Great Song Dynasty Writer

Chapter 134 What was Fan Zhongyan after?
"Brother Han."

In a single room in the upper dormitory, Lu Beigu met Han Ziyu.

Han Ziyu didn't seem too surprised by his visit. Instead, he closed the door and said with a smile, "I've heard about Brother Lu's 'water window,' which truly saves people from dire straits. It's a great deed indeed!"

It's astonishing that someone in the closed-off state academy could learn about what's happening outside so quickly; Han Ziyu's information network seems to be very efficient.

This also proves that the Han family, a prominent local clan in Luchuan, does indeed wield considerable influence.

It's important to understand that students from other states don't have this kind of speed in receiving information, even though they are also students from the same state.

Lu Beigu said with a wry smile, "It's good enough if no one holds a grudge against us."

"It's not that serious; even the prefectural government has its pride."

Han Ziyu disagreed: "The orders from the prefect and the judge are none of your business. You're just doing the work. What does it have to do with you? Wouldn't it be a slap in the face to the prefect and the judge if they were to touch you? Besides, you're in the prefectural school. Nobody here would dare to mess around."

Lu Beigu nodded and said, "But this torrential rain doesn't look like it will stop in a few days. The price of grain in the city has really risen too much."

Han Ziyu retorted, "What does that have to do with Brother Lu?"

Lu Beigu remained silent.

Han Ziyu scrutinized him for a moment, then burst into laughter: "After the Zen gathering that day, at the Zuixianlou in Hejiang County, I felt that Brother Lu had the ambition to save the world, and now I see that I was right!"

Lu Beigu sighed and said, "Brother Han knows me, but I really have nowhere to exert my strength right now."

"So you want me to help you?"

Han Ziyu pondered for a moment and said, "I won't hide it from you. Actually, the opinions of the local tycoons in the city are not consistent about the grain price. Floods are different from droughts. If it is a drought, even our Han family would not dare to lower the grain price, because they are all counting on the grain price to go up so that they can take over farmland on a large scale."

"But floods are a different story. Farmers in the villages outside the city have plenty of stored grain because they farm and are about to deliver their autumn harvest. Even if this heavy rain continues for another month, the Yangtze River in the Luzhou section will not cause a major flood. So it is impossible to expect farmers to sell their land and buy grain on a large scale just because of a flood."

Lu Beigu's brows relaxed slightly, and he asked, "So now the grain merchants in the city are making money off the common people, and the real tycoons don't even want that kind of money?"

“These paltry sums are really beneath us,” Han Ziyu said quite sincerely. “And to put it bluntly, even if ordinary people in the city don’t have enough food to last them even for a few days, how much money would they have left if they gave up all their savings? This kind of thing is neither profitable nor good-looking, so the local tycoons who care about their reputation haven’t participated. It’s just grain merchants and some big players who are driving up grain prices.”

Lu Beigu understood.

For a wealthy family like the Han family, unless they can acquire large-scale farmland outside the city or prime real estate within the city, simply making money by raising grain prices is nothing to them.

Moreover, if they make this money, they will be criticized and cursed by the people in the city. For a family that has been in the area for hundreds of years, it is not worth the loss.

—The money they've spent over the years on things like repairing bridges and roads, and helping the poor—things that use money to build reputation—is far more than this.

Therefore, they adopted a strategy of observing from the sidelines, neither participating nor interfering.

"Brother Han, are you willing to make a move?"

"Yes, but you have to give me a reason, not only to convince me, but also to convince my father."

"Not enough fame?"

“That’s not enough. This will cost a lot of money and offend some people. The Han family already has a great reputation. We can just leave it intact. There’s no need to do something so strenuous.”

Lu Beigu was silent for a moment, then said, "I'll give you some information that will allow your family to make back more of the money you lost on this project, but you have to keep it a secret. Success comes from secrecy, failure from leaks."

Han Ziyu was somewhat noncommittal. He knew Lu Beigu was talented, but he really didn't think Lu Beigu had any information that could make the Han family a lot of money. After all, Lu Beigu was, in the end, just a promising state student.

Given his position, what important information could he possibly have access to?
Moreover, since he knows this, why doesn't he go and earn the money himself?

"Fan Jin Gong will come to Luzhou in the autumn. There will definitely be changes in the Yujing and Nanjing management offices in Luzhou. I don't know the specifics of the changes, but as long as you hoard copper coins, you will surely profit."

Upon hearing this, Han Ziyu's face showed an undisguised look of surprise.

The prominent local families in Luzhou were not entirely ignorant of the politics of the court; in fact, their sources of information were often more extensive and their information was more timely.

Therefore, after the Luzhou government received the order to receive Fan Xiang, large families like the Han family quickly learned about it through the clerks in the government office. It was only a matter of time, and in order to welcome this high-ranking official who was about to be promoted to the position of Deputy Transport Commissioner, they had to be notified about everything, from providing manpower and venues to holding a banquet.

Given Fan Xiang's resume and the well-known financial difficulties of the Song Dynasty, it's not hard to guess that the court was about to take action against the salt laws, which is why Fan Xiang came to Luzhou, one of the most important salt-producing areas in the country.

Therefore, Lu Beigu's first sentence confirmed that he did indeed have reliable information.

The second half of the sentence contained valuable information that even the Han family was unaware of.

But with a little thought, it becomes clear what's going on. If Lu Beigu wasn't lying, then the upcoming changes to the salt laws must be related to copper coins, and Sichuan is notoriously short of copper coins.

Therefore, it is highly likely that in the future, well salt in southern Sichuan will have to be purchased with copper coins, instead of being able to be bought with iron coins, copper coins, cloth, or any other means as it is now.

Only by gaining access to information gaps can one prepare in advance and thus engage in arbitrage.

The value of this kind of information lies in its unknown nature.

Lu Beigu's willingness to tell him first is enough to prove his sincerity, and Lu Beigu is certainly also taking a risk.

This left Han Ziyu somewhat bewildered: "Brother Lu, how did you know this? What are you trying to achieve by taking such a risk?"

"What was Fan Zhongyan thinking when he opened the granaries to distribute grain despite the pressure of being demoted?" Lu Beigu asked rhetorically.

Han Ziyu remained silent.

After a long pause, he sighed and said, "A true gentleman indeed."

“Brother Lu is a true gentleman, and I cannot do the despicable thing of taking the information and not helping. Brother Lu, just wait patiently at the state academy. The Han family will definitely take action in this matter.”

Seeing Han Ziyu stand up, Advisor Lu Bei asked, "Is there anything else I can do?"

“There’s nothing I need to do in the implementation process, Brother Lu,” Han Ziyu said after thinking for a moment. “However, once my family’s grain store starts selling low-priced grain to the elderly and weak, there will definitely be some rumors circulating in the city. If you could write some easy-to-sing nursery rhymes and legends in advance to take the initiative and appease the people, and also bring some fame to my family, that would be even better.”

Nursery rhymes or legends?

Lu Beigu pondered for a moment. Although it sounded unreliable at first glance, it was indeed the most reliable means of propaganda warfare in ancient China throughout history.

"This matter is not urgent, Brother Lu can take his time to think about it."

"There's no need to think about it slowly. I'll write it down for you now. Then we can arrange for someone to find some children to sing it, and it will soon spread throughout the city. However, you must keep my presence hidden in all of this."

Many things don't need to be known by the public, but Lu Beigu believes that what he does has its significance.

Of course, he inevitably left his mark, which is this wonderful story that was destined to be sung among the people of the Song Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)