Chapter 374 Letter Received
After finishing all this work, Lu Songli couldn't help but chat with Qin Sheng about the large army he was about to return to.
Lu Songli said, "Mr. Xue and the others will be back soon, right?"
Qin Sheng thought for a while and replied, "According to the speed of the large army, they should be back. But it's been raining all the time in the past few days. The road is not easy to walk. I guess they have been resting on the spot."
There is nothing we can do about it. The roads in Liaoxi County are not as spacious as those in Liaodong County. When it rains, the road is more difficult to walk.
Fortunately, the large troops have already arrived at their own territory and are almost at the doorstep, so there is no need to delay at all.
Speaking of this, Lu Songli couldn't help but praise him, "This is a great job."
The situation at that time was that 200,000 shi of grain were urgently needed to be transported out of the Southland, otherwise there would be no chance, and Caobang only had a transportation capacity of 100,000 shi.
There are still 100,000 shi of food left, and it cannot be transported away at once. If it stays in the Southland, it will definitely become Xie Zhan's meal. Even the victims scattered to the Southland are a choice to support the enemy and benefit Xie Zhan.
And they worked together and actually came up with a way to use these 100,000 shi of food to attract a group of high-quality disaster victims to go north.
Yes, Lu Songli is looking forward to the upcoming batch of victims from the Southland disaster. This group of people is undoubtedly very high-quality. If nothing else, at least in terms of courage, these people who dared to go north were stronger than those who stayed in the south.
"Don't you always say that if a place wants to develop, it must be people-oriented? At that time, we thought that food that cannot be transported should not be cheap, Xie Zhan."
No matter what their thoughts are, they can find the optimal solution in a difficult situation, which is really amazing.
"Also, the 20,000 shi of food you left in Qingzhou have been of great help."
Qin Sheng was a little embarrassed by her praise.
Lu Songli discovered that Qin Sheng had really grown a lot this time back in the Southland.
At this time, a subordinate came to report, "News came from the south, saying that Xie Zhan most likely took Gu Huaisheng and Lu Fei to Nanyang."
"I see."
"Lili, will Xie Zhan ruin your plan?" Qin Sheng was quite worried. Xie Zhan was quite smart.
Lu Songli shook his head, "It doesn't matter." Xie Zhan could definitely guess that he would not stand idly by.
Lu Songli could also guess what he wanted to do. Wasn't he just trying to fish in troubled waters and pick her peaches to take advantage? Let's see if he has this ability.
Nanyang
Although the price of food in Nanyang was ridiculously high, Zhang Xian's efforts in providing disaster relief prevented Nanyang from starving to death after the earthquake. But all the Nanyang victims were sallow, thin, and lifeless.
In the ruined environment, the victims each found a piece of land, lying or sitting, and no one had any more communication.
None of the victims even bothered to speak unless necessary.
At this time, a ragged man came back from outside. As soon as he came back, he sighed, "I heard that food prices are going to rise again!"
These words were like a drop of water falling into a pan of oil and it exploded.
"Another increase? It's already two hundred and sixty cents per dou, is it going to go up again?"
"Oh my God, I can't live anymore. How can I survive with a bucket of grain costing two hundred and sixty cents?" An aunt was sitting on her knees holding a child, crying so hard.
"Don't panic, the court is still opening warehouses to provide disaster relief. We can tighten our belts and we can get through it."
"However, I heard that the food provided by the imperial court for disaster relief is not much, and I'm afraid it won't last long."
As soon as these words came out, panic spread, making many victims who thought they were numb to life burst into tears.
"God, you're going to kill someone."
"If that doesn't work, let's sell ourselves. Sell yourself to a wealthy landowner and become a hermit." As long as you live, you can't hope for anything else.
An aura of despair enveloped the entire Nanyang.
Zhang Xian is still working hard today. He took Zuo Anmin with him to Xuchang to meet with Che Jiuming, president of the Yuzhou Grain Merchants Chamber of Commerce.
Regarding their purpose of coming, the other party kept quarreling with him.
On the way back, Zhang Xian was in a worried mood.
The Che family, one of the Yuzhou aristocratic families, has now united with surrounding wealthy businessmen to establish a Grain Merchants Chamber of Commerce with the purpose of raising grain prices.
Che Jiuming's attitude was very tough, and he made it clear that he wanted to sell grain at high prices and plunder Nanyang's wealth. Completely disregarding the life and death of the people in Nanyang, and of course not caring about his life and death.
Now Nanyang is supported by him, and he blocks the front. But all the food now can only last about half a month.
If he still hasn't figured out a way to deal with it after half a month, the people of Nanyang will have no choice but to let the grain merchants and chambers of commerce ravage them. He and Zuo Anmin also declared that the disaster relief had failed.
After Zhang Xian and Zuo Anmin left, members of the Grain Merchants Chamber of Commerce surrounded Che Jiuming.
"President, I heard that Zhang Xian and Zuo Anmin are the emperor's favorites. Isn't it wrong for you to offend them?"
Che Jiuming raised his eyebrows and said with a bad smile, "Did I offend them? I was just talking about business. He wants us to lower the price of food. Doesn't this mean we are doing a loss-making business? This is not okay. What do you think? Yes or no?"
The others showed a tacit smile to each other, and echoed, "The president is right."
He is determined to eat this piece of fat in Nanyang!
Nanyang had no food due to the earthquake, but the people had money. Food prices have already started to rise after the earthquake, but because the court provided disaster relief in time, the people ate free food and still held on to the money in their hands.
Once all the food that Zhang Xian brought for disaster relief was eaten and drank, they could use the food in their hands to scrape the land of Nanyang.
Zhang Xian returned to his residence exhausted physically and mentally.
The confidant steward stepped forward to greet him and whispered in his ear, "Sir, a distinguished guest is coming."
Distinguished guest? Is that what he thought? Zhang Xian took a deep breath, "Where did you place the distinguished guest? Lead the way!" He had been looking forward to the news of the Lu family father and daughter!
They came to the living room.
Chen Jinshui saw the visitor and immediately stepped forward to salute, "My humble servant greets you, Mr. Zhang!"
"Please stand up quickly, no need to be polite."
Chen Jinshui took out two letters from his arms, "Mr. Zhang, this is a letter from Mr. Lu and Madam Qin Liu, please take a look."
"Good, good, good!" Zhang Xian said three good words after reading the letter, his eyes slightly moistened, and he couldn't help but raise his head.
After a while, he calmed down, "Your name is Chen Jinshui, right? You will follow me next time."
"Yes."
Zhang Xian finally looked in the direction of Xuchang and said coldly, "This time, we must make Che Jiuming and his grain merchants who want to make money from the national crisis bleed a lot!"
Runan
Xie Zhan, Gu Huaisheng, Lu Fei and others settled in a big house. This place is very close to Nanyang and Xuchang, and the three places are in a triangular relationship.
Xie Nan was puzzled, "Master, the people of Liaodong County are not going to take action? Zhang Xian is almost unable to hold on, right?"
The three major families have obtained a total of 200,000 stones of grain and 1 million taels of silver. Is it in vain?
Xie Zhan said affirmatively, "Liaodong County will definitely take action. We must pay close attention to the changes in the situation in Nanyang recently."
"Yes!"