Guangzhou suddenly became a city of rebellion, and the Qing court cut off the grain route, because everyone knew that the price of grain would rise, and this situation was not alleviated in the short term, but in the long run.

As a result, from the gentry to the common people, they all began to desperately buy grain to hide, and the little grain sold by Wang Jiuxuan was not enough at all, and it was quickly bought.

Moreover, there are many smart and wealthy businessmen in Guangzhou, who actually regard this as a huge business opportunity and begin to hoard grain, which is quite large, and the more they hoard, the more they hoard, to a very considerable extent.

This is equivalent to Wang Jiuxuan wanting to lower the price of grain, and everyone else is betting with him, although the price of grain has not skyrocketed, but it is rising slowly and firmly, and this momentum cannot be stopped.

"So what, even if all the food in your hands is sold, at least you can still hold the money in your hands, right?" Li Xian asked inexplicably.

"It was supposed to be like that, but the problem was that I didn't stop for a while. Wang Jiuxuan said embarrassedly: "I think that such a rapid rise in grain prices is harmful, so I decided to buy grain from nearby prefectures and counties, and then sell it to the people of Guangzhou at a low price." ”

Li Xian couldn't help but be stunned, feeling a little speechless.

If the Qing Dynasty officials saw the grain rise in a city, they would definitely take this as a good opportunity to resell the grain in the official treasury, and if they were more incorruptible, they would arrest a few merchants who hoarded the most grain, confiscate their grain, but would not spend public money to really suppress the grain.

At the beginning, there was still some surplus grain in the surrounding areas of Guangzhou, and the grain from other places could not reach Guangzhou, but there were no fallen cities around it, so the price was relatively cheap.

Then, those merchants also began to swarm and buy and smuggle grain, which caused the price of grain in the outer states and counties to continue to rise, and this was a smuggling act, which made Wang Jiuxuan's purchase cost continue to rise, and finally the purchase price exceeded the sale price.

After that, he was still obsessed and took the capital reserves of the three-yuan concept to do this, and the money was spent more and more, and now it has reached an extremely astonishing point.

The price of grain has risen slowly from the original 127 yuan to about 225 yuan, and there has not been a huge surge in the situation, so that the people of Guangzhou are only dissatisfied with the current situation, and have not yet reached the point of making trouble on the streets on a large scale, and this is undoubtedly beneficial to the rule of the Huaxia army in Guangzhou.

But because of this, such a huge amount of resources is consumed, so that the next actions of the Huaxia Army will be affected to a certain extent, so it should not be.

Li Xian weighed the gains and losses of this matter in his heart, and suddenly felt that something was wrong.

"No, even if you buy grain at a high price outside, and then sell it at a low price in Guangzhou, you just lose the difference.

If you want to lose a million taels because of this, I still believe it, and if you say that you lost more than five million taels, why can't I believe it? Li Xian said.

Xuan Zheng and Wang Jiuxuan exchanged glances, knowing that this matter could not be hidden from Li Xian, so they could only stand up and speak.

"For the lack of money, you can't blame Jiuxuan for this child, I am also responsible. Xuan Zheng sighed and explained.

"A few months ago, not long after we occupied Guangzhou, the hearts of the people in the city were fluctuating, and some big families wanted to sell their businesses and exchange them for cash to take refuge in a calmer place.

At that time, there was a shipping company called Sun Ji Boat Company, which was also a family that had been inherited for seven or eight generations and specialized in shipbuilding.

As a result, the family felt that there was going to be a war in Guangzhou, so they wanted to sell the entire ship at a low price, and then go to Nanyang or Fujian to avoid the goods, so as not to get involved in the war.

I went to see that there were four or five hundred workers in this shipyard, most of whom were skilled craftsmen for more than ten years, and they also knew how to build Western-style docks, and they were very familiar with the construction of Western ships and Chinese ships.

According to the original price, this shipping company is definitely more than 200,000 taels, and it is an ancestral inheritance, and it may not be sold even if you give twice the money.

However, this time, in order to make a quick move, they lowered the price to 50,000 taels of silver.

I went to see it and thought it was good, so I bought it for 45,000 taels, and bought all the factories, land, technical materials, machinery, and workers. Xuan Zheng said.

Li Xian couldn't help but be stunned in his heart, after the rebel forces occupied the city, spending money to buy the property in the hands of merchants was a new thing, according to normal speaking, it was either clever or robbed, and it shouldn't cost any money at all.

However, for the sake of the old shipyard that can build Western-style docks, it is also acceptable to buy everything in a package, after all, after the shipyard goes bankrupt, it only attracts workers to buy in the past and as a whole, and the difference between this is still very large, and the impact on the morale of the workers and the inheritance of technology has to be considered.

In this sense, this approach has a bit of a taste of wisdom and foolishness, looking at spending money in vain, but it is more suitable for the later production promotion, if it is not for the really wise people who can't do such a thing.

It was also during that time that Xuan Zheng began to participate in various experiments of the Steelmaking Research Institute, and he also had some understanding of Western industry, and after Li Xian's knowledge indoctrination, he vaguely understood that Britain was so powerful, and it relied on the development of industry, so he made up his mind to spend money to buy a shipyard.

"Spending 45,000 taels of silver to buy such a shipyard seems to be a loss, but it is of great significance to the complete inheritance of technology, and it is conducive to maintaining the stability of Guangzhou, so that businessmen have a way to exit, which is quite acceptable. Li Xian nodded and said:

"But this is only 45,000 taels, which is far from 5 million taels. ”

"Don't worry, keep listening to me. Xuan Zheng sighed and continued, "My side

When the news of buying a shipyard spread, many people saw the way.

There is the Zhao family of the silk shop, who buys silkworm cocoons and pulls raw silk, boils silk and dyes and makes silk, and is also a big merchant with hundreds of good workers, who came to me and said that they wanted to sell the silk factory to me, and then I thought the business was good, and spent more than 50,000 taels of silver to buy it.

Afterwards... The Li family of the tea shop... There are three hundred roasted tea workers... 40,000 taels of silver... Outcome... The Huang family, who is in the medicinal herb business and sells the marching army... The Zhang family, who makes cloth, has seven or eight hundred workers... and give me your inheritance..."

Xuan Zheng's upper and lower lips touched, and the names of famous or ancient merchants were reported, as well as the business done with them.

It turned out that in the past few months, people's hearts have fluctuated, and there are more businessmen in Guangzhou who don't want or dare not continue to do business, but they can't find anyone willing to take over for a while.

Xuanzheng is also very strange, mainly a factory with a large number of skilled workers, plus a small number of shops with shopkeepers, actually took over the entire small half of the industry in Guangzhou.

If it were normal, most of these were high-quality industries that money could not buy, and tens of millions of taels might not be able to be acquired, but unexpectedly, Xuan Zheng spent millions of taels of silver and all of them flowed down, and the huge capital reserves of Sanyuanguan were almost spent.