Now the situation is bleak, like a bottomless whirlpool black hole, sucking the entire Qingzhou City. Officialdom and shopping malls are fighting each other, and disaster relief has reached the point where it is difficult to ride a tiger. Chen Xiujie, as the chief official in charge of the grain in the first house, was even pushed to the front and roasted, and he couldn't step down. Hou Houcong was in the middle of the dispatch, and in the end, he couldn't withstand the prestige accumulated by that palace over the years, and he worked extremely hard up and down, otherwise he would not have chosen Chen Ji's method and had a fight.

In previous years, there were always people dying under disasters, and according to some conventions, Qingzhou Mansion was actually not bad. However, in the past year, the center of the court has changed a wave of bigwigs, and Qingzhou will inevitably suffer a wave of "justified suppression". Chen Xiujie, who is far away from the court, is just a chess piece used to achieve his goal. In the current crisis, in addition to Qingzhou's tenacious self-help, I can only hope that some bigwigs in the court will give up their positions of power and take a back seat for the time being.

Of course, since ancient times, "it is better to seek others than to seek yourself", in the final analysis, you still have to rely on your own tenacious self-help.

Chen Xiujie has already sent special grain supervision teams to various counties, and there is still a part of the harvest in the end, although it is only a drop in the bucket in the overall situation, it is better than nothing. In addition, Hou Houcong came forward directly, and the Qingzhou gentry also had to sell some face, and they were able to set up porridge sheds with cold pots and cold stoves outside the city. and because of the former pavilion elders who are now settled in Qingzhou Station, they also influenced many gentry to donate generously. Of course, it is a palliative rather than a cure, and food prices are still inflated.

Less than one-tenth of the relief grain promised earlier has been allocated so far, and Zheng Jiawa's situation can be imagined.

Chen Ji probably knows a little about this. Through the simple intelligence network built up in the past three or five months, he has not completely cut off contact with Qingzhou City as far away as Zhengjiawa. It's just that it's too small, and even if you find a lot of threads, it's hard to pull out a really useful curtain. What I'm doing now seems to be softening.

In private, the real preparations have been underway for a long time, and this is still a "trick that is not very on the table" done by Chen Xiujie behind his back.

Knocked on the doors of the big families in the rain, and halfway back to the mansion, Chen Ji left the team and returned to Chen's house.

The situation was turbulent, and the Chen family also raised their minds, so Chen Ji did not delay when he came, and went straight to his small courtyard after entering the house, and told the old housekeeper not to tell others the news of his return on the way. When he arrived in the courtyard, he patted Shen Qiu's window, called people up, took off his clothes and hats, and went into the house to find clean clothes to change into.

Shen Qiu got up when he heard the movement, put on a random dress, touched a stick from the bed, and went out cautiously. Chen Ji glanced at him and sent him to put on another coat.

After tossing for a while, the master and servant sat down in the dark room, Chen Ji got straight to the point, and asked directly: "Explain what you did, how is it?"

Shen Qiu's face was solemn, "Now that the money in the account has been used up, and all the money houses have made a lot of IOUs, according to their meaning, the reputation of the master, the long-lasting reputation of the Chen family, is worth this two." ”

Chen Ji nodded: "Here in Qingzhou, no one should know, right?"

Shen Qiu said: "There shouldn't be, at most a few money banks that have dealings with Dengzhou will have some untrue news."

Chen Ji said: "That's fine. How much food do we have on hand now? ”

Shen Qiu took out a personal booklet from his body, handed it over, and introduced: "In the private warehouse of the Chen family in Dengzhou, five thousand stones can be evened out, and as long as the young master needs it, it can be delivered within seven days." In addition, a total of 110,000 taels of silver were borrowed from various money houses in Dengzhou, and according to the grain price two months ago, and coinciding with the arrival of grain from the south, the grain price basically remained at 8 taels of silver and one stone, and the purchase of grain was estimated at 14,000 ......."

When Shen Qiu spoke, Chen Ji was also carefully flipping through the booklet, and he was still taken aback when he heard this number. In fact, the demand for rice in the north is very small, so the price of rice is actually not expensive, but in recent years, there have been frequent wars in the north, and there have been many locust plagues, and the harvest is not good, so the rice in the south has the opportunity to be transported on a large scale. A few years ago, Dengzhou built a wharf for this purpose, which can be said to be the transit place for most of the rice in the south. Chen Ji started to buy grain in April, and the price of grain at that time was only one stone and four taels of silver, but now the price, he can no longer afford to buy half a piece of rice. Therefore, it is still a drop in the bucket to consider surviving this catastrophe with the 10,000 stone of grain in hand.

Closing the booklet, Chen Ji rubbed his forehead and asked, "How much is the price of grain in Qingzhou?"

"It's already thirteen taels, and the purchase price in the private market has reached fifteen taels."

Chen Ji exhaled, "It's hard to do!" Then he straightened up and said, "Waiting for the court to buy it from them, right?"

After a pause, Chen Ji sat up straight and said, "Recently, find a suitable opportunity to evenly distribute some of the grain in our hands, the higher the price, the better."

Shen Qiu was puzzled and reminded: "Didn't the prince say that he can't make a fortune?"

Chen Ji laughed: "The rise and fall of the country is the responsibility of the husband, how can I do that kind of immoral thing, but these gentry in Qingzhou, they are all masters who eat people and don't spit out bones, so they must be made to bleed once."

Shen Qiu said again: "But after selling grain, what will we eat?"

Chen Ji scratched his forehead, "We have about 20,000 stones in our hands now, you can find a way to sell half of it, you can decide how much to sell, and if you are lucky, after a wave, the silver of the various money houses in Dengzhou will be returned...... The remaining 10,000 stones will be stored for the time being......"

Shen Qiu bowed: "I understand."

Chen Ji sighed lightly, "It's really hard to get better." Then he instructed, "As long as you hold on until the end of July, things should be able to get better." ”

Shen Qiu sighed and didn't answer.

Chen Ji actually didn't want his next tactics to be really useful one day, after all, now that a powerful prince was sitting in Qingzhou, there was no reason for the southern Cao Yun to be blocked anymore. The careful thinking of the prefectures and counties in Shandong should also be reined in, which means that there will be more or less some grain coming to Qingzhou. At that time, food prices will inevitably collapse, and I don't know how many people will vomit blood. In the final analysis, Xu Guogong has been stationed in Qingzhou for several days, but he has changed his previous vigorous and resolute style, and seems to be afraid of that palace and has forbearance, so he releases a signal that those who are not afraid of eating will inevitably spit out more than that.

Chen Ji's heart palpitated, if they are really some sinister and cunning people, he is actually extremely pure.

In addition to arranging the purchase of grain earlier, it is just looking for some hidden hidden lines.