In the afternoon, Emperor Jinghe once again recruited Liu Mingqi into the palace.

The one who came to pick up the young man was the old acquaintance Zhao Shou and Eunuch Zhao.

Liu Mingqi and him were very familiar with each other, but they were silent along the way.

I really don't know what to say.

Liu Mingqi also knew that Zhao Shou could not answer his own question.

What happened to King Ren and the Naughty Kids? This sentence that lingers in Liu Mingqi's mind has not been asked until she gets off the bus.

Emperor Jing He had moved out of the Yangxin Palace and returned to the imperial study room to handle official duties.

It was the first time Liu Mingqi has seen him in more than ten days.

At first glance, the emperor seemed to have changed.

I was a little fat before and had a double chin.

Now his face was pale and his body was dwindling sharply, and he looked at least twenty or thirty pounds.

Only a huge blow can cause this to happen.

"Why? I don't know each other anymore?" Jing Hedi looked at the boy's stunned look and wanted to make a few jokes, but he looked dry and the smile on his face was also very far-fetched.

"No."

Liu Mingqi quickly smiled, "Your Majesty, are you asking me for trouble?"

The young man didn't understand psychology very much, but he knew that it would be better not to mention the drastic changes in the palace now, just as it did not happen, so that the emperor could not think about it and slowly start a new starting point.

Emperor Jing He was surprised by Liu Mingqi's first sentence.

Then he nodded and signaled Zhao Shou to hand over a document on the table to Liu Mingqi: "Come on, you can take a look first."

The boy took it over.

When I looked up, I saw a memorial written by Jiangnan Governor Liu Renhuai to Emperor Jinghe.

After coming to this world for so long, Liu Mingqi is already familiar with such things that are very classical Chinese.

Liu Renhuai is indeed a cadre official.

In his memorial, he mainly talked to Jing Hedi about the issue of grain purchase this year.

It's also God's pity.

Although the Yangtze River and the Yellow River rage together for the first time in decades, ruining seven or eight provinces along the way, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui, the core areas of the south of the Yangtze River, did not suffer any twists and turns, and there was still a great harvest.

Although the Yangtze River passes by in Jiangsu, it has already harvested grain first when it arrives, so even though it has flooded many places, at least this year's harvest has been preserved.

The overall taxes in the three provinces in Jiangnan have also come out.

The grain storage alone reached 35 million stones, more than last year's.

This is because the water conservancy measures taken by Jiangnan in the past few years have been achieved this year.

Liu Renhuai made an indelible contribution.

The key point is not the 35 million stones of grain, but because the central and southwest suffered major floods this year, Emperor Jing He ordered Liu Renhuai to purchase grain for later use.

After all, there is the most food in Jiangnan, and usually there is an oversupply of food, so it is also the easiest to purchase it here.

Liu Renhuai was previously responsible for the imperial envoy from the three southwestern provinces and Shandong, specializing in flood control and disaster relief, and monitored the canal transportation yamen and the Northern Navy.

After the matter almost came to an end, the remaining aftermath was handed over to Li Xiutai, the Minister of Personnel, and Wu Yu, the Minister of Works. Liu Renhuai immediately rushed back to Jiangnan and began to take charge of the grain collection work.

At first, he exchanged 10 million stones of old grain from last year for 50 million stones of bran. This is fine, and everyone is very proud of it.

But then he wanted to purchase the food from the gentry and local tyrants, but encountered great obstacles.

The grain production in Jiangnan is rich and supplies edible food for ordinary people, but it is only nine liters.

It has risen compared to previous years, but it has dropped a lot compared to last year.

Because of the two consecutive years of great harvest, it is impossible for grain merchants to increase grain prices locally.

However, Liu Renhuai wanted to purchase grain and replenish inventory for major warehouses of the imperial court, so they were unwilling to do so.

It’s not that I’m unwilling to sell, but that I’m willing to sell a small portion of the grain, but large quantities of grain are not good.

The price given by Liu Renhuai is not low. According to the standards of previous years, he deliberately increased the price by two cents, which turned into seven cents per liter.

This increase is already more than 30%, which is very high.

This is also because Liu Renhuai has money now.

Not only did he control this year's money, but he also had 10 million taels of silver donated by the "Gratification Order" of the nobles in Jiangnan before. Emperor Jinghe asked him to keep it in his hands for use.

Now is a great time to use money.

But this money is not available.

The reason is that grain merchants are waiting for the price and feel that they are suffering from disasters this year, that is, the grain in the Jiangnan region and the Gyeonggi region has achieved a bumper harvest. The rest are either the same as in the past few years or have encountered major disasters, and the grain is basically in a state of no harvest.

In this case, if you want me to sell 7 cents of grain per liter, it would seem too bullying me and I don’t understand the market.

According to Liu Renhuai's survey, the psychological price of grain merchants is ten cents per liter.

If you have seven cents per liter, you can purchase about one hundred to three million stones of grain.

If it rises to ten cents, you can receive at least 30 million stones of grain, or even more.

At first glance, it is very cost-effective to buy 30 million stones of grain for only 3.6 million taels of silver.

But you have to consider that this ten million taels of silver is not just used to buy food.

There is also transportation after buying grain.

The canal transportation yamen has now been subjected to a great purge, and all kinds of affairs are in chaos.

Without Lin Zhenyuan's strong pressure, if this batch of grain is to be transported to the affected provinces, it will inevitably cost more effort than before. The whole transportation cost will probably cost about one or two million taels of silver.

More importantly, although Jiangnan has a bumper harvest this time, Anhui and Jiangsu have been severely damaged by floods.

If you want to get another bumper harvest next year, you must actively drain water, repair dams, help the people repair houses, etc. to avoid accidents from happening again.

Isn't this money?

Because of the wealth of the people in Jiangnan, the cost of hiring is much higher than that in the capital.

The remaining millions of taels of silver may not be enough for post-disaster reconstruction.

So even if it is hundreds of thousands of taels or one or two million taels of silver, Liu Renhuai wants to save money.

He wrote the memorial to the emperor to tell him that he wanted to use tougher means and hoped that Emperor Jinghe would approve it.

...

Seeing Liu Mingqi put down the document, Jing Hedi asked, "Mingqi, what tough methods do you think Liu Shaoling would use?"

"What else can you do? Kill the chicken to warn the monkey!" Liu Mingqi said without hesitation, "Just like what we used on the grain merchants in Beijing last year."

"But they didn't make the people unable to afford food. The price was quite moderate. How could you break it?" Jing Hedi said, "Not to mention Jiangnan, the same is true for grain merchants in the Gyeonggi area this year, which made us very passive."

"I want to get angry, but I can't find a reason, right?" Liu Mingqi asked back.

Jing Hedi nodded.

If an imperial court wants to maintain long-term stability, it must establish a kind of credit.

In later generations, this is called national credit.

It is precisely because the US has established national credit through the US dollar that they can print money wildly and use it and allow the whole world to take it on.

Do you want Zimbabwe to give this a try?

I can only buy an egg for 100 billion in a minute!

The same is true in ancient times.

If the people believe in you, then they will be safe and will not panic when encountering disasters.

Didn’t there be many peasant uprisings happening in the year of disaster?

They had the clearest understanding of whether the court would come to save them, so they turned against them directly.

If you turn the wrong way, you can still have a way of life. If you don’t turn the wrong way, you will have to starve to death together.

If it were you, what would you do?

Therefore, most dynasties in our country died like this.

At this point, Dakang, who learned from the lessons of the previous dynasty, did a good job.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China for 81 years, all kinds of disasters have occurred, but the court has actively rescued disasters every time. He dare not say that he saved everyone, but most people can survive.

This is also the reason why Dakang has suffered constant disasters in the past six or seven years, but there have been almost no large-scale rebellion incidents.

Everyone believes in Dakang and Jinghedi, so they will definitely give them at least a taste of food.

The people are so simple. As long as there is hope for life, they will persevere.

What does Dakang rely on to pay all the expenses and ensure that his finances do not collapse?
To be continued...