Red House Shoufu

Chapter 182 Buying Grain and the People Behind It

Qianlimi Shop is the biggest business of the Ma family in Daming Mansion.

The rice shipped from the south of the Yangtze River, as well as all kinds of food produced locally, will basically be sent to this shop for sale.

Lin Shu was sitting in the inner hall of the shop, and he could hear the clamor of buying food outside clearly.

"My lord, you drink tea."

The shopkeeper Ma Liu, who was sweating profusely, put a smile on his face, respectfully put the teacup on the table next to Lin Shu, and stood beside him with a bow.

Lin Shu didn't even look at the teacup, staring at the person in front of him and asked in a cold voice: "Ma Liu, I ask you, what is the price of rice today?"

"Returning to my lord, the water transportation has been suspended for many days due to the flood, and the rice transportation from the south of the Yangtze River cannot come in..."

"Don't talk too much about anything else!"

Ma Liu replied tremblingly, "Rice is two thousand three hundred and one stone."

"That is to say, only two taels of silver can buy a stone of rice! It seems that Ma Yuanwai's business is quite good!"

Lin Shu sneered, took out a stack of bank notes, and put them on the table: "This is 10,000 taels of silver notes. Before noon tomorrow, send five thousand shi of rice to Changping warehouse!"

How could Ma Liu dare to accept this business, he quickly said: "My lord, a villain can't make up his mind, the amount is too big, it's up to the master to make up his mind..."

At this time, a dragon guard came in and reported: "Scholar, the Patriarch of the Ma family is here!"

Lin Shu sneered: "It's really fast! Let him in."

Following a burst of footsteps, a lean middle-aged man walked into the inner hall.Wearing a Confucian uniform made of royal blue brocade, he cupped his hands and said, "Ma Yongde pays his respects to the imperial envoy!"

The etiquette is very perfunctory, without even bending the waist.

Lin Shu ignored him, as if he didn't hear him, quietly looking at the scenery outside the window.

"Student Ma Yongde, pay homage to the imperial envoy!"

Ma Yongde is a Juren, but after repeated defeats in the examinations, he finally returned to his hometown to take over the family business.

Although he was older than Lin Ruhai, facing Liuyuan Wenkui Lin Shu, he still had to call himself a student and bow down.

This time Ma Yongde bent down respectfully and bowed deeply.Lin Shu forgiven him for dozens of breaths before he said, "Excuse me."

After Ma Yongde got up, Lin Shu patted the bank note on the table, and said bluntly: "10,000 taels of silver note, buy five thousand shi of rice from Ma's family, and deliver it to Changping warehouse before noon tomorrow, is it okay?"

"In normal times, it's okay to donate the five thousand shi rice to the adults for disaster relief. But it has been raining heavily for several days, and the water transportation has been stopped for a long time. Only one thousand shi in the warehouse has not arrived."

Ma Yongde sighed, seemingly compassionate.I just heard him say: "The student and Mr. Jia also said the day before yesterday that there is not much food in the warehouse. If the adults need it, the students are willing to donate [-] shi of grain for free, and do their part for the people in their hometown."

Lin Shu let out a sneer in his heart, but he didn't expose Ma Yongde's hypocrisy.He put away the banknotes, got up and said, "Since there is no food here at Ma Yuanwai, I should go to other shops to see..."

"It's the students who are incompetent and can't help the adults anymore."

Ma Yongde looked ashamed, and said with a sigh: "The students sent five hundred shi of grain to the Changping warehouse in the afternoon, which is a little kindness of the students."

Crashing, Lin Shu took out a few banknotes from the banknotes and put them on the table.

"What are you doing, my lord?"

"1000 taels of silver will buy you five hundred shi of grain. This official never takes people's money!"

After finishing speaking, Lin Shu turned around and walked out. When Ma Yongde chased him out, Lin Shu had already got into the carriage and left.

"Master, this imperial envoy is really here to buy food. Why don't you sell it to him?"

Ma Liu really didn't understand what his master did. Selling it to anyone was not selling it, but selling it to Lin Shu could still get favors from the imperial envoy.After all, it is not easy to get so much food in the year of catastrophe.

Ma Yongde looked at the chariots and horses going away, hehe said: "Today two two one stone, tomorrow three two one stone, what about the day after tomorrow? Daming Mansion... No, the whole Henan is going to be in chaos, food is very expensive."

When he returned to Ma Mansion, Ma Yongde went to the guest courtyard as soon as he entered, and saw a well-built man in regular clothes sitting in the courtyard.

"Oh my Lord Luo, why did you come out? If someone sees you, is there any place to run!"

Ma Yongde hurried forward, trying to pull the man back into the house.It turns out that this person is Luo Xiangming, a former Henan Wei Daming Mansion Qianhu who Lin Shu wanted to arrest and bring to justice.

Luo Xiangming still sat firmly on the stone bench and glanced at Ma Yongde contemptuously.

"Mr. Ma, what are you afraid of? Lin Shu is just smart, how could he guess that I didn't leave the city at all?"

As soon as Ma Yongde heard it made sense, he sat down and said: "You really guessed it, the imperial envoy went to my shop just to buy grain. It seems that there is not much grain in the treasury."

Luo Xiangming picked up the jug on the stone table and took a big sip directly to his mouth.He sneered and said, "Li Jiamao sent the food to the mountain a long time ago, and I was the one who escorted it. By the way, you didn't sell it to him, did you? Mr. Wan left a message that the food on your side is going to be sent to the mountain." went up."

"How can it be? I'll excuse the suspension of water transportation and only allow five hundred shi. The grain in the treasury has long been sent to Zhuangzi and hidden away, waiting for Mr. Wan to send a letter."

Ma Yongde chuckled: "But..."

"But what?"

Hearing the word "no more than two words", Luo Xiangming's eyes widened sharply, and his cold eyes stared straight at Ma Yongde.

Ma Yongde didn't care about the change in Luo Xiangming's eyes, and said: "Our friendship is friendship, and business must follow the rules. The water transport will stop, I don't know when it will pass. The price of food in this Daming Mansion changes three times a day. Mr. Wan Shouldn't the price increase here too? After all, our envoy Lin Qin offered two taels of silver for one stone today!"

Snapped!
The jug hit the ground, and Luo Xiangming stood up angrily, trying to pinch Ma Yongde's neck.

But several guards with knives came quickly from the courtyard and stared at Luo Xiangming coldly.As long as Luo Xiangming dares to do any harm to Ma Yongde, they will kill him.

Luo Xiangming snorted coldly, sat back and said: "It seems that Yuanwai Ma has been prepared for a long time... I will inform Mr. Wan of your request. We are not short of money, but if there is no food by then, everyone in Ma's house will Not a blade of grass will grow!"

Ma Yongde, who walked out of the guest house, said to the person beside him: "Immediately send someone to the capital to tell the prince that Prince Yizhong is going to raise troops!"

……

Lin Shu spent the whole morning visiting the largest grain stores in the city one by one.

The owners of these shops all had the same reason as Ma Yongde, the water transportation stopped, and there were not many in the warehouse.In the end, he bought grain ranging from five hundred shi from each family, and returned to the government office.

Seeing Lin Shu coming back, Jia Zheng asked eagerly, "How is it? Have you bought any food?"

Lin Shu sat down and replied, "Ma, Zhang, and Liu each bought five hundred shi. The rest of the smaller shops bought a total of [-] shi."

"So little? What can we do? There are only more than 200 stones left in the treasury!"

Jia Zheng walked back and forth anxiously in the house, but Lin Shu said unhurriedly, "Second uncle, don't worry, there will be food in two days!"

　There is a chapter in the second half of the night. I will take a break for a while and continue to code.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)