"Son, see the queen mother."

Reached an agreement with Xiao He on the matter of 'rations for officials and slaves of the Shaofu', and returned to the palace for two days, Liu Ying also came to the Xuanshu Hall as usual.

After the ceremony, Liu Ying unexpectedly saw the figure of her uncle Lu Shizhi beside her mother Lu Pheasant.

With a faint smile, Liu Ying turned sideways a little and bowed his hand to Lu Shizhi slightly.

"Nephew, I've seen my uncle's ······"

After the past few months, getting along day and night in the lotus spoon area, the friendship between Liu Ying and Lu Shizhi can be said to be heating up rapidly.

Nowadays, whenever it is not a formal occasion, Liu Ying rarely refers to Lu Shizhi as 'Jianchenghou', but as 'uncle'.

It was Lu Shizhi, who seemed to be a little unaccustomed to Liu Ying's close title, and as soon as Liu Ying's voice fell, he saw Lu Shizhi hurriedly turn his head sideways.

After seeing Lu Pheasant's indifferent face, Lu Shizhi hesitated a little and bowed his hand to Liu Ying.

"At home."

With a gentle smile on her face, she nodded slightly to her uncle Lu Shizhi, and Liu Ying naturally walked to her mother Lu Pheasant and sat down.

Sure enough, Liu Ying's buttocks had just been placed on the soft couch, and before she could sit on the hot bed, she listened to Lu Pheasant's gentle and loving voice reach Liu Ying's ears.

"The day before yesterday, Ying'er said that she wanted to go to the Prime Minister's Mansion in person and discuss with the Marquis of the Shaofu Officials and Slaves about the rations."

"Why don't you tell me?"

Hearing the old lady's faint and slightly complaining inquiry, Liu Ying only smiled gently, and looked at Lu Pheasant with deference.

"The son wanted to come that day and tell his mother about the affairs of the Prime Minister's house."

"After the rations of the officials and slaves of the Shaofu, there was a slight mistake, so I wanted to think about it first, and then come to the queen mother."

Hearing this, the grievances on Lu Pheasant's face disappeared immediately, and in their place, they were relieved and proud without concealing them at all.

"In this way, Ying'er is now in the Xuan room, should she have been understood?"

I saw that Liu Ying nodded in response, but did not answer, but turned his head slightly and looked at his uncle Lu Shizhi not far away.

"The day before yesterday, the nephew entrusted his uncle, can you have eyebrows?"

Seeing that Liu Ying suddenly asked himself a question, Lu Shizhi couldn't help but hurriedly straighten up.

"Honored by the family."

"The day before yesterday, the minister got an order from his family, so he went to the East Market in person and asked each other about the price of grain and rice."

"Tian's rice shop in Dedong City: rice stone, the price is 1,700 yuan."

Speaking of this, Lu Shizhi's face suddenly surged with doubts.

"However, yesterday, the private slaves of the minister's family went to the East Market to ask each other, and it was still the Tian's rice shop in the East City, and the price of rice had risen by fifty yuan per stone."

"The courtier's heart is strange, so today I asked in person, it is still the Dongshi Tian's rice shop, but the price of rice has reached 1,800 yuan ······ stone."

"Not only that, but the minister also sent two slaves, sharing three baht and half a tael of money, back and forth."

"The servant who holds half a tael of money will buy one stone of corn for one thousand and eight hundred dollars."

"However, the servant who holds the money of three baht goes, and the money in his hand is present, and Tian's rice shop is immediately listed, and the rice is sold out, so it closes its doors······"

After saying that, Lu Shizhi couldn't help but give up his hand to Liu Ying with a little anxiety.

"Today, the price of rice in Chang'an is rising by 50 yuan a day, if the family wants to buy rice and grain in the market with money, I am afraid that it should be done quickly!"

"And if you buy grain, you should prepare half a tael of Qin to count ······"

Hearing Lu Shizhi say that 'the price of rice is 1,700 yuan a stone', Liu Ying was already a little worried in her heart.

I also heard Lu Shizhi say that now the price of grain in Chang'an is rising at a rate of 50 yuan per stone almost every day, and Liu Ying's face is finally hung with a touch of melancholy visible to the naked eye.

However, the grain merchant only recognized Qin's half a tael coin, and did not recognize the three-baht coin ordered by his father Liu Bang, and Liu Ying was mentally prepared.

- Not to mention Chang'an, even in the entire Guanzhong, the people do not recognize the circulation capacity of the three-baht coin, which is not a new thing for a long time.

"The price of this grain has risen too fast······

Liu Ying was thinking about it, when he saw Lu Pheasant take Liu Ying's hand with a little curiosity, and temporarily pulled Liu Ying's thoughts back to his eyes.

"But there is no grain in the treasury, and the marquis is still unable to allocate grain to Shaofu, Ying'er wants to buy grain in the city with money to solve Shaofu's difficulties today?"

Hearing this, Liu Ying couldn't help but shake her head slightly, and nodded slightly with a bitter face.

"Xiao Xiang is responsible for his father's army, and the treasury is indeed a little tight when there are more than 400,000 people with grain and grass."

"However, Xiao Xiang did not refuse to allocate grain and rice, and he thought of the tightness of the national treasury, so he discussed with Xiao Xiang: the shortage of grain and rice in Shaofu is half of the national treasury."

"The rest of the people want to use money and food to do things."

Hearing Liu Ying's summary explanation, Lu Pheasant thought for a moment, and finally nodded slowly.

"Yes······"

"The sons and nephews of the Lu family, the old ones, mostly went out with His Majesty, and the feudal country was far away from the Kanto; If you want to lose the tax of the last year, it is not the work of the month. ”

"The situation of the Dynasty and the Zhao War is imminent, and the east wind is loud and loud, and if the grain is imported from outside the customs, there will be many inconveniences······"

With this remark on his face, Lu Pheasant smiled encouragingly and nodded to Liu Ying again.

"Ying'er wants to use money and grain in the market, it is indeed more appropriate."

Listening to the old lady praising herself without hesitation, Liu Ying forced a smile to herself, and immediately lowered her head with a little bitterness.

Even if the old lady didn't say it, Liu Ying knew very well in her heart: there was another drawback in transporting grain from Kanto to the customs.

- The price of grain in Kanto is more expensive than in Guanzhong······

Rather than transporting grain from the feudal kingdoms of the Lu clan in Kanto, such as Lu Shizhi and Lu Chan, into Guanzhong, it is better to sell the grain in the Kanto region and buy it in Guanzhong with money.

But Liu Ying really can't understand very much: now that the winter is approaching, why is the price of grain in Guanzhong rising rapidly at the rate of 50 yuan per stone per day!

After a moment of silence, he saw Liu Ying humming and frowned, looking at Lu Shizhi with a slight gloom.

"Dare to ask my uncle."

"——Compared with previous years, is there any difference in the increase in grain prices in Guanzhong today?"

Liu Ying really couldn't understand the price of grain, which was already as high as 1,700 yuan per stone, and was still rising at 50 yuan a day.

But seeing Lu Shizhi's words, he turned his head sideways with a moment of hesitation and glanced at his sister Lu Pheasant.

After Lu Pheasant Wen smiled and nodded, Lu Shizhi gave up his hand to Liu Ying.

"I don't know if I'm at home."

"——Since the first year of the Han Dynasty, His Majesty has been able to return the Three Qins, and since the time he was in charge of Guanzhong, the price of grain in Guanzhong has not been priced."

As he spoke, Lu Shizhi's face also quietly swelled with a little nostalgia.

"I said that the year before last, Guanzhong was slightly dry, and after the autumn harvest, the rice stone was worth 1,800 yuan."

"However, since the autumn and August of the ninth year of the Han Dynasty, the stone price has risen to more than 2,400 yuan!"

"Two thousand four hundred dollars for spring and March, and two thousand six hundred dollars for summer and April; It was not until the autumn and July, that is, when the emperor died and the Mid-Autumn Festival was about to be harvested, that the price of grain slowly dropped from 2,600 yuan in summer and April to 2,000 yuan per stone. ”

"And the autumn harvest, when the people of Guanzhong sold grain in business, the price of rice stone was 1,500 yuan; Later, it has risen so far, and the price is 1,800 yuan······"

Listening to Lu Shizhi's explanation, Liu Ying's face was annoyed, and finally turned into substance little by little.

"The closer you get to around the autumn harvest, the lower the price will be······"

"Isn't this deliberately done by the grain merchants?"

As she spoke, Liu Ying's brows were also tightly screwed together.

"After the autumn harvest, it is the grain merchants who buy grain from the people, and the price is low; In spring and summer, the people are green and yellow, but the people buy grain from business, and the price is high. ”

"——This, could it be that the grain merchant deliberately did it, buying low and selling high, in order to strip the farmers?!"

Liu Ying's angry reprimand also provoked Lu Shizhi to lower his head in shame.

Seeing that Liu Ying thought about it for a while, she asked again: "In this case, after the autumn harvest, why do the people still sell the grain they have harvested to such evil people?" ”

"Wouldn't it be more cost-effective to store it at home and eat it?"

Reluctantly holding back the anger in his chest and asking a question, Liu Ying's face was already full of anger.

Liu Ying understood the meaning of Lu Shi's words.

- After the autumn harvest, the people leave a part of the grain, and the rest will be sold at a low price to the merchants who buy the grain.

The following year, the people would use the money from the sale of grain to buy back the grain sold to the merchants at a price more than a little and a half higher and use it for their families.

In and out, the peasants can easily divide a small half, or even a large half, of the income from a year's hard work by the grain merchants!

-- When buying grain from peasants, it is the grain merchants who decide whether the price is high or low; When it comes to selling grain to the people, the price of grain is still the final word of the grain merchants!

In this, the operable space can be said to be vast and high!

It's very simple: the autumn harvest is over, I will pay a hundred yuan to buy your grain, will you sell it?

If you don't sell it, I'll collude with my peers, don't want to sell your grain!

In a few months, will you sell me these grains for a hundred dollars, and sell them back to you for a thousand dollars, will you buy them?

Don't buy?

Love to buy or not to buy!

I say hello to my peers, if you don't buy it, your whole family will starve to death!

And this business model has a more understandable name in later generations.

- Monopoly!

By monopolizing the market to grasp the price, so as to infinitely reduce the cost and raise the price infinitely, in order to obtain almost unlimited profits!

But Liu Ying has a hard time understanding: how is grain monopolized?

Sell it at a low price and buy it back at a high price - don't sell it directly, keep it for yourself, wouldn't it be good?

Liu Ying felt that she should have missed something crucial.

- The reason why the people can only sell their grain to grain merchants instead of staying at home to eat it.

Thinking of this, Liu Ying raised her head and stared at the depths of Lu Shizhi's gaze without squinting.

was looked at by Liu Ying so directly, Lu Shizhi couldn't help but feel guilty.

After thinking about it in a hurry, he finally said vaguely: "The people don't know why they are merchant. ”

"However, in the last year, the minister heard that the prince said: If the tax of the vassal feudal country is not low-priced goods and grain merchants, it should be built and stored."

"The ministers have calculated that the one who can build a warehouse that can store grain and rice of 100,000 stones will need nearly 100 gold?"

As he spoke, Lu Shizhi raised his head slightly, but his gaze couldn't help but dodge, and he didn't dare to look at Liu Ying at all.

"There are thousands of households in the courtier's food estate, and when I first heard the cost of building a warehouse, I was also a little smacked."

"And the farmers in Qianshou, Xu also has no money to build a warehouse······"