Chapter 57: Lowering Food Prices
"Stabilize the grain price!" Chen He exclaimed, looking at Wang An as if he were a madman, and admonished him randomly: "Your Highness Prince Xin, this is absolutely not allowed!"

"Why not?" Wang An chuckled and said, "Are you most afraid of Lu Guancheng's revenge?"

Chen He looked embarrassed and said, "I'm sorry to make you laugh, Your Highness, but this is the fact."

"Then Lu Guancheng's brother-in-law is Fang Shan, the governor of Qingzhou. I believe Your Highness Prince Xin already knows this."

Seeing Wang An nod, Chen He continued, "Jizhou is bitterly cold, and the land is barren. The food produced cannot even feed the people of Jizhou, so Jizhou has always relied on buying food from Qingzhou to fill the gap."

"Let's not talk about the fact that we only have 5,000 dan of grain. This amount of grain is far from enough to stabilize the price of goods. What will we do when we sell them all?"

"And we have offended Lu Guancheng for no reason. As long as he blocks the channel for transporting grain from Qingzhou, it will undoubtedly be a huge disaster for the people of Jizhou!"

However, Chen He did not know that Lu Guancheng had already secretly informed all the major grain stores in Qinzhou, forbidding them to sell grain to Wang An.

However, Lu Guancheng himself did not expect that Wang An actually found Prince Fu’s grain number by accident.

Wang An also didn't know. After all, the first grain store he chose was the one owned by Prince Fu, and he didn't ask the second one.

But this is not important. Wang Anke does not believe that Lu Guancheng alone can scare off Prince Fu.

Even if we add another Fangshan, it won’t work.

Therefore, Wang An was not worried at all that Lu Guancheng could block his grain transportation channels.

After hearing this, Chen He suddenly understood.

I thought, Wang An didn't seem to be a reckless person, so how could he suddenly think of stabilizing the grain price in Jizhou? It turned out that he had already relied on the support of Prince Fu.

However, Chen He was still worried, looking as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

Wang An knew that he still wanted to persuade him not to offend Lu Guancheng easily.

After all, Lu Guancheng represents Fangshan. The fact that Lu Guancheng can control the grain trade in Jizhou is definitely inseparable from the support of Fangshan. Even Fangshan himself is a participant in this chain of interests.

Driving Lu Guancheng away would be equivalent to breaking with Fangshan.

But how could Wang An care about this? When he took Gao Ruyue away from Fang Yukun's wedding, it already meant that there was no room for maneuver between him and Fang Shan.

So Wang An waved his hand to stop Chen He from continuing to persuade him, and ordered: "I have made up my mind about this matter, there is no need to talk about it anymore."

"The reason I asked you to come here today is mainly because I have a few things for you to do."

Seeing Wang An say this, Chen He could only swallow the words that were on the tip of his tongue and said, "Please give your orders, Your Highness."

Wang An nodded and said, "First, regarding the construction of the city wall, You Gao Ruyue will be in charge from now on. She is the woman I just brought back. Don't underestimate her."

"His father is the official in charge of the Ministry of Works you mentioned. It is said that this woman has inherited all of his father's teachings. Whether it is true or not, you and I have no choice."

Chen He nodded and assured, "I understand this matter and will fully cooperate with Miss Gao."

"Very good." Wang An continued, "In order to speed up the construction of the city wall, I need to make a material. This material is called cement. To make plants, I need a large number of porcelain kilns similar to those used to burn porcelain, limestone, clay and iron ore, plus a large amount of charcoal."

"Mining and burning charcoal all require a large number of manpower. You can recruit relevant personnel in the city or from the surrendered bandits. As for the treatment, it will be the same as that of temporary laborers, plus three meals a day." "What is cement?" Chen He was confused, but seeing that Wang An had no intention of explaining, he had to lower his head and obey the order.

Wang An continued, "The second is to stabilize grain prices. Although it is related to people's livelihood, after all, our foundation is still weak and we cannot sell grain to other countries without restrictions."

"If you want to buy affordable grain for official uniforms, at least one person in your family must work for the government, whether it's repairing cities, mining, or burning charcoal. If no one works for the government, you can buy two dan of grain per month! The price of each dan of grain is one tael of silver!"

"One tael of silver!" Chen He was a little surprised. "Isn't it too cheap? Is the prince going to add more silver? This doesn't seem to be a long-term solution."

You must know that Lu Guancheng controlled the grain industry in Jizhou. Although he demanded three taels of silver per dan from Wang An, the actual market price of grain was one tael and five cents of silver per dan.

After all, Jizhou was poor. Although grain made huge profits, it would not really be sold for three taels of silver. Otherwise, the people of Jizhou would have starved to death long ago.

But even one tael and five cents of silver was equivalent to an ordinary person's two months' income.

Wang An now sells it directly for one tael, and the cheap five cents of silver is equivalent to an ordinary person's income for half a month.

What's more, the purchase quota given by Wang An is that each person can buy two stones.

That is equivalent to saving a full tael of silver, which is more than a month's salary.

What's more, the people recruited by Wang An were not forced laborers for the government, but were paid formally and even provided with a meal.

If you are willing to work mining and making charcoal, you will even get three meals a day.

For the common people, working for the government itself is a high income, and now they can also enjoy the right to purchase two stone of grain, which is a very attractive additional benefit.

Chen He could even imagine how enthusiastic the people in the city would be when the government posted the recruitment notice.

When Wang An heard this, he just smiled and said, "If I were to use my own money to lower the grain price, even if I had a channel to buy grain, how long would it last with our money?"

"To tell you the truth, I only spent nine coins of silver per stone to buy this batch of grain!"

"Even if I sell one ounce of silver, I still have the money I paid for the porters' expenses on the road."

"So cheap!" Chen He was surprised and happy. He thought that even if Wang An went to Qingzhou to buy grain at a cheaper price, it would cost at least one or two taels of silver. He didn't expect it to be only nine cents of silver.

Thinking about the fact that Lu Guancheng and others actually wanted to sell it for one tael and five cents, and even asked the government for three taels of silver per stone, Lu Guancheng was so angry that his teeth were itching.

He is indeed a black-hearted profiteer!

However, the passenger had been an official for so many years and had been to Qingzhou before.

According to him, the cheapest grain in Qinzhou costs more than one or two taels.

However, this newly enfeoffed prince actually only spent nine cents of silver to capture the person. It turned out that he had connections in the court and it was easy to get things done.

Chen He began to get secretly excited. Was Jizhou, which had never had a prince's fiefdom in 200 years, finally going to have the honor of being a vassal king?

After explaining all the matters, Wang An waved his hand and ordered: "Do it as soon as possible, we don't have much time."

(End of this chapter)