On board the Pingjiang.

After Hu Shouren finished speaking, he winked at Zhao Hao and said with a smile: "Do you need me to introduce a local tyrant to Lao Wang?"

"That couldn't be better." Zhao Hao clapped his hands and laughed, "Brother Hu is really meticulous. I can't hide anything from you."

"Hahaha!" Hu Shouren laughed proudly, "If you only want to escort the princess, do you still need to bring dozens of ships of food north?"

"Can't make this trip in vain." Mr. Zhao said with a smile.

"Then you should sell silk." Hu Shouren said with a smile: "Besides, with Mr. Zhao's current family business, do you think this little business is worth it?"

"This is what my godmother brought to the capital to calm the people out of compassion for them." Zhao Hao said with a smile, "Just believe it for now."

"Okay! Old Hu believes it." Hu Shouren laughed so hard that he fell backwards. "Young Master is still as funny as he was back then. Old Hu likes you very much. If you are also skinned by the imperial court in the future, you must take me in."

"Then you have to welcome him with open arms. Let Brother Jin replace you right away." Zhao Hao was flattered and smiled. Unfortunately, Hu Shouren was just trying to get close to him. He was different from Jin Ke and Wang Rulong. Those three were originally ordinary people recruited by Qi Jiguang in Shaoxing. After being dismissed, they had nothing.

Hu Shouren is the hereditary commander of the Right Guard of the Cavalry. His family has held high-ranking positions for generations. How could he possibly step down and go into business?

~~

The two of them talked happily, and time passed quickly without them noticing. Hu Shouren was escorting the princess, so of course he couldn't just disappear all the time.

Zhao Hao asked Hu Shouren to take a letter to Marshal Qi, and then the two ended their conversation and went about their own business.

Hu Shouren went to stand guard outside the princess' cabin in person, while Master Zhao "accidentally" ran into Tianjin Bingbei Dao Cao Ke on the front deck, and naturally invited him for tea.

Tianjin Bingbei Dao was a special one. Most Bingbei Daos were mainly responsible for supervision, but Tianjin Bingbei Dao was a people-friendly official who was in charge of everything.

Because there were only three military posts in Tianjin and no administrative agencies such as prefectures and counties, the Tianjin Military Preparations Department, in addition to performing general military preparation duties, also had to assume the civil and criminal responsibilities of prefecture and county officials.

In addition, because Tianjin is located at the strategic point of Haihe River, the gateway to the capital, and the intersection of the South Grand Canal and the North Grand Canal, the Bingbei Dao also has two important duties, namely, post and river transportation, and they account for a considerable proportion of his daily work. Therefore, the Tianjin Bingbei Dao is also nicknamed "Golden Belt Postmaster" and "Red Robe River Official".

In short, his power was much greater than that of an ordinary military governor. In Tianjin, there was no fear of power division and all matters were decided by Cao Bingxian alone. Of course, under the emperor's nose, he did not dare to act too recklessly.

Moreover, Cao Bingxian was also very cautious. He was polite and flattering to Zhao Hao all the time, but he never said a word from his heart.

Fortunately, Zhao Hao did not intend to make friends with him. It was enough for them to get to know each other and become familiar with each other. Anyway, the transportation of grain by sea is a great thing for Tianjin. It will become the most prosperous city in the north of the Ming Dynasty outside the capital. There is no reason for Cao Ke not to cooperate, right?

Don’t be afraid if they don’t cooperate, just replace them.

With the current power of Master Zhao and the Jiangnan Group, it would be difficult to move a minister or governor, but it is still possible to replace a fourth-rank military governor.

~~

The next day, the fleet reached the Sancha River estuary, from where it could flow into the Grand Canal. Cao Ke and Hu Shouren disembarked and bid farewell to Her Royal Highness the Princess.

Princess Ning'an changed to a 400-ton sand ship and continued to sail towards Tongzhou. As for the Pingjiang, it carried Wang Rulong's maritime security team and sailed back to Dagukou to wait for the fleet to return from the capital.

After separation, the fleet went north along the Grand Canal for 200 miles and reached Tongzhou.

Probably because the canal transportation was cut off, the canal ships were blocked south of the Yellow River. The Grand Canal, which was once busy and congested, became extremely smooth. More than half of the ships on the river were gone, and there was no canal ship heading north.

The eldest princess's car enjoyed the highest right of passage and arrived in Tongzhou in just two days.

It was already late at night when they arrived in Tongzhou, and everyone was too lazy to get off the boat. Under the guidance of the escort team on the road, the fleet sailed west along the Datong River overnight and arrived in Beijing early the next morning.

~~

It is March, the banks of the moat are covered with red flowers and green willows, the sky is blue and the water is clear. It is the most beautiful time of the year in Beijing.

The river was full of pleasure boats and pleasure crafts, with princes and daughters of officials intoxicated by the boundless spring scenery. The ladies played the pipa and sang spring songs.

These well-fed and well-clothed people don't know that this is the most difficult time for ordinary people to endure the spring famine. Last year's grain reserves have been exhausted, and it is still a long way to go before the new grain arrives. They have to work hard in the spring ploughing, and they can't work without enough food!

The elderly and children at home could only eat porridge. Every day, they carried baskets to dig shepherd's purse and elm seeds to fill their stomachs. They even picked willow buds, blanched them in water, and mixed them with elm seeds to eat.

Beijing has a population of one million. How can wild vegetables be enough to feed them?

There is a spring famine every year, and this year is particularly difficult.

Ever since the news of the Yellow River bursting its dike and the interruption of grain transport reached Beijing, grain prices, which had already been on the rise, suddenly skyrocketed.

It's been less than a month, and the price of a stone of rice has increased from one tael of silver to two taels and a half!

This price is too high in Suzhou. The income of the people in Beijing is only half of that of the people in Suzhou. How can they survive? !

~~

Datong River is the end point of the grain transport and the distribution center of the entire capital. There are more than a hundred grain shops on both sides of the river.

Originally, it was the rice merchants in the city who came here to buy rice wholesale. But recently, ordinary people would rather travel more than ten miles and carry heavy grain on their backs to buy rice here.

The reason why I like it is that the price here is 1.5 cents cheaper than in the city.

Unfortunately, prices here are rising every day as well.

At this time, the people who were queuing up to buy rice saw in despair that after the grain store removed the door panels, the wooden sign hung up showed that the price of grain today had become 2.25 ounces and 1.1 dan!

"Why is it going up again?!" The common people are almost going to collapse because of the rising food prices. Any slight increase will make them scream.

"It was still two taels and a half yesterday, and it's gone up another two cents overnight!"

"Just rob it openly!"

Listening to the people's complaints, the shop assistants kept their heads down and said nothing. They just carried the table to the door of the store, set up the large beam scale at the door, and waited for the boss to come out and start selling.

This arrangement was the boss' idea. Now that the price of grain has risen, the people are so desperate that they dare not let them into the store. It is safer to let them line up outside the door.

After a while, the shop owner came out wearing a long gown, a Liuhe hat and a mustache.

As soon as they saw him, the people's voices suddenly rose another octave.

"Master Ju San, you are too mean, why are you raising the price again?"

"That's right, if you don't make enough money, we will all starve to death!"

"Aren't you afraid of giving birth to a son without any sex drive?!" The words of the common people are becoming more and more vulgar day by day.

Fortunately, Ju Sanye has gotten used to it. Since he decided to raise the price, he has offered his ancestors and mothers to them, and let them scold him. Anyway, he won't lose a piece of meat, so he might as well take the opportunity to make more money.

At worst, I can just burn more paper for my ancestors to make it up to them.

"Our store has run out of stock, and there's no sign of restocking. If it weren't for you starving ghosts yelling outside, I really wouldn't want to open the store." Uncle Ju San snorted and said, "If you keep yelling, I won't sell it today, and the price will go up to at least three taels tomorrow!"

"No, no, no..." The common people have long known that all the grain stores in Datong Bridge are in collusion. The prices are the same every day, and no one will save a penny.

"Hurry up and sell your grain!" It's hard to unite at this time because there are always people who want to buy it quickly so they can feel at ease, so there is always a lot of fuss.

After all, this is the foot of the emperor who has been tamed for a long time, not the troubled Suzhou city. Although the common people are good at talking, they are actually very cowardly.

The grain store owners took advantage of this weakness and raised prices unscrupulously.

Seeing this, the giant boss attacked them again and said, "I have told you many times that the canal is broken and it will take one or two years to repair it. The grain from Jiangnan and Huguang cannot be transported here, but you never believe it."

"Oh, why are we so unlucky..." The common people looked sad and had completely lost their temper.

Some people still could not accept this cruel reality and shouted: "Over the years, the canal transportation has been interrupted more than once or twice, and each time it was repaired in a few months?"

"That's right. If we don't transport grain, what will the hundreds of thousands of workers and the tens of thousands of people eat?" People love to believe in ideas that are beneficial to them. This is true in ancient and modern times. "The court will repair the canal first, regardless of other things."

"You can fix it just by saying so?" The giant boss sneered with contempt, "Let me tell you, this time it's not just siltation or dam bursting. The entire 600-li river is dry, and the entire Huanghuai River is in chaos. It won't be fixed in one or two years!"

"You're talking nonsense!" The people were terrified, angry, pitiful and helpless.

"Hey, I'm going to say this!" The giant boss was not willing to give in, and said even more arrogantly: "Within half a year, if a shipload of Jiangnan rice arrives, I, Ju Youcai, will write my last name backwards!"

"That's still huge..." The literate man sneered and said, "It's the same as if you didn't say anything!"

"I haven't finished yet." The giant boss also got excited and sneered, "I'll charge one tael of silver for one stone of rice and sell it for three days. How about that?!"

"..." Now the common people were speechless. Even the big boss dared to make such a bet. Obviously, no grain ships would arrive in Beijing in a short time.

So they lined up dejectedly, waiting to buy his extremely expensive rice.

Seeing that he had completely suppressed the situation, the giant boss waved his hand triumphantly as a winner and shouted loudly: "On sale!"

Before he finished speaking, he saw a group of soldiers appear at the end of the team. Then he heard someone on the Datong Bridge shouting, "Look! The grain-carrying fleet is coming!"

With a cry of "Wow...", the crowd was in an uproar. The people no longer cared about queuing and rushed to both sides of the river like a tide.

Sure enough, a fleet of sand ships were seen slowly approaching from the west. The sailors on the ship opened the reed shed, revealing a load of Jiangnan rice!

"There is always a way out!" An old man knelt on the bridge and cried.

ps. The third update, please vote for me!