Chapter 241: The Conflict Among the Grain Stores (II)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

When Jiang Pengji finally decided to take measurements, the price was already up to nine times higher than it used to be.

The gentry clans had their own granary and they made sure they had a sufficient stock of grain so they didn’t have to worry about any emergency situations. Instead, they could take advantage of the situation and sell the old grain that they had stocked in their granary for a long time for a high price. On the contrary, the citizens had limited savings and most of them were having a hard time feeding their families.

The grain price was trending towards being ridiculously high. A great deal of people were haunted by it.

Many women wandered by the doors of the grain stores just hoping the price of the grain would decrease a little, but every time they only got the news that the price had risen again.

“Eh, with the savings we have, if we don’t purchase now, we won’t even be able to afford a bucket of rice…”

“At least you can still buy rice. My man broke his leg a couple of days ago. We already spent all our money on his meds and I had to kill the only hen we used for eggs to make chicken soup for him. I have no idea how we are going to survive.”

“What is really happening and how come the price of grain is so high? With this trend, my kids won’t have anything to eat.”

Even a clever woman could not cook a meal without rice. No matter how capable and hardworking they were, the fact that they had no money and food meant the people in the family would have to starve.

The grain stores were not a charity organization where they would decline the grain price out of the sympathy of the citizens’ poverty.

“Life is getting rougher everyday.” A woman couldn’t stop sighing and said, “I was helping do the dishes for some money in the tea house at the town gate earlier and I overheard some soldiers discussing that there is some big turmoil in some county in Cang Prefecture. It is not too far away from our Hejian County.”

The short distance meant that the war could arrive there at any time and countless refugees would flee there.

When it came to war, who wouldn’t be scared?

If their young boys or men were recruited into the military, there was a slim chance they would come back.

About the refugees, when people were in a deep desperation, what crimes wouldn’t they commit to survive? They might be more veracious than some of the robbing bandits. The women couldn’t help but shake just thinking about the scenario.

At least they still had a bit of savings for them to buy grain at the store.

The poorer people could only dig for wild grass or peel tree bark for food. What they could eat was comparable to pig food.

“Do you want to check some other grain stores? Maybe some of them are cheaper.” A woman with dark linen clothing carried a grocery basket. She hesitantly took a glance at the grain store not far from her.

There were plenty of grain stores in town; there had to be one relatively cheaper than the others after they compared them.

“If I knew about this earlier, I would have gone for it… It was too pricey at that time, but who would expect that price would just never stop increasing?”

“Right? My man was saying that I was short of wisdom. He said this year was a good year for grain and the price would be way better than the past several years. He wouldn’t let me buy any until there was a price drop. Now we are trapped in this situation and it is so much more expensive. I don’t know how we are going to stay alive.”

The women walked together and chatted along the way.

At that time, a kid dressed in coarse cloth with patches on his clothing ran around from the end of the street and shouted. A woman stopped the kid and asked him carefully, “What did you just say?”

It seemed that he did not have time to be stopped by someone. He answered with a loud voice, “The grain store in Gou Weiba Alley on Zhuque Street has the cheapest grain. Their average price is 20 percent cheaper than the others.”

“How much is it exactly?”

The kid shook his head. “I have no idea. The owner of the grain store only told me that they are 20 percent cheaper!”

He was still just a kid. Xu Ke knew it was impossible for them to remember the exact number, so he asked them to advertise with short statements.

The women looked at each other. “Should we go take a look?”

Saving a penny was better than nothing––even though it meant they had to travel halfway across town.

“Let’s go take a look. It’s not far from here anyway.” After chatting for a bit, the women decided to go.

In order to attract clients, Jiang Pengji divided three certain ranges for coverage of the three grain stores of hers based on their locations.

The area one store covered radiated from the grain store and their mobile advertisements would emphasize that store.

When the women arrived, there was a long queue in front of the grain store.

Listening to the discussions of the other citizens, the price was still rather high, but it was truly much cheaper than the others.

“You get what you pay for. Is it possible that their grain has worms or they mix it with something else?” The people with sharp ears could hear everyone else’s discussion.

People answered, “Someone bought two buckets earlier. I took a look at it and it was definitely good rice!”

Only one citizen showed any concern about the quality of the grain in the store. Apparently they worried about it even more after they heard that. “That would be weird. Everyone else is increasing their prices, but not them. Isn’t such a person called a profiteer?”

A guy in the line was unpleasant with him and yelled, “What do you know about? Do you have any idea who the owner of this store is? It’s the well-known Hu County Chief. Rumor says that Hu County is a place where there is a humongous amount of grain that they let rot on the ground. What’s the problem of him selling the grain for cheap? You don’t have to buy if you don’t want to.”

“Hey, you don’t have to be so aggressive. How was I supposed to know that the owner of the store was the Liu County Chief?”

A normal citizen never heard the name Liu She; he was known to them as Hu County Chief. Everyone’s impression of him, though, was that he was a generous person with both money and grain.

With the promotion of the advertisement, the queue was growing longer and longer. Some citizens feared that there was not enough grain left to sell. The manager stepped out of the store. He bowed to the queue and promised there was more than enough of their storage to sell.

Jiang Pengji and Xu Ke sat in a wagon away from the masses. Xu Ke looked at the long queue and couldn’t stop worrying. There were too many people buying grain and he was genuinely afraid that they didn’t have enough in stock.

The effect of the advertisement was surpassing his expectations. The numbers of people lining up was still growing.

Jiang Pengji spotted his concern with one glance. She said to him blandly, “The price of grain is still too high for the citizens. Most of them are watching the situation before they decide that they are not going to do a big purchase. We’ll be able to last a little longer with our storage of the grain. Right, did you prepare the people I asked you?”

Xu Ke clasped his hand on the other one in front of his chest and said, “Yes, I have everything arranged, Langjun.”

“Okay, when there are more and more citizens waiting, it will be the time for you to send those people out.”

The purpose of the operation for Jiang Pengji was to suppress the grain price instead of selling out the several thousand dans of her grain.

She didn’t simply tell Xu Ke to hire kids and gangsters to be the “mobile advertisement” to spread the news for them. She also told him to prepare some people to be their inside people blending into the masses. Those people were not to deceive the citizens into purchasing grain, but for shaking the managers in the other grain stores.

Jiang Pengji was ready for a price battle. She faked a sign that she had bottomless stock for the first day. Of course the others grain stores would feel tense.

How were they going to sell their grain at a high price if no one wanted to pay them a visit?