Rise From the Humble

"Ahem, there are many things to do in post-disaster reconstruction. Let me make a long story short and keep it simple. Do you really think that the lower the food price, the better? If we in Jingnan, like Taizhou Fucheng, Taiping County and other counties, use thunderous means to If the price of food is forcibly controlled at 500 wen per stone, what will happen in the future?" Zhu Pingan rubbed his forehead and said to everyone in the hall while suppressing his exhaustion.

"The lower the food price, the better. The lower the food price, the more benefits the people will get."

"If we in Jingnan also use thunderous means to control the price of food at 500 yuan per stone, it will naturally be a great joy and everyone will celebrate it. It will naturally get better and better in the future. The price of food has dropped, and the people can afford to buy food. The people If you have food in your hands and don't panic in your heart, then this flood will naturally pass."

"That is, if food prices fall and stabilize, people will feel relieved and society will be stable. Jingnan will naturally get better and better in the future."

Everyone in the hall said one after another that when it comes to lowering food prices, everyone’s faces are full of yearning and longing.

Everyone thinks that the lower the food price, the better. In their view, after people suffered floods and property was damaged, the lower the food price, the better. When food prices are low, everyone can afford it. With food, the flood will naturally pass. No one thinks there will be any harm in lowering food prices.

They are really a group of simple people. When Zhu Pingan heard this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly and shook his head.

"Why, isn't it? Your Majesty, although we have little education, we are not that easy to deceive."

"That's right. Even a nine-year-old child understands that the lower the price of food, the better."

Everyone in the hall didn't realize that what they said was wrong. When they saw Zhu Pingan's expression, they couldn't help but lower the corners of their mouths.

"Everyone, our Jiangnan is the famous granary of the Ming Dynasty. Now Jiangnan is hit by floods. More than 80% of the food in Jiangnan has been destroyed. Only less than 20% of the surviving food in Jiangnan is left. We can't live on just the food in Jiangnan. We, the tens of millions of people in the south of the Yangtze River, want to survive this flood and food shortage crisis. We can only alleviate the food shortage by transporting massive amounts of food from Sichuan, Sichuan, Shandong and other places.

There are two main ways to transport massive amounts of grain from places thousands of miles away, such as Sichuan, Shandong, and Shandong.

One is organized by the imperial court, and the other is the spontaneous transportation of grain by the people.

After the flood, I sent letters to Taizhou Prefecture every day asking for relief and rescue from the imperial court, but there was no news until four days ago. Taizhou Prefecture did not reply to the letter, and the reply only asked our counties to help themselves. In this regard, I have summoned You have talked about it once. At present, due to the frequent disasters in recent years and the huge consumption of the treasury, the Ming Dynasty is unable to organize relief and rescue us in Jiangnan in a short period of time. Therefore, the method of organizing grain transportation by the imperial court cannot be relied on in the short term. Then only private grain transportation is left.

As for private grain transportation, grain is mainly transported through large and small grain merchants in various places. Now we are experiencing a food shortage in Jiangnan. Not only is the price of food in Jingnan rising, but the price of food in Sichuan, Shandong and Shandong is also rising continuously. Although it is lower than the price of food in Jiangnan, it is not much different. The local price per stone of food It’s also close to 500 yuan.

Grain merchants go to other places to purchase grain, and the purchase price is close to 500 Wen. The journey is thousands of miles long, and people eat horses and chews along the way. They also have to hire laborers and care for the hospital. Each item is a big expense, and they have to face bandits and gangsters on the way. Risks such as bandits and even looting by disaster victims. Taken together, the cost for grain merchants to transport grain to other places is much higher than 500 Wen per stone...

If we in Jingnan are like Fucheng and other counties, we use thunderous means to forcibly reduce the price of food to 500 Wen. Then the grain merchants would be unprofitable, have no money to make, and would even have to pay for it. In this case, would the grain merchants still work hard and risk thousands of miles to transport grain from other places to sell in Jingnan? !

As the saying goes, if there is no business, there will be no evil, and if there is no profit, there will be no early start. Do you think it is possible for them to make no money and even use money to transport food?

Put yourself in your shoes, if it were you, there would be no profit, no money to make, and you would even have to pay for it, would you work hard and risk thousands of miles to transport food to other places? !

What if I, Jingnan, use thunderous means like other places to forcibly reduce the price of food to 500 wen per stone! I am sure that our grain merchants in Jingnan will never have such noble character, and they will never work hard and take risks to transport grain to other places without profit! The little food they had that survived the flood would be sold out in less than three days! After that, the people in Jingnan could not buy a grain of grain even with money. I don’t need to say more about what it means to not be able to buy food. There are mourning people all over the land, thousands of miles of red land, Yi Zi eats each other, and bones everywhere... These tragic scenes will reappear in our Jingnan. There is a price but no market, there is a price but no food. What is the use of such a price for food? ! Is this kind of food price what you are pursuing? ! Is this kind of food price really good for the people of Jingnan? ! "

As Zhu Pingan talked, he became more and more excited and emotional. In the end, he couldn't help but slap the table.

boom!

Zhu Ping'an's words were like thunder from the sky, exploding in the minds of everyone in the hall.

Everyone in the hall was instantly blown into pieces by the thunder. Everyone opened their mouths, and couldn't help but feel panic in their hearts. The hair on their bodies stood up as cold as if they had been electrified!

After Zhu Ping'an finished speaking, the entire lobby became so silent that everyone could only hear their heartbeats.

After a while, someone with a pale face shook his head repeatedly, his eyes were blank and unfocused, and his trembling lips murmured: "No, no, how could it be like this... I don't believe it..."

Liu Fuzi, the household administrator, Zhang Tongsheng, the official administrator, Han Cheng, the prison administrator, and Liu Laotou, the ritual administrator, who had just bid farewell to Zhu Pingan, all looked paler than the others at this moment. They were scholars. They were much more knowledgeable than the illiterate police officers. Zhu Ping'an's words were so shocking that they suddenly figured it out as if they were enlightened. It was precisely because they figured it out that their faces became so pale, and they did not dare to look up into Zhu Pingan's eyes, feeling ashamed.

The rat's eyes are short-sighted, the rat's eyes are short-sighted, it's us. Compared with the county magistrate, our vision is too short-sighted.

"It's just that, Lord County, even if you want to induce grain merchants to purchase grain with profit, there is no need to set the price of grain so high, right?"

Old man Liu's face was pale, and his tone was much weaker than when he resigned to Zhu Pingan in the room.

"high?"

Zhu Ping'an twitched his lips when he heard this and shook his head, "It's not high. In this period and under such circumstances, the food price of two thousand and five hundred yuan per stone is not high at all. Only this food price can drive Jingnan After hearing the news, grain merchants and other grain merchants from other places brought grains from all over the Ming Dynasty to our Jingnan in an endless stream to meet the needs of our people in Jingnan. Compared with the lives of more than 100,000 people in Jingnan, the price of this grain is high ?"

When Old Man Liu heard this, he fell silent. Everyone was silent. Only then did they understand why Zhu Pingan had just asked them whether money or life was more important.

"Now you think that the price of food in Jingnan is high. After a while, which can be at least a month or more than three to five months, you will find that the price of food in Jingnan will be the lowest in Taizhou Prefecture. "

Zhu Ping'an looked into the distance and spoke to everyone in the hall with a confident expression. His eyes were deep and distant, as if he could see through time at a glance.

"ah?"

Everyone was shocked and couldn't believe it.

"Don't believe it? You will know after a while." Zhu Pingan didn't say much. The economics, sociology and other principles behind this couldn't be explained to them in a while. Even if it was explained, they probably wouldn't be able to listen. Understand.

"County Lord, although I don't quite understand what you are saying, I think what you said makes sense. If the price of food is lowered, 99% of the time things will turn out like that. But the price of food is too high. Even if the grain merchants are profitable and transport grain like crazy, so that Jingnan has enough food, I'm afraid there are still many poor people who can't afford to buy food. They can't afford to buy food, so they can only starve to death." Han Cheng, the prison official, clasped his fists said.

"Dadao, go get the donation book." Zhu Pingan said to Liu Dadao.

Under everyone's puzzled gazes, Liu Dadao took the order and turned around to leave, and soon came back with a booklet in both hands.

"Dadao, give the booklet to Han Dianli and ask everyone to circulate it." Zhu Pingan said to Liu Dadao.

Liu Dadao took the order and handed the booklet to Han Cheng, but when he handed it to him, he snorted in displeasure.

"Didn't you say that I, Zhu Pingan, accepted bribes from grain merchants?! Yes, this "Jingnan County Flood Disaster Donation Book" is the 'evidence' of my 'accepting bribes'. There are a total of 38 large and small grain merchants in Jingnan People donated a total of 46,000 taels of silver, and I, Zhu Pingan, accepted them all and recorded them one by one! From now on, at the end of every month, if they don’t come, I will also send people to various grain stores to collect donations! From now on, every Whenever a foreign grain merchant comes to Jingnan, I will send someone to visit me in my name! What are you doing with this money!? The poor people in Jingnan who cannot afford to buy grain, this is their money to buy grain! From today on , I will send people to count the poor people in Jingnan who are unable to buy food, and distribute silver coins regularly! I will use the head on this necklace as a guarantee to ensure that no one in Jingnan will starve to death! If one person dies of hunger, you can take this from me 'Corrupt officials', 'dog officials' and 'treacherous officials' have dog heads on their necks!"

When Zhu Pingan was circulating the donation book in the hall, he pointed at his head and said to everyone with red eyes.

"Your Majesty, we were wrong!"

After Han Cheng, the prison warden, finished reading the donation book, he could no longer control himself and fell to his knees with tears streaming down his face.

The county magistrate did not hesitate to taint himself for the sake of the people of Jingnan. He even gave up his reputation and moral integrity, but we still gave him...

"Your Majesty, we were wrong."

Plop, plop. Everyone in the hall fell to their knees like wheat, and no one was left standing.

Everyone has a responsibility to prevent and control the epidemic. Dear book friends, please cooperate with the national prevention and control work, do not go out if you can, and be sure to wear a mask when going out. When the epidemic is over and the spring flowers bloom, let’s go wild, walk and sing.