The clouds of war once again enveloped the people in the capital.

Wu Sangui surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing army advanced westward, indicating that there might be another great war in the first year of Longwu. The people in the capital still remember that thirteen years ago, in the second year of Chongzhen, when the late emperor had just ascended the throne, the Tatars also made a large invasion, and Huang Taiji personally supervised the army to attack Longjing Pass.

That time, the Tartars took the Mongol Karqin tribe as their guide to conquer Hongshankou, and the other troops conquer Da'ankou, and met with Zunhua.

The Qing emperors broke into the pass until the capital city. The entire capital was martial law. Many people in the capital still remembered the fear of being threatened by the Qing army at that time.

It was that year that the emperor was salivating.

In the blink of an eye, so many years have passed, but unexpectedly, the Tartars came again.

Although the Longwu Dynasty was no longer during the Chongzhen Dynasty, the court had more than a dozen new troops, and the capital was in charge of the war king. However, the arrival of more than 100,000 Qing troops still made many people worried, and many people even began to leave the capital and go south to visit their relatives.

In this atmosphere, the people hated Wu Sanguiyue and criticized Wu Sangui and Zu Dashou as traitors. Wu Xiang, who had just been released from prison, was taken away by the Jinyiwei again, and hundreds of people in the Beijing family, including Wu and Zu, were all imprisoned.

While the people were happy that Wu Sangui and Zu Dashou were ungrateful, they began to attack Feng Yuanbiao, the Minister of War, and Chen Yan, the Minister of Rites, were blind, and even asked Wu Sangui for title. Soon, this wave of criticism rushed to Wu Yan.

For a time, the capital was full of discussion, and Wu Qi was criticized by thousands of people. In addition, he still fell in love with him after the bet failed, which led to the people's quarrels.

"Wu is so shameless."

"That's natural. How could he resign from his position as a supporter for a bet?"

"A good servant, who is so traitorous, is not as good as a peddler and has such moral character, how can he lead all officials? When he reads the emperor of the book, he will see the emperor of the lord?"

"What qualifications are such people to be auxiliary? I think it's better to invite the prince to be auxiliary. In the end, the prince will have to deal with the prince in this matter. Wu Sangui Zu Dashou and other shameless traitors. If they can't jump for a few days, isn't the prince going out to Beijing to supervise the battle? Once the prince comes out, who is the enemy in the world?"

"That's right, the war has to be done by the prince. Thinking about the first time, the prince killed the Tartar Emperor Huang Taiji with ten thousand troops. Later, he even fought northward, defeated Liaoyang and surrounded Shenyang, and almost broke into the enemy's cave. It turned out that the failure was all blamed on Wu Ni. If he hadn't underestimated the enemy and went to attack Yizhou in a rash manner, the court would have been defeated by Yizhou and Songjin. The prince would not have made any controversy at the beginning. Maybe that time he would have directly destroyed the Tartars and Qing Dynasty and recovered Liaodong."

"Yes. Wu Ni doesn't know how to live or die. He dares to collude with the Tartars to invade. Don't he know that the prince is the nemesis of the Tartars?"

"The prince is the Wuqu star in the sky who descends to earth."

"You are wrong. I heard that the prince has descended to earth with the Seven Killing Stars, so he is very good at fighting."

"You said that this time the prince went out to Beijing to supervise the battle, can he capture and kill Wu Ni?"

"It's hard to say that Wu Ni colluded with the Tartars, and there were tens of thousands of troops. It was not that easy to fight."

"So what if you have more than 100,000 yuan? Can Wu Ni still go to heaven? Besides, our prince's soldiers are no less than him!"

When the court heard that Liu Jun was about to leave Beijing to supervise the army to fight to resist the Tartars, the panic quickly calmed down. Many people felt much more relaxed. The prince was the god of war in the Ming Dynasty and had not yet been defeated. Even the Tartar emperor was killed by the prince in the battlefield. Are they still afraid of a few Tartar princes?

In addition, newspapers have also been published these days, saying that the epidemic in the Zhending area of ​​Linqing has been basically under control and there is no longer any momentum of spreading to the capital. The epidemic in Linqing and other epidemic areas is also weakening. The number of people who die every day has dropped to less than 100.

The people who were so panicked at home took to the streets one after another.

Many taverns and teahouses in the capital were idle for a while, and at this time, we finally ushered in a good opportunity for a prosperous business.

"There have been many large shopping malls opened in the outer city these days. Have you heard of it?"

"I heard that it was a royal transaction?"

"Don't listen to people talking nonsense, let me tell you, it's not a royal deal at all, it's just that some stores are the original royal shops."

"Imperial shop? That's the royal business."

"Listen to me. These imperial shops have now been handed over to the princes, including imperial shops in various places."

"Give it to the prince?"

Many people exclaimed in the restaurant.

"No, I heard it was a contractor. The prince took over tens of thousands of acres of imperial villages and the original imperial shops, and then it seemed that he wanted to give the emperor a fixed income every year, about five million silver dollars. Therefore, in the future, the royal family and imperial shops were run by the prince." In the private room of the restaurant, a well-informed fat businessman was showing off to his companions with pride.

"Now, some of these newly opened shopping malls are the original royal shops. However, I found out that these shopping malls have sufficient supply and all kinds, similar to grocery stores, but the scale is large. The name is Royal Department Store. The stores opened are chain operations, and the decorations of each store are the same as cloth goods."

"Open a grocery store? No, what money can grocery store make?"

"This is a department store, not a grocery store, it is different from ordinary grocery stores. It is said that goods from the south, north, and even from the east, west, and south, are all available, and everything is all available. Not only retail, but also batches. I also tell you that there are tobacco, wine, tea, rice, flour, oil and salt, and the prices are all lower than those on the market, so the goods are better."

"Just talk about this rice, which was transported from Nanyang by sailboat. Do you know the kind of sailboat? Nanyue rice, pearl-like rice, do you know how much they are going to sell for?"

"How many?" someone asked.

Another person continued, "Rice in the capital is not cheap now. If it is good rice, it will cost at least four pieces per stone, and ordinary rice will also cost more than two pieces."

The merchant yelled a few times, "I tell you that after the Royal Department Store officially opened, the Nanyang pearl fragrant rice in their shopping mall will be sold for only two yuan per stone, and there will be salt. The high-quality snow salt, a load of 100 kilograms, is only four yuan in silver."

"So cheap? Oh my god, that's just half the price?"

"It's not half price. The current grain price is obviously relatively high. In a normal year, a stone of grain is only one and a half pieces of grain. When it's good, it's even half a tael of silver. But I guess the supply of rice in this mall is limited, and most people don't have the chance to buy it."

"You are wrong." The fat businessman shook the folding fan in his hand.

"I tell you, I heard that the shopping malls are very sufficient, and 18 stores are to be opened in the inner and outer cities of the capital. Their stores have not yet been opened, but all kinds of goods have been fully prepared. There is a very large warehouse in Tianjin, and all kinds of goods are piled up like mountains. Now there is a large warehouse outside Tongzhou and Xuande Gate, all of which are prepared. It is said that rice and flour alone are enough for hundreds of thousands of stones, which is quite sufficient. Otherwise, there would be no courage to set such a price."

"So much food? It's such a big deal. But what if you do business, why do you think it's too much money? Why do you reduce so much price?" Some people were puzzled.

Of course, those who do business hope that the more valuable the goods are, the more tight the goods are. Even if the price is sometimes reduced, it is to compete with peers or over-the-counter goods. But now there is no surplus of food. If department stores want to compete for the market, there is no need to reduce prices so harshly.

The fat merchant looked around and said to his companions in a low voice, "I'll tell you, don't spread it. It is said that the prince said that the price of grain in various places is high now, and it is the grain merchants who deliberately hoarded grain, raised the price of grain, and were very unwilling to make money. The prince once asked those grain merchants to lower the price of grain, but they didn't listen at all. As a result, the prince was angry and transferred hundreds of thousands of stones of grain from Korea, Japan, southeastern and Nanyang to Beijing. Countless sea merchants rushed to transport grain for the princes, and countless sea boats were transporting grain to Tianjin one by one. The prince said, the princess was quite hard-working. In just over half a year, they transported hundreds of thousands of stones of grain."

"The prince is going to kill those grain merchants."

Some people exclaimed that although the commercial tax in the Ming Dynasty has never been collected, the business in the Ming Dynasty is very prosperous, and there are guilds in all walks of life. These guilds in the same industry often maintain a consistent advance and retreat and control the market. Just like these grain merchants in the capital, they united and controlled the grain supply on the market, grasped the price of grain, and rose as soon as they said it would rise.

Many times, the capital was not really short of food, but these grain merchants refused to release the grain and controlled the supply. When the grain was released in less, the people would naturally easily raise the price of grain. With this method, they made a big profit.

When Liu Jun wanted to regulate the grain market, reduce grain prices, and reduce the burden on the people, the grain merchants did not buy it at all. The grain was in their hands. On the surface, they agreed to lower prices, but in fact they reduced the supply of grain on the market, and the grain prices they received rose steadily.

This finally angered Liu Jun.

For ordinary people, grain merchants may be as huge as mountains. But for Liu Jun, who has great resources, they are blocking the chariot.

Liu Jun directly prepared to open 18 large shopping malls in the capital to operate various commodities. Among them, some of the most important daily necessities, such as rice, flour, oil and salt, were ordered at an affordable price.

"It's so lively now." Someone smiled.

"I'm afraid the prince may not win. The prince sets such a low price, but I'm afraid that as soon as he sells it, the food will be eaten there."
Chapter completed!