Reborn as Murong Fu: This Time I'm the Protagonist

Chapter 565 Price Increase
The next day, Murong Fu ordered someone to bring Zong Ze over early in the morning. Then the two of them rode one horse after the other to a manor outside the city.

The manager of Jinfeng Manor welcomed the two in. Murong Fu led Zong Ze straight to the granary, where the overflowing grain left Zong Ze speechless.

Murong Fu said, "There are 38,700 shi of grain here. That's enough to support the needs of 200,000 disaster victims outside the city for half a month. Lord Zong, are you now at ease?"

Zong Ze was stunned. Grain prices were soaring, with a single bushel of grain costing five times its usual price. These tens of thousands of bushels of grain were worth no less than 100,000 taels of silver. Was Lord Murong just going to give them away so generously?

It turns out that in the past few days, because the porridge distributed by Qingzhou Prefecture was much thicker than that of other prefectures, disaster victims from neighboring prefectures flocked to Qingzhou Prefecture, and the number of disaster victims doubled in just a few days.

Zong Ze clasped his hands and bowed deeply: "Your Excellency's noble character is truly admirable. Your subordinate thanks you on behalf of the disaster victims!"

Murong Fu waved his hand and said, "Scholars often say that they read the books of sages and spread their teachings on their behalf. They treat their own hunger and thirst as their own. But when I looked around yesterday, I realized that most of them had just wasted their time reading."

“During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the previous dynasty, Wen Yanbo once said, ‘Governing the world with scholar-officials is not governing the world with the common people.’ It is laughable that our Great Song Dynasty, which boasts a vast number of famous ministers, is poor and weak, and the people suffer. What I have done is merely to do my bit to ease my conscience a little.”

Zong Ze said, "My lord, I have a question I have long wanted to ask. Since the court has appointed you to handle this disaster with full authority, why haven't the court's relief funds and provisions arrived with you? Instead, why do you need to open your own granaries to provide relief to the victims?"

Murong Fu smiled bitterly, "Money and provisions? As you can see, all that came with me were a dozen or so mouths to feed and an imperial edict. Money and provisions? Where would the current court get any money or provisions? The wealth that Wang Anshi painstakingly accumulated over the years through his reforms and efforts to strengthen the country has long been squandered by the officials in the court. Where would they find the funds to allocate for disaster relief?"

Zong Ze remained silent. Strictly speaking, just a few days ago he was only a minor eighth-rank county lieutenant, and had no idea about the infighting among these bigwigs in the court. However, the fact that the people's livelihood was in such a state and the court was so corrupt stirred up a storm in his heart.

Zong Ze thought for a moment and hesitated before saying, "My lord, although this grain has temporarily relieved our immediate crisis, it is probably far from enough to support the Green Seedlings Program and provide relief to the disaster victims. According to my estimate, if we want to provide relief to the disaster victims while curbing land annexation, we will need more than 200,000 shi of grain."

Murong Fu asked, "What is the price of grain in the city now?"

Zong Ze gritted his teeth and said, "Five hundred coins per dou, five times the normal price. My lord, such an abnormal grain price is clearly someone deliberately driving up the price, trying to take the opportunity to seize land and make illegal profits. I think that although the public resentment has been temporarily relieved, it is only a superficial solution. I suggest that we severely crack down on illegal merchants and stop hoarding and speculation, and curb the grain price."

Murong Fu laughed and said, "This approach is merely a stopgap measure. Do you know how Fan Zhongyan carried out disaster relief in the past?"

Zong Ze pondered for a moment, then his eyes lit up: "I understand, I will have the yamen post official notices on all the main roads, raising the price of grain to eight hundred cash per dou!" Murong Fu laughed: "Lord Zong is indeed extraordinary, I was right about you, go!"

Zong Ze accepted the order and left. That afternoon, notices from the prefectural government were posted on all the main roads leading in and out of Qingzhou, announcing that the government was buying grain at high prices. In just one afternoon, the news of the soaring grain prices in Qingzhou spread.

Previously, the soaring grain prices in Qingzhou Prefecture had already attracted grain merchants from other places to enter the market, but even powerful dragons cannot suppress local snakes.

Local grain merchants, eager to seize this opportunity for large-scale mergers and acquisitions, naturally wouldn't allow out-of-town grain merchants to disrupt the market. Therefore, despite the soaring grain prices, the actual amount of grain flowing into the market didn't increase significantly, which clearly contradicts objective laws. There's only one possibility: local and out-of-town grain merchants have temporarily reached a deal to prevent their grain from entering the market.

Then create some conflict between local grain merchants and out-of-town grain merchants.

It's important to understand that local grain merchants save on logistics and storage costs associated with long-distance transportation by storing their grain locally, resulting in substantial savings. Even if the grain doesn't sell and becomes unsaleable, they can afford to wait, as their businesses are based locally.

But grain merchants from other places are different. Transporting grain over long distances involves astronomical losses along the way. Many people have seen this as an opportunity for huge profits and are willing to gamble their entire fortunes by taking out large loans. The risks they bear are already enormous. Even if the so-called local giants can temporarily suppress grain merchants from other places by relying on their years of operation and deep roots in the local area, how long can they maintain the situation?

The next day, when the servants of the wealthy families in the city opened their doors, they found a joyous commotion with gongs and drums. Officials were pushing carts, hanging large lanterns bearing inscriptions such as "A Family of Good Deeds" and "Generous and Charitable" under their eaves. When the servants inquired, the officials happily replied, "This is the government commending your master for his generosity and virtuous reputation, hence this special commendation."

Upon hearing this, the servants, knowing it was a commendation for their master issued by the prefectural government, were naturally overjoyed and allowed the yamen runners to hang it up. Although their master had inexplicably gained a high hat and knew there might be something wrong with it, they didn't dare to take it down without permission since it was issued by the prefectural government, otherwise it would be disrespectful to the imperial court.

Almost simultaneously, a rumor circulated among the disaster victims that the government had permitted them to beg in the homes of wealthy families in the city who hung lanterns.

So after several times when wealthy families were surrounded by groups of refugees and forced to offer them food, tens of thousands of refugees poured into the entire city of Qingzhou every day.

Ragged and disheveled, banging bowls and carrying dog-beating sticks, they swarmed into wealthy homes, led by beggars with several cloth bags hanging from their chests. They neither robbed nor made a scene, waiting for the homeowner to grow impatient and, out of politeness, offer them some food before leaving with profuse thanks. Then, the same scene repeated itself from morning till night the next day.

Strangely, as if organized, these individuals, led by members of the Beggars' Sect, only targeted the wealthy households that displayed lanterns. They left the smaller households without lanterns untouched.