Fu Tang
Chapter 194
Li Congjia sat on the throne with a cold face, and none of the ministers below had a good face. Without him, the Shandong gentry scolded them all together!
If Li Congjia is Shang Zhou, these people are helping Zhou to abuse him!
Sitting on the throne, Li Congjia looked around and found no one willing to speak, so he asked, "Is there any problem besides Shandong?"
Everyone froze for a moment, they were all waiting for Li Congjia to lose his temper, but Li Congjia didn't, and just asked a question coldly.
Hubu Shangshu hesitated for a while and came out and said: "Return to Your Majesty, except for Shandong, Guan and Lingnan, the implementation is smooth in other areas."
Guanwai and Lingnan... Well, these two places have few people and a lot of people, and the folk customs are tough. They have never been interested in the court, and they don't think they are from the Tang Dynasty. Even if they pay tribute every year, they are just afraid that the Tang Dynasty will trouble them.
It's just...it's really chilling that the good Han people in Shandong are as virtuous as the Shaomin.
Regardless of the Lingnan side, Li Congjia is already ready to deal with these natives. If he wants to implement one country, two systems, it depends on whether he has the ability.
As for the Western Regions... Li Congjia sneered. He needs to make an example of others. It seems that he was too tolerant of the rebellion in the Western Regions last time, which made these guys start to be arrogant again. Before that, he wanted to fully respect the living customs and opinions of the young people. Now look at it Come on... Respect a fart!
Anyway, there is no such thing as human rights in this era, so it is just a matter of using them to scare chickens and monkeys!
Li Congjia glanced lightly at the Minister of the Household Department and said, "What should I do if I don't comply with the edict?"
Hubu Shangshu was shocked, and he was a little panicked at the time. He was not panicked because Li Congjia said that the Western Regions resisted the edict, but he was worried that Li Congjia would equate Shandong with the Western Regions in the next sentence!
Back then, no matter how tough Li Shimin was, he was never tougher than the Shandong gentry. If Li Congjia dared to do this, he would probably end up comparable to Qin Shihuang, or even... maybe follow in the footsteps of the Sui Dynasty!
Fortunately, Li Congjia only said: "This time the Western Expedition appointed the King of Chu as the chief of the march, and it was cheap."
The courtiers gasped suddenly. The meaning of doing things cheaply was that the Western Regions would allow Li Jingda to do harm at will. As long as it was not too much, Li Congjia would not question the crimes. This... This is obviously to teach the Western Regions a lesson!
However, it was Li Jingda, and if he was replaced by another general, he would definitely not get the will to act cheaply.
"The land in the South of the Five Ridges is mountainous and full of smog, let's not mention it for now, as for Shandong..." Li Congjia looked at the Wanyan book on the imperial case, and paused on purpose.
The ministers below all held their breath and waited for Li Congjia's decision. Li Congjia took a look and found that many people were quite restless - needless to say, these people must be inextricably linked with those Shandong gentry.
Li Congjia paused for a long time before saying: "Didn't they say that they have bad words that cannot be heard directly? I will give them a chance to send representatives! I want to see what good words they have, and... order the whole country To catch and kill locusts, if anyone worships locusts, he will be punished according to the law and put in a file."
Everyone trembled, fines and so on are small things, and filing is a big deal. Everyone in Datang now has a special file. If there is no file, they are black households and can't do anything. Very inconvenient, for example, the loan will be rejected.
It's just... catching and killing locusts... all dynasties and dynasties have said so, how can it be so easy, the common people are ignorant, they will only think that it is a disaster from heaven, and they dare not kill locusts at all!
After Li Congjia came down from court, he called Yang Xin directly, "I asked you to go to the west to buy food, but now it's here?"
Yang Xin said immediately: "The firm is ready."
Li Congjia was very fortunate at this time. He had prepared the food to fight Khitan and Lingnan. He was betting on this at the time. If the cabinet refused to allocate food, he would spend his own money to buy food to support the army to fight. , Khitan is hard to say, anyway, if Lingnan can get it done, it will definitely be a lot of money.
As a result, he never expected that there would be a plague of locusts before hitting Lingnan. He himself didn't know whether the luck was good or bad.
Li Congjia said to Yang Xin: "When you go back, make preparations, exchange grain for locusts, and dry locusts."
Yang Xin was dumbfounded at the time: "What?"
Do such loss-making businesses?Your Majesty couldn't be fooled by those Shandong gentry, right?
Li Congjia knew what the kid was thinking when he saw his expression, and couldn't help but slapped him and said, "Are you stupid? Not only can locusts be eaten, but they can also be used as medicine. Don't tell me you never even ate locusts when you were young!" "
Li Congjia took it for granted, but actually felt very guilty, because he...has never eaten this stuff!
However, Li Congjia's words brought back Yang Xin's memories. When he was a child...he really ate this food!After all, when he was not full, he could eat anything that could fit in his mouth without killing anyone, but at that time he ate it roasted, and I heard that it was delicious fried.
Yang Xin nodded immediately and said, "I understand, but how do I change it?"
Li Congjia also hesitated, turned his head to look at Shi Xueting and asked, "If the dry locusts are exchanged for the same amount of food...would it be too harsh?"
Shi Xueting didn't have this experience either, so he could only say: "It is said that locusts are overwhelming the sky now, it should be easy to catch, this is not harsh."
Li Congjia had a kind of blind trust in Shi Xueting. Since Shi Xueting said it was okay, then he would do it. Anyway, if it is not suitable at that time, he will change it. He just needs to help the people to get through this hurdle.
Yang Xin hurriedly went to arrange it. After all, these grains are stored in warehouses, and it will take some time to transport them to various places. Fortunately, this locust plague is mainly concentrated in Guanzhong, so it is not difficult to transport, not to mention that Li Congjia once ordered Yang Xinhua They bought ships at a high price, and with these ships, it would not be a big problem to transport food.
Li Congjia's business houses are all over the Tang Dynasty, even in smaller towns, and these business houses generally have grain stocks that should be able to support the new grain shipments.
Li Congjia didn't let Ah Rong run away this time. It's too chaotic outside now, and the losses caused by the locusts are inevitable. Although the common people may not be at the end of their ropes, but if it's not good, some people will fish in troubled waters and take advantage of the fire. After all, it's not safe for a little lady to be outside .
The lineup of 360 commercial banks across the country is huge, and the court knew in an instant that Li Congjia bought grain to subsidize the people, but he wanted to exchange it with locusts.
After Fan Zhi knew about it, he looked at the rice bowl in his hand, sighed and said, "From tomorrow onwards, leave some surplus food at home, and donate the rest."
Mrs. Fan was a little reluctant. Their family had already donated a lot, and their living standards had dropped severely. Now they only left some surplus food?Who knows when this famine will end?What if food prices soar outside?
Fan Zhi listened to Mrs. Fan's words and reprimanded him: "Stupid, you don't even look at who owns the largest firm in the country. Your Majesty will never let this happen."
Fan Zhi guessed right. Li Congjia was suppressing grain prices. While forcing merchants not to raise prices sharply, he urged Arong to continue collecting grain in the west, and asked Yang Xin to go to Lingnan to buy grain. Taking the opportunity to raise food prices.
Li Congjia angrily turned over the imperial case in the study several times, which made Shi Xueting buy him some fire-clearing food every day, for fear that he would get sick from anger.
The purchase price of grain increased, and the selling price could not be lowered, even if Li Congjia gave orders. Li Congjia could only insist on letting the merchants sell grain at a par price, and lost money by doing so. However, he also took the opportunity to push the paper money out.
Want to come to the commercial store to buy food?Yes, as long as you have banknotes, you can exchange them with copper coins if you don’t have banknotes, but there is a ration per person per day, so most farmers still rely on catching locusts in exchange for food.
I have to say that being able to exchange food has aroused everyone's enthusiasm, plus this thing can be eaten, what kind of locust god, it is useless to worship for a long time, or the emperor loves them, and he has to give them food even if they lose money. As for locusts in exchange for food, Everyone thought that Li Congjia was pity for those hard-working farmers, so he gave them some preferential treatment.
Li Congjia looked at the report sent by Arong. In just a few days, Li Congjia's compensation had become a huge amount. Arong was very restless. What if he is unhappy?
Fortunately, Li Congjia's face remained the same, and after reading it, he said with a look of relief: "It's better than I imagined."
Ah Rong was slightly relieved now, and Li Congjia looked up at Ah Rong's thinner face, smiled and said, "I've worked hard for you recently, and I'll give you a holiday when the disaster year is over!"
Arong smiled sweetly: "I like to do this, Your Majesty, you don't know, every day there are people kneeling at the entrance of the firm and shouting long live, I don't feel tired seeing such a scene."
Li Congjia frowned, as long as the common people appreciate it and know how to be grateful, he will not lose money in vain.
To be honest, he really doesn't pay much attention to this money. The monthly turnover of the business is more than this money. Spending a little money can save many lives. The point of starting a meal is not.
When Fan Zhi came, seeing that Li Congjia seemed to be in a good mood, he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Your Majesty, this is not the way to go, why don't you call on the people to donate food."
Fan Zhi always feels that if this continues, the firm that Li Congjia worked so hard to build will collapse. This firm is now one of Datang's important sources of tax revenue. , Taxes will be much less, which is something no one wants to see.
Li Congjia shook his head and said, "How much do you expect them to donate food? They have already started to mobilize, but what they donate is a drop in the bucket."
This is not the future, most people are living on the line of food and clothing, so they can do good deeds, after all, there are only a few who can donate food now, and those damn merchants... They still want to use food to sell money, so who cares about other people's lives?
Li Congjia made repeated orders not to allow the increase to be too high, but they acted as if they hadn't seen the order, and they also negotiated a unified purchase price, anyway, how to fool the court.
Li Congjia was also made angry, this group of bastards who made money for the country, if they are good people, they must become animals. If this is the case, I don't have to give you a way to survive.
That's why there is the sale of grain at a low price. Although the supply is limited every day, it is also based on the head. A family can save a little to eat. These grain merchants are empty for a while. Who has nothing to do to buy high-priced grain?If they want to sell grain, they have to lower the price, but Li Congjia knows how much they buy, so the set price is uncomfortably stuck, and if they want to sell it, they will lose money.
Many grain merchants didn't know that the firm was owned by Li Congjia. They just thought that no matter how powerful the firm was, there would be a day when they would run out of grain. At that time, they could raise the price of grain to another level.
However, what they waited for was continuous disappointment. From the beginning when the locusts ate all the crops, until the end the locusts were almost killed, and the situation they expected did not appear.
However, the grain merchants were not in a hurry. After all, most of the grain in Guanzhong was destroyed by locusts.
This is also the reason why Fan Zhi came to Li Congjia to call on everyone to donate food. Fan Zhi said: "According to the previous practice, donating food can be awarded a rank of nobleman."
Li Congjia vetoed this proposal without even thinking about it. He worked so hard to suppress the distribution of titles, and even many meritorious officials did not have high titles. Now if you donate food casually, you can get titles?
Yes, donating food now is equivalent to saving people, but the title is too worthless in this case.
Li Congjia looked at Fan Zhi calmly and said, "I know what you are thinking, don't worry too much, I have my own solution."
Fan Zhi was a little worried, and looked at Shi Xueting reflexively, but found that Shi Xueting was not there. After going out, he wanted to visit the National Teacher's Mansion, but was told that the National Teacher was not there. I was puzzled, and at the same time, I had a bad feeling.
It is true that Shi Xueting is not in the Imperial Palace and the National Teacher's Mansion, he is not even in Chang'an!
Li Congjia also said before that the problem of Lingnan could be put aside, but he did not expect that there are so many unscrupulous businessmen in this world. Fortunately, he still thinks that the people of Tang Dynasty are simple, so this kind of situation should not happen.
Naturally, it is not enough to rely on buying food to tide over the difficulties. While ordering food distribution for disaster relief, Shi Xueting left with 3000 people.
Yes, Li Congjia only gave Shi Xueting 3000 people, all elites from Tiance Mansion and Firearms Camp. These 3000 people went to Lingnan to occupy the territory, or to subdue all the natives, and then let them There is no other way for them to grow grain. Li Congjia made a rough calculation that Lingnan can grow not only two crops of rice, but also three crops of rice.
It's just that the fertility of the land is limited, so the output of three-crop rice is not as high as that of two-crop rice. However, in the past, if you seize the time, you can still plant a crop of grain, which can just support the difficult winter for the people in Guanzhong.
Shi Xueting went for more than 1000 miles, and he didn't take many people with him. There was a lot of smoke and miasma in Lingnan. It is a lie to say that Li Congjia is not worried, but he can't let people go to Lingnan with great fanfare at this time. Otherwise, the Shandong gentry might not know what to scold him.
Li Congjia looked at Shi Xueting's letter of sending pigeons to keep him safe, and sighed softly. He just felt that Shi Xueting's fate was also bad. He was ruined from a small country and his family died, and he grew up in depression. Later, he met Zhou Shizong Guo Rong With the destruction of Buddha, there will be no more stable days.
After meeting Li Congjia, there are constant dangers, and now he has to run around for him, that is, Shi Xueting also has a wish to see Haiqing, Heyan and the world in peace, Li Congjia can still feel at ease, otherwise, I'm afraid I will die of guilt.
However, with Shi Xueting gone, many things can be done freely.
After Li Congjia had almost done the locust and disaster relief, he met the representatives of the Shandong gentry. In fact, the representatives of the Shandong gentry had already arrived in Chang'an, but Li Congjia deliberately left them alone.
Li Congjia said that he only saw the representative, but all the patriarchs of Cuilu Zhengwang came. Li Congjia knew that these people wanted to put pressure on him, but he was not afraid. He was different from Li Shimin. I entered the ranks of the aristocratic family, but was not recognized by others. However, the more I did this, the more it gave the people a false impression that even the royal family couldn't ask for it, and the aristocratic family must be very powerful.
From the very beginning, Li Congjia didn't want his old family to enter the ranks of some aristocratic family, so what if he entered or not?Not only that, but he also wanted to get rid of this crap, demolish the family and turn it into a small family, which was poorly able to withstand wind and rain, so that it could be more closely attached to the imperial court.
Li Congjia didn't know how to do it before, and he didn't find an opportunity to do it. Now someone finally came to his door, but Li Congjia was worried that Shi Xueting would stop him. No matter how powerful Shi Xueting was, he was still an aborigine of this era, and he had great influence on the aristocratic family. Natural admiration, many times he will talk to the aristocratic family inside and outside the words.
Li Congjia didn't want to conflict with Shi Xueting because of this matter, so he got Shi Xueting away, and then prepared to clean up the family.
Li Congjia met these people at the Dachao meeting. Cui Shiji thought that Li Congjia would definitely meet them in private, so that there would be room for change whether it was conflict or reconciliation. However, he never expected that Li Congjia would not leave himself any escape .
Cui Shiji snorted coldly when he knew about it, he didn't have any respect for the emperor, he just thought that Li Congjia was lucky, his Cui family has been passed down for hundreds of years, how could a local emperor be able to compare?
Although Li Congjia insisted on selling cheap food in his own business before, and sold it in a fixed amount with special tokens in order to prevent reselling time, he admired him a lot, but for the sake of the family, he couldn't show it even if he admired it.
When they went to the hall to face the saints, the four families had complete etiquette one by one, and their salutes were even more standard than the ministers in the court hall, revealing the demeanor of the aristocratic family everywhere.
However, these things are not worth a grain of rice in Li Congjia's eyes. Li Congjia gave them a chance to argue. Although Cui Shiji used respectful names, he was not polite.
Li Congjia sat on the throne and patiently listened to him criticizing himself. When he heard Cui Shiji say: "The locusts are the punishment sent down by heaven to His Majesty, but His Majesty has not repented and even ordered people to capture the locusts. This is to offend the locust god." How innocent are the people, how could His Majesty kill them in a moment of anger?"
"Oh? Locust God?" Li Congjia had a funny face. Even if he was beaten to death, he would not believe that Cui Shiji would believe in such a thing as the Locust God. However, in order to beat him, Cui Shiji even brought out the Locust God.
Cui Shiji was not afraid to see Li Congjia looking at him with a half-smile, after all, Li Congjia looked too young, he was old enough to be Li Congjia's grandfather!
"Your Majesty, you are blaspheming!"
Li Congjia saw that he did not repent, so he had to clap his hands. The ministers saw a group of beautiful court ladies coming up, holding a plate in their hands. The locusts on the plate were fried golden. People's gluttons have been seduced out.
Li Congjia picked up a locust and took a bite, enduring his nausea, and found that the taste was really good. He didn't like to eat it just because it didn't look good.
"Well, the taste is not bad, who wants to taste it? This thing is also a nourishing food." Li Congjia asked the plate to be taken down.
Cui Shiji's face was livid, and Li Congjia didn't refute, but such behavior was slapping him in the face. The most important thing is that Li Congjia probably knew that he would talk about locusts, so he had already prepared fried locusts, not a temporary preparation at all. of!
The people who can stand on this hall are basically Li Congjia's diehards. Li Congjia opened his mouth, and many people enthusiastically signed up to try this thing for their own future. Fan Zhi even said: "I have seen it in ancient books before. Veteran ministers still don’t believe that they eat locusts, but now they taste delicious.”
What Fan Zhi said was against his will. Where had he ever eaten locusts before? As for the ancient books saying that locusts can be eaten...he just remembered it. If you really want to ask him, he probably doesn’t remember what book it is, but he ate it anyway. When you need to stand in line, you have to eat locusts even if they are disgusting, not to mention that Li Congjia put a lot of spices and it tastes really good.
Fan Zhi has a very clear mind. After the Sui and Tang dynasties kept suppressing the aristocratic families, the current aristocratic families are not as good as before. That is to say, the shadows of powerful aristocratic families can still be seen in places like Shandong, and the influence of aristocratic families in other places has been minimized. And Li Congjia, as the emperor, could not let the Shandong gentry look down on the emperor or threaten the emperor.
Of course, the most important thing is that in his memory, those who oppose Li Congjia either encounter natural disasters or man-made disasters. Anyway, no one is good, so... Although Fan Zhi is not willing to be superstitious, but this time he is willing to be superstitious.
Cui Shiji said harshly: "Your Majesty, aren't you afraid of being blamed by the Locust God?"
Li Congjia laughed loudly after hearing this, and raised his chin after laughing and said: "Bring it up!"
If Li Congjia is Shang Zhou, these people are helping Zhou to abuse him!
Sitting on the throne, Li Congjia looked around and found no one willing to speak, so he asked, "Is there any problem besides Shandong?"
Everyone froze for a moment, they were all waiting for Li Congjia to lose his temper, but Li Congjia didn't, and just asked a question coldly.
Hubu Shangshu hesitated for a while and came out and said: "Return to Your Majesty, except for Shandong, Guan and Lingnan, the implementation is smooth in other areas."
Guanwai and Lingnan... Well, these two places have few people and a lot of people, and the folk customs are tough. They have never been interested in the court, and they don't think they are from the Tang Dynasty. Even if they pay tribute every year, they are just afraid that the Tang Dynasty will trouble them.
It's just...it's really chilling that the good Han people in Shandong are as virtuous as the Shaomin.
Regardless of the Lingnan side, Li Congjia is already ready to deal with these natives. If he wants to implement one country, two systems, it depends on whether he has the ability.
As for the Western Regions... Li Congjia sneered. He needs to make an example of others. It seems that he was too tolerant of the rebellion in the Western Regions last time, which made these guys start to be arrogant again. Before that, he wanted to fully respect the living customs and opinions of the young people. Now look at it Come on... Respect a fart!
Anyway, there is no such thing as human rights in this era, so it is just a matter of using them to scare chickens and monkeys!
Li Congjia glanced lightly at the Minister of the Household Department and said, "What should I do if I don't comply with the edict?"
Hubu Shangshu was shocked, and he was a little panicked at the time. He was not panicked because Li Congjia said that the Western Regions resisted the edict, but he was worried that Li Congjia would equate Shandong with the Western Regions in the next sentence!
Back then, no matter how tough Li Shimin was, he was never tougher than the Shandong gentry. If Li Congjia dared to do this, he would probably end up comparable to Qin Shihuang, or even... maybe follow in the footsteps of the Sui Dynasty!
Fortunately, Li Congjia only said: "This time the Western Expedition appointed the King of Chu as the chief of the march, and it was cheap."
The courtiers gasped suddenly. The meaning of doing things cheaply was that the Western Regions would allow Li Jingda to do harm at will. As long as it was not too much, Li Congjia would not question the crimes. This... This is obviously to teach the Western Regions a lesson!
However, it was Li Jingda, and if he was replaced by another general, he would definitely not get the will to act cheaply.
"The land in the South of the Five Ridges is mountainous and full of smog, let's not mention it for now, as for Shandong..." Li Congjia looked at the Wanyan book on the imperial case, and paused on purpose.
The ministers below all held their breath and waited for Li Congjia's decision. Li Congjia took a look and found that many people were quite restless - needless to say, these people must be inextricably linked with those Shandong gentry.
Li Congjia paused for a long time before saying: "Didn't they say that they have bad words that cannot be heard directly? I will give them a chance to send representatives! I want to see what good words they have, and... order the whole country To catch and kill locusts, if anyone worships locusts, he will be punished according to the law and put in a file."
Everyone trembled, fines and so on are small things, and filing is a big deal. Everyone in Datang now has a special file. If there is no file, they are black households and can't do anything. Very inconvenient, for example, the loan will be rejected.
It's just... catching and killing locusts... all dynasties and dynasties have said so, how can it be so easy, the common people are ignorant, they will only think that it is a disaster from heaven, and they dare not kill locusts at all!
After Li Congjia came down from court, he called Yang Xin directly, "I asked you to go to the west to buy food, but now it's here?"
Yang Xin said immediately: "The firm is ready."
Li Congjia was very fortunate at this time. He had prepared the food to fight Khitan and Lingnan. He was betting on this at the time. If the cabinet refused to allocate food, he would spend his own money to buy food to support the army to fight. , Khitan is hard to say, anyway, if Lingnan can get it done, it will definitely be a lot of money.
As a result, he never expected that there would be a plague of locusts before hitting Lingnan. He himself didn't know whether the luck was good or bad.
Li Congjia said to Yang Xin: "When you go back, make preparations, exchange grain for locusts, and dry locusts."
Yang Xin was dumbfounded at the time: "What?"
Do such loss-making businesses?Your Majesty couldn't be fooled by those Shandong gentry, right?
Li Congjia knew what the kid was thinking when he saw his expression, and couldn't help but slapped him and said, "Are you stupid? Not only can locusts be eaten, but they can also be used as medicine. Don't tell me you never even ate locusts when you were young!" "
Li Congjia took it for granted, but actually felt very guilty, because he...has never eaten this stuff!
However, Li Congjia's words brought back Yang Xin's memories. When he was a child...he really ate this food!After all, when he was not full, he could eat anything that could fit in his mouth without killing anyone, but at that time he ate it roasted, and I heard that it was delicious fried.
Yang Xin nodded immediately and said, "I understand, but how do I change it?"
Li Congjia also hesitated, turned his head to look at Shi Xueting and asked, "If the dry locusts are exchanged for the same amount of food...would it be too harsh?"
Shi Xueting didn't have this experience either, so he could only say: "It is said that locusts are overwhelming the sky now, it should be easy to catch, this is not harsh."
Li Congjia had a kind of blind trust in Shi Xueting. Since Shi Xueting said it was okay, then he would do it. Anyway, if it is not suitable at that time, he will change it. He just needs to help the people to get through this hurdle.
Yang Xin hurriedly went to arrange it. After all, these grains are stored in warehouses, and it will take some time to transport them to various places. Fortunately, this locust plague is mainly concentrated in Guanzhong, so it is not difficult to transport, not to mention that Li Congjia once ordered Yang Xinhua They bought ships at a high price, and with these ships, it would not be a big problem to transport food.
Li Congjia's business houses are all over the Tang Dynasty, even in smaller towns, and these business houses generally have grain stocks that should be able to support the new grain shipments.
Li Congjia didn't let Ah Rong run away this time. It's too chaotic outside now, and the losses caused by the locusts are inevitable. Although the common people may not be at the end of their ropes, but if it's not good, some people will fish in troubled waters and take advantage of the fire. After all, it's not safe for a little lady to be outside .
The lineup of 360 commercial banks across the country is huge, and the court knew in an instant that Li Congjia bought grain to subsidize the people, but he wanted to exchange it with locusts.
After Fan Zhi knew about it, he looked at the rice bowl in his hand, sighed and said, "From tomorrow onwards, leave some surplus food at home, and donate the rest."
Mrs. Fan was a little reluctant. Their family had already donated a lot, and their living standards had dropped severely. Now they only left some surplus food?Who knows when this famine will end?What if food prices soar outside?
Fan Zhi listened to Mrs. Fan's words and reprimanded him: "Stupid, you don't even look at who owns the largest firm in the country. Your Majesty will never let this happen."
Fan Zhi guessed right. Li Congjia was suppressing grain prices. While forcing merchants not to raise prices sharply, he urged Arong to continue collecting grain in the west, and asked Yang Xin to go to Lingnan to buy grain. Taking the opportunity to raise food prices.
Li Congjia angrily turned over the imperial case in the study several times, which made Shi Xueting buy him some fire-clearing food every day, for fear that he would get sick from anger.
The purchase price of grain increased, and the selling price could not be lowered, even if Li Congjia gave orders. Li Congjia could only insist on letting the merchants sell grain at a par price, and lost money by doing so. However, he also took the opportunity to push the paper money out.
Want to come to the commercial store to buy food?Yes, as long as you have banknotes, you can exchange them with copper coins if you don’t have banknotes, but there is a ration per person per day, so most farmers still rely on catching locusts in exchange for food.
I have to say that being able to exchange food has aroused everyone's enthusiasm, plus this thing can be eaten, what kind of locust god, it is useless to worship for a long time, or the emperor loves them, and he has to give them food even if they lose money. As for locusts in exchange for food, Everyone thought that Li Congjia was pity for those hard-working farmers, so he gave them some preferential treatment.
Li Congjia looked at the report sent by Arong. In just a few days, Li Congjia's compensation had become a huge amount. Arong was very restless. What if he is unhappy?
Fortunately, Li Congjia's face remained the same, and after reading it, he said with a look of relief: "It's better than I imagined."
Ah Rong was slightly relieved now, and Li Congjia looked up at Ah Rong's thinner face, smiled and said, "I've worked hard for you recently, and I'll give you a holiday when the disaster year is over!"
Arong smiled sweetly: "I like to do this, Your Majesty, you don't know, every day there are people kneeling at the entrance of the firm and shouting long live, I don't feel tired seeing such a scene."
Li Congjia frowned, as long as the common people appreciate it and know how to be grateful, he will not lose money in vain.
To be honest, he really doesn't pay much attention to this money. The monthly turnover of the business is more than this money. Spending a little money can save many lives. The point of starting a meal is not.
When Fan Zhi came, seeing that Li Congjia seemed to be in a good mood, he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Your Majesty, this is not the way to go, why don't you call on the people to donate food."
Fan Zhi always feels that if this continues, the firm that Li Congjia worked so hard to build will collapse. This firm is now one of Datang's important sources of tax revenue. , Taxes will be much less, which is something no one wants to see.
Li Congjia shook his head and said, "How much do you expect them to donate food? They have already started to mobilize, but what they donate is a drop in the bucket."
This is not the future, most people are living on the line of food and clothing, so they can do good deeds, after all, there are only a few who can donate food now, and those damn merchants... They still want to use food to sell money, so who cares about other people's lives?
Li Congjia made repeated orders not to allow the increase to be too high, but they acted as if they hadn't seen the order, and they also negotiated a unified purchase price, anyway, how to fool the court.
Li Congjia was also made angry, this group of bastards who made money for the country, if they are good people, they must become animals. If this is the case, I don't have to give you a way to survive.
That's why there is the sale of grain at a low price. Although the supply is limited every day, it is also based on the head. A family can save a little to eat. These grain merchants are empty for a while. Who has nothing to do to buy high-priced grain?If they want to sell grain, they have to lower the price, but Li Congjia knows how much they buy, so the set price is uncomfortably stuck, and if they want to sell it, they will lose money.
Many grain merchants didn't know that the firm was owned by Li Congjia. They just thought that no matter how powerful the firm was, there would be a day when they would run out of grain. At that time, they could raise the price of grain to another level.
However, what they waited for was continuous disappointment. From the beginning when the locusts ate all the crops, until the end the locusts were almost killed, and the situation they expected did not appear.
However, the grain merchants were not in a hurry. After all, most of the grain in Guanzhong was destroyed by locusts.
This is also the reason why Fan Zhi came to Li Congjia to call on everyone to donate food. Fan Zhi said: "According to the previous practice, donating food can be awarded a rank of nobleman."
Li Congjia vetoed this proposal without even thinking about it. He worked so hard to suppress the distribution of titles, and even many meritorious officials did not have high titles. Now if you donate food casually, you can get titles?
Yes, donating food now is equivalent to saving people, but the title is too worthless in this case.
Li Congjia looked at Fan Zhi calmly and said, "I know what you are thinking, don't worry too much, I have my own solution."
Fan Zhi was a little worried, and looked at Shi Xueting reflexively, but found that Shi Xueting was not there. After going out, he wanted to visit the National Teacher's Mansion, but was told that the National Teacher was not there. I was puzzled, and at the same time, I had a bad feeling.
It is true that Shi Xueting is not in the Imperial Palace and the National Teacher's Mansion, he is not even in Chang'an!
Li Congjia also said before that the problem of Lingnan could be put aside, but he did not expect that there are so many unscrupulous businessmen in this world. Fortunately, he still thinks that the people of Tang Dynasty are simple, so this kind of situation should not happen.
Naturally, it is not enough to rely on buying food to tide over the difficulties. While ordering food distribution for disaster relief, Shi Xueting left with 3000 people.
Yes, Li Congjia only gave Shi Xueting 3000 people, all elites from Tiance Mansion and Firearms Camp. These 3000 people went to Lingnan to occupy the territory, or to subdue all the natives, and then let them There is no other way for them to grow grain. Li Congjia made a rough calculation that Lingnan can grow not only two crops of rice, but also three crops of rice.
It's just that the fertility of the land is limited, so the output of three-crop rice is not as high as that of two-crop rice. However, in the past, if you seize the time, you can still plant a crop of grain, which can just support the difficult winter for the people in Guanzhong.
Shi Xueting went for more than 1000 miles, and he didn't take many people with him. There was a lot of smoke and miasma in Lingnan. It is a lie to say that Li Congjia is not worried, but he can't let people go to Lingnan with great fanfare at this time. Otherwise, the Shandong gentry might not know what to scold him.
Li Congjia looked at Shi Xueting's letter of sending pigeons to keep him safe, and sighed softly. He just felt that Shi Xueting's fate was also bad. He was ruined from a small country and his family died, and he grew up in depression. Later, he met Zhou Shizong Guo Rong With the destruction of Buddha, there will be no more stable days.
After meeting Li Congjia, there are constant dangers, and now he has to run around for him, that is, Shi Xueting also has a wish to see Haiqing, Heyan and the world in peace, Li Congjia can still feel at ease, otherwise, I'm afraid I will die of guilt.
However, with Shi Xueting gone, many things can be done freely.
After Li Congjia had almost done the locust and disaster relief, he met the representatives of the Shandong gentry. In fact, the representatives of the Shandong gentry had already arrived in Chang'an, but Li Congjia deliberately left them alone.
Li Congjia said that he only saw the representative, but all the patriarchs of Cuilu Zhengwang came. Li Congjia knew that these people wanted to put pressure on him, but he was not afraid. He was different from Li Shimin. I entered the ranks of the aristocratic family, but was not recognized by others. However, the more I did this, the more it gave the people a false impression that even the royal family couldn't ask for it, and the aristocratic family must be very powerful.
From the very beginning, Li Congjia didn't want his old family to enter the ranks of some aristocratic family, so what if he entered or not?Not only that, but he also wanted to get rid of this crap, demolish the family and turn it into a small family, which was poorly able to withstand wind and rain, so that it could be more closely attached to the imperial court.
Li Congjia didn't know how to do it before, and he didn't find an opportunity to do it. Now someone finally came to his door, but Li Congjia was worried that Shi Xueting would stop him. No matter how powerful Shi Xueting was, he was still an aborigine of this era, and he had great influence on the aristocratic family. Natural admiration, many times he will talk to the aristocratic family inside and outside the words.
Li Congjia didn't want to conflict with Shi Xueting because of this matter, so he got Shi Xueting away, and then prepared to clean up the family.
Li Congjia met these people at the Dachao meeting. Cui Shiji thought that Li Congjia would definitely meet them in private, so that there would be room for change whether it was conflict or reconciliation. However, he never expected that Li Congjia would not leave himself any escape .
Cui Shiji snorted coldly when he knew about it, he didn't have any respect for the emperor, he just thought that Li Congjia was lucky, his Cui family has been passed down for hundreds of years, how could a local emperor be able to compare?
Although Li Congjia insisted on selling cheap food in his own business before, and sold it in a fixed amount with special tokens in order to prevent reselling time, he admired him a lot, but for the sake of the family, he couldn't show it even if he admired it.
When they went to the hall to face the saints, the four families had complete etiquette one by one, and their salutes were even more standard than the ministers in the court hall, revealing the demeanor of the aristocratic family everywhere.
However, these things are not worth a grain of rice in Li Congjia's eyes. Li Congjia gave them a chance to argue. Although Cui Shiji used respectful names, he was not polite.
Li Congjia sat on the throne and patiently listened to him criticizing himself. When he heard Cui Shiji say: "The locusts are the punishment sent down by heaven to His Majesty, but His Majesty has not repented and even ordered people to capture the locusts. This is to offend the locust god." How innocent are the people, how could His Majesty kill them in a moment of anger?"
"Oh? Locust God?" Li Congjia had a funny face. Even if he was beaten to death, he would not believe that Cui Shiji would believe in such a thing as the Locust God. However, in order to beat him, Cui Shiji even brought out the Locust God.
Cui Shiji was not afraid to see Li Congjia looking at him with a half-smile, after all, Li Congjia looked too young, he was old enough to be Li Congjia's grandfather!
"Your Majesty, you are blaspheming!"
Li Congjia saw that he did not repent, so he had to clap his hands. The ministers saw a group of beautiful court ladies coming up, holding a plate in their hands. The locusts on the plate were fried golden. People's gluttons have been seduced out.
Li Congjia picked up a locust and took a bite, enduring his nausea, and found that the taste was really good. He didn't like to eat it just because it didn't look good.
"Well, the taste is not bad, who wants to taste it? This thing is also a nourishing food." Li Congjia asked the plate to be taken down.
Cui Shiji's face was livid, and Li Congjia didn't refute, but such behavior was slapping him in the face. The most important thing is that Li Congjia probably knew that he would talk about locusts, so he had already prepared fried locusts, not a temporary preparation at all. of!
The people who can stand on this hall are basically Li Congjia's diehards. Li Congjia opened his mouth, and many people enthusiastically signed up to try this thing for their own future. Fan Zhi even said: "I have seen it in ancient books before. Veteran ministers still don’t believe that they eat locusts, but now they taste delicious.”
What Fan Zhi said was against his will. Where had he ever eaten locusts before? As for the ancient books saying that locusts can be eaten...he just remembered it. If you really want to ask him, he probably doesn’t remember what book it is, but he ate it anyway. When you need to stand in line, you have to eat locusts even if they are disgusting, not to mention that Li Congjia put a lot of spices and it tastes really good.
Fan Zhi has a very clear mind. After the Sui and Tang dynasties kept suppressing the aristocratic families, the current aristocratic families are not as good as before. That is to say, the shadows of powerful aristocratic families can still be seen in places like Shandong, and the influence of aristocratic families in other places has been minimized. And Li Congjia, as the emperor, could not let the Shandong gentry look down on the emperor or threaten the emperor.
Of course, the most important thing is that in his memory, those who oppose Li Congjia either encounter natural disasters or man-made disasters. Anyway, no one is good, so... Although Fan Zhi is not willing to be superstitious, but this time he is willing to be superstitious.
Cui Shiji said harshly: "Your Majesty, aren't you afraid of being blamed by the Locust God?"
Li Congjia laughed loudly after hearing this, and raised his chin after laughing and said: "Bring it up!"
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