Datang: Acting as a celestial mystery at the beginning

Nearly half a month passed, and at this time, the price of food soared to nearly [-] yuan a bucket, which was about ten times higher than the initial four or five yuan a bucket.

Cui Mao called Lu Yulin and others together again to discuss how to reap their benefits.

"Everyone, now that the price of grain remains high, retail investors in Chang'an have begun to sell a large amount of grain. The price of [-] yuan a bucket of grain should be the highest. I don't think it can go up any further."

Li Yongfeng from the Li family in Longxi said first.

"It is indeed impossible to go up again, otherwise no one will be able to afford it. Now the number of retail investors who are selling is increasing, and there are more and more grains on the market. If we continue to wait for the price, I am afraid that we will not get what we want. desired interests."

Li Chengen of the Li family in Zhaojun responded.

Zheng Quan nodded: "I also heard that Li Erlang used his means to solicit money from the ministers of the court and central government, and increased taxes from various southern provinces to replenish the treasury, and then reduced the expenditure of the palace. Now he is preparing a batch of money with unknown amounts. But there is not a lot of money, and we are going to buy a lot of food for disaster relief."

"Almost all the grain that Li Erlang got from Wannian County was sent to Hebei and Jinyang, but he could barely stabilize the situation. The locust plague in Chang'an has not passed yet, and the drought in Shandong is getting worse. There is no way to deal with it anymore. food."

Having said that, Zheng Quan paused for a moment, and continued: "The imperial court has been secretly buying grain, trying to hide it from us and buy from retail investors. Now that retail investors are selling grain, it is just a chance to earn a fortune from the imperial court. I suggest that we also take out all of them. Sell, don't let those retail investors take advantage of it."

Wang Yuanhua echoed, "I've heard what Brother Zheng said, but the price of grain is so high now, even if the imperial court collects a large amount of money, it can't accept all of our grain."

"Then wait for Li Erlang to beg us."

Cui Jingsheng said flatly: "We want him to know that even the Son of Heaven offends our seven families, and finally he has to beg us in a low voice."

Cui Mao smiled and said: "That's right, let Li Erlang know that Datang is not just the Datang of his Li family."

Lu Yulin snorted coldly and said, "Even if he came to beg me, it would not be so easy to get food."

-

At the same time, in the Ganlu Hall.

"Your Majesty, now that the grain price has reached [-] yuan a bucket, it should have reached the peak that the gentleman said."

Du Ruhui looked at the news brought back by the spies outside, and continued to say about the grain price in Chang'an City: "At present, all the retail investors are releasing grain one after another. Let them all out, and within a few days, the amount of food in Chang'an has doubled, and the backlog is like a mountain."

"At the same time, we have released all kinds of news that confuses the family, and it also has a certain impact on them."

After saying that, Du Ruhui looked at Pei Ju.

Pei Ju cupped his hands and said: "When the grain was 45 yuan a bucket, the Ministry of Civil Affairs sold a large amount of grain through the shopkeeper Fang and made a fortune. At present, the national treasury is still full. If the price of grain drops, it can be bought in large quantities. Please let me know. Rest assured, Your Majesty."

"Okay, great!"

Li Shimin was waiting for this moment.

Sure enough, the development is in the direction that Mr. said, without the slightest difference. Mr.'s calculation, the five surnames and seven look at them, are playing with the applause.

"Pei Gong is old, it's hard work for you to be able to do this."

Seeing Pei Ju's haggardness recently, Li Shimin felt very guilty, and said, "Wei Zheng, you take the post of Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs temporarily, and take care of this food matter on behalf of Mr. Pei."

"The minister leads the order!"

Wei Zheng said immediately.

"Li Jing, Cheng Yaojin, Yuchi Jingde, Qin Qiong, you immediately lead the Chang'an city guards to patrol the city."

Li Shimin continued: "I will start on the day when the food is reduced. Within half a month, there will be no turmoil in Chang'an. If anyone dares to start a turmoil, they will be arrested immediately, so as to imitate others."

"Yes!"

They spoke in unison, very loudly.

When things have developed to this extent, they know very well in their hearts that they can only succeed, not fail.

At the same time of success, the aristocratic family will definitely send people to make trouble, and then destroy their plans, and the necessary resistance is inevitable.

"Wei Zheng, let someone contact Fang Yucheng now and ask him to lower the price first."

Li Shimin continued to issue orders, with excitement and anticipation in his eyes, as if he was about to accomplish a great feat.

Whether it can be successful, whether the people in Hebei and other places can have enough to eat, it all depends on this time.

-

Wei Zheng rushed to Chang'an West Market immediately.

"Wei..."

Fang Yucheng saw him coming, and was about to say hello, but Wei Zheng interrupted him directly: "Price down, first down five yuan, and then make a big publicity about the price reduction of our food here!"

Fang Yucheng is also an experienced businessman, he knew what to do as soon as he heard it, and immediately ordered people to go down to work.

In less than half an hour, the news that the price of food in Fang's shop had dropped by [-] yuan began to spread, and people who bought food came to ask the price immediately.

When the first person successfully bought a bucket of grain at a price of [-] yuan cheaper, the others became restless.

This scene quickly spread to other grain merchants. Anyway, there are more and more grains now, and high-priced grains are everywhere in Chang'an City.

If their price has no advantage, the grain will not be sold. Although the grain price is equal to market regulations, they secretly lowered the price by a few pennies, and there is no loss for their own interests.

Ever since Fang Yucheng started, other grain merchants were jealous and began to follow suit on a large scale. Seeing that the price reduction was really effective, many grain merchants even started to compare.

In just one afternoon, the price of food fell by [-] yuan. During this period of time, the price of food, which had been soaring, almost collapsed.

If it wasn't for the approaching evening, when the square gates and city gates were about to be closed, this downward trend had no intention of stopping.

"Mr.'s method is really amazing!"

Wei Zheng saw that the final grain price had dropped below 35 yuan.

Although it is still very expensive, compared with fifty yuan, it is much cheaper.

Once the food is saturated, the price will definitely be suppressed, and there is no market redundancy and economic leverage. Wei Zheng has to admire Mr. Wang's knowledge in various aspects and his miraculous methods.

"That's not all. According to my business experience, the decline will be even worse tomorrow."

Fang Yucheng said excitedly: "As soon as the West Market opens tomorrow, our Fang family's grain price will first drop below [-] yuan, and we will ask Wei Shilang to take care of it then."

They are the first to lower prices, destroying the overall interests of the grain merchants, cutting off people's money, such as killing their parents, it is normal to worry about retaliation.

What they destroy is still the interests of the five surnames and seven hopefuls, so we must guard against it.

On the day of the price cut, everything was chaotic. Maybe no one could find out the source, but the next day, it would be easy to find out Fang Yucheng.

"I'll go back and tell Your Majesty that tomorrow I will arrange guards to patrol the area continuously, and whoever dares to touch Shopkeeper Fang will die!"

Wei Zheng nodded in agreement, and then rushed to announce the good news to His Majesty before the gate of the imperial city was closed.