Li Xin tossed and turned in the barracks, the matter of the county lord made him insomnia, he seemed to have a premonition that the relationship between himself and the county lord had faintly advanced a step forward, he wanted to stop, wanted to retreat, but it was like being pushed forward by a pair of huge invisible hands, and he couldn't resist. A crescent moon bloomed quietly outside the window, but I didn't know where Huang Yu was at this moment, Li Xin's rare sentimentality became sentimental, thinking about whether she was also watching the crescent moon somewhere.

In a daze, Li Xin got up suddenly, and he suddenly thought of a key person, that is, his cousin Li Yong, it is said that he and Liu Lingyu are almost the first and last Beijing masters, how can Liu Lingyu have been in Taiyuan for many days, but Li Yong has no news?

Due to the twists and turns of Zhang Shishi's murder of his wife, Li Xin ignored this issue until he calmed down in the dead of night. Li Xin immediately sent rangers in Shanxi and inside and outside the Taihang Mountains to inquire about Li Yong's news.

Early the next morning, Tian Fuzhen came to take him to inspect outside the city of Taiyuan, and this time the focus of the inspection was two places, one was the jade wheat field, and the other was the coal mine.

The first batch of jade wheat seeds has arrived in Taiyuan, and watching bags of yellow, orange and orange jade wheat seeds being poured out, Li Xin can almost smell the taste of a bumper harvest. But Tian Fuzhen's expression beside him was far from being as happy as Li Xin.

Accompanying the inspection was Master Guo, who had been in charge of the liaison between the mine and the Taiyuan prefect's yamen, and had recently been assigned an errand to the United Trading Company. It was only in 10,000 years that people ushered in a major turning point in their lives, and Master Guo cherished it very much, and he was conscientious and conscientious in doing things, but he was not at all like he looked like a hanger on weekdays.

Master Guo and Tian Fuzhen looked at the field where they could barely see the end at a glance, and their faces became solemn, and Li Xin finally noticed the Yan expressions of the two people.

"Yumai can sow seeds at your eyes, why are you two depressed?"

Tian Fuzhen was a little distracted, looked into the distance fixedly, and did not answer, but Master Guo sighed.

"The rumors are true, the general really doesn't know anything about farming!"

Li Xin's face turned red when he heard this, and there were a few people who grew up in the city in his time who knew how to farm.

"Didn't the general notice that since the beginning of spring until now, this thief has not rained a drop of rain?"

Indeed, since the winter snow melted to the present, there has not been a single rain in Shanxi. Li Xin's heart chuckled suddenly, it had not rained for a whole spring, what this meant, Li Xin knew even if he didn't know about farming.

"Famine is coming!"

Tian Fuzhen eased up from his distraction, and squeezed out five weak words in his mouth, but it was like a thunderbolt in Li Xin's ears. However, he still hopes that the successful large-scale cultivation of Yumai will alleviate the disaster.

"We have jade wheat planting in Shanxi, and no matter how bad it is, it can last for a while."

But I heard a wry smile, "Let's not talk about the reduction of jade wheat production during the great drought, even the harvest will have to wait until after autumn, and the famine is in front of you, does the general know how long the surplus grain in Taiyuan Mansion can last?" ”

It was Master Guo who spoke, he stretched out his right index finger and said in a tone close to sadness: "In one month, there is only one Yue grain left!" ”

Li Xin knew that what Master Guo said was true, Taiyuan Mansion, especially several important cities, after the baptism of thieves, regardless of the rich and poor had to accept the government's ration of grain, and the situation in Taiyuan City was better, after all, the rebellion was operated as its own base, and the vast majority of rich and poor people were spared, while the surrounding states and counties were not so lucky.

Li Xin suddenly slapped his head, his eyes lit up, and he said, "Isn't there still wheat?" The harvest arrived in June. ”

How do you know that Tian Fuzhen said coldly:

"How many wheat seedlings have grown in this field before the rain falls, how can the general not see it?"

Only then did Li Xin notice that there were large patches of bald-like earthy yellow in many places, and a few of them were listless green, which were thought to be successful wheat seedlings. He pointed to the patches of earthy yellow.

"Are these bald lands ...... It's all wheat that died of drought? ”

"If the wheat cannot be harvested during the wheat harvest season, the government will run out of grain again, and famine is inevitable!"

The three of them fell into a long silence, and just as they were about to make a big move, there was a famine, and there was only one month left for them!

At this time, Huang Sheng came over, and he personally escorted the Yumai seed convoy to Taiyuan, and it was only a few hours of work until now.

"When the adults come, don't notify the villains, welcome the late, forgive the sins!"

Li Xin said: "If you don't say hello, you don't want to delay your work, seeing that it's summer, you must organize people to rush to plough and strive to plant all these jade wheat." ”

Huang Sheng rolled up his arms and sleeves, obviously motivated.

"Idlers in and out of the city can be hired, and it's not a problem to get rid of the work, just pay the salary!"

Master Guo poured a basin of cold water on Huang Sheng in a timely manner.

"The harvest of jade wheat is also autumn, and it looks like it is green and yellow, and most of the wheat from last year has not survived, so what will it be used to feed the people when the time comes?"

Huang Sheng's opinion was obviously very different from that of several people, and his expression was also disapproving.

"What year will there be no drought tomorrow? Today is Shanxi, tomorrow is Shaanxi, and the future may be Henan. The people can't eat food, and they have their own court relief......" Looking at Huang Sheng's typical businessman's face, the people are just puppets and estimable figures in his mouth, Master Guo bluffed and wanted to refute, but he couldn't insert it in Huang Sheng's cannon-like words.

"The court can't help it, so let the people flee and eat, and when the famine is over, the autumn will naturally return to their hometowns, like the geese in the sky, why bother with this time!"

Li Xin and Master Guo don't understand the situation, Tian Fuzhen has been an official for a long time, of course he knows that officials in many provinces are fighting this idea, what qualifications do they have to reprimand Huang Sheng?

However, Huang Sheng's expression, which had just been repaid, suddenly darkened, "This time I went to Shandong to buy grain seeds, and the villain still got a piece of news, I'm afraid it has something to do with our Shanxi!" ”

What can the news of Zhili Shandong hinder in Shanxi, Li Xin asked him to speak bluntly.

"It is reported that a lot of grain dealers came down in the north, buying grain at a high price, and did not even let go of growing grain, the price was outrageously high, and the big grain hoarders took the opportunity to make a windfall, and even took us to buy Yumai seeds and spent fifty percent more than the budget."

Although Master Guo was only a master before fleeing from the plague, he still regarded himself as a scholar and disdained businessmen who were full of words.

"It's nothing more than unscrupulous profiteers who are ready to hoard Juqi in order to make a fortune in a national disaster!"

Regarding the hostility in Master Guo's words, Huang Sheng only smiled.

"According to the judgment of the villain, it is not just as simple as a national disaster, as long as the hoarding is bought at a low price and sold at a high price, the price of those grain sellers is already ridiculously high, even if it is sold in double during the famine, the profit is very limited. And so blatantly disrupting the market, ordinary businessmen would not dare to act so recklessly! ”

Li Xin heard that Huang Sheng had something to say, and just wanted to ask him the key point, but Tian Fuzhen blurted out: "Does it have anything to do with Tartar?" ”

The grain in Beizhili Shandong was all purchased, and when the famine came, it was Da Luo Jinxian who had no skills to return to the sky, and Li Xin broke out in a cold sweat when he thought of this.

Huang Sheng said: "Whether it's a tartar or not, the villain is not sure." But one thing is eight. Nine is not far from ten. ”

"What?" Li Xin asked.

"This time, it was Fan Yongdou who planned to collect grain behind the scenes, no doubt!"

Master Guo immediately said angrily: "This guy is tired of living? Aren't you afraid that the court will clean him up? ”

Huang Sheng smiled again: "There is no need for the court to clean him up, our general has already cleaned him up half to death!" ”

This has to start from the beginning of winter last year, and the checkpoint that was made a year ago confiscated a lot of goods, but after all, it did not hurt the Fan family, who had a great career. He also hoped that after opening the spring and buying off the border guards, he would be able to make a lot of money, but who knew that Li Xinping had meritorious service in being promoted to the chief soldier of Shanxi Town, and he actually controlled the military, government, finance, and taxation powers in Shanxi, and imposed heavy taxes on the Jin merchants who refused to cooperate with the United Trading Company.

This is tantamount to a catastrophe for Fan Yongdou, who is based in Shanxi and has salt, iron and leather as the main commercial goods. Huang Sheng briefly introduced Fan Yongdou's current situation, and then glanced at Master Guo.

"As the saying goes, cutting off people's wealth is equivalent to killing parents, Fan Yongdou and our general have formed a mortal enmity, in order not to be trapped to death, his only choice is to fully fall to the Jiannu outside the gate! Therefore, his intention to buy grain at a large price is actually very suspicious. ”

Huang Sheng's analysis was penetrated, but Li Xin was shocked when he heard it, if this statement was true, it was like Huang Taiji was playing a big game of chess, compared to what he had done to build a slave and borrow a lot, but it seemed to be a small family.

Soon, Huang Sheng poured cold water on Li Xin again.

"Jiannu's plan to borrow a large amount of money, I'm afraid it won't go on, we plan to borrow two million taels from Jiannu, and as far as the villain knows, the total amount of silver that came out of the Guanwai through Saibei is about 700,000 taels, which also includes the 200,000 taels that were robbed, that is to say, only 500,000 taels really went into the pocket of our trading company. After removing the silver money invested in Yumai seeds and field mines, there is not much left, and even the expenses on the books are even more than that. The villain is about to arrive in Taiyuan, and he thought that he was making a report in the city, so he said it all at the moment! ”

The information that came out of Huang Sheng's mouth was like a bolt from the blue, and Li Xin suddenly had a premonition that between the Ming Dynasty and the Manchu Qing Dynasty, a battle without gunpowder smoke and no battlefield had begun, and the bargaining chips for this fight were nearly 10 million people north of the Yellow River in the Ming Dynasty.