Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 443 437. Results
"Ahem...give them...give them the silver..."

When the two sons were at a loss, Old Master Du in Du Xiang's arms slowly woke up. He had fainted due to anger, so it was normal for him to regain consciousness now.

"father!"

Du Xi shouted loudly, but his tone was full of anxiety. Du Xi and the old man knew the current situation of the Du family. If they really gave the two thousand taels of silver, the Du family would probably be seriously injured, and it would even be a question whether they could continue to exist.

"Ahem...it's okay, give it to them, just give it to them."

Old Master Du waved his hands as if he had lost all his strength. Du Xi had no choice but to ask a few servants to go to the storehouse with him, and together with Du Chun's own hidden silver, he collected two thousand yuan and gave it to the debt collectors from Mengdiefang, and sent them away.

"Dad... why should we do this? I'm afraid we have to sell the land to make ends meet."

Everyone returned to the house, and Du Xi looked at Old Master Du, puzzled.

"Alas... you may not know, but this... the man from Mengdiefang, when he saw that we owed him money, he was neither angry nor aggressive, but instead said he would go to the government to reason. I'm afraid this matter is not simple. If we don't pay the money, I guess a group of Han soldiers will come to my Du family tomorrow."

Old Master Du was still somewhat sensitive and immediately guessed that something was wrong.

"And you, the rebellious son! From now on, you should just follow Ah Xiang and farm the land! Don't go out and cause trouble again!"

Old Master Du looked at Du Chun, who was lying on the ground with his head down, and became even more furious. If it weren't for this unlucky star, how could the Du family be in this situation? Originally a thousand acres of good farmland, now most of it is estimated that it has been lost.

And what about Mr. Huang from Sichuan Conservatory of Music who caused all this? Although Du Chun mentioned him, he has never appeared since the Du family lost money to avoid disaster, as if he had evaporated from the face of the earth.

In Wu County, a nobleman dressed in Shu brocade walked into an antique shop. Inside the shop, several people dressed as followers were surrounding the elegant young man to appreciate an antique.

"What do you people from Wu County use?"

Suddenly, the nobleman spoke in Sichuan dialect, stepped forward and threw the antique in the elegant man's hand to the ground and broke it, and the two began to quarrel. Similar things are common in Jianye, Wujun, Chaisang and other places, but the means are different...

Li Yan reviewed the recent reports and found that the government had purchased tens of thousands of acres of land from these families through various channels. Some families could not even afford to support their private armies and servants, so they dismissed them and turned them into fresh labor.

Li Yan shook his head and played with something sent by Jingzhou in his hand. It was a transparent and flawless bead that could even refract colorful light when exposed to sunlight.

At first, Li Yan thought that this thing was a rare treasure that Feng Xi had secretly collected and given to him in order to build a good relationship, so he was unwilling to accept it. As a result, the messenger sent by Feng Xi told Li Yan that this thing could only burn hundreds of them in one furnace, and if the furnace was bigger, it would not be a problem to produce tens of thousands of them a day, and it was not worth a penny at all.

Li Yan accepted it and was amazed by Feng Xi. This transparent and flawless pearl was a priceless treasure, but Feng Xi told him it was trash. Feng Xi's intention in giving Li Yan this thing was very simple, which was to use it to help the Jiangdong nobles show off.

Needless to say, this thing is the legendary glass beads. In the future Age of Exploration, the Dutch can use glass beads to exchange for real gold and silver with Africans. Now Feng Xi can naturally use it to harvest the aristocratic families and even Cao Wei in the north.

Feng Xi called the glass beads "tears of heaven". After all, if they were ordinary items, how could they be so crystal clear and flawless? Not to mention that they could refract ordinary sunlight into colorful rays of light.

With Li Yan's deliberate promotion, the famous families in Jiangdong immediately knew about this thing, and under Feng Xi's best manipulation of public opinion, the "Tears of Heaven" soon became something that only "famous families with noble morals" were worthy of owning.

That being said, everyone should get one, after all, everyone wants to be a person with noble virtues.

A mere glass bead, whose cost price was less than ten copper coins, could be purchased in Jiangdong for several hundred or even a thousand taels of silver.

Needless to say, this is also Feng Xi's hunger marketing strategy. Only things that are hard to get are called good things. Things that can be bought casually on the street are not worthy of being called luxury goods.

Even Feng Xi asked the glass factory to make a bigger batch of "Tears of Heaven" immediately after the batch was sold out. Your "Tears of Heaven" is so small, is it because your family is not virtuous enough? Why is it not as big as mine?
With the covert instigation of Feng Xi and Li Yan, the originally wealthy aristocratic families in the Jiangdong area were tossed around, and some of those with weak foundations even went bankrupt. The heads of the families were forced to dismiss their servants and live on the ancestral home and a few acres of thin land.

"Alas, comparison and gambling are so scary. They can easily lead to the destruction of a family."

When Feng Xi received Li Yan's letter, he couldn't help but feel deeply moved. He didn't remember at all who had caused these people to lose their families.

Although it was morally wrong, the weakening of these local nobles was a great thing for Li Yan. The nobles, who had infiltrated all walks of life in Jiangdong like the roots of an old tree, had to withdraw because of this invisible suppression, reducing their sphere of influence and giving Li Yan a chance to intervene.

Just like the Du family before, many small landlords are also facing the difficulty of making ends meet because the traditional landlords now supply too much grain crops.

There is a term in future psychology called the ratchet effect, which means that it is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but difficult to go from luxury to frugality. After being used to a good life, who can accept a life of eating coarse food?

In addition, as Feng Xi said, Li Yan spent some money higher than the market price to purchase a lot of land in the name of the government this quarter, making these aristocratic families think that they had managed to make ends meet, but in fact it was like adding fuel to the fire.

Feng Xi's current arrangement has both the free market of the early capitalism of later generations, but also the means of government regulation. For example, salt and iron are still firmly controlled by the government. Even if they are sold, they can only be purchased from specific merchants, and the price is also within a certain range. If you dare to raise the price privately, once you are discovered, you will be fined and disqualified, or even imprisoned.

Therefore, the tactics commonly used by the wealthy and powerful families in times of chaos to stockpile goods and sell them at high prices are becoming less and less effective. Nowadays, it is not difficult to buy meat in the market, let alone some ordinary corn?

These families who are still living in the traditional way will not be able to hold on for long if they cannot change their mindset in time.

(End of this chapter)