On July 25, in Zhang's mansion in the west of Suzhou City, the servants of the Zhang family bowed their heads and waited on the side, not daring to come out, for fear of provoking the angry lord. Zhang Keli, who was in his sixties, sat in the main room, looking at the "Dali Temple Announcement" five days ago, his face was pale, and his old face seemed to have turned into an iron plate.

The gentry in the world were all played by Yang Peng. Where did Yang Peng go to Nanzhili to buy rice? Where to buy rice in Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong? It's all a lie. Yang Peng had already planted enough sweet potatoes in Xiaoliuqiu to survive the famine. The reason why Yang Peng released the news that he wanted to buy rice was to pit the gentry and earn the gentry's silver.

Yang Peng took advantage of the soaring grain prices in Shandong and the south to sell more than 2 million stone of grain in various places, especially in Shandong. Yang Peng sold the grain purchased for two taels and five dollars, earning millions of taels of silver.

"Dali Temple Announcement" seems to want to make the gentry of the world angry to death, and said in a big way: "If you get this seven million taels of silver, the hungry people in Shandong will have no worries." With this silver, King Yan can go to Taiwan to buy sweet potatoes, and the hungry people in Shandong will have no worries about their food rations for a year. ”

When Zhang Keli saw this, he was a little out of breath. I can't imagine that I, Zhang Keli, have been camping all my life, thinking that I am smart, but when I am old, I was deceived by Yang Peng, who is in his twenties. And this has been deceived so much that there is nothing to say, who makes it difficult for these gentry to make a fortune in the country?

Stealing chickens and rice is not a recipe for rice, and this matter can't even be said to anyone - the gentry wanted to obstruct Yang Peng's disaster relief, and almost starved the people of Shandong to death. If the behavior of the gentry is known to the people, I am afraid that not only will no one sympathize with the gentry, but they will also be scolded to death by the people.

Zhang Keli continued to read the "Dali Temple Announcement" and saw that the news on the front page was: "The Liu family's fleet arrived in Laizhou with millions of stone sweet potatoes, and the people of Shandong beat gongs and drums to welcome!" 》”

Zhang Keli stayed for a long time before shaking his head. He sighed, put on the reading glasses he had bought specially from the capital, and flipped through the ledger on the tea case. Zhang Keli wanted to figure out how much silver the Zhang family had lost this time. However, after looking at it for a while, he became irritable, and angrily slapped the ledger on the tea case.

"Liu Shufang, this time my Zhang family hoarded 190,000 stone of grain, how much did I lose?" Liu Shufang, who was standing next to him, looked at Zhang Keli's face and said carefully: "Master, I have calculated, the average grain is bought for three taels of silver." Now Yang Peng stopped buying rice all of a sudden, causing the price of grain in the market to plummet, and it has fallen to two or four yuan. In this way, we have 170,000 taels of floating losses on the books alone. ”

Hearing this staggering number, Zhang Keli coughed violently. He quickly picked up the teacup on his right hand and took a sip of tea, but he still couldn't stop coughing, and actually coughed up the tea. He bent over and coughed vigorously, coughing for a long time before he could regain his breath.

finally sat up straight, Zhang Keli's face was already full of gloom, and his face was a little pale. This time, the Zhang family in Suzhou was really miserable by Yang Peng. The Zhang family's savings of more than 700,000 taels in the past 20 years have gone to a quarter at once.

The silver sprinkled with white flowers is good for the poor peasants who push grain into the city to sell. On weekdays, he could only exchange one or two or three yuan for one hundred catties of rice, but at that time, he exchanged one or two or eight dollars in the Zhang family's grain store. Thinking of the joy of those peasants when they got the silver, Zhang Keli felt a little cramping in his heart.

This Yang Peng really treats the gentry of the world as monkeys, and he really wants the life of the gentry. Zhang Keli closed his eyes and thought, cursing Yang Peng a hundred times in his heart, and after a long time, he slowly stood up. He walked a few steps around the house on crutches, and said slowly: "Silver is something outside the body, and it is not brought by life or death..."

However, before he could finish his sentence, his eldest son's daughter-in-law suddenly rushed into the main house. She rushed in so quickly that she fell to the ground with a twist on her feet. However, on the ground, she didn't mind if she fell in pain, but shouted loudly at Zhang Keli: "Master, go to the side yard to save people!" Mingxuan, he's going to hang himself! ”

Zhang Mingxuan is Zhang Keli's eldest son and the actual head of the Zhang family. Zhang Keli is old, and Zhang Mingxuan takes care of the Zhang family's business and grange on weekdays. This time the hoarding of grain is also Zhang Mingxuan's actual operation.

Zhang Keli was stunned when he heard the news, and secretly said that he lost 170,000 silver, and his son couldn't bear it? He put away his anxiety and hurriedly walked to the side yard on crutches. When I arrived at the main room in the side courtyard, the eldest son's study was locked from the inside, and Zhang Keli's three grandsons and two granddaughters stood anxiously outside the door of the study, knocking on the door vigorously, asking Zhang Mingxuan not to look for a short time.

Seeing that the old man Zhang Keli was coming, everyone got out of the way and looked at the old man anxiously. Zhang Keli walked to the door, knocked on the door hard, and said in a deep voice: "Mingxuan, open the door, I'm your father!" However, there was no sound in the study, Zhang Keli anxiously hung down the door, and shouted: "Open the door, manly man, can't bear this little wind and waves?" Zhang Mingxuan's voice came from the study: "Dad, I can't live with you, I have no face to live in this world!" ”

Zhang Keli frowned and shouted: "The matter of silver, whether life brings it or death does not bring it?" What is there to be sorry for! Your three sons are here, and you can put on a show of grace. Zhang Mingxuan in the house heard this and didn't say anything for a long time. Zhang Keli was a little impatient, and shouted loudly: "Open the door!" ”

After Zhang Keli finished shouting this, there was a soft sound on the door buckle in the room. Zhang Keli knew that Zhang Mingxuan had opened the door, and pushed the door open, but saw Zhang Mingxuan kneeling on the ground in a white middle coat.

Zhang Keli said loudly: "I asked you to hoard grain, and I lost more than 100,000 taels of silver, I don't blame you!" Zhang Mingxuan knelt on the ground and cried, and said in a trembling voice: "Dad, I'm sorry for you, I'm sorry for the Zhang family!" "I'm going to hang myself in the room this time, dad, don't stop me." Zhang Keli listened to his son's tone, and felt that things were a little weird, and he seemed to suddenly realize something. He shook his body, leaned against the door frame and asked, "Evil barrier, how much food have you hoarded?" ”

Zhang Mingxuan raised his head, slapped his left cheek, slapped his right cheek, and cried and shouted: "Dad! I didn't just hoard the 190,000 stone of grain. I thought it was Yang Peng who sent us money this time, and I thought it was a profitable deal, so I borrowed two million taels of silver outside and secretly hoarded 600,000 stone of grain in Hanjiazhuang. Now the 600,000 stone grain is floating and losing 540,000, and all the savings of our Zhang family have been compensated by me! ”

Hearing this, more than a dozen members of the Zhang family standing at the door of the study were struck by lightning. Zhang Keli's face turned from white to red, and then from red to white. Bankrupt, bankrupt, I have saved more than 700,000 yuan for more than 20 years, and it was all gone overnight. The silver of the white flowers was given to those peasants who could not read a single word.

His eyes were as big as a copper coin, and he jerked up his cane and threw it at his son's head!

"I'll kill you rebel!" However, as soon as the crutches were swung in the air, Zhang Keli's eyes rolled and his whole body trembled, and finally his body collapsed to the ground, and he fainted with his head tilted. The children of the Zhang family were stunned and rushed up one by one. The status and privileges of the Zhang family are all dependent on Zhang Keli, and if Zhang Keli dies, the Zhang family will really collapse.

"Daddy!! You've got to hold on! "Sir!! Don't scare us! ”

On August 11, in Qingzhou Mansion, Shen Congdao sat on the Taishi chair in the second hall of Shen's house, his face cloudy. His wife and two concubines sat on chairs next to them, crying profusely.

The rice seller "from the south" has notified the Shen family to let the Shen family move out, and the Shen family's compound is about to be taken away. Last month, Shen Congdao thought that Yang Peng was going to purchase a large amount of grain, so he followed the Qingzhou prefect to fry the price of rice in Qingzhou to six taels and one stone. In fact, there was not much idle grain on the market, and most of the stock grain was in the homes of the gentry. Everyone thought that the gentry in Qingzhou would work together and not need to spend much money to stabilize the price of grain at a high level, but who knew that they would encounter a large-scale grain sell-off.

The gentry didn't know what was going on at that time, thinking that stabilizing the price of grain would trap Yang Peng, and desperately buying the high-priced grain sold by others. In Qingzhou Mansion alone, the gentry bought more than 300,000 stone of grain at a high price of more than five taels.

In the back, the gentry were a little afraid to make a move. The prefect of Qingzhou stood up to concentrate on the overall planning and allocated shares to the gentry to buy the grain that was sold on the market. Shen Congdao was valued by the prefect, and was given some more quotas, and finally even mortgaged his own house to a merchant who sold rice.

At that time, when the merchant who sold rice said that the house could be used as a mortgage, Shen Congdao felt inexplicably bad. I didn't expect it to be on the road in the end. Last month, relief sweet potatoes from Xiaoliuqiu began to arrive in Shandong in large quantities. The "Dali Temple Announcement" said that the food needed for this disaster relief has been solved, and there is no need to buy food in the market.

At first, the gentry didn't believe it, thinking that King Yan couldn't bear the price of grain, and began to lower the price of grain by lying. But it wasn't until this month that the food in the small people's homes in Shandong ran out and King Yan's disaster relief porridge shacks were all opened, and the gentry in Shandong found out that King Yan was not lying at all. The sweet potatoes in Xiaoliuqiu can indeed save 10 million Shandong people who have suffered from drought.

King Yan no longer needs to buy food for disaster relief, the victims have the relief of King Yan, and they don't need to smash pots and sell iron to buy life-saving food, and the food hoarded by the gentry suddenly became useless. Not to mention that the gentry originally had a lot of accumulated grain, Yang Peng's more than 200 stones of grain from other provinces sold in Shandong alone made the Shandong gentry miserable, and the granaries of the Shandong gentry were stuffed with rice, flour and rice.

As a result, almost within a few days, grain prices in Shandong plummeted. From the sky-high price of six taels and one stone, it has fallen to the floor price of two taels and one stone. At this price, there is still no market for grain, and if it is sold in large quantities, it will not be sold at all.

When Yang Peng sold grain, he played a dim sum machine and allowed the gentry who hoarded grain to use real estate as collateral to buy on credit. At that time, the gentry only thought that Yang Peng would definitely come to collect grain at a high price if they insisted on it for a month, and it was not a big problem to mortgage the house to the grain merchants. As a result, now that the mortgage deadline has arrived, the price of grain is frighteningly low, and at least seven or eight gentry in Qingzhou Mansion who are hoarding grain will be confiscated. In order to raise money to redeem the mortgaged houses, these gentry desperately sold rice to the market, pushing down the already low price of grain.

However, at such a time to sell food, which will take over? There are only selling orders in the market and there are no buying orders, and grain prices in Shandong are getting lower day by day. The mortgage term of Shen Congdao's house expired the day before yesterday, and the southern grain merchants who sold rice to Shen Congdao said that if they did not repay the 2,000 taels of silver they had bought grain on credit today, they would drive the Shen family out of the house. However, the rice that Shen Congdao sold at a low price in his own grain store was not bought at all. The people of Shandong did not have a harvest last year, and they were very poor. With the guarantee of King Yan's porridge shack, the citizens are reluctant to use the last bit of emergency money to buy rice.

Shen Congdao sat on the chair, sighed helplessly, and said, "That's it, let's move to the countryside and live." This house can't be saved. Shen Congdao's main room pulled his ten-year-old daughter to wipe her tears, snorted and said, "Master, when I married you, I came through the door with a bride price of two thousand taels. Have you also lost it? ”

Shen Congdao's face turned red, slapped the table and shouted, "How do I know that the situation will become like this?" Now your bride price has become rice and noodles that no one buys, and it is all in the granary in the countryside. If you want, go to the granary and move it! ”

When the main house heard this, he fell forward and began to cry again. Shen Congdao's second room sat on a chair, gritted his teeth and said: "Master, we moved to the city from the countryside beating gongs and drums. Now that we have moved back to the countryside, the small peasants are afraid that they will look down on us and make trouble. ”

Shen Congdao sighed, curled up in the chair and couldn't speak, without his former paternalistic style at all. Hoarding grain to obstruct King Yan's disaster relief, this thing is to be pointed out by Qianfu. Now that I have lost my mansion and returned to the countryside, will there be angry people looking for trouble?

Shen Congdao sighed. The second room said: "Master, why did we give up the house so easily to those grain sellers? If those grain merchants want to go to court, it will take him several months, and maybe the price of grain will rise again at that time. ”

Shen Congdao smiled bitterly and said, "The sweet potatoes from Xiaoliuqiu are constantly being shipped over, and I'm afraid the price of grain won't be able to rise." Don't talk about it, let's move. The "Announcement of Dali Temple" said that the merchants who sold us grain were all people of King Yan. The arm can't twist the thigh, where can we fight against King Yan? When the time comes, we'll be caught and hit the board, and that's it. ”

Shen Congdao's main room widened his eyes when he heard this, and said, "You said you would move?" When I first moved to the city, I was so fanfare, and now I am moving back so sluggishly? I don't have the face to go to live in the country! If you want to go back to the country, you go by yourself! ”

Shen Congdao was stunned and asked, "If you don't go to live in the countryside, where are you going?" The main house rolled his eyes, but he couldn't think of a place to go, fell to the ground and cried again, shouting, "I'm not alive!" Thinking about it, the second room also cried, wiped his tears and said, "Master, can't you borrow a few thousand taels of silver?" ”

Shen Congdao said with a sad face: "This time, the gentry of Qingzhou Mansion don't know how much money they have put in the grain hoarding, and there is no extra silver money in any family. At such a time, where do you ask me to borrow it? ”

"Don't say more, let's go to the country! If there is a small crumb to take the opportunity to make trouble, we will endure and retreat and pass! Now that Yang Peng has entered Shandong, no one can stop him, and our hard days are still ahead! What is this suffering? ”

When the second room heard this, two lines of tears flowed, and he couldn't say a word when he sat on the chair. The Shen family was crying there when they heard footsteps outside. The "grain merchant" who "came from the south" and sold grain to Shen Congdao walked into the courtyard of Shen's house with ten Tiger Benshi soldiers, and shouted: "Shen Congdao, you still haven't handed over the house?" Want to eat the board of the court of Dali Temple? ”

On 20 August, Yang Peng's relief stations for the victims of the disaster in Shandong were all rolled out. In every township and every city in Shandong, Yang Peng has set up relief stations. With the wooden waist card issued by Yang Peng, the people received sweet potatoes every three days to survive the disaster.

In July and August, Yang Peng had already hired tax collectors to collect commercial taxes in advance. However, the first thing the tax collectors did after taking office was not to collect taxes, but to go deep into the grassroots villages and city streets to register the identities of all the people, and make a unified book. In addition, Yang Peng also hired local carpenters to make waist tags for the heads of each household of the farmers, corresponding to the registered account books.

With these registration measures in place, Yang Peng will be able to accurately distribute relief food to the people. Each person has a daily quota of sweet potatoes of one pound and eight taels. In the Song Dynasty, one catty and sixteen taels, one catty and eight taels were one and a half catties. The people went to the relief station every three days to receive sweet potatoes, and each time they received four catties and eight taels for each family member.

With waist cards and account books, there is no such thing as fraudulent and over-claiming. Everyone gets their share of the relief food. Although one and a half pounds of sweet potatoes are only equivalent to half a catty of rice, which is far from being full, it can also ensure that the people will not starve to death. Moreover, after September, crops can no longer be planted in Shandong, and farmers do not need to work. On the premise of reducing the amount of exercise, one and a half pounds of sweet potatoes can allow the victims to survive this period of time.

When Yang Peng gave potatoes to the people, he repeatedly emphasized that sweet potatoes should not be eaten raw, otherwise they would be extremely difficult to digest. Generally speaking, in order to get the highest calories, sweet potatoes are best eaten cooked or roasted.

Sweet potatoes are not a good food, eating too many sweet potatoes will not only make people bloated and burp constantly, but also stimulate the secretion of gastric juice and cause acid water to pour into the esophagus. However, for the people of Shandong, after a year of drought, the free sweet potatoes distributed at this time are life-saving treasures. It doesn't matter if he's comfortable or not, at least he won't starve to death, right?

Some peasants thought that they would not survive this year, and they were ready to flee the famine. At this time, they suddenly heard that Yang Peng, the king of Yan, began to distribute sweet potatoes for free, just like a dying person saw the hope of life, and they were all very excited. After the people got the waist card, they all flocked to the relief station to line up to receive sweet potatoes, and praised the people who gave the sweet potatoes as living bodhisattvas.

Yang Peng took advantage of the situation and hung a high banner of King Yan on each relief station, so that the people knew that this life-saving favor was given by himself. Knowing that Yang Peng was carrying out disaster relief in Shandong, Yang Tong listened to Lin Qinger's statement and volunteered, and followed Yang Peng to Jinan Mansion to distribute sweet potatoes to the victims of Jinan Mansion.

Yang Tong took off the crown of the princess, changed into coarse cloth clothes, and took a carriage to the relief station in Hedong Township, south of Jinan Prefecture. She first looked around to see how the workers at the relief station distributed sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes are very simple, the person who cuts the sweet potatoes has already cut the sweet potatoes one and a half pounds one by one and put them aside, and the people who distribute the sweet potatoes come up and ask the names of the people loudly and check the waist cards. Then a person in charge of registration next to him found the names of the people in the account book and marked a tick on the account book, indicating that the family had received it today. The people who distribute the sweet potatoes will hand over a number of sweet potatoes to the people according to the number of people in the households who receive the sweet potatoes.

The staff of the relief station are all citizens of Tianjing New Town recruited by Yang Peng. In recent years, Tianjing New Town has vigorously promoted literacy classes, and these citizens are literate, and it is very easy to do these things.

Today is the first day of sweet potato distribution, and the people who received the sweet potatoes are very excited. After receiving the sweet potato, these people couldn't forget to say: "Thank you for the sweet potato that the official saved his life!" The citizens of Tianjing New Town, who distributed sweet potatoes, corrected them: "Wrong! Thank you, King Yan! "That's right! Thank you, King Yan! ”

Yang Tong watched from the side for a while, and felt that this matter was also simple, so he set aside a potato worker and went up to distribute sweet potatoes himself. Yang Tong was dressed simply, but the heavily armed guards around Yang Tong still betrayed Yang Tong's identity. Twenty guards in chain mail stood to the side with swords in their hands, staring at the people who had come up to receive sweet potatoes. Behind these guards were thirty Tiger Division soldiers armed with rifles, on high alert.

The momentum frightened the people who received the sweet potatoes one by one, and they were respectful when they came up to receive the sweet potatoes. Yang Tong's maid Ju'er stood aside in satin clothes and said to everyone who came up to receive sweet potatoes: "Take it!" This is the sweet potato that Princess Yan sent you. ”

At first, the two ignorant people were fine, but they didn't understand what "Princess Yan" meant. They are illiterate, and they know King Yan who benefits the people on weekdays, as for the four words of Princess Yan, they couldn't react to what it meant at once, and took Yang Tong's sweet potato with a bow, shouted "Thank you Grandma" and left.

However, the third man who received the sweet potato from Yang Tong had heard the newspaper and knew what the four words Princess Yan meant, so as soon as he walked in front of Yang Tong, he knelt down with a puff and kowtowed: "Thank you princess for saving sweet potatoes!" We will never forget the kindness of the prince and princess for the rest of our lives! ”

This kneeling was unbearable, and the hundreds of people behind reacted one by one, thinking about how old the princess of Yan was, and all knelt in front of the relief station.

"Xiaomin has seen the princess!" "The princess is so kind, God will bless the princess!" "The princess is a fairy-like character, and King Yan is a perfect match!" Yang Tong was blushed by the people kneeling down in Hulala, and stood there stunned for a while. Yang Tong's maid Ju'er reacted faster, and shouted, "Get up!" Get up! Don't talk about these gossips, it's the right thing to come up and get sweet potatoes to save your life! ”

Hearing Ju'er's words, the people gradually got up. They became more and more respectful, and walked up to Yang Tong one by one to receive the sweet potatoes. Sent to the seventh, the sweet potato was received by a little girl dressed in tatters. The little girl held up the waist card in her hand to show Yang Tong, and then said: "Grandma Guan, I am the fourth family of Huan Lao in Huanjia Village, Hedong Township, and I receive nine catties of sweet potatoes." ”

Yang Tong looked at the girl's big eyes and was very cute, but she was skinny, and she couldn't help but feel a little pity for her. Cui He handed her nine catties of sweet potatoes and said, "Are there only two people in your family?" How do you get to pick up sweet potatoes? ”

The little girl blinked and said, "Grandma Guan, my father and mother died of illness last year, and only me and my brother are left in my family, and the adults in the village gave us some leftovers to eat." Since a few days ago, there has been no food left in the village. We haven't eaten for three days. If it hadn't been for Grandma Guan's sweet potatoes for me, we would have starved to death today. ”

Hearing the girl's words, Yang Tong's nose was sour, and his eyes were moist. Yang Tong took out three catties of sweet potatoes and stuffed them to the little girl, and said, "This is the ration of King Yan and the princess today, we won't eat today, we will eat for you and your brother." Today is a good day to talk about. ”

After all, what happens next, let's see how it will be broken down next time.