asked someone to contact the grain merchant yesterday to discuss purchasing grain. When he heard the quotation given to him by the grain merchant, he was also shocked.
These unscrupulous people actually sell one pound of grain for one hundred and fifty cents per pound, and there is no room for negotiation on this price. They all keep saying that food is scarce now, and they don't have much food in their hands, so even if they sell it, it is
There is no way to sell too much to the court at once.
"One hundred and fifty taels of silver can only buy ten jins of grain for one tael. The one million taels of silver donated by everyone can only buy 10 million jins of grain."
"The three provinces of Beizhili, Shanxi, and Shandong have a total population of almost 10 million. In other words, the donated money is only enough to buy one pound of food for each of the victims in the three provinces?"
Hongzhi simply calculated the amount with his fingers. One million taels of silver seemed like a lot, but it was only enough to buy one pound of food for each of the victims.
How long can I eat this pound of grain?
Even if you cook all the porridge, even if everything goes well for a day, just lying down and drinking porridge to survive, this pound of food will not last for a few days.
"Yes, Your Majesty, one million taels of silver will not last long at all. However, it will take about a month to mobilize the food from the south, so we still need more silver taels to buy food."
"I sincerely request your Majesty to use your internal funds to use more silver to purchase food and provide relief to the victims."
Zhou Jing nodded, and habitually pawned the skin of a pig, preparing to get some money out of Emperor Hongzhi's internal funds.
"Zhou Jing, should my money be used to help the victims? Or should it be used to help the grain merchants?"
After hearing Zhou Jing's words, Emperor Hongzhi stood up immediately and stared at Zhou Jing, extremely angry.
At this time, what he, the Minister of Household Affairs, was not thinking about because the price of grain was too high and whether these grain merchants should be severely punished. Instead, he was once again eyeing his own money. How could Emperor Hongzhi not be angry? No matter how good he was,
There are limits to your temper.
"I...I also know that the price of food is ridiculously high, but food is scarce now. No matter how expensive the price is, we still have to buy it. The ground outside Beijing is already full of hunger, and the victims of the disaster have changed their lives to eat."
Zhou Jing suddenly fell to his knees and replied in fear, with cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.
"good very good."
Emperor Hongzhi laughed angrily and then asked: "Zhou Jing, the one million taels of silver haven't been used yet, right?"
"No, because the price of food has skyrocketed, I think it is too expensive. In addition, major grain dealers say that food is scarce, and I don't have much food on hand, so I haven't spent it yet."
When Zhou Jing heard this, he quickly replied.
"It's fine if you don't spend any money."
Emperor Hongzhi nodded, then smiled and said: "The price of grain is too expensive. One hundred and fifty cents per catty and one million taels of silver can't purchase much grain."
"But I have heard that here in Tianjin, the price of meat is only one penny per pound. I read the Zhou Jing that you can go to Tianjin and have a look. We might as well not buy food at all, but buy meat.