There is heaven above, and Suzhou and Hangzhou below.

This well-known sentence highly summarizes the prosperity and magnificence of Suzhou and Hangzhou, which attracts people all over the world.

Hangzhou was the temporary capital of the Great Song Dynasty, while Suzhou was Pingjiang Prefecture.

Pingjiang Fucheng has always been an important city in the Jiangnan region, known as the "Southeast Metropolis", and in the third year of Jianyan, like Wujiang County, it was burned and plundered by Jin soldiers and destroyed.

In the early days of Nandu, Zhao Jiumei once intended to use Pingjiang Mansion as the capital, so it was rebuilt according to the requirements of the capital at that time.

"The mountains are stacked, and the wells are wide."

After the reconstruction, the city wall of Pingjiang City stretches, the city tower is majestic, the circumference is about 35 li, the north and south are nine li, the east and west are seven li, it is roughly a rectangle, and the sub-city with a circumference of five li is in the center of the city.

The three horizontal and four vertical main waterways and hundreds of tributaries in the city are intertwined vertically and horizontally, cleverly combined with the streets of the lanes, forming a double chessboard pattern of "adjacent to water and land, parallel rivers and streets", weaving a unique charm of the water city.

Sixty-five private squares are tiled in the meantime, the houses with pink walls and tiles are lined up one after another, most of them are built near the water, the front street and the back river, the small bridge, the flowing water, and the people's house, construct a smart and vivid poetic picture scroll.

The temple view of the dust and the heavy eaves of the mountain, the imposing and majestic official office, the beautiful and beautiful private garden, the prosperous and lively shops and workshops, and all kinds of buildings of different styles are located in various places in the city, reflecting each other and contrasting each other, which is really like a paradise on earth.

It's just that at this time, the "heaven" is filled with anxiety and panic, and hundreds of people are worried about filling their stomachs.

The northwest corner of the sub-city is the commercial district in the city, where all kinds of shops are concentrated, such as fish shops, recommended shops, rice markets, fruit markets, etc., as well as various shops, hostels, teahouses, and restaurants.

Early in the morning, the streets here are crowded with people, staring at the shops selling food, anxiously waiting to open for business, especially in front of the grain and rice shops.

Although the area around Pingjiang Prefecture has been known as the "land of fish and rice" since ancient times, the 7.8 million people in the city are basically non-agricultural population, and they have to buy rice to eat on weekdays.

As a high-yield rice area, in normal seasons, the local grain supply is naturally sufficient, and the people in the city are all eating and buying, and there is no habit of hoarding a large amount of grain, and the summer grain should have been put on the market, and the grain price will definitely fall somewhat, so there is no reason to hoard grain.

In the next three or four months, they will have to rely on the old grain of previous years to support, and the people have to try their best to reserve grain.

However, the more this time comes, the more reluctant the grain merchants are to sell and restrict sales, gradually pushing up the price of grain, forcing the people to rush to buy it every day.

During the long wait, the crowd couldn't help but sigh and complain. Z.br>

"Hey, it is said that "Suhu is ripe, and the world is full", who would have thought that the people of our aunt Sucheng would also have difficulty buying grain......

"God doesn't open his eyes, the dragon king has a temper, what can be done about this?"

"In the past, the rice here was only ten wen a liter, but yesterday it rose to twenty-five wen, and I don't know if it will rise today."

"Even if it goes up to the sky, it's not the same to buy, you can't skip a meal, right, so let's think about buying more as soon as possible......

"In other words, last year's water was also issued, and it was much more serious than this year, but the price of rice only rose to 20 wen, or it was so high in October, why did it rise so fiercely at the beginning of this year?"

"Last year, it was a flood that started after the summer harvest, and most of the harvest was saved, and in the past disaster years, the owner of our weaving workshop was worried that we would not have anyone to work when we were hungry, so we didn't have to worry too much about food, but this year there is no such good thing, and I don't know what is going on."

"Whew! Our owner is saying that business is getting more and more difficult to do, and the price of rice is high this year, so he can't afford to ......."

"Isn't your owner the old Zhang family, his family has an industry and a grange, and even the rice shop in front of him is his family, why can't he afford it?"

"Who knows, it's quite strange this year anyway, by the way, I heard yesterday that the price of rice in Wujiang County is only 12 wen

, it's pretty much the same as usual, and I don't know if it's true or not."

"This thing is indeed true, it is said that King Yan collected all the rice of the gentry in Wujiang and sold it by the government, but unfortunately we still have to work every day, so we can't go to Wujiang to buy rice."

"Hey, His Royal Highness King Yan is really benevolent, but why didn't he come to Fucheng to do this, it's really a bit thick......

"Hey, hey... I heard that King Yan has taken a fancy to a little lady surnamed Jiang in Wujiang County, and he wants to be Wujiang's son-in-law, so he can't sell something to the local area."

"That's it! There are so many good-looking little ladies in our Gusu City, as long as His Royal Highness King Yan comes down, isn't it up to him to choose? …… Ah, it's finally going to open, so I need to buy more today."

Zhang Ji unloaded a door panel, and a guy popped his head out, looking at the crowd outside the door vigilantly and nervously and shouting.

"All backwards! …… But don't squeeze! …… The owner has set a new rule, and today you can only come in one by one, and if anyone messes around, don't blame us for not selling it to you!"

Now, the people who were waiting to buy rice stopped doing it and made a lot of noise.

"Buy them one by one, how long will it be?"

"That's right, let's wait to finish buying rice and go to work early!"

"How can anyone do such a business? Didn't we always open the door to let people in?"

"What's the matter!? Are all the people who open the grain shop adults? We have to beg for money?"

The crowd was passionate, expressing their dissatisfaction, and then the guy was not false at all, scolding his neck, "Love to buy or not, don't buy and pull down!" If you don't follow this rule today, you really won't sell this rice!"

Helpless, the situation is stronger than people, in order to have rice in the pot at home, the big guy had to endure it, squeezed back with difficulty, and gave three or four feet of space to the door of the grain store.

Seeing this, the man looked satisfied, and then removed another door panel, revealing a crack in the door that was only large enough for one person to pass, and hung a cover out.

"Today's rice price is 40 wen a liter, and each person is limited to 3 liters"

The crowd exploded again, "The little lady raised it, it was only twenty-five yesterday, and today it will be forty? …… There is no such way to increase the price increase! …… I can only buy three liters, and we have a family of seven, which is not enough to eat for a day!"

The guy blocked the crack in the door, and yelled with impatience on his face, "It's still the same sentence, love to buy or not!"

"Mother, Lao Tzu still doesn't believe it, and it's not just your family to sell grain, I'll go to another house to buy ......" Someone turned his head and squeezed out of the crowd and rushed to other rice shops.

"Hey, just bear with the price, can you sell more, it's really not enough to eat." Someone pleaded.

"It's too expensive, and it's still limited, so it's better to try your luck at the official shop......

There are also people who really don't have much money, and the official shop has always been selling rice, as long as fifteen yuan, but the purchase has long been limited, one person can only buy one liter at a time, and there are many people, it is difficult to squeeze it.

The guy in the rice shop waved his hand indifferently, "Go, go, if you don't buy it, get out, if you want to buy it, follow the rules!"

The rich people all wore the same pair of pants, and the owners of all the grain shops in the city jointly negotiated and at the same time raised prices and restricted sales, and the official shops were supposed to bear the responsibility of stabilizing grain prices, but now they are just making appearances, and they can't sell a hundred stone of grain in a whole day.

After arguing for a while, there was still no result, nothing could be changed, and the people left behind could only obey.

Immediately, the rice shop guy stood in front of the door and said triumphantly, "Next, no fight or robbery, whoever I order, who can enter!"

This errand was only grabbed by the guy by virtue of his identity as the shopkeeper's brother-in-law, and with this power, the person who wanted to go in to buy rice had to stuff this guy with a "tip", and it was easy to get a small amount of money at the end of the day.

What happened in front of other rice shops is also similar to here, the people can only swallow their anger, carry rice bags one by one to buy rice at a high price, and when they come out, they are in a hurry, either rushing to work, or going to other grain stores to try their luck, and the market is full of busy figures running around for survival.

In the north of the city, there is a tower of Bao'en Temple, nine levels and eight sides, as high as 25 zhang, known as "the crown of a county floating map", stand on the top floor, you can

See everything that's happening in the market.

Four or five people in gorgeous clothes were looking at the railing, looking indifferently at the small beings like ants.

"Kuraji, you see I'm right, everything is safe, these grass people definitely don't dare to make trouble, it's good to be able to buy grain now, where can they pick and choose......

The person who spoke was in his fifties, with gray hair, but his face was red, his face was rich, and his smile was very kind, his name was Lu Wencai, and he was Lu Wende's younger brother and managed the Lu family's property.

Because of Lu Wende's outstanding military achievements, the Zhao Guanjia rewarded fertile land several times, the most of which was as high as 500 hectares, plus several other mergers and private annexations, there were more than 2,000 hectares of land in Pingjiang Mansion alone.

Zhexi lifted Chang Pingsi Xie Tang with his hands behind his back and sighed, "Speaking of which, twelve years ago, Xie began to serve as the general judge of Pingjiang Mansion, and he still has a lot of feelings for this city and the people here......

Lu Wencai showed admiration, "Cangsi is really compassionate and benevolent, and it is the blessing of our fathers and elders in western Zhejiang to have you in charge, if you want to blame it, you can blame that Liu Xiuren for being corrupt and perverting the law, and misappropriating the Changping position, if it wasn't for Cangsi trying to make up for it, how could the people of Pingjiang eat such cheap rice grain."

"The deceased is the greatest, although Liu Xiuren said that he didn't do it authentically, since he has died, let's not pursue it too much, right?" Xie Tang was stunned, stretched out his hand and patted the wooden railing, "Besides, Xie Mou, as a Chang Ping Division, has a problem with Chang Ping, and he also has the responsibility of poor supervision, and he should make it back, thanks to the help of all the virtuous people, otherwise Xie can only sit on wax."

In addition to Lu Wencai, several others are also the top big families in Pingjiang Mansion, and there are at least thousands of hectares of fertile land, and after listening to Xie Tang's words, they all gave polite compliments.

"Kuraji is polite, I heard that after this flood, the saint was worried about us and other people in the disaster area in the palace, not only prayed to the Buddha day and night, but also took out his own money to help the victims.

"It's a pity that King Yan is young and doesn't know our loyalty and filial piety, and he is bewitched by the female cadres to do the "evil law of the meridian realm", isn't this hurting the good heart, and making the people want?"

"We have to cultivate and study the heirloom, work hard in the country, and operate diligently in private affairs, so that we can save some family business, but King Yan wants to reduce and seize it for no reason, which really makes the countrymen cold, loyal and good-toothed......

Xie Tang listened quietly to these complaints, revealing a look of empathy, "The suffering of all the virtuous people, Xie knows it very well, but King Yan is the prince, and the official family favors him too much, even the saint doesn't dare to say anything, it is not easy to stop him from doing stupid things on the surface, we can only try to make him retreat."

The saint is the queen Xie Daoqing, and Xie Tang is her own nephew, unlike Xie Huo, Xie Tang has a flexible mind and has some talents, and he was appointed as the general judge of Pingjiang Mansion in his early twenties, and he was only thirty-four years old at this time, which can be said to be young and promising.

The Xie family has been in the world for several generations, and there is a queen, who is considered a famous family, when Xie Tang was an official in Pingjiang, he also bought a lot of land for his family.

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