Chapter 404 Wildfire
Then the information filtered out became more scattered.
For example, Jinxia City is promoting a free elementary education system, the director of the Machinery Bureau is a former official from the capital, there are new ships visiting the harbor, and the General Affairs Bureau manages people's food, clothing, housing, transportation, birth, aging, illness and death... and these can be more or less related to Xia Fan.
Can a listener really bring such a huge change to Yancheng?
Fei Nian is really a little skeptical about this.
He has consulted the records of the Record Department, and the General Office has also had listeners, or in the most prosperous era of the Yong Dynasty, there can be one or two listeners every year. They may be gifted, powerful, or master amazing secrets and eventually become rich overnight, but these brilliance and changes belong only to the listener. No one has ever been able to make the city change like Xia Fan.
The judgment of the Privy Council on its listener... is it too hasty?
Thinking back carefully, as early as when he came into contact with Xia Fan in Qingshan Town, he had already shown signs that he was different from ordinary people.
Fei Nian sighed and put these distracting thoughts behind him.
It is meaningless to think about these now. The information in front of him is crucial and must be sent back to the capital as soon as possible to let His Highness and He'er know.
Whether it is the infiltration of the Western Extreme forces or the large-scale appearance of monsters, it is the last thing that Qixing wants to see. This time, the Second Prince probably can't deliberately spare the life of the Third Princess like he did to his eldest brother.
Fei Nian is now more fortunate that the Privy Council did not immediately launch a siege against Jinxia City after the snow season ended. The Xuzhou Black Cavalry led by Qing Jian and the army of 20,000 to 30,000 people may be able to easily deal with the magic family, but facing Jinxia with Shuanglong and Jiuxiao Tianlei Envoy, it is probably not going to get any benefit. Once the war situation is deadlocked, it will inevitably be a heavy blow to the Tianshu regime that is establishing a new order. Not only will the forces in various places be ready to move, but Qixing will also question the ability of the Tianshu Envoy.
This war must be crushed and settled once and for all!
Sending spies to weaken the opponent's power is the right choice.
After all, no matter how incredible the changes in Jinxia are, the residents also need to eat and need a stable political situation. When these no longer exist, no matter how powerful the individual alchemists are, it will be useless.
And this is exactly where the new regime is most likely to have problems.
Fei Nian put down the intelligence and looked up in the direction of Jinxia City - the Privy Council has undoubtedly encountered a real challenge this time. As for how much it will cost to overcome it, it may depend on the things done before the war.
...
Jinxia, in the compound of the Affairs Bureau.
The Ministry of Grain is preparing a new round of import plans.
Now all departments know that the visiting fleet of the Xiema Kingdom has brought two million taels of silver to Jinxia City. In addition, Xia Fan never encourages people to save money, so everyone is much bolder in making plans than before.
Wei Wushuang is no exception.
Now that Shenzhou is under the princess's command, the grain plan should also be arranged by state. Since the Affairs Branch has not been able to control everything like the Jinxia General Bureau, it will take some time to monopolize grain marketing. Therefore, he plans to let the branch investigate the grain reserves of various towns first, and the import offer is directed to Liuzhou, Qingzhou and Yazhou, using grain from other states to ensure the supply of Shenzhou.
According to Brother Xia, it is the natural duty of the Ministry of Grain to strive to eliminate hunger.
A qualified head of the Ministry of Grain should ensure that no hungry people die of starvation in the area under his management.
Whenever Wei Wushuang thinks of this sentence, a blazing fire will surge in his heart.
He used to be the second son of an ordinary merchant. Even if he could inherit the family business, he would just continue to collect and sell grain. But now, what he is doing is to help the world. Is there anything more meaningful than this!
What's more, the Ministry of Grain doesn't have to consider the funds.
Just as he was writing furiously, Wei Yan pushed the door and walked into the office study.
"Dad, you are here?" Wei Wushuang immediately put down his pen and stood up to greet him.
Although he was the chief of the grain department, and the other party was just a specially hired "staff member", who made this staff member his biological father?
"Sit down. An official should act like an official. You are not at home, but in the officialdom!" Wei Yan blew his beard and glared.
"Oh." Wei Wushuang sat down honestly, and thought to himself that Brother Xia didn't care about these things, "What are you doing here?"
"The price of grain has increased." Wei's father threw a stack of bills on the desk, "and all channels are increasing, and some grain shops have even closed down."
"What? At this time?" Wei Wushuang was stunned, "... There is no reason?"
He picked up the bill and glanced at it. The replies on it came from the partners accumulated by Dawan Grain Shop over the past few decades - including both downstream peers and upstream large landlords, and the price increase in Anshen and Baihe was the most obvious.
Grain fluctuations often occur in disaster years or turbulent times, but the previous year was good weather and the locust plague did not affect Qi State, so there was no reason to increase prices across the board.
If it was a small increase, it would be fine. The price on the list not only increased significantly, but the closure of the business is also a very bad omen.
That does not mean that the grain shop has no grain in stock, but it wants to wait until the price rises to a certain level before selling it.
This practice will definitely cause many people to be unable to afford food and fall into trouble.
"What happened in the northwest?"
"I asked someone." Wei Yan picked up the teapot on the table, "Wait, you don't have tea here?"
"Dad——!"
"Not bad, it looks a bit better." He nodded with satisfaction. "The answer is that nothing happened, but there were suddenly more people buying grain in the past week. I combined the situation of various families and concluded that except for Jinxia City, grain trading in other places has entered the peak season in advance."
"This is not a naturally occurring peak season." Wei Wushuang said decisively. The reason why the peak season is so prosperous is determined by people's purchasing habits and the laws of solar terms. Abnormality means that someone is deliberately operating - the question is who is driving all this. "Father, please ask about the situation in Liuzhou and Qingzhou for me to see how foreign grain merchants react to this."
"What about you?"
"Notify the affairs branch offices in Anshen and Baisha and let them check where the sold grain went." Wei Wushuang replied, "This matter also needs to be notified to Brother Xia as soon as possible."
The senior management of the affairs bureau knew that Jinxia had completely fallen out with the Gyeonggi Privy Council, and the contradictions between the two sides were almost irreconcilable. In addition, the snow season is over, so any changes in Shenzhou at this time must not be taken lightly.
In the evening, the Baihe City branch office sent back a telegram.
"The local grain price has risen to twice its usual price, and there are rumors of a food shortage in Jinxia, claiming that it is our massive purchase of stored grain that has caused shortages in surrounding towns. People are rushing to buy grain outside the grain shops that are still open. After investigation, it was found that the grain that was sold was resold, and it is now impossible to trace the source."