The clouds of war once again loomed over the heads of the people of Beijing.

Wu Sangui surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty marched westward, indicating that there was likely to be another major war in the first year of Longwu. The people in the capital still remember that thirteen years ago, in the second year of Chongzhen, at the beginning of the first emperor's succession, the Tartars also invaded on a large scale, and Huang Taiji personally supervised the army to attack Longjing Pass.

That time, the Tatars took the Mongolian Khalqin tribe as a guide to conquer the Hongshan Pass, and the other division conquered Da'ankou and joined the army in Zunhua.

The Qing captives broke through the customs until the city of Jingshi, and the entire Jingshi was under martial law, and many people in Beijing still remember the fear of being threatened by the Qing army at that time.

It was in that year that the current emperor salivated.

In the blink of an eye, so many years have passed, but unexpectedly, the Tartars have killed again.

Although the Longwu Dynasty was no longer the time of the Chongzhen Dynasty, the imperial court had more than a dozen new armies, and the Jingshi also had the seat of the god of war King Liaodong. However, the arrival of more than 100,000 Qing troops still made many people worried, and even many people had begun to leave Beijing with their families and go south to join their relatives.

In this atmosphere, the people hated Wu Sangui more and more, and denounced Wu Sangui and Zu Dashou as national thieves and traitors. Wu Xiang, who had just been released from prison, was also taken away by Jinyiwei again, and hundreds of people in Beijing along with Wu and Zu were all imprisoned.

While the people were happy that Wu Sangui and Zu Dashou were ungrateful, they began to attack Feng Yuanbiao, the squire of the Ministry of War, and Chen Yan, the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, who were blind, and actually asked Wu Sangui for a knighthood. Soon, this wave of criticism rushed to Shoufu Wu Fu.

For a while, there was a lot of discussion in Beijing, and Wu Fu was pointed out by Qianfu, and he still couldn't go after the gambling contract failed, which caused the people to scold and fight.

"Wu Fu is really shameless."

"That's natural, how could he resign himself as the first assistant for a gambling contract?"

"The first assistant of the dignified house, such a broken promise, it is better to be a pawn of a peddler. With such morality, how to lead hundreds of officials and assist the Son of Heaven? ”

"What qualifications does such a person have to be the first assistant, I think it is better to ask the county king to be the first assistant. This time, in the end, it has to be cleaned up by the king of the county, Wu Sanguizu Dashou These shameless traitors, can't jump for a few days, isn't the king of the county already going out of Beijing to supervise the war, as soon as the king of the county comes out, who is the opponent in the world? ”

"Yes. The war still depends on the king of the county. I think that at the beginning, the king of the county killed the Tartar Emperor Huang Taiji with 10,000 men and horses, and later went all the way to the north, breaking Liaoyang, besieging Shenyang, and almost breaking through the captive hole. Speaking of which, Wu Shun was all to blame for the failure of that time, if it weren't for his rash attack on the enemy and arrogantly going to fight Yizhou. How could there be a defeat in Yizhou and Songjin in the imperial court, and the king of the county would not have made peace at the beginning, maybe he would have directly destroyed the Tartar Manchu Qing at that time. Liaodong has been recovered. ”

"yes. Wu Shun doesn't know whether he is alive or dead, and dares to collude with the Tartars to attack, doesn't he know that the king of the county is the Tartar nemesis? ”

"The king of the county, his old man, is the martial arts star in the sky."

"You're wrong, I heard that the king of the county is the Seven Killing Stars. So the war is fierce. ”

"You said that this time the king of the county went out to Beijing to supervise the battle, can he capture and kill Wu Shun?"

"It's hard to say, Wu Wei colluded with the Tartars. Tens of thousands of horses, how can it be so easy to fight. ”

"What about hundreds of thousands, can Wu Yi still go to heaven? Besides, our county king has no fewer soldiers than him! ”

When it was reported in the court that Liu Jun was about to go out of Beijing to supervise the army to defend against the Tartars, the panic quickly calmed down. Many people are much more relaxed, the king of the county is the god of war of the Ming Dynasty, and he has not yet been defeated. Even the Tartar Emperor was killed on the battlefield by the county king, would he still be afraid of a few Tartar princes?

In addition, these days the newspapers are also publishing, saying that the epidemic in the Linqing Ding area has been basically controlled, and there is no longer a momentum of spreading to Beijing, and the epidemic situation in Linqing and other epidemic areas is also weakening, and the number of deaths per day has been reduced to less than 100.

The panicked people who were at home took to the streets one after another.

Many taverns and teahouses in Jingshi have been idle for a while, and this time has finally ushered in a good time for business to flourish.

"In the past few days, there have been many big shopping malls in the inner and outer cities, have you heard of them?"

"I heard, I heard that it was a royal deal?"

"Don't listen to people's nonsense, let me tell you, it's not a royal business at all, it's just that some of the stores are the original royal stores."

"The Imperial Store? Isn't that a royal deal? ”

"Listen to me. These imperial shops are now in the hands of the county kings, including the imperial villages in various places. ”

"Given to the king?"

In the restaurant, many people exclaimed.

"No, I've heard it's contracting. The king of the county took over tens of thousands of hectares of the imperial village and the original imperial store, and then it seems that he wants to give the emperor a fixed income every year, about five million silver dollars. Therefore, in the future, the royal and imperial stores were all run by the people of the county king. In the private room of the restaurant, a well-informed fat merchant was teasing his companions with a smug face.

"No, some of these new shopping malls that will be opened soon are the original royal stores. However, I inquired that these shopping malls are full of goods, all kinds of goods, similar to grocery stores, but the scale is much larger, what is the name of the Royal Department Store business, the stores opened are all chain operations, and the decoration of each store is the same. ”

"Opening a grocery store? No, what money does a grocery store make? ”

"This is a department store, not a grocery store, and it's different from ordinary grocery stores. It is said that there are all kinds of goods from the south and the north, and even goods from the East and the West and the South Seas, and everything is used for eating and drinking. Not only retail but also wholesale. I also told you, there are also tobacco, alcohol, tea, rice, flour, oil and salt, and the prices are all said to be lower than those on the market, and the goods are better. ”

"Let's just say that this rice was shipped from the South Seas by a galleon, do you know what kind of galleon? South Vietnamese rice, pearl-like rice, do you know how much they are ready to sell for it? ”

"How much?" Someone asked.

Another person continued, "Now the rice in Jingshi is not cheap, if it is good rice, it will cost at least four yuan and one stone, and ordinary rice will also cost more than two yuan." ”

The merchant said a few times, "Let me tell you, after the official opening of the Royal Department Store, the price of Nanyang pearl fragrant rice in their mall is only two yuan per stone, and there is also salt, high-quality snow salt, and only four pieces of silver for a hundred catties. ”

"So cheap? God, isn't that just half price? ”

"It's not half price, today's grain prices are obviously high, in normal years, a stone of grain is only a piece and a half, and in good times, even at most half a tael of silver. However, I estimate that the supply of rice in this mall is limited, and ordinary people do not have the opportunity to buy it. ”

"You'd be wrong." The fat merchant flicked the folding fan in his hand.

"Let me tell you, I heard that the mall has enough supplies and that there will be eighteen stores in the inner and outer cities of Jingshi. Their store has not yet opened, but all kinds of goods have long been prepared, and there is a large warehouse in Tianjin, and all kinds of commercial goods are piled up. Now there is a large warehouse outside Tongzhou and Xuande Gate, which is full of all kinds of goods prepared. It is said that there are hundreds of thousands of stones of rice and noodles alone, which is quite sufficient, otherwise, how can you have the courage to set such a price. ”

"So much food? That's a lot of money. But if you have a lot of money in business, why do you want to reduce so much price? "Some people are puzzled.

Of course, those who do business hope that the goods are as valuable and in demand as possible, even if the price is sometimes lowered, it is to compete with peers, or there is a surplus of goods. But now there will never be a surplus of food, and department stores want to compete for the market, so there is no need to reduce prices so ruthlessly.

The fat merchant looked left and right for a moment, and then whispered to his companions, "I'll tell you, don't spread the word." It is said that the king of the county once said that the price of grain is high in various places nowadays, and it is the grain merchants who deliberately hoard grain, raise the price of grain, and make a lot of money. The king of the county once asked those grain merchants to lower the price of grain, but they didn't listen at all. As a result, the king of the county was angry, from Korea, Japan, the southeast and the South Seas and other places, transferred hundreds of thousands of stone grain into Beijing, countless maritime merchants are vying to transport grain to Beijing for the king of the county, countless ships to Tianjin to transport grain, the king of the county in a word, those maritime merchants are quite hard-working, in just over half a year, this is not to transport hundreds of thousands of stone of grain. ”

"The king of the county is going to kill those grain merchants."

Some people exclaimed that although the commercial tax of the Ming Dynasty has never been collected, the business of the Ming Dynasty is very prosperous, and there are guilds in all walks of life. These peer guilds tend to maintain the same advance and retreat and control the market. Just like these grain merchants in Beijing, they united as one, controlled the grain supply in the market, grasped the price of grain, and rose as they said.

In many cases, Jingshi is not really so short of food, but these grain merchants refuse to release the grain, and they control the supply. When there is a shortage of grain, then the people will compete for grain, and it will naturally be easy to raise the price of grain. In this way, they make a lot of money.

And when Liu Jun wanted to regulate the grain market, reduce grain prices, and reduce the burden on the people, the grain merchants did not buy it at all. The grain is in their hands, and they ostensibly promise to reduce the price, but in fact they have reduced the supply of grain in the market, and on the contrary, the price of grain has risen steadily.

This finally angered Liu Jun.

To ordinary people, grain merchants may be like a mountain. But for Liu Jun, who has great resources, they are blocking the car with their mantis arms.

Liu Jun directly opened 18 large shopping malls in Beijing, dealing in various commodities. Some of the most important people's biological resources, such as rice, flour, oil, salt, etc., have been set at a parity.

"There's a lot going on now." Someone laughed.

"I'm afraid that the king of the county may not be able to win. The king of the county set such a low price, but he was afraid that as soon as he sold it here, the grain over there would be eaten. ”

"Do you think that the king of the county will be as stupid as you, I heard that when you buy things in the mall, you have to register and buy those necessities such as rice, flour, oil, salt, cloth and so on with your resident card, and everyone has a limited amount every month. It seems that a person can only buy two stones a month at a flat price. The price is the cheapest to buy less than two stones of grain, just like pearl rice is only two silver dollars per stone. (To be continued.) )