Chapter 420: Born to Meet the Opportunity

Lao Wang has been very busy lately.

Because he discovered that with the food shortage in Liangzhou, the focus of these people had slowly shifted away from the Pension—this is a very terrifying thing!

He went everywhere to lobby; at the beginning, there was some effect, but as time slowly passed, people—who since ancient times have known propriety only when their granaries are full—had their eyes attracted once again by the skyrocketing grain prices.

The entrance to the Liangzhou Prefecture office was already deserted, lacking the lively scene of hundreds of thousands of people protesting and petitioning from a few days ago.

"Wang Dapan, are you really not coming with us to grab grain? I heard that the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce is supplying it at the original price today!" a big man eating breakfast nearby advised him.

Lao Wang became anxious all of a sudden: "Original price, my foot! It's at least double what it was before! You call this an original price?"

Others sneered one after another: "Lao Wang, it's already not bad to be able to buy it at this price!"

"Are you really going to let your wife and children go hungry?"

"We aren't like you, having Yintan City to support us. Hey, can you spare us some of your employee welfare grain?"

Bah!

Lao Wang was furious.

But he also seemed to grasp the key to this whole matter in an instant. Welfare grain—the grain in Yintan City is naturally supplied first to the employees who work there.

But what about those other hired laborers?

What about the workers in those small workshops?

Lao Wang fell into deep thought.

Although he had little education since childhood, he was actually always very smart, and his mind was very agile. He was a staunch supporter of Governor Liu, and the current chaotic situation in Liangzhou had already affected social order.

Therefore, he was very anxious.

Stability!

There must be stability!

But he knew that stability is not easy; grain is the foundation for the workers.

Then...

Welfare grain?

Suddenly, a big idea emerged in his mind.

Yes.

This idea was very, very big. Big enough to make his whole body tremble.

Combining the currently imminent Pension system, with grain, with workers, and with welfare... he returned home, dejected and listless, unable to eat or drink.

No.

He felt that this was not right.

He felt that society should not be like this.

He felt that a stable society should have an order to jointly resist any risks.

Instead of being like it is now.

As soon as grain prices rise, these people go crazy.

Not caring at all about any government decrees or policies.

His brain was spinning rapidly.

Lao Wang's wife, seeing her husband in this state, was startled. With no other choice, she could only call over her younger brother who served in the military—the relationship between Lao Wang and his brother-in-law had always been good.

"Brother-in-law, brother-in-law?"

Lao Wang's brother-in-law, named Zhou Cheng, heard from his sister that his brother-in-law was not acting right, so he brought a bottle of Drunken Yinzhou and came over.

Lao Wang nodded and let his brother-in-law sit down. After the two finished two cups, he said: "Zhou Cheng, tell your brother-in-law the truth. In the current situation in Liangzhou, does that gentleman in Yintan City have any Method?"

Zhou Cheng was a Centurion in the military.

For a family like theirs, he was more or less an official.

Hearing this question, Zhou Cheng took a deep breath and carefully looked around: "Brother-in-law, I heard, of course, it's just hearsay... I heard that that gentleman mentioned something about the inevitability and contingency of history. I'm not someone who understands that too well..."

"What did you say?"

Lao Wang's eyes lit up when he heard this.

Contingency, inevitability...

This means that they intend to let the market deal with this crisis?

He discovered.

His whole body was trembling even more violently.

That idea became active in his mind once again.

Yintan City.

Zheng Yue Ru had also been exhausted lately; there were too many things she had to deal with every day.

The Blockage of the Ship was slowly fermenting.

The blockage of the Grand Canal was causing the chain reaction to intensify day by day.

With the arrival of inflation.

The Yinzhou Coin began to plummet once again.

Compared to the previous time, this plunge was even more ferocious, even directly affecting people's livelihoods. In the words of the gentleman Qingyang Shuo, if the Yinzhou Coin could truly survive this time, it would develop into a real currency, a currency capable of resisting any risk.

But the prerequisite...

Is that it can survive, that Yintan City can survive, and that the entire Liangzhou can survive.

The matter had been fermenting for half a month.

Grain drove all commodity prices into a state of madness.

Qingyang Shuo had no Method for this.

Zheng Yue Ru had grown quite a bit during this affair, and she handled various tasks with ease—clearly, under the tutelage of Liu Zheng, she had become a talent proficient in financial systems, and the team she led had also begun to possess skills and knowledge bases that were far ahead of many financial talents in the current world.

"Everyone, what further Methods of response do we have?"

After finishing her work, Zheng Yue Ru gathered the team she brought with her.

These people were all talents she had personally selected during the last Liangzhou Imperial Examination; they were young, energetic, and found it easy to accept new things!

"Chief Manager, I feel that we have done what we should. But these mandatory measures really shouldn't be too rigid!"

"That's right, Chief Manager. The Young Master once said that market economy regulations are inevitable, but we cannot excessively suppress the development of the market economy!"

"Military control is already in place, but the grain prices still won't come down..."

"This..."

The group discussed it heatedly, all at their wits' end.

Suddenly, one person said: "Chief Manager, I believe the continued fermentation of the current situation is mainly because the public has begun to doubt the purchasing power of the Yinzhou Coin. At this time, the best Method of response is to bring forth a non-governmental organization to stand up and act as a coordinator!"

"Oh?"

Zheng Yue Ru's eyes lit up: "Continue!"

That person stood up, cupped his hands and said: "Mutual distrust is the fuse for everything. At this time, we need a peacemaker, but this peacemaker cannot be someone from our official side; it would be best if they stood up autonomously from among the public and the workers. Someone with considerable appeal!"

The others listened with great interest.

These people were all the most progressive young people in Liangzhou, and what they loved were these kinds of unconstrained, imaginative ideas! What they studied thoroughly were the various advanced knowledge compilations of Governor Liu! They were also selected from various classes, so naturally, there would be no class-based ideological conflicts.

That person said with slight excitement: "I have this idea for a few main reasons!"

"Firstly, since ancient times, the public has only had awe for the government, but lacked trust!"

Everyone nodded in unison.

To put it plainly, it was a relationship of oppressor and oppressed.

"Secondly, since there is no trust, then working together to tide over the difficulties will be very hard! And grain prices affect everyone regardless of status. We must find a Method to make them trust us, to make them return to their work posts with peace of mind! Let us step forward and be responsible for mediating between the two sides; only in this way can society be stable! Only then can the rise in prices be curbed!"

Everyone nodded again.

What grain prices affect is the entire social order, and the ones who should be considered most are these 'price-sensitive' consumers, the commoners. If they are in chaos, society is in chaos; if they are settled, society is settled.

"Thirdly, this non-governmental organization should bear the function of connecting the higher and lower levels. On one hand, the public trusts it! It can request some benefits from us, which we can appropriately satisfy. On the other hand, it can soothe the emotions of the public and workers to stabilize production order. Since they are not officials, their words will be more persuasive than ours!"

"In this way, even if there is a large-scale grain shortage, they will not follow the crowd and panic-buy. Without a panic-buying wave, it will be of great benefit to our stabilization of the situation and prices!"

The entire room was silent.

Zheng Yue Ru had already stood up in excitement and hurriedly asked: "What kind of organization?"

That person smiled: "I believe it should be called a Trade Union."