Mao Xi stepped forward with some self-blame, "During this period, the main energy of the court has been on food, and the recent aristocratic tribes in Hebei and other places have been in chaos. The court has been negligent in its work. This is a dereliction of duty. Please punish him.

Chen Kefu's expression calmed down a little, waved his hand, and said, "I also understand that the court has had a lot of things recently and the burden is heavy. The imperial army is now fighting on three sides, and all the logistics matters are handed over to the Lords. It is already a heavy burden. In addition, rebellions are everywhere in various places, and the local area is temporarily paralyzed, so it is difficult for the Lords to do so."

"However, now is a critical moment. At the beginning of the business, the burden must be heavy. However, we cannot relax ourselves because of this. Now that the soldiers are fighting bloody, I and the Dukes are in the rear, and I should manage the government and local governments well to maintain the stability and prosperity of the local areas, so that we will not let down the bloody efforts of the soldiers. This rush to buy is no longer just because the people are panicking and grabbing food, but is mixed with more complex situations."

Pick up a few notes from the table, and Chen Kefu asked the eunuchs to pass them to the ministers.

After reading the right servant Fang Xuanling, he said in surprise, "There is Li Yuan, Wang Shichong, Yang Ming, Yu Wenhua and other forces involved in this trend, and even the two families in Shuzhong and Jiangnan were involved?"

These notes were found in the Investigation Department, which investigated the whole grain snatching trend in detail. Finally, they found out that the grain snatching trend was initially due to panic in the capital and turmoil in Hebei. Later, some unscrupulous merchants saw an opportunity to take advantage of it and joined in. They hoarded things and wanted to fuel the fire behind them to make huge profits.

However, with in-depth investigation, they immediately found some clues from several of the hoarding merchants. After full investigation, they found that not only the prices in the capital began to rise rapidly, but also other places under the control of the imperial court were the same.

What surprised them even more was that they finally discovered that more than half of the merchants who were making trouble later were controlled by other major forces like today. In other words, this trend was actually a conspiracy between major forces against the court.

Nowadays, aristocratic families in Hebei are in rebellion, and the imperial army is fighting on several battlefields, and now they are busy fighting against aristocratic rebels. At such a critical moment, the imperial court, which was still in short supply of food, was conspired by various forces, causing prices to rise rapidly in various places and supplies to be scarce. Then, the reputation of the imperial court will inevitably plummet, and even cause a new round of turmoil due to this rush to buy.

At present, the local powerful families have rebelled, and if ordinary people are in chaos, the court will be in danger. At that time, civil strife will cause external crises, and even several armies fighting outside will be greatly affected, which may lead to the failure of external wars.

"Is this true?" Gao Shilian said in shock.

Li Wangsheng, the Investigation Department, said, "We have found enough evidence. In the past few days, the Police Department and the Gendarmerie Department have dispatched one after another and have arrested hundreds of people. The confessions currently obtained are consistent with our evidence."

Mao Xi, Fang Xuanling and others looked at each other and felt a deep crisis. They didn't know anything about such a big thing in advance. This was too passive and dereliction of duty. Fortunately, King Chen had already started to take action. Otherwise, I was afraid that this incident would cause great trouble.

"Your Highness, we must fight back immediately. Otherwise, we may be afraid that the people will be unrest. Food is the most important thing for the people, especially in Hebei today. If there is famine, there will definitely be unrest. I suggest that those merchants who hoard food should be investigated and dealt with immediately."

Du Ruhui nodded and said, "The legal system should be established to stipulate that grain should be a franchise. Merchants are prohibited from buying and selling in private, so that profiteers and other hostile forces can make trouble in secret."

Other ministers also made suggestions and proposed many feasible plans.

After Chen Kefu was asked to write it down one by one, he thought carefully for a while.

Food can be said that no matter what dynasty or era, it is a strategic material for the country, and it is an indispensable thing that affects the lives of the people at any time. If the court is asked to make them monopoly like salt and iron, there are benefits and disadvantages. The advantage is that this strategic material can be avoided from falling into the hands of others, so the court can better control it. But there are also disadvantages. Food is related to the people's livelihood. If the court specializes in it, it will be easy to produce **, just like private salt. At that time, officials collude with merchants, and they may become worse.

After thinking carefully for a long time, Chen Kefu shook his head and said cautiously, "Food is the foundation of people's livelihood, and every policy must be very cautious. I do not agree to change grain to a specialty for the court. I carefully considered that the court could issue laws to upgrade the commodity management of grain and strengthen the supervision of the court. For example, the Ministry of Revenue will add a price section to include some important materials in the world in the supervision of the court. The court will formulate the approximate prices of the public prices once a month and allow floating within a certain range. However, it is prohibited to exceed the highest price. If it dares to exceed it, it will be investigated and dealt with. For example, grain, salt, iron, copper, hemp, silk and other people's livelihood and national strategic materials will be included in the supervision."

"In addition, the court must not be lenient in this incident. For the people who are rushing to buy, Geli Zheng, Bao Zheng and Jia Zheng warn them. If there are any more rushing to buy, they will confiscate their rushing to buy supplies. For all the merchants in Guqi, they will be ordered to sell food at a fair price. For those hoarding merchants supported by major forces, as long as evidence is obtained, all their assets under the rule of the court will be immediately confiscated, and their families will be exerted as military force in Weizhou. If there is any serious case, they will be beheaded and made public."

"In addition, the court must distribute a batch of grain to the capital and local people in the near future. Each people receive it for a limited quantity and it is strictly forbidden to sell it after it is collected. The court must also promote it to calm the trend as soon as possible."

Mao Xi and other officials from the three provinces and six ministries thought carefully about Chen Kefu's words for a long time. These methods include severe punishment, warning profiteers, appease the people, and distributing food to alleviate the trend, but it is a good plan.

However, they have their own opinions on this price department. After all, except for the specialty items such as salt and iron, the court has never taken care of these private business affairs. At this time, it was unprecedented that such a yamen was suddenly added and the court set the prices. And if it was not done well, it would be easy to cause chaos. However, for the time being, setting the price department is more stable than the specialty items of the court. In the end, everyone passed it one by one.

"Report to Your Highness, Yuyang's good news! The great victory, General Li Benlei defeated the 200,000 rebels of the Lu family in Fanyang. The rebel leader Lu Che committed suicide, and all the rest surrendered. Congratulations to Your Highness, congratulations to Your Highness." The eunuch general manager Li Chaoen ran into Wenhua Pavilion with a rosy expression and loudly reported the good news.

When the ministers in the cabinet heard this good news, they were moved. Among the rebellious clans in Hebei, the Lu family had the greatest rebellion. They rebelled in Yuyang, not far from Zhuo County, and secondly, their rebels were as many as 200,000. At the beginning of their rebellion, they sent a cavalry to the city of Beijing to show off their power, so they had the greatest influence in the capital area.

Not long after this aristocratic rebellion, even other places in Hebei have not heard good news yet, but the Lu family rebellion has been suppressed, so how can he not be excited and happy?

The ministers bowed and said happily, "Congratulations to Your Highness, congratulations to Your Highness."

Chen Kefu laughed a few times and was much happier.

"Come on this good news."

After taking the good news, Chen Kefu browsed happily.

"Annihilated 38,000 rebels and captured 183,000 rebels."

"The rebel leader Lu Che died in the battle with his son, and the rebel Zhao Kuang died in battle. All the rebels surrendered."

"All Lujiabao castle surrendered, and the total number of slaves of the Lu clan clan was 13,853. All of them were captured."

"Hahaha! I am the only general Li! I did a good job and fought beautifully. In this battle, I will defeat the four counties of Yuyang, Hebei for a hundred years." Chen Kefu's face was full of joy and was extremely excited.

After reading it, Chen Kefu passed the news to the ministers to watch.

Mao Xi was the first to read it and also looked happy, "Your Highness, now Lu Che is dead, and the four counties in the northeastern Hebei are all pacified. I still don't know what Your Highness plans to deal with the rebellious Hebei clans and other rebels, as well as those people who are accused of rebellion? Kill or not?"

When Mao Xi heard this question ask, the other ministers all looked up at Chen Kefu.

Lu Che was the first rebellious clan to be pacified, and how to deal with him can be said to be very important. It is related to the handling of other rebellious clans later. If the handling is lighter, then the majesty of the court will undoubtedly not be reflected, and even those rebellious clans who have not yet been pacified will be lucky.

However, if the handling is severe, it may cause extremes. Strictly and severely deal with it may arouse the complete resistance of the rebel clans. It will inevitably cause a lot of trouble to the court. After all, the court is in a troublesome situation now. If the rebellion is suppressed one day earlier, the court will be able to recover its vitality as soon as possible. If it really delays, Hebei will be in ruins and the court will suffer greater losses.

What is even more troublesome is that Shandong and Huaibei. Now the imperial court has not established a solid rule over the two places. If the imperial court handled the Lu family too seriously, it would inevitably arouse fierce reactions from the aristocratic tribes in these two places. Maybe Li Mi of Henan and Chen Chao from Jiangnan would intervene and benefit from it.

He had long thought about how to deal with these aristocratic powerful men who dared to openly rebel, and all subsequent plans were already in his heart. However, at this time, he still wanted to hear the opinions and opinions of his assistants in the government.
Chapter completed!