Chapter 217 Acquisition of Rice
Later, the refugees gradually arrived in the capital, and the imperial court realized how serious the situation in Jiangnan was.
The imperial court immediately issued an order to Jiangnan General Wu to send troops to suppress the refugees, and also killed a group of rebellious people. With the thunderous force of those who obeyed me, those who followed me prospered, and those who rebelled, they perished, the crazy mobs were suppressed.
Then, the imperial court issued a decree that wealthy households across the country should donate food and materials to provide relief to the victims, and the amount was also stipulated based on the circumstances of the wealthy households.
Because of the harsh and ruthless methods used by the previous court, no wealthy household dared to cheat and not donate or donate less.
However, the relief came too late.
That flood starved to death more than 50,000 people in the south of the Yangtze River. This was the number reported to the court by the local government, but the actual number was probably much higher than this.
But the dead are dead, and the living must continue to live.
When the grief-stricken people returned to their hometowns and received relief grains and winter wheat seeds, it was almost entering the severe winter season.
Although the winter in the south of the Yangtze River is not as cold as in the northeast, and things can be grown in the ground, winter wheat has a long growing season. If you plant winter wheat in the harsh winter, you will have to harvest it in May of the next year, which will delay the planting of rice in April.
If rice is planted late, it will affect the harvest. If the harvest is not enough, the people will also go hungry. The people will not dare to plant winter wheat, and they will cause trouble with the local government.
The imperial court had no choice but to send out another batch of potato seeds.
Potatoes grow quickly, have a short harvest period, and can be eaten as a staple food, so people started planting them enthusiastically.
In the coming year, the price of potatoes will be the cheapest. In previous years, a pound of potatoes cost three cents, but that year, one cent could buy two pounds.
At that time, although Jiangnan was the center of the flood, the capital was also affected. Food prices increased like crazy. Rice that usually costs eight cents per catty increased to thirty cents per catty in one month.
At its most expensive, it cost fifty cents a pound.
Moreover, even if you have money, you can’t buy it.
Finally, the imperial court issued an imperial edict, and merchants had to reduce the price of rice to twelve cents per catty.
This price is uniformly stipulated by the imperial court.
That's also a third more expensive than usual.
And now it's only mid-July, and it's raining now.
……
The rain continued until the evening and stopped for a while. Xia Zihan and Zeng took advantage of the rain to stop and hurried back to Chu's house.
When Xia Zihan returned to his room, he wrote a letter and sent Chu Cong to deliver it to the head of the farm overnight.
Chu Lin was sent to find Qi Mei and Qi Lan again.
After a while, Qi Mei and Qi Lan arrived.
Xia Zihan didn't waste any time and asked the two of them directly, "How much money can the shop mobilize now?"
"My place just paid the bill at the beginning of the month, and the previous one brought in another batch of goods. I can't transfer much silver, about five or six thousand taels." Qi Lan sat down, twirled a snack on the plate on the table and ate it.
Qi Mei sat down next to Qi Lan and looked at Xia Zihan, "Master, you came to us in such a hurry because you just want money. Do you need a lot?"
"Well, the more, the better."
Since her rebirth, she has not been a kind person. She will not be so stupid as to think that she alone can save the world and save the poor people from the fire and water.
She's not that capable.
Although those people deserved sympathy, she was also powerless.
She only makes money.
Don't say she is evil-hearted and makes money from disasters.
She doesn't earn the money, but others do.
In that flood, it was the common people who suffered, but the merchants in the rice and grain business made a lot of money.
Besides, what the rice and grain merchants make is not the money of the common people. Where do the common people get the money to buy the grain? What they make is the money of the wealthy families.
When those wealthy people saw a natural disaster, they were afraid that others would buy up all the rice and they would be unable to buy it, so they stored more grain, thus driving up the price of rice.
Xia Zihan said, "What I'm asking about is not the two shops in the capital, but all our shops."
"For the shop over there in the south of the Yangtze River, send a letter to Nuanxiang. Stop buying goods now. Transfer all the money to the capital. At the end of the month, all the shops over there will be closed."
In late August, there were refugees on the streets, and in mid-September, chaos began on the streets, with people blocking carriages, robbing money, and robbing passers-by.
By late September, no shops on the street dared to open. Every shop they opened was robbed, and some closed shops were smashed.
Cui Yuxuan and Yusha Pavilion are making so much money, I'm afraid they will be spared from disaster when the time comes.
Instead of going against a bunch of refugees who are not afraid of death, it is better to close the store as soon as possible.
Let them destroy an empty store. I heard that people were beaten to death at that time.
No one in the government can control it.
The person was beaten to death by a crowd, but the other party was a group of refugees. How could the officials control it?
Those refugees longed to be arrested by the officials, at least in prison they would still have food to eat...
In fact, after the floods, the imperial court ordered tents to be set up in various places to provide porridge. However, there was not much food in the granaries in various places, and there was not enough porridge for the people.
Even if one person only eats a bowl of watery white porridge, it won't be enough for them.
There are too many refugees.
Xia Zihan ignored Qi Mei and Qi Lan, who stared at her dumbfounded, and continued to give instructions, "Give the clerks and shopkeepers in Jiangnan Shop a three-month holiday. In order to make up for them, the shopkeeper will give each of them 600 kilograms of rice and 400 kilograms of white flour. One hundred taels of silver, each clerk is given three hundred jins of rice, two hundred jins of white flour, and twenty taels of silver.”
"Remember, empty out all the items in the shop and buy them all before the end of the month. If you can't sell out, transport them to the capital." It's better than leaving it there and being robbed.
Especially things from Cuiyuxuan. Just a pair of earrings costs dozens of taels of silver.
After Xia Zihan finished giving instructions, Qi Mei and Qi Lan were still stunned. Qi Mei even stood up and put one hand on Xia Zihan's forehead, "You don't have a fever. Why are you talking nonsense, master?"
Xia Zihan was anxious to death, but Qi Mei still had this attitude.
She sighed and said helplessly, "I am very conscious, not crazy or sick, and I know what I am doing."
"Then why do you suddenly want to close Jiangnan's shop?"
There are eight shops in Jiangnan. If they had to close them all, they would still be closed for three months, which would be a huge loss.
The master who always likes to make money suddenly pushes the money away. Isn't this crazy?
"I said, I need money for an urgent need. The shop in Jiangnan has been open for three years. Even if it is closed for a few months, it will not affect much business when it is reopened. But there is a lot of trouble in the capital, so our shop is prosperous. Rong will close down soon, fearing that others will think too much and it will affect the business. ”
"Master, I listen to you, but don't close the shop in the capital." Qi Lan said pitifully.
As long as the shop in the capital is not closed, no matter where the master closes it, she agrees.
After Qi Mei and Qi Lan left, Xia Zihan wrote another letter, summoning He Donglin and asking him to send twenty guards to go to Jiangnan.
She handed the letter to Zheng Yan, the leader, "Remember, give the letter to Nuan Xiang personally. When the time comes, you will escort Nuan Xiang back to Beijing."
Xia Zihan didn't need to tell the guards about closing the store.
The next day, the head of Tianzhuang arrived early in the morning and talked with Xia Zihan in the room for more than an hour.
Before leaving, Xia Zihan asked Cui's mother to move out all the 80,000 taels of silver notes she had accumulated for three years from the warehouse and give them to the head of the farm. "I'll leave the matter to you. If anything happens, just send someone." Come to me, remember, you must not reveal your identity.”
To make money, especially during natural disasters, you have to keep a low profile.
Then he told the two daughters Chu Cang and Chu Fei, "You should stay with the head of the farm for a while."
Then he threw them two sets of servants' clothes and said, "Don't let anyone recognize you."
"Yes, Master, don't worry, we will definitely protect the life of the head of the farm." Chu Fei patted his shoulder and said.
The head of the farm had to go to work in a hurry, so Xia Zihan didn't let him eat, but ordered Chu Kui to pack a few bags of snacks and a few cowhide bags of water for a few people to eat on the way.
The next day, the business in every rice shop in the capital suddenly gradually improved, and the number of people buying rice doubled than usual.
The extra people are all country people. It is probably the month when food is about to be replaced, and their families have run out of food.
They buy a lot each time, one hundred and two hundred kilograms, but it's not much. This little rice doesn't attract anyone's attention.
Some merchant owners see that business is good and there are many people buying rice, so they want to increase the price by two cents. Don't underestimate the two cents. He can sell more than five thousand kilograms of rice a day, and one kilogram can be sold for two cents more. , selling for an extra ten taels of silver in one day, and three hundred taels of silver in one month, which is not a small amount of money.
However, after the price increase, no one bought it. Not only did the boss make no money, but he also lost a lot of business. He had no choice but to return the price of rice to eight cents per catty.
A few days later, a few people suddenly appeared in Nianghuai City and quietly purchased tens of thousands of kilograms of rice from several rice shops. Then a few people bought a small house with two entrances for the purpose of stacking rice.
And all of this was done quietly, without attracting anyone's attention.
Song Huai was in a coma for three days and finally woke up with no serious life-threatening injuries.
After Song Baiqing got the news, he came back. Seeing that his son was fine, he started to excuse himself from going home every three days because he was on duty.
A few days later, the Shi family held a happy event, and the Song family, as Shi Hanlin's proud disciples, had to go to congratulate them.
But between Shi Wenting and Song Huai...
Because of this matter, there was a rift between the Shi family and the Song family. Pei didn't want to go to the Shi family to see Dou's face, but if she didn't go, when Song Huai passed the scholar examination and became famous, this matter would be exposed. If he talks about it, Song Huai will also be accused of not respecting his teacher.
No, she couldn't let her son get another bad reputation.
After much thought, Pei took the time to rush to Shi's house on the first day of Shi Wenting's wedding. Because of Dou's indifference to her, Pei sent her makeup and gifts, then made excuses and left in a hurry.
Seeing that she was preoccupied and looking absent-minded, Mrs. Dou became suspicious and sent a maid to quietly inquire about the Song family.
(End of chapter)