The teacup in his hand was picked up and put down, Qin Shouzhuo was a little restless, in addition to the pressure brought to him by the huge conspiracy, it also came from the awkwardness of the teacup in his hand - he was a soldier, and he was a grassroots level, facing the huge pressure of war every day, almost all of them were smokers, which would hold the tea all day long to relieve pressure. Usually, there may be nothing wrong, but when faced with huge pressure, Qin Shouzhuo feels that the teacup in his hand looks awkward.

"You're saying that we use food to win hearts and minds?"

"Yes," the fat man Velvet was so excited that the fat all over his body was trembling: "The shortage of grain in the Gyeonggi area is artificially caused, and the grain prices in several surrounding provinces are still relatively stable, basically around 5 copper plates per catty, and as early as two weeks ago, the grain price in the imperial capital has exceeded 50 copper plates a catty." Moreover, for the people of the imperial capital, the price is not a problem, the problem is that no one is willing to sell grain, there is no grain on the market at all, and you can't buy grain with money. Our spies have received the news and are ready to encourage the people of the imperial capital to collectively write to the imperial court, requesting the opening of the strategic grain reserve. ”

Qin Shou hesitated slightly: "According to what you said before, most of the grain in the imperial capital should be in this strategic reserve grain depot." ”

"Yes, if there is no deficit or anything, according to the regulations, even if the stock is reduced in advance to meet the arrival of new grain, it has at least 500,000 tons of grain in stock. But this is the strategic reserve of the Empire, to deal with natural and man-made disasters, but also to support the military rations of the Gyeonggi Garrison, in case King Brent rebels, the Empire wants to send a counterinsurgency army to count on this grain depot. ”

"You mean, the Imperial Court won't open the Reserve Vault easily, right?"

"This is inevitable," the dead fat man wiped the oil and sweat from his head, took a sip of tea and continued: "To put it mildly, the Gyeonggi area is a strategic mobile force of the Imperial Army, which is stronger than several other military regions combined, both in terms of quantity and quality, and if there is a riot in the Gyeonggi area, send troops nearby to suppress it." But if the strategic reserve is moved, in case King Brent really rebels and can't raise military rations, will he watch a large area of the northwest of the empire fall?"

Qin Shou rubbed his face with a headache: "The northwest is adjacent to the Blue Moon Empire, which is the most important production area of war horses for human beings, and if you lose the land in the northwest, the empire will have no way to obtain high-quality war horses, and the scale of the already small cavalry force will inevitably be further reduced." The decline of the army and power will also reduce the control of the empire, although it will not change the emperor's strategic advantage over King Brent, but the initiative will be lost. ”

“...... I don't understand the war, I mean the trade route to the Blue Moon and Hot Sand, the annual trade volume of more than 5 million gold coins, that is, more than 800,000 gold in taxes, plus the employment and domestic demand stimulated, this is something that the empire cannot give up. What's even more annoying is that many of the raw materials for our food spices are specialties of the Hot Sand Empire, and some of them also need to be transported from the northwest, and we can't stand it when the northwest goes to war. Velvet pouted, saying that your mind is really jumping, and I'm talking about business.

"Whether to fight or not, the northwest will always be nervous for a period of time, it is impossible for us to eat for the day spices not to be affected, I have ordered the food for the day spices to rise by 30% before I came, the excuse is that the northwest road is not smooth, the arrival of raw materials is slow, if there is really a war, no said, immediately increase the price by 100%. But it's a small amount of money after all. ”

Velvet said and took out two letters from his bosom: "Your Excellency, when I came back, I met two groups of messengers, one is Biden's Deputy Chief of Staff, and the other is King Brent's. The meaning of both parties is very clear, ordering broadswords, large shields, plate armor, spear heads, arrowheads and even steel ingots, and the prices given on both sides are full of sincerity, especially on King Brent's side, the sincerity is quite rich. I think we might as well eat it all, this hasn't started a war yet, it's already so sincere, once the war starts, it's only going to be more sincere, why don't we eat it on both sides?"

"Innocent!" The ostrich hiding under the sand finally couldn't help it, and when he heard Velvet's stupid words, he was afraid that Qin Shouzhuo would be deceived, so he hurriedly walked out and angrily reprimanded: "The final outcome of the two-sided pleasance is only two-sided displease, and then Uncle Brent will definitely regard Shou Clumsy as a thorn in the flesh, and the father and emperor will definitely not tolerate the Barbian Barony who eats inside and out." ”

Velvet still insisted on his own idea: "Only our Babia industry on the entire continent can provide so much armament in a short period of time, or if the quality is guaranteed, the emperor dares to be hostile to us, and he is not afraid of ......"

"Since you can't get it, you can't let the other party get it, why not destroy it!" Sophia rebuked Velvet for being ridiculous, and walked generously in front of the two, raising her head high, showing her pride. "Velvet, you're a good businessman, but politics is a mess. You are good at military affairs, and you don't know about political struggles, especially royal thinking. ”

Qin Shouzhuo spread his hands and leaned back on the sofa, this was indeed the case, but Villewit was a little uneasy. finally had a chance to show himself, of course he wanted to increase his weight in Qin Shouzhuo's eyes, but he was disturbed by Her Royal Highness the Princess, and was reprimanded as ridiculous, so excited that he wanted to stand up and refute it, but he didn't know how to refute it, after all, Her Royal Highness the Princess was not wrong, he was really not very good at politics.

"You two sit and listen, if I don't want to watch Shou Shou jump into the pit, I wouldn't bother to say it. Sophia straightened her hair, and at some point she found a short wand, 30 centimeters long, with a green leaf in the middle of a short branch. "The first is the matter of sending grain to buy people's hearts. I don't care if the people who created the food shortage in the imperial capital are Uncle Brent or not, in short, the other party has a lot of plans, at least it is the land of the thirteen counties of Gyeonggi. The news of making a lot of money from growing potions is not as fast as you think, and there are still some farmers in the thirteen counties of Gyeonggi who grow grain, although it is much less than in previous years, but the total amount cannot be underestimated. ”

"In this case, the soaring grain prices in the thirteen counties of Gyeonggi, in addition to the human factor, the grain prices in the imperial capital are also an important driving force, as long as the grain prices in the imperial capital are smashed down, the grain prices in the thirteen counties of Gyeonggi will fall, after all, they are not short of grain. In this case, in order to achieve their goal as quickly as possible, they must have to starve of food, manipulate the market, block traffic, and release rumors, and encourage the impulsive poor to disturb the order, and so on. ”

"In particular, the trick of encouraging all the people to write a letter to open up the strategic reserve is really ruthless. If they don't open a warehouse to release grain, they will naturally guide the people to pour all the dirty water on their father's emperor, hitting his father's reputation, and if they open a warehouse, they will inevitably find a way to empty the grain depot and weaken the initiative on his father's side. To accomplish this task, it is necessary to blow the confidence of the people of the imperial capital, and if we bring grain into Beijing, even if the quantity is not large, and only our own employees can buy it, it can bring hope to the people of the imperial capital. Not to mention that this hope is a bit illusory, but it is such an illusory hope that can at least support the people of the imperial capital for more than half a month. ”

"Time is of the essence for either of us, and once my father completes the integration of the southeastern part of the empire, and once the provinces in the northwest of the empire that are still in the empire are able to contact the imperial capital, Uncle Brent will fall short at any time. Therefore, as long as we decide to send grain to the imperial capital, we will inevitably face a comprehensive face-to-face with Uncle Brent, and it is impossible to curry favor with both sides. ”

"As for your previous proposal to sell arms on both sides, it's even more stupid. Glancing at Velvet, who was already stupid, Sophia's gaze was on the thoughtful Qin Shouzhuo, pausing a little to clear her thoughts. "I am the third princess of the empire, and I know the royal thinking best. Whether it's our Babia Industrial City or the Potions Factory, our production capacity is too great to easily help one or the other gain an advantage, and if we can't get support, we might as well destroy it. Therefore, if our position is wavering, the most likely is that the first one will be cut off by both sides. ”

Qin Shouzhuo looked at the two letters on the table: "So, these two letters are clearly set out to force us to choose to take sides...... Why don't we just do nothing, go all out to the emperor, get hundreds of thousands of tons of grain, directly impact the imperial capital market, and mess up their design?"

"Hmm......" Sophia shook her head, walked over to Qin Shouzhuo and sat down again: "Our strength on both sides is too weak, and if we take the initiative to show such obvious political tendencies, we will be liquidated by the other party's opportunity, even if it is a wisp of bias, it is not something we can resist." We have to hide until the decisive opportunity comes. ”

"There is another thing I care about," Sophia shook her head, "There must be no shortage of grain in the 22 grain banks, but where is this grain? According to them, they are just trying to force the imperial court to make certain concessions, plus annex the land of the thirteen counties of Gyeonggi. Then, to ensure that after the goal is achieved, the price of grain in the imperial capital can be quickly stabilized, and this grain will not be too far away from the imperial capital, if we can find him, or even control it in our hands, it can bring great initiative to the next action. ”

"As it should be. It just so happened that Elsa found the news of the attack on the city in the air thief's lair, and we also said that we would wantonly suppress the bandits, so we just took this opportunity to scatter the spies out, find the location of the grain, and rob it if it can be robbed, and then send it to the imperial capital in one go, smash the price of food, and completely destroy this conspiracy!"