When several people heard Chen Mu say this, their eyes paused slightly, and they looked up in the direction of Chen Mu.

One of them's eyes flickered, then smiled.

"If it's not for this reason, don't look at us and we've collected so much, but in fact, we don't have much silver in our hands at all."

"After collecting so much grain, we hoarded food, and although we had food for the winter, we didn't have extra change if we wanted to buy something else."

"It's a tight day."

The shopkeeper who first dealt with Chen Mu said this, Chen Mu heard this, smiled, and responded.

Those shop owners looked at Chen Mu like this, and thought that Chen Mu believed his words.

They looked at each other with a slight sigh of relief, and one of them stepped forward, his lips moving slightly.

Seeing Chen Mu speak again.

"But I just thought of a problem, after you collect grain in several small cities in the north and receive all the grain in your own hands, the people in the north will have less food in their hands."

"The grain can only survive the winter, and they want to sell the grain in their hands, or even sell the grain to a small city in the south, I'm afraid it won't work."

The eyes of several people moved slightly, and then nodded with a smile.

One of them was a little impatient, glanced at Chen Mu, and then spoke.

"Yes, you're right, we have collected this grain in our own hands, but what the people in the small southern city eat is naturally managed by the local government."

"Even if there is no local government to manage it, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will manage it, and it has nothing to do with me."

"We just did what we wanted to do and what we could."

The man frowned a little unhappily as he said this.

His gaze swept over Chen Mu's body.

He suspected that Chen Mu had guessed something, but he didn't dare to think about it, he turned his head and glanced in the direction of his companion.

His companion met his gaze and shook his head quietly, signaling him to be uneasy.

Seeing this, the man breathed a sigh of relief, stepped forward, and arched his hand at Chen Mu.

"I didn't expect that Your Excellency would think too much, in this case, we don't want the food in your hands."

"If you think we have a plan to collect the grain......"

"When we sell grain again next year, the price of grain will rise because of the shortage of grain in the previous year."

"You can make a fortune with the food you have."

Chen Mu opened his mouth to interrupt the man's words, and the man was stunned for a moment, and then his eyes widened.

He didn't seem to expect that Chen Mu would say this.

The merchants standing next to the man looked at each other, their eyes sank.

Obviously, they didn't expect that Chen Mu would see through their intentions and intentions.

One of them coughed lightly, took a step forward, arched his hand at Chen Mu, and then spoke.

"Although we have collected this grain, we have also confiscated so much, which can affect the price of grain, and we still can't do it."

"And such a thing has never been ...... before"

"It's not that it never was, but in the past, most of the things that led to the rise in food prices were natural disasters rather than man-made disasters."

"If you get up this time, you can make a lot of money with that grain in the future, and the price of grain may double."

"Nonsense, there's never been anything like this before."

Those people were furious, they saw Chen Mu's lips moving slightly, as if they were about to say something.

They were worried that Chen Mu would say more about their plans.

They didn't know why Chen Mu knew about their plan, and they even suspected that one of them had leaked their plan.

However, now is not the time to doubt each other, and the merchant who first dealt with Chen Mu waved his hand behind him.

Countless family members rushed up and surrounded Chen Mu and Lord Ye.

Seeing this, Chen Mu sighed leisurely, he had expected this, he shook his head quietly and took a step back.

Lord Ye stepped forward and waited in front of him, and when the merchants saw this, they looked at each other, and someone sneered,

Just as they were about to say something, they heard an angry rebuke behind them.

"I really didn't expect you to be so bold and dare to use this method to manipulate food prices."

"Do you know how many people in the south will suffer from famine by doing so."

When everyone heard this voice, they were all stunned.

They all turned their heads to look behind them, and when they saw the people behind them, there was a slight emptiness in everyone's eyes.

They looked at each other, and one of them looked slightly down and spoke.

"Lord Prefectural, the truth is not as you said, what this person said is just nonsense."

"We're just hoarding some food, where is it possible to affect the lives of the people in the south?"

When several other merchants heard this, they also responded again and again, and the county order waved to the bushes not far away.

Numerous officials rushed out of the bushes and surrounded them.

Seeing that the prefectural order ignored their words, the merchants' eyelids jumped, and they looked up in the direction of the prefectural order.

One of them was about to say something, and they finally opened their mouths after listening to the prefectural order.

"Now that the trade route has been opened, your grain storage will be transferred to the south, and this matter has been going on for more than half a year."

"At the beginning of spring this year, a batch of grain was transferred to the south, and that batch of grain was last year's grain stockpile."

"It's probably at that time that you think you can take this opportunity to make a lot of money."

When several people heard this, they looked at each other with a little weakness.

One of the merchants gritted his teeth, stepped forward, and was about to refute the words of the county order, but the county order sneered when he saw them like this.

According to Chen Mu's arrangement, he also sent people to the residences of these merchants in advance and searched their residences.

When the letters were found, the steward of their house was also arrested.

The steward of the government knew that he was the magistrate.

Therefore, after learning that he was arrested, he immediately told the county commander everything he knew.

Now that the human and material evidence is complete, these people have no way to deny it, and everyone present understands the meaning of the county order, and they look at each other with dark faces.

The county magistrate glanced at the officials who followed him, and some of the officials rushed up and grabbed the merchants.

Although those merchants were all big merchants with financial resources, they couldn't fight the county order, and after they were arrested, they were immediately imprisoned in the county order's office.

Chen Mu followed the county order to the city, and asked people to count the grain stored around the city.

I don't know if I don't check, and I'm shocked when I check it.

The grain was piled up in dozens of yards, and the merchants kept saying that they hadn't stocked up much grain at all.

But in fact, the amount of grain hoarding was a lot, and Chen Mu shook his head and sighed helplessly.

The county magistrate stepped forward cautiously and arched his hand at Chen Mu.