Even Emperor Wu heard about this matter in the palace.
He couldn't pretend he didn't know. Qiao Yunting hadn't even taken office yet, but he was already thinking about asking for leave, saying he wanted to go back to harvest wheat.
This fool, does he know what his current status is? The Qiao family is so short of people that the master has to harvest the crops himself?
Qiao Family Sons:.......
He sent people out to inquire, and found out that he was hiring people and buying meat, and in the end he even had to borrow money.
"The Qiao family can't afford to eat now? Why are you borrowing so much?"
"That's not the case. It's just that I want to borrow as much as I can. My mother must have her reasons for needing it. She raised the money by herself before, and I didn't have the ability to help. Now that I'm an official, I have to lend a hand. I only have 300 taels saved, which is a drop in the bucket. I can only ask my colleagues to borrow a hundred or eighty taels.
Upon hearing this, Emperor Wu secretly gave Qiao Yunting 100,000 taels of silver, and even the King of Qi sent more than 30 taels. Qiao Yunting didn't even look at it and had it all delivered to Qiao Xin.
The person involved, Qiao Xin, was in Xiaoyao Hou's study at this time.
"What did you say? I'm helping you collect grain in Dongyi and Nanliang. The old lady is about to harvest in summer and you and I are helping you collect grain now. All the grain collected is old grain, and it will be piled up together. This is obviously a loss-making business. What do you want?"
"With food in hand, there is no need to panic! We only need to collect for seven days, and all the food must be transported to Dajing in ten days. Do you want to help me or not?"
"I'm only taking 100,000 taels of silver for the old grain. This is just a drop in the bucket for you big grain merchants. If the Marquis is unwilling to cooperate, I will have to find other people. I believe they will not refuse."
When Xu Can heard this, he immediately looked at Xiaoyao Hou. This was just a matter of convenience for his family.
"father!"
Xiaoyao Hou thought of the news he had received recently, was silent for a moment, but finally agreed.
As soon as Qiao Xin left, he immediately sent a secret letter to the palace. When he saw the secret guard send the word "approved", he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
He turned around and summoned the stewards in the mansion: "Notify the village head to start harvesting wheat in advance, and quickly!"
Qiao Xin's abnormal behaviors were definitely not without purpose. If they took a gamble and harvested the wheat early, they would only lose a little wheat. They in the Xu family could afford it.
At the same time, Wang Yuanwai also received a letter from Qiao Xin and a banknote of 50,000 taels, asking him to do his best to store up old grain and not let the news leak out.
Wang Yuanwai looked at his daughter. This was the first time he had encountered such a situation. He received money before doing anything. In the past, his Wang family had always paid the money in advance. If the work was good, they would be compensated a little. If they were not satisfied, it was just a matter of a word. He dared not say anything, so he had to swallow his anger and accept it.
But the Qiao family tried their best to tell him that there are reasonable and noble people in the world, but they are just not lucky enough to meet them.
"Since the old lady has ordered us to do so, let's do it. While the price of old grain is low, we should collect as much as we can. Talk to the people in the Chamber of Commerce and try to collect everyone's boats. We can't delay the matter in Laohu Town. We should also rush to harvest our land."
"Girl, this is not necessary!"
"Ah, Dad, I want to laugh at the Qiao family for not doing a business that loses money! Do you think Mrs. Qiao looks like someone with a confused mind?"
Wang Yuanwai was stunned. If the old lady was not in a clear mind, there would be few people with normal minds in the whole capital. But some people are good at engineering calculations, but they may not understand farming!
"Don't forget, the land in Laohu Town was planted according to Madam Qiao's requirements. When you first saw it, did you think it was wasteland? Even the best farmland is no better than this. It shows that the old lady is a good farmer."
After Wang Caiwei said this, Wang Yuanwai's last doubt was dispelled. Forget it, the Wang family and the Qiao family are already tied to the same boat anyway, and being hesitant will only make people dislike them.
The next morning, the common people in the capital city discovered that the Wang and Xu families on each street had posted news of exchanging old grain for new grain. The Qiao family's shop in the capital city only put up a notice to collect grain at the gate of the Wang family's compound. Moreover, the prices of both coarse grain and fine grain in these three shops were one penny higher than those in other grain shops.
Some people were skeptical, while others believed it firmly. When the first old farmer who sold grain received the actual silver, everything else fell into place. On the first day, the Qiao family received 10,000 taels of silver in grain, and the Wang family compound was filled to the brim with grain, leaving no place to stay.
Qiao Xin asked people to check if there were any leaks in the house, and at the same time, he ordered his servants to rent more warehouses on high ground. He also vacated all the extra rooms in the Qiao Mansion and used them all as temporary warehouses.
The old lady made such a big move, but it was impossible to hide it from those who were interested. Many people tried to test the waters in front of Qiao Yunqing, but they just said, "My mother is just afraid of being hungry, so she just stored more food. The food stored in your house is more than ten times that of the Qiao family. How can you be satisfied with this little food?"
If you ask again, the words you say might be much more unpleasant. Which of your noble families doesn't have full granaries of gold and grain? But you complain when our Qiao family buys a little more. What's the matter? The officials are allowed to set fires while the common people are not allowed to light lamps!
The visitor left after asking for trouble. However, more and more noble families followed the example of the Qiao family. Suddenly, the price of old grain in Beijing increased. This trend spread from the capital to the surrounding cities.
The common people were not all stupid. Seeing everyone doing this, they immediately thought it would be better to keep more food. These days, having enough food in the house is the greatest wealth.
Xiaoyaohou and the Wang family's caravans also moved quickly to Nanliang and Dongyi. Because Qiao Xin said that they could only collect food for seven days, the collected food must be immediately sent to the nearest city in Dajing.
No matter how you look at it, it seems like going to the enemy country to rob before a war.
Dongyi and Nanliang were both territories that were separated from the previous dynasty decades ago, and the royal families of these two dynasties were merely subjects of the last emperor.
The Southern Liang took over a large number of aristocratic families and remnants of the previous dynasty, while the Dongyi simply could not bear the last emperor's continuous conscription of civilians to support soldiers and the increasing taxes and levies, so they declared independence.
Today, the three kingdoms are wary of each other but trade with each other, unlike their complete hostility towards the Northern Rong.
This also brought huge opportunities and benefits to the merchants of the Three Kingdoms. The aristocratic families of the Southern Liang still wanted to retain their ancestral property in Dajing, but Emperor Wu did not accept this move and took back all the ownerless lands in the war. How could the fat meat be spit out again?
At the beginning of the Xin Dynasty, Emperor Wu had already awarded many houses and lands to those who had made great contributions. Those were the ancestral properties of the original aristocratic families. It was a pipe dream for the aristocratic families to want to return them.
Take Qiao Xin’s farm in Yunxi Town, for example. It used to be the territory of a noble family.
Now he is running the business well, and suddenly someone comes to him and says this is my family business, Qiao Xin will think he is a psycho.
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