Yipin Tang

Chapter 394

On this day, the people of Chang'an felt an unusually tense atmosphere as soon as they woke up.

There seems to be a lot less people rushing to buy salt at the salt shop today. Just as the common people came forward with the prepared grain to exchange for salt, they suddenly saw a wooden sign next to them saying "today's salt price is [-] yuan a bucket".

"Am I not mistaken, the price of salt today is only [-] yuan a bucket?" A commoner obviously doubted his eyes.

"You're dreaming, yesterday it was [-] guan and [-] dou, today I'm afraid it will rise to [-] guan." In fact, they don't have to worry about the price of salt, because they don't buy whether it is [-] guan or [-] guan. Affordable, anyway, they exchange grain for salt.

"Huh? It seems that it really says one hundred pennies a bucket. Could it be a typo?"

More and more people saw the words on the wooden sign and started talking about it.

Lai Fu, who was instructing the staff to tidy up the salt shop, said with a smile: "There is no typo, the price of salt today is [-] cents a bucket!"

Most of the people knew Lai Fu, who belonged to the Marquis of Jiayuan's mansion and was in charge of the salt shop. Hearing what he said, he immediately asked, "Then can we buy salt with copper coins?"

These days they are exchanging grain for salt, and the price of grain is not cheap now. If the salt really only costs one hundred cents a bucket, it is more cost-effective to buy it with money than to trade grain.

Lai Fu nodded and said, "Of course, I'm about to say that from today onwards, the salt shop will stop exchanging grain for salt, and all must be bought with money."

As soon as everyone heard this, they rushed forward to buy salt, and the salt shop stopped exchanging grain for salt for fear that the price of salt would rise again.Seeing this, Lai Fu smiled and said, "Don't crowd, the salt shop has enough salt, and the price of salt will not rise again."

Although he said so, the people who had suffered from the soaring salt price still rushed forward to buy salt. Laifu gave a helpless smile and asked the salt shop assistants to sell salt while maintaining order.

Just when the people were scrambling to buy salt, groups of heavily armed soldiers suddenly appeared on the street, and some people whispered: "The imperial court sent to seal up the salt shop, right?"

When the salt shop was first opened, they had such worries. The prohibition of private salt and iron is something that children know.

"Hmph! Why did the imperial court seal down the salt shop? If it wasn't for the Marquis of Jiayuan who opened the salt shop, we wouldn't have any salt to eat. If the imperial court didn't release salt, wouldn't the imperial court let the Marquis sell salt?" A burly man felt aggrieved on Wang Xiang's behalf. .

"Shh, keep your voice down, these officers and soldiers probably didn't come here for the salt shop."

"how do you know?"

"I've heard people say that it's not that the imperial court doesn't release salt, but that all the salt released by the imperial court has been bought by people from the aristocratic family."

"No way? Why did the family buy so much salt?" Some people were puzzled.

"And why, of course they hoarded it and sold it as private salt, otherwise how could the price of table salt rise so fast."

Laifu smiled slightly when he heard the people's discussion, and said, "This friend is right. In fact, His Majesty asked our Lord Hou to open this salt shop. Otherwise, we would not dare to open the salt shop privately."

"Ah? That's it. Why didn't His Majesty let the government sell the salt directly, but asked Lord Hou to open another salt shop?"

Laifu explained: "The aristocratic family was greedy and took advantage of the Turkic invasion of the Tang Dynasty to hoard salt and raise the price of salt for profit. Most of the salt released by the court was bought by them and then hoarded and sold as high-priced private salt. Everyone I also know that the soldiers at the front and defending against the Turks cannot do without salt, and the aristocratic family wants to swallow all the salt of the soldiers for their own benefit, let alone the salt of the common people, which is really chilling."

"Originally, the salt stored in the imperial court was enough for the common people and the soldiers at the front to eat. It was precisely because the aristocratic family hoarded the salt that the salt was scarce. His Majesty asked our Marquis to set up another salt shop and use it to let everyone eat salt. The high salt price reduces the scale of the family's purchase of salt, and at the same time distributes salt to the people who really need it by exchanging food for salt. In fact, His Majesty has sent back the grain that everyone used to exchange for salt."

After hearing what Lai Fu said, some smart people came to their senses and said, "It's no wonder that the imperial court has distributed many more potatoes than before. It turns out that His Majesty is thinking of us."

"Those aristocratic families are really damned. Our family has no salt for several days and they still hoard salt."

"Yes, it's a good thing His Majesty Shengming came up with such a good way to distribute salt to our people."

"Your Majesty is holy!" The people who understood it all shouted sincerely.

Wearing casual clothes and hiding in the salt shop, Li Er's mouth curved into a big arc, and he said in his heart: Wang Zixin, I remember your great contribution!

After sighing, some people asked, "Then who are these soldiers?"

Laifu had been prepared for a long time, and sighed: "In order to let everyone eat salt, His Majesty took out all the high-quality refined salt used in the palace and distributed it to everyone. You said that there was no salt at home for a few days, but in fact the palace also ran out of salt for several days. It's time. Your Majesty said that it doesn't matter if he doesn't eat salt, but the soldiers who are fighting against the Turks and defending the people of the Tang Dynasty must eat without salt. Everyone must know the brutality of the Turks. If they are allowed to fight in..."

Thinking of the brutality of the Turks, the common people trembled in their hearts, and someone said: "I will buy less salt today, just enough for the family to eat, and leave the rest for the soldiers in front."

"Yes, I also buy less. In fact, we don't have many families, and we can eat a bucket of salt for a long time."

"Well, we can't let the soldiers have no salt to eat. They fought bloody battles with the Turkic people in front of us to protect us."

Listening to the people's discussion, Li Er's eyes were inexplicably touched. What Wang Zixin said was right, the people of Datang are the most simple people, as long as you treat them a little better, they will wholeheartedly appreciate your kindness.

Even the people who have never read the books of the sages have this heart, but those families who have read the books of the sages are so mad!Li Er's eyes instantly turned cold.

The common people said that they would buy less salt and leave the rest of the salt to the soldiers in front. Laifu smiled and said, "That's not necessary. We have enough salt in the Tang Dynasty, but it's all hoarded by the aristocratic family. The soldiers were sent by His Majesty to let them open warehouses to release salt."

"Yes, let them open a warehouse to release salt, if they don't release salt, let His Majesty punish him!"

At this moment, all the people are united in hatred.

"I don't know how much salt the family has hoarded."

"I'm curious too, why don't we go and have a look together."

After buying the salt, the common people followed the soldiers to the direction of the family curiously. They wanted to see how much salt the family had hoarded.

Under the escort of Yuchi Jingde, Li Er mixed among more and more common people. He couldn't help but think of a sentence written by Wang Xiang in his letter: Public anger can overthrow a dynasty, let alone a mere aristocratic family. The time before the people is the time when the family is destroyed.

At this moment, Li Er had a deeper understanding of what is common people and what is a community.

(End of this chapter)