Natural disasters in books: I stockpiled goods to escape famine in ancient times

Song Shiwei glanced at her, then reluctantly took the tea handed to him by Feng Ru: "You can't stay at home, so you can stay here with me?"

Lin Ting snorted twice: "Of course, you are here. My father has been leaving early and coming back late these days. My mother pulls me to embroider as soon as she sees me. My brother only knows how to quarrel with me. It's better for me to come to your place to hide in peace and quiet."

As he spoke, Lin Ting took off his shoes, crossed his legs on the couch, and tilted his head slightly: "It's strange to say, I didn't find life boring when I read storybooks at home before, but since I met you, I can't sit still at home anymore. I always feel very safe with you around, so I often want to come to see you, even if we don't talk and just stay together."

Song Shiwei was extremely uncomfortable after hearing her heartfelt words out of the blue, and didn't know how to react.

Lin Ting didn't care about Song Shiwei's thoughts. He just said what was on his mind, and then he lay back on the couch with a lazy look on his face. "I don't know when I can live a normal life. If I continue like this, I'm going to get sick from being idle. My father said that there are not many people walking on the street during the day. They are all patrolling by the soldiers. He repeatedly told me not to go out at home, so as not to be disturbed by those ignorant people."

Song Shiwei glanced at her and said, "It should be soon."

As long as the imperial court contributes money and effort to solve the follow-up problems of the victims, the capital will soon be able to return to normal. However, the Dali Dynasty has suffered disasters year after year in recent years, and the treasury must be tight, otherwise no action would have been taken until now.

When Lin Shouren next door heard that the brother and sister were with Song Shiwei, he was immediately relieved and was able to calm down and deal with Cao Chong's calculations.

When it was dinner time, Lin Ting and Lin Mubai did not stay for dinner. Instead, they climbed up the ladder and returned home. Not long after they returned, they asked Uncle Fu to send them some snacks.

Song Shiwei stood in the yard and watched Feng Ru take the food box handed to him by Uncle Fu on the courtyard wall. When the other party looked over, he was moved.

Uncle Fu took out a letter from his bosom and held it respectfully in the direction of Song Shiwei: "The master asked me to bring a letter to Miss Song. I must hand it to Miss Song personally."

Song Shi nodded slightly, walked a few steps to the wall, jumped up and took the letter from Uncle Fu's hand, and then put it down gracefully in his surprise: "I know, please help Uncle Fu."

"As you should. Miss Song, if you have anything to say, please let me know. I will be leaving now."

"it is good."

Afterwards, Song Shiwei took the letter written by Lin Shouren back to the main room and only opened it after sitting down.

In the letter, Lin Shouren first talked about the recent actions in the court, and then mentioned that Cao Chong wanted to target merchants. He confirmed that the national treasury was not well-off and could not provide disaster relief silver and food. Yesterday, Cao Chong suddenly showed up at the Chamber of Commerce, and his words were all about asking the merchants to contribute money, manpower and food.

Finally, Lin Shouren said that he already had a countermeasure, and he also concluded that Cao Chong was worthy of being the most popular person around the emperor. He let the merchants pay for the money and grain, but the fame belonged to the court and him. He was simply shameless!

After reading it, Song Shiwei sneered softly, put the letter into the space, put one hand on the coffee table and tapped it gently, his brows furrowed and his eyes dark.

Song Shiwei knew Lin Shouren's countermeasure at noon the next day.

It turned out that early in the morning, the Lin and Li families, led by dozens of merchants, sent out hundreds of mule carts, which were loaded with food. They drove towards the city gate like a long dragon. Along the way, people on both sides of the long street all looked out to see what was happening.

The soldiers guarding the city gate were so shocked by the endless mule carts that their eyes almost popped out. Uncle Fu had to step forward to negotiate and loudly explain that the mule carts were donated by merchants in the city to the disaster victims. The leader of the soldiers immediately felt overwhelmed.

Being in charge of the Five Cities Military Department, he naturally knew some of the tricks and selfish intentions of the officials above him. However, these more than a dozen merchants suddenly delivered grain in their own names, which caught many people off guard. In addition, a large number of disaster victims had gathered at the city gate, and Uncle Fu's voice was loud and clear to everyone around. Even if the Military Department wanted to withhold the grain, it could not resist the tens of thousands of disaster victims outside. If they were not careful, it might easily cause trouble, and he would be held accountable then.

No matter what he did, it was not pleasing. The leader's face suddenly turned ugly, but there was nothing he could do, so he just waved his hand and let people go.

After thanking him, Uncle Fu stuffed a thick stack of banknotes into the leader's hand while no one was paying attention, and whispered, "I know it's hard for you, sir. This is a little gift from the Lin family. It's all compensation for you, sir."

After pinching the thickness of the banknote, the leader was extremely satisfied and smiled: "Okay, okay, we are all following orders, and it's not easy for us."

Even if he faced the wrath of his superiors after returning, with these banknotes, it would not be a loss even if he lost his official position.

Uncle Fu led everyone out of the city gate with food, and then asked the servants of each family to discipline the victims who gathered around them. If there were any troublemakers, they would be dragged away and beaten with a stick. After the victims had behaved themselves, he began to speak on behalf of the major merchants. What he revealed was naturally that the merchants were very sad to hear about the disaster in the southern border, but fortunately there was still some surplus food at home, so the master of the house quickly arranged for everyone to deliver the food to distribute to the affected people.

These words touched people's hearts and naturally won applause. The victims were grateful for the efforts of the Lin and Li families.

The incident at the city gate was reported to the emperor immediately. The first person to suffer was Cao Chong, who had entered the palace early in the morning to offer advice. He was hit hard on the face by the teacup, and his forehead swelled up immediately.

Cao Zhong was so shocked and angry that he didn't care about the pain in his forehead. He knelt on the ground with a terrified look on his face and endured the emperor's wrath.

"Good, good, it's really good. There was a disaster in the southern border, and I, the ruler of the people, couldn't provide money and food to comfort the people affected. Now those merchants are very generous," the emperor said, staring at Cao Chong. "And you, you promised before that you would have plenty of ways to get those people to provide money and food, but have you ever thought about the current situation?"

Cao Chong didn't dare to say anything else, he didn't even dare to raise his head, he just prostrated himself on the ground and kept admitting his mistake.

The emperor naturally knew that Cao Chong was targeting the merchants, and he even acquiesced in it. The national treasury was now in deficit and could no longer provide money and grain for disaster relief, so the only option was to let the merchants bleed. Unexpectedly, the merchants would burn their boats at the last minute. They did provide grain, but they directly gave the grain to the victims. In this way, everyone knew that the grain was provided by the merchants, and the court had no business doing anything. The people were not grateful to the Emperor Dali, but to those money-grubbing merchants. How could the emperor tolerate this?

The emperor could not be wrong; the only ones who were wrong were others. The first to bear the brunt of the blame was Cao Chong, who came up with the idea. Not only did he have to be held accountable by the emperor, but he also had to deal with the follow-up issues of the matter. His life was in dire straits. Even if he hated those businessmen and wanted to cut them into pieces, he was now too busy to do so.

After hearing this, Lin Shouren burst into laughter in the study.

Although other merchants who participated in donating grain were afraid of being held accountable by the court later, they also felt relieved.

After knowing this, Song Shiwei was at a loss whether to laugh or cry, and he also admired Lin Shouren's operation.

As expected of a businessman, his mind works quickly.