1627 Rise of the South China Sea

At the same time, outside a private house not far from Xingxianfang, an unremarkable carriage quietly stopped at the gate.

A moment later, the gate of the mansion opened halfway without a sound, and then the curtain on the carriage was lifted, and a black shadow rushed out of the carriage, and rushed into the gate without stopping.

The gate was then closed, and the carriage started to leave immediately, as if nothing had happened.

On the slightly shaking lantern under the eaves of the door, two prominent characters indicate the ownership of this private house - Wangfu.

This mansion is not that mansion, the owner of this private house is not the feudal king or county king conferred by Daming, but the former Hangzhou manor Wang Yuanwang.

In the official circles of Hangzhou during the reign of the Ming Dynasty, Wang Yuan could be regarded as an outlier.Other officials usually stay in the same position for two or three terms at most, and even if they are not promoted, they will probably be adjusted.

But Wang Yuan never went up or down. He stayed in Hangzhou Tongpan for more than [-] years. It was not until Haihan took over Hangzhou that he resigned along with several other high-ranking officials of the Hangzhou government office.

Usually a position has not been promoted after staying for so long, either because of mediocre ability and insufficient credit for promotion, or because of insufficient background and connections, and cannot compete with others at critical moments.

But Wang Yuan's stagnation in the officialdom does not belong to these two situations.Not only is Wang Yuan not bad at work, but he also has strong connections, because the forces behind him are the Haihan people who were entrenched in Ningbo and Zhoushan at that time.

Wang Yuan's cooperation with Haihan people can be traced back to 20 years ago.

After the sudden disappearance of several officials in the city of Hangzhou, there were few thorns in Zhejiang official circles who dared to jump out and openly contradict Haihan.However, some officials wisely chose to accept Haihan's "good intentions" and began to provide Haihan with various conveniences, both openly and secretly. Among them was Hangzhou Tongjuan Wang Yuan.

The general judgment of Zhengliupin is placed in the official circles of Zhejiang, and he is not a big figure, but Wang Yuan is in charge of Jianghai defense in the Hangzhou government, so he can be regarded as an official with real power. This is very useful for Haihan who is eager to open up the market in Zhejiang up.

At that time, Haihan’s trade activities in Zhejiang were only in a semi-open manner. Many goods produced in Haihan were either embargoed by Daming or had to pay high tariffs, so smuggling became Haihan’s import of goods to Zhejiang. One of the main ways.

And Wang Yuan used his power to issue inspection-free documents for Haihan merchants, which saved a lot of unnecessary trouble.Of course, he also obtained considerable gray income for himself by relying on this operation.

It is not that Wang Yuan has no chance of promotion later, but Shi Diwen hopes that he can stay in his original position. After all, the cooperation between the two parties has passed the test of time and the process has been very smooth.If a newcomer takes over Wang Yuan's position, not only do they need to re-adjust, but they may not be able to cooperate with Hai Han unreservedly like him.

Wang Yuan also figured it out later, he had no backer in the court, even if he could rise up, most of the fellow prefects of the fifth rank would be exhausted, and the magistrate of the fourth rank might not even be able to touch the edge.And maybe after being promoted, he will be transferred from Hangzhou and arranged to work in another state capital.

Instead of this, it is better to guard the ready-made cornucopia and work for Haihan with peace of mind.

Later, Wang Yuan simply became one of the intermediaries between Zhejiang Sansi Yamen, Hangzhou Fuya and Haihan.Later, when Haihan entered Hangzhou, several high-ranking officials from the Third Department of the Yamen set up an underground casino to continue earning money before they left. It was Wang Yuan who came forward to communicate with Haihan to keep this business.

But the good times didn't last long. The casino was suddenly closed down by the government not long ago. Although the charges were not made public, Wang Yuan was notified that it was because the casino accepted officials to gamble, which caused other problems.

The closure of the casino had limited impact on Wang Yuan, but he couldn't explain to the other major shareholders that something like this happened.Although those people have resigned and left Hangzhou, Wang Yuan still needs to rely on their relationship to clear the trade channel for Haihan, otherwise he will not be of much value to Haihan.

And the one who came to the door in the dark today is the culprit who caused this matter.

In the study room, facing the unexpected guest, Wang Yuan really didn't have a good face: "Zhu Zhongyun, do you know how much trouble you caused when you asked that officer to come to the casino last time? That man turned around and sold us out." , Then the Haihan government came and directly sealed up the casino!"

"Do you know how much you have invested in opening this casino and how many relationships you have used?"

"Do you know how much money we will lose if the casino is closed for one day?"

Wang Yuan has been holding back his anger for the past few days, but now it's all over the place.He really didn't understand why Daming would send such a troublemaker here to ruin the good casino business.

The middle-aged man sitting opposite Wang Yuan was the businessman surnamed Zhu whom the Haihan Security Department was trying to track down.Gong Shiqi and the others never imagined that the object they were tracking was hidden so close to the city of Hangzhou.

But in the face of Wang Yuan's reprimand, Zhu Zhongyun seemed calm, and replied softly: "It's just a casino, even if it disappears, this loss is not a big deal. Mr. Wang, as far as I know, it's not a big deal to run this casino." You didn't pay for the capital of the casino, did you?"

When the casino was opened, the capital was paid by the adults of the Sansi Yamen, and Wang Yuan was in charge of coordinating the relationship, which is equivalent to taking dry shares.However, the inside story in the middle is obviously not something ordinary people can understand.

Wang Yuan avoided answering this question, and snorted coldly: "You have already left, why did you come back? Now that the casino is gone, what's the point of you sneaking back to Hangzhou City?"

Zhu Zhongyun said: "Of course I sneaked back to Hangzhou to complete the unfinished mission. As for the casino, since it can't play its due role, then it's gone. The mission I want to perform is more important than the casino. too much!"

Wang Yuan asked suspiciously: "Didn't you come to Hangzhou just to inquire about Haihan's information? Could it be that you have other missions?"

Zhu Zhongyun still responded calmly: "My lord, you just do your job well, and it's best not to inquire about things that you shouldn't inquire about, so as not to cause trouble to your upper body!"

Listening to his tone, Wang Yuan suddenly felt something was wrong.

After he left office, he stayed in Hangzhou to manage the underground casino for those adults. He also knew that this business not only made money, but also had the function of collecting intelligence.

But in Wang Yuan's view, this is perfectly normal. He can send the Haihan people secretly to the areas ruled by Ming Dynasty, and of course he can also arrange for the spies of Ming Dynasty to collect information about Haihan in Hangzhou.

It's just that Zhu Zhongyun's way of acting is different from those who came to Hangzhou to handle business before.Not only did he want to use the casino to pull Haihan officials into the water, but he also didn't care about the consequences. Obviously, he had other goals besides gathering intelligence.