The king behind the empress

Chapter 214 Raising Food Prices
"Gouging up food prices?"

Listening to Mo Zizai's completely different request from what he had expected, Song Hui couldn't help being stunned for a moment, and he asked a little puzzled: "But my lord, the price of food is already very high now, why should the price of food be increased again?" rise?"

Song Hui, who didn't know much about Mo Zizai, even had some doubts in his heart now, whether Mo Zizai planned to raise the price of grain, and then sell the grain in the grain store to make a lot of black-hearted money.

"Because the higher the food price, the more merchants can be attracted."

Mo Zizai said indifferently: "With five times the profit, some people may hesitate, but if the profit becomes ten times, twenty times, then do you think there will be some people hesitate?"

"Profits will blind people. If the benefits are huge, the profits of more than ten times are enough to make those businessmen desperate."

Hearing what Mo Zizai said, Song Hui seemed to understand a little bit, "My lord, you are planning to use high profits to attract those businessmen to the capital, and then when the food arrives, you will..."

As he spoke, Song Hui gestured to wipe his neck with his hands.

"..."

Mo Zizai shook his head speechlessly, "Why are you more murderous than this king? People have come to the capital from thousands of miles away, and you have murdered them for profit. How can there be businessmen who dare to come to the capital to do business later?"

Hearing what Mo Zizai said, Song Hui sneered. I can't blame myself for thinking this way. The main reason is that you did this before. You killed the more than 200 big businessmen in the capital, but now you think I killed them. My heart is heavy.

However, Song Hui only dared to slander these words in his heart. With a puzzled face on his face, he asked, "What do you mean, my lord?"

"The killing of businessmen for no reason can never happen again. Let's change to a gentler way this time."

Mo Zizai said with a smile: "Use high prices to attract grain merchants, and then dump the grain in the grain stores to minimize the price."

"There are so many grains in the grain store, plus the grain merchants that have been attracted, so much grain is in the capital, so I don't think it will be difficult for me to lower the price of grain to be lower than the previous price in the capital."

"Is it lower than the price of food in the capital before?"

Hearing what Mo Zizai said, Song Hui couldn't help being stunned for a moment. Because the capital is supported by the whole Zhou Dynasty, the food price in the capital is even lower than that in the south of the Yangtze River. If the food price can really drop to that level...

Song Hui suddenly felt a little horrified. If this was the case, probably more than half of the grain merchants who came to the capital this time would have to think about where to hang themselves.

"This matter... should be feasible."

Song Hui's voice was a little dry. Although Mo Zizai's strategy is simple, it is very practical. After all, the capital is completely under Mo Zizai's control. It is too easy for him to control the rise and fall of food prices.

However, Mo Zizai only proposed a rough strategy, and the specific implementation plan still needs to be planned. Song Hui thought for a while, and then raised a question.

"My lord, due to the different routes, those grain merchants must arrive at the capital at different times. If there is someone who goes to the capital to sell grain first, how should this be resolved?"

If some grain merchants came to the capital first, not to mention how much money they would make with such a large profit, but just mentioning that they kept selling grain, it would disrupt Mo Zizai's plan.

After all, the food gap needed by the capital is limited. If they are allowed to sell food without restrictions, it may not take long for the market to be saturated by big grain merchants like them.

"This matter is also simple."

Mo Zizai basically didn't hesitate, and directly gave a solution, "You are Yuanwailang from the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the market is under your control. When the time comes, you can block them and prevent them from selling."

"Don't let them sell?"

Song Hui's expression was a little hesitant, "My lord, I'm afraid this is not right?"

On the one hand, the people in the capital are in urgent need of food, and on the other hand, the grain merchants from other places bring a lot of grain to sell. If he dares to stand in the middle and refuse to buy, after those grain merchants release the news, those people will have to eat it alive him.

"There's nothing wrong with this, just find a good excuse."

Mo Zizai didn't care about Song Hui's worries, and he spoke to Song Hui: "As for the excuse, it's also very simple, you just say that the quality of the food in other places is not up to standard, that it hasn't passed the sanitation inspection, that it's shoddy, and so on. "

"Anyway, it's not that you don't want them to sell, you just check for a few days, just let them wait."

"Of course, it's not that they are not allowed to sell at all."

Mo Zizai thought about it for a while, and continued to suggest: "You can refer to the salt quotation system and give them food quotations."

"If you want to sell in advance, you have to buy Liangyin from you, and the amount you can sell is determined by Liangyin."

Speaking of this, Mo Zizai's tone was a bit weird, "Of course, who to give the grain to and how much to give, these are all up to you to decide."

Hearing what Mo Zizai said, Song Hui couldn't help swallowing. He always felt that there was something in Mo Zizai's words, but he was not sure about his guess, so he asked hesitantly: "My lord, what do you mean? yes?"

"That's right, that's what you mean."

Mo Zizai nodded affirmatively, "Liangyin means money, how can you get Liangyin without spending money?"

"On the surface, there is a 5000 taels of grain, but if you want to get this 5000 taels of grain, they must give you 50, [-]."

"This this……"

Song Hui finally understood that Mo Zizai wanted him to ask for bribes from those businessmen. Given a chance to be an official, he determined to be a clean official.

What he didn't expect was that he was about to accept bribes before he became an official, and he was still ordered to ask for bribes...

"Then the money..."

"Why, do you still want to accept it yourself?"

Mo Zizai glared at Song Hui, "Of course it's for the public. The money from the sale of grain is handed over, and it's fine for it to be returned to the state treasury."

"As for those merchants who give in private, just give it to the king directly."

"However, apart from silver, you can keep other gifts, calligraphy and paintings for yourself, and it won't let you bear a bad name for nothing."

"Notoriety is notoriety, how many officials have a good reputation."

Song Hui smiled wryly, but after hearing Mo Zizai say that he took all the money, he felt much more at ease. Otherwise, if Mo Zizai wanted to give him all the money, he would really have to think about whether Mo Zizai would let go of the pain. Kill the donkey.

"However, if the lower officials take all the money, I'm afraid those officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs will have some objections."

Song Hui wasn't worrying unfoundedly. After all, if Liangyin really took bribes on a large scale, he estimated that he could collect at least a few million taels. It's no wonder that no one in the household department is jealous of such a large amount of money.

(End of this chapter)