On the third day of June, in Suzhou City, South Zhili, Zhang Keli, the minister of the Ministry of War who had retired, looked at a copy of Tianjin Daily in his hand and frowned.
This newspaper was obtained from Tianjin by Zhang Keli. Although the civil servants and gentry in Southern Zhili were hostile to the "Tianjin Daily" and would never let the newspaper spread in Southern Zhili, Zhang Keli, as a senior official with a city government,
I secretly collected Tianjin newspapers and read them every day.
Zhang Keli's family owned thousands of hectares of fertile land, almost all of which were donated by ordinary people. He was prosperous in Suzhou City, but he was very worried about Li Zhi, who was an enemy of the gentry. After Li Zhi collected taxes from the gentry in Tianjin,
He also extended his tentacles to Shandong. It seems that within a few years if this continues, the land tax will be equalized across the country in accordance with Li Zhi's rules. If that happens, the Zhang family's farm industry will collapse in an instant.
Zhang Keli's five-bedroom wife and thirteen children all depended on the farm to make a living. Without the farm, wouldn't the dozens of Zhang family members be doomed? Zhang Keli hated Li Zhi.
As the saying goes, if you know yourself and your enemy, you will never be defeated. Zhang Keli reads Tianjin Daily every day to see what Li Zhi is doing and whether Li Zhi will really keep winning and defeat all the gentry in the world.
However, today's "Tianjin Daily" piqued Zhang Keli's interest.
Li Zhi made it clear in the "Tianjin Daily" that he would buy 10 million shi of grain for disaster relief, and called on the gentry all over the world to show their benevolence and righteousness, trade fairly, and not take the opportunity to drive up rice prices.
The common people in the Ming Dynasty had no food stocks. They were so poor that they would go hungry during the lean years. Almost all the food stocks in the world were in the hands of the gentry. Whether Li Zhi could buy a huge amount of 10 million shi of grain at a fair price?
Let’s see if the gentry in the world cooperate with Li Zhi.
So Li Zhi shouted loudly in the Tianjin Daily, hoping that the gentry in the world would not drive up prices.
Zhang Keli snorted coldly and looked down again:
"After Jin Guogong exterminated the Zheng family pirates, he received more than 20 million taels of silver. Adding to the silver accumulated by Jin Guogong over the years, there are more than 30 million taels in total. Jin Guogong plans to spend all of it to buy food to help the victims. As long as the world's
If the gentry does not drive up the price of rice and trades with Tianjin at a fair price, the Duke of Tianjin can save tens of millions of people in Shandong Province."
"The amount of ten million shi is too huge. In order not to cause large fluctuations in the supply and demand of grain prices in various places, the Duke of Tianjin plans to purchase grain in batches in various places and use fleets to transport it. In North Zhili, he bought 2 million shi. In the south
Buy four million stones in Zhili, two million stones in Zhejiang, and one million stones each in Fujian and Guangdong."
Finally, "Tianjin Daily" once again emphasized the importance of sincere cooperation, emphasizing that as long as the gentry in the world did not drive up the price of rice, the Duke of Tianjin would be able to successfully relieve Shandong.
Zhang Keli finished reading the Tianjin Daily, snorted coldly, and slapped the newspaper on the tea table.
He looked at his eldest son and asked, "It seems that Li Zhi really wants to buy 10 million shi of grain for disaster relief."
Zhang Keli's eldest son nodded and said: "Father, this is not wrong. If he doesn't buy food, how can he use it for disaster relief? For this disaster relief matter, the emperor has given Li Zhi the official position of governor of Shandong, and also allowed Li Zhi to harvest crops in Shandong in the future.
Commercial taxation. Li Zhi’s reply to the emperor has been made public. Li Zhi was very happy with the official position and taxation rights given by the emperor, and was determined to spend money on disaster relief, saying, ‘No one in Shandong will be allowed to starve to death’!”
"Li Zhi used disaster relief this time to actually control Shandong province. This time the emperor and Li Zhi were purely making a deal. If Li Zhi could not successfully purchase enough grain to feed the drought-stricken Shandong, the emperor would definitely seal him off.
If the officials are taken back, Li Zhi will definitely not be allowed to levy commercial taxes."
"So Li Zhi is going all out this time and will definitely buy food with all his strength. Father, if you look at the wording in the Tianjin Daily, he is almost begging the gentry in the world. He also knows that if the gentry in the world does not cooperate, he will buy it with more than 30 million taels of silver.
Less than 10 million shi of food."
Zhang Keli's eldest son paused and then said: "Father, the population of Nanzhili is more than 20 million, and the surplus grain in the market of Nanzhili is only a few million shi. Li Zhi came to buy 4 million shi at once, almost
How can it be so easy to buy Kongnan Zhili?"
"As long as we work a little bit, we can drive the price of food to the sky. At that time, not only will Li Zhi hand over all his money, but he will also be unable to get enough food for disaster relief. When the time comes, he will spend all his money, and he will be killed by the emperor again.
Wouldn’t it be a good thing to take back official positions and tax rights?”
Zhang Keli thought for a while and said: "This seems to be the case. But I always feel that there is something strange...Li Zhi is not stupid. He buys grain in such a big way. Isn't he afraid that the gentry in the world will raise the price of grain and make things difficult for him?
.”
Zhang Keli's eldest son smiled and said: "Father, Li Zhi is really out of his mind this time. He thought that he was doing a good deed by paying for disaster relief, and everyone in the world would cooperate with him. But he didn't know that the world's scholars and gentry
I hate him to the core, even if I get a bad name, I will bring him down, Li Zhi."
"Father, you don't know. I heard that before Li Zhi's memorial was disclosed half a month ago, Li Zhi had secretly started to collect grain. He bought 300,000 stone rice noodles in Beizhili and 100,000 kilograms of rice noodles in Zhejiang.
He bought 500,000 shi of rice and 300,000 shi in Fujian. The grain merchants in the market didn’t react yet and sold it to him at a fair price.”
"But such a large purchase volume cannot be concealed, and the news spread quickly."
"In the past few days, news has come from the capital. Li Zhi's memorial in reply to the emperor has been revealed. From now on, everyone in the world knows that Li Zhi wants to buy ten million stones, and he wants to buy out several southern provinces. Which Jin gentry who has grain will not raise the price and act ruthlessly?
To make things difficult for him? In addition, he announced his family name in the newspaper and said that he has more than 30 million taels of silver. I am afraid that no gentry will let him go."
Zhang Keli thought for a long time, nodded and said: "Our family can't do this. I'll go to Qian Gong's place to see what everyone's attitude is."
Zhang Keli changed his clothes and sat in a sedan chair to Qian Qianyi's mansion. As soon as he arrived at the door of Qian's house, the disciples of Qian's house laughed and said: "Mr. Zhang is here too, so all the people in Suzhou Mansion are here!"
Zhang Keli was stunned for a moment, then followed the family into the second hall. When he walked into the second hall, he found that the famous gentry of Suzhou Prefecture, including the prefect of Suzhou, had gathered, and they were all drinking tea there with smiles on their faces.
Although Qian Qianyi, the leader of Donglin who is famous all over the world, is old, he is still very energetic. He waved to Zhang Keli and said with a smile: "Mr. Zhang is here too. Mr. Zhang, take your seat!"
Zhang Keli thought about it for a while, then sat on a chair and heard Qian Qianyi say loudly: "This time Li Zhi was so smart that he advertised in the newspaper that he had 30 million silver. Can we let him go? The gentry over there in Nanjing have organized
We got up, not only did we not let out a grain of our own rice, but we also tried our best to buy the surplus grain from small grain merchants in the market. This time we will raise the price of grain in South Zhili to five liang and one stone, so that Li Zhi will lose all his money.
