Chapter 52 The Book Turner
"Where is my senior brother taking me?"
"You'll find out when you get there."
"Let me guess... Hmm, could it be a rice shop?"
Ouyang Rong walked ahead, chuckling softly, without saying a word.
"Thank you for your trouble, senior brother."
Xie Lingjiang Xiaoyin:
“However, I go to the market every morning, and today some rice shops in the East Market have already lowered their grain prices back to what they were before you lifted the price control order, or even slightly… fifteen coins per dou!”
She clenched her fist and wrinkled her nose. "Hmph, those unscrupulous merchants are all eager to make their move, serves them right!"
“This price is nothing,” Ouyang Rong shook his head. “Besides, we’re not going to the rice shop.”
Xie Lingjiang asked curiously, "Oh?"
Ouyang Rong didn't say anything more. He left the county government office with Xie Lingjiang. Before they left the government office, Liu Ashan appeared out of nowhere and silently followed behind the young county magistrate.
Xie Lingjiang was used to this. He didn't know where his senior brother had found this tall, thin, and tattooed man, but he was now Xie Lingjiang's personal attendant.
Ouyang Rong, Xie Lingjiang, and Liu Ashan left Luming Street and strolled westward towards the county town.
On the road.
Ouyang Rong suddenly said to Liu Ashan, who had followed behind him, "You've worked hard."
The tall, thin man, who was wearing a gray scarf to cover the ink characters on his forehead, shook his head.
Xie Lingjiang kept her eyes straight ahead and spoke softly:
"Was it all burned?"
"Junior sister, do you think it's a bit dirty to use your hands?"
"No, it's because I'm worried about the food. We're short of food right now, and a thousand shi (a unit of dry measure) could save many people."
“A thousand shi must be burned. And now there is no shortage of food. There are more than 200,000 shi stored at the dock. We have enough food for disaster relief and flood control. We can also distribute some to Jiangzhou City and the neighboring counties later.”
A young county magistrate muttered to himself, his long, slender fingers beneath his long sleeves calculating for a moment, then nodded slightly:
"It's almost half the size of Jimin Granary... So the original Jimin Granary was in Longcheng."
He smiled.
It was already considered as something that was already in their grasp.
Xie Lingjiang said softly:
“Senior brother is ruthless... However, without being ruthless, the food problem cannot be solved easily. I suppose Lord Shen in Jiangzhou will be very pleased that he chose to trust senior brother back then.”
Ouyang Rong shook his head. "Actually, I was still too soft-hearted. I wasn't as ruthless as the Liu family. Otherwise, things would be a completely different and clean situation right now."
He rubbed his face and turned to ask, "Junior sister, do you believe me? Just now in the main hall, some of the things I said were indeed quite sincere."
"What did you say?"
"I am indeed very grateful to them."
"..." Xie Lingjiang couldn't help but chuckle, "That senior brother just said he'd burn it, look how scared he scared people."
"But Liu Lang will eventually 'find' back the grain that Manager Li had, and he won't lose much of it."
"Senior brother, do you dislike that businessman surnamed Ma?"
"no."
Ouyang Rong shook his head:
"Manager Ma and Manager Li are two different kinds of people. Manager Ma is tough, while Manager Li is soft. To deal with the tough, you have to be even tougher; to deal with the soft, you have to be tough first and then soft. That's why a thousand bushels of grain must be burned, and the cleaner the better."
"What about my younger brother? Are you planning to use force or gentle persuasion?" Xie Lingjiang asked curiously.
"No need to come, he's a smart man."
Ouyang Rong walked ahead and casually said:
"Just wait a few more days, and some of them will slowly come to their senses. If a thousand shi of grain can spontaneously combust, then two hundred thousand shi at the dock can also spontaneously combust. If grain being transported out of the city can be robbed by unruly people, then the granaries at Penglangdu can also be robbed by unruly people. With both soft and hard tactics already in place, these grain merchants will know what to choose."
Xie Lingjiang silently watched her senior brother's retreating figure.
"arrive."
At a street corner in the west of the city, Ouyang Rong stopped, stepped aside, and gestured to his junior sister.
The latter was taken aback. "This is... a soup kitchen?"
"Guess whose it is."
"The Liu... family?"
"Let's go and get some of Liu the Benevolent's porridge while we're still open for business," the young magistrate in his everyday clothes said with a smile, and led the way.
Xie Lingjiang couldn't help but take a look at the porridge stall that was distributing porridge to charity. It looked ordinary, but there was also an orphanage next to the porridge stall. It seemed to be connected to the porridge stall and both were run by the Liu family.
In her memory, the Liu family was the only one in Longcheng County who had consistently set up sheds and distributed porridge. This made Xie Lingjiang, despite her dislike for some members of the Liu family who opposed her senior brother, still somewhat reserved about this act of kindness.
When she was studying at the academy, she had either heard of or seen some local gentry and landlords distributing porridge during famine years. At that time, she felt that although there may be many rich and heartless people in this world, there are still some kind landlords.
"Why did you say it's going to go bankrupt, senior brother?"
"If they can't make money, they'll just go bankrupt."
Ouyang Rong lined up, received a bowl of porridge, smiled and thanked them, then led Xie Lingjiang to the side.
He glanced at the struggling orphanage next door, then looked down at the bowl and muttered, "It's even thinner than last time. Looks like we're not making any money... What a pity, the disaster in our Dragon City isn't that serious yet."
Ouyang Rong sounded regretful.
"What do you mean, making money?" Xie Lingjiang pressed.
Ouyang Rong turned his head and suddenly asked, "Junior Sister, do you know how much money such a simple soup kitchen, plus an orphanage, can make in a year of disaster after a severe drought or flood?"
Xie Lingjiang suddenly felt her teeth chattering uncontrollably. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself: "You, say it."
Ouyang Rong lowered his head, took a sip of porridge, and said softly:
“Great philanthropists usually build bridges and pave roads, and their good reputation spreads far and wide. When disaster strikes, they take the lead in assisting the government to set up soup kitchens and cook soup. They gather the refugees together and keep them half-dead with a bowl of thin soup. Don’t worry, the soup will only get thinner and thinner. When the refugees are so hungry that they are weak and dizzy, they will be served hot white steamed buns.”
"People who are about to starve don't have much of a capacity for thought. They'll be tempted by these hot white steamed buns and throw a few away to make off with their remaining wealth. But these buns only look delicious; they're not very filling. After eating them, those who are destined to starve will still die. This is how you make a quick buck with a sickle."
"That alone is not enough. The philanthropist went all the way and set up an orphanage next to the soup kitchen. Parents could entrust their infants and orphans to the orphanage before they starved to death. But the philanthropist can't just raise them for free. The house and land deeds must also be entrusted to them. The philanthropist said that the children would be returned when they grew up. But if the children didn't live to see the end, then the philanthropist couldn't be blamed."
"However, some kind-hearted people raise orphans, but they can't escape becoming slaves or servants. They have to repay the kindness of being raised by working like cattle and horses, right? If the orphan is older, they can be sold as slaves for a lot of money. Hmm, in that case, some great philanthropists who boast about 'more than 10,000 live infants over the decades and their immeasurable merit' are not entirely false."
After hearing this, Xie Lingjiang felt a chill run through her body and couldn't help but ask, "I have a question: they clearly have money, so why don't they buy their own food?"
Ouyang Rong said softly:
"The reason why a year of disaster is a year of disaster is because even if you have money, you can't buy food and can only guard your houses and fields empty. If a great philanthropist has even more power, he can take the government's disaster relief grain to his own soup kitchen and then join forces with other local gentry and grain merchants to close his shop and refuse to sell... Now do you know why the great philanthropist Liu gets rich every year despite the floods?"
"That Dragon City..."
“I don’t know about the disaster years in Longcheng in the past, but this year’s flood… When I first left Donglin Temple and went down the mountain to the city, the Liu family’s soup kitchen and orphanage were very popular. Some of the government’s disaster relief grain was even distributed here.”
Xie Lingjiang remained silent for a long while.
"If my senior brother takes office and then sets up a disaster relief camp in the suburbs to distribute food for free, wouldn't that cut off the Liu family's source of income?"
"Not entirely. The philanthropist Liu's sickle is mainly used to cut off the families in the city who have some surplus wealth. The people in the suburbs are poor people whose houses and fields were flooded and who fled from all directions, or those whose land has already been cut off. The philanthropist Liu is not interested in these poor people, and our county government's disaster relief grain can only save these people."
Ouyang Rong then said earnestly:
"That's why I'm so grateful to you, my brother, and to these grain merchants from outside. At least they brought grain to sell, even if it's at a higher price. Instead of letting Liu Ziwen and his group control the entire grain market in Longcheng."
Even though she was standing under the midday sun and holding hot porridge, Xie Lingjiang felt her hands and feet were ice-cold. Looking at the porridge stall and orphanage in front of her, all she could see were skeletons and starving corpses.
Ouyang Rong remained silent, knowing that his junior sister was having a hard time accepting it.
He waited a moment, then turned around and forced a smile, saying in a relaxed tone:
"However, soon, your senior brother will really offend the Liu family completely. Right now, the price of grain is still very high, and the orphanage still has some floating wealth to take. We can pretend to be a good person and deceive them. But the price of grain in a few days... Hmm, junior sister, hurry up and cherish the limited amount of thin porridge before it goes bankrupt."
The junior sister remained silent with her head down.
Ouyang Rong thought for a moment, then reached out to take the bowl from her hand. But as he grabbed the bowl, he accidentally touched his junior sister's fair hand. He abruptly withdrew his hand, his face showing surprise. At the same time, his sharp eyes caught a glimpse of a red light flashing on the back of her hand. He looked down at his fingertips, which were red from being pricked by something sharp, but there was no blood.
"Why does my junior sister have thorns?" Is she like a rose?
"I'm sorry... Senior Brother."
Xie Lingjiang was losing control of her anger. She raised her hand, intending to take his fingers to examine them, but then withdrew it halfway through.
She looked up, her eyes red, and said apologetically, "I had a fight a few days ago and shouldn't have said those hurtful things. At the time, I didn't know that the so-called great philanthropists and soup kitchens, those elegant and refined terms, actually represented such a bloody and brutal scene."
Ouyang Rong shook his head, "It's nothing, are you feeling a bit unwell...?"
Xie Lingjiang suddenly asked, "Didn't you ask me before what the seventh rank of a scholar's lineage is?"
Ouyang Rong was taken aback, but Xie Lingjiang had already spoken:
"The person who turns the pages of the book."
"The difference between the seventh and eighth ranks is like heaven and earth. The former directly enters the middle-grade Qi Refining stage, possessing crimson spiritual energy that can be released outwards. However, this is also an extremely difficult gap to cross..."
“My father once said that a gentleman is one who reads ten thousand books, but a person who turns pages… only turns pages and doesn’t read them. I never understood what that meant before, but now… I suddenly understand it a little.”
Xie Lingjiang turned her head and sniffed, "My cultivation level just shifted."
“This is good news,” Ouyang Rong smiled. “Then let’s add another piece of good news.”
He turned his head: "Ah Shan."
"exist."
"Notify them to prepare to open the granary. Starting today, release our stored grain into the market. Let's start with a price..." The young magistrate smiled sheepishly, "...a fraction of the market price, five qian per dou, just to celebrate for my junior sister."
"Yes!" Liu Ashan replied and left.
A noblewoman from the Xie family glanced furtively at the smiling young magistrate and couldn't help but suddenly exclaim:
"Senior Brother."
"What?" Ouyang Rong turned around.
"...It's alright now."
The junior sister said with a smile.
Old books are welcome to be appreciated!
(End of this chapter)
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