On the sixth day of July, in the courtyard of the Shen family in Fucheng, Qingzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province, Shen Congdao, the head of the Shen family, held a note from the prefect of Qingzhou Prefecture, but he felt that the note was so fragile that he could hardly lift it.
The Shen family has been hoarding food this month, to the point where it has exhausted their family wealth.
The Shen family has more than 6,000 acres of land and more than 100 tenant farmers. These lands bring him more than 7,000 taels of land rent every year. As a scholar, Shen Congdao, of course, does not pay land tax. But the Shen family has a great business. , the expenses are also high, plus the money from the annual filial piety to the magistrate and the county magistrate, the Shen family has only saved more than 30,000 taels of silver in more than ten years.
Shen Congdao used almost all of the more than 30,000 taels of silver to hoard rice and noodles. The granary in the backyard of the Shen family was filled with warehouses of rice and noodles.
Last month, Li Zhi published an article in the newspaper, saying that he had more than 30 million taels of silver and wanted to buy more than 10 million stones of silver in the coastal provinces. At this time, all the gentry in several coastal provinces became active. The gentry Under the organization of famous officials, they bought and hoarded grains in large quantities, preparing to sell them to Li Zhi at a high price.
In the southern provinces, the gentry still had some reservations and only promoted large-scale transactions. I heard that in southern Zhili, people went to the gentry's grain stores to buy more than a dozen kilograms of rice for their own use, but the gentry still sold it at the price of three liang and one stone, that is, One cent and six cents of silver per catty of rice. But if it is a large purchase of more than five thousand catties, the price will be five liang and one stone.
This is a naked price inversion, that is, the wholesale price is higher than the retail price, which is a clear trap for Li Zhi.
Most of the accumulated grain was in the gentry's granaries. As long as the gentry unified their minds and did not sell it for sale, the price of grain for bulk transactions was quickly raised. The limited surplus grain on the market in southern provinces was bought up by the gentry. The gentry put out After arriving at Longmen Formation, they were waiting to blackmail Li Zhi severely when he came to buy food.
In Shandong, the destination of this disaster relief, the gentry were even more ferocious. There were ten thousand gentry in Shandong who did not want to see Li Zhi succeed in taking over Shandong for disaster relief. The famine in Shandong was a trivial matter, and those who died were poor farmers who had no food reserves. If Li Zhi succeeded in providing disaster relief and took over Shandong, the gentry would be completely doomed as soon as he collected the land tax in a few years.
The gentry in Shandong all contributed money and efforts to raise the price of grain.
Everyone predicts that there will be no harvest at all in Shandong in the coming year. The food market in Shandong is already very tight, so the price of food will skyrocket as soon as it is incited.
At the beginning, the gentry in Shandong were still a little frightened, fearing that the Tianjin Association would suddenly put a butcher's knife on the necks of the gentry who were hoarding grain. But seeing the prices rising little by little, the Huben division in Jinan did not make any move. The gentry in Shandong gradually became more courageous. Get bigger.
The gentry in Shandong not only stopped supplying grain to the market, but also purchased grain on the market at a high price, with the price of grain reaching six liang and one stone.
The farmers who plow the fields are okay. They eat their own food. Although they have not harvested this year's harvest, last year's harvest has not been finished yet. The province can survive until August or September. But the citizens in the cities and towns are unlucky. , we have to buy grain at two or three times the original price. The monthly salary from working is not enough to buy rice, and the family's savings are about to be exhausted.
All the prefectures and counties in Shandong were filled with complaints. The citizens hated the gentry who hoarded food. Some people even wrote the ballad of King Chuang on both sides of the street. The two lines of black characters scared the gentry all over the city and searched them, and finally arrested them. A twelve-year-old Meng boy came out and was whipped.
The citizens' savings were disappearing rapidly, and the life of the gentry was also somewhat unsustainable. The food price, which was expected to be easily controlled, was constantly hit at the end of June, and it almost felt like it could not be sustained. I don't know who, in There was a large-scale sell-off of grain in the market, dumping it towards the gentry who took over the food at a high price.
For example, in Qingzhou Prefecture, a mysterious force brought more than 300,000 shi of grain and kept selling it. Although it was southern businessmen with different identities who brought rice to sell every time, Shen Congdao knew that it was definitely the same. This group of people sell grain on a large scale at a price lower than that of the gentry grain stores. If the Qingzhou gentry does not buy them all, the grain prices that have been raised with great difficulty will collapse.
The gentry in Qingzhou Prefecture were frightened by the mysterious seller, and no one took the initiative to take over. The gentry went to the magistrate's office every day these days, and the prefect assigned a share to take over the grain sold on the market.
However, the gentry all understand that the price of food across the country is at a high level, and this selling force is unsustainable. As long as they eat this food to last until the next great famine, they can sell food for ten taels of silver per stone, not to mention six taels of silver. , those common people can only get money to buy it by selling iron.
So every time the prefect assigned various gentry to take over the business, all the gentry gritted their teeth and paid for it. The mysterious businessman dumped a huge amount of grain in Qingzhou City, but the price of grain in Qingzhou has always remained at six liang and one stone. But that mysterious businessman seemed to It is a test of the endurance of the Qingzhou gentry. They will ship to you almost as much as you accept.
Today Shen Congdao received another note from the prefect. In order to avoid being noticed, only the two characters "eight hundred" were written on the note.
The prefect asked Shen Congdao to go to the market to pick up eight hundred shi of grain.
Eight hundred stones is more than four thousand taels of silver. Shen Congdao looked at this piece of paper and his head was covered with sweat.
The Shen family's money has been completely used up. Apart from the 7,000 shi of grain in the granary, Shen Congdao only has the house deed and the land deed. What will Shen Congdao buy for these 800 shi of grain?
But Shen Congdao knew that this was the next step. Nowadays, the gentry in Qingzhou's homes are piled with grain bought at high prices. If the price of grain falls without support, the gentry in Qingzhou will lose a large amount of their family property.
Who is this mysterious businessman, and why is he so ruthless? He is facing off against the gentry of Qingzhou.
Next to Shen Congdao, the accountant of the Shen family took a breath and said: "Master, hold on, you must hold on! As long as you hold on for another month, the farmer's family will run out of food. At that time, Li Zhi will have to All the money we spent on purchasing food at high prices for disaster relief will fly back."
"Not only that, we also want to make a big profit. All the grain we bought for five taels and five taels was sold to Li Zhi for six to seven taels and one dan."
Shen Congdao wiped the sweat from his forehead and nodded. He was wondering where to borrow the more than four thousand taels when he saw his servant Shen San running in with sweat on his face.
"Sir, the merchants who sell grain to the market have said that they will also accept the house deed. We can use the house deed as money to buy grain for them."
Want a house too? These businessmen want the Shen family’s life.
Shen Congdao seemed to have heard bad news, his face turned pale, and he fell heavily on his chair.
