DLWAV CH26

Sure enough, as soon as the news broke, Yunzhou City was instantly in an uproar.

“If even Prince An is selling grain at high prices, what do we have to fear?”

“Anyway, even if the sky falls, Prince An will be there to hold it up.”

“Exactly.”

That afternoon, grain prices in Yunzhou City rose in response.

Over the next two days, the grain shops under Prince An’s name raised prices more than a dozen times. Seeing this, other grain shops followed suit.

So much so that when many commoners were buying grain at the shops, just as they were about to pay, they were suddenly told by the clerks that the price had skyrocketed by another fifty percent or even doubled, demanding more money.

By the fourth day, the grain price in Yunzhou City had skyrocketed to two taels of silver per dou.

In the Great Yang Dynasty, one dou was about fifteen jin (approx. 7.5 kg).

One tael of silver was about one thousand copper coins.

Keep in mind that in bountiful years, the grain price among the people was only twenty copper coins per dou.

Even in average years, the grain price wouldn’t exceed forty copper coins.

Yet now, the grain price in Yunzhou City had actually skyrocketed to two taels of silver per dou—

In these times, an ordinary family of three might not be able to save two taels of silver even after working hard for a whole year.

For a moment, public grievances rose everywhere in Yunzhou City.

Countless people smashed the longevity tablets they had made for Prince An overnight.

And who knows how many Confucian scholars ran to the prefecture yamen to protest, just to force Ao Ruize to rescind his order.

“Prince An, the Emperor entrusted Yunzhou to you, is this how you handle the assignment? You are unworthy of being a prince.”

“Are the lives of millions of people in Yunzhou not worth those few taels of dirty silver? If a civil uprising breaks out in Yunzhou, Prince An, you will not be able to escape the blame.”

“Submit a petition! We will sign a joint petition right now, vowing to report your actions to the imperial court and the Emperor.”

However, Ao Ruize ignored them. But to appease the increasingly dissatisfied populace, he did take some actions.

For example, on charges of corruption and perverting the law, he had his men arrest all officials in Yunzhou of the fifth rank and above. In the end, it was verified that they had embezzled funds for repairing the river embankments, causing the Yunzhou dike to be easily washed away twice by floods, leading to the wrongful deaths of countless people in Yunzhou.

Finally, his subordinates confiscated over a million taels of silver from the homes of these corrupt officials.

“But this matter can at most appease the people for a day or two. If the grain price doesn’t drop, the people of Yunzhou will rebel sooner or later.”

“Sooner or later? I’m afraid it’s a matter of these few days.”

Outside Lizhou City, at a tea stall, thousands of resting soldiers completely surrounded the place. Not far away, hundreds of carts loaded with grain were parked.

And the few tables at the tea stall were all occupied by the generals of this army.

The speakers were several bearded generals.

Opposite them sat a young man wearing a blue brocade robe and a black jade crown. He was naturally elegant and romantic; although dusty from travel, it couldn’t hide his noble air.

Those generals frowned and said again, “At our current speed, even if we travel day and night without rest, it will still take at least ten days to reach Yunzhou.”

But judging from the current situation, they feared that before they could reach Yunzhou, that Prince An would have already been flayed alive by the people of Yunzhou City.

Thinking of this, one of the bearded men couldn’t help but slam the coarse tea bowl in his hand onto the table.

“Previously, when I heard Prince An volunteered to go to Yunzhou for disaster relief, and later risked his life to personally supervise the work on the dike to plug the breach, I thought that although he was raised deep in the palace due to poor health, he was at least much better than his two older brothers. Now it seems I was blind.”

Once something happened in Yunzhou, Prince An’s death would be his own doing, but the people of Yunzhou would suffer.

And people like them, ordered to reinforce Yunzhou, would probably also face severe consequences in the end.

But what he never expected was that almost simultaneously, the young man also put down the tea bowl in his hand and said leisurely, “This Prince An has some quick wits, and he has studied quite well.”

“What?”

Hearing this, the bearded men were all stunned.

The young man chuckled lightly. “From Yunzhou City to here, unless traveling by fast horse, it takes at least eight days.”

He turned to look at the tea stall owner. “You just said Prince An started driving up grain prices four days ago.”

The tea stall owner nodded repeatedly. “Yes.”

Young man: “In just four short days, the news of the skyrocketing grain prices in Yunzhou City reached Lizhou…”

The bearded generals still didn’t understand what the young man meant.

But the young man didn’t intend to explain in detail.

“Since that’s the case, let’s give him a helping hand.”

He ordered, “Send out three teams to the nearby prefectures and counties. Make sure to spread the news that Prince An, in order to amass wealth, took the lead in driving up grain prices in Yunzhou City, causing the grain prices there to skyrocket.”

The bearded generals could only suppress their doubts and replied, “Yes, My Lord Duke!”

So what they didn’t know was that in Lizhou City, dozens of miles behind them, countless grain merchants didn’t even care about attending to their own shops and rushed directly to their merchant guild’s station.

“Have you heard? The grain price in Yunzhou has risen to two taels of silver per dou.”

“Two taels of silver? The grain price in Lizhou is only forty copper coins per dou now.”

“If we buy a large batch of grain now and transport it to Yunzhou to sell, hiss—”

“Just one thing, with the rain falling for a whole month, the official roads in Yunzhou must be muddy and difficult to traverse. Transporting grain there at this time won’t be easy.”

“So what? At worst, we’ll just hire more people then. Such a money-making opportunity is once in a lifetime!”

“No time to lose, let’s set off now!”

And such scenes occurred in every corner of the nearby prefectures.

Thus, for a time, countless grain merchants cracked their whips vigorously, driving oxen and horses pulling carts full of grain, rushing towards Yunzhou.

When they discovered that the official roads in Yunzhou were covered with a thick layer of leaves and dried grass, meaning they didn’t have to worry about their grain carts getting stuck in mud pits, they became even more excited.

Two days later, the local grain merchants in Yunzhou City suddenly discovered several foreign merchants selling grain on the market. Moreover, the other party’s price was a full ten percent lower than theirs, causing the people in the city to run to them to buy grain.

They made a prompt decision to lower their price by another five percent below the other party’s price.

Anyway, even if the grain price was halved, they could still make a huge profit.

Sure enough, upon hearing this news, most of their customer flow returned instantly.

But before they could be happy for long, those foreign grain merchants also lowered their prices, and the price was still ten percent lower than theirs.

Obviously, the other party’s thinking was the same as theirs: even if the grain price was halved, they could still make a fortune.

But the local grain merchants in Yunzhou City were not prepared to lower prices anymore. They felt that although the other party brought a lot of grain, the market in Yunzhou City was obviously larger. Before long, the grain brought by the other party would be sold out, and then their grain could still be sold at a high price.

But what they never expected was that the next day, dozens more grain merchants poured into Yunzhou City.

The same scene played out again.

That day, the grain price in Yunzhou City fell to seven mace (0.7 taels) of silver per dou.

On the third day, hundreds more grain merchants poured into Yunzhou City.

The grain price in Yunzhou City fell to two mace (0.2 taels) of silver per dou.

…

By the fifth day, the grain price in Yunzhou City had fallen to fifty copper coins per dou.

And at this time, there were still countless foreign grain merchants escorting endless grain towards Yunzhou.

Soon, they also learned that the grain price in Yunzhou City had fallen.

But they couldn’t turn back anymore.

Because if they continued to transport the grain to Yunzhou, at least they wouldn’t lose money.

But if they transported the grain back, just the travel expenses for the return trip would cost them an arm and a leg, and how to sell this grain after returning would become another problem.

Fortunately, the Yunzhou Yamen subsequently issued a notice declaring that Prince An was willing to purchase the grain they transported at a price of sixty copper coins per dou.

This way, they could actually still make a small profit.

They immediately hesitated no longer and continued to escort the grain towards Yunzhou City.

Thus, in just three short days, the Yunzhou Yamen bought six million dou of grain, costing three hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver.

When the news spread, Yunzhou City was in an uproar.

“That’s right, although there was no grain in the treasuries of various prefectures, the major grain merchants and those rural landowners were not short of grain. When grain prices in Yunzhou suddenly skyrocketed, foreign grain merchants would definitely swarm in upon hearing the news.”

“Once there is a lot of grain on the market, in order to snatch business and sell the grain as soon as possible, those grain merchants will definitely compete to lower prices.”

“This way, the grain price comes down, and Yunzhou also has enough grain to survive the coming winter famine.”

“So this was Prince An’s true purpose in driving up grain prices—”

“No wonder we didn’t see yamen runners patrolling the streets these days; it turns out they were sent out by Prince An to spread the news.”

“No wonder a while ago, Prince An suddenly recruited tens of thousands of laborers to repair the official roads.”

“I knew Prince An wasn’t that kind of muddled and immoral noble.”

Then, as if thinking of something, countless people suddenly left their friends and family they were chatting with, rushed back to their homes, and dug out Prince An’s longevity tablets from manure pits, fire stoves, and shoe soles, washed them clean, and placed them back on the altar tables.

Of course, those who fished out longevity tablets from manure pits and put them back on the altar tables inevitably got beaten by their mothers and wives, and then obediently went to make a new longevity tablet for Ao Ruize.

“But where did Prince An get so much money to buy grain from the merchants?”

“You forgot, Prince An took down Liu Chengyuan and those corrupt officials before.”

“That’s right, Prince An confiscated over a million taels of silver from those corrupt officials’ homes.”

“Mainly because after Prince An took down those corrupt officials, there was no follow-up, so I originally thought Prince An would pocket that dirty silver for himself.”

Just then, the sound of gongs and drums suddenly came from the distance.

“Good news, extra good news! The Yunzhou Yamen just posted two notices.”

“One says that the Yunzhou Yamen has decided to behead Liu Chengyuan and other corrupt officials on the Yunzhou dike at noon tomorrow as a public display, to comfort the people of Yunzhou.”

“Good!”

Hearing this, a tidal wave of cheers instantly rang out across the entire long street.

Following closely, the person shouted again, “The other notice says that the Yunzhou Yamen is recruiting three hundred thousand laborers to rebuild the dike, thoroughly repair the official roads, clean up the silt in the cities and counties, repair the city walls… Most importantly, each laborer will be given ten jin of grain per day.”

Hearing this, the people present cheered thoroughly: “Good!”

For the common people, they only knew that in the past, when natural disasters occurred and the court recruited laborers to rebuild the disaster areas, not only did they not get paid, but the laborers also had to bring their own food and clothes.

Now that Prince An was recruiting laborers, he was actually paying them wages.

With this grain, it was enough for ordinary people like them to survive this winter safely.

Those Confucian scholars also couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

“The public grievances in Yunzhou have been completely quelled.”

“Is this method the ‘Work-for-Relief’ method from the Song Dynasty?”

“Exactly.”

“In this way, Yunzhou can be rebuilt smoothly, the people get grain, and they won’t develop the habit of reaping without sowing. Prince An is wise.”

Thinking back to how they had misunderstood Prince An earlier and ran to the front of the Yunzhou Yamen to slander and insult him, they were even more ashamed.

Until someone shouted, “Let’s go, let’s go to the Yunzhou Yamen.”

Hearing this, everyone reacted.

“To the Yunzhou Yamen—”

For a moment, countless people surged towards the Yunzhou Yamen.

Soon, the outside of the Yunzhou Yamen was crowded with people.

“We want to see Prince An.”

“Please, Prince An, come out to see us.”

Just then, amidst a dull creaking sound, the gate of the Yunzhou Yamen, which had been closed to the public for half a month, finally opened slowly at this moment.

The surroundings instantly quieted down.

Amidst everyone’s eager anticipation, four guards carried a sedan chair out.

Sitting on the sedan chair was none other than Ao Ruize.

Whether it was divine will or not, just at this moment, rays of sunlight pierced through the thick clouds, spilling onto the streets and alleys of Yunzhou City, and onto everyone present, especially Ao Ruize.

Yunzhou, which had been shrouded in dark clouds for more than three months, finally cleared up at this moment.

Looking at Ao Ruize’s pale face, and remembering how he risked his noble body to personally visit the dangerous site to plug the breach in the Yunzhou dike and save millions of people, eventually saving Yunzhou but nearly dying there due to worsening illness…

In this instant, they felt as if Ao Ruize’s whole body was radiating dazzling light, looking exactly like a compassionate deity.

Infinite respect and enthusiasm rose in their hearts.

They bowed one after another, cupping their hands and saying:

“We are willing to hold the whip and follow the stirrup for Your Highness, to repay Your Highness’s kindness!”

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