The Three Kingdoms: A vicious plan was offered, and Liu Bei was stunned!

Chapter 249 Xiahou Dun drives the people to consume food, Kong Ming borrows money to get enough food
Kong Ming smiled speechlessly and said, "What about the spoils? Han Yong's army has at least 30,000 soldiers, as well as weapons, food, gold, silver and money. I have never seen a war without spoils."

Luo Yuan looked at Kong Ming in surprise: "Sir, I am talking about returning Lukou to Jiangdong. What does this have to do with the seizure? Isn't Lukou in Zhou Lang's hands now?"

Kong Ming knew that Luo Yuan was too shameless to continue to talk and would only hear nonsense, so he said: "Our army also lost hundreds of people this time. What you got should at least be a share for our army. Give me some food and grass!"

Luo Yuan is unwilling to give it!
Food was hard currency at that time, and he would rather give gold than food.

Jiangling now has a large population. Zhang Shi has also arrived in Jiangling with 100,000 refugees. Together with the locals and Luo Yuan’s army, the small place of Jiangling now has four or five hundred thousand people!

There is even less food.

Han Yong's army had a lot of food. Changsha was a wealthy place. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Changsha and other places were not much in chaos. Luo Yuan got 40,000 shi of military rations from Han Yong.

It's impossible to give it to others, it's not enough for him.

He was puzzled as to why Kong Ming asked him for it. Did something happen to Liu Bei? "Sir, are you short of food?"

Kong Ming wanted to know if he could hide it from Luo Yuan, so he said, "Jiangxia is short of food. Xiahou Dun has already arrived in Xiangyang and ordered the surrounding areas not to send food to Jiangxia. He also drove the people away. Thank you Jiangxia, there is not enough food now!"

As Kong Ming spoke, he rolled his eyes at Luo Yuan and said, "This is all your fault. You gathered refugees in Jiangxia, and now Xiahou Dun has followed your example, using refugees to consume Jiangxia's food and grass, in an attempt to carry out a vicious plan."

Of course Luo Yuan didn't admit it. What did Xiahou Dun do have to do with me? Kong Ming was just making random accusations!
"Sir, although Xiahou Dun and I are sworn brothers, I did not tell him to use the people to consume food and grass. Didn't the people go to Jiangxia because of Uncle Liu's reputation for benevolence and righteousness? If the people didn't know that they could have food if they went to Uncle Liu, how could they be willing to go?" Luo Yuan said. It must be said that Xiahou Dun played this trick well.

Consuming Liu Bei's food means weakening Liu Bei's strength. Knowing that Kong Ming is here, Liu Bei is difficult to defeat now, so he changes his tactics.

There has been progress!

Kong Ming said angrily: "Anyway, it's all your fault. Jiangxia is short of food now, you supply some."

"no!"

Kong Ming said: "Gong Qi is a commoner, not the emperor's uncle. Do you want to let the people starve?"

Luo Yuan laughed and looked at Kong Ming and whispered, "Is Jiangxia really out of food?"

You can fool others, but you can’t fool yourself!
When he left Jiangxia, he left a lot of food in Jiangxia. Later, Wen Pin even gave the stored food in Jiangling to Liu Bei.

All in all, Jiangxia still had at least one million dan of grain.

Jiangxia is short of food now, there must be something wrong with the food.

What’s more, the problems that occurred were difficult for Kong Ming to solve.

Luo Yuan knew what was going on. He looked at Kong Ming and sighed, "Sir, it's really not easy for you. The million dan of food in Jiangxia is gone, right?"

Kong Ming's face suddenly became awkward. After thinking for a while, he sighed and said, "I just found out that the military rations were stolen and sold. Xiahou Dun arrived in Xiangyang and drove the people to Jiangxia. The grain officer couldn't supply them, so it was exposed. Only 100,000 shi of grain were left out of the million shi of stored grain. The rest was hay and dirt. I have already killed the grain officer, but the people's food has become a problem again. I wanted to buy grain from Soochow, but Soochow's grain has all gone to Jiangling!"

Liu Bei employed members of the gentry as officials in Jiangxia and used them to manage logistics. Nothing would have gone wrong as long as the food supply and demand were balanced. However, an unexpected situation arose when Xiahou Dun arrived.

The food issue has finally been exposed
Luo Yuan was curious why the grain from Jiangdong went to Jiangling.

Kong Ming rolled his eyes fiercely: "Isn't it because of your secret technique of firing porcelain?"

If you want to learn the technology of firing porcelain, you have to pay. The registration fee is 10,000 gold coins, which not everyone in the Jiangdong gentry can afford. What to do if you don't have money? You can use food and cloth instead.

The gentry may not have enough gold to pay tuition, but they have food and cloth. In order to learn porcelain firing technology, the gentry in Jiangdong opened their own treasuries.

After all, if I missed this plan, I don’t know where to learn the porcelain firing technique next time.

Porcelain is just so awesome!
Even Wu Guotai wanted a set of burial porcelain. Who can resist the charm of porcelain?

Sun Quan did try to stop it. He also knew that the large outflow of grain was not a good thing for Jiangdong. But it was useless. Every officer under him had a connection with the gentry!
This family is able to transport the grain out, but you don’t allow others to transport it out. Do you still want to get away with it?
This is hindering people from learning how to make porcelain, which is no different from cutting off their source of income.

You, the Sun family, have money and can use gold to study, but we have no money and you are not allowed to use food instead?
If the Sun family dares to say no, believe it or not, the gentry will become alienated.

Sun Quan was left with no choice but to turn a blind eye, but he did use money to buy grain from the gentry!
Liu Bei couldn't buy enough food in Jiangdong!

The price of grain in Chaisang has already risen a lot, and Liu Bei has no money.

Luo Yuan thought about it and understood roughly what was going on. Jiangling was now absorbing materials from Jiangdong through porcelain.

There is an economic effect.

People of this era don’t understand, even Kong Ming can’t do anything about it.

Money and silk touch people's hearts!

This time, with food in hand, he can make Jiangdong and Liu Bei extremely happy!

Luo Yuan thought about it and decided not to give Kong Ming grain, but he could give him a suggestion: "Sir, you can go to the four counties of Changsha to buy grain. Those places are rich and have not experienced war. Now that Han Xuan has been defeated, the Changsha gentry must be shaken. Sir, you will definitely get something if you send people to buy grain!"

"I have no money...why don't you lend some to the emperor's uncle?"

"How many?"

"Thirty thousand gold is always necessary!"

"No problem, but I'll charge you some interest."

Kong Ming was stunned. "You don't know how close we are, and you still want to charge interest?"

"Oh," Luo Yuan looked at Kong Ming helplessly. I didn't force you to do that. You asked me to lend you money. "Sir, this is a business. Where can I get 30,000 gold to give to the emperor's uncle? Don't I have to go to Jiangling to collect it and then give it to the emperor's uncle? Don't I have to pay interest when I borrow money from others? If the emperor's uncle needs money, do you want me to pay interest? How can this be justified?"

Luo Yuan swore: "Sir, I am the only one who can lend 30,000 gold to the emperor's uncle. I am doing good things. There is no profit to be made. Who would dare to lend me money? The interest is not for me, but for those who lend me money. In short, Sir, consider whether you want to lend me money!"

Kong Ming didn't believe Luo Yuan's words at all. Everyone knew who he was, but what Luo Yuan said made sense. "Okay, how about lending me 30,000 gold and returning you 32,000 gold later?"

"10% interest, in the future when the emperor's uncle's territory expands and the population increases, a few tens of thousands of gold will not be a big deal!"

Seeing that Kong Ming was unhappy, Luo Yuan immediately looked to the future.

You have to look forward.

(End of this chapter)