After Sima Jian overthrew Sima Lun, the poor imbecile emperor Sima Zhen was able to continue his throne and canonize another grandson, Sima Shang, as the emperor's grandson, that is, the future successor to the throne. But it didn't take long for this Sima Shang to die.

Due to Empress Jia's jealousy, Sima Zhen himself had few heirs. The crown prince Sima Shu was killed by Empress Jia, and the last imperial grandson, Sima Zang, was killed by Sima Lun, and now this imperial grandson has died of illness. At this point, Sima Zhen has been deceased. It is really embarrassing that a generation of dignified emperors has reached the point of despair.

The Jin dynasty declined, not only the central court was chaotic, but the local area was also turbulent. Li Te, a Ba man who rebelled before, failed to conquer several times by the imperial court, but the scale became larger and larger, and several counties in Yizhou had been captured. The times create heroes, but also create chaos. Such an environment is a breeding ground for the rebels, and of course it cannot be just one of the troubles. In addition to Yizhou, there are also several other people who took advantage of the chaos. The people gradually lost confidence in the imperial court, and the imperial court gradually lost its ability to control the local states and counties.

Shu Yan has realized that the world will be chaotic, and while it has not yet reached the point of chaos, it is advisable to take precautions and make plans in advance. Because once the world reaches the level of total chaos, the imperial court will not have time to take care of itself, and no matter whether there are floods and droughts or military rebellions in the local area, it will not be able to take care of it at all.

After two months of drought in Ruyin, the rainy season finally brought two rains. However, the reduction is a foregone conclusion. The people live on food. This is already the case, and the panic caused by the disaster is more terrible than the disaster itself. The unscrupulous grain merchants, who had been silent for a while, took advantage of this to build momentum and take advantage of the opportunity to hoard grain and raise grain prices. Fortunately, Shu Yan had prepared and purchased a large amount of grain in advance. After learning about this situation, he decided to open a warehouse and sell grain at a parity price, and Cangcao Shi Qiansheng personally supervised the execution.

The common people are worried about the rising price of grain, and how can they not be happy when they hear that the county sells grain at a low price? They came running with rice bags to buy them, and there was a long queue in front of the treasury.

The sale of rice lasted for a day, and when it was time to retire from the government, it had to stop. Those who were at the back of the queue did not buy rice and had to return with regret.

The population of Ruyin is not large, and Shu Yan thinks that it will only take two days at most to meet everyone's current demand for rice. To his surprise, by the time the government was dispersed on the third day, the popularity of the people buying rice was still unabated.

The corn he had stored was enough for the whole city to eat for several months, but in just three days, a quarter of it had been sold, and Shu Yan wondered very much about this—did the people have such a big panic about the lack of food?

The people, who had not bought rice, knew that they were about to disperse, so they began to complain. However, Qian Sheng and the others were tired after a busy day. Shu Yan knew that everyone was buying rice for storage, not waiting for the rice to go to the pot, so he ordered the warehouse door to be closed and persuaded the people to come back tomorrow.

In the face of the people's complaints, Shu Yan certainly didn't want to see it, and he had some regrets. He glanced at the crowd and happened to see Cui Er, who had failed to buy rice, and because he knew him well, he beckoned him to come over. Cui Er also seemed to want to say something to Shu Yan, so he ran over.

"Didn't you buy rice either?" Shu Yan asked Cui Erdao.

Cui Er said in a complaining tone: "It's not, in the past few days, in order to buy rice, I have collected the dishes and stalls early, and rushed over to line up, but I can't buy it." ”

Shu Yan shook his head helplessly and said, "I'm a little confused. Everyone still has surplus food in their homes, so why are they in such a hurry to buy rice? ”

"Of course, the rice here is cheap. Does Shu Cheng know the price of rice outside? Corn has already reached 100 yuan a bucket, and it is only sold for 35 yuan here, can you not grab it? ”

When Shu Yan heard that the price of rice had reached this point, he was shocked and angry: "Some time ago, corn was still twenty-five yuan a bucket, but now the drought continues, even if it rises a little, it will only be sold for fifty yuan. Hmph, these abominable profiteers! Fortunately, I have enough to offer, and I sell rice every day for thirty-five dollars, and see to whom they sell their rice. ”

Cui Er listened to Shu Yan's wishful thinking, shook his head and smiled: "Shu Cheng spends the belly of a villain with the heart of a gentleman, but he can't help but think too simply. Do you know why there is always a long queue here, so that it is not easy for ordinary people to buy rice? In fact, a large part of the rice sold in these three days was bought by those rice merchants. ”

"What? How can it be? The people queuing up to buy rice are obviously ordinary people, and there are no rice merchants? Shu Yan was surprised.

"Shu Cheng is a smart person, don't you understand? Some ordinary people did not buy rice for their own use, but were employed by rice merchants. ”

After Cui Eryi said, Shu Yan remembered that there had indeed been a duplicate figure in the crowd in the queue, and he must have been hired by a rice merchant. Only then did he understand that there were always people who couldn't buy rice, and it turned out that there was a group of people who were breaking the rules. "Isn't it hateful for those people who make legs for the rice merchants to send my cheap rice to the rice merchants' warehouses for them to sell at a high price? Those rice merchants are united and have strong financial resources, how can I buy these rice for them? When the treasury is empty, they can monopolize it in one fell swoop, not to mention the current 100 yuan of rice, what can they do with 200 or 500 yuan of rice? ”

"Shu Cheng doesn't have to think about it. This is the human weakness of most people. If you could take care of the overall situation like you, you would have been in the world a long time ago. It's useless to be annoyed, so I persuaded Shu Cheng to think of a way earlier. ”

Shu Yan was stunned for a while, and said to Cui Er: "If you come back tomorrow, I promise you can buy rice." ”

On the second day, the treasury still opened a warehouse to sell rice. The difference is that there is a rule: each household is only allowed to buy rice once a month, and the number of family members must be stated, and the supply should be rationed, and the amount should not be exceeded, let alone repeated. Everyone supervises each other, and if there is any opportunistic person, they will be severely punished.

The scene was full of residents of the city, and there were always acquaintances with each other, and no one dared to lie and conceal it. This trick really worked, not only restricting the ordinary people from storing excess rice, but also fundamentally putting an end to the conspiracy of the rice merchants. The flow of people in line suddenly decreased, and those who did not queue up for three consecutive days also successfully bought rice.

However, only two days later, rice buyers began to flock to the market again, and a long queue formed.

After learning about it, it turned out that the peasants in the countryside outside the city heard that the county office was selling rice at a low price, and they all rushed into the city to buy it.

Is this really the result of human greed? Obviously, the farmers have rice in their homes, and when they see cheap rice for sale, they also come to join in the fun! In fact, Shu Yan did not store much rice, mainly to supply the landless households and the few landless households, if all the people in the county came here to buy rice, these rice would obviously not be enough. The reason why Shu Yan did not store a large amount of rice was mainly because of his limited financial resources, and secondly, he thought that most of the rural farmers still had surplus grain in their hands, so he did not take them into account.

The so-called hustle and bustle of the world is all for profit, and the hustle and bustle of the world is for profit. For this kind of profit-seeking behavior, Shu Yan can only sigh, but he can't force it to stop.

At a loss, he suddenly saw a man wearing a hat and a short shirt walk up to him and said, "My brother is here to personally supervise the sale of rice!" ”

It turned out to be Shukin. Seeing that he was holding a sack, he knew that he was also here to buy rice, and he couldn't help but ask with some indifference: "Do you have no surplus food in your house, and you have traveled so far to buy rice in the city?" ”

Regarding the act of buying rice, Shu Jin didn't think it should be done at all, and said bluntly: "There is still a little surplus grain in the family, but the official family sells rice too cheaply, so I came to buy it." ”

Speaking of surplus grain, Shu Yan remembered what Shi Chang and others said about two consecutive years of drought, if it was really two consecutive years of drought, then there was really not much surplus grain in the hands of the farmers. However, according to what he learned from Wang Yidan, although last year's year was not very good, it was not very bad. Who is right and who is wrong in these two statements, just confirm it with Shu Jin at this moment.

"Shujin, I ask you something, and you have to answer truthfully."

"What does my brother want to ask, ask so seriously?"

"How was last year?"

Shu Jin was inexplicable, "What do I want to ask as a brother, everyone knows about the year, and it's not a secret, what is the reason for not answering truthfully?" If you want to talk about last year's year, it is average, and it is not a very bumper harvest. ”

"Not a very good harvest? Does that mean it's not bad? Isn't there a drought? ”

"The drought only happened this year, and last year's rain was relatively reconciled, otherwise how could there be surplus food in the hands of the people?"

"What about the first two years, the first three years?"

"It was okay in previous years, except this year."

"Oh." Shu Yan further confirmed Shi Chang's lie from Shu Jin's mouth. However, he did not reveal the purpose of his questioning to Shu Jin, but asked rhetorically, "Since there is still surplus grain in the family, do you come here to buy rice to buy and sell to earn the difference?" ”

Shu Jin was aggrieved for a while: "What did my brother say, how could I do that kind of thing?" All of us came here to buy rice to save some for the future. Because of this year's drought, the harvest is estimated to have been cut in half. The price of rice is so high today, and I don't know how much it will rise in the future! ”

"As the saying goes, if you harvest for three years, you can have a year's savings. Since there was no shortage of harvest in the past few years, and if there was a drought in this year, the surplus grain in the hands of the peasants would be sufficient to support themselves, and it should not hurt the general situation, so why should they panic like the businessmen? ”

"Hey. I think my brother has been an official for a long time, and he has even forgotten the difficulties of the common people. The peasants had no other income, and all the food, clothing, housing, transportation, weddings, funerals, births, old age, sickness and death were all supported by the harvest of the acres and the sale of some money. After all, the wealthy family is in the minority. Ordinary people, in addition to preparing enough rations for their own families, basically have to spend the annual harvest, who can keep how much surplus grain? As for those poor families, even the rations of those years were insufficient, let alone surplus! ”

Shu Yan sighed again and again after hearing this, in fact, how could he not know the difficulties of the common people? It's just that he has his own difficulties. The little rice he had in reserve was not enough to feed all the people in the county.

After the stall was closed, Shu Yan and Qian Sheng returned to the lower house, and it happened that Ruoxin and Du Jian, the chief bookkeeper, came here to chat together.

Seeing that Shu Yan was so depressed, Du Jian asked why, and then said: "The buying and selling of commercial goods depends on operation and circulation. The faster it circulates, the more it can be revitalized. The county has limited financial resources, and only a small amount of rice is saved. If you want to satisfy all the people in the county, you can only use the money from selling rice to buy rice in other places and then sell it again, and so on. ”

Shu Yan smiled helplessly: "Why don't I know this? The problem is that now the whole of Yuzhou is shrouded in drought, and other counties are not much better than our Ruyin. It's not as easy to buy rice from neighboring counties as it used to be. ”

"It's like this in the whole of Yuzhou, so it's difficult. Unless it's to buy food further afield. ”

"It's also difficult to do, not to mention what the price of food is in distant places, this freight alone can't support it."

Qian Sheng was in charge of the treasury and understood the shortage of money and grain. He proposed: "If this continues, I am afraid that the rice in the Miku will not last for a few days." If it really didn't work, they closed the city gates and forbade the peasants from the countryside to come here to buy rice. ”

There was no need for Shu Yan to refute this proposal, Du Jian reprimanded first: "What kind of idea is this? Ordinary people's homes still have to open their doors to live, how can a dignified county city be closed and not entered! Besides, the people outside the city are also the people, and if there is really a famine, they must not be treated equally? ”

Qian Sheng pouted: "I also know that it is not feasible." But can you come up with any good ideas? ”

Of course, Du Jian didn't have a good way, and everyone was at a loss.

Ruoxin, as a literary scholar, usually focuses on the literary education of the whole county, and rarely pays attention to people's livelihood. Seeing that everyone is so worried today, they also analyzed: "The ancients harvested in three years, and there was a year's reserve. It should be right. Although it is estimated that this year's harvest may be halved, it is not yet time for the real harvest, and in fact, the biggest impact of the lack of grain will be next year, and it should not cause this year's shortage. The so-called food shortage is only a relative food shortage, not an absolute food shortage. That is to say, there is no shortage of grain in Ruyin so far, and all the grain is hoarded by grain merchants and not sold out, so there is a relative shortage of grain. ”

Shu Yan nodded again and again after hearing this: "The grain merchants are watching from the wall. I know that there is not much stock in my treasury. Now I sell a bucket of rice for thirty-five yuan, and they sell it for a hundred yuan, and they would rather not sell it than lower the price. So that when I sell all the grain in the warehouse, they can increase the price like crazy. ”

"So, what we need to do now is to get the rice merchants to take out the rice and supply it."

Qian Sheng blinked and said strangely: "What you said earlier seems to have some truth, but in the end it is still nonsense." If we can let the rice merchants take out the rice and sell it at a reasonable price, will we still be worried? ”

"It's the freedom of the merchants to buy and sell, and the county office can't force them to sell rice."

Looking at Shu Yan's helpless appearance, Ruoxin smiled: "You can't force it, but you can use clever tricks." In dealing with these people, we can no longer pay attention to the style of a gentleman. ”

"Tricks? We could—"

......