“Hehe, you say you are so smart, what can’t you think of, that you want to be a corrupt official who doesn’t care about the people’s lives.”Demoness Ruonan glared at Zhu Pingan and said without any goodwill, “Don’t say that I don’t keep my word, if you have a fart, put it away quickly, I will only give you one tea time, if it’s more than that, the dagger in my hand won’t agree to it.”
“Yes, I’m so smart, how could I possibly be a corrupt official who doesn’t care about the people.”
Zhu Pingan nodded and interjected.
“Less poor! I hate self-righteous readers like you the most, anyway, I will only give you a tea time, if you like to be poor, then just be poor, if you waste your own time, don’t blame the dagger in my hand for being eager to drink blood.”Demoness Ruo Nan laughed coldly, saying that she shook her sharp dagger in front of Zhu Pingan.
“The reason why I raised the price of food is indeed for the sake of the 100,000 people of Jingnan. Don’t stare, time is precious, so listen to what I have to say.”
Zhu Pingan also did not waste time, opened his mouth to explain, only to say a sentence to see Demoness Ruonan glaring and sneering, a look of ridiculing himself again, so he stretched out a finger, gently waved it in front of Demoness Ruonan, and said to her.
“Let go if you have a fart.”Demoness Ruo Nan sneered.
“The place to raise the price of grain at this juncture is a last resort, there are two aspects that can’t be helped. The first must not, the court is unable to rescue the Jingnan flood for a time. My study has a copy of the official documents I have sent to Taizhou Prefecture requesting the court to rescue and provide relief since the flood, a total of twelve, Taizhou Prefecture issued a reply two days ago, stating that the court is unable to provide relief for the flood, so that all counties are actively self-help relief. If the girl doesn’t believe me, just go to my study and take a look.”
Zhu Pingan slowly explained, with a questioning face.
“Hmph, Taizhou Prefecture ordered you to help yourselves, and then you raise the price of food? Where is this relief from you, it’s clearly robbing while the fire is burning, falling on the well and adding oil to the fire! I know that all other counties have followed the Taizhou Prefecture’s example of catching crooked merchants and sending them to jail and to the army to lower the price of food by thunderous means, and the price of food in other places has been lowered to 500 cents per stone. Only you, this little dog official is perverse, issued a document in the name of the government, forcibly raising the price of food to two thousand five hundred per stone, you are trying to force the people to die ah!”
Demoness Ruo Nan gritted her teeth and glared at Zhu Ping An, the more she spoke, the more angry she became, the slender jade hand that held the dagger, the veins on the back of her hand were exposed, and she almost couldn’t even control her heart to poke Zhu Ping An with a few transparent holes.
Hate iron is not steel!
I was quite optimistic about this little dog official, I did not think that I was blind, painting skin and tiger hard to paint bone, know people know face do not know the heart, this little dog official is a maggot with a black heart in human skin!
“This is going to say the second shall not be.”In response to the demoness Ruo Nan’s gnashing of teeth, Zhu Pingan calmly spoke.
“I’ll see how you turn black and white upside down.”The Demoness Ruo Nan looked on coldly, disdainfully tugging at the corner of her mouth, with a look of having seen through Zhu Pingan, rather like the look of Teacher Fan Wei’s lulling followed by lulling back then.
“The second must not, is to save themselves from the lack of food. Jiangnan is the grain silo of the Ming Dynasty, more than half of the world’s food out of Jiangnan. Nai Ho this time half of Jiangnan disaster, food destroyed, granary into a grain shortage. Jiangnan remaining grain, ten days and a half months can not hold down. Only from shandong, chuan shu and other food is still rich place to transport food to jiangnan, can save millions of people in jiangnan. The court is unable to relief, the only private grain merchants transport grain. Grain merchants need to transport food costs, travelling thousands of miles, all the way manpower consumption, plus the employment of workers, guards, each of which is a large expenditure, the road is also faced with bandits, thieves, and even the victims of the coaxing and looting and other risks, and Shandong and other places of food have risen to no stone 500 Wen. If it is forced to reduce the price of grain to 500 per stone, or even 400, which grain merchants will lose money to risk transporting grain? If this is the case, when the grain stocks in Jiangnan are exhausted, millions of people will only starve to death! That’s why I raised the price of grain to 2500 Wen per stone, to induce grain merchants to transport grain to Jingnan, so that the 100,000 people in Jingnan who are waiting to be fed can have a way to live.”
Zhu Pingan sighed and re-explained the words that he had explained to the crowd of county magistrates in the beginning.
After Zhu Pingan finished speaking, the Demoness Ruo Nan was quiet all of a sudden, and the sarcasm in her eyes slowly faded.
“Then ……”Soon, the Demoness Ruo Nan seemed to have thought of something and said unconvincingly.
“Then there is no need for me to raise the price of grain so high right?”Zhu Pingan knew at a glance what the Demoness Ruonan wanted to say, and then opened his mouth to interrupt the Demoness Ruonan’s words, and directly said the words for her.
“Hmph.”Demoness Ruonan hummed, as if she had acquiesced.
“In this situation, this price is not high. In extraordinary times, the only way to drive the majority of grain merchants to continuously transport grain for me, Jingnan, is to make heavy profits. This price relative to 100,000 people’s lives, this price is expensive? Jiangnan land is relatively affluent, not Shaanxi and Gansu and other places of poverty and weakness, the ordinary people for decades, but also a small savings, especially my Jingnan, because I warned in advance, the people have the time to react, fleeing are carrying gold, silver, fine and soft and other financial resources. In a year of famine, what they need is food, and although the current food price of 2,500 Wen per stone is high, they can afford it for a while.”
Zhu Pingan waved his hand and slowly explained.
“It is because of the above two imperatives, it is because of the actual situation in Jingnan that I have raised the grain price. One of the above three is indispensable. If the imperial court is powerful in disaster relief, if Jiangnan is not short of food, I, Zhu Pingan, would have been the first to chop off the heads of those grain merchants who were jacking up the price of grain, and forcefully controlled to lower and stabilise the price of grain; if it were not for the fact that Jingnan has historically been relatively affluent and can afford it, I, Zhu Pingan, would not have raised the price of grain either.”
Zhu Pingan sighed helplessly.
Demoness Ruo Nan was quiet once again, this time for a long time, and only after a long time did she snort coldly, “Although what you said, sounds reasonable. But how do I know if it’s not sophistry on your part?!”
“It’s not sophistry, it’s the truth! If you do not believe, and wait a month, not a month, other counties, especially Taizhou Prefecture food will be consumed, no food on the market to sell, and the price of grain on the black market will soar crazy, per stone three or five thousand or even seven or eight thousand is not surprising, and will often be priced out of the market …….Even with gold, you can’t buy food, hunger will come, death will come unexpectedly, and the picturesque Jiangnan will become hell on earth …….”
Zhu Pingan closed his eyes and said feebly, with tear tracks crossing the corners of his eyes as he spoke at the end ……
“You ……A big man is still crying, shy or not.”Demoness Ruo Nan was a bit at a loss for words.
“Sorry to make you laugh ……It’s just that when I think of countless people starving to death and I can’t do anything about it, it’s hard to control myself for a moment, the people are innocent and I’m incompetent ……”Zhu Pingan took a breath, opened his eyes, calmly looked at the demoness Ruo Nan, and spoke faintly, “I’ve finished, you can do it now.”
After saying that, Zhu Pingan closed his eyes.
In his heart, he silently counted 1……2……3……
Sure enough, when Zhu Pingan counted to three, he heard the Demoness Ruo Nan speak, “Hmph, forget it, for the time being, I will lend my head to your neck for a month, and I will see if things are as you say, if I find out that you have lied to me, hmph, don’t blame this girl for being merciless, I will definitely cut off your head with my own hands.
