The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty.

Chapter 387 Someone Deliberately Raised the Price of Food
Thirty cents per pound of food!
Zhu Houzhao was so angry that he gritted his teeth.

You should know that the average wage for ordinary people going out to work is about 40 or 50 cents. Sometimes, if you encounter someone who is very strict about paying you, you may not even get 30 cents.

Especially during the slack farming season or in disaster situations like now, people often work for others for free, just to have something to eat.

Now the price of grain has skyrocketed to thirty cents per catty, which means that after a day of hard work, you can only get about one catty of grain!

One pound of grain could barely feed a family, let alone a laborer. In the era of meat shortage, people who had done hard physical labor could eat a pound of rice in one meal if they ate to their heart's content.

These grain merchants are now taking advantage of the famine to raise prices. The price of grain has increased several times!
Zhu Houzhao was furious and immediately summoned Yang Tinghe and Zhu Youlang.

"Thirty cents a pound, is that high?"

Zhu Youlang looked at Zhu Houzhao, then at Yang Tinghe, thought for a while, touched his nose and said.

"Prince Xing, thirty cents per pound of grain is already a sky-high price. You should know that it is only a few cents per pound at normal times." Yang Tinghe replied quickly.

"It's usually only a few cents per pound?" Zhu Youqiu was a little confused.

He grew up in the deep palace, so he had no worries about food and clothing. Later, he was sent to a fiefdom as a prince, and he didn't have to worry about his livelihood. He never cared about the price of food.

But he just didn't know the exact number, and he wasn't some fool who would say "Why not eat meat porridge?", so Zhu Youqiu reacted immediately.

"It's clear that some merchants are deliberately hoarding food to make huge profits!"

Yang Tinghe also nodded.

When severe drought hit the three provinces in northern Xinjiang and no crops were harvested, food became the most important thing. If the price of food could remain stable, the natural disaster could be overcome relatively easily.

But since ancient times, natural disasters have always been accompanied by man-made disasters.

Taking advantage of famine, deliberately hoarding grain and raising grain prices for personal gain has almost been a common practice for grain merchants since ancient times.

There are many ways for unscrupulous grain merchants to make money, such as mixing sand and soil into the grain, weighing it to make it heavier than half a catty, passing old grain off as new grain, etc. There are all kinds of methods, but these are all considered routine operations.

The real way to get rich overnight is like now, when you take advantage of a famine, deliberately hoard food, unite to drive up food prices, and then make huge profits!

Often after a famine, these grain merchants would make a fortune.

After all, filling your stomach is the most important thing at any time. When there is no food, even if you have a fortune, gold, silver and jewelry are useless because gold and silver cannot be eaten after all.

After they deliberately raised the price of food, who knows how many people would starve to death!
Food is the most important thing!
Mou Bin continued, "Your Majesty, the most troublesome thing is that grain merchants are already hoarding grain like crazy and are unwilling to sell it on a large scale. The Imperial Guards tentatively asked several stores, and they all gave me the same answer: they will no longer sell grain in large quantities."

Yang Tinghe's face also turned cold.

"They are aware that the famine will continue. The winter wheat they planted last year was almost completely destroyed due to the cold winter. This means that in the next few months, before the spring wheat is put on the market, they can sell their grain at a sky-high price..."

After hearing this, Zhu Houzhao stood up suddenly and was extremely angry.

"It's bad enough that they're hoarding and driving up grain prices, but now they're even not selling grain!"

"Mou Bin, take your men to capture all these black-hearted grain merchants immediately, and beat them up severely one by one until they kneel down and lower the grain price!"

"According to the order!"

When Mou Bin heard this, he couldn't help but become excited.

He hated evil and liked to do such things. He could be considered unbridled for once! "Wait a minute!" Yang Tinghe hurriedly stopped him.

"Your Majesty, this matter is not as simple as we thought!"

"It's ok for unscrupulous grain merchants to raise prices during famines, but they will never limit sales, let alone a horrible situation where all grains are sold in this way!"

Yang Tinghe looked solemn and said, "Some grain merchants are time-honored brands that have been passed down for generations. Even if the grain price rises slightly due to the famine, they will not limit sales and destroy their reputation for generations!"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Houzhao frowned and fell into deep thought.

Now he always felt that there was a hint of conspiracy involved. Thinking about it carefully, he always felt that it was a little unusual.

After a brief thought, Zhu Houzhao suddenly remembered this guy Xu Mengchun, and an idea quickly came to his mind!
Jiangnan gentry!

When he thought of this, Zhu Houzhao not only did not feel the slightest bit of fear, but instead became excited and happy.

"Very good, very good indeed!"

"I'm suddenly interested now. I want to see who is behind this!"

He originally wanted to find an opportunity to teach these Jiangnan gentry a lesson and make them bow their heads and agree to the court's abolition of the national policy of maritime ban.

Now it’s good. When you feel sleepy, someone will give you a pillow. The gentry in the south of the Yangtze River have taken the initiative to use food to start a war, so Zhu Houzhao will naturally not be polite.

"Mou Bin, mobilize the factory guards and keep a close eye on these grain merchants. Most importantly, keep a close eye on the grain in their hands!"

Hearing this, Mou Bin hurriedly took the order and left.

Zhu Youjun said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, I think that no matter whether there is a conspiracy or not, we should prepare early and find a way to collect food."

"Especially the disaster-stricken areas in northern Xinjiang, which concern the lives of hundreds of millions of people, must not become victims of court struggles."

Zhu Youqiu also realized that the sharp rise in grain prices this time was a continuation of the court struggle, and even affected the people.

This is something he absolutely cannot tolerate!

Because last winter was too cold, the winter wheat harvest in the three northern provinces failed or was poor, which led to the famine.

Famine is a common occurrence. There is always some disaster every year, either floods, droughts, or locust plagues.

The imperial court only needs to dispatch grain in a timely manner for disaster relief and rescue, and naturally nothing will happen.

But now these damn civil officials and gentry are seizing the opportunity to use this to engage in court fighting, forcing Zhu Houzhao to bow to them and ignore the victims of the disaster and the hungry!
Zhu Houzhao also realized the seriousness of the problem.

"Master Yang, you must immediately rush to the northern border and check the food reserves in the granaries across the north, and then take charge of disaster relief!"

This matter concerns the lives of tens of millions of civilians, and Yang Tinghe also understands its importance, so he took on the task.

He had to go there in person and see with his own eyes the grain piled up in the granaries before he could feel at ease.

Now, except for Yang Tinghe, Zhu Houzhao no longer trusted the gentry.

This time, he, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, must win the war!

(End of this chapter)