Soldiers come to the world

Before dawn, Liu Jing quietly got up, although he was very careful, he still woke up his wife beside him.

"Husband, what time is it?"

Tao Zhan has been pregnant for more than seven months, and her body is heavy, making it difficult to get up. Liu Jing hurriedly held her hand and said with a smile, "It's past five o'clock, but it's still early, and it's not yet dawn. Go on to sleep!"

"Wake up so early, are you going to the military camp?"

"No, I'm going to Xiakou today, I seem to have told you."

"Look at my memory!"

Tao Zhan said apologetically, "I prepared your luggage last night, I forgot about it now."

She hurriedly shouted: "Bao Niang!"

Bao Niang is Xiao Baozi. She officially became Liu Jing's concubine at the beginning of the year. This is also because Tao Zhan is pregnant and cannot have sex. In order to meet her husband's physical needs, she asked Liu Jing to take Xiao Baozi as her concubine.

As a wife, Tao Zhan, one of her most important responsibilities is to continue the heirs for her husband. Due to the high rate of premature death of children in the Han Dynasty, even Cao Cao, who was as expensive as Cao Cao, could not die. In this case, only having more children is effective. countermeasures.

Especially for Liu Jing, who has no brothers and sisters and has an unusual status, so the continuation of his offspring is even more important.

Therefore, Tao Zhan had long considered taking a concubine for her husband, and Xiao Baozi was the concubine she had long admired, not only because Xiao Baozi had served Liu Jing for six years, of course, this was also the main reason.

But the more important reason is Xiaobaozi's Wangzi appearance. Her waist is very thin, but her hips are big and round, and her breasts are also big, which ensures enough milk.

This is a typical appearance of Wangzi, the daughter-in-law that many people dream of. Tao Zhan also made her his husband's concubine long ago, and forbade her husband to marry her to a guard officer.

The little bun lives in the side room, so the concubine is sometimes called the side room or the side room. She immediately put on her clothes and came over, "Ma'am, are you leaving, sir?"

"Well! You go and clean up! Help the young master wash up, and take good care of the young master on the way."

"I see!"

The little bun didn't dare to look at Liu Jing, turned around and ran out, Liu Jing was a little helpless, and smiled at Tao Zhan: "I don't need to take her, let her stay and take care of you, I feel more at ease."

Tao Zhan pursed his lips and smiled, "I know yours, let her go! There are so many servants in the house, it doesn't matter if she is missing, and I can rest assured that she will take care of your daily life."

At this time, two of Tao Zhan's personal servant girls also came in, helped Tao Zhan up, and Liu Jing turned around and went out to wash up.

As soon as Liu Jing entered the living room, Xiao Baozi's plump and warm body got into his arms, put his arms around his neck and pouted and asked, "Don't you want to take me there?"

With a deeper relationship, the two became more intimate. Liu Jing kissed her red lips, and seeing no one was around, she put her hands into her skirt from behind, squeezed her round buttocks hard, and smiled. Whispered in her ear: "Unless you agree to what happened last time, I will take you there."

The little bun blushed, and nodded coyly, "Alright then!"

Liu Jing sat down, Xiao Baozi combed his hair behind him, and asked, "My lord, I heard that there is going to be a big battle, is it true?"

"Who did you hear?"

"It's said in the city that everyone is in panic. Every household is stockpiling grain, and the price of rice has risen to [-] yuan a bucket."

Liu Jing frowned. He just asked a few days ago, how could it be doubled in just a few days for [-] yuan for a Doumi?

"Eighty bucks for a bucket of rice, is that true?"

"What did I lie to you? My mother told me yesterday afternoon."

Liu Jing couldn't sit still, the war hadn't started yet, and he was in a mess first, so he had to talk to Xu Shu and the others. Originally, Liu Jing planned to leave early in the morning, but now he changed his mind up.

"Little Baozi, we will leave at noon, and I will send soldiers to pick you up on the boat."

"Then you have to talk about it, don't renege on what you promised!"

The little bun held the comb and wanted to knock it down. She often saw the mistress knocking on Liu Jing's head with a smile like this, but after hesitating, she still didn't dare. The mother told her yesterday that there are some things a wife can do, but the concubine can't. Can not do.

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As the sky gradually dawned, the Luoqiaokou in Wuchang City was already extremely lively. Luoqiao was the first bridge for the Caohe River to enter the city. This area was named after this bridge for several miles.

Luoqiaokou is the goods distribution center of Wuchang City, Jiangxia, and even Jingzhou. There is a two-mile-long wharf, thousands of shops, large and small, and countless warehouses. A large number of goods come in and out from here, and there are [-] people every day. Tens of thousands of people live in Luoqiaokou.

These days, due to the influence of war rumors, many people came to line up before dawn. There were long queues in front of more than a dozen rice shops, and everyone held various bags in their hands.

At this time, a group of cavalry arrived surrounded by several carriages, and five or six high-ranking officials got off from the carriages. Many people recognized the young man in the lead as their Jingzhou Mu.

And the other high-ranking official next to him, whom most people knew, was Xu Shu, the long history, and everyone made way for them.

In addition to Liu Jing and Xu Shu, Yiji, the prime minister of Jiangxia County, Dong Yun, the magistrate of Wuchang County, and Jiang Wan, the chief minister of Changshi, accompanied Liu Jing to the market to deal with the grain price issue.

In fact, officials know exactly where the problem is?But there are some things that are difficult to say, and Liu Jing has to find out for himself, and he will know where the problem lies.

Everyone walked to a rice shop. The sign on the shop said 'Wangji Rice Shop'. Above the shop door hung a bluestone board with the price of today's grain written in charcoal on it. Rice was 85 yuan per bucket, and wheat was Seventy renminbi, Bi Xiao Baozi told him that every [-] renminbi increased by another five renminbi. In normal times, a bucket of rice was only [-] renminbi, but now it has increased by four times.

The proprietor of the rice store is a middle-aged man, dark and fat, he greeted him early, knelt down to salute, "Xiaomin Wang Shi pays homage to Mr. Zhou Mu!"

"I have a few words to ask you."

Liu Jing glanced at the rice buyer behind him, and said, "Go inside and talk about it!"

Wang Dongzhu hastily invited Liu Jing and several high-ranking officials into the inner hall, and ordered the waiters to serve tea. After busy for a long time, he stood in front of Liu Jing with his hands down. It has quadrupled within a month? Tell me why."

Wang Dongzhu's lips moved, not knowing what to say, and after a long while, he answered cautiously: "It's because there are rumors that there is going to be a war, so I started to panic, and the price of rice will naturally rise."

"Really?" Liu Jing asked with a sneer, "Is it because you don't have enough food in your store? Or do you think that everyone sells high prices and you become heresy if you sell low prices, or that you don't make money if you have money? Fool?"

Liu Jing's tone was very severe, and Wang Dongzhu knelt down in fright, and kowtowed again and again, "Reporting to Master Zhou, it's not like this."

"That is how the matter?"

"It's because our purchase price has become expensive. A bucket of rice used to cost [-] renminbi, so we sold it for [-] renminbi. Now the purchase price is [-] or [-] renminbi, so we can only sell it at a high price. If Master Zhou doesn't believe it , you can check my account book."

Only then did Liu Jing realize that the price at the source had risen. He nodded, his tone slightly relaxed: "Then who controls the price of rice? I'm asking, who sells rice to you."

"The villain dare not say it." Wang Dongzhu lowered his head and whispered timidly.

"Say!" Liu Jing slammed the table heavily and shouted sharply.

Proprietor Wang trembled in fright, and finally lowered his head and said, "Yes...it's Dow Firm."

Liu Jing froze, tens of thousands of clues gathered together, and finally he suddenly realized, "So it's the Tao family!"

He suddenly turned his head and looked at Xu Shu and the others sternly. They already knew what was going on, but they refused to tell him directly.

Facing Liu Jing's stern gaze, Xu Shu shook his head helplessly.

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"Xu Changshi, you clearly know what's going on, why didn't you stop it, why did you allow the Tao family to raise prices!"

In the carriage, Liu Jing was extremely dissatisfied, and asked Xu Shu directly, "Is it because the Tao family is my wife's natal family?"

Xu Shu seemed to know that Liu Jing would ask such a question, so he was not panicked, and replied calmly, "We do know that the Tao family manipulated the sharp rise in food prices. In fact, the Tao family also asked us in advance. This is our responsibility." It was decided collectively that allowing the Tao family to raise prices has nothing to do with the status of the Tao family."

"Why?" Liu Jing gradually calmed down, since it was the government's decision, he needed to know the reason.

"Wars require military expenses, and everyone needs to bear the military expenses of the war, instead of all the money being paid by the Tao family. That would be unfair to the Tao family. In fact, a large part of the money that everyone spends on buying rice at high prices becomes war military expenses. , I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”

At first, Liu Jing thought that the Tao family was using his relationship to drive up food prices and solicit money, which made him very angry, but now the feedback is that the government is deliberately conniving for the purpose of raising military expenses in disguise, which made Liu Jing's anger disappear Mostly.

"Is the military expenditure insufficient now?" After a while, Liu Jing asked.

Xu Shu smiled wryly. For more than half a year, Liu Jing only paid attention to the strength of the army, the training of soldiers, and combat readiness, but he seldom asked about Jiangxia's money and food expenditure. Originally, Jiangxia, Changsha, and Anlu counties alone had to support [-] troops. It was already very difficult, and although Xiangyang was won again, it didn't help.

After more than half a year of war preparations, Jiang Xia’s official warehouse has already been emptied. If Jiang Xia hadn’t been able to bear the military expenses of this war, he would not have made such a bad move. He raised the military expenses by raising food prices, as long as they control The upper limit of food prices has little impact.

Xu Shu nodded silently, sighed and said, "The military rations can last for half a year, but the money is gone."

Of course, Liu Jing knew that the soldiers usually trained, as long as the food was guaranteed, they didn’t need to spend military pay, but once the war started, there would be military pay, as well as pensions for casualties and rewards for meritorious service. All of these needed money. After all, War is fought on logistics and financial resources.

Liu Jing had no choice but to say: "Then make your own money! Although Jingzhou does not have a large copper mine like Jiangdong Dexing County, there are also ancient mines in Xisai's Green Copper Mountain, which can smelt copper and make money. Originally, these mines were Jiangxia's backup. Wealth, I don’t want to use it easily, and I don’t care about it now.”

Xu Shu looked distressed, "Qi told Zhou Mu that we also thought of mining and smelting copper, but we suffered from a lack of labor. It would be good if more than 1 Cao Jun prisoners of war were used to mine, but it's a pity..."

"This matter has passed, and it is useless to say it!"

Liu Jing interrupted Xu Shu a little unhappy, and said: "Since there is not enough labor for mining, we should mobilize big families to donate copper wares. Among Huang Zu's treasures, I remember there is still a batch of bronze wares, all of which are used to make money. , and the rest of Huangzu's belongings are also sold, these rich and noble things are just the time for them to play their role."

"The subordinates understand, and will definitely do their best!"

At this time, Liu Jing said in a low voice: "There are also many aristocratic families in Jingzhou. We might as well think of a way to make them bleed. For example, there is a new band of yellow scarf bandits in Jiangxia. We just have to keep it as secret as possible and not leak it."

Xu Shu was a little embarrassed, "It's hard to hide this kind of thing from State Mu, so try not to use it if you can! The subordinates should try to persuade them."

"Hmph!" Liu Jing sneered, "Most of these aristocratic families are scumbags. It's too late to flatter Cao Cao at this time, so how could they help us?"

But Xu Shu still refused to accept Liu Jing's plan, and he persuaded: "But if the state pastor wants to stabilize Jingzhou, he still has to rely on their support. It's best to let them pay for it willingly. I think as long as one family visits, he will definitely Come up with some money."

Liu Jing felt Xu Shu's stubbornness, and had no choice but to let him go, "In this case, you can decide for yourself, and I don't care. In addition, I want to explain that the upper limit of grain price is [-] yuan per bucket of rice. Not even a penny."