“Lord Zhou, do you have a good plan?”
The powerful families were all feeling anxious, so they turned to look at the man with the goatee who had spoken.
Lord Zhou stroked his beard and swayed his head as he said, “There is indeed a method, but it requires everyone to work together with one heart. No more secretly undermining each other.”
After saying that, he deliberately glanced at Xu Pangzi.
A while back, because Chen Shiye had been captured, Xu Pangzi had sent people to cause trouble everywhere and seize other powerful families’ stalls. This had left many of them quite unhappy.
“Lord Zhou, just say it. I guarantee I will cooperate!”
Xu Pangzi quickly promised.
In the hearts of the powerful families, profit always came first.
For the sake of profit, they could fight until their heads bled, or they could shake hands, make peace, and drink together cheerfully.
Xu Pangzi’s earlier troublemaking and seizure of other stalls had not been purely out of anger.
He had simply used Chen Shiye’s capture as an excuse to act crazy and play the fool.
The other powerful families understood this perfectly well, but since the Xu family had indeed lost a strategist in this plan, they had tacitly allowed Xu Pangzi’s “reckless behaviour”.
This was also a kind of unspoken agreement among the powerful families.
Before the Ninth Princess arrived, they would compete and scheme against each other. But once they had a common enemy like the Ninth Princess, they could immediately unite and face the outside together.
“After learning that the Ninth Princess had left the capital, I sent a message asking the people in the capital to investigate her movements. She only met His Majesty once after returning to the palace, and apparently the meeting went very badly. His Majesty was extremely angry.”
The man with the goatee said, “When she left the palace, the Ninth Princess left empty-handed. I think the chances of her having obtained an imperial decree are very small.”
“Lord Zhou, we are all in the same boat. If you have something to say, just say it plainly. Stop beating around the bush.”
Xu Pangzi frowned and said, “I do not want to guess what you really mean.”
“Then I will speak plainly.”
The man with the goatee gave Xu Pangzi a contemptuous glance and continued, “Appointing or removing a provincial governor requires His Majesty’s personal approval, and it also needs the seals of the six ministries. The Ninth Princess has no imperial decree, and she has no time to grease the palms of the six ministries. Therefore, she cannot possibly restore Qing Xinyao to his original position.
Without Qing Xinyao’s help, the Ninth Princess is new here. Who in Chuan Shu can she rely on?”
“She can rely on Jin Feng.”
“Jin Feng is just a minor baron. As long as we do not act foolishly like Xue Henglu and charge straight into his military camp, giving him a handle against us, what is there to fear?”
“Jin Feng is no longer just a minor baron now. He also has the Zhenyuan Army under him!”
Xu Pangzi gritted his teeth and said, “That Zhang Liang is just like Jin Feng, a complete mad dog who bites anyone he catches.”
“The Zhenyuan Army is indeed a big problem, but it is not without solutions.”
“Lord Zhou has a way?”
All the powerful families looked towards the man with the goatee. They had truly been beaten into fear by Zhang Liang.
“The reason the Zhenyuan Army has been so rampant is fundamentally because we did not want to build granaries and instead placed the grain in bandit lairs.”
The man with the goatee swayed his head as he spoke, “As long as we move the grain out of the bandit lairs, would that not solve it?”
“I thought you were going to suggest something brilliant. If we could move it out, would we not have done so long ago?”
Xu Pangzi curled his lip and said, “Tell us, where can we move it to?”
The grain they had brought back from Jiangnan was piled up like mountains. Building and maintaining granaries was far too costly. Bandit lairs already had ready-made granaries scattered all over Chuan Shu. When selling grain, the bandits also served as free enforcers and labourers.
It was killing several birds with one stone.
That was why the powerful families had always done it this way. This year, however, the Zhenyuan Army had suddenly appeared midway and caught them completely off guard under the pretext of bandit suppression.
It was already too late to build temporary granaries now.
“Not only do bandit lairs have granaries. The landlords also have them.”
The man with the goatee said, “We can place the grain with them. At worst, it will just pass through a few more hands.”
When the powerful families heard this, their eyes suddenly lit up.
Previously, they had not wanted to get involved with landlords and gentry because those people were not as straightforward as bandits. A little grain or silver leaking through their fingers was enough to dismiss them.
Landlords and gentry were not short of money, and they were just as greedy as the powerful families.
If they rented granaries from them, the landlords would definitely demand exorbitant prices.
Of course, if the powerful families revealed their identities openly, the landlords and gentry would surely give them face, perhaps even for free.
But laughably, although the powerful families were full of corruption and debauchery inside, they placed extreme importance on their families’ reputations on the surface.
Even if the landlords opened their granaries wide, the powerful families would not dare to announce themselves and store grain there.
Otherwise, if word spread that they were profiting from disaster, it would tarnish their families’ clean names.
Even when using bandit lairs, they hid behind the scenes and passed the grain through several intermediaries.
But now they had been forced into a corner by Zhang Liang. They had no choice but to grit their teeth and send the grain to the landlords’ granaries.
Although they knew they would be fleeced, it was still better than letting Zhang Liang seize everything, right?
Therefore, the man with the goatee’s proposal received unanimous approval from the powerful families.
“Next comes the key part of the plan.”
At this point, the man with the goatee’s expression turned serious.
The powerful families all sat up straight. Even the great eunuch, who had been sitting with his eyes closed, pricked up his ears.
“I believe every family has invested considerable resources into this plan. We cannot fall into chaos just because the Ninth Princess is coming. Therefore, from now on we must unite and continue to drive up grain prices together!”
The man with the goatee looked around and asked, “What do you all think?”
“It should indeed go higher.”
The other powerful families nodded one after another in agreement.
“Then how much higher?”
Xu Pangzi asked.
“Last night I calculated it. If we rent the landlords’ granaries, grain prices need to at least double again for this trip to be worthwhile.”
“Double again…”
All the powerful families sucked in a cold breath.
“Would that not cause a huge disaster?”
Xu Pangzi asked worriedly.
Economics can be extremely complex, but it can also be very simple.
Throughout history, economics has always followed the simplest principle: supply and demand.
This year Chuan Shu suffered disaster. The common people had no surplus grain at home, and Jin Feng’s granaries had been sealed by them.
It could be said that right now, most of the grain in Chuan Shu was in their hands.
As long as they held it back and refused to release it, grain prices would naturally rise.
None of the powerful families doubted this.
Because grain was the most basic necessity for survival.
People could go without education or entertainment, but they could not go without food.
Without grain, no amount of silver was anything more than useless metal.
Not to mention doubling again, even doubling twice more was something the powerful families could achieve.
They just needed to keep the granaries tightly sealed and not let any grain out.
But current grain prices were already more than double last year’s level at the same time. Doubling again would make it five or six times last year’s prices.
Five or six times sounded simple, but the impact it would bring would be enormous.
At that point, not only ordinary common people would starve to death. Even low-paid minor officials would not be able to hold out.
It might even lead to scenes of “cannibalism among family members, corpses littering the fields, travelling dozens of li without hearing a human voice”.
A catastrophic famine.
No one could say for sure how many people in the entire Chuan Shu region would survive it.
“Gentlemen, if your heart is not ruthless, you cannot stand firm. The Ninth Princess has already arrived. If you are still hesitating at this point, waiting until she recovers and obtains the imperial decree, the ones who die will be us!”
A fierce glint flashed in the man with the goatee’s eyes. “Besides, Chuan Shu is the Qing family’s territory. If more people die, just handling disaster relief alone will keep Qing Xinyao busy for several years. It will also stop the Qing family from constantly causing trouble for us!”
