After returning to the palace, Lu Yun quickly informed Liang Jing of the matter.
Liang Jing was also greatly shocked when she heard the news. She murmured to herself, "No way, is it really that serious?"
"These guys are really rebellious."
"Xiao Yunzi, in your opinion, is this rise in grain prices just a trick played by these merchants, or is there someone behind it?"
Lu Yun explained, "Your Majesty, I believe there must be someone silently supporting this matter."
"Perhaps they will share half of the profits gained in this way. This is a very reasonable thing to do. After all, the collusion between officials and businessmen is all about money."
"So what are you going to do?"
Lu Yun took a look and explained, "Your Majesty, it's very simple. Open the granary and release the grain."
"Forcefully lower the price of grain and see what they do!"
"We need to lower the price of grain to a very low level, as long as we don't lose money. After all, what we are doing is for disaster relief."
Liang Jing suddenly realized that this made sense.
A lot of food from the court has been distributed to the border cities so that they can sustain themselves as soon as possible.
At the same time, a large amount of silver was also allocated to allow them to collect grain everywhere.
"Okay, I support you in doing this. Since they want to dig, then I will fight them to the end and see who is behind this."
The next morning.
Liang Jing directly took the grain out of the national treasury and sold it to the people at a lower price.
This price is even much lower than the usual price.
This is good news for many people.
They would not hesitate to buy the cheap food, especially the food distributed by the imperial court. They would start buying it directly as the price of food from the imperial court became lower and lower.
Many grain merchants were completely stunned. How could they even do this? Originally, they were in a rare position and felt they had grain. Since many people were short of food and afraid of starvation, they would definitely buy in large quantities, no matter how high the price was.
But now, the imperial court has come out to compete with them for business, and it can’t even win.
After all, the price of grain in the imperial court was even cheaper, so cheap that they simply couldn't defeat them.
There was no other way, they could only lower the price of grain to almost the same level as the imperial court's grain price, but there were still many people who were unwilling to buy it.
Who told you to sell it so expensively? The grain from the imperial court is so cheap now, why should they buy it?
As the incident escalated, many grain merchants regretted their decision.
At the same time, many people began to wonder if their food had been taken away. How could there still be so much food, and how could they still sell so much and keep so much?
They could understand that only the few shops that were robbed had food.
Those stores whose food was looted still had so much food. Where did they get it from?
After all, before the looting, they had been complaining that there was not much food left, they didn't have much stored, and the landlords had no surplus food.
Thinking of this... many people began to doubt, even the ministers in the court were suspicious. After all, no one was a fool, and the emperor also felt that something was wrong.
Above the main hall.
In the court, Liang Jinggao sat on the dragon throne.
"Now, many people have been resettled, and the imperial court has also sent relief funds. I believe that it will not be long before the people in those border cities can be stabilized.
In addition, we need to open up trade with the border as quickly as possible.”
"I have figured it out. Since we need to open the border, we should allow normal commercial transactions between the two countries."
"Then we naturally don't have to be afraid. We can let people from the grassland come to our side to do business, and we can also let our people go to the grassland to do business."
"This will enable the border to recover faster."
"Your Majesty is wise!"
However, at this time, an old man who had been silent in the court stood up.
Even the Minister of Rites and the Minister of Revenue stood up.
"Your Majesty, the national treasury is running low on grain. You're putting the cart before the horse by doing this. While you might earn a lot of money in a short period of time, you're also putting the national treasury's grain supply at risk."
"Because of the war this year, the north is unable to pay grain and taxes on time, so the only one left is the south."
"It will take another six months for the grain to be delivered, so it's a long wait."
"Your Majesty, we can't use up all the food. We can't sell it like that anymore."
Liang Jing smiled softly, looked at the Minister of Rites and asked coldly, "Do you think what I did is wrong? Go and look at the people in the city. It's so hard for them to get a bite to eat, and those grain merchants are arbitrarily raising the price of grain so high!"
"By doing this, they are completely disregarding the foundation of our Great Zhou."
"You actually think that what I did was wrong."
At this moment, the Minister of Rites hurriedly explained, "Your Majesty, we don't think that what you did was wrong, but it is indeed not good for your majesty's dignity."
"If the imperial court were to engage in such activities as selling grain, it would certainly be immoral and disrespectful."
"We should stop it as soon as possible. As for those healing services, they're charging such a high price. We just need to give them a warning and get them to restore the price of the two rooms."
Liang Jing disagreed. However, the silver-haired old man came forward, hunched his back, and smiled kindly.
"Your Majesty, I believe this matter cannot be rushed."
"We can't sell the grain in the imperial treasury. Grain is the foundation of the country. What if something unexpected happens one day, or if there's another war, and we don't have enough grain? Are we just going to take money?"
"Ultimately, we still need to have enough food and warm clothes. Food is the most important thing."
Liang Jing was stunned for a moment, then said angrily, "Master Liu!"
"What have I done wrong? I just want these people to have enough food and clothing. Isn't that right? You are all forcing me here, right?"
At this time, Lu Yun also looked at the old man in front of him, but felt that he had never seen him before.
However, he also knew that Taifu was an official position with a higher status than that of the prime minister.
Generally speaking, Taifu is a person with a very high status and great authority, but Taifu sounds very noble.
But the actual power is not as great as one would think. In a country, the prime minister still has more power.
The Taifu basically holds an official position, but has no power or position.
But what about this Taifu named Liu? I have never seen him before.
"Taifu Liu, please stop talking. I think this is fine."
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