Chapter 1298 - 1260: Scare You to Death_2
"Drug them, they have to eat and drink. A dose of Mongolian sweat medicine, whether it’s two hundred people or two thousand, will all knock them down," he continued, "Invite Yuan Li to the mansion, call a few musicians for the ceremony. He won’t be prepared. Then I’ll have people ambush on both sides. No matter how strong he is, he only has two fists. I don’t believe he can take on dozens of us."
"Stop fooling around. Quickly sell off the remaining grain at the market price. What is the grain price set by the Zhao Family today?"
Kneeling on the side, the confidant pretending to be invisible quickly replied, "Twenty-one cents per dou."
Yu Hong was surprised, "Why did it drop by one cent?"
The confidant said, "The Fang Family Grain Shop also dropped by one cent, and other shops have closed, seemingly observing the situation."
In fact, they are waiting to see if the authorities would target the newly opened grain shop and the Fang Family.
Yu Hong said to Zheng Zhi, "You should open for business today."
Zheng Zhi replied, "Tomorrow then, it’s already past noon today."
He still wanted to eliminate Yuan Li and Xun Fan so that selling grain at the market price wouldn’t be necessary. With those two gone, they naturally would have control here.
Zheng Zhi sneered. He was curious to see how much grain they had to fill this pit.
Unexpectedly for Zheng Zhi, the next day, the price at the newly opened grain shop dropped by another cent.
The families who turned out en masse to buy grain daily were puzzled. The excitement of hoarding gradually faded. If the price drops again tomorrow, wouldn’t it be more cost-effective to buy then?
At the same time, the door of a small grain shop in the county town opened, and prices followed those set by the Zhao Family.
Others allied with Zheng Zhi started feeling uneasy. Did the Zhao Family prepare so much grain that they could continuously lower prices?
Yuan Li’s arrival would take time, but the grain price was dropping much faster than he could arrive. Zheng Zhi didn’t have time to think about Yuan Li. He wanted to transport the remaining grain to other disaster-stricken counties to sell at high prices. But before he could act, an ally who went out to gather information returned, "Other counties also have newly opened grain shops by the Zhao Family."
Zheng Zhi’s face looked sullen, "Are they all opened by the Great General’s mother?"
"No, most were opened by the Zhao Family’s Seventh Grandfather. Although he’s not as capricious as Mrs. Wang, lowering by one cent a day, the prices are not high, ranging between twenty to twenty-five cents. There are also government relief grains and Work-for-Relief programs involved. Now, external grain merchants are also following to lower prices."
The ally glanced at Zheng Zhi and whispered, "Mr. Zheng, the snake cannot overpower the mighty dragon. In the future, we’ll all have to live under the Great General’s rule. It’s not good to go against them. Let’s lower the price as well."
Zheng Zhi sneered, "Isn’t it a bit late now to think about lowering the price?"
"It’s not too late," the ally said calmly. "This time, the flood disaster is widespread, and the rise in grain prices is understandable. We were only adapting to the trend, not inflating prices maliciously. There are many businessmen like this across the land. As I know, the Zhao Family’s Seventh Grandfather also made a fortune during this flood disaster. The Great General only punishes those who inflate prices maliciously. That’s not us, so we won’t have a problem."
"But if we persist with high prices while the grain prices have already dropped, that would be a different story."
They were unaware of Zheng Zhi’s plans to kill Yuan Li and Xun Fan. If they knew, they wouldn’t even discuss this matter with him.
Zheng Zhi lowered his eyes and after a moment, looked up and smiled, "Very well, then let’s sell at the market price."
The allies all breathed a sigh of relief. After saluting, they returned home one by one, and the next day, all the grain shops in the city opened.
The Zhao Family’s grain shop marked wheat at "nineteen cents" per dou, and everyone silently followed suit to lower to the same price.
Consequently, millet, beans, and others also had their prices lowered.
Seeing this, the citizens in the city were even less anxious. Those who had been crowding in front of the new Zhao Family grain shop and the Fang Family grain shop slowed their pace, buying just a dou before pulling their family members home, "It might be cheaper tomorrow."
Farmers coming from out of town to buy grain saw the numerous open grain shops and that prices had dropped to roughly the usual level; they weren’t in a rush or panic either.
The grain price posted by the Zhao Family remained at nineteen cents for three days before dropping to eighteen cents. By then, the people’s hearts were set, and the traffic in the grain shops had returned to normal, without any more long queues.
And at this time, Yuan Li also arrived in the city.
Others might not know, but those in the new grain shop felt a huge relief. There wasn’t much stock left in the warehouse, and in a few more days, the shop couldn’t continue. With General Yuan’s arrival, they had an excuse to withdraw.
According to convention, when a Beijing official travels on a work trip to a local area, they either stay at a post station or the Governor Mansion, depending on their relationship with the Prefectural Governor.
That is why Xun Fan stayed at the Governor Mansion when he came for disaster relief, as he was good friends with Yu Hong.