Prosperous Tang Blood Blade

Chapter 884 Don't Blame Me For Unscrupulous Means (Two Changes, Nine Thousand)
Chapter 6 don't blame me for unscrupulous
Chang'an's food mainly depends on the Guanzhong Plain. Although the Guanzhong Plain is known as a land of prosperity, it is small and has limited capacity. Once the population expands beyond its carrying capacity, or encounters drought, food shortages will occur.

In the Sui and Tang dynasties, due to the wars of the past dynasties and the development of the capital, the resources have been exhausted, and the output is not enough to supply Chang'an.In addition, the Guanzhong Plain is small and densely populated, and it is difficult to support a large number of bureaucratic nobles.

Once there is a famine in the Guanzhong area, the price of transporting grain from the eastern area to Chang'an will be quite heavy.Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty excavated the Guangtong Canal in order to solve the water transportation in Guanzhong.But the problem is still not fundamentally resolved.In a famine in 594 AD, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty was forced to go to Luoyang again to eat, so he also became the first "emperor chasing food" in the history of our country.

Chen Ying naturally knew the solution to the problem, but this solution was not without cost. Of course, Chen Ying also had selfish intentions.The population distribution of the Tang Dynasty was very uneven. The population of the entire early Tang Dynasty was only 500 million people. Including shady households and hermit households, it is estimated that the population would not exceed 2000 million.However, one-fifth of the population is concentrated in the Guanzhong area.

In fact, the Guanzhong area only accounts for [-]% of the entire territory of Datang.

This is very unreasonable. After all, Guanzhong does not have a very developed transportation network like later generations, which can be transported from land, sea and air.

The population in Guanzhong seriously exceeded the number of years that the land could carry. The food shortage that occurred in the early Tang Dynasty occurred more than once in the entire history of the Tang Dynasty.Even the emperor's entourage was starved to death.It can be said that this is a great escape.This is also the real reason why Wu Zetian was able to successfully move the capital to Luoyang at that time.

When Zhongzong arrived, there was another famine in Guanzhong, and the ministers asked the emperor to visit Luoyang again, but Tang Zhongzong refused, saying, "Is there any evil emperor who chases food?".However, the food was transported to Chang'an at the cost of the lives of the majority of civilians.

During Tang Dezong's time, there was another famine in Chang'an. The imperial army had no food to eat, so they had to beg on the street. Later, when the food arrived in the capital, Tang Dezong went to the East Palace and said to the prince, "The rice has arrived in Shanxi, and my father and son have leftovers."

This food shortage, Chen Ying really wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to relocate people outside the Guan, whether it was the Western Regions or Liaodong, it was much better than in Guanzhong.

After all, Chen Ying has no way to control the weather. Humans' means of drought resistance seem insignificant in such continuous droughts.

A huge map, on which Chen Ying compiled and annotated the detailed grain production and the stock situation of the official warehouse, because of the appearance of this map, all the ministers knew it at a glance.

Although Guanzhong suffered a rare drought, today's grain harvest is inevitable.Due to the secret operations of the grain merchants, they took time out of private grain storage in the Guanzhong market, turning grain into a rare resource that is more monopolized.

Chen Ying pointed to several food concentration areas in Datang, such as Bashu, Jianghuai, Hedong, and Hebei Road: "The first method is to change the defense of the twelve guards in Guanzhong, and let the soldiers take the money from Datang Tongli Bank. The defense was changed to Hebei, Hedong, and Bashu. The minister made calculations. Except for the left and right guards and the left and right Wuhou guards, the four armies will not move. The other eight guards, a total of 10 generals, mules and horses, can move out of Guanzhong. In time, Chang'an will save the food consumption of 80 horses, and it is estimated that it can save about [-] shi!"

"Wait!" Li Jiancheng interrupted Chen Ying and said, "Are you saying that the money will be paid but not the food?"

Chen Ying nodded and said, "Yes!"

Wei Zheng couldn't help but said angrily: "General Chen, do you know the consequences of doing this! When the soldiers find that they can't even buy a bucket of rice with a little subsidy, what will they think in their hearts! Once their state of mind Change, will you risk your life to fight in the future? This is a major event that shakes the country! How can you handle it so absurdly!"

Although Wei Zheng was a famous official and historical figure, Chen Ying was not without temper, so he snorted and said, "Wei Xuancheng, according to what you said, what should I do?"

Wei Zheng was speechless.

In fact, Wei Zheng's thoughts coincided with Li Jiancheng's, and he ordered directly, which was simply rude.

Although it is possible to use the army to snatch the grain from the hands of the grain merchants and solve the food crisis.However, these grain merchants have suffered huge losses. They can do anything, especially the situation in East Turkistan is becoming more and more confusing.

Although Wei Zheng and Li Jiancheng couldn't think of the crisis after the country's reputation went bankrupt, Chen Ying could see it.

It is precisely because he can see that he tried his best to prevent Li Jiancheng from taking such a simple method.When the imperial court encountered a famine, the first reaction was to rob those grain merchants with knives, but in the future financial crisis, should they use knives to rob the common people and wealthy households?Once this is done, the credibility of the imperial court will immediately go bankrupt. Once the government is not trusted by the people, will anyone obey the decree?
How can the governments of various places implement their policies, so that they will not fall into anarchism?
Chen Ying said with a faint smile: "The food crisis in Guanzhong actually sounded a wake-up call for us. The safety of the Tang Dynasty is definitely not something that can be explained clearly by saying that the integrity of the rivers and mountains is not in danger."

Wang Gui said anxiously: "General Chen, why don't you transfer grain from Hedong and Bashu to Beijing?"

"There are grains in Bashu, grains in Hedong, and grains in Luoyang, but these grains are only distant water for Guanzhong, so how can they quench their thirst?" Chen Ying said solemnly: "This is not about transporting some goods, but To transport food rations for 300 million people! It will take more than one month at the fastest to transport food from Bashu to Chang'an. In this one month, the food consumed on the road needs to prepare three or four times more supplies. Our treasury is now so empty that we can go hungry Dead rats, how can they stand the waste in the middle? And the cost of transporting them from here will almost double. If we enter the market according to the cost, we will still not be able to solve the problem of grain prices in Guanzhong. We are powerful, but we close the door and tell the truth, in fact, there are a lot of internal problems, such as the food price problem, which affects the whole body, if it is so easy to solve, why should I worry about it here!"

After he said such a long speech, he stunned all the officials. There are many people who are not convinced by Chen Ying's war. No.

Seeing that it was getting late and the problem had not been completely resolved, Li Jiancheng waved his hands and said, "Retire!"

Chen Ying hurriedly withdrew.

However, Li Jiancheng said: "Chen Qing and Wei Qing stay!"

Li Jiancheng knew that it was not easy for Chen Ying, and there were a lot of people. Behind these grain merchants stood one or several aristocratic family figures.

When the ministers dispersed, Fang Xuanling stayed behind.

Fang Xuanling was very curious about how Chen Ying solved this difficult problem.

Li Jiancheng, Chen Ying, Wei Zhengfang and Xuanling moved to the imperial study, and the maids and eunuchs brought tea and pastries. Li Jiancheng pointed to the pastries and said, "Everyone is also hungry, let's put some cushions first!"

Speaking of this, Li Jiancheng's voice softened a lot, looked at Chen Ying, and said in a discussing tone: "The food crisis is naturally difficult, but with Chen Qing's ingenuity, there must be a solution, right? "

Chen Ying listened to Li Jiancheng speaking in such a tone, at this moment he had to think of a way, and sighed: "When cooking and stir-frying, you must have rice first. We are not having a problem with the dishes, but that we have no rice. Pot. The current difficulty is that we must first find money and food. Things will be easier when we have money and food in hand.”

Li Jiancheng looked at Chen Ying and said, "Datang Tongli Bank, can you borrow some money?"

"It's not difficult at 01:30." Chen Ying smiled wryly, "But some of them can't solve the problem at all!"

Li Jiancheng lowered his head and muttered: "Chen Qing is right, this matter is really difficult. But the difficulty is difficult, everyone works together, and there is a way to get along. So many difficulties, we have overcome them together, is it in victory? Then it got stuck here instead?"

Chen Ying nodded and said: "Your Majesty is wise, in fact, it is not difficult to solve the food crisis in Guanzhong! Moving the army of the twelve guards in Guanzhong is only one of the strategies, which can alleviate the food shortage of one million shi. The second is to organize the productionless people Migration, when I was in the Western Regions, when I left the town of Daduhu, the land of the Western Regions reclaimed more than 500 million mu of grain fields, if 50 households can be relocated, at least 200 million shi of grain can be solved!"

Wei Zheng shook his head and said, "But Guanzhong is the foundation of the imperial court. If Guanzhong is weak, wouldn't the world be in turmoil?"

Chen Ying suddenly looked at Li Jiancheng and said, "Your Majesty, there are no outsiders now. I would like to ask, do you hate these grain merchants?"

"How can you not hate!" Hearing this, Li Jiancheng said without hesitation: "I want to cram their tendons, peel their skin, and drink their blood!"

Chen Ying said with a smile: "Your Majesty, do you want to make them lose everything?"

Li Jiancheng said: "Why don't you want to?"

Chen Ying looked at Wei Zheng and said, "Grain is distributed at the price of [-] yuan per bucket of rice. Does the grain merchant have as much to eat?"

Wei Zheng nodded and said: "These grain merchants are rich and powerful. They hire refugees, poor and settled households, and shady households, servants, and hidden households to come forward to buy the cheap grain distributed by the official warehouse. It will be eaten by these grain merchants, and only [-] to [-] percent can be distributed to the people!"

Hearing this, Chen Ying said with a sinister smile, "How many stone grains are there in the official warehouse?"

Wei Zheng stretched out both hands.

Chen Ying asked: "One million stones!"

Wei Zheng shook his head and said, "There are only 55 shi!"

Although 55 shi of grain sounds like a lot, with the plan of three liters of grain per person, millions of people in Chang'an City can barely consume less than 20 days. If the supply is halved, they can barely consume forty days.For the capital of a country, this grain reserve is already very dangerous.

"Since they are lawless, don't blame me for being unscrupulous!" Chen Yingdao: "The princes and princes of the clans and princes of the Tang Royal Commercial Alliance should have a lot of food in their reserves, right?"

Li Jiancheng nodded and said: "It's useless, they won't take it out to save me!"

Chen Ying said with a smile: "This is an opportunity to make a fortune. If they don't want to, after passing this village, there will be no such shop. Why don't His Majesty hold a meeting of the Royal Commercial Alliance and let the vassals choose for themselves?"

Li Jiancheng nodded and said, "Xuanling, go and make arrangements. I want to hold a banquet in the Linhu Hall of the Tai Chi Hall!"

That night, the first shareholder meeting of the Datang Royal Business Alliance was held in the Linhu Hall. The meeting was a closed-door meeting, and the details are unknown.

From the next day, the Guanzhong Guancang began to release grain continuously, but the par price was increased by five cents per bucket.

Reached fifty words!
A total of [-] shi of grain was distributed in the official grain warehouse this time, but before noon, it was immediately robbed.

The next day, the official warehouses in various parts of Guanzhong still released grain at a flat price. The same price was increased by five cents a bucket, reaching sixty cents per bucket.Many people actually lined up overnight, waiting to buy food.

……

Chen Ying returned to Chenjiabao with a tired expression. Li Xiuning was teasing her daughter Li Ruoxi.

Watching Chen Ying go back, Li Xiuning looked at Chen Ying and was about to get up.

Chen Ying stretched out his arms, hugged Li Ruoxi and said with a smile, "Good girl, my little princess, let daddy hug me!"

Li Ruoxi didn't give Chen Ying any face as a father at this moment, she pursed her mouth and burst into tears.

Chen Ying hugged Li Ruoxi and rubbed the beard on Li Ruoxi's face affectionately. Li Ruoxi was very tickled by Chen Ying's beard, and she giggled unconsciously.

The family is very harmonious, quiet and sweet.

However, Ashina Simo outside the door became thoughtful.

He pushed Guo Luo aside and said, "Guo Luo, did you hear that?"

Guo Luo asked puzzledly, "What did you hear?"

Ashina Simo lowered his voice and said quietly: "Just now, the Lord called the little lady a little princess!"

Hearing this, Guo Luo's face changed greatly: "Shut up!"

In this era, only the emperor's daughter can be called a princess, or the emperor's sister.However, Chen Ying was a human being in two generations. In later generations, people usually call their son the young master and their daughter the little princess.

Ashina Simo looked at Guo Luo inexplicably, pointed at Guo Luo and said: "Why, your heart is blocked by phlegm..."

Before he could speak, Guo Luo rushed to the surrounding guards and said, "You didn't hear anything, do you understand?"

All the guards looked serious, and said solemnly: "I understand, humble!"

Guo Luo looked at Ashina Simo and said, "Come with me!"

……

In an unremarkable gambling house in Anrenfang, Chang'an City, all the famous grain merchants in Guanzhong were included.

An old man wrapped in a cloak sat in the top seat, looking coldly at the oily, fat-headed grain merchants below.

A well-dressed attendant reported to the old man in black: "Reporting to the leader of the meeting, we have already found out. Chen Ying called the Chang'an clan kings. I don't know what method he used to persuade the Chang'an kings. Now Huai'an king Li Shentong and Prince Zhao Li Xiaogong all opened the treasury, shipped out the grain, and transported all the grain into the official warehouse!"

The old man in black said in a hoarse voice: "The kings of Chang'an do have some food in their homes. They may be three to fifty thousand shi, or thousands of shi. It is amazing that they can hoard a million shi of grain. However, to solve the food crisis in Guanzhong, it will take a mere million Stone food, is it enough?"

All the grain merchants burst out laughing upon hearing this.

They have already calculated this account.The official storehouse plus the grain stored by the kings is only 150 million shi. After subtracting the food consumed in the past two days, they still have at most 140 million shi. It sounds like a lot of food, but the food can be consumed after two or three months , At that time, it was the time when the green and the yellow were not picked up.

The old man in black said: "We will eat as much food as they have!"

A grain merchant said with a crying face: "There is too much grain to eat, and now the Zhu family has no money in their hands!"

"If you don't have any money, then borrow from Chen Ying. Doesn't his Tongli Bank only need [-]% interest to borrow money? We use land, real estate, shops and everything that can be pledged to borrow money from Tongli Bank, and then borrow money from Tongli Bank. Millions of dollars, how much food they have, we will eat it all!"

The morale of the grain merchants was greatly boosted.

They all applauded.

Some people also questioned that the risk is too great.

The old man in black smiled faintly: "As long as we spare the grain in Guanzhong, won't we have the final say on the price of grain in the future?"

PS: Recommend a book, The No. [-] Cavalry Under the Starry Sky!

(End of this chapter)