Chapter 798 Grain Looting
The road ahead was completely blocked. Lin Yuesha sat in the carriage for a quarter of an hour, but she couldn't get through no matter what she said.
"Stop the car, I'll go down and take a look."
Lin Yuesha frowned. Wucheng had only submitted to the Great Qi a few days ago, but because the Qi army and the Wucheng garrison had joined forces, it was not difficult for the people to know about it. Today, the price of grain had almost doubled.
Hearing the news, more and more people came out of their homes carrying cloth bags. Some people were even scolded by the crowd for cutting in line.
The grain store only had so much grain. If it sold out today, the price wouldn't be the same tomorrow. The people sighed and regretted not buying grain and storing it earlier.
"Miss, Wucheng is a prosperous place, so why are the people fighting over food?"
Bai Cha looked puzzled. An older woman overheard her and kindly replied, "Young lady, judging from your clothes, you must be from a wealthy family. We ordinary folks only earn a few hundred coins a month. We have elderly parents to support and young children to raise. We only have a few pounds of grain at home, which is hardly enough to eat! And with the current situation, prices are going to rise even further, making it even more unaffordable!"
Wucheng was wealthy, but that wealth was limited to the fact that its people had enough to eat and wear; no one had extra money to squander.
Furthermore, after submitting to the Great Qi, the future becomes even more uncertain. For example, when the alien races and the Great Qi were at war, Wucheng was still a peaceful place. But now, soldiers are constantly being killed and wounded. As ordinary people, they dare not speak out openly, but they curse the city lord in private for being sycophantic and becoming a lackey of the Great Qi.
"Yes, sigh, my husband is queuing at another grain store, but we don't know if he'll be able to buy any."
When the local people mentioned their stored grain, they all looked worried and sighed.
Wucheng was caught in the flames of war. Although the Great Qi had the temporary advantage, the foreign tribes were not to be underestimated. This war might last for several years without end.
If we don't store grain now, we won't even have a bowl of porridge to eat in the future.
"Sorry, sorry, we're completely sold out of brown rice, brown flour, and barley. We only have fine rice flour left. If you want some, please come to the front!"
At the front of the crowd, a young man stepped forward and struck the copper basin with a wooden stick to attract the attention of the people and announce the bad news.
Rice costs fifty coins per pound, and fine flour costs twenty-five coins per pound.
"Huh? Rice used to cost only fifteen coins, now it costs fifty coins, and fine noodles used to cost only eight coins!"
The crowd was noisy, with people whispering amongst themselves. "It's only been a few days, and the price has already risen to this level. If it keeps going up, how will we survive?" A large family of several people could only afford to make noodle soup if they bought a few pounds of fine flour.
People raise chickens, ducks and other livestock at home, hoping they will lay eggs. They can't eat meat every day, so they need to eat more grain to be full. Now that the price of grain has skyrocketed, it is even more difficult for them to fill their stomachs.
"Think it over, everyone. If you don't buy today, the price might not be the same tomorrow!"
The young shop assistant continued banging on the copper basin, shouting through the crowd, "Our grain shop is the cheapest in the area. Go and inquire around; some unscrupulous merchants are already charging seventy or eighty coins for rice!"
"Sigh, let's buy some rice. At least we can make porridge and fill our stomachs. Hey buddy, give me two pounds!"
The uncle at the very front of the line lamented his bad luck. The people in front of him had bought the last of the coarse noodles, and by the time it came to his turn, they were all sold out. He had been queuing for an hour, and he couldn't go back empty-handed. So, he gritted his teeth, took out a string of copper coins from his pocket, counted them two or three times, and then reluctantly gave them to the shop assistant.
The people queuing up were all residents from the neighborhood, making a living in the city, without land or grain.
Almost everyone started rummaging through their pockets, counting their coins, and figuring out how much grain they could buy; no one left.
"Miss, we still can't get through."
The white tea was very impatient; seeing the situation, it wouldn't give up until it got dark.
Rice prices skyrocketed, yet the shopkeepers still had the nerve to say that the grain shops were very honest, and the people were willing to spend more money to buy it.
"The price has already been calculated. The clerk is right. My son just came back from the grain shop on the street ahead."
The prices there are outrageously high, yet people still line up.
Now it's not that merchants are begging people to buy; it's more like take it or leave it. The inventory is limited, and once it's sold out, that's it.
With the Lunar New Year just around the corner, how can we let our family members go hungry and not be able to have a full meal?
"We have money, we have savings, let's buy more. What if the soldiers of Daqi have no food? In the end they'll just have to rob us of our food!"
A short, shifty-eyed man kept stirring things up, saying, "The Great Qi has been a bandit for a long time, and we've suffered a lot!"
"Really? They're going to steal our people's food?"
The people in line stopped, sighing and complaining bitterly.
They were caught in the crossfire for no reason, which was already bad enough. If they gave their food to the soldiers, they would starve to death.
"That's right! So why are rice and flour prices soaring? It's because the foreign tribes burned the grain reserves of the Qi soldiers!"
The people of the border town of Daqi are starving, and most of the grain is used for military supplies. Now that the grain has been burned, the situation is even more dire.
"Really?"
Wucheng had almost no contact with Daqi, and this was the first time the people had heard of it.
"It's true, it's more real than real gold!"
The short man began to slander the soldiers of the Great Qi, and after he finished speaking, he ran away in a flash.
"What a piece of trash!"
The coachman was a veteran who had retired from the Northwest battlefield. Because of his bad legs, he could only pull Lin Yuesha's carriage. He was very angry when he heard this.
The Great Qi did have a few generals who were a rabble, but it never had soldiers who bullied the people. They fought to the death and bravely killed the enemy, all for the sake of stabilizing the border and preventing the people from suffering from the ravages of war. In the eyes of the little guy, they were even worse than a bunch of bandits!
"Driver, there's something wrong with this man."
Lin Yuesha squinted at the short man's back.
Not to buy grain, but to incite the people's emotions and make the people of Wucheng even more resistant to Daqi. After saying that, he ran away immediately, probably to make a quick getaway.
"Follow that man discreetly until you find his hideout."
Those with such motives are either the sworn enemies of the city lord of Wucheng, inciting discontent among the people, or most likely, spies left in Wucheng by foreign tribes.
"Young Madam, then you..."
The coachman nodded. As expected of the young mistress, her observations were accurate and her analysis was very logical.
"I'm right here, protected by bodyguards."
Lin Yuesha waved her hand; she still had to stay and clarify that person's utter nonsense.
"Fellow villagers, don't believe him. He's a servant of the biggest grain merchant in Wucheng. Look at his shifty eyes, he's a heartless scoundrel."
This exacerbated the conflict, leading to greater panic among the people who emptied their savings to buy food. Meanwhile, grain merchants profited immensely from the war, making huge sums of money – a truly unscrupulous act.
If grain prices drop in a few days, then the money the people spent will be wasted.
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