The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Chapter 314 Nanjing Incident ([-])
Bai Xiaosheng gritted his teeth and said, "It will take three days for Nanjing City, and at least seven days for the entire Yingtian Mansion."

"Okay, I will give you three days here in Nanjing, and ten days in Yingtian Mansion. Be sure to investigate the details of all the big grain merchants, and make sure not to miss any of them!"

"The last general takes orders!"

"Go down."

"I will retire at the end."

After Bai Xiaosheng exited Fengtian Hall, Liu Sheng couldn't help but tap his fingers on the imperial case and began to think deeply.

In the morning, Zhang Kuang came to report that food prices in the city were rising day by day.

Ten days ago, the price of rice was still half a penny of silver per liter, which was equivalent to more than three taels per stone. Although it was much higher than the two taels per stone in previous years, it was not an exaggeration.

After all, it was spring. Previously, the Yi army occupied Huguang and fought with the Ming army. It was difficult to transport food from Sichuan and Huguang to the south of the Yangtze River. It is normal for food prices to rise a little.

However, as the Yi army took over the city of Nanjing, the price of food quickly dropped to more than two taels of silver per stone for a period of time, and then began to continue to rise.

Because the daily increase was very small, it did not make the people nervous or cause panic at first. Zhang Kuang and other Nanjing officials naturally did not notice it.

It wasn't until people made trouble in front of the grain store the day before yesterday that Zhang Kuang paid attention to the matter. After a rough investigation, he found that the price of grain had been rising for more than ten days and had risen to nearly one qian per liter, which was six dollars. The high price of two stones per stone!

There are already many people in Nanjing who rely on borrowing money to buy rice to survive!
There are millions of people inside and outside Nancheng (inner city, outer city, and city walls). Once the food supply is insufficient, big problems will definitely occur!
After Zhang Kuang reported the matter, Liu Sheng immediately realized the seriousness of the matter - although food prices seemed to have naturally increased slightly, Liu Sheng still felt that there was something wrong with it.

After all, before the Yi army captured the city of Nanjing, Nanjing's food supply mainly relied on the prefectures around Taihu Lake, as well as Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi, and overseas supplies.

Now that the Yi army has taken over Nanjing, not only grain from Huguang can be transported, but also from Sichuan (the Ming government cannot help smuggling and cannot control Sichuan grain merchants).

Under such circumstances, Nanjing's grain prices only fell for a few days before rising all the way. Liu Sheng would never believe it if no one was responsible.

That's why he asked Xiu Yiwei to investigate the details of the big grain merchants in Nanjing City and the entire Yingtian Prefecture.

Before Zhang Kuang left, he saw that Liu Sheng was silent for a moment and said: "Your Majesty, it may not be easy to find out who is behind this matter.

The top priority now is to stabilize food prices as soon as possible - many people can't afford to eat. "

"How much food is left in Yingtian's treasury?"

Zhang Kuang said: "Wei Chen has calculated that the total amount of grain stored in the warehouses and various granaries controlled by Yingtian Mansion is only 13 shi."

Although 13 shi of grain sounds like a lot, compared to Nanjing's million population and 10,000+ troops, it is completely insufficient.

With a population of 120 million and an average of three kilograms of rice per person per day, nearly [-] kilograms of grain are eaten every day!

If we only rely on the food support controlled by Ying Tianfu, even if the per capita ration is reduced, we can only last for ten days at most.If it doesn't go well, the people will get into trouble in just five or six days.

In fact, after hundreds of years of peace in Nanjing, the Ming government had long lost its food security capabilities, and the food rations for Nanjing's millions of people depended entirely on large grain merchants.

Nowadays, these big grain merchants are actually secretly raising grain prices. How can Liu Sheng not be angry?
Considering that the food under the control of Yingtian Mansion was insufficient, Liu Sheng felt that it was time for someone to see his butcher knife.

Otherwise, these people would not know how sharp his knife is.

Thinking of this, Liu Sheng asked the guards to call back Bai Xiaosheng who had just left not long ago.

"How much evidence does Xiuyiwei have of the Nanjing Ming Dynasty nobles now?"

Bai Xiaosheng hesitated slightly and said, "It's not too much."

In fact, during this period, Bai Xiaosheng was mainly busy with setting up the embroidery guards and placing supernumerary eyeliners, etc., and the progress in collecting evidence of Nanjing Daming Xungui's crimes was not very fast.

The Nanjing Ming Dynasty nobles all had huge roots and colluded with various forces. The embroidered clothes guards were short of manpower, so it would take some time to investigate.

Liu Sheng also knew that the Xiuyi Guards had not been established for a long time, so he could not ask for too much, so he said: "When you go down, sort out all the evidence of your crimes that can lead to confiscation of your home, and hand them over. Leave one more man behind to prepare to cooperate with the personal guards." The army ransacked the house." "The general takes orders!"

"In addition, if Li Weiqi comes back, ask him to come see me immediately."

"Yes!"

As the commander of the Embroidery Guards, Li Weiqi went to other provinces to select the backbone of the Embroidery Guards and install spies.

This matter is related to Xiu Yiwei's intelligence gathering ability, and he must do it himself before he can rest assured.

If Li Weiqi was in Nanjing, with his ability and experience, whether it was collecting evidence of the Ming Dynasty's crimes or exploring the details of the big grain merchants, he could go faster.

After Bai Xiaosheng left, Zhang Kuang said: "Is your Majesty planning to seize the property of Nanjing's nobles to supplement food supply?"

"good."

Zhang Kuang didn't think it was inappropriate to do so.

Although he came from a gentry family, after he took office as the magistrate of Mianyang, one of the things he focused on was to attack the local powerful.

Therefore, he knew very well that as local tyrants became stronger, not only would the people be more exploited and oppressed, but even the rights of the government would be eroded.

If Weibu establishes a country, a large number of nobles will inevitably be born to divide the interests.If the nobles of the Ming Dynasty were allowed to retain property on a large scale, where would the land, real estate, money, food, etc. be distributed to the nobles of the Gui tribe?
Not to mention that Liu Sheng now wants to steal the money and grain from the noble Ming Dynasty to stabilize grain prices.

He applauded this with both hands!

But he was also worried, and he mused: "I'm afraid that those noble families don't have much food."

The Kuei tribe is not short of money now, but it is short of food, especially in southern Zhili.

Thinking of this, Zhang Kuang said again: "Your Majesty, the Nanjing Household Department is in charge of the money and grain in the south of the Yangtze River. It must have a certain understanding of the details of the granaries in various places. You may invite Zhang Shenyan, Ni Sihui, and Zhang Youyu to discuss this matter."

Zhang Shenyan was previously the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing, while Ni Sihui and Zhang Youyu were the assistant ministers of the Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing.

Liu Sheng said: "Zhang Shenyan is unwilling to surrender. Will he help us make suggestions?"

Zhang Kuang said: "Although Mr. Miao Shan is loyal to the Ming Dynasty, he also cares about the people. I believe that if he knew about the food crisis in Nanjing, he would definitely make suggestions."

As for Ni Sihui and Zhang Youyu, they have both been demoted. However, Liu Sheng didn't know them well yet, so he didn't think about how to arrange them.

Now it’s time to take advantage of this to find out.

Liu Sheng immediately asked the guards to summon Zhang Shenyan and the others.

According to the rules of the Wei tribe, Zhang Shenyan was unwilling to surrender and should be punished with hard labor.But he was too old and sick, so Liu Sheng issued a special decree to exempt him from hard labor and put him under house arrest in his residence in Nanjing.

When Zhang Shenyan and the others arrived at the Fengtian Hall and learned about the food crisis in Nanjing, Zhang Shenyan spoke first and said: "The unscrupulous merchants are falsely raising the price of food. You only need to strictly prohibit it, and then arrest one or two companies and punish them severely to set an example. Then there is no need." ask me?"

Liu Sheng laughed when he heard this.

Zhang Shenyan said in his words that there was no need to ask him, but first gave his "suggestions" to deal with the matter. It was really a duplicity.

Then Liu Sheng felt slightly disappointed again.

Because Zhang Shenyan's suggestion was too traditional, it was treated lightly, which was not what he wanted.

　Second more.

　　Good night~
　　[At the end of the previous chapter, the name of the deputy commander of the Xiuyi Guard was wrong. It was Bai Xiaosheng, not An Xiaofeng. It has been changed. 】

　　
　
(End of this chapter)