There was a lot of laughter and joy in the Chu Palace in Luoyang, Xiang Zhuangzheng, Bi Shu, Wu She and Bailixian were drinking to celebrate.

"Come on, learn swordsmanship, and Bazhi and Ziliang have done this cup, haha." Xiang Zhuang raised the cup from afar, and Bi Shu and the other two followed him with a cup, covered their sleeves and drank it all.

Putting down the wine cup, Wu She tilted her head and asked, "Master, I still can't understand."

Xiang Zhuang smiled and poured the wine into the wine cup, while asking, "What do you don't understand?"

Wu She said: "What I don't understand is that there are less than 100,000 servants in Xianyang who do not have overnight food. Bai Mo only needs to restrict others from purchasing grain, or simply implement a rationing system for these servants and mercenaries to ensure that they have food. The food shortage in Guanzhong will be difficult to spread, so why did it fall to this point?"

Xiang Zhuang did not answer and asked Bi Shu: "Learn from the sword, what do you think your senior brother wants to do?"

Bi Shu smiled and replied to Wu She: "Doctor, my senior brother has never thought about purchase restrictions or rations, but he is obviously not satisfied with this. He also wants to defeat the heroes, great merchants, and noble families who dare to be against him in one fell swoop through this food crisis, and clear the obstacles for him to completely promote the official business of salt and iron."

"So that's it." Wu She frowned, "Bai Mo has always been cautious, but why is he so reckless this time?"

"Ba Zhi, you are wrong." Xiang Zhuang waved his hand and said, "Bai Mo is cautious in military affairs, but he is extremely bold and radical in political affairs. Otherwise, how could he dare to implement the national policy of calculating the tuition and the military service in Guanzhong? As for this time, Bai Mo is not a rash, but he has no idea of ​​the benefits and interests."

As an ancient man, how could he imagine the dangers of financial wars?

Baili Xian smiled and said, "King, should the Qin family and the Tang family take action next?"

"Yes." Xiang Zhuang slapped the wine cup on the desk and said with a grim voice. "Now the grain dominance in Guanzhong has collapsed. It is time for the Qin family and the Tang family to enter the scene to collect the body."

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It was the end of the year, but there was no trace of festive atmosphere in the Lv Mansion.

Whether it was the Hakka in the front yard or the maids and servants in the back yard, they were all trembling, walking on thin ice, and even walking with caution, for fear that one would accidentally cause trouble. Just yesterday, a little maid was killed by the second son just because she accidentally broke an ordinary pot.

Lu Chan walked into Lu Tai's study in a hurry and said angrily: "Brother, those short-sighted idiots, they only care about the immediate interests, say they advance and retreat together, but they are all rushing to sell behind their backs."

Lu Chan just came back from the gathering of these aristocratic families. At the gathering, Lu Chan tried to convince these aristocratic families to advance and retreat together, and even if they could not take out more Wuzhu coins to buy the grain that had just arrived in Xianyang, they would never spit out the food they had eaten. They encouraged them to grit their teeth and persevere!

I have to say that Lu Chan's proposal makes sense. After all, the grain transported to Xianyang this time was only 200,000 to 300,000 shi. The husbands and soldiers in Xianyang City had about 70,000 to 80,000 mercenaries. At most, the batch of grain would be consumed. By then, the grain prices in Xianyang would have to rise back. Bai Mo would not leave Zhao, Han borrowed grain and had to buy back the grain in their stomachs at a high price.

But unfortunately, these noble families have no vision and are unwilling to advance and retreat with them.

"Let them sell it." Lu Tai smiled coldly and said with a grim voice, "There are only those mercenaries and servants in Xianyang, and the food they need is only about 5,000 stones per day, but how much food they stock up in their hands? Why do they have more than 600,000 stones? Humph, there is so much food source for such a small market demand, it depends on how they can sell it!"

Lu Chan sighed, "Brother, but this will make us sound like that."

The wealthy families hoarded more than 600,000 grain, but more than 20 honorary families led by the Lu family hoarded more. The Lu family alone hoarded about 500,000 stones, and the more than 20 companies combined exceeded one million stones. In addition, more than 100 merchants led by the Sima family also hoarded about 800,000 stones.

In order to stockpile this grain, the Lu family and Sima family paid a huge price to sell almost all the land and real estate that could be sold. Until now, except for the whole house, their family has no more cloth to make new clothes for wives, children, old maids and servants, and their lives are almost impossible to survive.

Also, it is not a big deal to just pile grain in the house like this. Enzymes will definitely rot over time. However, building a cellar or granary requires a lot of expenses. If it is normal, this is just a piece of cake for the Lu family, which has a strong financial resources, but now, the Lu family really can't even get 10,000 yuan.

Moreover, even if they still have money to build cellars or granaries, they can save all their food, but when the spring grain is collected next year, they will lose all their money.

Lu Chan thought about it and suddenly said, "Brother, why don't you look for there again?"

Lu Tai sighed and shook his head and said, "It's useless. Bai Mo's edict prohibited the circulation of gold in Guanzhong, but it hit our vital point. There are no more help there. After all, hundreds of thousands of taels of gold are only a few large trucks. It is easy to smuggle, but there are hundreds of trucks in tens of millions of dollars. How easy is it to smuggle in?"

"Brother, can you just forget it?" Lu Chan changed his face, "Let these hundreds of thousands of stones of grain rot in the house, our Lu family will really lose the money."

Lu Tai said silently. Although he was very reluctant, he had to admit that they had lost this contest and they completely lost to that guy Bai Mo. Lu Tai was even ready to cut off his arm. In the end, he would rather burn out more than 500,000 stones of grain he had bought with huge sums of money than let Bai Mo buy it at a low price!

At this moment, a slave suddenly came in and reported: "The head of the family, there is a Zhao man who claims to be Guan Zhong and asked for a meeting."

"Guan Zhong?" Lu Chan was stunned when he heard this, "The Zhao Shang, one of the two major grain merchants who came to Guanzhong this time, seemed to be called Guan Zhong? I heard that this man is close to Zhao's old country."

Lu Tai's expression moved slightly and immediately ordered: "Please come in."

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"If you don't see me, I'll say that the true image has fallen asleep." Bai Mo waved to the slave and said, "I'll talk about it tomorrow if you have something to do."

The slave said no, bowed and retreated. Chen Ping, who was sitting opposite Bai Mo, smiled and said, "Prime Minister, you are talking lies with your eyes open. When is it that you will fall asleep?"

Bai Mo spread his hands and smiled and said, "I am too lazy to deal with government affairs, so I have a rest early."

Chen Ping shook his head and said, "But I heard that Feng Ji is the clan brother of King Han's favorite concubine Feng Miaonu. The more than 100,000 stones of grain he sold to Guanzhong this time also had the background of Feng Guozhang. If Taicang Ling didn't let Taicang Ling eat this batch of grain at a high price, they would come to Guanzhong to help us, so they would not lose money, right?"

"That won't work, it's definitely not work." Bai Mo said decisively, "Now, the food price that has been suppressed has finally risen immediately. In this way, all previous efforts will be wasted." After a pause, Bai Mo said again, "Now not only can't eat, but even the slightest breath can't be revealed."

Chen Ping said: "But it's not a big deal for you to hide like this."

Bai Mo pondered for a moment and said, "Let's do this. I heard that some checkpoints in the north of Longxi secretly violated the ban on the court and instigated the peddlers to sell salt to Hexi. The prince went to inspect and took the opportunity to avoid them. As for the grand master, you should push everything on the prince. I hope they have nothing to say."

Chen Ping smiled bitterly and said, "It's all right now."

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Negotiations about grain prices are being staged in the study of Lufu.

When Guan Zhongdaoming's intention was coming, Lu Chan was overjoyed, but Lu Tai was unmoved and said lightly: "I originally came to sell grain, but now I have changed my original intention and bought grain on a large scale. Is it inevitable that I will take advantage of the situation to rob me?"

Guan Zhong groaned and said coldly: "We came from all the way to sell grain, originally to help the Han Dynasty, but Bai Mo, as the prime minister of the Han Dynasty, watched us lose all our money and remain indifferent. How could this be done by humans? If Bai Mo can be the first day of the lunar calendar, don't blame us for being the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar!"

Lu Chan said: "But your family can eat so much food in Guanzhong?"

Guan Zhong said: "Our family can't eat it, so can't we find other families to help?"

Lu Tai said: "The problem is that there is so much food, what's the point of buying it? Zhao State, South Korea is not short of food, right?"

Lu Chan said: "The State of Chu is short of food. Are you planning to sell the grain to the State of Chu?"

"Hey!" Guan Zhong quickly reached out to stop Lu Chan, "Second Young Master, you can eat randomly, but you can't talk randomly. Lianheng and the alliances are like water and fire. As Zhao Han grain merchants, how can we help the evil sell grain to Chu State for abuse? We must not hide it from you. We have already obtained the skills of brewing white wine from Chu State and plan to buy this batch of grain to make wine."

Lu Tai and Lu Chan looked at each other, and it would make sense if the truth was true.

At that moment, Lu Chan said, "Okay, then please give me a price. At what price are you willing to buy it?"

Guan Zhong immediately replied: "You can't let the colleagues in Guanzhong lose all their money, right? In this way, we buy at a price of 80 yuan per stone, how much do we need? How much?"

"Eighty-yuan per stone?" Lu Chan shouted, "What a joke?! The average price we bought is nearly four hundred yuan. You bought it at eighty-yuan per stone, and you said you won't lose all your money? You, you, this is too dark!"

"Hey, the second young master, you can't say that, right?" Guan Zhong said a little unhappy, "As far as I know, Prime Minister Bai is going to wait for the price of grain to fall to 40 yuan per stone before he can buy it. Compared to Bai Mo, he is much more kind. In short, whether to sell or not depends on you, so I will say goodbye."

After saying that, Guan Zhong stood up straight and made a gesture to leave.

"Sir, stay." Lu Tai then knelt down and stood up to smooth things over, "I am reckless, and my second brother has bumped into the sir. I also asked Mr. Mr. to have a lot of them, don't blame me." After a pause, Lu Tai said again, "As for the price of grain, you can discuss it again. If you are doing business, isn't it just asking for a lot of price, hehe."
Chapter completed!