"The British Duke is a famous old fox, and of course he is smart."

Emperor Hongzhi smiled and said: "If it weren't for him, this time it might not be possible to raise enough money and grain for disaster relief, and now there are not only one million taels of silver for disaster relief, but also 30,000 loads of grain, and this famine can finally be successfully passed." ”

"Father, you're thinking too simply."

Zhu Hou glanced at Emperor Hongzhi, pouted and said, "This time they have been calculating for a long time, how can they look at this million taels of silver." ”

"Didn't I already say it before, they are actually coming for our father and son this time, and for our royal family, and they will never give up if they don't give up the silver in our hands and take away our property."

"Now that you have only taken out 500,000 taels of silver, only one-fifth of your inner money, and you still have 2 million taels of silver left in your internal treasury, and my private money has not been touched, how can they just stop here?"

Hearing Zhu Houzhao's words, Emperor Hongzhi's face sank, and after thinking about it, he nodded in recognition of Zhu Houzhao's statement.

Emperor Hongzhi thought for a moment and asked, "Then what will they do next?" ”

"It's very simple, create a phenomenon of extreme shortage of food, and then raise the price of food until the price of food is raised to a sky-high price, and then the million taels of silver raised will not be able to buy much food at all, and then they will write again to ask your father to take the money out to buy grain."

Zhu Houzhao said almost without thinking.

"If they really want to do that, then I really can't be blamed this time."

A cold glint flashed in Emperor Hongzhi's eyes, and then he thought about it and said, "You let Liu Jin here in Tianjin prepare as soon as possible." ”

"Yes."

When Zhu Houzhao heard this, he was immediately even more excited, and at this time he felt as if he was marching and fighting, but it was not the soldiers who fought between the two sides, but the money and grain.

Things were just as Zhu Houzhao expected.

On the same day, in the morning, Beijing sold 55 wen a pound of rice, but in the afternoon, it was like a rocket, and the price of a pound of grain rose to 150 wen a catty, and this silver could only buy 10 jin of grain.

What is even more excessive is that these grain merchants have also set up purchase restrictions, even if they are rich, each person can only buy a maximum of two catties of grain at a time, and a store can only sell a maximum of 1,000 catties a day, creating an appearance that there is an incomparably shortage of grain and there is not much inventory at all.

Originally, because of the famine, the price of grain rose again and again, and the original price of a few cents rose to more than 50 wen, but now it has risen to 150 wen all of a sudden, and it seems that there is no grain to sell at all, and the whole capital has begun to turmoil for a while.

After all, food is the foundation of everything, as long as people live, they must eat and drink, food is unstable, this person's heart is naturally unstable, food has risen to sky-high prices, and this famine began to spread from outside the city to the capital.

One hundred and fifty wen a pound of grain, even if it is here in the capital, everyone is shouting that they can't afford to eat, you must know that in this era, a young and strong labor force can earn forty or fifty wen a day, which is good, that is to say, an adult can not earn a pound of grain a day, you can imagine how sky-high this grain has risen.

In the whole capital, the people's grievances were boiling, and countless people who could not afford to eat food and could not buy food began to gather to put pressure on the government, demanding that the government severely punish these profiteers who made a fortune and opened warehouses as soon as possible to provide relief to the victims.

Naturally, the news quickly spread to the court.

"What?"

"The grain has risen to one hundred and fifty wen a catty?"

On the morning of the next day, when the Hubu Shangshu Zhou Jing said the latest grain prices, Emperor Hongzhi was shocked and looked incredulous.

"Wasn't it only more than fifty cents a pound yesterday?"

"To be precise, yesterday morning it was still 55 wen a catty, and yesterday afternoon the price of grain rose to 150 wen a catty."

Zhou Jing said helplessly, he had already asked people to contact the grain merchant yesterday to discuss the purchase of grain, and when he heard the offer given to him by the grain merchant, he was also shocked.

These black-hearted grains are sold for one hundred and fifty wen a pound of grain, and there is no room for negotiation at this price, and they all keep saying that food is scarce now, and there is not much grain in their hands at all, so even if they are sold, there is no way to sell too much to the court at one time.

"One hundred and fifty wen a pound of grain, this two taels of silver can only buy ten catties of grain, and the one million taels of silver donated by everyone can only buy 10 million catties of grain."

"The three provinces of Beizhili, Shanxi, and Shandong have a total population of almost 10 million, that is to say, the donated silver is only enough to buy a pound of food for the victims of the three provinces?"

Hongzhi simply counted the number with his fingers, this million taels of silver seemed to be a lot, but it was only enough to buy one pound of food for the victims alone.

How long can I eat this pound of grain?

Even if it is all boiled porridge, even if everything is good for a day, just lying down and drinking porridge to hang on to a small life, this pound of food can't support it for a few days.

"Yes, Your Majesty, one million taels of silver won't last long at all, but it will take about a month for the grain to be mobilized from the south, so we still need more silver taels to buy grain."

"I beg Your Majesty to take out more silver taels from the treasury to buy food and give relief to the victims."

Zhou Jing nodded, habitually took up the pork chop skin, and prepared to pick up some silver from Emperor Hongzhi's inner clothes.

"Zhou Jing, what is my silver used to help the victims? Or is it used to give relief to those grain merchants? ”

Hearing Zhou Jing's words, Emperor Hongzhi stood up at once, staring at Zhou Jing with both eyes, and was extremely angry.

At this time, what he, the head of the household, was not thinking about whether the price of grain was too expensive, whether he should punish these grain merchants severely, but he was once again eyeing his own internal money, how could Emperor Hongzhi not be angry, no matter how good his temper was, there was a limit.

"Minister... The minister also knows that the price of this grain is ridiculously high, but now that food is scarce, even if the price is expensive, we have to buy it. ”

Zhou Jing fell to his knees all of a sudden, and replied in fear, cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

"Good, good."

Emperor Hongzhi smiled angrily, and then asked, "Zhou Jing, the one million taels of silver haven't been used yet, right?" ”

"No, because the price of grain has skyrocketed, the minister thinks it is too expensive, and the major grain merchants say that food is scarce, and there is not much grain in their hands, so they haven't spent it yet."

When Zhou Jing heard this, he hurriedly replied.

"It's good that you don't spend it."

Emperor Hongzhi nodded, then smiled and said: "The price of this grain is too expensive, one hundred and fifty wen a catty, and one million taels of silver can't buy much grain." ”

"But I've heard that in Tianjin, the price of this meat is only a penny a catty, I look at Zhou Jing, you can go to Tianjin to have a look, we just don't buy grain, buy meat."