Jiajing thirty-one years, the end of autumn, the morning at six o’clock, the sun is just right.
Taizhou Prefecture, the west side of the city.
Xu Hai and others have changed into civilian clothes, accompanied by Tan Lun, the governor of Taizhou, and Zuo Zhen, etc., to visit the west side of the city. Chengxi Fang was the largest market in Taizhou Prefecture, accounting for about three-quarters of Taizhou Prefecture’s trading volume. This place was also the largest grain sales place in Taizhou Prefecture, and all the grain merchants of all sizes in the Prefecture were located here.
In order to dispose of Zhu Pingan in a hurry, the Jingnan investigation team only chose the typical West Square of the city as a place to investigate.
“The workshop is well organised, neat and clean ……It’s rare in times of flood, Governor Tan is very good.”
After Xu Hai entered Chengxi Fang, he eyed the environment of the Fang City and gave a positive note to Tan Lun, the governor of Taizhou.
Their inspection this time was almost a sudden attack, Taizhou Governor Tan Lun basically had no time to prepare, this is the truest situation of the City West Place, orderly, clean and hygienic, Taizhou Governor Tan Lun’s ability is very good.
“Lord Xu fallacious praise, Tan Mou really do not dare to take it.”Tan Lun, the governor of Taizhou, said modestly, his face glowing red.
Xu Hai and the others had the important task of inspecting and researching the floods in Jiangnan, and now that they could get their approval, when they returned to the capital after completing their mission, wouldn’t it be possible for their own achievements in governing Taizhou to reach the ears of the Emperor. If therefore into the eyes of the saint, then is not it possible that one’s own levelling up to the clouds?
Therefore, despite Tan Lun’s humble words, his heart was overflowing with excitement and thrill.
Xu Hai and his group didn’t go far into the market before they saw a grain shop with a large storefront and extraordinary strength.
“Go, go to this grain shop and take a look.”Xu Hai said softly with a movement on his face. If you want to understand the disaster situation of Taizhou Province, the grain shop is a must see place, through the grain shop this one point, you can peep at the disaster this one face.
“Sir please.”Tan Lun, the governor of Taizhou, saluted and invited.
As Tan Lun invited, he explained to Xu Hai, Zhang Wenbo, Peng Cheng and the others, “This is the Fujia Grain Bank, named after the term ‘Fujia World’. It was previously the second largest grain merchant in my Taizhou Province, but now it is the first largest grain merchant in my Taizhou Province.”
“Oh, which was the original first largest grain merchant? Was it poorly run and was overtaken by the Fuga Grain Merchant?”Wang Mang casually asked, he was very satisfied with the way Tan Lun “indulged” Zhu Pingan in order to fix incriminating evidence, so he was very facetious at the moment and was willing to talk more with Tan Lun to show his closeness and friendliness.
“Nonetheless. The original number one grain merchant was the Mi Grain Bank, twenty days ago, the Mi Grain Bank jacked up grain prices to sabotage disaster relief and make disaster money, and its proprietor had his head chopped off by a certain person on the street. That’s why the Fuga Grain Bank became the number one grain bank.”Tan Lun gently shook his head, cloudily speaking out his own achievements in tightly controlling grain prices with thunderous means, without a trace of credit to Xu Hai and the others.
“Extraordinary times call for extraordinary means. Governor Tan’s boldness in office is truly admirable.”Peng Cheng nodded.
“Lord Peng is too kind. Tan Mou also has no choice, these treacherous merchants disregarded the people’s lives and raised grain prices, the people suffered a lot, in order to tightly control grain prices, Tan Mou can only make an example of the chickens, a total of two big grain merchants’ heads were chopped off that day, which deterred a bunch of treacherous merchants, and the grain prices in my Taizhou Province have finally stabilised, stabilised from the grain merchants’ inflated 1,300 cents per stone to 500 cents per stone.”
Tan Lun humbly explained, revealing the information that grain prices in Taizhou Province had stabilised without a trace.
Sure enough, when Xu Hai heard this, he praised Tan Lun’s actions, and by the way, he severely degraded Zhu Pingan, “Grain prices are stable, so that the people can be stable, Governor Tan, this is what an official who pleads for the people should look like, unlike some people, when floods are present, the people are not happy, and he even colludes with grain merchants to inflate the price of grain in the name of the government, in order to make his own personal gains! This kind of official is really the shame of my generation, my generation is ashamed to be with them!”
While speaking, Xu Hai and the others lifted their feet and stepped into the Fuga Grain Bank.
Before their feet landed on the ground, they saw a few exasperated commoners coming out of the Fuga Grain Store.
“Bah! There’s not even a bit of grain, what’s the point of opening a shop!”
“That’s right, yesterday we said we had food today, but today we came with money in our pockets, and we were told that there was no food!”
“I shucks! They didn’t have any food then, they just thought the price of food was too low, and they were secretly selling it on the black market! The price of grain on the black market is sky-high! Last time my family couldn’t make ends meet, I went to the black market, damn, it was expensive, not to mention that the food was pitifully low, if I went late, it would be gone, let’s go quickly.”
A few old people cursed under their breath and walked out of the Fuga Grain Shop, and after going out, they felt that they were not relieved, and turned their heads to spit a few spits at the grain shop.
What’s going on? Did the grain shop run out of food?
Xu Hai and the others stepped into the grain shop, before they could open their mouths to ask, they heard the grain shop mate say to them in a cold tone, “I’m sorry a few masters, the shop has no more grain, you guys go to another house to take a look at it.”
“I see that your shop has only just opened for business, how come there is no grain so soon?”Xu Hai asked curiously.
“I’m really sorry, the small shop’s stock of grain was sold out five days ago. Today’s opening is for the sake of tidying up the shop, the small shop is going to close this time, when the small shop has grain, the small shop will open for business again.”
The shop mate said while tidying up the things on the counter of the grain shop, packing and filing them away, truly a gesture of preparing to close the shop.
“I wonder when our shop will have grain?”Xu Hai asked again.
“That’s hard to say, it could be ten days and half a month, it could be a month or two, who can say.”
The shop mate replied back without lifting his head, his tone was cold, as if he was deliberately driving the guests out.
“I don’t know how to sell the grain in our shop?”Wang Meng enquired.
“500 Wen, of course it’s 500 Wen per stone, this is the price set by Fu Zun, the shop is very disciplined.”The grain shop mate seemed like he had been trained, as soon as he heard someone ask for the price, he reflexively quoted the price.
Taizhou governor Tan Lun heard this and nodded with satisfaction, glancing towards Xu Hai and the others, as if to say, see, I was right, the price of grain in our Taizhou Prefecture has stabilised, maintaining at this price of 500 Wen per stone.
“But unfortunately, there is a price without grain.”The shop mate pulled the corner of his mouth, his tone filled with a kind smile.
“Several masters, you guys go to other shops to take a look.”The shop mate said with an air of sending off.
When Xu Hai and the others turned around and were about to take a look at the other grain shops, they heard the shop fellow behind them say, “In fact, if you guys go to the other shops, I guess it’s all for nothing. All the other shops are also this, with prices but no grain.”
“If you guys really want to buy grain, might as well go to the black market to see, there should be grain there, how do I know, huh, you guys don’t ask, ask me also won’t say, say also say I don’t know anything ……”
The shop mate said to Xu Hai and the others with a mysterious face, said this, and then asked again, said nothing.
