Sun Xiaoliu was in a daze and didn't know how he walked out of the restaurant, and the generous middle-aged boss Wang walked into the backyard of the restaurant he had chartered with a smile on his face after Sun Xiaoliu left, and the backyard was brightly lit that night...... There are also people who saw which middle-aged boss Wang visited Liu Zhengguang, the chief bookkeeper of Cangzhou, with a heavy gift overnight.

However, early the next morning, there was a big incident in the Cangzhou grain trading market, and the magistrate Li Wenhe personally led the yamen to catch the fast and all the soaps to seal the market, and posted a notice saying that there were profiteers who had recently disrupted the market, maliciously speculated on grain prices, and held private meetings without permission. In order to rectify the grain market and ensure the legitimate interests of the people, the state yamen is now blocking the trading market and prohibiting the circulation of acceptance orders.

As soon as the announcement came out, the trading market was in chaos, and many small merchants didn't expect the state yamen to come to this hand, but they just wanted to cry without tears when they saw the silver they had entered.

The middle-aged man who invited Sun Xiaoliu to drink in the restaurant last night was outside the trading market, he was brutally driven out by Soap Li, but he didn't cry like some small merchants, but watched all this with a smile, and soon gathered around him, some of these people spoke with Shanxi accents: "Boss Wang, what should I do now?" ”

"Hmph, Li Wenhe is also confused, which law has I violated by doing business legally? When the soap is gone, you go and mobilize those small merchants to petition the state yamen, and so ......on."

Sure enough, after the opening of the Yamen soap, the small merchants stranded in the trading market were immediately launched, and everyone felt that it made sense when they heard the words, everyone took the silver of the white flowers to do business, and the acceptance form also had signatures and handprints, and did not violate the law of the Ming Dynasty, so soon there were small businessmen who walked to the state yamen with righteous indignation, and some people took the lead and immediately responded to it, and then more and more, some people who did not know the truth and some people who were hired also joined in, and soon hundreds of petitioners gathered at the gate of the state ya.

Li Wenhe naturally did not manage the people who petitioned, let them make noise at the door, but soon by noon, the number of people gathered had exceeded three or four hundred, and some people held up large slogans, which said Restore the market, we want to live, and those big merchants from other places finally took action, and handed over the greetings to the Lord Zhizhou, at first Li Wenhe naturally did not see anything, but these people seemed to be well-informed, saying that they asked to see the prefect, if the prefect refused to meet, they would go to the capital to complain, Sue the governor of Cangzhou and the prefect of Tianjin for oppressing the people!

Then there was a soap Li Li who saw the Zhizhou Li Wenhe being scolded by Yang Dashuai's bloody dog, and finally drooped his head and began to meet those merchants, and the result of the meeting was that the yamen resumed the trading market, and the state government was responsible for the market order, but the merchants' acceptance orders needed to go to the yamen for filing, and each transaction required the yamen officials to register the brochure on the spot and pay the corresponding taxes to the yamen. For this method of collecting taxes according to each transaction, although the merchants feel that the Zhizhou Lord is black-hearted, but the usual transactions are also subject to Ghana taxes, but because the frequency is not high, it is not obvious, and now because the price fluctuates greatly, it seems that the Zhizhou Lord is black-hearted.

Soon the grain trading market was reopened in the cheers of the merchants, and the frequency of transactions became higher and higher because the acceptance form had the seal of the yamen, and the trading market became more formal because of the presence of the yamen soap li. I don't know who got the grapevine that it was said that Yang Hongzhang, the chief soldier of Tianjin, personally came to Cangzhou to escort the grain, but the treasury of the state government was empty, and at the same time, the grain of the six counties and one state of Tianjin Prefecture began to gather in Cangzhou, and it is said that the grain shortage of the Tianjin General Military Mansion is at least 200,000 stones, and it is optimistically estimated that it will take at least a month to start spreading the news to Jiangnan and then coming from Jiangnan Yunliang.

In other words, the Tianjin General Military Government could only purchase high-priced grain from Cangzhou. In addition, some people say that Baoding, Xuanfu and other places outside the capital are also because of this year's drought, and grain has soared...... In short, all the news points in one direction, food shortage. Soon, on the day the market was closed and reopened, the price of grain in Cangzhou actually exceeded the high price of five taels of silver per stone.

The next day, there was news that Tian Hongyu, the predator in the capital, had transported a large amount of grain to Cangzhou, and the emperor's father-in-law, Tian Daren, who had been a smash hit in the capital, was said to have fallen out with Yang Hongzhang in Tianjin, and the grain that was originally shipped to Tianjin was directly transported to Cangzhou. With Tian Hongyu joining, the price of grain in the trading market soon began to fall, but it rose again in the afternoon, because it was discovered that the state government sent people to buy a large amount of grain. And Tian Hongyu, who was originally a seller, saw that the situation was like this, and immediately joined in and became a seller. As a result, the price of grain on that day exceeded 55 cents on the same day.

That night, there was a soap Li who saw Yang Hongzhang in the back hall of the state government thundering, Li Wenhe was scolded and the dog was bloody, and even Yang Hongzhang pulled out a knife on the spot to cut Li Wenhe, and was later persuaded to stop.

As the price of grain in Cangzhou rose wildly, some businessmen kept coming from the capital and other places to join in the fun, and the direct consequence of their arrival was that the price of grain in Cangzhou was one a day, which soon exceeded six taels per stone, then seven taels, and finally reached eight taels per stone in a crazy way. At this time, people found that the Zhizhou Lord in the state government was gone, and the one sitting in the hall was replaced by Yang Hongzhang, the chief soldier of Tianjin.

The common people in Cangzhou City have finally changed from being busy to being deeply affected, because most of the people's food stocks have almost run out, and the grain in the market remains high, and the grain prices in various grain and oil stores have also risen in the market. The same amount of money can only buy a little more than 20% of the food in the past, and the key is that most of the food bought and eaten is not rich families.

There are also businessmen who participate in the game who want to go to the nearby state capital to buy grain to sell in Cangzhou, and then they dispelled this idea, because as the news spreads, at least the price of grain near Cangzhou is also rising, and today's market is already pure speculation acceptance, the frequency of transactions is staggering, everyone knows that the price is unreasonable, and they think that it will drop sharply the next day, and the result has been rising the next day. The same drama is repeated every day!

During this period, there was news that a large number of grain merchants from the capital and Jiangnan would arrive in Cangzhou, and the price of the trading market dropped from eight taels to eight taels in half a day after the news came out.

The merchants of Cangzhou are almost crazy, and most of them have joined the game of competing for food, as if as long as they grab a few acceptance orders that day, they are as happy as bringing back a hen that can lay golden eggs.

Just when more people are mortgaging their property to raise money and are ready to continue joining this crazy game, a breaking news finally arrives.

The grain merchants from the capital finally arrived in Cangzhou, and hundreds of ships lined up at the docks for miles long. Just when some people still didn't believe it, Tian Hongyu stood up and spoke, the emperor's father-in-law's words always have only one meaning, whether it was in the capital or in Tianjin a few days ago, it was a rumor, Tianjin General Yang Hongzhang is still his Tian Hongyu's best brother, he transported 300,000 stone of grain from the capital this time, in addition to leaving what Tianjin Acropolis needs is to prepare to sell it all in Cangzhou! In addition, Tian Hongyu also said that he had organized merchants to purchase grain from Jiangnan, and the silver used was 800,000 taels, which means that according to the normal price, about half a month later, 400,000 stone of grain will arrive in Cangzhou.

These words made those businessmen who received the news some time ago that it was Tian Hongyu and Yang Hongzhang who fell out in a cold sweat, but fortunately, Tian Hongyu only arrived with 300,000 stone of grain at a time, which is nothing compared to the total amount of the current Cangzhou trading market.

But soon another piece of news completely shattered the confidence of these people! Because the merchant ships of the Jiangnan Trading Company arrived, they came from the sea, according to the description of the people who saw the scene, in addition to the three thousand large sea ships of the Jiangnan Trading Company, there were also forty or fifty sea ships, all of which had extremely deep drafts, and according to this calculation, those large sea ships were constantly moving grain from the ships, and according to this prediction, there were at least hundreds of thousands of stones.

At this moment, almost all people couldn't sit still, and their eyes were staring at the state government, because there was Yang Hongzhang sitting there, and he was the only big customer in Cangzhou at present! The rest of the people, except for speculators, are sellers.

Soon Yang Hongzhang did not let everyone wait for a long time, and the notice stamped with the bright red seal of the General Military Mansion was soon posted outside the market: Recently, some people have used the news of the shortage of grain in the General Military Mansion to speculate on the price of grain, and now the General Military Mansion hereby issues an announcement for the sake of the positive public, at present, the grain stock of the General Military Mansion and the Yamen of the Tianjin Prefect is totaling 200,000 stones, and the orders of the Treasury of the Six Counties and One Prefecture and the General Military Office of the Army have purchased nearly 200,000 stone of grain in the past month, so the food of 50,000 people in the Tianjin Acropolis is enough to support a year and a half!

In addition, in order to speed up the construction progress of Tianjin City, 20,000 people are now recruited from six counties and one state, and the wages will be increased by one percent, and the rice village participating in the construction of Tianjin City will be exempted from a certain amount of tax burden.

There is also a notice issued by the Jiangnan Trading Company, which is stamped with the big seal of the trading company, and the content also says that the company's project in Tianjin is running normally and is profitable, and in order to support the construction of Tianjin and give back to the General Military Government and the elders of Tianjin, the Jiangnan Trading Company will regularly and irregularly transfer grain from Jiangnan to stabilize the market price and stabilize the market order.

There are many other contents on the notice, but for those businessmen who are obsessed with getting rich overnight, they are no longer in the mood to read it, Tian Hongyu, Jiangnan Trading Company and the General Military Mansion shot at the same time, and those originally calm businessmen can't sit still. They rushed into the market and began to frantically sell their acceptances, but there were very few people who took them! The whole market is panicking.