When the spring mood gradually became stronger in the south of the Yangtze River, it turned out that because of the bad news from the north - although Kublai Khan was slapping his swollen face and pretending to be victorious, the scholars and doctors in the south of the Yangtze River were still accustomed to looking at the map and talking, and whoever had become bigger on the map must be the victor, otherwise he would definitely lose the battle - and the atmosphere became dull and irritable, and suddenly became a little relaxed and joyful.

On the West Lake, there are warblers singing and dancing everywhere, and the civil officials who are sad in winter and have a sad face, looking worried about the country and the people, have become a romantic genius at this moment, and the beauties in the Qinglou tile shop in Lin'an take the painting boat to visit the West Lake together.

The teahouse restaurant in Lin'an is also booming at this time, with customers every day, and the guests seem to be a little more generous. The little guy who runs the hall can tip dozens of copper coins every day. The six thousand Chu Yong, who had just driven from Suizhou, were also patrolling the royal streets and various city gates in high spirits these days. Look at the heavy and solid step armor they wear, the spears glowing with cold glow in their hands, and the kind of calm steps with murderous aura, they are not much stronger than the three soldiers who protected Lin'an City in the past!

It seems that it makes sense for this scholar to be in charge of the soldiers, and Chu Yong, who was trained by Li Tingzhi alone, is probably much stronger than any soldier trained by a martial artist in the Great Song Dynasty. It is said that these Chu Yong recruited from Suizhou are not only proficient in martial arts, but also have scholars from Suizhou every day to give them the teachings of the saints - but the real truth is still taught by the real scholars. At present, the regimental training of the Great Song Dynasty pays attention to scholars leading soldiers, most of the officers are scholars, and the soldiers are their tenants or fellow clansmen, and they are raised as disciples. How could such an army cultivated with the doctrine of a saint be weaker than the Northern Ming rebels who had entered the Demon Dao, right?

If the Great Song Dynasty has two or three hundred thousand such elite soldiers. Leaving aside the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, it should not be difficult to keep the peace in the south of the Yangtze River.

But in this spring. What made the civil officials in Lin'an City feel most comfortable was not this newly emerging regimental training army. It's the price of rice that is rising! This round of rice price decline is a change that began in Lin'an more than four years ago. Chen Dexing was angry at the crown. The superficial unification of the Great Song Kingdom was defeated, resulting in the secession of the fifteen towns and festivals. But it's not without a little benefit.

First of all, the 80,000 and 33 soldiers who were clumsy in the Lin'an Rebellion were all dismissed! It can save the equivalent of several million copper dollars in military expenditure every year.

Secondly, the military expenses of Fangzhen in Sichuan, Jinghu, and Lianghuai no longer need to be borne by the imperial court. Because these Fang towns are no longer the "imperial soldiers" of the Great Song Dynasty, but the warlords who divided one side. Naturally, their expenses will depend on their respective military leaders to figure out their own methods.

The above two changes save tens of millions of dollars in military spending for the Southern Song Dynasty court every year! Moreover, after the Lin'an Change, the Thirty Years' War between the Great Song Dynasty and Mongolia also officially ended. For four years, the country has been at peace. The cost of the war and the various expenses for the relief of refugees have also been reduced to a minimum.

Under the influence of these factors, the finances of the Southern Song Dynasty have been in a rare equilibrium for several years. And the fiscal balance also meant that the Southern Song Dynasty no longer needed to issue a large number of huizi to loot the people's wealth. Not only that, but the redemption of the huizi, which had been interrupted for decades, was also resumed two years ago -- that is, the redemption of the earlier huizi with copper coins or a new huizi was of course subject to a sharp discount. This kind of banknote is a bit strange, and theoretically it will be redeemed at a discount on a regular basis. It's kind of like a negotiable negative rate bond. However, since the start of the Mongol-Song War, the redemption of Huizi is like a legend.

For decades, Huizi only issued but not redeemed, and the actual value naturally fell again and again. The imperial court also used huizi to "buy" private goods, which was tantamount to raising taxes in disguise, which not only caused a large number of yeoman farmers to go bankrupt, but also caused inflation in a certain way. This is the most direct manifestation of inflation. The price of food, which is a necessity of life, is rising!

And with the resumption of the Huizi redemption and the basic abolition of the Wamai system (not completely abolished, but because there was no huge army to supply, and there were fewer and fewer things to buy). The inflation faced by the economy of the Southern Song Dynasty naturally quickly turned into deflation.

And because of the end of the war and the resumption of grain production in Sichuan, Jinghu, and Lianghuai. The supply of grain in Jiangnan is unprecedentedly loose. As a result, food prices have been falling for four years. The drop in grain prices is of course a good thing for residents of large cities such as Lin'an and Quanzhou. They're consumers of food!

For the tenants, who accounted for the majority of the population of the Southern Song Dynasty, the drop in grain prices was not a good thing, but the loss was not very large. Because rent in kind was prevalent in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the tenants only earned enough to make ends meet, if the landlords pressed too hard, they would be in trouble if they abandoned the tenants and fled -- now all the towns were trying their best to lure the peasants to their land to cultivate and farm, and if the tenants ran away, it would really be impossible for the emperor Lao Tzu to think of it.

Therefore, all the losses caused by this drop in grain prices can only be borne by the landlord class. The world is a little peaceful, but the old man's purse has shrunk. No matter what the people below think, in the minds of the big men, shrinking purses are always a bad thing. However, since the beginning of spring this year, the shape seems to have reversed, and the price of rice has stopped falling and stabilized!

First of all, the late price for delivery in Zhenjiang in the autumn rose to more than 80 wen as usual. This is already higher than the price of Zhenjiang spot rice, and the late price in the Southern Song Dynasty grain market is usually lower than the spot price. As a result, after the full price of the late contract remained consistent for a period of more than 80 yuan, the spot price also began to rise. The price of spot rice in Zhenjiang soon broke through the usual 100 Wen.

However, just when everyone thought that the price of rice would not continue to rise, the price of late rice for autumn delivery (including the full price of the contract money) soared again, and soon broke through the usual high price of 200 wen per stone!

In other words, the value of a piece of 100 stone brown rice quota for the late delivery of Zhenjiang in autumn has skyrocketed from the original almost waste paper to 15 copper coins per piece.

At the same time, in the large cities of the Southern Song Dynasty, such as Lin'an, Mingzhou, and Quanzhou, there were also trading places that specialized in buying and selling "rice and grain late appointments", all of which were high-end teahouses and liquor shops frequented by some big businessmen.

The "delay in the appointment of rice and grain" and the rise in grain prices have gradually become hot topics in the upper class of these Southern Song Dynasty cities.

"Did you hear that? The three northlands are now suffering from food shortages! They were in turmoil all year long, and the strong men had gone to war, and there were only the old and weak in the fields. Now I have nothing to eat, so I can only go to our Great Song Dynasty to buy food. ”

"I heard that the Great Yuan Kingdom in the north has sent an embassy to the south, and the one who took the lead is the original Pubancheng of Quanzhou! I heard that Pu Bancheng has nothing else to do these days, so he is busy signing late contracts with various grain merchants......"

"No wonder the price of rice has risen so fast recently, the feeling is that the three countries of the North are buying!"

"Rising fast? Where is this? Now it's not there with two stones! A few years ago, when the Mongol and Song armies were engaged, how could there be less than two pieces of rice and one stone? In my opinion, this rice has to go up! Since the three northern countries want to buy it, why are you polite? It's time to go up hard! ”

"That's right, it's going to go up hard! I heard that Master Jia also meant this...... The tabloids in Lin'an have said that this rice will not stop until it rises to three times. If they want to eat rice, they have to pay the price of three copper and one stone! If you don't buy it, you deserve to starve to death! ”

"That's right! They should be allowed to buy expensive rice, we have been beaten by them for 30 years, and now we are begged for nothing to eat, what are you polite about? It seems that the price of this rice will have to rise, and this is about ...... I'm going to have to buy a ten-eight-sheet miniature that doesn't miss the money anyway. ”

"That's right, I'm going to cast ten orders, but 150 copper coins, if the price of this rice is really three guan, then it's 1900 guan! It's a big deal......"

The so-called late contract, in terms of the standards of later generations, is an option, and the characteristic is that it is small and large. The full price of a 100 stone line is 880 wen per stone, and its value is very low when the price of grain is lower than 800 wen (consistent) and there is obviously an oversupply.

But when the price of grain rises to three guan, it is equivalent to earning 1,520 wen per stone of rice, which is 1.9 guan according to 800 wen, and 100 stone is 190 guan! If the price of rice rises to 5 guan, the value of this late contract will be as high as 390 guan......

As long as the merchants and gentry who know a little bit about business and have no shortage of money in their hands, it is easy to calculate the huge profits that this kind of delay may produce in the process of rising grain prices.

With a snap, the pieces landed lightly on the board. A chess game, it has come to the time when the winner is clear. Kuroko won a complete victory, while Shiroko was defeated.

Pu Shougeng, who is black, is full of spring breeze, but Pu Shousheng, who is white, is frowning, as if there is something on his mind.

"Big brother, are you still worried that we won't be able to win?" Pu Shougeng took back the whites and sunspots on the chessboard, and asked with a smile.

Pu Shousheng smiled bitterly: "It's rising...... But the last wronged person has not yet been settled? How many late appointments do we have now? ”

"One hundred and eighty-two thousand." Pu Shou Geng said.

"Only 18,000 ...... were released"

Pu Shougeng smiled: "It's just to test the water...... This is to be put out for people to follow. ”

Sitting in the bank, of course, you can't pinch all the chips in your hands, and don't leak any money to others. In this way, the outside world does not feel the wealth effect, and there is no real transaction in the target, and no matter how high the copy is, it is only rich on paper. When the contract period is up, it will be compensated.

"I know that!" Pu Shousheng shook his head, "But this late appointment can be sent out continuously." There are already others in the market who are collecting them, and they are still collecting a large number of them, just like us, they are directly collected from the big grain store...... I'm worried that these plates will suddenly come out! (To be continued......)