My life skills in Daming Liver

The news of Chen Yiqin's defeat in Suiyang further stimulated prices in the capital.

Crazy rising prices have caused this city, which has begun to urbanize, to quickly begin to flee.

The reason is also very simple. After urbanization in modern society, the survival of the urban population in the city completely depends on the supply of the economic system.

In the era of agricultural society, most of the population lived in rural areas and relied on the land to obtain food.

In the era of industrialization, people gathered in cities. They relied on selling their labor in exchange for remuneration, and then used currency to exchange for survival supplies.

And when the monetary system completely collapsed and employees who relied on selling their labor power were unable to obtain corresponding income, the entire system collapsed immediately.

And this collapse has even spread further to the original middle-class groups in the city.

For example, the officials of Shuntian Prefecture, during Zhang Juzheng's reforms, also imitated Southeast and incorporated officials into the salary system, paying them part of their salaries to reduce corruption.

However, during the Li Chunfang era, as the income of the Ming court further declined, the salaries of officials also decreased.

Now that prices are soaring, the income of Shuntian officials has not increased, and this salary can no longer sustain life in the capital.

Not only the officials, but also low-level officials in some yamen find it difficult to make a living on their salaries.

Li Chengliang reinstated the system of paying lumi to officials, which alleviated the living dilemma of low-ranking officials, but their living standards were only enough to survive.

As officials at the lower level, they naturally cannot enjoy the benefits of lumi, and their salaries are still increasingly worthless silver dollars.

However, it is impossible for a living person to suffocate to death. In the face of inflation, ordinary people can only flee the capital or sell their property to survive.

But the officials who symbolize the power of the government cannot be willing to starve to death.

Suddenly, these Shuntian Mansion officials rushed to the streets like mad dogs and began to extort and rob madly.

Those shops that were struggling to support themselves were exploited to the point of closing down and going bankrupt in an instant. Some shops were even emptied out by these ferocious officials as soon as they opened.

Not only shops, these officials also rushed into workshops, blackmailed and exploited the workshop owners, and snatched raw materials from the warehouses that had not yet been made into products.

This caused more shops to close down and bankrupt, and the chain reaction even spread to military factories.

The rebuilt Wanggong Factory has always had insufficient output, not even reaching half of the level before the Wanggong Factory explosion.

The economic turmoil these days has caused Wang Gong Factory to further reduce production, and many raw materials cannot be transported to the capital.

After Li Chengliang inspected Wang Gong Factory, he immediately received detailed news of the defeat in Henan.

After seeing the news, Li Chengliang once again convened a meeting with his staff and generals to discuss the war in Henan.

Hao Xian has kept a low profile during this period, but has also become much more haggard.

The plan to invite Zhang Juzheng and his son to come out failed. The Ming court's economic policies were tinkered with, and inflation continued to expand. However, no one in the entire Ming court could propose an effective bailout policy.

The Ministry of Revenue even admitted that if the production of silver coins of insufficient quality was stopped immediately, the economic system of the Ming Dynasty would immediately collapse.

If officials can't get silver dollars as wages, soldiers can't get silver dollars as military pay, and military factories can't get silver dollars to purchase raw materials, the entire order of the Ming Dynasty will collapse.

But even Li Chengliang, who did not understand economics at all, knew that the excessive issuance of Ming court silver coins had further bankrupted his credit. If the bad printing continued, the silver coins would become even less valuable.

During this period, Mingting also made two attempts to rescue the market.

The first attempt was to ban the use of Southeast silver dollars and force the Southeast silver dollars held to be exchanged for Ming court silver dollars at market rates.

When this policy was first introduced, it did play a certain role, but soon, the corrupt grassroots officials of the Ming Dynasty immediately regarded this as an opportunity to make a fortune. The officials directly used this ordinance as a tool to blackmail the people.

They rushed directly into the homes of ordinary people who hid Southeast Silver Dollars and robbed them of Southeast Silver Dollars.

After this policy took effect for a short time, it quickly got out of control. The law became a reminder for those in power to plunder the wealth of ordinary people, and it also caused ordinary people to hate the use of Ming Dynasty silver coins.

Who would have known that these officials plundered the Southeast Silver Dollars from the common people and spent them all on themselves, only to give themselves increasingly worthless Ming Dynasty Silver Dollars?

Moreover, the exchange was based on the market rate according to the law, but was directly forcibly exchanged at a one-to-one ratio. There were even officials who directly confiscated the Southeast Silver Dollars in the hands of the people.

The result was that after briefly maintaining stability, prices collapsed further.

People rushed to exchange the Ming Dynasty silver coins in their hands for commodities. Whether they were usable or not, they hoarded them at home. Even if they were replaced with paper for wiping their butts, they would retain their value better than the Ming Dynasty silver coins.

As a result, prices skyrocketed again, food prices doubled, and inflation became more serious.

Li Chengliang saw prices rising to this point, and his first attempt to rescue the market failed.

Since the people are not stable, Li Chengliang can only find ways to stabilize market prices.

So Li Chengliang issued a decree requiring merchants to sell goods at market prices and no price increases were allowed.

Even if this decree is issued, it will have no effect.

Small merchants who had no background before had already gone bankrupt and closed down.

The ones that are still open for business in the capital today are either shops with official background and affiliated to the Sixth Department.

Either they are shops affiliated to the names of powerful people like the Qingyuan Bo Li family. These businessmen are basically white gloves for the powerful to make money. Ordinary officials have no control over these businessmen.

The result is that this decree is of no use at all. Stores in the market are still raising prices that should be raised. Food prices are still rising crazily, and prices still show no sign of being brought down.

After two twists and turns, Li Chengliang received the news of Henan's defeat. Now he could no longer care about the "small issue" of commodity prices.

Faced with the current situation, the generals only had different opinions and could not give any useful suggestions.

The Ming Dynasty is hard to come back from. Henan is not only a military problem, but also a problem for the entire Ming Dynasty.

Li Chengliang set his sights on Shan Hao Xian. He did not trust the civil servants of the Ming court, and Shan Hao Xian was the only counselor he could trust.

Shan Hao first smiled bitterly and said, "Henan can't be saved."

Everyone was silent, Shanhao said first:

"Suiyang is the only pass from Henan to Huaibei. Once you reach Suiyang, there is no danger for Henan to defend."

"Then what can be done?"

Shan Hao first said: "Finish all your efforts in one battle and defeat Xuzhou!"

Sorry, sorry, it was late. The timing was wrong.