Chapter 127: No Food, No Stability

Angel was born into a family of ordinary clergy, received a church education from an early age, has a strong faith, is jealous and hateful, and is not a person who will succumb to power and wronged himself to do things he does not like. Due to her low background, the saint Angel is one of the few people who cares about the lives of the people at the bottom. Since becoming a saint of St. Lawrence Cathedral, she has not pursued personal development like other saints, and has become a courtesan of the upper class society of the imperial capital, but has kept a distance from the princes of the imperial capital.

The so-called distance produces beauty, coupled with his own beautiful face, and the huge upper circumference that breaks through the sky, Angel has gained an unexpectedly high reputation in the imperial capital's circles, and who can win this kaolin flower has always been a topic that never cools down in the imperial capital's circles.

After graduating from the clergy school and becoming a saint of St. Lawrence's Cathedral, Angela often gave free clothes and medicines, spoke up for the common people, and unknowingly gained great prestige among the civilians in the imperial capital.

This time, the aristocratic landlords of the Gyeonggi region cultivated a large number of magic herbs, and as a result, the act of abandoning food production completely angered His Majesty the Emperor, and he was overwhelmed by the will to collect the grain tax within a time limit. If you can't live for your own sin, Angel won't care about their life or death, anyway, at most, she will be fined for money, and she won't hurt the roots. But the price of grain, which was still skyrocketing during the autumn harvest, made her unable to sit still, and the aristocratic families still had some grain in stock, but it was difficult for hundreds of thousands of civilians in the imperial capital to support the high food prices.

Different from the food shortage in previous years, due to the great development of commerce in recent years, the market is very prosperous, and the people finally have two money in their hands, and the farmers who follow the trend and change to grow magic herbs can be regarded as making a lot of money. That is to say, at the beginning of the food shortage, because the people had some money in their hands, the market was initially relatively stable, and everyone thought that it was a routine price increase before the autumn harvest, although it rose a little more than in previous years, but everyone had more money in their hands than in previous years, and did not take this situation to heart.

Until the beginning of the autumn harvest, the gate of the imperial capital in previous years, one after another car seems to have no end to the grain cart, the grain price that fell with the new grain market in previous years showed extremely firm. A day or two, I didn't feel it, but they were all saying that this year's autumn grain was a little late, and a week later, when the farmers who had made a lot of money from planting magic herbs drove ox carts into the city to buy grain, the people of the imperial capital finally realized one thing, this year's Lawrence Farm outside the city seemed to have few grain growers.

There is no food in Gyeonggi!

The objective reality of food shortage in the imperial capital city circle, fueled by well-intentioned people, led to the panic being further amplified, triggering citizens to rush to buy, and then continuing to push food prices skyrocketing. In the chaotic market, the opacity of information led to a sudden rebound in the price trend of Lawrence City shortly after entering the rapid decline window of the autumn harvest season, and the market quickly entered a state of no price.

The situation was critical, and the Lawrence City Governor hastily ordered the opening of the Changping Warehouse, but after a whole year of consumption, there was not much food in the warehouse. Moreover, at this time in previous years, it was the time for the autumn grain to be put into storage, and the canal warehouse had to adjust the inventory in advance according to the convention, and transfer a large amount of grain to other warehouses to free up the warehouse to meet the autumn grain storage, so at this time of year, there was not much grain in the canal warehouse, and this year it was particularly small.

Over the centuries, the canal warehouse has proven to be very effective, seeing Lawrence grow from a county-level center with a population of less than 200,000 to one of the few megacities on the continent that has more than quadrupled its population. And this time, the empty grain depot of the canal warehouse became the final blow that broke the confidence of the imperial capital.

In previous years, it was not that no one had seen the empty grain depot of the canal warehouse, but even if the warehouse was empty, looking at the fertile fields outside the city and the grain fields that could not be seen at a glance, no one had the face to shout the word "famine". And this year, the empty warehouse, coupled with the magic herbs all over the mountains, the already shaky balance was instantly broken, and the panic fermentation was completed. Since then, the official bailout in the form of an executive order has all been the driving force behind the crazy growth of food prices, and the panic has spread rapidly from Lawrence City to the entire Gyeonggi City agglomeration, and finally alarmed the emperor.

The enraged emperor took advantage of the turbulent public opinion to take aim at the large landowners in the Gyeonggi region, intending to reclaim the land. Facing the tremendous pressure of the emperor and the increasingly ill-intentioned eyes of the people wandering the streets, even the century-old family felt a lot of pressure. Of course, the death or life of these gentry and rich in the imperial capital, the holy daughter Angel does not care, but the high price of food has indeed exceeded the bottom line of the people's psychology, once the riot starts, I don't know how many civilians will lose their lives in vain.

The few people who came with Angel, although they nominally represented various institutions of the empire, including the magic academy represented by the board of directors of the Potions Factory, the senior bureaucrats of the imperial treasury, etc., were actually all large landowners in the imperial capital, and behind them were super landlords like the prime minister, and this time they came here not only to see Qin Shouzhuo, but also to see Princess Sophia.

The Industrial Revolution was a cannibalistic thing, and Qin Shouzhuo had the foresight to let Sophia's Pavel Province expand the grain planting area as much as possible and control the grain as much as possible, which was not only to ensure the food supply of the Barony of Babia, but also to deal with the possible food crisis. In other words, the current Qin Shouchuang, who has food and boats, is the most likely person to save them.

"Angel Holy Maiden," looking at the other party's barabala, Qin Shouzhuo always felt that it would be too rude to ignore it any longer, so he simply interrupted the other party's "Amway", and if he continued to talk about the suffering brought by the holy war, he would talk about the suffering brought by the holy war. In other words, this kind of anti-war rhetoric does not conform to the propaganda caliber of the Holy See, is it okay to say so openly as a saint......

Negotiation is more than patience, and when the two sides can't hold each other, the first to open up suffers. The people who came with Angel, as bureaucrats who have come to this position step by step, are not young anymore, and they may lack everything, but they will not lack patience, let Angel preach in front of him, hide in the back and carefully observe Qin Shouchou's reaction, and then choose countermeasures in a targeted manner in order to earn the maximum benefit.

"I already fully understand the opinion of the Angel Holy Maiden, I don't know what the opinions of the next few are?"

"Hehehe......" Anyway, a burst of laughter opened to ease the embarrassment: "Is Angel's holy daughter the right messenger, we mean the same as the holy woman...... The same...... Hehehe......"

Isn't it said that they were ordered by the emperor to pay grain, so they are in the "autumn of life and death"? Didn't they come here to ask for food to save their lives? Qin Shouzhuo began to be unable to understand, but since they were not in a hurry, Qin Shouzhuo was even less in a hurry, anyway, Qin Shouzhuo did not have any land in the imperial capital, and only needed to pay commercial taxes. It just so happened that a liaison officer outside the door waved the folder to signal that Qin Shouzhuo had something important:

"Okay, I already know your intentions, to calm the price of grain in the Gyeonggi region and maintain stability, as a courtier of the empire, I have an unshirkable responsibility, I will go and count the number of ships that can be used, please take care of yourself. ”

After speaking, Qin Shouzhuo nodded slightly, strode out of the reception room, and followed the liaison officer who came to him without looking back. In the reception room, the holy daughter Angel frowned slightly, and she didn't understand what Qin Shouzhuo meant, but she still understood what Qin Shouzhuo meant by agreeing to transport grain. Although the final behavior is very rude, as long as the goal is achieved, Angel Holy Maiden is not enough to take a tone in this regard.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Baron Babia has promised to transport grain, you go back to the post station first, and I will also go back to the church to rest. Presumably, the number of flying ships will be obtained tomorrow, and the important task of saving the imperial capital is about to be completed, so I finally dare to breathe a sigh of relief. ”

"Thank you Angel for all her dedication and sorrow for the king, and we are afraid. ”

After sending Angel away, the remaining four people glanced at each other, and then looked at the waiters around them, and the first one shook his head gently, still hunched over, and left the reception room first.

Qin Shouzhuo went to take stock of the situation of each ship and didn't mention it for the time being, only to see that the four people who followed Angel's holy daughter to ask for food left the Baron's Mansion and walked around Babia City a few times separately as a few days ago. Since Babia City is a brand new industrial city, there is a lack of historical accumulation in the urban area, there is nothing to see, the outside of the urban area is full of factories, and large areas are not allowed to enter, so they have to return to the post station.

It was getting dark, and the small inn was brightly lit because of the presence of an imperial capital mission. In a small firewood room in the corner of the post station, it was pitch black, and there was not even a lamp, but four black shadows suddenly came in.

“...... No one followed. ”

"Nobody, don't worry, it's not the first time I've done this. ”

"Well, that's good. ”

The four of them sorted out the bundle of firewood, made a space where people could stay, and blocked the door of Chai Fang by the way, leaving only the window behind the house for emergency escape. The window suddenly opened a little, and the head of a dark shadow poked out and spun around, and then shrank back: "There's no one behind, let's start." ”

"Good. Don't say more, what Baron Babia said today, do you think that's a statement of transporting grain?"

“...... Come on, let's get to the point, our brothers are not impulsive young people anymore, and I don't understand what Baron Babia meant today? Time is limited, not to mention those peripherals, if the four of us disappeared at the same time let the old guard of the post station find out, he must be crazy, hurry up and get to the point: the rank has also turned around a lot in the city in the past few days, how about it?"