Nanjing's Longjiang Wharf is lined with thousands of sails, and large Galen sailing ships are moored at the pier.

On the trestle were Nanjing officials and nobles who came to see Li Xianzhong off.

Hong Chengchou, the newly arrived governor of Jiangnan, said: "All 800,000 stone grains have been shipped, which is enough for half a year for the 100,000 troops on this expedition. ”

Li Xianzhong said: "Governor Hong has worked hard, and now Liangguang and Fujian have also written to express their attachment to the imperial court. This king has written to His Majesty and appointed Governor Hong as the Governor of the South, responsible for the implementation of the 'Hongguang New Deal' in the whole south. ”

"If anyone dares to obstruct the new policy, or violates the yang and yin, there will be no forgiveness!"

When Li Xianzhong said the words "no forgiveness", he specially dragged out his voice!

Xu Hongji, the Duke of Wei on the side, and Ma Shiying and others subconsciously lowered their heads.

On the surface, Li Xianzhong's three words are talking about the affairs of Liangguang and Fujian, and it is obvious that he is warning the people who stayed in Nanjing that if anyone dares to make trouble after he leaves, Li Xianzhong will never be soft.

Hong Chengchou said: "Rest assured, the governor will actively implement the new policy and provide stable supplies for the prince!" ”

"I wish the prince a victory and exterminate Zhang Xianzhong!"

Li Xianzhong also said loudly at this time: "The thieves are entrenched in Huguang, Sichuan and other places, these places are high mountains and far away, and this king's westward expedition is fast for half a year, and slow for more than a year. The supply of grain and grass is extremely important, and you will have to work for you! ”

Although the officials who saw off them on the trestle at this time had their own thoughts, at this time they still said in one voice: "I wish the prince a victory and exterminate Zhang Xianzhong!" ”

After that, the warship began to lift anchor and hoist its sails, and slowly sailed out of the port of Longjiang.

Li Xianzhong's pressure on the nobles was too great, and after he left Nanjing, everyone felt very relaxed.

Go straight to the heaven and earth on the bank of the Qinhuai River, and start to let yourself go!

Like the noble circle of the Beijing Division, the noble circle of Nanjing also likes to gather in heaven and earth.

After all, this kind of comprehensive entertainment club covers a full range of services such as catering and entertainment, and its unique membership system shields ordinary rich people and greatly increases the privacy of the club.

Nanjing's nobles were headed by Xu Hongji, the Duke of Wei (a descendant of Xu Da, King of Zhongshan), and its main members were Zhu Guobi, the Duke of Baoguo (a descendant of Zhu Yong, Funingbo in the Chenghua period), and Tang Guozuo, the Marquis of Lingbi (a descendant of Tang and the King of Eastern Europe).

Lingbi Marquis Tang Guozuo said: "This Li Xianzhong is also one of our nobles, why is he so harsh on us? ”

"Even if you collect land and pay business taxes, even the empty salary of the Nanjing garrison won't let us eat! Of the 50,000 garrisons in Nanjing, only 10,000 were left by him, and they must be solid, isn't this cutting off everyone's financial route? ”

Xu Hongji said: "The Li family in Liaodong started with military merits, and Li Xianzhong is different from the nobles of our two capitals, he does not earn money by eating empty salaries. ”

"What is the 50,000 garrison in Nanjing, don't you see that there are only 10,000 left in the 170,000 establishment of the three major battalions of the Beijing Division!"

Zhu Guobi, the Duke of Baoguo, said: "They can also endure this British duke? ”

Xu Hongji sighed and said, "What can I do if I can't bear it?" We still have hereditary titles and a lot of estate! ”

"Paying taxes is just a little less earning, and if you resist, I'm afraid there will be nothing left!"

"I've heard that the behind-the-scenes boss of the East Ryukyu Company is Li Xianzhong, they don't say it's a gentry in the north, and even the vassal king dares to kill him!"

"Yan Shenggong Kong Yinzhi was forced to death by Li Xianzhong, and the Qufu Kong family paid a lot of land, money and grain to be preserved. Li Xianzhong is already polite to us! ”

After hearing these words, all the nobles present gasped!

Think of King Heng, who died tragically in Baoding, and King Tongde, the king of Lu who only had 10,000 acres of farmland.

Compared with them, these nobles in Nanjing are indeed lucky.

Although they also contributed 5 million taels of silver, there are many noble gentry in Jiangnan, and it is actually tens of thousands of taels on everyone's head, as long as they express their position and attitude.

And at present, their industry is still in their own hands.

Zhu Guobi, the Duke of Baoguo, said unwillingly: "This time Li Xianzhong's expedition to the west is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he transferred all the 100,000 troops he went south to. ”

Zhu Guobi's words quickly caused Lingbi Hou Tang Guozuo to respond.

He said: "Li Xianzhong is too ruthless to us, my old soup can't swallow this evil breath!" ”

Xu Hongji saw that these two people were going to deviate from the rhythm, and hurriedly said: "Don't be impulsive, Li Xianzhong's army of the southern expedition is gone, but Hong Chengchou also brought 30,000 Yulin camps. ”

Zhu Guobi said: "Hong Chengchou's 30,000 people are distributed on the boundaries of Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Nanzhili provinces; And in order to guard against Li Zicheng, his main forces are currently on the front line of Fengyang and Luzhou in Jiangbei, and there are only 5,000 people in the entire Nanjing, so there is nothing to be afraid of! ”

Xu Hongji said: "Baoguo Gong, you are playing with fire, I won't say that Hong Chengchou's men in Yangzhou, Nanchang, and Hangzhou will soon be able to support Nanjing." Even if Li Xianzhong returned from Wuchang to help, it would only take ten days for the Yangtze River to go downstream. ”

Zhu Guobi said with a smile: "Where did Wei Guogong think of it, he was looking for death when he directly raised troops. ”

"But this is Jiangnan, since he can collect a large amount of commercial taxes and land taxes from us, we can naturally ask him to spit out the principal and interest!"

Then he whispered a few words beside Xu Hongji.

Xu Hongji's face was heavy after hearing this, and he hesitated for a while and said, "Is this matter certain?" ”

Zhu Guobi said: "The merchants in Suzhou have long been ready and foolproof. ”

Xu Hongji said: "Don't forget, those Hui businessmen also support Li Xianzhong, they shouldn't stand idly by!" ”

Zhu Guobi said with a smile: "Hui merchants do have a lot of silver, but this time they are fighting for grain, and silver alone is not enough." We don't need to take action directly, just cooperate with them. ”

Xu Hongji finally said lightly: "Things must be done cleanly, don't let people catch the handle!" ”

The Wusong River, which originates from the Guajing mouth of Taihu Lake, passes through Wujiang, Suzhou, Kunshan and other places and joins the Huangpu River into the sea.

Here, a large number of goods flowed through the Wusong River to Wusongkou, and finally transported to Chongming Island, where they were sold to the East Ryukyu Company.

At the same time, it is also an important flood channel in the Taihu Lake area.

Whenever there is heavy rainfall, the Wusong River also undertakes the task of bringing excess water from the upstream Taihu Lake area to the East China Sea.

In April, the rainy season had already entered the south of the Yangtze River, and several days of heavy rains had raised the water level of the Taihu Lake system around Suzhou.

At this time, the river side of the Wusong River was driven by human heads, and many people wearing hats and robes were waiting nearby with hoes.

Shen Zhengzong, a big merchant in Wujiang, Xi Qiming, the largest grain merchant in Suzhou City, and Liu Wenqing, a silk merchant, were anxiously looking into the distance.

Finally, a servant came to several people under the torrential rain, and the official said: "Nanjing has agreed to cooperate with us, and the prefect Ding asked them to carry out the original plan!" ”

Xi Qiming said excitedly: "Brother Shen's matter is done, let's do it quickly!" ”

With Shen Zhengzong's order, those people on standby quickly picked up hoes and dug up the river of the Wusong River.

The original fertile land was instantly submerged in an ocean.

The seedlings in the rice fields were washed away by muddy water, and the green fields became a mess.

Soon after, Hong Chengchou received a report from Ding Yunyuan, the governor of Suzhou, that the heavy rain had led to many executions in the Wusong River, flooding large areas of fertile land, and many displaced people poured into the city.

The Suzhou government requested the opening of a warehouse for disaster relief.

Originally, these did not attract much attention from Hong Chengchou, after all, heavy rains in the south of the Yangtze River and the river breaking the embankment are also common.

However, a few days later, the Baimao River in Changzhou Prefecture also burst its embankment.

Changzhou also began to release grain for disaster relief.

Then the price of grain in Nanjing began to rise, from the original 6 yuan of silver to 8 yuan of silver.

Moreover, rumors began to spread in the market that Li Xianzhong, the king of Liaodong County, went out to take away 800,000 stone of grain, resulting in a shortage of food in Nanjing, and Suzhou, Changzhou and other places suffered floods one after another, and this year's summer grain output was greatly reduced.

Food is about to skyrocket, so there is a rush to buy food on the streets of Nanjing.

Regardless of whether there is food at home or not, everyone begins to join in the excitement and queue up to grab food!

The price of grain soon rose from 8 yuan of silver to 1 tael of silver!

Hong Chengchou keenly sensed that something was wrong.

It is true that this year's heavy rains will reduce the summer grain production, but there are not so many fields flooded, and the soaring food prices are certainly not normal.

In addition, there were rumors that the spearhead was actually pointed at the military rations that Li Xianzhong used to go out to fight.

He judged that there were profiteers who took the opportunity to create a tense atmosphere and raise the price of grain!

If it were somewhere else, and encountered a catastrophe and Li Xianzhong's expedition, it was indeed possible that there would be a shortage of food.

But this is Nanjing, the core area of the entire south of the Yangtze River, and the city of Nanjing has a large amount of grain reserves.

Hong Chengchou knows very well that there are now 1.2 million stones of grain in Nanjing's official warehouse.

Even if the 200,000 stone of grain he ordered to be transferred to Suzhou and Changzhou before is removed, there are still 1 million stones.

So Hong Chengchou decided to intervene to curb the crazy rise in food prices!

He took out 200,000 stone of grain to sell in the market, and contacted the grain merchants in Nanjing to ask them to provide grain, and not to take the opportunity to raise the price of grain!

Under Hong Chengchou's intervention, the price of grain in Nanjing finally began to fall, from one tael and five cents at the peak to 1 tael.

Although the price of this grain is still significantly higher than the normal 5-6 cents per stone, considering that it is now in a period of scarcity and disaster, it is still within the acceptable range.

Hong Chengchou had just fallen asleep before he woke up an hour.

I saw his master Xie Sanbin hurriedly running and saying, "Dong Weng, something is wrong, the granary near Jubaomen is on fire!" ”

As soon as Hong Chengchou left the mansion, he found that the direction of Jubaomen was blazing.

Nanjing City is full of people who go out to see the excitement!

At this time, I don't know who shouted: "The grain storage in Jubaomen has been burned, and there is no food in Nanjing, so everyone hurriedly went to the grain store overnight to line up to buy food." ”

"If it's too late, you won't be able to buy food!"

After such a reminder, these people were no longer in the mood to watch the excitement, so they hurriedly went to their homes to get grain bags and queue up to buy grain.

In just a quarter of an hour's work, the doors of Nanjing's major grain stores were crowded with people buying grain!

When Hong Chengchou arrived at Jubaomen, the fire in the granary was so great that it was impossible to put out the fire.

Hong Chengchou said angrily: "Someone must have deliberately set the fire to the governor for a detailed investigation!" ”

Soon Hong Chengchou got the answer, Liu Yijun of Nanjing Hubu Langzhong teamed up with Song Yuancheng, the head of the granary, to resell grain, and mildew caused less than half of the remaining grain in the granary.

Now that the grain in the granary is constantly being called, they know that this matter will soon be exposed, so they staged this "fire dragon burning warehouse"!

Both of them have committed suicide in fear of crime and left a suicide note!

Hong Chengchou knew that someone was deliberately playing a game and wanted to embarrass himself.

Their purpose should be to mess up the economy of the entire Jiangnan and the credibility of the government, and even affect the logistics and supply of the army, and seek huge profits by the way!

Hong Chengchou knew the seriousness of the matter, and while he was mobilizing grain from the warehouses in Yangzhou, he borrowed grain from the Hui merchants in Yangzhou.

However, at this moment, the price of grain in Nanjing has exceeded two taels of silver.

Not only Nanjing, but also Suzhou and Changzhou have even surpassed Nanjing's grain prices.

The war is tight, and grain from Jiangxi has been transferred to Huguang, and even grain from Jiaxing and Huzhou, where grain is produced, has been purchased in large quantities.

However, fortunately, the Hui merchants led by Wang Shiming still supported Hong Chengchou, and at the beginning of the year they donated 1 million stone grain to Li Xianzhong, and there was no food in their hands at this time.

However, Wang Shiming still used the network of Huizhou merchants to raise 500,000 stone of grain and send it to Nanjing for sale.

In the private room on heaven and earth, Zhu Guobi, the prince of Baoguo, said proudly: "At present, the price of grain in Nanjing is two taels of silver. The grain prices in Suzhou and Changzhou have exceeded four taels! ”

"However, the grain sent by those Hui merchants should not last long, as long as we sweep away all the grain stocks on the market tomorrow, the price of grain in Nanjing will definitely double!"

"Ten taels of silver and one stone, it's not impossible!"

Xu Hongji said: "I think it's better to accept it when it is good, Li Xianzhong is not a master to be messed with." ”

Zhu Guobi said: "Although Wei Guogong is relaxed, we have not directly come forward in the matter of collecting and releasing grain, and Li Xianzhong can't find out about us?" ”

Xu Hongji said: "I hope so! ”

Shen Zhengzong and others took advantage of the man-made disaster situation to buy grain in Suzhou, Changzhou, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Nanjing and other places, causing prices to skyrocket!

Due to Hong Chengchou's efforts, the price of grain in Nanjing has not exceeded three taels.

However, with the depletion of grain by Huizhou merchants, the price of grain in Nanjing finally collapsed!

The grain on the market in Nanjing has not only risen to 5 taels of silver, but also very little grain has been put into the market.

Shen Zhengzong and others only released a small amount of grain every day, and gradually raised the price of grain.

Hong Chengchou is at a loss, and now the granaries of the provinces of Nanzhili are empty.

The price of grain in Jiangnan was even higher, and he was simply unable to raise the grain and grass of the next army.

At this time, a familiar figure appeared in front of Hong Chengchou.

It's actually Zheng Zhilong!

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(End of chapter)