The local gentry and landlords of Hekou County truly regarded Zhu Yunwen as a greedy person.
They really underestimated Zhu Yunwen's vision; it seems he only cared about money.
But they didn't even use their brains to think about whether Zhu Yunwen would really be short of money.
Putting aside everything else, just consider things like floral water, bicycles, tricycles, etc. Which one of them couldn't bring Zhu Yunwen a lot of money?
Of course, these things haven't been widely developed in small places like Hekou County yet, so it's understandable that Old Sun and his family don't know about them.
But no matter what, their vision was still too narrow. Thus, they fell for Zhu Yunwen's trick and actually went back to start a campaign, taking the lead.
He traveled around and got all the wealthy people in Hekou County to come forward and donate money to the drought relief effort.
Since the influential gentry and landlords in these areas had all said so, it was clear that some wealthy people in the area couldn't refuse.
As a result, a few days later, many wealthy people from various places came to the county government office to participate in the drought relief fundraising event organized by Zhu Yunwen and the county government.
At the event, Sun, as the largest local gentry and landlord, was the first to step forward in a pretentious manner and directly declared that he would donate three thousand taels of silver to the Hekou County government to purchase grain.
Then prepare for the possible drought that may follow.
With Old Sun taking the lead, the others also went up to act, expressing their willingness to donate money.
After these local gentry and landlords did their part, the wealthy people in the area who were unaware of the situation also rushed to donate money.
Although there are quite a few wealthy people in this area, the amount they donate is not large. Nevertheless, the final amount adds up to more than ten thousand taels of silver.
Including Old Master Sun and the others, the total amount of money donated openly for theatrical purposes is 20,000 taels of silver.
Zhu Yunwen smiled broadly; he had already achieved his goal.
As long as Mr. Sun and his family stand up in public and say that they want to donate money.
Then they have completely fallen into the trap and can't get out.
Although Zhu Yunwen has not yet received the silver, nor has the county government, it doesn't matter. As long as he publicly states that he has donated it, they can collect it.
And so, the fundraising ended.
The people praised and flattered those who stepped forward to donate money.
Old Sun was very happy. In his view, the money wouldn't actually be donated; it would be returned to him.
And he was also able to get a share of the money earned by other wealthy people in this donation event.
Finally, he would use another portion to buy his grain, making a huge profit while also gaining some fame.
From any perspective, he was a beneficiary, so seeing the people still praising him made him smile happily.
At the same time, Zhu Yunwen saw Sun Laoxiao and he smiled too.
He laughed at Old Sun for being tricked by him without even realizing it.
After the fundraising ended, Zhu Yunwen said to Elder Sun and the others:
"If you're going to put on a show, you have to go all the way. You said you would donate a certain amount of silver, but my county government still has to go to you to get it according to the rules. There's no other way; we have to give an explanation to the people."
Old Sun smiled and nodded, saying:
"I understand, I understand. Just return the money to me secretly later."
However, after he spoke, Zhu Yunwen simply smiled and did not make any statement.
Of course, Old Sun didn't think much about it; at that moment, all he was thinking about was getting the money as soon as possible.
That afternoon, the yamen runners and clerks from the county government went to Old Man Sun's residence and collected all the silver they had donated.
Old Sun and the others didn't suspect anything and obediently handed over the money. They planned to sneak into the county government office the next day to get the money back from Zhu Yunwen and split the profits.
Let's also talk about the purchase of this grain.
Meanwhile, Zhu Yunwen looked at all the collected donations, totaling exactly 20,000 taels of silver, and said:
"This silver, donated by local gentry, landlords and wealthy merchants to buy grain, should indeed be used to buy grain."
Here's what we'll do: send someone to the surrounding counties, or even further afield, to inquire if anyone is selling large quantities of grain, and see who offers the lowest price.
The magistrate said:
"Aren't we supposed to buy them from the land owned by the gentry in the river mouth county?"
Zhu Yunwen said with a smile:
“We’ve already lied to Old Sun about this, and when he finds out we won’t return the money to him.”
He wouldn't share the money donated by others, so he definitely wanted to make a fortune from selling grain.
If we don't communicate with grain merchants in other places beforehand, are we really going to buy this old man Sun's overpriced grain?
The magistrate thought about it carefully, then suddenly realized what was going on and said:
"Your Highness, this has completely blocked Old Master Sun's escape route. It's truly brilliant."
"As long as we contact grain merchants in other places and get their quotes, then Old Sun won't dare to sell his grain at a high price. That's brilliant!"
Zhu Yunwen smiled, took a sip of tea, and then asked:
"Will anyone buy Old Sun's grain today?"
The magistrate shook his head and said:
"No, the people all know that we have launched a fundraising campaign, and they also know that the money will be used to buy grain, and that grain will be distributed to the people for free in the event of a drought."
Therefore, they naturally didn't need to spend their own money to buy food. They all believed that even if a drought occurred, the government would use the money raised this time to purchase food to provide relief to them.
Since there's free food, why should people spend money to buy it? Therefore, today, no one is willing to pay high prices for Old Sun's and his family's food anymore.
Zhu Yunwen nodded in satisfaction, and the county magistrate looked at Zhu Yunwen with great admiration.
Even if Zhu Yunwen's method didn't actually harm the local gentry and landlords, it would have directly destroyed the rumors they had spread.
The rumors they spread were nothing more than creating a tense atmosphere to urge people to rush to buy their grain, and at high prices.
If Zhu Yunwen had simply relied on fundraising activities to tell the people that the funds they raised could be used to buy grain, which would then be given to them for free, it would have been a different story.
That would also relieve people from worrying about food shortages and prevent them from hoarding food at high prices.
In this way, Sun Lao and his group's conspiracy and propaganda efforts also failed.
However, Zhu Yunwen has done it even better now. He not only solved the problem, but also tricked Old Master Sun and his group so badly that they lost all of their thousands of taels of silver.
Moreover, according to Zhu Yunwen's plan, the grain in the hands of Elder Sun and his group could not be sold and had to be disposed of at a low price, which would result in a huge loss for Elder Sun and his group.
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