New Shun 1730

The gentry took the sample tickets issued by Liu Yu and looked at them for a while. At this time, they had not thought of how to embezzle or deduct.

But Liu Yu left too many loopholes or loopholes.

I won’t mention the bold ones. There are plenty of tricks to such a big loophole.

For the timid ones, Liu Yu was afraid that they would think that rice was difficult to fake, so he even left loopholes to mix acorn flour, corn flour, and sweet potato powder into the wheat flour.

Even the timid ones, Liu Yu was like taking off his pants to fart. In addition to supplying pickled radishes, he also supplied salt that was impossible to use - what is the use of salt to eat pickled radishes? Cooking pickled radishes with salt?

If the timid ones were even more timid, Liu Yu would not even send the cooks at the construction site, but let the gentry pay for it themselves. So this is a pound of rice, is it really a pound of rice?

There are too many loopholes, and the Eight Immortals cross the sea, each showing their abilities.

It is impossible that all the gentry in northern Jiangsu are Yao and Shun, right?

…………

After a long time.

Along the way to the Huaihe River construction site, it has not yet started, but it has already prospered.

Liu Yu recruited a large number of small businessmen, and he lent money to them at low interest rates.

They opened cart shops along the way, and opened temporary folk post stations at intervals.

After the construction period was over, these small businessmen would return the money to Liu Yu.

The purpose was to facilitate rest, meals, accommodation, etc. during grain transportation.

In a temporary post station area leading to the grain transportation station wharf, the steward of a squire, following the order of his master, came to the transportation station to check out the route and facilitate future grain transportation.

Not long ago, there were many temporary cart shops in the deserted place: you can cook by yourself or buy food, and the owner mainly sells food. The food is all wheat straw.

But outside the store, there are also mutton soup, vegetarian meatballs and other things cooked. When you are tired on the road, you can eat here. Don't worry about bringing your own dry food. Buy a bowl of hot soup, there are only a few slices of meat, but the soup is enough and can be refilled indefinitely.

The market positioning of the small vendors here is very accurate. Those who can come to transport grains can't afford to eat anything else. Living in a place with wheat straw is considered good.

The housekeeper who came here to rest was surnamed Li, which was the surname of the master and he was also a family member for two or three generations.

Housekeeper Li asked for a bowl of mutton soup. Just after he sipped two mouthfuls, a stranger quietly approached him.

"Brother, are you here to see the grain station?"

Housekeeper Li was not the kind of person who might have never left the village except to escape famine. He knew that this man had something to do and nodded.

Anyway, there were still a few family members around him, so he was not afraid of anything.

The stranger hurriedly shouted: "Store owner, get a sheep's head. A few corners of wine."

When the wine and food came, the stranger only said that he was a good friend, and then distributed the sheep's head to the family members who followed him, and whispered to housekeeper Li: "Brother, can you talk for a moment?"

Housekeeper Li also followed the master to take care of the victims. He had seen a lot of such things, so he understood and asked the subordinates to eat here first.

The two of them went around to the back of the inn, and the man bowed and said, "I wonder if the master of your family, who has contracted it, distributes rice or noodles?"

Butler Li had seen a lot before, so he said calmly, "People in the village are not used to eating rice, they want noodles."

The stranger said, "When it comes to the court's work, sometimes it's really hard to say. The ancients said that meat eaters are vulgar. You said that each person should be given three catties of white flour every day, but in fact it would be better to distribute six catties of dried sweet potatoes and a few catties of sorghum to each person. The people who make the decision are all those who eat white flour, but they don't know that the same price of white flour is far less than the same price of corn and sweet potatoes."

Butler Li thought that this routine was familiar. It was often played like this during disaster relief before, and it was indeed a good thing in theory.

The court sometimes turned a blind eye, and sometimes even acquiesced to the subjective initiative of gentry and local officials. After all, the court could not mobilize coarse grains before, and could only mobilize grain.

But whether one catty of rice was really replaced by two catties of mixed noodles, that's hard to say.

The local officials can't cover it up, they have to nod their heads and the gentry can share the profits before this can be done. There are many disaster-prone places like northern Jiangsu.

Seeing the stranger say this, how could Li Guanjia not know what the other side does, and smiled and said: "That's true. However, the court has decided it, and we will do it as the court decides. What business do you do, brother?"

The stranger smiled and said: "I don't do any business. I just run errands for others. My master's business is big. Brother, I'll tell you the truth, I have some goods, I wonder if the master is interested? Let's not talk nonsense, let's take a look at the samples first."

As he said, he took out a small cloth bag from his arms, and after opening it, it was filled with noodles.

Although it was also black, it was white in color. After all, if you want to eat real white flour these days, you have to sift it seven or eight times to get out the black bran.

Unless you are rich or a small craftsman who makes noodles, ordinary people will sift out real white flour so carefully during the New Year.

As soon as housekeeper Li saw the flour and rubbed it with his hands, he knew that something was mixed in it, making it look whiter than its original color. And by the feel of it, he knew that it must have been mixed with some messy mixed flours, and other things were mixed in to cover the color.

"Talc? Guanyin soil?"

The stranger laughed and said, "Brother, you are knowledgeable."

Housekeeper Li didn't waste any words, put away the bag of samples and asked, "How to change it?"

"It depends on how to change it. It is guaranteed not to kill people or make people sick. It contains acorn flour, corn and the like. You don't need to transport it over, just give us the ticket. We check the ticket here. If it is not fake, you can go directly. Don't worry, if you dare to do this business, you must have the ability to do it."

"If the Lord's family dares to do something big, then we can directly transport corn flour and acorn flour. This will save us the trouble of having to hire people to mix it."

"My master's business is big, don't worry, we will eat as much as we have. And you don't have to bother at all, just take the ticket and go to our place to get food."

"We will also collect the extra tickets here. Brother, let me tell you, our prices are honest and the back is hard. If you go to other places to sell them, they will lower the price and maybe just grab them. We here Whether you want to count the money directly, whether you want silver or banknotes, that’s easy to decide.”

Butler Li thought to himself, since you said that, it makes it even less credible. If there are other people doing it, I'm afraid that what they give you may not be lower than yours.

Thinking of this, Butler Li asked again: "There is someone above your master, why didn't you just change at the grain transfer station?"

As soon as he mentioned this, the stranger slapped his thigh and said, "Brother, are you really not aware or are you pretending not to know? The imperial court asked Duke Xingguo to go out of town to take care of this. The wheat flour is all obtained directly from the flour mill in Yingkou. People from the Navy and the Children’s Army were watching the whole process.”

"The barley flour mills are all coal-fired, so they can grind a lot in one day. We will wrap them up there and load them directly onto the ship. The ships are all owned by big companies, so how can we have a chance?"

"If you want to do it, you have to get Mr. Xing Guo to join the gang. If Mr. Xing Guo doesn't join the gang, you can't manipulate the source."

"I'm telling you, brother, this business is profitable. Isn't it a pity if these good white noodles are eaten by the poor people?"

"You give them some corn noodles, acorn noodles, sweet potatoes, etc., and when they are full, what else can they say? Let them eat white noodles, and then they end up shitting them. What's the use?"

"It's better to exchange some money. We can be considered as doing good deeds and accumulating merit."

"Xingguo Gong is the home of Zhongmingding Food. Maybe he doesn't know at all that eating three kilograms of white flour is far worse than eating six kilograms of corn and ten kilograms of acorn flour."

"Don't those poor people have enough to eat? Otherwise, if they are close to home, they should leave three or five white noodles for the family. If they don't have enough to eat, they will starve from work. Isn't that a sin?"

Butler Li nodded and said: "Brother, you are right. Those working people are eating like shit. Three pounds of white flour is really not as good as four pounds of mixed noodles. It is important to be full. You can eat it hard." That’s the right thing to do.”

"But you... have talcum powder or Guanyin soil mixed in it. We're afraid of causing trouble if we eat it. I also know that it's fine if it's a little mixed, but who the hell knows how much you profiteers have mixed in? It would be troublesome to eat dead people. "

The stranger held up his palm and said: "Brother, don't worry about this. We have mixed noodles, unmixed noodles, and ready-made mixed noodles. White noodles range from six minutes, to two minutes, to pure mixed noodles. . The price is different.”

"Actually, we don't want to mix in talcum powder or Guanyin soil. As you know, you can't mix too much in this stuff, just to cover up the color. Speaking of which, we have to hire people to mix it in, and it costs labor. If It would be easier for us to just switch to noodles, right?”

"I'm just afraid that some people are cowardly and don't dare to make money. If you add talcum powder and Guanyin soil into the noodles, wouldn't it look white? Steaming dry food can also deceive people. Anyway, it won't kill people. We have tried it. Yes, neither diarrhea nor swelling.”

"The cheapest products we have here are those mixed with cottonseed hulls and rice bran. The most expensive ones are those mixed with talcum powder and Guanyin soil. It mainly depends on how much the Lord's family wants to earn."

"We accept face stamps, rice stamps, salt, and bean cake stamps. If the banknotes are issued over there, you can also come to us to exchange for silver. We give you a high price, eight for ten."

Butler Li couldn't help but scolded: "They say there is no business without treachery, and there is no business without treachery! Do you really think that we have never seen the world? We have been doing this Qingmiao Loan for several years. Who doesn't know that these banknotes can be exchanged directly?" One for one? You exchange ten for eight...forget it, you are not an honest person, so I won’t do this business.”

After saying that, Butler Li left, and the stranger behind him hurriedly said: "Brother, stop, let's discuss, discuss again..."

But Butler Li didn't answer. He just called the family members, shook off the man and walked forward. I thought that since there are people doing this business, it is impossible for you to be the only one, so I have to take a look before talking about it.

Sure enough, someone soon started talking to me, and this time the way of talking was more direct.

The stranger came directly to Butler Li and asked in a low voice: "Brother, do you want to exchange tickets? Exchange tickets? My price is high."

After getting familiar with the experience, Butler Li asked directly: "Is there any goods? I have to see the goods."

"Yes, yes! This way, please..."

The stranger led the way and soon arrived at a simple house.

It contains all kinds of flour and the worst broken rice.

Not only are they stocked, they also offer tastings, ranging from dry biscuits to steamed buns and steamed buns.

And someone else introduced it very thoughtfully: "This kind of noodles is best for baked dry biscuits, and this kind is best for steamed buns. There is also this kind, after mixed with things, the steamed buns are also very white."

Butler Li tasted it and asked, "How much is a stone note? Should I give it in silver or banknotes?"

"One stone is worth five cents of silver. If you want banknotes, give banknotes. If you want silver, give silver."

Butler Li clicked his tongue and said, "You are still ruthless. Give me five taels of silver per stone? This is noodles, not wheat. Even if it is wheat grains, it is not at this price."

But the man said: "Aren't we also taking risks? Five qian is a lot of money. If you dare to do it, a hundred and fifty people can get 20 taels of silver in a month. Don't take the money from the court." Don’t take it for free.”

"If you are ruthless enough, you can feed them all sweet potatoes and potatoes, and earn 40 taels a month. Is this price still low?"

"Let me tell you, these days, the brave ones will die of overeating, and the timid ones will die of starvation. Such opportunities are hard to come by. In the past, you had to sell grain to get relief grain, but now you can just sell tickets. How much trouble has it saved?"