Huang Jue, after three marriages

Chapter 451 Food shortage
In late March, when the spring was in full bloom, the imperial court issued two decrees.

One is the Tea Discussion Law, and the other is the new road tax enforcement method.

The tea discussion law is mainly aimed at tea farmers and tea mountains, while road tax is a local matter, neither of which has any direct relationship with the people in the capital, and the people in the capital don't care at all. No.

Everyone crowded to the door of the grain store.

During the floods in the south last year, the information and tragedies that were transmitted thousands of miles away have been downplayed by the region and time. The people in the capital didn't feel too deeply. Shaking his head and sighing the court's inaction.

Even if some students struggled to write a letter, narrating the inaction of the imperial court and cabinet at that time, it could not cause much storm.

However, with the passage of time, the grain stored in the capital and the grain in the north were slowly used up, and the price of grain seemed to have increased several times overnight.

The people in the capital couldn't sit still.

The big households in the capital all have their own farms, and even though half of the salary is not fine grain, it is still enough, no matter what, it is not enough to eat, but the middle-level officials and ordinary people don't have much food in reserve. They all go to the grain store to buy grain.

After the founding of the Song Dynasty, one of the most important national policies was to stabilize food prices. Over the past century, emperors and cabinets of all dynasties have implemented this policy, and food prices have always been kept at relatively low prices. Gao was worried about not being able to afford food.

But now, the price of food has been rising sharply, and after the beginning of spring, it has risen to [-] cents a liter because of the spring famine.

An ordinary family's monthly income is only consistent, and five or six cents a liter of grain is usually enough for a family of five, but now, the monthly income cannot even buy two buckets.

Now the people in the capital are really starting to panic. I heard someone say that this would not have been the case. The floods in the south will subside in August, and the temperature in the south will be high. If the remedy is timely, another round of crops can be planted. Then There can still be some harvest in winter, so new grain is arriving in the capital now, because the current cabinet has not acted. It is clear that Mr. Gao and Mr. Yun of Liangzhe Road have proposed that disaster relief be distributed, grain be distributed, and harvested. Refugees, re-farming, but the cabinet has denied it!Later, the matter was passed on to the frontier army, and a new law to increase taxes for the whole people was tried to cover it up.

Even the most honest people are angry.

But no matter how angry, what can the common people do?The most urgent task is to quickly find a grain store with grain and raise money to buy the grain back.

A medium-sized family still has some heritage, and the selling point of the family property can survive, but those small households have a weak family, how long can they survive?
In March, on one side was the panic buying of grain stores, and on the other side, the population market was full of people selling their bodies.

Ma Xiao walked out of the small courtyard where he usually worked, passed a grain store on the street, paused slightly, glanced at the crowd at the door, and continued walking.

"Master." Boss Hua, who was following behind him, said hesitantly, "Xiao Wei Na, I want to borrow two more buckets of millet."

"Huh?" Ma Xiao didn't look back, but only asked a question from his nose.

Boss Hua's face was a little flushed, and he said in a low voice: "His wife's family is really struggling, and the youngest son is almost starving to death."

The price of grain in the capital skyrocketed, and the first ones to be affected were those laborers who only depended on hard labor for a living. Originally, if the grain was not supplied, they had less work, and what they got was the usual money that Ma Xiao guaranteed them.

If it is normal, this is always enough for their family's expenses.

But according to the current grain price, they can only buy one-tenth of the previous grain. Many of these coolies are refugees, their families are extremely poor, and they don't even have anything to sell.

If Ma Xiao hadn't brought tens of thousands of dans of grain here, gave them to them at a price lower than half the market price, and allowed them to pay on credit, then the hundreds of people under his command might either be sold into slavery or starved to death.

However, Ma Xiao also said that it is not easy to get these grains, and the price is still the same, so, first, it must not be revealed, and second, each worker can only receive five buckets a month.

Failure to comply with these two rules is at your own risk.

Xiao Wei has already taken five dou this month, if he takes two more, it will be a violation of the rules.

In today's world, there are many families who are starving to death, and there are people who are more pitiful than Xiao Wei's wife's family. Ordinarily, he shouldn't have said it.

only……

Ma Xiao stopped, turned around and glanced at him, and said, "What's the reason?"

Su Yue was the one who first proposed to subsidize food for those poor people under his command. At the beginning of the year, because Su Yue said that the price of food in the capital had skyrocketed, how those ordinary people, especially the poor coolies, could survive. After hearing this, Xie Jue ordered that After he returned to Beijing, he used the grain stored in the capital to subsidize his porters and coolies.

The grain transported from Jingdong Road in February had already been scattered in the suburbs. A small half was given to Liu Qi, and the other half was scattered. Some were sold at high-priced rice shops, and some were secretly used to recruit the poor.

It's just that there are too many poor people in the capital, and there are thousands of porters and coolies under him alone. In order not to ruin the business of buying people's hearts, he set iron rules.

Except for the original own people, if anyone wants to join them, they must be strictly scrutinized, let alone want to take more.

This Boss Hua was also considered to have been supported by him alone, and he knew very well what a person he was. If there were no special reasons, he would never have mentioned this kind of thing in front of him.

Rules are rules, and if the floodgates are opened because of one person, the flood cannot be stopped.

Boss Hua himself is very clear about this kind of thing.

"Xiao Wei's father-in-law was originally a loose official in the official department, and he was good at fine workmanship. More than ten years ago, he was wronged and kicked out from the official department. "Boss Hua lowered his voice.

Ma Xiao frowned suddenly, and said, "Seiko?"

In the official system of this dynasty, the lowest rank is the ninth rank, and the highest rank is the first rank. In fact, there are some people below the ninth rank, that is, scattered officials. Although these people do not have official ranks, they still work in the yamen. As for the various departments in the capital, there are odd jobs and people from some special departments.

Seiko refers to craftsmen in those special departments.

As for the fine work of the official department, the first thing Ma Xiao thought of was the mint.

Seeing Ma Xiao's expression, Boss Hua breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that he must have made the right judgment.

After thinking for a while, Boss Hua said in a low voice, "Yes, it's the Seiko of the Ministry of Officials. I heard that it used to be the Seiko of the Du Branch of the Ministry of Officials, who specialized in patrolling copper coin workshops and silver workshops in various places."

Ma Xiao took a deep breath, turned around and continued to walk forward, and said in a low voice, "Don't ask Xiao Wei to borrow this matter, let his father-in-law go directly to the grain store at the south gate, and I will say hello and give him credit. Bring a load of food, and don’t let others know about it.”

Boss Hua responded, turned around and disappeared into the shadows on the side of the street, and walked quickly.

Ma Xiao raised his head slightly and looked towards the southern sky.

The sky in March in the capital is extremely bright, the clouds are light, and the sky is as blue as if it has been washed.

I just don't know, is the weather in the south at this time the same?
The sky is blue and the air is clear, but it is actually floating?
"Get out of the way! Hurry up!"

Suddenly there was a shout on the street, and following the sound of horseshoes, several horses galloped in, and the first one shouted loudly: "Everyone, stop grabbing grain. The Ninth Prince has raised millions of tons of grain in Shuzhou and is about to enter Beijing!"

(End of this chapter)