Lu Ling and Cui Rong secretly looked out through the car curtains, saw two people standing together laughing and chatting, couldn't help but stick their ears to the car door, more intently listening.

  Lin Qingyuan smiled softly and asked, "Is Mr. Lu here for the grain price?"

  Lu Su smiled and said, "It seems that the mistress of Lin is also here for this reason."

  Lin Qingwan slightly frowned, "Who made such a big deal out of this?"

  Lu Su said calmly: "They are just people who are blinded by self-interest."

  The two little girls in the car stuck out their tongues at each other and whispered: "What are they talking about?"

  "It seems like the grain price," Cui Rong said in a low voice: "My mother was just talking to my aunt about it, saying that nowadays the grain prices are getting stranger and stranger, she can't even understand them anymore."

  Lu Ling spat out her tongue, "I'm always a bit afraid of Yu Bin's aunt, I think she's even more fierce than my mother."

  Cui Rong couldn't help but purse her lips and smile, "Isn't there still Uncle here? No matter how fierce Aunt is, she will listen to Uncle. Lin Guizhu may be fierce, but in front of Uncle, doesn't she also call herself 'someone'?"

  Cui Rong felt a little jealous at this point. She wished she had such a father and even if her mother was strict, she would be willing.

  Lu Ling smiled proudly and pulled on the car door without saying anything else.

  The two people outside also said goodbye, and Lu Su saw Lin Qingyuan enter the governor's mansion.

  The guard following Lin Qingwan whispered a report after entering the mansion: "Young lady, there were two little girls in the carriage just now..."

  He repeated in a low voice what he had just heard.

  Lin Qingwan raised an eyebrow, turned her head to glance outside the door, shook her head and smiled lightly: "I've long heard that Mr. Lu is open-minded and generous, today I see that it's indeed true."

  Skipping class with daughter and niece during school hours to have fun.

  Lin Qing smiled and looked forward, Zhou Cishi had already brought the housekeeper to welcome her quickly.

  "Lin Jun Zhu."

  Lin Qingwan nodded slightly, "Lord Zhou, I just met Mr. Lu at the door."

  Zhou Zhi couldn't help but smile wryly, "Is the young mistress also here because of the grain price?"

  Lin Qingwan stopped in her tracks and looked at him, "What's going on? Have many people come to find you about this?"

  "Four people have been killed, including the county master."

  Lin Qing smiled and said, "Has Lord Zhou made up his mind?"

  Zhou Zhi sneered, "Don't worry, Your Highness. They are clever, but there are plenty of people in the imperial court who are even more clever than them."

  No one thinks anyone else is stupid.

  Lin Qingwan smiled and said: "I still have some food there, if it's not enough, I can support one or two."

  "Thank you, County Master," said Zhou Xian, also unable to help but smile. "If there's a need, I won't be polite."

  But in fact, Lin Qingwan's letter was not needed at all. The change in grain prices was beyond everyone's expectations, and after two days of sharp increases, rumors began to spread in the Jiangnan region.

  The imperial court will provide assistance to Nanyang, a large amount of grain will be transported from the national treasury and will arrive in Nanyang soon.

  As soon as the news came out, grain prices plummeted.

  Those big grain merchants are still holding on, but some individual traders and small grain merchants can't bear it anymore.

  At the peak of autumn harvest, they not only didn't buy but also dumped in large quantities.

  The price of grain is falling at a rate even faster than when it rose, the purchase price is lower than the selling price, and the people are panicked, wanting to sell their grain even more.

  Overnight, it seemed like Jiangnan was filled with grain everywhere, and the price of grain had already dropped to six cents.

  Grain farmers are almost crying to death, after paying taxes on grain prices, they can't even recover their costs.

  Worse off than the peasants were the small grain merchants and speculators who tried to make a profit from the situation.

  They had previously purchased a large quantity of grain, planning to transport it to southern Xinjiang after the autumn harvest. They didn't have the power of big grain merchant families, so they joined together and formed a trade caravan, intending to travel together.

  In order to stock up on more grain, they, like Shang Mingyuan, borrowed money to buy grain. They calculated carefully and found that after deducting the principal and interest, they could still have some money left over.

  Now grain prices have plummeted, and it's not that they can't make money, but rather they're afraid that even if they put all their family assets into it, it still won't be enough to repay the loan.

  Eight cents, nine cents worth of grain, after staying in the warehouse at home for less than a month, lost two to three cents.

  As soon as the news came out, someone had already hung a white banner on their own beam at home. If it weren't for the family's vigilance and timely discovery, they might have lost their lives.

  The master of the house is dead, leaving such a large debt to his family, where can they be good?

  But grain prices did not stabilize as a result, and they still fluctuated wildly from day to day, with the price about to drop to five cents.

  It was the grain merchants who planned this affair and saw the trend that they could not help but be shocked, and began to arrange people to refute the rumors.

  But grain prices have already plummeted and it's not something they can suppress just by refuting the rumors.

  Until the government posted a notice, the imperial court would pay eight coins to buy grain, and farmers had to bring their household registration and land deeds to sell grain.

  As for the small grain merchants and those scattered households, Zhou Xie Shi had already privately contacted them with people, and similarly, the imperial court would pay to purchase grains from them.

  But unlike the policies given to farmers, farmers are one hand delivering grain and the other hand delivering money.

  Their grain was paid in advance and would be settled when the grain arrived in South Xinjiang.

  In this way, these small grain merchants can't even make a profit, let alone keep their capital intact. Fortunately, the losses are not great, and everyone can still get by with tightened belts.

  It's better than losing everything and still not being able to pay off debts.

  It's not just Suzhou, the whole Jiangnan is operating like this. Sun Huai ordered as an observer, and the court also sent a supervisory censor, the whole Jiangnan was mobilized.

  The grain price soon stabilized, and by the time the major grain merchants realized they should start buying grains at low prices, the grain price had already rebounded to eight cents. The good opportunity they had worked so hard to create thus slipped away in an instant.

  The court's actions in Jiangnan were too loud, and the news quickly spread to Nanyang. Whether it was the people of Jiangnan or Nanyang, both sides believed that the court's move was to aid Nanyang.

  So grain prices in southern Xinjiang quickly dropped from 32 cents to 13 cents.

  The people of South Xinjiang are jubilant, although grain prices are still high, they have dropped by more than half.

  The anti-Liang sentiment in the southern border suddenly subsided, and without realizing it themselves, they had a hint of recognition for Daliang deep down. Their hatred towards the Liang army breaking into the capital unknowingly weakened.

  After all, for the common people, who becomes the emperor is unimportant, what's important is who can let them eat their fill.

  After all, news spreads quickly. By the time the big grain merchants rush to transport grain to Nanjiang, the grain price in Nanjiang has slowly begun to fall.

  Moreover, the large amount of grain purchased by the imperial court from Jiangnan also arrived in Southern Xinjiang at the same time.

  This batch of grain is equivalent to injecting living water into the southern border, with the second prince escorting and navigating, the grain price was quickly leveled to ten cents, many large grain merchants and big families transported grain to the southern border with great difficulty, but in the end they only earned a transportation fee.

  Everyone's heart is bleeding, but they can't express their grievances.

  At the same time, these people were also on the imperial court's blacklist, and even His Majesty scolded them for being greedy and shortsighted in the imperial meeting.

  Not only did he lose his benefits, but also lost his reputation in the court, it can be said that he got nothing in return for his loss.

  It was Shang Mingyuan who had transported grain to Southern Xinjiang early and gained an advantage.

  When he transported grain to the south of Xinjiang, the grain price in Jiangnan was chaotic. Seeing that the grain price in the south of Xinjiang was still rising, he wanted to keep the grain in his hands and suppress it for a while.

  When the news came that the imperial court was going to purchase a large amount of grain to aid southern Xinjiang, he didn't think twice and sold his grain.

  Afterwards, the grain price rose again, and Zhao Guanshi was still regretful, thinking that they should have kept the grain for a while longer.

  As a result, grain prices began to fall the next day and fell wildly, and never rose again.

  When those big grain merchants transported grains here for low-priced sale, Zhao was secretly delighted though he didn't say a word.

  Zhao Jie let out a sigh of relief and asked Shang Mingyuan to take the money and hurry back to Suzhou.

  The Zhao family also has a share of this batch of grain, but because he is leading the army here and the second prince is by his side, it's not convenient for him to show up in person.

  It was common for a leading general to grant favors to his relatives, but he did not expect the imperial court's reaction to be so great and swift.

  The second prince was not talented in leading the army to fight, but he had been listening to politics in the court for several years and had also practiced in the Ministry of Revenue. He was reasonable and orderly in handling these things.

  He had just reacted when the second prince had already set up a rule and started ordering his subordinates to execute it.

  Although he is a leading general, with the second prince around, he really can't be in charge of state affairs.

  He knew that Your Majesty was angry about the sharp rise in grain prices in Jiangnan, and many family heads were summoned to the palace for talks. Those big grain merchants who participated in it were also closely watched by the Ministry of Revenue.

  Zhao Jie thought that after this matter passed, the Ministry of Revenue would start checking taxes at the door.

  So he didn't want people to pay too much attention to Shang Mingyuan.

  Shang Mingyuan held so much money in his hand and didn't want to stay in Nanjiang anymore, so he nodded without hesitation.

  He didn't return to Suzhou until grain prices in Nankiang had just stabilized.

  The old lady saw the carts of silver and finally let out a sigh of relief, pulling his hand and saying: "This month has been heart-pounding for me, from now on we'd better not get involved in such things again. Luckily you left early, otherwise you would have gotten trapped in Suzhou..."

  The old lady nodded her head towards the outside and said: "Look at those people's homes, how many are crying now? Our family is poor, we can't afford all this trouble."

  These words were more for Shang Er Tai Tai's ears than Shang Ming Yuan's.

  Is this a proposal before blaming her?

  Mrs. Shang II couldn't help but grit her teeth, but she had nothing to say, and even her elder brother thought it was very suspicious, let alone her?

  When Suzhou was in the most turmoil, she was also afraid. Old Lady Shang blamed her for nothing, but the Shang family had invested all their cash and borrowed loans, and if they failed, the consequences would be unthinkable.

  Fortunately, heaven blesses them to pass this disaster.

  Mrs. Shang II earned money and didn't mind what Old Lady Shang said?

  She smiled and looked at Shang Mingyuan, asking: "Is the account settled?"

  Shang Mingyuan smiled and said, "There is still the principal and interest borrowed from Qianzhuang that has not been repaid. The big shopkeeper must calculate it before we can calculate the profit. Wait until the account book is done, and then bring it over for Erniang to review."

  Madam Shang smiled slightly and said indifferently, "What's the hurry? Take your time, if there aren't enough people, I'll assign a few more to help you."

  Shang Mingyuan smiled and agreed, but didn't ask her to send someone over. However, Second Mistress Shang didn't expect him to ask either, so the next day she directly sent someone over to take care of things.

  Shang Mingyuan smiled and accepted it, but he wasn't stupid. He had already taken out his share of the money before returning to Suzhou, not giving Shang Second Lady a chance to handle it.