Chapter 93: Buying Low and Selling High

The crowd was startled, and one after another, they gasped in cold air.

Liu Zheng asked in confusion, "Who are they?"

Watching the orderly advance and retreat of the wolf pack, Reheman's expression turned gloomy: "Loulan Wolf Drivers! Wolf Drivers are skilled at driving packs of wolves to fight for them!"

Someone shouted, "Lord Reheman, aren't these Wolf Drivers controlled by the Loulan imperial family? Why is this happening?"

"Exactly!"

"Reheman, you must give us an explanation!"

The crowd pressed him, and Reheman's expression shifted several times, yet he found it difficult to answer.

Liu Zheng saw that there was certainly a story behind this, so he said loudly, "Everyone, clean up the scene immediately to avoid the scent of blood attracting more wolves!"

Upon hearing this, the crowd felt it made a lot of sense.

In this short skirmish, the group of three hundred had already lost more than thirty people! Many held those remains and began to grieve, but they dared not wail loudly for fear of attracting danger again.

When Qin Zhangfeng returned, he was still furious, carrying several wolf heads, and said angrily, "I was just a hair's breadth away from taking down that Wolf King! How hateful!"

Just now, he had been very confident in taking down the Wolf King, but who knew the Wolf King's movements would be so swift, turning and narrowly escaping his slashes. This left Qin Zhangfeng feeling very resentful.

Liu Zheng said indifferently, "Killing it is useless; this is man-made!"

Qin Zhangfeng was stunned.

Only when Zheng Yueru explained the matter of the Wolf Drivers on the side did Qin Zhangfeng stare in dumbstruck shock—could there really be people in this world who could drive starving wolves? Liu Zheng chuckled; driving starving wolves was just like how ancient people tamed wolves into dogs; in fact, if one found the Method, it was not a difficult task. But he was also quite interested in these Wolf Drivers. These wild beasts were not worth feeling sorry for if they died, and more importantly, the combat power of one wolf could equal two soldiers!

This wolf pack could absolutely be used as a Surprise Unit in war.

That Loulan actually possessed such talent; it truly is a marvelous country...

"This old man thanks the young master for the rescue!"

Just then, an old man in brocade clothes, accompanied by a young man by his side, came over to express his gratitude.

Liu Zheng took a look and saw that it was indeed someone from another Chamber of Commerce of the Longyan Dynasty within this camel caravan. During the chaos just now, Liu Zheng had sent Qin Zhangfeng over to help, which was the only reason these few people avoided being slaughtered.

Liu Zheng laughed and said, "The old gentleman is too polite. Since we are in the same caravan, we should support one another!"

The old man said with emotion, "Young master is of Great Good. I am the shopkeeper of the Rongxiang Firm from Hanzhong. I hope there will be an opportunity in the future to repay the young master for saving our lives!"

Only then did Liu Zheng know that these few people were from Hanzhong.

After this battle, this Rongxiang Firm no longer had any defenses or hostility toward Liu Zheng. The old man even cautiously said, "Young Master Liu, this camel caravan is a mixed bag with all kinds of people; you must be careful!"

Liu Zheng nodded.

That night, the camel caravan took advantage of the darkness to travel a few more miles before feeling safe enough to camp again. Because the scent of blood could not be removed from the previous spot for the time being, it was quite dangerous to camp there. Liu Zheng looked at Reheman, but since he did not give these people any explanation, he did not find it appropriate to ask.

The next day, they set off again.

This time, compared to when they first set off in high spirits, everyone's energy had become listless and tense.

During the day, the camel caravan still had not walked out of this Gobi Desert.

The road became increasingly desolate, leaving people parched. The consumption of water also increased. Liu Zheng still maintained the habit of recording the Geography; having lived two lives, this was his first time coming to this barren Gobi Desert. Aside from the heat, it was just dry. Even the soil and gravel underfoot were dry and hot.

In the Gobi Desert, crows were common animals, along with the unidentified, sun-dried skeletons scattered everywhere.

While passing a place similar to Flame Mountain, the group was even attacked by swarms of crows, and the camel caravan lost another dozen people!

The wilderness is ruthless; only five days had passed, and thirty or forty people had already died.

No wonder all the merchants were filled with fear and respect for this wilderness.

……

At this time, Kezhou City.

Mou Chengxiang, the State Marquis, had been very comfortable lately.

He was very grateful to that Liu Family father and son for leaving him such a wealthy place as Kezhou! If they had picked Kezhou at that time, wouldn't he have had to go to that godforsaken Yinzhou?

Haha!

He lay comfortably on a lounge chair, enjoying the spring sunshine.

After arriving in Kezhou, he realized how good it was here. Due to Kezhou's geographical location, the interior was orderly and the institutions were mature; he didn't need to govern anything at all! He only needed to lie back and collect money!

"Hmph, Liu Dahao must be regretting it so much his intestines are turning green by now, right?"

Little did he know.

At this time, inside Kezhou City, as time passed, the commoners had already begun to grow excited.

"Have you heard? The Yinzhou Chamber of Commerce over there is buying grain! Five wen per liter!"

"What? That high?"

"Yes, I heard they want to use it to brew wine!"

"Hurry and go take a look; I still had surplus grain at home last year!"

What the commoners cared about was how much of a harvest they could get from their own land in a year, how much would be left after paying taxes, and whether they could sell some more to exchange for a bit of silver—that was what really mattered!

Someone was buying grain at a high price; who wouldn't be happy?

For a time, the place where the Yinzhou Chamber of Commerce was buying grain became overcrowded.

"Is there more, is there more? Today's grain price is six wen per liter; we will buy until we have enough!"

The people from the Chamber of Commerce said loudly.

Everyone was incredibly excited.

Six wen?

Wouldn't that be twice as high as the price the government bought grain for?

"I want to sell!"

"Wait for me, I'm going home to push it over right now!"

Soon, the whole city went crazy.

The commoners scrambled to sell their grain.

Even the government runners of Kezhou Prefecture were successfully tempted by the silver; some even secretly took the prefecture's stored stock out to sell, thinking to themselves that once they made this profit, they could just fill the gap back in when low-priced grain became available again.

Three consecutive days.

From five wen, to six, to eight!

The purchase price kept rising relentlessly.

The commoners were all crazed; some even ignored the spring plowing. Those who got the first-hand news even ran to the countryside to collect grain, all for the sake of this price difference. And some, blinded by the temporary benefits before them, even took out all their family's seeds to sell.

Jiang Xuan looked at the scene before him, and he found it inconceivable.

Can people really be this crazy when faced with profit? The seeds are all sold, so what will they do for the autumn plowing?

He did not know that this scene before him was equivalent to those people in later generations brainwashed by pyramid schemes, who, for the sake of immediate profit, would disregard everything else. It must be said that this Qingyang Shuo's grasp of the human heart even surpassed Liu Zheng's.

Liu Zheng still came from a later generation, but what about him?

Sitting in his own home, he knows the affairs of the world.

What shocked Jiang Xuan even more was that, just as the wave of grain collection was rising in Kezhou City, the Kezhou Prefecture actually did not come out to intervene? This was a very inconceivable thing.

In fact, the people of Kezhou Prefecture were still secretly selling grain!

On the side of the Yinzhou Chamber of Commerce, large amounts of silver were being scattered, and on this side, cart after cart of grain was being pulled back into Yinzhou territory.

Finally, after seven days.

Mou Chengxiang learned of this matter.

"What?"

"Collecting grain?"

He was somewhat suspicious.

Who knew that the Counselor beside him would be overjoyed: "My Lord, this is a good thing!"

"How so?"

"It seems this Yinzhou is definitely short of grain! Haha, My Lord, you must know that even if one buys grain from elsewhere and transports it back to Kezhou, it costs no more than five wen!"

"Our Kezhou Prefecture can take this opportunity to make a huge profit!"

Mou Chengxiang's eyes shone brightly as he listened.

That's right.

Since Yinzhou is foolishly coming to buy grain, why can't Kezhou Prefecture sell it? This is a huge fortune!

He laughed heartily: "It seems this father and son of the Liu Family value commerce over agriculture, and they don't even have enough grain! Hmm, it can be sold; just consider it supporting them!"

Everyone was overjoyed and immediately opened the granaries to sell grain.

Since ancient times, this is probably the first time the government has sold grain to merchants. But how could Mou Chengxiang know these things? Plus, because he appointed people based on nepotism, the officials of Kezhou Prefecture were all good-for-nothings and sycophants. Who could see the trickery in this?

The government's stock was all taken out to be sold.

It shows just how crazy the entire Kezhou City was.

Mou Chengxiang and the others thought that if they sold it to them for ten wen here, at worst they could buy it back from Jinghua or Hanzhong for five wen; this was a hundred-percent profit margin just by flipping it, who wouldn't want to earn that?

Thus, the grain collection movement in Kezhou City intensified.

Ten days later.

It finally reached its peak.

The price of grain had been forcibly raised to fifteen wen by the Yinzhou Chamber of Commerce!

However, people still could not stop.

Some bought low and sold high, some took the opportunity to hoard grain. Some racked their brains, looking for any opening, pondering how to make money.

"Sir, Sir!"

"That Kezhou Prefecture really bought another five hundred thousand shi of grain from Hanzhong, hahahaha!"

When Jiang Xuan returned to Yinzhou, he was extremely excited, and his attitude toward Qingyang Shuo even changed.

"Five hundred thousand?"

Qingyang Shuo was drinking tea and smiled faintly: "That is about enough. Mou Chengxiang is greedy by nature. Give him a little more sweetness, and when he uses all the treasury silver in the prefecture to purchase grain and fodder, that will be the day we dump our stock..."

Jiang Xuan was overjoyed: "Good!"

In a mere ten days, Jiang Xuan had already come to look at Qingyang Shuo with new eyes.

A disabled person, sitting in Yinzhou, could steadily manipulate the psychology of the people in that entire Kezhou City?

What a formidable genius this was!

At this time, Kezhou City had already collectively fallen into madness.

Jiang Xuan could imagine that when the Yinzhou Chamber of Commerce began to dump its stock, Kezhou City would surely fall into chaos!

Sure enough.

Just as the high-priced grain collection had continued for about half a month, the Yinzhou Chamber of Commerce suddenly stopped buying.

This caused many people immersed in their sweet dreams to wake up instantly.

"What is going on?"

"Why are they not collecting grain anymore?"

"No, absolutely not, this batch of grain of mine was transported all the way from Hanzhong!"

"That's right, open the doors for us!"

"What are we supposed to do with this grain?"

The commoners in the city, those speculating, those taking the opportunity to get rich, and those hoarding grain waiting for the price to rise, all went crazy in an instant.

Who knew that the people from the Yinzhou Chamber of Commerce would walk out and chuckle: "Everyone, the Chamber of Commerce's grain collection has come to an end... The grain and fodder Yinzhou uses for brewing wine is already enough."

The crowd cursed loudly.

Was the city-wide carnival just over like this?

Who would have known, the next day.

The Yinzhou Chamber of Commerce posted a notice.

"Three copper coins, selling off stock millet, limited-time offer!"

The entire Kezhou City was completely stunned.

Mou Chengxiang's face turned the color of liver.

"What?"

"Selling off?"

"Quick, quick, quick, tell the grain transport team to get back here immediately, we don't want it anymore!"

"My lord, it is too late, the treasury silver has already been traded to the other party..."

"What?"