Number of People

  Chapter 1812 The Renzi Juan discusses the interests of the court

"Chengfeng, it's not unreasonable for Mingqi and Daofu to talk too much. The court ignored the preparations in this area in the early stage, so it seems a little stretched now." Ye Xianggao looked a little more to ask for opinions, " But the reality in front of us is so grim. Shuntian Mansion has also reported it. The refugees from Shanxi have passed through Baoding Mansion and entered Zhuozhou and Fangshan. This is the first wave, and there will be several waves to follow. It's going to get bigger and bigger..."

  Qi Yongtai keeps silent, and he can sit in this Wenyuan Pavilion to discuss matters, how can he not understand the whole story, and he can taste the flavor of the next few sentences in one sentence.

  He knows the situation in Dagu better than the people here, and even Feng Ziying, Wei Guangwei, and Lian Guo, who are preparing for Yongping Mansion, have already reported to him successively.

For example, the granaries on the line between Yuepogang and Liujiadun, the dredging of the Hulu River, the granaries at Dagukou and the transfer warehouses at Dingzigu, and the dredging of the Weihe River. Which ones were done by the government of Shuntian Prefecture and Yongping Prefecture? , Which ones are made by sea trade merchants, and which ones are made by grain merchants themselves. The ingredients here are very complicated, and it does not belong to any one.

  In terms of proportion, the government may only account for about 20%, and the remaining 80% are self-built by sea trade merchants and grain merchants, but it is true that these were all built under the promotion of Feng Ziying.

  Leaving aside Li Sancai, this fellow is only focused on ensuring the military rations, while Huang Ruliang needs to coordinate the entire Dazhou, or the food security of the entire Gyeonggi region, so he has to seriously consider the issues raised by the other party.

   It’s just possible that Huang Ruliang just listened to the reports of the people below, and didn’t know the specific situation here. Seeing that Shuntian Mansion seemed to be in a unified arrangement, he thought that everything from the facilities to the grain storage inside belonged to the Shuntian Mansion.

   I don't even think about it, where does Shuntian Prefecture have the financial resources to build so many granaries and store so much grain?

   This was supposed to be the job of the Ministry of Housing, and Shuntian Mansion was at most a cooperating assistance. Now the Ministry of Accounting not only doesn’t do it itself, but is thinking about taking it directly from Shuntian Mansion, which is a bit ugly.

   "Brother Jinqing, the grain storage in Dagu is not from Shuntian Prefecture." Qi Yongtai responded lightly.

"Well, I know that there is a part of Shuntian Mansion, and the rest belong to merchants, but as far as I know, these merchants were reluctant before. It was Ziying's foresight and foresight, and she tried every means to promote these merchants. Building granaries, especially some sea trade merchants, were reluctant to build granaries at first, thinking that it was the business of grain merchants, and it was Ziying's patient persuasion that made him reluctantly agree, and now it has come into play all of a sudden."

  Ye Xianggao also had to praise Feng Ziying, because he did a good job.

  As the Prime Minister of Shuntian Prefecture, not only the government has made sufficient preparations, but also urged the merchants to cooperate. If there is no such step, the court will really be very difficult.

Shanxi merchants and grain merchants all have backgrounds, and it is not so easy to let you arrange them. To build granaries and store grain in advance, they all need to invest real money. I don’t know how Feng Ziying managed these people according to his plan.

  Whether it is to lure or intimidate, you have to have some skills to do it, but Feng Ziying, a Shuntian Fucheng who has just taken office for less than a year, has done it.

  Fang Congzhe also understood the way here. Ye Xianggao wanted to smooth things over for Huang Ruliang.

"Chengfeng, the imperial court is in a difficult situation right now, and the Hejian Mansion is also having troubles. Sun Shaozu's cavalry has already harassed Jingzhou, Fucheng, and Dongguang. You Shilu's Jizhen army just had time to go south from Tianjin Wei. Before passing Qing County, they started to make noises saying that food and grass should be replenished quickly, and Su Shengdu's Shanxi army stopped and stopped, and they have not yet left Shanxi territory, and there are still more than two hundred miles away from the well. Talking about the issue of money and food..." Fang Congzhe looked exhausted, "Tomorrow they are racking their brains to find ways to raise money and food, but now the time is too tight,..."

  Ye Xianggao's tone was a little more tactful. After all, he was the chief assistant. Fang Congzhe was the second assistant and was in charge of finance.

  Qi Yongtai is angry and funny, as for what, for the food of Shuntian Mansion, the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, the first assistant and the second assistant, will come to perform on stage, just to bring back the Dagukou granary and grain.

   Fortunately, Qi Yongtai had talked with Feng Ziying before, and he was very pleased with Feng Ziying's generosity.

Feng Ziying's attitude is very calm. Naturally, there is nothing to say if the imperial court needs it, but the grain used for relief in Shuntian Mansion must be reserved. What he can do is to let the sea trade merchants and grain merchants sell the grain to the Ministry of Households at a fairly reasonable price. , the price is even 10% cheaper than the current market price in Jingshi City.

Feng Ziying knew very well how to bargain with the imperial court under such circumstances. Not only would she not be able to leave a good impression, but she still had to obediently hand over the food in the end, especially in the end, she was afraid that the imperial court would write down the price. Express your attitude generously, this side meets the needs of the imperial court and can make huge profits, why not do it?

  These merchants are already grinning from ear to ear. As for the price of grain being 10% cheaper than the current price in the capital, what does that matter?

When they bought from Jiangnan, it was only less than 30% of the current grain price. If it has doubled or more, they can make a profit and get back the principal and profit, and they can continue to transport grain from the south to the north. , why not do it?

"Zhonghan, don't complain like this. I'm not a person who doesn't understand the righteousness and disregards the overall situation. I will negotiate with Ziying, but Brother Jinqing and Zhonghan should know that Dagukou to Dingzigu's granary The stored grain is not owned by the Shuntian family, and the imperial court can only purchase the grain from merchants, and the price still needs to be negotiated,..."

Before Qi Yongtai finished speaking, Huang Ruliang had already picked up the words: "Brother Chengfeng, the price is easy to talk about, but you also know the difficulties of the Ministry of Households now. There must be no problem with this sum, but the Ministry of Households may have to purchase a considerable amount of grain in the future. In case of unexpected needs, it may be..."

  Qi Yongtai frowned: "Isn't the Ministry of Households taking countermeasures? Haitong Yinzhuang and this raid and sales are not enough to meet the needs of the Ministry of Households?"

"Brother Chengfeng, if it weren't for this series of military operations, the Ministry of Household Affairs would be more than sufficient to deal with it, but you also know that the Northwest Army's 120,000 elite troops will go east, and the battle is imminent, and the daily expenses are huge, which keeps me awake at night. The Luji Town Army and Su Shengdu's Shanxi Army have not assembled yet, but various requirements have been listed in the Ministry of War. A group of people from the Ministry of War come to the Ministry of Households to block the door every day. Now refugees are coming to the west and north in large numbers. You said it all , Shuntian Mansion needs to buy food, and the price of food is so high now, if we can buy it at a par price at the same price as a year ago, then naturally it will not be a big problem, and..."

Huang Ruliang spread his hands. Everyone knows that it is impossible. It is almost the same as robbery. It will definitely cause a backlash from the merchants. Not to mention the influence of the merchants in Shanshan and Shanxi, just consider using their transportation and procurement in the south It is impossible to use the Internet to meet the needs of Gyeonggi after the water transportation is interrupted.

   "And what?" Qi Yongtai asked, Ye Xianggao and Fang Congzhe were also very concerned about Huang Ruliang who looked sad.

   "And the originally estimated sales situation may be very pessimistic." Huang Ruliang mused.

"Oh?" Ye Xianggao couldn't help frowning, this was bad news, and asked in a deep voice: "It shouldn't be like this, didn't Captain Long, the Criminal Ministry and the Metropolitan Procuratorate all say that the search went smoothly? Zhenguo Gongniu's family, Du Taiwei's uncle Wang's family, Beijing County Wang Shui's family, Nan'an County Wang Tao's family, Ning Rong's second Duke Jia's family, Li Guogong Liu's family, and a large number of Wu Xun were all implicated. Come down, isn't it optimistic?"

Huang Ruliang smiled wryly, "Mr. Jin Qing, Niu Jizong and Wang Ziteng have all been prepared. Basically, except for the mansion, there is basically not much to gain. Niu Jixun's family is fine, but there is also the relationship of Princess Yongning in it. Now temporarily check and seal , if the sale is confiscated, the court has to come up with a strategy, and Niu Jixun keeps saying that he knows nothing about his brother, so let's just forget it?"

   "How is that possible?" Fang Congzhe and Qi Yongtai both spoke in unison.

"Then the imperial court will give an explanation." Huang Ruliang continued: "The Shui family and the Tao family confiscated only 200,000 taels of silver, of which the Shui family only had a mere 20,000 taels. It is obvious that Shui Rong has already made preparations. It has made a little profit, but it is not as good as imagined. The Jia family of Ning Rong's second son is not bad. Its head is not much, only tens of thousands of taels of cash, but many of its subordinates are rich in private pockets. Reporting, there are hundreds of thousands of taels confiscated, and the others are not satisfactory. After so many years, the total amount of gold and silver is only five or six hundred thousand taels, which is far lower than our original estimate of two million taels,..."

  Everyone in Wenyuan Pavilion couldn't help but look at each other.

Initially, everyone estimated that the minimum bottom line should be 1.5 million taels in cash. Because of the Jingtong Ercang case first, this time the scale is much larger, and the people involved are all famous characters. Everyone thinks they know it well. Well, two million taels of silver should be the minimum standard. If you are more optimistic, it should be four million taels, or even five million taels. I didn't expect it to be only one-tenth of it. This is too unexpected.

Seeing that the faces of all the people were very ugly, Huang Ruliang quickly added: "This is only cash, and of course there are many other dead and miscellaneous items. Because it is difficult to estimate the price, so I invited many shopkeepers from antique shops and **** shops in the capital city to help. The evaluation should take a long time, but the same sentence is not optimistic..."

   "Why do you say that?" Li Sancai couldn't help asking.

  (end of this chapter)