In the city of Wu City, Beizhou Prefecture, several ships were sailing north on the Yongji Canal outside the city and were about to berth at the pier in front. Wei Xuan stood on the deck and looked at the crowded situation on the pier, and couldn't help but frown.

He was ordered by the emperor to inspect Yongji Canal. The journey was halfway through, and what he saw and heard was shocking.

It is not that there is a problem with the Yongji Canal Project, but that there are many vagrants gathering in several big cities along the way, which creates serious security risks.

And today's Wucheng is no exception.

The specific composition of these vagrants in front of him is still unclear, but Wei Xuan conducted an investigation on his way to come and found that most of the vagrants gathered in various cities were farmers. In the beginning of spring, they went to the city to find work, help servants, and work short-term labor to support their families.

The plan for the year lies in spring. Now that the spring breeze is on, it is the spring plowing season. Why do these farmers do not farm but instead gather in prefectures and counties to find work?

Because grain prices have fallen all year round, low grains hurt farmers and it is difficult for the family to maintain their income, so they can only find ways to increase their income.

In recent years, Hebei has been in good weather and the governments in various places have repaired water conservancy facilities, so Hebei has been harvesting year by year, so grain prices have fallen year by year.

It is normal for food prices to fall in a bumper year. For the people, falling grain prices mean a decrease in living costs, but for farmers who farm, it means a sharp drop in income.

Farmers have to pay rent and medicinal services. When plowing in the early spring of the year, they borrow money to buy seeds, farm tools, and cattle rent. In autumn, they have to rely on harvest (grain, cloth) to repay.

Various daily living expenses require farmers to sell grain in exchange for copper coins to pay. Once the grain price is too low, it will inevitably lead to a decrease in farmers' income.

At the same time, with the dumping of a large number of hydraulic textile fabrics, the cloth prices also plummeted, and the failure of farmers to sell their own hand-woven fabrics, which also means a decrease in income.

I worked hard to farm and plant hemp, but after half a year of busyness, I got less income. After I finally harvested food, most of the food I had left behind, and then I used it to deal with the expenses. A small amount of surplus food will last until the next year.

If grain prices rise in the coming year, it will be fine, but it will continue to fall for several years, and many farmers can no longer hold on.

When you farm, you will lose more and more, and your family will have less and less food. When winter passes, the spring plowing in the spring has not yet been settled, so there is no longer enough food to eat.

However, the price of grain in the world is very low, and you can help you work as a short-term worker and buy food for money. In terms of calculation, working is actually more cost-effective than farming.

The premise is that someone hires them and the wages they give are affordable.

However, as a large number of farmers flocked to the city to seek employment, the wages paid by employers were also decreasing because there were too many monks and too little porridge. More and more farmers were flocking to the city to find work, but the chances of employment did not increase much.

The peasants in dilemma lingered on the streets, gathered together, sighed and were frightened.

Confused, helpless, panic, angry, and all kinds of expressions. Wei Xuan walked along the way, and the more he looked, he felt more and more frightened. He thought that if this continued, something would definitely happen.

In all dynasties, once a large number of refugees appear and the court cannot properly resettle them, then these refugees will sooner or later become restless, and then under the instigation of those who are interested, the worst situation will happen.

In the past, natural disasters caused a large number of refugees to appear, so the court needed to provide disaster relief, but now, it is not.

It is obviously a bumper harvest year after year, but it is a good weather. Why are more and more farmers struggling to make things difficult? The low grain is hurting farmers, and the farmers can't stop hurting them.

What's the problem?

It was caused by someone's malicious dumping.

Foreign merchants sell grain at low prices in Hebei. This situation lasts for many years, but the official warehouse does not purchase grain at low prices. On the contrary, the government has severely cracked down on local merchants who want to stock up on a large scale at low prices.

The government and foreign merchants worked together, resulting in continued sluggish grain prices.

The same is true for the cloth price. Hebei Road Weaving Department dumps cloth at low prices in Hebei, and even the sales price is about the same as the cost.

The weaving department did not lose money because the bulk of the cloth sales profit was to do maritime trade, which was used as profits from maritime trade, and subsidized for domestic low-price dumping.

The government maliciously dumped grain and cloth, which led to the price of grain and cloth being outrageously low, so that "the low grain hurts the farmers" became "the low grain kills the farmers".

This situation is most obvious in the Yongji Canal Basin. Although the Yongji Canal was only fully opened this year, before that, foreign grain merchants dumped grain to the coastal areas along the navigable river sections.

It is precisely because of this that the farmers in the Yongji Canal Basin are now short of money and are constantly gathering in various cities along the Yongji Canal, with more and more people.

Local officials in various prefectures and counties felt like they were feeling uncomfortable about this situation, but there was no good way, because if these people were forcibly dispersed, it would probably inspire civil unrest, but if the homeless people (farmers) gathered, the more they gathered, something would happen sooner or later.

Many vagrants gather in cities and docks just to find things to do, get hired, earn some wages to support their families, but there are always some people with ulterior motives who are mixed in with different thoughts, secretly spread rumors and fan the flames.

For this reason, many local officials asked the court to report the actual situation, but the emperor seemed to be planning to let it go.

The grain prices in Hebei region have continued to fall for many years. The reason why such an abnormal situation arises is that Wei Xuan believes that the mastermind behind the scenes is probably the emperor, and the emperor is unlikely to not know the actual situation in Hebei region. He does not choose to stop dumping, but chooses to mobilize troops.

what does that mean?

Officials forced the people to rebel, but the people had to rebel. Then, facing the tiger and wolf army, the people who rose up had no ability to resist at all, and were finally killed and blood flowed into a river!

When Wei Xuan thought of the tragic scene of corpses everywhere, he felt heartbroken. He really couldn't understand why the emperor was acting like this.

Is it because I hate Hebei's aristocratic families and powerful families, so I deliberately forced the civil rebellion, and then took the opportunity to send troops to quell the rebellion, and then eliminated the rioters and the powerful without any discretion?

Will you use fire to burn yourself?

Wei Xuan didn't know, but he knew that the official army was well-equipped and even had artillery. As long as there was such a weapon, even if the war was everywhere in Hebei, it would be destroyed by the official army sooner or later.

But in this way, how many families will be destroyed and their wives and children will be separated during the war?

The people in Hebei are suffering from the disaster, and the people who die are all under the rule of the court, not natives outside the territory!

As he thought about it, Wei Xuan became more and more worried. He knew that when he was ambitious today, he also knew that the emperor had many means. Just as war was concerned, I am afraid that no one in the world would be the emperor's opponent.

However, the world can be determined immediately, but it cannot be ruled immediately. The result of abuse of force is that the people are living in poverty, and the person holding that knife will sooner or later be harmed by the extra sharp blade in his hands.

Seeing the crowd gathered in front of him looking for work at the dock, Wei Xuan's mood became heavier. He decided to express his feelings to the emperor again and ask the emperor not to act alone.

It is a fact that the powerful people in Hebei are difficult to cure. Since the demise of the Yuchi family, the court has thought of investigating land and hidden households in Hebei, but because of the many obstacles and the need to live in the people, they do not want to fight against the people, so all the policies have not been implemented.

When Wei Xuan knew today, he probably knew that the emperor must have some achievements in Hebei, but he would definitely make careful arrangements and wait until the time is right before he launches a thunderous attack.

As a result, the thunder attack was like this.

Why did the peaceful days become uneasy?

While Wei Xuan was anxious, the sudden sound of gongs in front of him scared him. When he looked up, he saw someone shouting loudly on a row of wooden platforms on the dock, attracting a large number of people to come and watch.

This situation made Wei Xuan feel that something was wrong. He was afraid that someone would confuse the public and stir up trouble, which would be bad.

Before he could command the guards to go ashore to maintain order immediately, a faint voice came from the dock.
Chapter completed!