One million stones of grain!

Selling at low price!

These two pieces of news immediately set off an uproar in the entire city of Xi'an.

The people in the city had suffered from high food prices for a long time, and they began to talk about it after hearing the news.

"Have you heard? His Majesty has shipped a million dan of grain to Shaanxi to stabilize grain prices!"

"Of course I heard about it. The village head went door to door to notify everyone, saying that if they wanted to buy grain, they should register with the county government."

"Your Majesty is truly an unprecedented wise ruler. He even thinks about us when it comes to such trivial matters as eating."

"Your Majesty is indeed a famous monarch throughout history! However... the notice did not say what the lowest price of these low-priced grains would be, and when I asked the village head, he said he didn't know either."

"Why bother with that? Just register first. If the price is low, buy it. If the price is high, don't buy it!"

"That's right, since it's the food His Majesty brought here, he will definitely not cheat us!"

While the people in the city cheered, the gentry and merchants could not be happy at all.

Especially the merchants who bought 200,000 shi of grain from Wang Zhong some time ago, they felt like they were being cheated.

But they can only blame themselves for their bad luck.

First of all, Wang Zhong is a member of the Imperial Guard, and these businessmen cannot afford to offend him.

Secondly, when Wang Zhong sold the grain, he did not say that he only had 200,000 shi.

They were too impatient and didn't ask carefully.

At the gate of Xi'an city.

Lü Daqi, the governor of the three borders of Shaanxi, looked at the carts of grain and smiled from ear to ear. "Great, great! With these grains, the grain prices in Shaanxi can finally be stabilized."

"Sir," an official stepped forward and asked, "People are asking about the price of grain... Could you tell me something?"

"Uh..." Lu Daqi pretended to be silent.

The owner of these grains was the Ming Emperor Chongzhen, and had nothing to do with the imperial court.

He doesn't know exactly how much it sold for.

The person who knew the selling price of grain was none other than Cao Huachun.

As he was talking, Cao Huachun walked over from a distance.

"Master Cao," Lu Daqi stepped forward and bowed, "I hope you are well!"

Cao Huachun rolled his eyes at him. "Didn't Lord Lu call me by my first name last time? Why did you change to Lord Cao now?"

"Ahem," Lu Daqi coughed a few times to cover up his embarrassment, "There were many misunderstandings before, Lord Cao, please don't take it to heart."

"Haha," Cao Huachun snorted coldly, stopped a carriage, opened the sacks and checked the quality of the grain.

Lu Daqi shamelessly stepped forward and asked, "Master Cao, have you decided how much you want to sell the grain for?"

Cao Huachun put down the grain in his hand and asked, "How much do you want to sell it for, Lord Lu?"

"Of course the lower the better."

"That has to be a number. What do you think is appropriate, Lord Lu?"

"This..." Lu Daqi pretended to think about it and said tentatively: "Two taels per stone?"

"Then two taels!" Cao Huachun didn't hesitate at all.

"Ah?" Lu Daqi was shocked. "I... I was joking. Are you joking too?"

Why do Shaanxi merchants choose to hoard food in winter and drive up food prices?

Because transportation costs are high in winter.

If the imperial court wanted to stabilize grain prices, it had to purchase low-priced grain from the south of the Yangtze River and then transport it northward via the canal.

but.

In winter, the canal froze, blocking the grain transport and the food had to be transported by land.

The cost of land transportation is several times that of water transportation.

Once the grain is transported to Shaanxi, the low-cost advantage will be little.

Lu Daqi had been an official for decades and was very clear about the reason, so he casually mentioned a very low price.

I thought Cao Huachun would refuse, but I didn't expect him to agree.

"I'm not kidding!" Cao Huachun said seriously, "Currency reform is a national policy! The cabinet, the six ministries and nine officials, the entire capital, and even the entire Ming Dynasty are all eyeing Shaanxi!"

"Some of them support it, and some oppose it!"

"If the currency reform trial in Shaanxi is successful, it can be implemented nationwide! If it fails, then this national policy will most likely be forced to terminate!"

"That's why His Majesty supports you, Shaanxi, and the ongoing currency reform regardless of the cost!"

"And you must win this war without the smoke of gunpowder!"

Lu Daqi stood there with a solemn expression.

As the governor-general of three borders, he certainly understood the logic, but he did not expect that Chongzhen would support him in this way.

"I have another question..." Lu Daqi asked again.

"Master Lu, please ask."

"How much food was transported? I roughly counted it. Although there were quite a few carriages, there were definitely less than a million stones!"

"It doesn't matter. Lord Lu only needs to remember four words."

"Which four words?"

"Enough food!"

call--

The moment he heard these four words, Lu Daqi felt that the pressure on his body suddenly disappeared.

Before this, he was exhausted both physically and mentally by the high grain prices in Shaanxi.

Now, there is enough food!

"What to do next?" asked Lu Daqi.

“Sell the grain! Make sure the grain is bought by the people who need it, rather than being bought by the gentry and merchants at a low price and sold at a high price!”

"Don't worry, I'll kill anyone I find!"

Three days later, the low-priced grain transported by Chongzhen from other provinces was officially put on sale.

There is only one place to sell grain: the county government office.

In the square outside the county government office, grain was piled up like a mountain.

Even so, horse-drawn carriages loaded with grain continued to arrive one after another, giving people the feeling that there was too much grain and nowhere to put it.

The other side of the square.

The people who came to buy grain carried their shoulder poles and lined up in a long queue behind the village head.

"Today's grain price is two taels of silver or two thousand coins per dan! Those who want to buy should line up behind the village head. Each household is limited to purchasing two dan per month. You have to pay with one hand and the grain with the other!" Dozens of soldiers shouted as they walked in the crowd.

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