"Come and take a look!"

"Today's grain price is two taels of silver or two thousand coins per stone, the same price as the government grain!"

"Don't miss it if you pass by it, you will miss it if you miss it!"

Outside a grain shop in Xi'an Prefecture, the shop assistant shouted at passers-by at the top of his voice.

Upon hearing the news, passers-by stopped and, under the guidance of the shop assistant, walked into the store to check the quality of the grain.

After a while, the pedestrians came out cursing.

"How dare you buy this broken thing for 2,000 coins per stone? Did Li Chuangzi give you the courage?"

"That's true. The official rations are all high-quality rice that meets military standards. It's worth selling them at two thousand coins per stone! The rice here isn't even considered medium-quality rice. Who would buy it for two thousand coins?"

Seeing these people were about to leave, the owner of the grain shop, which had not been open for a long time, hurriedly shouted: "Don't leave in a hurry, everyone. The grain here is indeed not as good as the official grain, but the price is negotiable."

"Tell me, what's the lowest price? If it's suitable, we'll buy it. If it's not suitable, we'll line up to buy government grain!" asked the pedestrian.

"How about this, I see that you are all sincere in buying grain, so I will give you a discount of fifty coins per stone!"

"One thousand nine hundred and fifty coins per stone?"

"right!"

"Please take your time selling." The pedestrians turned around and started to leave.

The shopkeeper was almost crying.

The court’s low-priced grain is not only low in price, but also of very good quality!

Under the impact of these two factors, the grain could not be sold unless the price was much lower than that of the official grain.

Thinking of this, the shopkeeper gritted his teeth and stamped his feet and said, "One thousand nine hundred coins per stone!"

The passers-by stopped again and gathered together to discuss in low voices.

A moment later, the two parties reached a deal!

Cao Huachun, who was far away, saw all this and a confident smile appeared on his face.

This far-reaching food war is finally coming to an end.

Next, he will use the same method to end the battlefield currency reform war!

"Let's go and have a look somewhere else." Cao Huachun, dressed in casual clothes, continued walking along the street with two Jinyiwei.

After walking around for most of the day, Cao Huachun knew the selling prices of grain by all the grain merchants in Xi'an.

Except for a few grain merchants whose grain prices were higher than government grain, the rest were either the same as or lower than government grain.

After walking around for a whole day, Cao Huachun found Lu Daqi.

"Someone, come and make Lord Cao a cup of the best Longjing tea!" Inside the Xi'an government office, Lu Daqi's face was full of smiles.

"Oh!" Cao Huachun pretended to be surprised. "I am really surprised. I didn't expect that Lord Lu also has tea, and it is the best Longjing tea!"

Lu Daqi said calmly, "Master Cao is joking."

After the two drank a few sips of tea, Cao Huachun got to the point: "Lord Lu, I want to adjust the grain price."

Lu Daqi frowned and asked, "How much do you want to increase, Lord Cao?"

"It's not about raising it up, it's about lowering it!"

"Lower?" Lu Daqi was very surprised. "You said before that two taels of silver would neither lose nor gain, and it would be fine if the price didn't increase, so why do you want to lower it?"

"Has Lord Lu forgotten about the copper coins?" Cao Huachun's eyes flickered as he spoke.

"Oh, I remember it!!" Lu Daqi suddenly realized.

Cao Huachun had copper coins worth two million taels of silver. In order to turn the copper coins into food, he found Lu Daqi and asked him to help him spend money to buy food.

The prerequisite is that the price of grain is not higher than 1,800 Wen!

The official grain now costs 2,000 wen per dan, while most grain on the market costs around 1,900 wen.

If you want to lower the price of grain in the market, you have to lower the price of government grain!

"How much does Lord Cao want to surrender?" asked Lu Daqi.

"Lower the price by one hundred coins!"

"One thousand nine hundred coins per dan of grain?"

"Yes," Cao Huachun nodded, "If possible, we will adjust it immediately tomorrow morning."

"No problem!" Lu Daqi agreed hurriedly, fearing that the other party would go back on his word.

The lower the food price, the higher the quality of life of the people, and he would love that!

Under the instruction of Cao Huachun, the price of official grain was lowered to one tael and nine cents or one thousand nine hundred wen!

The whole of Shaanxi was immediately in an uproar.

Some are happy, some are sad.

The people who had not yet bought grain were happy because they now spent a hundred coins less on buying grain than before.

The ones who are sad are the people who have already bought food.

They bought it too expensive!

However, no one dared to cause trouble for the court and could only sigh silently.

After all, a fall is better than a rise!

In addition to them, other people who were unhappy included grain merchants and gentry who hoarded grain.

"The government has lowered the price of grain. Should we follow suit?"

A dozen grain merchants gathered together to discuss in low voices.

"This... this... there's no way to follow. The government grain is 1 tael and 9 cents, and we have to pay 1 tael and 8 cents! 1 tael and 9 cents barely breaks even, but 1 tael and 8 cents is a complete loss-making business!"

"But if we don't follow, we will have nothing to eat! When the summer grain matures and the new grain comes on the market, we won't be able to sell the old grain at a good price! If this continues, our grain will rot in the rice warehouse!"

"Then follow!" a businessman said helplessly.

"You can't follow me. The more you sell, the more you lose!"

"You can't follow, and you can't not follow. Is this going to allow people to survive?"

"Ah!" The merchants sighed at the same time.

"Wait..." A merchant suddenly realized something. "The cost of government grain is not lower than ours. Selling it at 1.9 taels is definitely a loss. Why would the court do this?"

"Revenge! Revenge for our previous hoarding."

"But the imperial court suffered much more than us. They killed 800 enemies but lost 1,000 of their own!"

"Not necessarily," another businessman shook his head, "There is only one sales point for government grain, and the purchase quantity is limited, so the amount of money lost each day is limited!"

"We are different. If dozens of grain stores, big and small, were to sell grain openly, the money they would lose every day would probably be an astronomical figure."

"The imperial court uses the price of official grain to suspend us, so that we can neither sell at a high price nor sell at a low price..."

"The low-priced grain is also keeping the people who buy grain hanging, making them think that they can buy low-priced grain by queuing up, and they don't have to spend high prices to buy grain at the grain store!"

hiss--

The merchants gasped.

They finally realized that this was not a so-called business war, but a terrible conspiracy!

The businessmen had no mood to continue the discussion and went home to think about countermeasures.

Under the influence of low-priced official grain and new grain about to be put on the market, panic continued to spread.

Some merchants had to sell grain at a loss.

"Today's special price for grain is 1 tael and 8 coins or 1,800 coins per stone. Quantity is limited, first come first served!"

“Buy food from me and I’ll deliver it to your door for free!”

"If you buy food from me, you will get a plate and a bowl for free!"