Chapter 405 Burning the City

"It seems that everyone knows the news of the food shortage in the city..."

Hu Shinan leaned against the window sill of the restaurant, looking down at the situation of the Shidan grain shop across the street.

The crowd crowded in front of the store has blocked the street, including both wealthy families and ordinary people. Even if these people don't know the real inside story, the rise in grain prices is a fact. As long as there is not a lot of surplus grain at home, they will worry about what to do if they can't buy grain.

Therefore, while there are still people selling now, even if the price is a little higher, they have to bite their teeth and buy some to store up, which is the most normal idea for ordinary people.

"You are worthy of being an expert. You can see the effect immediately after one move." Another young man sitting at the table raised his glass to him and said, "Mr. Hu, I toast you a glass."

"That's just the beginning!" Hu Shinan laughed and walked back to the table to clink glasses with the young man. Although the other party is younger than him, he dare not put on airs in terms of age.

Just because this person is from the Privy Council.

He calls himself Pelican and is a detective.

Hu Shinan certainly knew what a pelican was - it was a bird that could often be seen on the banks of Jiangnan Lakes. It looked like a goose, but had a huge jaw that could swallow fish larger than its neck in one gulp. Sometimes it would catch birds such as pigeons and free-range chickens. It was ugly and greedy.

"Actually... I didn't do anything." Hu Shinan said politely, "You provided the money and the plan. I just helped to implement it."

"Mr. Hu, you are too polite." The pelican smiled disapprovingly, "There is no shortage of ideas in this world, but people who do practical things. You are the president of Liuzhou Grain Store. You have extraordinary knowledge, connections, and channels, and these are the key to turning ideas into reality."

At this point, Hu Shinan couldn't help but feel a little proud.

Indeed, to coordinate the grain merchants in Liuzhou and Qingzhou to reach an agreement, and at the same time, to make all the grain stores in Shenzhou start to raise prices without leaving any trace, this move would definitely not be so smooth if it was not a veteran who had been immersed in this industry for decades.

He worked for the Privy Council, and he saw the benefits.

Once the grain price in Shenzhou soared, the first places to put out the fire must be the two neighboring states. In fact, the current double price is enough to make a small profit.

But according to the meaning of the pelican, the Privy Council will obviously not be satisfied with this result.

What they want is "the collapse of the entire Shenzhou".

In other words, it will continue to rise until someone can't afford to buy grain and dies.

How many times is that? Ten times? Twenty times?

The reason why Hu Shinan was able to become the leader of the Liuzhou grain store was because of the soaring grain prices caused by a flood more than ten years ago.

Now such an opportunity seems to be reappearing again.

"But it's a pity to burn the purchased grain directly...." Hu Shinan tilted his head and looked into the distance-outside the rows of streets and alleys, gray-black smoke was rolling up. That was the Privy Council burning the rice and flour they bought back. Whether it was coarse grains or flour, they were thrown into the fire pit without blinking an eye.

It's all about money...

Especially after the price of grain rose, Hu Shinan felt even more regretful.

"Because we don't have time to transport the grain back to Liuzhou. You should know better than me what the key to the food looting is." Pelican said unmoved.

Undoubtedly, the answer is "supply and demand gap".

"The gap in the market is not equal to the actual gap." He picked up a piece of pork belly with chopsticks and put it into his mouth, "If you put too much food on yourself, you will easily become a person who is guilty of holding a treasure. In this case, why not just burn it?"

Because there will be no way back.

Hu Shinan opened his mouth and took back his words.

-Merchants only want to make money, and the Privy Council's goal on this point is not the same as theirs.

What they want to do is to pour money into the water and create a food shortage in Shenzhou with the power of a country.

I am afraid that the scale and influence of this famine will far exceed any previous natural disaster.

"Fellow villagers, please don't panic! The government has already known about the food problem, and we will never let you go hungry!" At this time, an inharmonious voice came into the room from the window.

"Hmm?" The two of them stood up and walked to the window at the same time - they saw several men and women squeezed into the crowd and shouted, repeating these slogans, and this action gradually attracted the attention of the masses.

"They are...?" President Hu frowned.

"The Jinxia City Affairs Bureau is stationed in Baihe City Branch," Pelican smiled, "It's a very complicated name, right? You can understand it as an independent government set up by the third princess."

"The government can only rely on shouting?" Hu Shinan expressed confusion. He had not been very concerned about Princess Guangping's situation before, "and... Jinxia City is at the easternmost part of Shenzhou, right? How could they be aware of the situation here now?"

"I guess they should be using the name of the General Administration to strengthen their momentum, because the branch office was just established not long ago." Pelican waved his hand, called a subordinate, and whispered a few words in his ear, "Go and do it."

"Yes."

After a while, someone mixed into the crowd and shouted at the people in the branch office, "You are lying, I came from Jinxia City! There is not enough food over there, it's all because Her Royal Highness the Princess took in overseas people, and there are more than 100,000 mouths for nothing!"

"Fellow villagers, don't believe these people's nonsense! There is only so much food in total, and suddenly there are more than 100,000 people, how can it be distributed?"

These words were immediately echoed by some of the people.

"I seem to have heard someone say before that the refugees from Leizhou were indeed taken in by Jinxia."

"The matter of overseas people...wasn't it mentioned in the weekly report?"

"How many people are there in these two waves? There won't be hundreds of thousands, right?"

The people in the affairs branch obviously didn't expect such a situation to happen, and they were a little stuck for a while, "But the General Administration clearly said that Jinxia is not short of-"

"Of course they won't be short of food! Otherwise, how can they scare everyone?" Someone interrupted him immediately and said, "Fellow villagers, if you believe it, you are handing your life to others!"

"I say...have your consciences been eaten by dogs? Have you ever thought that if Jinxia is really short of food, you are killing people by doing this!"

"Yes, it's murder!"

"Get out, murderer!"

With the instigation of the Pelican's men, the situation on the scene became chaotic. Facing the suspicious eyes of the crowd and the condemnation from time to time, several people in the affairs branch showed a trace of fear. They moved back and wanted to get away from the crowd.

At this moment, Hu Shinan clearly saw a man take advantage of the chaos to get behind a woman and took out a dagger.

In the eyes of outsiders, it might just be a collision in the crowd, but the woman from the affairs branch collapsed softly, holding her waist, her face pale.

"Someone... died!" someone exclaimed.

The scene was in an uproar, and the crowd quickly dispersed around, leaving a circle of space around the stabbed woman.

Many people were squeezed down in the process, and there were endless shouts, cries, and calls for help.

The chaos could no longer be controlled.

The people from the affairs branch had no time to care about anything else at this moment. They hurriedly carried the woman away and didn't even notice that the other person's shoes had fallen off.

There was only a pool of blood stained with mud on the ground.

The pelican raised the corner of his mouth slightly.

The affairs branch was stabbed while doing business, causing casualties. Who should be held responsible for this? What is really terrible is not the lack of food or famine, but the hostility, fear, rejection and suspicion between people.

The human heart is the root of unrest.

He has already stirred up a wildfire in these people's hearts, and with fuel, this fire will surely burn the city.

Music: Arthas, My Son