"Ahem, there are many things to do in post-disaster reconstruction, so I'll make it short and simple. Do you really think that the lower the grain price, the better? If we in Jingnan, like Taizhou Prefecture, Taiping County and other counties, use thunder and lightning to forcibly control the grain price to 500 wen per stone, then what will happen in the future?" Zhu Ping'an rubbed his forehead and said to everyone in the hall while trying to suppress his fatigue.
"The lower the grain price, the better. The lower the grain price, the more benefits the people can get."
"If we in Jingnan also use thunderous means to control the grain price to 500 coins per stone, it will naturally be a great joyous event, and the whole world will celebrate, and things will naturally get better and better in the future. With the price of grain falling, the people can afford to buy grain. The people have grain in their hands and are not panicked, so this flood will naturally pass."
"That's right. If grain prices drop and stabilize, the people will feel relieved and society will be stable. Naturally, Jingnan will get better and better in the future."
Everyone in the hall talked about lowering food prices, and everyone's face was full of yearning and longing.
Everyone thought that the lower the grain price, the better. In their view, after people suffered from the flood and their property was damaged, the lower the grain price, the better. With low grain prices, everyone can afford to buy grain, and the flood will naturally pass. No one thought that there would be anything wrong with lower grain prices.
What a group of naive people they are! Upon hearing this, Zhu Ping'an couldn't help but smile bitterly and shook his head.
"Why, isn't it? County Master, although we are not well educated, we are not so easily deceived."
"That's right. Even a nine-year-old child knows that the lower the price of food, the better."
The people in the hall did not think that what they said was wrong. When they saw Zhu Ping'an's expression, they could not help but pull the corners of their mouths downwards.
"Everyone, Jiangnan is a famous granary in the Ming Dynasty. Now Jiangnan has suffered a flood, and more than 80% of the food has been destroyed. Only less than 20% of the food in Jiangnan has survived. The little food in Jiangnan alone cannot feed the tens of millions of people in Jiangnan. If we want to survive this flood and famine crisis, we can only transport a large amount of food from Sichuan, Shandong and other places to alleviate the famine.
There are two main ways to transport large amounts of grain from places thousands of miles away such as Sichuan, Shandong, etc.
One was organized by the imperial court, and the other was spontaneous grain transportation by the people.
After the flood, I sent letters to Taizhou Prefecture every day to request relief and rescue from the court, but there was no news until four days later when Taizhou Prefecture replied. The reply was just to ask our counties to save themselves. I have already told you once. At present, the Ming Dynasty court is unable to organize relief and rescue for us in Jiangnan in a short time because of the frequent disasters in recent years and the huge consumption of the treasury. Therefore, the way of organizing grain transportation by the court cannot be relied on in the short term. Then the only way left is to transport grain by the people.
The private grain transportation is mainly carried out by grain merchants of all sizes. Now there is a grain shortage in Jiangnan. Not only Jingnan has the grain price increased, but also the grain prices in Sichuan, Shu and Shandong have continued to rise. Although it is lower than the grain prices in Jiangnan, the difference is not big. The local price of grain per stone is close to 500 Wen.
When grain merchants go to other places to purchase grain, the purchase price is close to 500 coins. The journey is thousands of miles long, and they have to pay for food and horses, hire servants and guards, each of which is a big expense. On the way, they also have to face the risk of bandits, mountain bandits, and even disaster victims looting. All in all, the cost of transporting grain to other places is much higher than 500 coins per stone...
If we in Jingnan also forcefully lower the grain price to 500 Wen like the prefecture and other counties, then grain merchants will have no profit, no money to earn, and even have to pay out of pocket. In this case, will grain merchants still work hard and take risks to transport grain from other places to Jingnan to sell? !
As the saying goes, all businessmen are dishonest and no one will get up early without profit. Do you think it is possible for them to transport grain without making any profit or even lose money
Put yourself in their shoes. If it were you, with no profit, no money to be made, or even losing money, would you work hard and take risks to transport grain from other places? !
If Jingnan also uses thundering means like other places to forcibly reduce the grain price to 500 coins per stone! I am sure that our grain merchants in Jingnan will never have such a noble character. They will never risk their lives to transport grain from other places without profit! The little grain they survived the flood will be sold out in less than three days! After that, the people of Jingnan will not be able to buy a grain even if they have silver. I don’t need to say more about what it means to not be able to buy grain. The fields are full of sorrow, the land is barren, people are eating each other, and the ground is full of bones... These tragic scenes will reappear in Jingnan. There is a price but no market, there is a price but no grain, what is the use of such a grain price? ! Is this the grain price you are pursuing? ! Is this grain price really good for the people of Jingnan? ! "
As Zhu Ping'an spoke, he became more and more excited and emotional, and at the end he couldn't help but slam the table.
boom!
Zhu Ping'an's words were like thunder from the sky, exploding in the minds of everyone in the hall.
In an instant, everyone in the hall was blown into pieces of wood by the thunder. They opened their mouths wide, unable to hold back a wave of fear in their hearts. The hair on their bodies stood up coldly as if they had been electrified!
After Zhu Ping'an finished speaking, the entire hall became extremely silent and everyone could only hear their heartbeats.
After a long while, someone turned pale and shook his head repeatedly, his eyes blank and unfocused, and murmured with trembling lips: "No, no, how could it become like this... I don't believe it..."
Liu Fuzi, the clerk of the household department, Zhang Tongsheng, the clerk of the clerk department, Han Cheng, the clerk of the criminal department, and Liu Laotou, the clerk of the ritual department, who had just bid farewell to Zhu Ping'an, were paler than the others at this moment. They were scholars and had much more knowledge than the illiterate runners. Zhu Ping'an's words were so enlightening that they suddenly understood everything. It was because they understood everything that their faces turned so pale. They did not dare to look up and look into Zhu Ping'an's eyes, feeling ashamed.
Short-sighted, short-sighted, that's us. Compared with the county lord, our vision is too short-sighted.
"But, County Master, even if you want to use profits to induce grain merchants to purchase grain, there is no need to set the grain price so high, right?"
Old Liu's face turned pale, and his tone was much weaker than when he asked for his resignation from Zhu Ping'an in the room.
"high?"
Zhu Pingan twitched his lips and shook his head when he heard this. "Not high. In this period and under this situation, the grain price of 2,500 wen per stone is not high at all. Only this grain price can drive Jingnan grain merchants and grain merchants from other places who heard the news to transport grain from all over the Ming Dynasty to Jingnan to meet the needs of Jingnan people. Compared with the lives of more than 100,000 people in Jingnan, is this grain price high?"
Old Liu was silent after hearing this. Everyone was silent too. Only then did they understand why Zhu Pingan had asked them which was more important, money or life.
"Now you think that the grain prices in Jingnan are high, but after a while, at least a month, at most three to five months, you will find that the grain prices in Jingnan will be the lowest in Taizhou Prefecture."
Zhu Ping'an looked into the distance and spoke to everyone in the hall with confidence. His eyes were deep and distant, as if he could see through time at a glance.
"ah?"
Everyone was shocked and couldn't believe it.
"Don't believe it? You will know after a while." Zhu Ping'an didn't say much. The economics, sociology and other principles behind it could not be explained to them in a short time. Even if he explained it, they probably wouldn't understand it.
"County Master, although I don't quite understand what you said, I think it makes sense. If the grain price is lowered, things will probably turn out like that. But the grain price is too high. Even if the grain merchants are profitable and transport grain frantically, so that Jingnan has enough food, I am afraid there are still many poor people who can't afford to buy food. If they can't afford to buy food, they can only starve to death." Han Cheng, the clerk in the criminal department, said with a fist salute.
"Dadao, go get the donation book." Zhu Ping'an said to Liu Dadao.
Amid the puzzled gazes of the crowd, Liu Dadao took the order and turned to leave, and soon came back with a booklet in his hands.
"Dadao, give the booklet to Han Dianli and ask everyone to circulate it." Zhu Ping'an said to Liu Dadao.
Liu Dadao took the order and handed the booklet to Han Cheng, but when he handed it to him, he snorted with an unhappy look on his face.
"Didn't you say that I, Zhu Ping'an, accepted bribes from grain merchants?! That's right, this "Jingnan County Flood Donation Book" is the "evidence" of my "bribery". There are a total of 38 grain merchants in Jingnan, big and small, who donated a total of 46,000 taels of silver. I, Zhu Ping'an, accepted them all and recorded them one by one! From now on, at the end of each month, if they don't come, I will send people to each grain shop to collect donations! From now on, every time a grain merchant from another place comes to Jingnan, I will send someone to go there in my name! What are these silvers for? The poor people in Jingnan who can't afford to buy grain, this is their grain money! From today on, I will send people to count the poor people in Jingnan who can't afford to buy grain, and distribute silver regularly! I will use this head as a guarantee to ensure that no one in Jingnan will starve to death! If one person starves to death, you can take my head as a "corrupt official", "dog official", and "treacherous official"!"
When everyone in the hall was passing around the donation book, Zhu Ping'an pointed at his head and spoke to everyone with red eyes.
"County... County Master... We were wrong!"
After reading the donation book, Han Cheng, the clerk in the prison, could no longer control himself and fell to his knees with tears streaming down his face.
For the sake of the people of Jingnan, the county magistrate did not hesitate to defile himself, even his reputation and integrity... ... We actually... ...
"County Master, we were wrong."
Plop, plop... People in the hall knelt down like wheat being cut; no one was left standing.