Li Ze was in Wuwei Festival Town, and he regarded grain as one of the general equivalents. The prices of all other commodities are linked to grain.

During the Tang Dynasty, the general equivalents were basically the use of precious metals, such as gold and silver. However, after the war and the war, the importance of precious metals has greatly declined, and it is not uncommon to buy food with gold and silver.

After all, in the heyday, gold and silver were symbols of wealth, and in troubled times, human life was like a mustard, and I don't know how many kings and princes were trampled into the mud, and how many rich and wealthy families became refugees in one day.

During that time, as long as you had food, you could easily pull up a team. As long as you have food, you can gather great power.

It is precisely because of this that most of the festival towns in the late Tang Dynasty came from powerful and famous families from all over the world, because they controlled the land and grain.

However, the use of grain as a general equivalent is extremely risky. After all, at this time, looking at the sky to harvest is still the norm, and whether you can have a bumper harvest in a year depends on whether God rewards your face or not, and whether you give face. To save face, if the wind and rain are smooth, it will naturally be a big harvest, but once the drought and flood disaster or even the earth dragon turns over, etc., the grain harvest can fail or even be lost.

Li Ze dared to do this, firstly, because after he took power, he wantonly built water conservancy in the Wuwei area, and under his influence and under the promotion of the Yixing Society, most of the first things that officials in a place took office were to repair water conservancy, roads, and canals, etc., which promoted the development of agriculture to a great extent, and reduced the dependence on God to the minimum at this time.

Second, Li Ze dared to do this because he implemented affordable grain under his rule. Relying on the supply and marketing cooperatives, he has always maintained grain prices at a stable level for many years. Even in the most difficult times, he did everything he could to keep food prices stable. In order to do this, he even bought grain from outside at a high price and sold it to his people at a low price, which is a huge amount every year to subsidize the difference.

In Wuwei, there are no private grain merchants, but anyone who dares to sell grain without permission will have only one result after being caught, and that is to cut off his head. Except for the grain owned by the people, the only object that can be sold is the supply and marketing cooperatives.

But over the years, he has made great gains, that is, the Wuwei economy, which is linked to grain, has maintained a stable and upward development.

If grain prices are not chaotic, Wuwei's economy will not collapse.

In the past few years, Wuwei has matured year by year, and in Wuwei, there are large positions in the warehouse, which are full of piles, and there is food in his hands, so he naturally does not panic in his heart.

However, this year, since the spring ploughing, Wuwei has started a war, and the grain reserves have flowed out like flowing water, and what has been reflected in the market is naturally the tension above the grain supply, even if the grain price is still above the previous level, but the anxiety in the market has begun to appear.

And this is also where Li Ze is most anxious.

Originally, the autumn harvest was not far away, and with the situation in other places in Wuwei, this year will still be a bumper harvest year, but Zhaoyi Weibo and other areas newly returned to Wuwei are not harvested or even completely lost, which will completely offset the good of this year's harvest. If there is no foreign food coming in, Wuwei will definitely have a hard time this year.

Xia He of the Du Branch Division has submitted a warning report to Li Ze.

In the past, Li Ze's territory was small and he could still buy grain from the surrounding areas, but now that the territory has been greatly expanded, small-scale grain purchase can no longer meet Wuwei's economic model. The problem was that after Zhu Wen took the middle land of Heluoguan, he completely controlled the trough transportation and Li Ze's connection with the south, which made the purchase of grain from abroad also a big problem.

At this time, Jin Mantang opened up a sea passage from Jiangnan to Beidi, which was naturally an extremely positive signal for boosting confidence in economic development under Wuwei's rule.

As Jin Mantang said, even if the food brought by his fleet from the sea this time is not too much, it will greatly boost the confidence of the entire market under Wu Wei's rule.

Since there is one ship coming, there will naturally be ten, hundred, and thousand ships.

"Jin Gong has helped me a lot." Li Ze looked at Jin Mantang very sincerely. "For this one thing alone, I will play the emperor and knight you."

Jin Mantang laughed, the so-called Emperor is naturally just a rhetoric, with Li Ze's current status, what title he wants to give Jin Mantang is not a matter of words.

However, the title is also needed for Jin Mantang. He has enough money, but his social status will not improve much because of his money, and in the eyes of those wealthy families, he is still a person who cannot be put on the stage. In the past, in Yangzhou, those people were demanding from him.

This phenomenon, after his marriage with the Li family, has been quite improved, although the Li family is far away from his basic plate, but where is the power of the Li family, those who used to not look at Jin Mantang are now slowly incorporating Jin Mantang into their circle, although it is inevitable to be blinded, but this is a positive start.

If Jin Mantang can obtain the title of canonization from the imperial court in a bright and bright manner, then he will officially enter this circle. Maybe in his generation, there will still be many thresholds that are difficult to cross, but his son and grandson's generation will inevitably be completely integrated into it and become one of them.

Jin Mantang used countless amounts of money in Yangzhou and other places to get into the circle that he couldn't enter, but after he resolutely invested a lot of money in Li Ze, everything came so easily.

When Li Ze defeated Zhu Wen in Zhaoyi, Jin Mantang's status in Jiangnan suddenly rose, and before he set sail for Haixing, the banquet for him was almost full.

All of them saw a bright future for Li Ze.

Now today's forces have been clear, aside from the south, in the north, it is Li Ze and Zhu Wen who are competing for power, and from the perspective of historical development, whoever controls the north and who controls the Central Plains can basically stand at the highest point in history in the end.

One in two likely, naturally everyone is willing to invest first. Even if it is above the feelings, I don't want to have anything to do with Li Ze for the time being, but if I get in touch with Li Ze's father-in-law first, I will naturally have a way in the future.

"In this way, the south's reaction to my big victory this time is more of a positive Luo?" Li Ze asked with great interest.

"Not really!" Facing Li Ze, Jin Mantang didn't have to pick up what the other party liked and said, the two sides are almost a community of destiny now, Jin Mantang has almost bet his life on Li Ze, naturally there is one to say one, and there is two to say.

"The south is not only commercially developed, but land annexation is also extremely serious, big landlords, big tycoons abound, these people are deeply wary of Taifu, and even resistant." Jin Mantang said.

Li Ze nodded, this point, many people have already told him, and the party under his current command, Yizhou Thorn Shi Ding Qian, is from a famous family in Jingxiang, when he joined Li Ze's team, he bluntly said that he did not agree with Li Ze's policies, although after almost two years of understanding, Ding Qian has changed a lot, but on top of this fundamental policy, Ding Qian still belongs to the moderate reformists, and Yang Kai is such a fierce revolutionary, it is still incompatible, and they will pinch each other as soon as they meet.

"But the merchants in the south have a good impression of you, Taifu. Because Taifu's business policy in Wuwei, although it is a little overbearing, it still opens up a lot of industries and allows them to develop freely, and more importantly, Taifu's Wuwei has no discrimination against businessmen. Jin Mantang said: "This point is the most important for these rich people. ”

"My business taxes are very heavy." Li Ze said with a smile.

"It seems that the commercial tax in the south is lighter than that of Taifu here, but in fact, the burden is much heavier than that of Taifu here." Jin Mantang said with a smile: "Before I came this time, I also donated a large amount of money, and Taifu knows what it is?" ”

The so-called donation is actually apportionment. Li Ze smiled and shook his head.

"Our mother in Yangzhou Mansion has a big birthday, and every merchant is happy to donate a lot of money." Jin Mantang shook his head and said: "And when Taifu and Zhu Wen were fighting, the Eyue Observation Envoy asked us to donate a large sum of money in the name of preparing for the war, and some other things will not be said, just these two sums add up to almost the taxes I have to pay." And if you don't pay this money, your business will hardly be able to continue. ”

"Understood." Li Ze said with a smile, in Wuwei, the agricultural tax and the per capita tax are relatively light, and the commercial tax is indeed very heavy, but the businessman pays the tax, but there is no other so-called donation, the money is paid in the open place, and the businessman is naturally willing, because the money can be estimated and amortized into the cost.

"It seems that Jin Gong is among these people, and he has not done much propaganda for us!" Li Zedao.

"I don't need to say too much, as a businessman, that person is not a shrewd person, everyone is deaf and clear-sighted, if you don't know it, the business won't last long. Although Yixing Society is struggling in Jiangnan now, it has finally gained a foothold, and now its reputation is getting better and better. ”

"What about our Changlong Bank?" Li Ze asked.

"Our Changlong Money Village is still very popular among merchants. But where the gentry landlords and the government are, it will not be. Jin Mantang said with a smile.

"Take your time, take it one step at a time." Li Ze smiled and said, "How is the land price in Yangzhou?" ”

"The land price in Yangzhou is even higher than that in Wuyi." Jin Mantang said.

"How did you get to this point?" Li Ze was taken aback, you must know that Wuyi because of the existence of Wuwei Festival Town, a large number of immigrants have poured in, and the land price has reached a point where Li Ze feels that it is excessive, if it were not for Li Ze's strict restriction policy on land, the price may be even more outrageous, and now in Wuyi, the land is priceless and marketable, and after Li Ze won this battle, no one will sell his land. What the hell is Yangzhou?

"Merge!" Jin Mantang said: "There are almost no free people in Yangzhou. Land is massively concentrated in the hands of a few. A large number of landless people can only go to the city to work or lease land, but fortunately, Yangzhou's textile industry and silk weaving industry are developed and can absorb a large number of people to work. ”

"In this way, the social contradictions there should also be very serious."

"The pustule is already very large, it depends on when it is punctured." Jin Mantang said.