Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 344: The Minister of Commerce
Things that are given voluntarily are generally not taken seriously, but if something is obtained after much trouble, it will most likely be regarded as a treasure.

"Seventeen thousand taels!"

"Eighteen thousand taels!"

"Nineteen thousand taels!"

"Nineteen thousand taels, once!"

"Nineteen thousand taels, twice!"

"Nineteen thousand taels, three times!"

“Boo~~~!”

"The 200th share is sold!"

With the sound of the gong hanging next to the table, the singing and selling event that lasted for most of the day finally came to an end.

It took Gu Yuanjing, who was sitting on the stage, a long time to come back to his senses.

The two hundred shares of Daming Maritime Trade Group were priced at a high of more than 23,000 taels, and a low of 17,000 to 18,000 taels.

According to this rough calculation, Your Majesty has earned nearly four million taels of silver just by talking nonsense.

You know, Your Majesty still has 800 such shares in his hands, and as the company's business develops, the value of these shares is bound to continue to rise.

If we also take into account the company's future profit dividends.
But Gu Yuanjing also knew that this was just an expectation, and before it was actually fulfilled, there would always be changes for better or worse as the situation changed.

The reason why these shares attracted businessmen who were extremely risk-averse was not because of Shen Tingyang's more than ten new ships that had not yet formed combat effectiveness, but because of His Majesty's series of incomprehensible operations.

Originally, he thought that everything that happened in these days was unrelated, but after thinking about it for most of the day in this noisy environment, he finally felt that all these things were paving the way for raising funds.

Use war to demonstrate the capabilities of the Ming navy, thereby minimizing the risk expectations;
Use the visit to show the smooth flow of flights to Manila, so as to maximize the expectations of the company's profitability;
In the end, His Majesty even used the trick of leaving Jiangsu and Zhejiang behind to provoke competition among the merchants of the four provinces, which eventually forced everyone to completely ignore the last possible risk. The merchants of the four provinces tried their best to fight for the 200 shares.

just
I think I am also included in your majesty's plan.

Thinking of this, Gu Yuanjing, who was in a very lively courtyard, couldn't help feeling a chill in his heart.

He didn't care much about the news leaking to Jiangsu and Zhejiang. After all, the two places were not far apart and had close exchanges. If he wasn't there, someone else would have leaked the news.

But the fact that Your Majesty could foresee that he would go to petition means that Gu Yuanjing must be a weak figure in Your Majesty's mind.

A weak provincial governor.

If it were a peaceful time, this wouldn't be a big problem, but now the Ming Dynasty is in the midst of war, and being weak means being unable to defend against the enemy, and it means ruining one's career.
Alas~~~~~.

With a long sigh in his heart, Gu Yuanjing left the governor's office with a somewhat lonely figure. It was not until he reached the outside of the governor's office that he adjusted his mood.

"Your Majesty! Good news! Great news!"

After calling out in an extremely exaggerated tone, Gu Yuanjing seemed to have just realized his impoliteness. He then took two steps back and bowed at the door of the main hall.

"I have failed to behave properly in front of you, Your Majesty. Please punish me."

"No thanks, just say it straight."

At this time, Zhu Cilang was concentrating on the questions. When he saw Gu Yuanjing rushing in, he guessed about 70% of the answer.

"Congratulations, Your Majesty. This time, we raised a total of 3.78 million taels of silver for the Haimao Group."

"what!?"

Zhu Cilang was not too surprised by the number reported by Gu Yuanjing, but Xiang Rensheng, who was serving beside him, was so shocked that he let out a cry.

After all, he was no longer a coolie at Yingtian Wharf.

Although he was not familiar with the government affairs of the court due to his identity and position, he visited Li Yongmao and Shen Tingyang many times when he was reorganizing the army in Yingtian some time ago.

Therefore, when these 3.78 million entered his mind, he thought of what he saw and heard there.

A self-propelled gun weighs a little over four taels, a heavy iron cannon is about four hundred taels, a set of high-quality cloth armor is less than ten taels, and even a new double-decker battleship costs more than thirty thousand taels.

If you put all this money in.
Thinking of this, Xiang Rensheng didn't dare to think any further. He couldn't help but look at Zhu Cilang, and even forgot to apologize.

"Well, let's put this silver in the treasury first."

Facing the extremely happy Gu Yuanjing, Zhu Cilang replied indifferently, as if the matter was insignificant.

Seeing their Majesty behave like this, even though some people present were quite surprised, they couldn't help but restrain their expressions.

"Gu Qing, have you figured out the whole story of this matter?"

"I have thought it through."

Gu Yuanjing's mood, which had finally been adjusted, finally fell to the bottom because of this sentence.

According to his original thought, since he was so weak in the emperor's heart, his official career would probably end here.

But he never expected that His Majesty would point it out directly at this time. Doesn't this mean that His Majesty has already found a candidate to replace him?
just
Gu Yuanjing, who had pretended to be full of joy the moment before, now became dejected. Even though he felt deeply unwilling, he knew that thunder, lightning and rain were all grace from the emperor, and he had no other choice but to wait for the decision of His Majesty.

"You are loyal to the emperor and the country, and you can keep your mind calm, but you still lack the aura of a provincial governor in your actions, and this always puts you in an extremely passive situation."

Sure enough, it came.

As Zhu Cilang's words entered his ears, Gu Yuanjing couldn't help but recall every detail of his life after entering the official career.

Along the way, I have indeed been put into passive situations many times because of my weak character, just as Your Majesty said.

It was like this when he was a county magistrate. Later, when he became the governor, he was suppressed by Ding Kuichu and could not move. Even when the Tartars attacked the city, all the responses were made by Xu Wenjue and Song Yingsheng, and he just passively accepted it without any thought.

If it were just that, it would be fine. The key point is that I didn't realize this until Your Majesty pointed it out.
Even when he realized that his official career was about to end, he was filled with resentment and helplessness, but not even a trace of resentment.

This kind of character
It seems that it is really not suitable for enfeoffment of a certain territory.

The thought only took a moment, but Gu Yuanjing's emotion gradually changed from unwillingness to indifference.

After realizing that what His Majesty said was not wrong, he looked at His Majesty with a calm look, unperturbed by praise or criticism.

"I have an assignment here, are you willing to take it?"

"I am willing."

"Why don't you ask what the errand is?"

"I am stupid and dull, and I am not fit for great service, but as long as Your Majesty can still use me, I will be willing to sacrifice my life for you."

"Okay, I plan to set up a Ministry of Commerce in addition to the six ministries, which will be responsible for the various companies established by the court, and you are the candidate I have chosen." "Ah! Your Majesty, please..."

Faced with this unexpected news, even though Gu Yuanjing was calm as a rock, he couldn't help but stammer and couldn't utter a complete word.

He thought he would be dismissed from office this time, but who would have thought that a minister's hat would fall from the sky.

You have to know that the central official is of the second rank, which is half a rank higher than him, the governor.

What's more, Shen Tingyang, who is in charge of maritime affairs, is highly trusted by Your Majesty. Doesn't this mean that Shen Tingyang, who is in charge of business affairs, can also be considered Your Majesty's confidant?
Thinking of this, even though Gu Yuanjing knew that he should express gratitude, he just stood there in a daze due to the intense emotional excitement.

If Xiang Rensheng hadn't coughed lightly when he saw that something was wrong, he wouldn't know how long he would have been stunned.

"Your Majesty, I thank you for your grace!"

"Don't be in a hurry to thank me, I have a few words to say first."

Having said this, Zhu Cilang paused, and waited until Gu Yuanjing's emotions gradually calmed down before he continued.

"In the Ming Dynasty, merchants have always been regarded as lowly occupations, but I attach great importance to these companies. If you can do these things for me, then our relationship will leave a good story in history. But if you do it badly, it will be equivalent to destroying the destiny of the Ming Dynasty. Do you understand?"

"I have heard it clearly. I will definitely live up to your majesty's high expectations!"

Having said that, Gu Yuanjing bowed heavily to the ground, and Zhu Cilang just nodded and began to give instructions upon seeing this.

He naturally had great expectations for these companies, but in the entire process, the content related to Haimao Group only accounted for 30% to 40% of his talk, and the rest of his talk was directed to Song Yingxing, who was still sitting on the Qiongzhou Island.

Since the Age of Discovery, the essence of the world's commercial activities has been that the old empires have transformed resources into products through various means, and then bought them back to the resource-producing countries at extremely high profits.

This is already an extremely perfect closed loop, but after living a good life for too long, people will always have delusions of one kind or another.

After a certain country became the dominant power, they actually neglected the production link, and tried to sit on the entire business activity and suck blood with a few false things.

Zhu Cilang had some understanding of this and knew that building an industrial age required the support of raw materials.

But the limited land outside has been occupied by various companies. If you want to obtain raw materials from the outside world, it would be like touching the reverse scale of those white people.

Under such circumstances, he only had one choice left - to find a solution within the Ming Dynasty first.

This is easier said than done.

Although China has various resources, at this time, those that are easy to mine have already been owned by owners.

Of course, when the conditions are not yet ripe, he will not risk touching the core interests of a certain group by forcibly withdrawing these things.

However, it is not a big deal if one seizes some of the assets of rebels and traitors during the war.

Especially when the army was about to enter Yunnan.

"I have ordered Li Yongmao to send some craftsmen who are good at mining to assist Song Yingxing. When they arrive, you can explain all this to them in detail."

After talking for a while, Zhu Cilang made his final summary. While Gu Yuanjing was still thinking carefully, he casually added a sentence as if he remembered something trivial.

"Oh, yes, merchants always need to use silver bills when traveling between different places. However, some merchants are located in different provinces, so it is inevitable that there is no place to exchange them. Anyway, this is also a related business of the Haimao Group. Gu Qing, you should work harder and set up a money house while setting up the company."

"I accept the decree."

Gu Yuanjing did not find any difficulty in His Majesty's arrangement.

Firstly, there were already many money houses in the Ming Dynasty, and he only needed to send someone to say hello to get people familiar with the business.

Secondly, what Your Majesty said is also realistic. When sea merchants purchase goods in the mainland, they cannot avoid transferring the silver bills in their hands.

But he still had some doubts in his heart, so after a little hesitation he asked tentatively.

"Your Majesty, I am a slow learner. I hope you can give me some pointers when the time comes."

"Well, I'm afraid that won't work. By the time they arrive, I won't be in Guangzhou anymore."

really
Our Majesty is not the type who can stay in one place for long.

To be honest, Zhu Cilang is not someone who likes to hang out outside.

Up to now, every time he left Yingtian, he had a reason to do so, which was not what Gu Yuanjing thought.

Even so, the reason why he felt that he would not stay in Guangzhou for too long was due to the changes in the situation in the west and south.

In the south, Shen Tingyang has already led his fleet to Manila. It will probably not take long for Batavia to get the news.

By then, the outcome of war or peace with the Dutch would become clear, and this reason for continuing to stay in Guangzhou would no longer be valid.

As for the west
To be honest, he was still undecided about whether to go to Yunnan.

After all, the battle in Yunnan was not difficult.

With Sha Dingzhou's troops who are both soldiers and civilians, as long as the Ming Dynasty can demonstrate its strong power, it will not be able to cause any waves with the cooperation of Mu Tianbo.

Therefore, according to Zhu Cilang's original idea, after he sorted out all the affairs in Guangzhou, he would respond to the sky to see who advocated peace.

just
Zhang Xianzhong seems to be dying soon.

In the original history, this great rebel in the late Ming Dynasty was shot to death by the Qing army during a battle.

Obviously, this is a low probability event.

As long as the situation at that time changed a little bit, the Dashi Army would be able to hold on for a while.

If there had been no changes in Sichuan and Shaanxi, then he, the great Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, would have led tens of thousands of troops into Yunnan only to fight against the rebellious chieftain.

If this matter were to get out, would Zhu Cilang have no face left?

But does he dare to take the risk?

If nothing changed and Zhang Xianzhong died in Fenghuang Mountain as promised, when the group of adopted sons went south, the group of officials in the southwest would probably not have tried to "ally with the West to resist the Qing" without the order of the court.

By then, no matter whether the adopted sons succeed in killing them or the officials of the Ming Dynasty stop them, a series of battles, large or small, will inevitably take place, and the Tartars may benefit from it for nothing.

Or maybe Zhang Xianzhong didn't die, and didn't stay at the Sichuan-Shaanxi border, but instead led his troops directly south?

In short, the uncertainty in the southwest direction is so great that Zhu Cilang has been weighing the pros and cons for several days but still cannot make up his mind. Moreover, these possible situations involve too many important issues, which are no less important than dealing with the peace faction.

thus
Forget it, let’s wait for news from the south.

(End of this chapter)