There was a lot of laughter and laughter in the palace of the king of Chu in Luoyang, and Xiang Zhuang was drinking with Bi Shu, Wu She, and Bai Lixian to celebrate.

"Come, learn the sword, Bazhi and Ziliang, do this, heh." Xiang Zhuang rushed to the three ministers of the humerus, and the three Bishu also followed suit, covering their sleeves and drinking them all.

Putting down the wine, Wu Shi tilted his head and asked, "King, the minister still has some things to understand." ”

Xiang Zhuang smiled, poured wine into the wine buds, and asked, "What do you not understand?" ”

Wu Shi said: "What the minister doesn't understand is that there are less than 100,000 servants and servants in Xianyang who have no overnight food, and Bai Mo only needs to restrict others from buying grain, or simply implement a rationing system for these husbands and mercenaries to ensure that they have food, and the food shortage in this pass will be difficult to spread, so why has it fallen to this point?" ”

Xiang Zhuang didn't answer, and asked Bi Shudao: "Learn the sword, do you say that your senior brother wants to do it?" ”

Bi Shu smiled and replied to Wu She: "Doctor Shang, it's not that my senior brother hasn't thought about restricting purchases or rationing, but he is obviously not satisfied with this, he wants to use this food crisis to defeat those Xun Qixuan, giant businessmen and wealthy families who dare to oppose him in one fell swoop, and clear the way for him to completely implement the salt and iron official camp." ”

"I see." Wu Shi frowned and said, "Bai Mo has always been cautious, but why is he so reckless this time?" ”

"You're wrong." Xiang Zhuang waved his hand and said, "Bai Mo is cautious only in the military, but he is extremely bold and radical in political affairs, otherwise, how dare he implement the national policy of equal calculation and equal service in Guanzhong?" As for this time, Bai Mo is not reckless, but he doesn't know the stakes at all. ”

As an ancient, how can you imagine the danger of financial war?

Bai Lixian smiled and said, "King, shouldn't the Qin family and the Tang family make a move next?" ”

"Yes." Xiang Zhuang slammed the wine on the case and said fiercely. "Now the grain hegemony in Guanzhong has collapsed. It's time for the Qin family and the Tang family to enter the scene to collect the corpses. ”

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It has reached the end of the year, but there is no trace of festivity in the Lu Mansion.

Whether it is the Hakka in the front yard or the maid in the backyard. All of them are trembling, walking on thin ice, and even walking carefully, for fear that one accidentally will cause disaster. Just yesterday, a little girl was killed by the second son's living staff just because she accidentally broke an ordinary clay pot.

Lu Chan hurriedly walked into Lu Tai's study, and said angrily: "Brother, those fools who are short-sighted, they only care about their immediate interests, and they say that they will advance and retreat together, but they are all rushing to sell them behind their backs." ”

Lu Chan had just returned from the gathering of these wealthy families, at the party. Lü Chan tried to persuade these wealthy families to advance and retreat together with the nobles and nobles and the merchants of Guanzhong, so that they could not take out more five baht to buy the grain that had just arrived in Xianyang, and they must not spit out the grain they ate in their stomachs. Encourage them to grit their teeth and persevere!

I have to say. Lu Chan's proposal is very reasonable, after all, the grain that arrived in Xianyang this time is only two or three hundred thousand stones. There are almost seventy or eighty thousand servants and mercenaries in Xianyang City, and at most two months, this batch of grain will be exhausted, and at that time, the price of food in Xianyang will have to rise back, and Bai Mo will not be able to borrow grain from Zhao and Han, and he will have to buy back the grain in their stomachs at a high price.

But unfortunately, these wealthy families have no vision and are not willing to advance and retreat with them at all.

"Let them sell." Lu Tai smiled coldly and said in a cruel voice, "Xianyang's mercenaries are only those, and the food they need every day is only about five thousand stones, but how much food do they have hoarded in their hands?" How can there be more than 600,000 stones? Hmph, there are so many food sources in such a small market demand, see how they can sell it! ”

Lu Chan sighed and said, "Brother, but this will also kill us." ”

The wealthy family has hoarded more than 600,000 grains, and more than 20 families led by the Lu family have hoarded more grain, and the Lu family alone has hoarded almost 500,000 stones, and the more than 20 families have added up to more than 1 million stones, in addition, more than 100 merchants led by the Sima family have also hoarded almost 800,000 stones. …,

In order to hoard these grains, the Lu family and the Sima family paid a huge price, and almost sold all the fields and properties that could be sold.

Also, it is not a matter to pile up grain in the house like this, it will definitely rot after a long time, but if you build a cellar or granary, it will require a large amount of expenses, if in normal times, this is just a piece of cake for the Lu family with strong financial resources, but now, the Lu family can't even get together 10,000 yuan.

Moreover, even if they still have the money to build cellars or granaries and be able to preserve all the grain, when the spring grain is harvested next year, they will also lose all their money.

Lu Chan thought for a while, and suddenly said, "Brother, do you want to stop looking over there?" ”

Lu Tai sighed, shook his head and said: "It's useless, Bai Mo has an edict prohibiting the circulation of gold in Guanzhong, but it has hit our vital point, and it can't be helped over there, after all, hundreds of thousands of taels of gold are only a few big carts, and it is easy to smuggle it, but tens of thousands of dollars have hundreds of carts, how easy is it to smuggle it in?" ”

"Brother, is that it?" Lu Chanse changed, "Let these hundreds of thousands of stones of grain rot in the house, our Lu family will really lose money." ”

Lu Tai was silent, although he was very reluctant in his heart, he had to admit that they had lost this contest, they had completely lost to Bai Mo's house, Lu Tai was even ready for a strong man to break his wrist, in the end, he would rather burn the more than 500,000 stone grain that he had bought with a huge amount of money, and never let Bai Mo buy it at a low price!

At this time, a house slave suddenly came in and reported: "Master of the family, there is a Zhao man who claims to be Guan Zhong who asks to see him." ”

"Guan Zhong?" Lu Chan was stunned when he heard this, "The Zhao merchant who came to Guanzhong this time seems to be called Guan Zhong, right?" I heard that this person is a relative of Zhao Guo's old country. ”

Lu Tai's expression moved slightly, and he immediately ordered: "Please invite him in." ”

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"If you don't see it, you can say that you have fallen asleep." Bai Mo waved his hand at the slave and said, "I'll talk about it tomorrow." ”

The house slave sighed, bowed down and retreated, and Chen Ping, who was sitting opposite Bai Mo, said with a smile: "Prime Minister, you are talking nonsense with your eyes open, what time is it, and you are asleep?" ”

Bai Mo spread his hands and said with a smile: "The prime minister is tired of dealing with government affairs, so he rested early." ”

Chen Ping shook his head and said: "But the old man heard that this Feng Ji is the brother of Feng Miaonu, the favorite concubine of King Han, and he also has Feng Guozhang's background in selling hundreds of thousands of stone grains in Guanzhong this time. ”

"That's not going to work, it's definitely not going to work." Bai Mo said categorically, "Now that I eat it, I am afraid that the price of grain that has been suppressed with great difficulty will rise back immediately, and in this way, all the previous efforts will be wasted." After a pause, Bai Mo said again, "Not only can't I eat now, but I can't even show a trace of my mouth." ”

Chen Ping said: "But it's not a problem for you to hide like this all the time. ”

Bai Mo pondered for a moment and said: "That's it, I heard that some checkpoints in Longxi and Beidi secretly violated the ban of the imperial court and connived at the peddlers and pawns to go to Hexi. ”

Chen Ping smiled bitterly: "So far, it has to be like this." ”

#########

Negotiations on food prices are taking place in the study of Lu Fu.

Listening to Guan Zhongdao's intentions, Lu Chan was overjoyed, but Lu Tai was unmoved, and said lightly: "I originally came here to sell grain, but now I have changed my original intention and bought grain on a large scale, it is inevitable that I will take advantage of the fire to rob him, right?" ”

Guan Zhong snorted sullenly, and said coldly: "We came all the way to sell grain, originally to help the Han Kingdom, but Bai Mo, as the prime minister of the Han Kingdom, watched us lose all our money and was indifferent, how could this be done by people?" He Baimo can do the first year of junior high school, so don't blame us for being fifteen! ”…,

Lu Chan said: "But there is so much grain in Guanzhong, can your family eat it?" ”

Guan Zhong said: "Our family can't eat, can't we find other families to help?" ”

Lu Tai said: "The problem is that there is so much food, what is the use of what you buy?" Zhao Guo and South Korea are not short of food, right? ”

Lu Chan said: "Chu State is short of grain, could it be that you plan to sell grain to Chu State?" ”

"Whoa!" Guan Zhong hurriedly stretched out his hand to stop Lu Chandao, "Second son, you can eat indiscriminately, you can't talk nonsense, the two alliances of Lianheng and Hezong are like fire and water, as a grain merchant in Zhao Han, how can we help to sell grain to Chu State?" I won't hide it from you, we have already obtained the craft of brewing liquor from the state of Chu, and we plan to buy this batch of grain to make liquor. ”

Lu Tai and Lu Chan glanced at each other, if the truth was really like this, it would make sense.

At that moment, Lu Chan said: "Okay, then please make a price, at what price are you willing to buy?" ”

Guan Zhong immediately replied: "You can't let your colleagues in Guanzhong lose all their money, right?" In this way, we buy at the price of eighty cents per stone, and how much does it take? ”

"Eighty dollars per stone?!" Lu Chan shouted, "What are you kidding?!" The average price we bought was nearly 400 yuan, and you bought it for 80 yuan per stone, and you said that you would not let us lose all our money? You, you, it's too dark! ”

"Hey, second son, you can't say that, right?" Guan Zhong was slightly unhappy and said, "As far as I know, Prime Minister Bai Cheng is ready to wait for the price of grain to fall to forty yuan per stone, and then he will buy it. ”

With that, Guan Zhong straightened up and wanted to leave.

"Sir, stay here." Lu Tai knelt down and sat up, and said, "The second brother is reckless, and his words have collided with Mr., and please have a lot of Mr. After a pause, Lu Tai said again, "As for the price of grain, you can still negotiate it again, do business, isn't it just asking for a price and bargaining on the ground, hehe." ”.

RT