On the ninth day of July, Li Zhi and his generals and officials were sitting happily in the "Shou Zheng Hall" of the Tianjin Duke's Mansion, discussing disaster relief matters.
Taking advantage of the east wind of disaster relief, Li Zhi arranged for the gentry who were against him in every possible way, and now he has achieved a great victory. The gentry have no morals, and they even know that there is a severe drought in Shandong and they want to drive up the price of food. They want to use this despicable method to bankrupt Li Zhi.
, allowing Li Zhi to fail in disaster relief. In the end, they all fell into the trap set by Li Zhi.
At the end of May, when Li Zhi had not replied to the emperor that he had decided to provide disaster relief, he bought one million shi of cheap grain from the southern provinces and transported it back to Tianjin by ship. At that time, the gentry in the world did not even know that Li Zhi wanted to provide disaster relief.
Moreover, the procurement is dispersed in many provinces, so the purchase price of these grains is very affordable, with an average of only 2, 25 yuan per stone.
Of course, Li Zhi not only had this one million shi of grain in his hands. Li Zhi also grabbed 350,000 shi of grain in Zheng Zhilong's Beigang and Dinghai City. In addition, last year, the land lease in Hsinchu was shipped to Tianjin, and there were 140,000 shi of grain.
More than 10,000 shi of rice. So at that time Li Zhi had 2.8 million shi of grain on hand.
With enough grain in hand as a bargaining chip, Li Zhi replied to the emperor and promised that he would take on the responsibility for disaster relief in Shandong. Soon, the memorial was revealed after being approved by the emperor, and the gentry all over the world knew about it.
Everyone knew that Li Zhi wanted to provide disaster relief, and everyone knew that Li Zhi wanted to buy grain.
A memorial alone was not enough to convince the gentry that disaster relief was true to its word. Li Zhi even promoted his ability to provide disaster relief through newspapers, boasting that he had 30 million silver. In private, Li Zhi spread the news through Han Jinxin's secret guards.
, let the gentry know that they have begun to purchase grain.
With a multi-pronged approach, all the gentry in the coastal provinces were fooled. The gentry all felt that as long as the price of grain was raised, Li Zhi would have no choice but to buy grain at a high price. Otherwise, how could he provide disaster relief? The enemy's thirty million taels of silver were all earned by Li Zhi.
It makes sense. The gentry rushed to the grain market to drive up grain prices, dreaming of earning Li Zhi's money.
In Shandong, the gentry directly raised the price of grain to six liang and one stone, and they were very cruel.
However, Li Zhi was not prepared to rely on the grain purchased on the market for disaster relief. Li Zhi pinned his disaster relief measures on the output of Hsinchu, Taiwan. So when the gentry raised the price of grain to the highest level, Li Zhi began to ship goods.
2.8 million shi of grain were thrown to the market, especially to Shandong, where grain prices were the highest.
The gentry fantasized about extorting Li Zhi by raising prices. They resisted stubbornly under Li Zhi's selling pressure and took the initiative to "take over" Li Zhi. Some Shandong gentry even mortgaged their mansions and sold iron to hoard grain. As a result, Li Zhi
All the 2.8 million shi of grain were sold at high prices to these "market making" gentry.
Because of their greed and shamelessness, these gentry did not hesitate to fall into Li Zhi's trap.
"Ambassador of the Overseas Affairs Office of the Shogunate" Gao Ligong was busy buying and selling grain from north to south according to Li Zhi's orders this time, which was the most difficult. His already thin body lost a few kilograms. However, he won a complete victory in this "food price war"
Finally, he felt very energetic. He took a sip of tea and said loudly:
"Master Guo, most of our grain is dumped in Shandong this time. Some are sold for five taels and five taels, and some are sold for five taels. The average selling price is about five taels and three taels. Calculated based on the cost price of two taels and five taels.
, our two hundred and eighty shi of grain earned us a full 7,800,000 taels of silver."
After hearing Gao Ligong's words, everyone in the Shouzheng Hall's eyes lit up.
7.8 million taels of silver, which is a huge amount of money that has never been seen in a town in Tianjin. Even if he defeated Zheng Zhilong, Li Zhi only got more than 6.2 million taels of silver. Unexpectedly, he set up a trap for the gentry to exploit.
The gentry sent Li Zhi 7.8 million taels of silver.
With this money, Li Zhi made back at least half of the money he spent on disaster relief in Shandong.
Everyone looked at each other for a while and laughed.
Gao Ligong looked at everyone with a smile and said: "This is just what we earned. In order to stabilize grain prices, the gentry in the south spent money to buy grain from the common people at high prices, spending at least several million taels of silver.
All this money flowed from the gentry’s treasury into the pockets of the common people.”
"The Duke's strategizing allowed us not only to make money this time, but also to do a good deed that benefited the people."
Everyone looked at each other with smiles in their eyes. These bottomless gentry had lost a huge amount of money because of their greed and shamelessness.
Li Xing let out a laugh and said loudly: "Brother! Now let's wait for the sweet potatoes from Taiwan to be shipped and bring down the price of food. The gentry who are crazy about hoarding food will go bankrupt. When these gentry who are preparing to make a fortune for the country know that we can solve the disaster relief on our own
The food will probably make you want to hang yourself!"
Li Zhi looked at the scenery outside the hall, smiled and nodded.
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At the dock in Hsinchu, Taiwan, Zheng Hui looked at the batches of sweet potatoes being loaded onto the ship, feeling very high-spirited.
I have been working hard in Taiwan for four years according to the arrangements of Jin Guogong, and now it is finally the harvest season.
Zheng Hui was originally a cashier in a tavern, barely having enough food and clothing. However, after following his distant cousin Li Zhi, he was promoted by Li Zhi and rose to the top. Nine years later, Zheng Hui has become the commander of the capital and a general officer.
It's about getting ahead.
Because of Zheng Hui's outstanding performance, Li Zhi promoted all Zheng Hui's brothers and sisters. Now Zheng Hui's relatives are holding important positions that they did not dare to dream of before following Li Zhi, and they are all rich. Zheng Hui is very grateful to Jin Guogong Li
plant.
But compared to the high rank and generous salary given to him by the Duke of Jin, Zheng Hui felt more fulfilled by contributing to the cause of the Duke of Jin.
Since the beginning of June, all 15,000 hectares of fertile land in Taiwan have been planted with sweet potatoes. After this season's summer potato harvest, it will provide ammunition for disaster relief in Shandong and lay a solid foundation for the Duke of Tian to take over Shandong.
Sweet potatoes are not popular in the south of the Yangtze River, and the yield in the north is very low. But on the red soil of Fujian and Taiwan, the yield per mu of sweet potatoes is far better than that of rice. In Fujian in the late Ming Dynasty, sweet potatoes fed countless hungry people in Fujian.
"It was first planted in Zhang County, gradually spread to Quanzhou, and gradually reached Pu (Tian)." Its vines spread and spread, covering the entire red soil belt in southern Fujian. A note from a person at the time recorded: "It is planted everywhere, and the food is plentiful and cheap. Three meals a day
If you eat it as rice, the common people will depend on it."
Regarding the yield of sweet potatoes per mu, Yu Guangbi, the magistrate of Dageng County in Jiangxi Province in the 13th year of Qianlong's reign, said: "Every mu can yield three to four thousand catties." Lu Yao, the chief envoy of Shandong Province, said in "Sweet Potato Records" written fifty years before Qianlong's reign.
, planting sweet potatoes “can yield thousands of kilograms per acre, which is several times better than growing grains.”
Of course, the sugar content of sweet potatoes is very low. The calories provided by 5 taels per pound of sweet potatoes are only equivalent to 5 taels of rice. Therefore, although the sweet potatoes in Hsinchu produce 1,500 jins per mu in summer, they are only equivalent to 500 jins of rice.
heat.
It is sheer nonsense to say that the annual yield of sweet potatoes in the 20th century was only over a thousand kilograms per mu. More than a thousand kilograms of sweet potatoes are equivalent to only a few hundred kilograms of rice. If the yield was so low, who would grow it for food?
Crop for abdominal discomfort?
With one season of spring potatoes and one season of summer potatoes, one acre of sweet potato field in Hsinchu can harvest four thousand kilograms, which is equivalent to more than one thousand kilograms of rice. The calories it provides are still far better than growing rice.
Summer potatoes planted in June will not mature until September. People in Shandong may not have food in August, and there is a one-month time difference. Fortunately, Hsinchu has planted hundreds of thousands of acres of sweet potatoes in the past few years, and there are two
Stocks of more than one million kilo of sweet potatoes can help Shandong victims survive August.
I think after this time, Jin Guogong will definitely put more emphasis on himself!
Seeing the carts of sweet potatoes being transported, Zheng Hui was filled with ambition.
