.The canal pier was silent, and everyone's eyes were gathered on Shen Mo's face. Chen Mo looked at Hai Rui with a blank expression: "Why did I tell you? I have the right to decide everything, why do you regard my words as the wind in your ears?"

"Hai Rui, there is nothing to say." Hai Rui closed his eyes and said, "Let the Lord deal with it."

"Okay," Silent nodded and said, "Take it away."

Then two officials came over to take pictures of Hai Rui's past dignity and did not dare to take him. They just whispered: "Master Hai, please follow us."

Hai Rui nodded, stood up, and strode out.

"You can't let Lord Hai go!" The people were still divided. They all knew that Lord Hai was a good official who pleaded for the people. This time, he took responsibility for them. So he had the conscience discovered and wanted to pull Lord Hai back.

"Stop!" Hai Rui looked back and angrily rebuked: "Are you going to get me wronged?" This is exactly what he was worried about, otherwise he wouldn't have been in a hurry to stand up and take himself as a hostage to prevent things from getting worse.

"Sir, we have been out of food for a few days. If we continue to hunger, we will die." An old man couldn't stand it and knelt down to Chen Si, "Mr. Hai has no choice, so he brought us over to see it. His original intention was not to rob, but just to..." As he said, he looked at Chen Si, and said with some fear: "I just wanted to sell us some food, but I found that it was all sand and stones, and then chaos occurred." This is what the so-called "human being old" means. The old man reversed the order of discovering that the food was all sand and stones, and the order of the two things that happened was chaos, which transferred most of the charges to Chen Si.

It seems that if it is white rice, there will be no chaos.

Hai Rui frowned slightly and was about to speak out, but he heard silently: "Who said that the food is all sand and stone?"

"Why isn't it!" the young men said angrily: "I don't believe it. Look!" Then they lifted a sack to the silence, tearing open the hole, and sand, soil and stones flowed out loud.

People looked at the silence in anger, with contempt in their eyes.

This made Chen Yue feel a little worried on his face, and he laughed and said, "Well, what's going on?"

Sanchi, who was next to him, quickly replied, "Master, you forgot that this is the stone we bought in Taihu Lake, which is for use in the government office." He also winked while speaking, which made him look even more scathing. He looked like he was not a good person at first glance.

Silently slapped his head and said, "That's it."

"If you don't have food, just say it! Don't fool us with stones here!" There are always people with ulterior motives, hiding in the crowd and clamoring.

Chen Si narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "Who said that? Do you dare to stand up?"

Of course no one dared to stand up, but everyone's face said that the government distrust was also true. Everyone was short of food. You pull some stones and weeds back to make do with it. Think we are Sun Wukong, can you eat iron galls and drink copper juice?

Facing the public's distrust, silence seemed to feel very hurt, and said with a look of slight : "It's not until the beginning of today, the canal pier is selling grain. I personally sit in charge to see if there is any grain!" He said, "Let's go."

"Where is Mr. Hai?" people asked worriedly.

"I won't punish him." He said silently, thinking, why don't I have such a good popularity? But he also knew that Hai Rui was following the mass line and had many fans. He was not the one who was as tall as himself and was not the one who was like him.

Seeing Lord Hai nodded, people left with skepticism, and thought to themselves: "Anyway, there is no other way, just believe in the government for the last time."

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At noon that day, people came from all directions with a hint of luck. When they gathered on the dock, they saw that there had been a simple shed and blocked it with cloth curtains, which made the government feel more and more guilty.

The officials sent out the yamen runners and made people line up in a noisy way. While queuing, people saw a grain boat slowly leaning on the shore, and sailors came down from the boat with sacks of fish, and then they were in front of the curtains and could not be seen.

Following the thin corridor made of two wooden railings, people had to line up and slowly move forward... There are five such teams, namely five grain sales outlets, but the team still can't see the beginning and end - when the front one has entered the curtain, the back one has not yet entered the dock.

Under the forced support of the officials, the leading people entered the curtains in an orderly manner, and saw many sacks piled up behind a long table. Some people were troubled in the morning and found that the two sacks were the same.

But the officials untied the sacks, and what was exposed was white rice.

People couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and it was even more strange. Why did they open it and it was sand when we opened it? Is this the difference in character?

Of course, they also thought about it for a moment and their attention was attracted by the rice they had been looking forward to.

After a few months, the grain transactions in Suzhou City have become distinctive. People have become accustomed to limiting the amount of people based on the number of people and buying grain with coupons, so Shen Mo and others don’t have to worry about it. Whoever is the turn will deliver the grain coupons, weigh three kilograms of rice, and then leave after buying.

When they saw that someone really bought rice, the people queuing outside finally relaxed their hearts, and some people quietly left the queue and left quickly without buying rice.

The few people walked through the streets and alleys and entered an inconspicuous yard. Soon someone rode out and walked slowly outside the city.

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The man riding a horse left the city and passed the stone roads and alleys of Fengqiao Ancient Town. Soon he arrived at a temple with green tiles and yellow walls. The temple was located among green trees. There was a large copper tripod in front of the hall with four big words "Serious" written on it. The man handed the horse to the little shaman, walked through the hall and entered the backyard, and saw green pines and cypresses, winding paths.

The man walked over the path, and there seemed to be a figure flashing in the flowers and trees, but after seeing the person clearly, he returned to silence.

When I reached the end of the path, there was a hexagonal double-eaved pavilion. The man reported his name inside and outside the door, and the door opened. The one who opened the door was the long-lost Humble Administrator's Garden Master Wang Zijie.

After entering, I found that Peng Xi, the parent of the Peng family, Pan Tuo, the parent of the Pan family, and Lu Ding, the patriarch of the Lu family, were all present. In addition to the four of them, several others were also the leaders of the big clans in the city!

Since the food crisis broke out, they all left Suzhou City. Unexpectedly, they all hid in Hanshan Temple outside Gusu City.

As soon as they saw the news coming in, the gentry asked together: "How is it?"

"Reply to the man," the report said: "There is indeed rice, and five teams are opened, each with three kilograms, and it has already begun."

"Didn't it mean the ship is full of sand?" Prince Rang said nervously: "Why are the rice coming out again?"

Old Lu was calm and heard Lu Ding ask: "Does there be rice on other ships?"

"I don't know." The news shaking his head, "There is only one grain ship docked and unloaded, and the rest are anchored in the middle of the river."

"Go down." Seeing that I couldn't find anything, the man turned away the news report and closed the door and decided...

"What do you think?" The person who asked this question was usually the big shot... Lu Ding was the one who spoke.

After thinking for a moment, Peng Xi said, "I remembered a play and sang a lot of money to measure sand. Have you ever heard of it?"

"Nonsense," Pan Tuo had a bad temper and frowned, "We are not illiterate, who hasn't read the chant of Tan Daoji?" Then he understood what he meant, and said embarrassedly, "Are you saying that he is imitating Tan Daoji?"

The so-called Tan Daoji sings and weighs sand, which refers to the famous Southern Dynasty general Tan Daoji, who was once surrounded by the enemy. He ordered his subordinates to station in places that are easy to defend but difficult to attack, and the opponent's attack effect is very poor. When he was about to withdraw his troops, someone of his subordinates rebelled and revealed that the Song army had no food.

The Wei army sent scouts to inquire about the truth, but saw that the Song army was singing several pieces of cakes and weighing piles of "grain", so they thought the Song army had enough food and grass, so they killed the surrendered Song soldiers as spies, and then quietly withdrew their troops.

In fact, what the traitor said was indeed true, but Tan Daoji took advantage of the enemy's initiative and ordered the soldiers to cover the only grain on the sand and pretend to show that they had enough food to confuse the Wei army.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"According to me, although they have food, they don't actually have much, so they use real and fake methods to pretend to have enough food!" Peng Xi said: "It must be like this, it's not bad!"

"This makes sense." Lu Ding nodded and said, "Shen Zhuoyan's abnormality after he came back can be explained." He said, and asked again, "What is he for?"

"It is for one stone to kill three birds." Prince Rang said in a deep voice: "Pretending to have enough food can first make the people feel at ease; second, it can relieve his pressure so that he can have more time to prepare food;" He said, "That's the third thing, I think it's his main purpose, which is to mislead us!"

"How is this misleading method?" everyone asked in unison.

"Let us mistakenly think that he has enough food," Prince Jean said with great affirmation: "It causes our panic - if we think that the price raising fails, we will inevitably sell a large amount of grain and rice. Once this happens, his crisis will be really solved and we will really fail."

When everyone heard this, they nodded and said, "What a clever way, one trick to sing and weighing sand, and almost encircle us." Now that I think about it, I can't help but feel scared... When I heard that Shen Mo came back with a grain ship, their already unsolicited alliance almost immediately fell apart.

But frightened by the cruelty and danger of those people, they did not dare to act rashly, so they had to press their anxious mood and frequently inquire about the news. However, Shen Mo protected the canal dock so well that ordinary people could not get close to them. If it weren't for the 25th Hai Rui holding Tongzhi Pass, and piercing the window paper, these people wouldn't know how to deal with it.

"Okay, it's safe for the time being." Pan Tuo said without hesitation: "What's next? Will you continue to be a turtle with a head-reducing turtle?" Everyone looked at Lu Ding, and they also wanted to know the answer.

Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Lu Ding sighed and said, "What can I do? One day is a day, right? Can I get off after getting on this pirate ship?"

Everyone sighed and said, being forced and tempted by those people, Suzhou City was bombarded with seventy-sixty points, and they didn't know when they would go back, and what kind of face they were when they went back...

Just as everyone was worried, the door suddenly opened, which scared them to tremble. After seeing the person coming clearly, they not only did not feel relieved, but instead shivered even more.

I saw a handsome young man who was wearing a plain white spring shirt and a gorgeously decorated sword hanging around his waist. He saw a smile on his face, but the corners of his mouth were tightly pursed. He held a folding fan in one hand and pressed the scabbard at his waist with the other hand, which was casual and solemn, warm but scary.

It was Lu Ji and Lu Ziyu.

When everyone saw him come in, everyone stood up. Only his nominal uncle Lu Ding couldn't hold on his face and didn't get up, but his face became very strange. I don't know what kind of feelings to express.

Lu Ji glanced over everyone with a clear gaze and said with a faint smile: "I just heard you say that I can't get off the pirate ship, that's right." As he said that, he turned on the folding fan and shook it gently: "All these subtle moments should be more in harmony. If anyone wants to leave everyone and escape in the battle, he will be the enemy of my Pinghu Lu family, the enemy of our group!"

He gently shook the folding fan, and there was almost no wind, but everyone was shivering, including Lu Ding, all looked at him with some fear.

Lu Ji was in a great mood and was always defeated by Shen Zhuoyan. He almost forgot that he was still a powerful figure. He adjusted his mood and sat down in the main seat without hesitation, saying: "You guessed that Shen Mo did buy the Cao Gang's grain, which was about 200,000 shi, but we tried to buy him another 200,000 shi,

It was abolished." What does it mean to slap the swollen face and pretend to be fat? That's it.

"Two hundred thousand stones can only last for one month." Lu Ji clenched his fists and said, "So the situation is still in our hands. In a month, Suzhou City will be out of food again!"

Everyone nodded in a hunch, moaning in their hearts: "It's still a month left."

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"What should I do now?" Lu Ding asked Lu Ji. But this time, he became a pure inquirer... Although both of them were surnamed Lu, the gap between the two in power was too big. The former could only be considered the number one figure in Suzhou, while the latter could be the king in Jiangnan.

"What should I do?" Lu Ji said with a funny look: "You are all old people. Everyone knows that the government is short of food. Don't you need to ask what to do?"

Of course everyone knows that in this case, they should be hoarding goods, but they also have concerns: "If you continue to hoard grain coupons, wouldn't you send a lot of money to Shen Mo? What if he takes the money to buy grain elsewhere?"

"He can buy it, but he can't transport it in." Lu Ji sneered: "Now we mobilize strong connections to let all prefectures and counties adjacent to Suzhou City strictly investigate ships heading to Suzhou, and strictly prevent another grain of food from flowing in." As he said that, he looked down on everyone and said: "What are you worried about the strength of our nine masters?"

When he thought of those prominent surnames, the wealthy families in Suzhou City were indeed only given to others to carry shoes. Since he said he had no food to come in, there must be no one.

Then he said without any doubt: "This is indeed a good time to eat!"

"That's right." Lu Ji finally raised his hand on the hilt of the sword and waved it: "While eating food, while eating food coupons, let their tricks reveal the filling as soon as possible, and raise the price of the food coupons. We sell the food coupons, make a big profit, and then leave the market!"

"In fact, just buying food is enough." Lu Ding said: "There are enough tickets we have hoarded, which is far more than the amount of silver deposited, and the risks here are already very high."

"What are the risks?" Lu Ji disagreed: "After this battle, Suzhou City is ours. Whatever you want is more, what you want is less, what you want is expensive, what you want is cheap, what you want is at our mercy, how much money can't be made back?" Of course, he would not say that it was because he bought a very high-priced rice, which was too much beyond the budget, and he had to make up the hole as soon as possible, so he encouraged them to buy both grain and grain coupons, and actually hoped to sell it at a high level to exchange for a large amount of money to make up the big hole.

"Would you sell some coupons from other industries first for some cash bank?" Pan Tuo also asked. After so long lending, his banknote would have been about to bottom out, which made Pan Tuo, who has always adhered to the "conservative" ancestral teachings to run a money house, feel particularly uneasy.

"If you want to sell it, sell it to me." Lu Ji said angrily: "Don't you know that after frying the food, you should pick up something else next?"

Now everything is rising. The prices of those average-value tickets have increased, even several times. Pan Tuo was really reluctant to let Lu Ji say this and stopped mentioning this matter.

Seeing that everyone had no objection, Lu Ji stood up and said in a deep voice: "Everyone, the battle situation has reached this point. It's impossible not to fight. Now I'll order my family. The more you buy, the sooner the government will reveal the money. What are you waiting for?"

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So, on the second day, the number of people buying grain was much higher, but Shen Mo had a foresight and used the wooden railings to plan the path to buy grain, which actually limited the number and number of people buying grain, so that his grain could last for a few more days.

But on the other hand, the supply of grain coupons was released. No matter how much the price was, the daily quantity was quickly sold out!—

segmentation--
Chapter completed!