What a food stamp is, Qin Shouzhuo knows it, during the period when the Rabbit family first founded the country, due to the tight food supply, another purchase voucher issued in addition to the banknote was to purchase grain with the ticket. At that time, due to the tight supply of materials, the rabbit family needed corresponding tickets to buy almost anything, and Blue Star, including several large countries, also issued corresponding tickets when the supply of goods was tight. However, after all, it was Blue Star, not the world of Elis, and when he suddenly heard such a familiar word as food stamps, Qin Shouzhuo was still quite surprised, could it be that Velvet was also a traverser?

With doubts, Qin Shouzhuo asked, "Food stamps?"

"It's the qualification to buy food. Seeing Qin Shouchou's puzzled expression, Velvet immediately explained: "This is very popular in the armies of some countries in the southeast of the mainland. Because they are mountainous there, many times the logistics can not guarantee the delivery of materials on time and in quantity, so they hand over many dual-use materials to merchants for transportation and even sale, and the troops often issue various tickets instead of physical goods, and then soldiers can take this kind of tickets, and when needed, they can find the nearest qualified merchants to exchange for goods, and then the merchants will use these tickets to exchange money at the Quartermaster Department. Although this model has various problems, it does alleviate a lot of pressure on military supplies. ”

"Oh...... That's okay......" Qin Shouzhuo was a little confused, there were still countries and armies that solved the problem of military supply in this way, "But we are local lords, who do we issue volume stamps to? Moreover, who recognizes our food stamps? I don't think that the food stamps we print and distribute like this can also be exchanged for grain from the grain store." ”

"It's up to us to do it. Dragging the sofa casually to get closer to Qin Shouzhuo, Velvett's eyes flashed with shrewdness. "The food stamps we issue ourselves are naturally accepted by ourselves. The emperor is not short of food, I heard about the emperor's anger before I came back, regardless of whether he is angry or not, this food shortage must be inseparable from the 22 grain stores. I analyzed the data on grain import, export and consumption in the imperial capital in the past two years, as well as some public data of these 22 grain banks, and conservatively estimated that these grain merchants have more than 500,000 tons of grain in their hands, and the strategic reserve grain of the capital may exceed 800,000 tons, which is enough for everyone in the imperial capital to eat for a year and a half. ”

800,000 tons, which really scared Qin Shouzhuo, but if you think about it carefully, it is also in line with the situation. The Gyeonggi region is so important, how can there be so little grain storage, the figure of 800,000 tons sounds terrible, but it is only a year and a half of stock, which may be a bit much for ordinary cities, but for the Gyeonggi region, it is just enough. This grain was not only the stock of the imperial capital, but also the strategic reserve of the Lawrence Empire, which had to be mobilized to various parts of the empire if necessary.

However, this is not the end, Villewitt continued: "Your Excellency, after the food shortage began, I ordered the Food for the Heavenly Emperor Capital Branch to actively inquire about the news, reserve grain, and deal with special situations. Do you know what our spies overheard in the imperial capital?"

"Oh, what?" Seeing that Velvet had a mysterious expression, Qin Shouzhuo asked with a dispensing face.

"After the grain shortage began, the price of grain in the imperial capital changed three times a day, but the actual shipment volume was not large, and unscrupulous merchants hoarded it, which I can understand. However, our spies overheard rumors that there was grain for sale in the suburbs of the imperial capital. Unscrupulous merchants are hoarding, and farmers are not fools, so how can the few grain farmers who grow grain this year start selling grain when it seems that grain prices have not yet risen to the end. However, it is a fact that there is grain in the suburbs, do you know how to sell this grain?"

"Oh...... It seems that there is something inside. ”

"Yes, when you buy grain from the suburbs, you don't charge money, you only collect land. Even if you offer a high price, the grain seller will not want it, so he will reduce it according to the market price and then change the farmland. Then, the spies quickly expanded the scope of their investigation and found that all 13 counties in the Gyeonggi region were selling grain, and all of them were in this pattern. The people of the Food for Heaven branch quickly began to investigate the background of these food sellers, but they didn't find anything, and we were warned. It was a gangster leader in the south of the imperial capital, who had no skills, but everyone in the south of the city knew that this person had some close ties with a certain duke, and then I ordered the investigation to be suspended. ”

"Well, your judgment is right, then their purpose is clear. ”

"Yes, for the annexation of land. In order to prevent land annexation, the transaction supervision of cultivated land near the imperial capital is very strict, and there are many noble ministers in Beijing, and the relationship behind any piece of land outside can be traced to the nobles in Beijing, and it is also difficult to annex it. However, there are not so many restrictions in Gyeonggi Prefecture, although land transactions are still very difficult and the supervision is very strict, but after all, there is a lot of land owned by ordinary civilians, and the sequelae are still within the scope of bearability. ”

"I remember that when there was a large shortage of magic herbs last year, the Imperial Capital sent someone to contact the artificial planting project, and you received it. ”

"Yes, but I didn't expect the other party's layout to be so far-reaching. Velvet shook his head, obviously admiring the other party's clever plan: "Last year, the negotiation team led by the three Dukes' Palaces came to negotiate with the county orders of the thirteen Gyeonggi prefectures, and simultaneously promoted the expansion of the cultivation area of magic herbs in the thirteen Gyeonggi prefectures, completely abandoning food production. And the vicinity of the imperial capital is all their land, so there is no need to talk about it at all, thus single-handedly directing the sharp drop in grain production in the Gyeonggi region this year. ”

"This year, the Gyeonggi region is stained with our light, all the magic herbs have been sold, the price has risen, the farmers' income has grown rapidly, the county officials in the thirteen counties are all of the top class, there have been five people who have been promoted and transferred, and the rest are just about qualifications, but the people under their hands are experiencing the first food shortage in the Gyeonggi region in hundreds of years, which has to be said to be ironic. ”

Qin Shouzhuo was silent for a while: "Sure enough, what is the reaction of the other lords?"

Before Villewitt could reply, Sophia looked embarrassed, greeted her, picked up the teapot and went to the pantry. As the princess of the empire, she naturally wants to stand on the side of the empire, but in this way, she will inevitably have to confront the people behind the 22 grain stores in the imperial capital, which is almost half of the imperial capital's elite class. The royal family has no family affection, and it challenges most of the court and the noble class at once, and it is also mixed with the power of the Holy See, and the most likely way for the emperor is to sell the one that came out to the other party after the situation calms down, in exchange for the complete end of this matter.

Sophia, as a princess with the potential to be a politician, can't fill this pit with herself, let alone persuade Qin Shouzhuo to sacrifice and live by herself, what kind of choice those uncles and uncles will make, Sophia can guess with her hair. Rather than stay there and listen to stories of the royal division, it is better to step aside and bury your head deep in the ground like an ostrich as if you don't know anything.

Watching Sophia leave with a little apology, Villewitt continued to report to Qin Shouzhuo, but his voice couldn't help but be a little quieter: "The royal side branch headed by King Brent, plus the 14 nobles, is also involved in the Holy See. Now the west and north of Gyeonggi are almost obedient to the announcement, let alone independent lords, and even the provinces directly controlled by the emperor have no reaction. The situation in the east and south is also very bad, many lords are watching, and the provinces under the direct jurisdiction of the empire have made some moves, but a large number of bandits have recently appeared in these two directions, and the roads are often blocked. ”

Qin Shouzhuo felt that something was not quite right, the other party's big hand must be a small plan, so these small actions in the thirteen counties of Gyeonggi would be redundant. A conspiracy of this scale, but a move to seek the country, and what to do with the land of the thirteen counties of Gyeonggi? Once successful, the entire empire will be theirs.

"What are you going to do?"

Villewitt smiled innocently: "Your Excellency, at this time, it is best for us to remain neutral and wait for the price to sell." I think so, at this stage, King Brent's control over the west of the empire is limited, not all provinces obey his orders, independent territories are even more interconnected, and the majority of people are waiting and seeing, and the emperor still has the advantage when the Gyeonggi Rebellion is coming, so it is naturally not good for us to ignore the orders of the imperial capital at this time."

"Specifically, we want to transport grain into the imperial capital, but: first, the quantity should not be too much, otherwise it will easily cause fluctuations in the price of grain in the imperial capital, and we must hide in the grain ships that enter Beijing from all over the country to avoid being hated by the other party alone. Second, if the grain is not handed over to the grain bank, they are the masterminds behind this grain shortage, and no matter how much grain is given to them, the grain shortage will not be alleviated. Third, this grain shortage is also an opportunity for us, the grain transported into the imperial capital can be sold exclusively to the workers of our industry, and we do not need the grain sales network, we will sell it on the factory wharf, implement a rationing system for each worker, issue grain stamps every week, and buy grain with the tickets. We can also support some of the grain to those loyal factories in our upstream and downstream industries, and we are not afraid that they will not be grateful. If we help them this time, they will never dare to betray, otherwise everyone in this world will drown them with a mouthful of foam. ”

Although she subconsciously whispered, Princess Sophia, who was hiding in the pantry, still heard the inside story of this incident clearly, even if she wanted to pretend to be an ostrich, the voice went straight to her ears. While subconsciously starting to analyze the whole thing, checking and filling in the gaps for Qin Shouchuang, he desperately said to himself in his heart, "I can't think about it anymore, I don't know anything! I can't think about it anymore, I don't know anything!"

Everyone was calculating, not only King Brent, but His Majesty the Emperor was also calculating, and ministers and lords from all over the country began to choose their teams, seeing that a civil war was inevitable.

The ostrich pulled out the head buried in the sand, running away was never the solution to the problem, she had to do something.