I'm really not doing business

Chapter 915 Huangpu River Palace

Zhang Wenda's case has come to an end. Although the circumstances are different, his experience is actually very similar to Fan Yingqi's. They both unknowingly embarked on a path of no return. Fan Yingqi sentenced himself to life imprisonment, while Zhang Wenda ended up with his head and body separated.

Just as Zhang Wenda said before his death, the imperial court did not allow banquets, sometimes, it was indeed to protect the bureaucrats themselves.

The court's prohibition of banquets actually gave officials a very reasonable reason to refuse. As an official, some personal interactions are absolutely unavoidable, but with the court holding a big stick over their heads, they can completely reasonably refuse.

If you have any opinions, please tell His Majesty.

Being an official means facing many temptations and one can easily fall into the trap if one is not careful. Even Hou Yuzhao was tricked by Lin'an Wu using the trick of staying with prostitutes. However, Hou Yuzhao quickly determined his position and dealt with Wu so as not to get deeper into the trap.

Hou Yuzhao and Yan Shixuan, who were summoned to the audience, were staring at each other in confusion. They didn't even understand why His Majesty was so angry. The eunuch who summoned them to the audience also remained silent and refused to reveal even the slightest information.

After Hou Yuzhao and Yan Shixuan entered the imperial study of the West Lake Palace for a payment, they received the document of the emperor's incognito visit.

There are two volumes of documents, which record in detail the emperor's investigation of the Dusongguan tea mountain in Hangzhou, including the types of tea trees, the age of tea trees, tea production, the number of tea roasters, the number of tea pickers, the living environment, etc.

After reading it, Hou Yuzhao and Yan Shixuan looked at each other, shook their sleeves, knelt on the ground, bowed their heads and said: "We deserve to die."

The records are very detailed. In the previous records, His Majesty's words reveal joy. Tea is one of the pillar industries of Zhejiang and Fujian, and one of the world's commodities in the Ming Dynasty. It has extremely high added value. In Zhejiang alone, there are 80,000 tea farmers.

The tea business benefits the people of Zhejiang and Fujian.

The joy in the emperor's words immediately turned into anger when he talked about the treatment of the tenant farmers. Hou Yuzhao and Yan Shixuan read for a long time before they found the word "cannibalism" in the tens of thousands of words of research records.

"Stand up and speak." Zhu Yijun's anger was not directed at Hou Yuzhao and Yan Shixuan, but at the powerful and wealthy businessmen in Zhejiang.

In fact, Zhu Yijun knew very well that it had not been long since the Wanli Reform in the Ming Dynasty. Under the feudal monarchy, these things were bound to happen. It had only been eight years since the abolition of the slave system. How could such a strong and universal consensus be formed so quickly on the land of the Ming Dynasty?

Wu Shangwen of Lin'an Wu family said:
I have been eating bloody rice since I was a child. My family is a local tyrant in Lin'an. My grandfather likes to bury alive the tenants who don't pay rent or money. My father keeps a group of ruffians and bandits. They will rush into the house and smash and rob anyone who disobeys them. They will kill the men and take the women back to the village!

This is the style of feudal landlords. Moreover, Wu Shangwen’s grandfather and father had been in Lin’an County for more than 40 years, and no one dared or was able to control them.

The Ming Dynasty had just ended the eight-year slave system and the land return order had been implemented for four years. Zhu Yijun could completely understand the poor treatment of the tenants as it was the result of the times. However, he was still very angry after seeing it.

Zhu Yijun frowned and said, "They say that this rich man has a conscience, but I don't see that at all. Has his conscience been eaten by a dog?"

"In just four years, the number of tea farmers in Zhejiang has dropped by a quarter to only 60,000 households. I don't allow them to annex land, but they annex tea fields? The situation is most serious in Ningbo, Shaoxing and Jinhua."

"The tea plantations at Dusongguan in Hangzhou are better, but there is also a trend of mergers. We must curb this trend."

The first issue that Zhu Yijun was concerned about was the sharp decline in the number of tea farmers in Zhejiang, including 5,000 in Ningbo, 7,000 in Shaoxing, and 7,000 in Jinhua, a total of 20,000 fewer tea farmers. This represented that the implementation of the Zhejiang land return order had been reversed.

During Zhu Yijun's investigation, he found that the larger the tea garden, the worse the treatment. On the contrary, the tea pickers recruited by small tea farmers all ate together. They ate whatever the host ate.

The three prefectures where the number of tea farmers dropped sharply all had problems with the prefectural governments. Since the prefectural governments were unable to perform their functions normally, mergers became more and more serious.

"Your Majesty, it is my fault." Hou Yuzhao did not quibble. There was a problem with the return of land, and he could actually put the blame on Zhang Wenda and other prefects who deceived their superiors and subordinates. Anyway, Zhang Wenda was dead, and the three prefectures with problems were the hardest hit areas. He could also put the blame on his execution of the land return, which was mainly farmland, not tea fields.

But Hou Yuzhao did not shirk his responsibility. He refused the promotion and wanted to stay in Zhejiang to prevent this kind of recurrence!

Zhu Yijun waved his hand and said, "We must strictly prevent the birth of returning bandit groups. Similarly, we must also prevent the returned land from returning to the hands of these wealthy businessmen by various means."

"The second problem is that tea pickers are mainly concentrated in spring tea. There are fewer tea pickers for summer and autumn tea, so tea pickers are basically not needed."

"It takes six hours a day to pick spring tea. People really work day and night. It costs five cents to pick one pound of tea. If you pick five pounds a day, it's only twenty-five cents. Picking five pounds is already very fast."

"For these five catties of tea, I have heard tea pickers say more than once: The boss didn't keep his word. He promised one catty, but when it came time to calculate the money, there was still a problem with the scale. It would have been fine if there was a problem with the scale, but he also didn't pay the wages, sometimes delaying for days or even dozens of days."

"It's still very cold in the spring and Zhejiang has a lot of rain. When it rains, they won't let the tea pickers go down the mountain and force them to continue picking tea. They stand on the shore, in their cars and under umbrellas, and scold the tea pickers for being lazy and saying they deserve to be poor."

"They live in bad houses, eat bad food, don't pay, reduce wages in various ways, don't have any labor protection, and humiliate people. Is this what it means to be rich and have a conscience?"

The most outrageous one among them was this one family. They wanted to calculate the dry weight of the tea, but calculating the dry weight was equivalent to doing nothing, and there was no way to calculate it at all, so that it was impossible to find tea pickers to go to their tea garden.

There are only two months to pick tea, so this rule is actually not successful at all and is just the wishful thinking of meat eaters.

Yan Shixuan bowed his head and said: "It is my fault that I failed to educate people properly."

Zhu Yijun continued, "I initially thought that some brokers were behind this. I have heard of this more than once. Some brokers are taking advantage of both sides. One side takes the employer's money, and the other side takes the poor laborers. I asked the imperial guards to investigate."

"They are indeed brokers and compradors, but these brokers and compradors are all joint businesses run by wealthy businessmen from several neighboring tea houses, which means that these brokers and compradors are all their own."

"I thought it was an isolated case, but I happened to see it, so I asked the imperial guards to go around and ask around, and found that it was almost the same in all the large tea gardens."

Zhu Yijun's research was not a cursory survey or a glimpse of the whole picture. He took into account almost all situations. This phenomenon was not that the brokers in the pawnshops withheld profits, nor was it an isolated case, but a common phenomenon.

Tea gardens of a certain size try their best to be extremely strict with their subordinates.

Zhu Yijun said solemnly: "Zhang Wenda is dead, but he had a point of view, that is, due to unfair distribution, total demand cannot keep up with total supply, which eventually leads to the phenomenon of excess supply relative to demand, and finally leads to economic tides. I think his point of view is very good."

"With this distribution method, what's the point of annexing so many tea fields? Can the barbarians drink so much tea? Why not let the tea pile up in the warehouse and let it mold and stink?"

"After Zhejiang has completed the return of farmland, the next focus will be on transforming production relations, forming a commodity economy and establishing a domestic demand market. These three top priorities must be carried out around downward distribution."

There is a desperate paradox in the conversation between Zhang Wenda and Wang Chonggu.

During the economic downturn, if all meat eaters are willing to increase the proportion of profits distributed downward, from 10% to 30%, they can survive the winter smoothly.

Total demand is still less than total supply, but it can be maintained above the life-and-death line and will not perish in the economic downward cycle.

If the proportion of meat eaters continues to increase from 30% to 50%, the total demand will gradually increase, and eventually reach a point almost equal to the total supply. At this time, the workshop does not have to worry about whether it can survive the cold winter.

If we are willing to continue to increase the proportion and distribute more than 70% downward, the economic downward cycle will end immediately, and the strong total demand will help everyone get out of the quagmire.

However, in the game of ebb tide, people have never chosen win-win situation, and all of them ended up suffering.

Meat eaters will continue to lay off employees to reduce costs and increase efficiency, lower labor remuneration, reduce supply and raise prices, trying every way to recover costs. Ultimately, due to the complete decline in total demand, they often cannot make a profit or recover their costs.

After entering winter, it will only end when enough people die. As long as not enough people die, it will continue to be winter.

In a sense, this is an economic day of destruction, and both I and you will perish.

"So we must do a good job of distributing it downwards. I now understand why those four weavers would rather hang themselves in front of the Nanjing Weaving Institute than live." Zhu Yijun told Hou Yuzhao and Yan Shixuan about Zhang Wenda's paradox.

He also thought of the four weavers who were former prostitutes and died in front of the Nanjing Weaving Factory.

Perhaps when these weavers were dying, they did not hate the government factories for closing their doors to them, but were completely desperate about the world.

The government-owned factories distributed 30% of their profits to the lower levels, and this 30% of profits could even be used to build government-run schools, guarantee pensions, and construct official residences, so that people could live like human beings. However, the private factories distributed less than 10% of their profits to the lower levels.

"I will follow your majesty's instructions." Hou Yuzhao bowed his head again. The return of the land has been completed. Even if your majesty had not made this impromptu incognito visit, he would have focused his attention on these places.

"I believe in your abilities, my two dear ministers. All matters in Zhejiang are handed over to you." Zhu Yijun called them here not to hold them accountable, but to assign them tasks.

If a problem exists, we must find ways to change it. Zhu Yijun could not close his eyes, cover his ears, pretend not to see or hear anything, and sway his body to pretend that the Ming Dynasty is still moving forward.

At the end of August in the 17th year of the Wanli reign, the Ming Emperor set out again from Hangzhou, heading north towards Songjiang Prefecture, and arrived at the last stop of his southern tour.

Zhu Yijun took the Shengping No. 7 steam locomotive to Songjiang Prefecture and arrived in Suzhou in just one day. After staying in Suzhou for two days, he set off again and arrived in Songjiang Prefecture.

Suzhou and Hangzhou were already prosperous enough, but when he arrived in Songjiang Prefecture, Zhu Yijun realized that the Wanli Reform had really gone a long way.

From the perspective of quantitative inference, we can discuss the prosperity of Songjiang Prefecture. The commercial tax of Songjiang Prefecture is equal to the total commercial tax of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Suiyuan and Gansu. The cotton cloth produced in Songjiang Prefecture accounts for 40% or even more of all the cotton cloth in Ming Dynasty.

Songjiang Prefecture has completed the transformation into a commodity economy and even completed the construction of a domestic demand market.

There was a constant stream of trains on the Chidao Road, carrying goods back and forth between Shanghai County and Xingang. There were all kinds of workshops along the river and along the road. The Manufacturing Bureau's mechanical workshop, which Nanjing was proud of, had only three workshops, but in Shanghai County, there were thirty-seven government-run mechanical workshops alone, and as many as twelve private workshops.

This number even exceeds that of Beiya.

Zhu Yijun's palace was not set up in Huating County, the seat of Songjiang Prefecture, but in Shanghai County, because the focus of the economy, workshops, trade, education, etc. had completely shifted to Shanghai County.

This is determined by the geographical location.

"The palace built by Shanghai County is a little too magnificent." Zhu Yijun stood in front of the palace but did not go in. On the bank of the Huangpu River, where every inch of land is valuable and next to the Huangpu River Bridge, Yao Guangqi built a luxurious palace covering an area of ​​400 acres for the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

You should know that the Ming Dynasty's Beiya Palace only covered a total area of ​​1080 acres. The Shanghai County Palace was almost exactly the same as the Beiya Palace, but it was much smaller. This palace had more than 40 courtyards, more than 480 houses, a total of more than 4000 rooms, and a complete six ministries.

"It has to be built. This has been discussed six times in court. It is a bit expensive, but it is worth it." Zhang Juzheng stood beside the emperor and whispered. The reason for the repeated discussions was that the palace was constantly expanding.

On the Wufeng Tower of Chengtian Gate, the golden glazed tiles are spotless and sparkling in the sun. Dozens of gas lamps are hung under the eaves of the Wufeng Tower. On the left side of the palace stands the nearly 30-meter-high Zhengya Bell and Drum Tower. At 10 o'clock in the morning, the sound of the bell from the self-ringing bell and drum tower resounds throughout the city.

The construction of this palace took a full eight years, starting in the ninth year of the Wanli reign when Songjiang Prefecture reported the matter to the court and officially completed in the early seventeenth year of the Wanli reign, at a cost of 4.8 million silver ounces.

Moreover, this year Shen Shixing and Songjiang Governor Li Lenchu ​​reported to the court that they wanted to expand the project, but it was ultimately rejected by the court. Otherwise, the project would have been even bigger.

When it was first reported to the court, the palace only covered 40 acres. Later, it was expanded and expanded, with more and more courtyards, and it was even unable to accommodate the emperor during his last southern tour.

The palace is divided into twelve courtyards of the harem where the emperor lives, four courtyards of the imperial study where the emperor handles official business, two courtyards of the Cultural Hall where court meetings are held, and six ministries, with a complete range of functions.

The reason why Shanghai County Magistrate Yan Shixuan, Yao Guangqi, Songjiang Governor Shen Shixing, Li Le and others were so persistent in the expansion was that they hoped that Your Majesty would see the loyalty of the local people of Songjiang Prefecture, and they also hoped that Songjiang Prefecture, or even Shanghai County itself, could become the secondary capital of the Ming Dynasty.

The system of secondary capitals has an old history, and can be traced back to Luoyi in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Luoyang was the capital and Chang'an was the secondary capital. When the emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty ascended the throne, they would go to the secondary capital of Chang'an to pay homage to the Gao Temple and offer sacrifices to the tombs of the Western Han emperors.

During the Tang Dynasty, the secondary capital simply became a multi-capital system, including Zhongjing Chang'an, Dongjing Luoyang, Beijing Taiyuan, Xijing Fengxiang, Nanjing and Chengdu.

The system of secondary capitals and multiple capitals is a political compromise under the overly vast territory, and also an innovation. The secondary capitals and multiple capitals are to make up for the lack of the capital in terms of geography, military defense, economy, culture, etc.

Shanghai County was to be the secondary capital, mainly to make up for the shortcomings of the capital in terms of economy. Once it was promoted to the level of secondary capital, it would be under the direct jurisdiction of the imperial court, making it easier for the imperial court to directly intervene in the economy.

The communication deadline from Shanghai County to the capital was fifteen days, but the actual communication distance was only two days, which facilitated the Ming court's direct intervention in the economy.

When the Ming Dynasty opened up to the sea, it had to face a major historical burden, which was Zhu Di's relocation of the capital to Beiya.

The grand voyages to the West during the Yongle period eventually came to an end, which had a lot to do with the relocation of the capital to the Northern Yamen. As the political and military centers were fully transferred to the Northern Yamen, although the Southern Yamen retained six ministries, most of them were of a retirement nature.

Power is like this. Power is only responsible to the source of power. The closer to the center of power, the greater the power.

The Ming Dynasty successively established the Nagasaki Governor-General's Office, the Luzon Governor-General's Office, the Jiugang Governor-General's Office and the Jinchi Governor-General's Office. How to effectively manage these four governor-general's offices became a problem that the Ming Dynasty court had to face.

A temporary palace and the gradual development of Shanghai County into a secondary capital became the only answer to this question.

It's a bit expensive, but definitely worth it.

"Then let's go in and take a look." Before entering the palace gate, Zhu Yijun took a special look at the thousand-jin gate. The imperial guards had taken over the palace three days in advance, and the one guarding the palace gate was Chen Mo, the commander of the Pacification Division.

After ensuring it was safe, Zhu Yijun entered the palace. After entering the palace, the Ming Emperor was very satisfied because he had saved money wherever he could.

Every gold brick in the Beiya Palace was very expensive, but the Shanghai Palace only had ordinary floor tiles. There was not a single golden nanmu pillar. All were concrete pillars, which were strong and cheap. The doors and windows were not made of solid wood, but steel frames.

The most expensive item was the glazed tiles that symbolized imperial power, and this was something that could not be saved on. When Shen Shixing heard that even the silver for the glazed tiles had to be saved on, he immediately decided to retire.

He really couldn't do it. The golden roof was a symbol of imperial power. If he didn't have to, who would know that this was a temporary palace?

The Huangpu River Palace actually solved a major problem discovered during this southern tour: when the powerful and powerful, wealthy businessmen, and local gentry committed crimes, they would sneer and ask: Where is the emperor? What does the law mean?
At least in Songjiang Prefecture there is an answer. Every time the bell in the main government bell and drum tower rings, it tells everyone in Songjiang Prefecture that His Majesty is watching every bit of development in Shanghai County.

"Yes, it was built completely according to my requirements." Zhu Yijun came to the Wenhua Hall, looked around, and said to the ministers accompanying him with a smile.

Zhang Juzheng said helplessly: "Your Majesty, the local officials in Shanghai have some opinions about not allowing Your Majesty to greet you on your southern tour. Before the opening of the sea, although Shanghai County was not poor, it was just an ordinary county in the Ming Dynasty, with a population of less than 150,000, even worse than Yiwu County."

"Before Hai Wenzhong and Hai Rui came to Yingtian as governor and dredged the Wusong River, Baimao River, and Huangpu River to allow them to flow into the sea, Shanghai County was all mudflats and had a population of only 110,000."

"After the opening of the sea, Songjiang Prefecture and Shanghai County welcomed the greatest opportunity for development. Li Le, Wang Qian, Yao Guangqi and others had originally prepared a grand welcoming and sending-off ceremony, but it was stopped by an imperial decree from His Majesty."

Songjiang Prefecture and Shanghai County prepared for a full six months and planned to give the emperor a grand welcome ceremony!
From the local officials of Songjiang who went out to welcome the emperor thirty miles away, to the powerful and wealthy businessmen in Songjiang Prefecture who raised 500,000 silver coins to build the Ying'en Pavilion, to the people of the twelve miles who welcomed the emperor, to the three-day Aoshan Lantern Festival and the performance of various arts, to the military and naval review on the second day, and after the military and naval review, there was a temple fair on the fifteenth day.

It just so happens that September has arrived, and September 4th is the Longevity Festival. Everyone in Songjiang Prefecture is planning to turn the Longevity Festival into the Longevity Month!

In short, Songjiang Prefecture must have what Shuntian Prefecture has, and Songjiang Prefecture must also have what Shuntian Prefecture does not have! Let's organize a grand birthday party for His Majesty, who has not had a good birthday for 17 years.

Although Songjiang Prefecture has various problems, most of these problems are because Songjiang Prefecture is ahead. Songjiang Prefecture is really not the less loyal Yingtian Prefecture.

The material foundation of Songjiang Prefecture has flourished to its current level only after the opening of the sea. The emperor’s grace has never been an empty talk for everyone in Songjiang Prefecture.

Zhu Yijun sat on the dragon chair and said with a smile: "You can celebrate the birthday. I will allow it, but you don't have to go out to welcome him."

"Sir, if Songjiang Prefecture goes out to welcome the emperor, other places will have no choice but to follow suit. But apart from Songjiang Prefecture, how can other places in the Ming Dynasty have the money to do this? But if they don't do it, it would be disloyalty, and it would even lead to competition, which is not what I want."

It is okay to hold a grand ceremony, but it can only be in the name of the Holy Birthday and not in the name of welcoming the Holy Emperor. Otherwise, other places can only compete for loyalty.

"Your Majesty is wise." Zhang Juzheng finally breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this. He was actually worried that the frugal Majesty would keep the Emperor's Birthday Festival simple, and then all the careful preparations of Songjiang Prefecture for half a year would be in vain.

The emperor cannot be welcomed to prevent local competition, but the emperor’s birthday festival can be held, which is an outcome acceptable to both the emperor and his subjects.

Zhu Yijun said with a little regret: "Since the meeting of the World Congress was decided last year, I have been thinking about making it in time for the southern tour, but it is already September and I have completely missed it."

The purpose of the International Conference is to allow various foreign and small countries to bring their specialties to the Ming Dynasty to see what the Ming Dynasty needs. The Ming Dynasty's foreign trade has given people the illusion of eating alone. The Ming Dynasty even snatched the farming work. This behavior is actually not conducive to the Ming Dynasty's opening up of the sea.

For this purpose, the Ministry of Rites formulated the system of the International Congress. According to the previously agreed time of the International Congress, it was to be held in June. However, it was already September and the time had been missed, which made Zhu Yijun very regretful.

"Your Majesty, rest assured. This year's International Congress will be postponed to September." Wang Chonggu bowed his head and said, "Although Wang Qian, this rebellious son, behaves a little arrogantly, he still has a respectful heart."

Zhu Yijun frowned and said, "Won't this delay delay the day of sailing? It is not a good thing to delay trade for me alone."

Wang Chonggu hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, for trade, certainty is far more important than profit. Your Majesty's presence is more important than anything else."

The International Association was named by the Ministry of Rites. To put it more bluntly, this is a typical tribute market. The needs of the Ming Dynasty are the most important. With the presence of the emperor, the International Association will have the greatest credit endorsement, and the merchants of the Ming Dynasty can feel at ease, and the small foreign countries can feel even more at ease.

Shah Mamtim and Le Yashi stayed in the capital precisely for this certainty.

"That's true." Zhu Yijun's brows relaxed and he nodded repeatedly, saying, "Wang Qian is very sensible in his work."

On the second day of September in the seventeenth year, Grand Master Shen Li presented all the rituals for the Emperor's Longevity Festival. This had been reduced in accordance with the Emperor's will, but it was still very complicated.

"Your Majesty, Songjiang prefect Wang Qian has arrived." A eunuch reported to the emperor.

The emperor wanted to summon Wang Qian first because of the Ma Sanqiang case. Ma Sanqiang was grinding tofu at Liuji Tofu Shop and his leg was kicked by a donkey. Instead of paying compensation, Liuji Tofu Shop sued Ma Sanqiang. The Shanghai County Government ordered Liuji Tofu Shop to pay fifteen silver coins. The boss Liu Youjia hired the local tyrant Xu Sihai, and a family massacre occurred. Ma Sanqiang retaliated by killing thirteen members of Liu Youjia's family.

This case, hosted by Wang Qian, had a huge and even far-reaching impact.

"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you. Long live Your Majesty, long live Your Majesty." Wang Qian bowed as he entered the palace. His father pleaded for him, but Your Majesty thought that he was acting in the interests of the people. It was just that the law enforcement was beyond the boundary and was a bit controversial, so he was fined half a year's salary.

"No need to be polite, take a seat." Zhu Yijun gestured for Wang Qian to sit down and talk.

Zhu Yijun looked at Wang Qian and said very seriously: "If you are enforcing the law beyond the boundary, you should at least inform Suzhou Prefecture and then go together. It's a bit scary for you to go in and arrest people directly."

"I was just a little angry, afraid that they would run away. I won't dare to do that again." Wang Qian said hurriedly, "If any of those four lackeys of Xu Sihai who fled to Suzhou Prefecture escape, I'm afraid I will be unable to sleep or eat, and will regret it."

At that time, Wang Qian's blood was rushing to his head and he didn't care about anything else.

"The case was handled very well." Zhu Yijun said with great interest: "I heard that Master Wang personally put on armor and led the yamen runners to kill all the bandits in Xu Sihai's den? Tell me in detail."

"I only rely on my strong armor and sharp crossbows. Your Majesty does not know how arrogant these thieves who claim to be the workers' alliance but are actually thieves are. Xu Sihai even wants to incite the craftsmen to fight against me!"

"It happened in a flash. I naturally couldn't let Xu Sihai talk nonsense, so I immediately gave the order to take action! I picked up a compound crossbow and shot him! He was so scared that he retreated back into the wall." Wang Qian recounted what happened that day with a beaming eyelid.

Xu Sihai was a labor traitor with vicious means. He had a crossbow and armor. When he resisted arrest, he even described himself as a victim. Fortunately, Wang Qian handled the situation quickly, otherwise, if Xu Sihai had really started to make a fuss, it would have been difficult to resolve the matter.

People are actually not that smart and are very easily instigated, especially when the facts are unclear. Xu Sihai was born a craftsman, and it is very dangerous to instigate a craftsman. At that time, you have to make a decision and not hesitate.

As for killing a whole bandit’s lair, it was not an exaggeration. Wang Qian killed one man and shot and wounded two others, all of whom were Xu Sihai’s diehard lackeys.

"Afterwards, I lay in bed for two days before I recovered." Wang Qian finished recounting what happened that day.

"Very good, very good." Zhu Yijun was very confident in Wang Qian's courage. Although he learned some martial arts from Wang Chonggu, he was essentially a scholar-official.

Wang Qian frowned and said, "Your Majesty, there is something. The Viceroy's Office of Peru sent an envoy, saying that they want Ming to continue to supply goods, and don't need to pay attention to the tariffs imposed by Felipe."

"Oh?" Zhu Yijun sat up straight and asked seriously, "Specifically, how does it work?"

Wang Qian whispered, "Our caravan transported the goods to the Ming Pavilion in Lima, the Governor's Palace of Peru. They purchased Ming goods in the Ming Pavilion in Lima and paid with silver. We don't have to worry about what happens next."

"Isn't this the Governor's Palace of Peru, smuggling without Felipe's knowledge?" Zhu Yijun said with some surprise.

(End of this chapter)