"My lord, how does it taste?"

Ren Zhi cautiously asked, it's none of his business if the sky falls outside, he only needs to serve his good master, he knows this truth when he entered the mansion since he was a child.

"Yes, it hasn't changed. ”

The fluffy buns are dipped in the sauce, and the mouth is fluffy with the aroma of chopped green onions and leeks, and the slight spiciness, followed by the deliciousness of the pork.

Qin Qingtang put down his chopsticks, and the mellow taste of freshly ground soy milk made Qin Qingtang drink most of it in one go.

"It's delicious, and it's important for adults to eat more body bones. ”

"There are some things you don't understand, they all say that one person has attained the Tao and the chicken dog ascends to heaven, just for the sake of hundreds of people up and down the prime minister's mansion, and I can't let the sky of this Daqing collapse. ”

"I, Qin Qingtang, can't turn the tide and help the building to fall, but even if I fight for my old life, I will prolong the qi of this Daqing for a few more years, at least before I abdicate, this court can't fall!"

Qin Qingtang took a bite of the fritters, and suddenly remembered the night when the emperor was assassinated, and he also thought about whether to use his identity as the head of a hundred officials to supervise the country, and wait for the prince to hand over power when he is older.

But in the end, I still backed down,

Powerful ministers, oppress young masters,

I don't want to bear any of these names.

It's okay to be in power, but once a hundred years later, I can't bear the infamy of the world, not to mention that I have no way out after being imprisoned.

Sitting in his own position of gold, silver, jewelry,

The government and the opposition have lost much attraction.

Unless you go one step further and sit in that supreme position,

But he has never had that thought, the thoughts of monarchs and ministers for thousands of years have been deeply rooted in his bone marrow, and it happened that the eldest princess Li Yan gave birth to this thought at that time.

Compared with those royal families, the eldest princess is a woman after all, not to mention that she also has the identity of His Majesty's own sister, so she stood behind her.

The royal family must be surnamed Li, which is the most basic condition for the princes of the court, and they don't care whether the emperor has the blood of the former emperor Li Jianming.

But you can care about it,

After all, after thirty years of deep affection between monarchs and ministers, he still hopes to see Li Xian succeed to the throne, and it is too risky to let other princes or royal bloodlines supervise the country.

"Your Excellency. ”

A middle-aged man who looked like a scribe came from outside the store and called out Qin Qingtang lightly.

"The price fluctuations of the grain stores in the city in the past few days have been counted. ”

A whole pile of paper was placed on the table, in addition to the price of the grain shop, almost all the food such as firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, chicken, duck and fish were carefully written on the paper, which took countless manpower and several days of hard work to finish.

"There is a saying in the history books that water can carry boats. ”

Qin Qingtang looked at the paper on the table and said with a bit of a distraction.

"Can you also cook porridge?"

Ren Zhi was stunned for a while and didn't hear the following, looking at the churning millet porridge at the door of the store, his eyes turned and he said casually.

"You bastard. ”

Qin Qingtang laughed and scolded before explaining, "The people are like water, the king is like a boat, water can carry a boat, and it can also overturn a boat." ”

"And the people in this world don't want much, as long as they don't have a bite to eat and don't go hungry, there will be chaos in this world. ”

"The people live on food. ”

Qin Qingtang smiled and said nothing, people can be ruthless, and he has a lot of feelings for the retinue in front of him who has been with him for many years, and often points a few points, but it is a pity that he is not educated and the ink is not stained.

"It's no wonder that these days, adults light up the lamp late at night to see the price of food in the city. ”

"Alas......"

"The old man is also not familiar with military affairs, so he can only help the court choose a stable general, and the rest is to try to stabilize the rear, and see how the people in the world are doing now. ”

Qin Qingtang put down the half-cut fritters in his hand and flipped over the paper on the table, but his expression soon became solemn, and the crispy fritters in his mouth became tasteless.

"It's only been a few days, and the price of food in the city has reached such a point?"

Qin Qingtang was a little distracted, it rose by three percent a few days ago, but now it has risen three times, a full three times!

"How are the major granaries in Shangjing City?"

Qin Qingtang looked at the scribe beside him and asked.

"The major granaries in the Daguan have been half cleared by the army, and the officials went to the Surabaya granaries outside the city to take a turn. ”

"It's empty enough to run a horse. ”

"I'm afraid that rats won't survive in it. ”

"But the price of food is still high. ”

The scribe beside him sighed.

"Why?"

"Didn't the imperial court open a warehouse a few days ago to stabilize the price of grain in the market?"

"Don't talk about downward adjustment, but it shouldn't go up anyway!"

Qin Qingtang asked sharply.

"At the beginning, Shangjing Fuyi thought that he would buy grain according to the household registration limit, but how could he have thought that the Hubu Shangshu said that the grain restriction would not be beneficial to the panicked atmosphere in the city, but would be counterproductive, it was better to open the offering, so that the people in the city could rest assured, and after a long time, the people were at ease, and the price of grain was lowered. ”

The middle-aged scribe wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and hurriedly explained.

"That's fine. ”

Qin Qingtang pondered for a moment and said slowly.

"The lower officials are also very puzzled, although there are more than one million people in the capital, they will not snatch up the grain in just a few days. ”

"Looks like there's someone in the city who is fueling the trouble!"

Qin Qingtang groaned.

"What your lord said is extreme!"

"After a careful investigation, the lower officials learned that there has always been a high price of grain in recent days!"

A bucket of rice was more than three cents higher than the grain store, and the people of the city saw that the grain store was open for supply. ”

The government swore to ensure that the granary of Shangjing was sufficient, and there was no urgent need, so they carefully bought rice and noodles and sold them, and finally used the surplus money to buy rice again. ”

In the end, there were even a few grain store shopkeepers who directly closed their doors and sold the grain in the store, and after two days, the price of grain in the city rose, and the shopkeeper of Heda grain store also found that something was wrong, so it stopped. ”

"But the people only have three or two days of grain in their homes, and they can only buy it, but the difference in the price of the few pennies earned in the middle is not enough to add to it, and they want to go to the traitor who secretly stores grain, but they only collect it but do not sell it. ”

The middle-aged scribe had a sad face.

"Have you counted how many taels of silver the secret forces have collected? ”

Qin Qingtang's brows furrowed.

"Three, three million taels of silver. ”

The middle-aged scribe stretched out three fingers and said tremblingly.

"Three million taels!"

Qin Qingtang slapped the wooden table, and the soy milk spilled on the corner of his clothes.

"And it's affordable food. ”

The middle-aged scribe shrunk his head like a quail, and his voice was much quieter.

"In the prosperous era of the previous dynasty, the rice bucket was to thirteen Wen, the Qingqi Valley was fought to the five Wen, and there were no precious things in the world since the future, and the rice in Beijing was only twenty Wen!"

"Today, the grain production in all parts of the world is unstable, there are natural disasters continuously, rice buckets to 20 Wen, Qingqi Valley Dou to 9 Wen, Shangjing Dou rice 40 Wen!"

"How much cheap rice can you buy with these three million taels of silver?"

After Qin Qingtang finished his mental calculation, he only felt a cool air rising from the soles of his feet, and his brain was cold.

"Now that the price of grain has tripled, how much silver do you need to buy it back?"

"Twelve million taels of silver!"

Qin Qingtang sweated like rain, and the imperial court had already used the silver in the inner treasury when it went north, and now how to make up for this hole, even if the loss of grain from outside Beijing can be imagined.

"Those who raise the price of grain in Beijing should be beheaded!"

Qin Qingtang looked at the middle-aged scribe and said word by word.