Chapter 195: Chapter 138: The Overall Situation
A mont later, Li Lu ca in and said in a low voice,
"My aunt said that before the drought, salted fish jerky from the general store sold for about fifteen cents a jin. But once the drought started, there wasn’t much fish jerky left. Even when it was available, the price shot up to thirty or forty cents. It’s unclear what the price is now since no one is selling it. But that was all in the past. Now the County Magistrate has completely suppressed prices in the County Town, so it’s hard to say."
At this, Li Lu shook his head and sighed. "The County Magistrate was pushed into a corner. He forcefully suppressed prices to ensure the people in the County Town could survive for the ti being, to hold out until the war is over.
So, after dealing with all the uncooperative families who were hoarding grain to make an obscene profit, he confiscated all their food supplies.
And guess what happened next?
All the shops in the County Town related to food were shut down. at, rice and flour, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar—all of it is now sold in limited quantities at fixed locations set up by the County Magistrate’s Office.
The price of one jin of Old Rice and cornal was forced down to fifteen cents! One jin of sorghum flour is ten cents!
Can you believe it?
That’s no different from the price before the drought. He also strictly mandated that each household can only buy one and a half jin, and only by presenting their Identity Card and matching it with the household register! Oh, right, the County Magistrate’s Office sells supplies once every two days.
Anyone caught trying to impersonate soone to buy more is imdiately expelled from the city!
As for things like dried at, the price was pushed down to seventy cents a jin. It’s sold once every three days, and each household can only buy half a jin.
You could say that any business related to putting food in people’s mouths has been taken over and is being strictly managed by the County Magistrate’s Office.
Furthermore, to ensure that poor families in the County Town have food to eat or money to earn, he organized large groups of people to continue deepening all the wells in the town, making sure there’s still a water supply.
So these drastic asures for drastic tis have actually stabilized the County Town. He’s also earned the respect of all its citizens.
But the grain confiscated from the various families probably won’t last long. I heard the County Magistrate has already sent people to the Commandery City multiple tis to request more grain, but there’s no word on how that’s going."
Cheng Zongyang was quite surprised after hearing Li Lu’s account.
’This Luo Dingran is a capable man! To dare to force prices back to what they were two years ago! The families that hoarded grain must have suffered disastrous losses. Especially the Wang Family, where Wang Tianfeng belongs. Last ti, because of Chang Younian, they nearly swallowed up all the other families. If things had developed normally, the Wang Family would have beco a Noble Family, and their financial power would have been imnse. But now, Luo Dingran has accused them of price gouging, obstructing the Governnt Office’s disaster relief, and colluding with troublemaking Martial Artists, and he even brought in the Reincarnation Bureau. Just like that, all the key figures of the Wang Family were thrown in jail overnight. The ones left are just common folk, who pose no threat to Luo Dingran. This just goes to show that no matter how powerful a faction is on its own, it’s still in for a world of hurt if it crosses the Governnt Office. That’s why so many Noble Races are desperate to place their people in official positions!’
’Luo Dingran’s thods, while damaging to the interests of the various families, have preserved the stability of the County Town! This is what a "good County Magistrate" should do. And this practice of selling grain at fixed prices and in fixed quantities is an excellent idea. At the very least, it ensures everyone can get sothing to eat. Being underfed is better than starving to death. Also, the work-for-relief program is a good approach. Not every family has money for grain; if you’re broke, you can go dig wells. When you’re done, you either get paid or get a al. Plus, it increases the County Town’s water supply. These thods are enough to prove that Luo Dingran is a formidable figure! If he performs well, it’s even possible that after the war, he could be promoted for his capable governance, with so help from his family’s connections. Then again, only soone like Luo Dingran has the backing to pull this off. Otherwise, if the powers behind these families used this as a pretext to cause trouble, Luo Dingran would have t a grueso end.’
In reality, what Cheng Zongyang and the others didn’t know was that under the current circumstances, actions like Luo Dingran’s—dealing with the rchant families in the city, confiscating their grain, and implenting unified, restricted sales—were being replicated almost everywhere.
When one thrives, all thrive. The four great Gate Valve Families of Linchuan and Xiangyang had no choice but to sacrifice the interests of so of their lower-level affiliated powers to fully support the bigger picture and stabilize all the counties.
Otherwise, if a fire started in their own backyard while the war on the front lines was going poorly, the losses their families would suffer would be unimaginable!
Cheng Zongyang turned his thoughts back to the matter at hand, comparing the prices of fish jerky. ’Salted fish jerky is a bit more expensive than regular jerky because of the salt. Mine is just plain dried fish. Besides, with Luo Dingran having fixed the prices in the County Town, no one can hope to make a profit at a critical ti like this, so there’s no room for negotiation. No one else will buy it. The only possible channel is the County Magistrate’s Office.’
"Here’s the plan," Cheng Zongyang said to Li Lu. "I’ll be staying in the county for one more day. I need you to go and inquire about the price. As long as it’s reasonable, I’m willing to sell to the County Magistrate’s Office.
Three thousand jin of fish jerky could feed three thousand households for a day, right? For the County Magistrate, that is. If managed well, it could even last for two or three days.
Oh, and as for my identity, just say I’m a traveling rchant from Luoyang Prefecture. For the transaction, I’ll only accept Gold, no silver notes."
The main reason he wanted to sell them was that he didn’t have much storage space for the fish jerky in the Wilderness World. Even if he took it back for the villagers, they wouldn’t be able to eat it all. And if they wanted more, the second batch would be ready in half a month, and there would be even more then.
As for the currency, he had lived in this world for over nine years and understood how stable silver notes usually were, which was why he didn’t mind using them for transactions before.
But with a war going on, the reliability of silver notes was no longer guaranteed.
Right now, real gold and silver were the only things that truly held value! Besides, he needed real gold and silver himself—both the silver required to expand the territory of his Wilderness World and the Gold needed to expand his item slots. All future transactions would have to be in real gold and silver.
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