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

No one wants to encounter a natural disaster, especially the emperor. Continuous natural disasters will only make people think that the emperor is incompetent and that even God cannot stand it. So the emperor is very troubled at this moment. Even though the officials provided porridge to the victims outside the city as soon as possible, a large number of victims still poured into the capital afterwards.

The imperial palace was only renovated last year. Now the treasury is empty, and the Ministry of Revenue is crying poor every day. With so many mouths to feed, they will easily cause trouble if they are not fed. For several days in a row, the emperor's temper has become increasingly erratic. He criticizes and struggles against officials at court every day, and the officials are afraid that the fire will burn them.

As the emperor's most trusted minister, Cao Chong had a difficult time during this period. First, his house was robbed and the investigation was not yet complete. Then, he was criticized by the emperor. He was living in dire straits.

It was also at this time that Cao Chong, together with other ministers, proposed in the court that in terms of wealth, those businessmen were naturally the richest, and it was time for them to contribute some efforts at this time.

This proposal immediately gained the approval of many people, and the emperor naturally handed the matter over to Cao Chong to execute. As for the other officials, they could not do nothing but cry poor, so they symbolically took out some silver.

Apart from silver, these people had nothing else to offer. They knew that the drought in the south had resulted in a total crop failure, and the food they had purchased before was not enough to eat, let alone donate to the victims.

The emperor opened the national treasury and released a batch of grain, and arranged for the military to distribute porridge to the victims. In order to avoid complaints from the people, he also had people build sheds outside the city to block the sunlight for the victims.

Over the years, the southern border has always been the grain production area of ​​the Dali Dynasty. This sudden drought has directly affected the grain reserves in various places. The grain price in the capital has been rising again and again. Those who bought more grain some time ago were relieved, but they were worried that there would not be enough food, so they tried to reduce the amount of food at home. Those who did not prepare grain in advance regretted it very much, and ran to the grain store every day to buy grain, even though the price was much more expensive than before.

Lin Shouren was the first to receive the news that Cao Chong was planning to target businessmen, and he immediately arranged for someone to deliver the message to the Li family. After all, the Li family was still in the Chamber of Commerce and were top businessmen, so they would definitely be targeted by Cao Chong. It would be better to know the news earlier so that they could respond earlier.

As for the Lin family who were not in the Chamber of Commerce, they did not have any of these pressures at all. The family of four stayed at home peacefully, eating, drinking and chatting.

The servant who delivered the message to the Li family returned soon, bringing back the reply letter from the Li family.

Lin Shouren read the reply quickly, his face darkened, and he took Lin Mubai to the study.

Although Lin Mubai was puzzled, he refrained from asking. After the servant served tea and left, he asked, "Father, what happened?"

Lin Shouren looked grim and raised his chin towards the letter on the table.

Lin Mubai looked solemnly at the letter and read it. After a while, his expression was exactly the same as Lin's father's, with thick eyebrows furrowed. "The court is targeting our Lin family. This is too ugly."

"If their eating manners were not ugly, how could they get what they want?" Lin Shouren snorted coldly, "They have stretched their claws so far, aren't they afraid of breaking them? They want my Lin family to back them up, but they don't even ask if I agree or not."

Lin Mubai sat up straight: "Father, how are you going to deal with this?"

Lin Shouren's eyes were dark, with a hint of coldness flashing across them: "Didn't Cao want us to contribute money, labor and food? Then I will fulfill his wish. As for the reason... it is because my Lin family cannot bear to see the people suffer and not have enough food to eat."

Lin Mubai smiled happily: "Father's action is really a great kindness. If those disaster victims knew about our Lin family's kindness, they would surely be very grateful."

"Those officials only paid a small amount of money and wanted to get both the title and the money. There is no such good thing in the world. I don't want to do what they want. I also want to let the Li family know."

Lin Mubai nodded: "For such an important matter, it would be better for my son to go to the Li family in person to explain it."

Lin Shouren smiled and agreed: "Bring more people with you when you go out. There will be a lot of people watching during this period, so it's better to be careful."

"My son knows."

In the evening, when Song Shiwei came back, he heard that Lin Ting wanted to climb over the wall to play with him, and his mind was full of questions.

Feng Ru also found it a little funny: "I don't know what Sister Lin was thinking. She didn't go through the main door but had to climb over the wall. She was even polite enough to ask the servants to come over and ask. This is really unlike Sister Lin's personality."

Song Shiwei walked into the main house and said, "I'm going to be out for the next two days."

"Okay, I'll tell the neighbors later, so that Sister Lin won't come and ask again tomorrow if she got anything out of her trip today."

Song Shiwei walked to the low couch and sat down. He took the tea handed to him by Feng Ru, took a sip and said, "I went to the city gate to check. There are many disaster victims outside the city. There will be more in two days. Try not to go out during these days."

"Yeah, today Granny Cai went out to buy groceries and said that there were many officials patrolling the streets outside. Big Brother Song saw them when he went out to buy pens and ink. She also said that the price of grain in the city is rising rapidly, getting higher day by day. Now it has risen to 80 coins per bushel. If it were in the past, 80 coins could buy a bushel of grain. Granny Cai also said that if you go too late, you won't be able to buy grain even if you have money. Fortunately, our family bought a lot of grain a few days ago."

Song Shiwei had predicted this day long before he dreamed of the drought in the south that resulted in a total crop failure. In recent years, natural disasters have occurred constantly, and people's lives will only become more difficult. Thinking of the scene he saw when he returned to the north city, he felt a little better.

The poor people who used to not have enough food suddenly had a huge sum of ten taels of silver in their hands. The first thing they did was to buy enough food for their homes. Although Song Shiwei didn't quite understand why, he thought this was what other people called a sense of security.

The impact of this drought was ultimately fanned by the little wings of the Lin and Li families.

In short, there is no stupid businessman who can expand and succeed in business. Even if he doesn't know the inside story, he can get a glimpse of it just by watching the actions of the Lin and Li families.

Even if they are not as generous as the Lin family, as long as they have spare money, they will follow the Lin family to buy a batch of grain. These people's thoughts are simple. Either the Lin family is preparing to monopolize the grain and raise the price, or there is a disaster somewhere, but they have not received the news. Good things cannot be done by the Lin and Li families alone. If they cannot make great fame and money, they must at least follow behind to get a share of the profits. Besides, the Lin family is so wealthy that they will not just throw money away.

Most people thought this way, so when the news of the drought in the southern border reached the capital, these people suddenly realized the truth and were all secretly delighted.

Of course, the Lin and Li families deliberately let those people know these. As for the reason, it was even simpler. They couldn't let the imperial court target them. With so many people buying food, they had to share the burden together.

Lin Shouren did not hide these things from Song Shiwei. After Song Shiwei informed him of the drought in advance, he told her about the Lin family's subsequent arrangements. It was also after this incident that Lin Shouren found it difficult to regard Song Shiwei as an ordinary girl. In addition, he had saved his daughter several times. Now Lin Shouren has put Song Shiwei on the same level as himself.