AWB Chapter 385 I would rather offend Song Pu than Gu Jingzhi...
Chapter 385 I would rather offend Song Pu than Gu Jingzhi...
hiss……
Wherever Gu Jingzhi's eyes went, everyone gasped.
Especially the businessmen, they were shocked but also worried.
Those who dare to stand up against the new currency of the imperial court today are all backed by aristocratic families or officials. Can Gu Jingzhi really cut off all their business with just one word?
Seeing that they were silent, Gu Jingzhi immediately asked, "Do you have any questions?"
"Uh……"
A group of merchants looked at each other, and finally one of them gritted his teeth and said, "My Lord, it's not that I don't trust you, but those merchants are quite powerful, and they have people backing them up!"
"Once we take action, they will definitely jump out and fight back. Then..."
He only said half of the words, but everyone understood what the rest of the words meant!
Gu Jingzhi said, "You don't have to worry about this at all. If they dare to disregard the lives of the people and use this method to oppose the court today, then they can forget about continuing this business!"
"Lin Chong..."
Gu Jingzhi turned his head and looked at his eldest cousin!
Lin Chong immediately stood up and bowed, saying, "My Lord..."
"From now on, these businesses will be strictly inspected. If any problems are found, I will immediately shut them down and require rectification. As long as they dare to open, I will inspect them daily!"
"Drinks, dishes, meals... troublemakers, brawlers, drunken rioters..."
"In short, anything under your jurisdiction must be thoroughly investigated. Each time you find fault, the business will be closed for rectification. Once the rectification is complete, it will reopen. The same goes for the grain stores. In short, you don't have to show any mercy to anyone who doesn't follow the rules!"
As soon as Gu Jingzhi finished speaking, everyone was stunned.
Everyone looked at Gu Jingzhi and exclaimed inwardly.
Where the hell did this living devil come from?
How could a business operating out of the door be so compliant in everything? If Gu Jingzhi really did what he did, I'm afraid all those businesses that are closed today would be doomed!
Gu Jingzhi looked at the merchants and asked directly, "I will give you one month. I wonder if you can drive them out of the capital?"
"This one……"
A wealthy merchant from Jiangnan chuckled and said, "My Lord, they are backed by aristocratic families and powerful people. This... seems unlikely."
"Then can I understand that without these people's interference, there would be no problem?"
The powerful...
Isn’t the most powerful person in the world the one next to you?
The second generation of the emperor, and he is also the heir...
Gu Jingzhi looked at the prince, who smiled bitterly at the sight, and a group of wealthy merchants also looked over.
"Everyone, if you can do as Marquis Gu said, I will naturally help you stop those people."
Once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back. Besides, these people are helping to suppress the aristocratic families, which is equivalent to helping him, the prince.
If he backs down now, he will probably lose all the support of the people.
Sure enough, after the prince expressed his opinion, those wealthy merchants immediately started shouting.
"With the help of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, we will definitely be able to replace them within a month."
"Yes, I will not disappoint Your Highness."
"..."
In an instant, a group of people shouted at the top of their lungs.
……
Almost that afternoon, while many people were writing impeachment memorials, dozens of temporary grain sales points were set up in the capital.
The people were surprised to find that the grain sold by these grain merchants was much cheaper than usual.
Of course, these grain merchants only charge new currency.
After making this comparison, the people discovered that the selling price of these grains was measured entirely based on the new currency converted from gold and silver, not based on the previous selling price of copper coins.
These two seem to be no different, but in fact there is a big difference.
In the past, the exchange rate between silver and copper coins in the market was one tael of silver to one guan of coins.
But what about practicality?
No one would exchange silver for copper coins. Even if they did, the exchange rate was one tael of silver to one thousand five hundred coins.
Gradually, although there were still a large number of copper coins circulating in the market, the purchasing power of copper coins was getting lower and lower. Gradually, some ordinary people were no longer willing to use copper coins.
Gu Jingzhi was actually glad that the copper coins had depreciated so drastically, and those noble families who minted coins privately had already passed their profit period and had collected a large amount of gold and silver, so the copper coins on the market did not continue to flood.
Otherwise, his strategy of recycling old currency could directly bring down the new currency policy.
As the new grain sales points had a stable supply of grain every day, the wealthy families finally couldn't bear it anymore, and the restaurants under their control began to slowly resume business.
After all, according to their original idea, if they cut off the food supply in the capital and closed the restaurants, it would be difficult for the people in the capital to have food to eat.
But unexpectedly, Gu Jingzhi had already found a way to deal with it. If they kept holding back on opening the business, they would be the only ones who would suffer the loss.
As for the food they have...
There is still no plan to release it for sale. After all, Gu Jingzhi has transferred grain from other places, and the cost is high. They don’t believe that Gu Jingzhi can hold on.
However, they miscalculated this time.
It is true that in order to suppress the aristocratic families in the capital, Gu Jingzhi did not make any profit for the grain merchants, and they were even suffering losses every day.
But these people hold shares in banks across the country, and as long as the new currency is in circulation, they can make a profit.
In addition, the essence of this business war is to occupy the capital market. As long as they can drive the grain merchants controlled by the aristocratic families out of the capital, they will be profitable for ten or even dozens of years in the future.
Exchanging money for market is not a loss at all.
Therefore, even though they lose a lot of money every day, they are still happy every day. After all, with Gu Jingzhi's promise and the prince's support behind them, they don't have to worry about anything else.
However, after the restaurant they owned opened, it was not as comfortable as they had expected.
Every day, soldiers from the city defense camp came to the door with approval documents from the Ministry of Revenue.
Today they're checking food safety, tomorrow they're checking drunkenness and disorderly conduct, the day after tomorrow they're checking provoking disturbances, or maybe it's fire safety...
Otherwise it's tax evasion.
What food safety?
What fire safety?
Of course it was the new decree issued by Gu Jingzhi.
As a modern soul, he is not familiar with the methods of later generations, but has he seen a pig run even though he has never eaten pork?
With the intervention of the Ministry of Revenue's decree, not only did these restaurants suffer from poor business every day, but even if customers came, their interest was disturbed by the people from the city defense camp.
Although there were several times when I met court officials, or perhaps those people just came to support the restaurant.
But when the city defense battalion produced the note from the Ministry of Revenue with Gu Jingzhi's signature on it, those people had no choice but to leave in disgrace.
That's Gu Jingzhi. People in the capital would rather offend Song Pu than Gu Jingzhi... This saying is not a joke.
After all, many officials in the court had impeached Gu Jingzhi, but his answer was flawless.
Such as...