On July 25th, in the Zhang Mansion in the west of Suzhou City, the servants of the Zhang family were waiting with their heads down, not daring to show their anger for fear of offending the angry master. Zhang Keli, who was in his sixties, was sitting in the main room.
, looking at the "Tianjin Daily" from five days ago, his face was ashen, and his old face seemed to have turned into an iron plate.
All the gentry in the world were fooled by Li Zhi.
Where did Li Zhi go to Nanzhili to buy rice? Where did he buy rice in Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong? It was all a lie. Li Zhi had already planted enough sweet potatoes in Xiaoliuqiu to survive the famine. The reason why Li Zhi released
The news said that he wanted to buy rice just to trick the gentry and make money from them.
The "Tianjin Daily" picture shows it directly. Li Zhi took advantage of the skyrocketing grain prices in Shandong and the south and sold more than two million shi of grain in various places, especially in Shandong. Those who bought it for 2, 2, and 5 yuan
Li Zhi sold the grain at a price of more than five taels, making millions of taels of silver.
"Tianjin Daily" seemed to want to piss off the gentry all over the world, and said in a grand manner: "With this seven million taels of silver, the hungry people of Shandong will have no worries. With this silver, the Duke of Tianjin can go to Taiwan to buy sweet potatoes, and the hungry people of Shandong will be relieved."
You won’t have to worry about food rations for the whole year.”
When Zhang Keli saw this, he couldn't breathe. He never thought that I, Zhang Keli, had been working in the business all his life. He thought he was smart all his life, but when he got old, he was severely deceived by Li Zhi, who was in his twenties. And he was deceived in such a way.
There is nothing to say, who would let the gentry like me think about the national crisis and wealth?
Stealing the chicken will end up losing the rice. I can't even tell anyone about this matter - the gentry wanted to hinder Li Zhi's disaster relief and almost starved the people of Shandong to death. If the gentry's behavior were known to the people, not only would no one sympathize with it
Gentlemen will be scolded to death by the common people.
Zhang Keli continued to read the "Tianjin Daily" and saw the news below the front page: ""The Zheng family's fleet arrived in Laizhou loaded with millions of stones of sweet potatoes, and the people of Shandong welcomed it with gongs and drums!"
Zhang Keli stayed for a long time before shaking his head. He sighed, put on the reading glasses he bought specially from the capital, and turned over the ledger on the tea table. Zhang Keli wanted to calculate how much the Zhang family had lost this time.
However, after looking at it for a while, he became irritated and slapped the account book on the tea table angrily.
"Accountant Liu, how much did the Zhang family lose this time by hoarding 190,000 shi of grain?"
Accountant Liu who was standing next to him looked at Zhang Keli's face and said carefully: "Sir, I have done the math. On average, the grain is bought for three to two or three coins. Now Li Zhi suddenly stops buying rice.
, causing the price of grain in the market to plummet, and it has dropped to 20,000 taels. Calculated in this way, our floating losses on the books alone are 170,000 taels."
Hearing this astonishing number, Zhang Keli coughed violently. He quickly picked up the tea cup on his right and took a sip of tea, but he still couldn't stop coughing and actually coughed out the tea. He bent down and tried hard to
Coughing, it took me a long time to catch my breath.
After finally sitting up straight, Zhang Keli's face was already slumped, and his face was actually a little pale.
This time the Zhang family in Suzhou was really cheated by Li Zhi. The Zhang family's total savings of more than 700,000 taels in the past twenty years were lost by a quarter in one go.
The free money showered down helped the poor farmers who pushed grain into the city to sell it. On weekdays, they could only exchange one or two or three jins of rice for a hundred pounds. At that time, they could exchange for one or two jin at the Zhang family's grain store.
Eight coins. Thinking of those farmers who were so happy when they got the money, Zhang Keli felt his heart aching again.
This Li Zhi is really treating the gentry of the world like monkeys, and is really killing the gentry.
Zhang Keli closed his eyes and thought, cursing Li Zhi a hundred times in his heart. After a long time, he slowly stood up. He walked a few steps in the room with a cane and said slowly: "Silver is something external to the body.
Bring death or not..."
However, before he finished speaking, his eldest son's wife suddenly rushed into the main room. When she rushed in, she walked too fast, twisted her feet and fell to the ground. However, she didn't mind whether she was hurt by the fall on the ground.
, but shouted loudly to Zhang Keli: "Master, go to the side yard to save people! Mingxuan is going to hang himself!"
Zhang Mingxuan is Zhang Keli's eldest son and the actual head of the Zhang family. Zhang Keli is older, and Zhang Mingxuan usually takes care of the Zhang family's business and farm. This time, Zhang Mingxuan did the actual operation of stocking up on grain.
Zhang Keli was stunned when he heard the news, and thought to himself that his son could not bear the loss of 170,000 silver. He put away his anxiety and hurriedly walked to the side yard with a cane.
When I arrived at the main room in the side yard, I saw that the eldest son's study was locked from the inside. Zhang Keli's three grandchildren and two granddaughters stood anxiously outside the study door, knocking hard on the door to ask Zhang Mingxuan not to commit suicide.
Seeing the master Zhang Keli coming, everyone got out of the way and looked at the master anxiously.
Zhang Keli walked to the door, knocked hard, and said in a deep voice: "Mingxuan, open the door, I am your father!"
However, there was no sound in the study. Zhang Keli lowered the door anxiously and shouted: "Open the door, a real man, can't you bear this storm?"
Zhang Mingxuan's voice came from the study: "Dad, I can't help you, I have no shame in living in this world!"
Zhang Keli frowned and shouted: "As for the money, should you take it with you or die? What's wrong with you? Your three sons are here, so you should show some dignity."
When Zhang Mingxuan in the room heard this, he remained silent for a long time. Zhang Keli became impatient and shouted: "Open the door!"
After Zhang Keli yelled this, there was a soft sound from the door knocker in the room. Zhang Keli knew that it was Zhang Mingxuan who opened the door, so he pushed the door open, only to see Zhang Mingxuan kneeling on the ground wearing a white middle coat.
Zhang Keli said loudly: "I asked you to hoard the food. I lost hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. I don't blame you!"
Zhang Mingxuan knelt on the ground and cried, and said in a trembling voice: "Dad, I'm sorry for you, I'm sorry for the Zhang family!"
"I'm going to hang myself in the room this time. Dad, don't stop me."
Hearing his son's tone, Zhang Keli felt that something was a little strange, as if he suddenly realized something. He shook his body, held on to the door frame and asked: "Niezhang, how much food have you hoarded?"
Zhang Mingxuan raised his head, slapped himself on the left cheek, then slapped him on the right cheek, crying and shouting:
"Dad! I didn't just hoard the 190,000 taels of grain. I thought it was Li Zhi who gave us money this time. I thought it was a sure-profit business, so I borrowed two million taels of silver from outside and secretly stocked it in Hanjiazhuang.
Six hundred thousand shi of grain. Now these 600,000 shi of grain have lost 540,000 yuan, and I have lost all the savings of our Zhang family!"
Hearing this, the dozen or so members of the Zhang family standing at the door of the study felt as if they had been struck by lightning.
Zhang Keli's face turned from white to red, and then from red to white.
I went bankrupt, I went bankrupt. I had worked hard to save more than 700,000 yuan for more than 20 years, but it was all gone overnight. The free money was given to those farmers who couldn't read a word.
His eyes were as big as copper coins, he suddenly raised his crutch and hit his son on the head!
"I'll beat you to death, you traitor!"
However, as soon as the crutch was swung into the air, Zhang Keli's eyes rolled back and his whole body began to tremble. Finally, his body went limp and he fell to the ground. He tilted his head and fainted.
The children of the Zhang family were stunned and rushed forward one by one.
The Zhang family's status and privileges all depend on Zhang Keli. If Zhang Keli dies, the Zhang family will really collapse.
