My father Zhu Gaoxu

Chapter 262 Gold and Silver Treasures
Zhu Zhanhe and Zhu Zhanji came to the pier together, followed by Zhu Yong, Xu Jingchang and other Xungui who came to Tianjin together. After they got the news, they rushed to the port as soon as possible.

I saw huge ships docked at the pier. The hulls were a bit dilapidated, and there were algae and barnacles near the waterline. It could be seen that they had hardly rested after returning, and they rushed to Tianjin without stopping.

"My son! Master!"

As soon as Zhu Zhanhe and the others arrived at the pier, they saw a black and thin man rushing excitedly, shouting and yelling at Zhu Zhanhe's side, but was stopped by the guards.

"Wait, are you Manager Wu?"

Before Zhu Zhanhe could speak, Zhu Yong beside him suddenly widened his eyes, looked up and down at this dark and thin man and said in shock.

"It's me, I finally saw you, master, woo~"

Seeing that Zhu Yong recognized him, Manager Wu cried out excitedly. Firstly, they were so happy to see Zhu Yong, and secondly, they suffered so much hardship along the way that they almost couldn't come back.

"It's really Steward Wu!"

At this time, Zhu Zhanhe also recognized the other party. This steward Wu is the steward of Zhu Yong's family. Zhu Yong sent him to take charge of his own ship when he sailed to the west.

At this time, the guards let him go, and Wu Guanshi rushed over, crying and bowing to Zhu Yong, Zhu Zhanhe and others.

At this time, several people came down from the boat, and some of them also found their masters, and they all ran forward to salute.

The people who came back were of different heights, short, fat, and thin, but they all had one thing in common, that is, they were black, or black and red, all of which were tanned by the scorching sun at sea.

After the stewards of each family had received their salutes, Zhu Zhanhe asked Steward Wu and others about the process of their return and the income they brought back on board.

Steward Wu immediately took out an account book, then handed it to Zhu Zhanhe and introduced: "Your Majesty, we have returned ten merchant ships this time, and there are also three warships escorting them, a total of thirteen ships, but on the way back, A ship hit a rock in a storm and sank, losing a load of spices..."

Following Guanshi Wu's narration, Zhu Zhanhe and the others finally realized that it was not easy for Guanshi Wu and the others to come back this way.

When Zhang Zhong and the others traded in Nanyang, they sold fifteen shipments of goods in exchange for a large amount of gold and silver, as well as local specialties in Nanyang, most of which were various spices.

These gold, silver and goods filled ten more ships, so Zhang Zhong decided to let these ten ships return, and asked Zheng He to send a large, two small and three warships to escort them to prevent pirates on the road.

Thanks to Zheng He, he sailed to the Western Ocean several times and almost wiped out all the big pirates along the route. Some small groups of pirates encountered more than a dozen large ships, and there were warships sailing to the Western Ocean. They did not dare to move. What a twisted mind.

Therefore, on the way back, Guanshi Wu and the others did not encounter any unscrupulous pirates.

But God will not give anyone face, just when Wu Guanshi and the others were about to arrive in Jiaozhi, they encountered a huge storm, one of the ships hit a rock and sank in the storm, and all the spices on the ship sank to the bottom of the sea.

Fortunately, other ships rescued them in time, and all the people on the ship that hit the rocks were transferred to other ships. Except for a few unlucky ones who were blown into the sea by the storm and disappeared, most of the others survived.

Of course, after this storm, the surviving ships also suffered some damage, so they rested for a while before heading north again after arriving at Cochin.

Originally, they planned to go directly to Nanjing after arriving in Suzhou, but it was only when they arrived in Suzhou that they found out that His Majesty had announced the move of the capital, and most of the nobles in Nanjing had also gone to Beijing.

Therefore, after receiving the news, Princess Han also directly ordered the fleet to continue northward, so it took them more than ten hours to finally arrive at Tianjin Port.

"Guard Wu, you have worked hard all this way. If you count the list of casualties, their families will be properly resettled, and they will also receive generous pensions!"

After Zhu Zhanhe listened to Guanshi Wu's narration, he patted him on the shoulder and said.

"The villain knows that Shizi is the most sympathetic to his subordinates, and the list of casualties is behind the ledger!"

Manager Wu immediately replied, to be honest, the reason why they ventured out to sea was because of their loyalty on the one hand, and on the other hand, it was because each family had promised that if there were any casualties, the family members would receive generous pensions, and now Zhu Zhanhe It also fulfilled its original promise.

"My lord, don't talk about this, let's see how much gold and silver they bring back!"

At this moment, Zhang Chang said with an expression of impatience.

But as soon as his words came out, he immediately attracted the contempt of many people around him. After all, no matter how much he loves money, he still has to do what he should do at this time. Otherwise, how can he make his subordinates work hard?
Zhu Zhanhe didn't bother to pay attention to Zhang Chang, and after comforting Wu Guanshi and others, he asked Wu Guanshi to take them aboard to check.

Due to the sinking of a merchant ship, among the remaining nine merchant ships, three ships were filled with gold and silver treasures, and the remaining six ships were loaded with various specialties of Nanyang.

Zhu Zhanhe and the others first boarded a sea boat filled with gold and silver. Steward Wu led them to the cabin in the middle. The door here was locked with an iron chain and two locks were hung on it.

Steward Wu and the other steward took out a key respectively, and after unlocking the lock on the iron chain, they led Zhu Zhanhe and the others into the cabin.

Seeing a lot of flat long boxes in the cabin, Steward Wu introduced: "Because the gold and silver are too heavy to be packed in ordinary boxes, so as not to crush the ship's planks, we can only use this kind of flat boxes. Crates, each full of gold and silver!"

As Wu Guanshi said, he stepped forward to open a box in person, and saw gold bricks placed one after another inside. Although the light in the cabin was a little dark, the gold in the box was still shining under the light of the torch, which made people feel excited. of light.

Zhu Zhanhe stepped forward, wanting to pick up a gold brick, but found that this seemingly small gold brick was extremely heavy, and most people need two hands to pick up one.

Immediately, Zhu Zhanhe realized that this was also an anti-theft measure. After all, it is not easy to steal such a heavy gold brick.

At this time, Zhu Zhanji, Zhu Yong and the others also stepped forward curiously, and picked up a gold brick to look at it with their own hands. You must know that gold in Daming is very precious. According to the regulations of Daming, one tael of gold is exchanged for four taels of silver, and one tael of silver is equal to Always money.

The gold bricks in their hands are at least thirty or forty catties, and one catty is 16 taels. After conversion, a gold brick is worth at least two to three thousand guan.

This is just one layer, and then Manager Wu took them to the bottom cabin, which was also filled with gold and silver. When the boxes were opened one after another, the light of the gold and silver dazzled people.

Even Zhu Zhanhe and Zhu Zhanji felt their heart beat faster and their breathing became a little short for a while.

(End of this chapter)