Walking out of the Weiyang Palace with a worried face, walking on the Artemisia Street north of the Weiyang Palace, Xiao He couldn't stop sighing despite the fact that Yang Chengyan was following behind him.

"At home, it's really too much ······ Meng Lang"

Talking to himself leisurely, Yang Chengyan finally seized the opportunity to talk, and hurriedly took two steps forward.

"Xianggong."

"The family's previous strategy, is it to forcibly take the rice in the hands of the grain merchants in Guanzhong?"

Hearing this, he saw Xiao He shaking his head with a bitter face.

"The top of the family is talented, and the old man is widely distributed in Guanzhong, can Shaofu still remember?"

Hearing this, Yang Chengyan nodded.

"Nature."

"The intention of the family is to announce the decree of the prime minister in Guanzhong, which is to say: all those who are registered as merchants shall not have more than 100 stones; If it has expired, it will be sold quickly and obeyed. ”

"On the first day of the third month of spring (the first day of the new year), those who are still not as good as the order have no food in stock; and for every stone exceeded, a fine of four taels was imposed. ”

After roughly repeating the explanation made by Fang Cai and Liu Ying in the Phoenix Palace, he saw Yang Chengyan looking up at Xiao He with a little joy.

"If this order is set up in the Guanzhong, all the grain merchants in the Guanzhong, Mijia, may not be able to settle the grain; In order to get the most out of your hand, you can sell it at a reduced price! ”

"In this way, the price of grain in Guanzhong should be flat, and the contemptible people can also pay less money and buy cheap grain and rice, so as to pay for it!"

Speaking of this, Yang Chengyan's expression on his face was already a little frowning.

Only a moment later, I saw Yang Chengyan's slightly confused light 'Huh? With a sound, he immediately frowned and looked at Xiao He beside him.

"The price of grain in Guanzhong is about to be flattened, why don't you like it, and show worry on your face?"

Listening to Yang Chengyan first depict the beautiful scene after the 'fall in food prices', and then expressed his confusion about his worries, Xiao He only sighed leisurely, stopped, turned sideways with his hands, and looked at Yang Chengyan with a solemn face.

"Shaofu, if you really fail to understand this order, will you incur the disaster?"

Hearing Xiao He's words, Yang Chengyan's face suddenly froze, and he shook his head again and again like a rattle.

Seeing this, Xiao He couldn't help but have a deep worry on his face.

"The family wants to make the old man cloth in the Guanzhong, although it seems to be 'prohibiting merchants from having too much grain', in fact, it is forbidden to make a living from goods and grain!"

"But this decree must be set up in Guanzhong, and in the future, when there will be no grain merchants in Guanzhong after the autumn harvest, they will buy the people's rice and grain; In spring and summer, there is no Mijia grain in the market! ”

said these two sentences in a very determined tone, and Xiao He's face slowly became serious.

"Think about Shaofu: All people with merchant registration must not save more than 100 stones."

"——The businessmen in the Guanzhong today, who have a little bit of money, who is not virtuous men, more than ten wives and concubines, and dozens of slaves?"

"Half a stone of grain and rice, for such a family of dozens of mouthfuls, but the work of ten months!"

"With this order, there are still merchants in Guanzhong, who dare to store grain in warehouses after the autumn harvest and sell it in spring and summer?"

"There is no grain to stockpile, and there is no grain to sell!"

"Therefore, this time, the decree issued by the old man is actually limited to grain merchants, and after the first day of the third month of spring (the first day of the new year), he will no longer be a grain merchant!"

Looking at Xiao He's gradually grim face, and listening to Xiao He's interpretation, the expression on Yang Chengyan's face was also slowly a little surprised.

"How?"

"It's a lot of concern, right?"

"This policy should only be temporarily implemented in Guanzhong, in order to stabilize food prices as an expedient measure; Before and after the autumn harvest, it should be stopped. ”

"If this is not the case, why should the family envoy issue a decree instead of writing to His Majesty to issue an edict and legislate?"

Hearing Yang Chengyan's first two words, Xiao He only shook his head with a gloomy face.

After hearing this last question, the grim look on Xiao He's face finally turned into a wry smile······

"What Shaofu said is exactly the point······"

With a wry smile and a long sigh, Xiao He looked at Yang Chengyan's gaze, and there was also a little deep meaning.

"In the past, the family passed on the word to His Majesty, and in the past, the family was assassinated in Changling."

"And I ask Your Majesty to promulgate an edict to make clear the law, which has also been written in the book for the family, and presented to Your Majesty in person······"

Hearing this, Yang Chengyan finally let go of the last trace of luck in his heart, and his expression became completely grim.

Xiao He was right.

Liu Ying's decree that 'merchants cannot have more than 100 stone of grain storage in their hands' was actually aimed at exterminating grain merchants.

The reason is very simple: whether it is a grain merchant, a cloth merchant, or any other merchant, if you want to sell a certain type of goods, the first thing to do is to stock up.

For example, if a merchant wants to start a cloth business, the first thing he needs to do is to recruit dozens or hundreds of weavers to weave cloth for himself.

When you have an inventory of 800 pieces of cloth in hand, you can find a place in the market and hang a signboard of 'X's Cloth Shop'.

Otherwise, what if you really go to the store with three or five pieces of cloth and wait for the goods to be sold out?

Selling cloth for five minutes and out of business for two months?

This is not bad, after all, cloth is also a handmade product, as long as there are raw materials, it can be produced in a steady stream.

Grain, however, is an extremely special category of 'goods'.

As handlers of the grain trade, the merchants could not produce grain on their own, and could only buy it from the people after the autumn of each year.

After the grain is bought, the only thing the grain merchants need to do is to store it properly, and then sell the grain back to the people at a higher price in the spring and summer when the people are in short supply.

To put it simply: cloth merchants earn processing fees for 'weaving silk and hemp rope into cloth', while grain merchants earn management fees for the long-term storage of large quantities of grain.

Since it is a management fee, it is necessary to alleviate it, and it is naturally management.

Specifically, after the autumn harvest, the grain is bought from the people and stored in the granary.

However, Liu Ying's decree that 'merchants cannot store more than 100 stone of grain' accurately hit the fatal key to the survival and profit of grain merchants.

100 stone of grain, what is it enough for?

——According to today, each peasant household in Guanzhong has 100 acres of land, and the yield per mu is more than 2 stones, and the annual grain output of a peasant is more than 200 stones!

In other words, after Liu Ying's decree, if a merchant wants to legally store grain, he can only settle half of the grain output of a peasant household after the autumn harvest!

Obviously, no merchant would be willing to spend the energy of building a granary and having someone take care of it in order to store a hundred stone of grain.

Nor will there be any merchant who is willing to accept the market share of 'one hundred stone grain per year'.

In this way, there is really no problem with what Xiao He said.

——If Liu Ying's decree succeeds in becoming a legal decree in Guanzhong, then from now on, there will never be a creature like a 'grain merchant' in Qinzhong for three thousand miles!

And without the grain merchants, there will be no buyers of the grain that the people harvest from the fields during the autumn harvest; In spring and summer, there will no longer be sellers of rice and grain in the market.

What made Yang Chengyan feel even more heavy was that without grain merchants, the grain in Guanzhong would not be able to flow into Kanto!

Without the grain 'export' in Guanzhong, the barren land of Kanto, no matter how easy children cannibalize and starve everywhere, it is still light!

More seriously, I am afraid that it is mournful and the people are not happy; As soon as a certain victory is achieved, a certain wide ascending and shouting, the world will immediately fall into chaos······

"In that case, why didn't the marquis say anything to dissuade him?"

With a question full of urgency, he saw that Yang Chengyan's eyes were also slightly tempting.

"But the prime minister thinks that the family's policy will not be allowed by His Majesty?"

After speaking, without waiting for Xiao He to answer, he saw that Yang Chengyan hurriedly shook his head again.

"Even if Your Majesty does not allow the family's policy, and has not issued an edict to ban the grain merchant Tun Rice, the family will act like this at this age, and I am afraid that the grain merchant in China will also be frightened by the birds!"

Hearing Yang Chengyan's deep words that seemed to be talking to himself, Xiao He also nodded worriedly.

Regardless of whether Liu Bang, the Son of Heaven, agreed to Liu Ying or not, and officially promulgated the law on 'prohibiting merchants from hoarding grain', it has become inevitable that merchants in Guanzhong should not hoard more than 100 stone of grain from March 1 this year to the autumn harvest.

——Because in Fang Cai's palace, Prime Minister Xiao He has already accepted the order of Liu Ying, the prince of the prison country!

Under this premise, even if Liu Ying's request for an edict is rejected by Liu Bang, the son of heaven, the grain merchants in Guanzhong will inevitably jump out of the big pit of 'grain'.

The reason couldn't be simpler: this year, because of the boiling grain prices, the prince forced the grain merchants in Guanzhong to reduce prices or even sell grain at a loss through coercive means of laws and regulations to stabilize prices.

Then next year, the year after that, or no matter what year, the price of grain in Guanzhong will rise again, won't the grain merchants still have to cut the meat?

If it's once in a while, it's barely acceptable - doing business, there are profits and losses.

But the crux of the problem is that under the model of 'businessmen cutting meat to calm grain prices', grain merchants will not have profit space at all, and they will lose money no matter what!

If the price of grain does not rise, grain merchants can only sell the grain in their hands at a price slightly higher than the purchase price; Counting the cost of grain storage such as grain silo construction, maintenance, and labor, even if it is not a loss, grain merchants will definitely not make money.

If the price of grain rises, it will be even more remarkable - the prince said, 'Those who are registered as merchants must not store more than 100 stones', and the big guy has to hurriedly sell the grain in his hand at a low price.

In general: if the price of food does not rise, there is no way to make money, and if it rises, not only will it not make money, but it will even lose money!

In this case, as long as there is not too much water in the head, there will never be a businessman willing to risk 'being convicted of rebellion for no reason' to mix in the unprofitable grain business.

In this way, it is no longer important whether Liu Bang, the Son of Heaven, promulgated the Edict of the Son of Heaven to endorse the legitimacy of Liu Ying's 'Ban on Merchants and Jia Tun Grain Order'.

As long as Xiao He really issued a decree that 'merchants are not allowed to store more than 100 stones of grain' to Guanzhong, even if it is only a temporary decree, it will inevitably cause merchants to stay away from the 'grain' business sector collectively.

"Hmmm······"

"Could it be that the family wants to go to Guanzhong Grain Merchant this time?"

With a hesitant face to say his guess, Yang Chengyan turned his head sideways in a little surprise.

Hearing this, Xiao He thought about it in every way, and finally nodded his head slightly.

"In the past, the old man in the family said that 'that is, the ban on the grain of Jia Tun, it is better to order within three days, and they will all sit and watch the society'!"

"The old man was shocked when he heard this, so he had to 'wait for a few days, than if there was a grain merchant with rice in the grain market', he postponed the idea of going to his home, waiting for His Majesty's signal."

"Today, although the family has retreated slightly, changing 'within three days' to 'before the first day of the first day of spring and March', but on the matter of banning merchants and storing grain, they are still stubborn. ”

"In this way, it seems that the family has indeed done everything to close the grain merchants······

Listening to Xiao He's worried words, Yang Chengyan thought about it for a while, and then frowned even tighter.

"If Guanzhong, if there is really no grain merchant Mijia, wouldn't it be a big mess?"

Saying that, Yang Chengyan seemed to think of something, lowered his head and groaned, and asked tentatively: "Before, the family set up a grain market in the south of Chang'an, so that the Shaofu goods rice and the people. ”

"Could it be the intention of the family, but to ban the grain merchants in Guanzhong in the past, and to be in charge of the purchase and sale of grain and rice in Guanzhong?"

But when he saw Xiao He hearing this, he nodded slightly, but the worry on his face was even worse.

"The old man's worries also stem from this······"

"In today's Guanzhong, there are more than 900,000 households and millions of people; The annual need for rice and grain, no less than 10,000 stones. ”

"On the other hand, the Kanto region is barren, and those who need to transport the Kanto region from Guanzhong will also have no less than 10,000,000 stones of grain and rice."

"In the past, these tens of thousands of stone rice grains were stored in hundreds of large and small grain merchants in Guanzhong, and tens of thousands of granaries were stored."

Speaking of this, Xiao He cleared his throat a little and turned the conversation leisurely.

"Today's head of the granary should be Xingyang Aocang, which can store five million stones of grain!"

"If the family really wants to rely on Shaofu, and specialize in the purchase and sale of grain and rice in the world, I am afraid that it will be necessary to prosper more than the huge warehouse of Aocang, no less than 40 places."

"Even if you get these forty warehouses, you also need officials to patrol the warehouses, soldiers to protect the warehouses, and people who transport rice and grain in and out of the warehouse."

Saying that, Xiao He finally looked at Yang Chengyan with a solemn face, and shook his head with a deep sorrow.

"Today's court, even Chang'an is unable to build it, and even if the Zhengguo Canal is renovated, it is also necessary to send out the Lu family's private grain and summon the people from Guanzhong."

"There are forty places in this huge warehouse, and one of the warehouse officials, soldiers, and young and strong ······"

"Alas······"

"Today's Han family can't afford to bear such a huge burden······"

Listening to Xiao He's sigh full of sorrow, Yang Chengyan thought about it for a long time, and the thousands of doubts in his heart finally turned into that question again.

"In that case, why didn't Xiao Xiang refuse to prevent the family from making such a mess?"

Hearing that Yang Chengyan asked 'why did you agree' for the second time, Xiao He's bitterness on his face finally turned into substance.

"Shaofu forgot: why was the family assassinated when he stepped forward?"

"Why did the family go to Changling, and the prince Zhuang was in front of him?"

When Yang Chengyan showed a slightly depressed expression, Xiao He only shook his head with a gloomy sigh.

"The absolute failure of grain merchants is a hidden danger."

"However, the price of grain in Guanzhong is about to boil, and this is the ······ of trouble"

"If you don't follow the order of the family, the government will ban the merchants and Jia Tun grain, I am afraid that there will be no waiting for the day when the 'bitter grain merchants' in Guanzhong will be restored, and I will return to the mistakes of Yingqin······"

After saying that, Xiao He sighed for a long time, and finally showed a bitter smile, and looked sideways at Yang Chengyan.

"Both phases are harmful, and the harm is less."

"In the case of the boiling grain price in Guanzhong, there is no other way than the family's strategy, and the old man has no other way······"