Chu and Han contend for the throne

Chapter 505
The Chu Palace in Luoyang was full of joy and laughter, and Xiang Zhuang was drinking with Bi Shu, Wu She and Bai Lixian to celebrate.

"Come on, Xuejian, Bazhi and Ziliang have done this drink, huh." Xiang Zhuang raised his glass at a distance to the three ministers, Bi Shu and the other three followed suit, covered their sleeves and drank in one gulp.

Putting down the glass of wine, Wu She tilted his head and asked, "Your Majesty, I still can't figure it out."

Xiang Zhuang smiled, and while pouring fine wine into the glass, he asked, "What don't you understand?"

Wu She said: "What I don't understand is that there are less than 10 servants and mercenaries in Xianyang without overnight food. Bai Mo only needs to restrict others from buying food, or simply implement a rationing system for these servants and mercenaries. If they have food to eat, it will be difficult for the food shortage in this pass to spread, so why have they fallen to this point?"

Xiang Zhuang didn't answer, but instead asked Bi Shu: "Learning swords, what do you think your senior brother wants to do?"

Bi Shu smiled, and replied to Wu She: "Mr. Shang, it's not that my brother didn't think about purchasing restrictions or rationing. However, he is obviously not satisfied with this. He wants to use this food crisis to defeat those who dare to do anything with him." The right Xun Qixuan, the great merchants, and the aristocratic families cleared the way for him to completely implement the salt and iron official camp."

"So that's it." Wu She frowned and said, "Bai Mo is always cautious, why is he so reckless this time?"

"Bazhi, what you said is wrong." Xiang Zhuang waved his hand and said, "Bai Mo is only cautious in military affairs, but he is extremely bold and radical in political affairs, otherwise, how would he dare to promote equal calculation in Guanzhong? , Junyao’s national policy? As for this time, Bai Mo didn’t call it reckless, but he didn’t know the pros and cons of it at all.”

As an ancient person, how can we imagine the dangers of financial wars?

Bai Lixian smiled and said: "My lord, should the Qin family and the Tang family take action next?"

"Yes." Xiang Zhuang put the wine glass on the table and said fiercely, "Now that the food hegemony in Guanzhong has collapsed, it's time for the Qin family and Tang family to enter the field to collect the corpses."

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It was the end of the new year, but there was no trace of festive atmosphere in Lu's residence.

Whether it is the doormen and Hakkas in the front yard, or the maids and servants in the backyard, they are all trembling, walking on thin ice, and even walking carefully, for fear that an accident will cause disasters. Just yesterday, a little maid accidentally fell Broke an ordinary clay pot, and was killed by the second son Shengsheng stick.

Lu Chan walked into Lu Tai's study in a hurry, and said angrily: "Brother, those short-sighted idiots, they only care about the immediate interests, and they say that they are advancing together, but secretly they are rushing to sell them."

Lu Chan just came back from the gathering of these aristocratic families. At the party, Lu Chan tried to persuade these aristocratic families to go forward and retreat with the nobles and Guanzhong merchants, even if he could not spend more five baht to buy the goods just shipped. When the grain arrives in Xianyang, they must not spit out the grain they eat in their stomachs, and encourage them to grit their teeth and persevere!
I have to say that Lu Chan's proposal is very reasonable. After all, the grain that arrived in Xianyang this time was only 30 million shi, and there were about [-] to [-] slaves and mercenaries in Xianyang City. It will be exhausted, and by that time, the price of grain in Xianyang will have to rise back, and Bai Mo will not be able to borrow grain from Zhao and Han, and he will have to buy back the grain in their stomachs at a high price.

But it is a pity that these aristocratic families have no vision, and they are not willing to advance and retreat with them.

"Let them sell it." Lu Tai sneered and said grimly, "The mercenaries in Xianyang are only those, and the food they need every day is only about 60 shi, but how much food do they hoard? More than [-] shi? Hmph, there are so many sources of grain for such a small market demand, let’s see how they can sell it!”

Lu Chan sighed and said, "Brother, but this also puts us out of our mouths."

The aristocratic family hoarded more than 60 grains, and the twenty or so relatives headed by the Lu family hoarded more grains. The Lu family alone hoarded almost 50 shi, and the two dozen families together exceeded 100 million shi. In addition, more than a hundred merchants headed by the Sima family also hoarded almost 80 shi.

In order to hoard these grains, the Lu family and the Sima family paid a huge price, and almost sold all the land and real estate that could be sold. Up to now, their family has not only a house full of grain, but even their wives, children, maids and servants. There is no cloth for new clothes, and life is almost impossible.

Also, it is not a problem to just pile up the grain in the house, it will definitely rot after a long time, but building a cellar or a granary will require a lot of expenses, if it is normal, this is just a waste for the Lu family with strong financial resources It's a piece of cake, but now, the Lu family really can't even make up [-] yuan.

Moreover, even if they still have the money to build cellars or granaries and store all the grain, they will lose everything when the spring grain is harvested next year.

Lu Chan thought for a while, then suddenly said: "Brother, do you want to look there again?"

Lu Tai sighed, shook his head and said: "It's useless, the white ink one-paper edict prohibiting the circulation of gold in Guanzhong has hit our heart, and there is no help there. After all, a few hundred thousand taels of gold is only a few carts. Smuggling is easy, but tens of millions of dollars have hundreds of carts, how can it be so easy to smuggle in?"

"Brother, is this the way to go?" Lu Chan changed his expression, "Leaving these hundreds of thousands of grains to rot in the house, our Lu family will really lose everything."

Lu Tai remained silent, even though he was very reluctant in his heart, he had to admit that they had already lost this time, they had completely lost to Bai Mo, and Lu Tai was even ready for a strong man to sever his wrist. In the end, he I would rather burn the more than 50 shi of grain that I bought at a huge sum of money, and never let Bai Mo buy it at a low price!
At this moment, a house slave suddenly came in and reported: "Patriarch, there is a Zhao man who claims to be Guan Zhong asking to see him."

"Guan Zhong?" Lu Chan was taken aback when he heard the words, "It seems that Zhao Shang, one of the two major grain merchants who came to Guanzhong this time, is called Guan Zhong? I heard that this person is related to the old country of Zhao Guo. They are relatives."

Lu Tai's expression moved slightly, and he immediately ordered: "Please come in."

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"I don't see you, just say that the truth has already fallen asleep." Bai Mo waved his hand at the slave and said, "I'll talk about it tomorrow."

The servant let out a sigh, bowed and stepped back. Chen Ping, who was sitting opposite Bai Mo, smiled and said, "Prime Minister, you are talking nonsense with your eyes open. What time is it and you fell asleep?"

Bai Mo spread his hands and said with a smile, "I'm tired of dealing with government affairs, so I went to bed early."

Chen Ping shook his head, and said again: "However, I heard that Feng Ji is the elder brother of Feng Miaonv, the favorite concubine of the Han Dynasty. The 10,000+ stone grain he sold to Guanzhong this time also has Feng Guozhang's background. Why don't Taicang Ling eat it at a high price?" Forget about buying this batch of grain, they came to Guanzhong to help us by selling grain from thousands of miles away, so they can’t make them lose money, can they?”

"That won't work, it's absolutely not feasible." Bai Mo said decisively, "If you eat it now, the price of food that has been suppressed with great difficulty may rise again immediately. In this way, all previous efforts will be in vain." Pause After a pause, Bai Mo said again, "Now not only can't eat it, but can't even reveal a trace of it."

Chen Ping said: "But it's not a problem if you keep hiding like this."

After pondering for a moment, Bai Mo said: "Well, I heard that some checkpoints in Longxi and Beidi secretly violated the imperial court's ban and connived at the traffickers and pawns selling salt to Hexi, so I went to inspect the truth and just took the opportunity to avoid them. Master, just push everything to the truth, and forgive them for having nothing to say."

Chen Ping said with a wry smile: "Now that things have come to an end, this is the only way to go."

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Negotiations on food prices are being staged in Lu's study.

Hearing Guan Zhongdao's intention of coming, Lu Chan was overjoyed, but Lu Tai was unmoved, and said indifferently: "I came here to sell grain, but now I have changed my original intention to buy grain in a big way. It is inevitable that I will be suspected of taking advantage of the fire, right?"

Guan Zhong snorted, and said coldly: "We came all the way to sell food, originally to help the Han country, but Bai Mo, as the prime minister of the Han country, watched us lose all our money and lose everything, so he didn't do anything. , How can this be done by humans? He Bai Mo can do the first grade of junior high school, so don't blame us for the fifteenth grade!"

Lu Chan said: "But there is so much food in Guanzhong, can your family eat it?"

Guan Zhong said: "Our family can't eat, so why can't we ask other family to help?"

Lu Tai said: "The problem is that there is so much food, what do you buy it for? Zhao Guo and South Korea are not short of food, right?"

Lu Chan said: "The state of Chu is short of food. Could it be that you plan to sell the grain to the state of Chu?"

"Hey!" Guan Zhong hurriedly stretched out his hand to stop Lu Chandao, "Second son, you can eat food indiscriminately, but you can't talk indiscriminately. The two alliances, the horizontal and the vertical, are like fire and water. As Zhao Han's grain merchants, how can we help the evildoers? To sell grain to Chu State? To tell you the truth, we have obtained the technology of brewing liquor from Chu State, and plan to buy this batch of grain to make wine."

Lu Tai and Lu Chan looked at each other, it would make sense if this was the case.

At that moment, Lu Chan said: "Okay, then please make an offer. What price are you willing to buy?"

Guan Zhong immediately replied: "We can't let the colleagues in Guanzhong lose all their money, right? In this way, we can buy at the price of [-] yuan per stone. How much do we want?"

"Eighty yuan per stone?!" Lu Chan yelled, "Are you kidding me?! The average price we bought was nearly four hundred yuan, and you bought it at eighty yuan per stone, and you said you wouldn't let us lose everything. ? You, you, this is too dark!"

"Hey, Second Young Master, you can't say that, right?" Guan Zhong said a little unhappy, "As far as I know, Prime Minister Bai is going to wait for the price of grain to drop to [-] yuan per shi before buying it. Compared with Bai Mo, I am much more kind, in short, whether to sell or not is up to you, so I bid farewell."

After finishing speaking, Guan Zhong straightened up and made a gesture to leave.

"Sir, wait a moment." Lu Tai just knelt up and smoothed things over, "My second younger brother is reckless, and my words offended you, so I ask you to have a lot of it, sir." After a pause, Lu Tai continued, "As for The price of food can still be negotiated, it’s a business, isn’t it just asking for a price and haggling on the ground, haha.”

(End of this chapter)