Seeing Situ Yuan disappearing outside the palace, Situ Lang's face became more and more gloomy. The purpose of this imperial brother did not seem so simple. People from Milan, did he really think that he would not mind himself and the people from Milan? Relationship? If the Milanese enter the East China Sea and Jiangnan, will they be able to control these two places in the future? The eldest brother has occupied the East China Sea. As long as Jinling can be stabilized now, even if Jinling is lost, it doesn't matter. As long as he firmly holds Jiangnan, with the economic strength of the area controlled by the eldest brother, without the support of the central finance of the empire, his army will also It won't last long, even if he withholds the financial and tax payments from Donghai and Yanyun, it won't work. By then, he will naturally have to spit it out. But if the Milan people enter Donghai and Jiangnan, it is easy to ask the gods but difficult to send them away, so it is difficult to spend this time. Help the plague god.
After all, this damn Li Wufeng didn't fulfill his promise after receiving benefits. He played Tai Chi Push Hands with himself and swirled around the edge of Pinglu Mansion, but refused to step into the Qinghe River. The Kaman people were like Li Wufeng. With a tacit understanding, he actually allowed Li Wufeng's Northwest Army to show off its power in Pinglu Mansion but turned a blind eye. If he hadn't known that Li Wufeng's Northwest Army had annihilated the Kaman army of 30,000 people in the northern part of Pinglu, Situ Lang would really have believed that Li Wufeng had fought with The Kamans had some sort of conspiracy pact.
Thinking of this, Situ Lang was a little envious of Li Wufeng. The northwest army in this guy's hands was really powerful. Even the Kaman army was defeated in his hands. Look at the usually domineering city guards who were also stuck. The Man people were defeated in front of them, but the Northwest Army was able to defeat the opponent. Regardless of whether there were other objective external reasons for this, it was enough to be proud of.
When will the legions in my hands reach this level? Situ Lang sighed regretfully, and his confused eyes became a little wandering. He was really tired. It seemed that he never had a good night's sleep after sitting in this position. No wonder the kings in the past could not live long. This mental pressure alone was enough. It seemed that he had to endure all this if he chose this position. Situ Lang stared blankly outside the hall.
The application for the establishment of the Western Xinjiang Protectorate seems to have been shelved without restriction by the Imperial Central Committee. The shelving seems to have become a powerful weapon for the Imperial Central Committee to deal with the northwest. Many matters are reported to the Central Government and can be postponed with just one sentence of "temporary shelving". For a year and a half, you have been hating her to the core but you can do nothing about it. However, Wu Feng does not intend to give up just like this. He has his trump card. By then, he will naturally have a way to make the central government of the empire surrender.
All preparatory work is still being carried out in an orderly manner. The Western Xinjiang Protectorate is still located in Qingyang. Some officials originally preferred to locate it in Hanzhong, believing that Hanzhong was once the royal capital and had the image of attracting the heroic spirit from all over the world. In fact, It is a valuable place to establish a foothold, but Wu Feng rejected this suggestion after consideration. Firstly, he did not want people to have unnecessary associations. After all, it had been the imperial capital of the previous two dynasties. Secondly, Hanzhong was too far for the area he currently controlled. To the east, the psychological influence on Tengger, the Western Regions and Northern Luzon in the west will be weakened. Thirdly, the northwest economy is in a period of healthy and rapid development. The change of the location of the Protectorate will have an impact on the northwest economic zone. It will definitely have an impact, and Wu Feng doesn't want to see this.
However, recently, Wu Feng spent more time in Kansai. He also took the time to inspect the situation in Pinglu Mansion, and even went to the junction areas between Pinglu and Qinghe, Tianshui and Hejian for field inspections. The Kamans and Taipings felt nervous after obtaining intelligence through spies, and paid more attention to every move of the Northwest Army.
There was almost no rain in March in the entire Eastern Continent. The drought was so severe that everyone immediately felt keenly what the harvest of spring would be like. Entering April, the weather became more and more intense, as if it had suddenly entered summer. Speaking from the old man's words, it has been a long time since I felt the heat of summer so early. It almost skipped Yangchun and stepped directly into early summer. The bright sunshine made people feel the abnormality of the climate and at the same time, they all felt strange in their hearts. A hint of worry and fear. A poor harvest in early spring is a foregone conclusion, and the old people know better that this kind of weather is the best climate for breeding locusts. The drought is likely to be followed by a locust plague. Every day when people get up, they use a begging mentality to hope that the weather will become cloudy. , the temperature can drop, but what disappoints them is that it seems that God does not care about the feelings of his people. The Golden Crow will show its head excitedly early every morning, and then it will be generally hot.
Grain prices have been unpredictable since early March, sometimes falling and sometimes rising, but the price fluctuations are not large. And the northwest, which has completed the grain purchase plan, has not stopped and is still absorbing grain on a small scale. However, this Compared with the big moves in the previous month, the actions cannot be calculated by reason, and the overall price of food is still on an upward trend. After entering late March, it became clear that the drought was inevitable, and grain prices rocketed from four and a half gold coins per quintal to seven gold coins, already exceeding the highest price during the northwest grain purchase plan in February. This cannot be ignored. Let the grain merchants lament the good luck of the northwest. Of course, they will not believe that anyone can predict what God will do. Moreover, they also believe that Xiaochun is not the highlight of the year for grain. Even if there is a drought, there will still be big ones who will be the main force. They could rely on spring, not to mention that they did not expect that the entire Eastern Continent would suffer such a severe and extensive drought and the ensuing locust plague.
As the drought becomes more and more serious, the news coming from all over the place is worse than the last. Rivers are drying up and lakes are bottoming out. Except for some upper sections of rivers that rely mainly on melted water from snowy mountains and some large lakes, almost every place has floods. The common people discovered that this drought was unusually severe. People spontaneously organized themselves and began to burn incense and worship Buddha, praying to God to fulfill their wishes, and begging God to open his eyes and show mercy, but it seemed to have no effect.
Under this situation, some vigilant grain merchants have begun to hoard grain in preparation for speculation, but most merchants have an ambivalent mentality, because the price of grain at this time has exceeded ten gold coins, and in view of the The northwest is hoarding astronomical amounts of grain, and grain speculators are secretly thinking that if they buy a large amount of grain at this price and the northwest sells it, they are afraid that the losses they will suffer will also become astronomical. This kind of contradictory psychology Every day, the fragile hearts of grain merchants all over the empire and even around the empire are scorched. They don't know what the purpose of Northwest buying such a large amount of grain at the beginning of the year? Speculation? Or are they really making strategic reserves as they say
Grain merchants have always expressed doubts about the purpose of the strategic reserves claimed by the Northwest. No one would choose to make strategic reserves in January and February instead of stocking up after the grain harvest in June, September and October. This is obviously a foolish behavior. It can only show that Northwest is preparing for speculation. However, no one dares to bear the risk of such large-scale speculation without certainty. Even if there is no harvest in early spring, just four months later, there will be a big spring harvest that accounts for the main part of the year's grain harvest. No one Being able to predict God's face, even if you happen to bet on Xiaochun's treasure, can you still bet on Dachun's treasure? Moreover, food production is not limited to one county or one place. Developed water and land transportation can adjust and make up for the imbalance caused by such disasters, unless that lunatic thinks that natural disasters will occur continuously in an entire large area for no reason and destroy this area. The ability to adjust, but this probability seems to be smaller than the probability of winning the jackpot in the gambling games that have become popular in the Western Continent, and the price paid is astonishing.
Grain prices soared under the worried eyes of people throughout the Eastern Continent, and broke through the psychological price of 15 gold coins per quintal on April 12, 698 in the continental calendar. When the quotations of the three main grains (wheat, millet and millet) in the imperial capital exceeded After raising 15 gold coins per quintal, the first-class cereals (corn and sorghum) suddenly jumped from 9 gold coins per quintal to 12 gold coins per quintal, and even the second-class cereals (sweet potatoes, barley and yams) that ordinary grain merchants disdain also increased. The price went up to 10 gold coins per quintal, but even at this price, the supply of goods in the three largest grain trading markets in the empire (Zhongzhou Grain Trading Market, Jinling Grain Trading Market, and Yueyang Grain Trading Market) was still tight. Most of the time, there are still prices but no goods. However, neighboring countries and regions, such as the Yuejing grain market, are also turbulent and the supply of goods is even tighter. This has created a new high in the imperial grain quotation and the Eastern Continent grain quotation in the past twenty years.
Affected by this, the prices of various important materials related to people's livelihood throughout the empire began to skyrocket. The prices of meat, medicinal materials, cooking oil, cotton cloth, etc. began to rise sharply to varying degrees, especially alcohol due to the impact of grain prices. Affected by the sharp increase, the price has doubled than before, but wine merchants are still unwilling to ship because they are worried that the price of raw materials will increase further, causing the price of wine in the empire to reach a high level that has not been seen in decades.
With the skyrocketing prices of various materials, the situation in the entire Eastern Continent has begun to show a kind of pathological unrest. From the Liberian countries in the north to Maci Khan and Milan in the south, everyone has a complicated mentality. Watching all this, the foundation of the clay-footed giant Tanghe Empire has been shaken. If there is another big storm, maybe this giant will collapse in the wind and rain. This is certainly a good thing, but when will it fall? Have different expectations. What worries them the most is that this storm seems not just to target the Tang He Empire family, but covers the entire Eastern Continent. Although it is centered on the Tang He Empire, the storm around the center does not Even though they were young, they found that their own country could not escape from it, and even showed signs of getting deeper into it.