Chapter 601: Four Hundred Coins for One Bushel of Grain
After Qingyi's treatment, Ji Huashang's illness has been cured.
As soon as he recovered, Ji Huashang began to reorganize Jiangzhou, opening warehouses to release grain and settling the victims. With the assistance of Qingyi, the plague was soon temporarily alleviated.
Although the plague was eradicated, the floods were still there, there were still bandits causing chaos, and even local illegal merchants raised prices, causing Ji Huashang's plan to encounter many obstacles.
"what happened?"
Ji Huashang was sitting in the lobby of the government office, looking very unhappy.
"Your Majesty, the food we brought is not enough. Although there is a grant from the court, without food, what will the people eat?"
The speaker was a young female official named Yun Qingxia, who was also a Jinshi three years ago. Because she was taciturn and did not know how to flatter, she was transferred to the Ministry of Revenue and became a principal. She had not been promoted in three years, which showed how disliked and ignored she was.
The reason for this trip to Jiangzhou was that Shangguan felt that Jiangzhou's affairs were thankless and easy to offend people, so he threw this hot potato to Yun Qingxia and asked her to follow King Rui to Jiangzhou.
Yun Qingxia's ability to handle affairs was quite good, and she assisted Ji Huashang in handling many matters. However, even a good cook would be unable to cook without the necessary ingredients.
Because of the food issue, she couldn’t eat or sleep well.
Ji Huashang frowned after hearing what Yun Qingxia said: "It's only been a few days? The government warehouse is also out of food?"
Yun Qingxia smiled bitterly: "Your Majesty, there is not enough food in the warehouse. Now we have money but no food."
Normally, provincial capitals would have emergency granaries for disaster relief purposes. However, I heard that the Jiangzhou treasury had been invaded by bandits before, and most of the grain was stolen, so there was not much grain in the treasury.
The relief grain they brought was allocated by the imperial court. Those people in the Ministry of Revenue were all villains who took advantage of the situation. Because Prince Rui had lost the favor of the empress, the grain allocated was not enough for disaster relief.
There is not enough food now, and part of the disaster relief money on hand has to be distributed to the victims. I don’t know if the rest is enough to buy food.
Ji Huashang had been upset about the bandits these days, and he became even more upset after hearing these things.
"Won't you go buy some food if you don't have it?"
"But, Your Majesty, the price of grain has risen to 400 coins per bushel, and I'm afraid the money we have left is not enough..."
"How many?"
Ji Huashang raised his head suddenly, with a look of astonishment, as if he had heard something incredible.
Yun Qingxia was slightly stunned and stammered, "... Four hundred coins for a dou..." "Pah!——"
Ji Huashang slammed the table and stood up with an unpleasant look on his face.
"What a courage!"
Yun Qingxia was so frightened that she trembled and stood aside with her head down.
"The imperial court has always had clear regulations on grain prices, but they actually raised the grain prices privately. Do they take the imperial court's decrees lightly?!"
"Your Highness, please calm down. Those profit-seeking merchants are hateful, but they have stored grain. If we offend them, what if they don't sell the grain to us..."
Ji Huashang's face was gloomy, and he said unhappily: "I don't believe that there are only these few grain stores in the whole Jiangzhou!"
"Go to the nearby villages and towns right away, and if there is any food there, buy it if the price is right."
"Yes……"
At this time, a cold voice sounded.
"Wait a minute."
I saw two figures, one red and one white, coming hand in hand.
If it’s not Di Ran and Ji Yunxie, then who else could it be?
"Why is the prince here?"
Ever since she woke up, the prince had stopped caring about anything and just wandered around with the prince, which made her very depressed and envious.
"I heard that His Royal Highness Prince Rui is worried about the bandits, so I came to see if he can help."
"Just now I heard that His Royal Highness Prince Rui wanted to purchase grain?"
(End of this chapter)
