"My lord, as expected, almost all the feudal towns have gone crazy now, and their secret organizations have begun to track down the cause of this price increase." Xuan Yingwei's intelligence efficiency was not ordinarily high, and almost at the same time that the major feudal towns sent their subordinates to investigate, the news had already been transmitted to the Chang'an headquarters.

"Have you started to implement your plan?" Li Xuanqing hurriedly glanced at it and asked. At present, it seems that Zhu Quanzhong's reaction is the greatest, there are still wars in Sichuan and other places, and they are already very rich and rich in products, so there is almost no reaction.

"Zheng Fan has handled this matter on behalf of Zhu Quanzhong, and this guy almost intuitively locked that we did it, but there is no evidence at present, and there are different voices within the Xuanwu Army, so he plans to find evidence now." Hu Xiaosi explained Zhu Quanzhong's actions and continued: "Xuan Yingwei's plan has been launched, I am here to resign from the lord, and I plan to go to the Eastern Capital in person and have a good time with Zheng Fan. ”

Li Xuanqing pondered for a while and nodded: "Since you went in person, then I have nothing to explain, and other places must also arrange good manpower, and-" After speaking, he pointed to the north and said, "Don't forget this matter." I will not interfere in your layout in Shandong, there is only one principle, that is, even if you retreat, you must leave behind to delay the time for Zhu Quanzhong to restore the economy, and fight for our plan for a year, and after a year, Zhu Quanzhong will not be a big deal. ”

"Don't worry, Xiao Si understands that reliable manpower has been arranged in other places, and as time goes by, our economic war will be transferred to other places, thus forming a torrent that will change the world." Hu Xiaosi gave the order.

"The idea is to protect the people and the merchants who accompany them. In the future, the world will be big. Li Xuanqing looked at the intelligence leader in front of him and said with a smile: "How about I marry you when you come back from completing the task?" ”

"Huh? Lord, shouldn't you find a daughter-in-law for Tianxiang? Why did it suddenly turn to me? When Hu Xiaosi heard this, he hurriedly pulled Xu Tianxiang out and said, "We are not in a hurry now, you see that Tianxiang is older than the lord, and Chen Yu, he is the oldest, and the lord should go to the two of them." ”

"Little Four, you are not enough brother, why did you sell me in front of the lord at once?" Before Hu Xiaosi's words fell, Xu Tianxiang had already walked into Changqing Palace and glared at Hu Xiaosi viciously.

"You pull it down, that Miss Fu Yao of Lord Yang's family has taken a fancy to you, okay, I'll go to Chen Fan tomorrow and ask him and the lord to go and propose marriage to you." Hu Xiaosi didn't give Xu Tianxiang face at all, and sprayed directly.

"Okay, okay, I can't talk about you. Lord, do you want Xiaohu to go with you when you go to the east? Xu Tianxiang was Hu Xiaosi's opponent, and hurriedly changed the topic.

Li Xuanqing nodded and said, "Let the entire army of the Flying Eagle Brigade leave the country in disguise and cooperate with the Xuanying Guard." After a pause, he continued, "You didn't come here just for this, did you?" ”

"That's not it, the order of the General Staff to transfer troops has been issued, and the two group armies on the Western Front have begun to be formed, and I want to ask the lord if he wants to go to the front line to supervise the battle."

"No need, Hou Chun and Wan Yi can take charge on their own, and besides, the war on the Western Front is just a mossy disease, so take it as a foreshadowing for the future, the task of the military department this year is to train and reorganize." Li Xuanqing waved his hand and said, "Xiao Si is going to work hard, and the grain and grass mobilized by the hundreds of thousands of troops are waiting for you to transport it." ”

"Haha, before I came, the old Zuo of the logistics department was still chattering to me, saying that some time ago, the money and grain of the logistics department were transferred to the Fengzhou area by the lord, and there was not so much grain and grass in the west. But I didn't have a trace of sorrow when I saw him, and there is still this one here? Li Xuanqing's words made Xu Tianxiang suddenly realize, and he immediately patted his thigh and said: "Little four, Tiancheng on the Eastern Front is ready, and in case of emergency, I can go out of Huazhou and cooperate with you." ”

Hu Xiaosi saw Li Xuanqing looking at him, nodded, and turned away.

"My lord, even if this matter is done well, it is estimated that it will have a mixed reputation, and it may cause problems with the people's hearts in Shandong. Are you sure you want to do this? Xu Tianxiang rarely paid attention to civil affairs issues, but there was an indescribable sorrow in his eyes.

"Don't worry, Xiaosi is already doing it, and regaining the hearts of the people is actually sometimes simple. Especially those people at the bottom, for them, the policy of our Tiance Mansion is the most suitable for them. Li Xuanqing explained lightly, and didn't continue to say anything. Xu Tianxiang's worries were justified, but he didn't have his own knowledge from later generations.

And as Hu Xiaosi began to set off from Chang'an, Xuan Yingwei began his own plan. The merchants of Tiance Mansion in Shandong began their own actions, and after pouring several hands, they had already fiddled with the source of goods beyond recognition, and those local merchants had become the last hand pick-up man for the merchants of Tiance Mansion in the face of eye-popping profits. This kind of early buying at a low price and now selling at a high price suddenly caused a crazy rush to buy in Bianliang, Dongdu, Xuzhou, Yanzhou and other places. There is a long queue at the door of the shops of rice, flour, grain and oil and other daily necessities, and the prices are also rising. After many people took the money and could not buy rice, it caused a commotion, and the people of the brigade rushed into these shops, smashed open the doors of the shops, and looted the rice.

After the Zhengzhou incident, local businessmen went to the Zhengzhou government to cry after their huge wealth was robbed, and the Zhengzhou government quickly dispatched troops to suppress it, killing more than 500 people and arresting more than 300 people. However, the bloody crackdown did not play its due role, and the inflated food prices have threatened the lives of the vast majority of ordinary people, so after Zhengzhou, there have been riots in Huazhou, Weizhou, Liangzhou and even Luoyang, the seat of Henan Province, in Shandong. The one-sided repression by the local government also made the anger of the people continue to ferment, and in just half a month, the commotion has developed into an armed rebellion that has spread all over the country.

At the critical juncture, the military advisor Xie Tongli overrode public opinion, let Zhu Quanzhong sit in Caizhou to exterminate the remnants of Qin Zongquan, and restore stability in Caizhou and other places.

Xie Tong frowned after taking over the details of the changes that had happened in the past few days from Zheng Fan's hands, and Zheng Fan on the side knew that he was not the opponent in front of him in civil affairs, so he simply handed over the initiative to Xie Tong and waited for his speech.

"Brother Zheng, you say these are all the transactions of our local merchants? Then why do you want to be suspicious of Tiance Mansion? Xie Tong was also shocked when he looked at this information, but he was very strange about Zheng Fan's actions.

Zheng Fan saw Xie Tong's serious eyes and smiled bitterly: "I just had an intuition at first, but in the end, I didn't find any strong evidence. But one thing is clear, the industries of these local merchants are more or less related to the merchants of Tiance Province. ”

"So what do we do now, in your opinion?" Xie Tong glanced at Zheng Fan, whose eyes were a little unnatural, and suddenly asked.

"Immediately arrest all the merchants in Tiance Mansion all over Shandong, and then strictly interrogate them, and then they will definitely be able to find the source. At the same time, the whole region searched for all the warehouses and hidden bunkers where merchants hoarded materials, and confiscated the proceeds of the investigation, so that they could not only obtain a large number of materials out of thin air, but also crack down on these illegal businessmen. When these are done, without those speculative businessmen, prices will naturally be able to come down. The people were able to return to peace. As for the rebels, let the garrison be wiped out one by one. Zheng Fan said the plan in his heart.

In all fairness, Zheng Fan's words can indeed quickly quell the riots, and they can kill two birds with one stone. But the most important issue is not recognized. The total amount of materials in a given area is basically unchanged, and the consequence of this large-scale transfer of materials is that although the riots can be quelled, there is no way to lower prices, and they may even continue to rise, which has been verified in various periods of later generations. And just after Xie Tong agreed to adopt Zheng Fan's opinion, Xuan Yingwei's supreme orders also began to be issued to the heads of various state capitals. After receiving the order, these people began a second wave of moves.

Early the next morning, when Zheng Fan and Xie Tong began to plan and prepare to capture the merchants of Tiance Mansion that Zheng Fan had noticed, Bianzhou began to change dramatically. Overnight, rumors of the Xuanwu army starting to suppress the common people for the benefit of merchants filled the city, and quickly spread to other surrounding cities as pedestrians entered and exited. At the same time, Xuan Yingwei's secret trading firm began to activate underground shopping malls and set up black market transactions, completely disrupting the market order in Bianzhou. A large number of materials were traded on the black market, and the astonishing prices began to spread outward from the black market, and the base camp of the Xuanwu Army also began to gradually collapse.

Faced with an emergency, Xie Tong disrupted Zheng Fan's plan and turned the first step into the second step. began to arrest those unscrupulous merchants in the city, confiscated food and other hoarded materials, and took action to refute rumors. This point was quickly recognized by the people, and Zhu Quanzhong's base camp was still well governed. However, the materials investigated and dealt with did not flow to the market, but were hoarded by the Xuanwu army, which made the astonishing price of grain, which had been speculated by the black market to a bucket of rice and 100 copper coins, begin to appear openly on the market, and in many cases there is no market. This time, the people were completely panicked, and some of the people who had no place to go out of the city began to flee the famine, and then outside the city they were persuaded by those usually inconspicuous little people to hide in nearby villages, and then moved and disappeared in batches.

Originally, the Xuanwu Army was very strict in controlling the population, but it couldn't stand that there were more important things to deal with at this time, and almost all the energy of the secret service led by Zheng Fan was focused on this man-made disaster. So no one has figured out how these people disappeared.

Moreover, at this time, the merchants of Tiance Mansion also received an order and suddenly disappeared without a trace overnight, and even the subordinates they hired disappeared at this time. All this made Zheng Fan more and more confirmed that his intuition was correct. But at this time, he didn't have the heart to investigate, but after carefully discussing with Xie Tong overnight, he began to decide to sell grain to the market, in the hope of stabilizing prices.

Because of the need to stabilize prices, Xie Tong set the price of grain at 500 yuan per bucket of rice, which was originally much higher than the previous grain price in Bianzhou, but at this time, it really became a conscience price. Therefore, almost in the first time that the Xuanwu Army put in the grain, these grains were looted, and in just three days, a total of 7 million stone of grain was snapped up in the five cities investigated and dealt with by the Xuanwu Army. But the price of grain did not really come down, after the Xuanwu Army stopped selling grain, these originally falling grain prices rose wildly again, and there was no way to suppress it.

At this time, Xie Tong and the others were completely dumbfounded, when they held more than 7 million stones of grain in their hands before, they still had the confidence to speak honestly, but now that the grain is gone, the price of grain has not dropped as scheduled. Several people didn't know what to do anymore. And at this time, the bad news came again, the population loss in the territory of the Xuanwu Army was finally discovered, although there was no large-scale disappearance of the population in various places, but the number of this reduction in each region is very terrifying, there is no population in the agricultural era, there is nothing in the Bianliang area, the population of the Bianliang area is small, and Zhu Quanzhong has to find a way to transport the population from the land of Qilu after so many years, and it took so many years to finally save such a little possessions, at this time the population loss is not self-destruction of the Great Wall?

At the same time as Zhu Quanzhong asked for help, Xie Tong began to take emergency measures, forcibly restricting the price of grain by violence, directly arresting the major merchants who did not sell grain according to the order, and then began to announce in various places that all grain and other daily necessities must be sold to the Xuanwu Army within a time limit, and that the local government offices would uniformly arrange manpower to distribute food to the population in the city.

This set is very similar to the method of later generations, but the household registration system of this era has made this method full of loopholes, and the people who can't get by in various places have begun to run around, and it is impossible to distinguish whether those are local people or not, and those officials deliberately withhold food, causing public resentment, and the effect is not obvious.

Although there are many loopholes in this approach, it is really effective in implementation. But Hu Xiaosi, who had already arrived in the Eastern Capital, was unwilling to stop, rolled his eyes, and started another plan. Faced with these merchants who were forbidden to trade, Xuan Yingwei's people began to hook up through different channels, encouraging them to go to other regions. Even in order to avoid suspicion, and in order to create trouble for Zhu Quanzhong to unify the Central Plains, the direction of Xuan Yingwei's people was actually to go east to Zhu Jin's territory, in order to fabricate the peace and freedom of Zhu Jin's territory, these guys did not hesitate to give full play to Hu Xiaosi's eloquence, and boasted about Zhu Jin and Wang Shifan in the land of Qilu. The relationship between Zhu Jin and Zhu Quanzhong is not ordinary, so these people who went there did not have any burden and pressure at all, and they began to flee one after another within a few days. The flight of these merchants did not attract Zheng Fan's attention at first, and within the Xuanwu Army, Zhu Jin's territory was no different from Zhu Quanzhong's. However, when most of the merchants fled from Bianliang and other places, the entire market collapsed, and there was no longer a single merchant in the market in Bianliang and other places, and all the material circulation fell into a state of stagnation, which completely turned the entire Central Plains into a pool of stagnant water.

At this time in Chang'an City, Li Xuanqing received a report from Hu Xiaosi, and the content was just one sentence: The Central Plains is decided.

This is the end of this nondescript economic war. But in Li Xuanqing's eyes, this war is far from over. Hu Xiaosi's follow-up plan is the most important, but it is precisely these that the opponent has no way to deal with it before. So after a long silence, the flying horses in the Changqing Palace urgently dispatched again and headed east.