Reborn as a tyrant in the Ming Dynasty

Everything is forewarned. Failure to do so will result in failure. Whatever you do, no matter how small, if you do not have any preparation, no matter how high your background is and how much power you have, there will always be a risk of being manipulated, not to mention ordinary people. To put it bluntly, they have no cost of error tolerance. If you make a mistake, it may take several years, or even longer, to repay the price of the mistake!

As the capital of the Ming Dynasty, the capital is, in a sense, a barometer of the national power of the Ming Dynasty. If the capital is unstable, it means that order will be chaotic. If order is chaotic for a long time, the world will be unrest.

"Your Majesty... Young Master, the price of food in the capital and Gyeonggi Province remains high. This is definitely not a good thing. Are you really not going to take action?"

In a certain square in the capital, Zhang Weixian, who was wearing a brocade robe, followed closely beside Zhu Youxiao, his eyes surrounding the surroundings vigilantly, and said to Zhu Youxiao as he walked.

“Nowadays, let’s not talk about the various places in Gyeonggi, but just talk about the various districts inside and outside the capital. Under the rule, public resentment has boiled over, and the riots everywhere have intensified. I heard that the Sunchon Mansion Prison can no longer be filled. Judging from this trend, if it continues If this trend continues, I'm afraid the capital will be in chaos."

"It's time to take action."

Zhu Youxiao, who was walking forward with his hands behind his hands, looked at the lifeless streets. The crowds that used to be bustling were now much smaller. There was emotion in his expression, "A food price crisis that was maliciously driven up has affected the capital and the capital. It even caused considerable losses to the imperial court.”

Faith, at any time, is extremely valuable.

"Master, do you need me to put the grain in my name and put it into the market to stabilize the price of grain?" Zhang Qingzhen, who was following, heard what the emperor said, subconsciously looked around and asked in a low voice.

"What's going on with the Tongbao Bank now?"

Zhu Youxiao did not answer the question, but asked about the situation of Tongbao Bank.

Ok?

Zhang Qingzhen and Zhang Weixian looked at each other with doubts on their faces. The only thing that can restore vitality to the capital now is to bring down the high food prices as soon as possible.

As long as this matter is not handled well, no matter how much money is borrowed from foreign countries, it will only treat the symptoms but not the root cause.

Speaking of which, since the emergence of this turmoil, the nobles serving in the Imperial Guards Office, headed by Zhang Weixian, have had no doubts about Zhu Youxiao's various actions.

They really couldn't see through the emperor's approach.

Obviously they want to solve the food price problem, but what the emperor asked them to do is something else. This is somewhat contradictory.

It's just that Zhang Weixian and the others didn't know that the reason why Zhu Youxiao was like this was purely because he didn't want to be forced to make compromises in order to solve certain things.

Yes.

As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youxiao could indeed ask his subordinates to use their own money and grain to participate in this action to stabilize grain prices.

But will this last?

Without an order to tie up interests, it is ultimately unreliable.

In the original timeline, Emperor Chongzhen had never done this kind of thing, but what did he get in exchange?

Being fooled.

Being deceived.

After something like this happened, not to mention anything else, the dignity and credibility of the emperor would undoubtedly suffer a heavy blow!

No matter how many things you do, you can't make up for it.

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao would never take this step unless absolutely necessary.

"As of now, the Tongbao Silver Hao has released at least 150 million taels of silver in the capital city." Zhang Qingzhen paused for a moment and reported the situation to the emperor.

"Most of the people who come to Tongbao Bank to borrow money are from certain industries in Beijing, such as inns, restaurants, dental shops and other merchant groups. The largest number of people go to borrow money."

"Secondly, there are those who have land in Beijing. They learn that Tongbao Bank's loans are much lower than the interest rates in the market, and they are more willing to pledge the land in their names."

"In addition, the locations for the second batch of branches have been decided, and I have sent people to organize them. The stores will be opened the day after tomorrow at the latest. In this way, branches in various shops inside and outside the capital will be opened."

"It seems that the impact of this food price hike is very wide-ranging."

Zhu Youxiao said with emotion, "Even the groups with property and land in their name can't bear it. This shows how those groups without property live."

Zhu Youxiao's hanging hands clenched tightly.

Although he has done a lot, the cruel reality tells Zhu Youxiao that he cannot cover everything. When faced with emergencies, many people will still be affected.

"It's actually not too bad."

Seeing that the emperor's face was not very good, Zhang Weixian hurriedly said: "Right now, the Disaster Relief Office led by Sun Chuanting is carrying out large-scale construction projects in various parts of Shuntian Prefecture, which has gathered many refugees. At least these refugees who have received relief have not starved to death."

"Yes."

Under the signal from Zhang Weixian's eyes, Zhang Qingzhen followed closely and said: "Although the price of food in the capital and Gyeonggi remains high, until now, there has been no news of a civil unrest."

"No people are starving to death, no civil unrest, is this considered good?"

Zhu Youxiao said, "Those affected people have to bear huge debts for this, and they don't know how to repay them in the future. They have even sold their land at a low price and were forced to sell their sons and daughters. Who cares about them? "

For a moment, Zhang Weixian and Zhang Qingzhen didn’t know what to say.

The turmoil that caused this time can be effectively avoided under Zhu Youxiao's review. As long as he had thought more about doing things in the past, it would not be like this now.

But there is no regret medicine in this world.

Also experiencing this incident made Zhu Youxiao understand that many things can be solved in the name of emperor, but there are also many things that are difficult to solve.

If you touch the cake of vested interest groups, they will definitely fight back!

And if you want to save Ming Dynasty, you must touch it.

It's like a dead knot.

How to balance this problem has become a difficult problem before Zhu Youxiao.

"Brother!!"

In this situation, the emotional Zhu Youjian ran quickly from a distance, which made Zhang Weixian and Zhang Qingzhen, who had different thoughts, follow the sound.

They saw several Luan guards, guarding Zhu Youjian and running towards them.

"What a good thing!!"

Zhu Youjian, who was excited at this moment, ignored all this. When he ran to his royal brother, he gasped and said with joy: "There are actually a group of grain merchants in many places in the capital who have begun to sell cheap grain. Food prices are at the level they were previously driven up to!"

what! ?

Zhang Weixian and Zhang Qingzhen all looked shocked when they heard this.

How is this possible!

No one knows better than them what the current situation is. It is undoubtedly more difficult than killing them to make a group of businessmen who are chasing huge profits willing to give up their profits and sell cheap grain.

"There are a lot of people gathering at those food stores, right?"

While the two were shocked, Zhu Youxiao acted calmly.

“A huge crowd!!”

Zhu Youjian couldn't hide his excitement and said: "My brother has been to several places. There are so many people that I can't even count them. However, these grain shops have one characteristic. They sell grain per head. Each person is limited to buying five kilograms per day. They need to hold a household registration." Only with the voucher can you buy food.”

Purchase limit?

When Zhang Weixian and Zhang Qingzhen heard this, they were all attracted by this novel approach, which they had never heard of before.

"Then does the Shuntian government office send officers to maintain order?"

Zhu Youxiao asked again.

"Have!"

Zhu Youjian nodded and said: "In the grain stores where my brother went, I saw servants from Shuntian Prefecture. Fortunately, they are there, otherwise the looting might be difficult to contain."

Is this not the emperor's handiwork?

At this moment, Zhang Weixian and Zhang Qingzhen looked at each other and had an idea in their hearts. When they saw the emperor's expression, they became more convinced of this idea!

"Go back to the palace."

Zhu Youxiao lifted up his robe sleeves and said with a calm expression: "This good show has just started!"

really! !

After hearing this, the two people were completely convinced at the moment, but at the same time, they had more doubts in their hearts. Where did the emperor get so much food?

Yes.

In the past, many Xijishi factories were raided, and even though each house stored a lot of grain, the disaster relief office led by Sun Chuanting, and the large-scale construction projects that were established in various places in Shuntian Prefecture, all the grain was directly allocated from internal funds to support so many people. Refugees, the amount of food they consume every day is unimaginable.

Now that grain is being distributed at low prices in the capital, how long can it last?

If you can't hold on for too long, all this will be meaningless, and it may even aggravate the situation!

It's just that no matter how much the two of them thought about, their emperor didn't say anything, which made it difficult for them to ask more questions. They intuitively told them that things might not be simple.