Because of the anger of the host, I am afraid that the banquet will not be able to proceed.

A group of beautiful women who sang and danced fled the pavilion in a panic, and just when the guests were embarrassed, the host's henchmen trotted to the master's side, and said in a low voice: "Master, you have found out clearly, Cai Bian, the prefect of Jiangning, Chao Buzhi and others have responded to Su Shi, and there will be grain ships into Huai." ”

"How many are you?"

The master remained silent, but picked up the wine cup in front of him, as if half of his anger had gone down.

"In the treasury of Jiangning, Chang Ping cannot be moved, but Jiangning also has a granary, which should be able to supply 100,000 stones at most. But Cai Bian is a steady person, and he can take out 50,000 stones at most. Yangzhou will be less, sir, you also know that Chao Buzhi is a student of Su Shi, he can only represent himself, not Yangzhou Zhizhou. The henchman looked flattering, picking up what the master wanted to hear.

The master's face was overjoyed, and then he scolded: "Stupid, Yangzhou Zhizhou is Cai Jing, he and Cai Bian are brothers, and they are also members of the New Party, how can you say that the food sent by Yangzhou is because of Chao Buzhi's personal actions?" ”

"Get down!"

……

Now that the good news came, the banquet was naturally carried out.

"I don't know what the news is, can you share it with us?"

"I'm a bit excited, and I finally found out where Su Shi's confidence came from. Jiangning Mansion and Yangzhou have food to secretly help Su Shi, so that he has the confidence to compete with us. But now that the treasury is empty, what do I think he will do to buy this grain? ”

"Outside the staff, it stands to reason that we are now in the season of making money. But if this year continues to be so wasted, it will be a year of waste. ”

Lean year?

Gao Yuanwai sneered, others don't know, doesn't he know yet? Now all of you here are squires with heads and faces on the ground in Yingzhou. Even if the price of food does not rise, they will not suffer from poverty, and the talk of a famine year is nothing but nonsense. But if the price of grain rises, then for other people, they can earn several times the difference in price by taking out the grain that is supplied to the market.

The main reason is that the difference is not profitable, and everyone is itching.

The senior staff members did not call the shots, but just asked the leading staff: "What does Brother Nian mean?" ”

"Sell, buy all the grain in the market. We ship at previous years' prices. ”

"But don't forget, there is no grain sold on the market at all, but the food stamps that Su Shi made, what the people call food stamps. Just a piece of paper, he can print as much as he wants, I will buy it, what if Su Shi defaults? Of course, there are opponents, who are originally big families in Yingzhou who own large tracts of land. For them, food is not only not a commodity in short supply, but a slow-moving commodity.

The main reason why Yingzhou will be made into the illusion of a food-deficit area is that large households think that this is the fastest way to make money.

As for whether there is a lack of virtue or not, they don't care.

Buying so much useless food is a fool's errand for anyone.

Now Su Shi has a great reputation, but if he wants to come to their pot to eat a bite, he will naturally be boycotted by everyone.

But there is only one reason for the boycott: "Officials cannot compete with the people for profit." ”

At this time, they regarded themselves as people, the people in the fish country.

"The original intention of the food stamps made by Su Shi was to stabilize the grain price in the next two months at half of that of previous years, so that there were food stamps to be collected next month and food stamps to be received two months later. But these are no different from food. If the food stamps cannot be cashed out at that time, it will be the government and Su Shi who will lose their prestige, not the people of Yingzhou such as me. ”

Outside the senior member, he coughed, raised his arm and pointed at the people below him one by one, and asked, "Are you going to sell it all the time at the price of 30 wen a bucket?" If you want to eat alone, it's hard to eat. Now that you are too guarded, do you have a way to let Su Shi leave Yingzhou? ”

"But outside of the senior staff, we can't, don't we still have you?"

"Stupid words, I'm just a common man, what qualifications do I have to point fingers at the officials of the Great Song Dynasty!"

There was silence at the banquet, no one wanted to suffer, not to mention, this concession gave up more than 100,000 pieces of wealth. They're a little reluctant.

Suddenly, one of the people who was the first to speak said, "Please also ask the senior staff to show me a clear way." ”

"How much grain Su Shi has, as long as the price is not too outrageous, we will buy it. As for other state capitals, if there is a relationship, they will be trusted, and if they have no relationship, they will not let Su Shi continue to get food. The senior staff paused for a moment, and waited for the discussion to be a little less before continuing: "Now that the price of grain does not rise, I will lose thousands of yuan if I wait." Remember, ladies and gentlemen, the price of grain is only one of them, and the land is the foundation of the family. ”

"I'll listen to the ...... of the senior staff when we wait"

"I'll give 10,000."

"I'm out of eight thousand."

……

A banquet solved the dilemma of unsalable government food stamps in one go. It stands to reason that Su Shi or Li Kui should be grateful to these Yingzhou squires who participated in the banquet. But in fact, these people are the most headache opponents of the Yingzhou government.

The merchants of the Great Song Dynasty were the group of people with the keenest sense of smell.

In the early years, businessmen may have relied on credibility and strong capital to obtain huge profits. However, more than 100 years after the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, the interests of officials and businessmen, who were once feared by other dynasties like snakes and scorpions, were reunited in the Great Song Dynasty. So the energy of the merchant grows and grows.

And surpassing other dynasties, it almost became the standard for merchants of the Great Song Dynasty, at least wealthy merchants.

There is only one type of merchant who is separated from this group, and that is the maritime merchant.

For most people, the sea is a dangerous place with countless risks. But if there is any other way out, they will not choose to run to the sea. The maritime merchants of the Great Song Dynasty, the most lucrative sea route from Quanzhou to the Middle East, have been controlled by the Arabs, and the merchants of the Great Song Dynasty can only sail and trade in the South China Sea for a generation.

Even so, the risks at sea are tolerated only by extraordinary people.

This is a dangerous way to fight for your life with the sea, and ordinary people don't have the guts.

The commerce and goods exchange in the territory of the Great Song Dynasty are very mysterious to ordinary people. But if it is really a powerful businessman, a wealthy businessman who has close ties with the powerful, it is not so difficult to know the news.

At the beginning, Su Shi was not valued by Yingzhou merchants, that was because Su Shi's literary style was good, but he never had excellent performance in business and political performance. No one knows how Su Shi reacted to the increasingly serious land annexation in Yingzhou. According to common sense, Su Shi should be transferred soon, and the affairs of Yingzhou have little to do with him.

Secondly, no one knows whether Su Shi will ask for help and who he will ask for.

It stands to reason that although Su Shi is not popular in officialdom, he is still relatively accepted by conservatives. After all, the Empress Dowager Gao likes Su Shi's writing very much.

At the same time, the relationship between Su Shi and the Fa-changers has changed since the Wutai poetry case.

Although he has many friends who are still in the camp of the law-changing faction, even after Wang Anshi was deposed, Su Shi also went to Wang Anshi's hometown to see Wang Anshi. Legend has it that the two had a very happy conversation.

But the impression is that the fate of Su Shi and the Fa-changers has ended.

Otherwise, he would not have touted the other party as the savior of the Great Song Dynasty when Sima Guang was appointed prime minister.

As long as the Great Song Dynasty officials around Su Shi who have the ability to help him are investigated, and Su Shi's deployment is disrupted, the big households in Yingzhou will still be able to obtain rich benefits in this year.

Within a few days, Gao Yu was surprised by the purchasing power of the people of Yingzhou.

At a time when the price of food on the street was still 30 wen a bucket, their food stamps were sold out.

The price of each stone increased by 50 wen, and someone bought it, which made Gao Yu's heart itch, so he secretly ran to Li Kui and asked Li Kui cautiously: "Renjie, in 10,000 days, we sold 18,000 stone of food stamps." It's all 650 wen a stone, and the people are crazy to rob us of our food stamps like crazy. However, the rice shops on the street still sell 30 wen a bucket of grain, we are more than twice as expensive, but we are still sought after, if we continue to increase the price? ”

That's right.

The wealth is moving, and Gao Yu feels that in front of him, if it rises to 700 yuan and one stone, some people will buy it.

Li Kui glanced at Gao Yu, who was a little confused by money, and frightened: "If you're not afraid of being assassinated on the street, you can go up!" The food stamps are just half of what we have robbed of from large households, and we have robbed about half of what we did in previous years. If it continues to rise to a price that even the big investors can't receive, just wait for the big investors to fight with you! ”

Gao Yuhu said suspiciously: "Not really, right?" They also make money, I just want to earn a little more for the government, is it wrong? ”

"You think it's the food stamps that the people bought?" Li Kui said in a mocking tone.

Gao Yu didn't believe in heresy and asked, "Isn't it?" ”

"They are all big families in Yingzhou City, I guess they should have raised money, the purpose is to buy all the grain in the hands of the ancestor, so that they can increase the price. If the price of grain in Yingzhou has always been the current price, I am afraid that many people will not be able to sit still. Li Kui naturally understood that it was impossible for the people to buy food stamps so generously.

The people have little money in their hands, so they have to live finely. If the price of food does not rise, they will not think of buying food stamps.

Maybe it's not that they can't think of it, but they are worried that they will lose money if it is expensive. But when prices skyrocket, they may not be able to buy food stamps. In other words, the price of grain in Yingzhou will still return to the control of large households.

The government's intervention failed.

Gao Yu said anxiously: "Otherwise, we won't sell it!" Or can we just print more stamps, sell more, and raise some more food? ”

"What good thing do you think? Hundreds of thousands of business, who will let you meddle at every turn? Don't think about such a good thing, just sell it out, otherwise Jiangning's grain will arrive in Yingzhou, and the ancestor will not be able to come up with the money to buy it, and it will be embarrassing. Li Kui didn't want to continue to fight with Gao Yu, he was also very busy, and now the distribution auction of snowflake salt was about to start at these two times, if it sold well, it would make him a hundred times the price at one time.