Prosperous Tang Blood Blade

Chapter 896 It Wasn't Me That Killed Them, It Was Greed

Chapter 18 It wasn't me that killed them, it was greed

Li Jiancheng, Chen Ying, Wei Zheng, Fang Xuanling, Yu Chigong and others rode their horses and walked slowly.

At this time, it was already lunch time, but there was no smoke from cooking houses in the distant villages, and no dogs barking.

Li Jiancheng's face was serious.

Wei Zheng looked at Li Jiancheng and said, "Your Majesty, a village like this has eight hundred if not one thousand!"

Li Jiancheng's face became even more gloomy.

Chen Ying waved his hand, and said to the guard next to him, "Look around and see if there is no one there!"

Not long after, an old man on crutches walked slowly, supported by guards.

Li Jiancheng hurriedly asked: "Old man, where are the people in this village?"

The old man seemed to be a little deaf. Li Jiancheng asked five or six times in a row before he understood what he meant.The face of the old man is full of grooves, and the wrinkles are getting deeper.He said tremblingly: "Flee away...all escape!"

Li Jiancheng possessed himself and asked, "Why?"

The old man sighed and said: "There is no water...the square...the radius is thirty miles...you can't find a drop of water, and you can't find any water when you dig a well...to six feet and four feet!"

Li Jiancheng asked again: "Old man, why didn't you leave?"

"Let's go...a person like me...where else can I go!" The old man ignored Li Jiancheng, and walked away tremblingly on crutches.

Li Jiancheng followed the old man and walked for half an hour.

It was discovered that the old man did not live in the village.But in a cemetery.There was freshly dug soil in the cemetery. The old man went to the unfinished grave, took a hoe, and continued digging.

Looking at this scene, Li Jiancheng bit his lips tightly with his teeth. He was so hard that Li Jiancheng's lips were bleeding from his bite, but Li Jiancheng still didn't realize it.

Li Jiancheng walked to the edge of the grave and found that the old man had no bedding, only a few pieces of cracked grain cakes, and a small bucket of water that had turned yellow.

Li Jiancheng hit his head with his fist in pain.

Wei Zheng sighed: "Thousands of miles of red land, barren and inhabited!"

Chen Ying stepped forward and gave Wei Zheng a hard look.

Wei Zheng looked at Chen Ying disapprovingly and said, "General Chen, I know you want to fight Turks and subdue Turks, but now we in Tang Dynasty can't afford to fight, and our army will starve to death! The court is now, even for a month. I can’t even come up with the rations. For the current plan, we can’t go to war, we can only ask for peace!”

"Peace?" Chen Ying looked at Wei Zheng, and said with contempt on his face, "Only those who can fight can make peace. Now it's the Turks who are here to fight us, not us to fight the Turks."

Fang Xuanling, who was originally silent, suddenly said: "Now it depends on General Chen's ability. Didn't the general pride himself on being good at the art of war? Isn't it the essence of Sun Tzu's art of war to subdue others without fighting?" ?”

Yu Chigong ignored Fang Xuanling, but looked at Li Jiancheng and said, "Your Majesty, no matter what, we must fight this battle."

"General Yuchi's words are very true. The Turkic people don't care if you are short of food or severe drought. If you don't fight hard, the wolf cubs will not go back to the grassland obediently!" Chen Ying looked at Wei Zheng He sneered and said, "Wei Linggong doesn't feel pain in his back when he is standing and talking. Before the Turkic people came, the famine had already started. Even if the Turkic people have withdrawn now, wouldn't the famine be over?"

Li Jiancheng stared at the map in silence.

At this moment, Li Xiaogong suddenly rode over.

Li Jiancheng was awakened by the sound of horseshoes, and when he came back to his senses, Li Jiancheng looked up at Li Xiaogong and asked, "Xiaogong, what happened?"

Li Xiaogong smiled wryly and said: "The Turkic envoys, Bulugen and Zhishili asked to come to Beijing for an audience. Now that they have arrived in Fengzhou, they are expected to arrive in Chang'an in half a month!"

How could Li Jiancheng not know that the Eastern Turks sent envoys to Chang'an at this time, in fact, to find out the reality of the Tang Dynasty. At this time, there was famine and starvation in Guanzhong, and they couldn't hide it from the eyes of the Turks.

What's more, this mission is definitely not limited to these people on the surface, and I don't know how many secret agents will sneak into the Central Plains in secret.

Li Jiancheng sighed and said, "Let's go back to the palace to draw up a marching strategy!"

Chen Ying bowed and said: "Your Majesty knows how to fight. When it comes to the art of war, Your Majesty is not weaker than... Your Majesty."

Li Jiancheng stood up and interrupted Chen Ying's words: "The general is outside, and the emperor's order is not accepted! The general cannot be controlled by it, and the army cannot be controlled by it. This is the greatest art of war! I know, but we, the monarchs, must think about it." Proper way..."

Wei Zhengdao: "I have also gone through the battle. I don't want meritorious service, but I want no faults, so there will be no big troubles!"

"That means refusing to take responsibility, refusing to make decisions on the fly, and asking for instructions in everything...is it just letting His Majesty take the blame?" Of course, Chen Ying didn't say politely to Wei Zheng: "Is this how you act as the prime minister?"

Wei Zheng was speechless.

Li Jiancheng asked: "Then what do you say?"

Chen Ying sighed and said, "The plan can only be advanced!"

Now is the most critical time for the struggle between Chen Ying and the Guanzhong Grain Merchants Group, in fact, the Guanzhong Noble Group. The food battle has been fought until now, and the price of food has risen to a hundred dollars per meter.

Chen Ying transported grain into Guanzhong one after another from outside the customs, but the grain merchants in Guanzhong bought it by any means, and the grain merchant group's first loan of 150 million yuan was about to sue Xin.In fact, Chen Ying has not run out of grain in Henan Province, not to mention there are more than 800 million shi of grain on the way.

Under such circumstances, the Guanzhong Grain Merchant Group has already spent a large amount of money on grain, and it is preparing to buy grain at a price ten or even twenty times the usual grain price.

Now that the food war has been fought, in fact, both sides have barely sensed the other's strategy. This is like a national war. Putting aside the three axes in the front, the latter is to fight for national strength.

If Chen Ying did not continue to enter Guanzhong with new grain, Chen Ying would still have the final say on the price of the grain market.However, once the Guanzhong Grain Merchant Group explodes, they will either deal with the grain at a low price, and pay back as much as they can. Sold to Chen Ying.

However, the Turkic envoys entered the pass to inquire about the reality of the Tang Dynasty. Now the grain market in Guanzhong is like a volcano erupting, and the people are full of dissatisfaction. The most important thing is that the market is bleak, and the Turks will discover the reality and the truth of the Tang Dynasty.

Chen Ying sighed and said: "Two evils, the lesser of the two, right now we can only accept the good!"

Originally, Chen Ying had a great opportunity to reap more than half of the wealth accumulated by the Guanzhong noble group for hundreds of years.But in order to deal with the Turkic envoys, it had to end early.

Li Jiancheng nodded, sighed and said, "They really deserve their lives!"

Li Jiancheng also understands that if Chen Ying's plan is completely successful, at least two-thirds of the patriarchs of the Guanzhong noble group will be forced to step down because of their wrong decisions, and there will be a major earthquake in Guanzhong.

……

In Prince Qi's Mansion, when Li Yuanji woke up early one day, his forehead bulged and his eyelids twitched.

This made Li Yuanji feel a little suspicious. Under Li Yuanji's repeated questioning, Xie Shufang made a comprehensive guarantee, and Li Yuanji gave up.

Xie Shufang was about to leave when he suddenly remembered the news that the Turkic envoy had arrived, so he reported to Li Yuanji: "His Royal Highness, the Turkic Jieli Khan sent an envoy to enter the pass..."

When Li Yuanji heard this, he was overjoyed and said: "It seems that Xieli is also a coward, the shit has come to the bottom, and now he is still looking forward and backward!"

Xie Shufang laughed and said: "That's not because he was scared by General Chen. In the past three years, the Turks have never taken advantage of it. In the fourth year of Wude, the Turks could still gather 40 people who control strings. Now Now they have to gather 40 people who control strings, and I am afraid they will include women and children!"

Li Yuanji laughed out loud.

After a long time, Li Yuanji stopped laughing, and said solemnly: "Have you not found out the whereabouts of the second child?"

Xie Shufang shook his head and said: "No, he seems to have disappeared out of thin air. Bashu, Hedong, Hebei, even Liangzhou, Jiannan Road, and Lingnan have not found any trace of him!"

"This is so strange!" Li Yuanji mused, "Where did the second brother die?"

Xie Shufang bowed his head and remained silent.

At this moment, there was a roar like a beast.

Li Yuanji was taken aback, and quickly ran towards the backyard.

Xie Shufang followed closely behind.

When Li Yuanji came to Yu Wenhuaji's small courtyard, suddenly an inkstone flew out of the courtyard, and Xie Shufang hurriedly tried to stand in front of Li Yuanji.

Li Yuanji frowned and threw his fist away.

"boom……"

Li Yuanji shattered this fine inkstone with one punch.When Li Yuanji entered the small courtyard, he saw Yu Wenhua and his entourage with both hands holding his neck tightly.

Yu Wenhuaji roared with a ferocious face: "There is still 100 million shi of grain, why didn't you say it sooner? Didn't you say it sooner..."

It's just that the servant had stopped struggling, twitched, and was silent.

Li Yuanji walked up to Yu Wenhuaji, and forcefully opened Yu Wenhuaji's hand, while exerting force, he said, "Sir, he is already dead!"

As he said that, Li Yuanji ordered to the left and right: "Find him a coffin, bury him properly, and send a hundred coffins to his family!"

Li Yuanji supported Yu Wenhuaji to sit down and said, "Sir, what happened?"

"These wastes are all wastes." Yu Wenhuaji roared, "Child Chen Ying has secretly stockpiled 200 million shi of grain in Henan Province, and put it in Taolin County. I didn't find out until now..."

Li Yuanji turned pale with shock. At this time, two guards of the Changlin Army were carrying the body of Yuan's entourage strangled to death by Yu Wenhuaji, and slowly walked out.

Li Yuanji shouted at the two: "Stop!"

The two Changlin army guards looked at Li Yuanji inexplicably.

Li Yuanji roared: "There is no need to bury him, just chop him up and feed him to the dogs!"

The guards did not dare to neglect, so they had to carry out Li Yuanji's order.

Li Yuanji was in a state of chaos at this moment, but he knew exactly what the extra 100 million shi of grain would mean.

If all the 100 million shi went to the people, and if, like the end of Daye, the common people only ate one meal, or hung their lives with porridge, 100 million shi of grain would be enough to support 100 million people for half a year.Although six or two meters a day is not enough to eat, you will never starve to death.

The key is half a year, enough to discover too many things.Even if the snail crawls, grain from other grain-producing areas can be transported into Guanzhong.

In other words, this hoarding of food has completely failed.

Li Yuanji said in dismay: "Sir, what shall we do now?"

Yu Wenhuaji angrily suppressed the anger in his heart and said, "Now we can only continue to buy!"

"But, we don't have much money left!" Li Yuanji said, "I'm afraid the other families are pretty much the same, right?"

Yu Wenhuaji turned around, and suddenly said with his hands behind his back: "His Royal Highness, didn't the court say that the people who migrated outside the pass will be compensated with ten pennies per household?"

Li Yuanji nodded and said: "That's right, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has such a regulation, sir, what do you mean..."

Yu Wenhuaji said with a wry smile: "All of them are tenants and tenants, let them exchange people for money!"

The relocation and resettlement fee is to prevent the people who migrate outside the customs from having no food and clothing. If the migration route is full of flesh and blood, this is not what Chen Ying wants to see.

The resettlement fee of ten guan qian per household was paid by Chen Yingshi from Tongli Bank by way of tax discount.Of course, all of them are banknotes, which do not hinder circulation.

At this time, the average population of a household is four.In fact, there are more than 100 million households in Guanzhong, and 33 households are planned to be relocated.

Of course, all major Guanzhong noble groups have shady households, and there are quite a few of them.Take Jingzhao Webster as an example. Webster has more than 8000 private households and more than [-] servants.

Yu Huaji's method is actually not a method.It's just drinking doves to quench thirst. If the big families can pool 20 households, they can get [-] yuan from the court.The shady households of the great clans carried food on the road, so they didn't have to starve to death.

……

Since the food famine, the grain merchants in Chang'an have cut off the food supply.It all relies on long-term unwinding to sell grain.

On June 27th, more than 60 grain stores popped up in Chang'an city at one time.

These grain stores have put up their lists to sell grain.

"Sixty bucks a bucket of wheat!"

"Eighty dollars for a bucket of rice!"

"75 bucks a bucket!"

"Never limit!"

Soon there were long queues at the gates of these grain stores.

Li Jiancheng and Chen Ying dressed up as ordinary people and followed in the crowd.

At the beginning, because the price of the grain market was slightly lower than the price sold in the Changping warehouse, people rushed to buy it.

Some of them bought one stone, and some pushed deer carts and bought three or four stones.

But there are more people who are able to act and wear brand-new clothes. They buy more grain, with more than a dozen shi and less.

In front of Li Jiancheng was a boy and a girl.They didn't look very old, both of them were sallow and thin, and they stammered in front of the grain shop assistant, "Can you give me a catty of chestnuts!"

The guy said, "Five big bucks!"

The young man cried and said, "We have no money!"

The guy had a hard face: "Get out of the way if you don't have any money, go back and get the money!"

The girl cried with a sad face, "Our family has no money either!"

Although this food war can make Chen Ying a fortune, it is ordinary people who are suffering.Thanks to Chen Ying who opened too many workshops in Chang'an City, and the workshops built by the imperial court, the common people can do some odd jobs during the slack season.Earn three to five dollars a year.

Otherwise, even the price of [-] qian per bucket of rice would not be affordable by ordinary people.

Chen Ying took out a piece of money from his pocket, even the smallest denomination was consistent money.

"Thank you...my lord for rewarding me, little... I will come back after buying a catty of rice, sister, you kowtow to benefactor again!"

Li Jiancheng sighed and said, "When will this kind of situation end?"

Chen Ying said with a faint smile: "Hurry up!"

Food prices have risen rapidly, but they have also fallen even faster.

From the highest peak, it is ninety yuan for a bucket of rice, which is almost one price a day.

It took only four days to drop from ninety to fifty.

The grain merchants in Guanzhong have been watching, hoping that the government's grain can be sold.

It's just that they are disappointed, the food in the government seems to have no end.

Grain prices are falling rapidly, and Guanzhong grain merchants have no money to empty the grain market, so they can only watch helplessly as the common people buy a large amount of grain at the price of [-] yuan a bucket.

On the first day of July alone, Chang'an official warehouses and grain stores in the city sold no less than 20 shi of grain.

On the second day of July, grain prices continued to fall for five consecutive days. This time, the drop was relatively large, and it was directly reduced by another [-] yuan on the original basis.

Thirty dollars per bucket!
This also means that the original value of more than four million grains in the hands of the Guanzhong Grain Merchant Group has shrunk by two-thirds in just five days.

Qian Changgeng couldn't stand him anymore.

He was originally the big shopkeeper of Yuanshi's business, responsible for the grain and farm management.In recent years, he himself is also a rich man with tens of millions of wealth.

He originally wanted to unite the major families in Guanzhong to short the grain market.He can also make a lot of money from it. He pledged his house and land as a mortgage to obtain a loan of 1 guan, plus his own more than [-] guan, making a total of [-] guan. At that time, he bought [-] shi of grain privately, planning to make a fortune.

However, in just a few days, his ten-thousand-guan family wealth was only left with less than four thousand guan.

The loss was heavy and nothing was returned.

Qian Changgeng couldn't take it anymore, the grain market collapsed, and with Yuanshi's mean temper, he must be responsible for the blame.

Thinking of this, Qian Changgeng immediately poisoned himself.

None of the 37 members of the family survived, and all died of poisoning.

Qian Changgeng is not the only case of accident, not even the first one.

With the collapse of food prices, more and more well-dressed, fat-headed businessmen are either hanging themselves, wiping their necks, hitting walls, or jumping off buildings.

Following the news, Li Xiuning said with some unbearable heart: "It's miserable...it's too miserable!"

While doing the calculations, Chen Ying said with a smile: "It's better to cry as a family than all the way, and what's more, it's not me who killed them, but their greed!"

PS: These two days of genesis are limited to free, so there is only one chapter per day. After the limited free is over, let’s make a small explosion, and the third update will be [-]!

(End of this chapter)