Duan Jian is not stupid, on the contrary, he is very smart, but he didn't think about these things because of some limitations at the beginning, but now after Di Renjie's reminder, he immediately understood. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

"What the teacher means is that someone deliberately released the news to cause confusion and then profit from it." Duan Jian said.

"Yes, exactly." Di Renjie was very pleased and appreciative that Duan Jian was able to figure out the intricate relationship in such a quick time.

"But, but...... Whoever would do this, could it be that those grain merchants did not do it? Duan Jian asked.

Hearing Duan Jian mention the grain merchants, Di Renjie couldn't help but show a mocking expression on his face and said, "Those grain merchants, they are also worthy, if it were really them, the imperial court would have done it a long time ago, but unfortunately, the people who manipulate all this behind the scenes are not these grain merchants who are stained with copper stench, but those high-ranking wealthy families, in addition to these wealthy families, Bufan feels that there are still those people who can do such a big thing, and even the court and hundreds of officials will be affected." ”

"No, no, no..... it's not right, Master, if those grain merchants released this news, it is understandable, after all, they can get huge benefits from this, but why do these wealthy families do this, they have no food in their hands, why do they have to go to great lengths to do this." Duan Jian asked even more suspiciously.

Hearing Duan Jian's question, Di Renjie couldn't help laughing and said, "Hahaha, extraordinary, you are still too young, many things in the officialdom are not clear, do you really think that those wealthy families will have no food in their hands, wrong, very wrong, not only do they have food, but those grains can be described as piled up, compared with these wealthy families, the Jiang family, the grain merchant you are familiar with, is just an insignificant little person." ”

Di Renjie's words completely changed Duan Jian's understanding and three views.

"Why is this so?" Duan Jian asked after a long time.

Under Di Renjie's explanation, Duan Jian finally understood the reason.

In ancient China, since the beginning of the country, there was a system of taxation, because this is one of the necessary conditions to ensure the existence of the dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty is of course no exception, but unlike later generations, the taxes collected in the Tang Dynasty were not settled with the same money, but money, cloth, and grain in parallel. Every time it is time to collect taxes, each prefecture and county will transport all these taxes to Chang'an City after deducting the necessary expenses.

Among them, money and cloth are easy to say, after all, they can be preserved for a long time, how much is how much, will not be damaged for no reason, but the grain is different, not to mention that the preservation conditions of the grain are quite harsh, just say that in this transportation, all kinds of natural and man-made disasters often lead to mildew or lack of grain that should be transported to Chang'an City.

In this way, every time it comes to the season of tax collection, it is a time when the prefectures and counties around the country are particularly sad, the states and counties close to Chang'an City are okay, and the states and counties in those remote places are like passing through the ghost gate, which is extremely uncomfortable, for this reason, in the early Tang Dynasty, many local officials were implicated because of the matter of paying taxes, and in desperation, these local officials came up with a solution.

That is, after receiving taxes every year, the grain is sold into silver or cloth, and then these silver coins and cloths are sent to Chang'an City to pay taxes, although in this way, because there is more grain, and the price of grain will plummet, it can be much better than transporting grain to Chang'an City for thousands of miles, and in addition, this practice can also save local officials from the punishment of the imperial court, killing two birds with one stone, why not?

In this way, this model has become a fixed model, but in this way, it involves a problem, that is, Chang'an City as the imperial capital, what to do if there is a lack of food, you know, no matter how good the silver money and cloth are, you can't eat it as food, without food, people will be hungry.

Fortunately, people's wisdom is infinite, and soon, some officials thought that since the imperial court has silver money and cloth, why can't we buy grain, and in the name of the imperial court, we can get greater benefits by purchasing from those places where food is abundant, which is why the imperial court will transport a large amount of grain and grass from the south of the Yangtze River to Chang'an every year.

Sima Qian once wrote in the "Historical Records" that 'the hustle and bustle of the world is for profit, and the hustle and bustle of the world is for profit.' This is a wise saying, and it is not bad at all, everything in the world, from neighborhood disputes to national wars, is caused by the relationship between interests and the uneven distribution of interests.

Don't look at this kind of food, it looks inconspicuous, and the time-consuming and labor-intensive sales can't make much money, but when this quantity accumulates to a certain level, there will be a change in quantity and quality, and a pound of grain may not even earn a penny, but 10,000 catties, 100,000 catties, 1 million catties.

The grain that the imperial court transports from Jiangnan to Chang'an City every year is not only a million catties, so if you calculate it, it is a huge piece of fat! In the face of this piece of fat, how could those wealthy families let it go.

Therefore, after an exchange of interests, the grain that should have been transported by the imperial court gradually fell into the hands of those wealthy families, although the imperial court needs to pay an extra amount of money for this every year, but compared with the original cumbersome things, after being transported by the wealthy families, the imperial court still has some benefits, and over time, the lifeblood of Chang'an City is completely controlled in the hands of these wealthy families. How could they not take advantage of this opportunity to make a fortune!

"I see, no wonder the Yellow River waterway has just been cut off, and the news of the lack of food in Chang'an City has spread all over the city, it turns out that these wealthy families see that the opportunity to make a fortune has arrived, and they want to take this opportunity to make a good profit, damn it, these people are really damned, for the benefit of their own family and surname, they actually don't care about the life and death of thousands of people, these people really deserve to die, damn it!" Duan Jian, who understood the cause and effect, said with murderous intent on his face.

"Yes, these people are damned, but the most critical thing at the moment is how to survive the crisis of food shortage, without food, after a month, not only Chang'an City will be chaotic, but even the soldiers at the border pass may also be uneasy, when the time comes, the border pass is unstable, and the Jiangshan Sheji of the Tang Dynasty may also be turbulent." Di Renjie said with a sigh.

"Since they know that these wealthy families have food in their hands, can't the imperial court collect it from them, the students don't believe that they, the wealthy families, can really dare to rebel because of a little food." Duan Jian said angrily.

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