The procrastination of winter has finally come to an end, and the melting snow collects and falls down the rafters.

Zhu Chengjun stood on the balcony on the second floor, looking into the distance through the beaded curtain in front of him.

The ice melts and the snow melts, and the mountains and rivers thaw should be a good season, but Zhu Chengjun can't see the slightest pleasure on his face.

At this time, Shen Ze walked over, stood beside Zhu Chengjun respectfully, and said, "In accordance with Gongzi's instructions, my subordinates have bought all the shops in the good locations of Zhongli County's major Fang City. Yutai Grain Bank has also begun to officially operate, the progress of grain procurement is smooth, and the price of grain on the market is quite stable, and there is no major fluctuation for the time being......"

Zhu Chengjun continued to look into the distance, squinted his eyes, and asked, "What are the main factors affecting grain prices?" ”

The reason for the fluctuation of grain prices is not a difficult problem for Shen Ze, and in Zhu Chengjun's opinion, Shen Ze's answer is not only limited by the limitations of this era, but the answer he gave is already very comprehensive and profound.

Shen Ze knew that Zhu Chengjun would not test himself with these well-known problems for no reason, and then said: "Does Gongzi want to sign a grain sales deed with each family as quickly as possible, take the lead in completing the grain purchase before the price of grain rises, and then hoard Juqi to push up the price of grain to achieve the goal of raising the price of grain stamps?" ”

Zhu Chengjun had a deep look on his face, and he was noncommittal to Shen Ze's answer, and said: "If Zhongli County is safe and sound, the price of grain will not fluctuate too much, even if you hoard Juqi, you can only make so much money for a month or two, and this money can only be regarded as hard money." Over the years, you have gone deep into the market, have you ever seen a crazy scene of a few prices a day, turning over and going up? ”

Shen Ze was able to understand it at one point, and said in a trembling voice: "Childe is saying...... The flames of war will burn to Zhongli County! ”

Meng Yuan's soldiers are in full swing, and their fighting spirit is high; The Southern Song Dynasty rushed to meet the war, and the national strength collapsed, even if Zhu Chengjun did not have the memory of this history, the outcome of the war was already predictable. Zhu Chengjun leaned his hands on the railing and asked in a deep voice: "The defeat and destruction of the Song Dynasty is a foregone conclusion, the mountains and rivers are about to be broken, Meng Yuan's iron cavalry is going south, and the war is ruthless, what will you do then." ”

"If it's really as Childe said...... We are all ordinary people, and of course it is important to flee for our lives. Shen Ze then asked rhetorically: "What will you do if you change to a son?" ”

Zhu Chengjun thought of the humiliating pictures of all foreign tribes entering China in history, and every time he thought of it, his mood would become extremely heavy, and he sighed bitterly: "Every time a foreign invasion, the people in this land of China are divided into three groups, one is to kneel, the second is to escape, and the third is to have no choice, and you and I are the third. ”

The scholar class is undoubtedly the first type, for them it is nothing more than bowing down to another master, how to live their lives, as long as they do not harm their own fundamental interests, they will not be able to go to the step of desperate resistance; The first thing that comes to mind for those with a wealthy family is either to seek refuge in the noble class, or to take their wealth and flee with their families and other places; The third group is always so helpless, either resigned to fate or rebelled. Once you accept your fate, you will live in humiliation for the rest of your life at the bottom and never come out, and choosing to resist is a dead word, and you will be a hero again after eighteen years.

Shen Ze also felt that this topic was too heavy, and said with a wry smile: "Kneel, it's too humiliating; Fleeing, the future is confused; The third category is a combination of both, and the talent of the son is not enough to find a way out for the third type of people? ”

Zhu Chengjun knows very well the difficulty of being a third-class person, even if he can see the dawn of hope, if he wants to forge ahead in such a situation, he must have what kind of strong heart and what firm belief as the support to persevere.

"This is an absolutely lonely and absolutely difficult road, even if I still have a certain number of followers around me in a short period of time, I am afraid that there are very few people who can accompany me all the way." Zhu Chengjun turned to look at Shen Ze and sighed lightly: "If this day really comes, I respect any choice made by everyone, and I dare not expect someone to accompany me to endure humiliation in the endless darkness." ”

Shen Ze clenched his fists with both hands, shook it deeply, and said: "This road will never be the only son, count me as one!" ”

Zhu Chengjun stretched out his hands to help Shen Ze up, squeezed out a smile, and said, "There will always be justice and light in the world, and things may not be as bad as I thought." Walk! Come with me to see the grain market in the county. ”

As soon as the two walked to the staircase, they bumped into Xu Xiao who was going upstairs.

Xu Xiao clasped his fist at Zhu Chengjun and said, "Big brother, if someone wants to see you, they are waiting in the living room." ”

Zhu Chengjun patted Shen Ze's shoulder and said, "Let's go, let's go and meet them together." ”

It was Lu Zuan's cronies who came to visit.

"Don't come unharmed, three adults." Zhu Chengjun bowed his hand and greeted the three arrogant young men sitting on both sides of the central hall.

The three of them spit out the tea leaves in their mouths back into the lid cup, and put the tea cup on the table casually, if it weren't for their dry mouth, they wouldn't be able to accept the tea brewed in this way anyway. Grabbing the tea leaves and brewing them directly with boiling water seems to them to be simple and vulgar, and it is uncivilized.

Zhu Chengjun saw that the three of them didn't get up and salute the master, so he didn't care, and walked straight to the main seat of the middle hall and sat down, until the guy presented him with freshly brewed tea and took a sip before he slowly asked the three of them about their intentions, and said, "The three adults took the time to come here today, I don't know what the so-called is." ”

The three of them felt Zhu Chengjun's neglect of them, snorted lightly, and said, "Since Zhu Gongzi has already promised to withdraw the charcoal coupons in our hands at the original price, why haven't you expressed it for a long time." ”

Zhu Chengjun glanced at these three incorruptible and shameless people, and felt a burst of disdain in his heart for no reason, and said in his heart: Provide you with inside information for free, and the consequences caused by your own arrogance will have to make up for your losses in the end, which is simply unreasonable!

Zhu Chengjun knew that they had lost more than 10,000 taels of silver this time, and this amount of money made them feel so painful, it can be seen that these three people are the kind of people who can be sheltered under the big tree, and this operation will definitely put most of their net worth into it. Because Zhu Chengjun couldn't see the look of embarrassment on their faces, he was completely distressed and distressed, that's all.

Zhu Chengjun saw that the three lackeys couldn't wait to get back their own silver, and treated people who took money too seriously, Zhu Chengjun had no intention of delaying, and immediately said: "The three adults don't know, they have been in Lord Zhang's mansion for Lord Lu in the next two days to write a plan for the imperial court, and they just returned to the ticket number, and they were thinking about visiting a few adults, but they didn't expect the adults to come, do you say it's a coincidence?" ”

Seeing Zhu Chengjun move out of Lu Zu'an, the three of them were already at a loss, even if they had a temper, they all disappeared.

It is really good to deal with the minions and lackeys to move out of their master's name, Zhu Chengjun saw that he dispersed the grievances of several people in a few words, and it was time to get down to business, and said: "Presumably Master Zhang has already passed the anger with the three of them, we can do it." ”

The three of them exchanged glances and said: "The silver taels allocated above will come down in a few days, and we can promise to only recognize the charcoal of Datong Charcoal, and we will not recognize the goods of other charcoal merchants, but we don't know that the promise under Zhu Gongzi will not be able to do it." ”

"The promise of the adults is naturally trustworthy." Zhu Chengjun gave Shen Ze a look and asked him to bring the silver up.

The three of them saw two large boxes of white silver, just like people who had never seen the world. The price of the charcoal coupons plummeted, and seeing that the charcoal coupons in their hands were becoming less and less valuable, how could the three people who were already not wealthy not be in a hurry. Now that the silver has been recovered, the hearts of the three of them have finally landed.

Seeing the unproductive look of the three of them, Zhu Chengjun immediately shouted: "The three of them are slow, can you listen to me." ”

"Zhu Gongzi, you have already agreed, it is difficult to break your word."

"People can't stand without faith, industry can't prosper without faith, and the country will decline without faith, has Zhu Gongzi forgotten the teachings of the sage?"

Seeing Zhu Chengjun interrupt their hands to grab the silver, the three of them were like frightened hedgehogs.

"The three adults misunderstood." Zhu Chengjun made a look and asked Shen Ze to rub his tongue with them.

After listening to Shen Ze's explanation, when they saw the unissued food coupons handed to them, they suddenly hesitated, and suffered a big loss on the charcoal coupons, and now let them use the real money they had not easily got back to buy food stamps.

Zhu Chengjun sat in the main seat of the middle hall and tasted tea, and when he saw that the three of them had a secretive expression, with an encouraging tone, he said, "The three adults will no longer consider it?" If the initial price of the food stamps is missed, if you want to run again in the later stage, the charcoal coupons are a lesson from the past. ”

The three of them looked at the food stamps in their hands and then looked at the white silver in front of them, and fell into a dilemma.

One of them gritted his teeth and stomped his feet, and said, "We have 1,200 charcoal coupons in our hands, if Zhu Gongzi is willing to exchange three times the grain stamps, we don't want more than 10,000 taels of silver." ”

Zhu Chengjun glanced at the three squint-eyed guys with disdain, and let you take advantage of it without knowing it, you deserve to be a lackey for the rest of your life. The face that should be sold has been sold, but they can't catch it, Zhu Chengjun is also happy to see it, and said in a regretful tone: "Since the three of them have no intention of this transaction, it is not easy to force it." Please ask the three adults to go back and inform Lord Lu that the Changxing ticket number will officially issue food stamps tomorrow, and if Lord Lu is interested, I hope to be able to come to the initial sale site at that time. ”

"Zhu Gongzi's words, we will definitely bring them." The hot charcoal coupon was finally taken off, and the silver that should have been taken was also returned, and the three of them immediately got up and said goodbye.

The three of them lifted the box and walked out, Zhu Chengjun didn't arrange someone to help them and didn't mean to send them out of the door, and the three of them seemed to have forgotten about this stubble.

Seeing the three of them walking away, Zhu Chengjun shook his head and said jokingly: "Twelve thousand taels of silver, isn't it heavy?" ”

"It's not very heavy, it's about seven hundred and fifty pounds." Xu Xiao said with a simple face.

"Haha......" Shen Ze couldn't hold back his laughter anymore when he saw Xu Xiao's serious answer.

Carrying seven hundred and fifty pounds of things, his face was not red and he was not panting, and Zhu Chengjun admired the three of them from the bottom of his heart.

Shen Ze laughed so hard that his stomach cramped, and finally stopped, bowed down and asked: "The grain stamps have been printed, and it is still early now, the grain market in the county seat, the son is still looking?" ”

"Go shopping! Big brother, I'll go too! As soon as he heard that he was going to go shopping in a carriage, Xu Xiao was also interested.

Zhu Chengjun glared at Xu Xiao, who was blindly following in the fun, and reprimanded with a straight face: "The food stamps will be officially sold tomorrow, and I don't care about how many things to do here and outside." You keep me in the shop, and if someone comes to make trouble and you don't give me a good spot, I'll see how I fix you. ”

Zhu Chengjun's words made Xu Xiao embarrassed, and he didn't dare to pester him anymore to go to the street.