The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 985: inedible
Chapter 985 Inedible
“Young Master…” Chen Qingsheng told Bai Qingqi the truth, “Young Master Fengnian’s business in Xiliang is so smooth, and it is inseparable from the eight major families in Xiliang. As early as when Young Master Fengnian asked the people of the eight major families to participate in this business, he said that the eight major families would share the profits from jade brocade, furs and paper, but the most important thing is to wait until the farmland in Xiliang is no longer cultivated… After the people’s demand for food is strong, the eight major families can sell the stored grain at a high price. In this way, the money earned by the people of Xiliang with jade brocade, furs and paper will go into the pockets of the eight major families without any effort. It is equivalent to the people of Xiliang now busy making money for the eight major families!”
“So the eight major families all have stored grain, and the amount of grain stored is not small. If we start to raise the price of grain, the eight major families will definitely start selling grain. If they are just a little bit lower than us, no one will buy our grain.”
“If so, we continue to double the price of grain, and the eight major families will definitely continue to follow suit in pursuit of profit! The purpose of raising the price of grain is to let the Queen of Xiliang see the price she paid for capturing Fengnian, thereby forcing her to release Fengnian and stabilize the price of grain…” Bai Qingqi spoke slowly, “Our goal is to rescue Master Fengnian and let him return to the Great Zhou.”
“Yes!” Chen Qingsheng quickly stood up and saluted, “I will go and make the arrangements right away!”
Bai Qingqi stood up, picked up the teacup on the small table beside him, and said in a cold voice: “Don’t worry, send some people… to Dayan to tell them that Xiliang is short of food and the price of food has risen sharply. The defender of the Centennial City of the Great Zhou has received an order to withhold the food sent to Xiliang from now on. When the food in Xiliang is about to run out in a month or so, the Great Zhou will raise troops to attack Xiliang.”
Bai Qingqi lowered his eyes, took a sip of tea, closed the lid on the cup, and looked out the window where the sun was shining brightly…
The eight major families are all profit-seeking, otherwise they would not have “gone along with Cui Fengnian” and made money in this way that almost forced the people of Xiliang to death.
Most people who pursue profit are greedy, and Bai Qingqi is also greedy…
Although he came mainly to rescue Jintong this time, in his opinion, Jintong’s imprisonment was a crisis, but also an opportunity. What he wanted was to take advantage of this opportunity to drag Dayan into the water.
When this news was sent to Dayan, there were only two possible outcomes. The merchants of Yan were not greedy… they would take this opportunity to transport the grain over and sell it to the people of Xiliang at the market price which was rising every day, making a profit.
Or, the Yan people were greedy and planned to hoard grain, and then sell it to Xiliang at a high price when Xiliang ran out of food.
However, Bai Qingqi guessed that the Ninth Prince of Dayan would definitely provide food to Xiliang, even if it was at a high price…
Because Dayan and Rongdi had signed an alliance before, they could not break the agreement, nor could they watch Dayan and Rongdi destroy Xiliang. This would make Dayan more powerful, and it would be more difficult for Yan to unify the world in the future.
Therefore, Dayan will definitely help Xiliang overcome difficulties and will certainly allow Yan merchants to transport grain to Xiliang and sell it to Xiliang at a high price…
By then, the price of grain in Yan State will rise sharply. As long as Da Zhou sends merchants to Da Yan to buy grain at a slightly higher price, the people who are struggling for their livelihood will be motivated to sell grain for the profit. The merchants in Yan State will see that it is profitable and, in pursuit of profit… they will follow suit and buy grain in Yan State at a high price and then sell it to Xiliang at an even higher price.
In this way, Dayan provided a large amount of food to Xiliang, and obtained a large amount of wealth from Xiliang to weaken Xiliang, making Xiliang hang on intermittently and unable to recover, but also preventing Dayan from strangling Xiliang’s throat with food.
Because what Dayan wanted most was to let Xiliang drag out the three-year alliance between Yan and Rongdi, so that it could then share Xiliang with Rongdi and Dayan.
Once this is accomplished, the strategy towards Yan must be changed.
The Great Zhou made an alliance with the Rongdi to seize the food supply of Xiliang. While assisting the Rongdi, it sent a small number of troops to attack Xiliang together with the Rongdi. This made it even more impossible for the people of Xiliang to farm in peace… They were afraid that their work would be in vain and they would grow food for the enemy. Whether for the benefit of the Yan State… or to allow Xiliang to survive, it would continue to send food to Xiliang.
When the food from Yan was almost all delivered to Xiliang and no new food was delivered, Zhou turned around and attacked Yan. Then the food and supplies… would become Yan’s biggest weakness.
At that time, Rongdi and Da Zhou were allies, and Rongdi itself was short of food. Da Zhou would certainly not be able to provide food to Da Yan if it attacked Yan. Thus, it would be just a matter of time for Da Zhou to conquer Yan, the toughest nut to crack.
Bai Qingqi had been in the Yan army for two years. Although he had not participated in the war to recover Southern Yan, he had participated in the war to destroy Wei…
He knew that Yan had always been short of food, and the situation only improved slightly after it conquered Wei. Every time Yan attacked a city, the first thing it would check was the granary.
Within three years, Dayan first suffered a disaster and then was in the midst of war. It can be said that it recovered only after it expanded its territory and gained the cities, population and grain reserves of Wei. However, most of Wei’s former granaries were inedible due to rotten grains.
This was mainly because the geographical location of Wei State at that time was advantageous, there were few wars, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment…so the stored grain was not moved much.
Yan’s war to destroy Wei ended in April of this year. The people of Yan were in a panic and very few people were farming, but Yan happened to catch up with Wei’s bumper harvest in May and June. However… Wei’s grain was used to feed the entire Yan and also to provide grain to Xiliang. Once the Zhou turned around to attack Yan, Yan’s food… would be in short supply.
Taking this opportunity, even if the Great Zhou cannot destroy the Great Yan… it must cripple the Great Yan! If the Great Yan is no longer able to compete with the Great Zhou, the road to unification will be much easier.
After Bai Qingqi made the decision, he quickly wrote a letter and ordered the secret guards to send the letter back to the capital city to Bai Qingyan.
On the first day Bai Qingqi arrived, the price of grain in all the grain shops of the Cui family in Yunjing, Xiliang, suddenly tripled. Upon hearing the news…, the people turned to other shops to buy grain. When their colleagues heard that the price of grain in the Cui family shops had suddenly tripled, they were also panicked for a moment, wondering if the Cui family shops had grasped some important news. They didn’t know yet, but as more and more people from Xiliang came to buy grain, the number was getting bigger and bigger, some grain shops simply hung up signs to close for a day, and some simply followed suit and tripled the price of grain.
All grain shops raised their prices and closed down, and the people panicked when they heard the news…At this time, someone spread the rumor that grain prices would double tomorrow.
For a time, the people who did not have much food stored at home were in a panic and rushed to the food stores to line up to buy food.