On the sixth day of the seventh month, in the courtyard of the Shen family in the capital of Qingzhou Prefecture, Shandong, Shen Congdao, the head of the Shen family, held a note from the prefect of Qingzhou Mansion, but felt that the note was so important that he could barely hold it. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The Shen family has hoarded food this month, and it has reached the point of exhausting the family's wealth.

The Shen family has more than 6,000 acres of land and more than 100 tenant farmers. These lands brought him an annual rent of more than seven thousand taels of silver. Shen Congdao, as a talented student, of course does not pay Tian Fu. However, the Shen family has a big business and a large overhead, plus the silver from the prefect and the county every year, the Shen family has more than 30,000 taels of silver in more than ten years.

Of the more than 30,000 taels of silver, Shen Congdao used almost all of them to hoard rice and noodles. The granary in the backyard of the Shen family is full of warehouses of rice and noodles.

Last month, Li Zhi published an article in the newspaper saying that he had more than 30 million taels of silver and wanted to buy more than 10 million stones of silver in the coastal provinces. At this moment, the gentry of several coastal provinces were all active. The gentry, organized by famous officials and eunuchs, bought grain on a large scale and hoarded it, preparing to sell it to Li Zhi at a high price when the time came.

In the southern provinces, the gentry still had some reservations, and only speculated on large deals. I heard that in Nanzhili, the people went to the gentry's grain store to buy more than a dozen catties of rice for their own use, and the gentry still sold it at the price of three taels and one stone, that is, one cent, six cents of silver, one catty of rice. But if it is a large transaction of more than 5,000 catties, the price will be bought and sold at the price of five taels and one stone.

This is a naked price inversion, that is, the wholesale price is higher than the retail price, which is a clear pit for Li Zhi.

Most of the accumulated grain was in the gentry granary, and as long as the gentry unified their thinking and did not sell it, they soon raised the price of grain in large transactions. The limited surplus grain available on the market in the southern provinces was bought up by the gentry. The gentry set up a dragon gate array, waiting for Li Zhi to blackmail Li Zhi when he came to buy grain.

And in Shandong, the destination of this disaster relief, the gentry were even more ferocious. The gentry of Shandong are 10,000 who do not want to see Li Zhi successfully enter Shandong for disaster relief. The famine in Shandong was a small matter, and the deaths were also poor peasants who had no grain reserves. If Li Zhi is allowed to successfully provide disaster relief and enter Shandong, as soon as he collects the land endowment in a few years, the gentry will be completely finished.

The gentry in Shandong all contributed money and efforts to raise the price of grain.

Everyone expected that there would be no harvest in Shandong in the coming year, and the grain in the Shandong market was already very tight, so grain prices flew up as soon as they were instigated.

At first, the Shandong gentry were still a little frightened, afraid that the Jinguo Guild would suddenly put a butcher's knife on the neck of the gentry who were hoarding grain. But seeing that the price is rising little by little, the tiger master in Jinan has not moved at all. The gentry of Shandong gradually became bolder.

The gentry in Shandong not only stopped supplying grain to the market, but also purchased grain from the market at a high price, and the price of grain rushed to six taels and one stone.

The farmers who ploughed the fields were fine, and the farmers ate their own grain. Although it was confiscated this year, last year's harvest has not yet been eaten, and the province can hold out until August and September. But the townspeople were unlucky, and had to buy grain at two or three times the price. The monthly money from the work is not enough to buy rice, and the family's savings are about to be exhausted.

Shandong's prefectures, prefectures and counties are full of complaints. The townspeople hated the gentry who hoarded grain, and some even wrote ballads about the king on both sides of the street. The two lines of black characters frightened the gentry to search the city, and finally caught a twelve-year-old Meng Tong and whipped him.

The savings of the citizens were passing rapidly, and the life of the gentry was also somewhat unsustainable. The price of grain, which was expected to be easily controlled, was hit by the end of June, and it was almost unbearable -- I don't know who was selling grain on a large scale in the market, dumping it at the gentry who took over at a high price.

For example, in Qingzhou Mansion, there is a mysterious force that has transported more than 300,000 stone of grain and kept selling it. Although every time a southern merchant with a different identity shipped rice to sell, Shen Congdao knew that it was definitely a group of people. The gang sold grain on a large scale at a lower price than the gentry grain stores. If the Qingzhou gentry don't buy them all, the price of grain that has been raised with great difficulty will collapse.

The gentry of Qingzhou Mansion were all scared of this mysterious seller's smashing of the plate, and no one took the initiative to take the offer. In the past few days, the gentry have been running to the prefect's yamen every day, and the prefect will distribute a share of the grain sold in the market.

However, the gentry understood that the price of grain was high throughout the country, and this selling force could not be sustained. As long as you eat these grains and survive the next great famine, not to mention six taels of silver, it is ten taels of silver and one stone to sell grain, and those people can only smash pots and sell iron to buy it.

So every time the prefect assigned the gentry to take over, the gentry gritted their teeth and paid to take it. The mysterious businessman threw a huge amount of grain in Qingzhou City, but the price of grain in Qingzhou has always remained at six taels and one stone. But that mysterious merchant seems to be testing the ability of the Qingzhou gentry to bear it, almost as much as you take, they will ship it to you.

Today, Shen Congdao received a note from the prefect again, and in order to avoid people's eyes, only two big characters "eight hundred" were written on the note.

The prefect asked Shen Congdao to go to the market to pick up 800 stone of grain.

Eight hundred stones, that is, more than four thousand taels of silver, Shen Congdao looked at this note, and his head was full of fine sweat.

The Shen family's money has been used up. In addition to the seven thousand stone grain in the granary, Shen Congdao only had the house deed and the title deed left. What did Shen Congdao buy with these 800 stone grains?

But Shen Congdao knew that this plate should be next. Nowadays, the gentry in Qingzhou are piled up with grain bought at a high price. If the price of grain cannot support it, then the gentry in Qingzhou will lose a large amount of property.

Who is this mysterious businessman, and why is he so ruthless? This is against the gentry of Qingzhou.

Next to Shen Congdao, the Shen family's bookkeeper took a breath and said, "Master, hold on, you must hold on!" As long as they hold on for another month, the peasants' families will run out of food. At that time, Li Zhi will have to buy grain at a high price for disaster relief, and all the money we spend will fly back obediently. ”

"Not only that, but we're going to make a lot of money. All the grain we bought for five taels and five dollars was sold to Li Zhi for six or seven taels and one stone. ”

Shen Congdao wiped the fine sweat on his forehead and nodded. He was thinking about where to borrow the more than 4,000 taels, but he saw the servant Shen San running in sweaty.

"Sir, the merchant who sold grain to the market said that they would also accept the deed. We can use the deed as silver to buy them food. ”

Do you want a house too? These businessmen want the life of the Shen family.

Shen Congdao seemed to hear a bad news, his face turned pale, and he sat down heavily in his chair.