Ahem, as post-disaster reconstruction is a lot of business, I will make a long story short and simplify the complicated reasoning. Do you all really think that the lower the price of grain, the better? If we, Jingnan, are like Taizhou Prefecture, Taiping County, and other counties, and use thunderbolt tactics to forcefully control grain prices at 500 wen per stone, then what scenario will develop in the future?”Zhu Pingan rubbed his brain for a moment, forcibly holding back his fatigue as he said to the crowd under the hall.
“Grain prices are naturally the lower the better, the lower the grain prices, the more the people can benefit.”
“If we, Jingnan, also control the grain price at 500 Wen per stone with a thunderbolt, that will naturally be a great joy, celebrated by all, and naturally it will get better and better in the future. The price of grain has come down, and the people can afford to buy grain. When the people have food in their hands and are not panicking in their hearts, then this flood will naturally pass.”
“That’s right, when the price of grain is lowered and stabilised, the hearts of the common people will be put at ease, society will be stabilised, and in the future, my Jingnan will naturally be better and better.”
The people under the hall said one after another, talking about lowering grain prices, everyone’s face was filled with yearning and longing.
Everyone felt that the lower the price of food, the better, in their opinion, after people suffered a flood and their property was damaged, naturally the lower the price of food, the better, when the price of food was low, everyone could afford to buy food, and the flood would naturally pass. Not a single person felt that there would be anything bad about lower food prices.
What a group of simple people, Zhu Pingan sniffed, and couldn’t help but pull the corner of his mouth and shake his head with a bitter smile.
“What, isn’t it? Prefect, although we are less educated, we are not that easy to fool.”
“That’s right, even a nine year old child understands that the lower the price of grain, the better.”
The people under the hall did not feel that what they said was wrong, and when they saw Zhu Pingan’s expression, they could not help but pull the corners of their mouths downwards.
“Gentlemen, our Jiangnan is the famous granary of the Great Ming, now that Jiangnan has suffered a flood, more than 80% of the grain has been destroyed, and about less than 20% of the grain that survived in our Jiangnan is left. Relying on this amount of grain in Jiangnan alone will not be able to feed our ten million people in Jiangnan. Want to get through this flood food shortage crisis, can only be from Sichuan Shu, Shandong and other foreign countries to bring a huge amount of food, in order to alleviate the food shortage.
There are two main ways to bring in huge quantities of grain from places thousands of miles away, such as Sichuan and Shandong.
One is organised by the imperial court, and the other is the spontaneous transport of grain by the people.
After the flood, I sent daily letters to the Taizhou Prefecture requesting the court to provide relief and rescue, but there has been no news until four days ago when the Taizhou Prefecture replied, and the reply was only to order our counties to help themselves, which is something I have already called on all of you to talk about once. At present my Ming court because of recent years disaster frequent, the government treasury consumption is huge, short period of time is unable to organise relief, rescue us Jiangnan, so the court organisation of grain shipment this way, short period of time can not count on it. Then there is only one kind of private food transport left.
Civilian food transport, mainly through the grain merchants around the large and small grain transport. Now we have a grain shortage in Jiangnan, not only our Jingnan grain prices rise, that is, Sichuan and Sichuan, Shandong grain prices are also rising one after another, although lower than our Jiangnan grain prices, but not much difference, the local price of each stone of grain are also close to 500 Wen.
Grain merchants to go to the field to purchase food, the purchase price is close to 500 wen, the journey and thousands of miles, all the way to eat the horse chewing, but also to hire workers, guards, each of which is a large expenditure, the road is also faced with banditry, bandits, thieves, and even the victims of the coaxing and looting and other risks, so that a combination of the down, the grain merchants to go to the field of the cost of grain transport is far more than the 500 wen per stone ……
If we in Jingnan were like the Prefecture and other counties, and forced the price of grain down to 500 wen through thunderous means. Then the grain merchants would have no profit, no money to make, and would even have to pay money back, so would the grain merchants still work hard and risk thousands of miles to transport grain from overseas to sell in Jingnan?
As the saying goes, no businessman is an adulterer, no profit is an advantage, if they don’t make money or even pay money backwards to transport grain, do you think it’s possible?
Put yourself in your shoes, if it were you, no profit, no money to earn, even have to put money back, you will work hard, thousands of miles of risk to go to the field to transport grain?
If I, Jingnan, were to use the same thunderous tactics as other places and forcefully reduce the price of grain to 500 Wen per stone! I’m sure that our grain merchants in Jingnan would never have such a noble character, and with no profit to be made, they would never toil and risk their lives to transport grain out of the country again! The little stock of grain they survived the flood would be sold out in less than three days! After that, the people of Jingnan won’t be able to buy a single grain even with silver. Can not buy the grain means what, do not need me to say more right, mourning, red land thousands of miles, easy son to eat each other, white bone full of …… these tragic scenes, will be repeated in my Jingnan. There is a price but no market, there is a price but no food, what is the use of such a food price? Is such a food price what you are seeking? Are such grain prices really good for the people of Jingnan?!”
Zhu Pingan spoke, the more he spoke, the more excited he became, the more emotional he became, and in the end he couldn’t help but slap the table.
Boom!
Zhu Ping’an’s words were like a thunderbolt from the nine heavens, which exploded in the minds of all the people in the hall.
The people under the hall were instantly blown into half-timbered pieces by the thunderbolt, all of them had their mouths wide open, they could not help but feel a palpitation in their hearts, and the hairs on their entire body stood up as if they had been electrocuted!
Zhu Pingan’s words lagged behind, the entire lobby was so silent that the crowd could only hear their heartbeats.
After a while, only then someone’s face was pale and shook his head repeatedly, his eyes were blank and unfocused like, shivering his lips murmured, “No, it’s not, how could it turn out like this …… I don’t believe it ……”
Just now to Zhu Pingan resigned to the household room official Liu Fuzi, official room official Zhang Tongsheng, criminal room official Han Cheng, ritual room official Liu old man and so on, at this moment their faces are paler than the others, they are readers, than illiterate servants to see a lot of knowledge, Zhu Pingan’s words deafening, they as if enlightenment, all of a sudden want to understand. Precisely because they understood, their faces turned so pale, not daring to raise their heads to look directly into Zhu Pingan’s eyes, ashamed.
Rat’s eyes, rat’s eyes, that’s what we are talking about. Compared to County Honour, we are too short-sighted.
“It’s just that, County Honour, even if we want to induce grain merchants to purchase grain with profit, there’s no need to set the price of grain so high, right?”
Old man Liu’s heart paled, his tone much weaker than when he had asked for Zhu Pingan’s resignation in his room.
“High?”
Zhu Pingan tugged at the corner of his mouth as he sniffed and shook his head, “Not high, at this period, under these circumstances, a grain price of two thousand five hundred Wen per stone is not high at all. This is the only price that can drive the grain merchants in Jingnan and other grain merchants from all over the world to bring grain from all over Daming to Jingnan to meet the needs of the people of Jingnan. Compared to the lives of over 100,000 people in Jingnan, is this price of grain high?”
Old man Liu sniffed and fell silent. The crowd was also silent, it was only at this time that they understood why Zhu Pingan had just asked them which was more important, silver or lives.
“Right now, you all feel that the grain prices in Jingnan are high, but after some time, as little as a month or so, or as much as three to five months, you will realise that our grain prices in Jingnan will be the lowest in the Taizhou Prefecture.”
Zhu Pingan looked his gaze into the distance and said to the crowd under the hall with a confident expression, his gaze was deep and distant, as if he had seen through time with a single glance.
“Ah?”
The crowd was surprised and incredulous.
“Don’t believe? All of you and wait for some time and you will know.”Zhu Pingan did not say much, the principles behind this, such as economics and sociology, could not be explained to them in a moment, and even if they did, it was expected that they would not understand.
“Prefect, what you said, although I don’t quite understand it, but I feel that what you said is very reasonable, if we lower the price of grain, I’m afraid that things will turn out like that ninety-nine per cent of the time. It’s just that this grain price is also too high, even if the grain merchants are profitable and shipping grain like crazy, making my Jingnan have plenty of grain, I’m afraid that there are still a lot of poor people who can’t afford to buy grain. They can’t afford to buy grain, so they can only starve to death.”Han Cheng, the Criminal Chamber Warden, said with his fists clasped.
“Big Dagger, go and bring the donation book.”Zhu Pingan said to Liu Dazhou.
In the crowd’s puzzled gazes, Liu Dazhou received the order to turn around and leave, and soon returned with a booklet in both hands.
“Big Dagger, give the booklet to Dignitary Han and ask the crowd to circulate it.”Zhu Pingan said to Liu Dazhu.
Liu Dazhou received the order and handed the pamphlet to Han Cheng, but when he handed it to him, he grunted with a displeased face.
“Didn’t you all say that I, Zhu Pingan, accepted bribes from grain merchants? That’s right, this ‘Jingnan County Flood Donation Book’ is the ‘proof of guilt’ that I, Zhu Pingan, ‘took bribes’. Jingnan grain merchants of all sizes, a total of 38 people, donated a total of 46,000 taels of silver, and I, Zhu Pingan, accepted all of them and recorded them one by one! In the future, at the end of each month, if they don’t come, I will also send people to each grain shop to collect donations! In the future, for every foreign grain merchant who comes to Jingnan, I will also send someone in the name of this official to make a trip! What’s all this money for? It’s money for the poor people in Jingnan who can’t afford to buy grain! From today onwards, I’ll send someone to count the poor people in Jingnan who can’t afford to buy food, and distribute the silver on a regular basis! I guarantee that no one will starve to death in Jingnan with this head! If anyone dies of starvation, you may all take my head as a ‘corrupt official’, ‘dog official’, and ‘treacherous official’!”
Zhu Pingan pointed to his own head while the crowd under the hall was circulating the donation book, and said to the crowd with a pair of red eyes.
“County ……The county honourable ……We were wrong!”
After the torture chamber official Han Cheng finished flipping through the donation book, he could no longer control himself and fell to his knees with long streams of tears.
For the sake of the people of Jingnan, County Dignitary has not hesitated to defile himself, not even his reputation or his integrity ……We even ……
“Prefecture Zun, we are wrong.”
Poof, poof ……The hall fell to its knees like cutting wheat, and there was no longer a standing one.
