Chapter 496 Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea
Chang'an.
Empress Changsun saw Chengqian wearing a green shirt with a horizontal knife hanging from his waist, and couldn't help frowning, "Going outside again?"
"The teacher is in Xianyang recently, I want to find him."
The empress persuasively persuaded, "Your father is now in Luoyang. If you stay in Chang'an to supervise the country, you have to look like the prince of the country."
"It's good to have two assistant ministers, Li Pushe and Wang Linggong, in charge of government affairs. I'm bored in the palace every day."
Qin Lang and his brother Wuji went to Luoyang for just over a month, but Qin Lang came back again. But since he came back, Qin Lang was a little absent-minded, and he didn't pay attention to the government affairs of the court. He ran outside every three days, often not seeing anyone for ten and a half months.
And Chengqian just likes this young teacher the most. He misses him very much after not seeing him for a few days, and talks about it all day long. I haven't seen Qin Lang for many days, so Chengqian wants to go to look for Chengqian in a subdued manner.
I have to say that since the last time he got acne, Chengqian's performance is still very good, and he has become more mature. But his temper seems to be wild, maybe because the emperor is not around, Chengqian is becoming more and more unable to sit in the palace now, and often has to run outside.
Li Jing and Wang Gui couldn't persuade the prince either.
"Empress mother, son minister has knowledge and political affairs and wants to consult Saburo." Chengqian asked.
The queen was helpless, "It's okay to go, let General Su lead Lu Ben's guards."
"It's too much of a hindrance to bring them along. Once the guard of honor is displayed, it will be a mess and disturb the people."
When the prince travels, he also needs to pave the road with loess, sprinkle clean water on the street, and even everyone must avoid it. Chengqian still likes to travel in casual clothes.
The queen conceded, she can skip the guard of honor, but she still needs to be accompanied by the brothers Changsun Jiaqing and Changsunxiang, and Su Dingfang and Gao Kan will bring a team of Luben guards to accompany them.
"Thanks mother."
"Go early and come back early, don't be lingering and playful outside, or your father will find out in Luoyang, and he will definitely send someone to reprimand you."
"Mother, the son is going to ask the teacher for advice."
·······When Cheng Qian arrived in Xianyang, Qin Lang had already left and went to Sanyuan County.
Fortunately, Xianyang is only a few tens of miles away from Sanyuan, and the horse will arrive soon. Now Chengqian, who is twelve years old, is already very good at riding, riding a Dawan good horse all the way to Sanyuan Qinzhuang.
Although Qin Lang still has the title of prime minister participating in the government affairs, the emperor is in Luoyang after all. And he was also exempted from real-time errands such as Jing Zhaoyin, Hanlin Bachelor Chengzhi, and Minister of the Ministry of Inspection and Officials, so now he is just holding an idle job title, but he is happy and relaxed.
After returning to Chang'an, Qin Lang ran outside all day, mainly busy with resuming production.
The farms in various parts of Gyeonggi have to resume farming, and the farms are also reopened, and the breeding livestock and females are transferred from the farms in Shannan, Bashu and other places.
Various workshops and shops are also gradually resuming business.
It's just that the impact of the disaster is too great. Although the epidemic is over, the hunger situation has not completely passed. Everyone is poor now and consumption is not enough.
Although the curfew has been lifted in Chang'an City, and Pingkang Square has reopened, there is no one there.
The lively scene of tens of thousands of scholars gathering in the capital and countless merchants gathering in Chang'an in the past is gone forever. As long as the emperor does not return to Beijing for a day, then hundreds of thousands of northern and southern imperial troops, as well as countless officials and nobles and their relatives Family members, servants, etc. will not come back for the time being, so the merchants must also gather in Luoyang instead of Chang'an.
Under the auspices of Li Jing and Wang Gui, the two assistant prime ministers, the Crown Prince Chengqian of the Jianguo loosened the grain restrictions in Guanzhong. Although ordinary people still have to rely on food stamps to limit their purchases, merchants have been allowed to transport grain from outside the Guanzhong. Closed and sold after registration.
It's just that food prices are still extremely high.
Doumi is more than 200 yuan, which is already the price in the ninth year of Wude and the first year of Zhenguan. After the summer harvest, it is estimated that it will drop a little bit. However, since the founding of the Tang Dynasty for more than ten years, the food problem has not been solved, especially in the Guanzhong area. It is estimated that all related food prices will remain at a relatively high position for a long time.
Unless there are two or three consecutive years of good harvests and people have a lot of food in their homes, it is possible that the price will really fall to the normal price of twenty or thirty yuan for a bucket of rice.
Nowadays, all big and powerful households with some skills are doing this grain business.
These guys made a lot of money by reselling masks when the epidemic was severe before, and now they are starting to sell food again.
The top aristocrats transport grain directly from Jiaozhou and Guangzhou, and even more powerful ones can even sell grain from Linyi Kingdom and Lion Kingdom, and some even sell grain from Wa Kingdom, Silla, and Baekje.
Crossing the sea in all directions, each showing their special abilities.
Of course, the lower first- and second-rate wealthy families will get their food from those top families.
The Qin family is also transporting grain to the north.
Qin Lang's boat did not go through the Hangzhou Canal, but entered the Yangtze River estuary. The boat changed to Jiangxia, Ezhou, and then changed boats to the Han River to Xiangyang. Change to a smaller boat again in Xiangyang, enter Danshui and enter Shangzhou. Near Wuguan, it will be pulled into Guan by land mule and carriage to Lantian, and then transported to Beijing by boat on Bashui. Ship unloading at Yuntan Wharf.
Grain enters the Qin family granary in Changlepo, and then transfers to various places.
Another route is to go through Guilin Lingqu to Yongzhou, enter Xiangshui River, and then go north.
The cost of transporting these grains is extremely high.
Even if they come from the sea, although there are many ships on the sea and less transit on the road, after crossing Xiangyang and entering Danshui, there are many sections that need to be hired to pull the tow, and the final section of the customs must be drawn by horses. car.
If it weren't for the serious shortage of food in the north, no one would bother to transport food from so far away in the south of the Lingnan.
Also because of the current disaster situation in the north, the cost of hiring people along the way to carry and unload, pack and drive cars, and pull boats on the back is very low. If you can earn some food, everyone is satisfied, and they don’t ask for the same price as usual. The team can directly use food to pay for their wages, so everyone is still scrambling to get it.
But even so, after the food arrived at the Qin family granary in Changlepo, the steward tried to figure it out, and couldn't help but marvel at the high cost.
It is said that cheap grain hurts farmers, but in fact, when grain is expensive, it hurts farmers even more. When grain prices rise sharply, the people farming are generally those who have no grain and want to buy grain.
Extremely high food prices, so that they can only sigh.
The disaster relief food provided by the imperial court is too little, barely enough for one meal a day, what can I do, I can only hang my life. If you want to survive, you can only buy additional food.
But now money is hard to earn, but food is expensive, and the people are harvested almost like leeks.
Those nobles and tyrants who had also suffered losses from the disaster before began to use capital to harvest the people, lend usury, pay high prices for grain, took the opportunity to buy the land from the people, and even forced them into slavery.
The higher the price of grain, the less people dare to spend money, but in the end the money is not thrown to the grain merchants.
Although Qin Lang has been transporting grain continuously from Lingnan, the cost of these grains is also high and the quantity is still limited.
Workshops and shops resumed work, and farms and farms also resumed work one after another.
If there is surplus food, it can only be said to help the tenants and workers of the family first. As for other common people, Qin Lang is helpless.
Under the operation of those big families, the price of grain is soaring, but the normal warehouse that should have stabilized the market price is difficult to function at the moment, because there is no surplus grain to sell at a fair price in the grain market to maintain the basic disaster relief grain distribution. , to suppress rising food prices.
There is no one to suppress the grain merchants, and naturally the price of grain is rising steadily.
The imperial court now hopes to use the strength of these grain merchants to increase the transportation capacity of grain transfer from the south, so it can only pinch its nose to release the grain ban and let them sell it.
At this time, no one dares to force the grain merchants to lower prices, because as long as this is done, the unprofitable merchants will no longer work hard to transport grain.
So, in the end, everyone can only sit and watch the food price rise steadily. For the court, the only good news is that after a large number of nobles, powerful businessmen and rich people joined in for profit, the amount of food going north has indeed increased greatly.
Qin Lang sat there watching the report sent by the stewards below, Cheng Qian came in with a smile.
"The teacher came to Sanyuan quietly, but it was so hard for Gu to chase."
"Why is Your Highness here?"
"Teacher hasn't returned to Beijing for so long. It's too boring to stay in the capital, so I came here to find the teacher." Cheng Qian didn't care about the hard work all the way, and sat in front of Qin Lang, "What is the teacher up to lately?"
"Busy on some personal matters." Qin Lang briefly explained the situation.
"Gu was in the palace recently, and I heard the two prime ministers talk about the sharp rise in food prices every day, and said that the transshipment department's Changping warehouse has too little food, and only a very small ration is given to the people. The people can only go to the Buy high-priced grain." Cheng Qian looked at Qin Lang, "Teacher, you have always been resourceful, and you must have a way to deal with those unscrupulous grain merchants, right?"
Judging from his tone, Qin Lang seemed to be listening to the government seriously, but the young prince didn't really understand the operation of many things, and he took it for granted.
"His Highness thinks, how should we deal with the current problem of rising food prices?"
Qin Lang asked him.
Chengqian touched his lips, there was a circle of mustache just born, which made him more mature.
"I feel that it is those profiteers who are blindly greedy for profit and deliberately raise the price of grain. Therefore, to make the people suffer from the high price of grain, a decree should be issued to limit the price of grain, so that the people will be happy."
Qin Lang shook his head.
"Your Highness thinks a bit more simply. If a decree is imposed to limit the price of grain, the consequences will be serious. Merchants will not work so hard to traffic grain because they have no profit. The consequence is that although the people are happy for a while, they will soon It is found that there is less food in the market, even if the price of food is limited to not increase, but the result is that there is no food to buy.”
This is a simple relationship between politics and economy. The emperor and the prime ministers understand it, but the crown prince still doesn't.
(end of this chapter)