The substitute prince: Reported the emperor's brother at the beginning

Zhuang Enzhong has been living a pretty carefree life lately.

Neighboring Jiangdong was devastated by disasters and suffered from a severe food shortage.

He and a group of officials and profiteers hoarded large quantities of grain, and then colluded with the wealthy families in Jiangdong and officials in the capital to wildly raise the price of grain.

Zhuang En recalculated that he could earn at least two million taels of silver from the disaster in Jiangdong.

With so much money, he not only lived a life of enjoyment, but also bought several famous courtesans to enjoy.

He could even spend money to bribe high-ranking officials and princes in the capital, so that once the old emperor died, he could return safely and become a minister.

The days ahead will be very comfortable.

Recently, he has been thinking about whether to build another big garden to store all kinds of rare treasures and the various courtesans he bought. He lives a more comfortable life in Jiangnan than the old emperor in the palace.

Zhuang Enzhong was disturbed by the interruption and frowned unhappily, scolding: "You are a dignified provincial governor, and you act so rudely. What great achievements can you make in Jiangnan?"

In the entire Jiangnan region, Zhuang Enzhong is the king. Who dares to provoke him?

The governor was sweating profusely, and he wailed miserably, "Sir, something terrible has happened in Jiangdong."

"A batch of grain suddenly appeared in Jiangdong and was sold at extremely low prices. We couldn't sell our grain at all."

"Hmm?" Zhuang Enzhong immediately sat up straight. "Who dares to sell grain so recklessly?"

"Immediately contact the Jiangdong clans and vassal kings and take care of them."

Don’t be fooled by the appearance of Gao Qingshui in Jiangdong, who was quite powerful at first. Now that they are not selling grain, this stone in the pit is helpless. It can’t force the officials in Jiangnan to lower the price, right?

At worst, they won’t sell it to you, Jiangdong.

Even the princes and the Jiangdong clans were offered high prices, whether they wanted them or not.

The Governor shook his head and said, "Sir, the one who sold the grain this time was Tan Donglin, a fifth-rank official from the Ministry of Revenue in the capital."

"He holds the Sixth Prince's token and has Gao Shitou's support. Anyone who dares to obstruct the sale of grain will be considered an enemy of the royal family."

This was serious. Zhuang Enzhong's face suddenly darkened and he angrily kicked away the courtesan who was massaging his legs.

"Get lost."

Zhuang Enzhong roared angrily, and the courtesans' expressions changed drastically, like frightened quails, they retreated in panic.

"Sir, please think of a solution." The governor looked at him eagerly.

The governor has also stored a lot of grain in the hope of making a fortune.

Zhuang Enzhong pondered for a while, then shook his head helplessly: "With the Sixth Prince as our support, and Gao Shitou assisting us, we can't move at all."

"But it's not a big deal." Zhuang Enzhong smiled softly and picked up his teacup, saying slowly, "Even if they do this, they won't have any food in a few days, but Jiangdong will still be ours."

I believe they won’t be able to hold on for long if they continue to lose money like this.

But the governor said anxiously: "Sir, they have two million dan of grain."

"Puff..." Zhuang Enzhong spat out a mouthful of tea. "How much? Two million dan?"

"Where do they get so much food?"

The governor, who had tea sprayed all over his face, didn't care about so many things. He looked frustrated and said, "Sir, I don't know either."

"They are now frantically selling grain at low prices across Jiangdong, and are even advertising millions of shi, which is enough for the entire Jiangdong region to survive the winter."

Zhuang Enzhong almost fainted. There was so much grain in Jiangdong, and no one was willing to buy the grain they had stockpiled. They had spent a lot of money to buy it from everywhere.

"What if we ship it to other places and sell it now?"

"Sir," the governor shook his head in denial. "It's already cold. Even if we ship it to other places now, it's too late."

"Besides, there's a lot of rain in Jiangnan. If this continues, it won't be long before it gets moldy and rots."

Zhuang Enzhong spat out a mouthful of blood, his face filled with anger: "We have all been tricked by the Sixth Prince."

At first, the Sixth Prince spread the news that he would no longer distribute disaster relief food.

Large quantities of grain were continuously transported to Jiangdong, and not a single grain was sold.

They thought that the Sixth Prince and the Northern Han Family also wanted to make a fortune from it.

Even the Han family and the Sixth Prince's people who followed them took the initiative to contact them, hoping to jointly sell grain with them.

If the Sixth Prince wants to get rich, that’s fine. They will naturally not stop him. They can even let the Fourth Prince and the Second Prince obtain evidence of the Sixth Prince embezzling disaster relief grain.

Under such circumstances, the governor personally presided over the overall situation and controlled the entire Jiangnan region. Officials at all levels, big businessmen, aristocratic families, and even princes purchased grain everywhere, and frantically purchased large quantities of grain from other provinces.

With such a huge amount of storage, it is an astronomical figure, which is slowly sucking the blood of the disaster-stricken people in Jiangdong.

Now the Sixth Prince has cut off their financial support, causing them to lose all their money.

The governor asked anxiously, "Sir, what should we do?"

"So much food can't be left to rot. Think of a solution quickly. If we wait any longer, we'll lose a lot of money. I've borrowed a lot of silver to pay back."

Zhuang Enzhong was furious. Didn’t he borrow money?

Everyone wants to make a fortune from the disaster in Jiangdong, and they absolutely cannot let it go.

Suddenly, he thought of something and reached out to grab the governor's collar, urging him, "Hurry, go write a letter to the Second Prince in the capital."

"Have everyone else send a letter to the master in the capital immediately. We must suppress the Sixth Prince as soon as possible, otherwise we will all be killed."

The governor hurried to do it.

After waiting for several days, there was no news from the capital.

Zhuang Enzhong finally couldn't sit still anymore and could only announce bitterly: "Sell the grain at a low price, otherwise the loss will be even greater."

A group of Jiangnan officials, merchants from all over the country, and aristocratic families wailed.

He cursed the Sixth Prince and criticized Gao Shitou every day, but no matter how harshly he cursed, it was of no use.

No one wants the food in the warehouse to rot, so they keep throwing it away.

Food prices are like an avalanche, falling wildly and reaching a shocking level.

As long as there is any stock at home, I can't sit still when I see others throwing it away, for fear of losing all the stock, so I take it all to Jiangdong to sell.

Gao Qingshui, the Jiangdong Censor, was the most excited.

In the past, he was so anxious about food for Jiangdong that his hair turned white. He also wrote to the Sixth Prince every few days. Apart from asking for food, there was no other topic.

Now that there is so much cheap food on the market, he no longer has to worry about the disaster in Jiangdong.

As for the local people having no money to buy food?

It doesn’t matter, Gao Qingshui has plenty of ways to arrange them.

As long as men, women, young or old are able to work, they can be paid wages, and the food they get in exchange for their wages is enough to keep the whole family from starving.

Han Dingtian was also shocked to see that the Han family bought a large amount of food at a very low price, not to mention the military rations for an army of 200,000.

Three hundred thousand is enough.

Moreover, the Han family made a lot of money this time.

Han Dingtian was even more grateful and admired the Sixth Prince. With one plan, he managed to suppress the grain prices in Jiangdong, which had been severely affected by the disaster.

He was wondering whether he should go back to the border to expand the army by tens of thousands to increase his own strength?

What surprised him was that when he personally thanked the Sixth Prince, the Sixth Prince refused to accept even a single ounce of silver.