Travel to the early Tang Dynasty and become a salted fish

Ever since Chu Mo controlled various materials around Chang'an.

Although the shops of major aristocratic families also took advantage of the hoarding of supplies in the beginning, they made a lot of money.

But as time passed and the inventory was emptied, they became anxious.

Although they knew that the person behind the scenes was Chu Mo, they could not find Chu Mo himself.

After finally getting the news about Chu Mo, and knowing that Li Shimin and the owner behind Zuixiao Tower had tricked Chu Mo, the business was restored.

But before they could make plans, purchase supplies, and resume production, news came. Last night, not only all the supplies Li Shimin received from Chu Mo were reduced to ashes.

Even some supplies originally held by the royal family were burned.

The news is shocking.

You know, since Li Shimin obtained the supplies, he has always been wary of Chu Mo's backhand.

Not only was an area specially set aside to build a warehouse to store supplies, but soldiers were even stationed to guard it every day.

Even so, Chu Mo still succeeded.

In fact, everyone was confused. The person who did it was not Chu Mo at all, but Chu Xin, who they had always considered to be a loyal supporter of Li Shimin.

As the saying goes, a fortress is easiest to breach from within.

Chu Xin's people directly cooperated with the people stationed inside to start a fire. Isn't it a casual thing?

These people are gathered together today not because they are worried about the country and the people, nor are they worried that their own families will be cut off from supplies.

They gathered here to think about how to raise the price again and sell the materials in their hands at a high price.

Although Chu Mo controlled most of the material supply points near Chang'an, none of these aristocratic families had several villages and workshops of their own.

If they want to supply their own needs, it is naturally more than enough, and even the surplus is enough for them to sell it.

As for when supplies from outside Chang'an can be delivered.

In their opinion, it would be impossible for those supplies to be transported here if they wanted to.

Although Li Shimin was in charge of the world and had countless armies, in the eyes of the aristocratic family, Li Shimin's foundation was not stable and the treasury was empty. If he wanted to allocate supplies, he had to do without money.

Even if he wants to allocate supplies, he can only buy them.

Chang'an is the base camp of the Li family. Here, they will naturally be controlled by Li Shimin. But outside Chang'an, without the pressure of the emperor, everything can only be done by one's own means.

Unless he, Li Shimin, was shameless and directly grabbed all kinds of supplies, he would have no choice but to use real money and silver to compete with the wealthy gentry from the wealthy families.

However, even if Li Shimin exhausted the treasury and grabbed some of the supplies, by the time he transported them to Chang'an, the major families would have already allocated their own supplies.

At that time, all it takes is a price war to dismantle the royal family.

After weighing the pros and cons, all the family heads, led by Cui Zheng, the head of the Cui family in Qinghe, all agreed to increase prices and blocked Li Shimin's plan to allocate supplies.

Just when everyone was looking at various living supplies, a group of uninvited guests suddenly arrived in front of farmers in various villages around Chang'an.

These people hauled carts of fine white salt and exchanged wood from house to house.

Yes, you read that right, these people spend a lot of money, and the only requirement is to use the refined salt in their hands to exchange for firewood cut by farmers from the mountains.

The people who were already in a tight situation because of the big house had never seen such a good thing.

Although the exchange ratio between the two is very exaggerated, no one is dissatisfied.

In their view, the wood all over the mountains and plains can be exchanged for refined salt that they had never thought of before. What is the difference between this and pie in the sky?

As a result, overnight, there was a wood-cutting craze around Chang'an.

In Chang'an City, firewood that used to cost a few pennies per load suddenly became priceless. As if overnight, farmers stopped going to the city to sell firewood.

The people could only start to use the inventory at home to survive, waiting for the arrival of the firewood seller.

However, when they found out that someone outside the city was exchanging refined salt for firewood, some people who felt that this was a profitable matter also moved out of their homes and exchanged it.

When Li Shimin received the secret security and learned about this, he immediately became vigilant.

Ever since he dismissed Li Jing and Cheng Yaojin and placed them under house arrest, he has been waiting for Chu Mo's backup plan.

However, a few days passed. Not only did Chu Mo "keep to himself", but Li Jing and Cheng Yaojin also stayed at home without any movement.

Although the shortage of supplies in Chang'an City made him a little worried at first, he felt relieved after finding out that these things had nothing to do with Chu Mo and were caused by several aristocratic families.

The aristocratic family and he were not on good terms. If they didn't jump out and make some small moves at this time, Li Shimin would wonder if they were pulling off some big move.

But now that he has found out the movements of the aristocratic families, he feels a lot more at ease.

Now when he heard that someone was exchanging refined salt for firewood, the first thing Li Shimin thought of was Chu Mo.

For no other reason than to say that although those aristocratic families also obtained the refined salt refining method from Chu Mo, in their view, only the upper class like them deserve to enjoy the refined salt. Those ordinary people, how virtuous and capable, can they enjoy it? This thing.

Moreover, there is a shortage of supplies during this period. Even if they want to refine refined salt on a large scale, it will not be possible in a short time.

With the urine of people from those aristocratic families, even if they throw away the refined salt in vain, it is impossible to exchange it for firewood and make it cheaper for the people.

Therefore, after a little thought, Li Shimin identified Chu Mo as the suspect.

Although he didn't know the purpose of Chu Mo's move, Li Shimin still worked hard and asked people to pay close attention to the movements of those people and find out what they were doing in exchange for firewood.

However, the reports from those sent out for secret talks all said that the group brought the firewood they exchanged back to the salt field to use it to refine more refined salt.

As a result, Li Shimin became even more confused.

If Chu Mo would use the refined salt extracted to attack the coarse salt market in Chang'an City, squeeze those aristocratic families out of the salt industry, and take the lead in controlling the market, Li Shimin would believe it.

But Chu Mo would suddenly do such a thankless thing that would benefit the country and the people?

Even if Li Shimin was beaten to death, he wouldn't believe it.

He would rather believe that Chu Mo wanted to deceive the entire people of Chang'an City than believe that he would be so kind and sit back and do a thankless job.

Since you can't figure it out, you can only go to the imperial prison and ask Chu Mo face to face.

After Chu Xin received the report from her subordinates, her eyes instantly lit up, and then she asked her subordinates to start collecting firewood, winter supplies and all food.