After Lei Hou finished speaking, he paused, remembered the canal that had been repaired outside Yingdu, and said to himself: "Last year, Xu Xing made a message to the king, saying that the land of Jianghan is not suitable for growing wheat and rice, and the reason is water. ”

"That's why the king followed Xu Xing's suggestion to build a canal to solve the problem of water shortage in the Hanshui Basin."

As he spoke, Lei Hou asked Xu Wan, "Do you say that Xu Xing has a way to solve the rainy weather in our Dongting area." ”

Xu Wan shook his head: "Your Majesty, this should be impossible, since ancient times, there have been solutions to floods and water shortages, and I have never heard of a solution to the weather." Although Xu Xing is famous, but even the ancient sage Yu Shun has no way to do this kind of thing, and finally dies of thirst in our south, what can he Xu Xing do? ”

Lei Hou deeply agreed: "Yes, Ben Hou also thinks so. ”

Speaking of this, Lei Hou hesitated slightly: "However, if we don't solve the problem of rainy weather, this area of our Dongting is not suitable for growing wheat and rice. It's good that wheat can be used for tax deduction now, but what if wheat can't be tax deductible in the future? ”

"Ben Hou is not only worried that the king will enforce the wheat rice, but also worried that the wheat is useless, and after the people stop planting, the king will think that the people in the Dongting area are mavericks with the feudal monarch."

Xu Wan comforted: "Your Majesty, the King of Chu is merciful, he shouldn't do this." Otherwise, with the construction of the canal this time, the king would not have only recruited the people between the Jiang and Han dynasties, and forced the implementation of wheat in the land of Jianghuai, but only forgot the land of Dongting. ”

"Jianghuai is the most important grain-producing area of Chu State, and Jianghan is also the grain-producing area of Chu State, isn't our Dongting an important grain-producing area of Chu State?"

"Aren't the people of our Dongting the people of Chu State?"

Hearing Xu Wan's questioning, Lei Hou nodded thoughtfully, and then, his body stiffened, and he asked again: "Xu Xiang, you said, since the king is like this, then the king must also know that the Dongting area is not suitable for growing wheat, then, you say, in the past two years, we have a big problem with the wheat handed over in Dongting, does the king know?" ”

Xu Wan was stunned when he heard this, and replied with a weak heart: "This... Your Majesty, the king may not know yet! ”

Lei Hou listened to Xu Wan's words, the two looked at each other, glanced at each other, and quickly set aside.

Lei Hou remembered that not long ago, the king of Chu had issued an edict to collect all the feudal lords in the Jianghuai and Jianghan regions, but only abandoned the feudal monarchs of Dongting.

This...

Does it mean that the king already knows something, but in the initial stage of the king's promotion of Maimi, the king pinched his nose and recognized the Maimi in Dongting!

Thinking about it, he couldn't help but feel palpitations and said: "Xu Xiang, during this time, weren't there many merchants from the four countries of Wei, Han, Song and Yue who came to buy Maimi?" ”

"Ben Hou pondered for a long time, and now my Chu and Yue countries are in a period of friendly exchanges, and the feudal lords of Jianghuai have married the nobles of Yue State. Now that the Vietnamese merchants came to buy grain, Ben Hou felt that he could not let the Yue merchants return empty-handed, so Ben Hou decided to agree to the request of the Yue merchants and sell all the excess wheat and rice in his hands to the Yue merchants. ”

Xu Wan reminded when he heard this: "Your Majesty, please think twice, although those merchants claim to be from the four countries of Wei, Han, Song and Yue, who in the world does not know, now, only the Qi country is short of grain, and other countries are not short of grain, where do you need to buy wheat and rice." Moreover, in the country of Yueguo, not only do the people not eat wheat and rice, but the situation in the south of Yue is similar to our Dongting, and there must be a phenomenon of wheat and rice moldy on the wheat stalks. ”

"Therefore, those so-called merchants of the Yue Kingdom, nine times out of ten, they are merchants of the Qi State who came to the Chu State to buy grain."

Lei Hou said faintly: "Benjun naturally knows this, so he has been dragging it out before and didn't agree to them." However, in the current situation, in the past half a month, the rainy weather has been more than ten days, and a lot of wheat is moldy, can Ben Hou discard these moldy wheat or hand it over to the king? ”

"Rather than this, why don't you take advantage of the high purchase price of Qi Guo and sell all this wheat and rice to Qi Guo?"

Saying that, Lei Hou seemed to comfort himself and said: "Besides, handing over these wheat rice to the king is a great disrespect to the king, if you sell these uneaten wheat to the merchants of the Yue Kingdom, it is also to consume the financial resources of the Qi Kingdom, why not do it!" ”

"This..." Xu Wan hesitated.

Seeing this, Lei Hou said with a firm gaze: "Xu Xiang, that's it, you go and invite the merchants of Yue Guo to come, and just say that Ben Hou agrees to sell Maimi!" ”

Xu Wan saw that Lei Hou had already made up his mind, so he responded: "Yes, Your Majesty!" ”

Lei Hou continued: "Since Ben Hou has decided to sell wheat rice, then he will do a big deal. Aren't there still many people in our counties and towns in Dongting who also grow wheat and rice! Xu Xiang, you take Ben Hou's letter to the county Yin of the counties near the minefield, and say that Ben Hou bought wheat at a high price, and ask them to help, and Ben Hou will have a thank you gift in the future! ”

"No!"

······

Yingdu.

As the time entered the ripening season of the wheat rice, the atmosphere in Yingdu became more and more tense.

At this time, in the Chu Palace, Chen Zhenzheng reported to the King of Chu with a heavy face: "King, now the wheat in Dongting has been harvested, and the wheat between Jianghuai and Huai has also begun to be harvested, but because the Qi State has always maintained the equivalence of wheat and corn, the wheat and rice of Chu and Yue are beginning to flow into the Qi State. ”

"In the past few months, a large number of Song and Yue merchants have appeared in the Dongting area, and they have frequently contacted the feudal lords and merchants of Dongting, preparing to purchase a large amount of wheat rice."

"Moreover, the news from the Jianghuai area that a large number of merchants from other countries have appeared in the Huainan region of our Chu State and the Yue State, mainly in the Qi, Song and Wei Kingdoms."

Xiong Huai nodded expressionlessly when he heard this, and all the people in the Chu State were mentally prepared for this situation.

Then, Xiong Huai asked Dou You, "Taifu Yin, how is Taifu's deployment in Dongting?" ”

Dou You arched his hand and said: "The king, the minister has sent an order to the county Yin in the Dongting area, asking them to fully cooperate with the Wei and Han merchants pretending to be in Taifu to buy grain, and now the wheat and rice in the hands of the people of Dongting have fallen into Taifu seven or eight times out of ten." ”

"The minister has sent someone to negotiate with the merchants from the Qi State to sell the wheat to the Qi State at a price of 100 yuan. Now, just waiting for the merchants of Qi to transport the wheat and rice from Dongting away. ”

As for why it is a hundred yuan, it is because, since the wheat and rice in the south of the Yangtze River in Chu State began to be harvested, the Qi State was not willing to be wronged, and lowered the price of wheat and rice.

"Good!" Xiong Huai smiled and nodded.

Selling Dongting's wheat to Qi was a plan that had been deployed for several months.

As early as a year ago, the Thorn History Mansion went to various places to collect wind, and found an abnormality in the Dongting area.

The wheat there is moldy on the straw!

Then, the people of Dongting and the feudal lords spontaneously disposed of the moldy wheat and rice, and then handed it over to Taifu.

Later, because of the policy that wheat can be used to deduct taxes, the people of Dongting not only did not discourage the idea of planting wheat, but also a large number of people expanded the scale of planting.

In this regard, Xiong Huai felt powerless, after all, he couldn't go back on his word and implement the two-tax system in the territory of Chu!