Rule the Ming Dynasty Alone

The panic buying trend continues in Beijing, and more and more people are flocking to various rice stores. Now a large group of people have gathered in front of Huimin Rice Store.

"Why did the price increase again?"

The customer who had just arrived at the entrance of the rice store saw the new sign inserted on the rice pile and had the same psychological activity as Li He, and suddenly asked dumbly.

The waiter changed his usual smooth service attitude and looked very arrogant and said: "We don't have much rice left in the store. If you want to buy it, hurry up, otherwise you won't be able to buy it anymore!"

This is actually true. Our rice shop has always received rice from the rice pounding mill on the outskirts of the city, and there is a lot of rice in the warehouse, so we never have to worry about running out of rice to sell.

It's just that this year, the rice pounding mill on the outskirts of the city was contracted. Although a batch of rice was purchased from Shandong, the rice in stock was successively bought by rice merchants, exacerbating the panic buying trend these days, so there is indeed not much left.

If they continue to sell at the current rate, no matter how reluctant they are to sell this rice store, they will only be able to hold on for two more days, and I am afraid there will be no rice to sell in the future.

"I know you want to make money when you open a store, but you can't go too far! Just when I passed by here, it was sixty cents, and now it has risen to seventy cents. Isn't this outrageous?" Li He pointed at the price above. The sign, however, accused loudly.

"Yes, that's outrageous!"

"I remember you still had fifty cents this morning!"

"How can you not rise like this? Change it back quickly!"

…

The people in front of the door, led by Li He, also expressed excitement.

But before the waiter could respond, a fat man ran over from the west, held up two fingers and panted: "Quickly...give me...give me...three hundred kilograms!"

ah?

Three hundred pounds?

The people who were asking for the price to be changed back heard that the fat man actually made such a large purchase. Especially just now, the fat man glanced at the price sign and looked at the visitor in disbelief.

cough!

Shopkeeper Liu, who was drinking tea inside, felt a little moved in his heart and immediately coughed heavily.

When it comes to business acumen, he considers himself to be no worse than his peers. Although he doesn't understand why the price of rice has risen so crazily, judging from various signs, the price seems to have room to rise.

Combined with all the weird phenomena since the beginning of this spring, there must be a big driving force behind this wave of market conditions.

After the waiter received the instructions from Shopkeeper Liu, he refused to the fat man with a righteous look and said: "Our shopkeeper has already told us that we cannot let the neighbors go hungry. Each person can only buy a maximum of thirty kilograms at a time!"

"Okay, then quickly... give me thirty pounds!" The fat man urged without too much entanglement, appearing to be very happy.

Since the price has increased to seventy cents, thirty kilograms is equivalent to two thousand one hundred cents. Although the value of copper coins is quite depreciated now, seeing the large bunch of copper coins that the fat man took out can be said to be outrageous.

"Brother, why did you buy so much?" Facing this fat man who was so eager to buy rice, someone immediately asked curiously.

"The rice shop in the next street has no rice to sell, and the one at the east end of the street has already raised the price to 75 cents!" The fat man revealed in a good mood after receiving the rice bag.

"I want twenty pounds!"

"I want thirty pounds!"

"We both need thirty pounds!"

…

As soon as he finished speaking, a group of customers who were still watching immediately rushed towards the waiter who was counting money, but they all waved the bills in their hands and said wildly.

Human nature is like this. Just now, we were thinking of jointly asking for a reduction in the original price, but now we are fighting to buy rice.

"I...I also want twenty pounds!"

When Li He saw the frenzied buying crowd in front of him, he had to accept the fact that the price of rice suddenly rose from 60 cents to 70 cents, so he had no choice but to join the rush.

Unlike others, his rice tank has bottomed out now. Even if the price doubles again, he will be forced to buy high-priced rice.

As for the loss of five cents per catty due to the exchange of tickets, we can only accept this sad fact. What made him greedy just now? He obviously had rice tickets that could be exchanged for rice, but he ended up choosing this unreliable silver.

At this moment, this rush of buying is like a plague, happening in front of rice stores in the capital.

“Why has the price of rice risen so high?”

"Who knows, go buy rice!"

"Let's go, if you don't buy it, you won't be able to buy it!"

…

Although many people do not understand why the price of rice suddenly soared, it is no longer the time to think about these things. The top priority is to hoard a large amount of food.

In fact, this panic was largely not due to a real lack of food, but due to panic in the capital. This was the same situation as many panic buying surges in later generations.

Of course, the powerful class headed by Li Jin, the Marquis of Xiangyang, relied on their own capital advantages to hoard grain, which indeed caused a significant drop in the supply of rice grain in the capital. This panic could easily cause rice prices to skyrocket.

"Our store has run out of rice. If you need it, come back tomorrow morning!"

Finally, it was Li He's turn to buy rice, but he found that the waiter suddenly showed a new sign, which actually meant he would stop selling rice.

"No more? What should I do?"

"What else can I do? Come back tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow it won't be at this price. Maybe I still can't buy it!"

…

When the people saw that the rice had run out, or that shopkeeper Liu was not prepared to continue selling it at "low prices," they could only swallow this bitter pill silently.

"how so?"

When Li He heard this, he knew that he had made the wrong choice today.

If he were still the rich young master, or the new head of the family who had just inherited the family business, he would naturally not need to sell the rice stamps in his hand for small profits, but he was already impoverished now.

It seemed like I had made a profit of 10% just now, but I actually lost 10%. Unfortunately, this matter is not over yet, and now Shopkeeper Liu is using the excuse of running out of money. No one knows what trouble Shopkeeper Liu will pull tomorrow.

Looking back at that rice ticket, the Royal Rice Store now has enough rice. Not only does it not need to worry about price increases, but it can also be freely exchanged for sufficient polished rice.

After figuring this out, he immediately ran back to find the young man with a mole between his eyebrows, but the young man had already sold the rice stamps at a high price.

By the end of July, the "rice shortage" in Beijing has become more serious.

Although people in Beizhili organized people to fight locusts, they could only reduce and recover some losses, but it was impossible to avoid a poor harvest this year.

As for the blockage of the canal, the problem is more complicated than imagined. The Yellow River is originally an untameable water beast, but it becomes even more capricious in summer.

The governor's office of the river channel tried to let the Yellow River re-route a new river course in the direction it was diverted. As a result, after the flood surged, it actually ran in another direction.

The more the River Governor's Yamen wants to dredge the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal as soon as possible, and the more he wants to borrow an appropriate amount of Yellow River water from the Yellow River, the easier it is to make mistakes in the process.

In fact, this matter cannot be entirely blamed on the River Governor's Yamen. Regulating the Yellow River and dredging the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal were originally two extremely difficult tasks, but now the River Governor's Yamen is required to do them well at the same time.

However, for whatever reason, since food and goods from the south cannot go north, and this year's autumn grain harvest in the north is a foregone conclusion, the price of rice in the capital has easily exceeded the hundred-cent mark.

As for the rice stamps that can be easily exchanged for polished rice from the Royal Rice Store, some smart people have started to become second-hand dealers after discovering that they are profitable, and the price of rice stamps has naturally increased.

In the Hall of Nourishing Heart, sandalwood scent lingers.

"I am ashamed to be so kind to your majesty, please punish me!" Li Si, the minister of household affairs, who was wearing a first-grade official uniform, came to the palace and knelt down respectfully.

He is from Guangzhou Prefecture, Guangdong Province. Due to his diligence and studiousness at a young age, as well as his talent and intelligence, he was already on the gold list in his early twenties and was first appointed as the head of the Nanjing Household Department.

Although he had no backer in the court, with his talent in arithmetic, diligence and prudent work, it took him thirty years to finally climb to the position of Minister of Household Affairs.

Now meeting Ming Jun Hongzhi, he, the Minister of Household Affairs, is like a fish in water. He has managed the Household Department in an orderly manner over the years and made the empire prosperous.

But he couldn't bear to think that something had happened to him in the end, and now his life and fortune might not be safe.

Zhu Youtang was condescendingly taking care of Li Si who was kneeling on the ground, but he put down the memorial in his hand: "How could you...let me be so disappointed!"

"I deserve to die for my crime!" Li Si already knew the content of the memorial and confessed with self-blame.

Zhu Youtang's eyes flashed with disappointment, but in the end he still thought about the feelings between the emperor and his subjects: "Now that the matter has spread, I can't protect you! After you complete the rice stamp promotion plan, submit the "Hongzhi Financial New Year" "Example", please take the blame and resign!"

The rice ticket promotion plan was actually a plan that had been formulated a long time ago.

Food, this is the greatest wealth of agricultural society, not those dead things made of silver. China's social wealth should not be swept away by silver.

Due to the imperial court's nationwide clearing of land, a large amount of grain originally held by large landowners was slowly flowing into the hands of the Ming court.

In addition, during the nationwide land clearing period, many large landowners were forced to recover rice grains, so now a large amount of grains were actually controlled by the Ming Dynasty.

Now that the imperial court controls a large amount of rice grain, it has natural renegotiation rights, and it can naturally despise or even ignore silver.

Just like the Middle East in later generations, they taught the world a good lesson. Because they have the largest reserves of oil, under the guidance of the United States, even gold eventually became ineffective, and countries around the world could only trade in dollars.

Former US Secretary of State Kissinger said: "Whoever controls oil controls all countries; whoever controls food controls humanity; whoever controls currency controls the global economy."

Now that the grain is in the Ming Dynasty, it can definitely have a good fight with silver, thus completely shaking the currency status that should not belong to silver.

In fact, the people of the Marquis of Xiangcheng did not know that the reason why the capital was so prone to panic buying this time was mainly because a large amount of food in the north had been controlled by the imperial court.

"I accept the order and thank you for your kindness!" Li Si already knew that this was a good result and expressed his frustration.

Zhu Youtang thought of what Li Si had done over the years, and said in good faith: "After you become an official, your eldest son will join the Metropolitan Procuratorate as a prosecutor. Since your second son wants to do business, now he will write books for him I'm sure I can make a lot of money transporting rice north by sea, and I can give him a mining right in Luzon in the future!"

"I thank your Majesty for your kindness!" Li Si did not expect that Zhu Youtang could be so kind to him, and he couldn't help but tears welling up in his eyes.

Zhu Youtang looked at Li Si, who had really worked hard these years, and said with emotion: "Li Qing, we have been kings and ministers for four years, and you have worked hard for me financially. Although you have made a mistake now, you should take care of your health. I hope that the monarch and his ministers will be reunited in a few years!"

"I accept the decree!" Li Si couldn't help but shed tears, and he seemed to express his true feelings.

If he had a choice, he would definitely educate his son well, manage his domestic slaves well, and create a good family tradition.

But now everything is irreversible, and he is about to leave this prosperous court, and he is also far away from this century-old monarch with great talents and great strategies.

Zhu Youtang sighed and gently raised his hand to ask Li Si to step back.

Liu Jin saw Li Si leaving and finally couldn't help but said: "Your Majesty, after the Supreme Council ended earlier, you said that there might be a fight in the court. Now that Li Shangshu has been impeached at this time, it is such a coincidence, slave. I think someone wants to bring down Li Shangshu so that his own people can go up!"

Huang Yuben, the president of the Guangdong Chamber of Commerce, was the leader of Cantonese businessmen in the capital. After being subjected to financial rectification by the imperial court, he finally chose to return to Guangdong to engage in the financial industry.

Although he could still operate legally at first, after tasting the huge profits from loan sharking, he finally chose to return to his old business and make huge profits through loan sharking.

However, when the incident came to light, even though He Qiaoxin was asked to help clear him out, it actually became one of the factors that led to He Qiaoxin's downfall.

Originally, Huang Yu was going to be punished, but Li Si was eventually implicated. His second son actually used Li Si's identity to help Huang Yu escape to the sea.

Now this old matter has been brought up by the Censor of Guangdong, and there are evidences and confessions. In addition, Li Si happened to accept gifts from Huang Yu's family, making this matter almost a solid case.

"Whether it's a court battle or not, this is the only way to deal with it now!" Zhu Youtang said firmly while looking at the memorial with solid evidence.

In fact, he knew that this was the result of a struggle in the imperial court, and someone must have specifically targeted him, the Minister of Household Affairs. It's just that I can't cover up without a bottom line just because of my preference, otherwise only ministers like Yan Song will appear.

Although he never expected his ministers to be honest and capable, he would not allow them to commit crimes. When Li Si chose to protect the criminal Huang Yu, he had no choice but to reluctantly part with him.

Liu Jin nodded with enlightenment and said with great admiration: "Your Majesty is wise!"

On August 1, the Ministry of Household Affairs officially promulgated the "New Regulations on Hongzhi Currency".

In view of the continuous rise in rice prices in the capital, the Royal Rice Store now has sufficient food, so cloth tickets can be exchanged for rice tickets at the Royal Bank. One cloth ticket can be exchanged for eighty kilograms of polished rice.

"I saw it right, how could it be possible?"

"If we apply this discount, the price of rice has not increased at all!"

"I told you that the royal family only cares about the common people, so how could they watch us eat high-priced rice? Wuwu..."

…

When people in the capital saw the latest notice and learned that the cloth tickets in their hands could be exchanged for rice tickets, they were so moved that they burst into tears. (End of chapter)