In Liu Jin's courtyard, Liu Jin was listening to Tong Yuan's report on the situation in the capital.

"Teacher, the price of grain in the capital seems to be about to be unstable, and there are already grain merchants who are quietly selling at lower prices, and it seems that they are about to be unable to withstand it."

Tong Yuan said to Liu Jin with a smile on his face, he is paying attention to the price of grain in the capital every day, and he has always been rumoring that he wants to purchase grain on a large scale.

"In the past, even if I was willing to buy grain at a high price, these grain merchants were unwilling to sell it to me, but now some of them have quietly contacted me and are willing to sell me grain on a large scale at a price of 100 yuan a catty, it seems that they are really in a hurry."

"Of course they are in a hurry, the cost of these grains is at least a dozen yuan a catty, especially the grain from the south that is eaten later, the price is high and the quantity is huge, so that their overall cost has risen sharply."

"Calculate the time, the grain transferred from the south by the imperial court will arrive in the capital in about half a month, and as soon as the grain enters Beijing, their end will come."

"So taking advantage of the present, they must find a way to sell these grains, and they are definitely not an iron plate inside, these businessmen, no one is stupid, they will definitely compete to sell the grain in their hands one by one, and no one will be stupid to really wait until the end to smash these high-priced grains in their own hands."

When Liu Jin heard this, he couldn't help laughing, this war without gunpowder was finally about to be won, they wanted to use food as a weapon to achieve their goals, and in the end they lost on food.

And Liu Jin has already seen their tragic ending, losing the family and bankrupt is nothing, what he really loses may be his own life, or even the fate of the entire family.

Emperor Hongzhi has not issued an order to severely punish these merchants until now, it is obvious that he is casting a long line to catch big fish, these merchants are just small fish and shrimp for Emperor Hongzhi, they are insignificant at all, and the real opponents are those above the court who want to limit the imperial power and control the imperial power.

No emperor will tolerate someone touching the imperial power, unless the emperor himself is a puppet, it is obvious that Emperor Hongzhi is not, and the real good show is yet to come.

"Teacher, what should we do now?"

Tong Yuan also had a smile on his face, he liked mathematics, he learned from Liu Jin the knowledge and content that was not in the Four Books and Five Classics, and now he seems to understand the power of the economy and the power of the market.

"What do you think we should do now?"

Liu Jin looked at Tong Yuan and asked rhetorically.

"I think at this time, we should increase the supply of marine fish in the capital."

"In the past few days, we have launched several fishing boats, plus the fishing boats that have come back from going to sea, we have caught more than 3 million catties of marine fish every day, and the sea fish has been dried before they can be eaten."

"As long as our side increases the supply of one million catties of sea fish to the capital side every day, they will definitely collapse immediately."

Tong Yuan thought about it and replied.

"You are really very talented in economics and mathematics, starting from tomorrow to increase the supply of sea fish in the capital, but don't increase it too much at once, increase the supply of 200,000 catties of sea fish a day, and completely crush the grain merchants here in the capital."

After listening to this, Liu Jin looked at Tong Yuan, and couldn't help but admire, this was almost exactly the same as what he thought.

At this time, what Liu Jin needed to do was very simple, that is, to continuously increase the supply of marine fish and slowly crush the grain merchants in the capital.

"Yes!"

When Tong Yuan heard this, he nodded hurriedly.

……

The capital, in the middle of a secret manor.

Hu Wanan no longer has the chic and self-effacing before, nor does he have the elegance of strategizing and winning thousands of miles away, since the news of the incident in the court a few days ago, his good days have come to an end.

Originally, in his imagination, the princes of the court and the central government would definitely unite to make trouble, pointing their swords at the sea fish, prohibiting the sea fish from entering Beijing, and strictly prohibiting fishing in the sea.

After all, this sea ban is the national capital of the Ming Dynasty, and the influence of this southern Shilin above the imperial court is also unparalleled, whether it is the cabinet minister or the six Shangshu, Shilang, etc., there are many, many bigwigs from the southern Shilin.

In this regard, the interests of these scholars in the south are almost all the same, and they oppose the increase in commercial taxes and strictly enforce the ban on the sea, which is in line with the interests of the southern scholars.

He believed that as long as the court and the central princes worked together, they could still easily prohibit sea fish from entering Beijing, and at the same time implement a more stringent sea ban policy.

A huge number of victims will be hungry if they don't have sea fish, and when the time comes, if some people are mixed in to fan the flames, it is easy to turn Tianjin into a huge powder keg, and directly blow up Liu Jin, who is the happiest jumper.

Without the sea fish, the millions of people in the capital and the people who gathered over will still need the food in his hands to survive, and the food ace weapon in his hand can still play a decisive role.

However, what happened in the morning a few days ago was too unexpected.

Before the princes of the DPRK and China proposed a strict ban on the sea and the ban on fishing, Zhou Jing, the secretary of the household department, proposed a comprehensive lifting of the sea ban, and then what was even more unexpected was that the princes finally allowed fishing in the coastal areas, and even used Tianjin as a pilot to completely lift the sea ban.

As soon as this news came out, it was like a super earthquake, which directly disrupted all of Hu Wanan's deployments and follow-up plans.

This means that not only Tianjin can go to the sea to fish, but the entire Daming coast can go to the sea to fish from now on, and more importantly, it is legal for Tianjin to go to sea to do business and trade, and it is not only the big families and big businessmen in the south who will enjoy the huge profits of this sea trade in the future.

The big families and big businessmen in the north can also enjoy the huge profits of sea trade, and I don't know how many wealthy families and big businessmen in the north have been running to Tianjin in the past few days, ready to make arrangements in advance.

"Lost, this time it's a complete loss."

Hu Wanan walked around his room, he had been thinking hard about countermeasures for the past few days, but he couldn't think of any good way to do it.

He was clearly aware that this time, he had lost badly, very badly, and more importantly, he had not figured out where he had lost until now.

Everything was going according to his deployment, and he saw that the victory was in his hands, but the situation suddenly took a sharp turn, as if it had all collapsed all at once.

He clearly felt that everything behind this was controlled by an extremely clever person, and all his deployments were seen through by the other party, and the corresponding layout was carried out in advance.

"Young Master, Young Master~"

Just when Hu Wanan was thinking hard about countermeasures, the housekeeper Hu Yining hurriedly walked over.

"What's the matter?"

Hu Wanan hurriedly asked.

"Others have lowered their prices, and they have started to sell grain at a lower price despite the agreement."

Hu Yining looked very atmospheric.

This time, the Hu family took the lead, and brought many grain merchants and salt merchants to do the game together, and everyone's original agreement was to listen to Hu Wanan's command, make a fortune together, and slaughter a super fat sheep together.

Now that other grain merchants and salt merchants have not received Hu Wanan's order, they have begun to sell grain merchants at reduced prices without permission, how can Hu Yining not be angry?

"Have you started selling grain at a reduced price?"

Hu Wanan seemed calm, as if he had expected this for a long time.

Because he knows too well how huge the grain in the hands of these people is now, and the grain in the two official warehouses of Linqing and Dezhou is in their hands.

Since the famine, all the grain that has been transported from the south to the north for sale has also been eaten by them at a high price, and in addition to the huge amount of grain that they originally held in their hands, it can be said that almost all the grain in the entire three northern provinces has gone into their hands.

Holding a huge amount of food, and more importantly, the cost of this food is too high.

From the Dezhou warehouse and the Linqing warehouse to get grain, it cost millions of taels of silver to make points before and after, from the filial piety of the princes of the court and the central government to the officials and officials who managed the two warehouses, etc., which one does not need to be dotted, and needs to be dredged. The more ones need tens of thousands of taels of silver, and the less ones need hundreds of taels of silver.

There is a famine in the north, and the grain merchants in the south will naturally continue to transport grain to the north, and the price of this grain is already high in the famine years, and if you want to eat these grains, the price is very high, several times more expensive than usual, and this is still an acquaintance, otherwise the other party may not sell it to you.

Because if they sell the grain themselves, they can sell it at a higher price, and the price of selling it to Hu Wanan and these people will definitely be lower.

The input to eat the grain of the South was the greatest, and as soon as the news of the famine broke, the profit-seeking merchants naturally rushed in like sharks smelling blood.

Although the power and influence of Hui merchants and salt merchants are huge, they can not control all the merchants of the entire Ming Dynasty, and there are many merchants who do not bird them, especially the merchants in Huguang, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Henan, Shanxi, etc., in the west and north of the Ming Dynasty.

In order to eat these grains from the south, Hu Wanan and these people spent millions of taels of silver, because no matter how much grain came in, they had to eat it, and only in this way could a situation of control be formed.

"I can't stand it, and I don't blame them."

Hu Wanan didn't mean to blame others, because he knew that everyone couldn't stand it anymore, and as soon as the disaster relief food from the imperial court arrived, everyone's end would come.

"Pass my order to take out all our family's grain and sell it at a reduced price, and we will also sell it for a penny and a catty, at this time, money is no longer as important as life."