As they walked through Tai'an City, Zhang Jiadi and He Qiang became increasingly astonished.

Li Chang'an not only provided the local people with three meals a day, but also enabled them to live a life they never dared to dream of.

Zhang Jiadi originally thought that this was a life obtained by exploiting merchants.

But when he passed through the market, he noticed that the merchants there also had smiles on their faces, and the corners of their mouths were turned up and never looked down.

Even merchants in Tai'an City would set up stalls to distribute porridge and offer free tea to others.

Even though the commercial tax has been increased several times over, merchants in Sichuan are all talking behind the scenes about this unreasonable tax.

However, this wasn't the case in Tai'an City. They seemed to disregard commercial taxes and continued to conduct business as usual.

Zhang Jiadi couldn't understand it; he really couldn't understand it.

He walked all the way to the other side of Tai'an City, still immersed in what he had just seen and heard.

Li Chang'an didn't disturb him, but instead picked up a fishing rod and sat down to fish by the moat.

Since he didn't bring much bait, he took out two tons of grain from his system inventory and threw it down to create a feeding area.

A loud bang startled Zhang Jiadi out of his reverie.

He Qiang, meanwhile, stared into thought at the fish in the moat that had been stunned by the rice.

Isn't that a bit too much?

Li Chang'an, however, didn't seem to care. "Why not just bait the nest?" he thought.

If the moat weren't so small, Li Chang'an would have liked to throw hundreds of tons of rice down to create a fishing spot.

Startled awake, Zhang Jiadi sat down as well and began fishing with his rod.

After a while, he finally spoke and asked.

"Brother Haoran, I have a question, but I'm not sure if I should ask it."

"Speak!"

Li Chang'an fished for a while, but no fish bit the hook, so he took out five tons of grain and threw them into the river to bait the area.

Fish in the river: ...

Has the burrowing fairy come again?

The existence of unlimited food made Li Chang'an feel that his actions were quite reasonable.

But to He Qiang, Zhang Jiadi, and even the fish in the river, this was utterly illogical.

Looking at Li Chang'an's extravagant behavior, Zhang Jiadi shook his head and asked, "Brother Haoran, how do you manage to ensure that the people of the capital can have three meals a day?"

"I remember before I left, even the richest landlords wouldn't have been so extravagant."

Li Chang'an smiled upon hearing this: "I didn't do anything."

"But now, the least valuable thing in people's homes is grain."

He looked at the grain churning in the river and then spoke.

Two months ago, Tai'an City and the capital city both received a grain harvest.

"Three million people cultivated a total of 2.2 million mu of farmland."

"Under my forceful promotion, all the crops planted are high-yield grain varieties."

"On average, each mu of land yields 7,000 jin of grain."

"Two million two hundred thousand mu of land, producing a total of 15.4 billion jin of grain, or 154 million dan."

At this point, Li Chang'an's fishing hook twitched. He lifted it up and saw a two-pound grass carp hanging on the hook.

Zhang Jiadi and He Qiang were completely astonished by this data.

Three million people produced more than 150 million dan of grain.

The number of registered citizens in the Ming Dynasty was only a little over 60 million.

Even including refugees and other hidden populations, the total number is at most 90 million.

The grain produced in the capital is enough to feed every person in the Ming Dynasty one and a half dan (a unit of weight).

That's enough to support all the people of the Ming Dynasty.

Li Chang'an took the grass carp off the river and threw it back in, then continued speaking.

"And this is only the yield for one season. Due to the heavy rains, only two seasons can be planted this year."

"Therefore, the grain output of Beijing this year is more than 30 billion catties."

"The current situation here is that there is more food than people, and we simply can't finish eating it all."

"I have removed all the grain from my shop and let the people trade freely."

"Now the price of grain has dropped to ten coins per pound for rice and five coins per pound for coarse grains."

"The price is still falling because nobody is buying food anymore."

"Only some merchants transported grain from the capital to sell elsewhere."

"And the prices offered by these merchants were two coins per pound for coarse grains and five coins per pound for rice."

"Fortunately, the grain yield is quite high, so the low price of grain will not hurt farmers. Even if it is only two coins per catty, an acre of land can earn more than ten strings of cash."

"So now, the cheapest thing in the hands of ordinary people is grain."

"With the help of these merchants, there is enough grain in all parts of the Ming Dynasty to keep everyone alive."

At this point, Li Chang'an looked up at the sky, his eyes becoming slightly moist.

“Sage, I have fulfilled your wish in this world.”

"Enjoying the cool shade under the rice plants ensures the people have enough to eat!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Jiadi was suddenly moved to tears. He stood up and bowed to Li Chang'an.

“Zhang Jiadi, a Confucian disciple, thanks Brother Haoran on behalf of the people of the world.”

"No need to thank me. This is a grain developed by a sage from my hometown. If you want to thank someone, thank him."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Jiadi wiped his face and said, "Even the sage deserves thanks. When I return to the Confucian school, I will definitely build a temple for the sage and enshrine his golden statue."

Upon hearing this, Li Chang'an pointed to Tai'an City and said, "There's no need to build a temple. Right now, the person with the most temples in Tai'an City is the Sage, and the person with the most shrines is me."

“Those people worship my shrine in their homes every day, cursing me to live a long life.”

Thinking of this, Li Chang'an became somewhat angry. He was immortal, yet these bastards cursed him to live to be a hundred years old every day.

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