"What news ~?"
Li Zexuan originally thought that this matter was already over, but he did not expect that Pu Yatu seemed to have something else to say. Today was really full of twists and turns!
Pu Yatu carefully glanced at the direction of the door. Li Zexuan waved his hand and said, "Messenger, if you have something to say, just say it. No one will eavesdrop outside the door!"
With his current skills, if someone was eavesdropping nearby, it would definitely be impossible to hide from his perception. But Pu Yatu's attitude showed that what he was going to say next was definitely not ordinary.
Pu Yatu then opened his mouth and said, "I don't know if Marquis is wondering why we, the messengers, suddenly came to the academy to watch the military training exercise today?"
Li Zexuan narrowed his eyes, crossed his arms, leaned back on the chair and said, "Messenger, if you have something to say, please say it directly!"
The other two messengers, at this moment, changed their expressions greatly. Pu Yatu gritted his teeth and said, "The first one who proposed to come to the academy was the Great Minister of Jienri Dynasty, Aluo Nashun. Although I don't understand the reason, but two days ago, Minister Cui often talked to Aluo Nashun alone, so …"
At this point, Pu Yatu stopped talking, because everyone should be able to guess what he was going to say next.
Li Zexuan's face darkened, and a cold light flashed in his eyes. The Cui family, they were really like maggots attached to bones! Previously, they sent people to assassinate him but did not succeed. Instead, their old nest was destroyed by him. He did not expect that these people would not stop, and now they were secretly playing tricks. It was really disgusting!
"Mm, I know! I will pretend that I did not hear what you said just now. The two of you are not allowed to spread it out ~! "
Li Zexuan turned his head to look at the two messengers from Piao Country and Fu Nan Country, and said in a deep voice.
He wanted to settle the score with the Cui family by himself, and did not want to complicate matters.
"Yes, yes, we understand. We will definitely not spread it out ~!"
The two messengers quickly agreed.
…
"Young Master, why haven't we sold the rent we received this year?"
At noon on this day, Li Zexuan had just returned from the Academy when Xiao He, who was in the courtyard, ran over and asked.
Li Zexuan's curiosity was piqued. He asked, "Why? Has Xiao He also started to care about the important matters in the residence ~? "
The Li Zexuan had no intention of selling off the rent they had collected this year. Not only that, Li Zexuan had also bought a lot of food from other farmsteads. Everything was to prepare for the locusts next year. As the saying goes, as long as one has food to spare, one will not panic. Although he knew there would be a locust plague next year, he had never seen one before. God knows what the exact situation would be like when the time came. It was always better to be prepared.
Of course, very few people knew about the locust plague. Xiao He definitely didn't know about it. Otherwise, she wouldn't have asked this question.
Xiao He, who was not afraid of anything, was startled by Li Zexuan's casual words. She quickly waved her hand and said,
"No, no, no, Young Master, I … I didn't mean that! I just heard that the price of food in Chang 'an has dropped greatly recently when I was helping Young Madam to buy things in the West Market today. And there is a tendency for it to continue to drop. Only then did I remember that we haven't sold our food yet ~! "
She was just a servant girl. How could she be qualified to care about the important matters in the residence? If it were a more narrow-minded mistress, she would definitely be driven out of the house after hearing this sentence!
"The price of food has dropped greatly?"
Li Zexuan didn't have as many strange thoughts as Xiao He. He frowned slightly and asked, "What is the price of food in Chang 'an now? Why did the price of food suddenly drop? "
Xiao He breathed a sigh of relief and explained, "Young Master, now you can buy a bucket of rice for two coins. The reason why it is so cheap is that when the imperial court fleet returned a while ago, the civilian merchant ships also brought back a lot of food. Those merchants were eager to sell off the food, so they all lowered the price of food and wanted to sell it as soon as possible! Now all the major grain stores and granaries in Chang 'an are basically full! "
Previously, Li Er had decided to let the imperial court organize a fleet to lead civilian merchant ships to trade in Southeast Asia. The main purpose was to exchange for a large amount of food to cope with the locust plague next year.
The more than 500 official ships of the imperial court were all full of food when they returned. Li Er didn't have a hard and fast rule for civilian merchant ships, but each family must have at least two ships dedicated to carrying food. As a result, when the fleet docked, those civilian merchants were eager to sell the food on the ships. This thing was worthless and would only rot in their hands.
Two coins for a bucket of rice?
Damn, a bucket of rice was more than 12 catties. Li Zexuan suddenly felt that it was a waste of natural resources. Those grain merchants were really wasteful. How could they sell the food so cheaply?
"Well, okay, I know! Xiao He, you don't have to continue to worry about it. I naturally have my reasons for not selling the food. You can go do your own things! "
Li Zexuan sighed in his heart at the cheap price of food in the Tang Empire. At the same time, he was quickly analyzing the impact of the fall in food prices on the Tang Empire.
In modern times, foreign food had always been cheaper than domestic food. Every year, large amounts of food flowed into China from abroad. As a result, domestic food prices were bound to fluctuate.
As the saying went, cheap food hurt the farmers. Many farmers hoped that their food could be sold at a good price while having a good harvest.
In order to protect the farmers' enthusiasm, the country could only buy the farmers' food. Most of the food bought by the country didn't enter the market. The farmers thought that their food met the requirements of the market after selling it, but in the end, it was the country that kept it. Although this method would leave behind many hidden dangers and couldn't solve the problem fundamentally, it was still a good way to stabilize the food prices.
But in the era he lived in, was it really necessary to stabilize the food prices?
At this time, the food in the Tang Empire was mainly in the hands of landlords. After the farmers paid the rent, most of the food left in their hands was only enough for their families to survive. Very few of them would sell their food. If he persuaded Li Er to stabilize the food prices, the landlords would be the ones who would benefit!
Cough cough, although he was also a landlord now …
In view of this, instead of stabilizing the food prices, he might as well use this opportunity to buy more food and save it for next year's locusts!
After sending Xiao He away, Li Zexuan rode his horse back to Chang 'an to find Butler Wang Zhong.
"Uncle Wang, help me contact the other members of the Flaming Yellow Chamber of Commerce in these two days. Tell them that I want to buy a large amount of food and ask for their help! At the same time, I will also get people to build a large granary at the foot of the Cloud Mountain! "
Li Zexuan found Wang Zhong in the front yard of the Li Residence and went straight to the point.
…
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