Chapter 340: Chapter 336: Food Price Increase_1

The next day, Yingbao boarded a large merchant ship along with her father, younger brother Yuanbao, Mr. Wu Lao, and others.

Wei Zhan also followed, bringing along a young servant.

Of course, there were also several scholars staying at the Jiang Family.

During the boat trip, Yuanbao and his fellow scholars engaged in intellectual exchanges about ancient and current affairs, supplemented by Mr. Wu Lao’s explanations. It was truly enlightening and helped to steady their minds.

Yingbao alone stayed in her cabin, organizing the things from her mansion.

All of her ginseng seeds had sprouted and grown two leaves. She estimated that they would reach four or five leaves in two years.

The precious medicinal herbs she planted next to them were also growing well.

These herbs are perennial, the older they are, the better their medicinal effects.

Both the golden and silver mushrooms had been harvested once. She had stored over a hundred catties of dried goods in her mansion from the New Year till now. All the harvested mushrooms were here.

However, as it was summer, their local shop didn’t sell many mushrooms. She didn’t plan to stock them just yet.

Considering the potential warfare and chaos in the future, Yingbao decided to take time out to purchase grains and cotton cloth.

Anyway, she had several thousand taels of silver. It would be a waste to leave the money in the cave mansion, might as well exchange it for food, seeds, cotton cloth, and other concrete items.

Of course, she also had to quietly stockpile some weapons.

However, it was not easy to buy iron weapons like broadswords. They, as farmers, didn’t know where to buy them unless they dealt with gangs.

Yet, that was too risky. If they weren’t careful, they would be caught and faced endless trouble in the future.

As Yingbao pondered, she suddenly thought of her cave mansion.

She could collect things effortlessly. Perhaps, she could store some large stones. If she encountered bad people, she could smash them with these stones.

Upon envisioning the scene, Yingbao chuckled and began eating a bunch of grapes.

Halfway on the river, the merchant ship met with a violent storm.

The strong wind blew the ship, causing it to sway back and forth.

Fearing that his children would be scared, Jiang Sanlang specifically gathered them all in one cabin.

Haven’t experienced such a situation before, Yuanbao turned pale with fright. Fortunately, the ship, after two thrilling days, finally arrived at the pier in Qinchuan County.

It was still raining. Yingbao took out several oilcloth raincoats from her mansion and distributed them to her family members, Mr. Wu Lao, and even gave one to Wei Zhan.

Wei Zhan’s servant ran off the boat first, calling for a few porters and two ox carts. They lifted their boxes and cages off, loading them onto the ox carts.

Seeing that the two scholars hadn’t found a cart, Jiang Sanlang invited them to ride on their hired ox cart.

The ox cart had a mat for shelter. It could barely keep off the rain, but there were still some raindrops dripping inside.

Yingbao and her brother Yuanbao squeezed together, using a large oilcloth to cover the three of them.

Wei Zhan also crawled in and, giving Jiang Jie a playful look, asked: “Jiang Jie, when will you return to Chuanhe Town?”

Jiang Jie: “Master said we will return after Mingfu has summoned us.”

After this final examination, the County Magistrate would undoubtedly summon the fifteen scholars who passed the examination from the county.

The County Magistrate also needs to arrange for this year’s new scholars to study in the county school.

There are a total of fifty to sixty scholars in the county school. This quota is granted by the Imperial Court. If new students are added, the students with the worst academic performance during the annual examination will have to be expelled.

Therefore, Jiang Jie cannot attend the county school yet. He can only go to school after the annual examination and based on his test rankings.

Wei Zhan turned to Yuanbao: “Aren’t you going back either?”

Yuanbao hesitated for a moment: “We’ll see when the time comes.”

He has benefitted a lot from studying under Mr. Wu recently and naturally wants to continue attending his classes. However, Mr. Wu has not agreed to accept him as a disciple, and staying around without being formally accepted seems inappropriate.

Wei Zhan showed Yingbao his big white teeth: “Yingbao, are you going home too?”

Yingbao nodded: “Of course.”

“I’ll go to your place too, to hang out with Jiang Wu.” Wei Zhan said with a smile: “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Huzi and Yuanbao.”

Yingbao: “Shouldn’t you be studying in the county town?”

Wei Zhan shook his head: “Your village also has a school. I’ll be okay studying there.”

He has no ambition to pass the county examination. Dingchen Village’s school also offers martial arts classes, which aligns perfectly with his interests.

The key point is, he will be able to often be with… Huzi and Jiang Wu.

Two hours later, the ox cart finally entered the county seat and stopped at the entrance of the Jiang family’s main courtyard.

As everyone got off the cart, Jiang Sanlang arranged for the cart driver to drop the two scholars at their homes.

Once back home, Jiang Sanlang rushed into the kitchen to heat water for Mr. Wu’s bathing and washing. His clothes and hair were all wet and needed a bath, a hair wash, and a change of clothes.

Yingbao and her brothers also started to clean tables, chairs, and floors. Even the kangs needed to be wiped down.

Wei Zhan’s servant, called Wei Zhong, who seemed to be around fourteen or fifteen years old, was very smart. He had arranged his young master’s luggage properly and was now helping Jiang Sanlang.

Seeing another pair of helping hands, Jiang Sanlang decided to go out to buy some groceries when he saw his young daughter running towards him under the umbrella.

“Dad, I’ll go buy the vegetables, and you can start cooking at home.” They have more than ten people at home. She had so many vegetables in her mansion they were becoming a nuisance. If they’re not eaten, they’d go to waste.

Jiang Sanlang couldn’t resist his daughter and agreed: “Be careful when you’re out.”

“I know.” Yingbao was now nine years old and extremely familiar with the county town. Going shopping or strolling around alone was nothing to her anymore.

Moreover, the public order of the county town was quite good. Nobody dared to kidnap a grown girl in broad daylight.

Yingbao walked out of the alley with her umbrella and arrived in front of an abandoned house piled with bricks and stones.

Using the umbrella as a cover, she collected four or five large stones before pulling out a basket filled with vegetables and fruits.

First, she delivered the goods in the basket back home. Only then did she go to the market.

Due to the rain, there were hardly any people in the market except for a fish vendor.

Catching a glimpse of his fresh fish, Yingbao bought two.

The vendor passed the fish to her by threading two stalks of grass through the gill of the fishes.

Yingbao received the fish and slowly walked home.

When she passed a grain shop, she went in and asked for prices. To her surprise, a litre of rice was sixty coins.

And rice that had been hulled even demanded a hundred coins.

When she asked about other grains, even this year’s newly harvested wheat, the prices were ten to twenty percent higher than previous years.

When did the price of grain in Qinchuan County rise higher than in the Prefecture City?

Yingbao was puzzled and asked the shopkeeper why the price of rice and grain had risen.

The shopkeeper said, “I don’t know either. It’s all Shopkeeper’s decision. If the little lady thinks it’s too expensive, you don’t have to buy.”

Seeing Yingbao still staring at him, he added, “I heard that someone in our county is buying grain at a high price, no matter how much they got, and then shipping it away by large merchant ship. So, the ten or so large grain stores in our county can’t get any grain now. It would be strange not to raise the price.”

A county town with tens of thousands of people. If each person ate half a kilogram of grain a day, they would consume more than hundreds of thousands of kilograms of grain per month. Where would all this grain come from?

“Have the prices of rice and grain in other counties also risen?” Yingbao asked.

The shopkeeper rolled his eyes: “How would I know that? The Shopkeeper told us to raise the price, and we just did.”

Studying her, Yingbao turned around and walked away.

Someone in the county town is buying grain at a high price and shipping it away, and the County Magistrate isn’t doing anything about it. That’s strange.