The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty

The food costs thirty cents per catty!

Zhu Houzhao gritted his teeth in anger.

You must know that when ordinary people go out to work, the average salary is about forty or fifty cents. Sometimes when someone is very hard-pressed for money, they may not even get thirty cents.

Especially during slack seasons or in times of famine like now, many times you have to work for others for nothing, as long as you have something to eat.

Now the price of food has soared to thirty cents per catty, which means that after a hard day's work, you can only get about one catty of food!

A pound of grain is not enough to feed a family, it is barely enough to feed a labor force. In an era when meat was scarce, people who worked hard and worked hard could eat a pound of rice in one meal if they opened their bellies.

As for these grain merchants, they are now taking advantage of the famine to raise prices. The price of this grain has increased several times!

Zhu Houzhao was furious and immediately summoned Yang Tinghe and Zhu Youqi.

"Thirty cents per pound, is that high?"

Zhu Youzhao looked at Zhu Houzhao, then at Yang Tinghe, thought for a while and touched his nose and said.

"Prince Xing, the price of thirty cents per catty of food has reached sky-high prices. You should know that it usually only costs a few cents per catty." Yang Tinghe quickly replied.

"How much does it usually cost per pound?" Zhu Youqian was a little confused.

He grew up in a deep palace, so he naturally had no worries about food and clothing. Later, when he went out to become a prince, he didn't have to worry about his livelihood, and he never cared about the price of food.

But he just didn't know the specific number, and he wasn't a fool who said "why not eat minced meat", so Zhu Youqi reacted immediately.

"This is clearly a businessman deliberately hoarding food to make huge profits!"

Yang Tinghe also nodded.

Originally, when the three provinces of northern Xinjiang suffered from severe drought and no harvest, food became the most important. If the price of food could remain stable, the natural disaster could be overcome relatively easily.

But since ancient times, this natural disaster will inevitably be accompanied by man-made disasters.

Taking advantage of famines to deliberately hoard food and raise food prices for personal gain has been a common practice for grain merchants since ancient times.

There are many ways for unscrupulous grain dealers to make a fortune, such as mixing grain with sand and soil, weighing half a pound, using old grain as new grain, etc. There are various methods, but these are all routine operations.

The real way to get rich overnight is like now, when you take advantage of the famine to deliberately obtain food, join forces to drive up food prices, and then make huge profits!

Often after a famine, these grain merchants all make a lot of money.

After all, filling your stomach is the most important thing at any time. When there is no food, even if you have a rich family, gold, silver and jewelry are useless. Gold and silver cannot be eaten after all.

And after they deliberately raised the price of food, I don’t know how many people will starve to death!

Food is the most important thing!

Mou Bin continued: "Your Majesty, the most troublesome thing is that grain merchants are already stocking up like crazy and are unwilling to sell on a large scale. Jin Yiwei tentatively asked several stores, and they all gave me the same reply, no. Then sell grain in large quantities.”

Yang Tinghe's face also turned cold.

"They are sure that this famine will continue. The winter wheat they planted last year almost failed due to the cold winter. This means that in the next few months, before the spring wheat is on the market, their food will be exhausted. It can be sold for a sky-high price..."

After hearing this, Zhu Houzhao stood up suddenly and was extremely angry.

"Forget it about hoarding food and driving up food prices, there is still food that is not for sale!"

"Mo Bin, you immediately take people to arrest all these unscrupulous grain dealers and beat them up one by one until they kneel down and lower the price of grain!"

"According to the order!"

When Mu Bin heard this, he couldn't help but become excited.

He hates evil so much that he likes to do such things, so he can be wild for once!

"Wait a minute!" Yang Tinghe hurriedly stopped him.

"Your Majesty, this matter is not as simple as we thought!"

"Generally, unscrupulous grain dealers can raise prices during times of famine, but they will never restrict sales, let alone a terrible situation where all grains do this!"

Yang Tinghe looked solemn and said: "Some grain merchants are time-honored brands that have been passed down for generations. Even if the price of grain increases slightly due to the famine, they will not restrict sales and destroy their own brands for generations!"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Houzhao frowned and fell into deep thought.

Now he always feels that there is a sense of conspiracy in it. Thinking about it carefully, he always feels that there is something unusual.

After thinking for a short time, Zhu Houzhao suddenly recalled Xu Mengchun, and an idea quickly came to his mind!

Jiangnan gentry!

When he thought of this, Zhu Houzhao not only showed no fear at all, but also became excited and happy.

"Very good, really good!"

"I'm suddenly interested now. I want to see who is behind this!"

He originally wanted to find an opportunity to punish these Jiangnan gentry and make them bow their heads and agree to the imperial government's abolition of the national policy of maritime ban.

Things are getting better now. Someone will give you a pillow when you feel sleepy. The Jiangnan gentry took the initiative to use food to start a war. Zhu Houzhao will naturally not be polite.

"Mo Bin, mobilize the factory guards to keep an eye on these grain merchants. The most important thing is to keep an eye on the grain in their hands!"

Hearing this, Mou Bin hurriedly took the order and left.

Zhu Youju said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, I think no matter whether there is a conspiracy or not, we should prepare early and find a way to raise food."

"Especially the disaster area in northern Xinjiang, which concerns the lives of tens of millions of people, and must not become a victim of court struggles."

Zhu Youju also understood that this time the surge in grain prices was a continuation of the court struggle, and even affected the people.

This is something he absolutely cannot tolerate!

Because last winter was too cold, the winter wheat in the three northern provinces was harvested and poor, so there was a famine.

Famine is a common thing. There will be some disasters every year, either floods, droughts, or locust plagues.

The court only needs to dispatch food in time for disaster relief and disaster relief, and naturally nothing will happen.

But now these damn civil officials and gentry have seized the opportunity to use this time to fight in the court, forcing Zhu Houzhao to bow to them and ignore the victims of the disaster and the hungry!

Zhu Houzhao also realized the seriousness of the problem.

"Master Yang, you should go to the northern border immediately to check the grain reserves in the granaries in various places in the north, and then preside over the disaster relief!"

This matter concerns the lives of hundreds of millions of people, and Yang Tinghe also understands the importance of this matter, so he took on this task.

He must go there in person and see the grain piled up in those granaries with his own eyes before he can feel at ease.

Now, except for Yang Tinghe, Zhu Houzhao no longer believes in those gentry.

This time, he, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, must win the war!