Chapter 78 Bring six million shi of grain back to Daming, all damned!
Except that Shen Yourong was still in Edo Bay with thirty soft-sail warships, and was planning to purchase a batch of scenery to sell overseas specialties in various shops in the West Factory, and planned to return to foreign countries when the monsoon changed in November, Zhang Gui Then first take the hard sailing boat of the Denglai Navy that can adapt to the wind and headwind, and return to Daming with six million shi of grain.
Because Zhang Gui led a large fleet, dozens of big blessing ships, with guns and guns, and thousands of officers and soldiers, the pirates along the way did not dare to offend Zhang Gui's fleet, and the return voyage was as smooth as when they came.
At this time in Daming, according to the usual practice in previous years, all the grain should have arrived in Beijing in early June, but in the current September of the fourth year of Tianqi, it has not yet arrived in the capital.
Even some tank boats were misappropriated by powerful bureaucrats as ships to transport their own goods, unlike before, they only transported 4 million shi grains while carrying part of their own goods as commodities for sale in the north.
In addition, because the grain was not shipped one after another, many water workers who relied on water transport to survive starved to death on a large scale, and even fled, robbed food, and even rebelled.
As a result, food prices in Gyeonggi and border towns began to soar, and some frontier troops had begun to riot due to lack of food.
Emergency documents from various places on both sides of the canal and border towns also flew into Beijing like snowflakes.
After Tian Qi saw these emergency documents, he was also a little anxious, and couldn't help but said to Wei Zhongxian: "Wei Zhongxian, I can't help it. If Zhang Gui can't bring back the food, I can only wrong you at that time. You can't do it when the time comes." Blame me, I can't help it, if I don't let Zhang Gui try it, I just admit defeat to the civil servants and bureaucrats in the world, I really can't do it! But don't worry, I won't let you be like Liu Jin, you are a good slave , I will let you leave with dignity."
Wei Zhongxian said with tears: "Your servant understands! No matter what you do for the emperor, your servant is willing to do anything, even if you donate half of your body! If you want to complain, your servant only blames those scholar-bureaucrats, all of whom are disloyal and treacherous ministers." , actually cut off food for those troublemakers, they all deserve to die!"
"I hope that Zhang Gui can really raise food, and at least make it through this year, so that before the end of this year, the first batch of students who graduated from the Armed Forces School can complete their military training, so that we can add another team that truly belongs to the army." The soldiers and horses of the imperial court, this army and horses can go south to guarantee the grain, not only guarantee the grain, but also recover the Fu at the same time. At that time, Grand Master Zhang was able to do this in the early years of Wanli because Qi Jiguang stood beside him At that time, Qi Jiguang trained and controlled the most skilled soldiers in the north and south. The imperial court wants to continue to do so, without a reliable army sent to the south, it is difficult to complete the clearing."
Tianqi started talking to himself.
Wei Zhongxian nodded: "This servant also hopes that Uncle Guo can raise food quickly, but I just don't know how he is doing now. People in Xichang are very tight-lipped, and now they can't find any news about him. This servant is thinking, is he Run away and dare not come back?"
Tian Qi replied: "It is precisely because I am worried that he will leave us all behind, so I use your head as a guarantee."
After speaking, Tian Qi sighed again, and said: "We have to find a way to do something ourselves, we can't just rely on him, unless it is absolutely necessary, I will not use my own life to appease the anger of the world's officials! Cut the expenses in the palace by half, and save some food to meet the needs of the frontier army. Also, buy more food if you can buy it with internal funds, no matter how high the price is. After all, more money is not as good as food ah."
"Follow the order!"
Next, the inner court really cut down on expenses, and Tianqi took the initiative to reduce his own meal share in order to save more food.
Wei Zhongxian asked Han Gui to come here: "Mr. Xiaoge, how is your food procurement?"
Han Gui drooped his head and said, "Don't dare to lie to my eunuch. Up to now, I have only raised more than 50,000 stone grains. These grains have to be used by tens of thousands of craftsmen on the west mountain side. If I want to come now, I still have to wait for Enfu to bring them to me." You can only bring back the food, or at that time, you can only rely on your father-in-law to solve the current shortage of food."
"Why so little!"
Wei Zhongxian said something very depressed.
"It cost more than 120,000 taels of silver to buy this. Now the price of food in the market in the capital area has risen to more than two taels a stone of rice!"
Han Gui replied.
Wei Zhongxian said: "No matter how expensive it is, you have to buy it! If our family really dies, your Han family will not be able to please!"
"Elder-in-law, you don't have to be angry. Our Han family naturally doesn't want you to have any troubles. The key now is that no matter how high the price is, you won't be able to buy food. If this continues, the world will really be in chaos."
Han Gui said.
"This is all caused by Uncle Guo!"
Wei Zhongxian complained, and then said: "Let's raise some food as much as possible. The emperor means that the frontier army should be stabilized first. Unless it is absolutely necessary, he will not surrender to the court officials. It's just that the emperor has already begun to reduce his salary because of this." The portion, the style of every meal is far from what it used to be, and we slaves feel distressed seeing it."
"Now the price of grain in the Gyeonggi area has skyrocketed to almost three taels of silver per stone. I heard that the people in the palace and the elders of the Han family Xiaoge are willing to accept the price of five taels of silver per stone!"
Zuo Guangdou also talked about the soaring food prices with a smile to Zhao Nanxing, Gao Panlong and other civil servants.
"It's already September, and the grain has not yet entered Beijing, so this will naturally happen."
Zhao Nanxing said something, and then laughed: "Uncle Guo must have failed to raise food, otherwise it would not have been almost a year, and there has been no news of a large amount of food coming to Beijing."
"So, the possibility that His Majesty will subdue to the world by returning the head of Wei Yanxiao and Ling Guo's uncle back to his hometown is certain."
Gao Panlong also said with a proud smile.
Zuo Guangdou sneered: "In any case, thousands of sons who spoke uprightly and righteously for Mr. Xiuwu cannot die in vain! In my opinion, we should not only persuade the world's officials and gentry not to hand over grain to the government, but also I want to write a letter to persuade all the officials and gentry not to sell grain to the palace and the elders of the Han family because of the high grain price! Tell them that the grain price will rise again, so don’t rush to sell it, and how far will the grain price rise in the future? , The decision-making power is also in the hands of us officials and gentry, instead of focusing on the huge profits in front of us, we should focus on the future, wait for the price of food to rise, and force the palace to spit out all the tens of millions of taels that were confiscated before!"
"This is a clever plan! We should write to our relatives and friends all over the world as soon as possible."
Zhao Nanxing said.
Gao Panlong also nodded.
As a result, the officials, gentry and landlords of Ming Dynasty were not only satisfied with realizing political interests by cutting off grain, but also began to seek economic interests, and wanted to force the emperor to buy grain with all the money they had confiscated before. If you spit it out, you will continue to raise the price of food.
Food prices continue to soar.
The frontier soldiers and factory guards are temporarily supported by some food provided by the emperor from the reduced expenditure of the palace.
The artisans of Xishan also temporarily have the tens of thousands of stones of grain raised by Han Gui to support them.
However, the lives of many low-level officials and common people in the capital became more and more difficult, and starvation increased sharply. Many wealthy households in the city became hungry because they could not buy food.
"Take part of the food stored in the palace and give it to the Shuntian Mansion for disaster relief. The people can't starve to death!"
Apocalypse knew this and had to make such a will.
Wei Zhongxian couldn't help but said: "My lord! There is not enough food in the palace. If you take out some more, everyone in the palace may have to eat porridge."
After Tian Qi heard this, he said helplessly: "There is no other way, let everyone persevere, and when the food from Uncle Guo arrives, it will be fine, and I will also eat porridge!"
"My lord!"
Wei Zhongxian was busy dissuading him.
Tian Qi glanced at him: "There is no need to discuss any more, do you want me to take your head to show weakness to those civil servants now?!"
Hearing what Tianqi said, Wei Zhongxian had no choice but to agree, and said: "However, even if all the palace eats porridge, the little food saved may not be enough. Those traitors and profiteers who have black hearts are now determined to let the price of food be reduced." Soaring, from the perspective of slaves, they are afraid that they still want to force the emperor to take out all the internal money and buy the high-priced food in their hands before they will give up!"
"I can see it too!"
Tianqi said something, then gritted his teeth and said: "People are not enough to swallow elephants, but I hate that I have nothing to do with them now!"
At this moment, Han Yu hurriedly brought in a copy: "Your Majesty Qizuo! There is news about Uncle Guo!"
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(end of this chapter)