To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Chapter 702: Chapter 313 Grain Prices and Famine_3

Well, after the price reduction, it’s about ten wen per catty of rice, which is a third of the price of the grain in Southsea Country.

Although this price is lower than the international market price, it is still a huge profit for Chu State.

Now that the war has stopped, the previously skyrocketing rice price in Chu State has quickly dropped back to normal, from the original five wen per catty of rice to the current three wen per catty of rice.

Therefore, even if Chu State sells grain to Su State for only ten wen per catty of rice, it is still a pure profit of more than 200%, which can be described as a huge profit.

What Chu State had to do for this was to simply collect and allocate a batch of rice from within the country and then deliver it to the border of Su State. It didn’t take much effort.

On the contrary, the sale of Chu State’s low-priced grain could severely strike the arrogant grain merchants of Southsea Country, suppress their unrestrained arrogance, and directly cut off their way of making money.

Presumably, on Su State’s side, they would be happy to see this after receiving Chu State’s goodwill.

After all, compared to spending thirty wen per catty of rice to buy grain from the blood-sucking Southsea merchants who treated them like fat sheep.

It’s better to buy grain from Chu State, with whom they have always had a covenant, at only a third of the price.

This transaction, whether on an economic level or an emotional level, left Su Xuange with no reason to refuse.

“There should be more than 1.5 million people in Su State now, and according to the calculation of one stone of grain per person per month and twelve stones of grain per year for these people.

The annual grain consumption for one person is about thirteen silver tales.

For 1.5 million people, that’s a market of over 20 million silver tales.

Even though Chu State cannot take all of this market, and Su State will gradually achieve self-sufficiency in grain as local stability and production recover.

But in the years before stability, it should be no problem for Chu State to earn ten million silver tales a year from Su State.”

Lu Yuan calculated in his heart and couldn’t help but be delighted.

An additional ten million silver tales in revenue each year, and this income can last for several years, is a very happy thing no matter how you look at it.

“And not only Su State, but even Zhou Country can try to do grain business.”

Zhou Country now has barbarians in the west, Wei people in the north, Liang people in the east, and Chu people in the south.

Of these four directions, apart from Chu State, which has negotiated peace with Zhou Country and maintained a state of peace.

The remaining three directions are all enemy states of Zhou Country.

Zhou Country is now fighting on three fronts, and besides the 100,000 troops stationed in Guannei and Hanzhong, there are as many as 900,000 soldiers on the battlefields in three other directions.

If civilian workers supplying food and fodder, and the recruited Civil Group Volunteers are also counted, Zhou Country’s total number of troops reaches more than two million.

Such a large-scale army is almost equivalent to one-tenth of the total population of Zhou Country.

That is to say, one in ten people in Zhou Country is enlisted on the front line battlefield, and most are strong laborers.

With so many strong laborers missing, there will inevitably be problems in Zhou Country’s domestic production.

According to the intelligence reported by the Royal Capital Spy Agency, the price of grain in Zhou Country has generally risen to five wen per catty today, and in some areas, it even reached ten wen per catty.

The grain shortage caused by the lack of grain has begun to appear inside Zhou Country.

And this famine and soaring grain prices will continue to grow year by year with the continuous war in Zhou Country.

If it is not controlled in time, the current Su State will become the next example for Zhou Country.

Lu Yuan was naturally very interested in such a newly-emerging huge market.

However, although interested, he did not take action immediately.

First, Chu and Zhou had just ended the war, and there was not enough trust between the two sides, so even if they wanted to do business, they temporarily lacked the foundation.

Secondly, although Zhou Country is now facing a grain shortage, this famine is not severe, and with Zhou Country’s reserves, it can fully withstand it.

At this time, looking for the other party to sell grain would not earn much, at most just a small profit.

The third reason is that Chu State does not have many grains on hand, and it has reached its limit to satisfy a Su State. It is temporarily unable to produce more grains to sell to Zhou Country.

Considering these factors, Lu Yuan chose to wait and see, waiting for famines to become more serious on both sides and for this side’s grain harvest after several rounds. Then they would consider doing business with Zhou Country.

As for Su State and Zhou Country, these two international markets, and even more potential markets in the future, it is imminent for Chu State to increase its grain output.

Among them, the development of Xichuan Plain is a top priority.

However, in order to develop Xichuan, manpower is indispensable, and the existing population in Xichuan is far from enough to develop the entire Xichuan Plain.

Fortunately, last winter’s heavy snow disaster, although it caused serious losses to the people in Chu State and even a large number of deaths and injuries.

But at the same time, those severely affected people are mostly poor and have no assets.

And these people are precisely the best immigrant population selected by the government.

So after a snow disaster, the poor people who lost a lot of property, after accepting the government’s relief invitation, simply gritted their teeth and stomped their feet, and chose to participate in the recruitment and emigrate to Xichuan.

According to data reported by the Ministry of Households, there are now about 50,000 households and more than 200,000 affected people in Chu State who have accepted immigration, and they are being sent to Xichuan County one after another under the coordination of local governments.

And this number is just the beginning.

Subsequently, as the work progresses, more people will choose to emigrate.

This year, the government is expected to relocate at least 100,000 households or more than 500,000 people to Xichuan County.

The goal of emigrating to Xichuan County within six years, as decided at the strategic meeting on future years before the year, is highly likely to be achieved in the next two years.

It seems that a snow disaster is not entirely a bad thing, and it still has some positive effects.

Anyway, when the 500,000 people arrive at Xichuan, the whole Xichuan Plain can be initially developed.

By next year at the latest, Xichuan County will become another major grain-producing area for Chu State.