Chapter five hundred and fifty second manipulation
Shen Congdao thought about it all night in bed and stayed up all night. He rushed to the county town in a sedan chair early the next morning, preparing to sell off the grain he had hoarded at a low price.
The loud questioning in "Shandong Daily" really scared Shen Congdao.
Of course, Shen Congdao knew that the behavior of "raiding the gentry and forcibly opening warehouses to seize grain" was too arrogant. If the Duke of Jin did this, the gentry in the world would hate the Duke of Jin even more. If the matter reaches that point, I am afraid that the people in the court will Both the princes and the emperor would ask about the affairs of Shandong.
The emperor gave Li Zhi the power to collect commercial taxes to make up for Li Zhi's disaster relief expenses. If Li Zhi forcibly robbed the gentry of food for disaster relief, the emperor would probably deprive the public of Tianjin of the power to collect commercial taxes.
"Shandong Daily" promotes the protection of private property rights all day long. The Tianjin Public Court always says that private property rights are sacred and inviolable. If the Jin Dynasty government robs the gentry of food, wouldn't Li Zhi slap himself? Although the Jin gentry are destroying Shandong by hoarding food. Disaster relief, but the transactions of the Jin gentry were all fair and they were all bought on the market, so the accumulated grain could be said to be legal.
But don’t be afraid of ten thousand, just be afraid of what happens.
After all, what the gentry was hoarding was a sensitive commodity like grain. If the Duke of Jin got angry and ignored so much, and sent troops to forcibly search the Jin gentry's property, that would be troublesome.
This kind of behavior sounded a little impossible before. After all, Li Zhi always talked about the rule of law and order, but after days of threats from "Shandong Daily", Shen Congdao felt that the possibility of having his home raided was getting higher and higher. According to "Shandong Daily" The tone is getting harsher day by day. If tomorrow's front page headline becomes "The Duke of Tianjin confiscated the Jin gentry in Jinan for illegally hoarding grain", Shen Congdao would not be surprised at all.
If you lose your family's wealth, it's a small thing, but you can still save it in the future. If your house is confiscated and everyone is destroyed, it's a big deal.
Shen Congdao finally stopped hesitating and rushed to the county town to sell the 7,800 shi of grain in his home.
This time Shen Congdao really went bankrupt. His family's nearly 40,000 taels of savings and his family's big house in Qingzhou City have all been turned into these 7,800 shi of food. Now he is threatening in "Shandong Daily" I'm selling grain, but I don't know how much money I can get for it.
Shen Congdao owned a grain store in the county town. He found the shopkeeper of his grain shop and asked: "Shopkeeper Xi, if I want to sell all the more than 7,000 shi of grain now, what price can I get for it?"
Shopkeeper Xi blew the beard on his lips and said: "My boss, now is not the time to sell grain. In the past few months, it was said that more than two million shi of grain was sold to Shandong, and all of it was bought by the gentry of Shandong. Now The government of Tianjin used sweet potatoes for disaster relief and stopped buying food. The supply of food on the market in Shandong suddenly exceeded demand."
"In addition, Shandong Daily has been constantly publicizing these days, saying that Tianjin will vigorously develop water conservancy facilities and expand planting area. It can be seen that Shandong's grain output will increase in the next few years, and there will be no shortage of grain. Under such a prospect, grain prices these days Continuous decline."
Hearing shopkeeper Xi's words, Shen Congdao sighed. It can be said that Li Zhi used the power of newspapers to the extreme. When he secretly sold grain to the people who were hoarding grain, Shandong Daily exaggerated the drought and grain shortage in Shandong every day, deceiving people. The gentry who had to stock up on grain were elated. Now that the grain was all spoiled in the hands of the gentry, Shandong Daily began to introduce the scenario of a surplus of grain in the future, vigorously suppressing grain prices.
Li Zhi monopolized public opinion in Shandong. Shandong's grain prices were like a puppet manipulated by the Shandong Daily, rising and falling, wiping out all the money of the gentry.
Shopkeeper Xi sighed and said: "Boss, I don't know how many wealthy people have come to our store these days to ask about the price of grain. They all want to sell grain. Now the gentlemen who have grain in their hands feel that the grain is hot and the price keeps going up. push down."
"Yesterday, the Weng family's grain store had already lowered the price to one liang and nine cents. But now the "Shandong Daily" is so fierce and vigorously denounces the gentry who hoard grain. At this time, who dares to take over? The Weng family's one two nine cents per stone I still have no one to buy the rice and noodles.”
Hearing the news that no one bought the Weng family's one-two-nine yuan or one stone, Shen Congdao's face turned pale and he said: "The price has dropped to such a low price?"
Shopkeeper Xi said: "Yes! Boss, I think it's better to transport the grain to Beizhili and sell it. The current price of grain in Beizhili is around two taels and four qian per stone. If we sell it on a large scale, the price will be lower. Even if we can get Two taels and three cents of silver. Counting the tolls and customs duties on banknotes, you can get one tael or eight cents of silver per stone if you transport grain to Beizhili and sell it."
"Compared with being unable to sell food in Shouguang County, we can sell the food immediately by transporting it to Gyeonggi."
Hearing Shopkeeper Xi's analysis, Shen Congdao took a breath. The price of grain in Qingzhou Prefecture has dropped to the floor. Now it is more cost-effective to transport the grain all the way to Beizhili than to sell it in Shandong. But it has to be transported to Beizhili is not an easy task. You have to organize transportation, contact sellers, and transport the money all the way back. All kinds of things are very cumbersome. If you encounter thieves along the way, the gain will outweigh the loss.
In any case, transporting grain to other provinces to sell is the last resort.
Shen Congdao sighed and said: "Shopkeeper, we will sell it in Shouguang County at the base price of one or two eight cents. If no one buys it, we will transport the grain to Beizhili."
####
On the second day of September, Shandong, which had been dry for seven months, finally received a large-scale rainfall.
The heavy rain seemed to have been held in for a long time and suddenly burst out, breaking through the sky. Amidst the rumbling thunder and dazzling lightning, the rain rushed to the ground with all its strength, falling one by one on the dry ground. Like the land of Qilu, the rain hits the hard, dry yellow wasteland, the dry and cracked river bed, and the fields with no harvest, suddenly turning the dry land into water everywhere.
Rainwater seeps through the surface soil, penetrates below, and gradually penetrates deep into the soil.
The so-called spring rain is as precious as oil refers to the importance of spring rain to rice sowing in the south. Although the heavy rain in Shandong falls in September, the main crop in Shandong is winter wheat, and September is the time for sowing. The heavy rain at this time is different from the heavy rain in Jiangnan. Spring rain is equally precious.
People in Shandong looked at the pouring rain, singing and dancing. People who had been in drought for a long time rushed outside to enjoy the washing of rainwater and laughed, regardless of the heavy rain. In this era, there is no air pollution, and the rainwater is the cleanest. Women put the water in their homes All the pots and pans were brought outside to collect water and enjoy the gifts from God.
Many people held umbrellas and flocked to the Dragon King Temple to thank the Dragon King for his mercy and only worked for seven months. In the next year, there will probably be no more drought.
While the people were happy and encouraged, they were also a little worried.
Nowadays, the government of Tianjin is providing disaster relief and giving each citizen one and a half pounds of sweet potatoes to eat every day, which is enough to prevent the people from starving to death. But when sowing winter wheat, they have to do heavy physical work. How can this half a pound of sweet potatoes support the farmers' work?
