However, it took time for the imperial envoy to receive the news, time to set off after receiving it, and since he couldn't travel at breakneck speed, a carriage was much slower than a swift horse. Therefore, by the time he arrived at a place with a similar case, Ding Yun had already received the news and left a day or two in advance.
Thus, he was always one step behind Ding Yun.
He could even only trail behind Ding Yun, eating her dust.
He hadn't investigated anything before the people were already angered to the point of spitting blood and falling ill from Ding Yun's provocations.
It was truly pathetic, regrettable, and lamentable.
It was a pity that he had too small a heart and too much pride. Fortunately, he didn't die of anger, otherwise Ding Yun might have felt guilty.
After all, if a healthy person were to die of anger because of her.
She would at least have to observe a few seconds of silence.
She continued this for nearly half a year. Three batches of imperial envoys had been dispatched, and only then did Ding Yun officially stop. It wasn't out of fear, but primarily because she had already visited almost all the major salt merchants across the country.
What remained were scattered small households.
And salt merchants who had been forced to change professions after being visited by her.
There was no need to continue.
Moreover, if all the salt merchants collapsed, the supply of salt for the common people would become a major problem.
Most importantly, after her prolonged turmoil, some salt merchants had realized that those who sold official salt at relatively normal prices and without adulteration had largely been unaffected this time.
Therefore, when they had no other choice.
They could only compromise.
They had to compromise and change their daily operating model, lowering the price of the official salt they sold and improving its quality.
With the situation having developed to this point, if Ding Yun were to continue pressuring them, wouldn't that be forcing them to their deaths? Thus, it was naturally wise to know when to stop.
When the salt merchants who had made some changes to the quality and price of official salt discovered that they were fine, other salt merchants naturally followed suit. Earning less was better than earning nothing at all, and their fortunes were almost being plundered.
After a month without any losses.
Those salt merchants finally breathed a sigh of relief.
They felt their choice was correct; the other party indeed wanted to force them to improve the quality and lower the price of official salt.
But while they breathed a sigh of relief, the imperial envoys dispatched to investigate the matter became even more troubled. They hadn't been able to uncover anything while the other party was actively committing their "crimes," and now that they had stopped, where would they find any clues?
Those who had initially been full of vigor and eager to showcase their talents were now completely dejected. At the same time, they cursed themselves for their earlier willingness to serve the ruler in court, for showing off their abilities without the capability. Now, it was a mess.
They couldn't even find a scapegoat to conclude the case.
Directly admitting their incompetence was impossible.
It was truly a predicament, caught between a rock and a hard place.
However, Ding Yun was too lazy to bother with their troubles, or rather, she didn't care at all. After completely setting aside the matters related to the salt merchants, she returned to Nanhua Temple to accompany Yunqi Nvguan.
Initially, she had planned to take a break.
She might even have stayed at Nanhua Temple and celebrated the New Year with Yunqi Nvguan. After all, her grain business was already very stable, and there were no issues with logistics and transportation. She could be anywhere and still transport large quantities of grain from her farm to all parts of the country.
But, as it turned out, trouble arrived quickly.
And this trouble couldn't be considered sudden.
It could only be considered an inevitable consequence.
The issue was that the grain merchants had stopped buying grain.
Nearly a year ago, those grain merchants believed that Ding Yun selling grain to the Ministry of War at such low prices was a surefire loss, and that she would go bankrupt soon. Therefore, they hadn't taken any further action, and some had even stood by and watched, or indirectly pressured Ding Yun's grain stores to lower prices in certain areas.
Because Ding Yun had an abundance of grain, she didn't pay much attention. She even went along with the trend and continued to lower grain prices, which persisted until now.
Regardless of how incredulous the grain merchants were.
The final result was that the grain merchants couldn't hold on any longer. After all, grain was not like salt or other commodities that could be stored for ten or eight years.
It was not like timber or gold and silver.
Grain had a shelf life. The price of new grain and old grain differed, let alone broken grains or even moldy grain. The grain merchants' period of observing from the sidelines and their efforts to force Ding Yun's low-price grain stores to lower prices had led their own businesses and daily sales into an unprecedented slump. The old grain stored by their families last year had not yet been sold.
Coupled with reduced profits, tight cash flow, and the significant blow to the previously lucrative salt business, these compounded factors led them to lose confidence in the future of the grain business. They didn't even dare to continue as they had in the past.
To go out and buy grain from various regions.
When grain merchants stopped buying grain, the small landlords who primarily relied on selling grain for a living, and the ordinary self-sufficient farmers waiting to sell grain to pay taxes, naturally became anxious.
Some had even started lowering prices.
Urging to sell their grain first.
This situation was akin to the "cheap grain hurting farmers" mentioned in books. It meant that due to an excessive quantity of grain, it couldn't be sold and had to be lowered in price, resulting in farming profits that might even be less than in normal years, only slightly better than in years of famine.
Although grain production had not increased in reality.
Ding Yun's large-scale dumping of grain from her farm at low prices was effectively a form of "cheap grain hurting farmers."
Fortunately, Ding Yun had long anticipated that her actions might lead to this situation.
Therefore, she specifically instructed the managers of grain stores in various regions to notify her immediately if they detected any signs, so that she could allocate funds to clean up the mess.
After all, she was the one who caused this trouble, and she should be the one to bear the responsibility.
She couldn't let the common people of the entire country bear it.
Thus, upon receiving the relevant news, Ding Yun could only immediately halt her planned vacation and begin calculating the estimated grain output in various regions based on the information she had collected in the past, along with the purchase prices from previous years, and the specific tax amounts that ordinary people had to pay.
Finally, she set the purchase price for this year.
A price significantly higher than the purchase price in previous years.
Then, she transported gold and silver separately to grain stores nationwide, instructing the managers to start purchasing grain in their vicinity at the price she had set.
She also signed contracts with those selling grain.
Guaranteeing that future purchase prices would adhere to this standard.
Thus, the situation of cheap grain and unsaleable produce, which could have potentially caused unrest, was stabilized. However, it also brought another problem: Ding Yun's current grain inventory was simply too large. So large that she had to spend a significant amount of gold and silver to build storage facilities for the grain.
So large that in many places, the grain in the imperial granaries.
Was not as much as hers.
Most crucially, in order to upgrade quickly, the grain from her farm continued to be produced relentlessly.
The trouble of having too much grain!