lcionline Chapter 138 No Loss
Chapter 138 No Loss
He's crazy?
Or is that old man Magistrate Su crazy?
Wang Chengqing looked at the Chen and Liu families with suspicion, wondering if there was a traitor among them, and someone secretly sold the grain to the government at a low price.
The few people who were stared at by Master Wang's vicious eyes shook their heads one after another. Everyone said that they absolutely did not betray their own people, and did not secretly sell grain to Prefect Su.
However, they were also looking at each other. Although they did not sell, they could not stop others from selling secretly.
As the saying goes, competitors are enemies. Originally, these companies were direct competitors, but they joined together only because they all wanted to make more money.
If they said they would put aside their past grudges and become friends even if they were to wear the same underwear, not only others would not believe it, even they themselves would not believe it.
A group that comes together because of interests will also fall apart because of interests.
But no matter how Wang Chengqing investigated, he couldn't find the traitor among them.
That's impossible. The food couldn't be transported by sea, and it's also blocked by land. Where did Governor Su get the food? Could it be that he just appeared out of thin air?
How can it be? !
Mr. Wang, who had guessed the correct answer without knowing it, was still persevering in trying to find the traitor among them, and he vowed not to give up until he had eliminated the traitor.
"Master! They have reduced the price of grain to fifteen cents a pound!"
"Master! They have reduced the price of grain to thirteen cents a pound!"
A week, a whole week passed.
The government’s granaries were selling grain in a steady stream, and the prices were getting lower and lower every day.
At the beginning, many people saw that food prices were cheap and bought a lot of food every day. Even if their families had enough food, they still stockpiled it because who knew if there would be food to buy in the future.
But who would have thought that the government's grain prices were getting cheaper day by day, and the amount of grain that could be purchased was getting more and more.
After this week, everyone thought that the prefect and his men must have bought a lot of grain, and Jiangzhou would no longer be short of food.
Even today, when the prefect announced that there would be no purchase limit on grain and the price dropped to ten cents per pound, few people were willing to come to the north of the city to buy grain.
On the first day of unlimited purchases, the government warehouse in the north of the city sold the least grain in more than a week.
"Prefect, we only sold less than ten shi of grain today."
While looking at the official documents, Magistrate Su asked without raising his head, "How much is left in our warehouse?"
"Less than fifty stones."
The food that was originally enough to feed the entire Jiangzhou City for more than a month was sold out by Governor Su in less than two weeks, leaving only a little bit.
However, there was no sign of panic on Magistrate Su's face, because this was exactly his plan.
If the plan of Jimin was followed and the grain was either given or sold to the people every day, people would be in a panic. They would not know how long the government's grain would last, so they would store grain at home without restraint. Then, no matter how much grain there was, it would not be enough.
Moreover, from the very beginning, he had never thought of living solely on this batch of food.
He was targeting the big grain traders.
He has set up the stage, and now all he has to do is wait for them to make their debut.
"Master, the price of grain has dropped to ten cents per pound, and they no longer limit purchases."
When the palace steward uttered these words tremblingly, Mr. Wang suddenly felt dizzy, staggered, and fell onto his seat.
Ten cents a pound!
Ten cents per pound!
This is a trap!
A trap targeting his Wang family!
Governor Su kept saying that there was a food shortage, but in fact he had already stored enough food in Jiangzhou, and they hadn't discovered it yet.
They kept saying that they wanted their help, but actually they were testing them by selling grain at a low price.
Maybe the traitor was hiding among them, passing information between the two sides, and the direction he had checked before was wrong!
Mr. Wang gritted his teeth and felt more and more that this was a conspiracy by Prefect Su.
He thought that Governor Su had been short of grain before and had resorted to the trick of limiting purchases to mislead others, causing them to buy a lot of expensive grain. Now he said that the price would be reduced to ten cents per pound and there would be no purchase limit.
Are you trying to trick him into buying food again?
Ha ha.
no way!
Not only did he not buy grain, he even wanted to sell it!
Even if he sold it at a loss, it didn't matter. As long as Magistrate Su lost more than him, he would be bringing honor to the Wang family.
"Go tell the other families not to sell their grain and wait and see what happens."
While giving these instructions, Mr. Wang quickly ordered the grain shop under his control to open and sell grain, and set the price at nine cents per pound.
When other families received the news, some were willing to obey, because the Wang family was the largest grain merchant, and as long as they said they would not sell, the price of grain would go up one day.
Some families sneered. They knew the character of the Wang family and instead quickened their pace, urging their subordinates to reopen the business as soon as possible.
All of a sudden, grain shops of all sizes that had been closed appeared like mushrooms after a rain. Compared with the government's unchanging price of ten cents per catty, some of them sold for nine cents and some for eight cents.
Now, some of the wary people completely believed that they in Jiangzhou would no longer be short of food.
Since there is no shortage of food, why do they buy food at high prices?
Food prices have been falling, so why don't they wait a little longer? At worst, the government will provide a guarantee of ten cents per pound.
All the people had blind trust in the government. They no longer scrambled for food, nor were they willing to go to the grain stores to buy more food.
Seeing that business was getting worse and worse, a new batch of seeds had already sprouted in the fields. In a few months, after the new rice was shipped back from other places, the grain merchants like them would be left with nothing.
If they can sell it for nine or eight cents a pound, their loss will not be too big. But if the price drops to the original three or four cents a pound, they are afraid that half of their current assets will be emptied.
They have to sell faster than other grain merchants, because once the people have grain, they will not buy more.
So before Prefect Su could take any action, these families started fighting.
If you sell it at nine cents a pound, I will sell it at eight cents a pound, or even worse, I will sell it at a low price of seven cents a pound.
The people applauded, but they had not forgotten that these merchants had raised the price of grain and caused many people to lose their families.
If I could make them lose everything, it would be a true tit-for-tat.
Gradually, except for those who had no food at home, most people were unwilling to stockpile food. The price of food changed every day, and they would lose money the next day if they bought it. It was better to buy it and eat it on the same day.
There were no malicious competition treaties in ancient times. They compared prices with each other, and the price of grain once fell below five cents per pound.
Prefect Su waved his hand and said that they still had a lot of silver in their hands, so as long as the price of grain was lower than five cents, they would keep buying it.
While Prefect Su was collecting grain, he was also deliberately sowing discord among several grain merchants, and the interest relationship that was originally just a show became increasingly fragile.
Finally, someone could not help but surrender to the government, and brought news that the Wang family was having an affair with the rebels.