Chapter 241
When Jiang Pengji finally decided to take measurements, the price was already up to nine times higher than it used to be .
Sponsored Content
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 .
Sponsored Content
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 .
Sponsored Content
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?