The scheming empress starts by conquering men

"What do you mean by a small favor? There is so much food, and everyone in the city has come to get it. The surplus food in your mansion can probably supply everyone in the city for seven days?"

"Besides, even if the second sister learns it, what's the use? With Mingzhu in front of her, she, Shao Dian Haolan, is just imitating the ugly woman."

"Everyone will be grateful to the Sixth Sister, so why would they care about what the Second Sister did."

"If you really have extra food, you can give it away!"

Shaodian Sheyu scratched his head; "Isn't this also for Sixth Sister's consideration?"

Shaodian Ziqing glared at her and said, "Fourth sister, please say less because it is for Sixth sister's consideration."

"Hey, little girl, you are so bold, aren't you? You dare to laugh at me, your fourth sister?"

Shaodian Sheyu rolled up his sleeves in pretending to be angry, as if he was ready to fight Shaodian Ziqing for eight hundred rounds.

Shaodian Ziqing was not afraid either. He rolled up his sleeves and looked like, "Come on!"

Shaodian Sishui helplessly held his forehead, his temples throbbing.

"That's enough. We are all sisters. How can we argue about meaningless things here?" She opened her eyes and looked at Shaodian Sheyu. "Does Fourth Sister have any extra food in her house?"

Shaodian Sheyu nodded, "Yes, there are some, but not much. There is no need to cut back on food and clothing. Just wait until spring comes and flowers bloom. There will be no big problem."

Shaodian Ziqing was almost laughing at her; "You don't need to cut back on food and clothing. Do you know how much a bushel of grain costs in Bianjing City now?"

One dou is 12.5 jin.

"Of course I know." Shaodian Sheyu had a look on his face that said, "You can't test me." "Some time ago, the rice shopkeeper said that one deerskin coin can buy one bushel of grain, which is very cheap."

"Haha..." Shaodian Ziqing sneered, "That was the price a few days ago. Now it's one shell coin per bucket."

"What? So expensive?"

Shaodian Sheyu was stunned.

"How can this be."

She had never heard of food being so expensive, really never.

Some time ago, a merchant said that one deerskin coin could buy a bushel of grain.

How long has it been, and now one shell coin can buy one bucket?

This is simply eating gold!

"Ah, then I'm going to get rich, right?"

Considering that food was so expensive and she still had a lot of food stored at home, if she sold it, wouldn't she become rich?

Shaodian Sheyu went from being surprised to being delighted.

Shaodian Ziqing: "..."

Is this a matter of getting rich?

She was speechless.

Shaodian Sishui shook his head helplessly and sighed secretly. The fourth sister's train of thought was really fresh and unconventional.

She said, "Fourth sister, do you know what will happen if grain prices are too high?"

Shaodian Sheyu didn't understand, she shook her head and looked at Shaodian Sishui, waiting for her explanation.

Shao Dian Si Shui said sternly, "We will starve to death, they will eat their own children, and the city of Bian Jing will become a purgatory."

"The grain prices in Bianjing are so high, and no one is trying to lower the prices. It's hard to imagine that there are cities outside Bianjing where there is no surplus grain. I think the grain prices there will be even higher than in Bianjing. There are even people starving to death and exchanging their children for food."

Shaodian Sheyu couldn't understand and grumbled, "Let them starve to death. Aren't humans the most common people in the world? Starving a few of them can also reduce the burden of feeding the population."

Shaodian Sishui: "..."

This is what a person can say.

I really want to pry open her head and see if it's filled with shit.

"Fourth sister, let me ask you, where does the food come from?"

Shaodian Ziqing was slightly stunned, not understanding why his elder sister asked the fourth sister such a question. Even if the fourth sister was stupid, she would know the answer.

Shaodian Sheyu blinked in confusion. Why was he testing her with such questions? This was not a problem that could stump her.

"Of course it comes from merchants."

Shaodian Ziqing nodded as a matter of course, but he felt that his sister must have other reasons for asking this question.

She looked at her sister, waiting for the next words.

Shaodian Sishui asked again, "Where does the merchant's food come from?"

"It was planted by the tenants." Shaodian Sheyu chuckled, "I know all this, you can't test me."

Shaodian Ziqing hissed in his heart and thought something was wrong.

Shaodian Sishui calmly asked again, "Then let me ask you again, who are the tenants?"

Shaodian Ziqing suddenly realized and his pupils contracted. That’s right, tenants, tenants, and slaves.

If all the people and slaves died because of the disaster, who would farm the land?

"Tenants?" Shaodian Sheyu was stunned for a moment, not understanding what was going on. "Just a bunch of people and slaves, what's wrong with that?"

That's all, what's wrong?

Shaodian Sishui clenched and unclenched his fists, clenched and unclenched them again, and finally managed to suppress his temper.

Shaodian Ziqing was the first to speak; "Fourth sister, you are so stupid! If the people and slaves starve to death, who will farm the land?"

Shaodian Sheyu has never thought about this question.

Anyway, she had never been hungry, so these issues were not within her consideration.

She sighed, "Who cares? There are millions of people in the world. It doesn't matter if some die or get injured. If someone dies, someone else will live. To survive, they will continue to pass on their family line and farm. If they can farm, they have to pay taxes, and merchants will sell. We are the royal family and will never starve to death, right?"

She said it as a matter of course, and had no idea what Sixth Sister meant by telling her so much.

There is absolutely no need to sympathize with the civilians and slaves.

Shaodian Ziqing paused and nodded; "Fourth sister, what you said makes sense."

"Yeah, I think that makes sense too."

Someone supported Shaodian Sheyu. She looked up, as if she was going to give him praise, very dignified.

Shaodian Sishui frowned speechlessly, his eyes fell on Shaodian Ziqing and Shaodian Sheyu.

This reminded her of modern society, from family planning to the second-child policy and then to the third-child policy.

The wool is being plucked from each generation, and the resources are being squandered from generation to generation.

Why do those real estate developers end up with their projects stillborn? Isn't it because the population is declining rapidly and no one wants to buy houses that they promote family planning?

But it is ultimately like drinking poison to quench thirst, it only treats the symptoms and not the root cause. The most fundamental reason is that the people have no money.

Why do people have no money? It’s because the country is poor and cannot provide more policies to benefit the people.

Inflation has led to low wages and high consumption, making it impossible for people to have children without cost.

Money and resources are monopolized by capital, and the people and the country are suffering. Even if the country suppresses capital, tax evasion is everywhere.

The entertainment industry is an example: nine out of ten people evade taxes, and the other half are paying additional taxes.

Not to mention those financial groups, in order to maximize profits for the group, many financial personnel have to work on sewing machines.

Thinking of the fact that she had not received her salary for several months in her previous life, she sighed with melancholy and spoke to them in the most straightforward words.

"Have you ever thought about whether the treasury would be empty if the population dropped sharply? Would the Great Zhou be able to support more soldiers and officials than the people?"

"For example, Da Zhou originally had ten people who cultivated land, but due to natural disasters, the number was reduced to five. The ten people could cultivate ten acres of land, and the tax was also the tax of ten acres of land. Now it has become five people, and the land they cultivate is only five acres, and the tax is also five acres."

"If another natural disaster strikes, and these five people are gone, who will be able to farm? How will the national treasury be filled? How will the Great Zhou support so many soldiers and officials?"

"With no one to farm, the Great Zhou has become a wasteland. Without the support of the people, when the barbarians invade our Great Zhou in the future, how can the Great Zhou defeat them?"

"If we cannot defeat them, then our Great Zhou Shaodian clan will become prisoners of the barbarians."

"Do you have to wait until you become a prisoner before you can repent? Even if you repent, what good is it? You have already become a servant. What's the point of having an unfounded royal identity?"

She looked at Shaodian Sheyu and Shaodian Ziqing, and gave them instructions in a sonorous and rhythmic manner.

The two were shocked by what she said and woke up as if from a dream.

"Sister, Ziqing knows he was wrong." Shaodian Ziqing spoke first.

Shaodian Sheyu also hit his head; "It's stupid, it's the fourth sister who is stupid. I didn't expect this level of interests to be involved."

It turns out that a person’s death involves so many things?

Shaodian Sishui raised a bitter smile, "It's not that you didn't think so much, but everyone is used to their status and position."

They are used to the supremacy of imperial power and to treating other people’s lives as nothing.

Fortunately, although Dari City is located in the Shiwanda Mountains, far away from Bianjing, and although it snows all year round, at least there is enough food there.

Not only that, she has already planned to attract investment and start a price war. Only when the price of food goes down will the people have a chance to survive.

She asked people to send grain to Bian Jing. According to Shao Dian Hao Lan's calculations, she could only save the people in this city. If she wanted to carry out disaster relief, she had to allocate grain from the national treasury.

But in this dynasty, the imperial power was supreme, and the grain that entered the national treasury could only be kept as military pay even if it rotted, and would never be distributed to the people for free.

The fact that Shaodian Sheyu thought this way showed that she was extremely stupid, but what she didn't expect was that Shaodian Ziqing, the King of Zhenbei, a soldier who had fought against the Shanrong people, would also have such thoughts.

This shows that their idea of ​​the supremacy of imperial power is deeply rooted.

I just wonder if the empress would think so too.

Soon, as several people were talking, the carriage arrived at the Fourth Princess's residence.

Shaodian Sishui asked the carriage to take her fourth sister first, and then Shaodian Ziqing.

Before getting off the bus, Shaodian Sheyu said that he would definitely take out some food, set an example, and give away food for free.

Although Shaodian Ziqing did not have much surplus food, he was not willing to be outdone and would also distribute food for free.