Tianliangyuan

Chapter 94 Heavy Snow Arrives, Grain Prices Rise

At the end of November, a sudden heavy snow began to fall in the afternoon and continued until nightfall. At this moment, the court officials began to rack their brains.

The palace gates had already been locked, but Emperor Yong'an urgently summoned more than ten ministers to the palace for a meeting, among whom was Marquis Anxin, Xu Han.

Early in the afternoon, Xu Zhaozhao had already arranged for people to deliver messages to several of her properties outside. She couldn't do anything else, but at least she had to protect the people who worked for her.

As for the Hundred Fruit Garden and the other two estates, the houses had been reinforced long ago. Not only that, the day before, Xu Zhaozhao also took the opportunity of the upcoming Laba Festival to send some rice and grain to the tenants and servants.

Xu Zhaozhao couldn't sleep when she learned that her father had entered the palace. If the heavy snow continued to fall all night, her father and brother would probably be busy from then on.

"Miss, are you waiting for the Marquis to return?"

"My elder brother should have gone to the military camp. With the heavy snow, Father has been summoned to the palace, so I'm afraid he won't be able to return tonight. Has there been any news from my sister-in-law?"

"Miss, everything is settled with the Lady of the Heir Apparent. After the Marquis entered the palace, the Lady also sent someone to give him a few instructions."

"That's good."

With the winter solstice approaching, I can only hope that the imperial court is well-prepared this time, so that there will be fewer casualties.

The heavy snow continued for two days and two nights without stopping.

The situation in the capital was better. There were yamen runners leading the people to clear the snow, and the Marquis's mansion had plenty of servants and guards. The snow in the courtyard was also piled up in the corner.

Only occasionally could one see the thick snow piled up on the top of the wall, which was nearly a foot high.

Wang Ruolan was also worried: "The heavy snow has not stopped, and the couriers who deliver messages have obviously slowed down. I don't know how things are in Jizhou, or whether your second brother is able to eat and stay warm."

"Mother, rest assured. Before the heavy snow, Xie Zheng wrote to inform us that he had stockpiled a lot of grain and fodder. In addition to the grain and fodder allocated by the imperial court, they also prepared a lot of grain and meat from various places themselves. Second brother will not suffer."

Wang Ruolan sighed, "I hope so."

Heavy snow has blocked the roads. Not only are roads leading to Jizhou blocked, but even the official roads from the capital to the counties below have not been cleared. The official road to Wannian County is also blocked by heavy snow.

In such a cold winter, what people fear most is that their livestock will freeze to death. Those who are prepared are better off, as they can surround chicken coops and cattle sheds with dry straw to at least protect them from the cold wind. But for some lazy people, this is a disaster.

The Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Works, and the Ministry of War all dispatched personnel to maintain order, clear snow, and investigate casualties among the civilians, and they were all busy.

Finally, after the heavy snow stopped, all parties began clearing the obstacles.

Every day, someone is responsible for clearing the snow twice at Baiguoyuan, not only on their own farm but also on the road leading from Baiguoyuan to the county town. They do this twice a day without fail.

This work wasn't done in vain.

Because they had been clearing snow all along, their task of clearing snow after the heavy snow stopped was relatively easy. They had already cleared a clean road ahead of time to facilitate the passage of carriages.

Before the official roads in various places had been completely cleared, Jiang Ning's cloth shops started causing trouble.

She ordered the price of cotton cloth to be raised again, and it has now risen to ten coins per foot. However, very few people are coming to buy cloth.

Because of the sudden snowfall, Jiang Ning assumed that the people were completely unprepared, so she decided to start selling off her stockpiled cloth in large quantities, hoping to make a fortune from this opportunity.

However, she did not pay attention to the court's movements, and was unaware that the court had already issued notices in all counties under the jurisdiction of the prefecture a month ago.

That's why Xu Zhaozhao's various coarse cloths were so popular before.

The price is reasonable, and the quality is excellent.

Furthermore, with the imperial court issuing proclamations to keep warm, it was perfectly normal for ordinary people to buy some cloth to take home.

For three consecutive days, Jiang Ning only sold three bolts of cloth, which greatly worried the shopkeeper.

Jiang Ning was also flustered, but she tried to remain calm.

"Don't worry, it's probably because the road underneath hasn't been cleared yet, so the people outside the city can't enter for the time being, which is why the cloth isn't selling. Let's wait a bit longer, there's no need to rush."

Unlike the dismal business of the cloth shops, the major grain shops in the capital were packed with people. Although grain prices had not risen significantly, people knew that they needed to store grain for winter, and the heavy snow had amplified their sense of crisis.

Therefore, in just a few days, grain prices rose.

When Prince Zhong and the Second Prince saw the price of grain rise, they were finally able to laugh out loud.

Food is always the lifeblood of ordinary people.

Not only did ordinary people start hoarding grain, but even some wealthy families began to store it.

The more people scramble for grain, the higher the price goes, and the higher it goes, the faster the people rush to buy it!

With grain prices already doubling, the Ministry of Revenue finally intervened.

Some government offices began selling grain, and the price was driven down to the level before the heavy snow. As a result, the grain shops suffered a severe blow to their business.

The government sells grain, and grain can be purchased based on household registration.

Those with fewer than five people registered in their household are limited to purchasing three bushels; those with more than five but fewer than ten people registered in their household are limited to purchasing six bushels...

This would prevent anyone from taking advantage of the situation and hoarding grain.

Many people started to use their brains.

The fact that the imperial court dared to sell grain at such prices and in such quantities indicates that there was an ample supply of grain!

If that's the case, then they don't need to panic, and those who have stockpiled grain shouldn't rush out; they should wait and see.

Xu Zhaozhao had previously purchased a large amount of grain, but it was mainly coarse grains.

Now that she saw the government offices starting to sell grain, she also instructed the grain shops to start selling grain at the prices before the heavy snow.

However, one still needs to bring their household registration book to buy grain. Regardless of the number of people, as long as one has a household registration book, one can buy three bushels of grain.

Xu Zhaozhao did this because her stockpiled grain was insignificant compared to the imperial court's. Selling it now was merely an attempt to appease the court and also to tell everyone that the grain shop didn't have much grain in stock, and that most of it was coarse grain, so it wouldn't attract too much attention.

Everyone is a smart person, and soon several more shops selling affordable grain appeared in the capital, which immediately brought down the price of grain in the capital.

Some people are happy that someone is worried.

Especially since the Second Prince stockpiled grain late, the price of grain was already higher than normal when he entered the market. Now it has only just arrived in the capital and has only been sold at a high price for two days. It looks like it will have to be sold at the market price soon, so it can be said that there is no profit to be made and all the work has been for nothing.

After sending people to visit the East and West cities, Gu Xiangdong compiled a list and submitted it to the palace to report back to the emperor.

After Emperor Yong'an read through the document, he sneered repeatedly: "What a fine son of mine! In the face of such a disaster, he doesn't think about how to help the people, but only about accumulating wealth. He has utterly disgraced me!"