"I have a plan, I don't know if it's feasible." She asked cautiously, thought for a moment and said, "This matter still needs the help of the one of you in the palace." "I don't know who it is, but I think it's a powerful person.

In the past few days, it has been rumored that the imperial court has discovered that the local disaster is serious, and from now on it will begin to send grain for disaster relief, and the imperial court will appoint people from major families to escort the official grain and supervise the distribution. This rumor has a nose and an eye, and I heard that it is still the news released from the capital. The people thought that the imperial court had finally heard the voice of the people, and they were grateful, praising the emperor everywhere for a while, and Baixin sang praises to the imperial court.

A few days later, Huangfu Yinri pulled several truckloads of grain to the Youzhou area, which was the first batch of relief grain.

The profiteers, who had planned to wait and see for a few days, were a little panicked, and the grain they bought at a high price was originally intended to wait until the price of grain rose again, and in order to make huge profits. Most of them buy coarse grains, so that they can store more grain for the same price. On the other hand, it is enough to make sure that the victims have a stutter and can survive, so even if they sell coarse grain at a high price, some people will buy it, even if they complain behind their backs, they will have to pay a smile on their faces, for fear that they will not be able to buy it. Now it's good, the imperial court has come to relieve the disaster, and when the disaster passes, even if it is low, no one will necessarily collect coarse grain, then it will be a complete loss.

In order to sell the coarse grain in their hands before all the relief grain came, those businessmen were busy lowering the price again and again, but some ordinary people heard that there was free relief grain, and who still spent money to buy coarse grain, and they were hungry and waiting for free grain. It is true that many of the victims could not wait to spend money on coarse grains, but for the profiteers who had stockpiled too much grain, these people were far from enough. When the supply exceeded demand, they became the smiling side, and no one had bought it for several days, and they were so anxious that they jumped to their feet when they saw that the next batch of grain was about to arrive.

The merchants gathered to discuss how to respond, but all who were present were sighing and no one spoke. The merchants in the chamber of commerce sighed one after another, sounding as if they were the people who couldn't eat, hungry and cold. The president of the Chamber of Commerce looked at the worried crowd and was a little anxious, "Everyone is here to find a way, not to wait for death, whoever has any idea can just say." But this sentence was like a stone sinking into the sea, and after it was spoken, no one answered, and everyone lowered their heads and pondered hard. There was silence for a long time, and finally, a merchant opened his mouth and asked, "Why don't we sell the grain at a low price before the next batch of relief grain arrives?" ”

"Sold at a low price?" A well-dressed businessman next to him snorted coldly, "How low can it be?" Cheaper than free relief food? Usually those misers live their lives tightly, if it weren't for this natural disaster, they would be willing to spend so much money to buy food?! Now that the relief food has arrived, no matter how low the price is, it will not be able to sell it. The merchant who spoke earlier turned pale for a while, and muttered unconvinced, "Then you have come up with a good idea." ”

"Joke, if I can figure it out, use it here?" As he spoke, he blew his nose with the handkerchief made of Hangzhou silk in his arms, his behavior was very vulgar, his tone was very arrogant, his face was not red and his heart was not beating when he said this, and his face was so thick that it was breathtaking.

"Can't think of it? If we can't think of it, we'll all be planted in it, and in the end, there won't even be a single child left! The president tapped his fingers on the table, and as he spoke, the corners of his eyes wrinkled and squinted to kill flies.

"Hey, I don't know which turtle grandson spread the news, but the county government has already covered the news of the famine tightly. They are too, and they don't know how to say it in advance when the relief food comes, so we can be prepared. The group of businessmen who were sitting there complained, blaming the people for starving to death and hiding the money. The Chamber of Commerce, which was silent for a while, became a little noisy, and the president's face turned black and black, and he kept coughing, but no one paid attention to him. "Okay, there's no point in complaining, I have a way here."

Liu Pan, who was sitting next to the president, slapped the table violently, startling everyone else, he looked more fierce, and everyone in the world was usually more afraid of him. At this moment, as soon as he spoke, no one dared to speak anymore. The chairman felt a little uncomfortable when he was robbed of the limelight, but fortunately, the scene was under control now, and he smiled gently, "Ahem, Lao Liu, then tell me what you think." The folds on his face were almost squeezed together "This matter is not difficult, but now everyone is a grasshopper on a rope, and we must help each other and not betray it." Speaking of this, he paused, picked up the teacup on the table, brushed off the tea leaves floating on it with the tea lid, took a big sip, and there was still a little tea in the tea into his mouth, and he spit it out and sprayed it directly on the table. "No, Brother Liu, don't sell Guan Zi at this time. You, do you want to just say it. "The merchants were hung up and couldn't help but ask curiously." I heard that there is a bandit den in the Jingyuan area, and the government has a headache about it, and has attacked it many times without success......"

"Unsuccessful? It's not that those yamen masters have embezzled all the money from the bandits. In the corner, an inconspicuous merchant said hatefully, as if he had a grudge against the bandits.

"Hmph," Liu Pan snorted coldly, looking at the thin little businessman in the corner, he immediately recognized him - Zhang Tong, an opportunistic villain. It is not surprising that businessmen are heavy on profits, and they will do some speculative things, this is because this person is disgusting. smuggling and robbing tombs, forcing good people to become prostitutes, buying and selling lewd sex, and doing all kinds of indiscriminate things, but they have never made a lot of money, and it is estimated that they have done bad things and damaged yin morality.

A few months ago, I was secretly going to sell a group of girls and passed by the bandits' den. Not only was the group of girls robbed, but he also nearly lost his life. Therefore, after coming back, he made a feud with the bandits, cursed every day, and couldn't eat without scolding two sentences a day. If it weren't for his small body that couldn't beat the bandits, he could use two kitchen knives to go up the mountain and fight the bandits. Most of the people in the chamber of commerce didn't look down on him. Why didn't anyone go to the government to expose him? Guess who those girls are going to sell to?

"Don't interrupt anyone who has nothing to do," the chairman said a little unhappily, he glanced at Zhang Tong in the corner, his eyes were full of disdain, and he continued when he saw that he shut up stupidly, "Lao Liu, you go on." ”

Liu Pan straightened his expression, "I'm afraid that after the famine, the bandits' nest will make more trouble." He said meaningfully, put down the teacup and covered the tea lid heavily, the bulging tea lid looked like Jingyuan's Braised Mountain.

"If this batch of relief food is robbed by that group of bandits, then the people will only have to buy our rice!!" The businessmen next to him immediately understood what Liu Pan meant, and they all began to get excited, as if they saw a large sum of silver flying like snowflakes.

"Not only that, if the bandits rob the disaster relief grain, it will definitely attract the attention of the capital, and maybe the imperial court will send people down to encircle and suppress this group of bandits." The president stroked his beard and smiled slightly, his eyes full of satisfaction.

"And one more question," said the oily merchant in front of him, "did the bandits really go back to rob them?" "After all, it is the disaster relief food of the imperial court, and if anyone dares to rob it, it is a capital crime!

"Hmph, bandits and bandits, they are all murderous and over-the-top, what do they not rob?"

"That's it, the dog jumped over the wall in a hurry, and there was no food on the bandits' den, so they would definitely rob it."

"Well, now I'm waiting for the bandits to rob the grain."

The president began to arrange for the news of the disaster relief food to be delivered to the bandits' den.

The second batch of official rations is already on the way, and it will arrive soon. It's about to pass through the Burning Mountain. In the past few days, those businessmen have been waiting at home for news, and no one is anxiously waiting for the news that the disaster relief grain has been robbed, the chairman is so anxious that he paced back and forth at home, and the rest of the businessmen also sent people out to find out the news, except for Xie Pan, who seemed to be confident.

This group of merchants waited from noon to dusk, and from dusk to early morning, sighing and anxiously at home, and sent people outside to inquire about the news. The subordinates of each family walked around the streets, occasionally looked at each other, and immediately understood that the other party had also come out to inquire about the news, nodded tacitly and hurried back again.

When it was early the next morning, the news finally came. It's just that it's not the news that the disaster relief grain has been robbed, but a bad news - Zhang Tong is dead.

It is said that the body was hung on top of the government office, and the skin on the body was stripped off and filled with straw. He was naked, covered in blood, and looked very terrible, and it was said that he had been discovered by a watchman, who was so frightened that he did not dare to go out at home. I don't know when the corpse was hung up. There is also a white cloth hanging on his body, on which are written a few big words, 'I heard that profiteers are hoarding rice, and the village will come to pick it up tomorrow, and we are not welcome to blame those who do not cooperate'.

It is said that Zhang Tong held a grudge against the bandits' den, and when he planned to support the bandits to rob the disaster relief grain, he sneaked into the bandits' den to take the opportunity to take revenge, but he didn't want those bandits to use the disaster relief grain although they received the news of the disaster relief food. So, when Zhang Tong slipped in, the bandits were there. Under torture to extract confessions, Zhang Tong couldn't bear the torture and told everything about the Chamber of Commerce's conspiracy. Naturally, the bandits were unwilling to be used as a gun, so they made him a straw in a fit of anger and robbed this place. They even gave the merchants a day to prepare the rice.

At this moment, all the merchants panicked, originally just hoping to sell the rice in their hands, who knew that it would be better now to provoke bandits. Now no one cares about the situation of the second batch of relief food, and is busy looking for a way out. But where would the merchants be willing to give away all the rice for nothing, and the loss of money is more uncomfortable for them than death.

Everyone was so anxious that they didn't know what to do, while they were busy preparing all the rice they had stockpiled, and at the same time they were thinking of countermeasures in the hope of getting back a little capital. But how could the bandits give money, it's not bad if it doesn't harm people's lives.

At this time, a man named Chen Yue came forward and said that he wanted to buy all the grain. The man was going to pay for the rice, but at that time, the merchants monopolized it and raised the price of rice. He couldn't buy it in large quantities, but this time he came with money again, saying that it was related to it and that he was not afraid of bandits, so he could consider buying and hoarding rice.

Those profiteers were in a hurry to make a move, where could they take care of so much, and they sold them one after another. A few more cunning profiteers saw the clues, but they didn't dare to break it, seeing that the people around them were sold, if they didn't sell it, they would eventually smash their hands, maybe they would provoke bandits, and then they would lead to death, so they could only sell. In the end, Chen Yue bought all the grain at a very low price.