Wei and Jin cooks

After sending Qiao Jin away, Zhao Hanzhang began to summon Zhao Ming and other court officials to discuss the next major event.

She wants to open up the mountains and rivers to the people.

The mountains, water, and minerals in this world theoretically belong to the state. Private individuals cannot mine minerals, hunt, fish, or do many things.

Of course, these bans are of little use at the moment. Everyone should go into the mountains when they should, and go into the water when they should. There are also many people who mine privately.

But relaxing the ban will still be a little different. This is a signal that people can profit from the mountains and rivers in order to obtain capital for survival.

Zhao Hanzhang robbed the rich and gave to the poor. Ahem, he used the rich to support the poor and collected a lot of money. She herself did not expect that there were many rich people in Yuzhou with rich assets. It seemed that Yuzhou had developed well in the past few years.

After Zu Ti and Bei Gongchun sent a batch of money to Chen County, Zhao Hanzhang ordered all localities not to send the received money to Chen County or Luoyang, but to seal it in the warehouse for local use. of government expenditure.

At the same time as the order was issued, large quantities of grain from Jingzhou and Yangzhou arrived in Chen County. Zhao Hanzhang began to distribute grain to various places. One batch went to Youzhou, one batch to Bingzhou, one batch to Jizhou, Qingzhou and Guangzhou, and some to Yongzhou. During the years of famine, cannibalism continued, so we had to send them some food.

The food he just received was divided by Zhao Hanzhang in less than a day. Not a grain of rice was left in Yuzhou. Even so, it was still a drop in the bucket, so Zhao Hanzhang continued to ask Wang Siniang and Yuan Li to get food, and at the same time he went to urge Zhao Hu. .

Zhao Hu's caravan has been collecting grain everywhere in the Jiangnan countryside. They originally wanted to go directly to the grain merchants, but except for a few grain merchants, most of the grain merchants they contacted said they had no grain.

The caravan manager can only go to the countryside to search for food one by one, which is a little slower, but the results are good. He can buy food at a little more price than the grain merchant.

Small farmers like to sell grain to them. In their eyes, there is no difference between local grain merchants and northern grain merchants. As long as someone pays them, whoever pays the higher price will sell to whom.

So the Zhao family's stewards discovered a secret. It was indeed scattered and laborious to buy grain in the countryside, but the price was low and it saved a lot of effort.

To find a grain merchant in the city to make a deal, you not only have to raise the banner, treat guests to drinks, and establish connections, but you also have to get a high price. The cost is extremely high. Of course, compared with the current grain prices in the north, they are still very low, but now Going to the countryside is even lower.

So the manager was obsessed with going to the countryside to buy grain. He simply said to the guys below: "I leave this matter to you. No matter what price you buy it at, I will pay you two hundred and forty cents for one stone for wheat, and two for one stone." One hundred and eighty cents of millet was credited to the account."

The eyes of all the clerks lit up. In other words, as long as they collect wheat and millet at a lower price, they can make a profit from the price difference. Currently, the price of wheat given to small farmers by local grain merchants in Jiangnan ranges from 180 to 200 yuan. The price of millet fluctuates between 220 and 250 fen.

They can make money as long as they charge a higher price than the local grain merchants and control the purchase before the supervisor charges the price.

So the guys quickly calculated and took the money and went out.

Of course, they don't dare to go out alone to collect goods. They go out in groups of a few or more than a dozen people. Otherwise, if they encounter robbers and they are not locals, then they will be called Tiantian and Earth. The earth is not working.

But the small farmers in the village don't have much food to sell. They always have to keep enough food for their family, and they have to pay the food tax, and the rest can be exchanged for copper coins.

So three days later, the steward counted a batch of grain and sent it away. He wanted to buy it again, but found that he could no longer receive grain from the nearby villages, so his eyes fell on the gentry and landlords.

But after experiencing the benefit of not having a middleman to make a difference in price, he was not willing to pay too high a cost to purchase grain, so he whispered to the remaining guys and let them go immediately.

Achun is a seventeen-year-old young man from Sanjiang Village. He quickly ran home across the field in his straw sandals. He excitedly said to his parents: "Dad, grandma, those merchants collecting grain from the north are here again."

His father frowned and said expressionlessly: "Our family has no food to sell."

"I know, I want to go collect grain with them," Achun said, "They said that as long as I follow them to carry the goods, I can give them ten cents a day. If I can introduce them to someone who sells grain, I can get them every day." If you receive one stone, I will give you another two cents. Dad, I want to go with them."

The man frowned and said nothing.

Ah Chunniang said worriedly: "Isn't it a lie?"

Ah Chun was worried and said anxiously: "I only have one life left. What can they lie to us? Dad, let me go. My brother just got married. There is no shortage of people in the land at home. It is useless for me to stay at home. Me, I don’t want to be like Uncle Twelve at the end of the village.”

The twelfth uncle at the end of the village was the youngest child. He was already twenty-three after marrying wives for his elder brothers. His family could no longer afford the money to marry a wife. In addition, his brothers were clamoring to separate the family, so he ended up alone. He was assigned to the end of the village. Because he was poor, he never got a wife in his life. He had to live alone and his life was very difficult.

Ah Chun has feelings. He is seventeen years old, but his family can no longer afford to propose marriage to him.

And as the saying goes, a good man doesn't want to live apart from his family. He wants to make a career on his own and not rely on his parents and brothers for a living.

Ah Chun's father was silent for a long time, but he nodded in agreement. He turned to Ah Chun Niang and said, "Make him some pancakes and take them with you."

Ah Chun became happy and couldn't help but cheered lowly.

Ah Chun's father said: "Every village except the landlord's family now has no surplus grain that can be sold. If you want to find food, go to the landlord's housekeeper."

Achun knew that they often worked for the landowners nearby and were familiar with their housekeepers. He even knew several of their bosses.

These small landowners like to stock up on some grain, and they also like to go to local grain dealers to sell grain. However, they do not just sell it out all at once. After all, the price of grain drops after the autumn harvest, so they usually sell it in batches, and some even keep the grain until the third day of next year. In April, during the lean period, they were sold to grain merchants to get a better price.

Ah Chun took the Zhao family's men to find such small landowners.

Some stewards offered them some because of the price, while others refused to do anything, but the guys didn't panic and raised the banner of Zhao Hanzhang.

For the sake of Zhao Hanzhang and the court, many small landowners were willing to sell grain to them, and some even hoped that the Zhao family's clerks could recommend Zhao family stewards to them.

As for Zhao Hanzhang, he is now the most powerful official in the Jin Dynasty. He can be related to their family's steward... he can wake up laughing in his dreams.

Achun took them from village to village and became more familiar with them. After collecting the third batch of grain, he decided to go to Yuzhou with the Zhao family to have a look. There were many local young people who had the same ideas as him. Oh, they all It was a boy from the Zhao family who came to guide them.

Young and strong people work a lot and are paid less. The combined wages of more than a dozen people in one month are not much. It costs a lot to treat the stewards of the grain stores in the city to a meal. The Zhao family's guys are very satisfied with this, and the Zhao family's stewards are also very satisfied. Satisfied, Achun and others were also very happy after making money and finding a better way out.

See you tomorrow