Chapter 1163: Does This Count as Evidence?

. She was completely dumbfounded.No matter how intelligent and resourceful she was, after all her schemes and plans, she was still just a woman.Her instincts left her mind blank, unable to react in an...Chapter 1163: Does This Count As Evidence

Zheng Baorong, already on edge and feeling anxious, was completely unable to hold it together now.

He hurriedly said, "That's not right. In such a situation, why don't you report it to the authorities"

The woman remained silent this time, but a middle-aged man standing beside her, carrying a hoe, with rolled-up trousers and mud on his feet as if he had just come from the fields, sneered, "Report to the government What use is that They all protect each other. It's better not to report, otherwise, at best you won't be able to buy salt, at worst you'll get beaten."

"A few days ago, my younger brother came from out of town to visit our family. He was still a small official in the water transportation department in Jiaozhou. After reporting the matter, he wasn't beaten, but he was taken out of the capital city that night. Our family hasn't been able to buy salt since then, and we've only managed to get by with help from our neighbors."

Li Chen frowned and asked, "Then with the rice price increase, this rice from the rice shops, it's all collected from the hands of the common people and landlords, has the acquisition price increased"

"That's right, that's right. The acquisition price must have gone up quite a bit, right" Zheng Baorong eagerly pressed on.

Li Chen turned his head and looked at Zheng Baorong expressionlessly, "Are you going to die if you don't speak"

Zheng Bao Rong immediately shut his mouth and lowered his head, not daring to speak.

Then the middle-aged man said, "Of course it went up."

Zheng Baorong, who had just lowered her head, was overjoyed.

If the acquisition price went up, then my own guilt wouldn't be so heavy.

Then he heard the middle-aged man say, “It’s only that the price of rice bought from landlords by the rice shop owners has increased by half or one tenth. It’s useless. After all, most of the owners of rice shops are themselves landlords. They are just transferring it from one hand to the other.”

As for the purchase price for tenant farmers and ordinary peasants, it went down instead of up. They said that the world was in turmoil, transportation and storage costs were rising, and in short, they used all sorts of reasons to suppress the purchase price. If you didn't sell, you had no choice but to be forced. When they encountered those who refused to sell, they would barge into their homes, beating people to death was nothing new.

Li Chen's face grew darker the more he heard. He said, "So serious Is there any evidence"

The middle-aged man let out a hearty laugh, lifted his shirt to reveal a chest crisscrossed with scars and a sunken rib, and said, "Sir, does this count as evidence"

Li Chen took a deep breath, clenched his fist, and gritted his teeth, saying, "Alright."

Another elder, a bit older than the first, said to Li Chen, "Young master, perhaps you are truly righteous, but you can't control this kind of thing. These rice merchants dare to raise prices, and they have been getting away with it for so long because there are people backing them up. It is rumored that the Crown Prince himself is their patron. How can you possibly manage this"

"Your Highness"

Li Chen said in a deep voice, “If the Crown Prince really supports these people, then this Crown Prince is not worthy of being called the Crown Prince.”

As soon as those words left his mouth, the faces of the commoners beside him turned pale.

The old man hurriedly said, "Be careful! Be careful! This is the capital city, under the emperor's feet. There are Dongchang agents everywhere on the streets. If they hear you say this, they will take you to Dongchang for a good beating at the very least."

Li Chen said, "Father-in-law, I know you have good intentions, but I'm speaking the truth. Whether it's in the capital or even in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the principle remains the same: wrong is wrong, and right is right. The Crown Prince absolutely wouldn't support such a pest."

Before Li Chen's words even hit the ground, a voice rang out leisurely from within Mi Xing: "Oh Hearing crows squawking as soon as I woke up, I knew something bad was about to happen. Sure enough, a few nameless wild dogs came barking at my shop door. What are you, daring to speak ill of my Prince"t the Liu family is poor, but they are avoiding it.After all, in the Qin Empire, merchants are still one of the lowest social classes, second only to slaves.Li Chen walked on foot, followed by Wan Jia...