Chapter 99 Northwest Drought, Shi Family Raises Prices
Following the successful conclusion of the Second Prince's autumn imperial examination, the Emperor felt it was time to rebalance the court. Therefore, he decided to entrust the task of collecting taxes from various regions in the autumn to the Third Prince.
Given the Third Prince's eagerness to make a name for himself, he shouldn't have refused this task. However, he knew that this year's tax collection was quite different from previous years.
Due to the drought in the Northwest, this job will not only not be a lucrative one as it has been in previous years, but it is also about to become a hot potato.
If things went wrong, he would incur the emperor's wrath. Therefore, when the emperor called his name, the third prince used the excuse of a relapse of his old illness to claim that he could not travel far.
The Third Prince had suffered from a heart ailment since childhood, which the Emperor was well aware of. Considering his physical condition, the Emperor knew that he was not suited for a long journey, so he temporarily assigned the task to the Second Prince.
To everyone's surprise, the second prince also declined, saying that his princess consort was about to give birth, and this was his first legitimate son, whom he wanted to keep by his side to take care of.
Although this might make the emperor think he lacked ambition, he had also learned the inside story: the drought in the northwest had already caused widespread suffering, and going there to collect taxes now would only make him a scapegoat.
Ultimately, this matter fell to the Crown Prince, who was in the worst health. The Crown Prince had actually learned about the drought in the Northwest from Gu Nanxiao.
But it was precisely because of this that he, who was concerned about the country and its people, decided to personally go and oversee the disaster relief efforts. He felt it was worth the trip if he could save even one more disaster victim.
The Crown Prince stepped forward and accepted the task, immediately earning the praise of the entire court. They lauded him as unparalleled. Had the Crown Prince not been in poor health, the Emperor would have worried that he might threaten his position.
At this moment, both the Grand Secretary and the Third Prince were secretly delighted. Someone else had taken the blame; all they had to do was follow behind and make money. The grain they had stockpiled for so long could finally be harvested.
Moreover, they had an unexpected bonus: the Liu family was still imprisoned, and they had also invested heavily in stockpiling grain together.
Now that the grain has been sold, they don't have to pay a single penny. It's like the grain they hoarded is a risk-free business, which can generate a lot of income for them.
Gu Nanxiao took in everyone's expressions. He couldn't help but sneer inwardly, thinking, "Let them be happy for now; they'll have their day to cry."
As for the Crown Prince's mission to provide disaster relief, he was not worried, because Yunxi had already made extensive preparations in the Northwest region. When the Crown Prince arrived in the Northwest, he could immediately mobilize grain to aid the disaster victims.
Moreover, the number of disaster victims was not as large as imagined. After all, many people had already sold their land to Yunxi, and the tenant farmers had been hired to cultivate terraced fields on the barren mountains.
After a while, they will also cooperate with Qi Jinxiu to build water conservancy projects, which will earn them another source of income. For the people of Northwest China, this year will not only not be a year of disaster, but will become their most prosperous year yet.
When local officials reported the drought, the estimated number of disaster victims was based on household registration statistics.
Therefore, the grain the Crown Prince sent, though seemingly insufficient, might actually have some left over. However, it would be better if it wasn't needed. That way, Yunxi could save the grain to supply her uncle's Tiger Roar Army.
The imperial court decided to first requisition 300,000 shi of grain, and then requisition more grain in installments, intending to send a total of one million shi of grain. The court planned to urgently transfer the first batch of grain from all over the country.
After the news of the grain requisition was released, grain prices in Kyoto began to soar. They shouldn't have risen so quickly, but this was partly due to the manipulation of the Grand Secretary and the Third Prince.
They kept spreading rumors and secretly driving up grain prices, even forcing other grain merchants to join them in raising prices.
Ten days later, the price of grain in Kyoto had more than quintupled. Many people were crying out that they couldn't even afford to eat.
However, the Prime Minister and his officials were not entirely satisfied with this result. So they came up with another plan: to collude with grain merchants to hoard all the grain and sell it in limited quantities at the shops each day.
This caused great panic among the people who couldn't buy grain. The news spread like wildfire, and people began to spread rumors that the drought in the northwest had affected the capital, and that grain prices would continue to rise, to the point that even silver might not be enough to buy grain.
Amidst the panic buying by the people, the price of grain surged again within a few days, increasing tenfold to its previous level before finally slowing down.
This time, the Prime Minister and his officials were finally satisfied and opened the granaries to sell grain. They released 100,000 shi (a unit of dry measure) of grain, which was quickly snapped up by the people and the grain collection officials from the Ministry of Revenue.
After a two-day break, they mimicked the rhythm of grain merchants sourcing grain from other regions and released another 100,000 shi of grain. This process was repeated five times, releasing a total of 500,000 shi of grain.
The Crown Prince had barely managed to gather enough relief grain. However, the high price of the grain had severely depleted the national treasury, and it seemed unlikely that the originally planned one million shi (a unit of dry measure) of relief grain could be raised.
The emperor was furious about the grain merchants' hoarding of grain, but there were no corresponding laws to punish them.
This grain requisition allowed the emperor to experience firsthand what true frustration felt like. But no matter how frustrating it was, he had to get through this ordeal.
With no other option, the emperor began to reduce his own and his harem's expenses. He even secretly instructed officials from the Ministry of Revenue to solicit money from merchants in preparation for a second round of grain requisition.
After the emperor used all the money he had saved through frugality, as well as the silver brought in from elsewhere, to purchase the second wave of disaster relief grain, he began to plot against the grain merchants who were hoarding and speculating on the grain.
Yunxi, having grasped all the information, saw that the time was ripe and instructed Gu Nanxiao to report the three major granaries of the ten families to the Emperor.
They also arrested three guards who had been watching the granary from the beginning, as well as three managers who were the people in charge of the grain shops opened anonymously by the Prime Minister.
Gu Nanxiao presented the Emperor with all the testimonies of the six witnesses who had already confessed, as well as the testimonies of the then-Grand Secretary who hoarded and sold grain and how he colluded with grain merchants.
After reading the testimonies and personally interrogating six witnesses, the Emperor angrily smashed everything on his imperial desk except for the jade seal.
He decided to personally leave the palace, leading the Imperial Guards and the Golden Guards, to take control of the three grain depots.
When the Grand Secretary received the news and rushed to the granary, he saw the Emperor sitting under the canopy, drinking tea and waiting for him to appear.
When the Grand Secretary met the Emperor's angry gaze, his legs went weak and he almost couldn't stand.
He stumbled before the Emperor, knelt down with a thud, and began kowtowing while explaining to the Emperor:
"Your Majesty, please understand that the reason I hoarded so much grain is because my good-for-nothing illegitimate son had a dream in which he said there would be a drought in the Northwest."
At the time, I did not speak out in order to avoid causing panic, but I was also afraid that if this were true, the court would be in a difficult position. That is why I stockpiled some grain at a high price in advance to prepare for any eventuality.
Unexpectedly, Shi Qingchen's dream actually came true, so it was not that I intended to deceive Your Majesty.
The emperor wasn't a fool. Listening to his flimsy lies, he gave a meaningful "Oh," and then asked:
"If the Grand Secretary truly wanted to share the burden of the court, why didn't he sell the grain during the collection of disaster relief supplies? Instead, he colluded with grain merchants in the capital to hoard goods and drive up prices. This goes against your claim of sharing the burden of the court!"
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