In recent years, Zhongyuan Business Travel has entered Liaodong in large numbers to do business, basically controlling Liaodong's business.

Liaodong people can buy what they need locally, so basically nothing Liaodong people will leave Liaodong and go to other places.

Even if there is, it was informed by the Central Plains Business and Tourism "inadvertently", saying that the Central Plains had been pacified and the days had returned to stability.

Therefore, immigrants from all over the Central Plains who learned the news were homesick and decided to give up their life in Liaodong for more than ten years, and would choose to return to their hometown no matter what, or the kind that is gone forever.

Over time, not only did the population in Liaodong slowly decrease, but most of the people doing business in Liaodong are foreign merchants, and it is rare to see local merchants doing other businesses besides medicinal materials and animal husbandry.

Locals have grown medicinal materials to do animal husbandry, and they have made a lot of money and have a good life. They have no need to deal with other things. Their lives are already very satisfying now, and they don’t want to change the status quo.

Therefore, some daily necessities were even shipped from Qingzhou and Youzhou, and were not produced locally. Many locally produced things are no longer produced.

Although no accurate estimate has been made, Gongsun Kang vaguely knew that there were very few farmers and land in Liaodong who were still growing grain and could no longer be self-sufficient.

Although Liaodong is a bitter and cold place, no such thing happened, Liaodong's food was barely self-sufficient. When encountering famine, they had to tighten their belts and tighten their lives, and live a tight life.

In recent years, everyone has grown medicinal materials and engaged in animal husbandry. The agricultural production population will naturally be relatively small, and it is difficult to be self-sufficient, and it is even more so now.

Now that the issue of food is involved, Gongsun Kang couldn't help but think of some very bad consequences, and thought that Liaodong might have the chaos in his eyes, and the ending was unpredictable.

So Gongsun Kang thought for a moment and felt uneasy. He decided to send someone to various places to formally count the grain prices, and then visit various places to count the amount of local grain produced in Liaodong.

This matter was left to Liu Yi to take charge, and Gongsun Kang had to stay in Xiangping in case of emergency.

Gongsun Du is in bad health now. If Gongsun Du is no longer able to do so, Gongsun Kang will take over his power in time.

Gongsun Du is not the only son, he also has a younger brother Gongsun Gong.

Although this younger brother is weak and doesn't seem to have any chance of fighting for power and profit, if he is not in Xiangping when Gongsun Du is seriously ill, he will feel uneasy.

This is impossible.

Gongsun Kang ordered to Liu Yi, and Liu Yi immediately took the order and started to act immediately.

He sent officials from the Pingzhou Patriarch's Palace to various places to investigate the specific situation, and asked them to rush back to Xiangping within one month at the latest to report the news to him and let him know the specific situation.

In order to speed up efficiency, Liu Yi personally took over the task of investigating Zhongliao County.

In early September, with the summary of a large number of statistical information and putting these information together, Liu Yi and Gongsun Kang came to a conclusion that shocked them very much.

Grain prices are continuing to rise, and over time, this price is still rising.

The farmers in the five counties in Liaodong who are still growing grain are less than 20% of the previous Han Dynasty. If Liaodong leaves Qingzhou and Youzhou, they will be completely unable to sustain themselves, and food shortage will break out in a very short time and there will be no food at all.

At that time, everyone will rush to the mountains to eat animals, grass roots and barks, or to the river and sea to catch fish.

This will completely destroy the social order in Liaodong.

This is a fact that they have always ignored, a fact that they are obsessed with false prosperity and completely ignore.

In order to earn more Wuzhu money, I indulge in false prosperity and look at money, but in the end, I actually ignore the conclusions that have always existed objectively with just a little investigation.

Liu Yi and Gongsun Kang could hardly speak for such a conclusion.

They never thought that things they never cared about suddenly counted, and they had reached such a terrible level.

At the same time, the officials who investigated the price of grain also discovered a fact that was not easy to be valued.

All the merchants of Wei who were engaged in food trade disappeared.

These Wei merchants who were engaged in grain business basically lived in Liaodong for a long time.

They will do business in Liaodong, hire some local people from Liaodong to start, build warehouses, and do grain business.

These grain merchants come and go back every year, purchase goods, and then go to Liaodong to sell, either by land or by water. Therefore, it is normal to go back and return, and no one finds it strange.

But this time, they went, but did not come back as usual.

Those local Liaodong guys all found it strange why the boss hasn't come back yet.

However, because the Wei State business travelers who were engaged in other businesses were still there, they were still doing business as usual, and even complained with them about the rise in grain prices, they did not panic and just thought it was an accident.

However, as time went by, the rice and grain in the warehouse became less and less, and some local guys began to have ideas, so they took their own initiative to raise the price of grain.

At the same time, they also felt something was wrong. Why hadn't the boss come back yet? In an anxious manner, they explained this fact to the officials who came to ask about the price of grain.

These grain merchants were the first to come to Liaodong to do business. They purchased local medicinal materials and livestock at high prices, and then sold grain by themselves, thus transforming the entire Liaodong production system.

They have strong funds and abundant food sources, stabilize local grain prices, control sales channels, and allow Liaodong people to eat cheap food. Therefore, more Liaodong people have gradually begun to engage in medicinal materials cultivation and animal husbandry rather than growing grain.

Even Gongsun Du changed his tax policy and no longer collected grain or other things from the people, but directly collected Wuzhu coins as taxes, and then directly ordered grain from grain merchants as military supplies.

Gongsun Du himself felt it was very convenient and had never doubted it.

Later, with the arrival of these merchants, more and more business travelers from Wei State came to Liaodong to do business.

Agricultural tools, fishing gear, clothes, cloth, daily necessities, etc., all things you can’t imagine, so Liaodong commerce began to bloom and flourish.

To be honest, people from Liaodong have not lived such a good life.

You can buy all kinds of goods from all over the world with a Wuzhu coins. When did you ever have such a good thing?

They did have a relatively comfortable life.

But now, this group of initial merchants are gone, and the Wei merchants who brought them prosperity are gone.

They disappeared collectively and returned to Wei State, and then did not come back.

In previous years, about three months was enough for most owners to travel back and forth several times to dispatch grain. They piled up the granary, making people feel very at ease and comfortable when they saw it.

As a result, this time, I haven't come back once every three months.

Calculate this way, Liu Yi suddenly remembered that the first time he discovered that the price of grain rose was three months ago.

Liu Yi suddenly felt something terrifying was happening.

"Young Master, I think the situation is a bit bad. We must prepare in advance. This may not be a coincidence."

Gongsun Kang frowned and nodded slowly.

He felt that this was not accidental. If it were accidental, it would not have happened all this year. Such things should have happened in the past.

But now it doesn't.

Is this normal?

Not normal.

Totally abnormal.
Chapter completed!