Chapter 529: The Women Settle in the Capital (Part 9)
In particular, at least a thousand trucks transported food every day, which gave the people great confidence.
The people have always been like this, buying high and selling low, blindly following panic. Now that there is grain for sale everywhere and the price is not high, the people have no intention of buying and hoarding grain anymore.
The price of grain in the entire Shenjing City instantly returned to its previous level of around 1.60 taels per stone. The people of the city no longer paid any attention to the price of grain, but only wondered when the carts that transported grain every day would stop...
At the dock outside the city, only a few days had passed since the grain purchase, but now everyone in the Cao Gang looked unhappy.
Once the Xue and Jia families have enough grain, then their stockpiling of grain will be meaningless. In fact, the cost of stockpiling grain is also not small, much higher than in previous years. If this deal fails...
"Have you found out? Did the Xue family really get so much grain?" the old man asked coldly.
Erhu nodded and said, "Brother, I took our trusted brothers to check. The rice from the past two days has already been stored in the warehouse, but we checked many of the carts behind, and they are all filled with good rice."
“Bang!”
The old man slammed his pipe on the table and said, "In the past few days, they have already brought in nearly a million dan of grain, and the next batch is still coming in. Where do they get so much grain from?"
"Have you found out where the food came from?"
Erhu said, "I only found out about Liangxiang. I hadn't heard of it before. Countless warehouses have been built there, storing tons of grain. I wanted to go in and set fire to them , but they were all guarded by soldiers. We couldn't even get close. I had to ask the locals before I learned the news."
"call!"
The old man breathed a sigh of relief. There was nothing he could do now. He could only hold the food in his hands and see how the situation would develop.
Just as he was thinking about it, a man suddenly rushed in, "Master, the shopkeeper Xi from the city is here, and he wants to see you for something urgent!"
"Let him in!"
Soon, Shopkeeper Xi hurried into the hall, "Master, something bad has happened in the city!"
"What's the matter!" asked the old man.
"Today, our shop was suddenly in trouble. They said we sold moldy rice and someone died from it! I was planning to send them away, but unexpectedly, they started a commotion. Soon, people from the county government arrived, and not long after, people from the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Justice, and the Military Commission also arrived."
"The Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Justice have said that human lives are at stake and a thorough investigation is warranted! Therefore, our shops and those of the grain merchants have all been sealed. They said that until the investigation is complete, no grain can be sold or shipped out. As for when the results will be released, let's wait and see."
"Also, there are rumors in the city that our grain shops are connected to the White Lotus Sect. Perhaps some of the remnants of the White Lotus Sect are raising grain prices and instigating the people..."
The old man's eyes widened, and his mind was like a thunderclap! Before, only the Cao Gang had the grain, but now the court had no scruples and had clearly begun to take action, and what's more, it had come up with such an irrefutable excuse. After all, the court had only closed the shop to investigate the case and had not directly seized the Cao Gang's grain...
His first thought was that the imperial court was playing rogue! His second thought was that the imperial court was playing rogue very hard!
Honestly, even though he was furious about the drop in grain prices, he wasn't too worried. It was just a plan that had failed. He could just wait until things returned to normal in a month or so and then sell the grain. Even if there was some loss, he could still afford it.
However, the court's move was to cut off the source of the problem!
Using rogue tactics, they found a perfectly legitimate excuse to detain all the grain in the capital. They couldn't sell it, and even trying to ship it out was impossible! As for the truth of this matter, did it matter? If the court said it was true, there were a hundred ways to make it true! Furthermore, he had no doubt that unless all their grain was rotten and moldy, there would be absolutely no result from this matter.
“Bang!”
He collapsed on the chair!
"Master, let's calculate the time. Wu Ming's remaining 500,000 dan of grain will also need to be transported here!" The middle-aged scholar added secretly...
"Puff!" The old man spat out a mouthful of blood and fainted.
The scholar sighed softly, "Hey, Brother Erhu, quickly get someone to contact Brother Wu Ming. We don't need that food for the time being!"
"But didn't the previous document say that if either party goes back on their word, the deposit will not be refunded? We have already paid a deposit of one million taels, so are we just not going to give it up?" Erhu said angrily.
The scholar gave a bitter laugh. "Let's just not take it. We did lose a million taels of silver for nothing, but if we buy it, given the current situation, even losing another million taels of silver wouldn't be enough. Now, let's just cut off our arms and save our lives!"
Erhu used his not-so-bright brain to calculate for two quarters of an hour, and finally agreed with the scholar's words. He looked at his boss who was still surrounded by the doctor and would not wake up for a while, so he had to send someone to deliver the message.
By the time the old man woke up, it was already dark.
"Is the altar master okay?" The scholar stepped forward and asked with concern.
The old man waved his hands and said, "It's okay, I won't die yet!"
"Before the altar master was in a coma, I took the initiative to let Brother Erhu pass a message to Wu Ming. We don't need the remaining 500,000 dan of grain for now."
The old man nodded. He was much smarter than Erhu and naturally understood that if he had one more stone of rice, he would have to pay more silver.
"Boss, Wu Ming asked me to ask you whether we can sell the grain in the shops in the city!" Erhu laughed.
The old man was stunned for a moment, and it took him a while to come back to his senses. "You said, Wu Ming wants to buy food?"
Erhu scratched his head and said to a fellow who went with him, "Pockmarked, tell the boss that I can't remember so many words."
The clerk stepped forward, saluted, and said, "Master, Wu Ming has said that he wants to buy grain from our shop in the city!"
"Why did he buy all this grain? Besides, the shop has been sealed by the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Justice, and the Military Commission. How can he transport all this grain?"
"He didn't say much about this, just that we don't need to worry about it. As long as we agree, he will have his own way!"
The old man thought for a while, then looked at the middle-aged scholar.
The middle-aged scholar pondered for a moment and said, "Master, with the power of the Zhen family, it's not impossible for them to get this grain out of the government office without anyone noticing. After all, they're officials, unlike us wanderers! Who knows which official has connections with them?"
"We don't even need to get the grain out directly. We could just sell it to the imperial court. It might be possible. The Zhen family is such a behemoth. They might not be able to match us in terms of fighting skills, but they are far superior to us in terms of officialdom..."
"Didn't you say before that the Zhen family didn't want Shenjing to be stable?"
