Chapter 81: Talking to Grain Merchants
Wang An ran back to the government office as if he was escaping, and saw Chen He walking in with a few merchants dressed in silk and satin.

"Your Highness, these people are the shopkeepers of the grain shops in Baicheng. They have declared that they are willing to cooperate with us to stabilize the grain price and adjust it from one dan to one liang."

As Chen He spoke, an expression of uncontrollable joy appeared on his face.

For hundreds of years, the price of grain in Jizhou has never been lower than one tael and five cents. However, now, these merchants who value money more than anything else are willing to take the initiative to lower the price of grain, and they have lowered it by a huge amount.

This made Chen He, a local, very happy.

After all, this means that from now on, the people of Jizhou will be able to have one more full meal.

However, Wang An did not show any joy when he heard this. Instead, he looked at the shopkeepers with a serious expression. After a moment, he asked, "I am very pleased that you can sympathize with the people."

"However, I never do anything to bully others. Are you all willing to adjust the price?"

Among the five grain store managers, a fat man looked around and saw that everyone gave him affirmative looks, so he stood up and said, "Your Highness, this is all our own will."

Wang An chuckled and shook his head, saying, "Although I am young, I am not naive. As the saying goes, it is the nature of businessmen to pursue profits. If one cent of capital can earn two cents of profit, how can I be willing to earn only one cent of profit with one cent of capital?"

Several people immediately showed embarrassment on their faces, but no one refuted Wang An's words.

Wang An continued, "The reason you are willing to lower the price is simply because you saw what happened to Lu Guancheng and are worried that I will use you as a scapegoat, so you have no choice but to do so in order to save your own life."

The fat shopkeeper opened his mouth and said with a wry smile, "Your Majesty is kind, how could he attack us for no reason?"

Wang An raised his hand to stop the fat shopkeeper from continuing to speak, and said with a meaningful smile: "There is no need to say these nice words."

"I can tell you clearly that the reason I killed Lu Guancheng was not because I wanted to stabilize the price of grain, so I used him to scare the monkeys."

"But he was often so bold that he colluded with the White Tiger Mountain bandits to rob the government's grain transport team. In addition, he bullied men and women and did all kinds of evil things on a daily basis. Therefore, he deserved the punishment for his multiple crimes."

At this point, Wang An turned to look at Chen He and said, "Go and bring one of the ears over here."

Upon hearing this, Chen He knew what Wang An wanted to do and immediately nodded and went.

Only a few shopkeepers were left looking at each other in bewilderment. They had originally just wanted to come here to appease Wang An, then consider themselves unlucky and sell the grain in the warehouse at little or no profit.

As for what to do after selling this batch of grain, everyone had already discussed it and decided to leave this dangerous place directly.

After all, Lu Guancheng had his brother-in-law, the governor of the state, as his backer, but he was killed at will by Wang An. Then, wouldn't Wang An be even more unscrupulous in his actions towards them, as they were at best small fry of local wealthy merchants?

However, Wang An seemed to see through their thoughts. The first thing he said was that the reason for killing Lu Guancheng was not because of the issue of grain prices, but because Lu Guancheng had committed many unjust acts.

However, what shocked several people the most was that Wang An actually said that Lu Guancheng colluded with the White Tiger Mountain bandit camp to rob the government office's grain transport team.

The government office purchased grain from Qingzhou twice, and everyone in Baicheng knew about it.

After all, the low price of grain for one or two taels of silver caused quite a stir in the entire Jizhou.

Not long after, Chen He came back with an ear.

One of them was wearing the armor of the Jizhou Guards and looked quite majestic. When he saw Wang An, he immediately knelt down with a plop, knocked his forehead heavily on the ground, and said, "I wonder what instructions the prince has for me?"

Wang An smiled and said, "Yizhier, can you recognize which of these people behind you are your victims?"

Yi Er turned around and looked at the faces of several shopkeepers, saying, "Your Majesty, I have robbed many people in my life, but most of them only wanted money and not their lives, so there were too many victims. Please forgive me for not being able to recognize them."

However, Yizier did not recognize these people, but some of the shopkeepers recognized him.

The fat shopkeeper immediately pointed at one of them and said tremblingly, "It is indeed One-ear, the bandit leader of White Tiger Mountain. One-ear, do you still remember me?"

Without waiting for One-ear to reply, the fat shopkeeper complained to Wang An, "Your Majesty, last year when I was transporting grain back from Qingzhou and passed the Baihu Mountain official road, I was robbed by One-ear!"

"That's eight hundred dan of food! This one robbed us of all the food!"

Wang An just smiled and said nothing. He looked at the other four shopkeepers and asked, "Why, only this fat shopkeeper was robbed, and none of you have been robbed?"

The others were also filled with righteous indignation at this time. They pointed at One Ear and said, "Your Highness, our grain transport team was also robbed by One Ear!"

Yizier was laughing at first, but soon he could not laugh anymore after hearing the accusations from several people. He looked at Wang An in fear, fearing that he would offend everyone and be chopped off by Wang An's order.

After all five shopkeepers finished their accusations, Wang An looked at Yizier and said, "Yizier, don't you have anything to say in your defense?"

Although Yizier was a bandit, he was not a bad-smart guy and immediately understood what was said.

He hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, although I have robbed these shopkeepers, it was because someone else instigated it, not just me alone!"

"And in order to atone for my sins, I have already joined the prince's army, hoping to make meritorious deeds on the battlefield one day to atone for my sins."

Seeing Yier chattering non-stop, Wang An interrupted and asked, "Who is behind this?"

Yizier stopped talking and said hastily, "It was Lu Guancheng who ordered me to rob the grain transport teams of the grain store owners!"

Then he looked at the shopkeepers and said, "Think about it, shopkeepers. How could a bandit leader like me know the time, route, and manpower of your grain transport team?"

"Then think carefully, every time I rob you, is it possible for me to suppress the guards you hired at a high price?"

After hearing this, several people looked at each other in bewilderment. After a moment, the fat shopkeeper said, "Now that I think about it, this is quite strange."

It turned out that these shopkeepers did not take much precautions when transporting grain, and they didn't even have special escorts.

But after being robbed by Yizi'er several times, these shop owners united together, pooled their money and hired the escort agency in Qingzhou City to escort the goods.

But often when there is an escort agency, the bandit camp in Baihu Mountain will not appear.

But once they let their guard down, One Ear came back again.

(End of this chapter)