“Gathering the price of food?”

Listening to Mo Zizai's request that was completely different from what he expected, Song Hui couldn't help but be stunned. He asked in confusion: "But the prince, the grain price is already very high now, why should we let the grain price rise again?"

Song Hui, who didn't know much about Mo Zizai, was even a little doubtful in his heart whether Mo Zizai planned to raise the grain prices and then sell the grain in the grain store and make a lot of bad money.

"Because the higher the food price, the more merchants it can attract."

Mo Zizai said lightly: "With five times the profit, there may be some people hesitation, but if the profit becomes ten times or twenty times, then do you think there will be some people hesitation?"

"The interests will blind people. If this is the case, more than ten times the profit will be enough for those merchants to do whatever they want."

After hearing what Mo Zizai said, Song Hui seemed to understand a little, "Your Majesty, you are planning to attract those merchants to the capital with high profits, and then when the food arrives, you will..."

As he said that, Song Hui gestured with his hand to wipe his neck.

“…”

Mo Zizai shook his head speechlessly, "Why are you more interested in killing than me? People come to the capital from thousands of miles away. You killed and robbed people. How could there be any businessman dare to come to the capital to do business?"

After hearing Mo Zizai say this, Song Hui laughed awkwardly, "You can't blame yourself for thinking this way." The main reason is that you did this before. You killed the more than 200 merchants in the capital. But now you think I'm so determined to kill.

However, Song Hui only dared to complain in his heart. He asked with confusion on his face, "Then Prince, what do you mean?"

"There is no longer any more to kill businessmen without reason. Let's change to a gentler approach this time."

Mo Zizai said with a smile: "First use high prices to attract grain traders, then dump the grain from the grain shop, and make the price to the lowest."

"There are so much grain in the grain shop, and the grain merchants attracted, and so much grain in the capital. I guess it would not be difficult to reduce the price of grain to a lower price than before the capital."

"The food price is even lower than before the capital?"

After hearing Mo Zizai say this, Song Hui couldn't help but be stunned. Because the capital was supported by the entire Great Zhou Dynasty, the usual price of grain was even lower than that of the Jiangnan area. If the price of grain could really drop to that level...

Song Hui suddenly felt a little horrified. If this is the case, most of the grain merchants who came to Beijing this time would have to consider where to hang themselves.

"This matter... should be feasible."

Song Hui's voice was a little dry. Although Mo Zizai's plan was simple, it was very practical. After all, the capital was completely under Mo Zizai's control. It was too easy for him to control the rise and fall of grain prices.

However, Mo Zizai only proposed a general strategy, and the specific implementation plan needed to be planned again. Song Hui thought about it for a while and then raised a question.

"Prince, those grain merchants will definitely have different time to arrive in the capital due to different routes. If they go to the capital to sell grain directly, how should this be resolved?"

If there are grain merchants who come to the capital first, they will not mention how much money they will make with such a huge profit. Just saying that they keep selling grain will disrupt Mo Zizai's plan.

After all, the food gap required in the capital is limited. If they are allowed to sell grain without restrictions, it will probably not take long for the market to be saturated by big grain merchants like them.

“It’s simple, too.”

Mo Zizai basically did not hesitate and directly gave a solution, "You are the Minister of Revenue, and the market is under your control. Then you can just hold them and not let them sell them."

"Don't let them sell?"

Song Hui looked a little hesitant, "Prince, this is probably inappropriate, right?"

On the one hand, the people in the capital urgently needed food, while on the other hand, foreign grain merchants brought a lot of food to sell. If he dared to stand in the middle and refused to buy it, those grain merchants would not be allowed to swallow him alive after the news was released.

"What's wrong with this? Just make a good excuse."

Mo Zizai didn't care about Song Hui's concerns. He spoke to Song Hui and said, "As for the excuses, it's very simple. Just say that the quality of food in other places is unqualified, and has not undergone hygiene inspections, and is inferior to good, etc."

"Anyway, you're not letting them sell, you're just checking for a few days, just letting them wait."

"Of course, they don't want to sell at all."

Mo Zizai thought for a while and continued to advise: "You can refer to the salt induction system and send them food induction."

"If you want to sell it in advance, you have to buy grain from you. How much you can sell depends on the grain from you."

Speaking of this, Mo Zizai's tone was a bit weird, "Of course, you will decide who to give food and how much you can give."

Hearing Mo Zizai say this, Song Hui couldn't help swallowing. He always felt that Mo Zizai seemed to have something in his words, but he was not sure of his guess, so he asked hesitantly: "Prince, you...what do you mean?"

"Yes, that's what you mean."

Mo Zizai nodded affirmatively, "Grain means money. How can you do it if you want to take the grain without spending money?"

"On the surface, there is a grain quota of 5,000 taels, but if you want to get this grain quota of 5,000 taels, they will not give you 50,000,000."

"This...this..."

Song Hui finally understood that Mo Zizai asked him to ask for bribes from those merchants, which made him hesitate. When he was a businessman, he hated the most the kind of officials who were entitled to get a bribe. So after finally having the opportunity to become an official, he decided to be an innocent official.

But what he didn't expect was that he had not started to be a bribe before he could take the initiative to ask for bribes...

"Then this money..."

"Why, do you want to accept it yourself?"

Mo Zizai glared at Song Hui, "Of course it is handed over to the public. Just hand over the money given by selling grain and bring it back to the national treasury."

"As for those merchants who give privately, just give it to me."

"But you can keep other gifts, calligraphy and paintings, and you can't let you get a bad reputation in your own way."

"If you have a bad reputation, you will be a bad reputation. How many officials have good reputations?"

Song Hui smiled bitterly, but when Mo Zizai said that he had taken all the money, he felt much more at ease. Otherwise, if Mo Zizai wanted to give him all the money, he would really have to consider whether Mo Zizai would kill the donkey.

"However, if all the money is accepted by the officials of the Ministry of Revenue, I'm afraid the officials of the Ministry of Revenue will have their opinions."
Chapter completed!