Rule over Ming Dynasty

Three years is neither long nor short.

In the spring of the sixteenth year of the Hongzhi reign, the sun shone on the sparkling sea, like golden silk gently spread out.

A huge steamship was sailing slowly on the sea. Thick white steam was spewing out of its huge chimney from time to time. The steam floated in the air and formed a hazy cloud.

Affected by an ocean current, the huge ship swayed gently with the waves, making a low and long metal collision sound, like an ancient music echoing in the night sky.

The sea breeze blowing from the north, carrying the salty smell of the sea water, gently blew over the side of the ship, dispersing the thick white steam and the metal music here.

On the deck, the sailors were busy moving around. They were working in an orderly manner, moving some things that needed to be dried from the cabin here.

Inside the ship, passengers dressed in silk and satin either lean against the window and recite poems about homesickness, or gaze at the blue sea outside and marvel at the beauty of the world, or sit around the tea table and talk in low voices about the country.

They seemed to enjoy the trip very much, with expectations for the future written all over their faces, and they were also experiencing firsthand the convenience of life brought about by technological development.

In this vast sea, steamships are like the technological light that illuminates this era. They carry the most advanced civilization of mankind and connect the four oceans more and more closely.

Now there is a sole overlord in the ocean, the invincible navy from the Ming Dynasty, which has already monopolized ocean trade.

This huge steamship departed from the Daming City on the American continent and would sail from the east of the Pacific Ocean to the west, and its destination was the Tianjin Port of the Ming Dynasty.

The emergence of steamships is changing the ocean era. It not only breaks the constraints of natural factors such as ocean currents and sea breezes, but also greatly improves the speed of navigation.

The Ship Dongwang was born at the end of the 14th year of the Hongzhi reign. Its first voyage was a huge success and it has now become the main means of transportation between the Ming Dynasty and the upper class of the American continent.

Different from traditional ocean-going ships that are mainly used for cargo or combat, this four-story ocean-going ship is a passenger ship belonging to the North American Passenger Shipping Company, engaged in passenger transportation from Daming City in America to Tianjin.

Based on the different purposes of Dongwang, the designers of Dongwang adopted a people-oriented concept and focused all their energy on building a luxurious and comfortable space.

In addition to the twelve upper-class rooms, a luxurious restaurant is also designed on the second floor, as well as an entertainment room, a leisure room and a tea room. It can be said that everything is available here.

Not only is the space very comfortable, but the floor is covered with expensive Persian carpets, the walls are decorated with elegant calligraphy and paintings, all the farm tools are made of golden nanmu, and the porcelain is from Jingdezhen.

It is worth mentioning that in order to fulfill the promise of recovering the investment costs of shareholders within two years, the boat below the deck also sells ordinary tickets to the public.

The treatment for ordinary tickets is naturally much worse. Usually, twenty or thirty people are squeezed into a large bunk bed, and the main activity area is limited to the bottom cabin. You can only go to the deck at specific times, and you cannot set foot on the area above the second floor.

Although the environment in the lower cabin is poor and messy, it is still hard to get a ticket.

After all, this environment is better than a VIP room, but better than many goods. In addition, the sailing time of the Dongwang is shortened by half, and it is safer, so everyone is flocking to the Dongwang ship ticket.

A journey of three or four months often allows most strangers to become friends.

In addition to its comfortable environment and status symbol, the Dongwang also provides a social platform, allowing many people to build a network of relationships through dining or tea areas during the voyage.

No matter which era, a good network of relationships is extremely important. There was even a gangster who used the eunuch's network of relationships to allow a retired minister to return to the court.

That's right, such a long journey is a natural platform for communication, not to mention that humans are animals that need companions. A few days before sailing, you may still be cautious, but within half a month, the VIPs on the same ship will become familiar with each other.

Even the upper-class VIPs holding luxury tickets were divided into different levels. On the four-story ship, the passengers on the third floor were the most noble, and the most active among them were Kong Ju and Wu Sanlang.

Kong Ju was a middle-aged man in his forties. He looked gentle and refined in his green Confucian robe, but his cunning rat eyes destroyed his scholarly temperament.

Although he only passed the examination to become a student and was not a juren, others still gave him the title of "Junior Kong" out of respect.

Kong Ju did not explain or correct this title, as if he was originally a juren, and seemed to enjoy the misunderstanding of others.

However, he was more proud of another identity, that is, he was born into the Kong family of Qufu, Shandong, a large family that has flourished in China for thousands of years.

Although the identity of being a descendant of Confucius is becoming less and less popular in this dynasty, this identity is still quite influential among the literati and the people, and is also the greatest pride of the Confucius lineage.

Kong Ju was the 62nd generation grandson of Confucius. As he was a close relative of his family, he received a lot of resources from his family and became a famous landlord in Qufu.

However, the thousand-year-old family finally met its doom, and Emperor Hongzhi was merciful. He also surveyed the land of the Kong family in Qufu, resulting in the discovery of some hidden fields.

Kong Ju's family was affected. Not only was they fined for hiding their land, but they also had to return some of the occupied land, resulting in his family losing a lot of land.

Unlike other members of the clan who made a living by guarding the land, he was smart since childhood and keenly sensed the economic crisis of the Kong family and discovered the business opportunities in maritime trade.

After receiving financial support from his family, Kong Ju followed the crowd to seek gold overseas.

After he arrived in the American continent, because of his identity as the 62nd generation grandson of Confucius, he had greater convenience than other merchants, and was able to gain an early advantage in business many times.

In just a few years, he accumulated a lot of wealth and became a well-known businessman in Shandong Province, and a more prominent figure in the Kong family.

Although there were several businessmen among the VIPs on the third floor who were wealthier than Kong Ju, because Kong Ju was the 62nd generation grandson of Confucius, everyone gave him enough face and even took the initiative to curry favor with this descendant of Confucius.

You know, the imperial court has always attached great importance to the Kong family, and would send ministers to Shandong every year to participate in Confucius' birthday, and the status of Yanshenggong was very transcendent.

Wu Sanlang is a young man with ordinary looks, but his thick eyebrows and big eyes add a bit of masculinity, and his tanned skin shows that he is a man who can endure hardships.

The American continent was covered with gold, and the early merchants who came to pan for gold made a fortune. Takesaburo was one of the first merchants to go to North America to engage in the fur trade.

Since he entered the American continent relatively early, he had good relations with many tribal leaders, and his wives and concubines were even the daughters of tribal leaders, so the fur trade was carried out very smoothly. After the appearance of the Dongwang, he also handed over the furs to the freight company under the jurisdiction of the Governor-General's Office in America, and he took a comfortable passenger ship back to Ming Dynasty.

Wu Saburo was born in Qinghe County, Shandong Province. He relied more on his business talents in his ventures in the American continent and was more like a model of successful grassroots entrepreneurship.

Although he has not yet achieved his goal of becoming the Fur King, he is already a fur businessman who cannot be underestimated.

During this voyage, he was very active and often rented venues to hold tea parties. Each time he would use the best tea to entertain people he thought were worth making friends with.

As Chinese people, the VIP cabins are almost all populated by upper-class people, and there are a few people who don’t like tea, so Wu Sanlang’s tea parties always attract the top wealthy guests.

That's right. During this long journey, Takesaburo quickly became the most dazzling presence on the entire ship with the top-grade Longjing tea he brought with him.

Of course, this top-grade Longjing tea costs a lot of silver dollars, and some top-grade Longjing teas are even out of stock. It can be said that he spent a huge amount of money to become the central figure of this ship.

Time flies. The Toou crossed the Pacific Ocean along the Aleutian Islands and entered the Sea of ​​Japan via Hokkaido.

Now the entire East China Sea is firmly controlled by the East China Sea Governor's Office. In particular, Japan and North Korea are not allowed to set foot in this sea area, so returning here is equivalent to returning home.

Today's tea party was held again, and Takesaburo once again became the protagonist of this voyage.

The fixed number of invited guests is twenty-four. These twenty-four invited guests arrive one after another, but they are accompanied by guards and servants.

Under the hosting of Takesaburo, the tea party began quickly, and the latecomers were a tall young man and an elegant young man with fair skin.

"What are the identities of these Yuan and Zheng?" Kong Ju was accepting the flattery of others. When he noticed the two young men who were late, his face suddenly became interested.

Unlike the other people on the same ship, as the voyage was about to end, these two mysterious young men did not reveal their identities.

Either the other party was someone of great importance, or he was just being mysterious. Judging from his age and behavior, he thought it was more likely the latter.

A middle-aged fat man who was flattering Kong Ju shook his head and said very seriously: "The man surnamed Yuan is tall and looks like he is holding a knife, but in fact he is holding a pen. It's just that at this age... hehe!"

These two dry laughs undoubtedly revealed a strong sense of disdain, and the implication was very obvious.

For those who took the imperial examination route, the younger they were, the less likely they were to have achieved the title of Jinshi, or they might be a low-ranking official, or even a worthless clerk.

"That Zheng guy looks like a pampered young man, but I've looked carefully at his hands and found thick calluses!" Another old man who was flattering Kong Ju looked at another young man and said with certainty.

The last three words revealed his judgment.

They are all veterans who have been in business for many years. If they want to judge a person, they will naturally not just look at the surface, but will infer the other person's true identity from some characteristics revealed by the other person.

The young man who looked gentle and refined turned out to be a poor boy who had been learning martial arts or doing farm work since childhood, so his background was naturally not very good.

Kong Ju hesitated for a moment, then suddenly put down the teacup, stood up, and walked towards the two young men.

The two young men who were walking side by side towards their designated seats saw Kong Ju blocking their way. The tall young man named Yuan frowned and asked, "What's the matter?"

"How about you two come over to my place for a chat?" Kong Ju felt the other party's contempt, and suppressed his dissatisfaction, looked towards the table where he was sitting, and smiled confidently.

Although he had become a businessman, he was still a wealthy man with a lot of money, not to mention the halo of being the 62nd generation grandson of Confucius, so he was naturally a proud person.

Originally, he was too disdainful to personally inquire about the true origins of these two people, and had been waiting for the two young men to come and curry favor with him, but now that he saw that the journey was about to end, he finally couldn't help but come forward in person.

In his opinion, as long as he personally took action, the other party would surely be smart enough to make friends with him and tell him their origins.

The young man named Yuan frowned, but uttered two words coldly: "Get out of the way!"

Huh?
When the people present saw that the tall young man named Yuan was so disrespectful to Kong Ju, they could not help but look at each other, and at the same time they knew that there would be a good show to watch today.

During this journey, they also saw Kong Ju's true character.

He clearly benefited from the dividends of the times and enjoyed the convenience of the Governor's Office of America with the halo of being the 62nd generation grandson of Confucius, but he always thought that he was a natural business talent.

Now that he has been humiliated by the other party like this, Kong Ju, who thinks highly of himself, will definitely not tolerate it.

"Our ancestors said: If you don't learn etiquette, you can't stand! I don't even know who you two are?" Kong Ju's face suddenly turned dark, but he still suppressed his anger and inquired about the other party's origins.

The young man named Yuan said calmly, "We are strangers to each other. Is it necessary for us to get to know each other?"

"I don't like to hear what you said. All of us here just met by chance, but now we have become good friends and confidants, right?" Kong Ju's fat companion immediately supported him.

The young man named Yuan smiled calmly: "That's you, what does it have to do with me?"

"You are unwilling to stay with this status, but you have never missed a single cup of tea. Are you a poor guy who eats for free?" Kong Ju rolled his eyes and immediately made a sarcastic remark.

After these words were spoken, not only did the young man surnamed Yuan look gloomy, but the young man surnamed Zheng, who had been silent all this time, also frowned.

"Kong Ju, it is my honor that the two of them come to the tea party, and I am willing to offer the tea to them for tasting. What does it have to do with you? If you continue to bother my two distinguished guests like this, please get out of here!" Wu Sanlang had already noticed this side, and he immediately stood up and expressed his position.

Huh?
The people present were stunned. They had never expected Wu Sanlang to stand up to defend these two people, even at the cost of openly offending the 62nd generation grandson of Confucius. (End of this chapter)