Chapter 468: Master Jin takes a risk
Half a month later.
Jin Mansion.
Jin An hasn't had a good night's sleep in the past fifteen days and is feeling very depressed.
"Old Jin, what do you think we should do? You were the one who asked us to jointly stockpile grain, and now half a month has passed, and we haven't sold much grain, especially these past few days, not even a pound!"
"Yes, Brother Jin, I have staked all my wealth on this. What should I do if I can't sell the grain?"
"Brother Jin, you were the one who proposed this. You have to come up with a solution. We can't continue like this."
"I shouldn't have listened to your nonsense earlier. If you do something so immoral, my Chen family will be finished!"
A month ago, Mr. Jin was the center of attention among these people and was flattered by them. But a month later, he was being stabbed in the back by them.
"Brother Chen, when I first proposed this, you were the first to agree. Why didn't you think it was immoral back then?" Master Jin said coldly, "We're in business to make money. There's no such thing as immoral or not. You're losing money, but don't I also lose money? I've lost even more!"
"Alright, alright, stop arguing. We're on the same page now. We're not here to argue about who's right or wrong. We're here to discuss what to do."
"Yes, Manager Shen is right. We need to discuss a strategy."
"Then Mr. Zhou's grain prices are much lower than ours. Do we have to lower our prices?"
"That guy named Zhou is selling it for ninety or a hundred coins. If we match his price, won't we lose a lot of money?"
Their purchase price was more than one hundred wen, and in order to monopolize the market, some even went as high as two hundred wen.
"Yes, we can't lower the price. If we do, we'll lose a lot of money!"
"If we don't lower the price, will it just rot in the granary?"
"I won't lower the price if it doesn't sell. I'm just too angry!"
"Manager Tu, you have a big family and a lot of money, so you don't care about this little money. But for people like us who have staked everything on it, if it rots, we will be bankrupt!"
"It's not time to lower the price yet." said Manager Jin.
"Brother Jin, what can you do?"
"This Zhou is a grain merchant from Liangzhou, but he came to Yizhou to do business and disrupted the market in Yizhou. This is too much. We have to go find County Magistrate Lu!" said the shopkeeper Jin.
"Yes, let's go find County Magistrate Lu and let him make the decision for us."
"Manager Tu, let's go together." said Manager Jin.
"Okay, it's settled!"
…
County capital.
Recently, County Magistrate Lu has been in a bad mood.
He was originally waiting for the imperial envoy to fail in flood control so that he could severely report him and avenge his nephew!
Who would have thought that the imperial envoy's efforts to control the flood would be so effective. The flood in Yizhou was actually under control!
"Sir Lu, Manager Jin and Manager Tu from Hegu County want to see you." The housekeeper came to report.
"Who are Shopkeeper Jin and Shopkeeper Tu? I don't know them and I won't see them!" County Magistrate Lu said impatiently.
"Sir, this golden pig of yours was given to you by Manager Jin," said the butler.
"Oh? I seem to remember it. What's the matter?" asked County Magistrate Lu.
"It seems to be related to the Imperial Envoy."
County Magistrate Lu became interested: "Let them in."
Soon, Shopkeeper Jin and Shopkeeper Tu came to the study.
As soon as County Magistrate Lu entered, the two men knelt down and asked for an audience.
"Sir, please help us!" Shopkeeper Jin and Shopkeeper Tu said in unison.
"What happened?" asked County Magistrate Lu.
"I am a grain merchant in Hegu County, and I do business with conscience. But some time ago, a grain merchant came from Liangzhou and sold some moldy and bad rice at low prices, which disrupted the rice market. As a result, I and other grain merchants in Yizhou were completely unable to sell our rice! Although the profit I make is small, it is a pity for the disaster victims and the people of Yizhou. They have to eat bad rice and suffer terribly!" said the shopkeeper Jin.
"How could such a thing happen?" County Magistrate Lu asked in surprise.
"Yes, that grain merchant colluded with the local Fan family in Hegu County and a man named Tangli to give the spoiled grain to the victims!" said Manager Jin.
Manager Jin was actually taking a complete risk, as he actually knew that Tang Li was the imperial envoy's wife.
When he was storing grain before, he never thought that this lady would be involved. Later, when Fan Yuexi and Tang Li came to him, he didn't know Tang Li's identity, so he was very negligent. By the time he found out, he had already offended them completely!
Since he has offended someone, he might as well offend them thoroughly.
He knew that as soon as the imperial envoy arrived in Hegu County, he killed the county magistrate of Hegu County. The county magistrate was the nephew of County Magistrate Lu, so there must have been some friction between County Magistrate Lu and the imperial envoy.
Now, he wants to take advantage of this conflict.
He bet that the strong dragon could not defeat the local snake!
"Tangli, is she the wife of the imperial envoy? Did she really collude with the grain merchant and feed the victims moldy rice?" asked County Magistrate Lu.
"It's true. I can testify that the wife of the imperial envoy might have been confused for a moment. Please, sir, severely punish the grain merchant and don't let him harm the victims anymore!" said the shopkeeper Jin.
County Magistrate Lu said righteously, "I will definitely investigate this matter and seek justice for the victims!"
Shopkeeper Jin breathed a sigh of relief.
It would be best to arrest the man surnamed Zhou and prevent him from doing business. Then the grain business in Yizhou will be back in their hands.
…
at the same time.
Qianjia Village, Hegu County.
Because it is the flood season, the water level is constantly rising. Therefore, according to the common strategy, we should first deal with the immediate flooding.
Chang Yu's proposal was to build on the flood control work done by Mr. Song five years ago by digging canals and building embankments to divert and divert the water. This would save a lot of effort compared to digging canals and building embankments from scratch.
After more than twenty days, with the efforts of nearly 10,000 craftsmen, they built two canals and diverted river water to a wasteland, temporarily alleviating the disaster in Yizhou and reducing the number of people affected and fertile land to a minimum.
The next step is to build embankments. Once the embankments on both sides of the ditch are built, we will be able to withstand this year's disaster.
At noon, Wei Qing leaned against a tree and took a rest.
For the past fifteen days, he had been eating and sleeping with the craftsmen. He looked tired, had a scruffy beard, and was covered in dirt.
Chang Yu walked to his side and wanted to say something, but seeing that he was asleep, he did not speak and waited quietly.
Wei Qing opened his eyes and saw Chang Yu standing in front of him.
"Mr. Chang, is there something wrong? Why didn't you wake me up?"
"Sir, you have worked so hard. Please take a rest. I can't bear to disturb you." Chang Yu said.
Wei Qing wiped his face to wake himself up, sat down against the tree, and patted the seat beside him.
"sit."
Chang Yu had followed the imperial envoy for dozens of days and had already known his character. This envoy was decisive and looked scary, but he was clear about rewards and punishments. As long as you did your job well, he would never make things difficult for you.
Moreover, he did not have the airs of an imperial envoy. He shared the joys and sorrows with everyone and was sympathetic to the people and craftsmen. He was a good official.
Chang Yu got along well with him and didn't feel too restrained, so he sat down next to him.
"Sir, I want to talk to you about flood control."
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