The new round of price increases in Qi and Chu has made all countries stunned.

Zhao Guo Handan.

King Zhao asked Feiyi: "Xiangguo, now that the State of Chu has raised the price of grain to more than one hundred and fifty yuan in order to prevent grain from flowing into the State of Qi, are we still following now?" ”

Fei Yi shook his head, and asked with a heavy face: "Great King, do you know that Guan Zhong raised the price of grain in the world by twenty times in the past, what is the situation?" ”

When King Zhao heard this, he suddenly realized: "Yes, in the past, Guan Zhong was able to increase the price of grain by 20 times, this is because Qi bought all the surplus grain from all countries, and the people of Lu did not grow grain, so that Lu had no grain to use, so this succeeded." ”

"Now that the Qi State has not encountered natural disasters and man-made disasters one after another, and has grown a large amount of wheat and rice, it is obvious that the Qi State cannot be defeated through food, but can only restrict the Qi State and weaken the Qi State."

Fei Yi arched his hand and said: "King, that's exactly the case, now that the wheat and rice of Qi are about to ripen, and Qi no longer has a strong demand for grain from all countries, the price of grain will naturally fall at that time." ”

"Now, we have been fighting against Qi for several months, so that there is public resentment in the country, so it is only a month or two, and there is no need for us to continue to fight with Qi for food prices."

"The news from the Chu State that the price of wheat and rice has fallen, doesn't it just show this!"

King Zhao nodded thoughtfully, and then said, "Yes, that's exactly the case." Therefore, the widow decided to also reduce the price of wheat and rice, and gradually restore normal grain prices when the wheat is harvested. ”

Fei Yi saluted and said, "The king is wise." ”

Chu.

The news from the Qi State side reached Yingdu, and here, Xiong Huai once again summoned the three of Jing Carp to the Chu Palace.

With a solemn face, he said: "Now the situation is obvious, Qi Guo has raised the wheat and corn to one hundred and eighty yuan at the same time, which is more than twenty yuan of Chu country's corn, which is enough to show that Qi Guo has mastered the method of making flour quickly, and is paying attention to my Chu country's wheat rice." ”

When he got the news before, although Xiong Huai had been prepared, he was still surprised.

Qi State raised the price so blatantly, it was clear that he wanted to buy the wheat of Chu State.

In this regard, when the Chu State was hoarding grain and preparing for war, Xiong Huai must not let the wheat and rice be smuggled to the Qi State by profiteers.

"I don't know what the three virtuous men mean to teach me?" Xiong Huai asked the three of them.

Dou You was the first to speak: "King, now that the price of wheat and rice in Qi is so high, if you want to keep grain in Chu State, the minister thinks that there are two ways, one is to close the road, and the other is to collect grain. ”

"After the wheat is ripe, the wheat in the Jianghuai area will first gather in three places, Taifu, Fengjun, and Farmer. Regardless of the wheat collected by Taifu for the time being, the feudal monarch has a large amount of wheat in his hands, if the feudal monarch wants to smuggle the wheat and sell it to the Qi State, it is not very difficult, and the price is very light. ”

Therefore, the minister thought that if he wanted to control the feudal monarch and sell the wheat to the Qi State, then he needed to collect all the wheat in the hands of the feudal monarchs. Just like the last time the king levied grain from the feudal monarchs of Jianghan, this time he levied grain from all the feudal monarchs of Jianghuai, and then promised that after the autumn harvest, the wheat and rice that were not deducted from the tax would be returned with the same amount of corn. ”

Jing Li thought for a while and said: "King, this matter may be okay, after all, even if there is already flour, but in the hearts of the feudal monarchs, the value of wheat is still difficult to compare with corn, so exchanging corn for wheat rice, on the surface, this is beneficial to the feudal monarch, which is feasible." ”

Xiong Huai nodded.

The reason why wheat is difficult to control is that wheat is not accepted by the people, and they do not eat it at all until there is a shortage of food, so there is a possibility of smuggling.

If it is corn, the grain that the people eat ordinarily, even if they want to sell it to other countries, I am afraid that they will not be able to do anything.

In addition, compared with the common people, the feudal nobles are the big smugglers of grain, and the feudal lords of Chu not only have a large amount of grain in their own hands, but also have their own caravans more or less, which provides them with a lot of convenience.

Under the condition that grain prices in various countries are basically stable, the gains of smuggling grain naturally outweigh the losses, and the feudal lords will not risk heavy penalties and smuggle grain in large quantities.

In the past, the Qi country was in an uproar because of the problem of grain being burned, and all countries at that time investigated it very tightly and severely cracked down on the problem of transporting grain to the Qi country.

In this case, selling grain to Qi is equivalent to fornicating with Qi State, even if it is said that it is a collaborator with the enemy and betraying the country, so those who dared to smuggle grain at that time cannot say that there is no, but in the case of too much risk, it can only be said that most people have a bottom line.

However, there are only a thousand days to be a thief, how can there be a thousand days to prevent thieves, if the Qi country wheat and rice are harvested, the Qi country will not be short of food.

At this time, if someone smuggles grain, it is no longer a fornication with Qi and betrayal of the country, but it has become selling grain for profit, and it is not the same crime.

Therefore, it is a feasible way to directly collect grain from the feudal monarchs and draw wages from the bottom of the kettle, although it is a little reluctant, but after all, it can be said that it is past to exchange corn for wheat.

As for the question of whether the feudal lords are willing or not...

Xiong Huai said directly: "Okay, this matter is also thought to be feasible. ”

After a pause, Xiong Huaichi asked, "What about the wheat in the hands of the people?" What is Xianqing going to do? ”

The people are not as good as the feudal monarchs, and there are only so many feudal monarchs in Jianghuai, according to the map, no one can run. However, the people spread throughout the Chu State, if the people were to collect grain, not only would the people not trust it, which might cause panic, but also the people were widely distributed, laborious and ineffective, and the most critical problem was still unrealistic.

How many officials and how many people there are in the Chu State, if every household goes to collect grain, it is simply impossible.

As for tax collection, it is necessary for the people to carry grain on their backs to pay taxes at specific places in counties and townships, rather than officials going to villages to collect taxes.

Therefore, Xiong Huai felt embarrassed, in the past, the people of Chu State kept the wheat until the autumn queen, and then used it to pay the corn tax, so that all the wheat and rice of the Chu State were included in the treasury of the Chu State.

Now, after the people have paid their taxes and still have half of the wheat in their hands, what will they do if they don't eat it?

What worries Xiong Huai the most is that the Qi State has overwhelmed the Chu State in terms of grain prices by virtue of its strong financial resources, resulting in a higher benefit from selling wheat in the hands of the people than paying taxes, so that the wheat and rice of the Chu State will also flow into the Qi State.

In the past, Chu State purchased wheat from various countries, and this is what it did, so that Chu State accumulated a large amount of wheat and rice.

Dou You heard the inquiry of the king of Chu and replied: "The king, it is not so much the grain in the hands of the people as the grain in the hands of the merchants. ”

Xiong Huai bowed slightly, although the people have grain in their hands, but the food in the hands of the people is too little, and it is impossible for one or several people or even a village to transport grain to Qi country.

Only when the grain in the hands of the people is concentrated in the hands of merchants can it be transported by water and reduce the transportation cost on a large scale, otherwise, it will be good to be transported by land from Shou County on the south bank of Huaishui to Jucheng in the south of Qi State.

Then, listening to Douyou, he continued to speak: "Therefore, the minister suggested that a pass be set up at the main estuary of the Huaishui Surabaya, strictly inspect the goods transported by merchants from all over the country, and prohibit all merchants from transporting grain. Whether it is a businessman from his home country or a businessman from another country. ”

"If a local merchant wants to transport, he must report the amount of grain to be transported to Taifu before transportation, and then pay the transportation fee, and then Taifu will help transport it. It's just that Taifu doesn't have so much manpower, so to help with transportation, the king needs to order all counties to summon Ding Zhuang. ”