On the third day of the first month of June, in the city of Suzhou, Zhang Keli, the squire of the military department of Zhishi, looked at a copy of "Tianjin Daily" in his hand, frowning. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

This newspaper was brought from Tianjin by Zhang Kelito. Although the civil officials and gentry in Nanzhili were hostile to the "Tianjin Daily" and would never let the newspaper spread in Nanzhili, Zhang Keli, as a Zhishi official with a city government, secretly collected newspapers in Tianjin and read them every day.

Zhang Keli's family has thousands of acres of fertile land, almost all of which are donated by small people. He was very prosperous in Suzhou City, but he was very worried about Li Zhi, who was an enemy of the gentry. After collecting taxes from the gentry in Tianjin, Li Zhi extended his tentacles to Shandong. It seems that it will not take a few years for the whole country to follow Li Zhi's rules. If that happens, the Zhang family's grange industry will collapse in an instant.

Zhang Keli's five-room wife and thirteen children all rely on this grange to live. Without the Grange, wouldn't the dozens of members of the Zhang family be finished? Zhang Keli hated Li Zhi very much.

The so-called knowing oneself and knowing that the other is invincible, Zhang Keli reads Tianjin Daily every day to see what Li Zhi is doing, and to see if Li Zhi will really win all the gentry in the world and defeat all the gentry in the world.

However, today's "Tianjin Daily" has made Zhang Keli interested.

Li Zhi made it clear in the "Tianjin Daily" that he wanted to buy 10 million stone of grain for disaster relief, and called on the gentry of the world to give full play to their benevolence and righteousness, buy and sell fairly, and not take the opportunity to raise the price of rice.

The small people of the Ming Dynasty have no food stocks, and these small people are so poor that they are hungry when they are not in stock. Almost all the grain stocks in the world were in the hands of the gentry. Whether Li Zhi can buy a huge amount of grain of 10 million stone at a fair price depends on whether the gentry in the world cooperate with Li Zhi.

Therefore, Li Zhi shouted in the Tianjin Daily, hoping that the gentry of the world would not raise prices.

Zhang Keli snorted coldly, and looked down again:

"After the Duke of Jin eliminated the Zheng pirates, he obtained more than 20 million taels of silver, plus the silver accumulated in the calendar year of the Duke of Jinguo, a total of more than 30 million taels. The Jinguo Gong plan is to use all the money to buy food for the relief of the victims. As long as the gentry of the world do not raise the price of rice and buy and sell at a fair price with Jinguo, the Duke of Jinguo can save tens of millions of people in Shandong Province. ”

"The amount of 10 million stone is too huge, and in order not to cause large fluctuations in the supply and demand of grain prices in various places, the Duke of Jin plans to buy grain in batches in various places and use the fleet to transport it. Buy 2 million stone of grain in Beizhili. Buy four million stones in Nanzhili. Buy two million stones in Zhejiang, one million stones each in Fujian and Guangdong. ”

Finally, the "Tianjin Daily" once again emphasized the importance of sincere cooperation, emphasizing that as long as the gentry of the world do not raise the price of rice, the Duke of Tianjin will be able to successfully rescue Shandong.

Zhang Keli finished reading the Tianjin Daily, snorted coldly, and slapped the newspaper on the tea case.

He looked at his eldest son and asked, "It seems that Li Zhi really wants to buy 10 million stone of grain for disaster relief." ”

Zhang Keli's eldest son nodded and said, "Father, this matter can't be wrong. If he doesn't buy food, what will he do for disaster relief? For the sake of this disaster relief, the Son of Heaven has given Li Zhi the official position of governor of Shandong, and allowed Li Zhi to collect business taxes in Shandong in the future. Li Zhi was very pleased with the official position and tax power given by the Son of Heaven, and was determined to spend money on disaster relief, saying that 'no one in Shandong will starve to death'! ”

"Li Zhi is taking advantage of the disaster relief this time to actually control a province in Shandong. If Li Zhi could not successfully buy enough grain to feed the arid Shandong, the Son of Heaven would definitely take back the official title given to him, and Li Zhi would not be allowed to levy the commercial tax. ”

"So Li Zhi is out of the way this time, and he must be desperate to buy food. Father, if you look at the wording in the Tianjin Daily, it is almost a gentry in the world. He also knew that if the gentry of the world did not cooperate, he would not be able to buy 10 million stone of grain for more than 30 million taels of silver. ”

Zhang Keli's eldest son paused, and then said: "Father, Nanzhili has a population of more than 20 million, and the surplus grain in the Nanzhili market is only a few million stones. Li Zhi came to buy four million stones at once, almost buying Nan Zhili, where is it so easy? ”

"As long as we operate it a little bit, we can raise the price of food to the sky. When the time came, not only did Li Zhi hand over all the silver, but he also couldn't get enough food for disaster relief. When the time comes, he will spend all his money, and the Son of Heaven will take back his official position and tax power, isn't it a good thing? ”

Zhang Keli thought for a while and said, "This seems to be the truth. But I always feel a little strange... Li Zhi is not stupid, he is not afraid that the gentry of the world will raise the price of grain and make it difficult for him to buy grain with such fanfare. ”

Zhang Keli's eldest son smiled and said, "Father, Li Zhi really broke his brain this time. He thought that if he contributed money for disaster relief to do a good deed, everyone in the world would cooperate with him. He didn't know that the world's corporal and gentry hated him to the bone, and even if he was infamous on his back, he would drag him down Li Zhi. ”

"Father, you don't know, I heard, half a month ago, before Li Zhi's performance was disclosed, Li Zhi had secretly started to collect grain, he bought 300,000 stone rice noodles in Beizhili, 500,000 stone rice in Zhejiang, and 300,000 stone in Fujian. The grain merchant in the market has not yet reacted and still sold it to him at a flat price. ”

"But such a large purchase volume can't be hidden, and the news came out quickly."

"In the past few days, news has come from the capital, and Li Zhi's reply to the Son of Heaven has been revealed. From then on, everyone in the world knew that Li Zhi was going to buy 10 million stones, and he wanted to buy short the southern provinces. Which gentleman with grain does not sit on the ground and raise the price, and make it difficult for him ruthlessly? In addition, he reported to his family and said in the newspaper that he had more than 30 million taels of silver, and I am afraid that no gentleman would let him go. ”

Zhang Keli thought for a long time, nodded and said, "Our family can't do this." I'll go to Qian Gong's place to have a look and see what everyone's attitude is. ”

Zhang Keli changed his clothes and walked to Qian Qianyi's mansion in a sedan chair. As soon as he arrived at the door of Qian's house, the doorman of Qianfu smiled and said: "Zhang Gong is also here, so the characters of Suzhou Mansion are all together!" ”

Zhang Keli was stunned and walked into the second hall with the man. When I walked into the second hall, I found that including the prefect of Suzhou, the famous gentry of Suzhou Mansion had gathered, and they were all drinking tea there with smiles on their faces.

Although Qian Qianyi, the world-famous leader of Donglin, is old, he is still very energetic. He waved his hand at Zhang Keli and said with a smile: "Zhang Gong is also here, Zhang Gong is seated!" ”

Zhang Keli pondered for a while, sat on the chair, and heard Qian Qianyi say loudly: "This time, Li Zhi is smart and advertises in the newspaper that he has 30 million silver, can we let him go?" The gentry in Nanking had already organized themselves, and not only did they not let out a grain of their own rice, but they also went all out to buy surplus grain from small grain merchants in the market. This time, we will speculate the grain price of Nanzhili to five taels and one stone, so that Li Zhi will have nothing to lose. ”