Chu and Han contend for the throne

Chapter 504 Looting Guanzhong ([-])

Lu Tai breathed a long sigh of relief, and suddenly asked Lu Shizhi, "Old man, can you get in touch with the people over there?"

Lu Shizhi couldn't help being taken aback when he heard the words, of course he knew that what Lu Tai said was referring to the people from Wumuya in Chu State. Shi Zhi is not opposed to contacting people from Wumuya, but Lu Tai is firmly against it.

"General, have you thought about it?" Lu Shizhi said, "The people in Wumuya have no good intentions."

Lu Tai nodded heavily, and said: "I've already made up my mind. Our Lu family will never betray the big man, but Bai Mo must be moved down. If Bai Mo does not fall down, my Lu family will be uprooted by him sooner or later, but we alone can't shake it." Bai Mo, if we want to win this decisive contest, we must rely on the strength of Chu State."

Lu Chan was puzzled and said: "But, what can Wumuya help us?"

Lu Tai said: "Second brother, you are so stupid. Standing behind Wumuya is the entire Chu State. Chu State has been vigorously developing industry and commerce since 16 years ago. How can its wealth be compared to that of a big man like me? , can buy all the food in Guanzhong, as long as Wumuya is willing to reach out, Baimo will lose this time."

Lu Shizhi nodded heavily, and said, "General, old uncle will go find them now."

Lu Tai warned: "People from Heibingtai are everywhere, uncle, you must keep it secret."

Lu Shizhi smiled coldly, and said in a firm tone: "Don't worry about it, the old uncle has no other skills, but it is more than enough to deceive the group of hawks and dogs on the Black Ice Terrace."

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Half a month passed in the blink of an eye, the grains of Anyi and Handan arrived one after another, and the grains mobilized by Baimo from various counties and counties were also transported to Xianyang one after another. More than 200 million shi of grains were put in, and the grain price in Xianyang did not drop at all. Well, just this morning, food prices even experienced a retaliatory skyrocket, from [-] renminbi per shi to [-] renminbi!

Moreover, there are even more rumors in the market, saying that the price of food will continue to rise to [-] yuan!
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"Ping!" Bai Mo swept the inkstone on the case to the ground with his hands, his expression furious.

Just now, Han Wang Liu Huan called Bai Mo into the palace urgently, complained a lot, and asked Bai Mo to immediately find a way to stabilize the grain price in Xianyang.

Chen Ping's expression on the side was also a little embarrassed. Obviously, there was a huge error in the information provided by the Black Ice Platform. He thought that the other party would be able to raise a hundred million yuan at most, so throwing in 250 million shi of grain would definitely survive him. They have bought it, and they will be able to buy it back at a low price when the price of food plummets.

But the result was not the case. The food on their side was almost sold out, but the other side seemed to have spare capacity.

Chen Pingdao: "Prime Minister, there must be something wrong in the middle, the old man will ask Heibingtai to investigate."

"Teacher, there is no need to investigate any further." Bai Mo waved his hand, and said decisively, "The truth is certain, there must be people from Wumuya who are behind this matter."

"Wumuya? The prime minister is saying that the state of Chu borrowed their money?" Chen Ping frowned and said, "This old man doesn't understand. It's not hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, but tens of millions of dollars. According to the current exchange price of gold and five baht coins in Chu State, that's a few hundred thousand taels of gold, so Xiang Zhuang is not afraid of being in vain?"

"Chu is rich, so what's a few hundred thousand taels of gold?" Bai Mo said coldly, "As long as he can mess with me, even if he pays millions of taels of gold, Xiang Zhuang probably won't frown."

Chen Ping nodded and said, "That's true, so what should we do now?"

Bai Mo said coldly: "There is no food in Guanzhong, so I have to borrow food from Han Zhao."

"I still have to borrow food? South Korea and Zhao Guo have already borrowed 80 shi. Will they borrow more?"

"Fortunately, I didn't borrow much this time. As long as I have 30 shi, it's almost enough. I'm going to personally edit two books and send them to General Zhao Baixuan and Han Wang Hanxin respectively. It shouldn't be a big problem."

"The question is, what should Chu do if it intervenes again?"

"We have figured out the cause of the matter, and it is easy to deal with it. It is easy for Chu to smuggle in a few hundred thousand taels of gold, but it is difficult to smuggle in tens of millions of five baht coins." That’s right, so when the time comes, we only need to prohibit the free exchange of listing and listing, and they will surely die!”

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"Hmph, Bai Mo is really powerful." Xiang Zhuang touched the short curly beard on his lips, and said with a sneer, "So quickly I found a way to prevent me, Da Chu, from participating in the chaos in Guanzhong." After a pause, Xiang Zhuang He said again, "However, he only discovered this now, but it was already too late. The widow has already completed the layout, hehe."

Widow Qin and Tang Tong who were sitting at the bottom of Xiangzhuang were also excited.

Xiang Zhuang asked the two of them again: "Is the agent you are looking for reliable?"

Widow Qin hurriedly said: "The slave family is looking for the nephew of Xiang Guangao, the old country of Zhao."

"Guan Gao is a highly respected old minister, even Bai Xuan should give him some face, that's right." Xiang Zhuang nodded lightly, and then asked Tang Dao, "What about you?"

Tang Tong quickly replied: "I am looking for Feng Guozhang."

"Feng Guozhang?" Xiang Zhuang said, "Han Wang's favorite concubine Feng Miaonu's father?"

"Yes, yes, the King of Han loves Feng Miaonv in every possible way, so the Feng family is extremely powerful in Anyi. With the Feng family as an agent, there will be absolutely no mistakes."

"Very good." Xiang Zhuang waved his big hand and said fiercely, "Then let's do it."

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Half a month later, the second batch of 30 shi of grain from Handan and Anyi arrived in Xianyang.

With the arrival of another batch of grain, the grain price in Xianyang dropped slightly again.

As mentioned earlier, there are three main groups of food hegemony in Xianyang. The most powerful group is dozens of nobles and relatives headed by the Lu family. The weakest group is the more than 200 merchants headed by the Sima family. More than 300 aristocratic families followed suit and bought in. The first two groups were alliances, but the aristocratic families came to fish in troubled waters.

Although more than 300 aristocratic and powerful families did not form an alliance with the two groups of nobles and merchants, before that, the three parties still completed the hype on Xianyang's grain prices in a very tacit understanding, but their speculative psychology determined that they were unreliable. Once the market appeared Volatility, they will leave the market short without hesitation.

Prior to this, these aristocratic families were not unshakable, and they also had tentative selling. However, due to the strong buying of the two major groups headed by the Lu family and the Sima family, they realized that the price of grain in Guanzhong was far from reaching Limits, people's hearts are greedy, under the temptation of huge profits, they chose to follow up again and again.

The slight drop in food prices in Xianyang this time is still a test of the aristocratic family. If the relatives and merchants continue to buy, they will continue to choose to follow up. He hesitated to sell all the food hoarded in his hands, and escaped by stepping on the corpses of nobles and wealthy businessmen.

These aristocratic families did not realize that the group of servants and helpers in Guanzhong could not digest such a huge food supply. In other words, they could not escape at all!Of course, then again, there are also a small number of aristocratic and powerful families who have already left the market before, making a lot of money.

When the aristocratic families were waiting and watching, and the relatives and merchants were about to buy, Liu Huan, King of Han, suddenly issued an edict prohibiting the circulation of gold with the upper coin in the Guanzhong market!
Since the Qin Dynasty, there has been a coexistence of upper-coin gold and lower-coin copper coins, but there is no clear exchange price between the two. In other words, gold is as valuable as the antique calligraphy and paintings of later generations, but you have to sell them first You can only get five baht in exchange for it. In the market, you can't buy goods directly with gold.

But Xiangzhuang's transformation changed this situation.

In order to encourage the development of industry and commerce, Xiangzhuang issued gold coins with a denomination of one tael, and clearly stipulated that one tael of gold can be exchanged for four thousand yuan. More than ten years have passed, and the exchange rate has fluctuated to a certain extent, but in general it is still Stable, other countries have also acquiesced in the circulation of gold in their own markets.

Without this prerequisite, Xiang Zhuang would not have dared to fight the economic war with Han.

But now, Han Wang Liu Huan has changed this situation with a single edict, prohibiting the direct circulation of gold, which is equivalent to cutting off the capital chain that Guanzhong merchants rely on to continue to buy bulk grain. Just imagine, after buying some time ago, Almost all the five baht money has flowed into the treasury, so where can they go to raise this much money?

Liu Huan's ban could not fundamentally prohibit the circulation of gold coins, but it inevitably affected the mentality of some aristocratic and powerful families, which became the last straw that broke the camel's back. Although the Lu family and the Sima family repeatedly sent people to lobby , tried to persuade the aristocratic family to continue receiving gold, but was rejected.

More than 300 aristocratic families first began to sell in panic, and then the wave of selling spread to more than 200 merchants. When more than 20 relatives and nobles also began to sell grain, the grain hegemony that had lasted for more than three months finally collapsed. , The price of grain, which had already risen to thousands of dollars per shi, began to fall crazily.

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Xianyang, Xiangfu.

"Teacher, do it!" Bai Mo raised his glass and respected Chen Ping from a distance.

Chen Ping raised his wine glass, covered his sleeves and drank it down, then smacked his mouth with unsatisfied desire, and said: "Good wine, really good wine, but unfortunately our Han Kingdom still can't make it."

Bai Mo smiled and said: "Although this wine is good, it's hard to satisfy one's hunger."

Chen Ping also said with a smile: "Prime Minister, the price of grain in Xianyang market has dropped to [-] qian per shi, hehe, I can't imagine that, in just a few days, the price of grain has dropped to [-] qian per shi .”

"Master, this is just the beginning." Bai Mo smiled slightly and said, "The amount of grain hoarded by those relatives, merchants, and aristocratic families has far exceeded the digestion capacity of Guanzhong's servants and mercenaries. If there is no accident, Xianyang grain The price has to fall all the way, in short, if the price of grain does not fall to [-] yuan per stone, the truth is that it will not be sold."

(End of this chapter)