Chapter 1249: Explanation of Doubts and Misunderstandings (Part 2)
"Ahem, there are many things to do in post-disaster reconstruction. I will make a long story short and simplify the complicated things. Do you really think that the lower the food price, the better? If we in Jingnan are like Taizhou Prefecture Like Chengdu, Taiping County and other counties, they used thunderous means to forcefully control the price of food at 500 yuan per stone. What will happen in the future?" Zhu Ping'an rubbed his forehead and said to everyone in the hall while suppressing fatigue. .
“The lower the food price, the better. The lower the food price, the more benefits the people can get.”
“If we in Jingnan also use thunderous means to control the food price at a level per stone 500 Wen, that is naturally a great joy, everyone is celebrating, and the price of food will naturally get better and better in the future, old man. The people can also afford to buy food. If the people have food in their hands and are not worried, then the flood will naturally pass.” Just let it go, society will be stable, and Jingnan will naturally get better and better in the future.”
Everyone in the hall said one after another that when it comes to lowering food prices, everyone’s faces are full of yearning and longing.
Everyone thinks that the lower the food price, the better. In their view, after people have suffered floods and their property has been damaged, naturally the lower the food price, the better. When food prices are low, people Once everyone can afford food, the flood will naturally pass. No one thinks that there will be any harm in lowering food prices.
They are really a group of simple people. When Zhu Pingan heard this, he couldn't help but twitching his lips and shaking his head with a wry smile.
"Why, isn't it? County Master, although we have little education, we are not so easy to be deceived."
"That's right, even a nine-year-old child understands that the lower the price of food, the lower the price of food. The better.”
Everyone in the hall didn't realize that what they said was wrong. When they saw Zhu Pingan's expression, they couldn't help but lower the corners of their mouths.
“Everyone, our Jiangnan is the famous granary of the Ming Dynasty. Now Jiangnan is hit by floods. More than 80% of the food has been destroyed. Only less than 20% of the surviving food in Jiangnan is left. Just rely on Jiangnan’s Food simply cannot feed the millions of people in Jiangnan we want. To overcome this flood and food shortage crisis, we can only alleviate the food shortage by transporting massive quantities of food from Sichuan, Sichuan, Shandong and other places.
We want to transport massive quantities of food from Sichuan, Sichuan, Shandong and other places thousands of miles away. There are two main ways to obtain food.
One is the imperial court. Weaving, one is the spontaneous transportation of grain by the people
After the flood, I sent letters to Taizhou Prefecture every day asking for relief and rescue from the government, but there was no news until four days ago when Taizhou Prefecture did not reply. The reply letter will only ask our counties to save themselves. I have already summoned you to talk about this. At present, due to the frequent disasters in recent years and the huge consumption of the treasury, the Ming Dynasty is unable to organize relief and rescue us in Jiangnan in a short time. Therefore, the method of organizing food transportation by the court cannot be relied on in the short term. The only thing left is private grain transportation
As for private grain transportation, grain is mainly transported through large and small grain merchants in various places. Now we are experiencing a food shortage in Jiangnan. Not only is the price of food in Jingnan rising, but the price of food in Sichuan, Shandong and Shandong is also rising continuously. Although it is lower than the price of food in Jiangnan, it is not much different. The local price per stone of food It’s also close to 500 yuan.
Grain merchants go to other places to purchase grain, and the purchase price is close to 500 Wen. The journey is thousands of miles, and people eat horses and chews along the way. They also have to hire laborers and care for the hospital. Each of these items is a big expense. On the road, you have to face bandits, bandits and even disasters. Risks such as looting by the people, etc. Taken together, the cost for grain merchants to transport grain to other places is much higher than 500 yuan per stone...
If we in Jingnan are like Fucheng and other counties, we use thunderous means to force Reduce the price of food to 500 Wen. Then the grain merchants would be unprofitable, have no money to make, and would even have to pay for it. In this case, would the grain merchants still work hard and risk thousands of miles to transport grain from other places to sell in Jingnan? !
As the saying goes, if there is no business, there will be no evil, and if there is no profit, it will not be early. Do you think it is possible for them not to make money or even to pay for food transportation?
Put yourself in your shoes, if it were you, there would be no profit, no money to make, and you would even have to pay for it. You would work hard, travel thousands of miles and take risks to transport goods to other places. Food? !
What if I, Jingnan, use thunderous means like other places to forcibly reduce the price of food to 500 wen per stone! I am sure that our grain merchants in Jingnan will never have such noble character, and they will never work hard and take risks to transport grain to other places without profit! The little food they had that survived the flood would be sold out in less than three days! After that, the people in Jingnan could not buy a grain of grain even with money. I don’t need to say more about what it means to not be able to buy food. There are mourning people all over the land, thousands of miles of red land, Yi Zi eats each other, and bones everywhere... These tragic scenes will reappear in our Jingnan. There is a price but no market, there is a price but no food. What is the use of such a price for food? ! Is this kind of food price what you are pursuing? ! Is this kind of food price really good for the people of Jingnan? ! "
Zhu Ping'an became more and more excited and emotional as he talked. In the end, he couldn't help but slap the table.
Boom!
Zhu Ping'an's words were like thunder from the sky, exploding in the hall. In everyone's mind.
Everyone in the hall was instantly blown into pieces by the thunder. Their mouths opened wide, and they couldn't help but feel panic in their hearts. The hair on their bodies felt like they were electrified. The cold one stood up!
After Zhu Pingan finished speaking, the entire lobby became so silent that everyone could only hear their heartbeats.
After a while, someone with a pale face shook his head repeatedly, his eyes were blank and unfocused, and trembling lips murmured: "No, no, how could it be like this... I don't believe it" ..."
The household official Liu Fuzi who just bid farewell to Zhu Ping'an , Zhang Tongsheng, the official in the official room, Han Cheng, the criminal official, and Liu Laotou, the official in the ceremony room. At this moment, their faces are paler than the others. They are scholars and are much more knowledgeable than the illiterate police officers. Zhu Ping'an's words were so shocking that they suddenly understood it as if they were enlightened. It was precisely because they figured it out that their faces became so pale, and they did not dare to raise their heads and look directly into Zhu Pingan's eyes, feeling ashamed.
A rat’s eyes are short-sighted, a rat’s eyes are short-sighted, it’s us. Compared with the county magistrate, our vision is too short-sighted.
"It's just, County Lord, even if you want to induce grain merchants to purchase grain with profit, there is no need to set the price of grain so high, right?"
Old man Liu's face was pale, and his tone was much weaker than when he resigned to Zhu Pingan in the room.
"High?"
Hearing this, Zhu Ping'an twitched the corner of his mouth and shook his head, "Not high. In this period and under this situation, the grain of two thousand five hundred yuan per stone The price is not high at all. Only this price of grain can drive Jingnan grain. After hearing the news, merchants and other grain merchants from various places brought grains from all over the Ming Dynasty to our Jingnan in an endless stream to meet the needs of our Jingnan people. Compared with the lives of more than 100,000 people in Jingnan, is this food price high? ?”
Hearing this, Old Man Liu fell silent. Everyone was silent. Only then did they understand why Zhu Pingan had just asked them whether money or life was more important.
“Now you think that the price of food in Jingnan is high. After a while, which can be at least more than a month, or as long as three to five months, you will find that the price of food in Jingnan is higher than that in Taizhou Prefecture. will be the lowest.”
Zhu Ping'an looked into the distance and spoke to everyone in the hall with a confident expression. His eyes were deep and distant, as if he could see through time at a glance.
“Huh?”
Everyone was shocked and couldn’t believe it.
"Don't believe it? You will know after a while." Zhu Ping'an didn't say much. The economics, sociology and other principles behind this would not be fully explained to them in a while, even if it was finished. , I guess they don’t understand either.
"County Lord, although I don't quite understand what you are saying, I think what you said makes sense. If the price of food is lowered, I am afraid that 99% of the time things will turn out like that. It's just that this food The price is too high. Even if the grain merchants are making a profit and transporting grain like crazy, so that our Jingnan has enough food, I am afraid that there will still be many poor people who cannot afford it and will starve to death." Han Cheng, the prison official, said with his fists clasped.
"Dadao, go get the donation book." Zhu Pingan said to Liu Dadao.
Under the puzzled gazes of everyone, Liu Dadao took the order and turned around to leave, and soon came back with a booklet in both hands.
"Dadao, give the booklet to Han Dianli and ask everyone to circulate it." Zhu Pingan said to Liu Dadao.
Liu Dadao accepted the order and handed the booklet to Han Cheng, but when he handed it to him, he snorted unhappily.
"Didn't you say that I, Zhu Pingan, accepted bribes from grain merchants?! Yes, this "Jingnan County Flood Disaster Donation Book" is the 'evidence' of my 'accepting bribes'. Jingnan County There are a total of 38 people in the southern grain merchants. A total of 46,000 taels of silver were donated, and I, Zhu Pingan, accepted them all and recorded them one by one! From now on, if they don't come at the end of each month, I will send people to various grain stores to collect donations! When a grain merchant comes to Jingnan, I I will also send people to go there in my name! What are the poor people in Jingnan who can’t afford to buy food? From today on, I will send people to do statistics in Jingnan. food poor people, I will distribute silver coins regularly! I use the head on this necklace as a guarantee to ensure that no one will starve to death in Jingnan! Get on the dog’s head!”
When Zhu Pingan was circulating the donation book in the hall, he pointed at his head and said to everyone with red eyes.
“We are wrong, county magistrate!”
After looking through the donation book, Han Cheng, the jailer, could no longer control himself and fell to his knees with tears streaming down his face.
For the sake of the people of Jingnan, the county magistrate did not hesitate to taint himself. He even gave up his reputation and moral integrity and we still did it.
“County magistrate, we were wrong.”
Plop, plop. Everyone in the hall fell to their knees like wheat, and no one was left standing.
Everyone has a responsibility to prevent and control the epidemic. Dear book friends, please cooperate with the national prevention and control work, do not go out if you can, and be sure to wear a mask when going out. When the epidemic is over and the spring flowers bloom, let’s go out and have fun, walk and sing.
(End of this chapter)